Pendragon, a blog by Damien

The end.

2009-05-06T21:01:00.001-07:00

I"m moving blog areas. from now on, find me here:

damienmaloney.wordpress.com

winding down

2009-05-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday went to lunch with Ari and Lisa, stopped at the shop labelled Discount Food afterwards where Lisa got a giant box of donuts for a 'discount'. She decided the best way to use them would be to throw them at people around campus. Ari and I were having fun watching her do this outside the library until we saw a library personnel come to gather books from the drop-box. We got prone in the lawn until he left.

This is Scott showing some love to a plate of strawberries at our State Press banquet at Barney's Boathouse.

I didn't realize that there were templates for awards. I made my own with my very bad graphic design skillz. I really liked the light on Serwaa, it was being reflected off of a giant red patio umbrella outside the restaurant.

This is one of those questionably acceptable landscape/architecture shots that everyone seems to do time and again that only looks ok in black and white.

track:pole vault

2009-04-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

Spent about an hour shooting track last night. I ended up with a couple I liked, though they aren't usable for the paper since neither are ASU guys. I don't really know how I feel about this 85mm. Half the time I wish it was a 100 or 135 and the other half I wish it was a 50.

tennis and mystery booth

2009-04-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

An odd shot from tennis this weekend.

Matt modeling in a phonebooth. I was trying to use lighting sparcely instead of just shining it everywhere like I usually do.

also, I thought it would be fun to throw my flash at Matt earlier and take a picture of it.

he didn't catch it.

more sino tayo

2009-04-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Here's more from this weekend. I didn't shoot anything yesterday that I really liked. This morning I got to go into the steam tunnels under ASU for a story on the tunnels. The guy that let us in wasn't really interested in us being there in the first place, and didn't give us much access at all. I pretty much got a photo of a tunnel with a pipe in it.

And this happened when I helped morgan shoot engagement photos a few weeks ago at papago.

Sino tayo

2009-04-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to Sino Tayo, a Filipino culture night full of food, dancing, poetry, hip hop dancing, and the obligatory 'let jesus back into your life' sketch. Needless to say, I had a great time. I discovered Hawai'ian Punch for the first time in years (Free Hawai'i, and use the apostrophe, please!). Here's one from Catherine's carinosa dance.

green architect

2009-04-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

I want to shoot more portraits, because they make me really nervous. This guy is Ernesto Fonseca, a sustainable architect. He's doing some really cool projects, including building a 600-acre sustainable village in Mexico. He was also nice enough to take of his shoes for me. This was shot on a really cool astroturf lounge area thats in a courtyard in the College of Design. I really wish I had a wider frame of the grass, but this was really the only way it was going to work.

parking and transit

2009-04-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

Here's one from a story on corruption within ASU's parking and transit. Ticket quotas and pressure to write more tickets etc etc. I tried to keep faces out of it because the reporter had a hard enough time getting sources to talk to her. I really wish that I would have stepped back and got more of the steering wheel.

easter.

2009-04-15T00:33:00.000-07:00

yes i know easter was a few days ago. I ate too much meat on easter and ended up feeling very ill yesterday. today i rode my bicycle into a car. i'm not using these things as an excuse, i just hope somehow they make my photos more interesting.

Since my parents split up last fall, my mom has had two tattoos done.

I usually don't like photos of cats too much, but this one seemed apt. This is my parent's cat, Big.

tape norman

2009-04-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Found at the ASU theatre building, this is a collection of pieces of masking tape.

This is Norman and his usual library pickings.

haircut.

2009-04-08T13:00:00.001-07:00

white whine

2009-04-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

Shot this today at an ASU Foundation event. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding if its brilliant or stupid. I kind of like it.

giant condom

2009-04-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

mary beth

2009-04-06T20:33:00.001-07:00

I think I like this photo.

Steak.

2009-04-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

I took a picture of this steak today. The colorful swirls around it are blood.

and then some.

