madichan

Whit and I took a trip up the coast to Point Reyes.



Point Reyes is up California One, about 2 hours north of Palo Alto. It's actually a peninsula (well, really a cape), with the San Andreas Fault (via Tomalas Bay) on one side, and the ocean on the other. There are a ton of beaches and hiking, but the biggest draw from December to April is the grey whale migrations. Another big thing is the Northern elephant seal (they come onshore in the winter to birth, breed, and molt).






The park ranger said he was an oldie, but goodie who probably got separated from the rest of the pod. You can see the "keep away" circle in the sand around him. He spent most of the time asleep or scratching himself.

We have a Meyer lemon tree in our front yard, and Whit and I decided to make marmalade out of a small portion of the hundred or so lemons weighing down the branches. Because Whit is Whit, when I said "we should pick some before it gets dark," it was translated to "pick as many lemons as possible before it gets dark." After I hadn't seen him for 20 minutes, I went outside and found he had picked about 30-35 lemons. They were all in a pile in the middle of the yard.

Me: We don't need that many (we needed about 8).
Whit: Well, if we're gonna do it, we might as well do it BIG.
Me: I don't think we have enough sugar.

Although overall time was about 18-20 hours, there was a lot of soaking, so actual time to make took about 2 hours. We were quite pleased on how they came out, and did our first boiling water canning. Hopefully, we won't get botulism 6 months from now.

Other yay/boos over the weekend:

YAY: Made granola. And it be tasty.

BOO: Tried to make marshmallows, and only succeeded in "marshmallow-flavored taffy-like substance."

YAY: Saw Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

BOO: Both our kitchen sink and washing machine drainage sink started draining slooooowly, and a sink plunger only resulted in pulling in backed up water from one sink to the other. Our dirty dishes were very sad.

I'm trying to start posting with more regularity, and trying to tackle one topic at a time rather than compress all my potential blogging into a super-extended post. Novel, I know.

Letter to editor in today's Palo Alto Weekly:

Dear Steve Emslie,

I have two heritage Live Oaks on my property. There is a virtual grove of them on my neighbor's property. These trees are the source of a prodigious amount of pollen every spring. I can't describe the mess the pollen makes to my house, the automobiles, the driveway and brick patios, and the seepage into the house. This contributes to my sense of dissatisfaction each spring as I go about cleaning, day after day, February through April.

It is even worse September through November, when the pollen in my neighborhood causes my cars to assume a yellow patina, even when they are kept in the carport. The house, of course, has to be hosed down when this pollen season ends. I find myself frequently coughing and sneezing, no doubt due to pollen in the air.

The only solution to restore my sense of well being and comfort is to have all these trees removed, esp the very offending Deodore Cedar two houses down that emits a virtual cloud of pollen. I don't think I should have to put up with pollen from my neighbor's trees, do you? If I get a note from my doctor linking the pollen season with my increased sense of stress, will you approve my having all these trees removed?

Palo Alto has a reputation of being all things to all people, all the time. So lets get rid of these trees in Palo Alto and make this a pollen-free zone.

I want to know, exactly, how someone who lives in a town whose name means "tall tree" and named specifically after a tree called "El Palo Alto" can hope to achieve a pollen-free zone.

...there is a worker bee with a shared iTunes library under the name, "McLovin." Although they require a password to share, which means that I have tipped over from knowing chuckle to the desire to mock their sexuality.

...basically feels exactly the same as engaged life.



Do you hear that, all crazy engaged people thinking that your lives are going to be drastically different after "I Do"? It feels exactly the same.

Well, that's a little lie. At least for me, for a while, it felt worse.

Let's say that you had an unresolved relationship with someone, and you sorta kinda carried a torch for them for a while. Since we're being hypothetical, let's say that "a while" = "5 years."

Let's also say that, the weekend before your own wedding, you run into this person at another wedding, and all hell breaks loose, feelings come bubbling up, doubts override rational thoughts.

Let's also say that you spend the week ramping up to your own wedding and about two weeks after it wondering if you made the right decision, even though your rational mind is screaming "OF COURSE YOU DID YOU FUCKTARD." And you spend your time feeling guilty and obsessing, and wondering if you're crazy, and randomly calling friends to circumnavigate around the topic until you can feel their weariness as they answer the phone, because they see your number on their caller ID. And trying to leave secret messages via MySpace profile songs. And drinking and smoking heavily, and feeling worse for it (the guilt AND the raspy-but-slightly-sexy voice you're acquiring).

