Florida - Day 1

So Day 1 in Florida (not counting the day we arrived) was spent at Busch Gardens. In the following video, you can see Andrew, Van and I slightly confused as far as amusement parks go… (Floridians will probably not understand this):

We also rode ultra-exciting rides like the following log ride (feel free to stop watching after a minute or so… it gets boring after that, haha):

Haha… actually, it was pretty fun (and the coasters were more lively than the above =)… Kathy even went on some! …and got really nasty wrinkled feet from getting socks/shoes soaked… ewww… but she wouldn’t let me take a picture of them.

Afterwards, we went back to Jen’s place and watched Four Brothers… better than I expected it to be, actually, haha.

Messages

Message for Roommates

I like leaving messages for my roomies. Sometimes they’re nice, sometime’s they’re not. =)

On an entirely unrelated note, I tried the “shortcut swim” again, but this time giving Kathy my shoes before doing so and it went oh so much better, haha…

“Beautiful day,
wonderful feeling,
I feel like singing,
psalms meaning songs singing praises all day long.
Joy fills the weak,
joy makes us strong.
Filled ‘till we burst,
songs of praise to the God of the Universe.”
- Five Iron Frenzy

Hey!

You guys need to blog more, I can’t keep the blog count up for everyone here. What am I supposed to do when I’m waiting for a kernel to finish compiling, huh?

I was thinking of cool things to do in Florida and somehow thought it would be funny to bring a bag full of LEGOs to the beach, but decided that was probably a bad idea (I’m sure you can come up with quite a few reasons why). Then, I thought it’d be cool to bring that bag on the airplane to build something cool on the flight, but realized I would probably drive everyone around me insane with all the LEGO shuffling, haha.

So I think I like the 50mm on the 5D a lot better than the 85mm. I think the 85mm still seems a bit too “tight” for me for everything except solo portrait shots (which it does insanely well with… oh the bokeh…). I bought a 50mm f/1.4 which should hopefully arrive before the Florida trip. Highly considering selling the 85L, if my run with the 50mm f/1.4 goes well. I know it won’t be nearly as sharp… but since I already have the 85 f/1.8 (which is nearly just as sharp as the 85 f/1.2, just can’t stop down as low and doesn’t have as nice bokeh), I’m not sure if I use the 85L enough to justify keeping it…

“halogen, the lights will flicker
incadescent burning lies
and the silence stands for nothing
desperate, I search the skies aching for a spark
trembling in pitchest dark”
- Brave Saint Saturn

Yay Concierge!

Freescale has a concierge service (which I think they contract from another company or something) which I’ve found useful on a few occasions. Today, I had the guy take my car to get an oil change. Wheeee!

Although, I just realized that since I’m taking tomorrow off, I could have done it then. Oh well, more time to relaaaaax. =)

Uh oh, meeting time…

“When the toast is burning
And all the milk has turned
And Captain Crunch is waving farewell
When the big one finds you
May this song remind you
That they don’t serve breakfast in hell”
- Newsboys

SoaP Song

I have the Snakes on a Plane song stuck in my head now and I’ve had it on repeat in iTunes in an attempt to cleanse it from my head by making me sick of it, haha. That reminds me of this time I ate this bag of beef jerky when I was young and I ate so much of it so fast, I felt sick and to this day whenever I go back to San Francisco and see that type of beef jerky in the asian markets, I get a sick feeling in my stomach. Why is too much of something “good” bad? Is it because in our selfishness for temporary pleasure, we gorge ourselves with things that ultimately make us sick?

How in the world did I end up going from Snakes on a Plane to a question like that? Hmmm… Pause. Bed time. =)

Edit: Aw poo, I like all the lyrics of this song too much to just take a snippet… so here’s all of it.

“He’s washing his face to start his day
He’s lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely
Nothing in the mirror ever shows him
what’s within

Now’s he’s checking out the faces
On the back of the milk
He’s sour under all this pressure
He thinks the missing person looks an
awful lot like him

And he starts his engine
But he knows that he’s missing gears

Incomplete!
Where will you find yourself?
Incomplete!
Where will you find yourself?
(Where will you lose yourself?)
‘Cause you’re the missing person now
Step outside your doubt
And let yourself be found!

