Golden State Warriors vs LA Clippers

On this Friday evening, A had an extra ticket to the Golden State Warriors game. The warriors haven't been very good lately, but it was a Friday evening and I had no plans. So, it's off to Oakland for "a great time out".

I met up with A at his office. Going to the game with us was his co-worker Brian. We took 237 east then 880 north. A and Brian were Warrior's season tickets holder and they had done this trip many times. They avoided traffic at the stadium off ramp by exiting at 98th street, then taking San Leandro Street to the BART parking lot.

Friday evening traffic was a little worst than we had expected, so we missed the opening tip off, but as we were getting to our seats, the Warriors were on a mini-run. There was a 3 point shot and a lay up scored by the Warriors and the score was tied. The Clipper called a timeout, and I went to get some food as I had not have dinner.

Big mistake! While I was waiting in line for food, I saw the Clipper slowly increase their lead to 10. By the time I got back to the stands, it was the beginning of the second quarter and for all practical purposes, the game was mostly over as Clippers increased their lead to about 20.

The Warriors had no answer for the Clipper's center on defense. The Clipper guards: Baron Davis and Eric Gordon played well. Offensively, the Warriors looked confused and did not have much ball movement. Ill-advised, long jump shots were taken without much setup. It was not a pretty sight. Before the game we knew the Warriors were not very good, but thought the game itself would be close since the Clippers were not very good too. Given this performance, I can only wonder what would happen when the Warriors played some of the better teams in the league.

We tried out best to enjoy the game. There was break dancing performance, Philippines dancing performance, dunking performance, pizza giveaway and a whole slew of activities to keep the time entertaining. We did not leave until the game was over.

On the way back, on KNBR, we heard coach Don Nelson called the game "embarrassing" for the Warriors. Sadly, I had to agree. With the various entertainment option the Bay area had to offer, combined with the cost and distance of attending a Warriors game, I would not be back until something changes.

Game review by SFGate.com here.

Gold Star Gymnastics

I ran into Nathalie at the break room at work a week ago and saw her heat up dinner at 5pm. "Wow, early dinner!" I commented.

Nathalie told me she was taking gymnastics classes at Gold Star Gymnastics that night and wanted to eat something early so she would not throw up while doing various tumbling exercise. Then she asked if I wanted to try the lessons. "The first lesson is free", she said.

I had to work late that evening, so had to decline the invitation, but promised I would try the lesson next week.

This Thursday, I reached Gold Star Gymnastics at about 7:45pm and was given a waiver to sign, then changed into workout clothes in the bathroom. At 8pm, a lady rounded up about 10-12 people to begin the class.

We started by running around a big exercise mat followed by stretching of the hamstrings. Then we practise fall. A common gymnastic injury is when a person falls, he uses his hands to balance himself. The weight on the wrist and elbow may be too much and bones can break. We learned to fall backwards, roll backwards while keeping our hands on our sides.

Warm up continued with jumping on a trampoline, followed by doing a seat drop on the trampoline. This involve jumping on the trampoline, then in mid air push the legs horizontal and keeping the hangs on the side, then drop butt first on the trampoline. With the bounce, get mid-air and stand up. There was a more advance move of doing seat drop in one direction, followed by seat drop in another direction which I was unable to do. The final warm up was inch-worm.

After warm-up, we formed lines to do forward rolls and backward rolls. My lack of arm strength quickly became obvious. Also, I was not used to being upside down. After each roll, I quickly lose orientation and needed a few seconds to gather myself.

The instructor pulled me aside to do backward roll on a decline mat. This way, I do not need to use as much force roll myself backwards as gravity helped do some of the pulling. I was able to do the skill several times, but the dizziness got worst.

The next exercise was cartwheel. I was too weak to try doing the drill. The instructor pulled over a stack of mats and had me do semi-cartwheels by putting my hands on the stack and jumping over the mats. She had the students worked on a roll followed by a handstand turn. I could not do a handstand, so I was reduced to doing a hand push up with kicks of the legs in the air.

