January 23, 2007
Crazy... Funny.
This is the funniest hate site I have ever seen... You have to read very carefully and have a bit of geek in you, but if you do you will find yourself laughing your a$$ off. Props to whoever made this site, althought I do not support the picking on or bullying of anyone, especially those with red hair, I do enjoy good humor and that is what this site offers. GingerKids.org
Aren't they cute...
This banner is curious?
Here is a sneaky excerpt from the site:
"Gingervitis is a serious disease affecting millions of people. Every day 1337 children are born with gingervitis in the United States alone."
Ginger Kids need panties too
Posted by pocket at 07:11 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2006
A Dream about Growing up
I had an amazing and wonderful dream last night and into this morning. As some of you know I am originally from a sleepy little town called Loveland in Colorado. It was here that I learned how to swim and went to the beach to play in our freezing cold muddy brown Lake Loveland, which serves as a reservoir for irrigation waters. I also explored the Big Thompson River as I grew up and would regularly skate or bike along the trails that our city has constructed along it's banks. In the summers I would climb the tall trees along the river and "cliff jump" into it's freezing cold waters, runoff from melting snow in the nearby Rocky Mountains. Colorado has seasons with changing leaves that fall and create a thick vegitation on muddy grounds, almost like a new kind of soil that hasn't quite broken down into the earth yet. I golfed in Loveland, on all of our five local courses, two of which were situated across the streat from eachoter. I explored our graveyards, one of which has a highway disecting it... the only one in the world with such a strange characteristic. Loveland, untill recently, had no malls and nothing modern for kids to do. I would have to travel all the way to Fort Collins to visit neat stores or see what the rest of the world was doing. Our staple was farming, but since many of the farmers were growing old and our property values had increased; we were becoming more of a retirement community than anything else. I would have to say the hilight of my youth was finally being allowed by my parents to ride my bicycle wherever I wanted. This freedom had started with the priviledge of riding around our block, which was situated next to another irrigation ditch and a heap of apartments. It was amazing, my parents gave me that freedom and I found so many adventures around one tiny block! I found out that both of the apartment complexes nearby had a couple of kids my age to hang out with, I also discovered that they both had pools, which had unfortunately gone into dissrepair. These weren't fun pools with slides or diving boards, but in Loveland any pool at all would suffice. The apartment nearest to my house had made a wooden cover for their old pool and was trying to pass it off as some sort of giant patio. My friends and I would tryt o lift the edges and peek through the cracks to see what was actually down there but it was far too heavy for all of us. As technology and age increased in my life I played my first video game, Super Metroid Prime! Some of my friends in the farther apartments had invited me to visit for a sort of parent sponsored play-date and as we began playing the game I instantly fell in love. The music, the graphics, it was incredible. The realy treat came four weeks later which seemed like an eternity, when we had finally beaten the game and discovered with amazement that the main character, Samus Aran, was actually a girl! Until then my parents had never allowed me to play video games, I wasn't allowed to watch cartoons or have toy guns. I was also forbidden to own a trampoline. All of these limits on my own interests forced me to find other outlets and I spent a lot of time with Legos and crafts, exploring our back yard, which had a magnifiscent swing set build by my father and uncle, and kicking around my soccer ball. At some point my Mom and Dad had negotiated with the neighboring apartment to borrow some of their land. You see, Loveland has laws about how much land a building needs to have associated with it's property based on how many people live there, and how many cars will be parked there. So this apartment had tons of fields surrounding it, all of the fenced off and full of thistle and other troublesom weeds. My dad had actually taken out two of the fense planks on our side of the property so that I could explore back there and it had always been a thrill! Once, when the neighbors had me babysit their pet turtle it had escaped and I found it's dead shell years later in those same trashy apartment-overflow fields. So, at some point my family began tending to part of those fields with the deal being we would plant grass and keep it nice looking and also take down the fenses if they would let us use it as part of our yard! It afforded the apartment complex with a nicer view since the fense on their side was removed, and it gave us tons of space since we took down our fense and put up a smaller one with horizontal criss crossing strips that you could see right through! So now I basically had my very own soccer field in my own back yard, which also doubled as a volleyball court and eventually a great place for a trampoline. We had it all and it was my responsibility to mow it and help my dad put in sprinklers. We were always doing family projects, drywall, skylights, painting, new shingles and cleaning out the gutters. I became quite the craftsman (and also found new uses for our house). There were times when I would move the trampoline that I had begged my parents to allow me to buy with my allowence ($2 a week) and place it under one of the eves on the house. I would huck myself off the roof and bounce all day long. It was truly amazing. There are tons of stories from my childhood on Greeland Drive in Loveland but now I will share my dream.
