Regarding Comments

Just a short post before bed:

On Sunday I was informed by Flor rather sternly and comically that I only allow comments on this blog from users with Blogger profiles. Well, I decided that it didn't make sense to only allow nerds to comment on my blog so now I've opened it up to everybody. Happy commenting!

Death By Coffee

I met Aaron for lunch today. We decided to go to Blimpie's for their awesome sandwiches and then for their close proximity to Walmart. This of course allows us to kill two birds with one stone as after we ate we could then shop without leaving the building. Anyway, In case you didn't read Aaron's blog this morning he went to bed pretty late and only got about 3 hours of sleep last night so to replenish his sluggish body he wanted to get a Double Shot. Being the nice guy that he is he decided to buy me one too just for the heck of it.

Death By Coffee

This series of events got me thinking about the Starbucks Double Shot and how the caffeine in it works and then I remembered this cool Death By Caffeine calculator that I found via Healthbolt. Apparently this is a cool little calculator on the Energy Fiend website that calculates how much of something (anything) you would need to ingest to kill yourself with the caffeine content... assuming you could physically ingest that much of said item.

The site asks for your body weight and what product you are indulging yourself with and then calculates how much of that item would kill you via caffeine. Apparently since I weigh about 150lbs it would take 78.75 cans of Starbucks Double Shot to do me in. Since I drank down the one then that means I've got 1/78th closer to death, just 77 more to go! Check out the calculator here and for those interested in the positive side of coffee and caffeine check out his post on how coffee may extend your life. Ahhh. :)

Book Review: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

I just finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King this morning. This was the second time I read the book. The first time was roughly 13 years ago when I was around 14 years old. This is the first book of King's Dark Tower Series which is basically his legacy series in which most of his novels somehow tie into it. I find it particularly cool that he can make all of his works fit together.

The Gunslinger starts out chasing "the man in black" across the desert. We pretty much meet Roland (The Gunslinger" and get a feel for his purpose in life. We learn of his transition to manhood and we learn a bit about his cryptic future but most of all we learn about his tormented psyche as he pits his own desires against his destiny.

It's a fun read and a short read for King standards and it will make you salivate for the next 6 books in the series as this book is basically just the introduction to the series. It's one of the longest introductions of all time I think but it's darned inspiring to find a purpose in life.

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My Other Book Reviews

Things I've Got For Sale

The following items I have for sale on Craigslist:

• Audiovox SMT5600 - AT&T Wireless Cell Phone - CNET Product Review - $50 - Used and scratched up a bit - Still works fine.
• Motorola Cordless Phone - Perfect Working Order, Used - $10
• RadioShack Caller ID Box - Perfect Working Order, Used - $5
• Two 256MB DDR PC2700 CL2.5 sticks of PC DIMM RAM (Samsung) - $15/each - Used
• Replacement Battery for Sony Laptops - Model Number PCGA-BP2S - $20 - Used
• Plantronics Bluetooth Cell Phone Headset - Model Number M2500 - $10 - Used
  

Photography, Videos, and Directing The Sun

I try to keep myself busy. Lately I've found that I'm finding it a lot less enjoyable to just sit around the house watching TV or something of the like. As many of my friends and family can attest I have immersed myself into many other things such as a girl friend, a full time job, an awful lot of bowling, a lot of traveling, I've even had some stints of dancing thrown into the mix as well as my trip back to school this past winter to finish up my long overdue undergraduate degree (which I got by the way). I've also spent a lot of time with my business partner, friend, and roommate Aaron to do video projects for schools, musicians, churches, and weddings. But not only that but I help Aaron out with his photography business which is sort of a subdivision of NGS Media our San Diego wedding video company. What do I do in this position you might ask?

I direct the sun! I am the official NGS Director Of The Sun. I cause the sun shed light wherever Aaron needs it. :) Pretty cool huh?

This past weekend I helped Aaron photograph a model for the calendar he's working on. It's a fund raiser to benefit breast cancer awareness and the 3-Day. Here is a quality shot Aaron got of me while on the job. Just look at me! Who else could look that good while directing sun? No one.

I Got Skills; They're Multiplying

So my last post was about the baseball game that Aaron, Flor, and I went to. Well, I forgot about the video that Aaron got of me at my very worst while at that game. Needless to say he has immortalized it by placing it prominently on YouTube. I guess I'll help spread the word about my sweet dancing skills by embedding it right here.

Baseball!!!

Ohh my gosh! I almost forgot that Aaron, Flor, and myself went to a baseball game Friday. The weekend has seemed so long and it's only Sunday morning. I continually remind myself every time I do something cool right after work on a Friday night that it makes the weekend seem twice as long and extremely worthwhile.

Anyway, you can see Aaron's blog for his take on the game or just take a look at the pictures.

I gotta say the game was a lot of fun and we got cool visors. The Padres played pretty good but they couldn't finish the job as they left runners on base all night. I think they had something like 13 men left on base. With stats like that they deserved to lose. Box Score

The game also brought to mind our failed attempt to watch the Padres - Red Sox game a few weeks back. It seems that we didn't learn our lesson because until 4pm I didn't know I'd be at the game. We got lucky. I guess the Red Sox are a bigger draw to local fans than the Phillies. -Shrug-

Family Camp

This weekend I went to family camp with my favorite lady and her family. I had a pretty good time but it could of been better. For starters, had I come away without catching a bacterial infection aka stomach bug I'd have been much happier.

