am i wrong? (to hunger) II

list-o-mania

2012-02-09T16:18:00.003-08:00

love writing lists to organize my near, far, and outer space goals. two weeks ago i found myself adding more to the list than crossing off. so i streamlined, and focused on the three things i needed to accomplish. i run at lunchtime, a true work from home perk. i have a test coming up, which requires about a month of study time, and i like to write my entries for www.TheEndStartsToday.com the night before then schedule them to post around 8:30am the next morning.

i have to say, i've been quite successful with the streamlining of my goals. i have studied each day, run each day, and even squeezed in a few bonus items like vacuum the house, rewire my 4th pair of speakers, and ajax the kitchen sink. i really hate to use the overused, but less is more in this case. i'm feeling more productive and focused, two things that 2012 is going to need quite a lot of.

an off-the-list item is to pay more attention to this blog. i'm sure that by now, my rss feed has either been removed or filed in 'retired' for most of my friend's readers. and that's okay, i blog for me. but that's the thing, i haven't been blogging for me here.

but in the meantime i am running, studying, and blogging (elsewhere).

the symphony

2011-12-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

my girlfriend’s god-sister plays in the boston symphony, and was in town on tour. she asked if we’d like tickets and immediately i said yes. i’d never been to san francisco’s davies symphony hall before, and had been talking about going to check it out about a month ago. i’m not a follower of classical music, but i do enjoy some kdfc (the local classical radio station) every now and then. what i was really excited to experience was the concert hall.

as a huge aficionado of audio gear, experiencing a symphony hall is a geeky dream come true. whereas most live music requires microphones, amps, sound boards, and all the rest of that gear, the symphony is 100% unplugged. the hall is designed so that each sound made on stage hits your ears perfectly. as you can see in the picture, there’s acoustic treatment on every single surface of the hall. there’s pieces of acrylic hanging from the ceiling, bumps on the walls and on the ceiling.

before going i looked up the god-sister, in order to know who i was going to listen to. i spent just as much time looking up what to wear. I learned that a weekday symphony wasn’t nearly as formal as a saturday night, so wearing dark jeans with a collared shirt under a sport coat was very acceptable. most men wore slacks, and most men were 40 yrs older than me. i did see a few acid washed jeans and sf giants beanies (yes a few). sf is known to not be a dress code town, and the symphony followed suit.

in the concert hall i could hear every single movement that happened on stage. it was a feast for the senses, my eyes would see the smallest movement of a violin bow, and my ears would hear exactly that. then my eyes would jump across to the percussionist bang the bass drum and it was is if i could hear with my entire body the low grumble it produced. the separation of instruments was amazing, and then stepping back to listen to everything as a whole sounded just as astonishing. i managed to sit perfectly still and silent for 15 minutes. i cannot recall the last time i did this, while still awake.

that first note came out and sent shivers down my spine, and then back up again. the symphony sounded... like a symphony!

the problem with perfect acoustics is that you can hear everything, so the gentleman snoring exactly three rows back and seven seats over was just as pronounced as the delicate notes of the flute solo were to my ears. and did i have to look three rows back and seven seats over to know where the heavy breathing was coming from? nope.

seated next to me was two short and stubby ladies speaking in spanish. every single chance to talk, they were yappin' away. at one point one had to stop the other from digging in her purse during the mozart piece because she was making too much noise.

afterwards we hung out with the god-sister over drinks. hearing her talk about her work life was fascinating. she spoke of the sound in different symphony halls, the different harps that she owns and plays, and even her schedule for some sf sight seeing before rehearsal.

this all inspired me to wake up the next day and find videos on youtube of cartoons i used to love as a kid that were based off of music from the symphony. i watched peter and the wolf, then lambert the sheepish lion, followed by the ugly duckling. i was re-watching these for the first time, listening more to the symphony playing than the sound effects that i focused on when i was a kid.

overall, not too shabby for a tuesday night.

digital audio

2011-11-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

i find that throughout the years i've been just as into music as i have been into the equipment used for music. a major component for that has been my digital library, which is my source for pretty much 99% of the music that i listen to, (other sources include records, fm radio, and cds).

i thought that this little demonstration was interesting. i can say that theres far more to digital audio than just this little demonstration, but it gives a bit of insight to the give and take that comes along with digital audio.

wfh ftw!

2011-10-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

a few years ago i started working from home on fridays. i loved being able to wake up later than normal, skip the usual morning routine of shower, shave, dress, eat, drive, park, buy coffee, and say the obligatory "good morning" to everyone i'd walk past in order to get to my office. even though i was still working, it felt like more like not working. the best part was quitting time, the moment i shut that laptop my weekend had started. normally a friday didn't start until i packed up, said my goodbyes, and drove home.

slowly i started to work from home more than just fridays. two days a week, then three days a week, then four days a week. until one week i worked from home the entire work-week.

everyone in my office was experiencing the same shift of working from home more and more during this time. it must have been mid 2009 that it all started. little did we know, that somewhere in 2010 we'd all be working from home 100% of the time.

our company allows employees of certain departments to give up their office space to work from home 100% of the time. I no longer have a desk with my name in an office space in a building downtown. my company no longer has to pay for the space i used to occupy, the phone i used to use, and whatever else comes along with leasing office space. i do have access to a 'drop in' office space, where cubes, conference rooms, offices, and tables are available on a first come-first serve basis for local work-from-home folks like myself. so if i ever have the itch to go to work, i can.

my company pays for my home internet and phone (land line). i was also given a catalogue and a small one time stipend with which i could by office supplies, desk, chair, printer, shredder, keyboard, batteries, etc.

i've been working from home, full time, for about two years now.

i've learned a few things about working from home. there are obvious pros and cons, and some that are not so obvious. When i first started working from home on a one day a week basis, i would never shower nor change before logging in. this usually resulted in working a full day showerless and in my pajamas. there would be days where i'd never change out of my pajamas, nor take a shower, since i had nowhere to go after work was over besides the kitchen, the couch, and the restroom. now, i don't open the laptop until i've brushed my teeth, changed out of pj's, and started my coffee. i prefer to take a shower after my lunchtime workout, which occurs 2-3 times per week.

there's no water cooler talk when you work at home. you don't drop by someone's cube to chat for ten minutes about the game last night. the only verbal interaction i have is via the phone, and normally it's on a conference call with more than one other person. i'd estimate that half of these calls i'm primarily a listener, and not a presenter, thus it's only a one-way interaction. however, we do have an internal instant message program, which is where we do the closest form of water cooler talk.

i've become pretty good at hosting audio conference meetings. which is far more difficult than a face to face meeting. every audio conference participant is in front of their computer, the probability that they are doing something else while listening to your meeting is 99%. every participant puts their phone on mute, as to minimize distracting noises like dogs, keyboard buttons, cars, kids, etc. this means that as the host, you're talking with zero feedback. if you crack a joke, people may laugh, but you won't hear it. you can't look at someone's face to see if they like your idea or are steaming pissed off that you've just stepped all over their toes.

there are plenty of perks along with working from home every day. i do laundry in between meetings, i don't have to listen to music quietly or on headphones, i can take naps in my bed during lunchtime, i don't have to buy 'work clothes', i cook for lunch, i do errands at lunch like grocery shopping. when packages are delivered i'm home to receive them, the list goes on. i've tried hard to leverage the working from home perks as much as possible. other friends that work for themselves, don't have jobs, or also work from home full time have come over and worked at my place. it feels like having a co-worker during these times, though they are not an often occurrence.

i'm much more efficient at goofing off while working. allow me to explain. an article you want to read is posted to your favorite website. when you're at the office you have to actively be aware of who can see your screen, and sneak snippets of reading during windows of opportunity so nobody sees you. while you're doing this, you're also trying to continue working on whatever work you "should" be doing. nobody wants to get caught doing personal stuff while on the clock, but in reality nobody works every single minute of the work day. when working from home, i can take the 10 minutes to read that article with no time wasted trying to cover up. this way i get goofing off done fast and i'm back working on that thing i "should" be working on.

another perk of working "from home" is the fact that i don't have to be "home". a number of times i have spent the work week at my parents house a few hundred miles away. we all wake up at the same time, they go to work, and i work from their spare bedroom/office. to my coworkers, i'm still available via phone, instant message, and email -just like when i'm working from my actual home office. i get to spend time with family after work hours, and neither of has to take vacation. i also capitalize on those $39 flights that are advertised but only applicable on tuesdays or wednesdays.

it's not all perks though. networking is extremely difficult when you're at home all day. in fact meeting new people in your company/industry is nearly impossible. we are pushed goals of networking, where we setup interviews with people who are on teams of our career interests. yet, on more than one occasion, my request to talk for 30minutes to someone has gone completely ignored.

finally, i know why they call it 'the grind' when people refer to work. the work itself isn't so much a grind as the people and personalities are. allow me to sketch a metaphor. your finger vs sandpaper. rub your finger across a coarse patch of sandpaper. the sandpaper is rough, and you feel the micro abrasions against the tough skin of your fingertips. but there's virtually no pain. now do that same thing, once every hour for five consecutive hours. now take two hours rest, and then do it again, once each hour for 5 hours. your finger doesn't heal fast enough, and soon you're painfully rubbing a raw bloody finger against sandpaper. youch!

you are the finger, and clashing personalities of the office are the sandpaper. if you just had more time between swipes, you'd never get down to that raw and painful state.

ideally i'd go to work 2 days of the week, and work at home 3 days of the week in conjunction everyone in my department. i'd give up subsidized internet and phone for networking opportunity, water cooler small talk, and office space dedicated to me where i can leave and store belongings.

no! wait. ideally i don't need to work and i can do whatever i want whenever due to a large, stable, steady income that requires zero effort on my behalf.

the monster receiver

2011-09-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

lately i've been into vintage audio. i'm not sure where or when it started, but as the days pass i find myself spending far less time on face-twit and more on forum sites, craigslist, and ebay.

i joined audiokarma, probably the largest online audio forum for consumer audio, where i post under the alias 'holysocks'. check out the thread i've up posted about my audio systems here. you may recognize the re-wire portion.

what is fascinating about vintage audio is the fact that you can get very great stuff for very little money. this doesn't apply to any other type of electronics. stereo systems in the mid 70's and early 80's were being made to do one thing, sound amazing. almost every company in business at that time was making stereos with as much quality as possible. during the mid 80's however, that trend died due to the demand for more features and less demand for superb audio quality.

stereos are unlike televisions and computers for the simple fact that they aren't obsolete year over year. what would you use a laptop from the early 90's for, could it even get on the internet? a TV from the 70's? you aren't watching any streaming netflix on that puppy. but audio systems are different. our ears can only hear from 20hertz to 20,000hertz. as long as a stereo system can produce those frequencies and everything in between, you won't know if the system is 30 days old or 30 years.

so with this knowledge i've gone and started my first project, a receiver restore. after spending many hours educating myself in all things vintage audio, i found someone selling what was to be my first project piece. I found an MCS 3275 receiver about 30miles from my house listed on craigslist. after a few phone calls and a 45min drive i had my new (to me) receiver in tow.

this baby is a monster, as you can see i took a picture with my flip cam standing next to it on the table for size comparison. just look at all the aluminum knobs and switches, no plastic here. and the case is made of real wood, it's not (as often referred to on the forums) "bpc" - black plastic crap.

first thing i did was take it apart.

the second thing i did was post questions on forums about my questions. the first thread i posted about was pertaining to a capacitor issue i came across. the second thread about a lighting issue i'm having.

first of all, i love having this community of similar interest people. i ask questions, and not only get answers and suggestions, but also thanks and congratulations on my project. we're all geeking out, but it's ten times more fun geeking out with other geeks that are into the exact same thing.

i also feel that i'm being *somewhat* productive. granted all of the time i've put into this does now show in my immediate results, just another stereo. but the enjoyment factor is not to be discounted, as people spend most of their available time and money on enjoyment.

you a marine, you understand

2011-08-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

three or four months ago i contacted a non profit organization that helps at-risk 17 to 22 year old people prepare for the 'real world'.

let me backtrack a second here. one of the many benefits provided to me by my employer is the ability to volunteer for 2 hours during each work week. to me, that meant getting out of work for two hours each week, to go play. furthermore, my company is on a volunteer high right now so not only do i get to skip work to play but i also get a big pat on the back for doing so. it's a win, win, win (me, company, tutored person). in this case i'm considering teaching math as playing, which may not be true for all people.

things all came to fruit in july, when i heard back from the organization that i had contacted. they were in need of a tutor, and i was in need of using 2 hours of work to go do something that wasn't work, was productive, and above all -fun. a guy looking to get his GED had joined their program, and i was the man to help him out.

to date, i've had about five tutoring sessions. the fellow that i'm tutoring is 22 years old, he's got a 9 month old son. he told me that he dropped out of high school when he was in 11th grade. honestly, i don't have much information beyond that about him personally. i'm a tutor, not a social worker. i've been told by the staff that he's had a pretty rough time growing up, which i can believe. one of the only other facts about this person i know is that he once mentioned to me his brother was at 2 strikes. i don't ask him personal questions, he doesn't ask me personal questions.

i approach this challenge with one goal, do what i can to equip him with what he needs in order to pass the GED. what i am not is a mentor, role model, miracle worker, problem fixer, or anything else. with only a few hours per week, there is no time to waste trying to do anything besides academics. and of course, i'm not qualified to do much more than teach math, science, and english.

a normal tutoring session will start off with 30 seconds of chit-chat. how was your week? anything exciting happen since i saw you last? then i break right into it, because we're not here to talk, we're here to learn. i start off with a review of what we did last week. i just make up a problem or exercise that uses concepts that we covered last week. here's the latest example:

there is a sale on your favorite jeans for 35% off. they cost $300 dollars normally. how much do you pay for these jeans if sales tax is 9.5%?

this may sound trivial to most, but the people who go through this program have dealt with anything from homelessness, to juvenile detention time, to substance abuse, to all of the above and then some. i had attentive and caring parents who lovingly shoved this type of information down my throat at the earliest capable age until i got it. not everyone is as lucky as i am.

other problem concepts include square roots, volumes, surface area, geometric properties of triangles, and fractions.

i like to think of myself as a san francisco version of robin williams character, sean maguire, in the movie good will hunting. the only difference is that i'm not trying to fix my tutee's severe emotional problems. and i'm not the hidden and forgotten best of the best in my field. and my tutee isn't a troubled genius. so really, there's very little similarity because will hunting was a super math genius, but that feeling of helping someone who needs/wants the help is there. and we both get something positive out of it.

two sessions ago about 10 minutes into the session i sensed quite a bit of negative energy. he was feeling frustrated and ready to just throw his hands up and quit. i stopped mid problem and said let's take a 2 minute break. we both sat down away from the white board. after 30 seconds of silence i told him that i'm ready to go over the same problem as many times as we need to and in as many different ways as possible until he understands it.

two minutes later a completely different person was standing at the board trying to grind out math problems. the rest of the session time flew by. one week later i was greeted by a smile, and a handshake. i greeted him back with the question "how do you take a percentage of a number?", and when "uhh... oh, multiply!" blurted out of his mouth, i returned the smile.

