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June 30, 2005
Congratulations, Drew
Congratulations on getting the job!
See you up in LA in the near future! Not that we didn't see a lot of you already, just now it'll be more often and cost less in gas and mileage.
Posted by KinCross at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2005
Weblog Survey
A guy from MIT is doing a weblog survey and gathering data. Pretty cool, pretty slick. Go take a look.
Posted by KinCross at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2005
The Big Damn Movie
'Nuff said.
Or not: a spoiler-free and a spoiler-laden post on the official Browncoats site.
Oh, I got to shake Joss' hand.
Posted by KinCross at 02:27 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2005
Various Serenity Nuttiness
Yesterday saw two nutty things coalesce around Serenity.
Firstly, while searching for something to stick on a package of picture CDs for Kit, I found out that tickets for the Riverside screening Thursday night went back on sale. So I picked them up and now I don't have to be a total nutcase to go to Riverside hoping to get a ticket.
Secondly, I got personalised plates.
Posted by KinCross at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2005
Serenity Redux
Got a spare ticket to the advance screening of Serenity on Thursday, 23 June (this Thursday!) at 10:00 p.m. in Riverside.
Who wants to go?
Posted by KinCross at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2005
A new home
Man, I'd love to live in a place like the Burj Dubai, but I probably won't have enough money or eat enough pork (read: none) to live there.
It's one sweet building though, and I hope my admiration of it has nothing to do with compensating for anything.
Posted by KinCross at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
Happy Father's Day, Punk-O!
Recently I've been hearing the phrase, "You never know how it's going to look," a lot. In context, it relates to honouring your word ("My word is my bond") or declaring something that you want, such as an abundance of money or a fantastic relationship or what have you.
This weekend, I had a million different reasons why I should have stayed in LA to get other things done, but I honoured my word to a couple of friends in the Bay Area and went up to visit them. Originally, we were supposed to go backpacking in Yosemite, but we couldn't get permits. I'm so really glad I made the trip, despite the wild constraints I had to work under.
I had class Friday night, so what would have been a perfect time to travel was out of the question. I left Saturday morning and arrived at Ken's place in San Jose late afternoon, pretty much at the time that Sanjay had predicted that I would arrive, after I'd made the wild claim to leave at 8 a.m. and arrive by 1 p.m. Well, he gave me an out so I slept more. Had he not, I may have stuck with the claim.
Saturday, what was left of it then, was spent in the beach resort, Capitola (near Santa Cruz), with Ken, his girlfriend Cecily, and Sanjay. It's a quaint little place and I regret not hauling the 20D out with me and had to settle for a few pictures with the ELPH. With the sun setting and the really cute beach houses, it was really picturesque. We didn't get to sit on the patio when we went to dinner, though. Dinner itself was pretty tasty, but way overpriced. Next time, maybe one of the bar and grille type places would be a better value.
Sunday, Cecily had family obligations in San Francisco, so Ken, Sanjay and I were on our own for the day. We hit the Mystery Spot in the morning. It was pretty bizarre and the three of us being Engineering nerds meant that we were analyzing the hell out of the whole thing. It was somewhat reminiscent of Magnetic Hill in New Brunswick (the province, not the city in NJ). A lot of what came up looked like visual illusions, but there were things we couldn't explain. At some point, we may devise some experiments and replicate them in a non-Mystery Spot hilly location to see what we find.
Lunch was in Santa Cruz at Zoccoli's Deli. Decent deli, but nothing compared to NYC. I hate comparing it to NYC as it sounds kinda snobbish, but it's hard not to. It's just like comparing any sushi restaurant I go to with The Hump in Santa Monica. There's always something to push the bar up and have that be the new target to hit. At any rate, please forgive me if delis, bagels, and pizza all get compared to the stuff I ate back in NYC.
We hopped around wine tasting in the afternoon, breezing through Hallcrest, Byington, and David Bruce. Had fun, but after awhile all that tasting got to be a bit much. That said, though, there was a rather tasty Pinot Noir Saignee from David Bruce that I liked, so I bought a bottle. Saignee comes from the French, "to bleed," and in David Bruce's case it was the first bleed of their Pinot Noir, which happens after four hours of fermentation. Byington, by comparison, did their Saignee after the first 24 hours. Accordingly, I think, the David Bruce Saignee was sweeter, but what do I know about wine?
When we got back to Ken's place, we prepped for some grilling and then made our Father's Day calls. Mine is going through a rough spot now with a bit of sciatica. Sounds a bit like mine, only snaking up into the lower back. Something tells me that's a lot more severe than the Piriformis Syndrome that I've got, but I don't know how bad it is. Sounds like he's on the mend, though, and in good spirits.
Phone calls to Dad morphed into phone calls to other dads we knew and even people we didn't know were going to be fathers. Altogether, we called around a lot of our old college friends and got caught up, which was fantastic, as there were people I talked to that I hadn't talked to in years.
Lately, I've been in the mode of reconnecting with old relationships that I have generally let fall by the wayside out of sheer idleness, or sometimes shame from having let it lapse in the first place. Sometimes it's because I've done something that I don't want to face up to and it's keeping me from calling or writing. Sometimes it's mundane, like not knowing how to contact someone; if anyone knows how I can contact Carolyn Edsell, Cornell '98 (or thereabouts), please let me know.
A quick rundown:
- Congratulations to Jessica on becoming a Ph. D.
- Congratulations also to Jessica and Mark for giving birth to Christian a couple of weeks ago.
- Congratulations to Vicki and Michael on their upcoming baby, due 21 August.
- Congratulations to Nancy on her upcoming baby, due in early August. Alas, I don't know her husband's name.
The evening was cut short, though, as I had to get on the road to head back to LA. I left around 8:30 munching on cherries that I had bought at a fruit stand in Casa de Fruta off the 152 near Hollister when I was coming up. I was actually on track to get home by 1-ish, except that something happened about a mile north of the turn off to head inland to Palmdale.
I'm not sure I like the trend, but it seems like I keep coming upon accidents. On the one hand, it sucks for the people involved, but on the other I've discovered that I don't even think twice to stop and help now. Throws my own timetable off, but more and more it seems my timetable isn't quite as important.
Anyway, these six kids--they were probably in their mid-twenties and I'm calling them "kids," how droll--were in an SUV that flipped on its side against the center guardrail. My car wasn't involved in the mess, but I saw the dust being kicked up when they went crashing off the road. Judging by their comments, the car in front had braked suddenly, they swerved into the lane to the right, and then the car that had braked swerved into their lane and clipped their front end. Kinda like a reverse PIT manoeuvre.
The front car ended up on the right side of the roadway, having slid up an embankment. I didn't cross the highway to find out what happened over there. I was busy with the six people in the SUV who were just beginning to climb out of it when I ran up. Ended up staying for awhile to console a freaked out chihuahua while the occupants used my phone to call their parents.
It took awhile for the CHP to show up, but I guess that's to be expected when you're on the highway. Fire trucks and paramedics weren't far behind. Fortunately, the worst that happened were cuts and scrapes on this one guy in the SUV. The rest seemed pretty much unscathed, except for the mental anguish.
After that, I had no problem staying awake for the rest of my drive. I'd been riding the phone pretty hard talking to people to keep my brain stimulated up until then. Heard something over the weekend that made we wonder if I should get checked out for narcolepsy. Guess I should introduce myself to my new primary physician at Kaiser, not that I've selected one yet.
So, that was my weekend.
Posted by KinCross at 01:58 AM | Comments (1)
June 18, 2005
First Pics
So here are the first pictures of both cats. We weren't able to pick up Dagger as the Pasadena Humane Society was a real stickler for the neutering thing on Miaomiao, and Henry and Soo Sun didn't want to snip him until he was older. They ended up finding another male at the Glendale Humane Society, who has temporarily been named Moomoo, because he's got some Holsteiny colour pattern.
