have you ever been to an art museum and really liked a piece or really confused by a piece and just couldn't wait to see what the crap this dude titled it? then when you look it says 'no title,' 'untitled,' 'picture,' or 'painting 1', etc? how lame is that?!! you're all ready to make fun of the guy, or praise him and impress your artsy friends by talking about your (newly found) favorite artist "so-and-so" - and BAM - there's no title to the piece. how are you supposed to spark a conversation with that? (oh wait, i just did)
well, somehow in the last 2 months i've become a sub-par blogger, and i apologize. still, i don't know how much of a sincere apology it is knowing that i'll be pretty busy over the next 3 weeks. i've been in portland this week for training and leave in the morning for 2 days in atlanta, ga... should be fun. tomorrow is pretty much free, just flying over and checking in to the hotel. gonna have to hit the town and see what's hot down in the ATL! ha.
i can't wait to get some pictures from kyle from our trip last weekend to andalusia, alabama! we had the greatest time hanging out with our great uncle chuck, his kids, and their kids (our 2nd cousins i believe)! i heard my share of off-the-wall puerto rico stories, learned to play gin-rummy (or re-learned, i think i knew at one point) and kicked butt, and polished up my billiard skills! southern alabama is much prettier than i expected, even the highways are gorgeous! of course i loved the accents and all the large homes and big yards (i think 5 acre was the low standard). speaking of accents, my coworkers are mostly from north carolina, boston, and new york - i'm loving the wide array of accents, and yet everyone of them just stares at me in disbelief that i think their accent is cool. i try to pick out the diff words that they pronounce thicker than i... i'm not sure why i'm so intrigued by accents but i guess that's another perk to my job - easterners & new englandites!
hope you're all doing well and please prod me if i don't blog, i sometimes forget how much money i'm losing with my daily hits average dropping below 400. :(
suggested tunes: "the devil whale" from SLC, and Weezer's new single, "pork and beans", from their self-titled "Red Album" (already has over 10mil views! - and as the cherry on top, "pork and beans acoustic w/vocals by the "chocolate rain" kid!!
no.121 untitled
no.120 move it!
ok, so i'm up in the SLC now and i must admit - it's a beautiful city with gorgeous mountains all around. there are plenty of other gorgeous things around too, but i'll save that for another day...
i drove up with my buddies, Justin & Jimmy stopping along the way for food with family and friends. first we stopped in the deathifying heat of las vegas to eat some good old american frosty's at wendy's with my sister Nikki and her kids Warren "the Walrus" and her 2 month old girl, Audrey. They're so cute and I'm super stoked everytime I get to see those kids, especially now that the Walrus is dominating the english language more and more everyday. My favorite phrase of his was "Eww, yucky!" repeated over and over while eating his Frosty. After another 5 hours of driving we met Dustin & his wife Rachel for dinner in Provo and were heavily let down by Panda Express' cold chow mein and lame fortune cookie "fortunes" (they're getting lamer and lamer by the year!). However, their new Beijing Beef is quite a hit with my tastebuds, they even have this weird ad-campaign going on in their stores of beijing beef vs. orange chicken... i don't know if it's some sort of national pride battle between china and some south american country pre-olympics next month or what, but they've got some funny looking boxing panda's for their ads.
p.s. this is a coupon as well, so go use it!
tonight i leave for niceville, florida to meet up with my Mom and Kyle out there for a visit with Uncle Chuck, my grandma Carroll's brother. Grandpa Bob & Grandma Carroll will be there as well for comic relief and to give me a few more career pointers before I start work next week with an undisclosed Consulting firm. I'm pretty stoked for everything to start next week, and be sure to check back for the unveiling of my first project city next week when i receive my assignment... once i settle in, i promise to post pictures of south america and florida!
two little shout-outs before i head out - my good buddy spencer is out in melbourne, australia for 6 months living the dream before he checks back into reality here on the mainland. and lastly, my brilliant cousin candice just got back from a high school trip to greece & italy (she was one of the teacher chaperones, not a student). hopefully she'll grace us with some pictures of herself and her students all over one of my motherlands (italy)!
and don't forget you can always find my friends & family's blogs on the right - so go check 'em out!
no.119
i know, i know! i still haven't shared any pics of south america.
i'm still deleting the pictures of stacie's lazy eye and kyle's latin girlfriends.
i'll post some here tomorrow - promise. but just as a teaser....
haha
no.118 a wrap up; wroomie wreunion
i still can't figure out why 'wrap' is spelled with a 'w.' pretty wretarded if you ask me.
well, just writing this post i'm getting a little teary-eyed from the memories swelling in my bosom! guys, this weekend wrocked (sorry, i'll stop)... and australia is definitely the next site for RR 2.0, except this time it won't be as much of a sausage fest thanks to hillary (and maybe some of her Bain missies)!