"Loveland is located along the Big Thompson River, east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Longs Peak and other mountains of the Front Range are visible from much of the city.
There is a large population of artists in Loveland, which has drawn three foundries, an art museum, and the annual sculpture show in August.
An interesting fact about Loveland is that the city is best known nationwide as the home of the Valentine Re-Mailing Program. Every year hundreds of thousands of Valentines are packaged inside larger envelopes and sent to Loveland, where volunteers hand-stamp them with a Valentine's verse and send them on to the intended recipients." This description is quoted from Virtual Cities
This wooden Indian sculpture was carved with a chain saw years ago and used to reside on the bike trail surrounding Lake Loveland. One year it was struck by lightening and started having problems with rotting. The decision was made to move it to a roadside (the road that is taken to visite Estes Park in the Rocky Mountains) so it could still be enjoyed but would stay safe and could be more easily cared for.
I dreamed last night, that I was visiting a large plantation style house, like so many in Loveland, near Thompson Valley High School where a football game was being played between my school LHS and their alltime rivals TVHS. All of my friends and I were having such a great time and it really felt like high school, although many of the people there were actually my friends from college who I have grown very close to in recent years. TVHS is right near the Big Thompson River (which has a terrible history of one giant flood) and after the game we all started walking back to the cars parked down by the bike trail. I fell behind because I was trying to clean up some dishes and see a few of the cute girls still hanging out at the party and wave goodbye to the parents there who had helped facilitate it all. When all was said and done I began sprinting to catch up with my friends, I couldn't do it for very long, just as in real life I have never been the best at long distance but I have tons of fun with fast short bursts and jumping off of rocks and doing grabs like some sort of freestyle runner. So I pressed on and felt the tall grass slapping on my jeans and eventually hopped from boulder to boulder on the lining of the river. The river was higher than usual and parking was also at an all time high with the football game going, so many of the cars had parked on the banks (which doesn't make sense at all). So as I got closer to my friends I had to hop from rock to rock and then to the tops of cars that were nearly submerged in water now! At one point the cars and wood in the river were floating and I inevitably fell in. Soaking wet I scrambled back onto a car and finished crossing with a smile on my face. All the while I had seen the backs of a couple of my friends off in the distance. They were heading into the forested area near the car park and I kept calling out. Now that I was nearly with them I scrambled up the sandy crisp beach, out of the cold fresh water. I looked up as I stumbled and saw all of my friends facing me and waving "heads up" as they swung their golf clubs! My friends were playing golf and randomly shooting balls into the river and across the field. It was such a beautiful sight with the sun setting on the Rocky Mountains and the tall, sparsely placed, trees that lined the river with the boalders and the sand and leaves falling down. I needed a picture of this to remember my friends, specifically Nick Struck who stood right out in front with his club. I started to run past them to get my camera in the car when I finally woke up from the dream.
