Mia

mia is an adorable niece. that being said, she doesnt like anyone but her parents to touch her. if i even get close, she gives me the evil eye and starts to cry. WHATS THE DEAL?? im totally nice. and im not gonna drop you!

i got to babysit her about a month ago, and it actually went pretty well. i think that once she realized that i was the only other person in the house, she mellowed out and eventually we got along. i think it might have had something to do with me feeding her ice cream and french fries for dinner tho.

i dont know anything about babies.

REVIEW: sony ericsson w600i

this is one of sony ericssons first Walkman phones. sound quality is much better than my old cell, even tho it gets buggy in my apartment sometimes.

in addition to being able to take pics and video (1.3 megapixel is fun to play with, but overall grainy), u can load ur own mp4 video clips and watch them. this eats the battery up, but is a fun distraction. for example, i loaded a short clip of Enter the Dragon, the part where Bruce Lee completely ANNIHILATES about 30 guys in the underground dungeon.

the mp3 function is pretty handy as well, and the volume is good, especially with headphones. u can also take video clips, and drag them into a video clip editor and make mini movies with transitions. a music and photo editor are also available. surprising for such a small device.

u can add several numbers for each contact, as well as their email addresses, websites, and other information. just edit the contact info and click on "more". u can also assign a ringtone (or one of your own mp3's) and a picture to a contact, so u know who's calling you.

the swivel design is kind of unique, and u can talk on the phone with it open or closed. to dial a number u must have it open.

the games function is cool too. depending on the game, the w600i can be used vertically or horizontally to play its games. there are two buttons (when held horizontally) that are dedicated just for gaming.

if i had any gripes, its that the filing system is a bit hard to get a hold of. when u are dropping files into the phone from ur computer, its hard to know where to put them to be able to access them later. a little trial and error is needed, but i had fun learning it all. also, the battery life has been pretty good, but as i stated, watching video eats it up. and there is also no room for expanded memory, u are stuck with the given 256 MB. also, the supplied headphones are kind of booty. i ended up using my ipod headphones.

overall, a pretty good phone. it makes calls very well and has some nice extra features. its been out for several months, so the price has dropped alot.

red heads

left to right: joel, sky, hobbes, brian z, hoangzor, scott, bennettron, jay, mark, tim.

when i first moved to seattle in 1996, these were the guys who were holding it down at red square. its not that they were the first or the last, but theyre the ones i will remember as always being there. i took this picture over 4th of july weekend 2006, ten years later. some of them have moved to SF, and some have quit skating, but it was good to see everyone out at red for a reunion. i doubt if theyll all be gathered in one spot again for a long time.

best. cat. EVAR.

tetsuo, cat, is pretty much the best cat ive ever met. he's super fat and will scratch the hell out of u if u try and mess. i got to live with him a few years back when graham and i were roomates.

Hoang Nguyen, chain ollie

there wasnt really anything to skate at this school, just a bunch of flat ground and a beat up ledge. over in the corner were some dumpsters and junk. hoang ollied this chain about five times, then pounded seven beers and passed out.

Joel Pitts, frontside bluntslide

joel called me up at 9 AM saturday to go film. we went back to the library so he could land the frontside tailslide over the bark gap ledge he'd been trying last week. he pulled it in about half as many tries this time. my arms are all itchy today; i stood in a bush for a half hour to get a good angle. it was worth it tho.

dope.

seattle is a great city. i may talk smack about it sometimes, but i cant think of a better spot to spend spring and summer. this picture was taken from my building this morning. its been a really good summer.....definitely one of my favorites.

maximum superman

i went to see Superman Returns 3D at the iMax last nite with spencer and nathan. i hadnt seen either of them in several months, so it was nice to see that theyre both doing very well and still have all of their teeth, hair, and limbs. having already seen Superman, i knew the story going in, but the 3D elements made it worth me shelling out another ten bucks. the screen itself is pretty amazing; when nothing is projected the material is almost transparent and u can see all the lighting and speaker equipment behind the stage. it's 4 stories high and 80 feet wide, which made for a much better viewing angle than in a normal theater.

little icons would light up on the bottom of the screen letting us know when we needed to don our 3d glasses that we were given at the beginning of the show. the 3D effect itself was pretty neat. things appeared more vivid, as if one could reach out and touch the film and its characters. it was especially noticeable as objects passed in front of another or when the camera would zoom in on a closeup. only about four or five scenes were actually 3D, most of which were action scenes. i kept wondering why the whole movie wasnt done up, but as nathan mentioned, i think we would have gotten sick after a while with so much going on.

the movie still suffered from what i felt were minor complaints. they could have easily left out the last half hour of drama with superman, lois and her son. i understand why they included those scenes, but as a whole they felt unecessary. in fact, why include her son in the film in the first place? nowhere in the comic line continuity does lois have a son. also, when superman landed on the island made of kryptonite he immediately lost his powers, but in a later scene he had enough energy to lift the entire land mass out of the ocean and huck it into space? did that make sense to anyone? brian singer, im lookin at YOU.

and would it have killed them to put in a villain other than lex luthor? i mean, he's a diabolical genius and everything, but i would have loved to have seen supes duke it out with bizarro or braniac or gorilla grod. spiderman, xmen, and batman returns all had multiple villains and none of them felt underdeveloped.

kevin spacey and brandon routhe both did excellent jobs, routhe inparticular seemed to channel the late christopher reeves several times. some of his scenes as clark kent gave me slight shivers, he was so similar to his predecessor.

all in all, i enjoyed the film and felt they did the original richard donner film justice with this spiritual sequel.