After these exercise, the instructor pulled a big roller mattress and have the students do running flips. The students ran towards the roller, then bend down to pushed themselves onto the roller with their hands. At this point, I was feeling very sick and did not participate in any of the drills. I started watching my fellow students and found most of them were doing quite well. A few were even able to do the flip without the rollers! I later learned that many of the students were former gymnasts and just wanted to continue working out gymnastics moves. Compare to them, I was clearly out of shape.

After the running flip exercises, it was a free for all period. I saw some people worked on floor exercise moves, working on back flips with rollers. The gym also has a setup for working on jumps. I saw more than a few students ran down the running track, jumped, twisted and turned in mid air, then land into a pool of foam cubes. A fellow student saw me watching and encouraged me to try. I politely declined as I was still fighting the urge to throw up.

After 45mins of free exercise, we gathered again on the mat for conditioning exercise. There was a body crunch followed by rolling on the sides, and clapping push ups.

Nathalie came and checked with me to see how I enjoyed the class. It was fun trying something new, but clearly I am not ready for many of the exercises and definitely not ready for the rolls and flips. I would need to work on those skills before returning.

Scientist turned Comedian vs Engineer turned Comedian

I had been a subscriber to an email newsletter from funcheapsf.com for a couple of years now. One event from this week's contest piqued my interest. "Scientist-turned-comedian", the title read. The comedian, Tim Lee, had a PhD in biology, but now does stand up comedy.

The event was held at Le Petit Trianon theater. Located across the street from San Jose city hall, Le Petit Trianon was a beautifully decorated, classically looking theater. The atmosphere there was a step up from the more bar-like environment of a comedy club.

The show opened with a opening act, 2 middle acts and Tim. One of the middle guy, Norm, was pretty funny. He was introduced as a writer for Jay Leno, and it showed in some of his jokes. The other middle act, was too self deprecating for me and I did not enjoy it too much.

Since comedy would be funny only if unexpected, I would not describe any of the jokes here. However, I like to compare Tim Lee's material with Don McMillan.

Don was an engineer turned stand up comedian. I was at his show a couple of years ago and his opening jokes draw on his experience working in corporations. His prepared piece was not very technical at all and could be enjoyed by anyone. However, some of the material felt old and needed to be updated to appeal to younger audience.

Tim's setup was more technical. He would explain some scientific facts/definitions, and his punch line was usually applying some of this fact/definition in day to day life. Worried that this format might still be too boring, he broke the act up into several sections, and interspersed the act with some funny personal stories.

Both Don and Tim used Powerpoint in their presentation. I thought adding a visual element to standup routine was really entertaining. Also, both comedian kept their jokes relatively clean, so the material would have wider appeal.

I do enjoy the work of both Don McMillan and Tim Lee, but felt I like Tim's material better.

Here is a youtube clip of Tim Lee's performance. Enjoy!

Whitewater Rafting in the Middle Fork of American River

White water rafting on the South fork of American river was so much fun, I decided to do it again. This Labor Day weekend, I venture out to Coloma once more. This trip was to run the Middle fork of the American river.

(BTW, I have gotten some question on this: yes, there is a North fork of the American river, which I plan to run next Spring. That river is not dam controlled and typically do not have enough flow to raft after Spring time.)

I had enjoyed my rafting trip with Mother Lode: the company I went with during Memorial day, but they did not have enough clients to fill 2 boats on this Labor Day weekend! I was therefore transferred to join Mariah Wilderness Adventure on this trip instead.

I arrived at 4:30pm the day before to set up camp and spent the night. Mariah's camp ground was all dirt:( I had preferred the lawn camp ground at Mother Lode. This camp ground was also located by the South Fork of American river, less than a mile from Mother Lode's camp ground. The nicest feature of the camp ground had to be the swimming hole, basically a bend in the river with shallow bottom. I had brought my swim gear, but decided not to swim because the water and the weather was too cold.

After an early dinner at Sierra Nevada House, I read a little and went to sleep. I wanted to be ready for the 7am trip.

I got up at 6am, and considering I was camping, had a fairly decent night. Mariah did not offer breakfast, so I brought along some banana and bagel. The middle Fork rafters met at 7am and were driven to Raley's at Auburn, where we picked up 2 more guest. I made a mental note to check hotel prices at Auburn. It would make a more comfortable sleep compare to camping.

