Sachin Agarwal: June 2006

Monday night I went to dinner with Josh, Kazuko, and Al in Los Gatos. We had some really great mexican food and margaritas. After that I went to Josh's house in Boulder Creek (the BC?) to have some home brewed beer. The drive down the 9 to his place was awesome. It was about 10pm so there were few cars on the road. I was following Josh and we were pushing our cars pretty hard.

But it was the ride back that was the most fun. It was 2am and there wasn't another car anywhere in sight. I was in the Miata, top down, and taking turns harder than I've ever taken them before. Weezer was blasting on the stereo :). That little Miata is pretty ridiculous. There is so much feedback through the steering wheel, shifter, and all the pedals that you know exactly what the car is about to do.

I was really able to put everything I learned on the track to use. I was braking hard in a straight line, using the entire lane, hands light on the steering wheel. I was pushing the car really hard for about 30 minutes and at one point I experienced some sudden and dramatic brake fade. Basically my brakes completely gave out when I was approacing a turn. Luckily I was able to slow down enough, but it was scary! The Miata has great brakes but this is why people upgrade their brakes when taking their cars to the track. After letting my brakes cool for a couple minutes, they were ready for some more action.

I also spun my car a bit later. It wasn't bad at all, I just did a complete 180 and ended up in the other lane going in the other direction. So I just restarted my car and went straight, then made a U-turn. it's the first time I've spun on a public road. Good thing it was late at night.

I need to get back out to the track soon! I miss it.

Every time I visit my dad in SLO, we end up going to an Indian Reservation Casino and gambling for a while. I wasn't too keen on going again, but then I thought, "hey, why don't I try counting cards this time?" I've known the basics of card counting for a while, but I never actually tried doing it. I just finished reading Bringing Down the House so the idea was fresh in my mind and I was itching to try.

We drove to ****** Casino and I did some basic high/low card counting, and won almost $500 in about 2 hours of play. It's by far my best gambling run ever, especially since I was never in the red. The night was one of the most exhilarating and awesome experiences I can remember.

Before I got to the casino, I sat in the back seat of the car and ran through a deck of cards about 5 times, keeping a count of low and high cards, making sure I ended with an even "0" account at the end, and trying to do it in about 30 seconds. In the casino, I followed a basic high/low count system and used it to figure out when to sit in or leave a table, and when to increase and decrease my bets. It didn't change how I played any particular hand.

I started out by standing behind the blackjack table, not playing, and keeping a running count of the cards starting with a fresh shuffle (6 deck blackjack). Once the count became good, I sat down and bet big. It worked well, except eventually the count became neutral or bad. I knew I would raise suspicion if I kept sitting at a table, playing a few hands, and then walking away. So I ended up playing the table minimum until the count became good, and then I bet BIG.

Keeping count of the cards while in the casino was even more difficult that I had imagined. First I was keeping count from behind the table, not playing. Step 2 was to count the cards while actually playing hands. Whenever my cousin would start talking to me I had to motion for him to be quiet and let me concentrate. A couple times I kicked him under the table so he wouldn't break my concentration. Once my dad started talking to me and I turned around and told him to let me concentrate, and then I realized how bad that probably sounded to the dealer.

I can play 95% of blackjack just by instinct. I know exactly when to stay and hit, double down, etc. But about 5% of the time I actually need to think for a second. I need to add my cards up and see what's going on around the table. This is the third step of card counting, being able to play those 5% of the games and still not lose the count. There were a few times I got 4 or 5 small cards and had a hard time adding them up and deciding what to do without breaking my concentration.

I had to be extremely focused on counting. I couldn't break my concentration for anything or I would lose my count, or I would lose my place around the table as I counted (did I already count that card?) The hardest part was the initial deal with 9 or 11 cards opened up in just a few seconds and I had to count them all. The first time I sat at a table I was in position 1, which I learned was bad because after the initial deal the dealer looked at me first. It didn't give me a chance to catch up on the count. So I started sitting in the middle or end and that helped a lot.

Counting cards was a huge adrenaline rush. At certain points when the count got good and I started betting big, I started getting really nervous. My mouth would get dry, my hands would shake, and I would hold me head and stare at the cards intensely. While I was playing I couldn't think about anything else besides the count, I barely even knew what cards I had in front of me. At one point I got a blackjack on a $50 bet, but even then I couldn't cheer or smile or high 5 my cousin. I was focused on the dealer and the other cards still coming out. I'm sure it looked pretty strange. The other people at the table could have been hitting on 18 or splitting queens, and I would have had no idea. My mind wasn't on any of that.

