You've Got Mail
This week's off to a crazy start (and it ain't gonna get better) so I'll leave you with a screenshot of President Bush's e-mail client.
Check it out.The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.
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Hand me downs
My brother can be pretty messed up sometimes...check out my Dad's new t-shirt. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what
Shane's World is...
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The Sign
Sing along now...
I saw the signand it opened up my eyes I saw the signLife is demandingWithout understanding...Seriously though...upon hearing my recent troubling plight with technology, I was told to investigate the concept of "Mercury rising". I'm not a big astrology person, but supposedly there's this relation between Mercury moving through its astral plane and certain astrological signs having difficulties. Whatever. But I was pointed to
this, and sure enough (although not entirely accurate) -- there's some freaky stuff in there. Thinking back, there has been quite a bit of things go mechanically wrong during certain parts of this past year. Hm...
With the cars, there was the G20: right foglight that blew out, the alternator failure, and then the replacement alternator failing again, and the CV boots tearing (both of em!), and the check engine light coming on (which turned out to be a fluke EGR code); around the same time, some jerk used their door to scrape an inch of paint off the passenger side door of the S2K (I'm
still irritated at that) and I got two bad rock chips in the windshield (for a total of 3!!! argh). And then with other stuff: my cassette deck broke, my TV died last week, my laptop hard drive died Thursday -- damn that was irritating, the toilet started acting funny with a slow tank refill time, the kitchen sink faucet mount came loose, the refrigerator died, my air compressor is having problems -- now this one is
really irritating because without it, I can't change my clutch or axles and you wouldn't believe how much shops are charging to do it (let's just say there's 4 digits in the number) and Sears doesn't do house calls on air compressors...I'd have to haul that big 'ol mommahonker down to Mountain View - in what, the back seat of my 4 door? aargh.
What is comforting though is that one of the things on my
list is to reconnect with old friends. The
weirdest thing happened though...within the span of one month, I've had a bunch of people contact me from out of the blue...old Mambo.com/Payplace.com folks that I haven't spoken to in a couple of years just popped an e-mail to me. One of my old co-workers now living/working in Seattle dropped a line saying (in not so many words) how great things are going out there and don't you think you'd want to live the good life working at my
company on the waterfront while living in a nice place out on Alki beach and we need smart people like you. Hm...now there's a thought: Seattle. I haven't been there since March 2000, and back then I loved it so much I told myself that I would be living there in 2 years. Maybe.
But first thing's first. Goal setting then goal achievement. Both in work and in life. Chin up, eyes wide open, and jump right in.
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Say It Isn't So
You know you're old and corny when:
You're put on hold with Epson support, and they play a song from high school.
And you put the call on speaker so that you can start singing along with Hall & Oates.
Oh damn...now they got The Stylistics going!
These things I do...Cuz I'm stone in love with you..(stone in love with you-ooo-ooo)
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Nerd Alert!
It's times like these that make me love the company I work for. :)
Here's a capture of my RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 laptop, running Mac OS X
and the other host OS partition in VMs (my laptop can boot into either Windows XP or Linux).
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Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Color TV
KV-32XBR48, Sony - Of San Diego, CA, age 7 years, died today at exactly 11:37 AM. Beloved friend and companion, dependable and full of vibrant life and color, KV passed away doing what he did best: entertaining his owner, with an accurate and heart-wrenching rendition of the Speed Channel presentation of the SpeedGT series out of Denver. KV-32XBR48, or "The Big TV" as his owner affectionality referred to him, was born out of a small Good Guys store in La Jolla, California, one fateful spring day in 1998. He had always been overshadowed by his famous and (now legendary) bigger brother, KV-32XBR100, but his owner had found a special place in his heart for the 200lb black frame, digital honeycomb filter, component inputs, and invar black mask. It took some settling in, but they eventually adjusted to each other, sharing memorable moments like the first rendition of Gran Turismo 4, the repeated beating of roommate competition on Madden NFL 2000, and the amazingly precise color and detailed imagery as Farmer Hoggett turned to his chubby four legged friend and uttered the words, "that'll do pig...that'll do". The relationship with his owner went through some good and some bad times, including 7 apartments, a 500 mile journey from southern California, 1 storage unit, and countless Initial D episodes. Yes, "The Big TV" will be sorely missed. Private services will be held in South San Francisco on 8/21/2005. In honor of KV's tireless dedication, please make all donations to your local charity in his name.So if ever there was a sign to tell me I watch too much TV...sheez.
I know, time to buy that projector!!! :)
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If it compiles, it won't crash
Van damnit. I just looked at the clock and realized it's 6:11PM. What da hell is wrong with me... It's a Friday night, the sun is setting, and I'm sitting here at work. BAH!
ZOOM ZOOM tomorrow!!! Woo hoo!
