Sour Particles

The first exercise in ages, ten kilometers at a mile above sea-level. Dirt trail with some hills, as you can see from the elevation profile to the top left corner of the photo. Maximum elevation is 5500 feet, and the minimum is right around 5250 feet. My time last week was pathetic, but I was happy, fresh air and relaxing. Then decided instead of once a week, why not twice. Wednesday I lost six minutes, even more pathetic. But I feel redeemed now because I shaved nine minutes off my first time (15 less than last time) and that means there is hope. Stay posted for an overly dramatic webpage with performance / heartrate / bodyweight / etc graphs, gps tracklogs on maps and maybe some conclusions on my get in shape in 10 weeks or less experiment.

It is only 10km, but I never exercise. Next week I better shave off a big chunk of this current time, whatever it turns out to be.

But no such luck this time, I still have not got anyone to donate blood with me.

It's that time again, still no people who want to join me.

Thought I was done, but I guess not.

Beer, then Strawberry Lemonade (vodka), then a hurricane (light and dark rum and bacardi 151), then a Strawberry Lemonade again (vodka).

Lola has just passed out, I think her bedtime was a few hours ago. She is one tired little pooch. She has not stolen a single item of mine this time as far as I can tell. She usually takes something, even shoes, and hides it in her room. She hasn't destroyed anything of mine yet, just been a theif. But she can be destructive.

Toured the caves and tasted (maybe a bit more than tasting) sparkling wine. It is time to saber.

I took a small nap, now it is time for dinner. First up is the Maltese Bluefin Tuna, Japanese Setsuki Mackeral. Next is Sea Scallop Sauteed with Oyster Mushrooms. Then Crisp Niman Ranch Pork "Confit" with fresh corn polenta. Then Kobe Wagyu beef served rare. Then some desert, they just took my menu, so I didn't have time to finish reading what they are bringing out.

On my way home, changed my departure airport three times this trip, but I'm stuck with this one since I'm on the plane now. I'm inside a flying basketball, Slam Dunk One.

Arthur Schopenhauer is the topic of discussion today, since this is the only day I'm going to be here in the class, I don't know if its all this interesting. But I found today's lecture to be very stimulating. This is my idea of a good vacation. I even raised my hand and contributed to the discussion, more than the person whose guest in the class I am. Pessimism and and suffering are great topic to discuss. Oh, and I took the bus to get here, maybe sometime soon I will take the bus all by myself. And can't forget I went to the gym this morning, didn't exercise but I got a smoothie while I waited.

Heading to the airport in the morning, but we have some time for some Guinness as always.

I think everyone should hear about this. Oh and my new phone should have a better camera, higher quality pictures for this place.

I was showing a friend the local natural foods grocery place, which by the way doesn't even have wild salmon. Most of the people shopping there are pretty much hippies and do not look like the kind of people who would use a good soap. But my friend found his secret soap there, I was reluctant to try it because I associated it with the dirty hippies (by the way, I have no issues with most clean hippies) because that market carried it. My friend assured me that they sold it at Trader Joe's back home, which eased my mind a bit. The label was insane, you have to read it to believe it, religious babble it seems mostly.

Here is a quote,"Each swallow works hard to be a perfect pilot-provider-builder-trainer-teacher-lover-mate, no half true hate! So each day like a bird, perfect thyself first! Have courage and smile my friend. Think and act 10 years ahead! And the man without fault? He's dead! Do one thing at a time, work hard! Get done!" And it keeps going, that's only a small fraction of the stuff written on the label.

As far as the soap goes, I like the peppermint cool burn it has, and it isn't a harsh soap. It does seem to make the water bead off my skin after a certain point during my shower, so I use a normal body wash every few showers, because I'm paranoid of some kind of oil buildup.

Ingredients: Water, Saponified Organic Coconut & Organic Olive Oils (w/ Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Peppermint Oil, Organic Mentha Arvensis, Citric Acid and Vitamin E.

If anyone has any opinions or facts regarding its cleansing abilities, let me know. Or if you are interested in it, visit their website.

This is my favorite Red Cross. I like and trust all the people here. They stopped using the bright colorful "cohesive flexible bandages" (stretchy stuff that wraps around the gauze when you're done) because people complain that they were too colorful. That explains the two tan ones I got the last two times and this time. But they have a surplus of the colorful ones, so they gave me a roll of the pink since they can't use it.

One of them actually still works. Amazing, the buttons were locked up, so I poured some rubbing alcohol in the gaps, and sprayed some canned air inside it, apparently from the looks of what blew out, I or someone else, spilled soda on it. Works perfectly now, makes me feel better using these than my Ipod. Just imagine if Diamond actually knew something about marketing, maybe they would be in Apple's place right now? Maybe it was just bad timing, not as many people with broadband and whatever. This is taking up way too much of my time. By the way, this phone sucks right now.