2009-04-04T17:51:00.003-07:00

bikerman in traffic

jesus.

2009-04-04T17:27:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile.

softbox

2009-03-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

post-eyeliner damien looking into a cookie-tin gridded softbox.

iraq war protest.

2009-03-21T02:38:00.001-07:00

Tempe resident Pablo Quintana makes a peace sign at honking cars driving under the University Bridge

Mesa resident Tom Moore carefully carries a candle at the start of the vigil march. Tom came to the protest for himself and a close friend, who was too sick to make it out.

Tempe resident Jeremiah Smith shows the inner-workings of his "Uncle Scam" costume made out of an old hiking pack during the vigil march down Palm Walk.

ASU students and local residents, guided by the End The War Coalition started the protest off at the University Bridge. The demonstrators gained much attention from cars passing under the bridge.

The Black River Bandit smokes a cigar and waves an American flag on the University Bridge Thursday evening as part of the anti-war protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

men in rooms

2009-03-18T00:49:00.000-07:00

This is a poem I wrote last semester for a poetry class. It is inspired and alludes to a novel written by Evelyn Waugh titled A Handful of Dust.

Men in Rooms

One man’s anticipation rings louder than others
For the day’s coming tasks.
His rifle palpitates of ancestry,
Huddled close to the dark stroke of his coat.

Some took the train up from London,
Others hired a car.
They were all there
To spend a day in Breton wood.

Eagerly stood and polished,
Noses clawing for a wisp of gunpowder.
A Mr. Tony Last may lose his son today,
A horse will kick when startled.

Before dawn touches collars,
They know what it is to be men.
Even if the hunt is called early,
They are the same as in the morning:

Men in rooms with guns for foxes.

Any and all criticism is encouraged.

deciduous milkman.

2009-03-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Being terminally disorganized actually served to benefit me recently when I learned that the hard drive on my laptop had reached the end of its life. They tried to recover some of the old files, but were only able to get what was on the desktop. Thankfully, nearly everything I cared about for the 6 months before my hard drive crashed was saved to my desktop. Like over 200 items. It is to this for which you owe all of these magical drawings and collages that I can now feed to your starving eyes.

Like this!

Second in my collage series. I wanted to stick with the same proportions. I know these could technically have been done better, but the whole idea was to run a few quick google searches and compose them quickly, in like 20-30 minutes. Its really satisfying, you should try it.

cakes

2009-03-17T00:58:00.000-07:00

So today I saw a guy backflipping around on campus. I approached him and asked him if he's in any freerunning/parkour groups. He said no but thats his recent dream, to start one. I told him I want to do that and take pictures too. He was really excited and he told me that he knew that it was a really good thing that he just met me. The bad part is I think I forgot his name.

Shortly after, I was locking my bike up on the railings of Coor and clumsily dropped the U portion of my lock down TO THE LOWER LEVEL. I watched it fall and spark as it hit the ground. I was completely in shock for about a minute, mostly because as far as I could tell, not a single person saw me do this. I mean, I could have killed someone, that pointy end on my lock could have gone through their skull, or at least knocked them unconscious if someone had happened to be there at that moment. But no one did, and so everything was fine. And no one looked at me. No one said anything.

Here's a collage a did a while ago that I like. view full to see it properly.

Lookin' Up

2009-03-14T15:31:00.001-07:00

I think anyone and everyone that reads this knows that I have been without camera for nearly three weeks now. I feel as if I've been driven to insanity and back, with little flourishes of clarity mixed in. After the initial waiting period (I now refer to this period as simply, The Waiting--characterized by intermittent crying, viewing of 'romantic comedies', excessive womanizing and heavy drinking), I finally heard back from Canon about what they wanted to do about my camera. Here's the deal: the grip that screws into the bottom of my camera broke so I could not remove it nor operate my camera. Earlier this week Canon tells me they would like $230 dollars to fix this because my grip is under warranty, but my camera is not. I'm obviously sad, mostly because 20Ds can be had these days for about $300. I told them that they really should fix it, because the grip broke and its the grip thats under warranty, but if they refuse, then they can send it back to me and I'll give it a try with a Dremel.