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In the immortal words of Sagat...Tai-gur!
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Timbuk2
Slow day at work. Or rather, I'm procrastinating again. :)
Chit-chatting with Shalamar, he mentioned something about
bags. Very neat concept: customizable messenger bags. But hell, a hundred smackers?!? Riiight. Although, it would be funny to go make myself a La Raza bag -- Green, White, Red and then grow out my moustache just to mess with people. I still trip out at how people on my team go for months thinking I'm Latino. Damn that Spanish Inquisition! But without it, I wouldn't be having so much fun playing with the octavina at night -- it's so much more fun with a smaller instrument; the bass was just so bulky it got me lazy to practice - hell, with the octavina I'm having a blast playing one music every other night!
So IM conversations today reminded me about an observation my old college buddy had a while ago...women buy little knick knacks and guys buy big expensive shit. Sure, it's a generalization, but I still find it funny that I (literally)
struggle in anguish over a $4 water bottle but pay no mind to blowing $400 on a freakin' scanner (which is still broke by the way). And get my giddies walking into a dealership for a $25K roadster but still fret over a $25 shirt. So what becomes of all these big expensive toys? Heh...that wonderful Aiwa AD-F810 tape deck that I picked up at Fedco on sale for $200 8 years ago is now a measly
$30 on eBay. Ah, priorities. Maybe I should put an end to all this and go get myself a wife and 2.5 kids and a mortgage and some life insurance and a lawn mower and a white picket fence and a Dodge Caravan (the horror!) and a boat and a vacation house in Tahoe and day care and a college fund and...and...
Shit, better quit this nonsense and get my lazy ass back to work.
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Frackin' A
So call me a corny and cliched cheeseball, but there's something about stories of relationships set amidst the backdrop of despair and war that just really get to me. I was able to catch up on BSG and I really dug this Episode 5 (The Farm). It had that same old formula... boy & girl get together, but love & happiness take a back seat to duty and saving the human race. Sounds a lot like all those old movies I used to watch. :) Hell, this episode was strangely reminiscent of
Casablanca. Hm...reminds me of one of those lectures in film class; one thing they said was that
all the stories have already been done...everything you see are all just rehashes of the same things:
- boy meets girl, girl likes boy, but boy ends getting killed in (war/accident/alien abduction/twist of fate)
- girl meets boy, boy doesn't like girl, another boy likes girl, girl doesn't notice other boy until too late
- boy and girl happy together, boy meets other girl, destroys relationship, girl moves on, boy realizes he made mistake
- boy likes girl, girl discovers she likes other girl, boy discovers he likes other boy
and so on and so forth. Eh. Screw the clinical breakdown, I still dig a good story, regardless of how cliched and cheesy it is.
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Fascination
Some people just gotta have their iBook. I don't know if I should laugh (I mean, peeing on yourself?!?) or feel sad at the state of a nation of wretched consumerism where people would forgo life & limb & civilized behavior at the first whiff of a
good deal. Sometimes I wonder why I live in such a capitalist society. Actually, nevermind that. :)
I'm in such writer's block. I've been wanting to continue my little story for a month now but can't seem to get the right thoughts down. Maybe I should just call it a loss and write something new. Or maybe I just need to start drinking again. :)
It's so weird how I don't listen to lyrics -- I'm so caught up in the music that I'm not paying attention...so on the way to work I'm listening to
Fascination and this time really listening to the words and thinking, wow -- what a great song. I need to do this more often. Just like the first time I listened to the words on
The Reason I like totally freaked out. Had no clue what the whole song was about.
So it's been like 4 weeks now since I watched Serendipity and something still sticks out in my head. I know the movie really pisses off a lot of people, but for me, there was a lot of things I liked. One thing that still sticks out is what Jeremy Piven's character said...something to the effect of, when a man dies, they only ask one thing:
Did he live with passion? Do I live with passion? Intensity? Meaning? Purpose?
Maybe I should write my eulogy. A bit morbid, but fun...a great exercise for really knowing who you are and what you want out of life. Sheez...I still remember a conversation Shalamar and I had
long ago one day on the 805 back in high school. What do you want out of life? What is immortality? Is it money? Fame? Or is it just making a positive impact on those people around you, making the world a better place to live...
Eek, this is getting out of hand. Time to head home; besides, looks like the Brazilian adventurers are back from their trip -- gonna be lots of stories I bet. :)
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A Hardtop. With a Good Engine. And a Big Trunk.
Sin City is a good flick
. I'm not a big comic book fan, but this movie delivers on all levels -- looks exactly as if I'm watching a comic book on screen...From the quick editing and the white blood, to the cool stylized camera angles and overly dramatic/cheesy dialogue. And Carla Gugino is as freakin' hot as I had imagined. :)
Having a hard time sleeping tonight...just some quick tidbits before I make another attempt at shut-eye...
