Except replace the guy getting clobbered with Blake Griffin.

And the verdict is in! Austin is awesome! So much good food! I’m feeling lazy right now, so I’ll just let some pictures do the explaining:

Texas Capitol

Ate at this Mexican place my first night there. Tasty stuff.

Played some BYOB mini golf at Peter Pan Mini-Golf. I don’t think the place had been updated since the 1970′s. I think there was lead paint peeling off the statues. Didn’t matter, it was BYOB!

Proof.

Ate at the Salt Lick BBQ. All you can eat BBQ. Bring some more beer as well as an appetite.

Proof.

Picture of 6th street.

Oh, and I can’t forget about the Alamo Draft House. Go to a movie and have food and drink brought to your seat while you watch!

Today, February 17, 2009 my stylin’ 2000 Pontiac Grand Am reached 100,000 miles as I drove past a Yahoo! building in Santa Clara. Here’s the proof:

I think it’s pretty safe to say that this is the greatest accomplishment of my life. Well, this and when my last car reached 100,000 miles.

Now where do I go from here? 200,000 miles?? 300,000 miles??? 88mph back in time???? Do you think the “Service Engine Soon” light would interfere with a flux capacitor?

Intrade has launched a new feature for me to waste time with. They’ve opened up prediction trading markets for individual US states for the upcoming presidential election — and also provided this nifty map to visually translate how those predictions would correlate to electoral college votes.

For some reason the defualt view is the “Average” of electoral votes for each state based on the market values. This really doesn’t make much sense since you can’t split up electoral votes, so I prefer to view the “Leaning” view where votes per state ore given in full based on market values.

I’ve already noticed some significant shifts in just the past day. It’s pretty cool to follow.

OK, I’m wasting even more time writing about this.

Sow now that I have my own childish handwriting in a font, what to do with it? How about view the web as if I drafted it myself! Here are the results:

What you’re looking at

Google

Yahoo

Amazon

NY Times

Digg

My favorite website

Wasn’t that scary/fun?

Would you also like to view the web through the hand(?) of Mike Leotta, or would you like to pass off love letters as if they were written by me? Then download my font! It’s free!

1. From New House 6/2008

   I moved from San Jose to Santa Clara. No longer am I living in a small two bedroom apartment in a mid 70′s architecture complex with crappy management. I now live in a spacious four bedroom modern house with a surprisingly accommodating landlord. Biggest plus: my drum set now lives in a garage instead of a living room. Woo. How about pictures from when I first moved in? How about a house warming party in the near future?

2. I’m starting a new job on Monday. Same company. Different building. Different team. Different things to do. I’m pretty pumped. I’m hoping to be doing some fun stuff and meeting a lot of new people in the new role. Of course, I’ll be certain to stay in very close contact with everyone from my old team. Not only because they are my friends, but also because they are the only people linking to my website and giving me PageRank.

And in unrelated news…as I was just about to leave work yesterday evening, I get a phone call from an old high school friend from good ol’ Fulton, NY. He tells me that he just rode his motorcycle across the country as is currently just down the road from me. It was a pleasant surprise. Beers consumed that evening: New Belgium’s seasonal Skinny Dip and Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown.

And before all the Google shenanigans, Wegmans was named the top company to work for in 2005.  Yup, a grocery store.

Some quick research revealed that it’s actually quite common to see Wegmans products featured in episodes of the Office.  I guess I just wasn’t paying attention before.  Apparently the Scranton Wegmans will occasionally supply the show with some free stuff.

Alas, there are no Wegmans on the west coast  But we do have Safeway here, which is a crap hole.

I only made one plan — to see a Red Sox game — and even that was done on a whim.  Other than the Red Sox game I pretty much just wandered aimlessly.  I probably walked over 50 miles during the five days I was there — and now my toe doesn’t work.  I also met up with some people, partook in some of the nightlife, and ate a lot of clam chowder.  Very good trip.  I want to go back.

Meh, words are dumb.  Look at pictures instead!

Here’s a preview:

The Bedlam in Goliath has been out for about two months now, but I just got around to listening to it. I usually “obtain” Mars Volta albums long before their releases, but after two sub-par releases, this one drifted a bit off my radar. I wish I had listened to it earlier.

This is the first release featuring acclaimed drummer, Thomas Pridgen. His influence is immediately obvious. Unlike all of Mars Volta’s previous releases, this one kicks you right in the face at 00:01 of track 1. No extended intro, no buildup. In fact, in this album they didn’t include any of the overly extended random noise that annoyed me in previous releases. Just straight up energy all the way through. It’s hard to describe something like this in words, so I encourage you to give this album a listen.

Would I consider this album better than De-Loused in the Comatorium? Hmm…I don’t know if they ever could top that masterpiece. We’ll see how I feel after a few more listens. But it’s by far their best effort since.

P.S. Here are some tips to help you truly appreciate the depth of this album:

1. Use headphones. Good headphones. Dan Chow would agree with me.
2. Adjust your EQ to either the default “Jazz” setting, or adjust it to focus specifically on the extreme highs and lows.
3. Don’t multi task. Just focus on the music. In fact, turn off the lights…just don’t wait until next year’s Earth Hour.
4. Take the time to separate the instruments in your mind for a bit. There’s a lot going on at once.
5. Drink a tasty beer or two. Because, why not??

Last September, I made a trip out to Denver, CO to visit my brother and cousin. I did a lot of fun stuff while out there, but by far the highlight of the trip was a tour of the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins. Anyone that knows me personally will tell you that I act like a living advertisement for this company. I show up to every social situation with at least a sixer of New Belgium Beer with me, usually Fat Tire or 1554. Yeah, it can be awkward at first when I show with beer at my Grandma’s birthday party, but it usually helps gets the rowdiness started.

New Belgium also has an amazing reputation as a trend-setting environmentally conscious company. I encourage you to read about their commitment to sustainability.

OK, picture time.

Proof I was there, and that I can ride a bike.

A view from the outside.

The bar. I’m guessing this is what Heaven looks like.

Blue Paddle, 1554, Abbey, Trippel…did I mention this was all free?

A random view from behind the bar.

There was funky stuff all over the place, like this muralesque thingy.

Shiny vats. I believe this is where the magic happens.

Correction. THIS is where the magic happens.

A crappy picture of the bottling line, with floating ghost people.

Silos of some sort outside. I’m assuming these are filled with deliciousness.