From Auburn, it was a 45min drive to the put in point, located at the foot of Oxbow reservoir.

As usual, we were given a briefing on the van ride to the put in point. The Middle fork is classified as a class IV-V river, so besides a repeat of the usual paddle commands/safety instructions (which I had heard on South Fork), we were taught a few more tricks. One command was "get down", where all rafters would abandon their usual position sitting on the side of the raft and get into the middle of the raft, holding on to straps attached to the raft.

The other was "high side". This command would be used when a raft is about to flip, one side of the raft would be higher than the other. Rafters sitting on the lower side of the raft should shift to the higher side of the raft to re-balance the raft.

Our lead guide for the trip is Morgan. Our guide is Matt. In our boat were 4 guys from India (sorry, I don't remember their names) and Vince. Vince was a former river guide, so we had extra help on this trip.

I sat in the front right hand side spot. Vince was on my left. There was a diver (aka non-swimmer) on the trip, so he sat in the back, right next to Matt.

We were given the usual PFD, paddles, spray jackets and helmets for this trip. After a quick gear check, we pulled the raft to a small ramp for put in. Of the dozen or so companies that were rafting that day, we were the first to launch!

Immediately after put in, we practiced turns and other paddling commands. We did not have much time because there is a Class III rapid near the put in point. It is appropriately named "Good Morning!" Learning from my South Fork experience, I wore a spray jacket on this trip. Still, I got a good splash and woke up even more!

The first couple of miles down the Middle fork were filled with class III and class IV rapids. Between these rapids, Matt had us working on paddling and turning again. Also, in preparation for tunnel chute, we also worked on "get down" and "high side", so it was a really active start to the day.

Matt guided us expertly through the next few rapids before we reach "Tunnel Chute". Tunnel Chute had to be the most famous rapid on American River. It is basically a hole in granite blasted out by gold miner with a turn and a big drop before going into a tunnel. Some even considered it class V rapid. All the pictures one sees with rafters holding their paddle up in the air and seated inside the raft were from this rapid.

We had to positioned the raft when we entered the bend and into the drop. Just before the drop, Matt called "Get down!" Everyone reacted immediately. Then for a second or two, there was nothing except white water all around us. At the bottom of the chute, we had to get out of our position and immediately start paddling again, as the river took another turn. It was hardcore white water fun!

After Tunnel Chute, everyone relaxed a little. After all, the most difficult rapid was behind us. Vince and I switched position with guys in the second row so they could experience the full force of the river for themselves.

We got through the rest of the class II and class III rapid without much difficulty. Then we approached Kanaka falls. Matt had the habit of briefing us on the rock formation of the major rapids ahead of us and the paddling he expected of us. On Kanaka, we were to make a bend in the river and there was several bumps along the way. As we paddled the rapid, on one bump, both person on the front row fell. I was able to grab the person in front of me and pulled him in, but Vince was unable to pull the guy on the left back into the raft. He fell into the white water. It was the lower portion of the rapid and water was starting to slow, so Matt called "All forward". We raft towards him and pulled him back into the raft.

Morgan had mentioned on a rafting trip, an average of 1 client would go swimming. Since she and Matt did not have client fall out on the previous day's trip, I guessed they were due.

After Kanaka, the water flattens out. There was about 2-3 miles of flat water paddling. I had a chance to really admire the beauty of the river and its canyon. According to Matt, the canyon walls are 2000 ft high. Being near the river, the area is lusciously green. The view was just amazing!

There were also lots of guide stories swapping between Vince and Matt.

Matt recalled this past summer, he had given a briefing to a group of rafters and noticed one lady looking very puzzled. When the lady first saw the river raft, she exclaimed, "Oh...these type of rafts!" The raft she had in mind were formed by tying several wooden log together....like those described in the adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Vince countered with another story. When he was guiding, at a bridge running across the river, he would tell clients that this was Native American territory and the Native Americans did not like people looking at them. In fact, they would shoot people looking at their faces. Just as all the clients were looking away from the bridge, he would slap the water with a flat paddle, simulating a gun shot sound and gave everyone a good shock!

