Thanks Fam!

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"Easy Rider"
The "Easy Rider" Nylon and Leather Messenger Bag from Kenneth Cole

My family and girlfriend are so great! They got together to chip in on a new bag for me 🙂

It’s funny how I was actually shopping around for a new bag for the new job that I start this week. I already have Dakine backpack and a Timbuk2 messenger bag but I was looking around for a new bag that was more mature and professional to take to work.

Today I was walking around with Matt and Annie at the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall when I followed them into the Kenneth Cole store. After looking around for a minute Matt and Annie tells me to pick a bag.

“Huh?” was my reaction.

That’s when Matt told me that he got together with the family to get me a new bag for work.

After almost an hour at looking at bags at Kenneth Cole I decided to go with the modern looking Kenneth Cole “Easy Rider” Nylon & Leather Messenger Bag. The Nylon material gives the bag a modern sleek look while the leather flap still gives the bag a classy traditional look of a working mans bag.

Thanks again to all my loved ones! I love the bag! This bag will help me give confidence and the look of a professional to succeed in my career.

Food Festival – Hiller Aviation & Museum

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I don’t know how it is for the rest of the world but here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and almost all of California, the food truck scene is blowing up.

Every Wednesday there is a Food Festival at the Hiller Aviation & Museum in San Carlos. There always are several trucks at this event that range from Asian fusion dishes (Senor Sisig, Nom Nom, Chairman Bao) to gourmet burgers (3-Sum Eats, Brass Knuckle) and lobster rolls (ShackMobile). There’s even desert on some days (Kara’s Cupcakes)!  Every week brings a different line up so if there were certain trucks that you were looking for you’d have to check on Hiller’s events page to find out.

Since the weather was nice out today, there was a crowd out in front of Hiller. It has been a while since I’ve seen so many people here at Hiller for the food fest since it has been pretty cold lately. Today the weather was real nice that you can feel the sun warming you up as you wait in line. Today it seemed that every truck had the average wait time in line with about 30 mins, not that bad.

For lunch I chose one of my favorite food trucks Senor Sisig. I had the pleasure on enjoying a chicken “Senor” Sisig burrito that was silog on top of it! Having the burrito silog means they add a fried egg inside the burrito. When I first had a “Senor” Sisig burrito, I never knew how yummy and juicy an egg can make a burrito.

Luckily for me there were no desert carts around for me to be a bigger fatty lol.

This visit to Hiller Aviation & Museum was bitter sweet since I am resigning from my current job at Element Case and moving on to Flor in San Francisco. It will be a real challenge to find some food trucks near me in the Filmore district so I’m doing my best in enjoying these last few trips to Hiller.

Manning – Mullin

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Today Peyton Manning is officially a Denver Bronco. Yes many knew of the news yesterday but the announcement made today made it official. Manning watch is over and now the future NFL Hall of Famer will start a new chapter in the Mile High Stadium. There are still questions that need to be answered in Denver but as well as around in the NFL.

WWTP (Where Will Tebow Play) was trending for a second as the Tim Tebow nation pondered the question. What will happen to Alex Smith and the 49ers since they failed to court Manning? Who will control the AFC East now that Manning is the go to guy in Denver? Who else from the Colts are coming to Denver?

There is still a lot of free agency talks and rumors going around the nation. Plus we have the highly anticipated NFL draft next month. Then OTA’s, preseason, then finally the NFL regular season. I just love the NFL talk year round!

But let’s put the NFL talk on pause because last night an NBA legend and Hall of Famer, Chris Mullin #17, had his jersey retired in Oakland. The Warriors organization did a great job honoring Mullin by creating #17 signs for fans to hold up, gave away Chris Mullin bobble head dolls, and dedicated almost half an hour half time ceremony to honor Mullin.

The ceremony was going great until the end when Warriors owner Joe Lacob took the mic to adress the crowd. Once Lacob had the mic the Warrior fans let him know their displeasure on how he has handled the organization with a roar of boos. There are sport analysts that say that the Warriors fans did a disservice to Mullin by tainting his ceremony with boos, even though they were not directed at him. Some analyst argue that last night was the only time that fans could express themselves how they felt about Lacob.

