Waiting for Wreck It Ralph to start – I honestly hate going to the movies solely based on how most people are inconsiderate of those around them. We had an entire row of teens in front of us that would not stop yelling and talking. Infuriating.
People search for the most random things and some how make it to SpoilYourDinner.com
Hanging out at work – lookin fancy while battling a 4 day migraine.
An amazing sunset while I was pumping gas. The sunsets in Northern California have been ridiculous lately.
Flavored honey sticks from the auction. I initially tried these while in Seattle and was convinced that I would never find them again. I was complaining to Richard and he informed me that there is a vendor at the auction that sells all kinds of flavored honey. I only had a dollar cash on me so I had to pick 5 out of the 20 or so flavors, which was tough, but man these are SO good.
I went to my Mom’s for Thanksgiving and got to spend time with my old lady, Kit Kat. She is a lovely 18 years young and I miss her so much.
Kit Kat is such a natural in front of the camera.
The amazing Thanksgiving feast my Mom prepared. Two things that were not pictured though were the delicious cinnamon rolls my Dad made and homemade sugar cookies he made as well.
My cute baby boy Obi Wan – He always seems to make this face when you take pictures of him, it’s like he is perpetually surprised or something.
Trying to get Obi to act more naturally yields even more hilarious results.
I had zero room for pumpkin pie after dinner on Thanksgiving, so I opted to have it for breakfast on Friday.
A rare moment of Kit Kat and I snuggling. She will let you pet her until the end of time but hates being held, so on the rare occasions where she forgets this, it’s always nice to take advantage.
I found some old yearbooks in my Mom’s living room and man I was a looker.
I never pack clothes when I visit my Mom’s because I have so many still at her place. I found this really old Threadless shirt hanging out in my room and decided to rock it for Black Friday.
Dutch Brothers is slowly making its way South. Look out Starbucks – my favorite coffee establishment is coming to town.
I also managed to dig out my old gaming systems and brought them home with me. This included my NES, Sega Genesis, PS1 & PS2.
I found a huge bag of Tamagotchis tucked away in a box as well that I brought home with me.
My hair was doing incredible things while I was at my Mom’s.
Kit Kat looking contemplative.
The two of us hanging out. Anytime she sees that I am taking her picture she always tends to go right for the camera and rub her face all over it.
On Tuesday, Richard and I went to the midnight release for Call of Duty – Black Ops II. I feel like this was complete deja vu as I was standing in a frigid line just last week for Halo 4. The line was considerably longer for Black Ops II than Halo 4, mostly because the demographic is a bit different for the game. We have kind of created a ritual for our midnight release habits. First we head over to GameStop and finalize receipts, then head over to In-N-Out burger for delicious burgers. I seriously feel bad for anyone who does not have an In-N-Out near them. This time we decided to also stop at Krispy Kreme because our arteries did not take a big enough beating and picked up a couple of donuts.
Richards custard filled donut looked rather derpy if you ask me. All of this ended up taking way less time than we expected it to, and we had no intentions of standing in line any longer than we had to because of how cold it was. The GameStop we were at shares the same parking lot with the Target that I used to work for, which was also doing a midnight release, so we wandered over there to get out of the cold and see a couple of friends. When we got there at around 11, the line was a whole 4 people deep vs the 100+ people outside of GameStop. I think these people had the right idea. I did some Christmas shopping while there (my goal is to have everything done by the end of the month and put nothing on credit cards) and we finally headed back over to GameStop to stand in the obnoxiously long line.
By the time we returned the line had grown from the side of the building almost looping the entire building. We had to stand out back in the boonies and rosemary (seriously rosemary plants everywhere!) but luckily we were only in line for about 10 minutes as the line moved really quickly. I am always saddened by how much trash people leave when hanging out for midnight releases or Black Friday – is it really too hard to pick up your garbage and throw it away 2 feet from you? It is not fair to either the employees that have to pick it up, the customers that have to navigate around it, and the other businesses in the shopping center that now have a bunch of garbage in front of their doors come 10 am. We were in and out in within minutes and back home to check out the game. Unfortunately I completely passed out before I even got to see a minute of the game play, woops.