And to my complete surprise, they agreed to fix it for free. I know, right?

So I don't have it back yet, but getting this all resolved has given me such peace of mind.

Such a peace of mind that I've made an attempt to be more organized and updating my filing system to include little pieces of paper and pictures that make me smile, so that I might share them with more people (through the help of a scanner, of course).

Oh, and I also just discovered that my macbook that hasn't worked for 4 months is still under apple care until june! we'll see how that goes, for now, a great comic that Ed drew on his notes.

I already know how Tim Ward feels about dreams, but...

2009-03-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

I had a dream the other night that I was riding my bike and I realized that both the front tire (tyre, if you're of English persuasion) and the back tire had lost their air. While I've had many crazy dreams recently, apparently this too much to handle for me, for as I was dreaming, I knew that it must be a dream because never in real life would you flat both front and rear tires (tyres, see above). I was certain in my dream that it was in fact a dream, and my questioning of this credulity brought another layer of dreaming.

Really though, in real life, you will never encounter getting both front and rear flats.

pyramids

2009-03-08T14:51:00.001-07:00

Two business causal Indians just tried to seduce me into ecommerce pyramid selling with retirement fears and pictures of beaches. Ankur is a guy I used to work with at ASU's Center of Professional Development. We used to operate cameras and capture engineering lectures for distance learning programs. Ankur called me yesterday and told me that his friend runs a business and is looking for 'sharp, ambitious people'. He then told me that he thought I was sharp and seemed ambitious. This was rather telling to me, but he insisted that we get together, so I agreed to meet him and his friend today. I sat down with Ankur and Pradeep and they told me how I could be earning all of this money without explaining what kind of business it was and what I would be doing. They kept telling me it was for busy people. I told them I was busy. When I asked them if I would be working on a computer, they pulled out a laptop with a DVD and told me my question would be answered in the video. All of this took place at a Starbucks inside a Safeway. When I asked if this was 'pyramid selling', Pradeep drew a diagram showing how there is a CEO, and people that work under him, and people that work under those people and so on. He told me that all businesses work like this and that everything is a pyramid. About a minute into the video I just smiled and said "I'm sorry, I'm not interested in this at all, good luck. Nice to meet you, Pradeep--and Ankur, I'll see you later".

Text-exchange between Jay and me yesterday:

J: Alright I'm going to talk to my secretariat and figure out my day and I'll text you in like ten

Me: Make sure to consult your seabiscuit as well

J: I love horses so much

ari shiffrin

2009-03-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

language expert and pro sk8r ari shiffrin has a very specific blog about people in mustaches. when our 'collab' dropped last week (pictures I took of his mustacher), we received several very prestigious reviews from some very well-known publications. Could be the most sensational collab since the Vatican and Reebok. I won't name names, because I really am not in it for the money, but lets just say we both got some pretty nice checks. Speaking of checks, be sure to check out Ari's blog, MustachMe, which if you go by the url spelling, is simply mustacheme. ari shiffrin everybody:

MUSTACHE ME

breakers

2009-02-28T23:16:00.000-08:00

Jockey bike?

2009-02-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Also, I forgot to share this gem. As a cyclist, I'm usually pretty conscious about bikes that I see locked up or being ridden. Occasionally these bikes are fascinating enough to warrant a photo being taken. This bike however, is one of the most bizarre I have ever seen. Since it was spotted at Turf Paradise, I want to think it belongs to one of the jockeys who likens his/her (I saw women jockeys--they exist) ride to and from the track as extra jockey practice made possible by the grotesquely extended saddle horn.