I’m going to have to agree with the beforehand than the later. The way the Warrior fans acted last night was just classless and Mullin did not deserved to hear the boos even though they were not directed at him. The fans should be ashamed for booing while wearing blue and yellow at a time when honoring one of their own.

Closing notes: the Arizona Cardinals locked down their #2 receiver, Early Doucet, with a 2 year contract. And we’ll see if the Niners can close their 3yr $24M contract with Alex Smith tonight.

Perfect Morning

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A Perfect Pair taken w/ HTC EVO, edited w/ Be Funky

Well almost. I missed my train to work by 2 mins. Missing my train doesn’t mean that I’ll be late to work, I’ll just be on time and not early.

The next train that I can catch is in 27 minutes. So instead of just waiting around and reading the paper I walked over to Starbucks, which is only half a block away. Over at Starbucks I grabbed a tall cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal.

A cup of Starbucks coffee and their a bowl of their Perfect Oatmeal are pair to die for. The coffee is good, I like to add two packets of brown sugar and enough half and half to almost match my skin tone. The oatmeal comes with toppings that you can add; brown sugar, mixed nuts, and mixed berries. I like to add all the toppings in my oatmeal starting with the brown sugar, then the mixed nuts, and finally adding the mixed berries last. Then I would mixed all the ingredients together and enjoy while taking a sips of coffee throughout the course.

A perfect enough morning for me 🙂

Philz for Friday

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Philz Coffee
Enjoying a cup of Philz on Caltrain 🙂

Like many of you, I am ending the work week with an 8 hour day at work today. Since it is Friday I decided to treat myself to Philz Coffe.

Philz Coffers is by far the best romantic coffee experience that I ever had. For those of you that are unfortunate to not live, work, or ne able to visit the San Francisco Bay Area let me give you a quick description to what type of coffee-house.

At Philz they only serve drip coffee that is individually hand-made per order. The flavors of coffee that are offered are a fusion of 2-7 beans from around the world to create unique flavors that any coffee aficionado would love. With flavors such as Tesora, Soo Good, and Aromatic Arabic (my favorite) would temp you to try a cup of their dozens of flavors. And if your finicky about your coffee, I’m sure you would find a flavors that you would love. I have been to Philz almost 50 times and have yet to try all their flavors.

Philz Coffee is something that all should try at least once in their life.

Happy Friday all!

Magic, Fisher, Warriors, and the Az Cardinals

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So… Dwight Howard is staying in Orlando but did not sign an extension which leaves many people what will the Magic organization and Howard do when the season ends. Until then Howard is “loyal” to the Magic.

The clutch man, Derek Fisher, is gone from the Lakers and onto Houston where he will end his season as a Rocket. Growing up in the SF Bay Area, I’m not a huge LA Laker fan, especially since there are a ton of Laker fans up here in the Bay. However watching a number of NBA Playoffs throughout the years, you could almost always guarantee that you would at least see one Lakers game every season. I remember watching Fisher just come through when ever needed in a playoff game. It was uncanny seeing Fisher make shot after shot to keep the Lakers in the games when needed. Then the famous 0.4 Buzzer Beater by Fisher to beat the Spurs in Game 5 in San Antonio. Wow. What fond memories of watching the Lakers play, and I’m far from a Laker fan.

Last thing that I’d like to mention that happened in the NBA is that the Warriors traded Stephen Jackson just after a day receiving him in a trade from Milwaukee. Yesterday the Bucs gave the Warriors Andrew Bogut and Jackson for Monta Ellis and now the Warriors are sending Jackson packing to the San Antonie Spurs for Richard Jefferson and a conditional first draft. This is great news for Warrior fans! We are finally building towards the future!

From the Ellis trade the Warriors cleared some cap room, finally have a center (once Bogut is healthy), and playing time to the rookies. With the Jackson trade the Warriors got a decent small forward with Jefferson and a conditional first round draft. Even though the first round draft pick will be low, this year draft line up is deep so the Warriors should still get a great player out of the draft. Also the Warriors purchased a second round pick from Atlanta. The future is looking bright in the Golden State!