The End Starts Today

2011-07-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

almost two months ago i started a music blog titled, The End Starts Today

i had been contemplating the workload that came with a daily music blog for the past few years, each time telling myself that it was too large of a commitment for me to undergo. then in feb of 2010 i found myself sharing a song a day with a fellow music loving friend, and jon commented that i should have just started a blog with all this effort. i hate to now say that he was right.

i wasn't sure that finding a song and emailing it to a friend was the equivalent of creating a blog, uploading a song, linking it, writing my thoughts and feelings about the song, and searching for and adding a picture to accompany the post.

but somewhere in the past few months, i decided to quit creating excuses and just go for it. i registered a blog title, devised an efficient process for uploading, tagging, linking, and posting my song, text, and a photo. i even sketched the black and white graphic above as 'album art' for each song that i post.

nowadays i spend about 15 minutes per day posting to the blog. i spend almost all day listening to music, via peel, my new best friend but this is usually during work, lunch, or after hours. i haven't changed my music discovery habits one bit as a result of the music blog, which was also a concern of mine.

on top of my 5 posts per week, jon posts one song per week on his "select sundays" category for the blog. you could say he's my re-occurring guest contributor, but he's more than that. he's helped with the blog layout, and a trusty consultant all things blog (he did publish a book on blogging).

since day one, i've had a blue sticky note that sits on my desk helping me blog. i wrote two sentences on the sticky note "if someone only listened to my music blog, what songs would i post?" and "discuss what i like about the song, and how it makes me feel"

i wrote these sentences to help me focus on what songs to choose and what i write in each post. plenty of blogs i follow post songs and their version of the band's bio, or some neat factoid. i figure that factoids are posted everywhere, but what i personally feel about the song is not posted anywhere, so instead of creating redundancy on the internet, i'm adding something unique and personal. now don't get me wrong, i'm not writing pulitzer prize novels about songs. i write a few sentences and move on, i mean, it's a music blog!

i've made a facebook page, a twitter account, and a feedburner for everyone's blog following preferences. so follow along and enjoy [what i think is] good music daily!

eating non-chinese with the chinese

2011-07-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

i love going out to eat chinese food. everyone sits at a round table and we order a large variety of dishes. food starts coming out to the table as each plate is prepared, every few minutes something new lands on the table accompanied by oooh's and ahhh's. in the center of the table is a lazy susan, and each dish is rotated effortlessly around the table for all to take a scoop, piece, or chunk of whatever is still available while the plates orbit the table.

usually we discuss what dishes we would like to eat while casually scanning the menu before the waiter comes. when it’s time to order, the waiter interacts with only one person, the table representative. this person's job is to consolidate everyone's input and create a final order presented to the waiter. i have only been this person once or twice, as this task is usually appointed to the person who is most senior and of chinese ethnicity. bonus points if the complete ordering conversation is done without any english.

i remember the first time i ate this style of dinner, i was completely out of my element. see, i grew up eating only the one dish that i ordered at a restaurant, perhaps once in a while i'd take a small bite of someone else's meal simply to taste it. if we all wanted to eat the same dish at a restaurant, then we'd all order the same dish. it wasn't uncommon for a waiter to read back "okay so we have three orders of the ribs and two orders of the salmon". most of the time i had no idea what the others were going to order until i heard them tell the waiter what it was they wanted.

i also grew up following rules such as, when at a restaurant, nobody was to start eating until all orders had reached the table. this is similar to the rule that when eating at home nobody eats until everyone has served themselves. for example, on spaghetti night, nobody starts eating until the bread, salad, spaghetti, have all been passed around the table and everyone has had the opportunity to take what they like.

at a chinese restaurant, the moment a plate hits the susan, it’s dished and eaten. there’s no waiting for all the food to arrive, or waiting for everyone to serve themselves. in fact, there is a hurry to get all of one dish served as to make room for other incoming dishes.

now, when things get interesting, is dining at non-chinese restaurants with a predominantly chinese table. it is a hybrid of both experiences, and interesting for me to observe just how things pan out.

first of all, orders are discussed and coordinated prior to ordering with the waiter. there are two reasons for discussion prior to ordering.:

1.) to make sure there is not a duplicate order.
2.) to make sure that everything on the menu that people want to try, has been ordered.

in reference to #1, if two people want the same dish, then it is assumed that they will split it. ordering two of the same dishes is unimaginable, and may result in immediately terminated friendships. yes it's that serious. the only exception to this rule is when one order of a particular dish is not large enough to allow each person who wants a taste. for example, if an order of crab cakes comes with 3 bite size crab cakes, and there are six people at the table who want some, ordering 2 orders of crab cakes is acceptable. and it is understood that nobody wants 3 bite size crab cakes to themselves. it’s almost as if the ultimate goal is to have each bite be different than the next until you are completely full. a redundant bite is simply a waste of stomach space.

not disclosing what it is you plan to order, prior to giving the waiter your order, may also land you in hot water. without knowing what you plan to order, other members of the table will have to guess what you are ordering, and plan their collective order accordingly, this can cause frustration for the table.

#2.) if you were to record what one person consumes at a chinese restaurant, it would show a few bites of many dishes. if you were to do the same at a non-chinese restaurant, it would be 100% of one entrée and possibly an appetizer or salad. it’s easy to see just how different these two palates have evolved?

moving on, when the food at a non-chinese place comes out, each person has an entrée in front of them. this is when the two people who wanted that one same entrée, divide that entrée in half and split it. the other entrée that they ordered is also cut in half, so they end up with two ½ meals each. most everyone else will consume 80-90% of the entrée in front of them, the 10-20% is dedicated to giving bites those who ordered something else.

this effort is done to somewhat mimic the chinese restaurant experience of having many small pieces of larger entrees. i’m not one to say it does or does not work, but it does not replicate the experience fully. occasionally asking for a few extra plates will help attain a more chinese restaurant experience at a non-chinese place, but only for a few individuals and not the entire table.

understanding this dynamic has helped me dine harmoniously. for myself, understanding why something occurs, helps me understand and accept it. i know why i have to disclose what i’m ordering to the table before the waiter comes. i am ready to give 20% of my dish to everyone at the table, and receive a bite of everyone else’s dish even if i’m not all that jazzed about what they ordered. and i know that unless i want to make enemies, i’ll be sure to order a dish that hasn’t yet, and will not be ordered by anyone else at the table.

choose (your screen name) wisely

2011-05-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

do you remember the first time you read this:

"enter a unique username and press continue to create your account"

what was failed to be mentioned in those instructions was the fact that this unique name may or may not be your internet identity from now until eternity. the internet has given us the chance to name ourselves, again.

when my friends and i were 17 years old, we started creating accounts for stuff like email, icq, and aol instant message. with these accounts we were able to keep in touch. college does that to high school friendships. but with the help of the internet we were able to easily keep in contact. little did we know, that every time we'd sign up for a new service or account that made keeping in contact even easier, the first unique username that would come to us is the last one we created. and the last one was created from the one before that,

unlike your birth name, screen names are self generated. a screen name sure tells a lot about how someone sees themselves. or, maybe it goes out of it's way to hide something about them. is lilho really a little ho? is penn15president really a president? is paradigmpimp really a pimp? or do they think that this is how people perceive them? or is this how they want to be perceived?

this reminds me of a hilarious story my brother once told me about his college roommate. 'benny' was his name (which i changed to write this post). one of benny's classes had an online forum where questions could be posted and answered virtually. benny decided on the screen name soakingwetgirl69 as his screen name. of course he then bragged about receiving ample help for all questions he posted in the forum. and you guessed it, mostly from guys.

but i digress.

i've observed a trend. in the 90's and 00's people lived double lives. online they were hippoprinsess, in real life they were yancy wang. there was a clear divide between the two, and no search result would tie the blog, im account, or friendster page from the hippoprinses to the user's real ms. wang -that is, unless she wanted the two to be associated together.

lately, these two worlds are coming together. people's usernames are becoming their birth names. pictures of a users actual face is replacing buddy icons of unicorns and soccer balls. the anonymity of the internet is fading away. people are less and less living two separate lives. people now have two aspects of the same life: online and offline aka 'real life'. though, i'm not sure how much longer people will refer to in-person as 'real life', considering the internet is very real.

but we have residue of these screen names lingering still. in fact, the whole reason i decided to write this post is because dannon81 was sick of his screen name. he felt as though it didn't represent him anymore the way it had initially represented him. i suggested a few alternatives, like .:r32dan, damnitdan81, and my personal favorite sanfranciscobikecomputercarclothesfeelingsdaniels. i guess i liked the ring to that last one when it's blurted out real fast.

where are screen names going to be in a few years? i don't know. will we have a universal login someday where we only have one screen name? facebook seems to be doing a pretty good job of creating the closest thing to that at the moment. maybe everyone will be known by their facebook login in the near future?

if that's the case, then yes, i'll be attending cole trickle's bachelor party later this year.

produce run

2011-05-02T14:23:00.001-07:00

This is the first time I've ridden my bike to the produce store and
carried a few bags worth of groceries back home via the rear cargo rack and
bungee'd milk crate. It was a huge success!

greeting cards

2011-04-25T09:06:00.001-07:00

on friday i volunteered at meals on wheels, where i helped make greeting cards for the clients. i took a snap of some of my hand made greeting cards.

4 icons pt.4

2011-04-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

round 4 of 4 icons. james.

for about a decade james has had a unique version of the phrase "i love to snowboard" as his primary personal email account address. he is a professional photographer, amazing guitar player, and recently developed a rather green thumb.

snowboard :: camera :: plant :: guitar

i only drew one binding for the snowboard, and then used photoshop to copy&paste the second one so they would look exact. i'm not sure if i feel lazy or efficient about that.

completely rewired

2011-04-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

this weekend i tackled the daunting task of rewiring my desk. most people i know own laptops, the only wire on their desk is the power plug. i have a few more items, their desk rewire would have taken 5 minutes, mine took 5 hours.

this is how the desk looked before i started my attack

notice the left speaker is hidden behind a screen, also the speakers aren't equidistant from the sweet spot (where i sit). this was one of the many driving forces behind spending my sunny saturday indoors.

the bird's nest of wires filled me with anxiety, not to mention, i'd accidentally kick the components sitting atop the small chest of drawers under the desk.

with everything taken off the desk and unplugged i started my rewire.

first i placed all of the components in a location where i wanted them. this is when i made the decision to not use one of my 19" screens. the previous setup included my work-issued dell computer connected to a dell 19" monitor along with a mac mini desktop computer with an apple 30" cinema display and a dell 19" monitor. in total two computers each with two screens. i decided to simplify this a bit, especially since my apple cinema display is huge. my new setup would be work computer (laptop) two screens, home computer just one bit one.

now it's time to line up the components that used to sit on the ground. these are going to be hidden under the desk in my new arrangement. the wires are getting a bit hairy here, and i could feel the anxiety coming back, but i held strong and pressed forward.

some 24" zip ties secured the modem, router, external hdd, and plenty of power bricks to the back of the desk crossbeam support.

this is all the cables/wires/cords that need to be plugged in and organized. the big brick on the ground is my u.p.s. - uninterrupted power supply. it weighs in close to 25 lbs, leaving it on the ground was the best option.

here we are, bundled, zip tied, and even incorporated the conduit for aesthetics.

i even bundled the laptop connect wires in leftover white conduit to minimize cables to/from the laptop.

and here we have the before and after pic. the before pic is on the screen of the big monitor.

i feel more at peace now that the wires are hidden from view. i also enjoy more desk space due to one less monitor, though i do have less desktop space (virtual not physical) but it hasn't been a big issue for me. in all this rewire took 5-6 hours and spanned two days. i couldn't have done it without the help and guidance of my a-class project management team.

blown away (guy)

2011-04-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

in 1983 maxell ran a commercial about the audio fidelity integrity of maxell tapes.

(notice that blown away guy casually catches his wine glass before it falls off the table's edge.)

this ad went on to represent maxell and become a pop culture icon of sorts.

you've seen this right?

recently there was an article about the youtube fellas, check out their take on the "blown away".

once the family guy references something, that thing is solidified as a pop icon (to some degree).

even the jackass guys are in the know!

i love how he grabs for the glass at the 0:13 second mark even though the entire table is blown away at 0:03 seconds.

since i've been building the ultimate stereo system, i ordered the maxell poster for display above my stereo shelf. pics to come, as i have to get it mounted before the wall is dressed with blown away guy.

my shelf has spikes

2011-04-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

my new retro stereo is starting to come together. but as i've been acquiring the components for the stereo, i'm finding an increasing need for a shelf of some sort for the stereo to live. initially the amp and tuner were placed on top of my technics turntables inside their boxes.

the speakers are designed to stand on the floor as they are, but using my two turntables inside their boxes as a makeshift shelf is wrong on two accounts. first account, it looks pathetic. second account, if i use my technics as a shelf, that's a $1,000 shelf.

so i contemplated making a shelf. many of the diy shelf threads on the few audio forums i scoured had all somehow come back around to "the rack". the rack is a diy shelf made of plywood, large threaded bolts, and nuts.

the rack performs well, but just didn't have the aesthetic i was looking for. so i searched a bit more. this is when i learned about vibration dampening, and the spikes that come along with it. each shelf sits atop 4 sharp spikes, thus minimizing surface area contact and mitigating unwanted speaker generated vibrations from reaching your audio components. the first shelf of this genre i found for the small price of $1399.99!!! i'd be damned to have a shelf that costs more than my entire stereo!

then i found the vti-bl404 shelf for $250! three color options and four shelves. i couldn't go wrong. so i ordered it and took pics.

i've received a few compliments so far, and i'm really enjoying how pretty my shelf is. i still need to get a few more components for my stereo, and as you can see, i have the shelf space for it!

next up, to get those technics turntables out of their boxes and onto a tabletop.

the lowdown on tires

2011-03-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

a friend wrote me a short email regarding her upcoming tire purchase decision.