(sidenote: to the parking attendant who gave me the $70 parking ticket outside the theater, i hope a kryptonian meteorite crashes through your roof at nite and destroys your nice new plasma TV you got for christmas last year. thanks.)

fish maw soup

yesterday for lunch i called in an order of Crab, Asparagus, and Chicken soup to The Lemongrass, one of my favorite places to eat. after getting back to the office, soup in hand, hunger in belly, i opened up the container to find what can only be described as.....disappointment in a bowl. instead of my delicious C.A.C soup, what i received was some sort of alien hybrid. gone were the tender bits of asparagus, and left in its stead were....chunks of Fish Maw? i tried to hunt and pick my way thru endless chunks of the fish air bladder(!) but only ended up frustrated. i called back and was told to come back tommorrow for the reals.

more rotten apples

i got my mac back today. while listening to music i noticed that the music would skip, and while watching a movie, it froze up on me and eventually i had to do a hard shut down. so, its back to the apple store with this one. sadly, i am not surprised. the mac i had before this i only kept for eight months, in which time i had it serviced well over 15 times for different issues. basically, they rebuilt that computer four times: numerous midplane replacements, new harddrives, new memory, new keyboard and mouse. i have a feeling that this is the beginning of the end of my latest mac.

rotten apples

my mac went tits up again yesterday. iphoto wouldnt open, so i called apple support and after talking to the "expert" and deleting some files, creating a test user, and changing some settings, my mac had a kernel panic and then refused to start up. without apology, his final suggestion was to get it serviced at the apple store. my final thought upon hanging up was wondering how much he got paid to do his job.

a random act of art

i found this little gem while walking to meet a friend for sushi. i have no idea who this person is or why he was important enough to be spray painted onto a light pole, but i found it refreshing.

i love this girl

karrie and i have been friends since the first grade. outside of maybe one other person, she's the oldest friend i have. funny how throughout the years u kind of gyrate towards different people while others fall to the wayside. we both turn 30 this year, a far cry from when we were both on the playground of St. Joseph's elementary trying to push each other off the monkey bars.

she's funny as hell. one of maybe three girls that i genuinely find hilarious and can make me almost pee my pants laughing.

thirty

i turned 30 today.

Joel Pitts, backside tailslide

Hoang Nguyen, kickflip.

no need for alarm

i woke up this morning to go to the gym before heading into work. at 5:30 the sun was already trying to peak in thru my fully drawn window shades. i showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed and made my way out of my apartment to my car.

usually i can unlock my alarm from half a block away.....but not today. oh no. today i had the pleasant reminder that sometimes the batteries inside car alarm remotes run out of energy. standing by my car at 6AM clicking the button over and over hammered home the fact that i think i was meant to be a Luddite in this life.

slightly annoyed, i walked around the neighborhood looking for a store that would sell the tiny batteries needed to power my remote. it's 2006....!! one would think that scientists could have discovered a cheap, marketable, self replenishing energy source for car alarm remotes.

i found a walgreens that didnt open for another hour, so to kill time i ended up walking on a couple side streets. i reluctantly came to the realization that, even tho my normal AM schedule was irrevocably altered, i was actually enjoying this change of scenery. i sat on some steps and watched the cattle file in and out of Victrola for their daily injection of Double Talls. "thank you sir, may i have another?" i put on my headphones and listened to the only three Magnetic Fields songs i have in my possession. i took pictures of various things: a rock that someone had meticulously painted red, two oddly shaped yet fully functional fire hydrants, and scantily dressed dogs walking their fully clothed owners.

so, altho i was eventually late for work and missed out on going to the gym and lifting heavy things repetitiously over my head, things were good.

Don Zeedo, mate in three.

i ran into my friend Bryan Z over the Fourth of July weekend; i hadnt seen him in probably six or seven years. we used to hang out back in the college days, playing chess, skateboarding, listening to music and talking about nothing.

fine days, those.

we went out for drinks with some old friends, and bryan spit some freestyle inbetween sips. id forgotten he was a wordsmith, which was always a talent i wish i had. one thing i didnt forget was that bryan was and is an accomplished artist. bryans apartment was littered with art books and his walls could have been a mini art gallery of work he's completed. he's still got it.

it seems like it should be easy.....sitting down and making art. but somewhere between intent and action, between responsibility and creativity, between the fridge and the couch, it's easy to get lost. its a good day when inspiration finds me. it doesnt seem to me that Bryan has this problem. nevah teach the Wu-Tang!

Mark Johnson, kickflip.

Mark Johnson, switch pop shove it.

ive been filming hoang and joel these past few weeks for the owlface video. i havent stepped on a skateboard in years, but have been endeavoring to do so for filming purposes. we've only gone out a few weekends filming, but the footage is starting to look pretty good especially since the weathers been so fantastic in seattle lately. both of them will have a full part, and hopefully mark too.

ill be in SF for about a week in november to film and dork around and drunk walk, which is an SF tradition ive grown to love. wake up off the couch, hand mark and matt a beer, and just start.....walking. doesnt matter where we go. hopefully i'll have more tshirt designs ready by then.