A Visit With A Future Hall of Famer!

11/09/06 - Here we are in sunny San Diego visiting Trevor Hoffman's home. Just behind us, you can see the famous wall of balls. Trevor has a ball for every save he's ever earned in every major league game. Just below the wall are drawers filled with more baseballs. Each ball is dated and numbered for each save. We visited Trevor just after the 2006 season after breaking the all-time saves records previously held by Lee Smith.

Trevor is a really cool down to earth guy. He had just returned from a day at the beach surfing to meet up with us.
The picture at the top is of Trevor's Rolaid's Relief Man which is awarded to the top relief pitcher in the league.

2006 Tax Brackets

I stumbled on some great information about tax brackets for 2006. Here is some helpful information on how much you will have to pay for this tax year depending on how you file.

2006 Tax Rates

Five Tips for Starting a Career or New Position

Here's a great article I stumbled upon which hits home as I recently started a new position at AMD. I'm sure there are a few of you guys out there that are also in this situation.

Five Tips for Starting a Career or New Position

Jeanne Sahadi has a few tips for getting ahead in the first few years of your career. It’s also appropriate for starting a new position anywhere, new career or not. Here are the take-aways.

Ask for help, then take charge. Ask for questions when necessary, but not much more. Show initiative and independence in solving problems without going to the manager.

Know the boss. “Getting to Know You” is a song Mister Rogers used to sing, which was actually from the musical, The King and I, written by another Rodgers (Richard and his partner, Oscar Hammerstein II). Anyway, know what your boss wants and what she considers important. Seek performance feedback often.

Cultivate good relationships. “Act like you’re running for office…” but not too much. Humor, respect, and grooming are three important aspects of getting along well with people.

Don’t watch the clock. 9-to-5 is a myth. The director of my department is very watchful; we are not allowed to be in the office after 5:00 unless we have requested overtime, which is usually not granted. This is a chance from my last department, in which occasional overtime was expected.

But know when to go. If you’re no longer learning anything from your job, then it’s time to move on. Don’t just settle for a promotion if it is in title only.

How to Handle a Boss Who Takes Credit for your Work

How to Handle a Boss Who Takes Credit for your Work

This is an article that covers a topic that most of you have faced or know someone who has. While I agree with most of the authors points about being civil and not over reacting, I also believe that preventing it from happening in the first place is key.

If you know your boss is taking credit for work or ideas, think back to when you first discussed this idea. It's most likely you had this conversation in a casual one on one or email. A great way to resolve this type of problem as an alternative to confronting your boss is to make sure that your ideas are heard by other people. They can bear witness to the fact that the idea came from you. The same applies to email. If yout boss asks you for your opinion on something, reply to him/her and add additional people to the CC. To avoid problems with improperly following the chain of command, make sure you only CC peers. If you have an open relationship with your bosses boss and you feel comfortable doing so, add that person to the list as well. Your boss will not try to take credit for something that was well publicized in front of other people because it will be very obvious. I find that this method seems to correct itself in a less confrontational way.

Dave Chappelle Season 3 Episode 1 - Night Club Skit with Tupac

I just love this skit from Dave Chappelle's Season 3 Episode 1. I need to find the actual audio track to this. Basically, Tupac has been dead since '93 but many people think it's not true and that its all a conspiracy. All the while, many 'unreleased' tracks keep coming out well after his death. If you read the lyrics, you'll notice that a lot of what he mentions in Tupac's song occurred after his death so there is no way he could've known to mention it. Check it out!

[DJ: Exclusive, this is that new 2pac!]