I asked Vince a little more about himself. Turned out, he was a techie just like me! He used to work in a technology company and was married. After his divorce, he and his ex-wife sold their house. Each of them had about $300K from the sale. He became a river guide and worked the river for 5 years. His ex-wife, meanwhile, bought a new house in Half Moon Bay. Given the current real estate market, it was likely his ex-wife was underwater in that mortgage. He had his fun being a river guide and now worked in Philippines, managing a call center for My Linux Support.

Vince told me he was tempted to tell his ex: "After the divorce, I rafted a 100,000 river, scuba dived a 100,000 dive sites and f**ked a 100,000 women. So, what did you do with your money?" Then he contemplated for a second and said: "I better not. She would shoot me!"

It was about 12:30pm when we reach a small beach and break for lunch. Given the bumpy ride, any bread the guides brought along would be squashed! Instead, we were given pre-squashed bread: tortilla! It was served with ham, cheese, fresh cut vegetables, potato chips and condiments.

After lunch there was another 2 -3 miles of flat water paddling. On this stretch, Matt showed us his favorite rock formation on the river.



My waterproof disposable camera picture did not turn out well, but the rock was basically one rock shaped like 2 boobs with cleavage in between. Naturally, someone had placed 2 pebbles on top of the rock. Matt deadpanned, "And the rocks on top only shows up on a cold day!"

About half an hour of flat water paddling, we got busy again. The interesting rapids were now ahead of us. Our first major rapid after lunch was Chunder. Chunder was a finesse rapid. We had to position our raft in a particular direction on the right side of the rapid to go through it.

After Chunder, was the other infamous rapid of Middle fork. Ruck-A-Chucky was thought to be un-runnable until some river guide did it in the 80's. However, no river company would take client down this rapid. We left the raft and walked around the rapid on a small unmarked trail. Even Matt did not raft through this rapid. He had Morgan pushed our raft down the rapid, while he waited at the bottom of the rapid to pull the raft in. Despite claims that we were suppose to portage, we did not lift the raft on this rapid.

After Ruck-A-Chucky was Cleavage. This rapid had a opening between two rocks (hence the name). After a drop, there was a rock right in between the open which Matt referred to as Dick rock. We were to help turn the raft to avoid it.

Parallel park was the final major rapid. Here we were required to turn left, then backed the raft up and then pulled all forward. The motion of the raft resembled parallel parking, hence the name. We had no problem with this rapid too.

Coming out of parallel park, we hit Texas Chainsaw. There was a rock formation on the right where the bottom of the rock, near the river, had been eroded away. Since we had a fair amount of speed coming off the previous turn, we were not able to paddle away from the rock. I was on the front row left and had to bend down to avoid the rock from taking my head off.

Off the next class III rapid, Matt suggested we go surfing. We park our raft in the eddy where water was calm, then paddle upstream towards a the rapid. I realized for the first time how much power rafters could generate when we paddled together. At the base of the rapid was a with lots of white water. As the front off the raft moved into the white water, it tipped down, and the front of the raft was filled with water. White water has no bouancy.

The surfing was pretty much the last thing we did on the river. We pulled out at a small ramp near a park and took a 45min drive back to camp.

I had planned to camp another night, but I was no tired after all the rafting. After breaking camp, I drove home.

Before leaving, I asked Vince about Cherry Creek. This was a class V river, which called itself the standard which all class V are measured against. I wanted to raft that river someday.

Vince suggested running North fork and Cal Salmon before doing Cherry Creek. Also, on a high flow (3000-4000 cfs) day, South Fork could be a good training ground. The idea, according to Vince was to experience falling out of the raft. That way, one would not panic as much if it happened on Cherry Creek.

A map of Middle Fork of American river can be found here. Description of the rapids can be found
here

Finally, photos of me going down Tunnel Chute can be found here

Half Dome

I first learned about Yosemite National Park and Half Dome in 1993. My sister and brother-in-law had visited the park and were showing us her pictures. She had told me Half Dome was the largest rock in the world (note: I cannot find the reference anywhere on the web), and people rock climbed up the Northwest Face in days to get to the top. The physical abilities required to rock climbed that far was clearly beyond me. The top of Half Dome was like the top of Mount Everest: it exist, but not somewhere I would likely reach in my life time.

