Quote of the week

“Nothing can give you greater joy than doing something for another.”

– John Wooden

50th anniversary (surprise) party

Yesterday we celebrated mom & pop’s 50th anniversary party at Lawry’s restaurant in Beverly Hills. It was a wonderful party, and everyone had a great time. Mom and pop were really surprised, as we had 60 to 70 family and friends attend, including some people they hadn’t seen in a long time.

Daikokuya

Last Saturday after checking out “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” at The Grove (which was funny), we were in the mood for noodles — in spite of the heat — so we headed for Daikokuya in J-town.

Quote of the week

“A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

– Anonymous

Tsukemono on a stick

We’ve had some really hot weather lately, and it was even hot and sticky at last night’s Dodger game.

Which made me think about this cool snack we found during our Japan trip, near Ise Shrine in Mie-ken: tsukemono (つけもの) on a stick!

Dodger game

Last night Harumi and I joined Fred, Jane, Gregory, James and Sue at the Dodger game. It was a Sansei baseball league outing, and we all sat in the “All-You-Can-Eat Pavillion.”

Firefox 3.0

Just downloaded and installed the new Firefox version 3.0. You can read about the new features here.

Overall I’d say it has a much cleaner look (at least the Mac version), web pages look much clearer and are supposed to load faster. Sounds good.

Quote of the week

“Nothing comes easy that is done well.”

-Harry F. Banks

Happy Father’s Day!

A happy Father’s Day to Pop, Uncle, Michael and all the dads out there! Will be BBQ’ing a prime rib roast today. It’ll be a nice day to relax and catch the final round of the U.S. Open.

Not the same Sunday

It’s Sunday morning, and by now I think most of the free world has heard the shocking news that Tim Russert , moderator of Meet the Press and head of NBC’s Washington D.C. news bureau, died unexpectedly on Friday. He was 58 years old.

This morning I’m watching today’s Meet the Press, a round-table tribute to Tim Russert, hosted by Tom Brokaw.

The idea of America

After Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination, I thought it would greatly help America’s image and standing in the world, and show that there were many open-minded people unhappy with the status quo, ready for change.

Yes, all of this Obama-mania is excessive and will inevitably be punctured should he win the presidency and start making tough calls or big mistakes. For now, though, what it reveals is how much many foreigners, after all the acrimony of the Bush years, still hunger for the “idea of America” — this open, optimistic, and, indeed, revolutionary, place so radically different from their own societies.

In his history of 19th-century America, “What Hath God Wrought,” Daniel Walker Howe quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson as telling a meeting of the Mercantile Library Association in 1844 that “America is the country of the future. It is a country of beginnings, of projects, of vast designs and expectations.”

That’s the America that got swallowed by the war on terrorism. And it’s the America that many people want back. I have no idea whether Obama will win in November. Whether he does or doesn’t, though, the mere fact of his nomination has done something very important. We’ve surprised ourselves and surprised the world and, in so doing, reminded everyone that we are still a country of new beginnings.

Read the entire New York Times op-ed by Thomas L. Friedman.

My Prius battery

This morning two engineers from Japan were riding in my Prius, as we all had to attend an off-site meeting. That made me think about my 2004 Prius battery, which we talked about.

One of the them said that in Japan, 100,000 miles is the financial break-even point for a Prius — I was too sleepy to ask how he calculated that number.

Anyway, when I got home I Google’d “Prius battery replacement” and found this Newsweek article, published just a few weeks ago:

My Netflix Roku box

WIRED magazine called the new Netflix Roku box, “just shy of totally amazing.”

If you are a Netflix subscriber, the $99 Roku box — connected to the Internet and your TV — lets you watch movies and TV shows instantaneously. No waiting to download, like AppleTV.

Twice as fast. Half the price.

Mike texted and said that Apple announced their new 3G iPhone: $199 for the 8GB model, $299 for the 16GB model. Available Friday, July 11.

Read more here and here.

Quote of the week

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”

– Jimi Hendrix

Izakaya dinner

On Saturday evening we grabbed Deano and went to Musha’s Torrance location for dinner. It’s been a while since we’ve been there, but everything was good, like the hokke (ほっけ), buta kimchee, M.F.C. (Musha Fried Chicken), and other dishes.

The picture above is atarime (grilled ika, or squid), with a bottle of Kubota sake.

Musha
1725 W Carson St. Ste B
Torrance, CA 90501
(310) 787-7344

Mongol

This weekend we went to go see “Mongol,” a movie about the early years of Genghis Khan, starring Asano Tadanobu, one of Japan’s leading film actors. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in quite a while.

Quote of the week

“A team made up of the younger generation, with courage and inventiveness, together with older men of wisdom and experience, should bring success.”

– General Georges Doriot, in the American Research and Development 1949 Annual Report. ARD was the first institutional venture capital firm.

From A VC blog.