Aside from that it was pretty nice. We stayed at a small camp ground in Tajunga Canyon North of Los Angeles. We roughed it in a cabin with bunk beds and an air conditioner. To our defense the in-room shower had no hot water and the air conditioner was past its prime. It was pretty hot even with it running full blast the whole time. Anyway, after enjoying our time in services and in bed and in the food line we all had to find something to do, myself included. So we strapped it on for a game of soccer! I shudder thinking that I actually played soccer in 95 degree weather. I don't even like soccer! Well, I still don't like soccer but it was fun. My team won and I even scored a goal! That's pretty impressive considering this was the Hispanic Nazarene District's family camp and everyone else has been paying soccer their whole lives.

By the end of the game I almost died though. I'm a desk jockey and all that running around in intense heat almost made me sick. Maybe it did too. Later that day I started to feel the effects of my stomach ailment which has kept me out of commission ever since. I didn't even go to work today and I think I'll stay home tomorrow too.

Anyway, since we've been back I've just been nursing myself back to health and playing a lot of Civilization IV. I've got a great game going right now. I'm hoping to win via domination before 2000AD. Should be interesting to see if I make it for all the Civ nerds out there.

This is where I'd probably post the pictures from the weekend but unfortunately my camera finally broke and is out of commission. I bought my Kodak DX3600 roughly 7 years ago. It was a 2.2 megapixel camera and it was awesome. Now Flor's phone is a 2.0 megapixel camera so mine pretty much sucks and now it is dead, so until I get a new one I'll be picturless. Later.

Two Birthdays and an Anniversary

This is my current favorite picture of Flor:

In other news Flor and I just got back from Missouri last night and it was quite a nice trip. I was not feeling great at the beginning of it but by Saturday I felt great. My family went out to a Japanese sushi and steakhouse for lunch after bowling and then we all spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for Jess and Johns wedding. Fun times that I'll have to go into more in detail later. I haven't even taken the time to unpack or take a look at all the pictures from the weekend.

The previous week however was a nice vacation-like week with the 4th of July and all. Amazingly I didn't get any pictures on the 4th of July as Flor and I stayed in for the most part all day. We were tired of being in the sun so we ate with AJ Buerer at IHOP around lunch time and then went shopping for Jess's wedding present until 2:30 or so. The rest of the day we hung out at home until early evening when we met up with the Tragers and Kelly for fireworks on Coronado Island. We showed up 30 minutes before the show; the show lasted 20 minutes; and it took us two hours to get off the island after the show. Needless to say we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic not moving at all for the longest time. Flor and I actually got out of the car and sat on fold-up beach chairs next to the car for a little more than an hour. I'll be honest, we were kind of gloating as we had told the Tragers beforehand that we'd be there forever if we went to Coronado. We didn't change their mind but I'm sure they were second guessing the decision as we sat around on Orange Ave. :)

Even earlier in the week though were two big days. Sunday the 1st was Flor and myself's 1st anniversary followed by my 27th birthday on Monday the 2nd. We've had a great year to say the least and we celebrated by going and spending time at Mission Bay with Mahina and company for her birthday party. Of course later on we went out shopping and celebrating that night but we pretty much kept it low key. Pictures from the Bay follow:

2007 - 1st Anniversary & Mahina's Birthday

The next day on my birthday I found waiting for me in my dining room a power drill; an awesome gift from Flor for my birthday. I'm starting to get the manly itch to become a "tool man" so now my collection begins. What follows are a couple pictures of me using the drill for the first time and then hanging out at league later that night. We had a great week to say that's for sure.

2007 - Birthday Bowling & Using My Drill

I guess tonight or tomorrow I'll have to upload pictures from this weekend and recap it because it was a doosy.

Vacationing in Missouri

Well it's Saturday and Flor and I are here in Missouri finally for cousin Jess' wedding. Neither of us are feeling too great but we're not too bad either. Flor's been popping Benadril and Visine while I've been drinking tons of water and nursing general weakness and a lack of energy.

Anyway, today we'll be heading over to Jess' families house to see her as she gets ready for the wedding and then I'll be heading out bowling with the family. I'm looking forward to that because my uncle Paul should be there and I've never bowled with him before... that I can remember at least. Paul also is a bowler and a pretty decent one at that. He doesn't do tournaments or anything but he booked a 195 average this past year in league. Not bad.

The day today should be generally relaxing and fun as we mingle with family but this afternoon we will be taking a nice trip down memory lane as we make our first visit to my grandparents grave site. My grandpa has laid there since July 2004 and my grandma has laid there since April so it will be nice to finally see their resting places.

Tonight we will all be happy to see Jess and her new husband John tie the knot. I will have to take many pictures and post them to commemorate this occasion. For now, I'll go get ready for the day.

A Week Of Pictures

This past week has come and gone and here I am presenting the albums that correspond.

Last weekend Flor and I spent a lazy day around the house. I caught this awesome picture and a couple others of Cutie sitting on Flor.



Later that day I got bored as we never left the apartment so what did I do? I decided to shave for the first time in about 3 years. I don't know why but it was awesome. It took me about 3 days to get used to my reflection in the mirror but I started liking it. Now unfortunately it's been 8 days since the shave so I'm going to have to decide whether I'm going to grow the beard back or take it back down to the skin. I think I'll shave again tonight and go with the shaved look for a little while.



This past weekend Aaron and I went out to photograph a wedding it was a good time but I missed this awesome good time with Flor, Abby, Rob, Michele, and Taylor. Flor took over with the 2.2 megapixel Kodak relic in my absence and took these fine pictures while I helped out Aaron with pictures at the NGS Media photo gig.

2007 - La Fayette Pool

Aaron has also posted a couple shots from the wedding on his blog.

That's it for now. I'll have to post our Mission bay pics from yesterday a little later. It was Mahina's birthday bash and the beginning of me and Flor's anniversary day. We had a good time.