Listen close, as life turns its pages
Makaveli here, kickin' rhymes for the ages
Seen things in stages, wise words spoken by sages
From SkyTel to BlackBerry pages
Your crew don't phase us, we'll make you bustas pay us
Run up in your spot like CJ from San Andreas

I wrote this song a long time ago
A real long time ago
Feel me!
I wrote this song a long time ago
It was the dopest song I ever wrote... in '94

What can a nigga do, when half the people voted for George W.
It's a bitch, Fuck George W. -- can't be true --
I wanna choke him, because he's a snitch
I'm talking about George W. Smith
From city council, he ran in '93
Out in Oakland, you probably didn't hear about him

I wrote this song a long time ago
A real long time ago
Way before Slim Shady was in demand
Way before we dropped baloney on Afghanistan
I wrote this song in '94

How am I doin' this?
Look around the club, see everyone in the place
Showing 'Pac love got a smile on my face
The girl in the miniskirt has bad taste
Because her shirt don't match
And there's a puddin' stain on the back
What the fuck is that?
It might be doo-doo

And you in the back, you ain't shit
You bought a gin and tonic but you didn't even tip
And if you hit the table one more time then the record might skip-might skip...
I told you, stop hittin' the table.

Tupac Shakur,
I wrote this rhyme in 1994
I'm not alive!
Thug life!
Dave Chappelle, that ain't your wife
A married man, you've got two kids
Go home!

I wrote this song a long time ago
A real long time ago
Way before Beanie Sigel had to do a bid
Way before Dave Chappelle had two kids
No friends, and no future.

[DJ: 2pac, rest in peace.]

Okay, I will!

ritche corpus - Yahoo! Search Results

ritche corpus - Yahoo! Search Results

Have you ever searched your full name on the internet? Its really interesting to see how much information is out there available on the net. Here's what I turned up when searching my name.

Godzilla PVR

SnapStream Blog � Blog Archive � Godzilla PVR

This is one awesome HTPC Tivo style player. This is what I would love to build myself but at over $4k it's way beyond my price range.

SnapStream Store

SnapStream Store

This is my next project. I want to build my own TIVO HTPC!

Break.com - Funny Pics, Hot Chicks, & Cool Flicks

Break.com - Funny Pics, Hot Chicks, & Cool Flicks

This is one of the sites I frequent just to get a quick laugh. Some of the pictures are R Rated but for the most part clean.

Yahoo Fantasy Football 2005 Champion

Fantasy Profile - Yahoo! Fantasy Sports

I have won my Yahoo league Fantasy football championsihp with a devastating victory in the finals. Take a look at my profile. I've won the championships in basketball and now football.

I have also won my ESPN fantasy football league in 2003 and 2004 but lost in the first round of the playoffs this year.

2005 CES Day 3 010706 - Tommy Lee sighting

Wow, I was able to wake up at 830am this morning then went back to sleep and woke up again at 9am. Christophe who is rooming with me on this trip has a 945am meeting while mine is at 11am. I get out of the hotel and into the cab line by 10am. I get to my meeting with Hanaho on time and head back to the hotel by noon. I was supposed to meet up with Fred, Joe, and Christophe at the Alexis Park to check out some of the high end home theater equipment but decide to grab some lunch in my room.

Room service has typically taken about an hour so while waiting for my lunch to arrive Rob from Memorex calls and tells me that he's at my hotel. I invite him up to chat about different things since we hadn't had a chance to speak at dinner the night before. We both sat at the opposite ends of the table. My food arrives at 1pm and Rob shortly thereafter. I finish my food (southwestern egg rolls, fish 'n chips, and diet Pepsi) and Rob leaves. It's a little after 2pm and I call to find out that the guys are almost finished with the Alexis Park and are heading back soon. I decide to wait in the room and finish up on some emails.

At around 3pm, I get a call and I meet the guys downstairs and we decide to go visit the Sony booth in the Central Hall. The Sony booth is huge and the big draw was for their new line of rear projection LCD TV's and the Playstation 3. The PS3 was under a rotating glass so there wasn't much to look at that I hadn't seen before. They also played some looped pre-rendered game footage on a few screens. For me, I was really interested in the HD video cameras. Now that Ryan is getting a bit older, I'm feeling a bit more pressure to take more video. I think its so cool for my kids to see themselves as toddlers. I wish I had that opportunity.

