Roger Hsu's Blog

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 31, 2005. Today, Judy and I enrolled for an annual membership at Planet Granite, the local climbing gym. The nice thing is that the gym is extremely close to where we live. It’s less than a mile away from our house which almost makes us feel bad for getting into a car and driving there, but hey, it’s quite a bit colder up here. :-) Maybe we’ll walk there in the summer. Planet Granite is a really nice gym. It’s got a shop inside with clothes, books, and climbing equipment for sale. There’s two bouldering rooms, apparently split by difficulty level. The easier room is filled with mostly V0s and V1s with a few 2s and 3s. The other room has mostly V3+ climbs. There is a cool top rope section that’s really tall, probably a good 50% higher than the top roped climbs at Vertical Hold. We’ve only bouldered there, but will definitely try some of the top rope problems in the future. The gym is also much more than a climbing gym. There are also aerobic ...

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 29, 2005. One of the really nice things about Nor Cal is its proximity to the ski slopes. Kirkwood is about 3 hours away. In SD, you’ve got Big Bear which is fairly close, but the conditions there basically suck. Mammoth is the closest quality resort within driving distance, but that is 6-7 hours away. Judy and I decided to head up to Kirkwood for the day. We had thought about making a weekend trip out of it, but we didn’t want to have to pay to have Latte boarded nor have we been able to find, or rather have not had the time to look for, a suitable dog sitter/walker. So we woke up bright and early at around 5:30 to head up to Kirkwood. We left our house at around 6:40 AM and arrived at Kirkwood at around 10 AM. The drive from Belmont is still pretty long, but it is a beautiful one. It only reinforces the natural beauty that surrounds Nor Cal. This turned out to be a great weekend to go as a storm had just passed through the previous day,...

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 24, 2005. How exciting! Today was my first day at TiVo. I can’t go into much detail, but I did most of the typical “first day/week on the job” kind of stuff – getting my photo badge, setting up my computer and email, going around meeting new people from various groups, learning the lay of the land, familiarizing myself with the company’s products, etc. Of course, there’s also the many obligatory forms and paperwork that all new employees must fill out. One of the neat little things that TiVo does is to name all of their conference rooms after television shows like Simpson’s, Hogan’s Heroes, Dragnet, etc. It’s one of the many things that make TiVo, TiVo. There’s a good number of conference rooms so it’s probably going to take a while to remember all the room names and where they are. I think I’ll be referring to my handy conference room map for some time. :-)

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 23, 2005. Time to start exploring our new surroundings. Judy and I took a drive to Half Moon Bay to walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery. I wanted to test out my new Canon SD200 camera and experiment a bit with its functionality so I ended up taking a bunch of gratuitous shots of Judy walking.

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 22, 2005. Well, we’ve more or less settled into our new place. We got rid of a lot of stuff prior to the move (my couch, coffee table, and entertainment center; Judy’s old full-size bed and TV). Craigslist rocks! We were able to sell everything we wanted to, although we cut things kind of close with Judy’s bed – we didn’t sell it until the day of our move! After a trip to Ikea to replace some of the items we sold with smaller versions (a lower profile entertainment center and a loveseat that’s much smaller than my old couch) we set our sights on how best to configure our furniture to maximize space and comfort. Fortunately, we were able to find a good layout and were able to fit all our stuff into our new place pretty well. Much to our relief, our concerns about the relatively small size of our new abode have been largely put to rest. And while it would be nice if the place was just a tad bit bigger, especially the garage, I’ve got to say t...

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 21, 2005. Today, Judy and I went running. Yes, I actually went running. Not so much because I like to run, but because Judy was raving about how beautiful this one trail was. So I primarily went to check out the area. The running part and corresponding cardiovascular workout were more of a side benefit. The trail was in a park just a short drive from our house. It look like they hold cross country races here since there is a big finish sign along the trail as well as some mile markers. Dogs are unfortunately not allowed in this area or else I would have taken Latte along. Not too long into the run, we saw a pair of deer. Cool! That’s something you don’t see very often in San Diego. The trail system was beautiful with many parts overlooking the 280. Overlooking a freeway?! That’s pretty? Well, the 280 (known as the California Autobahn), is actually a really nice freeway that passes through some gorgeous natural scenery. Not being much of ...

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 17, 2005. Judy didn’t want to take any time off so she started back to work right away. I don’t start at TiVo until next Monday which is nice because it gives me time to unpack and try to get everything back in order. There’s quite a bit to do! Aside from the boxes that are strewn everywhere, there’s a whole slew of little things that must be done: set up the DSL (it’s already activated, but there’s not jack in the room where we want the office to be), buy new desks (both Judy and I got rid of our old ones before the move), set up the computers and all our furniture (we don’t have a lot, but it’s still a lot of work getting everything in place), buy a bunch of stuff (towel rack and a bunch of miscellaneous items). It looks like some trips to Ikea and Home Depot!

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 15, 2005. Today closes one chapter of our life and begins another. After nearly 13 and 15 years, respectively, for Judy and me, we’re finally moving from San Diego. Ten years ago, I would have never thought I’d leave San Diego, what with its near perfect weather, proximity to the ocean and beaches, varied restaurants (gonna miss Thai House!), and of course, great people. While there’s undoubtedly a lot to like about SD, near perfect weather gets a bit bland over time, and the beaches aren’t as significant to me anymore since I became a cold water surf wuss (of course, if I’m willing to brave the even colder water and great white sharks, surfing will still be an option). Restaurants are present everywhere, and indeed, part of the fun is in trying out new restaurants. People can’t be replaced, but that’s what group trips are for. :-) The other truth is that San Diego is unfortunately not very close to a lot of the things that Judy and I lik...

Originally posted to RohJuh.com on Jan 11, 2005. Some pics from our going away dinner at Thai House.