:)

Turf Paradise

2009-02-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

I got to help photography wizard Tracy R. shoot some pictures for her portfolio today. We went to Turf Paradise, which is a horse track in North Phoenix. I had such a good time. Most of my time was spent holding lights and carrying gear, but I was able to take a few shots with a borrowed 20D from Morgan.

it isn't everyday that you see FBI agents taming horses:

note: if you view this large, you'll notice the FBI this man works for is not the Federal Bureau we've all come to know, but infact he is a Female Body Inspector. cool! And his calves look not dissimilar from the horse's.

Jenny is super cool. She "does wonders with hair".

marcus from the agency is such a good model, even if he's blinking. I was smiling when he was posing near the horses because I could tell he was a bit uneasy. He looked at me and started smiling nervously, but when Tracy started shooting he went straight into model face with no hesitation.

And then I took this tonight in a parking lot. The colors were so nice in the sky, but I was really trying to capture the perfectly aligned half-moon with venus glowing next to it. I didn't. I should really carry a tripod.

sorrryyy

2009-02-25T22:06:00.001-08:00

So my camera has been broken. I have decided to send it to Canon for warranty repair (HOPEFULLY). I was told that I might not see her for a few weeks, and I am inevitably heartbroken. I've taken up using the seven-year-old Nikon that State Press owns, it is better than not having a camera, but it cannot fill the place of my trusty 20D. I'll likely be posting some old photos until I get it back.

Here are some fun football shots from the ASU v UA game December 7th.

This one's for Matt Pavelek, who has the better judgement to focus on what really matters:

I really appreciated the marquee letter conservation here

some nice light i found in a parking garage

thats all for now! i''ll be posting more regularly, i promise.

found

2009-02-21T17:21:00.001-08:00

I've been cleaning my house this weekend, found a few amusing things. Here are two (2):

roofs

2009-02-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't shot too many photos this week, but I did do a bunch of portrait-esque photos for the State Press editorial staff for our Oscar picks section in Fridays paper. Some were better than others, but my favourite was this one of Ben with Scott's ever-present bowling pin.

Yesterday I climbed up on my roof. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while. Not like I've never been on the roof, I just haven't done it in a while. I tried to realign my tv dish while I was up there, but I forgot wrenches so I just ended up taking pictures of things that can be seen from the roof.

bird nest!

Texting while riding

And just now I did a picture for a State Press article on artist Tony Carrillo of syndicated F Minus fame. I like it, its simple.

weppagage

2009-02-17T17:01:00.001-08:00

No more photos for now, but I am pleased to announce that I now have web skills. Very very bad web skills. See my computational linguistics site for more fun:

www.public.asu.edu/~mdmalone

Water

2009-02-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, well I'm officially done posting through my flickr, which lasted (1) post to be specific. They have a monthly 100mb limit, so I've maxed that out. Their only form of membership is $25 a year. I'm not willing to pay that when I'm already paying for hosting.

I took some photos of ASU Women's water polo practice today. Normally I wouldn't be too thrilled about photos from a practice, but I felt like the sunlight was just perfect (about 5:30) and I found a shutter speed to stop every water droplet (about 1/2000s). I liked how a few of them came out. See for yourself:

Oh yea, and these were all shot manual focused, with our 300mm Tamron that the State Press owns.

In other news, I helped my Dad make dinner on Sunday:

liberty

2009-02-15T21:23:00.001-08:00

If you've lived in Tempe long, you're sure to have seen one of these Liberty Tax Service people. They dress up like statues of liberty and wave at cars all day. There's normally no more than two at a time, but this day there was undeniably at least 6. I don't know how they employ all of these liberty people, but I'm guessing its working for them.

view full on flickr for extra fun

Allstarz

2009-02-15T21:11:00.000-08:00

I went to the NBA Allstar Jam Session Friday at the Phoenix Convention Center. There was lots of clever marketing, and nothing really worth noticing. I took pictures anyway. Here are some:

I'm beginning to feel more comfortable photographing strangers. The fear of them objecting used to paralyze me, but I'm learning that hardly anyone ever objects. Most people won't care enough to say anything. Its a thrill to see if you can get a shot without them seeing, and it's even more of a thrill when you know they saw.

priests, exteme sports, weed

2009-02-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

Leaving campus today I spotted a group of Dominican priests and students engaging in philosophical discussion. I asked if I could photograph them while they spoke, they agreed. "What was that about Feuerbach?" I heard just after I snapped this shot.

