Mike G's Blog

New spot

2007-03-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

I am moving the blog to my new website. If you would like to know the new address let me know, and I will give it to you. Thanks to everyone who supported my blog through it's duration.

Save the last dance

2007-01-20T20:07:00.000-08:00

To start off my first post of the new year I will catch you up with the big news. In late November I got officially engaged. The wedding will be in spring of next year, and I am very excited. I proposed to her on my birthday mostly because I thought that it would be a surprise to her since she mostly knew it was coming sometime. Christmas came and went fairly quickly, but it was a good one. I spent New Year's Eve in New York, but not in Times Square. It was a fun New Year's spent with my fiance though.

The end of last year seem to be when a lot of the main events happened, and this year so far has been about planning the wedding and everything. I hope that everyone has a had a good year so far and that the year continues to be good.

Times like these

2006-11-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

As I previously posted, my Aunt was very sick. Everyone who knew her were all hoping that she would win her fight with cancer, but after almost a year of fighting the disease she passed away. It is still very surreal to think that she is gone at such a young age. I have been close to her and her family all my life, and she was not only my aunt but a roll model who taught me to embrace the differences in people as well as to live life to the fullest.

Her memorial was this past weekend, and it was amazing to see the amount of people that she touched. She was an amazing person, and it showed through the stories that were told as well as the love that people have for her, even if they had known her for a short time. She is a person who truly lived life to the fullest and loved unconditionally, and I am sure that her memory will remain for a long time to come.

High Tide or Low Tide

2006-09-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

It's now getting a little cooler outside, but I'm coming out of hybernation for another post. After a lot of time thinking about how to finish school and get my degree, I am now taking classes at the Art Institute Online, which has so far been a really good experience. I will be doing some animation classes that I'm sure I will enjoy, and it allows me to make my own schedule, which is a lot easier since I work full time during the day. I'm also hoping that it will allow me to get out faster since the courses are accelerated.

I don't do it very often, but I also wrote to some of the city council members here the other day when I heard about a campaign to save the surf spot Trussels here in Southern California. I figured that sending a quick e-mail is the least I could do to help raise awareness of a proposed Toll Road that will go through that area, possibly damaging the beach and surf in that area, which is a pretty famous surf spot mentioned in songs by the Beach Boys. I have learned to surf in that area. It has a lot of historical surf culture, and I think is a great place to learn to surf and enjoy a beautiful beach. I have not read any reports on the impact the toll road could have yet, but at the same time I don't think that anyone truly knows what the impact could be. I just didn't think that the risk is worth the reward of a toll road that I don't think would get used as much as it costs to build. Other toll roads in the area have not been that successful from what I know. Anyway, I'll get off of my soap box. :)

Other than that, things have been going fairly well. Football is back on, which is always great. I've been learning some programming for work, and that has been interesting. I am also taking some time off soon to spend some time with my girlfriend, which is always great too. The only thing that has been unfortunate is that my Aunt has been really sick, but, like everyone in my family, we are all hoping that she will get better. She is a great person.

An Open Letter to NYC

2006-08-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

Here is another bi-monthly post. :) Everything has still been going well here. I got to go to the Siggraph conference this year, which I always find interesting. I feel like I've learned a lot about computer animation over the past few years, but the classes that are taught at Siggraph are always a humbling experience for me. I feel like I understand more about the things that are taught at the classes, but they always do show me that I still have a ways to go in some areas. I always learn more by going, which is good. Overall, it was a great time.

Everything else is going well. This summer has been a lot of fun. I got to go to Disneyland last week with my girlfriend, which was a great time. The California Screaming ride is one of the most fun rollercoasters that I've riden in a long time also.

I saw World Trade Center last week too, which I thought was well done. I was a little bit afraid that Oliver Stone would make it into a conspiracy movie, but it was more about the lives of two of the police officers that were working at the tower when it collapsed. It was an intense movie, but it ended up being mostly about the heroic effort of the people doing search and rescue than anything else.

That's been the major news here.

The grass is green

2006-06-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since my last post, but I am back. It has been an absolutely incredible past few months. I started dating a woman who is amazing, and who has become a great part of my life. A couple of really good friends have moved back to San Diego. One of them I think is leaving again at the end of summer and will be missed. Another great friend of mine that I've known for a long time will be moving out of the country for a while and will be missed as well. It's been good to catch up with these friends over the past couple of months, especially with the ones that will be leaving.

Everything else has been good. I started to learn to surf again. It's been a while since I've done it. I was a little timid after getting stung by a stingray a while back. It was fun to get back out into the water again though.

I also got to see a lot of New York city a week ago. I've never been there before so it was great to experience that city. I feel like I got to see all the sites that I wanted to see.

The World Cup has been fun to watch as well. There have been some great games even though the United States is out. That's about what I've been up to recently. :)

Every Dog Has It's Day

2006-03-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

March has seemed to be going quickly. I didn't really have any big plans for Saint Patrick's Day. My mom's side of the family does have some Irish in them, but I don't think that I can consider myself Irish. I do think that it's fun to spend the holiday drinking Guiness and eating corned beef and cabbage every once in a while though.

The past couple of weeks have been fairly busy, and I've also been dog sitting for my Mom and step dad while they were out of town for a couple of weeks. Their dog is an older dog that they rescued from the pound, and he's really mellow so it was good to have him around for a while.

Also, I've enrolled in an advanced scuba diving class, but I'm still working on getting medically cleared due to a minor heart defect that I've had since I was a kid. It has never been a major problem, and I didn't seem to have any issues while doing the beginning dive class that I did a long time ago so I'm hoping to get cleared soon.

I am looking forward to diving again though. The advanced class seemed fun. The first class that I took I didn't get to see a whole lot of fish or anything like that because the visibility was really bad due to a red tide. Hopefully more exciting dive stories will come from this class.

Wasting Time

2006-02-26T19:25:00.000-08:00

The past couple of weeks have been relatively busy. Aside from work I ended up flying out to visit the family in Arizona over the long weekend. We did some wine tasting in the arizona desert, which I didn't know was possible until they moved out there. One of the wineries was pretty good, but the second one that we went to was really bad. I try not to be a snob when it comes to wine. I've been wine tasting a few times, but I don't think of myself as a wine connoisseur. However, the wine there didn't really have descriptions on the labels, which has always been the case for wineries that I've been to. Usually they tell you if the wine is a Merlot, Zinfendel, or whatever. The labels on these bottles just said something like "Desert Sunset" so you never knew what you were getting. I am not sure how to describe how they tasted, I guess that will just be left up to the imagination. It wasn't so bad that I spit it out, but it was pretty watery and really sweet.
Valentine's day wasn't all bad, even though I didn't end up having a date that night. Even though I feel like it's not a lot of fun to spend Valentine's Day or most nights alone, I do think that you can show someone that you care and have a good date/relationship on Valentine's day or most nights if you really are sincere about it.

Before and After

2006-02-17T21:39:00.000-08:00

Before

After

I've recently been taking a sketching class, which has actually taught me quite a bit about drawing. I used to trace when I was younger, but I never really persued learning how to draw until recently. I thought that it would be good to learn, and I figured that if I wasn't any good at least I could hopefully get to the point where I could draw a picture or pose that could help with my animation. The class has been fun and because it's been a quick sketch class where we only have 10, 5, and sometimes 2 minutes to draw a picture I haven't had a lot of time to be self conscious about how good or bad my drawings have been. Overall, I've definitely felt like I've improved, and I actually enjoy drawing every once in a while on my own at home now too.

Music

2006-01-21T19:05:00.000-08:00

The other day as I was on the iTunes music store looking at some of the celebrity playlists, and I got the idea to create a list of some of the songs that I still listen to and remember from a long time ago as well as some other favorite songs of mine. You can check out the list here.

Family Business

2006-01-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

It feels pretty good to be starting a new year. This holiday was a good overall. It was one of the first Christmas' that I've spent with my Dad for about four or five years. It was also one of the first years where it seemed like my family was more spread apart than we have been, since my Mom has moved to Arizona. I really do love both my parents so it was difficult for me to decide to spend a holiday with one parent instead of the other as usual, but I am glad that I got to spend the time with my Dad that I did, since I don't get to see him as much as I'd like. It is always a little tiring to spend concentrated times with family I think though because when they haven't really seen you for a while you seem to get the 20 questions about how your life is going. Don't get me wrong, in a way I really do appreciate people making sure that I'm on the right track and getting good advice on things. Plus I felt like after the initial interigation things got easier. I think that it just ends up being a lot to process.

With that said, it was a really good holiday. I had a great time at our company holiday party before I left to visit my Dad, I got good presents, good food, and enjoyed getting some time to relax and spend time with family and friends. Best of luck to everyone in 2006.

Today was a good day

2005-12-13T20:48:00.000-08:00

A little over a week ago I turned 26 and entered the second half of my twenties. That day I had to travel early in the morning back from my Mom's, who I had been visiting for Thanksgiving. When I got to work everyone wished me a happy birthday. Then that night I ended up going to Pizza Port for a beer with a friend from work. I hadn't been there or caught up with my friend for a while so I was happy with those plans. Once we got there we found out that there was two other birthday parties going there also. One of them had left over cake so I ended up getting a piece before I left. I thought that it was funny that there were two other people with the same birthday as me at the same place as me. Who knew? :)

Take off your cool

2005-11-20T21:44:00.000-08:00

Just about in time for the fourth movie to come out I am finally caught up on the Harry Potter movies. Until recently I never watched the movies, and I had only read the first part of the original book. I'm not sure why I never got on board with the crew from Hogwarts before. I just never really got into the books so the movies didn't really grab my attention, at least by the previews.

The first two movies both got my attention once I took the time to watch them, and I thought they were entertaining. The third movie was where everything turned a corner for me though as far as the story and the filmmaking. I thought that the third was by far the strongest of the three movies. The biggest change to me is that it seemed like there was a lot more emotion from the characters in the third movie. I thought it was funny to see the change from "nice" Harry Potter to the rebellious teenage Harry who kicks around furniture and threatens people in the third movie. Overall, I've definitely been sucked into the series now so I'll be looking forward to seeing the fourth movie.

