The Wall Street Transcript Covester Interview
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

So I was interviewed last week due to my work on my Covester site by a financial commentary and analysis site called The Wall Street Transcript.

The interview is on my Covester site in pdf, and also on the Covester financial blog.

Check it out if you're interested!

Currently listening : Gold Chains By Gold Chains Release date: 24 September, 2002

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I visited a castle this weekend
Current mood: awake
Category: Travel and Places

No really, I did!  Beth and I celebrated my sister Shauna's birthday in Napa this weekend by visiting some places in the Valley that my sister wanted to hit up.

We went to Castello di Amorosa and picnic'd at Graeser Winery, visited Oxbow Public Market and finished with a BBQ at my parents'.  Good times! 

I wrote the whole thing up here, in my blog at WineLog.net.

All the photos start here in my Flickr.  Happy mid-week!

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Life Updates
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Life

Hello all!  I admit, I haven't been posting much here on my personal blog, but that's because I've been doing so many other things and writing in my wineblog!

The wineblog has been going fantastic...Jason and Kim have supported me on several adventures lately, all of which have been written up here.  I've also been very diligent about logging all of my wines on my WineLog, which has now topped over 500 wines, between my notes before Winelog.net and up to current times.

Due to my good activity and results on my Covester site, I've just been interviewed  for the blog at The Wall Street Transcript, where I discussed my (still learning!) investment style and interests.

Lastly, work has been fantastic.  I was promoted to Senior Research Associate at the end of last year, which was only accomplished by the hard work and support of my manager and friend, Walter and many others in my organization to help me reach this level in my career (Sang, Bill, Paul, Cheryl, Paul...I'm thanking you!).  I'm presenting a poster for the first time at AACR in San Diego in April, which discusses much of Walter's and my preclinical and clinical work that I've completed over the last year or so.  I've also been asked to take the lead on a very exciting new project that, if successful, could greatly benefit a large spectrum of projects across the company.

Whew, lots of positive things going on to counteract the negatives.  Onwards!

Currently listening : Colour by Numbers By Culture Club Release date: 07 October, 2003

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Holidays!
Current mood: tired
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Whew...so the holidays are done!  I had a ton of fun, but I have to say...man those can wear you out, huh? 

Let's see...Beth and I had the Genentech holiday party at AT&T Park, which was a lot of fun, but *Freezing*!   I was a bit giddy being able to walk around the entire stadium, however, including the field, dugouts and batting cages.  They had a snow-sledding hill  in Right Field, a dance floor in Center and a whole ice rink on the infield.  I didn't get to use the batting cages due to the line, but I did get a nice pic of us on the field (thanks Vince!):

We also headed to the Loöq Records holiday party which was filled, FILLED with really great food, per the norm.  That was Spesh n Astrid's new place in Sausalito. Great times.

Due to a record illness, the BTC party was postponed, but we did have a great time at the Spoontonic formal holiday party where I also DJ'd.  That was probably the most fun I've had DJing in quite some time.

Lastly, I had my annual wine trip with my dad (pics).  This time we stayed local and headed to different spots here and there in Napa that we hadn't yet been to.  I'll have a rather comprehensive article detailing the whole trip on my wine blog at WineLog.net, so check back when the link is active. [The link is active!]

Lastly, we rang in the New Year at Spoontonic, which while intending to be low-key, was a total raucus blast...our friend Ian and I finished the night at 4 am after a rather interesting philosophical chat over a bottle of Georis Hacienda red.  Right on.

I hope that your holidays were also filled with fun! [snooze...]

Currently listening : All Hour Cymbals By Yeasayer Release date: 23 October, 2007

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Augh, 30!
Current mood: happy
Category: Life

So at precisely this moment...I was born on a Tuesday! It's quite a shock to look at my profile and see "30" typed in there, argh!   Actually, it's better than last year when MySpace posted that I was 29 a full week early, heh.

So I haven't been posting much on this blog, huh?  Well, I've pretty much just been focusing on my wine blog over at WineLog.net.  I've written about this before, but I thought I'd give a heads up again, in case some people missed the transition.

I've had quite a few posts since then, some of which I've listed below.  Check them out if you're interested!

Wine & Friends

A New Wine "Tool?"

Napa Valley Wine & Food Recommendations


OH!  And if you have a chance, stop by my Beano and my birthday party this Saturday at the Spoon!

Currently listening : Bridge Over Troubled Water By Simon & Garfunkel Release date: 21 August, 2001

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I am the newest WineLog.net official blogger!
Current mood: excited
Category: Food and Restaurants

I have some fun news! Being the geek that I am, I think you all know how obsessed I am with wine…well, I just became the newest resident blogger for a really great wine community site called WineLog.net!

You may have already heard about it from me, even though I only discovered it a few weeks ago.  Basically, it's a well-designed and easy to use site where you can track all of the wine in your cellar, track your tasting notes and basically just keep a log of wines that you're interested in.  Then you can share them with other people on the site, including your friends.

I got really excited when I heard about it and basically bugged the heck out of Jason, the founder, until he made me one of their resident bloggers.  I'll be posting articles a few times a week and constantly adding to my own winelog, of course.

Anyhow, if you get a chance…check it out!

