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
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)
October 14, 2006
Stanford Art Museum
I've been adventuring around Palo Alto a bit lately and came across the Stanford Art School/Museum. It's pretty cool, having just visited the art museums in Paris and Italy... I can honestly say that Stanford has done pretty well for a U.S. based institution, they even had egyptian stuff and a mummy!
I really enjoyed the architecture of the school and the art gardens surrounding the museum. Students whizzing to and from class, many of them setting up canvases to do practice sketches or paintings of the bronze sculptures outside.
entrance to the Stanford Art Museum
outside - murals with a frieze and pediment on the left
more murals
palm tree outside of the museum
This is a crazy black squirrel I found in a bush just outside the museum... I didn't realize that squirrels could be black like this so I had to take a picture. You will also notice the blurring and refracting going on with my wide angle lense. The camera I am using here is the Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital Elph with a clip on wide angle lense from Digital Concepts that I got off Amazon.
inside the Stanford Art Museum, Greek pottery, the yellow room
wooden horse sculpture...
Hoover Tower - Herbert Hoover attended Stanford and built this tower (which is now sort of a library). It's got a great view... but I'm not sure how earthquake resistant it is? You may notice the squirrel on the grass just in front of the tower... There are lots of squirrels at Stanford, just like there are lots of raccoons at the University of Colorado.
Posted by pocket at 01:37 AM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2006
Adventure Status
Lots of crazy new tails from my end of the pond. Work has been super busy and I'm fighting a battle to be "allowed" to persue a project in Seattle. The funny thing is, the Seattle project really wants me to join! I bring these specialized skills in marketing and web knowledge that is valuable and they recognize that, along with my interest. Unfortunately for me, I was randomly placed in a group at my company that does not share resources with this other group. Yeah, kinda sucks... I've offered unique solutions and even tried to move and switch groups permanently but to no avail. I'm getting the shaft from corporate America...
So, to take my mind off of these challenges I've tried to refocus my energy on other career paths, new companies, and reptiles. Yesterday I drove over to Berkeley to pick up an old pair of Northwave snowboard boots at a shop called Destination 1440 (they were sopposed to be fixing the laces with Northwave - factory defect). So I get this call that after two months that nothing has been done and my boots are basically just rotting away on some dirty shelf. So I get the boots and decide to explore the area a bit since it's been a while since I lived in Berkeley and it's the middle of the day on a weekday, all the shops are open.
I spot this jungle-like storefront and decide to enter the shop. "Berkeley's Secret Garden" is the name of this joint (pun definitely intended). They sell all sorts of grow lamps mounted to fans that spin with cooling devices... Lots of neat fauna there but really... This is California? Who would need to grow plants inside? And why would they want to cool the bulbs delivering the nutrients? Anyone familliar with police work and infra-red technology should be able to answer that...
Okay, so I actually like plants, legal ones, and so I ask the clerk if they have any terrariums instead of these big light spinning fan contraptions. He tells me that his other job is working at the East Bay Vivarium (one of the largest reptile stores in the nation). I'm stoked like a schoolgirl at this remark and I blast on over to the Vivarium, yum. Fancy my luck, it just so happens to be feeding time and all the animals are going nuts! I got to see these tiny 3" turtle babies snarfing down lettuce and of course the ever-exciting cricket hunt that some of the lizards were enacting.
It was a good day, I got a lot done and I've been sick so it was nice to sleep in a bit and try to rest up. I'm stoked to do a few aM updates with video and teh site should be coming alive again soon. One of my old CU journalist friends wants to do another story about us and our recent interview with the Campus Press should be online soon.
Posted by pocket at 03:23 PM | Comments (1)
September 01, 2006
A day in the life.
I tossed together this short video/slideshow of my last couple of days in San Francisco. Life is fast paced here, alarm clock shock at 5:47am BART station by 6:55, work starts at 8 and ends at 5 if you're lucky. BART home to meet friends and hit the waves. Snap a few pictures along the way. Surf till dark, go home and eat, crash... wake up... repeat...