Those names are so not going to stick. They better not. I'm calling Miaomiao "Peanut" for now. I think Moomoo acts like a thief, but haven't figured out a good thiefy name for him yet.
Here are some pictures that I took on the 20D last night. Just three quickies before I run out to San Jose/Santa Cruz for the weekend.
Peanut is the orange one, of course. You've seen him before. Unnamed Thief is the black and white one; he's a little smaller than Peanut. Maybe I'll call him (Dread Pirate) Roberts.
The third picture... Peanut was sniffing out the red cat carrier on the right and Roberts snuck up on him and swatted him.
Posted by KinCross at 10:00 AM | Comments (3)
June 11, 2005
Kitty Kitty Round Two
Once upon a time, I had two cats. I had to give them away when I moved to Los Angeles because I couldn't afford to move them. They're living now with my friend Soo Sun's mom in Western Massachusetts.
Almost two years since I gave up my cats, it looks like there might be cats in the house again, though they'll technically be Soo Sun and Henry's. Soo Sun rescued a little kitten barely a couple of weeks old about a month and a half ago and he's coming "home" on Monday. He's called "Miaomiao." I'm not sure I can bring myself to call him that.
So, Henry and I went out today to look for a companion for M so that he wouldn't be alone. We were looking for a cat 2-3 months old and female. There were a lot of cute kitties out there, but we finally decided on one that we called Dagger. Complications in the bureaucratic process prevented us from taking her home, though. Hopefully, she'll still be there after we get M neutered.
In the pictures, the orange and white tabby is M and the black and white one is Dagger. I'll write more about their stories when they actually start living in the house... or when I bemoan their not coming.
Posted by KinCross at 09:46 PM | Comments (1)
June 08, 2005
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world
Actually, it's more that my world is mad, but in a good or amusing way.
The rest is long and pretty much a summary of the last five days of activity.
Friday night, I went to class from 7 to midnight, then hopped out to grab food with some of my classmates at El Puerto Escondido, all the while playing phone tag with Drew, who had come up to LA for a party and was looking for a place to stay for the night. Normally, I'd have my car, but I didn't because it was making strange scraping noises from the front driver's side wheel well; my friend Bridget was able to give me a ride to and from class, though. That worked out really well; it was the first time I ever rode in a convertible. Didn't get home until about 2 and shortly before Drew showed up, fortunately.
Saturday, I took the car to Acura of Glendale to get it checked out. Turned out that a clip for the fender cover was missing--it probably jostled loose when I ran over that tire detritus on the way to Vegas for the Serenity screening--and the fender cover was hanging low enough to scrape against the tire when it was turned all the way to the right. They fixed that free of charge. Since my car was already in their shop and it was overdue for maintenance, I had that checked out too. Turns out the previous owner had never done the 90k maintenance, so I had them take care of that (timing belt, tensioners, water pump) and part of the 105k maintenance that was also overdue (all the fluids and filters, but not the plugs).
Side Note: when buying a used car, you should factor in the maintenance schedule and the cost of the major maintenance around 90-120k as that can cost a decent chunk of money.
With the car in the shop for maintenance, I was really not going to have access to it for the better part of the day. Luckily, Drew was willing to ferry me around. We grabbed some breakfast, hit Tower Records, stopped at home for a bit to sleep sine neither of us had more than 4 hours the night before, and then went over to Cristelle's for her Introduction to the Landmark Forum.
Cristelle was leading and had asked for a room captain. I wasn't really prepared to do it, but once the car situation was settled I accepted the offer and jumped in. Both Drew and I were thankful for the experience as it was fun and inspiring. I love listening to Cristelle when she has something to say (and she always does), even when she's panicking.
So, out of context, that last paragraph probably sounds odd. I'm currently in the Introduction Leaders Program at Landmark Education and part of the curriculum is about delivering the "Introduction," which is basically a personalised presentation with an exercise that gives a sense of what gets done in the Landmark Forum and information about what it's like to participate in the Landmark Forum.