Then, a few year ago, while I was training to run half marathon, someone told me about hiking to the top of Half Dome. I was intrigued, but due to injuries, work commitment and other reasons, I never made the trip.

Early this summer, A mentioned on Facebook he was planning to do hiking. I talked him and his friend D into doing Half Dome. We had been hiking 10-12 miles on most Saturday for 2 months in preparation.

Our first set back on this trip came on Wednesday before the hike. During a "controlled" burn, Yosemite Park officials started what is now known as the Big Meadow fire. Highway 120 into the Park was closed as a result. Why is this a set back? Well, the hotel we booked, Yosemite Westgate Lodge, is located near the Highway 120 entrance into Yosemite, in Groveland, CA. This is to facilitate an early start to the hike. When we heard about the road closure, it was already too late to cancel our room. After some debate, we decided to continue staying in Groveland, but take a 3 hour detour to go into Yosemite National Park.

Big Meadow Fire map, displayed outside Groveland Firehouse

After a leisure drive to Groveland, we checked into our hotel, got updated on the fire situation, ate an early dinner and went to bed at 9pm. But all there of us: A, D and me, are not early sleepers to begin with, and the anxiety of hiking Half Dome did not help. I did not fall asleep till 1am. D said later he did not fall asleep till 2am.

I woke up at 4:20am. Surprised, I checked my cell phone for the time again. We had asked for a wake up call at 4am, but the hotel did not call us! We quickly got ready and hit the road at 5:00am.

We decided to follow the recommended detour of taking junction 132 to Hwy 49 to Hwy 140 and enter Yosemite through the entrance near the town of El Portal. However, we were misled by the map posted outside Groveland fire station.

Misleading map, displayed outside Groveland Firehouse. You are here on the map is not the Groveland Firehouse!

With all these delays, we did not enter Yosemite Valley till 8am. We quickly parked our car, and hiked 1/4 mile to the Happy Isle trail head. From the trail head, we hiked along Mist Trail. The 1-1.5 mile was a bit of an up hill climb. The roads are paved, so there is no need to trail find and the scenery was great. We crossed a bridge where we caught our first glimpse of Vernal falls. From the bridge, the trail starts becoming more wild. The paved roads disappear and we started walking on dirt path. The trails have lots of rocks embedded in the path, which made the walking rather tiring.

Trail head warning

After another 1/2 a mile, we started seeing Vernal Falls up close and personal. In late August, Vernal Falls have much less flow. Various websites suggested bringing along a poncho for this stretch of the hike, which I did. But there was no spray from the water fall , so I did not use the poncho.

Vernal Falls in late August

As we continue further on this trail, it become steeper. Steps are cut into the rocks to and hand rails are provided along some especially narrow path. Then the trail open up and we reach the top of Vernal falls. The body of water that feeds into Vernal fall is Emerald Pond. It looks really calm, and somewhat greenish when we were there.

From Emerald Pond, we followed Mist Trail to Nevada Falls. Again, these hikes were mostly on granite steps since the trail is fairly steep. Nevada Falls have more flow compare to Vernal falls, but we were spared any spray from Nevada Falls as well.

Nevada Falls in late August

We reached the junction of Mist trail and John Muir Trail at about 11:30am. Here we debated if we should go further. The mile marker read "Half Dome 4.5 miles". We figured in another 2 hours, we would reach the top of Half Dome and therefore decided to push on. We badly under-estimate how long the rest of the hike up would take.

The next stretch of the hike was the most relax. We walked along Merced River in Little Yosemite Valley. The trail is flat and the footing is mostly sand. After about 1.5 miles, the flat section ended and we started climbing again.

Here we were starting to feel tired. We start to meet people coming down from Half Dome and we would randomly asked them how much further we had to go. It was not encouraging. It was going to be 3 more miles, but would probably take us another 2 hours.

Another 45mins hiking brought us to the last mile maker "Half Dome 2 miles".



Walking another 45mines, we finally reached were at the foot of the granite dome. A and I spotted people going up the cable, but also saw people going up a lower rock structure without cable. This lower rock structure was quite steep! This was our first introduction to Sub Dome.

