Thursday, February 28, 2008

and you thought you had a bad day?
march 2o, 2oo8. three weeks to the day. spring begins. ahhhh, glorious spring. . .

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

i had this weird dream last night. somebody stole my longboard. i looked everywhere for it. i couldn't find it anywhere. everyplace i looked, it wasn't there. the old adage, "it's always the last place you look," didn't apply to me.

the television was on and my ears perked up to a reporter telling breaking news. a bank robber had struck another bank vault and got way. his getaway vehicle? my longboard.

that's all i remember. . .

Sunday, February 24, 2008

i'm putting together a portfolio of some shots i've done for some people to see and came across some profile shots that i took last year in india.

these shots were taken in a village outside the city of siliguri, which is located in the chicken neck area of india. three countries surround this thin area of indian land. the countries are bangladesh, bhutan and nepal.

i've uploaded them to my flickr. enjoy. . .

Thursday, February 21, 2008

1o years ago, i acquired my very first cell phone. 6o minutes a month for around $3o - $35 (can't remember). it was the size of a narrow brick, black, and it only made phone calls. a twelve button keypad. i could barely go outside the city limits or roaming charges would apply.

after i started working at my current location, almost 9 years now, i was put on a phone plan and received a "cool" phone. you know what i'm talking about. the phones that had voice recognition. sweet! that phone was an entirely new series with a flip down mouth piece and a battery that outweighed the phone itself. i was stylin'.

after that battery became toast, i had to hunt down a new phone (for the price of a battery was more then that of a new phone). after a history of phones of the years, some small, some not so small. some have this function, others have that function. nokia, kyocera, and other brands have come into my possession.

when the motorola razr came into existence, rin and i started a new plan and ordered two, one for her (pink) and one for me (black). 1st generation. i've gone through three of them now. but they had some cool stuff. it's amazing how far phones have come along. making calls to the continental u.s. while in cuba and texting back and forth from singapore to india. calls back and forth from iraq and hawai'i. internet, email, pictures, tracking, blogging, blah blah blah.

but it was time to bid adieu and turn my attention to a brand new phone. it finally arrived yesterday and it is all set up. true, i have some things to learn on it, but so far, no problems. me likey. . .

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

i'm a klutz. pure and simple. no other explanation. truly a klutz.

i accidentally knocked over rin's water into our laptop. it wasn't that much, but enough to do some damage. the keypad and the mouse pad aren't working but the rest of the computer is. so right now, it's for listening to my tracks on. we wound up having to buy a new laptop and i have to get use to vista.

so far, the jury is out. some aspects i like, others, not so much...

Thursday, February 14, 2008

frustration...

a week ago, i had to take my dog to the humane society due to personal issues. we had been on the waiting list for a month, since the county has adopted the "no kill" policy. i called last monday to find out if their was room for my dog and they said that i can bring him in on thursday. thursday came. it was a hard day. taking him in the car, he was excited to say the least. he loves car rides.

so i get to the humane society and leash him. start walking the pathway to the front door and get to the front counter. the girl behind the counter asks me my name and my dog's name. i give her the information. she hands me some forms to fill out. i scribble out the info, check the appropriate boxes and sign my name. a $45 surrender fee is asked for. i pay and she goes to find someone to lead him to the back. before he is taken away (he just wants to play) i pet him and tell him to be a good boy. another lady comes and puts her leash around his neck and she takes him away. to say the least, it was hard. seeing my dog taken away and being not my dog anymore. he is now the county's. the pain sat there for the rest of the day and finally subsided the next day.

>> fast forward to tuesday >>

my cell rings and it's the humane society calling. thinking to myself, "i wonder if he got adopted." i answer the phone.

"hello"
"hi, this is so-and-so from the humane society. we were wondering if you wanted to take your dog back?"
"er, what?!"
"well, he doesn't like being here. i know that he wants to go back home."
"i've already surrendered him. we made the decision and i can't take him back."
"yes you can. he just wants to go home."

this conversation goes on for at least five minutes. as if it wasn't hard enough to take him their in the first place, they have to call me and plead with me to take him back. is this standard practice to call all previous owners of animals and lay a guilt trip on them?

"he's a great dog, but due to personal issues, i can't take him back."

she then proceeds to tell me that he is having a hard time adjusting and this and that. i tell her the same thing again, but she seems to ignore me and tells me that he wants to go home.

"does like children?"

where did that come from? halfway through the conversation, the topic of children popped up and then left. apparently, she didn't even read the paperwork that i filled out because i wrote down that he is good with cats, other dogs and children. i think she understood that i was unrelenting in my decision and she became short with me.

"i guess i'll have to work harder with him. bye."

frustration...

