• Saw Daft Punk before I left. To be honest, I really can't think of a way to do the show justice. It was excellent, although much shorter than I expected. Still, it was absolutely worth $50. If you're curious about the experience, go read this review for the NYC show; it sounds identical to the LA show. Or, you could check out YouTube: the first portion and the encore. Awesome night.
• Went to Hawai'i!!!! Woohoo!
• Got two necklaces. (Necklaces are pretty much the only jewelery I'll wear, but I do like them!) Here's a photo of one. I'll take a photo of myself in the other at some point.
• It was a trip of sea turtles (and one of my necklaces is a sea turtle, looks like made out of abalone shell). I'll try to post the story of the first sea turtle sighting. Summary: we snorkled a number of times, and most of them we saw sea turtles up close. The first time, it was a huge one! Cool animals.
• I got a bit of a tan. Not as much as I'd like, but I'll take what I can get.
• The evening of the Daft Punk concert, I also learned about the wonders of UnderArmour. I've since bought two shirts (one shortsleeve, one sleeveless) and may very well buy more. Used both while in Hawai'i, and tested the claim that you'll be cooler wearing them than shirtless. It's true. This stuff is incredible!
• The lease on my apartment ends August 28th.
• I'll move into Crothers Memorial Hall at Stanford on September 15th.

There are so many pizzerias around the county you almost think you’re living in Brooklyn. Problem is most of them bake pies as appetizing as butcher paper and about as thick. Try instead the pies at the Fire Oven Pizza. The petite place offers 12 different styles of pizzas, from an actual-Italian version groaning under cappicolla, spinach, tomato and garlic slices to something called a "Spanish" pizza that actually seems more Mexican—last we checked, the Iberian Peninsula hated jalapeños, marinated beef and roasted onions, not to mention Mexicans. Regardless of ethnic classification, each Fire Oven pizza is what Verdi intended pizza to taste like: topping unobtrusive, each retaining their distinct flavor despite being baked in a oven until the cheese bubbles over the crust, and edible for weeks afterward without re-heating.

Funny/cool

• Martial Arts Madness (and some awesome acrobatics)
• What Old People Do For Fun (or, as my sister pointed out, an excellent example of nonverbal communication)
• How men screw up romance (silly, amusing commercial)

Self Improvement

• 12 Habits in 2006 - Each month of this year develop one new habit. Make it simple and doable. At the end of each month decide on a new "habit" for the next month and continue doing the existing habit. At the end of the year 12 habits will be developed. All of these habits will be written down and be simple enough that I can verify if they have been done. Sounds like a good idea to me!
• Hindsights from Guy Kawaski. A speech that has been given at a few different graduations. Good things to keep in mind.
• Meditation to try: Gut Response - emotions that we long to express get stored in our bodies instead [...] most often [...] in our bellies. [...] Stuffing our feelings in our bellies may feel like the "safe" response, since we then don't really have to deal with our emotions. Yet, doing so can actually be detrimental to our emotional well-being and physical health. One way to connect with and release your emotions is to do a focused exercise with your stomach area.

Interesting

• Anybody own a good bongo drum? Cause Drumming has made me remember how much fun it is to do drum circle-esque gatherings. Anyone interested?

Web design

• Cool way of showing photos on a page I wonder how hard it'd be to integrate that with Gallery. Seems like it'd be a lot nicer than the existing method, though it would probably force you to only display images at the window size...