beer planet

I was looking through some old papers while cleaning out the closet and found this list that Milla made for my mom when she was visiting. I quickly jotted it down for future reference. Here it is in no particular order:

In San Francisco

• Golden Gate Bridge
• Golden Gate Park
• Twin Peaks
• Legion of Honor (beautiful place!)
• Embarcadero
• Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf
• Ghirardelli Square
• Palace Of Fine Arts
• Lombard Street (the curvy one)
• Alcatraz
• Treasure Island
• Chinatown
• MOMA (Museum Of Modern Art)
• Broadway
• North Beach
• Coit Tower
• City Hall
• The Marina
• Union Square, Downtown

Outside San Francisco

• Sausalito
• Hearst Castle
• Reno
• Winchester Mystery House
• Napa, Sonoma (wine tasting, beautiful nature)
• Stinson Beach
• Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea
• Berkeley, Telegraph St
• Sacramento

A lot of these places of interest are covered by the 49 mile drive.

Updated: December 19th, 2007

If you haven't heard yet, there's a cool useful little device that you can buy for about $20, called the Kill-A-Watt. You plug it into the power outlet, then plug something into it and observe various fun facts about the plugged in device, such as the power consumption, voltage, amperage, etc. I started plugging things in and recording power consumption that you can see below. Here are the results I got so far (updated often):

• Vizio P50 HDTV 50" plasma
  • standby: 0-1W
  • on - perfect white screen: 450W (OUCH!)
  • on - bright screen: 350-430W
  • on - medium brightness: 250-350W
  • on - dark scenes: 200-250W
  • on - perfect black screen: 185W
• Torchiere floor lamp with a 300W bulb
  • 1st torchiere - on: 272W
  • 2nd torchiere - on: 305W
• Cell phone charger
  • no phone, no LED: 0W
  • no phone, LED on: 0W
  • phone charging (Samsung A900): 3W
  • phone charged (Samsung A900): 0W
• Dell 90W laptop charger
  • no laptop, LED on: 0W
  • laptop on, screen on, already charged: 33W
  • laptop on, screen off, charging: 74W
  • laptop on, screen on, charging: 85W
• Revlon 1875W blow dryer
  • low cool setting: 192W
  • medium cool setting: 231W
  • high cool setting: 251W
  • low hot setting: 408W
  • medium hot setting: 644W
  • high hot setting: 1520W (HOLY SHIT! Blow drying your hair may just be the most expensive thing you can do. Don't you have some baby seals to club?)
• Braun WK200B AquaExpress electric water kettle
  • on: 1430W (SHITx2! If you like to constantly reheat your tea kettle, like some people I know, maybe you should switch to a regular stovetop one)
• Rowenta electric water kettle
  • on: 1465W
• Plain 2 slot toaster
  • on: 950W (and 8 Amps! If everyone just gets rid of their kitchens, we will have an instant green paradise)
• Honeywell 51000 air cleaner
  • on - low setting: 57W
  • on - high setting: 94W
• Honeywell compact fan similar to this one
  • on - low setting: 28W
  • on - medium setting: 36W
  • on - high setting: 45W
• Panasonic MC-V5710 vacuum cleaner (10A)
• on - 900W (8A, guess it's getting old)
• Norelco electric shaver
• plugged in - charging: 3W
• plugged in - in use: 0W (apparently, the shaver can't charge while being in use)
• plugged in - charged: 0W (no overcharging is done when you leave the charge on for too long)

Got any requests? Post and I'll try to fulfill and publish them here.

Found this on digg today, which caused me to literally laugh out loud. Is this guy just too happy to report the weather or just looking to score a promotion?

Don't forget to read some of the digg comments. For example:

• "Maybe he's hoping it'll just blow over."
• "With a wang the size of Ohio you would think he would have a better job than local weather."
• "Who would want a wang the shape of E.T.'s finger? Unless it's to "probe" people for all their memories like in American Dead"
• "Well that was a hard one to look at."

Updated: December 17th, 2007

An adorable group of orphaned baby owls have been adopted by a silly-looking stuffed toy owl, after they were found on the brink of death in the wild. You have to see the photo to believe it - you will die of cuteness!

read more | digg story

Are you dead yet?

Help me pick something from my shelf. What should I drink tonight? (Yeah, yeah, work is tomorrow but who are you to judge me?)