Made my first foray into bb-q-ing pork & portabello mushrooms today. Got a couple of center cut boneless pork chops and a couple of big shrooms. It's actually pretty straightforward (after some help from my
reference guide) -- just brush/rub with extra virgin olive oil, throw some kosher salt & pepper, and sit it on the grill. The chops weren't too difficult: 3 minutes, turn 90 degrees, 3 minutes, flip, 3 minutes, turn 90 degrees, 3 minutes, done. Even got the cool grill marks too! (Thank you
Alton Brown). I got the chops on an impulse while floating around Lunardi's so didn't get the right ingredients for
stuffed pork chops; will definitely do it next time. The trick is to let the chops sit for at least 10 minutes -- it keeps cookin'. Came out
just right, tender and juicy, perfect with the applesauce! And the mushrooms came out great too -- just gotta figger out something to accompany it next time...maybe a bed of spinach? Or potatoes?
Damn...I really have to watch
top fuel in Pomona this November. It just boggles the mind what these hunks of metal can do...60 mph in one car length; 100 mph in .8 seconds; 7000hp out of 500 cubic inches; 1320 ft in 3 seconds at over 300 miles per hour.
This movie is freakin' hilarious.
So I signed up for
track time at Laguna again...they're running both bike & car groups, so Elmer's bringing up his M and the motorcycle. Never knew that the E36s can
tow! Wonder how it holds up to the 500 mile trek up from San Diego. Laguna is freakin' expensive, but it's a lot of fun. Once the S2K is sold, what will I use for track outings?
Gotta get an RMA for my
scanner tomorrow. Freakin' irritating that they sent me a defective one; now I gotta deal with sending it back and waiting another week or so to scan my slides. Grrrrr.
For a couple of days last week I was insanely jealous of Shalamar's new 15" Powerbook, even tempted to get one of my own -- but do I really
need an Apple? No. But they sure look hella cool.
I still wonder what's going to happen to all those doomed people in
BSG. One theory floating around at work is that the cylons are the humans ancestors. Hmmmm...
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Old Friends
Spent the better part of yesterday meeting up with old co-workers. Lunch was at
Pasta? (my
favorite!) down in Mountain View to meet up with my old boss who rescued me from the eventual demise of Napster (it was fun while it lasted though, still felt kinda cool being there even though it was post-Lars lawsuit crap) and got me the
great VMware gig. It was fun reminiscing over old times, seeing how her new Motorola gig is going, talking smack about the usual company politics and bullshit. I wonder if all companies have similar annoying crap with power hungry managers, undisciplined meeting attendees, cursing, yelling, personal attacks, blah blah blah...
[Woo hoo! My new
toy just came in! Kinda looks like a cylon toaster. hehehheheh.]
Then dinner was spent at Faultline with my old homeboys from the eTime days. Interesting, the domain name is now registered to some
TradeBeam company -- looks like they're doing the same thing though...supply chain management. It was good seeing those punk asses again, rollin' in their Porsche 911 (a beautiful silver 996 model -- and his other ride is a freakin' 400hp+ blown E36 M3) and the other guy with his Subaru STi (the hopped up B13 is still in the garage). Ah, the good old days of yore, with pre-IPO stock options and P/E ratios in the 100s. Reminds me of that Forbes billboard that spent a year or so perched prominently over the 101 by Shoreline, containing a picture of some hip 20 something white girl with a blurb of something to the effect of: 20 million dollar stock option holding college dropout. Yeah, those were some wild times. It was good dinner conversation, with one of 'em still chasing the elusive answer to all the money problems -- his next new venture is a
Chessesteak Shop franchise somewhere in east bay. Quite interesting. And he's getting married too. Maybe one day we'll all figure out how to get out of this freakin' rat race and finally stop having to worry about someone
moving my cheese. Conversation ranged from cars, to beer, to money, to business, back to cars, then to women, to exercise, and women, and cars, and cars, and then back to cars...but one thing that did stand out was this: what keeps us from taking those risks, being successful, making the plunge and getting rich is we're too educated for our own good. You look around and see those successful entrepreneurs, a lot of their success isn't because of their education or background, it's just that they have nothing to lose; me, I overthink & overprocess every little freakin' thing and can't just simply "let go". Gotta just roll with the punches, stick your neck out there and (I hate to steal a shoe publicity line, but)
just do it. If things don't work out, then you move on and find something else. Thinking about all the crap that could go wrong is just a one way ticket to non-starterville.
Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'.Anyways, it feels so great to be able to purge. Just got done dropping off about 5 years worth of accumulated computer/telephony/networking
crap at
CRC down at the Marina. It feels great!!! Although I'm worried that I might be putting myself into a potential tax audit situation since the receipt wasn't too specific about the equipment. Also dropped off another similar accumulation of clothes at the Pak & Save location of Goodwill. Driving around the city today forced me to really think about my living situation, and if I
really do want to live in the city
now. Or do I exhibit some semblence of
Emotional Intelligence and suffer something non-ideal
but cheap with the end goal of buying a place in a year? The joy of which will let me enjoy those things that I absolutely love in life -- cars, music, photography? Hm. I need to think this one through some more -- a 1 bdrm in Nob Hill/Mission/SOMA/Marina/Lower Haight would be
nice, but $1500/mo nice?
Eh. I'll put off a decision for a little while longer. Right now, I gotta break in this bad-boy scanner and see how my slides turn out in digital form.
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Welcome Back Kotter
So got a great how-dee-doo coming back from my extended weekend...My strongest (and most tenured) QA Engineer is leaving. What a great way to start off the (half) week! Luckily I wasn't (directly) responsible for her decision...she really wanted to stay with our team, but she just got a really good opportunity elsewhere. So it got me thinking -- I gotta keep tabs on morale; get people excited to work for us, and
truly understand, recognize, and support the motivations of my employees. And
I have to buy into it too; people will not follow you if you yourself have not committed yourself (there goes that word again) to the cause. It's interesting how similar the military is with the corporate environment. Just imagine that...the ultimate in motivation: soldiers that believe 150% into what they're fighting for, that they would sacrifice everything -- even life itself -- in what they believe in. Now
that, my friends, is
motivation. Well, I do wish her well, and totally support her in her future pursuits; I just have to figure out how to deal with the aftermath -- eek. They really don't pay me enough for this job. :)
On another note, there was a discussion on our company mailing list about "Life Coaches". I had no clue that they even existed. But sure enough, there's
web. And it's interesting reading the various messages that people have posted during the discussion. My favorite:
Life will become much simpler, if you stop believing anything you do is critical, and decisions you take really make a difference in the long run. See, whatever you choose is what IS. Therefore it's always right. You don't look back at what would or could have been.Damnit, these 7PM conference calls are really irritating. It's too late to make the trek home, so I have to veg at work. Decision time -- should I spend this 30 minutes on the golf balls or the sand? You know, I think I'll go shopping for some filters; and troll Craig's list for some used cameras; and read more about wine. Golf balls it is. :)
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Talk to Me Like the Sea
Man do
I need a haircut.
Jeez, how long has it been now? Let's see...the last time was...holy crap, Vancouver! That barber shop down on Davie(?) St -- days of being frustrated with hair that just felt too long, so I just walked a bit around the town and found this place that was closest to where we were staying. Heh. Had a couple of old guys in there. Was worried about them doing something weird, but hey...it's only hair.
So I think I'll go this weekend. Or hell...push it into the 3 month barrier! YEAH! heheheh
It was great purging last night -- cleaned out a bunch of clothes from the closet, all bagged up for Goodwill. Interesting...this'll be the first time ever that I've donated anything. Something long overdue with all this accumulation of
crap. Next up, computer recycling.
And along with the purging, was going through some old boxes, and happened to stumble upon some stuff from college. Interesting stuff -- a dusty box of old memories, pieces of a past filled with hopes of changing the world (we barely made a dent). Even found some old papers from our first ever High School Conference, and some papers from our first ever PCN script -- ah, to be young, foolish and ambitious.
(Item #5283 on my to do list: when the scanner comes in, scan in all those old slides, photos, negs, papers, pamphlets, flyers)
I think I've abandoned the thought of getting a digital SLR. Hair-brained-idea-of-the-moment is to get myself one of
these, along with a tiny P&S digital (an
SD400 maybe?). And somewhere down the line, eventually get a digital back for the Mamiya. I just had
so much fun shooting with the 6x7 this past weekend. Especially with the rotating back (such a convenience!). But definitely when (if?) I get one of these things, will pick up an AE finder -- it was so frustrating metering with my SLR, especially for night shots. And somehow, somewhere find one of those elusive blue/yellow polarizers.
I guess I'm in one of those moods again...it's 9:46AM, there's a disinteresting conference call rattling away on my speakerphone, my car CD case is filled with old Everything But The Girl albums, I'm dressed and ready for work, and yet...I'm sitting here, at home, pecking away at my web log. Maybe I'm just trying to delay getting back to work after having such a nice extended weekend roaming the backroads of California.
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The Mayonnaise Jar and The Beer
A friend of mine passed this on to me, and thought it was quite insightful, especially given my current situation...
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar...and the beer. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full.They agreed that it was.So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.
The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends,your favorite passions-- things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. "The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else--the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. "Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand." One of the students raised their hand and inquired what the beer represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers.
