LethargiaAugust 15, 2008This is about the time of year I start wanting summer to be over I'm sitting here in my apartment sweltering but not wanting to put on the AC beacuse I'm running out of money (lots of students take the summer off). Teaching is tough too cuz the kids are kind of cranky this time of year too.I took a mini vacation and Christopher came for a visit last week. That was a pretty good time. I FINALLY (after 7 years!) saw the Hollywood sign, although it was still from very far away. Cool enough though. We went shopping on Melrose and took a very nice scenic drive up Laurel Canyon Rd and Mulholland Drive. 
We went to see Powerman 5000 at the Whiskey A Go Go and Jerry pointed out that Wes Borland (ex Limp Bizkit, now apparently Manson's new guitarist) was standing behind me. I didn't recognize him without the black contacts (haha!). That was a little weird, probably would have been super excited when I was younger to see him in public. Random short list of famous people I have seen out here in order of appearance (since my East Coast folks constantly ask when I'm home): Kelly Osbourne (The Rainbow), Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie Tanner on Full House...she sat in front of me in history class at Chapman and borrowed my pen once.) Mandy Moore (@ Hotel Cafe), Wes Borland (Whiskey). If you count the people in metal bands, the list would extend much longer, but I can almost guarantee anyone who is not one of my music friends out here would not know who any of those people are or care, for that matter, so I'll leave that list out. PM5k was pretty ok. Again, they're a band I would have been very excited to see about 10 years ago (and apparently according to Chris I had seen them when we were teenagers...? I have absolutely no recollection of that). I still knew all of the songs, apparently they haven't done too much new material in 10 years. It was a good show though. Not sold out, which is odd considering they used to play arenas on the East Coast back in their heydey. The next night we went to get Thai food at Thai Too on Sunset Blvd (not sure if that's how it's spelled). That restauraunt was awesome!!!! The food was great and the atmosphere was excellent. Then we drove down to Venice Beach and took a really nice night walk during low tide on the beach while listening to Doors tunes through shared ipod headphones (Chris is a huge Jim Morrison fan). It was peaceful and I don't think I've had a nicer beach night than that in recent memory. That is exactly how I am going to remember his visit, and it's stuff like that, that makes me happy I have people like him in my life. Other things going on: not much except tons of work. And I mean TONS. I have spent every free moment that I can programming (working on a big photo CMS as well as updating two other people's sites and trying to get my music lesson site updated as well!), although I am forcing myself to relax when I get tired so I don't get entirely run down. Busy time of year! The Big OneJuly 29, 2008There are a lot of things that run through my head during an earthquake. Mostly just thoughts of "Oh crap [or perhaps insert another more severe expletive]." Sometimes when it is a really small one I second guess the fact that I felt one and have to check it on the online earthquake map.Today I was in the process of getting dressed when the earthquake began and I let out a giant high-pitched yelp with one foot in my jeans and the other in the air as my bedroom began to shake violently back and forth and I tried to keep my balance. At first I thought it might be my head, because I found out I have a wonderful ear infection and have been entirely off balance for the last day and a half, but when it didn't stop after a few seconds, I realized that it was an earthquake and ran across the room to grab onto the little overhang that is in between my living room and bedroom area...either way, a little scary, but it's a side effect of living in SoCal. Once cell phone service was restored, everyone made sure their friends were OK and then moved on with the day. Other news: I saw At the Gates (!!!!) on Sunday evening at the Henry Fonda Theater and it was easily one of the best shows I've been to in years...as you can see from the crazy crowd: Some of my [male] friends were surprised that I wanted to go. I don't know why, I'm always down for an awesome show, and I like the music...and I actually prefer these crowds to the ridiculous "hardcore" kids, I feel like it is a more adult atmosphere. (OK so the video doesn't do it any justice at all, but it was great) I mean, I bought a ticket ahead of time, which, if you know me, RARELY happens unless I really am excited about a certain show. I didn't know that I had to be a "Sweedish metal guru" to want to go to this show but I actually listen to At the Gates fairly often when I'm programming. I guess the bottom line is that it is amusing how people who supposedly know you so well, don't really know you at all. Truth is, you could find me at a heavy metal concert one night, and the next night I could be at the symphony (if I could afford it) and then the next night you could find me at an open mic night where a rockabilly band is playing. Anyone who has ever been in my car and experienced one of my mixed CDs knows this; I bump Madonna back to back with All Shall Perish and Eric Whitacre (who, by the way is a phenominal composer). So... I have many different tastes, and I like it that way. I will never put myself in a box musically, and nobody ever should. Junk and gems exist in every genre. Anyway, the entire audience was totally crazy and it was just an all around good vibe. I was even tempted to mosh (but I didn't!).. I haven't left a show in happy-show mode in quite some time, so yeah. Excellent.  