Move

2005-10-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I have recently moved. My new place is not too far from where I used to be, but here are some pictures of my new place.

Animal

2005-08-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

This evening I was told by my Mom that our family cat of almost 22 years had to be put to sleep today. It was definitely hard to hear, but I had been preparing myself for the news since his health was deteriorating over the past year. He had definitely not been in the suffering category until recently. When I visited them a couple of weeks ago he was still doing all right, but he was starting to have nasal problems, which is not good for a cat because they can not breath out of their mouths like dogs or other animals (from what the vet had told my Mom when she took him in for a check up a week ago). It is strange to think of how animals become a part of the family as much as they do, but it will be strange to not have him around, as I still remember getting him when I was around five years old. It is good to know that he had a long, and I think a good life with us.
On a different note, I had a little bit of nostalgia this weekend while I was going through some CD's in my closet and found some albums that I forgot I had bought. I found some live concert discs of Pearl Jam from a show that they did in New York. I was always a fairly big fan of the album Ten, but I never really followed them too much after that. Listening to their live discs, I actually really liked a lot of the live versions of some of their songs. I've never seen them live, but it was a lot of fun to rock out to them again, since I haven't actually really listened to a whole album of Pearl Jam's since High School.

Belated Guadalajara Post

2005-08-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

I have made it back from my trip to Guadalajara. The trip itself was fun and a really good experience. I got to spend time with a couple of friends who I haven't actually talked to or seen for almost three years, which ended up being really good. For the most part we just picked up where we had left off.

Guadalajara itself was actually a very big city, which was cool to see. I also got the contrasted small town Mexico where a friend of mine lived outside of Guadalajara itself. The main synopsis of the trip would be a lot of good food, some dancing, beach time, and, of course, beer and tequila.

Here is a picture that I took in Puerto Vallarta also, which ended up being a weekend side trip that we took. Puerto Vallarta was a decent city, but I wouldn't really recommend it. During the summer especially because of the prices and the 90% humidity. It does have a good stretch of beach though.

Que Sera...

2005-07-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, everything's been going well here. I will use this opportunity to let the people that are checking this that I will be out of town for two weeks starting this upcoming Tuesday (July 12). I am going to main land Mexico to see a friend graduate from college as well as get some R&R. I will be back on the 26th with hopefully some good stories to tell from the trip. I will still be checking e-mail while I'm there, but it will probably be infrequent. However, if anyone does need to get in touch e-mail will probably be the easiest way.

Other than that, the 4th of July was good. I ended up going to see fireworks with my roommate and some other friends. The only hitch came as the fireworks started to go off. We stood around for a while waiting for the fireworks at around 9:00. There was a large group of people where we were watching them from. Finally the fireworks started and we all turned around to watch in amazement. Everything was almost dead quiet in the crowd for about a minute as everyone watched. Suddenly a loud whistle and someone screaming from behind us "What is this a f$%%in library?" broke the silence. Everyone turned around as the whistles continued, and the voice eventually announced that his name was John. He continued to try to get everyone to hug each other and gave a passionate speach about the meaning of the holiday through most of the fireworks show, which ended up annoying a lot of the people in the crowd. It was the loud ringing in my ears from his whistling that ended up annoying me the most, but it was a good fireworks display. Well, that's about all the news here. More when I get back...

Out of Touch

2005-05-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

Well hopefully everyone hasn't completely given up on me here in the world of blogger. Everything's been fairly busy but good. The past few weekends have been hiking in order to get ready to go to Sequoia National Park for Memorial Day weekend.

A couple of friends had some birthdays last week, so a group of us went bowling and to dinner. I hadn't been bowling for about a year so. It was a lot of fun to hang out. The bowling part was hit and miss, but I was happy to break a hundred on the last game.

On the nerdier front, I'm going to see Star Wars Episode 3 on Friday. I think that I'm looking more forward to seeing how Lucas ends things more than anything, but I always do walk away from seeing a Star Wars movie feeling like I had fun.

Innocent Escapes

2005-03-25T14:45:00.000-08:00

I am sorry for not posting more regulary. Everything's been fairly busy here, but I will try to post if there is something funny to post or an interesting story to tell. I did want to share a funny site that a friend sent out. http://www.brawnyman.com/innocentescapes/indexbroadband.html . I thought that it was really funny so I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did, if you haven't already seen it.

Happy Valentine's Day

2005-02-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day is usually fairly awkward being single, but this valentine's day did turn out to be one of the better ones despite not having an official date. Having good friends to spend time with definitely helped. It was fun to hang out with friends who are commited and other friends who are single to see both perspectives on the day. Ultimately I think that Valentine's day is a good day either way for small and meaningful gestures. Not that it wouldn't be nice to have had a date, but I do believe that relationships should happen naturally without a timetable.

I'm reclempt...here's a topic...

2005-01-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

Well, January is coming to a close. This month has been fairly relaxed. My weekends have mostly been spent with friends and family. Yesterday I went out to see the Aviator, which as a fairly long movie (especially in some parts) but good. I didn't know much about Howard Hughes going into the movie so I don't know how much of it is accurate, but it had a lot of good acting so I would say that it was a good movie.