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Time and Tide
On the way to the Mejias' new digs in San Marcos earlier today, took a brief jaunt up Old Hwy 101 in Solana Beach. It wasn't too bad, with a decent onshore flow from the Pacific off to the left. But it was the typical San Diego marine layer, masking the blue sky and morning sun up above and keeping things a relatively boring dull gray. Regardless, it was nice motoring along the old coastline -- reminiscent of many a troubled post-midterm UCSD afternoon. Now that I think about it, I should've started out of North Parking just for shits and giggles. It's amazing how nothing has really changed in the old sleepy beach communities of Solana Beach, Leucadia, Encinitas.
Lou's Records is still going strong, and that old taco shop is
still there just down the street (I still haven't tried it after all these years).
So I was amazed at what my old friends have pulled off...a 4500 sq ft. home in the hills of San Marcos. Absolutely
stunning. Nice inlay in the foyer, solid wood banisters, 5 bedrooms, a gorgeous master bath, and just an endless vast expanse of s-p-a-c-e. I'm quite happy for them, it seems like a great life. Both working for the school system, with months (yes,
months) of time off each year -- a great way to raise a family. It was a nice couple of hours catching up with my kumpare and kumare. And so goes life in San Diego. I really ought to go visit more of my old friends; time is fleeting like sand blowing in the wind -- the next thing you know, it's 10 years later.
Also caught two movies this weekend:
Super Size Me (really well done -- I've pretty much cut fast food out of my diet, but this movie just makes it sink in even more...can't believe his liver was damaged!) and
50 First Dates (also quite good -- a nice reminder of what it really means to truly love someone: to give everything that you have, everything that you are to one person, completely and without hesitation)
That caramel macchiato is really keeping me up late tonight. Even after 10 hours on the road. Gawd, 58 is so much tire-sliding, 2nd gear corner powering out, hot-air-blast-in-your-face, wide-open straights
FUN!!!! Even the second time around. I need to go back
again. One of the things that I really loved was when you're in the hills on the eastern section, with the road carved out of the side of the mountain, the wail of the open intake honk reverberates against the walls of the mountainside! And if you stop, and shut off the car, it's absolutely dead silent. No roar of civilation, nothing. Just the tick-tick-tick of cooling metal, the crunch of the dirt beneath your feet, and the howl of the hot wind blowing past your ears. Oh, and the occassional faint "moo" of a cow in the distance.
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Play That Funky Music Whiteboy
What a pleasant weekend.
So today we went to Zarlito's since an old friend of my Mom's had specifically requested a -silog dish, and the only one I knew about was Zarlito's on 8th Street. My first time there, armed with the second-hand experience of post-night-clubbing stories as told from my fellow San Diego peeps. It wasn't bad...hella cheap (five bucks a dish!) but I think Lucky Chances gives you more. But hey...it's long/tos/tap-silog; you're not dealing with a wide range in quality here.
And I was able to (finally) play with this:
Weeeeee! Thanks to Randy for letting me borrow a BI book. I wish the fretboard was a bit wider, but all in all it played great (well, in my quite limited and narrow opinion based on playing 2, maybe 3 bandurrias?) with a nice action and decently loud tone. I didn't test if the tuning held consistent higher down the fret board, but hey...I'm pretty content, especially for the price. And there's two of 'em! With hard and soft case! (Shoulda made my Dad pick up a laud & bandurria too instead of two octavinas.) Anyways, I picked my way through some songs, fumbling along with my fingering -- those 7's and 9's are quite painful on my unused pinky! Hopefully I'll
really commit to practicing this time, unlike everything else in this unfocused boy's life.
And what was really nice was just being able to sit and talk with the parents tonight. My Dad was talking all about the trip back to the homeland, about all the problems they're having with building the house. It's quite an eye-opener to here him describe the totally different building techniques they use there, especially when it comes to heat management. Insulation is normally laid flat over the ceiling, with the shiny side up (to reflect the heat). Also, with the crawl space under the roof, the ventilated air let's the heat circulate so it doesn't soak into the house. But the builders had a difficult time grasping the concept, and instead mounted the insulation to directly to the roof, with the shiny side down, where it wouldn't help. And there was not enough planning for ventilation, especially with the sewer lines, which would cause problems with odors leaking from the drains (eek). And what really tripped me out was the entire house was made out of hollow-blocks sealed over with cement. Interesting! There is no wood (at all) because of the risk of termites. No sheetrock. No fire blocks. No insulation in the walls. So basically, the cement/hollow blocks soak in the heat during the day, then radiate it inward at night.
Regardless, I'm excited. They want me to go next July along with my brothers and cousins. I think I will. I haven't been there for let's see...about thirty years now? I just have to figure out how to schedule it with the Marseilles trip (I want to go to that one too if I can).