Got a bit too much sun this weekend, so it was time to break out the Solarcaine. I'm not sure if it is clinically proven to do anything, but for years it has done what aloe alone never did. I think it is time to start using sunscreen better, usually if I put it on, I put it on too late. Crazy weekend, if you weren't in it, you missed out.

Between the zero visibility dust and rock storms, roadrunner that came within inches of his death, flying tumble weeds from hell stuck in to the car, heavy rains in heavy traffic. Weel, I'm just really quite amazed at how smooth this weekend is going for being unplanned, even though I've know about it for months. Last night, in Santa Monica, was a nice change from the usual Thursday, which this week was pretty good actually. All I have to do is a bit of shopping here and make it an hour north in about an eight hour time span. Wish me luck.

What is intelligence? Is there any artificial intelligence yet? Will there ever be artificial intelligence? Is there even natural intelligence? Am I intelligent? Sometimes you can get wrapped up in those kind of questions. I don't think everyone who reads this would answer all the questions identically. Does that mean some people are wrong? Are those people unintelligent?

I was only boxing for a short time, well more than an hour probably. But it was just easy going, above the belt. Good release of energy and stress. I might consider doing it more often with people with short arms.

I used to be a dog only kind of person, but a few kittens have changed my mind. This one always makes me feel better when I'm down. He is my little baby, and he has been there for me through some rough times, even without needing to coax him with treats. I won't forget the day he came here, the day he got his name, or any other day that he has been in my life. Everyday that you spend with the people you care about is special, and even when you're not with them, they still make life worth living. Oh there was the day he was freaking out at the mouse in the bathtub and the day I took him for his first swim in the pool. Even though he won't ever live with me, he will always live in my heart. I love you Butters. Now that I have that off my chest I feel a lot better, he was guilt tripping me with meows.

Give a pint of blood and i'll buy you a pint of Guinness next time I see you. Or if you don't like Guinness perhaps another beverage.

Lots of crazy news this week. I guess that's all.

I was never any good at paint by numbers; I always have to have them exact. The brushes are blunt to begin with, and they get worse as you paint. And when I spend time making sure you have not gone over the lines, which becomes progressively harder, you end up running out of time. Sometimes I wish I would decide to do one quick and just be happy with the way it turns out. With stuff other than painting, which I have no natural skill at, I can actually finish them and be happy with the quality. I think I hate painting by numbers, but I will never give it up. I think this whole concept of by the numbers could relate to life in general.

I've always wanted two of these beanie Peeps, I just didn't know it until today when I saw them at the store. They are made of really soft cloth and filed with beanie stuff. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. If nothing else I'm sure somebody I know would like them. I actually made progress on the room, and its not just in my head, people have noticed. I'm turning a new leaf or page or something. Anyways, it should be interesting around here.

It feels like it should be Friday, but it is only Wednesday. I am not feeling very motivated, but after a long vacation you will have some coverage of the progress I make organizing my room. It will be almost like an early Christmas, but without a tree. On a different note, have you ever felt like you made a big circle in life but this time something was different? I know I make mistakes on each loop I make, but hopefully less of the same ones and not too many new ones. I'm really stubborn though sometimes. Actually quite often, maybe I can change that this time around. Today revolved around food, but if not food, what then? Banana cream pie shakes are perhaps one of the best fast food items ever produced.

I was hungry so I ended up eating a cookie that had been in my bag for about 2 days maybe a bit less, it wasn't too stale just crunchy, and it tasted really good at the time.

Good times...

Everyone has their motives, people raise their hands and answer questions to get candies. Motivation is the reason why most things get done. But I guess sometimes it hard to figure out what the motives are, let alone whether they are good or bad.

I don't think anyone will figure out on their own what this photo is. But that doesn't matter because I know, and knowing is half the battle, or so I was taught when I was younger by cartoons. It's kind of hard for me to come to terms with how much has happened since then, since I was what I now consider as "young," check back in twenty years for a post referring to myself as young currently. Anyways, the TV had a dial, VCRs and stereos ate your favorite tapes for lunch, and nothing besides how the answering machine you just took apart worked internally was complicated. Or maybe that's an over simplification of it. But it sure feels that way sometimes.

I guess a small airplane just made a safe landing on southbound 680 freeway. I took a quick photo as I passed in the northbound lane, I don't like rubberneckers but I was stopped and didn't even waste time with a good shot.

I sped up the process, set the starting point to be slightly before an image of Butters that was converted to 64x64 8-bit grayscale. But I think it demonstrates the possibilities that even a small colorless image can have. The downside is that it still is a huge amount of possibilities to have a human check each frame. Finding a way to fast forward only enough that it doesn't skip potential images but also helps us make it to those images in the first place is what needs to be researched next. Oh well, it was just my project for the evening, it will wait, until the next time I'm bored. If you want to help contribute by checking images, here is the link.

