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.

Thailand Day 2: Atleast we'll look like studs.

This would be our staple for the next few days in Bangkok. Pad Thai from the street carts. For 60 cents you could get a plate of the stuff. This also paid for my stomach aches and diarrhea.

Warning (from the Lonely Planet Guidebook):

If a nice looking stranger approaches you on the street and speaks perfect English, this is the set-up for a huge scam.

The conversation will go something like this:

Hi, where are you from?
America.
Oh, very good, when did you come to Bangkok?
This is our first day (never a good idea to admit this. Always say you've been in town a month or so)
Oh, this is a good day to be in Bangkok. It's a government holiday. (it seems to always be a holiday) Many special attractions are open only today. Let me show you.

He will then take you to the nearest map, and write down all the places you should go.

Also, because it is a holiday, the there are special tuk tuks (these are the 3 wheeled taxis) that will take you to all these places, and wait for you all day, for only 60 cents!



Then he waves down a tuk tuk for you, and off you go.




Enjoy the sites on the cheap while you can, cause you're about to get taken for a ride in more ways than one.

Last stop: A special "government" tailor where you are pressured to buy suits for (while still cheaper than back home) an inflated price, which the tuk tuk driver will receive a hefty commission on.



So now Scott and I are the owner of tailored suits, thanks to the greatest salesman either of us have ever met. A small Indian man, Jack, with 4 fingers on his left hand.

Thailand Day 1: This ain't yo mama's vacation

avatar!

"Dude I think I have food poisoning. I've been throwing up all night"

7am I get that text message from Scott. We are supposed to be on a train to the airport in 2 hours, and he's puking his guts out. How's a guy with food poisoning gonna be able handle 24 hours of travel?

He says he needs to sleep a few more hours and we'll catch a later train. Alright cool, not sure how he's gonna feel better that quick, but there's not much I can do.

9am he calls me and sounds like a new man. We're good to go.

Our clean-cut cabbie takes us to the train station for $45 (its only about 10 minutes away)

Well, there's no way we can make it to LAX via train in time to catch our flight, so we have two choices. We either take a cab all the way to LA, or we don't go to Thailand today.

$245 and 2 hours later we are safe and sound at the airport with an hour to spare. We board the plane with no problems and are on our way to THAILAND.

Have you ever sat on a flight, especially a long one, and thought "What would happen if someone had a heart attack on the plane?...would we have to land?" Maybe I'm just morbid, but this thought ran through my mind when not 10 minutes later, somewhere over the pacific ocean, a woman had a seizure about 5 rows behind me.

"IS THERE A DOCTOR ON THE PLANE?!" I imagine that flight attendant had waited his whole career to yell that out.

She ended up being fine. We didn't have to make an emergency landing (although there was talk about it amongst the crew), but I witnessed my first airplane emergency. So far, this trip was AWESOME.

When you show up to Bangkok the first thing you notice besides the heat is the line of cabbies waiting for your business. This is pretty much your only option for getting into the city, so you have to trust they are not going to try to rip you off. We got lucky.

I think now is a good time to show you the difference between our clean, polite San Diego cab driver (10 minutes, $45.00):




and our first cab driver in Bangkok (50 minutes, $8.00):




We get dropped off at this seedy street that has clearly been designated as the city's trash drop-off location. This is the filthiest place I've ever seen. There was even a BABY ELEPHANT roaming around. What more could you ask for?






First business at hand: FIND A HOTEL. We had no reservations anywhere. Just kinda figured something would be available. First place we found must have been designed without us tall foreigners in mind. We didn't bother looking at the rooms.




The place we did eventually find was called The Four-Sons, though we soon adopted the classier name of The Four-Seasons. For $15.00 a night we got our own room with our own bathroom.




Wiped out from traveling, we thought for a moment about just going straight to sleep. A brief moment. That thought lasted about 10 seconds before we were out the door and in the nearest dance club until 5:30am. No pictures of that. Didn't feel like bringing my baby in. You'll just have to use your imagination.

My Parents are so STRONG!

Some of you may remember that a mere 2 months ago it was Mother's Day. Here's my card.




My Father's Day card lovingly crafted from a CD since my dad loves cd's...ok that's a stretch. I mean everyone loves CDs. I just didn't have any cards on me at the moment.