And let's say that one night, trying to go to sleep, your brain is chattering away with itself, applying Socratic method like a motherfuck, and you feel like there's no way you can drown any of this out, not even with bourbon, and then. It. Stops. All of a sudden, like a light turning off. And you are able to breathe, and it's all over.

Getting closer to the wedding. Checking more things off the list. Deciding on wedding bands.

I think we're going for the tungsten carbide -- it appeals to Whit's engineering sensibilities, and to my "I'm probably not going to be careful enough for something softer" inclinations.

(does not include blue glowy light)

Whit and I and some friends went to Rock the Bells yesterday in SF. Incredible lineup, with artists that I always love to see (e.g., The Roots) plus artists that I never thought I would ever see in my lifetime (e.g. Public Enemy).

Chuck D on screen

I must confess, however, that I was surprised about how many white people (and how few black people) were there. Not to be mistaken -- I'm so happy that there was a huge turnout for such amazing hip hop artists and performers, regardless of the demographic. It warms my heart that Mos Def and Talib Kweli can draw such a crowd, and that so many people can rap along with Black Thought and Method Man. It was just surprising. At one point, DJ Lord from PE asked the crowd to put up their fists, and thousands of white people obliged, throwing up the black power fist in unison. Just...strange.

Crowd preparing for Wu-Tang

The crowd started getting a little pushy and mean around Cypress Hill, so Whit and I decided to move to the periphery before Rage Against the Machine took the stage (because pushy and mean during Cypress Hill means antagonistic and angry during Rage).

I feel like I had a good time, but I definitely enjoyed the earlier part of the day more than the latter (crowd energy played a big part, but mostly because I was more excited about the earlier lineup than the later one. And The Roots were definitely the highlight -- absolutely fantastic performers.

Black Thought on screen

I haven't posted any pics from my trip to Oregon (first time) AND I've also been playing with an API from flickr, so why not combine the two into one? Enjoy.

Saw this front yard garden biking home.



Here's a larger view of the sign:


It says, "This is my 1st garden. I am 4. Please don't take my fruit. Thank you. David."

I'm trying to think of stuff to do with the wedding. We still have a long to-do list, and whole big mess is less than 2 months away.

But instead of doing things like finding an officiant, I'm exploring stuff to put with the invitations or wedding favors.

Moo has just come out with a sticker book that could be cute; you get 90 stickers from your Flickr (or some other accounts) photos that are about the size of a stamp for $9.99. Thinking about using it for either the table "numbers" or to seal the invitation envelopes. Plus, shipping is free for the month of July.



They also have their tried-and-true MiniCards that can have text on the back; these could also be useful in some way, but I'm not sure exactly how yet. Maybe for rehearsal dinner info? Thank you for coming cards? I'll figure something out.

I think I've managed to keep my addiction to Anthropologie somewhat on the DL on this blog, but in the terrestrial world, it's a pretty well-established fact. I justify the cost of the clothes because I've absolutely loved everything I've bought there, and since they are pricey, I'm not as inclined to impulse buy (I have to really love it, and it has to fit me really well).

However, I do only go into the store a few times a year, because I fall in love with tons of stuff and always leave poorer than when I entered. Like this:



I covet this top.

Or this:



Me wanty.

Even though Palo Alto is like, the most mid-high to high income suburb I've ever lived, there is something really nice about living someplace where people have money to spend on things that they want.

For instance, the Stanford Theater. It's an old-school movie theater that shows double feature classic movies for $5. This is the place where I saw my first Hitchcock movies ("The Birds" and "Psycho," which was then followed by a bike ride home at 9:45 pm. Not advisable after your first Hitchcock movies). Between features, someone comes out of the floor playing a Wurlitzer organ (they also play the soundtrack during the silent movies).

Something like this would not exist in a place that is strapped for cash.

Another example: Kepler's Books. This was an independent bookstore in Menlo Park (next town down from PA, same socioeconomic strata) that opened in the 1970's, and abruptly closed up shop in fall of 2005 (increasing rent, people shopping at places like Amazon.com, other stories from the American dream). The community rallied around it, raised some capital (quoted as "qualified investors"), and managed to help reopen the bookstore. See coverage of this here.

