Here are lots of pictures and several informative captions from the Yosemite trip several months ago, which I've neglected to post until now. Look!
The drive was pretty OK until the snowy road. It took forever to put on the chains, then we went about a mile and the snow disappeared and we took the chains off, which took forever too. Then we put them back on again when someone coming the other way told us about the chain control checkpoint just over the crest of the hill. Arghhh!! It felt pretty good to finally get there.
Breathtaking.
It's pretty nasty what gets caught up in the wheel wells.
Don't go camping in the snow, kids! It was the worst night of my life. Even though I put on all the clothes I packed, the ground sucked away every bit of warmth my body could generate. About 3 a.m., I had doubts about my chances of surviving the night :<
In case of bears...
...or need of quick field alterations.
I like this picture a lot. It's us and soup against the big cold of the world.
Morning at last! Unfortunately, my gloves didn't make it; they were frozen stiff.
More soup!
This is the Half Dome.
The highlight of the trip and the thing that made up for the awful night was the waterfall. I don't remember which one exactly, something "Lower." There were huge piles of rocks at the base of the fall and people and their kids were climbing all over them despite warning signs (and kid-sized crevasses). It was pretty dangerous actually. Crazy parents! Crazy us!
Mountaineer Gordon. The backdrop is real, I swear.
Here's Elbert celebrating in triumph. Or calling for help.
King of the Hill Gary.
Yeah baby! *poses*
February 25, 2010
Try this: Get the song Sabbath by Mono.
Then go on a road trip, where you can stare significantly out the window at some wheat rolling by. Then put the song on repeat. Instant nirvana!
February 11, 2010
The Way is very very long. The monks who walk it spend most of their lives traveling without reaching its end by the time they die. No one has seen its end. It snakes through every known nation, goes past the border towns, and leaves behind even the last frontier outposts.
The order of monks repaves the eroded slabs, helps the travelers, and tends to the milestones and wayside shelters. Most of the time though, they walk.
Anyone can join. Many are fascinated by the Way and on impulse pledge themselves to the order, and start walking. Most turn back within the month. The monks do not advise people to spend their lives walking on a road with no end; they should be elsewhere, living their lives.
But still they come, with looks of borrowed purpose, the same purpose and meaning they hope to extract from walking. Inevitably, the sheer reality of the Way encroaches and tires out their bodies and mind, and they give up. The added insult, of course, is that they now have to walk all the way back.
She has been walking for eighty years, ever since taking that first step with resolve in her eyes when she was thirty years old. She now hobbles along slowly with a cane, but her eyes are just as fixed on the horizon. She built the farthest shelter a decade ago, where she buried her monk companion, and passed the last traveler a decade before that.
She keeps walking. The sun starts to set. Squinting into the light, she sees a figure walking toward her.
Februrary 9, 2010
I have accumulated lots of Pavlovian reflexes, and deep associations between sights and sounds and certain events—some significant and memorable and others really random and trivial.
The sound of a garage door opening instantly makes me think to get up and unload the groceries.
I can't stand the noise of the street-cleaning trucks. They come around in the afternoon, every other week. They just went by now and I was like, I'm not going to stand for this! and turned up the music. I hate them because I'm only home on a weekday afternoon when I'm unemployed. It's like a loud, whining reminder that I'm not where I'm supposed to be.
Forever Young by Alphaville makes me think of junior year, during the boat dance. It's more than likely the song didn't even play that night.
I get sleepy when it rains.
February 6, 2010
I've been running again, after years of not since I stopped taking PE classes. The first few times out there were pretty bad, really awful, it was like dying. Then I discovered pace towards the end of an embarrassingly brief attempt at running around Lake Merced. If I reduced my stride length to that of an urgent shuffle, I could run forever! Or felt like it at least. The endorphins rushed in and I got a taste of runner's high.
So next, I shuffled from Ulloa to Pacheco along the Great Highway path, and then felt like dying.
0.6 miles! lol
Today, I'm going to aim for Noriega.
Update: I got all the way to Lincoln Way!
February 2, 2010
Oh boy, this is the seventh version of the site, and I doubt it will be the last. Hopefully, this one will resist my next wave of whims and last for a while. This time, I built in a way to refresh things for myself and my dear readers—I'll change the background now and then to stave off my urges to clean house.
I went to Aziza recently for Regina's birthday. The food was expensive but nice and different; all the dishes were quality and really well-made, you could tell. I like multi-course meals a lot, where the wait staff keeps bringing in plate after plate.
This was one of the appetizers, goat cheese with bread—I don't remember the stylish name they had for it. The plate seemed to be specially made for these types of dishes. It had a little indentation where the glob of cheese could sit on top of the sauce without the sauce overflowing everywhere. Talk about fancy.
I couldn't believe how awesome the dessert was. If I can call cake tender, it would be the tenderest cake I've ever eaten. It was almost like eating whipped yogurt. And I'm sure it wasn't even cake, it was some other genus of dessert entirely.
This is the only other food picture I took that night. Couscous!
One of my resolutions is to work on my site more and write and blog more, especially with the unemployment; it's happening! Now to keep up production. I think I will upload all my old posts, and activate the link below, but the thing is, I've never been able to do this for past redesigns. Though, I do feel lucky.
December 25, 2009
Last night, I was browsing year's end articles and watched Obama's acceptance speech again. At the end, he told the story of a one-hundred-and-six-year-old lady who voted that day. He summarized just how much change the woman'd seen over her century of life, and wondered what changes we would see in our lifetimes. That brought me back to this again: Life is hella long, and I can't wait to see what happens next.
I've been can't-stop-eating dried lima beans coated with chili and lemon I got from Lucky. It's messy with a red angry powder getting everywhere and under my nails, and the beans are super hard. I've been chewing with my right side so as to avoid any chances of cracking my new crown. My compulsion to keep eating this stuff doesn't make sense at all and I'll never buy this again. In the meantime though...
The Crown Conspiracy is great! The author is Michael J. Sullivan. I bought the three available books of the series from his website, where I got a discount for the bulk purchase and three personalized signatures. Deal! Something about the typeface bothers me though. It's from a small press, so maybe they don't have as many fonts or something (???) but I'm reminded of Times New Roman and keep thinking I'm reading something printed from a computer lab.
Merry Christmas!
December 2, 2009
My application status has now changed to "Referred to Grad Dept," up from "Incomplete" the last time I checked during the weekend. They must have received my transcript; the system is working! I have little hope of getting admitted, but watching the positive progress of the status, however incremental, is pretty cool and encouraging despite my pessimism.
I made things taller since no one's using 800 × 600 anymore (there are still some, but that's okay they don't matter!); now to take advantage of the new space: BIGGER PICTURES.