My first blog/article is the current feature: http://www.winelog.net

My winelog: http://www.winelog.net/winelog/drxeno

My Blog: http://www.winelog.net/blog/author/drxeno

About WineLog.net (my bio is towards the bottom, under Bloggers): http://www.winelog.net/about

Currently listening : Oblivion with Bells By Underworld Release date: 16 October, 2007

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Back!
Current mood: calm
Category: Travel and Places

We made it back safely from Maui last night.  We actually got in a bit early, though I don't think that I'd ever fly ATA ever again.  They don't give you ANYTHING, man!  If you're cold...guess what?  You have to buy a comfort pack for 9 dollars that has a pillow a blanket and a neck pad...sheesh!  They also don't take cash which I could just not remember for the life of me and racked up like 6 tiny transactions on my Visa.

Maui, on the other hand, was wonderful.  The weather and water was a bit colder than ever before, but still very confortable and cooperative.  We spent a lot of time at the various beaches below Troy's House, including Little and Big Beach.  Yep, that's right...we went to a nude beach for the first time.  No, we weren't nude, but the majority of everyone else was padoodie.  It's amazing to see the full variety of what a human looks like...most of it, say 95%, is no good.  On the other hand, seeing so many people that covered the entire spectrum of crusty hippie to the executive that shops at the Shops at Wailea, to the neighbor who goes to Safeway be that comfortable was kinda interesting.  There were also a ton of drums and weed, which made us feel a lot more comfortable about our beer cozies.

We also had a beautful trip Up-Country, to have visit the lone winery in HI, Tedeschi Vineyards, and a BBQ at Hunter and Martha's.  Minus the end of that night, it was a really neat day that I wholly enjoyed and felt lucky to have.  The wine at TV was so-so at best.  I didn't like the red, and still really only like the dry pineapple wine, the NV Maui Splash, and I tasted the NV Rose Ranch Cuvee Sparkling Brut for the first time and thought it was pretty decent, too.  The pineapple wine is crazy...totally dry, yet the nose is of the sweetest, ripest pineapple.  The palate is more similar to a Pinto Grigio with very little pineapple notes.  The grounds were gorgrous and I'll put some pictures up, soon.

A few more sunsets at the beach and wine at the house (which I'll talk about later) and we were off Monday morning, heading back to the real world.  A  good time and a really wonderful gesture by Troy to entertain us all weekend.

Currently listening : Umbrella By Rihanna (Ft Jay-Z) Release date: 04 June, 2007

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Talk done, now off to Maui!
Current mood: ecstatic
Category: Travel and Places

Woo-hoo, my promotional talk is done!  I'm so excited to have all of these big talks finished at work.  I've been working on getting a chance to do a talk like this for the past few months, and I had a nice dry run like I mentioned in the last post, a few weeks back, so I was definitely ready for this morning!  I think it went pretty well, though there were a couple stumbles that I really wish didn't happen.  No one really seemed to notice them as such, however, and so I guess I just won't worry about them.  I got a lot of great questions and feedback, particularly from scientists and directors in the audience that I didn't know, so I think that's a good sign.  Whew!

And what's next??  Maui for 5 days, heck yeah!  We're going to be staying with Troy in his beautiful cabana/bungalow above Wailea.  As Beth said, I'm ready for warm sand and up-country BBQ's...ahhhh!  See you guys on Tuesday!

Currently listening : From the Belly of the Demigod By Kanekoa

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Big talk!
Current mood: ready!
Category: ready! Jobs, Work, Careers

Well, I'm finally giving the big talk that I've been (somewhat) preparing for work over the last few months.  It's basically turning into a promotional talk, even though that isn't really neccesary for my level (read: peon) at Genentech.

There's been about 120 people invited, although probably only half that many will actually be able to go.  I do know that most of the directors on up to, and possibly including, my VP will also be in attendance.  Whew, here we go! LOL 

I'm not too nervous right now, actually.  I seem to do ok when I give talks, which is rather often.  I also just gave a really similar talk to a slightly smaller group a few weeks back, which was a nice dry run.

So what am I doing to prepare?  Well, I'm going through my slides, yet again, finishing off the rest of the lame HK Generations Pinot I talked about here and concluding with a nice glass of NV Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Tawny Porto. 

Cheers to tomorrow!

Currently listening : Sing, Sing, Sing By Benny Goodman Release date: 25 October, 1990

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Wow, what a dinner!
Current mood: satisfied
Category: Food and Restaurants

Steenie dropped a fantastic dinner on all of us tonight!  The loin was fantastic and difficult to top with the great sauce, but I think my favorite part of the meal was the potatoes.  Well, anyone who knows me would think that this is no surprise...I shoulda been Irish!

I thought for quite some time about what I wanted to try and pair with the meal and I settled with the newly released 2004 Hess Collection Mount Veeder Estate Mountain Cuvee.  It was a tough decision with the weather not cooperating and being still quite warm when we got there, since I wanted to bring two bottles that would work really well (Steenie dropped the still wonderful 2006 Georis Carmelo Rosato Rose, as a fine choice).  I had also brought the other wine, but we'll wait until that day comes.  

Some great football, good friends, great wine and outstanding food...what a nice way to begin the week! Thanks Steenie n Heff.

Currently watching : Family Guy, Vol. 4 (Season 4 Part 2) Release date: 14 November, 2006

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