i’ve said it many times before, but i’ll continue to say… i have the best people in my life: my friends, my family, my loved ones… without them i am not me, and i am thankful for them everyday.

had a bbq on saturday… the weather was perfect, the food was excellent, and friends and family came to eat!! we did the usual faire: carne/pollo asada, ceviche, etc… unfortunately there was no beer, but it still made for excellent gathering!

on sunday iris took me to the griffith observatory, which was perfect for a geek like me!! the planetarium show is really great, go check it out!! i’m hoping we’ll go back soon to catch the stars at nite. she then took me to dodgers stadium, where i was bombarded in the stands th shirts that spelled ‘happy bdysmrka’… that confused the heck out of me, and it wasn’t until i saw kenny that it was my cousins being their laughable selves and surprising me for my birthday! that was so much fun, despite the dodgers losing…

on monday (the actual day of birth), my dad decided that he would take iris and i out to dinner with all the ‘adults’, which essentially meant aunts and uncles… lucille’s of course! i still don’t know to this day how me, gold, fry, and bean could ever have eaten one of those backyard bbq feasts… it was a great time with the aunts and uncles, and i love them dearly, so it was a nice, mlellow way to end the celebrations…

the best part of it all: iris bought us a Wii for my birthday! how cool is that?!

i definitely have awesome people in my life.

-m

Posted in Life at July 25th, 2007. No Comments.

sometimes you find the strangest, most unconnected things in your life somehow all intersect and form some sort of vehicle for reflection of your life… recently, it’s been an odd mashup of work, celebrations, travel, and youtube.

i always seem to be quite meditative on my life on 2 occasions in a given year: my birthday and new year’s. both occasions give way to reflecting… the former on my life as it has changed over the course of an “age” so to speak, and the later on life over a generally agreed upon set of time. i find both to be different reflections and both to have different meanings.

i’ve worked a lot of hours in the past few weeks. somewhere in the range of almost 3 weeks worth of hours in less than 2 weeks worth of time…. it’s in these times of lack of sleep and pure exhaustion that your subconscious kicks in and brings to light new perspectives on yourself, your world, your relationships, and your desires… it sucked to have to have done all that work, but it wasn’t so bad to have the subconscious do a lot of calculating for me.

iris and i also went to the east coast recently:to d.c., cincinnati, and detroit. while our schedule was packed, there was a lot of time during our drives to look around at the greenery (that’s all you really see when you’re driving out there) and contemplate. not on anything specific, but just to contemplate and let things come to you. i imagine this would be some sort of meditation, but with out your eyes being closed and chanting.

there’s also been a few youtube videos which i can’t seem to stop watching/playing/listening to. the overtones from uc berkeley sing a wonderful a capella version of frou frou’s let go, which of course was a prominent track on garden state. andy mckee does a kick ass guitar version of toto’s africa a song that should be familiar to us who know a little bit of 80’s soft rock. finally, there’s birdy nam nam, a group of turntablists from france who just have some funky shit going on. i’ve been watching them all at least 3 or 4 times a day.

so where has this all led?? i think these things have kind of mashed together to teach and tell me some things: 1) i really like what i do as a career, even tho i’ve been on the edge of burnout. 2) i like music and music videos way too much, and i miss getting down and dirty running doubles with pip on the turntables. 3) getting old isn’t so bad, it’s the weight you gain that sucks (altho i am trying very hard to control my diet and get down 15 lbs by the end of the year). 4) i am surrounded by awesome people, and i can’t be thankful enough to have them. 5) i think i know where i need to go next after i’m done working at PV, i’m just not sure if i’m brave enough to do it.

it’s strange i know, and i don’t expect anyone to really know how these all connect unless i was really asked about them… looking back at the post, i’m not even really sure if i was typing proper english, but i’m sure it made sense at the time. in any case, i hope things continue to swing upwards as we descend towards the end of the year.

thanks to everyone who is in or has been part of my life. you have all played a small role in making me who i am now.

-m

Posted in Geeky Stuff, Life, Work at July 18th, 2007. No Comments.