So far I have only played the Zombie mode and its okay. I find the lack of readily available guns in some levels to be exceptionally frustrating as well as the introduction of fire. There are cracks in the ground in some levels and while I understand that if visible flames are coming from the cracks then yes, I will catch fire if I do not jump over them, but I should not catch fire if I am simply stepping over one of the cracks that does not have visible flames. Are you trying to tell me that I can not step over a crack in the ground? Stupid. As for Halo 4, we beat the campaign in 1 day and sadly have to replay through it on my Xbox so that I can get the achievements as well. Oh well.
Once upon a time I wanted to be a professional photographer. I absolutely love taking pictures, and sadly within the last 4 years, it has fallen by the wayside. I applied to the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco, and was accepted to their bachelors of photography program, but once I saw the price tag, I knew that there was no way that I would be able to afford it. So I sought out a mentor to teach me the tricks of taking great pictures. He showed me all the inner workings of my cameras and we shot some really great pictures together, but the one major thing that I learned from him was that photography is an art that cannot be taught.
I agree wholeheartedly with this thought. I was convinced that by having an amazing camera, nice glass and knowing how to work all the dials and buttons that instantly my pictures would be good. But in all honesty, I have taken some really great pictures with my old Sony digital camera that took diskettes, some disposable cameras, and my cell phone. My favorite things to shoot are landscapes, nature, macros and still life. I am absolutely terrified of taking pictures of people. I think its because it stems from my own hatred of having my picture taken.
My old roommates asked me to take pictures for their save the date cards earlier this year (pictured above – their info was below the save the date portion, but I removed it as I don’t know how they feel about having their name broadcast all over the Internet). I took quite a few pictures but managed to pare them down to a collection of roughly 25-30. I am really proud of the way their pictures turned out, especially the one used on their save the date. Maybe I should learn to be a little less critical?
Two friends of mine recently got engaged and have asked me to take their engagement photos. I am already stressing hard about it – mostly because I am so afraid of disappointing them. I have been scouring various wedding website blogs, Pinterest, and any other outlet I can find to come up with various pose ideas for them. As most things do, I’m sure it will all come together, and I am stressing for no reason – but I just can’t help myself sometimes.
Any wedding/engagement blogs you can recommend for great photography?
In 2008 I was part of a 72 hour marathon playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero to raise money for the non-profit that I volunteer with. We were able to raise $9,000 for our cause and it was awesome. Flash forward a few years and video game marathons have become rather common place. I always get a little nostalgic watching them play, wishing that I could be a part of the action again. I don’t however miss closing my eyes and seeing the moving colored circles and hearing the music through the wall, and I also can’t stand the song “Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi. Childs Play Charity is one of my favorite charities to contribute to, because it brings video games to children that are in the hospital for extended periods of time.
My friend Paul is playing Halo this weekend for 72 hours to raise money for Childs play. I would love to see them get to $10,000 so that he has to eat a ghost pepper. Check out their website at HighCharity.org and donate if you feel so inclined. As we all like to say – Its for the children!
This was intended to be finished and post yesterday, but by the time I got home, I had come down with a case of the yucks. I spent my evening infront of the fan and a brief time outside to take in some cool air. Thankfully I am feeling better today.
Has anyone noticed that in the last few years it seems like Halloween is getting more and more diluted with the Christmas Creep? My years in retail always killed holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving because the focus was on Christmas, but it seems like every year, Christmas starts popping up earlier and earlier. I remember as a kid everyone on my street would get into Halloween. Candy, decorations, the whole nine. People would come from other parts of the city to trick or treat in my neighborhood. But I have noticed in the last few years that people don’t really decorate anymore, and last year we had 1 trick or treater at our house. Are people giving up on Halloween? Is it because of the economy? Are people too caught up in Christmas that they don’t mind bypassing my absolute favorite holiday?! Here are a few things that I love about Halloween
1. Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever seen one? I do believe in ghosts. My next door neighbor when I lived in LA had one in his house. You could sit in the large armchair in the living room and occasionally an overwhelming scent of ladies perfume would fly past your face, despite his wife moving out about a decade before I experienced it for the first time.
2. Favorite candy? Reese’s peanut butter cups, Milky Way Dark, Payday, smarties, and gummy bears.
3. What did you dress up as when you were a kid? I think the most memorable was the clown I dressed up as when I was about 5. My mom still has the costume in the box that it came in. I also dressed as a witch, Cleopatra, and a fairy a few times.
4. Parties or Trick-or-Treating? I only recall going to one Halloween party as a kid (the same year I dressed as a clown). I’ve always been partial to trick-or-treating.
5. