Just like the ones I used to know...

Respect meeeeee

Today Scott and I drove straight to Washington. We did not sleep for 45 hours. Nice.

On the way, it started raining and Scott's windshield wipers were out of control terrible. T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. I couldn't see anything and was really worried about when we would get up to places were it would be snowing.

We could not figure out, for the life of us, how to get those stinkin things off. Easily spent an hour fooling with them. When Kragen opened at 8am, we asked the lady who worked there if she could help us. It took her, seriously, 2 seconds.













Once we made it, Scott had to celebrate.

sports were never my strong point

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Deck the halls

All 4 of us in the graphics department created a different christmas card in our own style to send out to all the offices. Here's mine:

But they just moved in

Yesterday morning an F-18 fighter jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood without warning.
昨日の朝、F-18の戦闘機がサンディエーゴの住宅地に急に墜落した。





Eating lunch with some co-workers, I'm watching the crash site from a heli-cam on the news. The street looks so familiar, but...that's impossible. I mean really, this kind of stuff doesn't happen to people you actually know, it just happens on TV right?
レストランのテレビで、空撮からその墜落事故のニューズをじっと見ていた。道は僕のをすごく似てるだろうかと思っていたけど。。。うそ。ぜったいそんな事はないよ。

I get a call from the roommate. It was across the street.
ルームメートから電話がきた。「俺らの家の前だったよ」

Across the street?!
「まじで？！」

Yeah...a fighter jet crashed into our friend's house. It's gone. The house is just gone.
「そう。。。ジェットが前に住んでいる友達の家に墜落したよ。なくなった。。。すっかりなくなった、家は。」

Nothing can really prepare you for hearing that. Suddenly this whole thing went from being incredible to being gut wrenching.

. . . . .

Last month my friend's aunt and uncle moved into the house across the street from me because they needed more room for their growing family.
先月僕の友達はおじさん家族と僕らの前にある家に引っ越した。赤ちゃんが最近生まれて、家族がちょっと大きくなったからね。

That two story house now looks like this:
その二階ある家は今、このかんじ：



I took this picture from my roof last night after being escorted to my door by the police. As you can see the house is just completely gone. There's really no heap of rubble, its just gone. The saddest part of this is that, while my friend and his uncle were at work, the rest of the family was home. The mom, grandmother, and 2 kids were all killed in the accident.
夕べ、警察が玄関まで連れてくれてから、この写真は僕の屋根の上から取った。見えるとおり家はなくなってしまった。一番悲しい事は、友達とおじさんがいなかったのに、おばさんも、おばあさんも、子供たちも、墜落事故の時、家の中にいたから、皆いなくなりました。

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it's like a warzone in my neighborhood. Military personnel are walking around, police, firetrucks, and a swarm of news vans completely block the road.
この写真でちょっとだけ見えるけど、近所は戦争のような所になった。兵軍とか、警察とか、ニューズキャスタとかが近状のあちこちを歩いている。




This is the site that greets me now in the mornings on my way to work. Right outside our dining room window is a horde of newscasters and cameras. My car is parked up the street so I walk through them all on my way.
ダイニングの窓から、こんな景色が見えるようになった。ニューズキャスタばっかり。

It's an incredible tragedy that affected the whole neighborhood. My house has very somber atmosphere right now considering we all know the guy who lived there. But at the same time of course we feel an eerie sense of relief and thankfulness. The jet passed right over our house on the way down. Had the pilot aimed just a hair lower, it could have collided right into us, and with all 3 of my roomies home at the time, it's not a pleasant thought.

And to think the only reason I came into work (I was going to call in sick) was to show a co worker a portrait of her family I had finally finished.
仕事からサボってないわけは同僚の家族の肖像を描いて終わったばかりだったから、見せたかったさ、俺が最近かぜひいちゃったのに。

What an intense day.
大変悲しい日だったな。。。

Proud Beginnings

Rocket Boys

I've been reading this book off and on called Rocket Boys. It's a true story from the late 50's. Some high school kids, in an attempt to escape the life of a coal miner, start building rockets to win a science fair, and most likely get college scholarships from it. Very inspiring, and i thought of this as i was reading it.


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Long time no see

It's been awhile since I've been in school. Just started going again, and the first few times were pretty shaky (i don't think i'll be posting the results here), but I finally feel like maybe I'm getting it back.

No non-orange soda drinkers allowed.

Blank walls are for babies 2

Blank walls are for babies.

I'd been meaning to do this for awhile. There's this gigantic wall in my office. It was begging for a mural. I've never done one before, so this is definitely new for me, but its fun to watch it take shape. I wish I had taken more step by step pictures, but here's what I have so far:





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I'd Rather Dance

Back in 2005 Matt started traveling around the world. He would film himself doing this ridiculous dance at each major place he went to. The folks at Stride Gum saw what he was doing and decided to pay for him to continue doing it. They basically told him, we don't want to interfere, but we want you to keep doing this, so here's some money, just do what you've been doing. (of course he puts their name at the end as a thank you) This is his new one.

One of the most moving and inspirational videos I have ever seen.

Where the Hell is Matt?

Here's a "about Matt" section on his website in case you might think he's some rich kid who doesn't know what else to do with his money.

２００５年にマットさんと言うアメリカ人は世界中に旅行した。色んな所で自分がダンスしてるのビデオをとられた。そしてストライドと言う会社の社長がそのビデオを見て感動したから、マットさんに旅行をつづけるためのお金をあげた。これはマットさんの２００８のビデオ。

見たことがあるビデオの中に、これは一番感動なと思う。ごらんください。

マットはいったいどこにいるか？
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Test Your Color IQ

Test it already!

I got 11. But I blame my horrible monitor at work. The lower your score, the better your color perception.

Hello my name is Simon

Ever drawn a picture and then thought how cool it would be to watch yourself draw it? I know this junk's been around for ages, but I just did it for the first time and got a kick out of watching my drawing actually being drawn, but at super high speed! SICK.

Not exactly the most creative thing in the world, but I'd never tried this program so I went with the tried and true.

ず～っと自分が絵を描くことを見たかったけど、ビデオテープいがいはちょっと無理だと思ったけど、このすごく簡単なプログラムを昨日見つけた。

書いた絵なんかあまり面白くないけど、ぜったい目がちゃんと描けるからかいた。これは初めてこのプログラムを使ったから。

Thailand Day 2: Oh the Things You'll See

"Want some snake whiskey?"

"....ummm, what's snake whiskey?"

"You want?"

"I mean well, sure, but...what is it?"

Out travel agent, who told us her name was Helley...Helley Kopter (cue courtesy laugh here), puts this giant bottle of whiskey on the desk in front of us. We weren't expecting this:



Now, I've never tasted snake before...but seriously, this tasted like SNAKE whiskey. Nasty.




Back in our Tuk-tuk for the Thai version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.




I just don't understand. This would never work over here. Scooters were EVERYWHERE. This line alone had about another 20 bikes behind it.




I wish I had gotten a picture of the families of 4 or even 5 riding on these bad boys (love the manly pinkness), but this'll do.






Standing Buddha. This thing is MASSIVE. I couldn't get the whole thing in the frame.




Our last stop before heading to the tailors, was Golden Mountain. Not very Golden, but at the top of the stairs had a great view of Bangkok. This city just goes on and on and on and on.






Our Tuktuk driver with a big ol' smile on his face because of the suits we bought.