And it was great listening to my Dad talk about his trip. He laid out this huge street map of Manila (I was blown away by the street layout, by the way -- I'd get myself lost and killed out there). As he was going through the various towns within Manila, pointing out the places he's been, and how this place is the really bad part, and how he got pulled over on Roxas Boulevard and talked himself out of a ticket, and how he always got lost in the central part (forgot which one) and how his favorite area is the boardwalk on Manila Bay, I started to see it...that sense of home, and how much he really misses it. He spoke of the Philippines like I would speak of places I've been; of memories somehow made sweeter with the passage of time. I really want to go, and want him to take me to all the places, and show me the land where we come from. I want to see where he grew up. I want to see the town my Mom speaks so much about, reminiscing on happy times long past, and the
Laguna De Bay where the water used to be clear with a clean sandy bottom...
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I Found My Soulmate...
Too bad it's a
guy. hehehhehe
The story totally reminds me of a time not too long ago when I spent four weeks one summer out in Augusta, Georgia (home of the St. Augusta golf course, where the Master's are played -- I've always found that term interesting..."Master's Championship" smack dab in the middle of slavery land). I was out there doing a beta test evaluation of the software that I wrote for an Army medical unit out of Eisenhower Medical Center. The weekdays were rather mundane, rolling into the ER in my dark grey Ford Countour rental, interviewing the nursing staff, noting their difficulties interacting with those old Fujitsu Stylistic 1000 tablet PCs (wow, check out
this web page about it -- can you say old?). It's too bad our product was a bit too ahead of its time, there were so many uphill battles trying to revolutionize the patient charting process; pencil & paper were so deeply entrenched. I'm glad to see that as the medical staff begins to come from the techno generation, such tools are much more palatable -- they were freakin' double-charting for goodness sake! And 90% of the time, you couldn't even read a chart. Oh well...I digress...
So anyways, Augusta was a dead-end southern town that went to sleep at 8PM each night. It was my first time away from home with a real job, so I got antsy on weekends. One day just decided to "go somewhere". Anywhere. So took out the trusty atlas, pointed the car
that way, and eleven hours later found myself greeted by the spectacular scene of white national monuments glowing amidst the backdrop of a Washington D.C. night. Checked out the Smithsonian, Lincoln Memorial, Reflection Pool, etc. My favorite is still Jefferson Memorial at night. Quite beautiful. It was a simple plan, really...point the car in one direction after work on Friday afternoon, making sure to hit those roads marked with the dots (AAA identified scenic highway) and then turn around when you hit late Saturday afternoon.
There's something to be said about being 2000 miles away from home/friends/family/support, piloting your chariot in total control: "Tobacco Road? That sounds interesting...let's go!" "Ooooh, I wonder what's down there?" "I feel like going to Tenessee today." So the next few weekends found myself in Miami, Florida (unbelievably, incredulously, sticky hot sweaty sauna steambath dirty city in September) and the Blue Ridge Mountains in Tenessee/Kentucky (I wish I was able to stay just a couple of weeks later to see all of the hillsides light on fire with the golden turning of the leaves. I saw a few that had started but I was left with only my mind to paint the image of golden brown trees as far as the eyes can see.
A few times I kinda spooked myself, especially driving through rural Georgia in the middle of the night on some sideroads -- thoughts of the hooded members of the Klan ran rampant throughout my mind; imagine breaking down out there? There were no lights nor cars out there, just the occassional mailbox marking a home. And then there was that day rolling into Macon where I
swear it was straight out of some Tom Sawyer movie. White picket fences (and I mean
real white picket fences) guarding homes with the swing and chairs on the front porch...I remember picturing the streets with the coloreds walking on
that side and the whites on
this side. It's only been about 40 years since segregation was a way of life.
So after returning from the Augusta trip, I pledged to make it out to all these places that I've been wanting to go to -- Lassen, Mt. Shasta, SF to Seattle via 101/1, Yellowstone, Hwy 50, Monument Valley, Kodachrome Basin, Arches, Denver...It's now 8 years later, and mission not accomplished. "Best laid plans" indeed.
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Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Men...
...Often Go Astray
So I ended up leaving at 8:30 instead of 5:30. Ended up missing all of the good morning light, and got stuck with the crap ass 11AM to 3pm blazing-direct-overhead-no-contrast-having-sunlight. And stupid me blew the first 3 shots because I forgot to remove the damned dark plate! Grrrr. Well, at least it was a great drive down.
Damned hot, but there was some decent cloud cover for a while on the
25 to cool things off. I hope the pics turned out OK. I think I should stop bracketing under, and bracket over. I'm pretty sure the average meter is taking into account the bright-ass sky and compensating down, which will eventually wash out the black of the car. I guess the right thing to do would be to grab a ND filter and shut down the sky a bit. And I'm really disappointed I didn't grab a blue/yellow polarizer. The sky was a horrid pale white instead of a deep blue. I need to go another photo odyssey when the skies are darker and filled with clouds threatening of rain.
I think I really like Hwy 58. It's quite a great exercise, starting out with tight blind corners out of Santa Margarita, then switching to long wide open sweepers, and then opening to a majestic & gorgeous valley with asphault that stretches, literally, straight ahead for
miles. And there's no one, I mean absolutely
no one on the road. I was able to pull over on one long stretch and briefly imagine myself as Cary Grant in North By Northwest (that bus stop scene in the middle of nowhere -- one of my most favorite sequences of all time), standing there, on a hot summer day, with no one for miles.
Next time I do this, I have to make sure to get the AE prism. Using my old 35mm as a meter is just damned annoying.
Oh and lesson learned: either scout potential picture locations or enjoy driving fast. DO NOT do both. There was one corner on 58 that was a blind right hander. I was at a fairly brisk pace, but got distracted by the stunning view of a road that was headed uphill and off to the right, opening into a lovely valley. Stupid me panicked a bit, squeezing the brakes a bit late -- while turning, mind you -- bad! bad! bad! and ended up getting a bit squirrely. So after I was able to get my heart out of my throat, I made
sure to play it right. Take it slow and pick out the photo spots, or enjoy a brisk drive by keeping keen focus, and looking way ahead around corners, gauging approach speeds, decreasing radius corners, and pebble/sand strewn blind corners. Man, there was a great stretch of 58 way out east by the 5 coming down from the high plateau, with nice tight 2nd gear corners. That was a freakin' blast. You could just point that double-wishbone'd Honda any way you want it to and it'll just turn. Gawd, I'm going to miss this car when I finally sell it. :(
So I was able to get to Torrance by about 6, greeted by a nice, friendly L.A. welcome: one hour to travel 10 miles. (mental note:
never take the 405
ever again north of LAX -- that 10/405 interchange with the corresponding 4 to 3 lane reduction is just downright painful). It was good seeing the cousins again -- but downright crazy to see how old the other kids have become, kids that I haven't seen in years are now teenagers. Eek. Next thing you know, they'll be married with kids and I'll still be roaming the earth, alone.
Not sure if I could make it out to Utah this time. I'll do the mileage calcs tomorrow, but I think I'm pushing my luck to be in southeast Utah by 5PM. And I really don't want to rush. It was nice being able to take my time and relax -- I spent eight hours getting to L.A., a trip that usually takes me 4 and a half!
Oh... one thing that I do miss about the southland: Warm summer nights...I was able to motor top-down all the way from Torrance to San Diego in a relatively cool (but not frigid) 72 degrees.
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Hollywood Nights
Damnit, I can't sleep.
I'm totally exhausted with only 4 hours of sleep last night (mental note to self: when you move to the city,
no TV in the bedroom -- or else you'll end up staying up watching stuff like
this which actually wasn't too bad). I'm just too excited for tomorrow. And I gotta be head out at 5AM to catch the morning light in the central valley. Whatever, we'll see how my lazy ass fares at the crack of dawn. Picked up the
RZ67, got 3 Pro Packs of Velvia 50, all the bags are packed and I have a general sense of where to go. Still undecided though if I should try to pull off a monster trek to Utah for
this. Ever since I saw that amazing flick
My Darling Clementine, in all it's cinemascope glory eons ago back at (crap, I can't remember the name of the hall anymore!) UCSD, I've wanted to be out there. In the great expanse. Nothing but me, my car, the road below, and the sky above. We'll see...a detour through the four corners would definitely double the trip mileage, and I'd have to forego Mono Lake & Tioga pass.
It'll be good seeing family again, annual barrio fiesta in Torrance, then a brief stay in San Diego. Maybe I'll get a chance to visit an old friend. It's always quite the perspective adjustment whenever I visit San Diego. Everyone with the half-a-mil 2000 sq ft house in suburbia, married with 2.5 kids. BBQ grill out back, weekly lawn mowing out front. Golf on weekends, the occassional kid birthday party, maybe a movie on Tuesday night. 9-5 job, with Charger football on fall Sundays and Padres baseball on warm summer afternoons. Sometimes I wonder...had I decided to quell my restless soul and remain in the land of the Sport Utility Vehicle and the isolated carpool lane, where would I be? A beautiful home in Carlsbad and a rental property in Chula Vista? A spectacular trophy wife and 2 kids? Saturday afternoons in the park?
But I remember why. 29 years in America's Finest City had done nothing to satisfy my soul. I wanted more...I wanted to know what's out
there. I remember sitting up at night in that upstairs bedroom on a humid and hot July evening in the Queens brownstone, looking out into the city and being so really happy. Listening to the hustle and bustle of that great dirty city at 3 in the morning, the 7 train roaring by and the trash trucks processing countless bags of garbage. And realizing that somewhere
out there is everything that I've always wanted, and all that I'll ever need.
Fast forward 16 years and the quest continues.
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In My Tribe
So call me dumbfounded and behind the times...it's quite interesting seeing how web technologies have progressed. I know some of these things have been around for a while now, but tools like this blogger,
wikipedia, Google
Earth/
Maps/
Froogle,
photostreams,
43things,
43places, etc. etc. are all slowly conspiring to evolve this thing called the internet into what it should be: an amazing anarchical stream of consciousness, enabling widespread communication to the masses on a global scale. Now people without any knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, blah blah blah, can focus on content and publish information to the masses.
neat-o.
OK, back to cleaning out my closet.
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Rocketman
She packed my bags last night, pre-flightZero hour: 9AMAnd I'm going to be as high as a kite by thenI wonder what it's like to look down on the Earth from a hundred-mile-high
vantage point. All the troubles and worries of the world would just vanish into little atomic pinpricks on the surface of this mortal coil. And all you see around our tiny human race is an immense vast dark expanse of the heavens above, framed by the guiding light of a single star, lighting our planet with life. I remember being a kid and learning about the wonders of red-shift and white dwarfs. Heh...I used to spend afternoons taking trips in my mind to distant planets that exist only in theoretical plots of space travel, imagining a world a billion light years away with someone just like me, a bored 12-year old filipino kid reading a library sprawled on an old worn brown cut-pile carpet one hot summer afternoon... It's funny how years of dealing with the rigors of menial everyday reality manage to slowly erode away those old childhood fantasies of distant galaxies and worlds. Sometimes I like to think that somewhere out there is this parallel universe, where my soul exists untroubled and carefree, possibly enjoying a nice afternoon picnic atop a grassy mountain meadow with his soulmate, listening to the sound the cool breeze makes as it rushes through the trees, and feeling the warmth of the sun as it slowly heads for cover below the distant horizon...
But hey. Daydreaming is for procrastinators and kids on summer vacation...
21 Grams was quite an enjoyable film. The story was rather predictable, and it's quite the downer, but it was a worthwhile examination of spirituality and humanity. For some reason, no matter how jacked up their lives were, in the end you start convincing yourself that it was all for a purpose; a good purpose.
Man,
this brings back some serious memories of being a geek. Oh wait, I'm still a geek. :)
Can't wait for the weekend! 1000 miles in 5 days, gonna be fun!
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Now They'll Sleep
So after dropping off the roomies at SFO at an eye-opening 3:30 this morning, I couldn't get back to sleep. Ended up staying awake 'til half past five reading the latest issue of SCC that arrived in the mail yesterday. So wouldn't you know it, I missed my 9:30 meeting and ended up rolling into work at a quite unhealthy 11AM. Watching E.R. this morning didn't help my cause either. (I still think Dr. Lewis is hot -- can't forget that first season episode with the black dress -- what is it with black dresses?)
I bet they're having loads of fun on the trip to Brazeeeeel...I'm sure they'll pull off a great set of performances as they usually do.
Fuji Velvia 50 is some
bad ass film. I wish I had some scenes with intense colors to truly take advantage of it. But there is like no grain, and the color saturation is just amazing. Still can't decide on whether to go with slides or color negs. The slides definitely have potential for some amazing prints especially on the Ilford Classics, but there's a steep price to pay -- lots of bracketing, careful metering, need to use graduated ND and the right warming filters, and proper slide selection for the final print. The color negs defintely have more latitude and much more forgiving. But much too dependent on the skill and vision of the final printer. Besides, where's the fun in that? I mean best thing would be to get one of
these. But that's crazy talk. Especially for a lowly amateur hobbyist like me.
Oh well. Hopefully I'll get lucky this weekend and find myself in some amazing early morning/late afternoon light that all this wouldn't matter. Can't wait!
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Weeeeee! Thanks to Randy for letting me borrow a BI book. I wish the fretboard was a bit wider, but all in all it played great (well, in my quite limited and narrow opinion based on playing 2, maybe 3 bandurrias?) with a nice action and decently loud tone. I didn't test if the tuning held consistent higher down the fret board, but hey...I'm pretty content, especially for the price. And there's two of 'em! With hard and soft case! (Shoulda made my Dad pick up a laud & bandurria too instead of two octavinas.) Anyways, I picked my way through some songs, fumbling along with my fingering -- those 7's and 9's are quite painful on my unused pinky! Hopefully I'll really commit to practicing this time, unlike everything else in this unfocused boy's life.