Hey,

The last time I got my oil changed, they guy told me that I needed to change my front tires ASAP. I did some yelping and decided to go to Paul's Batter & Tire Shop. I don't want to get swindled, but don't know the first thing about cars. So here are my questions:
Is it recommended that I get Toyota tires for my Prius?
If I don't, how do I go about choosing a tire? Does it really matter what brand I get; and if so, which brand should I get?
Are there other services I should request in addition to the tire changing? Like are they supposed to include an alignment or rotation? (whatever those really mean hahah)
What is a typical price for tires and how do I know if I'm getting ripped off?
Any advice/insight you could give would be golden.

my reply:

you should probably grab a bite to eat before reading this novel i just wrote.

1.) Toyota doesn't make tires! Toyota does have their "recommended" tire, they sell the vehicles with. but you never know what deal Toyota and that tire manufacturer have. The toyota dealer will tell you that they only carry XYZ brand, but that's because they are only allowed to contractually. it's pretty much retarded if you ask me, but that's the business side of things. your car is sold with Bridgestone Tires that are approx $77 each. a quick read on the net and most prius owners aren't in love with these tires per say.

2a.) Choosing a tire can be an overwhelming task. first things first, you need your tire size. once you have that, you're technically good to go, just get that size! your size is 185/65/15. it's just like shoes! however, as you have probably suspected it's not that simple.
2b.) Tires have a balance of performance and longevity. you can have one, but not both. i'm assuming that performance isn't a top priority for you, so i'd recommend you choose a tire with a high tread-wear rating denoted by the UTQG#, the higher the number the longer it lasts. another factor is road noise. more expensive tires will have a lower road noise factor. all of these options are noted when buying tires. i would find out what type of tire you have now (high-performance, touring, all-weather, , etc) and make sure to match your new ones to the existing ones.
2c.) Brand of tire can be misleading. while some brands are overal more expensive than others, each brand has their cheaper and more expensive line of tires. i go about choosing a tire based on size, price, performance/tread-wear rating balance, and then brand.

3a.) Tires on the front wear faster than tires on the rear, for two reasons. Tires on the front turn, and tires on the front carry the weight of the engine (which is far heavier than the load on the rear tires). When getting 2 new tires, you usually put the new tires on the front and the best two (of the 4 tires currently on the car) on the back. this is called 'rotating' the tires. when the fronts start to wear down, you put them on the rear and move the rears to the front so that all four wear as even as possible.

3b.) when tires are put onto the rims, they have to be balanced so that they don't wobble when spinning fast. this is a service all shops will do when putting on new tires, it's a small charge per tire $10-20ea. An alignment doesn't have to happen after replacing tires, but you should be extra sensitive the week or two after putting new tires on, to make sure your car doesn't pull to one side. this will cause uneven tire wear and you'll have to replace tires much sooner than expected. if you do experience pulling then you'll need an alignment -which usually doesn't happen.

4.) tires for your car range from $58-$109 per tire on tirerack.com. there are many types and brands of tires that fit your car. some are winter, some have better performance. The shop will charge you around $20 per tire to mount (put tire on the rim) and balance (see 3b). Personally, i purchase tires online and have them shipped to my mechanic. when the tires arrive i get a phone call, and bring my car in. this way i get the tires that i want, at the best price i can find. if you go this route you should make sure that Paul's allows this by calling ahead. if not, then your options are limited to the tires Paul's has in stock, which may not be bad as you have a very common car for SF. i would recommend my shop, but they only service vw and audi vehicles :( and i love them!

the McIntosh

2011-03-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

this past thanksgiving my parents visited. i had asked my father to bring up his old stereo that was being stored in the garage. the mcintosh!

it had been sitting in the garage for at least 5-6 years. though, for a piece of equipment that is slightly older than me, and has been sitting in a garage for the past half decade, it was in decent cosmetic condition.

my father purchased the mcintosh ma6100 integrated amplifier in the year 1978. my earliest audio memories involve this very piece of equipment. one can easily recognize it's signature walnut case, brushed aluminum knobs, black glass face, and green backlight. a couple of cerwin vega house speakers accompanied the amplifier during my days of growing up. when mom and dad left me home alone, i'd put in my favorite tape (and eventually cd) in and crank the amp to just over 1/2 volume. this is the point in which the china in our china cabinet would start to dance around on the shelf due to massive vibrations. i was literally rocking the house. needless to say i loved the power of the mcintosh.

but as i got older, and technology pressed forward i started to realize what was really important about home stereos. the mcintosh didn't have a remote control, nor did it have an lcd screen. my friend's parent's house systems had more lights, buttons, and do-hickeys than the simple 1970's style mcintosh amplifier. most of these systems were sleek black plastic, space age, not old and made of wood. i eventually started to despise the mcintosh for being outdated and ugly. soon after i was granted my own stereo, complete with digital tuner and all the cheap plastic crap that comes along with low budget audio. i loved it. this must have been the early 90's.

though soon i realized that the sound from my plastic and portable sony stereo was nowhere near that of the mcintosh + cerwin vegas. dad's system would literally bring the house down at 3/4 volume. (a few wall hanging items did fall off during one of my listening sessions). at 3/4 volume my sony made all songs sound like a microphone held up to a whoopie cushion at best. this is the first time i took notice to sound quality.

it wasn't until an earth shattering day in san diego a few years ago that i put 1 and 1 together. i was at my friend's house. he had just spent a bit over $3,000 on a pair of speakers. and the second i heard these speakers, i knew exactly why he paid what he did. i was changed from that moment on. i was only able to listen to three or four songs on the $3k speakers, but i was hearing songs that had 40-50 play counts on my ipod, for the first time.

it took me almost thirty years to fully appreciate audio quality. following this event was an 8 month search for a pair of studio monitor speakers, resulting in the purchase of my mackie hr824 mki's. which to this day, i love. in fact i'm listening to them as i write this post.

around this time is also when i understood and appreciated the mcintosh. i recalled my father telling me that before the cerwin vega speakers, he had some bigger and better mcintosh speakers. at the time i didn't really care, those pink rimmed cerwin vegas pumped louder than anything i had ever heard, or cared to. but somehow i held the information that dad once owned mcintosh speakers in the recesses of my mind.

fast forward to this past thanksgiving. i hauled the 40lbs mcintosh amp up two flights of stairs only to find out that it was completely inoperable when connected to speakers. a few weeks later, and my wallet $465 lighter, the amp was back in my possession. but an amp is no good without speakers to accompany it. i immediately started looking at the going price for cerwin vegas. that is, until i got the idea to search for mcintosh speakers.

this is when i came across a craigslist posting for two mcintosh xr-5 speakers, the exact model that my dad originally purchased with the ma6100! i went to alameda on a rainy night with my brother riding shotgun and $450 in cash. i came home with two 76lbs. speakers in tow. i forgot my cd for testing audio in the car, so i was forced to test the speakers to fm radio. 96.5 had a nice strong signal, and luckily they were playing bryan adams - "everything i do, i do it for you". so i blasted it, and listened for any imperfections. then madonna's "borderline" came on, and i blasted it again in order to detect any possible speaker distortion. i guess if a pair of speakers can play those two songs loud and well, then they're good enough for me.

i had successfully recreated the system that my father had purchased in the late 70's.

i'm still far from done, as you can see there's no shelf in this picture. but i'll save additions to this setup for future blog posts.

oh, and everything sounds fan-tas-tic!!

pics of your listening space

2011-03-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

recently i joined a forum for audio junkies like myself. i've been visiting the forum for some time, in search of the answer to a specific question, or browsing pics of new equipment. but i had never felt the need to join until now.

upon joining, one thread caught my eye, then soon grabbed a hold of my spare time and rung it try like a used shop rag. the thread title is "pics of your listening space". at the time of writing this post (or starting the draft a week ago) the thread boasts 7,835 posts, 523 pages, and countless pics of listening spaces.

i went through e v e r y s i n g l e o n e.

it took me well over a week, and as i stated earlier, took most of my spare time. i started at the most recent posts and moved backward chronologically.

while combing through this massive thread, i couldn't help but make some observations. first of all, audio knows no boundaries.

here are some pics i stole off the thread and my observations alongside:

if you aren't a pink floyd fan, then this may look like a tasteless piece of art in a somewhat conservative home. i think this is magnificent! and i also love the dark side album.

this picture may not be impressive to the average joe. but those who are in the know understand that each of those black boxes with pretty blue lights costs many thousands of dollars -and is worth every penny.

there's some fun pics, like this one. only an audio geek...

some listening spaces aren't as organized and clean as i'd prefer for my own.

some contributors have more speakers than i would know what to do with.

some are in college dorm rooms.

there were a few "with the lights off" shots. i especially like the tube amps when lit.

some audio rigs look like they came from outer space.

and then some pictures made me feel as thought i was looking at art. instead of looking at electronics that reproduce pre-recorded art.

i need to tidy up, and purchase a thing or two before i contribute my listening space(s) on this thread. i'm sure if you comb through my blog you'll find some here and some there of my personal listening space. and besides the love of music and audio equipment, the other similarity that almost every single contributor to the thread agreed on is the fact that their listening space is never quite done.

the eggling pt. 11

2011-02-23T17:50:00.001-08:00

it's been a while since the egglings have made any blog appearances. not to worry they are doing just fine.

rondo is getting too big for his britches, and so i've given him a bit of a crutch to stand on.

ray ray is almost ready for his second harvest, about a month ago i trimmed off all of the large leaves and enjoyed some basil chicken dinner.

soon these guys are going to have to leave the egg and move onto a bigger pot. i just don't want my babies to grow up so fast!

4 icons pt. 3

2011-02-22T15:56:00.000-08:00

round three of 4 icons. hong.

hong has either worn the same i <3 ny shirt for the past 11 years, or he's buys them by the dozen. he lives in san diego.

hong ->
fishing :: i <3 ny :: pokerchips :: tennis

the poker chips probably could have been redone as cards.

4 icons pt.2

2011-02-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

while i decided to do the 4 icon thing for myself, i was talking to a friend online. of course he put together his own 4 icons (which i noted down).

jon ->
wifi :: chucks :: pen & paper :: toaster

4 icons

2011-02-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

i'm no designer, but i know designers!

one of those designers sent me a link to this 4 icon project someone ( a neato designer) did. i loved the idea so much that i immediately brainstormed what would my 4 icons be.

these were sketched on paper, scanned, vectorized in illustrator, then put together in photoshop. probably a bit of techno overkill but hey, that'd be my 5th icon.

edit:
i didn't like how that computer looked, i felt that it was outdated so i removed the tower. i think this makes things look much better.

sofa side table

2011-02-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

shortly after designing and buying my custom sofa i noticed a c-shaped table from crate&barrel. it's a great design. the table is just high enough to clear the arm of a sofa, and the c-shape allows the table top to be pulled over the sofa. the $350 price tag quickly deterred me picking one up. "shit, for $350 i can make one of these".

and that's what i did.

i can't take all of the credit, dad is the one who built the wood shop in his home. he also purchased all of the wood. and most importantly provided the beer. it all started with some back and forth sketches.

first step, measure out the wood. there was enough scrap wood to make three tables. two would be made from mahogany, and one from cherry. this includes the feet, legs and arms only. tops will be figured out later.

marking the wood with chalk assures we've accounted for all the pieces we need. remember to measure twice and cut once!

here are the cut pieces for all three tables. can you tell which is the cherry and which are the mahogany?

we decided to use morties and tenon joints. it's a strong yet simple joint, and when done right can be pretty nifty looking. the morties are made with a router.

the tenons are cut on the table saw with a dado blade.

loosely assembled the tables are taking shape.

non load bearing joints were connected with pocket screws

each table was glued and clamped. we used pieces of wood at right angles to assure that the legs and arms were set perpendicular (nobody wants a crooked table).

a close up of the glued joints followed by the two mahogany frames with dry glue all ready to go. time to get these topless tables some tops.

because the table was my concept, i was able to claim the cherry table as my own. and since dad had made a kitchen table with cherry (and this project was using the scrap wood from that project) he was okay with that. the piece on the right is a 1" thick piece of cherry that i wanted to use for the top. i would re-saw the piece, resulting in two 1/2" thick pieces. then those two pieces would be book-matched. dad had created the left most piece while learning to veneer. this is 4 pieces of sequentially cut walnut veneer pieces on a piece of mdf. the third table was initially going to use part of the large center piece, which was also a veneering piece my dad created earlier. we later scrapped that idea.

dad made a frame out of walnut. he then used a router to carve out a groove where the walnut veneer piece will sit. the knot will be filled in with clear epoxy come finishing time.

my re-sawn and book-matched cherry top was then glued to a piece of plywood for added strength and rigidity. the bag is attached to a vacuum that sucks the air out, applying uniform pressure for a perfect glue. the white board underneath is grooved so that no air pockets form. air pockets could infect our perfect glue job.

a solid cherry frame was glued to the edge of my cherry top. thumbs up was given.

the two table tops sitting atop their respective frames. at this point everything fits and the final dimensions are to the specs we designed for. if you're wondering about the third table, don't worry it got a top too.

the tables were sanded and finished. unfortunately i wasn't able to partake in this process i had to go back home. but i must say, mom did a fantastic job with the finish! when the table was complete they shipped it to me.

please, have a seat! chips and salsa anyone?
[notice the coaster underneath the salsa]

eaters and tasters

2011-02-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

everyone claims that they love to eat. i've heard almost every person i know get overly excited at some point in time about food. but do they really "love to eat"?

i've come to the conclusion that most people do not necessarily love to eat. they do however, love to taste.

what's the difference between "likes to eat" and "likes to taste"? it seems there's a fine line between the two, yet i have noticed quite a number of differences myself.

the people who like to taste can't remember the last time they ate till they were obscenely full. they love great flavors, but don't love the ritual of gobbling down food until no further eating can possibly be done. they taste the flavors and when they approach full, they stop. perhaps they stop when they're 75% full because they know that in 10-15 mins they'll feel full. i can't tell you exactly how this happens as i don't consider myself a taster, i love to eat.

which brings us to those who love to eat. these folks can be eating a plate full of many different beautiful flavors, or one heaping mound of the same pseudo bland dish. given no consequences these people will eat until exhaustion in either scenario. they like flavors and delicious delicacies just as much as those who love to taste, but above and beyond that they love to eat. they'll eat till they're 100% full, only to later realize that they are actually 120% full (usually happens 10mins later) and have to unbutton the top button of their now tight pants.

you can distinguish the two types rather easily. those who love to eat normally eat very fast, as they aren't savoring the flavor of each bite because their pleasure comes from getting food in their belly. furthermore people who love to eat will often times get frustrated at those fancy places where the entrees look very pretty, yet are hardly big enough to properly nourish a 6 year old. in fact, i'm almost positive that it was a person who loved to eat that came up with the concept of buffets and all-you-can-eat menus.

do you love to eat? or do you love to taste?

