8/30/2006

futokutei

So, futokutei means random in Japanese - that, and it's just a fun word to say :p

Two pics from the trip to San Antonio this last weekend. Totally forgot that I had it set on 1600 ISO to experiment last time I was out, so most of the pics needed some post processing to even look decent.



I really like the colors on this one, but wrestled (and am still wrestling) with the composition of it. The marguerita glass is supposed to be a little blocky in its colors, but it really doesn't seem to come across in the low res version. *edit* Updated a new version. The composition is a little better, and the fade effect on the background is less harsh on the marguerita glass. I think it helps.



This one turned out really well. I'm thinking of printing it out and putting it up somewhere. Of course this is where I become a little more sad that I'm limited to 6 megapixels :
On a more annoying note - my last pair of contacts got all dried up, so now I'm limited to just my glasses until I get a chance to go get some more contacts. I don't mind the glasses, but they make things like climbing, volleyball and photography more difficult...

Now then... need to go and prep for the freaking Indian food extravaganza this weekend... The family is coming up, and it sounds like there shall be cooking a plenty. Paul, Katy - you have no idea what you've done asking my mother to cook. There will be so much food...

8/22/2006

Climbing? Climb on!

Alright, so I've started to go climbing again recently, at this awesome place here in town called Stoneworks, which apparently has the tallest indoor climbs in the nation, weighing in at 110ft! Let's just say that climbing those walls is a totally different experience than the 20 - 30ft I'm used to doing.

Anyways, got a few guys in town into it as well, including my buddy Paul from work (who is apparently a direct clone of me or vice-versa, but that's a story for another time :p) who brought his point-n-shoot camera, yeilding some pretty cool shots:







Additionally, you can check out his flickr of it for the rest of the pics.

Also important to note - don't go climbing only two days after the last time you climbed. I went last Thursday and again Saturday, and there are all kinds of muscles I didn't know I could have this sore... owie.

8/18/2006

Word.

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein
Shoulda looked at my calendar.

So what, is this national "Bail out on Vijay day"? Why the hell didn't anyone tell me about this so I could plan for it?

8/16/2006

Texas Hold 'Em Champ!

...this week. But still, got to come home with a fat wallet today. Especially nice since I sucked it up last week :p So yeah - fun night, ending with a winning hand, taking home 50% of the pot :)

Also, I'm addicted to this site: Flickr Tag Browser. Totally awesome to be able to type something, anything in, and see what visuals people have imagined for that. Super addictive :p
Damn you Pat!

Pat sent me a link to http://www.stumbleupon.com/ - the biggest time waster ever. Thanks. Now I'll never get anything done when I'm sitting at a computer ever again.

Here's the first thing that came up:

WARNING. BEYOND THIS LINK IS A DISGUSTING LEVEL OF CUTENESS

8/14/2006

zzz...

I guess I really don't sleep much anymore - I find myself up late more often than not nowadays :p You would think I would be tired from spending an entire day running all around Dallas, but apparently not. Today I was up because of a few reasons (one of which involved an overflowing toilet and cleaning up after it *sigh*) and the other was more fun - I was rolling around on the living room floor with my cat trying to get a decent picture to enter into a contest in Austin. It was a free pet photo contest, so I figured why not try :) And after I got something decent, the post processing of it became interesting as well and really brought the pic to life (thanks for the suggestions and help with it Sherman!) So... here's what I've got: (if you've EVER seen Vincent playing with his feather-on-a-stick, this picture will make sense immediately)

Some of the detail is gone in the low res, if you want a hi-res version, just ask :)



He's so cute. ^_^ If you want to imagine a humorous image, just think of how I had to look lying on the floor, holding up a feather-on-a-stick with one hand, trying to avoid having my cat pounce on me and kill me and trying to take a photo of the whole ordeal at the same time :p

Thoughts?

8/13/2006

Visions from the other side

It's always interesting to hear specifics about what's going on on the other side of the world, especially when you know someone over there. If you know Sean, you should really take a look at this Australian 60 minutes report about what's going on in Afghanistan. Him and his platoon actually have a spot in it.

Although we know he's been over there this whole time, it's a little different for some reason to see him actually doing what he's doing. Sheds some light on what his day-to-day activities must be compared to ours.

8/12/2006

Woohoo / doh!