All three of those are annoying, but sometimes I like the fog, watching it roll down the hill is very exciting.

The weather is pretty bad right now, it was fairly warm and kind of overcast, and now it's just really rainy and wet. Right now barcodes interest me. They can be useful, and they look cool too. I wonder if anyone could read a barcode without the numbers below it just by looking at it. That would be a pretty cool skill to have. I'm about to go ice skating. I'm not good at all at ice skating, but sometimes I feel pretty good about my skills after a few laps. I just try to keep off the ice and look the least dorky as possible to the little kids skating circles around me.

Time to celebrate!

Being a cat would be a pretty sweet job. Butters seems to like it. When he was a kitten he would sometimes fall asleep with his head up in the air, and it would kind of sway up and down a little, and then it would just drop, and if he had a bowl of soup, his face would be in it. Now he is pretty big though, and he pretty much is the loudest cat you've heard when he wants your attention.

Finished it. Time to relax for a second.

Almost done with it!

It is probably time to take a nap. The last week was really fun. I did a wide range of activities. I saw some movies, from very different sides of the movie spectrum. I ate some good food and had plenty of Guinness to go along with it all. Good people, good times.

Had some good food, had some good times...

Every year as you get older Thanksgiving activities get more confusing. When you're old enough to understand the concept of time, thats when it first starts to get really confusing, what time does the turkey start, when do we eat, I thought we were going to eat three hours ago. When you change venues for Thanksgiving, confusion. Then when there are multiple possible places for you to go on Thanksgiving, more confusion. When the food is something other than the same thing you've had for the past decade or more, confusion. And you get the point. Oh and you should donate some blood.

Since I had some time to waste, I decided to get some food there. Nice hamburger and strawberry lemonade. Then I realized I still had a lot of time, so I asked what beers they had, and the waitress listed a few including Guinness. I told her I'd have one, and she asked if I wanted a shot to go along with it. I told her to surprise me, and she came back with some tequila, which isn't really my first choice, but it wasn't bad. You never know who you might bump in to at the airport.

Each year it seems like stores put up the stuff for each holiday earlier and earlier. I know I'm not the first person to think this, but I thought I would say it anyways. Pretty soon the start of a holiday in stores will overlap with the end of it. Christmas all year round. It is not a new concept, but I can't say that I don't enjoy seeing the lights up at night. On the other hand though sometimes it is nice to have it dark at night, see the moon and stars from the hottub or pool. Summer is a holiday too, at least as a kid it is. Well until they invented "year round" school. See now I am doing it too, I'm thinking about summer before winter has really started.

My room has seen better days and not too many worse days. It is not rock bottom yet either though. There is hope, a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Do you ever order something online, and they brag about three day shipping being standard. But they do not ship your order which is in stock and they say time to shipping is one to three business days. And you want to get a hold of them because you want to know what's happening, but they have no real way to contact them, but they are the best bet place to order that thing from. So you eventually get tired and want to take your business elsewhere, but you can't even cancel your order. Weeks go by. I hate that.

Went out to watch my cousin's football game. He is the second string varsity quarter back. He played the second half. Pretty good considering he is only a freshmen. It just happened that I also had a chance to go sailing too earlier that day. I've never been that excited to go that slow. I had the record at just over six knots. This morning I tried to surf, my first time. I got up and could balance pretty well. Wasn't very big of waves though. I think I will be doing more of that. Thanks to John, Rach, and Chip for letting us stay with them. If their place was as messy as mine, we wouldn't have had any room to sleep. It gives me a reason to clean up when I get home.

Standing close to the flower, means you're close to the bee. Sometimes the sting is worth being near the flower, maybe the bee might change and stop stinging you one day, or maybe not. Only time can and will tell. (random?)

Where my room is actually close to being clean, but I don't feel like writing about it. It was a good weekend though. Steak, Ahi, Guinness, rum in Cacti shotglasses, movies, sunburning, cleaning, relaxing, smiling, laughing, hot sake, thats just the begining, it's too much more to list. No regrets.

Here is a photo from my phone, looking through my glass of Guinness at the hills during twilight. Big weekend comming up, time for some much needed rest and relaxation. Been working on my room. Basically I tossed everything in to the closet. So tonight I think I will organize that place up a bit. Should be fun.

And some people will never change too. But dwelling on that isn't fun, but this is. I got this can when I went to San Diego a few years ago to visit some friends. That trip was pretty fun. Good times. My room is pretty clean right now, I just need to hang up my clean clothes.

I'm doing some laundry because I packed a trunk full of dirty clothes. This Dole Mango Lime Fiesta 100% Juice tastes kind of good too. Okay, time to get some work done.