This happened shortly after:

They put on this thing at the SRC where they dumped a bunch of snow and people were snowboarding.

And I took this of associate design professor Andy Weed earlier this week for a State Press story. He is such an interesting man.

thoughts.

2009-02-11T23:45:00.000-08:00

I've been throwing some ideas around lately, the best of which is an absurd publication inspired by some of my worst moments with the State Press editorial staff.

Publication title: Cats, Rats, Bats We then feature relevant numbers and statistics from recent news stories/happenings and make absurd comparisons. Example:

State Legislature confirms $143 Mil Budget Cuts

That's 1.14 of Croatian Kraljevica shipyard's oil tankers

That's 794,444.44 adopted cats (average: MKT PRICE)

Never like this: That's how many pounds of beef were recalled in 2008 by the USDA for illegally slaughtered 'downer' cows from Chino, Ca.

THEN THERES A SECTION WITH STREET PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY, LIKE A "DOS/DONTS' ONLY THERE IS ALWAYS A SUBTLE SURFACE RACISM IN THE COMMENTARY

Example: Marco wears a button-down shirt he got at Savers with jeans from KOALAFACTORY. Marco's a 'latino'. Example:

Photo of a white guy wearing full sweatsuit jacket and pants of a burgundy color. Going to school in your pajamas is not only never OK. It is only made better if you are black.

Then I'll make sure to cover a few pages with the words 'new, news' in alternating spellings and typographic options. Example: " New, news. News. News. New news. New NeWS, newnews. newq." etc.

Then Jim King will have a big section where he writes 'fantasy' sports articles and we include very obviously photoshopped pictures of these imaginged sports moments. Most of these will include Sometimes you can get 'quote happy'. I almost did it in that last line with the word 'imagined'. I avoid using double-quotes because its like the foot-in-the-door phenomenon: once you get up to 2 quotes, you have to work your way back down to 1, etc. There's a word that means "not chronological" that I would like to use here, but cannot remember it.

One of the other ideas I came up with tonight is to have one person read a script and have another person shout out the punctuation as it occurs just before the first person is done speaking. Example: "just as he found them... "COMMA!" "...they screamed 'surprise!'" that one only works in real life I just decided. Just forget about that.

I'd like to do some linguistics research into the use of CAPTCHAs and their comprehensability (salience) in regards to non-native speakers of the language to which they are directed. I would also like to do some research regarding other sorts of 'Turing Tests" and ways in which they may be discriminating toward certain minority societies. That actually doesn't sound like a half-bad research proposal, damien...

Here's a photo of an older gay couple etching 3d in fake crystal that I found at the Fashion Show mall in Las Vegas:

November

2008-11-08T22:26:00.001-08:00

In an attempt to make ammends for not posting here in a while, I will entertain you with many things at once (probably only myself, since I don't know who reads this).

I've been taking many pictures lately, as prescribed by The State Press, some of them better than others. I have also been writing poetry for my poetry workshop class I am enrolled in this semester. You may see some of both soon.

I have a few good stories of things that have happened to me in the past week, and I aim to verbalize those now.

One day last week I was riding my bike to school down Rural Road. I'm certain that I was nearing Apache when I noticed a police officer on motorcycle camped on the side of the road, obviously already at work at 10 am radaring motorists. As I rode by, I shouted, "What, you're not going to radar me?!" to the police officer. He looked up at me kind of baffled, then in full pantomime, drew his radar gun and tracked me in a way that can only be described as hilarious. He was quick to the draw, and he picked up on my horrible joke and threw another back at me quicker than I was expecting. This put a smile on my face and temporarily restored my faith in law enforcement.