After the Sony booth, we split up, and Christophe and I head to the Pioneer booth to check out the cool DJ equipment. DJ Roony G (sp?), a Filipino DJ, is demoing their latest DVD-DJ equipment.

http://www.pioneerdj.com/

It was fairly impressive. At the end of the demo, Tommy Lee and his entourage walk by. The entourage consisted of Tommy Lee, 2 friends, 1 big bouncer, and 2 of Vegas' finest. TL didn't look too hot. He must have been partying hard the night before. A few folks went up to take pictures but the bouncer blocked their view and said no pictures. Tommy was busy talking to a Pioneer rep and DJ Roony G. It was obvious they all new each other from before. I didn't care too much for his attitude but I also respect that he wanted some privacy. Christophe and I left and head back to our hotel room.

Dinner reservations were handled by me while I was up in the room working on emails and waiting for the guys to get back. I tried to book a table of 8 at Nobu but the only reservation available as at 11am. I use opentable.com to look for a different restaurant and found Sushi Roku at Caesar's Forum Shops for 6pm.

http://www.opentable.com/

Sushi Roku is located on the 3rd level of the new addition to the Caesar's Forum shops. The restaurant has your typical sushi bar on the right with several tables that lead towards the back. Our table was in the very back where a very large wall of windows gives us a great view of Las Vegas boulevard and the Bellagio. The windows themselves open up and give you the sounds as well as the sights of Vegas.

The folks that join us for this dinner are Steve Nix of Ritual Entertainment, an engineer from Ritual, Fred Swan, Joe Kreiner, Christophe Poupon, and Billy Harrison from Promise Technology. We start off the night with some wine which I decide not to drink and choose some high end cold sake which was recommended by our waitress. We order some Kobe beef appetizers that are cooked over special river rocks from Japan. The rocks are heated to like 400 degrees and brought out to our table where we cook the thinly sliced strips of Kobe beef in less than 5 minutes. The rocks apparently retain their heat which allows us to cook on them. In addition to the Kobe beef strips, we also order their lobster appetizer which is served slightly seared.

For our main appetizer, we order different kinds of sashimi and sushi. There is nothing really different between the sushi served at Sushi Roku than any other sushi restaurant that serves fresh high quality food. After we ate the seared lobster, the restaurant offered to make a miso soup out of the lobster which was delicious. I order the chocolate souffle which was mediocre.

We head over to the Flamingo to kill some time before we head over to Tao. Tao is one of the hotter clubs and is located in the Venetian. We decide to meet up with some of Billy's Promise Technology co-workers who are hanging at the outdoor party bar gambling. We get there to find that there is a $7.00 cover charge just to enter the area. There is a live band and DJ providing entertainment as well as a gambling pit and bartenders juggling glasses, ice, and bottles. We stay for about an hour and decide to go check out the Star Trek Experience back at the Las Vegas Hilton. We get there to find that it was closed (it was only 930pm) and go up to my room to chat. We decide to call it a night because of our early flights home the next day.

2005 CES Day 2 010606 - Black Eyed Peas and Jamal Anderson

Day Two is off to a rough start. I had returned to the hotel after 4am the past two nights and waking up in the morning is getting difficult. I had an 11am meeting with UbiSoft and 2 others in the afternoon including NCSoft. I finish off the day staying close to my booth for my meetings. Tonight's festivities included a dinner with some key people in the gaming and PC markets. At this point, I haven't really had a good chance to visit many booths at the show. I spent more time speaking with our partners who were 'concerned' that their logo was not displayed out our booth. As partners, we 'advertise' that the computers and / or the technology we're using are theirs. They do the same for us at their booth.