This is me and my friend Lilia at the show. I didn't take my nice camera and have no pictures of the crowd (which was awesome) or my other excellent friends, oh well! They keep talking on the news about how we are going to have the most powerful earthquake in the world within the next decade and that we should be prepared. I'm not sure how to prepare for that, am I supposed to just carry water everywhere with me? Because if "the big one" hits, I'm certainly not going to be digging around my apartment for an emergency kit, I'm going to be running for some kind of cover and if I survive that, preparing myself mentally for complete anarchy... if "the big one" does come, I don't think there is much we can do.... I don't mean to make light of a very serious situation, but this article is kind of hilarious. I especially like this line: "We'd like to have you not depend on government," said Stephen Sellers, deputy director of the California Office of Emergency Services. Uhm..... Random Thoughts and UpdateJuly 26, 20081) I wonder why people name their children "Wednesday" but never name them "Monday" or "Friday."2) I realized that I am offically grown up last night when I was home scrubbing my bathtub at 9pm (because it is the only time I am going to have to do it in the next 3 weeks) and I didn't care that I was doing that rather than hanging out at Chain Reaction at the Sea of Treachery show that I really wanted to see. 3) While I may be grown up, I am not old because after that, I played RockBand until 4am.That game is too many kinds of fun! 3) Coffee is amazing. I bought myself a very nice (and LONG ANTICIPATED) digital SLR camera for my 25th birthday, which was at the end of last month. Here are some photos:  Part of my living room. I am still working on the exact interior design of it, but I have found this is one thing I truly enjoy doing-and it is difficult in the small space I live in.  I took this whilst sitting up on top of a hill last week in Laguna Beach talking to my best friend on the phone.  One thing about living in California that is pretty interesting is that here there are people from many different countries and with many different cultural backgrounds, and in most of my experiences, people are happy to share their traditions with you. I attended my first quincenera and had the pleasure of being photographer for the day. This young lady is the niece of one of my close friends. While I did not eat any of the tongue tacos or try any mole (pronounced moll-ay), I love Mexican food, I love their parties, I love how they dance so comfortably (unlike me..I am a trainwreck on the dancefloor) and most of all, I love how important family is to them. It was a really cool experience!  My Dad always asks me what I'm doing for fun. I haven't really had too much time for fun between working lately, but I do occasionally get to go see concerts and shows and such. I saw Suicide Silence play a really huge show. I didn't take this photo, but I was standing behind the person who did. This was at the Mayhem Fest in San Bernadino, CA. Good group of guys, they are. I didn't listen to too many of the other bands that day because it was very hot out and I had a VIP pass and there was a tour bus with air conditioning to sit on. Let me tell you, THAT is the way to spend festival concerts. I certainly dont' miss being covered in other people's sweat or having to worry about this happening right next to me: walls of death (warning: loud and obnoxious music with some profanity). I did listen to Disturbed from the parking lot, and Dragonforce sitting up on a grassy hill (very reminiscent of walking up to Green Hill Park in Worcester for Locobazooka back in the day). I spent Slipknot's set sitting on an old foundation away from the crowds. I kind of would have liked to see them but it was getting too wild for me (people were lighting fires and such). Also, the last time I saw Slipknot was 10 years ago (at Locobazooka actully!), and that makes me feel super old. I didn't bring my camera that day, but I kind of wish I had because it was really pretty out there. The venue was surrounded by hills and you could see the mountains in the distance. There's something so ironic about being in the parking lot of a big show like that, while all of that "mayhem" (pardon the silly pun) is happening inside, everything else in the world seems so peaceful. I think that's why I have always been drawn to music like this. It creates the illusion that everything else that is crazy that is happening in the world can't be nearly as bad as this. Tomorrow I'm going to see At the Gates, so that will be sweet! Anyway...I was accepted as a DMOZ editor last week. I am hugely nerdily excited about this. I am in the process of moving web hosts, so this site will likely be back up as soon as I have stable mysql database access that I don't have to pay extra for (the fact that any hosting company expects you to pay more for one database when godaddy gives out 10 for free is beyond me.) In the meantime, please watch this video: Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. It's an hour long, but I watched the entire thing and it really moved me. If you don't feel affected by this, I'm thinking you're a robot and you should probably go spider someone else's website. |
 This image is updated by my phone via Scenekick.com |