This dream sort of reminds me that I may not get back to those childhood moments. I may never see my friend Nick Struck again and I probably won't be doing many more ditch explorations, let alone falling in! I haven't golfed in years and the last time I tried to get a friend to walk with me on the frozen waters of my favorite ditch in Loveland, he said no... he had outgrown it and didn't want to act foolishly. It was such a sad moment. I love those ditches; I have found crawdads, snakes, raccoons, and many other creatures there. I have had friends drive me way out into the country, when I was younger, to the top of the ditch and then let us out with our inner tubes, made from real car tubes, to float down. We would go through spider filled tunnels and see the farms and yards of people we had never, and would never, meet. We could see tall grass and grasshoppers and all sorts of wonderful nature along the way. One time I hopped into the ditch riding my Huffy bicycle and rode down half submerged. I aslo joined a group of friends in damming the ditch one year! We collected all of the engine bricks, rocks, and scrap wood we could find in the ditch when it was dried up and then built a dam and a bridge that we could cross when the water started flowing again! We built tree forts, some of them nearly 50 feet high! On the shores of that ditch and I met all sorts of crazy characters there... Some guy from LHS who I had never met (this is when I was younger) shocked me with some sort of cattle prod thing he had made in science class. In the winters I would sled into the ditch and on the slops that peeled away from the tall banks, keeping the water in. I learned the basics of snowboarding here and also learned how to ditch school to play in the snow, following my own path in life, standing up for what I wanted to do, my parents let me do as I wished but always reminded me that I would be paying for their retirement some day and that I would have to support myself, so get a good education they would say. A few times I ice skated all up and down the ditch, it was like rollerblading but more in nature and I went so far, always on my own, just exploring all that Loveland had to offer. While other kids complained of boredom I was knee deep in water during the summers collecting golf balls to sell back to golfers and make money with. I was out on Loveland lake with a hand-me-down boogie board trying to learn how to skim board. Some of the coolest and most memorable times were the rope swings and the explorations we did out onto the frozen Lake Loveland, hearing loud popping and echoing sounds, like some sort of giant slinkey, as the ice expanded and shifted under our weight.
I have included some pictures here and may update this someday when I visit Loveland and find my favorite spots. This time it won't be a dream and I will have my camera! I miss all of my friends growing up and I hope to continue exploring the world and getting immursed, I think that is why I like surfing so much, just getting in and charging in some new and changing environment with friends who are willing to get dirty. I would like to dedicate this post to all of my RA friends over the years who seemed almost like family, we had to share such challenging situations and alway be there for eachother, people like Nick Struck who would adventure with me and always kept such a positive attitude, people like Rande Skeen and Charlie Nichols. Also, my favorite friends from Loveland Colorado including Shean Perry and the boys from the apartment complex who's names I can't even remember fully, just Chris and his Metroid game. Scott, the boy who was the youngest and always got picked on, his life's dream from such a young age was to open a plumbing company called Scotty-Potty's Plumbing! Craig Depershmidth, Parker and Bryant Richards, Josh Dudley, and so many more. I will miss those days but always remember the fun times we had and what our age and innocence allowed us to do with our never-ending spare time.
Posted by pocket at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2006
Jamba Juice + BART Co-Branding Strategy
The other day when I rode the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to work I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a Jamba Juice employee as I exited the station. The JJ rep handed me a gift card and a brochure for Jamba Juice and told me that the cards that were being handed out all had random dollar ammounts added to them from $1 - $300...
Now I love Jamba Juice just as much as the next guy so this was quite a treat. What's even cooler is that the brochure thing actually employed a co-branding strategy. They had printed the BART logo on their fliers as well as their JJ propaganda! So now people like me have an even greater identification between car pooling, riding the BART, basically saving the environment in general, and drinking that fresh, clean, all natural Jamba Juice. Isn't marketing great? Now the real question... Why the heck do they still use styrofoam cups if they want an environmental image?
Jamba Juice, this needs to be fixed! I'm sure there is a sugar cane or corn based styrofoam alternative that is biodegradable that could be used here that would only increase your costs ~$.05 per drink. You can start by visiting World Centric and checking out their Styrofoam Alternatives
See the BART logo?
Yum... I still don't know how much is on that card.
Posted by pocket at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2006
Guitar Expressions - Acoustic Journey & Fleet
For many years I've been recording song ideas on this old tape recorder... It started out as mostly humming and singing (I used to be in chior) but eventually as I picked up the guitar and figured out more about computers, it has evolved into high quality sound bites. Check out two of my latest pieces below; Acoustic Journey and Fleet.
I used Garage Band on Fleet to add some bongos and a violin but Acoustic Journey is all original! I also cleaned up these tracks and enhanced the sound using a PC only application called Adobe Audition.
Acoustic Journey
Fleet
Posted by pocket at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)
Aibo Going Extinct
Well, these days it seems like everything is going extinct... even computorized robot dogs, Sony will no longer be selling it effective early 2006 but I'm sure eBay will! Meet Aibo (if you haven't already), I really wanted to buy this guy earlier in the year but with a $2000 price tag that's a bit steep for a college student.