Dinner for the evening was scheduled for 830pm at Del Frisco's which is located off of Paradise Blvd. Just down the street from my hotel (Las Vegas Hilton) and the convention center. The invited guests were:

AMD - Daryl Lang (Account Manager) and his wife Marlene
Crucial - Mike Sanor (Support Mgr) and Terry (Manager of the Product Management group)
Oakley - Jason Spencer (Head Designer)
Hanaho Games - Conway Ho (President)
Sony Ericsson - Ralf Mueller (Product Manager)
Memorex - Rob Guthrie (Qualification Engineering Manager)
Western Digital - Steve Bell (Principal Engineer) and Tom (VP)
Myself and Christophe from Logitech

Del Frisco's was packed as usual but we're finally seated in a room adjacent to the cigar room. I've been to Del Frisco's before and really enjoyed the experience. Jason of Oakley surprises everyone including myself by bringing along several different pair of sunglasses for everyone. It was like having a Christmas party where everyone received something. The waiter was in awe as people were receiving sunglasses that retailed $400.00. Thump 2.0s, X-Metal Frames, Juliets, and Romeo 2.0s were handed out.

We start off dinner by ordering Crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, and crab claws for appetizers. A few different bottles of wine is ordered but I only remembered the DuckHorn that we had since it was the only one I drank. I also know the grand daughter of the Duckhorns who works at Crucial. The wine is very good. My main entree was a petite filet mignon cooked medium rare. We order asparagus, mashed potatoes, and mushrooms. My steak was very very good. I purposely ordered a smaller entree because I knew from the last time that there were so many different good things to eat and wanted to have room for dessert. I finish dinner off with a Del's Delight for dessert. It was similar to a chocolate shake with some alcohol. It was very good.

After the dinner, we head over to the wine cellar to tour one of the largest collection of wines in Vegas. They had some very expensive Duckhorn's and Far Niente's. From the wine cellar, we move to the James Bond wine collection. The James Bond wine collection is stored in a specially made mechanically wooden enclosure that is controlled remotely. When the host hits a button, the whole room lights up and the Bond theme begins playing in the background. During this time, the wooden enclosure begins to rise and open up exposing several special edition James Bond bottles of wine valued at over $700k. We are the last party to leave the restaurant and wait for taxis to show up. They took so long to show up that we notice the employees leaving for the night. We ended up paying for an $80.00 limo ride to take us away.

There were no concrete plans after dinner but Conway was able to acquire tickets to a party sponsored by some Adult industry movie distributors. The theme for this party was Pimp and Hoe. The headliner for the party was none other than George Clinton and the P Funk All-Stars. Terry, Mike, Christophe, and myself head over to the Empire ballroom to go check out the event.

As we arrived, George Clinton was just announced and came on stage to start the show. It was great to see him live but you don't realize how old he is until he starts moving. His movements were very fragile. George Clinton sang many of the songs that made him who he was. At one point, Too Short, was on the side of the stage watching when GC handed him the mic and he started freestyling. It was great to see Too Short again. He's long since been retired from the Rap scene but still a very famous artist from Oakland. Too Short screamed out the famous words, "Beeeotch!".

There were many people dressed in theme (Pimp and Hoe) and there were some really elaborate costumes. There were many women there that were more than willing to expose themselves for the cameras or on stage. At one point, George Clinton was being freaked by a voluptuous blonde who wore a nurses outfit and had a hem line just below the crotch. In a different part of the show, a brunette jumped on stage to show off her twins. I think the funniest part of the show for me was watching someone from the crowd below hand GC and roach. He took it and started smoking on stage right in front of everyone. He then handed it off to the different band members behind him.

Towards the end of the night, Mike was taking pictures of the many "Hoes" that were there. I'm sure there many famous industry folks in attendance in the VIP areas but I didn't recognize anyone except for Ron Jeremy who went on stage with GC and then appeared again in the VIP section. I guess Ron and I run with the same crowd (j/k).