the crew awaiting the train | 66th St. Subway NYC
at this point, the most salient memories are the overpriced (yet delicious) meals twice a day, the overly heated sports matches on the hudson river, and the still unsettled wiffle ball series in central park... using only pictures and the occasional caption i'll try to capture the beauty that was 'sausagefest008'
strip search #1 | yankee stadium (the one they're tearing down)
they were only searching the suspicious people... aka asians
after a long night atop some building freezing our butts off we hit up the famous "chicken & rice" corner stand for some official late night nyc grub!
needless to say, it was hot... thanks for the weak warning (dennis, jimmy, kevin)!
i guess kevin forgot about to heed the warning too
see spencer's plate on the right just drowning in the hot sauce, and dennis' plate to the left with just ranch. (hint: spencer lives in sf, dennis lives in nyc)
this picture was taken after spencer strolled off in the middle of our wiffle ball series to chat on the phone... if you're wondering how intense the conversation is, notice he layed down. and may i suggest the position of his feet is his lazy attempt at an afternoon yoga session? love it! (p.s. you can zoom in on pics by clicking on them) 
here's how the other sf'er (jason) took advantage of the beautiful weather in central park
oh yea, did i mention everywhere we went and everything we did involved some bomb food?
sorry for the blurry pic but this place rocked, and you wouldn't have believed me w/out photo evidence. a 'latin-chinese' spot... haha!
dennis and kevin getting their fix
did i mention we brought san diego weather out to nyc as a little memorial present to our peeps back east? no biggy
the whole crew (minus john kuroda... the grounder of the group)
after a long day around town and in the park, we celebrated nate's bday (1 of 3 bdays that weeekend) at the most down to earth indian restaurant!!!
i wish i could explain to you how amazing the food was, and how hilarious the birthday song was! in the video we're too loud chanting and you can't hear the crazy techno/punjab pop song in the back! these waiters were so funny too...
on monday we finally got over to brooklyn via the subway for some famous 'grimaldi's pizza' - you'll see what i mean by the line outside the restaurant
bomb.com!
after grimaldi's we headed down to the bridge to check out manhattan from the brooklyners' point of vista and out of the blue this huge telescope just popped out of the boardwalk. supposedly there's another telescope in london next to the 'london eye' and we're supposed to believe that these people can look through their telescope in london and see us while we're simultaneously seeing them. sounds like some real hogwart's biz if you ask me!
here's jason making sure the londoners realize that there really are chinese people in new york... 
whether or not it was true, we were just happy to have stepped foot in brooklyn and gotten out with our lives (and a $3 ice cream cone)!
an artsy brooklyn bridge photo for those who care
kevin and i were pretty stoked after our meal at tortilla flats... a mexican restaurant with an eerily familiar hint of the indian restaurant we ate at the night before (small, crammed, loud music, awesome food and lots of crap dangling from the ceiling).
another artsy photo, ironically of the NYMOMA (new york museum of modern art... sort of a fav thing of mine to visit in any big city i can)!
weird modern art... why are you so modern and intriguing?!
modern art's all about capitalism and its beauty
deep. very deep!
the fun thing was seeing lots of famous work (piet mondrian, giorgio de chirico, james rosenquist, warhol, picasso, etc) that my professor had shown us in slides this fall quarter in my amazing visual art class (remember my old posts with my first few pieces for that class? haha... ghetto). first is a ready-made piece... a personal fav
the song of love 1914 | giorgio de chirico
man with yellow pants (& me next to him) 1964 | michelangelo pistoletto
campbell's soup cans 1962 | andy warhol 
in the same room as the campbell's soup cans were 3 other sweet pieces - (l to r) the oof painting, warhol's golden monroe, and rosenquist's monroe, I.
and let us not forget jackson pollock's 'number one.'
before the moma we headed to another famous and over-priced nyc hot spot 'burger joint @ le parker meridien' - wow!
as far as i could tell, they didn't have any dept of health rating system here like we're used to in CA... this place would be hard pressed to get anything better than your local 24 hr mexican taco spot, but aside from cleanliness (they literally asked us to clean up our table after paying $15 for our burger/fries/drink combo)
but just look at lindsay spencer's face! 
after the moma we hit up central park for game 3 of the wiffle ball series... just a little packed there at cp... but we still managed to clear enough space for our entire wiffle ball diamond. needless to say we had a crowd and cheering sections!
jimmy's bday dinner was celebrated in perfect japanese fashion @ 'Oh Taisho", complete with a tiramisiu cupcake and the real life grandpa from 'sailor moon!'
i can't end this post w/out my favorite shot of spencer, nate, jason and jimmy digging in @ 'pinkberry" frozen yogurt... the premier upscale fro-yo for the most masculine men in manhattan! :D
our last day in the big apple went by too quick, but the boys took us up for a mini tour of their campus - columbia u - yes, i have connections, but don't even think about asking. kevin is finishing up his masters program in nutrition and jimmy starts this fall for his masters (plural, yes two) in social work and public health... i'll be there for your graduation in 3 years buddy! but what would a visit to columbia be w/out a trip to coronet pizza? 