One could argue that the community could have rallied around something that could have actually saved lives -- there's a rapidly increasing homeless population in the Peninsula, "East" Palo Alto and "East" Menlo Park have not benefited from the economic well-being of their western neighbors. Or you could argue that independent bookstores are not competitive enough to survive in a rapidly globalizing economy, etc. However, I find it hopeful and less patriarchal that a community is moved to action by something they actually believe in, not just some empty philanthropic effort. Coming from Vegas, where it was difficult to motivate people to do anything most of the time, the idea of fighting for something you care about is refreshing.

So I finally crossed off the task of wedding planning that I had been dreading: buying the wedding dress.

I was really NOT looking forward for shopping for this thing. I basically had four criteria. The dress had to be:

1. Around $200.


2. Something I could possible wear again.


3. Tea-length (around my calves), since we're getting married in a grove, and I'm not going to be tromping around in a full length princess skirt.


4. NOT strapless.

I had been flipping through the massive wedding magazines, as well as doing the whole internet hunting thing, for about two months. There was not a lot of dresses that met my criteria. I also had been putting off going to the bridal salon place. I had this nightmare vision of it being the kind of place where women (both salespeople and random strangers hanging out to be overjoyed vicariously through others) would be exclaiming about how this was the most important day of my life, and don't I wish to look like a princess on my wedding day, etc., etc.

I also (from the magazines), had an idea of what I was supposed to act when I found THE DRESS. I was supposed to listlessly try on dozens of 25-lb satin/taffeta/tulle outfits with 3-foot trains, murmuring about how this one was OK, or this one was white, but not white-white. And then, I was supposed to try on a dress, and stare at myself speechless in the 3-way mirror, with my lower chin quivering and my eyes filling with tears, and the hawks in the store were supposed to exclaim, "that's IT," and I would be so overcome by the experience of finding THE DRESS, that I wouldn't even notice that the price was $5,000. And when it finally hit me, I would reflect upon the experience of finding THE DRESS, and I would say, "well, it IS the most important day of my life."

So yes, I was dreading the process of buying a wedding dress. But lo and behold, I found one.



Works for me!

Since this wedding thing is starting to become all-consuming (yikes!), I thought I would share the pain a little bit.

Actually, some parts of planning are fun. We decided on our ceremony site first, because I had a small window of motivation and patience for site visits. We had checked out a couple of places, but this place really stood out.

We're getting married in the Redwood Grove at the UC Botanical Gardens. In the Bay Area, everyone seems to know someone who got married here, and while we wanted to be married in a place that was a bit less cliched, we both really fell for this place. There's something about a redwood forest that is just so...patient, and calm. Even my parents, who I had assumed would not be into the whole nature thing, really took to the redwoods when I brought them to Muir Woods. My mom even didn't complain about not even being able to smoke. And bonus: I just found out that you can hike from the main trail to a German beer clubhouse.

Anywho, despite the fact that it was pouring down rain -- and freezing -- both Whit and I fell in love with this place.



We can also buy flowers and crap for the rest of the wedding. The site have a Chinese medicinal herb garden, a tropical greenhouse, and a bunch of other stuff arranged by region of the world.

Yeah, I'm really not in a good mood from this wedding planning. And probably most of the people that look at this blog won't get this, but the idea of two Stanford people getting married in Berkeley is almost blasphemous, so I've had to keep it a little undercover here. It would be like two Vegas people getting married at Duke.

Anywho, more to come!

Hi party peoples.

I'm back (at least for a while). And a bit surprised that livejournal hasn't deleted my account.

News, news, news.
1. I'm getting married on September 16.
2. I'm starting the process of going back to graduate school.
3. I'm about 60% burned out on my job, but still really like the people I work with.

I'm going to try really hard to catch up with everyone in the meantime, but I am also going to make a concerted attempt to update a little more regularly (like, more than once every 9 months).

Yowza.

OK, I sort of feel like I've been in my own world lately, and have completely cut myself off from my friends that don't a) live with me, or b) work with me. So I apologize.

Big project: I'm moving into a house. Not my house (we're renting), but a house. It felt like sort of a weird impulse buy.

1. Step 1: Whit and I have been gagging for houses. Apartment life is nice, but it would be nice to have a dining room table.


2. Step 2: Two friends tell Whit and me that they're thinking about renting a house. Without thinking too much about it, Whit and I both say we're interested.