At one point the dealer I was playing with took a break, but instead of another dealer dealing, the pitt boss started dealing! It was totally strange. He wasn't a good dealer at all, fairly slow and careful. I really think the casino thought something suspicious was going on and wanted to make sure everything was cool. Who's this 26 year old kid winning our money? Of course I wasn't cheating or anything, so eventually he left. But before he did, he was totally fucking with me on one hand. I had 5 cards out, 3 of which were Aces. It took me a long time to add up my cards (since I was focused on counting) and he was telling me something I really couldn't comprehend. It wasn't until another dealer walked up behind him and told me I had 20 that I could "stay" and the game could move on.

It's interesting to note that this casino doesn't serve alcohol, so I was totally sober the whole time. There's no way I could have kept the count if I had anything to drink, so that was a good thing.

Even after tonight I might have chalked this up to luck. But one thing I found out later was my cousin was following my lead and also making money. He lost $200 within 30 minutes of getting to the casino. He saw me wining and sat next to me at times and matched my bets, increasing as I did. In the last hour we were there, he won back his $200. I actually had no idea this was going on until after we left, because as I said, I couldn't see anything that was going on at the table besides the count.

Through the night I probably sat through about 6 complete blackjack "shoes". Two of them I sat in on when the count was already good, so those were winners. Two more I played from the beginning, and at one point both had very high (good) counts and I made money. And two shoes stayed pretty level the whole time and I roughly broke even on them.

It was an awesome night, tons of fun. I was just disappointed I wasn't comped a free dinner. Oh well :). Now I'm totally psyched to go to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

I landed in San Jose at 9:30 and by the time I got my luggage, got to Apple, and got my car, it was about 10:30. I drove around Cupertino looking for some food as it had been about 12 hours since I had lunch back in New York.

Everything was closed. I couldn't find any food at all. I called Baja Fresh (they're still in my phone) and they had just closed. I drove to Fremont to my cousin's area and still couldn't find food. I was almost about to break down and eat Taco Bell, since I'm craving Mexican food.

Luckily I found an Elephant Bar that closes at 11pm. That place is funny :)

This reminds of the time Gary said he was starving. And Nikhil said he wasn't starving. And Gary insisted that his stomach needed food and he was really starving.

I'm sitting at JFK right now waiting for my flight. The taxi ride from my place to the airport was an adventure! Well, first of all it was really hard to catch a cab. It was Friday afternoon so maybe that's a busy time. The weird thing was all the cabs had their top lights on, usually indicating they're available. But they all had passengers.

I finally did get a cab, and he also didn't switch on the meter. Maybe Friday afternoons all the cabs decide to pocket the fares? He told me there's a lot of traffic so we'll take side streets. I didn't care, I had a newspaper to read and lots of time. Driving through the Lower East Side on Delancey I saw a copy car pass us, stop, and two cops ran out. There was a homeless guy walking around with scissors in his hand and they were standing next to him. Some lady pointed to him and said "he's holding scissors" and then they pounced on the guy, throwing him down. Then one cop ran over to two other people and pulled out his gun and put it right in one guy's face. I've never seen someone actually point a gun at anyone before.

The drive took us through some really scary parts of Brooklyn. I wasn't scared driving around in the cab, but I would never think about being outside walking around. But nothing really bad happened. At one point a giant truck took off the side mirror of a car. The car pulled over in front of the truck and the guy got out, and the truck went around him and took off.

Besides that the taxi driver just drove very aggressively, and complained about his $5 tip. "Dude, the meter wasn't even running" I told him. I didn't care about the $5 tip, he was pocketing all the money anyway.

I think one big reason why I love New York so much is I never have to deal with the stress of driving in the city. And beyond that, I rarely take taxis so I don't usually have to deal with traffic and driving aggression even as a passenger. Oh, and I don't actually work in the city, which seems to be extremely stressful and where people actually get rude and aggressive (because of competition in the workplace and whatnot).

I'll be in California for 10 days!

I love being in this city. I think i was meant to be here. Lots of things people complain about, I love (how fast and hectic things are, the New York Minute), and others complaints I disagree with (I find people to be friendlier and more outgoing). And I love the density of it all. Getting around the city by train, so many great places to check out so close to each other.