Lamp

2011-01-22T17:18:00.001-08:00

i've been wanting a lamp above my desk for some time. i've online shopped, and went to ikea before deciding that in order to get what i wanted i'd have to do it myself. so i headed to the thrift store to purchase what is usually the most expensive part of the lamp, the shade. $1.25 later i had this bad boy. of course, i bungee'd it to the back of my bike cause i'm green and all that jazz.

i purchased a socket with a pull chain (the rage now seems to be in-line-switches) but for what i wanted, that was not ideal. the center gold ring is the lampshade holder, and the extra pull chain with white nub was also purchased. these things cost me approx $20. not pictured is the 20 foot long extension cord, i also purchased for $14.

a little dremel action for this lampshade holder to fit perfectly.

viola lampshade will be held (the white piece is the lampshade mount.

here we are assembled.

and it's not a real job unless something breaks in the process.

better be more weary of that cord on the hook when measuring the ideal lamp height.

no humans were injured in the making of this hanging lamp.

lights on!

lights off!

i'm ready for my closeup mr camera man.

hype

2011-01-13T11:20:00.000-08:00

i love the hypemachine. hands down it is the one website where i can spend the most time. for most that prize goes to facebook, or some other social networking aka check out your friend's friends webpage. not me, not in 2010. this is not an ode to hypemachine or a facebook bash, this is me sharing my excitement about hypem's latest "greats of 2010".

they have created a list of the most blogged about artists, albums, and songs for 2010. but. and this is a big but. for the top 50 songs, they went one step further and had 5 different artists make 20-30 minute mixes featuring their selection of the full list of the top 50 songs of 2010. and you can download them here. currently i'm jammin' to the clock opera mix. and of course, all 5 are available for download.

believe the hype[machine]!

nye 2010

2011-01-10T21:39:00.000-08:00

this video captures what i was doing and with whom as 2010 ended.

2010 was a good year. heck, any year i'm alive is a good year when you put it in perspective -and i sure like dancing with my friends.

coasters

2011-01-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

dad got a lathe recently for his woodshop. for those who aren't woodshop saavy, a lathe spins wood. when the wood is spinning, different speeds and tools can be used to cut and shape the wood. think of table legs, or those posts that hold up the bannister on your stairs -done on a lathe.

i went one step further, and fancier for my 1st attempt. i took pieces of scrap and glued them together before heading to the lathe. yellow heart, mahogany, and oak. using one solid piece of wood would have been simpler, but i don't think the final product would have been as nice. you be the judge.

i used plenty of glue, and clamped the scraps together. then let it sit over night. i had to use plenty of clamps to assure there were no air pockets.

a day later, the clamps came off and so did the corners. you want the wood as circular as possible before it hits the lathe. these corners are taken off thanks to our bandsaw.

then onto the lathe. at first we used centers, two pins at the opposite flat sides of our cylinder to hold the axis. we spun it on low speed and started to round out the piece.

after a bit of work, it started to resemble a smooth cylinder. this is when we mounted a metal coupling on one side. this coupling is yet another way to spin the wood, though this time you have clear access to not only the long side of the piece, also the short side (face). this comes in handy later.

here is what it looks like when cutting the coasters from the cylinder.

and lastly, some sanding and a few coats of varnish complete our coasters! this is the coasters sitting face down. i cut a groove on the outside lip of the top face which isn't pictured here. drinks will not leave wet spots or ruin my tabletops ever again!

yes! yes! in the face!

2010-12-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

this year i moved into an apartment of my own. beforehand i was living in a three bedroom place, with two other people. and when i live with other people, i don't tend to care about anything more than function. my previous place had no theme, nor decor. nothing matched and nobody cared. the place was simply setup to be liveable. accessorizing was the furthest priority of mine.

but now that i've got a place of my own, ive got a place to decorate, accessorize, and enjoy. i'm still getting used to inviting people over and not having to send a "i'm having people over" email to roommates.

in doing this, i've realized that my preferred style is a mix of modern and vintage. in searching for these things i've come to know my neighborhood thrift stores quite well. in searching the thrift stores for knick knacks as well as furniture and decor pieces, the idea for a collaborate blog was brought up. jmz is a big fan of "thrifting" as well.

so we've created a blog, titled 'Thrifty', where we're planning to post our thrift store/garage sale/hand me down finds.

the address of the blog comes from a favorite movie that jmz and i share, see if you can guess it. here's a hint. the clip is the best i could find, unfortunately.

so go ahead and bookmark it, or toss it into your favorite rss reader and enjoy!

the eggling pt. 10

2010-12-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

this blog has slowly turned into my eggling blog. here's to change when 2011 rolls around!

ray ray is doing well. i haven't harvested any of these delicious basil leaves as of yet (and my never) but he smells nice.

rondo has lots his flowers, but continues to grow nice and tall. at the moment he's about 1/2" taller than ray ray.

the peppers are getting shrively, i'll prune them off eventually and wait for new ones to take place.

and finally, here's the newest edition to the family! i don't have a name for this plant yet, nor do i have a set place to put it. all in time i suppose.

the eggling pt. 9

2010-11-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

rondo is kicking ass and taking names. with his 3rd flower, which is dramatically lighter color than the last two.

notice the dark purple wilted flower in the top left of this shot. that's how deep purple the last few flowers were.

by next year, i may have to move this guy from egg to pot. i suppose we'll see.

as for ray ray (for those of you who follow the eggling posts) has made a full recovery!

he's even taller than rondo, by a leaf.

anyone know how to make basil chicken?

introducing the newest member of the small plant family!

i haven't come up with a name yet, but i'm thinking dr. pepper may suffice. thoughts?

i don't know if these peppers are edible, or hot, or both. and i'm not sure i'm willing to find out.

the sofa king

2010-10-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

when i first moved into the sunset apartment, patrick said he's sell me the chair, loveseat, sofa, tv, stereo, tv stand, and coffee table for $220. i said fine, i'll give you $200 and we'll call it mine. he declined in a rather rude tone and mentioned something about craigslisting it for more than my offer. so i said "yo, really man. okay, i'll pay you $20 more for it. hell, i just don't want to lug furniture up 4 flights of stairs." asshole.

after two years at that apartment, the time to move out of the sunset and into my own one bedroom matured. during a phone call with mom about my new place, neighborhood, and the logistics of moving she said that she'd buy me a sofa as a housewarming present, and to leave the sofas with my old roommates. mom said it should be a sleeper sofa, no more than $1000, and comfy.

after moving, i started the sofa hunt.

the first real day of sofa hunting resulted in 6-7 furniture store visits. i couldn't do it alone, and dragged a friend along for the tour. i am pretty sure he was thanked with pitchers of margarita that night, but i don't remember the details.

that first trip taught me that i could only obtain 2 of my 3 couch qualities.
-under $1000, and a sleeper, check. comfy? no way.
-comfy, under $1000 check. sleeper, nope.
-a comfy sleeper sofa does exist, but you will never find one for $1000. drats.

i dragged a different friend on a different day to 6-7 other furniture stores a few weeks later. we hit small mom & pop stores in the burbs, big department stores like macy's, high end you-can't-get-a-seat-for-under-$2000 stores, and everything in between.

by this time i found myself to be quite couch conscious. watching mad men i'd zone out on the dialogue and zoom in on the sofa, ottoman, rug combo. colors, styles, heights, widths, fabrics, legs, and more. i learned about tufting, down wrappers, kiln-dried hardwood frames, attached vs loose back, one cushion, two cushions, and three cushions.

i also learned that some stores build your sofa. the floor samples are just samples of what the store has had built. if you want it wider, shorter, taller arms or back, wider legs or two seat cushions vs three, you may have exactly that. enter the playing field, a completely customized couch.

so i got to some sketching:

i've seen and sat on plenty of sofas to know what i do and don't want. i like a deep sofa, with a wide arm. deep because i'm a slouching sofa sitting individual, and that wide arm can serve as a decent laptop stand for the complete tv+internet experience. i like long legs. well, 5-6" legs are long in my eyes. but the long legs make the sofa feel light and stylish, vs big, bulky, and unmoveable. in fact, i know every single dimension of my sofa, because i designed it. 18" back, 24" arm height, 5" legs, 6" rail, and so on. i knew i wanted a two cushion style sofa the moment i actually noticed sitting on a three cushion one.

somehow things always work out this way, but the first store i went to, ended up being the store i purchased from. furniture envy in san francisco's marina district. the wall street journal even wrote up a small piece on them recently. i've always been a sucker for custom. custom takes more work up front and sometimes a bit more money, but pays off every single day after the purchase date.

lastly, the color. upon any conversation that i was in the market to purchase a couch, the first question most interested people would ask is "what color?". the entire learning process for me had consisted of build, style, function, comfort, all the things that i think of when sitting on and using a sofa. it almost escaped my mind that i would have to also look at the thing.

i started my sofa color research where almost all research starts today, google. google image search "blue sofa", "red sofa", "green sofa", "aqua sofa", "orange sofa", "brown sofa", "white sofa", and the list goes on. i'd change the word sofa with couch, add words like stylish, or cool in hopes for better search results.

not only did i immediately realize that red sofas just looked better in pictures, but "red sofa" returned the most pictures of sofas with girls posing on them. this means that either women like to pose on red sofas, or set designers receive discounts on red sofas. regardless, i went with red. these were the three samples that i whittled my decision down to. i chose the fabric on the top left.

after all this bother, is it worth it? when i look at it, just looks like a regular ol' sofa, not a custom piece of art (maybe that's a bit of a stretch). but i say yes. it sits exactly how i want it to sit. looks exactly how i want it to look. and it fits exactly how i want it to fit. i'm ready to watch movies, take naps, and sit on a laptop while the tv makes noise in the background.

the men of madison ave.

2010-09-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

let me preface that only during a small fraction of my post living-with-mom-and-dad life have i subscribed to cable tv. i have always relied on the internet for my garbage consumption, vs. the tube. i'm a site surfer not a channel surfer.

the first time i watched every episode of a television show from the beginning of the season till the end of the season was ally mcbeal season 1. after a few episodes i was hooked. we (i had a female roommate, who was responsible for hooking me on ally mcbeal) would make sure to schedule our week in order to watch this show as it aired [before dvr and internet on demand services like hulu].

somehow having a season of ms. mcbeal under my belt felt like an accomplishment. i finally achieved what most people had first achieved in middle school, devoted time and energy to a single program for an entire season. i lay you ten to one most of my friends saw every episode of beverly hills 90210 seasons 1 through 3 as they rolled out.

the second occurrence happened with the office [american version], where i saw every single episode (but had to backtrack using the aid of to torrents and hulu). to date i've seen every episode of every season. and i know it's much cooler and more credible to say that the brittish office is better than the american one, but really guys? that's far from true for me. steve carell is amazingly funny, dwight, jim & pam, the whole gang make me laugh audibly time and time again. the american office is on season 7, the brittish one only had two seasons.

as i write this, i'm on my third.

mad men.

donald draper. never has the name donald registered as 'cool' in my mind, until this show came along and dramatically changed my perspective. i've always pictured the disney duck. in fact donald draper's character is loosely based on a man named draper daniels of chicago, a famous advertising man of the 60's.

but mad men isn't a wacky office-based comedy, it's an amc drama. i now watch amc dramas, oh boy i must be maturing. though, at this rate, what's next, lifetime?! okay, now i'm just being dramatic.

let me rewind and recap.

mad men stands for madison [avenue] men aka the advertising central in 1960's new york city. and my opinion is that not only are the men mad, but so are the women, and children.

the "most screen time" award is a tie between cigarettes and scotch. the second most screen time award goes to awesome set design, and wardrobe. after an episode of mad men i'm ready to spend whatever i need in order to find myself in a sleek 1960's suit, skinny tie, tons of hair grease, and a freshly pressed shirt with cufflinks while i'm en route to a smoky bar/restaurant where women are beautifully dressed pieces of meat and men are aggressive carnivores. however, knowing myself, if i were to somehow appear in this fantasy land of mine, i'd most likely geek out on the amazing scotch selections and art deco glassware.

the show feels like a super cool history lesson, an american history lesson. the president's assassination, gender roles, the value of a dollar, the technology that exists in the office and home, completely fascinate me.

the characters are compelling. i can't say i love any one character or hate any either. joan sure is fun to look at, and while i'll admit that she is deservedly famous for her curves, her facial features and colors are just as standout-ish. she's got amazingly fair skin, bright and bold red hair, and stunning blue eyes. then of course we have don, who is the definition of masculine. women want him and men want to be him (so i ripped that quote off of austin powers, but hey, it's more true in this context isn't it?).

peggy seems to be everyone's favorite. i like her struggle, and how she attacks it, but i just don't find myself rooting for her all the time. i wish she grew some balls once in a while, but again, she's a woman in the 60's -women having balls back then was basically illegal.

we're now on season 4, and i'm caught up to the most recent episode. that in itself has only ever happened three times in my life. i foresee myself watching every episode until they stop making episodes. the story is engaging, the characters are interesting, and the visual stimulation is stunning. i want to be a mad man!

the eggling pt. 8

2010-09-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

ray ray has made a comeback. i've decided to let the dead sprouts wither and fall by their own. i expect 2-3 more weeks for ray ray to be back to his glory days.

as for rondo. well... a picture is worth more words than i'm willing to write right now.

concept doodling

2010-09-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

i set up my video camera, pulled up a blank piece of paper, and doodled for 15mins. here's what happened (at 8x speed).

song: Rendezvous Potrero Hill by Architecture in Helsinki

nice guys finish last

2010-09-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

a month ago my friend jumped. he was 31 years old.

i composed a letter on my computer, then hand wrote it, and mailed the letter to his parent's house. it's been just over a month, and i've probably thought about him in one way or another each day since then.

i have debated whether or not to post this here for the past few weeks, it's personal, it's sad, but it's real. i wrote this from the heart, which is how i try to write all my blog posts.

