Real Estate on the moon.

DSC00699, originally uploaded by kimathi_njeru.

I plan on selling and subdividing the moon to interested investors.
Let me know if you are interested.

I took this photo a while back using a friends telescope and my camera. I thought it was quite striking and worth sharing with a little humor.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

DSC00860, originally uploaded by kimathi_njeru.

How many kids can say they had 2 costumes this Halloween?

Paging Dr. Luke Njeru

DSC00820, originally uploaded by kimathi_njeru.

The picture speaks for itself.

New Photos of the Kids!

Hi All.
If you haven't already, please checkout the latest pictures on Flickr.

We have been fairly busy and I haven't had a chance to upload anything so please pardon the silence.

Enjoy and do leave comments. :-)
Love.
Smita, Laila, Luke and Kim.

WebCast Debut!!

Ray, one of the South Bay Bodyboarders in Manhattan Beach approached me about participating in a webcast.  I was honored so I did.

It was held at Manhattan Beach Pizzeria, a local pizzeria in Manhattan Beach a couple of weeks ago.

This happened to be episode 36 of this webcast called BodyBoarding Live and it was quite interesting considering the local cats that turned out.

One of the local bodyboarders, bloggers and photographer extraordinaire took some pictures and posted them on here on liquidplayground.blogspot.com.

It was interesting to see the brothers I surf with in normal clothes instead of wetsuitsor board shorts.  It was also more interesting socializing with them and finding out that they are also regular joes just like me looking to get amped and stoked on the next big ride while holding down a real job, business and family commitments.

Anyway, enough ranting and raving, here is the full link to the webcast.  If you cannot stomach the screaming music and other scenes, you can skip to the following section where i appear in momentary flashes.  @0:38,@16:10 and @45:57.  The choicest of all is my short but LOUD speech found @46:12

Enjoy!

A Cold day.

A Cold day., originally uploaded by kimathi_njeru.

No comment? That is quite alright.

Luke at Eva's Birthday

The photo speaks for itself.
Enjoy.
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More Surfing Pictures

If any of my previous surfing posts scared you, please exhale slowly.

I was paddling up to the rest of the guys this morning when one of them told me that he had seen some pretty neat pictures of me on http://teamstoked.blogspot.com/.

As you can imagine, I couldn't wait to see and share them.  All I can say is, I am glad I started going to this new spot(not-saying-where-so-other-surfers-don't-crowd-it) because it has elevated my riding abilities immensely.

Too much talking/writing...enjoy the pics and you can also get to them on my Flickr.

Yeah Baby!!!

Yeah Baby!!!, originally uploaded by kimathi_njeru.

Family Tree at tribalpages.com

I created this family tree at http://kimathi.tribalpages.com/ such a long time ago and forgot about it.

Eric reminded me about it so, i went back to add Laila and have cc'd Uncle Charlie here.

Some of you read my blog, view my Flickr images, connect on Facebook or still subscribe to the old email list kariuki@yahoogroups.com email which is how this all started.

If  you have any corrections or additions, please email me and I will make the neccessary changes and lets keep the family tree growing.

Enjoy.

The Barrel

This is one of many reasons we wake up so early in the morning.
I thoroughly enjoyed this wave and the rest that followed. 
A perfect start to a perfect morning.
Enjoy.

New Photos!

Smita, Laila and Luke just Chillin.

Hi All.
I have uploaded new photos to Flickr. If you can, do create yourself a flickr account so i can keep my photos private to my family and friends.

If not, just click away but you will only be able to see 3 sets(July, August and September).

Click on these links to get there: July , August , September

Far Left Corner.

One of the surfers took this pic in Manhattan Beach. Thanks Nick B.
I am in the far left corner paddling over it. Pity i wasn't surfing this beauty. I promise the next wave was better. :-)

Click on the image to see a larger view.

Enjoy.

Introducing Laila Mwendwa Njeru

Hello All.

Yes, Laila Mwendwa Njeru is here! She was born on 15th July 2009 in classic dramatic fashion right after her Grandma Rita Alexander arrived from the airport.

Both Laila and Smita are doing well and Luke is adjusting to the new role.

Click on the link below to checkout the pictures we have taken so far or follow it here. We promise to keep uploading if you promise to keep coming back and commenting.

Enjoy.

All 4 of us!

This is a picture of all 4 of us on our recent San Diego Zoo trip.
I will be posting another blog entry with a link to Flickr where you can see more.

More Photos

If you haven't already, head on over to Flickr or click on this link to see some recent photos of us.

Reflections on Fathers Day.

As Fathers day approaches I can't help but notice the love for the paternal parent. This is even more amplified by the fact that Luke can verbalize his emotions quite succinctly even though some of that is orchestrated by his exposure to the media and his preschool.
Nonetheless, it feels great to be the center of attention this Fathers day and I look forward to many more.
I hear athletes and people on Jeopardy thanking and 'shouting out' to their mothers and I wonder where their fathers are.