Everything's been going well, and I've been trying to get out of a class that I had taken in Junior College before I transfered so my quarter at school has been easy. This has led to some video game and movie time in my free time. :) Talking with some of my friends has given me the travel bug again also.

I will leave with a random thought that I noticed as I was watching the preview for the movie Boogieman today. Why do horror writers always have to put in a weird scene with someone being stalked while they're in the bathtub?

Shows

2005-01-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

This past week there was a lot of rain here in Southern California, which led to me catching up on some TV as well as a couple new shows that I've become addicted to. The first one has been Pimp My Ride, which I like to watch now mostly to see what West Coast Customs will put in the car. I think that the craziest things that I've seen so far have been a fish tank and a fire place. I also like seeing that the people who get their cars pimped seem to deserve it for more than the fact that they have older beat up cars too. It took me three seasons to jump on the band wagon, but 24 has finally sucked me in also.

One show that I hate admitting to have watched was Cheaters. The title pretty much says it all, but the main point of the episode that I watched was the typical story of girl meets boy...girl moves in with boy...boy goes behind girlfriends back and sleeps with her old roommate...girl gets suspicious and hires a private detective. Now I'm definitely all about being open about things, but watching people being caught in the act of cheating and breaking up is hard to watch. It definitely caught my attention, but probably more like looking over at an accident to see what happened kind of way. I guess my point is that breaking up in general is not a fun experience, so I can't imagine wanting to do it on national TV.

New Year (2005)

2005-01-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

It's a little sad to think that the holidays are already over, but the year ended well for me. Christmas was good, and I had fun spending it partying with family. Lots of food, gifts, and a little wine tasting. :) Hearing the news about the earth quake and tsunami disasters in Eastern Asia was a somber note though.

Around Christmas my friend that I had traveled with through Europe over the summer came back from studying abroad so I got to catch up on all his stories about his trip after I left. Hearing the stories definitely made me want to travel again, but if I went again I would want to stay in one country instead of bouncing between four like I did this past summer.

A couple of days before New Years I went to see the band Ozomatli, who were playing fairly close to my house. New Years was fairly mellow. I had a couple of friends over, and we ended up mostly just hanging out. There was an attempt to go out, but aside from a few big events downtown there wasn't a lot going on. All the bars and clubs near by were fairly empty, but it was cool to be able to keep it mellow as well as stay off the roads. Spending New Years with close friends is usually the way I like to spend it anyway. That's about the news here for now.

P-A-R-T- why not?

2004-12-18T23:03:00.000-08:00

well work, school, and everything else has kept me fairly busy over the past couple of weeks. The big news was the company holiday party last weekend, which was held on the now decommissioned Midway aircraft carrier. It was definitely a unique and actually big place to have the party. It also led to a lot of Top Gun references for some reason. :) Overall, it was a good party. The only bad part being the long lines for food and drinks. The amount of people at the party has definitely grown, but I walked away from the party reminded that I do work with a really good group of people. I like working in a company where I can hang out with them at work, but I can hang out with them quite a bit outside of work as well. Here are a couple of pictures from the party also.

Turkey

2004-12-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

Once again sorry about not blogging for a while. The holidays were busy but good. My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins that live up in Northern California were all in town. It was good to see people that I hadn't seen since my cousin Eric's wedding this summer. Thanksgiving was of course a lot of turkey and food in general.

The night after I celebrated my birthday with family so we went out for a night of Sushi followed by a drink with friends where my cousin got to exchange stories about me with my friends. :) Being 25 is definitely good, but thinking back I have a hard time remembering 22 or 23. This year has been one of the more memorable ones in my life so I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

The rest of the weekend was just spent relaxing.

j/k

2004-11-18T23:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I'll continue a little bit about the Vegas stories since they have gotten out. :) I never expected them to stay locked away, and besides for a strip club and the girl who wanted to party there wasn't too many crazy stories. Both times that I've been to strip clubs have been interesting experiences. I do end up feeling a little guilty for going to them, I think because there's the feeling deep down that girls will end up thinking of me as sleazy for going there. The funny thing does end up being that girls do end up going with their boyfriends, and that the girlfriends end up getting more attention than all the guys.

Other than that things are still busy at work, but we had the weekend off last weekend, which allowed me to recover a little.

Montage and a dating tip

2004-11-13T23:57:00.000-08:00

Here's just a couple funny things that I came across.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail117.html

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/coolguy.html

Vegas

2004-11-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

This weekend was very quick, but I would definitely describe it as fun, interesting, as well as surreal. After a friends bachelor party quite a few months ago, we talked and planned a group trip to Vegas, which ended up being this weekend. I think that Vegas is definitely interesting, fun, and surreal. I would compare it as an adult, larger scale version of Disneyland with gambling and drinking. It's a lot of fun with a group of friends, and even walking around the casinos people watching is fun too. I think that one of the more memorable things that I saw was a Roles Royce with a candleabra on the front of it as the hood ornament. Vegas is definitely a cool city to experience. Driving down the strip at night is a lot like it seems in the movies with the colorful lights reflecting off of everything and random water and fire effects going off at almost every hotel. Now that this is probably getting to be a little bit like a Frommer's Guide I'll stop here. The crazier stories of Vegas will have to stay in Vegas for now. :)

Late Halloween

2004-11-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

Halloween is always fun, and I actually got to go down memory lane when my Mom found this picture of a friend of mine and I back when we were five or six. I'm the one on the right. :)

Can't get enough

2004-10-28T01:19:00.000-07:00

Things have definitely been busy around school and work so there hasn't been too much time to blog. I finally got a chance to see my Dad, who I haven't seen in a couple of years. We talk on the phone quite a bit, but I haven't gotten a chance to visit him in a while so it was good to catch up, even though it was a short two day visit.

