Life has been full of things lately. Greg visited last week, my aunt visited Thursday, and Zeke is visiting this week. Friday was Matt’s housewarming. Yesterday was a lot of rock band. Today was wandering Embarcadero (it was Sunday Streets) and making a delicious chocolate pistachio pie.
I’ll let photos tell the story. There are other related photos here and here.
I tried a food experiment today that turned out really tasty. It’s basically palo, except with chicken instead of pork and with nothing else (no egg or tofu).
Coat 1 chicken breast in five-spice powder (palo mix). Quickly fry on both sides in a little bit of oil. Add water, soy sauce, and a little sugar to the pan and boil for about 20 minutes, flipping the chicken sporatically. Serve over rice.
I also discovered that you can make rice by sticking 1/2 cup rice and 1 cup water in the microwave for 10 minutes. Much easier than pulling out the rice cooker when it’s just rice for one. It’s not as fluffy, but it’s much simpler.
Yesterday, Sharon and I made fresh spring rolls. We also played a lot of Rock Band with Matt.
Life has also been full of photos lately.
Also, here’s my first photo of Janel:
August 31, 2001 in the portables after class (I believe Spanish class?).
Today’s been an interesting day.
First off, life has gotten an update from the past few days.
In addition, it has gained a new section: the Daily Photo Project.
My last entry got me thinking that I really want to take more different photos, since all of my photography as of late has been random documentary photography of social events (work meetings, board games, rock band, food out) and that kind of sucks. The result is this project, where my goal is to take at least one photo each day that is “different” from my usual photography… that is, a photo with no people in it (or at least minimal people) where the subject is something I would normally never think twice about. Let’s see how long I can keep this up.
Additionally, Justin is currently moving to a new apartment. This would not be too terribly interesting for me except for the fact that he has a ton of Magic and WoW cards that he doesn’t want to move with him. As a result, I found myself dragging a suitcase full of ~12,800 trading cards home at around 8 this evening. I missed the bus by a few seconds and the next wasn’t for 15 minutes, so I figured I would walk to Geary and Fillmore (from Green and Fillmore) and catch the 38 instead, as it would take me around 15 minutes and the 38 stops closer to home.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account the hilliness of the area… nor the rain… nor my lack of direction in the area. As a result, I spent 5 minutes going the wrong way down Fillmore (down a rather steep hill) only to have to turn around and head back up that hill. My shoes, unfortunately don’t have much traction when wet, and pulling a very, very heavy suitcase behind you doesn’t help either. Overall, there were three really steep hills to climb (where I would actually slide backwards if I stopped moving due to the weight and the rain) and it took me about 20 minutes to go three blocks. Once there, the remainder of the walk was relatively easy, and I somehow managed to get the suitcase onto and off of the bus. Yay adventure.
So yeah, now I have a shitton of Magic and Wow cards that I should build into decks and play with. Yay more cards? Thanks Justin! :D :D
Also also, my parents and uncle had been visiting for the past couple days (took yesterday off of work to explore the city with them). It was a good time and I miss them already.
So yeah, two goals from my last post are now in progress (tagging photos and taking photos) as I have started tagging high school photos again (and have finished August of my last year of high school). Yay progress. Yay goals.
I’m sitting here at 3 AM unable to sleep, so I’ve been going through old journal entries and website bits instead.
It’s interesting to see how my interests tend to come and go. For example, there’s a period of time when I’m really interested in working on card games and crank out many expansion sets for PPA TCG or Student Wars. Then that stops being interesting and I switch to working on website code instead. Various other periodic interests include photo tagging (and associated statwankery), video games like PSO, web design, video game design (PPA Adventures, CMU Adventures, etc), and photography. Currently my interest seems to be cooking and baking (or food in general, as I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at restaurants’ food photos on the internet). I should probably buy a food processor so I don’t have to mix pie crust by hand because mushing your hands around in butter and Crisco is not too enjoyable.
Another interesting thing is how friendships and relationships (in the general sense) change over the years. People I spent a ton of time with in high school (Brian, Akshat) are people I don’t really ever talk to anymore. I haven’t kept up with people I considered fairly close freshman year of college (Avery, Howard). Ev and I used to see each other every weekend (or at least every other) for random photography or games my junior year, but we haven’t spoken in long time. I used to do things with CMU people living in south bay a lot (jgrafton, dfontain, etc), but haven’t seen them for many months. People I’m hanging out with more now (Sharon, Charles, Mark) are people I didn’t even know a year ago. It’s not a bad thing by any means… just interesting to look at. Some of this is certainly geographic distance and lack of IM (which I consider my primary communication medium).
It’s also interesting to look back on my college years and read about classes and life in general. I miss college a lot… and as much as I complained about classes, I actually did enjoy taking them (well, most of them). I suppose there’s a part of me that really wishes I had taken the job at Viz and remained in Pittsburgh (specifically, remained close to CMU). On the other hand, I love my job here and really feel like I made the right choice. I don’t know. In a year or two it will probably matter less, but I’ll still miss the general environment of a college campus.
I also miss photography. Specifically, I miss taking black-and-white film and developing it, then making prints. There’s something about spending several hours in a darkroom that makes you appreciate your photos much more than sticking a memory card into a computer, and shooting black-and-white film also seems more rewarding (more challenging?). As much as my life is digitized nowadays, there is something to be said for tangible photos you can hold in your hand and hang on your wall. If I ever get a house, I’ll be seriously tempted to convert a room into a darkroom for developing film and making prints. It’s too bad I don’t live in Pittsburgh, where houses are affordable. :P
I should set some goals for myself for this next year so I have some things to work on.
Yay life. Yay 4 AM.
Given that it’s the first day of a new decade, I feel like I should make a post.
It’ll mostly be a dump of random photos from the past couple weeks.
The security line at SFO on my way out was insane. It wrapped around a ton of times before spilling out to the checkin counters area, where it wrapped around a bit to the left before going out to the right, and extending all the way to the end of the terminal. It took me 90 minutes to get through security. Got to the gate just as my flight was boarding. Bleah.
Decorating Christmas cookies is fun. I’m proud of my snowmen. And my snowmen trees. And my vampire tree/star/present.
Frosting!
Apples to Apples.
Snow! ZOMGZ!
A meat pie that I made. Om nom nom nom.
Fruit pies that I made. Om nom nom nom.
Parcheesi.
I’ve had a nice break. Friends are awesome.
Typing “10” for the year is still freaking me out a little. 2000 seems like only yesterday… and to think I was still in middle school at the time, pondering my high school choices. I feel so very old now.