$3 for 2 trips to the bathroom of pizza! haha, actually i think my body digested all the grease and cheese. and you thought i got botox...!
jason got 2 of these! haha... we all helped out a little.
in conclusion, as you can see new york treated us well, as did we. the 2nd annual 'roomie reunion' was a success and added 6 to the group. if you're interested in attending the upcoming RR in australia, please send your applications my way via email or voicemail, deadline is september 1st. if you are an active member of sf008, please send your cc information for me to book our flights, hotels, rental cars, facials, pedicures, private assistants, personal chefs and our tickets to an australian league football game. thanks!
no.117 the big sur... frio
computers here pretty much freeze up when i connect my camera. sad times... i hope i´ll be able to upload something before i head home in 2 weeks!!! it´s ridiculous! still, the good food, beautiful cities, and nice weather make up for it! (southern chile and argentina are about 30-45 degrees, plus misty rain... love it)!
so we left santiago on thursday and landed in Puerto Montt... such a cool port city where we stayed in a super cool place - Hostal Central, that was really just a super nice cabaña, and they hooked it up for the poor american backpackers! this place luckily had a nice heater in our room and an amazing bathroom, with plenty of hot water and good water pressure! friday night we took a quick ferry (100 yards) over to an island next to puerto montt with a huge cross at the top and caught some awesome views of the city at night, under the brightest stars!
saturday was spent in the isla de Chiloé, in the quaint fishing town of Ancud... where we walked all around the waterfront up to a sweet small church with views of the nearby islands and the rolling green hills, full of beautiful horses and big trees! we topped off the afternoon at restaurante gloria... they had a sweet menu del dia with soup, pork & rice, and some awesome bread all for $4! yum.
sunday we took a micro up to a small town, Frutillar for church. My sister Heidi lived there for 7 months and we got to meet so many of her friends and they all were so glad to talk about her! everybody remembered her as the tall hermana that sang really well, ha. In Frutillar Bajo, there´s a perfect little beach (actually the shore of a lake) that looks out to Volcano Osorno. they´ve recently added a nice new boardwalk and are in the process of building a huge new theater on the water´s edge... still the most shocking part of frutillar is the huge german population living there. they settled the area early on in the 1900´s and have ruled frutillar bajo ever since. they´re pretty snobby and don´t mingle with the other chilenos in frutillar alto. the town is literally split in two, the chilenos up top, and the chilean-germans down on the beach property. even though southern chile has a very strong german/scottish-village feel to it, down in frutillar bajo it literally feels like you were beamed across the atlantic... as we were leaving in the taxi, a huge group of the locals were leaving from their weekly "german club of frutillar" meeting! haha
after an absolutely freezing night in ´cabañas san pedro´ we grabbed our 2nd meal at bona pizza near the bus terminal and headed up to osorno, chile to catch the afternoon bus to bariloche, argentina! the pizza at bona pizza is the most basic and simple pizza you´ve ever seen/tasted, but the particular taste was perfect and hit all the right spots! (bread, ketchup, thick tomato slices, big slices of cheese and ham on top... i think i can actually make it on my own!)
we got into bariloche tonight around 9 and were lucky enough to run into a nice hippy from northern argentina who showed us the cheapest hostel in town... and it turns out to be my favorite of all time! the nice older man at the front desk gave us a 4 bed room, with our private bathroom, 2 heaters, and a view of the lake for $10 a person! breakfast included, free internet, and wi-fi throughout the entire building! (the bathroom even has a bidae next to the toilet!! i guess they like to tailor to the european travelers!)
tomorrow is the beginning of a week long Fiesta de la Nieve here in Bariloche, and we´re stoked to hit the slopes for some nice snowboarding and snowskiing! i can´t wait!!
p.s. i´m really sad we haven´t been able to upload photos... i promise to keep trying!
no.116 sandy aggo!
had you ever realized how similar san diego and santiago sound? hmmm. sketchy.
so we´ve been in santiago for the last 36 hours on the 3 amigos world tour (south america edición)... it´s nice.
so the internet is pretty slow south of the border (every border below sd!) so no pictures tonight, again! sorry... but time is pricey on this trip... we´ve got less than 3 weeks!
heading to puerto montt, chile tomorrow night after 1 more day in santiago... hasta la vista sucker.
no.115 ecuador!!!
ecuador is so much more than i expected! we´ve been all over the coast and now the andes mountains! we landed in guayaquil on sunday evening and toured the whole city on monday with david who´s here on a nursing trip as well as visiting his mom. we couldn´t have come at a better time! the weeks leading up to our trip were full of rain - day and night - but nothing but sunshine and fresh air for us! we left for the coast of ecuador on tuesday morning and got to a nice beach town, salinas by 9am perfect time to get on the jet-skis just as they arrived! we went for about an hour but kyle and i waited on shore for another 30 minutes until david and stacie finally showed up, in a fishing boat, with the jet-ski dragging behind! long story short - their machine was weak compared to the moto kyle and i were riding. haha.
