Blogs & Twitters

Tootsie’s Halloween

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:10:30 -0800

My little old black cat went out with style, taking her final rest on Halloween night.

At seventeen-and-a-half years, it was just her time. She didn’t go through any prolonged illness or pain—just suddenly got very tired and fell asleep by her milk bowl. I am very sad, but grateful she made the best exit possible.

I would have preferred she simply never go away, but since she had to go, what better time for a black cat than Halloween? Now my favorite holiday will always remind me of my little cat Too’.

Photos

Videos

The Move

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:34:57 -0700

Before moving down here I had a dream that the garage of my new place got cleaned out and turned into a Wing Chun school. Then Buffy the Vampire Slayer kicked down the door of my new room and started making out with me. It was awesome! Alas, neither came true.

Thoughts and notes on moving down here:

I am going to get much better MPG, but be going through more fuel down here.

Right now am just freelancing, mostly focused on centerforliberty.org, but may look for a full time job.

According to Yahoo’s yellow pages, the nearest Wing Chun is about 50 miles away. So I may just see whatever I can find that’s nearby.

Been down here two weeks, and already had more of a social life than I did for two years in NorCal.

Need to go:
swing dancing
to Disneyland
to the San Diego Zoo
to the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park

Finally to Socal

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:51:05 -0700

It only took two-and-a-half years, but I finally finished the move from Walla Walla, Washington to the Inland Empire of Southern California.

We took my nephew to a pumpkin patch in Yucaipa, photos are on the MobileMe gallery.

Nephew

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:05:39 -0700

Another long overdue post: As of January 31, I am the proud uncle of this cool dude.

Bay Photo Shoot

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:27:30 -0700

Went to a photo shoot in the Bay this weekend. Something I have wanted to start doing is get snapshots with models I’ve worked with just for fun, and this time I finally remembered. Photos on the portfolio site sometime.

Disneyland

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:16:39 -0700

Long over due post about a trip to Disneyland for Kenny’s birthday back on May 10.

My trip was awesome. Saturday we did a picnic at a park, where I took photos for Kenny and Melinda who just got engaged. Kenny also asked me about doing photos for his wedding. Yeah, I'm doing it.

Saturday night we went swing dancing in Pasadena and Bill Nye the Science Guy was there. They say he is often at this particular thing. A couple of the girls in our group got to dance with him. Pretty crazy/fun.

Then Sunday it was off to Disneyland! First thing when we got there, we went to the Blue Bayou restaurant to see if we could get reservations. It's the one inside Pirates of the Caribbean and always gets booked up fast. Well, they were all booked for the day, but said to check back as they often get cancellations.

We did Space Mountain and all the good stuff. Checked back at the Blue Bayou later and they said it was a 15-30 minute wait. We said "Awesome!" and sat down to wait. While we were waiting I was sympathizing for a slightly stressed looking mom who was trying to figure out if they made anything there that her picky kids would eat. "Can you do peanut butter and jelly?" She looked kind of familiar, and then one of the waiters asked about the Calista Flockhart reservation. Took a second look, and sure enough that was her! Everything in that restaurant is like 30 bucks a plate, so we just did dessert. They make these "pirate ships" from very large, almost cake-like cookies with ice cream on top. Really good.

Then we did more rides, including Space Mountain again. I had forgotten a hat and was worried about my head burning, so we went to the Mad Hatter's Shop and I found a cool hat which could also work in a swing dancing outfit.

Everything went really smooth and fast except for Splash Mountain at the very end of the day. It hadn't been too bad getting onto anything all day, so we hadn't gotten Fast Passes for it and spent over an hour in line! Doh! But it was fun.

Then hung out with the rest of the gang and went home Monday. Yeah… so why haven't I moved down there yet?

Photos:

Kung Fu Panda

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:29:06 -0700

I am very upset with the persons responsible for the marketing of this movie. Because of trailers like this, I didn’t see it in theaters, as I was under the impression that it was just going to be a lame cartoon full of fat jokes and mocking the film genre I love. I had no idea that it is in fact a celebration of the martial arts movie and an awesome one in its own right.

It has an epic kung fu battle between a tiger and a snow leopard suspended on a swinging bridge over a bottomless chasm! Are you freaking kidding me? Give just the slightest inkling of that in the trailer and I am camped out for the very first showing with tickets to the second and third in my pocket!

And that doesn’t even touch the wonderful art, character design, sound, music, acting…

They ain’t fooling me a second time. June 3, 2011 I am there. Meantime, hopefully they show the first one on IMAX from time to time and I can catch it there.

Action Figurine

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:39:06 -0800

Nerdy as I am, I never thought I’d get into the whole action-figure thing.

But it was Chun Li. In orange. I had no choice.

Needs More Cow Bell

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:06:32 -0800

Went and saw the Kings in Arco Arena back on the 11th. Usually when we go and see them live they win, and they didn’t disappoint. It was a good game, but the highlight reel doesn’t quite give it justice (and the lady mispronouncing Beno’s and Salmon’s names drive me nuts). They were up by a bunch, then down by a bunch, and then fought back into it.

Being back in Nor Cal with the local cable showing every single game, this is the closest I’ve ever followed the Kings. So of course they are having one of their worst seasons ever. Why did they have to have their glory years when I lived in Washington and was busy with school? Oh well. They got some good rookies, and seem full of potential, but still rebuilding.

When you don’t make it to very many games, you gotta get good seats when you do manage to. I was totally on TV. See? See?

Speaking of being on TV, two girls in front of us seemed to be there solely for that purpose. Both smattered in makeup, taking out their little pocket mirror touch up kit constantly. One had frost-blonde hair that looked more like a solid headpiece. I don’t think they ever once turned to watch the game, as they were constantly gabbing and fawning over each other about who knows what. As can be imagined, these weren’t exactly cheap seats, so what they were doing there was a constant sideshow of puzzlement and amusement.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback and Sacramento native Seneca Wallace was in attendance court side. When the PA pointed him out, they handed him a football and encouraged him to throw it into the stands. I thought I’d actually have a good chance of getting it as he walked out onto the court, but he heaved it all the way up into the cheap seats. Crazy.

The crowd was lackluster at first, not helped by the PA guy’s awkward chant leading at the start. He’d say “Let’s go Kings!” pause and repeat, but it was never clear if he wanted us to say it along with him, or echo. If he’d just been out on the court and held the mic towards us when he wanted noise, I think he would have gotten something. As it was, it was a kind of bad feeling silence at that point. The loudest they got was for the stupid Best Buy blimp flying around at half-time dropping gift certificates. But when the game got tight and the Kings kept fighting back in front the crowd did genuinely get into it, which was pretty awesome.

Sports and the Power of Media

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:58:08 -0800

Since the start of the 1997 season:
The Cowboys have a record of 95-102, including going 0-5 in the playoffs.
The Rams are 98-104, winning 6 playoff games including Super Bowl XXXIV.

Yet anyone who paid even casual attention to football coverage this year saw how the media is trying its darndest to instill the notion that the ‘Boys are “America’s Team”. Drives me nuts.

If anything, I’d argue for the Green Bay Packers being America’s Team, with the Lambeau Field mystique, and the fact that they are the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the U.S.