2009.08.28 - The Poolcade
I finally got around to documenting the arcade project I started in college. Funny that in all these years, the only thing that was holding me back was having a camera decent enough to take pictures of it. Oh well, better late than never I suppose.
I also removed the old hardware and articles section of the website, as they were horribly outdated. Maybe someday they will return, but first I think the entire site needs to be overhauled. It is "seldom updated" for a reason...
2009.03.23 - Eventually...
... meaning two months later. I stopped bothering with godaddy's crap and moved the site to WebhostGiant. Their server was down this morning for who-knows-how-long, but I'm only paying $3/month, so eh. Hopefully that doesn't happen too often. At least my scripts work again.
I signed up for a twitter account finally and so far I'm unimpressed, although being able to get up to the minute Christopher Walken thoughts is quite hilarious and amusing. I guess I just don't see the point when facebook does everything that twitter does and more.
2009.01.13 - Happy 2009!
I'm in the process of moving the site to godaddy's "free" (ad-supported) web hosting. They insist upon plastering their hideous banner over every page (c'mon guys, that was so 1998), but luckily there are always methods for sticking it to the man. Unfortunately I can't undo their trashing of my otherwise perfect XHTML validation, grrr. Also, I still haven't gotten PHP completely working, so a couple of scripts don't work yet (choosefood and calctext). I'll figure it out eventually.
2008.12.01 - December update
I take back what I said about hoping to get into Escape from Alcatraz again. The race entry fee is $400, which I think is just a ludicrous amount to charge people for something that is essentially already there. Sorry, but even if I got into the random drawing, there's no way I can afford that right now. I'll probably just spectate instead.
2008.08.14 - Chicago
Just got back from visiting my brother Kiley who is working for the Hyatt of Chicago. I was really impressed with the architecture there. Definitely a cool city. Also, I found out that the hotel I was staying at (Hotel 71) is where they filmed Bruce Wayne's penthouse scenes from The Dark Knight, and it just happens to be down the block from the bridge that the batmobile jumps in Batman Begins. Sweet!
2008.06.08 - Escape From Alcatraz 2
I didn't get too many pictures from the event, unfortunately, but my parents were there and got to see me race, so that was nice. I also saw a bunch of my old TNT friends tearing it up as usual. I didn't finish as strong as I'd have liked (I think the 4-mile warm up run the day before was a little overkill), but at least I can say now that I've swum from The Rock! The weather and race course were absolutely beautiful, even better than Wildflower, in my opinion. I'll cross my fingers and hope that I can get into the random drawing for next year.
2008.04.01 - I'm hungry
But I couldn't decide what to eat. So I made a program to do it for me!
To do:
1. option for takeout/delivery/eat-in only
2. check for restaurant types that are nearby based on zipcode
3. check for restaurant hours
4. price range
5. ???
6. PROFIT!!!
2007.12.15 - Escape from Alcatraz 1
Holy crap, I got into the random drawing! From the e-mail:
"You are one of the lucky triathletes that have been selected as a winner the December 15, 2007 random drawing for a slot in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon to be held in San Francisco on June 8, 2008.
"On June 8th, you will get to jump off a perfectly good boat into the frigid water of the San Francisco Bay, swim with 1800 of your best friends from Alcatraz to Little Marina Green. You will climb out of the water and run (with or without shoes) one half mile to the transition area, jump on your bike and ride 18 miles (most people say that it is all up hill) and then run 8 miles (under the Golden Gate Bridge, through the sands of baker beach, up the infamous sand ladder and back to Marina Green to the finish line. What a great way to spend your life."
This is pretty exciting; I guess it's time to start training again. :\
2007.08.19 - France
Another family vacation. Did a lot of sightseeing in Paris and we also rented a boat and took a trip down the canal in the South of France for a few days.
2007.07.29 - San Francisco Marathon
So I've said that I would never do a marathon, but when Tom told me that he was thinking of doing one with a couple of friends and they're not really big runners, I figured what the hell, I'll do it with them and just go slow, hang out, and talk the whole way. Anyway, the joke was on me, my knees are pretty much useless now. Thanks a lot Tom! :P
2007.05.04 - Wildflower
Was pretty brutal. Took me 7 hours 15 minutes, which is dog slow, but I was just happy to finish. From now on I think I'll stick to the shorter tri's.
A big thank you to all the people who supported me through Team in Training, you guys rock!
Pictures here.
2007.03.24 - Triathlon Round 2
Participating with Team in Training last Fall was such a great experience, the race went so well (despite a flat tire on lap 3 of the bike course), I met lots of people and had a ton of fun, but I couldn't have done it without all the wonderful support and generosity from my friends and family. I owe you all a great debt.
Anyway, it might not come as a surprise to you that I'm doing it again! But I really need your support, because this time I'm going for double the distance! Please help support my cause by visiting my TNT website here: http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/kouri and donating. A little bit goes a long way!
Those of you who may be curious about the Wildflower Triathlon (it's very popular because it's the first big Spring triathlon and involves camping over the weekend) can read more about it here: http://www.tricalifornia.com/wildflower/2007/.
2006.09.24 - Triathlon
Wow, seems like I disappeared for a little while, at least from this website. Actually I've been sorta busy training for this triathlon which is coming up on November 5th (holy crap, that's only one month away, I really need to start training harder). It's going to be at Treasure Island in San Francisco, so if anyone wants to come out and show their support, I'd be more than grateful. :) It's an olympic distance tri, which is a .93 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, followed by a 6.2 mile run. This, by the way, is only a quarter of an Ironman distance triathlon.
So why a triathlon? Well a) I've been pretty inactive physically since college and I wanted to get back in shape, and b) it's for a good cause. I'm doing the triathlon with Team In Training, an organization which raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I'm hoping that my efforts will raise a little awareness and inspire people enough to help fight a disease that affects hundreds of thousands of people every year. The money that I raise will go to support patients and their families dealing with the disease, as well as cancer research which will hopefully lead to better treatments and ultimately a cure.
Now that I think about it, it was almost one year ago when one of my classmates from high school, Kelly Potter, was first diagnosed with lymphoma. She was a bright girl who you could tell just by looking at her that she had so much potential, and I can't remember her ever not having a smile on her face. Unfortunately, by the time she was diagnosed, it had progressed so far that it was too late. She passed away in late November; she was only 24. The unfairness of it all saddened me and I vowed to do something, even it's only a drop in the bucket compared to what others can do. There's an addage among the TNT participants that goes "the worst day of training beats the best day of chemo by a mile." I try to think about that every day when I'm working out.
So anyway, if you'd like to make a donation and sponsor me for my race, I have a little side website here: http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/kouri. I wish I could say that I'm keeping it up to date with all my training and progress so far, but honestly I think it would be boring. Swim, bike, run, rest, repeat. That's pretty much it. I do keep a list of "honorees", that is, the people who I am training on behalf of, so if you know someone who has leukemia or lymphoma or has been affected by cancer, please e-mail me and I will add them to the list. Thanks for reading.