That's the mundane part of the class. The really cool part of the class is actually what I have to do to be able to deliver the Introduction. Because a lot of what goes into the presentation is personal, you can't fake it. Consequently, a good part of the program is about cleaning up the messes you've made in your life so that you can speak from a position of integrity and power. That is mighty cool.
So, uh, that was Saturday afternoon. Picked up the car after that, flirted with the dealership's receptionist, then hopped out for maki at Ichiban and then a showing of Episode III. (Episode III commentary in a separate post.) It was a pretty packed Saturday.
Sunday, grabbed a quick brunch with Drew at El Atacor, a Mexican place near my house, then headed out to do homework with classmates from the ILP. Ended up hanging around and talking about life more than doing homework, but it was all good. Had my colleague Newton over for an Introduction at my place in the afternoon and then proceeded to nap and play WoW for the rest of the evening.
Monday was work, Mien Shiang (Taoist face reading) class, and then dinner with Patrician (the instructor), Veronique and Dee (classmates) afterwards.
Tuesday was more work and oddly enough Monday and Tuesday were both really intense days at work where I barely stopped to shovel food in my face. Tuesday night I was in Burbank at an event and then I had to make a run out to the airport to move my roommate's car. Two hours of driving home to get the keys, driving to the airport, driving his car to the long term lot from the short term lot (using my just-received parking chit so I wouldn't have to pay for additional parking), taking the shuttle back to the airport, and retrieving my own car and paying the maxed out parking chit that my roommate got in the morning.
Can't say I'm not enjoying these "interesting times." If nothing else, all the activity has my energy levels up and I feel like I'm on fire. The down side is my diet is terrible since I'm doing a lot of food on the go. Figure I'll work on developing something workable in that arena next.
Posted by KinCross at 01:54 AM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2005
All operators are busy?
I had a need to call 911 this morning and my experience was very similar to a number of other people on cell phones around me: we got a recorded message saying that all operators were busy. Don't know what that was all about. I'm hoping it's because they just suddenly got flooded with calls about the same incident, but I had to call my office and be transferred to 911 to reach an operator. That's a little troubling to me.
The rest is mostly for me to get it out of my system so I can get on with my day. It doesn't involve blood, guts, or gore, but it does involve a vehicular incursion on a pedestrian who is not myself.
I had just crossed Kosciuszko, southbound on Hope on the east side, when the lights changed. I had noticed a woman and two men on the southwest corner of the intersection waiting to cross--well, mostly I'd noticed the woman--and had just turned my attention to continue on my way when I heard the impact.
Turning back, I was just in time to see one man go down and the woman bouncing off the front of a silver SUV--no plates, Volvo dealer marquee. The other man appeared to be fine. The accident happened pretty much in the center lane, so the trio had already made pretty good progress across the street.
The man remained laying on the ground, but was clearly alive and upset. Immediately, his friends, myself, and a handful of bike couriers converged on him and there was the chaos of figuring out what was going on. The driver got out and was hysterical for a bit, but one of the couriers tended to her. The man that was down was tended to by both of his friends--the woman was fine, just some minor clothing damage.
A bunch of us were on cell phones trying to reach 911 but all of us hit the same hold message indicating that all operators were busy, which seemed somewhat ridiculous. I switched off and called the office and had them transfer me to 911 and the call got through. It sounded like I was the second or third person to successfully call in and paramedics were dispatched. They arrived shortly thereafter.
With so many people on scene and a fire truck and a paramedic truck on-site, there was really no point in me hanging around. I exchanged business cards with the guy that remained unscathed in the whole thing and went on my way.
So, right around now, I would normally go into hyperanalytical mode and start breaking down everything that did or didn't happen, but I don't think that will serve me any purpose. I've laid out what I know. I know what I did. There's nothing else I can do about the things that I didn't do. I'm moving on.
Posted by KinCross at 08:28 AM | Comments (1)
June 01, 2005
It's every man's dream to have a penis so large that he must hire a small boy to carry it
Check out #4, The Rifleman, in Unintentionally Sexual Comic Book Covers.
Posted by KinCross at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)