3. Step 3: The friends start house-hunting. I see one house with them. It's OK.


4. Step 4: The friends find a house. The entire group heads over and checks it out. We sign the lease.


5. Step 5: Move in.

OK, so the timeline for this (not counting Step 1 or 5) is approximately 3 weeks. Pretty rapid turnaround. But now I will be living in a house, with four white, male engineers. I just know I'm going to come home one day and the TV will be taken apart because they'll want to start running it on fuel cells or some shit like that.

Oh, and aaronthemad and enzeru: Just wanted to say hey, since I haven't seen you in the past couple of weeks. Again, my bubble; should have checked up on you two last week.

So I've been thinking a bit about how significant music is in my life. Since my dad was/is a musician, I've been around it my entire life, and associate a lot of memories with certain songs or albums. I started thinking about which music I associate with which parts of my life, and found it was pretty hard to pull out particular music from a narrowly defined moment in time. Like, I can think back and say which artists were a big part of my life in high school, but I can't really associate any specific music to memories. I found that I can, however, yoke music to memories while I lived in Japan. So this is my top five music/memories during my year in Japan.

1. Weezer, Weezer (Green). On the flight to Narita, we wound up circling for about 45 minutes because of storms over Tokyo. When we finally landed, the immigration line was miles long (due to other flights also being delayed). I wanted to listen to something upbeat and energetic, so I popped this album into my CD player (admittedly substandard, especially after visiting Akihabara). To give a sense of how long the line was, the album is just under 30 minutes. The album repeated three times and I was on the fourth listen before I got to the front of the immigration line. My uncle met me at the airport (poor guy). When we got to his family's house, I found out another reason why we were so delayed and the lines were so long. I left Los Angeles the afternoon of September 10, 2001. By the time I landed, the first plane had struck the Twin Towers.

( Read the rest if you care -- all the others are way less dramatic )

OK, I'm back.

What happened in the interim five-ish months? Pretty much nothing to write home about, much less publish to a public forum, so I thought I'd save everyone the hassle of having to act interested in my petty life.

I've been working, working, working. Lots of changes in my office. Made it through one quarter of the course with half the staff, then the division manager (who had been stepping in to help) went back to her real job. Hired a temp. Hired another boss. Not really clicking with her. Seriously pondering re-entering graduate school sooner than anticipated. Things that are holding me back include, but are not limited to:

1. Retaking the GRE


2. Editing my master's thesis


3. Applying to programs

I'm the sort of person for whom the process requires much more energy (and creates much more dread) than the result. As in, doing the job I have now is fine (despite working 50 hours per week). The process of getting this job? A painful, self-deprecating process, that required all my willpower to move through.

So actually finishing out my PhD -- interesting and worthwhile. Retaking my GRE? Even with the writing section? Totally yuck. I was barely able to motivate myself to take it the first time, having rejoiced previously that I would never have to take a standardized test again.

Editing my master's thesis? I didn't even edit it the first time; it's rife with errors. I finished 1/4 of it for a class I took the winter quarter of my second (and last year); I finished the rest over a two-week period right before it was due. And now I have to go through and edit it, almost two years removed from when I first wrote it (and therefore not even as "expert" as I was back then)? Blech.

But I will eventually have to do it, and this summer's a better time than next summer. So these will be part of my projected summer projects. I believe last summer, the projected projects were:

• Complete a two-day fast (not even close to happened)


• Read Ulysses (I think I got to page 3 before giving up)


• Learn about 100 plants or flowers (I bought a book, but never really used it)


• Improve swim stroke (I actually did take a class, and improved somewhat, but haven't been swimming since August, so all has assumedly gone to pot)


• Learn to develop photographs with alternative processes (I read a few books, but then realized how toxic the whole process was and chucked the idea)

It is not looking good for the home team. But one can hope, right?

I'll try to catch up on everyone's lives in the next few days. I hope all are doing well!

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.3
Mind:	6.8
Body:	7.5
Spirit:	7.9
Friends/Family:	4.1
Love:	7.7
Finance:	7.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

So...I pretty much have no close friends or family, at least within a 500-mile radius. Great. Stupid test.

From Yahoo:

"The U.S. Justice Department is threatening to sue Southern Illinois University over three small graduate school scholarship programs aimed at women and minorities."

My favorite excerpt:

"SIU 'has engaged in a pattern or practice of intentional discrimination against whites, non-preferred minorities and males,' the Justice Department said in a letter."

Those poor, poor white, non-preferred minorities, and males. However will they survive in this country?