In keeping with my characteristic and contrarian self I propose a merge of Fathers and Mothers day to create a Parents day so that both parents can be appreciated equally.

I love you Dad and I wish you and all fathers a happy fathers day.
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Lovely video of my current pastime.

Jeremy Arnoux // Pride bodyboards from Napco Global on Vimeo.

Selling the Mustang

I am finally selling the Mustang on Autotrader and Craigslist.
The car has served me well but is no longer practical for our growing family.

Interested or know anyone that is?

Napster Releases New Product

Hi people!
Well, we finally released the Napster product we have been working so hard on.

Basically for $5 per month, you get 5 MP3s, + unlimited streaming music from Napster’s 7+million tracks catalog. It also integrates into your iTunes/iPod so when you download music it finds its way to your iPod/iPhone/iTouch.

Check out the blog about it here and try it y'all!

Luke's 3rd Birthday Pictures

Luke had a great birthday. We thank you all for the birthday wishes, gifts, texts and love.

We haven't posted pictures in a long time so this is a good start.

These links should take you to a collection of pictures and video taken at Disneyland and on his Birthday.

Ever heard of the Lipid Hypothesis?

I had an interesting conversation with some of my colleagues at work at lunch today about oatmeal, cholesterol and heart disease and one of them was quite convincing about the absence of scientific evidence linking cholesterol and heart disease.

Here are some of the links he sent me.

http://www.venev.com/diabetes/Lipid_Hypothesis.html
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/the-lipid-hypothesis/
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html
http://www.loveandblueberries.com/2008/02/25/saturated-fats-revisiting-the-lipid-hypothesis/

Any comments about this Physicians, Pharmacists, Nurses and PAs?

Disneyland in April!

There was some swimming time at the hotel pool and Luke was showing off some of his floating skills which you can see in some of the video clips.

We took a detour on the drive home to the Korean Friendship Bell which has a spectacular view of the San Pedro bay. We did some tumbling and rolling around which Luke loved.

Enjoy and do leave comments if you can!

Some LA Reggae Night Spots

1. DragonFly - Thursdays - 6510 Santa Monica Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90038
2. Ivar - Sundays - 1643 Ivar Ave Los Angeles, CA 90028
3. Zabumba - Wednesdays and Fridays 10717 Venice Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90034
4. Saint Rocke - Occasional Big names - Hermosa Beach.
5. LightHouse - Sundays - Hermosa Beach.

11 Things About 11g

Warning...this is another geek tech post so be forewarned.

About one year ago, I attended my Oracle guru's workshop (Tom Kyte) in downtown LA where he presented a very inspiring presentation about Oracle 11g.

I was rummaging through some of my old notebooks and hand written notes and found this one which I wanted to share and keep for posterity, hence the blog post.

1. Encrypted Tablespaces
The database block writer now does encryption and it needs oracle wallets and keys.

2. Cache More Stuff.
The result_cache hint caches more in the shared pool resulting in a better application experience.

3. Standby is better.
The biggest thing here was the ability to have a read/write standby database.
This allows one to report, backup, develop and test on an active standby.

4. Real Application Testing.
I love this one because it solves some major testing challenges for internet applications.
Using Database replay and SQL Peformance Analyzer (SPA), one can replay production load in a QA environment and a whole new world of testing opens up.

5. Smaller Secure DMP.
This one marks the end of life of export as we know it as it gets replaced by datapump.
Datapump's compression ratio is upped to 4:33 and includes encryption.

6. Virtual Columns.
Estimated cardinality improves. More about this later...i cannot remember exactly how/what this is...i swear..:-)

7. Partitioning is better.
They have introduced more ways to partition your data.
Interval partitioning, Partition by reference, Virtual column partitioning, Composite partitioning.

8. The Awaited Pivot.
This one allows you to turn rows into columns by using the pivot keyword in your sql queries. You can clap now...

9. Flashback Data Archive.
Also known as FBDA like we dont have enough acronyms; this extends the flashback window further back by allowing you to mine the logs stored in the FBDA.
This data is tamper proof and cannot be changed or truncated.

10. Finer Grained Dependency Tracking.
PL/SQL code invalidates less frequently and we all know how annoying it can be when you touch one piece of code and the depenency tree gets invalidated.

11. OLTP table compression.
This one is all about space and performance. Let your imagination run wild with the benefits of compression.

Enjoy.

Spy - Listening in on Social Media Conversations

I found this new thing built by some smart folks which is capable of
listening in ('spying') on any social media conversations you are
interested in.

Have geeks taken over the world yet or is it just me?

Enjoy...

Sun,Sand,Surf

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