But the problem with the great density of businesses is it's really hard for a business to distinguish itself from the others. Even now I can walk down a street around the corner from me and notice 5 restaurants or bars I never saw before, just because they don't have a flashy sign or other major marketing. This brings up the point (which I blogged about earlier) of the high turnover rate of businesses in New York. It's quite sad to think your favorite restaurant or bar may not exist next week. It's especially worse now that the weather is nice because lots of places are being renovated and turning into something completely new. What was there before? Who knows.

Going to great places in New York I'm always torn between places being too packed (so I can't get in) vs being empty (so I'm afraid they are going to shut down). It seems rare to find a place that has just the right number of clients to sustain itself, and not force you to make reservations a month in advance, or wait in line for an hour. In Vino is a great example of a restaurant which is awesome, and always seems to be full, but not crazy.

This past Saturday we went to see the World Cup game in Gary's neighborhood at a place called Tonic. It was a great place, but despite it having 3 floors of tables and tv screens, we had to stand. Next time I want to get there super early and grab a nice table. At half time we moved just next door to another bar, which was empty. That night we went to a restaurant/bar/club called Park, that has so much demand they won't let any party in unless there's at least an equal number of girls as guys. Luckily we were fine this time, otherwise it would suck to have to leave.

On Sunday we woke up early to see the Brazil/Australia game. We went to the one Australian bar in the city (8 Mile Creek) and despite being an hour early there was no chance of us stepping inside. We ended up going down the block to Gatsby's, which was cool, but didn't have quite the same energy. Actually, I think most of the people there were others who tried and failed getting into the Australian bar. Gary and I were wearing our Brazil shirts. It was great.

That afternoon we went to The American Museum of the Moving Image. It's all about the history of film and TV. It was really, really great. I highly recommend it. They have lots of old cameras, TVs, and other memorabilia. They teach you how all the stuff work, and how the technology progressed over time. There's also a lot on the history of video games, which I found interesting and there are lots of video games you can play. I kicked Gary's ass at DDR and Mortal Kombat.

However, the museum was fairly empty and I told Gary it would suck if it ever closed. Gary pointed out that they probably have a lot of private donations, so that's good. We got in free with Gary's Citigroup ID so I guess we weren't helping the cause either.

And finally, there's Baluchi's, which I think is the best Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at (now I think it might even be better than my parents' restaurant. Baluchi's in East Village is located next to about 15 other indian restaurants that serve the worst food I've ever had, but for $5 lunch and $8 dinner, so they are busy. And there's 1 restaurant that is mediocre, but fancy, and charges $30 for dinner.

Baluchi's is perfect. They aren't flashy, the service is great, the food is amazing, and it's fairly inexpensive. But tonight I saw that they are offering 50% off their lunch and dinner menus for dine in customers. They had this offer before for lunch since people don't want to spend $20 on lunch, but now they started it for dinner too. I really hope they are doing well and stay in business.

Next month is Restaurant Week in New York and I've been busy trying to make as many reservations as possible. This morning I had to wake up at 9am and battle a busy tone for a while to get through to Gramercy Tavern (rated one of the best restaurants in the world). They take reservations 28 days in advance, and fill up within minutes, and not only during restaurant week.

So far my list is:

davidburke & donatella
Delmonico's
English Is Italian
Gotham Bar and Grill
Gramercy Tavern
Il Cantinori
Payard Patisserie & Bistro
Roy's - New York
SUSHISAMBA 7
Tocqueville
Vong

Update: Added Butter, and Cafe Boulud

Gary played these totally slick videos of the Brazilian soccer team showing off their best movies. There's some really amazing stuff here.

Click here for the iTunes podcast

And I just saw on the Apple website they they were made with Final Cut Pro

Posted new pictures. They are the last 10 or so from:

Madison Square Park
Astor Place

I love it. Around $35 from Finland. Totally safe and removeable. Mac only!

Pimp My Laptop

Last month Gary and I entered a beer pong tournament and got crushed in the first round, within about 10 minutes of getting there. So when Gary's friend was having another beer pong tournament at the same bar to raise money for a marathon benefiting leukemia research, we decided to check it out but not play.

When we got there, 45 minutes late, we were strongly encouraged to participate. So we gave in and entered the tournament as "Harold and Kumar." We don't know what happened, but somehow we did extremely well. We weren't just winning our games, we were dominating them. We beat teams with half our cups still on the table! While everyone else got drunker as the games went on, we stayed sober. We had tons of time to kill between games, and had a great time.

But in the end, we didn't quite pull it off. Though we got through the winner's bracket easily, and had an hour to kill (and sober up) before the loser's bracket even finished, we weren't able to beat the last team. It was sad because they had to beat us two times, and we only had to beat them once. It was the same team we beat in our first game.