Dear Aquino Family,

It’s tough for me to write you this letter, I’ve got lots of thoughts and emotions stirring right now.

As you know, Eric was a large part of my life. Our ‘crew’ of Eric, Minh, Hong, Gene, James, Nancy, Elisa, Sunny, and myself was virtually inseparable during high school. I feel that each of these people have had a major impact on shaping the person I am today. And according to my proud parents, I’ve turned out a-okay.

I remember first getting to know Eric, during classes, lunches, and hang out sessions at different peoples’ parent’s houses. Eric and I had a very similar sense of humor, and we understood each other’s humor. Most of my early Eric-memories are of joking, smiling, and laughing. He always got better grades than all of the guys we hung out with, as well as most of the girls (mainly it was that darned Nancy getting the best grades, I think she was paying off the teachers!).

Fast forward to Eric letting us in to see free movies, feeding us free shrimp burritos, and of course plenty of snowboarding (or just talking about snowboarding).

Now, much more recently -with the student loan business, I worked alongside Eric quite a bit. His position in SD was parallel to my position in LA. There wasn’t a day I’d go without some sort of communication with him: phone, email, instant message, or even sometimes all three at once!

Eric was a honest and hard working co-worker, a positive influence in my critical ‘personality forming’ years, and most of all a fun guy to spend time kicking back with while having a few laughs.

I will miss him. I’ll never forget him. And I’m very thankful that I was able to know him for as long as I did.

I can’t understand the feelings that you are, and will be, feeling. But I do understand what has been lost. And the reason I’m writing this to you is to tell you just how much Eric has meant to my life. I love him.

Sincerely,

cd for testing audio

2010-09-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

i love audio reproduction equipment: speakers, amplifiers, headphones, equalizers, mixers, record players, more speakers, more headphones! you get the idea.

i don't feel bad spending and splurging on audio equipment, because unlike almost all other electronic technology, audio equipment is ageless. sure you can tell me that the 2011 line of model xyz speakers are better than some 1970's crap boxes that i got from the salvation army. but aside from low level audio equipment (the cheap shit), audio reproduction equipment doesn't go obsolete. the same cannot be said for audio production equipment, but i'm not going there.

computers get faster, video gets higher definition, hard drives get smaller and faster with more space, connection types get smaller, data transfer speeds get faster, and thus phones, computers, tv's, gaming consoles, etc grow obsolete.

however, our ears can only hear 20hz to 20khz. and stereo systems developed in the 70's have been able to produce those frequencies with high volume and quality. sure there's been advancements in audio reproduction, but they haven't necessarily made older equipment obsolete like all of the other electronic examples i listed earlier.

i've polled a few of the older people i know who i'd consider 'into music'. and all of the people i talked to (all over 50yo), had audio systems that i would consider very old. some purchased their amps and speakers when they were in college, that's the 1970's! imagine me telling you my cell phone was from the 70's! or my TV, computer, hell -even my refrigerator! but their audio systems still produce high volume high quality sound, which hasn't and won't change.

which is why i do consider spending more money on audio equipment. life is too short to spend time listening to crappy speakers. it's also too short to drink cheap wine, hang out with shitty people, and watch bad tv. unless you love bad tv, then that's your own issue.

but i digress.

every audio setup is different. the songs are the same, but they can sound 100 different ways on a 100 different setups. which is why i've taken one variable out of the equation, my making my own cd for testing audio.

what is my cd for testing audio? it's 12 songs in a particular order that i am extremely familiar with. i know every word, every note, every second of each song is embedded in my audio memory. i've also listened to these songs extensively on my favorite audio setup. this prepares me to experience other stereo systems with a solid baseline. get it, bass-line.

it's one of my favorite things to do, spend an hour listening to songs i've memorized on a sound system i've recently met. playing 'watch the speakers' has been a favorite pastime of mine since i learned which knob was the volume on my dad's mcintosh amp + cerwin vega floor standing speaker home system.

here's how i've mentally categorized each song on my cd for testing audio:

acoustic guitar (live)
recorded guitar
rock guitar
pop rock
violins, keyboard, piano
keyboard guitar
remix
electronic
bass
horns
zaps
promises

you can download a .zip of my cd for testing audio. but the only way to have a real cd for testing audio is to create one yourself.

the eggling pt. 7

2010-09-09T17:01:00.001-07:00

remember rondo, he was separated from ray at birth... and when i got him wasn't in the best of shape.
rondo is a lavender, and he's doing oh so well now. he must like loud electronic music.
he's even getting a little stubble. i guess it drives the chicks wild.
ray on the other hand, is NOT doing so well. i rarely use caps on this blog, and i just used caps.
as ray got bigger, he'd wilt faster and faster, due to a needed increase of watering frequency.
there's lots of death around ray now, but not all is lost.
we see a bit of hope.... it's been a rough and wild 13 weeks and 2 days since day one. these egglings are not for the feint of heart.
and i can't disregard good ol trusty rubber plant that has no name and will not die regardless of how bad i treat it.

a new way to make coffee

2010-08-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

headphones

2010-08-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

i love headphones.

i started this post with the three words above as a draft on 9/7/2009 at 10:58pm.

it's almost a year from then. what the heck am i waiting for? in fact, i have 25+ ideas in queue. some have a few paragraphs, some have a few words. i chose this one because it's simple, and i have no idea what i was thinking about when i started this draft, but it'll be easy to take this idea and write with it. i feel like i need to do that because every day that passes, and i don't post on my blog, it gets tougher to create/write a post. so consider this an exercise, picking back up a routine.

headphones come in so many shapes and sizes. over ear, in ear, canal, earbud, over the head, behind the neck, and even molded to your personal ear canal. one of my all time favorite headphone pictures is the album cover of ice cube's lethal injection album.

there was just something so cool about that syringe and the kid laying down with headphones on.

the thing is, headphones have been around for a long time. but just recently (err, the past 5 years) i've noticed that headphones have been on a huge increase in popularity. the biggest to blame, apple computers. i could dive into pages of data that prove just how much the portable mp3/ipod blah blah blah but what i'm getting at is that it used to be a pain in the ass to go mobile with music, which in turn made headphones not so popular.

instead of lugging around a disc player, which would skip if you weren't standing still, and could only play 15 songs lasting up to 4 hrs you can carry a small piece of metal that clips on your shirt and plays 500 songs for 24hrs. it's easier to do, so people do it, and headphones are required.

this works for me, cause i like how people look with headphones on. it gives them mystery, i try to wonder what are they listening to at this moment.

like i said earlier, there's not much substance to this post besides the fact that i like headphones, so i leave you with this music video, yeah yeah, where everyone seems to really enjoy wearing headphones.

the eggling pt. 6

2010-08-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

ray is doing well these days.

look at those healthy green leaves!

and little rondo is coming along nicely.

sometimes a little company, some family, and loud music can turn dirt into life.

now i suppose with all these egg posts, the world has got wind that i'm some egg collector-connoisseur. as i have recently been gifted a wooden egg, from the lands of far east asia.

you see, the egglings are plants that grow out of eggs. the wooden egg is an egg made from a plant (tree) that most likely was hatched out of a similar eggling many many years ago in a far away land.

so you ask yourself:
are plants that mimic procreation styles of birds and reptiles a healthy post topic for this blog?
i say yes. and leave it at that.

five oh three, "that's my area", p-o-r-t

2010-08-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

"welcome to portland"

"and back to the city"

the eggling pt. 5

2010-07-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

not only has our little eggling found a nice cosy place to call home, it's also got a new friend!

in fact, these egglings are twins, who were unfortunately separated at birth. but today they are reunited again!!

you may be wondering, if these are twins, why is one so big, and the other looks either newborn or just plain dead. well, if you did wonder that, you've just earned your "observation badge" for the year.

the truth is, the other twin came from a very dark household (literally, not much sun). but after only a few days here, reunited, there's signs of progress and hope.

the eggling pt. 4

2010-07-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

it's one week later and we* have successfully moved, and the eggling is settling in nicely.

lots of afternoon sun allow the eggling to sleep in, and bask after lunchtime.

the eggling's leaves are really starting to branch out and create a nice full plantlike shape

just look at that color! i'm such a proud parent.

*we = me + eggling

current state

2010-07-17T17:23:00.001-07:00

panoramic picture taken one week after move in (click for full size).

road master pro tour

2010-07-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

i've been riding bikes ever since i was a little kid. and i hated it. my first bike was yellow, and i must have asked my dad 1,000 times to raise the pedals on the bike. when i’d turn/lean and pedal, the pedals would scrape the ground.

later on, in middle school and early high school i'd have to ride my bike to my friend's house if i wanted to play. everyone else would get rides in cars with air conditioning from moms or older car driving brothers. getting my driver’s license was not only a moment of transit freedom, it was also a goodbye to my pedal powered nemesis.

then in college miraculously bikes were cool again! cars cost money to park, run, maintain, and bikes could get you to a friend’s dorm or an apartment party much faster. most of the guys in my dorm followed my lead and purchased bmx bikes like the one i had. since i had experience owning and working on bikes, i was the dorm go-to guy for a quick tune up, flat change, or even a new paint job. no other dorm had so many bikes in top condition at all times.

one dark night my yellow bmx was stolen, and i haven't had a bike since. i was crushed, but it happened just as i moved 15 miles away from campus. not too long after it was stolen my bike would have simply taken up storage space in my new apartment. a word from the experienced: use a u-Lock. cable locks can be cut through with a simple hacksaw, chain link locks can be snipped with bolt cutters. it takes the power of a small car jack to bust open a u-lock. my yellow bmx was just chained.

to sum up my bike background, i’ve disliked owning and riding bikes (aside from a small stint in the college dorms).

fast forward to the present day. one week ago i moved to the mission district (link). the mission has a reputation as being the hipster neighborhood. and one thing that comes with hipsters are their bikes. i figured when in rome you realize that it wasn’t built in a day, so when in the mission you accept your mission and get a bike.

after a few days cruising craigslist’s bikes for sale, i got a pretty good idea what was out there. my decision would be between a bmx, road, mountain, or hybrid bike. a hybrid is a mix between a road and a mountain bike.

bmx bike – small and portable, cheap and rather abundant. plenty available at $40-$70.
road bike – the most expensive yet the most desirable. $100-$1,500.
mountain bike – the most abundant, the least cool, and they are big.
hybrid – almost as costly as the road bike but didn’t see many listed.

i continued my craigslist combing for 3-4 weeks, and developed two requirements for my soon-to-be-bike, i decided to find a bike that is 100% functional yet cost me <$50.

on july 15th it showed up. 40miles away, a fresh grad from berkeley was looking to clear some space out of his trailer park home. he posted two pics and two sentences about the bike, and that was all it took to grab my attention.

actual listing:
Road Master Pro Tour for sale - $35
I bought this one to ride in my school few years ago from another owner; however, in the end, I didn't ride it at all.