I was sick with a cold through most of last week also, so it was nice to have a few days to relax and watch movies over the weekend while I was visiting with my Dad too. I ended up losing my voice, so my friends joked around that I sounded like Barry White with my deep, sexy larangitus voice. :)

Moore

2004-10-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

After the Presidential debate on Friday I went to Blockbuster, and I ended up checking out Fahrenheit 9/11 since I hadn't seen it yet. I liked The Big One and Bowling for Columbine, and I was definitely interested in seeing Fahrenheit also. Overall, I liked the movie more at the end than I did at the beginning. I think that a lot of the points that he makes in the movie are well done, and I think that they are pretty well supported. My problem with the movie did start near the beginning of the movie because I think that the subject matter in the movie was strong enough already, and that shots of President Bush and other politicians getting their hair done before a speach was unnecessary. I think that voice overs of Michael Moore saying "Was Bush thinking..." and shots from Dragnet were also unnecessary. These are definitely part of Michael Moore's style, but when the movie is about the President starting an unjustified war, greed, and the administration using scare tactics it only came across as leading the audience. The movie needed to be able to sway even Bush supporters to see his point of view, and have a solid enough foundation to support the accusations that he was making. I think that most of his points are supported, but doing voice overs I think gave a little bit of a "spoon feeding" approach instead of letting the footage speak for itself. Bush may have been thinking the things that Michael Moore said, but he should have stuck to facts instead of just hypothesizing. That's my main problem because it ends up taking away from the credibility of the movie, which already comes into question because of Michael Moore's "liberal" political beliefs. The end became a little bit stronger because of the interviews with soldiers, and interviews with President Bush that were left to stand more on their own. And that's my review. :)

My first project

2004-10-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

I had to turn in my first video project for my class this week. We were supposed to put together a project that was exactly 60 seconds long, and it was supposed deal with perception of time also. Overall, mine went pretty well, but I have to give credit to the video that gave me the inspiration. I thought that it was a funny video so I decided to use (probably more like resurrect) the movie Titanic as the theme for my project.

Feel Great?

2004-10-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

sorry. I accidentally deleted this post while I was fixing my last post. Here is the link to the Nutrigrain ad again www.ebaumsworld.com/nutrigrainad.html

It's October?

2004-10-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I went with a friend to go see Earth, Wind, and Fire. It was a really fun concert to see, and they played most of their hits. There were quite a few songs that I liked, but that I didn't really know they wrote before I went to the concert. It was an interesting experience I think because my friend and I were definitely the youngest people there, but it was still fun to go and be able to recognize at least most of the songs they played.

The rest of my weekend has been fairly mellow, and now I've got school work to do.

Gravity Rides Everything

2004-09-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend was fairly good. September 11th is still mind blowing to think about even three years later. The footage of the planes hitting the buildings is still surreal to see. I only know people who know people who were in the towers that day so I can only imagine what hey felt, but I only remember being a little in denial when the planes first hit because you never think of something like that happening. It wasn't until the buildings went down that it seemed much more real. I guess that the denial came from the fact that the buildings had survived an attack before so I thought that they would at least stay standing.

I don't think that there's a good way to go from that to my weekend, but my weekend was mostly spent with friends, which was made the weekend good. I also got a call from my bank saying that there was a bunch of charges on my credit card for over a couple hundred dollars in one day at stores really far away from my apartment so I had to cancel that account. That was the big news from the weekend.

I wear my sunglasses at night

2004-09-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

Last night I got a chance to see an 80's music cover band. When the band stepped on stage it really was almost a flashback as they walked onto the stage in shirts with the sleaves cut off, and thin ties. I've always been a pretty big fan of 80's music, but I never saw any of the bands from then live so it was fun to see a concert where they played almost all of my favorite 80's songs. I'm not sure if I really have just one favorite. If I did just have to pick just one I would have to say that I would probably have to say that Duran Duran is probably my favorite because I think that their videos are the ultimate example of what I remember 80's music videos looking like with wind effects and slow motion. My favorite video of theirs is Hungry like the Wolf, but my favorite song overall is Union of the Snake.

Nothing else too exciting to report. I saw the movie Garden State also last weekend, but I don't want to review it or spoil it for anyone who wants to see it but hasn't yet.

Pictures of You

2004-08-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to keep the song title theme going so I had to go to the Cure, which actually worked out since there is a big Cure festival going on here this weekend. :)

The news today is that I finally got a chance to shoot a first roll of film with my Lomo camera. You can check out the company at http://www.lomography.com. It's a really cool point a shoot 35mm camera that a friend recommended to me because it uses older Russian technology that creates some interesting effects. So if you're into photography I would recommend it also.