Although we didn't win the tournament, Harold and Kumar had an awesome night.

Pictures are here

I got some great pictures of Columbus Circle from within the Time Warner Center.
Check them out here

No, I didn't stand in line for 20 hours to be the first person in line. To be first in line I would have been in line for much longer than that, and been battling the rain. But I did stalk the grand opening of the store, trying to get as close to the event as possible. The Fifth Avenue store is HUGE. And I don't just mean the store itself. It means to much for the company: a presence on Fifth Avenue alongside the greatest brands in the world. The most expensive real estate anywhere, steps from Central Park. It's a sign that Apple means quality, is here to stay, and wants your money :)

A week before the store opened my dad was in NY, and he's a bigger Apple nut than I am (well, very close) so we went to see the giant glass cube, still covered in black plastic.

Then Sean was in town when the store was to open so we tried to get in and check it out. First we tried to go to the press event the day before the official opening. The security guards were nice and let us in with our Apple badges. But then some Apple marketing/retail person *very rudely* told us to leave and come back tomorrow for the normal opening. And then she laughed as we walked away. Hmmm, don't we make the products that make this store even possible?

Anyway, I was able to get some good photos of the cube from close up, with no people crowded around it. The next day I wasn't planing on going to the opening, until my friend Meena called and said it was *crazy* and I had to check it out. It's a quick train ride away so I headed there and saw the masses of people, winding around the block waiting to get in. It was nuts.

That night we were out partying late, since Sean was in New York only for one night. At 4:30 we were about done for the night, but Sean had until 7am before a train to Jersey. So where to spend that time? At the new 24 hour Apple Store! We were able to get in easily, though the store itself was still very crowded. After re-hydrating by the water fountain, I got some cool photos of the cube from the inside.

Here are the photos

Here are pictures from when my dad came to visit me in New York
Some pictures from a walk through Central Park
And pictures from walking across the Brooklyn Bridge after having dinner at Peter Luger's

It's been a busy month. The weather has been excellent, so tourists are flocking to New York. By tourists, I mean my friends and family :). My dad was here for over a week, my cousin for a few days, Sean came to town for a day, then Nikhil for a week, and finally Garry spent a few days in the city. There's a rumor Aki might be in town this weekend!

All these visitors meant many opportunities to go out and eat great food. I've realized that San Francisco also has great food, but I never took advantage of it (believe me, I will once I move back). It's just that there's more great food in New York, because it's a bigger city. And it's easier to get around in NY. In SF I was less willing to drive and park to leave my neighborhood. Now I can walk or subway anywhere

So I have updated my New York food page with all the new restaurants I have tried, and also added many new places on the to do list. I'm going to organize that page better soon.

Highlights this past month:

Jewel Bako. One of the best sushi restaurants in town, a block from my place. Tried lots of interesting pieces.
Peter Luger's steak. Awesome steak, great sides, and the best whiskey sour I've ever had
Baluchi's (East Village). Terrific Indian food, great service, pretty inexpensive, high quality
Delion Grocery. My favorite deli. Great staff will make you anything you want. Huge menu
Fifty Seven Fifty Seven. Very cool Martini bar in the Four Seasons. Lots of interesting martinis to try. Cool staff

Dessert:
Cafe Zaiya. I recently discovered this place which is about a block from my apartment. It's a little Japanese cafe that has great coffee and great pastries. I just found out it's part of the Beard Papa chain, but they serve much more than just cream puffs. I love this place.
Australian Homemade. Great ice cream and chocolates (eat the ice cream there, take some chocolates to go!)
Dean and Deluca. More great coffee, and good muffins, scones, etc

Luckily I've been hitting the gym a lot to make up for all this great food.

As a child I always loved it when we got a little lightening and thunder, though it was very rare in LA. On my road trip through the Pacific Northwest I saw some cool lightening storms with solid lightening bolts going from sky to ground.

New York actually gets real thunderstorms! Tonight there was a little lightening and thunder and I decided it would be cool to go running outside, in the rain. After a couple blocks the rain started coming down hard! Everyone on the streets were taking cover under scaffolding or inside metro stations. Sidewalk vendors were selling umbrellas left and right!

I decided I couldn't run through this type of rain so I headed back and ran to the gym. It was still really cool to see all the lightening, and the loudest thunder I have ever heard! At one point about 10 people on the sidewalk shrieked after an enormous roar of thunder!

Next time I'm going to find a covered outdoor cafe to sit and watch.