I will also throw in a free master lock ( U shape).
Just want to get rid of this junk out of my house. No low baller plz. Pick up only

i emailed him promptly. within a few minutes, he replied, and a time was setup to see the bike. he then took the craigslist listing down, as he was being overwhelmed with responses of people wanting to buy the bike. i was the lucky first to reply!

his name was phat, hey he was vietnamese, and he had just graduated from berkeley school of engineering with a mechanical engineering degree! what do you know, same as me (except uc irvine is no uc berkeley)

as i pulled up to his driveway i noticed that he was a very smiley fellow. we exchanged greetings and headed towards the bike. i rode it up and down the streets, and could tell that with a few adjustments this bike would run tip top. he said he just wanted to get rid of it because it’s been sitting for a while.

in random conversation i told him that i too hold a mechanical engineering degree. he asked me where i worked, and i told him a bank. “but i used to work in aerospace down in los angeles!” he said he'd been job hunting for 2 months (since graduation), and was getting nowhere. i could tell he was a bit beat up by the job search. i know his struggle. i assured him that something would come up, and that with his engineering degree he could do more than be an engineer.

i didn't have $35 dollars exactly, so i handed him $40 and told him "since i didn't bring 35 dollars exactly, will you take $40 for the bike and u-lock?" he smiled yet again and we went our ways.

watching the world cup to boot

2010-07-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

1520 C to 65 307

2010-07-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

the eggling pt. 3

2010-07-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

here we are at day 30. the eggling is doing great.

they say plants like music, and so far ray hasn't moved from the top of my left speaker.

i'll be moving in a few days, hopefully ray will be okay with the move, and find a nice place for ray to live.

comics

2010-07-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

i was never into comics, or comic culture. but a friend of mine is, and he loves to write. i love to doodle. so we combined forces for 30mins the other day and this is what we came up with. it's a very rough piece of strip, but proves that we can do something.

i'm a self machine

2010-07-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

"i saw the mirror staring back at me,
and it told me i'm a self machine"

there's something about this song that i just can't get enough of. i blame coco is apparently sting's 19yo daughter. after la roux got a hold of the original and sprinkled some magic on the track, i've been hopelessly hooked.

i blame coco - self machine (la roux remix) right click to save-as if you want the .mp3

lately i've been feeling a lot like a self machine. i'm not even sure what that means, but it sounds right for the situation. machines don't feel, they just "take in information, process it, and produce an output". having no feelings means no irrational fears, or apprehension, or anxieties. unfortunately it also means no enjoyment, happiness feelings, or excitement.

for me, self machine actions are faced around dealing with changes. change is definite, but it's not always easy. even if the change is something that you've been wanting, and yearning for, change can be scary. somehow it's in our nature to find comfort in the reliably predictable future, and experience discomfort, anxiety, and fear in the unpredictable and unknown future. i suppose this is why people stay in crappy relationships, jobs, homes, cities, and so on.

in the past i've taken pride in the fact that i face my changes head on, and that i am one who can recognize when it's time to initiate the move from an unsatisfying situation. however, as i reflect back, i haven't quite been that person. i look back and see situations still existing today that require some change. but i've sat on them, and hid in the safety net of being able to predict what would happen next, even if it was a situation i dislik(ed). i am proud as to how far i've come, and what i've accomplished, but i am not content, yet. i want to continue on my path, i want more. which requires change.

i've realized that it's time to make some changes. as tough as making changes can be, and as scary as it can feel, there's no other way to make things better than they are right now. the biggest of these changes is where i spend 80% of my time, home. in one week i'll be moving across town. google maps says i'm moving 4.8 miles, and 18mins away from where i currently am. what's so scary about that?

where i'm moving to there will be far less fog and wind. the walkscore of my residence will jump from 78 to 97! i'll go from living with 2 other people in a three bed two bath apartment to living alone in a one bedroom one bathroom apartment. and my rent will be close to double of what i pay now. i guess you take the good with the bad.

as i move through these changes i find myself making decisions like a machine. decisions where i could weight out just how i feel, and what i think, and toss in how scared i am of the risk that things could turn out in the worst possible scenario imaginable. but instead something takes over me, and i "take in information, process it, and produce an output".

sometimes i snap out of it, and find myself in knee deep in transition. it feels almost as if i've just woken up from a sleepwalk. woah, how did i get here? a second ago i was nowhere near where i am now, but i guess i'm on the path to what i want so i mine as well keep on going.

"I’m not a human if you say I’m not
I’m not a human if my engines lock
And this motor that you call my heart
Is another machine that wont stop"

the road to 5 stars

2010-06-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Pretentious Version)

play this song while you read, hopefully the track is long enough for you to read the entire post to music. right click to save-as the.mp3 if you wish.

i am never in silence. when i have to walk down the 4 flights of stairs to my laundry machine, headphones come with. walking a few blocks from where my car is parked to the restaurant where everyone is meeting up at, headphones. while working (except during phonecalls) the 250watt mackie hr824 mki speakers are pumpin. if it's early then i've got the panasonic over hear headphones. i have an ipod dock in the bathroom so i can shower to music. there's a set of pc speakers that i plug my iphone or ipod into in the kitchen for cooking and listening. and of course i have ipod/iphone integration in my car which has 9 speakers, one of which is a 1000 watt kenwood subwoofer paired with a 1000 watt kenwood amp.

i am never in silence.

i've already managed listening to music where i want. but what do i listen to? how do i govern the 27,549 songs loaded in my current library? how do i manage to listen to what i want, when i want?

i use a few key pieces of information, and a few basic itunes tools to my advantage.

playlists
there's two types of playlists, smart playlists and regular playlists. regular playlists are very simple. create one, drag songs into it -done. the downside to playlists is that they are static, and only change when you go in and change them. it's not much different than burning a cd, which we all know that after a number of listens we get sick of.

smart playlists can be a bit more complex, yet far more powerful. rules are associated with smart playlists, and they are updated in real time. it may be simpler for me to outline examples of playlists and smart playlists i use. it's like burning a cd that keeps updating itself with the songs you play most, rate highest, and have recently added to your collection. same list, diff songs. smart playlists follow your musical tastes and evolves as you do.

some of my sample playlists:
- songs for my friend
- napa 2010 road trip songs
- my mixtape mafia session 6 songs
- top ten tegan and sara songs

some examples of my smart playlists:
- songs with a three star rating
- songs with three star rating and less than 10 play counts
- songs with genre equal to 'dance punk' or 'electronic' with download date after 01/01/2010
- songs added within the last 20 days
- 30 songs with the highest play count
- songs with album name equal to (insert multiple album names, for me this is blogs where i download songs from, see below)
- upcoming concerts (by adding artists = each artist i have tickets to see)

(note: itunes adds one increment to a playcount only when the entire song is played. this is how i got jon's most played song to playcount 162, just fast forward to the last second of the song and let it end... playcount +1)

rating songs (stars)
this is the most important task for me, in order to skim the creamiest of songs off the top of the lot. the ultimate goal here is to segregate the songs that i can't get enough of, from the songs that i like, but don't love. star ratings allow that to happen. itunes allows you to rate a song from 0-5, meaning you have have 6 different ratings (no stars, one star, two,..., five stars).

i generally follow this pattern. if i like a song, it gets three stars right off the bat. this rating happens on the computer, the iphone, and the ipod. since i sync all these devices, with my computer. eventually the rating will get translated to the other two devices. and this song is added to my 'songs with three star rating' playlist.

now, just recently i hit about 700 songs with three stars. at this threshold is where i decided to start reviewing songs with three stars, and separate the men from the boys. if i can't live without this song, i will bump it up to 5 stars. as of now i have 30 or so songs rated at 5 stars. again, this is my no fail playlist, songs that i can hear any time, any mood, any day, and completely love every single one of the tracks that plays.

the beauty of the smart playlists and these ratings is that if my mood changes, so does the playlist. "this song is not a 5 star song anymore, down it to 3 and it's out of my 5star playlist immediately". or if i decide that i hate hate hate a song, i'll rate it one star, and have a playlist for 1star songs. when i get around to it, i'll pull up my 1star playlist and delete everything within. this works well for dupes (though itunes has a somewhat competent duplicate detection system, i also use this method).

honorable mention: skip count
if you click on view->view options... in itunes you can see that there are many fields of information that are not enabled. one of those fields (by default) is skip count. if you change the song while it's playing in the first 2 to 20 seconds, the skip count will increment by one. i use the skip count to track which songs i skip the most, some of which also have the most complete listens. a smart playlist parameter i have used before (and may again) is something along the lines of playcount is less than 10, skip count is more than 10. this way i target songs that i don't like.

keeping it open:
since i only use the zero, one, three, and five ratings for songs, this leaves me open to determine what a two star and four star rating means. i like to design my processes with room for growth and expansion, you never know.

i also have last.fm tracking my activity, so you can graphically see what/who i listen to most (click on charts and see just how big of a tegan and sara fan i am)

"yeah yeah yeah yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah"

the eggling pt. 2

2010-06-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

it's been 9 days since the eggling was cracked open and named ray.

right now you can see a few little sprouts peeking through the rubble.

here's a closeup shot of what looks like three shoots.

i'm already a proud parent.

takin' me back

2010-06-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

'this is way before google reader'

i love soccer, and have since i can remember. i played on the aaa competitive teams starting in elementary school through high school. i also played on indoor teams, was picked up by other teams for tournaments that my main team wasn't participating in, and played for my high school team. soccer was life when i was growing up, and there was a time when i thought that i'd like to play soccer professionally (my other two aspirations were garbage man with a blue truck or lawn mower).

during elementary school, 2nd - 4th grade, i lived in penasquitos. i was on the pq express aaa team, along with the other elite 4th grade children around the area. one of these children was steven cherundolo (looks like he goes by steve now instead of steven). he's played professionally in germany since '99, and he's been on the usa national team roster more than most.

the past few world cups steve hadn't really made much of an appearance due to injuries. this time around he's healthy and ready, and so am i (to cheer for him). since he's a san diego native, the union tribune had a story on him recently. it outlined his path from portland's college team, to his father's death due to cancer, to staying in a german hostile while trying out for the hanover team. my dad read the article, cut it out, and mailed it to me [pictured above].

i had to cout the number of awesomes that occurred in this short moment of my life.
1.) i've played soccer with people who are on the national team (graned we were 9 yrs old).
2.) my dad cut an article out of the news paper and mailed it to me
3.) i found and friended steve on facebook, then wrote 'good luck' on his wall <- that part makes me laugh.

papaya farm

2010-06-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

text messages like these are the reason i can't give up on papaya farm.

the eggling

2010-06-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

over the weekend i became the proud father of a basil egg. i went to park life in the richmond district (aka that little knick knack store on clement), and adopted an eggling in need.

i have to say that the eggling came to me packaged with care

the eggling's mini pot, seat, plant pot bottom appears to be from germany. what a trip this little eggling has made in order to be birthed right here in foggy san francisco.

the instructions were quite clear. so i got to work helping this little guy. the spoon is mightier than the sword.

with a little encouragement,

and a little water,

we're ready to let that egg shell guard down and blossom into a beautiful little basil! (atop my mackie hr824 mki speaker of course! best seat in the house)

his name is ray

barcelona pano pics

2010-06-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

amsterdam panos

2010-06-04T07:25:00.000-07:00

london panos

2010-06-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

just about a year

2010-06-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

it's been just about a year.

after i turned thirty my life flipped upside down. i had to make an assessment of where i was, what i was doing, and what i wanted. i had just become single, from a relationship that lasted around 2 years, and felt lost in life. welcome to your thirties sucka.

the first thing i focused on was my body, getting in shape was my first new priority. weighing in the high 180's was just a bit chunky for my already thick frame, i think i'm meant to be around the 170 mark. so i invited myself to tag along with my gym going roommate and got those old running shoes out of the closet. at first i was spending most of my time on the cardio machines. running, stair walking, and eliptically increasing my heart rate. i would put in up to 45mins of cardio, and then spend a few mins doing sit ups or some goofy weight machine. after a month or so of this i was referred by my roommate to read the few intro chapters to a body building book he owned. the first few chapters discussed nutrition, then body types, and finally what types of exercise works for each body type (dependent on workout goals of course). yea, i read a bodybuilding book. your thirties do things to you that you may never expect.

i read the book slowly and thoroughly, taking notes while i read. this took me about a month to complete, and when done my workout regimin had matured. workouts went down in time (1 1/2 hours to 45-50 minutes), and results increased. learning about the three body types helped a lot.

mesomorph, endomorph, and ectomorph. the meso is the muscular thick frame. endo is the pear shape. both meso and endo can put on mass relatively easily, though the meso puts on mass as muscle where the endo puts on mass easier as fat. the endo are those that simply can't put on mass, fat or muscle. most people are not 100% each, but a blend of two. i'm mostly a meso, and characteristics of this body type means that i maximise my cardio workout with intensity vs duration. in short, if i run super hard for a short time (usually coupled with a pretty steep incline) i'll see much more benefit than a 75% pace run of twice the duration. some relatively heavy free weight lifting afterwards and i'm on my way to a thinner & fitter self.

all of this was in conjunction with the purple smoothie which i've been drinking almost every single day since the end of may 2009. i spend between $10-$15 per week on various veggies and fruits, almost all of which visit my blendtec blender (that's right, will it blend!!!). going a few days without my purple smoothie puts me in the lethargic and unmotivated state i dislike living in. its become my sunday evening therapy to slice fruit and veggies, blend, then bottle for the upcoming week. most people can't drink it, but to me it's the first thing i want to have in the morning. of course i follow it up with some coffee.

what surprises about this exercise and smoothie lifestyle is how i've kept it up. the gym gets visited three times a week on average. the smoothie is pretty close to an every day thing, though occasionally i'll skip one day during the weekend. and recently i've been taking 3 mile runs around the neighborhood during lunch hour so that my gym time can consist of weights only, no waiting in line for the coveted cardio equipment.

some interesting observations include:
there's far too many people at the gym 'doing it wrong'. too heavy of weight, bad form, wearing denim jeans (like really?), drinking soda on the treadmill, and the list goes on. i've noticed that i have more stamina standing at bars, concerts, or bbq's. when i used to have to sit down, after a short while standing. i suppose i was rather pathetic.
also, the gym does get super packed in january, and the number of doing-it-wrongers is dramatically increased. next january i may take the month away from the gym and pick up some sort of home routine. or find a much bigger gym.

i digress

i've successfully built these very important routines into my daily life. they've stuck for the past year, and i feel good about it. there's other changes and routines that i've acquired along the way, but those are for a different blog. i look back and i'm proud of my accomplishments, regardless of how small they may seem from an outside perspective.

baby shower time

2010-05-17T15:47:00.001-07:00

it's hip to be a single guy at a baby shower these days. or, so i heard.

ready for vacation

2010-05-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

my first *real* vacation starts after close of business today.

you should push the play button to the left of this song, and listen to 'holiday' while you read this post.
holiday (not madonna)

what's a *real* vacation? it's a vacation that doesn't include parents, fighting with siblings, meeting a friend/family member and crashing at their place, or any other trip where i was going regardless if i wanted to or not. i'm about to embark on a vacation where me and my friends plan to put stamps in our passports, spend our own hard earned money (some of us), and contribute to some foreign country's tourism industry.

i'm looking forward to coming back to my computer after this *real* vacation, logging into google reader and seeing (2,000) unread posts. i also expect that i won't receive one single text message, or phone call though i'll be carrying my iphone around in airplane mode (with wifi on of course) but mainly for music and maps.

where am i going? europe! specifically london, amsterdam, and barcelona. personally i've started referring to this trip as the ultimate europe trip, though i'm sure millions of people have 'done' europe in a more ultimate fashion, but it's ultimate to me which is all i freakin' care about.

i've already made a list of my todo's. don't ding me for being under-ambitious, this is a living list and can (but probably won't) change at any time.