In preparation to hike Half Dome, I had attended Mr Half Dome's talk at REI. He had mentioned the most dangerous part of the hike were not the infamous cables on Half Dome, but Sub Dome. I was skeptical then, but now I understand why he had said that.

Sub Dome looking down

Steps were also cut into the Sub Dome rock, but the trail is very exposed. As such, our progress was more measured. After hiking Sub Dome, there was a small drop in the trail into a narrow ridge where we met the cables.

"The Cables"

The cables are probably the most talked about feature on the Half Dome hike. Looking from the bottom up, the climb up Half Dome does look quite intimidating. The rock is steep and the exposure is large. I had no doubt if a person fell from the cable, he/she would die. We were hiking Half Dome late in the season, so the cable was not crowded at all.

People I talked to always reassured me the cables are not that difficult. I had a different experience when I climbed the first half of the way. It was very tiring and I stood on each wood planks to rest, before moving to the next plank. Fear probably played a big role as I had never climbed something so steep without harness. (I later learned that part of the route is Class 3, so ropes were optional).

I had made the cables more difficult by using the wrong technique. I was pulling myself up the cables with my hands and it was very tiring. Half way up the cables, it strike me I should be leaning more towards the rock and use more of my feet to walk up Half Dome. While parts of the rock was slippery, for the most part, I had good traction and was able to walk up the rock and used the cable for guiding/security only. I had done rock climbing and should have applied knowledge learned there faster:(

At 2pm, we reached the top. D was tentative at the base of the cable, but A and I encouraged him to do it. When he reached the top of the cable though, he didn't feel like moving at all. He sat near the cables and rested while A and I walked around the top of Half Dome.

I did the classic "Diving Board", took panoramic pictures, paying special attention to the smoke from Big Meadow fire. A ate tamarind rice as celebration while I took a short nap.

Smoke from Big Meadow fire. I never smell smoke on the hike, except when I was breathing hard on the cable.

Diving board

At 3:15pm, we decided to head down. In late August, night falls earlier and I did not want to hike down sub dome in the dark.

Knowing how exposed the cables were, I descended them by facing the rock while climbing down. Using the same rock climbing technique, I was able to moved down fairly quickly, though the footing coming down was a little worst than going up.

Another group of hikers were climbing up the cables when we were descending. The sky had began to darken. I hoped they had a short stay atop Half Dome, else they will need to hike down sub dome in the dark.

The hike down sub dome turns out to be easier than I had imagined. While we moved carefully, it was not as scary as I had initially thought.

After sub dome, we moved at a brisk pace, trying to cover as much ground as possible before dark. Fatigue began to set in. I had finished all my Gatorade and began to worried I didn't carry enough water. Also, stepping on the rock all day on the trail was beginning to take its toll. I was avoiding walking on rocks since it hurt my feet. I was also grateful to the high top. Without that support, I would have twisted my ankle several times on the way down.

We reached the John Muir Trail/Mist Trail junction at about 6:45pm. Most guidebook suggested taking John Muir Trail because it is less steep, though longer. We debated a little, but decided to take Mist Trail in the hope of covering more ground with the remaining light.

It felt like a mistake after a few steps. Mist trail was very steep. When hiking up, it was tiring, but I was not worried about balance. However, when hiking down, I was concerned I would slip and fall on the very steep trail and be seriously injured. Further, the trail was all rocks, which hurt the feet a lot. The rock surface on the trail felt like it was cut with a slight angle pointing down. This made climbing up easier, but felt really unstable going down.

While Mist Trail to the Happy Isle trail head is shorter, I wondered if we saved any time, since hiking down Mist Trail was really slow. The hiking poles were really helpful because it helped me with balance and took pressure off my knees.

At this point, we were hiking by ourselves, and realized Mist Trail wasn't very well marked! When coming up, there were many hikers on the trail and we did not have to do any trail finding. With the sky was mostly dark and being all alone, we resorted to our memory and foot prints on the trail to find our way.