After the party, we head home on the Monorail. It's 3am and we literally catch the last monorail train out of the MGM. When we arrive at the LV Hilton station, the guards close the station as soon as we exit. I'm thinking that its going to be a challenge to wake up the next morning to catch my 11am meeting.

2005 CES Day 1 010506

Today is the first day of the 2005 CES show. My company has a booth on the 2nd floor of the South Hall. Luckily, I am not required to show up for booth duty. I have several meetings spread throughout the day and the week. This is the only show where I don't participate in the planning process. The downside is that I don't have a dedicated meeting room so I'll be scrambling to find space. A funny thing did happen as I walked past the ATI Technology booth to speak to some of my acquaintances. Their Director of Strategic Marketing meets me and asks me what I do for Logitech and that he had an opening of the same position at ATI. Apparently, Mike Smith, who was the Developer Relations Manager (they call theirs ISV Manager), had moved on to a different group. Apparently, he's heard of me through several people within ATI. It feels exhilarating to feel like you're wanted =). I said thank you and he tells me to think about it and get back to him.

There are several big parties scheduled for tonight and everyone is planning on which one they want to attend or trying to acquire tickets. Here are the parties that I knew of and their special guests:

Intel at the Empire Ballroom - Black Eyed Peas
AMD at Studio 54 at MGM - Black Crows
Microsoft - The Killers
Ziff Davis - Foo Fighters (not sure)
Corsair / Asus - Suite at the Bellagio
Playboy TV / Spice - Club Rain at The Palm

I scored tickets for the Intel, AMD, and Corsair / Asus parties. I had originally planned to go to dinner, stop by the Corsair / Asus party and then finish off at the Intel party. I could have attended the Microsoft party but I'd already seen the Killers at the Xbox 360 launch party at the 2005 E3.

Our dinner reservations were at Bouchon in the Venetian Hotel. Bouchon was the top rated restaurant that week according to several different Las Vegas newspapers and websites. As you can tell by the name, they serve French cuisine. Dinner reservations were originally planned for 5:00pm by our friend at Microsoft (CD). A majority of our group show up in time while I'm about 15 minutes late (traffic). Our Microsoft guest was over an hour late and shows up as we finish our main course. We left the restaurant on-time but our CD didn't get to each much more than a salad.

I started off with a salmon tartar appetizer and decided to go the healthier route and ordered one of the specials which was Grilled Black Bass for my entree. The fish was very good but not worth the price of the meal. I guess its really hard to make fish taste any better than it already does. The others at my table really enjoyed their orders. Some meals ordered were pork shoulder and lamb. For dessert, I ordered the special doughnuts and a double espresso.

Dinner lasted longer than anticipated so I missed the first evening event which was the Corsair / Asus party scheduled for 6pm to 9pm. We all split up and attend the different parties that evening. I head over to the Intel party with CD and ES and run into the good folks from DISCover. They had a table on the left side right next to the stage. Their table was elevated so we were on the same level as the stage. We had a great view of the stage and the back area where you could see the Black Eyed Peas preparing to start the show. The crowd at the Intel party was mostly older and more mature. They were very very strict about who was allowed to attend their party. Their goal was to invite the major movers and shakers (mostly executive level or higher). I was lucky to get an invite as a regular middle manager peon.


The Black Eyed Peas performance started around 930pm and start of singing a majority of the songs off of their Monkey Business album. The Black Eyed Peas performed very well and were entertaining. I'd say that they were one of the better performances that I'd ever seen from a group or musician at any of the major private parties that I've been to. Fergie can really put on a show and really looked 'hot' on stage. She can really play to the crowd.

Everyone on our side of the table was screaming for them to sing "My Humps" and were disappointed to hear that they were about to perform their last song when something weird happened. BEP went off the stage for a short break in their set and they let some musicians on stage to play some beats with different instruments. These musicians were right behind us during the whole BEP performance so we had no idea that they were part of the event. Even stranger was that I noticed an extremely large muscular African American guy behind me who we all thought was a bodyguard. In the end, we find out that this person was Jamal Anderson. He was a football running back who played for the Atlanta Falcons. He was a great player during his prime. Jamal Anderson had heard our chants for "My Humps" and went back stage to tell the BEPs and they closed the show out with that song. Not only did they sing "My Humps" at the end but they sang another 2 songs before that.