- london:
eat fish and chips
see miike snow concert (i've bought tix in advance)
eat indian food
see big ben
ride the 'tube' aka the public transport system
drink a guiness
learn some slang
make a friend

- amsterdam:
ride a bike
ride in the canal
see the red light district (look but no touch, c'mon guys)
heinekin factory tour, or just drink a heinekin
vah gough musem
learn some slang
make a friend

- barcelona:
drink sangria on the beach
eat pallela
touch the mediterranean sea
see something gaudi
learn some slang
make a friend

as you can see, my list is not as prolific as some other europe bound travelers you may have met. but really, i'm not someone else, i'm me. i do plan on accomplishing more than this simple list, but those things can't be planned, they need to happen organically. also, notice that there's a few re-occurring goals on these lists. learn some slang and make a friend appear on all three city lists. those two can go hand in hand, and are loosely worded on purpose. i'm not looking to meet a soulmate, or a bff. but i do want to interact with some of the locals and make a friend or two, i figure at most an email penpal but even that's a bit far fetched for my aspirations.

- imaginary scenario:
me, "yo, you from around here?"
potential international friend "[insert some colo loca slang], ya i am. where you from?"
"i'm from san francisco, you know, in the states. i hate calling it 'the states' for some reason. but yea, i'm on vacat- i mean, holiday."
"[insert another local slang word]! well how long you here for?"
"a few days. wanna be friends?"
"uhh... i don't think so. no."

okay, maybe i'm being overly dramatic. but i've heard that us americans have bad reps overseas.

other than that, i don't know what to expect. i've technically been to europe, but i only went to ibiza. ibiza is the european equivalent of las vegas to the united states. you can't come to the usa, only see las vegas, and say that you've experienced the usa. same with ibiza, but it's nothing like vegas.

i am also hoping that the three other people who i am traveling with continue friendship with me after this vacation. when friends spend too much time together there is always the danger of a friend divorce. i'm pretty confident that nothing of that magnitude will happen this time around, but there's always a chance.

overall i'm feeling pretty good about my first *real* vacation. i've got low expectations, high hopes, and i'm packing extra underwear just because you never know what may happen and i'd rather be with more than less when it comes to underwear.

dragon burgers

2010-04-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

turkey burgers with vegetarian chili and all the fixin's

and then we saw little dragon rock out a 1 1/2 hr set.

clean new oil

2010-04-07T21:21:00.001-07:00

Easter Sunday

2010-04-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

bonus: look who showed up!

looking for a morning bender

2010-03-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

a few months ago i saw this video created by yourstruly of the morning benders recording session for the song excuses. i wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but i watched the video a second time and made the decision to research this band a bit more. after a few minutes i had made a decision to see them when/if they made their way to SF. last night that happened.

luckily a friend of mine showed up early enough to stand front and dead center. so i took advantage and used my iphone pano app to capture a few panoramic shots.

the finale song was of course the song excuses. however, after watching a handful of excuses live performances i was anticipating a 4 person rendition of the eye and ear catching video. turns out we were in for a special treat, and the stage quickly filled with faces that i had recognized from the video. with flip camera in hand i recorded the entire thing with one shot.
disclaimer: my video is continuous (aka boring) compared to the high quality edited one previously mentioned on this post. also the audio capture by my peauny flip camera is no match for overlaying a studio recorded/mixed/mastered audio track over edited video.

we even met up with lead singer, chris chu, for a quick chat and a photo.

needless to say i had a fantastic time.

10 things i wear around you (redux)

2010-03-27T15:09:00.001-07:00

recently jon blogged about his 10 fashion basics. a few other people noted their fashion basics afterward. so i maintain my role as a sheep, insert band wagon jump.

1.) adidas shoes
shoes have to be adidas. i don't know what my fetish with the three strips is, or where it comes from. but an outfit is not complete unless there's adidas on the feet. i was told once that the first things people notice about you is your haircut, and then your shoes. if you're going to be cheap, don't be cheap with those two things. now, once in a while i'll put on some converse all stars. but only once in a while.

2.) jeans
a friend of 6 years noted to me last night, that he has only seen me wear shorts once. the second time we went camping, emphasis on second. legs are meant to be in jeans as far as i'm concerned -just as feet are meant to be in adidas. up until last month i only wore levi's jeans. the original jean. also, a san francisco based brand. i live in sf, so does levi's, it's meant to be! until i discovered raw denim, and nudie jeans. more on that in approx 6 months. it's an entire blog post in itself.

3.) belt
as i'm writing this it seems that my fashion priority list starts at the floor and works on up. feet, legs, and now waist. i am naked without a belt. some day i will have a huge collection of belts, i love them. to me a belt is a subtle yet impactful addition to any outfit. a belt is something rather personal to me, simply because the focal point is normally the buckle, which is right at your crotch. also, your belt is normally hidden. it takes some out of ordinary action like jumping, dancing, or leaning to expose a belt. i feel as though it's similar to those strategically placed tattoos that are only exposed under certain circumstances with certain clothing choices.

4.) jackets
in socal, a jacket is a tough accessory to wear. normally you wear it because it completes your outfit, or you lack the pockets needed to tote all your junk, not because it's cold and you require another layer. it's hot, and the jacket results in a well put together outfit and a sweaty experience. in sf it's a different story, and i love that about sf. the first thing i notice in almost any clothing store is the jackets. if possible i'd have one for each day of the year. the right jacket makes me feel invincible (mainly to cold) but also to carrying stuff sans-bag.

5.) hats
'i gotta start wearin' more hats' is a quote famous with a few of my friends, taken from larry clark's move kids. i love hats, they are a perfect accessory. the right hat can transform your entire mood, demeanor, even the way you walk. i'm trying to find the style of hat that i can pull off. i think i'm more critical on hats than any other garment i wear, probably because i feel like it governs the outfit the most.

6.) accent colors
i rarely am caught wearing a monochrome outfit. san francisco is grey enough without my help, i'm feel the need to bring in a bit of color. i try to have something with color on every outfit. most of the time this is handled by my shoes or belt, but it doesn't stop there.

7.) graphic tees
not too long ago my wardobe consisted of graphic tees, and cheap 'work shirts' from ross or marshall's. work was work and everything else was a tshirt. as i'm expanding my clothing repertoire, i'm staying true to my graphic tee roots. few things are as awesome as your favorite graphic tee, which may change on a regular basis. most of my favorite graphic tees come to me as hand me downs from my younger brother. hand me ups you may say? but i have to say that it's easy to overuse graphic tees, and that's a balance i'm looking to obtain in 2010.

8.) shaving
a man's beard is just as important as his haircut. fresh shave, 5 o'clock shadow, 2 day stubble. it depends on where you're going and who you're going with. sometimes it takes quite a bit of pre-planning to make sure that your beard is where you want it, at the time you want it there. regardless, when your facial hair is in order, your face is in order and that's important.

9.) bags
i love bags. laptop bags, pouches, backpacks, messenger bags, fanny packs, satchels (like indiana jones uses), and any other bag you can think of. if i had my way i'd have a walk in closet for my extensive collection of shoes, belts, jackets, and bags. upon composing this post i didn't realize just how much i cared about outfit accessories and how little i cared about shirts/pants (which i feel are the bread and butter of a wardrobe).

10.) iphone + iphone headphones
what's that? another accessory? you betcha! i have 4-5 sets of iphone headphones, and am constantly buying more. i have at least 7 pairs of other headphones. i love headphones. over ear, earbud, inear, studio monitor, hifi, with headset mic, etc. you name it, i got it or want to get it. but it's essential to have a pair of earbuds at all times. i use them to talk on the phone or listen to music when walking. i'm also notorious for listening to my iphone while in the kitchen cooking. what do i cook to?

not everything is as magical as it seems
Song: Bassnectar - Magical World feat. Nelly Furtado

[to play song in browser, push play button to the left of the link. right click to save-as]

sno-panos

2010-03-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

Aash, cutlet, and tadik

2010-03-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

for chahar shambei soori i had some people over to enjoy my aash (bean/herb soup), cutlet (potato+ground beef patties), and loobia polo (rice/green beans/tomato). we jumped over fires and sang the song.

rocky road ice cream cones to finish a perfect tuesday new year celebration!

Rocky

2010-03-11T07:49:00.000-08:00

lately i've been doodling to music.

i'm not sure if this track is cheesy or inspiring. i'm somewhat embarrassed that i like this more than i hate it. a quote from the latest rocky movie (where he's like 50 years old) is total cheese. but i felt like writing it down when i heard it. and here's what i got.

i love hearing stallone say "not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, her, or anybody!"

maybe i'm just in need of some inspirational motivational rocky balboa can-win attitude with some redux daft punk and piano. wait. who is ever not in need of that?

rollin' & scratchin' (gonzales rework)

[to play song in browser, push play button to the left of the link. right click to save-as]

swimming in speakers

2010-03-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

first i started out listening to a heads we dance song - when the siren sound (russ chimes remix) and drew that siren/accordion thing. then a song by swimming in speakers came on, and i decided that i want to be swimming in speakers. i love audio equipment.

when the siren sound
serve them well

[to play song in browser, push play button to the left of the link. right click to save-as]

ho ender

2010-03-07T17:56:00.001-08:00

I'm reading the book ender's game, and couldn't resist a pic with this piece.

here's janelle who not only took pics of me posing, but also tagged up a nice empty space in the meantime.

uniwar

2010-03-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

i've been playing an iphone game called uniwar, and it inspired me to doodle some stuff.

posting a streaming song

2010-02-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

i'm trying to post up a song that will stream. this is a new song i've downloaded and what better to guinea pig than a new fun song? push the little play button in a circle that's to the left of the linked song and enjoy.

marina and the diamonds - mowgli's road (steve wishes he was a man club edit)

acoustic covers on youtube

2010-02-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

my brother's guilty pleasure is trashy tv. the trashier the better. during xmas break we were watching tv together with the controller in his hand. judge judy, jerry springer, jersey shore, the list goes on...

upon reflection i quickly realized that i have no televised guilty pleasure. i'm not guilty for liking the office, or spongebob squarepants. but i did realize that there is a guilty pleasure i partake in on a far too regular basis: music covers on youtube.

there have been a few major phenomenons on youtube, like the kid who played pachbel on his electric guitar and has 70MM views. or the chocolate rain kid. but those aren't my guilty pleasures. i search for and watch in their entirety amateur bedroom (mainly acoustic) covers of songs that i enjoy.

phoenix actually embedded this video on their blog, which is how i found this one. the guy is good, and the video makes you appreciate how the drums were written for this humongous song.

some people don't take themselves serious, and it's obvious they live in nowhereville usa, hence are bored.

some people are serious about their covers, they have some serious music equipment, their voices are obviously going through and effects platform, and you can see that aren't using their built in laptop computer microphones, like most of these covers.

sometimes i'll just search through the results of "acoustic cover", this is what i got during the composition of this post.

but like any guilty pleasure, i feed off of the embarrasment i feel for those sub-par performers. i can now relate to my brother's affinity for watching hair pulling trailer park couples on jerry springer.

my valentine

2010-02-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

i've always had something against valentine's day. i've accredited it to having far more 'bad' valentine's days vs. good ones, and i'm not including simply being single on 2/14/xxxx as 'bad'. yes, bad means bad.

however there is one thing i can always count on when mid feb rolls around to boost the spirits, and that of course is my favorite woman in the world. mommma. there isn't a v-day in my memory where mom didn't have a valentine's day card for me, and this year is no different. "what's this? i've got a card in the mail?"

i lately acquired a scanner, and figured that i better share my card with the "cool" friends to see if they really will make fun of me for getting a valentine. and yes, i am telling you that there was $100 in the card.
or maybe the card just made me feel like $100 :)

song of the day

2010-02-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

in early december i was chatting with a friend online about music. i sent a song to them and expressed how much i liked this track i had recently discovered. they sent me a track in response and that’s when the idea sparked -perhaps we should email each other songs, one per day, and see how long we can keep it up?

okay i’m in!

before we discussed the ‘song of the day’ concept, i had been planning to send a second song over in response to my friend’s song. but after that conversation occurred i queued song #2 as a draft email and made a mental note to send it the next day . hence ‘song of the day’ was born. on the third day i sent another favorite of mine, and the fourth day dug a little bit deeper to find a song that could live up to #1, #2 and #3. and the cycle started. in fact, just about every day since that early december conversation i’ve sent a song.

now let me clarify, i’m not sending just any song here. that is far too easy. heck, my current itunes library has 26,000+ songs so technically i can send a song each day for the next 71 years with no need to download anything new.

but i’ll be the first to admit that of my 26,000+ songs, about half should be deleted, and of that half only a small fraction would i consider ‘good’ songs. a ‘song of the day’ needs to be a special song. it needs to be bangin’, or it has to touch you, something about the song must stand out, these are special songs. if it was so easy to find a true ‘song of the day’, then more people/places/things would be doing it.

since then ‘song of the day has evolved into somewhat of a game better yet a challenge for myself to keep up this once-a-day song share. there’s a slight pressure i put on myself to deliver a good song each day to my friend’s inbox. the songs don’t have to be new, they have to be good. there’s also negative points (self inflicted) if my friend knows the song, or worse yet has the song. this is about music sharing, expanding each other’s music collection, and sharing something between two people who have a common interest.

to date i’ve sent over 40 songs, and i’m proud of every single one. i haven’t received as many in return, but this wasn’t a 1 to 1 agreement, it was a ‘let’s see how long each of us can keep it up’. it’s also understood that we’re sharing only quality and quantity isn’t even on the table. we both would prefer no song in our inbox instead of a mediocre, or dare i say a bad one.

as i’ve been sending these songs i’ve thought about one song per day from another person’s perspective. i’ve tried to imagine how many people do i know would have the time, dedication, and interest in consuming one song each day? it takes much more than you initially think. i know people who would love to do this, but don’t have the time and would ultimately end up with a ‘song of the day’ pile up in their inbox. i know people who have the time on their hands to consume one song per day, but constantly being introduced to new music is somewhat numbing after the novelty quickly wears off. the person also needs to have a deep passion for new music already somewhat established.

then i did some self-reflection, i know that i am able to consume a song a day, i already do. there’s a handful of music blogs who post daily, which i frequent. keeping up with them is not easy it takes dedication and effort (sometimes i rely on the ‘song of the day’ motivation to fuel my new music listening efforts). but i may sift through 3-5 songs one day, and then 60 the next. of course new albums are coming out weekly, singles are leaked, and of course i can’t discount the infinite amount of music that i have yet to discover which has already been released. when i’m not catching up with blog posts there’s a few other portals i’ll visit where unimaginable amounts of music are readily accessible.

i don’t know if ‘song of the day’ will ever be more than an email/day from me to a friend. i’m not sure how long it will last. but i have kept a playlist of each song sent (in order to track but also detect possible duplicates). so i guess we’ll just have to wait and see what shows up tomorrow, like the ‘song of the day’.

must share music

2010-02-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

last night i sent this email to my friend.

friend,

i've just listened to this song 3 times back to back. i had to share it asap!

first of all 0:00 - 1:18 i know, not impressive... i sorta dislike this guys vocals and lyrics in the beginning. but it's all part of the plan.

but at 1:19 things get a bit interesting with the distorted bass line and air-y background vocals. but trust me, this isn't why i like the song. another breakdown [1:50] and you may find yourself playing air tambourine, but it takes more than some shakin' to move me (a pun right now? really ameer?)