from salinas we left up the ¨ruta del sol¨(route of the sun) to montañita - a small touristy surfing town... so chill! the weather was soo nice and we got some crazy good body surfing in! the hostels were right on the beach and in the coolest sugar cane huts! the majority of the homes outside of the big cities are made of sugar cane and often up on stilts, 10 ft off the ground for the rainy season. the views in the truck and on the bus have been amazing! still, the bus ride last night from guayaquil to cuenca was amazing! we drove through ´cajas´ national park - another breathtaking rainforest, but this time with countless waterfalls and it is 2,500 meters above sea level! we were above the clouds most of the time, and i honestly don´t know how the driver could see... the fog was thicker than ANY fog i´d ever seen. Oh yea, speaking about the bus... it was the nicest bus i´d ever been on. it had these sweet reclining things for our legs, and we watched two martin lawrence movies in spanish, with spanish subtitles (haha Stacie and Kyle)!
well, we went to a natural volcanic hotspring pool and sauna today ... amazing!
all in all, i love ecuador!
p.s. ecuador is on the dollar... literally they use US dollars for their currency, but also make their own coins. funny thing is, they use the US dollar coin here like no other!
p.p.s. i love fresh aguas and jugos!!! thank goodness for south america!
p.p.p.s. will post pictures on sunday once we´re in peru
p.p.p.p.s. those democrats take forever to nominate! geeeee
no.114 nyc r and r
the roomie reunion is going way better than planned! it's the end of day 2 and i feel like we've been here for a week! in the last 48 hours we've eaten too many times to remember, got standby tix to conan o'brien (didn't end up getting in), watched the Yankees kill the Mariners 13-2, re-learned the subway system, played ball at some courts under the bride along the hudson river, played soccer, football, and then after an amazing lunch from Dinastia's Latin-Chinese restaurant we headed over to toss a frisbee in central park (beautiful weather!), and finished our day of competitive sports with a crazy 5 inning game of wiffle ball! i don't have much time, the boys are back at it on the fisher price basketball hoop in kevin's apartment....but i wanted to leave a few pics for your pleasure -
no.113 choir boys
the khula happy singers rock my world.
Khula Happy Singers St. Lucia from Jan van der Meer on Vimeo.
if only the rest of the world were so happy and peaceful!
no.112 call me loco, but
3 weeks from today i will embark on the journey of a lifetime - the 3 amigos world tour (south america edition). in fact, i will have two loyal companions on this journey - kyle and stacie. we're flying to guayaquil, ecuador on june 1st and won't return until july 3rd. we will be 'backpacking' through south america and i'm getting more antsy than ever (despite the fact that my "roomie reunion" in nyc is less than two weeks away)! 
i'm hoping my brother and sister are as stoked as i am, or i just might find myself lugging them around like the peruvian mother pictured above, only i'd have two snotty fatsos to haul on my back.
i'm posting this in an effort to get your responses about cool places you've been in south america, good bus lines to use, specific adventures to seek out, etc. our travels will begin and end in guayaquil, and i'm hoping to follow a circular route from ecuador - peru - bolivia - paraguay - argentina (iguazu falls) - uruguay - argentina (buenos aires) - patagonia - chile - peru - ecuador... besides the obvious adventures (galapagos islands, machu picchu, iguazu falls and the patagonia), i'd love to get some more exploring ideas and travel tips for our benefit...
much love, and kudos to all the moms out there...
if you're a struggling mother, i can put you in contact with the world's best (mine), and she can give you some pointers.
even though i tell you all the time - i love you mom!
::editor's note:: the whole mother's/father's day thing is stupid to me. my mom even thinks it's a joke. it's a day for bad moms and bad people to act like they care, usually they don't talk to each other. good moms have kids who talk to them and treat them right all year 'round.
p.s. thanks to my presence last night, the padres finally won a game. lame-o's
no.111 point n shoot
me | sec.27fd row.h seat.1
yes, that's 8 rows behind joe torre & the dodgers dugout. and yes the dodgers did win that game 5-4. moreover, that sealed a 4-series winning streak for the boys in blue!
blake dewitt | batter's box
this was right before blake hit a 2 run homer to put the dodgers on top, 5-4. blake's a rookie 3rd baseman for the dodgers and i get stoked everytime he's in the action. he was born in 1984 and thus deserves the respect of us here at the 84 suburb, fasho! he fields and throws right-handed and bats lefty... kinda like me. except i only bat left in softball and homerun derby in my backyard with my cousins and brothers. and in case you didn't notice, that's joe torre (first year manager of the dodgers) in the bottom right of the photo. such a presence!