Here's a round of woohoo's and doh!'s for the day because I don't feel like doing much else for a post :p

Doh!: Falling asleep last night at 11pm while at my computer on my bed
Woohoo: Getting a crazy amount of sleep because I was too lazy to get out of bed this morning
Doh!: Getting TOO much sleep and being tired all day because of it
Woohoo: Finally getting some progress on the big thing I'm doing at work
Woohoo: Breakfast food and good coffee for lunch at Cafe Brazil - reminds me of Kerbey Lane :)
Woohoo: Got a group of people together to go climbing tomorrow - yeah!
Woohoo: Leaving work early because of a fire alarm sending us walking down 15 flights of stairs
Doh!: Thinking about the fact that the fire alarm may have been real and the office may be a scorched pile of rubble right now...
Doh!: Hitting tons and tons of traffic on the way home because of an accident on the fwy :( (didn't look like any injuries)
Woohoo: Admiring the pretty day outside and taking the bike out for a ride :)
Woohoo: Finally finding the adapter for the soaker hoses for the house after going to three Home Depot / Lowes'
Woohoo: Deciding to stop by a Gamestop to look for a used copy of Psychonauts (recommended by Sherman recently)
Doh!: Realizing the only used copy is at another store way out in the middle of nowhere
Doh!: Getting pulled over on an empty road for going 11 over after speeding up to make it through a yellow :(
Doh!: Having my helmet fall off the handlebars when I pulled over and get scratched up and breaking my shaded visor! >:-O
Woohoo: Having the cop be super nice and just writing me a warning! :) (maybe he took pity on my scuffed helmet / shield)
Doh!: Buying my copy of Psychonauts only to look at it and realize yet again that I don't like playing video games alone - I think I'm a social gamer...
Woohoo: Taking a tour of the INSANELY nice and fancy Lifetime Fitness gym. Holy Crap! I think I'll change over my membership to there. It'll be worth the drive.
Doh!: Seeing a really bad wreck in an intersection I had JUST driven through after leaving the gym... :(
Woohoo: Finding another cool little hangout area / place in Dallas :)
Woohoo: Iced Green Tea Latte - 'nuff said
Doh!: Getting home and realizing the freaking adapter for the soaker hoses doesn't fit! ARGH!
Doh!: Popping open my copy of Psychonauts at home only to realize they didn't put the DVD in the case!!! >:-O
Woohoo: Relaxing at home for a while... :)

So yeah. Got pulled over today on the bike. Totally sucked, but I definitely got lucky that the cop was nice enough to just give me a warning. Gave me a healthy and non-painful reminder that speeding on the bike is not a good idea because of safety and getting a ticket (I really don't speed on it much at all - usually just a bit over the speed limit, and a little worse on city-to-city trips). Needless to say, I spent the rest of the night just cruising and enjoying the ride without cranking the throttle, which was a ton of fun. The only sad thing was the rattle on my shade because two of the tabs broke. :( Well, I guess I'll take a scuffed helmet and having to buy a new visor over a speeding ticket any day.

Also was really really creepy to drive to the gym and leave no more than 20 minutes or so later and see the intersection I turned on filled with multiple fire trucks, police cars and ambulances, and then see the accident that had happened there... The first car had its front smashed in, and the other looked worse. I ended up getting stopped close to the front before turning, so I could see the faces on the people there cleaning up, the paramedics moving people into the ambulances and the damage to the cars. The cops weren't talking to anyone, and judging by the looks on everyone's faces' there, it was pretty bad. A very in-your-face reminder of our frailty.

Everyone be safe, and happy.

8/10/2006

Pretty amazing...

...how quickly a night of just hanging out can all of a sudden turn into the crazy real-life seriousness / reality that tends to surround us. Really odd sometimes. I realize elaboration is necessary, but I'm sleepy. It's bedtime.

8/08/2006

Hehe.

It's just too funny not to post
Ping...?

So we lost a machine at work today. Specifically our build machine, so it was tough to get much done without it.

Now the strange thing is, when I say lost, I don't mean it busted, or the power supply went out or something. I mean we physically lost the box. Turns out that we had all just been connecting to it from our local machines, and noone really knew where the machine was physically located. So this morning we were literally scouring the offices looking under people's desks trying to find our lost build machine. How weird is that?

Turns out the machine was mislabeled. But it was odd to go digging through an office because we thought a full sized computer had disappeared.

8/03/2006

Austin FTW!

Another awesome trip down to Austin this past weekend. I won't bore you with the details, and instead just think through the weekend and jot down thoughts. You can fill in the rest.

- Dallas to Austin is a long drive made much more fun with crazy upbeat music
- There are some things you never ever escape. Apparently one of mine is Orientation
- The view of the stars at just about any lake in Austin is gorgeous
- Sometimes what you hear about things don't match when you see them in person
- Sleep is most definitely for those who have nothing to do at night. lol
- It's always fun to hang out on the lake
- Driving on 1431 is absolutely GORGEOUS
- Meeting up with old friends and coworkers is a blast - especially with Margueritas
- I'm not terrible at Texas Hold'Em! I actually made money from the tournament!
- There are a lot of people (including myself) that want me back in Austin
- It's awesome to have someone with a boat to hang out on Lake Austin with
- My skills at water skiing are... well... not so good
- I totally wanna try wakeboarding - lessons will be necessary :)
- Good: hanging out with old buddies for a long time
- Bad: realizing previously mentioned hanging out kept you in Austin until 11pm Sunday night when you had work the next morning in Dallas
- Full body dancing to loud music while driving in the middle of the night is a great way to stay awake
- Weekends are far too short