After the BEP performance, I left right away and headed straight to the AMD party to see if I could catch the Black Crows but it was 1030pm and I had just missed everyone. I receive a call from my buddy Conway who was able to get me a pass into the Playboy party so I head over to the Palm. Club Rain was packed but the VIP Playboy party was being held in a private area at the very top of the club. I've been to the club before but I never knew there was such an area. We party in private suite number 3 for most of the night while watching the crowed below from our balcony. Someone mentions to me that a few months ago, Mike Tyson's entourage threw someone off of the balcony down to the dance floor below (about 3 stories). I'm not sure if this was true but it was certainly a possibility

At around 2am, our party decides to visit a strip club called Seamless. One of the guys with us knows several of the strip club owners in Vegas. While walking through the casino, one of the guys in our party stops to play the slots and hits a triple 3 different times. We spend about an hour gambling. On our way out to the valet area, we see Ron Jeremy get out of a car and head into the Palm. Everyone starts to call out his name to say hi to him. I had met him a few years back at the Adultdex. One of the guys in our party gives Ron one of his business cards.

Seamless had just opened 2 months ago and cost about 25 million dollars to build. It was a very large and impressive building with its own parking garage. As we enter the building, we are greeted by the twin big bodyguards that starred in the movie Ocean's 12. I didn't know who they were right away until someone told me about it. We walk into the club as VIPs and not cover charge was paid. As we go through the entrance there is a topless girl atop a large champagne glass to greet us. We are brought to a private VIP area and we order drinks. The club itself was fairly typical of any strip club you've been to. We only stayed about an hour before we all head home.

2005 CES Week Pre Day One 010406

Today is Wednesday, January 4th. It is also my mom's birthday today but I'm heading to Vegas for CES. I promised my mom that we'll celebrate her birthday when I return on Sunday.

My flight was out of Oakland airport on America West. I arrive in Las Vegas at 11:30am and take a limo to the hotel. Nothing major was originally planned but I ended up having my yearly dinner with the good folks over at Epic Megagames. Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein are the most gracious hosts. If you've never heard of Epic Megagames, I'm sure you've heard of Unreal Tournament. These guys run the company that both develops the game and the engine. In short, these guys make really good games.

We dine at Delmonico's steak house. This is the 4th year in a row where we've dined at this top rated fine restaurant. The wine is out of this world and the food is to die for.

http://www.venetian.com/dining/dining.cfm?ID=1

Jay is a personal friend of Emeril Lagasse so getting reservations is fairly easy for him. A few years back, Jay was able to secure the kitchen table which is one of the better dining experiences for this restaurant. There is no menu to order from when you sit at the Chef's table. The chef decides on what you will eat and the Somalier serves the perfect combination of wine.

For tonight's dinner, I started with the bbq shrimp which was slightly spicy but very tasty. For my main course, I ordered the bone-in rib eye cooked medium rare which is one of the most flavorful steaks to choose from. It is a marbelized steak with just enough fat to really make it juicy and full of flavor. Jay orders some incredible wines like Grand Cru Montrache. This bottle alone is about $600.00 and we easily finish 3 of them. To top it off he also orders a 2002 Joseph Phelps which is currently rated #1 by Wine Spectator.

We finish dinner off with desert. I ordered the Bananas Foster (the same as last year) and an espresso. After dinner we head to the casino to gamble.

After losing a little bit at the Venetian, we head over to the Hard Rock to try our luck. Our luck doesn't change much except the dealer at the Hard Rock made it fun even though we were all losing. We head to the bar and hang out till about 5am and return to our hotel.