We made it to Emerald Pond. Another group of hikers from Cisco which we had met atop Half Dome was already there. One of the hikers had done this hike before and he led us down the rest of the way. It was completely dark at this point. Luckily all of us were prepared with flash light and head lamps. I had also ran out of water, but weather was beginning to cool, so I did not feel dehydrated. We were lucky the entire day, since weather was never an issue. It never got too hot or too cold during the hike.

With the Cisco hikers leading the way, we got back to Vernal Falls bridge where we filled our bottles with water. Then it was onto the paved section of the trail. With no problem with footing, it was just a matter of walking the final 1.5 miles to the trail head.

It was 9pm when we reached the trail head and we were all very tired. A bus pulled up at the trail head and the driver was nice enough to wait for us. We asked about riding back to the trail head parking lot, but learned that the bus does not stop there! We had to walk back to the parking lot on foot.

The 1/4 mile hike from the parking lot to the trail head did not feel like anything in the morning, but after hiking for almost 12 hours, the distance felt like it would never end. Again, this path to the parking lot was not well marked and we kept wondering if we were going the right way. It was 9:15pm when we got to the car.

Since our hotel was another 3 hours away, we drove around Yosemite Valley looking for a place to grab a bite. There was a grocery store and we got sandwich and Gatorade.

I must be really tired because after wolfing down a cold Gatorade, I suddenly felt the chills and had to warm myself up wearing a fleece jacket. D took the keys and drove 2 1/2 hours back to the hotel. It was about 12:30am when we arrived.

We took turns showering and hit the sack. I don't know about the other guys, but I fell asleep immediately when my head hit the pillow.

So, Half Dome is in the bag. The final stats: 14 miles, 4800 ft, 12 hours hike. I felt that despite a summer of hiking, we were not as physically prepared as we should be. This hike was the most physically demanding thing I had ever done, and like I told D and I, I had ran 13.1 miles at some point in my life.

Friend from France(?)

K was in town for a week.

I first met K on my first job. Both of us joined the same company about 6 months apart and were both fresh out of school. We worked on the same unit on the same project, MM. This project being our first our of school, we put our heart and soul into our work. We worked late to make sure we met dateline. We came in on weekend to catch up. K was my RTL counterpart. We interacted a lot and became close friends.

After project MM, K and I moved onto project RK. But, we worked on different units and together with lifestyle changes, drifted apart. Then I left the company and did not hear from her for a while.

We started hanging out again in 2007. In 2008, she was accepted for the MBA program at INSEAD in France. She had been in France studying for the past 6 months and is back in town for a 1 week class. Given her busy class schedule, we do not keep in touch except through updates on Facebook.

We met at the local PF Chang's for dinner, with 20 of her other friends. Some were co-workers on MM which I have not met since the project was completed. It was fun catching up with everyone.

Paddle for Life 2009

For the third year in a row, I am part of the Xilinx team that participated in Paddle for Life Dragon Boat Festival.

This year's race was held in Jack London Square, like last year. However, instead of Bay Area Dragons volunteers organizing the entire event, a company handled all the race planning and logistics. To the paddlers, the only visible difference was the size of the boat used in the race and the course. Instead of longer dragon boats which requires 20 paddlers, we are using shorter boats, which only requires 10 paddlers. Also, instead of the 300m course used last year, a 200m course is used.

As per last year, we were told to reach Jack London Square at 8:30am. Having done the race last year, I knew what to expect. I found a place near Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon to park for free!

I then went to the team staging area and help set up the tents. Like last year, we were sharing tent space with Lucy's Party Boat, except, Lucy is now Marvin's wife:)

The first race was between Xilinx-Virtex, Xilinx-Spartan and Xilinx Party Boat. Since we had 20+ paddlers signed up for the race, and a smaller crew was required for each boat, Xilinx was able to field 2 teams. Marvin choose the team names, which are the names of the 2 main product line for Xilinx. Backup paddlers from Lucy's Party Boat and Xilinx formed a third boat, hence Xilinx Party Boat:)

I was assigned to Xilinx Party Boat for this first race. After the usual warm up drill, we moved to the marshalling area. The race was running behind, but not as much as last year. Paddlers were loading and unloading quickly and there wasn't a long way to paddle to the starting line or from the finishing line. The company held dragon boat race professionally and it showed.