You can check out some of my pictures from the first roll at http://www.lomohomes.com/drifterx2 .

Running Down a Dream

2004-08-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

The end of last week things started to slow down at work so I got to have a fairly relaxing weekend and a day off today. I also got to see some of the olympics on Saturday night. As I was watching the 100m races I caught a story about how that Iraq and Afganistan had women on their olympic teams for I think the first time. Even though I don't like a lot of things about Bush's policies or the war, I thought it was amazing to see a really quiet but abrupt change like that. I do think that it's a positive change to see a group of people that have trained and worked hard finally get a chance to reach a goal.

Only Superstition

2004-08-19T23:14:00.000-07:00

Recent events, and being in the dating world have led me to do a little reevaluation. I've never gone into a relationship trying to be a player or anything, but I've always been out to learn the rules of the game. The first girl that I ever really dated and got involved with I ended up hurting because I was starting at a new high school where I thought I had all options open to me on top of being insecure about being hurt by my first crush, the girl next door. This led to being even more insecure because I had hurt someone that I really did care about, and I ended up being very over cautious for along time because I made somewhat of a pact with myself that I wouldn't do that to someone again.

Once high school ended I was still somewhat over cautious. Later in college I ended up starting to go in the other direction because I had felt like I had missed so many oportunites after girls that I liked would come up to me and introduce me to their boyfriends on almost the same day that I would get the courage to ask them out. Finding the equilibrium has been the trick recently since I've been on both sides of the coin. It's not like I don't have patience or that the girls that I've gotten or tried to get involved with have not been worth the effort. Being shy and the feeling that I missed oportunities has been the biggest reason for my fear of losing. The main thing that has saved me has been the fact that as I've kept getting out there I've figured out more about myself as well as make me less shocked when things go wrong in a relationship so that hopefully if the right relationship comes along I'll be more prepared for it. All of this is mostly just trying to get things off my chest, but hopefully it makes sense to an audience. :)

Some guys have all the luck

2004-08-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

I wanted to say sorry for not posting much recently. Work has been fairly busy, and I ended up at least trying to help my Mom and stepdad with their move this weekend. :) Work will be much slower at the end of this week so I will post more then. Blogging has been a lot of fun so far, and it's been fun to read other peoples blogs also. I will definitely say thanks to anyone who's been reading also. There seem to be a lot of good blogs out there, and meeting new people as well as getting a few comments has been more than I could have asked for so I will be back with more.

Weird Science

2004-08-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

Today being lucky enough to be a part of the video game industry also afforded me the opportunity to go to Siggraph, a 3d animation convention being held up in Los Angeles. The convention is a lot of fun, and it is mainly classes, lectures, and recruiting mixed with high profile late night parties. The best way to describe it would be the way someone would describe the old 80's hairstyle, the Mullet, which would be "business in the front and party in the back." The best example would be the Industrial Light and Magic t-shirts that had a picture of Darth Vader's helmet on the front and the slogan "Who's Your Daddy?" on the back. Most of my day was spent in classes, but it was fun to part of a geeky atmosphere outside of work. Who knows why they let us out? :)

One Mike at a time

2004-08-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

I got a little inspiration from another blog. :)

http://sabiv.blogspot.com/2004/08/whats-up-mike.html

It is funny to think that I have the most common name because I think I've just gotten used to the fact that all my friends know at least one other Mike. Even though I do like to think of myself as one of a kind. :) It hasn't really ever bothered me, except at times when I hear the name Mike being called in the distance while I'm out doing something on my own because I always have to make the call on whether to turn around. Turning around to see if someone I know is calling me is not a big deal, but when it happens a few times a day is when I start to think about not even bothering to try. There's only been a couple of times that I've actually ignored someone who was calling me, but I did have the excuse that I thought someone was talking to another Mike.

Blue Moon

2004-08-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend of the Blue Moon turned out to be a fun but mostly family weekend. My stepdad had his Mom and Niece in town. I had met my step grandma (I think that's the technical term) before, and all of the family that I have met of his have been really good people so I was happy to hang out with them. I ended up having a lot in common with his niece, Amberly, and it seemed like we became fairly fast friends. It was a lot of fun getting to know her over the course of the week and a half that they were in town. They invited to me to go out to dinner with them quite a bit as well as a Disneyland run so it was fun to feel like a spoiled kid again. :)

I had gotten into a conversation about music and the bands that she liked so when I saw that one of the bands, Switchfoot, was playing a free concert, I offered to go see the concert with her. The concert was packed, and it was a very minimal standing room only show. It took a little bargaining with people to get to a place where we could see the band, but it was a good show even though I only recognized their big hit Meant to Live and maybe one other song.

Saturday I helped with the garage sale that my Mom and Stepdad were having in order to get ready for their move. I almost forgot how much I have a love/hate relationship with selling things at a garage sale. It's great to great to get rid of any crap that you don't use or don't really want, but most of the time you're thinking of how much you paid originally for whatever you're selling while someone is offering you a dollar for it. It always seems like a weird interaction because you have memories of all the great times you had with an old boombox or bike rack that's been gathering dust in the closet, but at the same time you should be happy that you're making money off of it.