My menu at our Black Angus Mother's Day lunch. Yes I asked for the crayons:

Go OUTSIDE for Once in Your Life!

So I haven't really posted any pictures of this lil' place called Southern California yet. About 4 months ago I bought this really nice camera, thinking I would be a professional photographer overnight...but I haven't had time to learn how to properly use it. So while here are some of my humble attempts at photography, they were taken with the little point and shoot that could.

Right now I live in a hotel designed for old people. But here's the view from my balcony:




Usually when I work downtown I get this RAD view. This time I'm not so lucky, but we'll just pretend this is still the view I see on a daily basis:




This is about a 15 minute walk from my current place (i'm borderline homeless at the moment, but that's another story). But lets be real. I never walk there. Driving only takes 3 minutes and I'm impatient:




On the way to Santa Monica. This is pretty close to the famous warning sign of the Mexican immigrants darting across the freeway:




Santa Monica sunset:




Something about this makes me of think of an 80's movie. Or maybe Baywatch?

"SATAN LIVES!"

This was screamed at me when I was about 7 years old. I was just an innocent child riding my bike, when a man sitting in his car on the side of the road threw his fast food trash at me as I passed by, peeled out, and stopped next to me to yell, "SATAN LIVES! I WORSHIP HIM!!!" (By the way, he looked like the black haired robin hood from the 80's British TV show. The man in the car. Not Satan.)

I never thought anything of this (I mean besides being terrified and emotionally scarred for life), until I actually met The Lord of all Demons.

Last night I’m turning off all my lamps in my hotel room so I can sleep, when this giant black flying bug the size of China comes out of the curtains. Not wanting the beast to fly into my face while I’m dreaming peacefully, I try to open my sliding doors to let the “little guy” out. But guess what, they're electronically LOCKED. (I guess so drunk people won't try to jump over the edge) No go there.

Of course while trying to open the doors DESPITE the lock (I actually considered pulling out the wires in an act of desperation), the monster vanishes. I poke around the room for awhile, but nope. Nothing.

3am. I hear this rapid clicking sound, wind blasting into my face from the giant wings of Satan himself. I get up. Grab a towel. And smote the demon on the side of the wall.

Being quite proud of my kill, I pick it up to admire my prize. The thing had pincers that could bite through solid cast iron, eyes that glowed bright red, and claws that Wolverine would be jealous of. I couldn’t waste such a trophy in the toilet, so I put it on the bathroom counter, figuring it'd give the maid a little scare.

Now I could return to my wonderful dreamland. The evil presence had been lifted from the room.

Brushing my teeth in the morning, I vaguely remember the battle that ensued just hours ago.

I gotta take a picture of this thing!

But wait....its nowhere to be found. Not on the counter where I so carefully placed it. Not under the counter. Not in the trash.

I'm not sure what's worse. The thought that the bug crawled away to die somewhere respectable (leaving a decaying corpse under my bed or in my underwear), or that something even bigger carried it off.

Sometimes I wonder what ever happened to that guy who screamed at me. Was he aware that Satan was staying at the Westgate? I would love to find him today, and see the look on his face when I tell him that the demon he so worshipped is now rotting in my hotel room.

you're on candid camera!

My friend Ai asked me, "do you ever draw smiling, or laughing faces?" In response I drew this:

romaji de kaite suimasen. tomodachi no Ai chan ga "waratteru kao nanka kaiteru?" to kiite, ore no kaitou wa kore:



hahaha, guess not.

(warau) ma~iika. kanashii kao ga suki kana

I'm TRYING

Yesterday my boss bought me a shiny new 6x8 Wacom tablet! I've been using the old cheap model with food stuck to it for far too long. It works, its just not that good for drawing. I tell myself I need to start practicing drawing in photoshop, but never find the time to do it (im really trying to narrow my hobbies down to one...maybe 2...3? 3's a good number.)

I don't see it at all, but people say my drawings always end up looking like me.



長い間ちっぽけなワコッムのタブレットが持っていたけど絵を描くためにあまりよくないから、社長が新しいワコッムの６ｘ８タブレットをくれました！Photoshopでいつも絵を描こう描こうと思うけどやっぱなかなか時間がないな～。趣味が多いすぎるからな。もっとよく絵を描きたい！

僕がこうと思わないけど、みんなは僕が描いた絵はいつも僕に似てるって。どう？似てる？