2:22 you think that you know this song, it's honestly not bad and things are at what feels like the climax. another bridge, repeat chorus and we're done -right?

no.

3:23 hits. and this is where i first started paying attention. everything beforehand was built up to this. the song has progressively gotten better and better, which is why i deal with the beginning minute and 18sec.

you ask yourself, where did this come from? is that piano? and then electric 80's sounding guitar? OMG! if you appreciate this song 50% as much as me then you will still be in love with it.

5:21 it's over. repeat it if you like, i did. thank you for dedicating 5:21 to me today.

-me

then later i got this response after my friend read/listened to the attached song.

you,

-I like that the song starts right up immediately
- no slow progression, just jumps right in.
-Not crazy about the vocals but don't dislike them either. I did find myself wondering if he was faking the Brit accent
-loved the 1:19 transition. is that sitar? i think it might be. the middle easterner in me is impressed.
-1:50 feels like the soundtrack to a dream sequence. i like it. i could almost listen to a whole song just like this. it's happy. i feel like i'm going to find myself humming it later
-3:23 wow. wow. wow. i love this. your'e absolutely right, it's very 80s, the guitar is perfection, such a simple melody. and the chorus over it has me maybe a little bit dancing in my seat, i must confess. there are so many layers to this song. i haven't heard something like this in a long time. i love choruses like this. i know, i hate to bring up a madonna reference, but it's the reason i like "Like a Prayer'. i don't generally care for the song, but i LOVE a good gospel choir. fact: i can listen to people sing on and on about religion if they sing as a gospel choir. true story. did you know there is a reality show like "American Idol" but for gospel singers only? you're welcome.

i kinda just want to rewind and listen to 3;23-onward over and over. the song started out on a sadder note, but the end is heavenly! i feel like this would have been a great song for the flying mixes, actually.

Thank you music penpal!

~friend

my friend's response was composed in realtime while listening to the song, which is the same manner that i composed my email about the song. there's few things that make me smile a big goofy "duh-huyk" smile like a solid song share.

the song can be downloaded or played
memory tapes - bicycle

party animals

2010-02-09T17:10:00.000-08:00

i fell in love with the concept of this video, and it inspired me to doodle a bit.

i'm not sure if this doodle is done or if i want to add more. perhaps i'll watch the video again and see if something sparks.

the guy equivalent?

2010-02-03T18:34:00.000-08:00

Me [2:14 PM]: yo
Him [2:22 PM]: yo
Me [2:23 PM]: my friend asked "what's the guy equivalent to a single girl with cats"
Him [2:23 PM]: dude what a good question ...
Me [2:23 PM]: right?
Him [2:23 PM]: snakes?
Me [2:23 PM]: the guy who married a pillow?
baseball card collector?
action figures?
is there a pet.. fish?
steve carrel in 40yo virgin?
Him [2:25 PM]: it's not a pet because that means nurturing and responsibility of some sort which means at least some lady will buy it "he's an ogre, but he has a kitten, that means he will be a good father" it's gotta be like a fixation which = cats for women
Me [2:26 PM]: right!
Him [2:26 PM]: a fixation with no potential earning power and not suitable for casual conversation
Me [2:26 PM]: i figure like angela and kevin from the tv show, 'the office'?
Him [2:28 PM]: your friend posed an excellent question
Me [2:28 PM]: how did we not have this answer
Him [2:28 PM]: which i will happily debate with you for like 3 hours haha let's break it down fixation

Him [2:28 PM]: socially unacceptable limited peers right?
Me [2:28 PM]: we need to come to an answer general enough but specific enough... and he will never get some, ever
Him [2:29 PM]: well that's the unifier being into something that not only doesn't help in getting action but actually inhibits it but he does it anyways
Me [2:31 PM]: 1990's tech/computer geek was the cat lady equiv, but that's changed.

Him [2:39 PM]: problem is too many of these typer of guys have wives we have it easier girls are less picky?
Me [2:40 PM]: have we concluded that a man can never reach the level of cat lady equiv?

Him [2:41 PM]: the problem is for us guys we don't choose the life partner we get tricked into it. it's all look at me, i hear heels, i look good, I will go drinking/clubbing with you, and slowly the temperature of the water rises but we don't jump because we are lazy and stupid then. suddenly we're driving our kids to soccer practice that is the natural order of things
Me [2:43 PM]: hahaha
Him [2:43 PM]: that's why there are cat ladies they need to do all the enticing up front the moment they give up on that, that's it.

Me [2:43 PM]: this is an eye opener
Him [2:43 PM]: for me too i feel like we stumbled across a new geometry proof
Me [2:43 PM]: we totally did we basically discovered something as huge as time travel is possible
Him [2:44 PM]: "...and thus the right angles make these lines the same length...holy crap!" so we've essentially proven that like there is no male cat lady there are guys who are in a cat lady type position but the difference is they can always claw out of it whereas with catlady you can't. also with the guy they tend to fixate on something that honestly if they had to they could walk away from.

these conversation excerpts were taken from an intellectual discussion about worldly topics concerning the betterment of mankind. another one of the many ways i spend my precious free time.

everyday

2010-02-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

pen, paper, scanner, blogger.

fillmore phoenix

2010-01-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

last night was my first experience at the fillmore. i'd been wanting to see a show at this venue for months now, and haven't found the right show to christen my fillmore experience. until last night.

when i saw phoenix on the fillmore bill i promptly set an alarm to buy tickets the moment they went on sale. tickets available at 10am, by 10:05am i had two tickets successfully ordered and the show was completely sold out. i was a bit biffed that 2 tix was the max i could purchase.

at the end of the show, after their third encore song '1901' the guitarist created a diversion on the right hand side of the stage, it was pitch dark with a sliver spotlight on him. meanwhile thomas mars was sneaking to the back of the room via the left side of the venue only to appear spotlight at the rear with mic in hand singing the ever famous "fold it fold it fold it" one more time.

laptopping

2010-01-25T10:26:00.000-08:00

we hit up haus, a hip coffee shop with free wifi. a panoramic pic had to be taken.

purple smoothie

2010-01-20T23:55:00.001-08:00

i made a purple smoothie today, and took some video. boy i love the flip vid cam!

playlists vs. mixes

2010-01-11T16:37:00.001-08:00

as time passes i am less tolerant to the phrase "you know what i mean".

assuming to know what someone means is a risk, and old people are more risk adverse because they have learned that not every risk is backed by a reward of equal or greater magnitude. even as i puke these sentences into this blog post people will read this and see what i wrote, but in turn assume what i mean. that is unless i explicitly write exactly what it is that i mean.

what do i mean? what am i trying to say? que up the high-entropy mixtape rant!

mixtapes are a thing of the past. tape is an outdated technology for end users, therefore mixtape is an outdated term. therefore most people have dropped the word tape and simply use the word "mix".

personally i have confusion when someone references a "mix".

"do you have that mix that i gave you?"
"is this your bedroom mix?"
"i made my girlfriend a mix for our anniversary"

in my experience these sentences reference a playlist, they do not refer to a mix.

a playlist is a collection of songs. often the playlist contains various artists, songs form different albums, multiple genres, etc. i can see how the word 'mix' can somewhat represent this, because elements of the collection of songs are a 'mixed' bag.

however, as the products of standardized testing that we all are, we need the word that is best used to describe what this is, not a word that does a pretty good job. if the SAT test doesn't give any credit for pretty good answers, neither should i right?

a mix is when the songs of a playlist are blended together. this requires the songs to be beat-matched, adjacent songs overlap ending and beginning. of course there are exceptions to this generalization as music is art and art doesn't have hard fast boundaries, but 99 times out of 100 a mix is when songs are mixed.

why is this important to me? because i've created playlists as well as mixes. it is undeniable that a mix requires more efforts than a playlist. i've made awesome playlists in minutes, it's near impossible to make an awesome mix in minutes. in fact it's near impossible to even make a crappy mix in minutes.

i'm not bagging on playlists. a decent playlist usually has plenty of time and energy devoted to it by the creator to determine the order, the flow, the entire experience. some playlist creators even have rules that are strictly followed when composing the song order.

just don't call it a mix.

The PAN Called...

2010-01-11T07:41:00.000-08:00

gene and i shot some video during the break. during the weekend i slapped some music over it and stitched all the shots together.

The PAN Called... from holysocks on Vimeo.

Sf public library

2010-01-07T13:25:00.001-08:00

Guess who's officially a public library card holder!

make a move here, a move there

2010-01-03T18:58:00.000-08:00

i started blogging with livejournal in 2001. i know not exactly when because i either deleted it or can't find it (or livejournal deleted it due to inactivity).

i wasn't too hip to the closed feeling of livejournal, where only registered journalers could comment, thus i quickly jumped ship with blogger in my sights. almost 10 years ago things were different, online storage was not free, nor was it easy and user friendly. so i set up my blog in the fashion that most 'power users' would have set it up. i know this because power users set me up.

i registered a domain, mooched some web space from a friend's ftp, and configured blogger to take care of the rest. i was posting pics and changing my blog layout with custom templates while everyone else was confined to the text only blog posting approach confined in the stale handful templates that blogger offered.

all of this happened about 9 years ago, since then blogging has evolved and my blog unfortunately has not. blogger was bought by google, space on the web became plentiful and free, and my hotshot setup was surpassed by free accounts. today, a new blogger account comes with the luxury of posting pics and vids, customized templates, and widgets! all with your google account which ties to blogger.

so with the turning of the decade(along with a very motivated kick in the pants from jon) i've ported it all over to a new address, a blogspot one.

this turn of the new year i'm turning to a new blog, which is my old blog. of course i named it "am i wrong? (to hunger) II" which is lame, i know.

perhaps this 'newness' will motivate me to change my template more often, and compose posts more often as well. pics and vids are great, but there's something to be said about a well written blog post. hopefully i say what that is this year?

ringing it in

2010-01-03T13:14:00.001-08:00

New Year's Eve 2009 from dacurious on Vimeo.

this is how nye happened.

Infultwated!

2009-12-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

You know it's Xmas eve...

2009-12-24T20:01:00.000-08:00

Podcasting

2009-12-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

This is what podcasting looks like:

mile high club

2009-12-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

it took me 30 years to achieve, but i've finally made it to the mile high club! that's right, i'm blogging from 30,000 feet (though a mile is only 5,280 feet). so i'm a many mile high club member.

there's not too much excitement on a flight, in fact i've take a picture with my eee pc's built in webcam.

granted this post itself is pretty unamazing, the fact that i'm doing what i'm doing is highly amusing. and the next time i post something like this will either be free wifi at the bottom of the ocean, or on the moon.

bedroom dj

2009-12-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

while surfing new music a few days ago i came across the website for this pacemaker device. the pacemaker is some sort of ipod/dj/do-hickey. i can't say i was impressed by an overpriced and under powered portable dj solution, but after the quirky black light dance video explanation of the device was over, something caught my eye. free desktop dj software? oh i want, i want! where do i test drive this?

so i downloaded the program and imported my 26,000 songs. this wasn't a great idea, as it took 2 days for pacemaker to analyze each second of each song, in order to count bpm and song pattern. i don't have 26,000 songs worth putting into a mix, so in retrospect that's one thing i'd do differently. however, after two days of waiting for song analysis to complete, i stitched together 11 songs creating my first programmed mix.

i can't say that this is the best mix ever, in fact some of the transitions need a bit more tweaking, but the track selection is good (in my opinion).

1. Animal (Peter Bjorn and John Remix) - Miike Snow

2. Delorean - Big Weekend

3. I'm Not Alone (Deadmau5 Remix) - Calvin Harris

4. Tivoli (Original Mix) - Steve Angello

5. Jump In The Pool (Thin White Duke Remix) - Friendly Fires

6. Hometown Glory (Axwell Remode Mix) - Adele

7. Last Dance In Tokyo (Gloves ReWrite) - Golden Bug

8. Make You Mine (Fred Falke Remix) - Miami Horror

9. Death And All His Friends (MMMatthias Remix) - Coldplay

10. Until We Bleed (Adieus Remix) - Kleerup Feat. Lykke Li

11. Shooting Stars (Cassian Remix) - Bag Raiders

download my first mix attempt with this free software here. (right click - save as)

and here's a screencap of the mix and software, it's pretty simple to use:

edit:

i forgot to put a link! pacemaker.net

Abe

2009-12-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

If it worked for honest abe, maybe it'll work for me?

friday night plans

2009-12-11T19:59:00.000-08:00

vons, the hotspot

2009-11-30T19:59:00.000-08:00

some items at hong's

2009-11-30T16:57:00.000-08:00

heartbreaker

2009-11-30T16:53:00.000-08:00

i was listening to the MSTRKRFT song feat. john legend titled heartbreaker.

The lion's den

2009-11-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

Waking up at 5am on thanksgiving day is nice, seeing hong get doused
by a wave at 6am is priceless.