Soon after being burned out by the sale, I got a call from my friend Chris, who was throwing a party that night. All of my friends from work and a few other people that I knew were going to be there so I decided to take a break from the hectic family schedule in order to have a chance to hang out with friends. It was a good party, and a good chance to get out as well as relax. No major stories, but it was still a good chance to recharge.

Sunday was another touristy day with the family, so I decided to tag along since it was the last chance I would get to see them before they went back to Ohio. It was actually fun to get a chance to do the tourist areas since I don't get to actually relax and enjoy the city, even though I live here a lot of the time. And that was my weekend, straight up.

Mark of the Beast

2004-07-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend I went out surfing with my roommate and his girlfriend to get my second surf lesson in. I've done bodyboarding and have lived near the ocean most of my life, but I've never really gotten into surfing. This summer, while the water was a little warmer, I wanted to try and learn. My roommate was willing to teach me so we decided to go out on Saturday morning. The waves were fairly small, and I wanted to take it easy after having a rough start the first time. This time I was doing well, standing up on the board. My roommate and I had both felt some Sting Rays under our feet so I was trying to shuffle around when I could to not get stung. After about ten minutes I caught a wave, stood up, and then got off my board only to land on something slimy before feeling something hit me in the side of my foot. After letting out a few profanities, my roommate asked me if I had stepped on a Sting Ray. I was sure I had so we went in so that we could get to the closest lifeguard tower. The first five minutes after weren't too bad so I limped over to the closest lifeguard tower, and they dragged me off shortly after to the main station so that I could stick my foot in hot water.

As I was sitting there soaking my foot, I felt like I was part of a club. The lifeguards and a few other people walking by saw the wound and told me their stories of being stung. The funniest story I heard was from one of the lifeguards, who told me that he had treated a guy who rolled of his board, and got stung in the groin. He told me this story while the pain was at it's worst, so I couldn't even imagine getting stung in the groin as I looked at the hole in my foot. I could laugh about my sting as I was eating breakfast about an hour and a half later. I think an injury in the groin like that would probably make me give up going to the beach. I never liked sand that much anyway. :)

float on

2004-07-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

well, overall today was a laid back day, and I definitely didn't get too much done. I ended up leaving work a little early to relax and swim. While I was watching TV for a little while, I heard what will probably be the end of a story that was definitely depressing to hear. A teenager (I feel a little bit weird calling him that since I'm only 24) that I had actually met a couple of times a while ago was missing from a camping trip with friends this past weekend, and his body was found today. It hit me a little hard because I had met Eric before, but I also knew his Mom, Wendy, really well because I worked with her at my old job at the library. She actually ended up becoming my boss there also, and half jokingly taught me to basically call all women "miss" when they came up to the counter. :) Her and her family all were, and I'm sure still are great people so it was hard to hear that something like that happened to a family I know as well as them.

Other than that, I watched the movie Big Fish last night which was really well done. I do like a lot of Tim Burton's movies, so I'm a little biased. Big Fish is pretty different from most of his movies, that are a lot darker usually. It's definitely a movie that's worth checking out. That's all I'll say so that I don't spoil it though.

The Reflex

2004-07-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well, there hasn't been a lot of exciting stuff so far this week because I've had to work through most of it. I'm back to sharing an office at work, and the guy I'm sharing an office with is totally into 80's music. Especially 80's metal, so we ended up having a music battle while we were working late. I like a lot of music from the 80's like David Bowie, Oingo Boingo, New Order, Duran Duran, Motley Crue, Guns and Roses, Wasp, Hall and Oats (yeah I'll admit it :) ), even the Flock of Seagulls and some Depeche Mode and Cure so it was fun. This is my office mates favorite band so I hate to say it, but I can only take so much Queensryche though. I'm not even sure why. I guess I just found my limit on 80's big hair bands. Poison and White Snake are up there too. I think that there's only so many ways you can make a power ballad or wear tight pants with a cod piece. And I'll end my rant there. :)

I'm Back

2004-07-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I have no been back from Europe for a little over a week. The trip was an amazing experience, and I was unable to blog during the trip for a few reasons: cost, time, and the fact that there was almost too much happening around me to blog about. Plus what happens in Europe stays in Europe. :) Mostly kidding. I kept an actual written journal instead, but I can't imagine a blog description of the trip would be that exciting. I've retold the story a few times verbally since I've been back, which has worked out well because I can show some pictures to go along with the tales also.

Either way, I came back to a little bit of a different world. I was away for just under four weeks too. Pepsi and Coke have gone soft with their low carb sodas, Kobe Bryant is now basically running the Lakers, my Mom and Step Dad are moving to Arizona, my cousin had a baby, and I had to move my office when I came back also. ok...that's not that long or bad of a list. It did seem different when I came back, but I think that I've changed also in the way that not as much shocks me after a trip where I was out of my element almost the whole time.