At the Obama results party at the Wyndham in Phoenix Tuesday night, I made conversation with the man on the left. I had been talking with him off and on all night, and at one point he approached me and asked something like "Don't you think Sarah Palin is hot?". I said something like "No, not really--I'm not really into that typical white-girl look." To which he said "You're not into white girls? I'm not into black girls!" We shared a laugh together and I couldn't imagine a more opportune place for an exchange such as this than Obama's election-night rally.

Today I went to two operas. One in the morning, one in the evening. The morning on was called "Doctor Atomic". It was focused on Dr. Oppenheimer and the creation of the nuclear bomb. Though I enjoyed some of what I saw, I felt like the operatic aspect (singing every line) detracted from the overall element. The set and score were wonderful however, which really made me sad. Fortunately, the audio cut out during the intermission (as it was being boradcasted live from New York and we were in an AMC theater). A young man boasted in front of the small audience that it couldn't be any error of the current theatre's, and must be an issue of the New York feed. Firstly, I was astounded that he would say this, and secondly, that so many people were pacified by this explanation. I could think of 100 reasons why the audio in the theatre stopped working and none of them involved New York. I concluded from this experience (and others with musicals) that I have a great distaste for theatre combined with music. It's not that I don't like either, but rather I seem to always feel one is not on par with the other (usually the music).

The second opera I went to tonight was not much of an opera in the traditional sense at all. It was a 'redgrass' opera solely performed by Randall Clarkson, and it consisted of him, a resonator guitar, and a harmonica. It was socialist/communist themed, and it was wonderful. Musically superior to anything I've seen in awhile, Randall whistled and played harmonica to completely dissimilar melodies on guitar. This was a photo assignment I went into with little expectations, and ended up enjoying very much.

you can read more about that one here:

State Press Article "Student preforms socialist opera"

KITTTTY

2008-08-22T11:46:00.001-07:00

He even poses for pictures!

he's still talking about seattle

2008-08-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

I recently found an article (link is at the bottom) covering a car vs bicycle incident that occured at a critical mass. I was more interested to discover it was the critical mass in Seattle that I nearly took part in. A friend from Vancouver tried to round up a bunch of bicycles from various places so we could all have fun and see Seattle but unfortunately there weren't enough bicycles to be found. So that was the end.

UNTIL I read this article about how a 23 year-old travel agent decided that he needed to hit critical mass cyclists with his car in order to get across town. The story is pretty much the same as it always is: angry driver does something stupid and bikers are very angry and do something stupider. He drove his car into them, they chased him down, slashed his tires, and gave him some blood on his forehead with a U-lock.

BUT by far the most entertaining part of this article from The Stranger comes in the form of a quote from the driver: "I sympathize with [their] cause... I'm gay, the person with me was a lesbian and we were attacked by ecoterrorists. It's the most Seattle thing that could have happened."

I am not even going to try to look at that critically. What I will say is even more entertaining is the fact that the reporter deliberately wrote down this quote from the man. Even more entertaining than that is that the editor approved.

PLEASE STOP READING NOW IF YOU ARE HAPPY WITH YOUR LIFE. THE NEXT PARAGRAPH CONTAINS NO USEFUL INFORMATION TO ANYONE.

The only way the incident could have been more 'Seattle' is if coffee were involved. Like the cyclists made the driver spill his coffee which was the impetus for aggression. Or after they U-locked (creating verbs out of nouns all over the place!) him, they poured hot coffee on his lap (this would imply he was sitting, according to the OED's definition of 'lap'). Or his car was actually carrying a payload of coffee, which would somehow mature too quickly if his shipment was delayed in any way, and in reality, the obstruction that the cyclists wished to achieve in demonstrating their superiority over the automobile was really just an obstruction to coffee and therefore all of Seattle. Unless it was Starbuck's Coffee, then people would be like, "YA< THEY SUCK!"