Yesterday just also happened to feature my grandfather (you see him near the end) who drove out to visit me from Sun City Arizona. We ate spegetti and talked about family and life, it was good.
If you are using a Microsoft operating system and the video doesn't play, you should download the latest version of Apple Quiktime
Posted by pocket at 01:13 AM | Comments (2)
August 20, 2006
Surf Comp / Music Sesh
Saturday was a big day... It all started on Friday night when I got home from work early (I left for an appointment at the San Francisco Apple Store to get my computer fixed and learn more about Final Cut Pro). So I got home early and breezed through the local surf shops, checking out winter boards, chatting with friends, and it turned out The Log Shop was throwing a competition! I'm not sure why I hadn't heard about it before but the comp was the very next day! Saturday... So of course I entered the comp and went home to wax my board and get ready.
Saturday... The big day: My heat was at 1pm so spent the morning and early afternoon stretching and getting ready. The waves weren't looking all that great but it's an all day thing so it's hard to keep that consistency for every heat. I got the chance to make some new friends and chat with a local photographer about taking some pics.
1:15pm the horn sounded and I paddled out with the other 17+ yr old short boarders. Unfortunately the waves hadn't gotten any better, pretty small and mushy, but I was stoked just to be there. Each heat is only 15 minutes and each guy gets up to four waves in that timespan. I started off pretty well and ended up with one solid ride all the way in along with two shorter rides. The horn blew and my heat was up.
1:45pm the scores were added up and I took 5th place in my heat, not enough to advance... but quite a few people said I performed really well for having only been surfing ~2 months. Here is a pic from the event, this is one of my better runs... Note the tiny waves and the fluorescent green sponsors rash guard :)
It was a good time all around and I ended up with a free hot dog from the event... Well, it was actually $25 to enter so the dog wasn't completely free but the comp was a blast and there were tons of prizes and different catagories. One of the most unique heats was called "70's Grab Bag" and it was set up with 10 boards from the 70's and a random drawing for who would be riding what. Most of the other events were for long boarders and it was neat to meet so many surfers from around Linda Mar and Santa Cruz.
Okay, that's only half of my Saturday...
During the competition that afternoon my friend Eric stopped by and watched my heat. After the 15 minutes were up and I had my results and knew I wouldn't be advancing we decided to head on over to Monterra beach where the waves were better. For the next four hours we surfed and had a blast. We also met this guy who worked for Digital Chocolate making video games for cell phones. I guess his boss was one of the founders of Electronic Arts! Thats a big deal for all of you non-gamers out there... We exchanged info and just kept surfing.
Eventually we were completely worn out and it was time to get out and grab some dinner. Eric is getting his PHD at Stanford and some of his friends back on campus were planning a late night musical free for all at the tiki statues. I play the guitar so I decided to jump on board and head over with Eric.
This Music Sesh was crazy! The tiki garden was intense and some of the wooden statues were made into benches and could actually be played with sticks and stuff. The totem poles are intense and very detailed with interesting animals and spirits and sexual symbols and stuff... Also, the guys and girls who met us there were very interesting and everyone brought a different instrument. It was like a musical potluck... We had drums, bongos, cowbell, guitars, harmonica, trumpet (yes the trumpet was loud and apparently the cops had been called last time this type of thing went down). My favorite song was Turtle Satan, but many of the others were equally creative and intense. My friends recorded some of the later songs as things got crazier and crazier so maybe I can post one here... I especially like the pirate song so keep an eye out for that :)
Posted by pocket at 05:51 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2006
Global Status Check
Two nights ago I went out and saw An Inconvenient Truth. As one might expect from such moveis, my emotions were stirred and I wanted to do something to help solve the problem. Adding to the energy of the movie was the sense of helplessness that working for a global corporation can bring... A sense that I have been dealing with for the past couple of months.