I am so tired, I think it will be nap time as soon as the drive is done. I know you are looking forward to seeing some new photos of my clean room, right? All the newly released movies this weekend, and none seemed to be getting good reviews from critics and frends alike, so we ended up watching Red-Eye, and it inspired me to write a suspenseful scary movie, I know I could do a better job, check back for progress on this new venture.

It is about time to pack up the car and start the long journey once again. I can't really even make an estimate to how much stuff I will bring with me. I don't know if I will take more stuff than I brought, or less stuff than I brought. Life is funny like that.

I was cleaning my room up a bit looking for a key that I figured was in the room somewhere. Finally I gave up and guess what? The key was not even in the room, so I was less motivated to organize it since it was clearly in a way organized, had the key been in the room, I would have found it long ago. I also did some laundry, especially towels. Found the solarcaine too, that wasn't in my room either, but I knew exactly where it was. Last time that stuff was needed was back in May.

Now it is time for a nap.

If you forget memories, what will you have to talk about when you are old, besides how rock music makes kids do drugs. Something I didn't learn until it was too late was that if you give up what you believe in you are left with a bunch of stuff that you don't believe in and it is hard to convince yourself that they matter. You can never control what happens in life, but you can control your actions, sometimes it is just hard, but you will thank yourself later. My next action is sleep, I bet you expected me to say I was going to clean my room, but that will have to wait because I have to pack now, but I will try to clean as pack, because it's what I do, i'm a neat freak, ask anyone I know.

I can now make it to the back of my closet. Found some interesting stuff I had forgotten about. I know its not "clean" yet, but I really will finish it by friday. I would keep working on it, but I have a lot of other work which has to be done before Monday and Wednesday. Now it is time to relax a bit, I am exhausted.

This is for sure the last time you will see a photo of my messy closet. I feel a bit crappy right now, no sleep, sunburnt, overwhelmed, stuffy nose and sore throat; however, i am determined to clean this place up and restore my closets former glory. Soon, very soon...

It has been raining off and on for too long now. I didn't do much today, but I'm really tired, so I'm going to say hello to my friend, Mr. Guinness, and take it easy for the rest of the night. Keep watching this blog, it is going to get interesting soon probably, I can feel it, plus if you have wasted this much time, you might as well waste some more next time you are bored.

I love being tired halfway through the day and falling down on my nice pillows. Taking an unscheduled nap with the sun filling my room and some nice music in the background. Most of all I have to be laying down on my bed crooked or with at least thirty percent of my body either hanging off the bed or on top of random things left on my bed. Oh, and for sure the nap has to be one where I didn't know it was happening until I wake up, and then I keep laying there and snooze a little longer. Oh well, nap time is over!

While getting a little exercise we ran across a little dog. He had a collar so I approached him, and read it. "Orange Co., CA" with an ID# and phone number. Called the number and it was a vets office that was closed for the day. Took him home with us, called up some neighbors, one said it could be her neighbors, she asked if he responded to "Bud", we tried it and he did. She went to see if they were home, but they weren't so she came over to confirm it was bud, I was holding bud as she approached with her dog on a leash, he was about three times the size of Bud, but that didn't stop bud from unleashing a storm of barks and growls as I held him up in my arms. He has a lot of personality, I think that's you would call it. Sweet dog but won't let the big dogs walk all over him. So she said she would leave a note on the owner's door, 15 minutes later we got a call and his owner was on his way to pick him up. It was fun having a dog for a few hours. I think its also funny that his name was Bud, because not only does one of my roommates drink budlight non-stop, but also because my pal Butters, the Butt, I don't know, just reminded me of Butters since they were almost the same size and similar sounding names if you chop off "Ers" from Butters...

Tonight, went to dinner, then decided to watch a movie, had some time to kill, stopped by a nearby restaurant, had a drink at the bar, watched "Be Cool", it was really funny. Fun times, the weekends not over yet either.

I didn't even realize it but tomorrow is March too. Time flies when you're having fun huh? I'm pretty tired though and I have to be up pretty early so I'm going to try and keep this short, but in the next few days I'm going to try to add more photos to my website. Nite.

I am cleaning my room, finally. But right now I need a break. This weekend has been really unproductive, but it has been relaxing and entertaining. I want a puppy. Mittens (borrowed Sony Aibo ERS-311) is awesome, and irreplaceable, but I miss my old puppies from my childhood. Strong arguments can be easily made that I am still in my childhood though. I want a little rottweiler or maybe a husky puppy named Mittens, I am kind of attached to this little robot though, she is a trooper and I couldn't abandon her. Nothing beats watching her walk towards a pile of my clothes and stop right before them, then charge through them and come out with a shirt on her head. Okay, now to finish up my room, next time I write here I will post up a photo of a 100% clean room.