See for yourself: http://thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=632154&hp

Also while in Seattle, this happened:

I like the assumptions one could make when these are taken out of contest. It could easily be a full-scale goverment disease supression and not a routine window pressure-washing. I've decided to title these photos "They Came On a Ladder From the Sky".

P.S. In reference to my title, if anyone has any good rules regarding capitalization and titles (like don't capitalize articles or something), I would love to hear them.

panininini

2008-08-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

I was waiting in line for a panini (which, if you don’t already know, is VERY similar to a sandwich, only you cannot EVER call a panini a sandwich) and commented on the man in line behind me’s foresight of having the lettuce and tomatoes come AFTER the toasting (so they weren’t all wilty and soggy). I had done the opposite: my lettuce and tomatoes were toasting. So he asked me if I was in school, he had just finished his undergrad despite appearing at least 30. He worked for the Navy. He knew a lot about unmanned aircraft systems. Somehow I let on that I had done some work with Greenpeace. He gave a hearty laugh, daring me to inquire why he had done so. He told me about how the Navy has nuclear submarines and how Greenpeace doesn’t like nuclear submarines. He told me about how he was the captain of a seal team in Virginia doing maneuvers with nuclear subs in the Chesapeake and Greenpeace was getting in the way with their inflatable’s. He told me about how he and his team ran up alongside the Greenpeace boat and pulled a knife down the sponsons (those are the big airtubes that keep little boats together). I laughed with him. “Those guys were pretty happy we were there when we had to pull around and get them out of that cold water”. Now, I enjoy hating the good guys as much as anyone else, but I didn’t have the heart to tell this guy that it sounded like Greenpeace won this battle. When you hold a protest in an orderly fashion, and the guys you are protesting pull out knives and sink your boat, who looks better on the evening news? Anyway, this was clearly a valuable experience to me because my dreams last night were filled with boats. I had nautical dreams. Maritime dream. I got my Dad playing chess. Prior to yesterday, he had never learned how to play chess. Imagine that. His first game after he learned which was a rook and which was a bishop he nearly beat me. Congratulations Dad.

Conversation just now between me and my dad:

Dad: That stereo guy had one of those help-dogs the other day. You know, those dogs with badges on them.

Me: He had a help-dog?

Yeah.

Is he blind?

No.

Are you sure??

Yeah. He’s just an asshole.

Here's a picture of John on a fake rollercoaster.

SMTN

2008-07-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Norman and I decided to get out to South Mountain around 8:30 and have a hike up Rangers Trail. The whole time up we said how Rangers Trail was the mightiest of all the trails. There was an older guy with jean shorts, one of those leather braid belts, a cell-phone holster, and a camelback that totally beat us to the top. We actually left before he did, but he passed us pretty quickly. And if that:s not enough, after we had reached the top and the man had left, he came back up again with a friend! He was a strange guy, and we thought he might do Rangers Trail daily.

These photos are really large for some reason, so open them in a new window if you want to see them wholly.

After the hike Norman and I made a stop at Salsita`s. This is slowly becoming my favourite Mexican place. Amados sucks. A lot. But then when we come out to the parking lot, I see that someone has completely smashed in my rear door presumably with their car. Technically, I should have been able to see this from my spot in the restaurant. So much for going to Ranch Market afterwards. I'll just have to wait.

Also, here is a picture of Bianca looking beautiful from our trip to New York.

2008-07-18T02:11:00.000-07:00

I've spent the past few days refitting the laundry room of the house. First, I pulled everything out of it. Most of the stuff came with the house: tons of chemicals and sprays I will never use and are certainly spoiled now anyway, photos of previous inhabitants, miscellaneous pool stuff, and several untrustworthy shelving units. After everything came out, I sledged the shelving and Bianca and I painted the brick wall a nice blue color. My dad helped me mount the Ikea modular shelving (Broder, for the Ikea-inclined), as the wall is concrete and I lacked much of the necessary tools. I then acid-washed the floor and stained it with Behr products. The acid was done with a nylon brush and the stain a pump-sprayer.

