Tidbits
Hmm — I haven’t blogged in while, so here’s some random tidbits for you all…
Millie and I started a Picture of the Day photo album. The idea was that we would take a picture of us every day, and over time we would have an interesting log of how we’ve changed. Yeah — that lasted exactly eight days. It’s boring to take pictures when you’re doing it just for some stupid album. So, instead, we’ll just make that a general album for pictures of us, as often as we have such pictures. I filled it back with older ones as well, so go check it out.
Last weekend we went up to Berkeley with our friend who used to go there. I was going to blog about the things we did up there, but she beat me to it. So I’ll just say that it was really nice there — a lot like Boulder in many ways, though perhaps a bit more upscale. Berkeley seems to have a lot of similar values, like supporting independent business, liberal political views, and strong school spirit (with the whole college town feel). I posted our pictures here.
On Friday night we went to a Halloween party. I left the camera in the car during the party, but I do have some pictures of the preparation. I was kinda lame anyway and didn’t wear a costume; Millie at least found a cute skeleton apron. My friend Dave decided to go as a school girl, and he embraced the costume fully! It was quite funny going to shop for all the accessories for him, especially the shoes. The amazing thing is that he actually pulled it off quite well — get rid of the beard shadow and get a better wig, and he would be very convincing. 
Finally, a little note about Battlestar Galactica. (If you’re not watching this show, shame on you!) I was browsing around the official website watching some of the extras, and I noticed an ad for the latest MS Visual Studio: “Cylons. Why debugging matters.” I hope whoever came up with that got a raise, because that’s just perfect.
Save America
In the spirit of my last post, and the 9/11 5-year anniversary (yesterday), I wanted to point you all to a post by Luis Villa:
In the next five years, unlike the last five, I hope we use their memory to inspire us to actually make the US and the world safer for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, instead of making us less safe, or settling old scores. [more]
Perhaps it is a bit idealistic to hope for everything that he says, but I do believe that things can be much better than they are…
In a comment below, Chris mentioned God’s Debris, by Scott Adams. This is a book that I recommended to him, and I’ll recommend it now to everyone I know. It’s available as a free pdf download, so you really have no excuse not to check it out. It truly is a thought experiment, and even if you disagree with everything written, it should still open up some interesting discussions.
Anyway, without spoiling too much, one of the characters in the book talks about “levels” of the soul. Level 2 basically amounts to blind faith and complete self-assurance, and he asserts that most leaders fit into this category. My initial reaction with a laugh was that our dear president nearly defines this level, and he would love it if we would blindly follow him.
But it’s still generally true that this is a good level for leaders, as confidence tends to lend charisma — the more the better. Even if you’re wrong, it’s really about convincing other people that you know what you’re doing. And that will always frustrate people like me who aren’t so set in their beliefs, but would rather consider all options carefully and logically.
I guess I just need a leader who blindly believes in something that I can get behind… 
Wedding in Portland
Wedding #2: Dave and Amanda. This one was much more formal, which I think would make my mom happier. Me, I think I’ll want something in between. I’m definitely a casual guy, but for things like this I appreciate the tradition and rituals.
We flew up to Portland for this wedding, and I must say, if I may rant a little, I find the whole liquid ban on planes to be quite a sad thing. Sad because we’re all so willing to give up our freedoms, of course, but that’s not what I want to talk about. It’s sad because I can’t believe that it’s at all effective. No one searched my pockets for any hidden vials, and I pretty sure the security scanner can’t detect liquids.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Come with me sir — this here detector says that more than half of your body is water. Are you trying to blow something up?
It’s not protection or prevention — it’s pure reaction. It’s the addition of security so that some higher-ups can pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Or worse, it’s a desperate attempt to do something, because we don’t really know how to stop those who would do us harm.
I think terrorism is like cancer, and the only treatments we’ve figured out are chemotherapy and radiation therapy. We may be able to fight it off this way, but a lot will be damaged along the way. What we need, if it’s not too late, is to figure out a real strategy for prevention. A healthy lifestyle can greatly reduce your risk for cancer, and I’m willing to bet that the US wouldn’t be such a target of terrorism if we were better world citizens. Sometimes you get cancer anyway, and you have to be prepared to deal with that, but prevention goes a long way.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to look at it this way, but I hope that more people will realize that our current method is unmaintainable. And I believe that the folks at the TSA are genuinely trying to make our travels safer — they’re the doctors searching for the key to remission. It’s a monumental responsibility that I wouldn’t want on my shoulders. But the changes needed to actually solve the problem are much larger, and I hope that someday soon we can find that solution.
/rant
Wedding in Eugene
Over the weekend we drove up to Eugene for Amber and Aaron’s wedding. Millie went to high school with Amber, so that’s yet another making the leap. Then in a couple of weeks we’ll be going to another wedding, and I know of two more couples in Colorado that are getting married this year! I guess we’re just at that age. Maybe now Millie and I can make the excuse that we’re waiting for everyone’s wallets to recover so we can get better gifts. 
Anyway, while the drive was exhausting, we had a fun weekend. We hung out with a lot of Millie’s old friends, went out to the Rock ‘n Rodeo, and of course went to the wedding and reception. Not really in that order, but you get the point. I’ve never seen a wedding reception with a fire juggler and a magician, so they definitely get props for that.
Oh, and I guess my grandparents were in Oregon near Eugene, and I didn’t realize it, so we missed an opportunity to visit them. 
Well, now we’ll just have to convince them to come visit us at our house.
De-tagged Car
I’m happy to report that the tag on my car has been removed! Ben has some “miracle” wax with a mild abrasive in it, and that took the marks right off with very little effort. A tiny bit in the crack evaded our effort, but it’s hardly visible, so I’m not worried about it. I hope that whoever did it realizes how stupid that kind of behavior is, but now I can put it behind me.
