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UPDATE 2: The USGS has revised again to be a 5.4 magnitude earthquake instead of 5.8 on the scale.

UPDATE: The USGS has revised it to be a 5.8 magnitude earthquake on the scale.

An earthquake just hit Southern California, with an epicenter in Chino Hills.  This is approximately 8 miles away from where I work.  The USGS registered it as 5.6 magnitude.  If my neighbor wasn’t too interested in trying to run out of the building, I would have had video coverage of my coworkers.  I had to remind my neighbor to get under the table.  It was too late to capture any video at that point.

The earthquake was centered in Chino Hills, approximately 8-9 miles away from Brea.  Google maps lists the location in between the 57 freeway and the 71 freeway.

xavier :: Jul.29.2008 :: rants :: 2 Comments »

After my previous pictures about X Games Motocross (MotoX) pictures, I have more. Here is a portion of the street course in the motox race.

The ramps for Motox freestyle was also brought in.  The ramps have not been placed yet, but are going to be in the next day or so.

The safety roadblocks are also ready to be put in place for the motox race.

The ESPN X Games 14 staff is also going over the course to do their checks.

What is commonly referred to as “The Burm” at the Home Depot Center has been transformed into what is presumably a studio for broadcast. This area of the Home Depot Center is only used when an event is anticipated to be one of the best of the year.  This area normally houses overflow fans for soccer, which does not happen often.  This year, ESPN takes over and probably uses this area for television broadcast.

xavier :: Jul.27.2008 :: Sports :: 1 Comment »

I went to the Home Depot Center for the East West Bank Classic tennis tournament to watch the 2nd semifinal.  Dinara Safina played Jelena Jankovic in what should be labeled the “finals”.  Safina beat Jankovic 7-6 (3), 6-1.  After a competitive first set, Safina cruised easily in the 2nd.  Jankovic also lost her opportunity to move up to number 1 in the rankings.  Surprisingly, attendance was decent unlike my earlier visit to the tennis tournament.

Do you ever wonder what Pam Shriver does when she is not doing the sideline reporting?  She flips through what is presumably her Blackberry.

xavier :: Jul.26.2008 :: Sports :: 1 Comment »

Ford Motor Company buys Google advertising like any other company.  I was reading an article in the NY Times about Ford writing down the value of their truck lines, and noticed an ad at the bottom of the page.  The Google ads running were a Honda Pilot ad and a Ford ad.  Honda Pilot ad was about “fuel efficient”, while the Ford ad was go to the official site.  If I’m reading an article on how trucks are costing Ford money because of high gas prices, I’m more likely to click on to buy with a “fuel efficient” ad and not a Ford ad.  Ford, go do better ads next time!

xavier :: Jul.26.2008 :: Search :: No Comments »

I got updated pictures of the motocross (motox) course for X Games 14 at the Home Depot Center.  Previous pictures of the course, showed different sections of the soccer stadium being converted to motocross (motox) course.  Today’s pictures show the stadium as a whole.  You can see the bulldozers are still smoothing the dirt course out.  X Games 14 course will utilize the soccer stadiums and outside parking lots 10, 12, and 13.  Just a different look from last years X Games.  The only part of X Games that is negative is the lack of parking spaces.  Shuttling people in is not a considerable solution!

I’ll try to add pictures from last year’s X Games and look at the differences between the courses.

xavier :: Jul.24.2008 :: Sports :: 1 Comment »