Note: When applying concrete stain, make sure the concrete is completely dry. The instructions said 'Apply to dry concrete', which I figured was only to accurately judge the volume of stain, but as it turns out, stain is repelled by water and once it is backrolled, peels off in sheets.

The sealer was last to be applied after all the stain was dry. Due to the consistency, I also used a pump-sprayer for this. The color were incredible when first applied: from light blues all the way to bright white. I took some pictures.

We'll see how it all comes out. I had no opinion or experience going into this, as every website I found on the subject was only to sell some related product. Home Depot wasn't very helpful either. This has been a learning experience.

This project was relatively easy, but time-consuming due to the drying time of each stage. The paint for the wall cost about $30, assuming you already have basic painting supplies. The Ikea shelving as I have it was about $200, and the floor was around $100.

And...

A very cute picture of Bianca in the hills of Virginia from our recent roadtrip from Phoenix to New York and back:

Thank You

2008-03-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

When I wrote the previous entry, I had completely forgotten about how much happened the week before. March 19, 2008 marked the 5th anniversary of the War in Iraq. Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW) happened in San Francisco. It was the largest anti-war protest in the US that happened on the 19th. The previous night, us Greenpeace kids got together and made banners and signs in the warehouse. When we sat down for a quick break on March 19th just before noon, our banner was all over CNN for the protest coverage. Our banner read "Was It Worth It?". Just for a little extra information, our message was originally "Is It Worth It?", but I proposed we go past tense with her.

Yes, that is an AP photo.

Grafitti Pentagram

2008-03-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I do not post blog entries very often. So little, infact, that I have only posted one blog entry so far. I am going to make an effort to post more entries, no matter how insignificant or short in length. Let's get this started.

Since Thursday evening, I have been strangely ill with a sore throat and a fever. It's been ok. I didn't leave my apartment since Friday until this morning. I also managed to watch the entire first season of Twin Peaks. I think my fingernails have grown 3-weeks-length in the past 3 days, and do not have any clippers. This got me thinking...How did people cut their nails centuries ago? This is one of those naive childish questions that makes people laugh, but I am being serious. Maybe they didn't cut their nails. Maybe they had very primitive nail clippers (but why don't we see these in museums?). Someone please provide a simple answer to this. What about lotion? It makes me think these things aren't really necesary and are just a trick for us to buy them.

In other news, I am really intrigued by the pitch drop experiment at the University of Queensland, started in 1930. It just moves so slowly.

Welcome

2008-02-02T13:49:00.000-08:00

Arriving on the 31st, and today being the 2nd of February, I already have many things to share. We can start with my cab-share adventure that began at the Oakland Airport at 11:30 pm. I shared a cab with a Brazilian guy named Jandre that was moving back from an impulsive romance of 2 months length. He had about 12 tiny suitcases, each weighing at least 50 pounds.

Last night Chad and John and I found an aquarium shop in the Richmond that had rare sea animals. John was obviously upset that they were keeping a nautilus, a nurse shark, and a frogfish captive. We went to Lucas, Dino and Austin's place for Tristan's farewell to New York party. I saw a lot of people I had forgot about, yet immediately remembered, them remembering me as well. There were many unwanted guests at the party, we stayed clear in Lucas' room until the challenge came for a 4v4 foosball tourney, to which our team, The Listeners (they were The Sirens, I voted on something nonhostile) did not win.

It's raining much, I'm at a cafe on Haight Street. I'm going to the Card Office at USF to see if I can reclaim my lost student ID with expired MUNI pass on it in hopes I can pass it off as valid. Then I have to see about a sleeping bag and a towel. I really do not know where I'm going to find these items.

This is the hallway at Chad and Johns from the room I'm staying in

This is the hallway from the kitchen.
This is the living room complete with projector theatre
This is the view from my window.
Here's my room this morning.