We were up in Eugene this weekend to attend a wedding — I’ll put up pictures from that later…
Weekend in Tahoe
Just when you thought you were lucky to get a post from me, here comes another one! And this one has pictures too!
Ben and Kelley invited us up to Lake Tahoe for the weekend, and we were happy to oblige. Neither of us had been up there before, and now I wonder why we waited so long. It feels a lot like Colorado — it’s even at a decent altitude! I tend to be a bit snooty when people mention “high altitude” that’s not even any higher than Denver, so it was nice to see that Tahoe is at about 6200 feet.
The lake itself is amazing — now I understand the “Keep Tahoo Blue” stickers you see everywhere. But just being up in some real mountains made me feel right at home again. It’s a bit of a drive, at about 4.5 hours, but we’ll definitely have to be going back there…
Puerto Vallarta
Better late than never, here are our pictures from our trip to Mexico! Be sure to click for the full album.
We had a really great time in Puerto Vallarta. We stayed at the the Dreams Resort, which was all-inclusive and had a private beach. I’m not much of a swimmer, but I really enjoyed going out into the ocean. The water was so warm that it might as well have been bath water!
One day we went out on a tour boat to see the Marietta Islands, where we got to go snorkeling to see tropical fish and coral. (Unfortunately we didn’t bring the camera that day.) It was crazy to see so many fish swimming right around me! The tour also took us to a “virgin” beach with great sand and big waves, and tide pools with a bunch of crabs. On the way back the crew opened up the bar and got everyone dancing (even me!), which was a lot of fun.
Another day we went on a canopy tour, which was basically a long series of ziplines, high up in the jungle canopy. We took a ride about an hour into the heart of Mexico riding in an truck that looked like an army transport or something. Then we rigged up, and started zipping around about 100 feet off the ground. The guides were explaining all of the vegetation and wildlife to us on the way, so it was even a bit educational.
My only negative about the trip is that Puerto Vallarta is such a tourist town. Everywhere you go people try to sell you souvenirs, and most things are still written in English. That’s good in a way, since I only know a few words in Spanish. But apart from paying for everything in pesos, the whole “different-country” aspect got a little lost. Maybe next time we can go to Mexico with someone who speaks Spanish (Ben?) and we can go off the tourist path a bit.
All in all though, definitely a good trip.
People Suck
I know, I know, I still need to post pictures from Mexico. I’m getting to it, I promise. But in the mean time, take a look at what I found on my car this afternoon:
Seriously, who does shit like that? What did I do to piss you off? It looks like one of those silver markers was used to write this dumbass message on my car. I managed to get some of it off with a rag, but not all. I may have to try buffing it out with wax or something. I don’t think there will be any permanent damage, but it still makes me want to hit someone…
My car, my precious car!
Warped Vacation
The Warped Tour was today, but I’m not very excited about having gone. It was a lot of chaos and commercialism, with booths everywhere. It was hard to figure out where each band was playing, and even when we found the schedule there was no good way to see all the bands I was interested in. Plus, probably 90% of the attendees were still in high school. I’m too young to feel that old, dammit! My dad will probably laugh to hear me say this, but I don’t think most of those kids or even the bands really know what punk rock really is.
It wasn’t totally a waste I guess. NOFX was ok — they made a really funny comment about there being way too many tattoos and too much makeup in the audience. People latch on to the minor things that they think represent the genre, and completely miss the point. And then what really saved the experience for me: Zebrahead was awesome. They weren’t on one of the main stages, but that meant we could get a lot closer, and they still drew a large crowd. I hope all of those kids saw Zebrahead and thought, “Wow, is this punk rock?” Yes, yes it is…
On a completely unrelated note — we finally booked our vacation! Puerto Vallarta, here we come! It’s nice to have that all squared away, so now we can just look forward to the trip. We’ll be there for four nights at the Dreams resort, and we’ve also scheduled a canopy tour and an eco-discovery package. Plus the gorgeous beach that’s already calling our names…
Concert Update
I meant to post a decent review after BFD, but I forgot, so here’s a quick rundown of the bands we actually got to see:
- Anti-Flag — rocked the stage. We only saw them for a couple of songs though, so I look forward to seeing them again at the Warped Tour.
- Wolfmother — as much as I like their CD, they were kind of boring on stage.
- Panic! At The Disco — awesome. I definitely need to get their album. I give them third best of the whole show.
- Yellowcard — ok, but not as cool as I’d hoped. They kept doing the thing where they try to get people to mash and go crazy, but they’re really not that hard-core…
- DJ Mike Relm — annoying. He was filling in between sets on the main stage, but I think I would have preferred the generic mix-tape-filler that most events use.
- Echo & The Bunnymen — wtf?!? Totally lame. I got the impression that they didn’t really want to be there, and no-one really got into their songs.
- HIM — pretty cool, but a lot of it sounded exactly the same, and it got repetitive, and almost a bit redundant.
- Franz Ferdinand — awesome. Great crowd interaction, great performance — this is one of those bands that really should be seen live. My second pick for the whole show.
- The Strokes — good, but I think I was expecting more.
- AFI — a great headliner! They sort-of have a pop-rock feel, which I feel guilty for liking, but it’s a formula that really works. Tons of fun, and I’ll even give them best-of-show.
That list I made before for the Warped Tour was apparently a waste of time, because now the official site has a different list up. It’s hard to tell if all of those bands are going to be at the SF show, or just on the tour at some point. Anyway, of that list, I’m most looking forward to Anti-Flag, Bouncing Souls, Less Than Jake, NOFX, and Zebrahead. That show is next weekend, so I’ll try to post my impressions soon after.