Aibo can stream your email (reading it out loud to you), keep you up to date with calendar activities (once again... barking out commands like "pick the kids up from school damn it!!!"), and it can even be set for motion sensing + camera mode to protect the house and alert you at work via email if your house is being burglerized! If you're lucky, the thief might even take your $2000 robot companion (which will aleart you of it's exact position via GPS!) well, I made this last part up... but wouldn't it be neat? The robot dog is actually self sufficient and can find its way back to the charger and "take a nap" when the batteries run low. Yum Yum, so artificial... yet so intellingent :P
Yeah, I know all you "real life" doggy lovers out there are probably thinking "how stupid" and "I can't pet that thing" and "it can't lick my..." well, we'll just stop there, but studies show that robot pets actually have similar healing effects on their owners as real pets do! But... with Aibo going extinct I'm not sure how long those healing effects will last! I guess until the batteries run out?
here he/she "it" is, the Sony Aibo extinct robot dog! I've never seen a dog play dead quite like it?
You don't have to microwave this pooch to see what's inside! A friendly science lab made this nice x-ray for all of us to see...
Posted by pocket at 03:03 AM | Comments (0)
Junk Apparel - eat your heart out!
So I've been working downtown in San Francisco near the Civic Center BART station (not the cleanest friendliest area of town). On my way to my 28 story office building I have to walk through three gritty blocks dressed in my nicest business wear toting a laptop in a fancy briefcase and all the bums love to give me a hard time.
Just the other day some guy asked me for money and then spit on me WHEN I GAVE HIM SOME... I don't make a habbit of handing out change but the guy looked sort of upbeat and asked in a friendly way so I gave him some loose change. Wow, then the other day coming home from work some guys across the street chucked a lime at me. It's just a weird place to be and I stand out like a sore, young, rich thumb.
Okay, the real purpose of this post... I went exploring over lunch the other day and toured the City Hall. It was really cool, I learned all about San Francisco and even some about California (did you know the state is named after a female Indian warrior named "Kalifa" who used to live here?) If you ever get the chance, take the tour! So on my way of exploring I found these cool buildings, one of which was some sort of school many years back. Now it's all boarded up but I think there's probably something going on inside. The outside is what really matters in this case however, it's all covered with Jack's logo! Check the pictures below > >
there's the Junk Apparel logo!
this awesome mural covers the entire West side of the building... it's pretty intense.
side view: street, meeters, lights, beautiful architecture in a crappy part of town... It reminds me of most of Rome
Posted by pocket at 02:43 AM | Comments (1)
Quotes and Personality Stuff
I've been saving up these quotes for a while and wanted to share them before they get lost or something...
“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”
- Pablo Picasso“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”
- Pablo Picasso“You can't run a business without taking risks.”
- Picasso*"Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, consist of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing, through one's head. "
- Mark Twain"Those who abandone their own dreams, will discourage yours"
- Unknown"One man says: I see the light of god shining in you, the other says: all you see is my reflection, you're facing the wrong way"
- my grandpa"I just want to live until I die"
- my grandpa
I've come up with a few quotes of my own, let me know what you think... Maybe one day "pocket" will be known as an ancient and wise philosopher.
“You only have the power to change what you are willing to lose”
- me“The walls we erect to keep others out also keep us in”
- me"Eventually we all lose our lives, we try not to lose the meaning in life"
- me"Veterans Day: I am thankful for the gifts I have been given, by those I never knew, and some who live around me still, that helped me as I grew"
- me"I'm in a struggle with life, and life is winning"
- me"I'm realizing that a part of my paycheck actually goes towards a long term lease on my soul!"
- me"Faith is not a way of dealing with death, it is a way of dealing with life."
- me
...I want to learn from history and I'm trying not to settle for "good enough" in life. I like people in general, it brings me great joy to encourage success and compliment attempts at life... That's why I started aM with Blake and Dillon. My favorite part of life is when I am working on something I enjoy, which probably includes helping a friend. On an athletic note, I love running and jumping and being active like a cheetah (which is my fav animal) I'm an ENFP Myers Briggs - http://www.personalitypage.com/ENFP.html
Portrait of an ENFP - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving
(Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Feeling)
The InspirerAs an ENFP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit in with your personal value system.
ENFPs are warm, enthusiastic people, typically very bright and full of potential. They live in the world of possibilities, and can become very passionate and excited about things. Their enthusiasm lends them the ability to inspire and motivate others, more so than we see in other types. They can talk their way in or out of anything. They love life, seeing it as a special gift, and strive to make the most out of it.