I began asking myself questions like "is this type of work that my life is about?" and "do I want to end up like my boss?" and "is there anything I could do to make a change for the better?" I finally convinced myself to stick with my current job, keep car pooling and turning off lights, and simply keep an eye out for bigger opportunities when they arise. I can be a bit spastic in times like these because I really do want to make a differenct... even if it is only going to save the same shallow people that are currently creating the problems I so fear. One day man kind will again have to face the harsh tormenting found in history books and science theories, even if humans are eliminated though I'm sure life will remain in the form of some kind of three eyed toad or something. My point is: we aren't saving our planet, we are saving ourselves...
So, on the brighter, happier side of things... I decided to offset the harm I have been doing to our environment with my car and housing through Native Energy and TerraPass. These two programs are designed to help people become aware of how much CO2 they are emitting in their daily lives and then offer them a solution for offsetting that same ammount. For example, I donated $50 to TerraPass to offset the emissions of my mid sized car and they will in turn use that $50 to invest in alternative energy projects like solar panels and wind turbines, hence, offsetting my energy use.
This is what I saw driving in to NorCal
Check these programs out and definitely see An Inconvenient Truth! I'm glad to see change happening and it was a joyous occasion to drive through the inland parts of Northern California on my way from Boulder Colorado to San Francisco California and see all of the wind turbines that had been built. It was almost like being a tiny ant in a field of white grass. Towering propellers in every direction... To learn more about wind energy, check out this article in the Environment News Services archive.
Posted by pocket at 10:34 PM | Comments (2)
July 18, 2006
Who is Verne Baginski?
Well Last night after returning to my hotel room in St. Charles (just outside of Chicago) I was swimming laps in the resort pool. It was a scorching hot day and the humidity here in Illinois was nearly unbearable! The swimming was nice, and the resort I was at is pretty ritzy. It must have seemed a bit weird to onlookers because I was holding on to the ladder on the side of the pool with my feet and paddling with my arms to try to keep my arms in shape for surfing. Almost everyone had left the pool by 9pm and there was only one guy left over... Verne.
Verne is a technical lead with Wrigley (the guys who make gum, notably Orbitz, my personal fav). I had never really thought about the brand but apparently in Europe, specifically Germany (where Verne is from) the brand owns over 80% market share and recently bought parts of Kraft because it is so saturated! I don’t want to get Verne in trouble by sharing any numbers here, but Wrigley has grown a lot lately and it really sounded like a neat place to work. They even have a new marketing program with youth in Europe trying to help them invent the next great candy/gum product and that is just awesome! I told Verne about my recent Euro trip, how I had visited Germany less than a month ago and had enjoyed his country. He told me how much he enjoys the US, and that he has been here a few times on business with Wrigley, to Miami, LA, Chicago, and even SanFran where I am from. This visit was actually for leadership development and it was designed to bring together the top 50 people from Wrigley for networking and personal growth. I told him I would get his card later this week if I see him again and that I’d visit him in Germany next time I’m around... He said he would give me some free gum if I visited.
Aside from chatting about gum and golfing at the resort, Verne has branched out a bit this past weekend and explored the area, including a short trip over to Milwaukee where there is this awesome new art museum! We got onto this subject because I had mentioned my recent trip to the Chicago Institute of Art just a couple of days ago. Apparently the Milwaukee museum has these huge windows and is almost entirely glass. It also has this weird roof that is shaped like bird wings which can be opened or closed to let the fresh air in or keep the heat out!
Milwaukee Art Museum, MAM
Posted by pocket at 06:54 AM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2006
Pacifica Castle "Sams Castle"
Pacifica is an awesome place. When I moved to the Bay Area three weeks ago I was staying with a friend in Berkeley and that gave me the opportunity to search out a good living place, with surfing, mountain biking, and that small town feel. As described in my earlier posts, I didn't want to get robbed again and I'm not really stoked on the city... so a small town is perfect.
Within Pacifica I live in Linda Mar which I also wrote about, the reason I chose Linda Mar is the great surfing and the protected forrests that surround it (perfect for biking). They also built an awesome new skate park here and I have had a blast with that.
