Another recap for the past few weeks:

• While waiting for my iPad 2 to be delivered, I found this page, detailing how you can find out if nearby Target stores have it in stock. So I made a simple web page to check the inventory. A couple of days later, Gizmodo wrote about it and I got 20,000 hits that day. Even though I just got my own, I still want to improve that page – add Best Buy, Walmart and other stores – since I still have over 1,000 hits a day. I’m also thinking of creating iPhone and Android apps to make it easier to search on the go. It’s been proven useful so far, I got a bunch of thank you emails from people that got theirs through my page
• Started a new job this past week. After over 4 years at my previous company, I felt it was time to move on. I can’t give many details on my current place – what we do is under NDA – but it’s a very cool idea – both challenging and fun. I’m also working with two of my friends – Ethan and Fitim – so that’s another plus. My only gripe so far is with the office space, which is kinda crappier than what I had before. But I guess that’s how startups are…
• Spent this weekend in Rhode Island with Cindy and some friends. We came here to watch a concert – Carmina Burana – where one of their friends was performing. The concert was great and on the way back we got to enjoy some of the finest lobsters New England has to offer. A few pics here, video of ‘O Fortuna’ here.
• Oh yeah, I got an iPad2! Loving it so far, I have a ton of games to catch up on. It will also be my primary ebook reader – with the Kindle app ofc, none of that iBooks crap.
• Got tickets for my parents who are coming to visit me next month. They’ll be here for a month, just like last time. The bets are open on how long it’ll take them to drive me crazy.
• I’m turning 30 in less than ten days. That’s a good thing, right?

I’ve spent Christmas and New Year’s around Los Angeles, with Cindy’s family. It was my first time in that area (my only other West Coast experience was San Francisco in 2008) so we split our time between visiting relatives and exploring around. We went to Universal Studios and took the tour, Malibu and Santa Monica beaches, Getty Museum and Hollywood Boulevard (where the stars are), Rodeo Drive and Griffith Observatory with its beautiful views of the city, Queen Mary (an old cruiseliner turned into a museum) and – my favorite – Legoland. We walked around LA a bit too.

We had a great time and nice weather – at a time when New York City was buried under snow. And, on a personal achievement note, I drove on this (Wikipedia)

Enjoy the pictures!

After two weeks of (some) processing and uploading, here they are: http://cristianradu.smugmug.com/Vacation/Trip-to-Europe. For some reason SmugMug lists them in the reverse chronological order, so you might want to start from the bottom. Enjoy!