Marvin and Nathalie were the drummers for Xilinx Virtex and Xilinx Spartan respectively. Lucy was the drummer for Xilinx Party Boat. She was pregnant so I was a little worried. The smaller boats are more "tippsy" and I certainly didn't want her in the water.

It was a fairly windy day, so lining up the boats for the start was difficult. The starting call was came very quickly. The judges even warned us of the fast starting call. I had experienced that in previous races, so was prepared. Our boat, despite having never paddled together, came in 2nd, ahead of Xilinx Spartan, but behind Xilinx Virtex. This makeshift crew paddled in time the entire race!

After the race, I joined Xilinx Virtex for the debriefing, since I would be paddling with Xilinx Virtex for the rest of the day. Marvin did not have anything negative to comment. A by-stander from another team said to Marvin, "Dude, you have a very fast boat!".

On the way back to our tents, Virtex boat members chatted among ourselves about the Spartan boat being slower. I joking said, "That's expected! Virtex runs faster than Spartan!" Virtex is the high performance product line from Xilinx and has faster speed specs than Spartan parts. The pun drew laughter from everyone.

In the second race, Xilinx Virtex competed against East Bay MUD Azul and PepsiCo NikNak PaddleWak. All the paddlers from Virtex team had participated in the last 2 Paddle for Life and it showed. When the steersman gave the command, "Take it away!" to bring us to the starting line, the entire crew responded and the boat really moved. Even the steersman was impressed.

Nathalie was our drummer for the second race. Again, we had a fast starting call. But everyone on the boat was experienced and was not taken by surprise. The boat was really moving after the first eight strokes. The wind had picked up during the race and I felt us slicing through the water. Everyone was paddling in time. Nathalie actually called the finished late and we were still in our finishing set when "Let it ride!" was called. She later explained her view of the finishing line was block by a big boat in the harbor. But we did not need a strong finish. I steal a peek at the other boats near the end of the race (I know...very bad) and knew we well ahead of other teams. Another number 1 finish for Virtex!

The dragon boat festival then broke for lunch. As we were still eating, we were suddenly informed our next race was coming up in 15mins! Everyone decided not to eat too much food. A full stomach and paddling does not mix:)

In the third race, Virtex competed against Chong Hwa Saint Tao Yuan and Kapakahi Dragons 2. Marvin was our drummer for this race. At this time, the weather had turned really rough. As we paddled to the starting point and was waiting for other boats, a strong wave hit us on the side. The dragon boat tipped dangerously low to one side and took in water. I swore we were all going into the water when the steersman yelled "Brace the boat". Amazingly, we did not flip.

We held a light brace on the boat while lining up for the start and had our paddles submerged even before the starting call. As expected the starting call came quickly and we burst out of the gate. I felt our boat sliced through the water, but the wave was really strong on this race. Several paddlers, including myself, got a taste of the bay water splashing into our mouth. We paddled in time, but during the "stretch" pieces, I did notice Marvin holding his hand to slow Ava, our lead paddler's cadence down during the race. Overall, I thought we had a strong performance, but after the race was over, I saw Kapakahi Dragon 2 was ahead of us. There was no time to rest however, since the sea was really rough and we had to brace the boat again, before paddling back to the dock.

Our time for the third race was 1 minute 13.41 seconds, good enough for 3rd place overall.

As we gathered for our debrief, we heard an announcement over the PA system. The weather condition had turned so bad that the rest of the race were cancelled. The race that was on-going was the last race. Unfortunately for us, Independence High School was in this last race. Marvin and Nathalie had commented all their paddlers are from the national team. Not surprisingly, Independence High School recorded the fastest time of the entire race and pushed Virtex from 3rd place overall to 4th place overall.

So no medals for us this year again:( Personally, I agree with the race director's decision to stop the festival. The sea was really rough and some boats are going to get flipped if we had continued.

But again, I thought we had a really good team this year and while we were probably not going to beat Independence High School, I felt we had a good chance to medal if the race had gone on.

I now look forward to next year's race. If everyone on Virtex returns, we should get a good chance at medalling next year.

Pictures of the race can be found here.