Not a lot of big news in the NFL today, many folks are still on the Manning Watch. However there is a lot of noise going down in the desert. Tomorrow the Arizona Cardinals organization, who courted Peyton Manning on Sunday, needs to find out what to do with Kevin Kolb before 1PM when the dead line hits for his roster bonus. This is a tough choice for the Cardinals because Manning hasn’t made a decision on where he is going to play next season. Do the Cardinals want to keep 3 QB’s and have to pay Kolb his bonus ($7M) while he sits on the bench? Or let Kolb go and hope that Manning rolls the dice with the Cardinals? Or not have either Kolb or Manning and have John Skelton as the starting QB in Arizona?

As an Arizona Cardinal fan these are tough times in the dessert and I believe that the Cardinals need to play it safe by keeping Kolb. Hopefully Kolb can stay healthy next season and have a break out season. And if Manning does decide to sign with the Cardinals, both Kolb and Skelton can learn from Manning. To me that would be a win win situation.

The Ides of March

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Good morning folks! Besides the #NFL #FreeAgency, we have the #NBA #TradeDeadLine going on today.

We are in day 3 of the NFL Free Agency and so far there has been huge moves in the WR position. Vincent Jackson went from the Bolts to the Bucs, Pierre Garcon to the Redskins, and Laurent Robinson to Jacksonville. You would think that these WR receivers are making the news with their moves but there are receivers that are staying put that are making the news as well; We have Reggie Wayne, DeSean Jackson, and Calvin Johnson staying put at where they are.  Crazy news yesterday was Megatron’s huge contract: eight-year deal through the 2019 season is worth $132 million, with $60 million guaranteed, surpassing the $120 million with $50 million guaranteed being paid to Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald.

In the NBA we had Dwight Howard apologetically telling the people of Orlando how sorry he is for bringing all the drama into town, how he was given some bad advice, and how he would like to accomplish what he was suppose to do in Orlando; win a championship. Whether Howard is sincere or not, I’d like to see what the Magic’s big wigs will do Howard. The Magics can trade Howard today and get something for him, wait till next year to trade Howard get probably just a trade exception, or let Howard walk away for nothing when his contract expires.

This was just posted earlier today from Josh Robinson at the Orlando Sentinel:

Dwight Howard has decided to waive the early termination option in his current contract and remain with the Orlando Magic for the 2012-13 season, his manager told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday.

“He is giving up all of his leverage and his free agency in a show of commitment to his team and most importantly the fans of Orlando,” said Kevin Samples, Howard’s manager.

The Magic have insisted on receiving paperwork that would eliminate the clause in Howard’s contract that would enable him to end his contract a year early and become a free agent in July.

It is unclear if the team has received any documentation.

The NBA trade deadline is at 3 this afternooon

I’m happy for Dwight Howard, being the bigger man and not letting both the business and money tarnish his name like Lebron James.

Also in the NBA world, Monta Ellis is coming back home to Oakland! But as a Milwaukee Bucs as they take on the Golden State Warriors at the Oracle Arena tonight at 7:30 PM

Lets see what else the Ides of March brings us!

(Edited 03.15.15 10:03AM)

Hi World!

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Here I am with another blog…
Well this technically is not a new blog, but a revitalized blog. What I plan to do with johnydecali is promote my perspective on how I see this world.

Yes that description is vague to what I believe that this blog can be but there is a reason. I have made several blogs in the past and they all have failed. This one may too as fail as well. The difference with this blog from the other blogs that I have made in the past is that those blogs inhibited me, limited me, and gave me tunnel vision.

I have interest in many things from photography to wakeboarding. And I plan to use this blog to document all my thoughts in all the hobbies and random things that perk my interest.. Even though I would like this blog to be about everything and nothing, I will do my best to keep it organized.

Right off the top of my head these are the main categories that I plan on writting about:

  • Photography
  • Football/Sports
  • Comics/Literature
  • Design
  • Gaming

What else can I say?

It is what it is.