So anyways, as I have settled down and had some free time on the weekends I have begun adventuring out and exploring the town and surrounding areas in Pacifica. One thing that alway caught my attention was this castle up on a point right near the highway. Every day I pass this castle on my way to the BART station (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
Okay, Okay... So, I finally got my chance to visit Sam's Castle the other day, that is the point of this post!
Posted by pocket at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2006
Pacifica
Well, it's official. I'm completely relocated to California and my job has just started in San Francisco. Not quite as artistic as Blake or Dillon, I'm gettin some business skilllz from the bay area and surfing it up in between.
So yesterday I went out to my local break, just strolled down the street in my small town of Linda Mar and paddled out. I'm still developing that "surfer's intuition" and sometimes I end up in a bad spot. This time I had actually just caught a wave and was paddling back out when a heavy set rolled in. My only thought was to paddle faster but unfortunately I was in "the zone" and guys were charging right at me. I could tell I was in the way so I started heading to the left and waving my arm to let this guy know but he charged me anyway and shot his longboard at me. I took a hard hit on the left side of my face and my ear started bleeding. Luckily I always wear a helmet (no matter the sport) so I was fine but it clocked me pretty good.
Once I got back on my board I shouted to the guy that it was a good thing I had my helmet (hoping his move was an accident) but he shot back at me with "yeah I don't want my board dented" and my heart sort of sunk.
For the most part things are good around here and 90% of the guys and girls I meet out on the waves are cool. I guess the hour long commute can wear some people down and all they have left is agression on the waves.
Posted by pocket at 02:17 AM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2006
Letters from Europe - meeting a friend
Europe is... challenging. But before I get into that, I met an Indian lady today who teaches at a university in Texas, she has a really long complicated name that has Raj somewhere in there and she speaks quickly (but has very good English) and is very direct. My kind of lady, we had a lot of fun talking and she asked about some of my professors and I said LK! She said she met you at a conference so I told her I'd say hi to you and I also told her about my website so maybe I will get more info from her down the road and I can pass that on.
Okay, Europe... We have had quite the adventure, we have seen a bum fight (pretty serious with bloody faces, and we heard about another one with bottle breaking and stabbing near the train station just as we arrived), ah yes, arrival! we have missed three trains as a result of other late trains and road/subway construction which also put us in all the wrong parts of Paris (I thought I was going to die). I guess part of the reason I was so afraid is because a gang of three guys robbed/mugged us on the subway the day we arrived in Paris and that sort of ruined my peace of mind.
Later on in Rome our tour bus hit some lady crossing the street and I got minor whiplash (the victim of the incident managed to get up and hobble away in fear crying as the bus charged on) and speaking of tour buses! We got on one to visit the Sistine Chapel the other day but the line was so long (over 5 blocks) that we had to get right back on the bus! which took nearly three hours to complete the trip back to the train station before we left for Greece. Cutting to the chase... while I appreciate my dad's effort to "expose" us to Europe, backpacking style with trains and subways and no real plan or reserved hotels (which has also been problematic), I've been daydreaming of coming home and seeing my friends before moving to California. This will be a great trip to look BACK on :)
Posted by pocket at 02:53 AM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2006
Blake the man Kimmel aM factor 10
Well, I can't blame him for loving the number 10; it's even, round, reliable and trustworthy. Ten will never let you down. You wouldn't know it from looking at this crazy snapshot thought; you'd figure 13 or something... which just happens to be my number. I'm more of a 23, 73, 7 kind of guy which is weird because I'm the organized side of ABSTRACTmall and Blake is the spontaneity. Head on over and learn some more about Blake by clicking the picture below...
Posted by pocket at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
Life on the pond
Yep, living at a pond does mean allergies and the potential mosquito bite... but it also means you get to see these cute little goslings! Note: they do grow up into dirty honking poop machines but for the time being they are oh so cute!!1 In fact, one of the freshmen living in KDub got her friends to help corral the goslings and she actually goosnapped one! Yeah... not cool... she was caught and the baby was subsequently returned to it's parents who accepted it back (which is much better than the "pecking it to death for smelling like a human" alternative we have all been warned about in our more youthful days). Enjoy.
Posted by pocket at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)