Thursday, February 07, 2008

adios sisi
memories, pt II


yesterday, i posted about being in singapore with my wife, waiting in starbucks while waiting for our plane to take us to india. a very fond memory. as i continued thinking about different things, one thing stuck out in my mind, and it's not one particular moment, but a collection of memories built together.

cuba.

i love cuba. the first time i ventured to that little country was the first time i had been out of the collective north america. it was an eye opener and a life changer. i won't lie. it was a struggle. many times thinking to myself, "LORD, what am i doing here?" everytime i have gone, something has changed in my life. the experiences, the people, the culture, my translator/brother (wow, do i miss him.)

there are many thoughts that bring me back to that island. i remember one instance after a hard day of working in the villages, we got back to the hotel and got cleaned up. the temperature was around 115°f/46.14°c and the humidity has extremely high (every morning when we would leave our hotel, as soon as we stepped outside, sweat just began dripping off your body. i love humidity, but that got old very fast). we went and had dinner, came back and went out to the pool to relax. at night, the temperature dropped to about 85°f/29.4°fc and the humidity fell a little. the pool was a mixture of chlorine and salt water. interesting. but we would float there. one night, we watched a huge electrical storm in the distance.

driving back and forth from the hotel to the villages was an adventure on one particular road. every morning, the road was covered with roadkilled crabs being eaten by vultures. the majority of the roadkill was from our tires from the previous night. the first time we witnessed this phenomenon, we were awestruck by just the massive amount of crabs scurrying across the road to get into the sand. no matter how slow we drove, the crabs popped underneath our tires. you couldn't see the pavement, just a moving road of grey crabs.

the people that i met were completely different than those that i have met around this world of ours. genuine. caring. loving. true, many people are like that, but the cubans that i met seemed to be more.

one day, before our plane was leaving, we had to travel from one side of the island to the other, which took around 4 hours. we stopped in a "tourist trap" for lunch and continued on our way. when we got to our hotel, it was still mid afternoon, so we checked in and decided to meet at the front of the hotel for dinner later on that night. everyone went their ways and rin and i decided to go walking around the city. there is a dollar store (our nickname for it) right next door. the city we were in is more of a tourist place, so they cater to the european/asian/etc people that come through. but they have ice cream and sodas. rin and i bought some and walked down to the beach and then to the merchant's market. the sun was high and hot and the ice cream was cold and the sodas were wet. good times. . .

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

memories, pt. I

drinking hot coffee on a day like today is bliss. it's cold outside (yesh, the weather if finally warming up) and we have another six weeks of winter, thanks to punxsutawney phil. iced coffee on a hot summer day is completely different. it's bliss x 1oo. ok, maybe not that much, but still...

one of my favorite memories took place about a year ago. rin and i were on our way to india and we had a stopover in singapore. we had left the day before and the mercury was holding at 0°f/-17.7°c at home. we arrived in singapore at around 2 in the a.m. and qued up in the taxi line that snaked back and forth. whilst standing in the open doorway, the warm tropical asian breeze welcomed us and warmed our tired bodies. the cabbie came, pulled our luggage and drove us to our hotel outside of little india. a warm bed and a soft pillow made me realize how exhausted i really was.

we slept in, got ready and hunted for lunch. took a bus down to orchard road and crossed over to the hard rock. we ate our lunch and rin texted back and forth with her dad (he and the rest of the family were waiting for us in india). we were about to get up and do some walking around when the skies opened up and the winter rains were let loose. we waited at our table while waiting for a break in the storm. it finally broke. the sun came out and we headed on outside. we walked around a little, looking in different shops. i pointed out things to rin (this was her first time in singapore).

soon, the rains came back and we ducked into a starbucks (one of many, many, many) that lined orchard road. the girl behind the register asked us what we would like and we both order iced coffees. she looked at us peculiar and asked us if we weren't cold enough. it was 85
°f/29.4°c with a humidity factor of 94%. cold? we explained that there was snow and freezing weather where we live.

"where do you live?" she asked.

"idaho."

"where's that?"

"in the united states."

"oh," she said and then passed on our orders to the barista.

after our coffee was made, we sat down, dripping wet, and watched the rain come down with more fury. people walking around in there "winter" clothes and holding umbrellas. i checked the time and our plane was still many hours away, so we sat there, enjoying the time.

look for part II tomorrow

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

everyday, i see the same blue dodge durango driving in the oncoming traffic lane as i drive into work. it's funny how the same thing happens each day. get up, shower, dress, start making breakfast, get the family up, eat, prepare lunch, brush teeth, head out the door and so on and so forth.

we are such creatures of habit. some habits are good, in fact great. others, not so much. we can get in such a rut that it is so hard to get out of. sometimes it's because we are so comfortable with how we are. sometimes it's because the work outweighs the fun (and vice versa).

just some food for thought. . .

Sunday, February 03, 2008

so superbowl XLII has come and gone. the ny giants beat the new england patriots 17 -14. the game was pretty boring until the last 10 minutes. sweet upset. i'm glad that manning and the giants beat brady and the patriots.

normally, the commercials are pretty good, but out of this year's ads, i only enjoyed two of them. for the full menu of ads, myspace has the collection of this year's ads. but the two i liked were:

diet pepsi max and pepsi stuff. enjoy. . .

Friday, February 01, 2008

what a fun day yesterday. our furnace broke, was fixed and quit working again. finally got it to work again and around 7:30 last night, decided not to fire back up. the whole family huddled together in the living room with a portable heater that i had borrowed from my parents.

i called the repair man again this morning to tell him what the furnace was doing and he thinks it might be the circuit board. arrrgghhhh! hopefully it will be fixed today. the temperature outside is 30°f and snowing. another storm is coming through this weekend.

let's see what happens. . .


high score: 152,275

no pooping