He’s sick of the race to just save face
He’s tied and tried, he’s sick and tired
He’s tired of the holes that are keeping
him incomplete

He’ll push the pedal to the floor
Like the day before
He’s trying to be always trying
Try to find an end to justify his means”
- Switchfoot

Blog Digging

I was digging through my blog archives and I think I’m setting some kind of record for blogs in a month. Anyways, I ran across this and it still crashes Safari.

I also noticed that in January of 2005, I only blogged twice. Haha, I think that was also a record, but I didn’t go through every single month to make sure.

“Whoo-hoo-hoo
It’s a beautiful thing
To be loved by you
Oh, that’ll be enough to get me through
It’s a beautiful thing”
- All Star United

Yeah… was in an All Star United mood (two in a row). =)

Snakes on a Plane

Saw Snakes on a Plane yesterday with Kathy and Sam at that cursed far south theater, Westgate. It was actually not as bad as I thought it would be and the crowd was very much like one you’d expect at an Alamo Drafthouse (probably because it was an early showing). I hear that originally the movie was supposed to be serious? If so, someone up in the movie business ranks made a brilliant decision to overhype this movie into oblivion and make it blatantly obvious it wasn’t to be taken seriously.

I had a fun time watching it and Samuel L. Jackson was great fun too, haha…

Worked on a new OliverWEB design a bit a few nights ago… it’s coming along okay, but I think it’s still a bit too plain so I’ll be tweaking it a little/lot over the next month or two. Yipppeeeeeeeeee…

“Oh, I’m ready for it
Come on, bring it.
Oh, I’m ready for it
Come on, bring it.
Oh, I’m ready for it
Come on, bring it.
Oh, I’m ready for it
Come on, bring it.”
- Snakes on a Plane

Familiar Saturn

Familiar Saturn

I’ve seen this car a few times on my way home from work, but this morning I saw it going to work and had my point and shoot with me so I shot a few quick pictures. Doesn’t it look familiar? =)

Oh, and a close up crop:

Close Up

“We’re leaving together,
But still it’s farewell
And maybe we’ll come back,
To earth, who can tell?
I guess there is no one to blame
We’re leaving ground
Will things ever be the same again?

It’s the final countdown!!!…” - Europe

Days Days Days

Yesterday, I went to shoot some photos for JM with Kathy, Sam and Van. I think this time went much better than last (the lighting helped… yay for dusk). After that Kathy, Nathan, Sam and I went to Chili’s and hung out for a while… was reminiscent of dorm room days when Nathan would spend the night… haha, good times. =) If only Paul were around too…

Running those three miles around Town Lake is getting easier, yay! Yesterday, it felt like my left foot fell asleep at the end of the run… is that bad? That doesn’t sound good… hmm… well, all went well today though and my foot was awake and alive. Speaking of “foot”… I mentioned the new TMNT teaser to my coworkers yesterday and man… I’m pumped up about this movie. Cowabunga, dudes!

“Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (He’s a radical rat!)
Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines (That’s a fact, Jack!)
Raphael is cool but crude (Gimme a break!)
Michaelangelo is a party dude (Partaaaaaaaay!)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…” - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Test

After running earlier today (well, technically yesterday I suppose), I realized that I can’t give “the car test” to a girl I take on a date. The car test is when you unlock the passenger door of your car to let the girl in, then see if she leans over to unlock the driver’s side. Apparently Jen passed the car test when Andrew gave it to her (good job! haha). Anyways, so I take just my car key with me when I run and I realized that there is no key hole on any of the doors except for the driver’s side. So my only options, if I were to administer the test, would be to use my remote to unlock all the doors, let her in, then lock the doors again, which is kinda clumsy… or I could buy a new car with a key hole on the passenger side as well as the driver’s… hmm… ;)

“Running to her beaming bright,
while cradling his prize.
A flickering of yellow light,
within his mother’s eyes.
She holds them to her heart,
keeping them where they’ll be safe,
clasped within her very marrow,
dandelions in a vase.”
- Five Iron Frenzy