eugene & i | roommates for the 3rd time
anywhere i go with eugene i know i'll be entertained and in good company. we've been classmates since the 3rd grade and have been in probably 90% of the same classes since then, all the way up through college! coming to ucsd was partly a decision based on rooming with eugene in the dorms freshman year and we did everything together in those oh-so-vulnerable dorm days! i'm sad to know that our time together as roommates here in our la jolla shores beach home is coming to an end in under 3 weeks!! 
nate, gary, pedro, eugene | dodger stadium, field level
it seems everything i do these days is with my roommates - past, present, and future (last month i snowboarded with chase, a roommate from the mtc, and with brendon, a future roomie in slc). nate and i lived in crossroads apartments last year and in the beach home this year. gary and i lived together for the summer after freshman year, along with chairman yau - really gary lived in the family room while jason and i had the master bedroom. ha. he's busy at work, co-owing an electrical engineering firm in the pharmaceutical industry. eugene and i have too much history to share in this caption.
dodger dog | dodger stadium
after i caught my breath and cleared my throat from the post-win celebration, we decided it was a good time for a photo shoot of the gang. we walked a few rows down and looked around for someone to snap a nice group peekchuh and this chick was all for it, and even decided to snap one of herself before she took ours. ha
classic lowrider | melrose ave. only in LA.
i love these bikes, soon i'll own one (along with my scooter). what's that you ask.... will mine have a banana seat and chopper handlebars? why yes, yes it will. maybe with a little extra sparkle in the paint. randal, my coworker at school for the past 18 months, and I were cruising home through downtown melrose/hollywood when we were stuck in some street traffic and i almost rear-ended a guy thanks to this beaute. it was after a 13 hour day at paramount studios for our family carnival and charity auction (the capstone to a 60 hour work week for me), so i was desperately looking for some distraction to the craziness in my head. coincidentally, yesterday we finally sent off all the payment stuff to the bank, and today began the shipping process, and needless to say i'm relieved to be working 8 hour days and have the pressure off my back!
kidrobot toys | randal's desk
of course there are few random toys left over from the children's goodie-bags from our event so thuan, randal, and i decided to begin collecting. this is just a small glimpse of what we've collected thus far, and it will be going on my wall in slc with my old "toy machine" figurines i bought junior year of high school, my mitt romney bobblehead, and my lucha libre action figure i bought in jalisco, mx last year. these new toys are made by kidrobot who does all kinds of trendy, upscale toy collectibles for famous artists and even bands with a tv show (yo gabba gabba - by the aquabats)
a good friend here in SD just invited me to a padres game tomorrow, versus the rockies. both teams are in the western division with the dodgers and they both suck, so i'll probably rock my LA gear and root for the away team, what do you think?
no.110 back at it
so, i've got a new camera now, and that means you can all feast your eyes on my day to day experiences. join me... take a walk on the wild side.
so as i noted in the temporary post that resided here under no.110 for a few days, Burma is recuperating from an absolutely horrible cyclone. but i had to ask myself; what in the crap is a cyclone? don't worry, i googled it. and when i say i googled it, i really mean i went to my google search bar in the upper-right of my firefox window and typed 'cyclone wiki' - now, you may ask yourself why the crap i'd type that. simple, wikipedia replaced my public education. depending on their location and strength, there are various terms by which cyclones are known, such as hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm and tropical depression. (in fact, if you're crazy enough, you can even get a wiki search bar add-on with firefox, or a dictionary search bar, or a you-tube sb, or a flickr sb, and yes even an ebay sb!...yes, i have all of those). 
on to the more serious part... i hate dictators. on top of that, i hate dictators who are scared of "the west!" the united states (encompassing all its ngo's and non-profits) along with many other democratic nations have extended a helping hand at this severe time of tragedy and loss, mostly in medical supplies, food, water, and even cold hard cash. how does burma react? "we want aid, not foreigners." oh sure, shun the hand that feeds you. how lame can their leaders be? that's like the jew despising the good samaritan that saved his life. these dicators fear that by receiving foreign aid, their people will view "westerners" as good, and consequently the western governments as such. i understand their logic, but that's some serious weakness on their part. either way, aid is reaching people in need and that's what matters. still, why must we be referred to as "the west?" we're the united states of america, and "the west" has way much less of a superhero ring to it. can't we file for a name change?
speaking of superheroes.... the 30 or so annual sungod festival is next weekend here at ucsd and one of my favorite bands will drop it like it's hot right here on my campus! (yes, sungod festival has its own wikipedia page, can your alma matter boast that?)