ENFPs have an unusually broad range of skills and talents. They are good at most things which interest them. Project-oriented, they may go through several different careers during their lifetime. To onlookers, the ENFP may seem directionless and without purpose, but ENFPs are actually quite consistent, in that they have a strong sense of values which they live with throughout their lives. Everything that they do must be in line with their values. An ENFP needs to feel that they are living their lives as their true Self, walking in step with what they believe is right. They see meaning in everything, and are on a continuous quest to adapt their lives and values to achieve inner peace. They're constantly aware and somewhat fearful of losing touch with themselves. Since emotional excitement is usually an important part of the ENFP's life, and because they are focused on keeping "centered", the ENFP is usually an intense individual, with highly evolved values.
An ENFP needs to focus on following through with their projects. This can be a problem area for some of these individuals. Unlike other Extraverted types, ENFPs need time alone to center themselves, and make sure they are moving in a direction which is in sync with their values. ENFPs who remain centered will usually be quite successful at their endeavors. Others may fall into the habit of dropping a project when they become excited about a new possibility, and thus they never achieve the great accomplishments which they are capable of achieving.
Most ENFPs have great people skills. They are genuinely warm and interested in people, and place great importance on their inter-personal relationships. ENFPs almost always have a strong need to be liked. Sometimes, especially at a younger age, an ENFP will tend to be "gushy" and insincere, and generally "overdo" in an effort to win acceptance. However, once an ENFP has learned to balance their need to be true to themselves with their need for acceptance, they excel at bringing out the best in others, and are typically well-liked. They have an exceptional ability to intuitively understand a person after a very short period of time, and use their intuition and flexibility to relate to others on their own level.
Because ENFPs live in the world of exciting possibilities, the details of everyday life are seen as trivial drudgery. They place no importance on detailed, maintenance-type tasks, and will frequently remain oblivous to these types of concerns. When they do have to perform these tasks, they do not enjoy themselves. This is a challenging area of life for most ENFPs, and can be frustrating for ENFP's family members.
An ENFP who has "gone wrong" may be quite manipulative - and very good it. The gift of gab which they are blessed with makes it naturally easy for them to get what they want. Most ENFPs will not abuse their abilities, because that would not jive with their value systems.
ENFPs sometimes make serious errors in judgment. They have an amazing ability to intuitively perceive the truth about a person or situation, but when they apply judgment to their perception, they may jump to the wrong conclusions.
ENFPs who have not learned to follow through may have a difficult time remaining happy in marital relationships. Always seeing the possibilities of what could be, they may become bored with what actually is. The strong sense of values will keep many ENFPs dedicated to their relationships. However, ENFPs like a little excitement in their lives, and are best matched with individuals who are comfortable with change and new experiences.
Having an ENFP parent can be a fun-filled experience, but may be stressful at times for children with strong Sensing or Judging tendancies. Such children may see the ENFP parent as inconsistent and difficult to understand, as the children are pulled along in the whirlwind life of the ENFP. Sometimes the ENFP will want to be their child's best friend, and at other times they will play the parental authoritarian. But ENFPs are always consistent in their value systems, which they will impress on their children above all else, along with a basic joy of living.
ENFPs are basically happy people. They may become unhappy when they are confined to strict schedules or mundane tasks. Consequently, ENFPs work best in situations where they have a lot of flexibility, and where they can work with people and ideas. Many go into business for themselves. They have the ability to be quite productive with little supervision, as long as they are excited about what they're doing.
Because they are so alert and sensitive, constantly scanning their environments, ENFPs often suffer from muscle tension. They have a strong need to be independent, and resist being controlled or labelled. They need to maintain control over themselves, but they do not believe in controlling others. Their dislike of dependence and suppression extends to others as well as to themselves.
ENFPs are charming, ingenuous, risk-taking, sensitive, people-oriented individuals with capabilities ranging across a broad spectrum. They have many gifts which they will use to fulfill themselves and those near them, if they are able to remain centered and master the ability of following through.
Jungian functional preference ordering for ENFP:
Dominant: Extraverted Intuition
Auxiliary: Introverted Feeling
Tertiary: Extraverted Thinking
Inferior: Introverted Sensing
Posted by pocket at 02:23 AM | Comments (0)