Overall, it did feel a little strange to be home, but after being home for a week I have realized that despite the changes, most of my relationships with friends and family have stayed the same luckily. I did get a little jealous when my friend, who's still over in Europe traveling, e-mailed me to tell me about Stockholm and Denmark though. Hearing about these places just gives me a reason to go back the next time I get a chance . I'm much more of a home body than he is so I don't think that I could travel for three to six months at a time like he is doing. I was happy with four weeks, and I think that about three months would be my limit on living out of a suitcase.

That's about all I have to say about that. I got to go to a collage of places starting out in London, then Nice, Corsica for hiking and beach time, Barcelona to party, the Bordeaux region of France to recover, Paris for culture, Vienna also for culture, and then Amsterdam for just about anything. If you know me and want to know more I'm willing to swap stories, but I think that you can get a quick summary from the cities I visited. :) Less is more sometimes...right?

What happened?

2004-06-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend I went to my cousins wedding. The wedding was fun. It was up at my Aunt's house, which they did a lot of work and renovation to in preparation for having the wedding on there farm. I cruised up with my Mom and step Dad late on Friday night, where I found another one of my immediate cousins and some of his friends up drinking by a fire pit. I ended up joining them for a little while, and started off a good party weekend since I had just finished finals at school and didn't have to do to much for the wedding itself. Those thoughts ended up being my downfall the next night. :)

The next day was fairly mellow except for doing a few odd chores and everything around the house before all of the guests arrived. It was a pretty big wedding, and I think there was around 100 people that showed up. The ceremony went well except for a small glitch with the bride's bouquet. There was a good polish meal served due to the fact that the bride was Polish. I ended up getting into the party, drinking beer and wine until the toast came. The toast consisted of a vodka and apple juice mix, which really started getting the party started. I had one shot, danced, drank a little more wine...Talked...Danced. Then the bowl of vodka and apple juice got refilled. So I ended up consuming more shots of that mix, which would have been ok. Unfortunately the bottle of Jack Daniels was opened up, and I consumed a few shots of that to end the night...Literally. After that I don't remember anything else except for hazy flashes of being dragged up the stairs. I actually thought that was a dream until I woke up face down on my bed, still wearing the slacks that I had worn to the wedding. I slowly got filled in on the details of I did between the time I blacked out, and the time I woke up by the family members that took care of me. I'm not quite sure how bad things got before I actually collapsed by the fire pit, but there are no restraining orders or trials pending so things could have been worse. :) As far as things the next day went I only had to do some apologizing, and give some sincere thanks to the people who took care of me that night. It was my first time almost ruining a wedding, and it's not something that I want to repeat. :)

Overall, it was a fun night according to the people who remember all of it. I did have a good time even when I was conscious of what I was doing. I just count myself lucky that I only woke up with a hangover. I don't think that I'm totally giving up drinking, but I'm definitely not going to go after Jack Daniels or mix alcohol like that any more. That's my lesson from the weekend.

"Teenage Love"

2004-05-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today I went to breakfast with the fam, and found out that today was Prom night for all the "High Schoolers." It took me back a little bit because I think that everyone has those moments of "if I knew then what I know now" would I do things different. I wasn't necessarily a Casanova back in the day, but thinking about it I don't really think that I would end up doing anything different if that was the case. My summers were fairly lazy, blissfully unaware, and usually spent sleeping in or watching college coeds making whip cream bathing suits on MTV. Not that things have changed that much, but now that I'm out in the real world I'm glad that I had that time. Which brings me to my point...I have to thank the girls that actually understood me, and even put themselves on the line to ask me to Prom. There's definitely not a doubt in my mind that without the women that have been in my life that I would still be the same geeky, shameless perv today that I was back then. :) I probably would have given up a long time ago too. That's the reminiscing and cliche for today.

"The Lake Show"

2004-05-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally joining into the Blog revolution. I've always been a little opposed to joining into something that I think of as a "craze", but I feel like this will help inflate my ego to have my thoughts read by so many people. I kid...I kid. I guess I feel like if somebody else finds my thoughts as interesting as I do, or thinks the same way I do then I'm happy to oblige. :)

Anyway, everything's been moving really fast over the past few months thanks to working full time, going to school part time, and trying to get ready for a month long trip to Europe. I got to party quite a bit last weekend, so now I've got to make up for it by working on my final project for school most of this weekend.

The NBA quarter and semi finals have been fun to watch. I watched a good portion of the Lakers beating the T-wolves tonight. I'd like to say kicking their a$$, but it was actually a close game until the end. Shortly before the game a friend and I were talking about the under appreciated Derek Fisher, who ended up having a great game tonight. I definitely agree that Derek Fisher is underappreciated because even in the few Lakers games that I've seen he's made a huge impact, including making a game winning shot with three seconds left.

The last game against Sacramento was on Thursday, which I watched at the Chilis's near my work. A girl that is really attractive that works over at the jamba juice near my work said that she saw me there that night. I felt really bad because I see her about every other day thanks to my smoothie habit. :) Plus I felt like I was missing out on my duty as a single guy to spot someone like her in the room. I guess my excuse is that two beers and a large crowd of loud Laker fans makes you lose a little focus.

Well, that's about all I have for now, but I'll be back.