my first real concert i ever went to was in the 7th grade with my new and first bro-in-law, brandon. he took me to see the aquabats open for blink-182 when blink was first hitting the radio, or even before. at least i hadn't heard of them, and i was in junior high - prime time for blink 182! i screamed and sang along thru the whole aquabat set, overflowing with on-stage villain v. hero battles and crowd chanting.... but brandon had to escort me out with my eyes covered during blink's set once girls began to throw their unmentionables at the band. (no, i'm not putting a pic up of that)
no.109 all apologies
i guess graduating from college wasn't as much as i hyped it to be. i'm still just as busy, thanks to an immigration research project i'm working on with professor cornelius. i agreed to fill a vacancy in their economics & remittances chapter for an upcoming book on the effects of migration on the sending community of san miguel tlacotepec, oaxaca. at the time, back in november, i only thought of the fun i'd have for 2 weeks doing the actual surveying and field work and didn't think too much about the actual researching, data analysis and writing the chapter with my team members. well, now it's kicking me in the butt. some of you might know i worked on a similar project last year, dealing with tlacuitapa, jalisco (another migrant sending community in mexico), and this year it's pretty similar, but i have a lot less time than i did last year. my job is now 40 hrs a week (same place i was working during school, just upped my hours), and that tires me out a whole lot more than i had imagined. getting home at 5, all i want to do is eat, watch an mlb or nba game and veg out. instead, i'm stuck up late tracking down census data from awkwardly set-up websites from mexico's government, and trying to prove the causal relationship of migration with inequality. grrr. so, there you have it: my excuse for not blogging in such a long time.
in my absence, i've also been busy outside of work and research. our basketball team finished 2nd place in our san diego region tournament, i went on a date, went to my cousin's wedding ("decorated" his car before they took off after the reception) and went snowboarding with a few mission buddies. all good times, but i'm really looking forward to my real vacation this summer to south america with my lil bro and lil sis.... it's gonna be ridiculous! oh yea, and i'm still super stoked for sausage fest '008 coming up memorial day weekend out in NYC (college roommate reunion), it's gonna be off the hook! so far we have tickets to the Yankees game versus the Mariners, a takashi murakami art exhibit, and we'll be balling it up in rucker park!!
i promise to be more myself after this weekend's over - our big charity auction / family carnival at paramount studios is gonna be a ton of fun, but these last few weeks leading up to it are out of control and busier than ever (better than being bored at work, i guess).
mitt bobble-head | a gift from stacie's roommate on my recent trip to ut.
currently listening to: jimmy eat world - here it goes
no.108 triangle lips
in all the hustle and bustle, i forgot to update you on my new niece!
:: audrey eve | 8lbs. x 11oz. x 19in. ::
no.107 a few fresh ones
:: click the image for details on the snow report at brighton ::
it fell just in time. about 8 inches of fresh snow just landed and i land in 36 hours to eat it up!
:: brendon & the picasso windbreakah; april '07 | this is the clown i'll be on the slopes with ::
i'm stoked for this weekend up in slc. i'll try to meet up with as many of my amigos as possible, but it's always a crazy time in the beehive state.
no.106 sitting, waiting
i finished my lame little tax return tonight. technically i didn't even have to file my taxes still, because i had nothing in the no.9 box, "advance eic payment." nice.
but what's with that little box they ask you to check - "presidential election campaign fund"??? i thought it was an easy way for the tax prep company to donate lots of money to the candidate of their choice, but then i saw it on another site, so i trusted the box, but didn't check it!
it read; do you want to designate $3 to a fund that provides campaign money to presidential candidates?(wtf!) there's actually a lot more i want to say about this crap-tastic subject right now, but am going to get my fitness fix for the day playing some ball with my roommates.
next topic. what's the big deal with skinny ties? i swear they've been uncool since i was forced to wear one a few sundays a year back in the day (early nineties). now for the past couple of years they've been making a comeback. i'm still not sure how i feel about the whole situation.
:: big guy rockin' a skinny tie. | verdict: undecided ::(this guy does score extra points for that stache & those lenses, though)
obviously the trend-setter here is truly unknown, as in i don't know what guys decided to start wearing them again... but one day somebody else noticed it and then a little while later they happened to be dressing justin timberlake for a photo shoot for his latest album and concerts, and voila - it was back. are we really that easily swayed? all we need to be convinced that something is cool again, is to see someone we don't even know wear it on a big screen? i guess we are. but so far, i'm not. i'm still waiting. maybe i'll just wait until they're not cool anymore, and then try it out. my biggest reservation is the hideous designs most of them have, and the horrible fabric the majority of them are made from. still, i can appreciate the plain, plaid, and striped ones.
lastly, i recognize my blog has been pretty boring lately (minus the last post) due to a lack of fresh pictures. the reason being some unknown black hole in bakersfield that ate my camera. i've been waiting for it to pop up, but i'm an impatient boy. i purchased a new canon powershot elph yesterday and am pretty much biting my nails off waiting for it to arrive! it should be here on thursday, just in time for my weekend trip to salt lake. i'll be back on monday night, hopefully full of new pictures. in the meantime, i'll find someway of getting fresh material up here. everything's just more fun when i can snap a photo to explain myself. i shop too much.
no.105 welcome to the dub club
1988. when i found out bertha would soon be in our home, my 3½ yr. old mind could only muster up two mug shots of what this could mean.
lucky for my parents, my briefly-limited imagination erred, and instead this one came home;
i guess, that's a lucky one for my little sis, bertha, as well. still, i feel the luckiest of the bunch was myself. imagine trying to be the big brother to one of the hawks i imagined was coming home! thanks bertha... i appreciate how easy you made it for me to protect and stand up for you. you've always been ahead of the class (front row, if ya know what i mean) and ahead of trendy styles (see photo above). muchas gracias.
now, for a more serious birthday tribute. i remember those days you danced on the fireplace of the family room to ursela's "body language" song - don't worry, i'll spare us the visual. you've read more books than i have pages, but how could you fail - you teethed on nancy drew and scoffed at my goosebumps "chapter books", while lapping me plenty of times in that 'read-a-round-the-world' thing at thorner. thanks for sharing all those personal pan pizzas you scored at pizza hut (....not). just a small foresight as to why i always knew you'd get into your program this year - you've had your mind set before most girls at your school had decided which boy they'd ask to be assigned as their home teacher knew what a major meant. well done, there's more success down that road for sure.
you're twenty. so what. what are your plans now? make it to twenty-one? i doubt it. in fact, i'm somewhat scared of the big changes coming in the next year. i don't really think i have much say in what they are, but be sure to include me and i'll be there to support you. much love, and kudos to twenty years of one-upping everyone.
*editor's note* for the record; bertha's just an old nickname.... or else i'dve lost the battle a long time ago.
no.104 true blue + some true blues
i'm so excited for the change in seasons; surfing, soccer, basketball playoffs, march madness final four, no school, and a brand new baseball season.
i bought a new book last night and started it today, well i proof read quite a bit from jackie robinson's chapter on passion in borders before i bought it, but i actually began from the prologue today. steve garvey's book, "my bat boy days," is already going down in my 'must have on your bookshelf' collection. the book is about steve's early excitement with baseball as a young boy in brooklyn and tampa. he was a pre-season bat boy for the brooklyn dodgers thanks to his dad's post-war job as a greyhound bus driver who got the odd shift of driving sports teams from the airport to their games (wait... is there still time for me to switch careers). steve, a future dodger himself, and soon-to-be-hall-of-famer, writes about the lessons he learned as a boy at the feet of his baseball idols (i.e. passion of jackie robinson, faith of sandy koufax and leadership of pee wee reese). i'll let you know about the lessons i learn, and give you a full review some time later.
i feel it was a good buy, considering yesterday was opening day for the dodgers in los angeles. they completely annihilated the san francisco gigantes (rip barry) 5-0 at home on opening day *grins*.
i'm about to head out to a basketball game that i'm super stoked for, simply because our team has awesome team chemistry and a really tough defense... we always have fun and had our first loss last thursday. tonight we're after our revenge.
before i go, i felt i had to leave you with some sad news that's been bothering me all day, and i feel i can only move on if i "blog-it-out"...
i got my grades back today, and although i told you all that i graduated last week, i'll be signing up for a class tonight for spring quarter. i guess skipping 18 out of my 20 lectures for biology wasn't a good idea, and i guess those 10 sections i missed might have helped too. all in all, a 'no pass' pretty much means i screwed myself over, and have to take the class again this quarter to graduate. paying half a quarter's tuition for one stupid class i could have aced last quarter with a little more effort.
those two letters, np, never looked so evil. (click to zoom)
*on a side note* i've decided whom i'm backing for the upcoming presidential election (i know, it's not really that soon... but the media covers it like it's gonna happen today)!
*p.s.* remember, anyone can post a comment or complaint...
no.103 dino daze
dinosaurs are quite the ambiguous creatures. they lived where ever they wanted, ate what they pleased and left their remains in mysterious countries, like secret buried treasures, so we could drive across the country in our 11mpg hummer 4 billion years later. thanks guys.
however, there are other (more important) reasons why i esteem dinos.
- denver the last dinosaur - amazing cartoon that battled the oppressive stereotypes buried in 'the flinstones.' actually, i loved this cartoon! watched it before school most of the time or right after i got home. denver's love of skateboarding, rock'n'roll and awesome shades made him my favorite! need a reminder?
- dinosaur fruit snacks - i always seemed to save the white ones for last (a habit i carried over into the white shark of the sea animal fruit snacks)
- dinosaur bed sheets and comforter - tyler and i rocked these for years and years. in fact, i'm pretty sure we even had matching drapes and rugs at one point. well, years of wetting the bed and intense indoor forts have ruined the legacy of the dinosaur sheets. =(
- the dinosaurs - glamorous tv show from the 90's. did you know they had their own parodies built into the show's fake tv shows that the dinosaur kids watched? (gotta love me! haha)
- land before time (1 through 11) - this goes without saying, but who can deny the greatness of these epic films? there are so many great lessons of friendship, loyalty, honesty, courage, and personal growth... you'd think it was a church video. did you know spielberg produced it?! oh yea, and it first came out in '88... before stacie and kyle were born! haha
the truth is...my childhood wouldn't have been the same without 'em!
for the record, my favorite dinosaur is the
*editor's note* you can now easily receive updates by email when i post. look at the right sidebar below the blog title. now you'll always know when you can 'get your fix' at the 84suburb. enjoi.
no.102 a medley
i haven't decided yet. -- i post these for 4 reasons.
- to show that i'm thinking about my vote in november.
- i know hilary's lost. it will be obama v. mccain in november.
- some of these videos are simply good music.
- some of these videos are for comic relief.
in all reality, i haven't decided yet.
on another note,
*as a side note* anyone and everyone can post comments on this blog. you do not have to be a blogger, a member of blogspot,
no.101 <-- i never took one
well, happy campers... i made it. the week is through and i've settled into relax mode. perfect. what's that you ask? oh, this week.... yea it was finals week. but i trashed 'em (in a positive way). i mean, come on... i've done it 12 times already, i think i can make it through my last finals week at ucsd just fine. AHA! YES! that's right, i finished school yesterday and could not be happier! it's so nice to have that feeling of accomplishment come over you at 2am on friday morning as i proofread my final paper to turn in for prof. magagna's class on the political development of the modern state in europe! i literally was about to jump out of my chair and dance through my apartment until i remembered it was 2am and my neighbors wouldn't as excited as i was. lame-o's. so, i'm officially a bachelor of the arts in economics and political science (with a minor in international migration studies). *grins*
yay for mom and dad with the happy grad!
so wait, i thought i already was a bachelor!??? i don't remember waking up with a girl at my side the rest of this week. today was not unique. where the snot did bachelor come from anyway? (bachelor: a young knight in the service of another knight in feudal times) (like how undergrads help out in graduate students research, and also PhD doctors' research)
and back to the interesting stuff. I really really hope this guy continues to blog. i stumbled upon his blog by randomly browsing on blogspot by clicking that 'Next Blog' button on the top left (that i've cleverly removed from my blog).
"invincible kyle" seems like he'd have some pretty funny commentary on world events and things that happen to him (yes, maren... kind of like you). he just started a few days ago and i feel like he might have a completely fresh view on life that could further benefit me in achieving a "well-roundedness" i strive for. most people don't usually succeed in this "rounding-out" effect post-graduation, however I intend to do so in terms of educating myself and exploring as much as I can - not sitting around, watching american idol just because i have the time now, but never did during my 4 years of university.
hey! remember the sartorialist? yes, that long post i did a few weeks ago, letting you all in on a little bit of my fashion fetish. well, he's in india as of late, and is basically posting some stylin' shots of great fashion out there in new dehli! ha, check it out if you've got some time.
so i surfed yesterday, after a rather long hiatus due to my lack of love for cold water and wind (and yes, that lack of love grows deeper when the two are combined in an evil and dirty duo). still, it felt so good to be in the waves and ride the little wash there was. i'm stoked for the spring to really kick in now and live it up while i can!
:: scripps beach. la jolla, ca ::
:: scripps pier. la jolla, ca ::
( should i really move away from this? somebody slap me. )
this is where i surf most of the time (just south of blacks beach. i would surf blacks only, but rarely have the time to). but you've gotta check out this photo collection on flickr of scripp's beach and pier!
lastly, a great friend of mine - sarah thrasher (who leaves for a mission in belgium soon) recently introduced me to a new band. the fashion. they rock. pop electronic/dance. very fun stuff. give 'em a listen. and then don't forget about architecture in helsinki while you're at it. culturing yourself in new music is always a blessing. i promise.
*now if you're still reading, you might be wondering what the post title had to do with any of that - don't worry, i saved this for you. you know how all movies with college scenes show kids in psychology 101, or biology 101, philosophy 101, etc... well, in all my classes at ucsd, i never once took a class with the cliche "101" numbers. i'm so proud of that too! ha.
and now a sneak peak into a future post in the near future.
no.100 dot com - now that's legit!
welcome to www.84suburb.com! didn't notice? look at your address bar. booyah! it's legit, it's official, and it's done with steeze! it's been in the works for quite some time now, and with all the hustle and bustle of finals, i didn't think i'd get around to it before spring break. psscch!
100th post?! I feel it's a worthy milestone to look back on the past 100 posts and capture a little over a year of blogging.
- the 'most' of the past 100.
- most commented post: classic style
- most controversial post (it's a tie): Blog-ability (also referenced in post 99) and Ethnicity is such an odd thing.
- most heartfelt post (a 3-way tie): a texas i know, man of the house, and double the nickels.
- most viewed post (another tie): happy valentine's day, mom and my secret goals in life
- most interactive post: for kicks (thanks for your help!)
- most proud of post: see most heartfelt post
- most sad post: may God bless
- most whiney post: freedom
- most linked site: BBC News (sorry, it's my homepage)
- most loyal commenter: darbleyg
- most influential reader: chairman yau
- most liable reader: the brown's (blame them, they made me start)
Now, a look back at my blog header artwork...
blog header #1. baby steps.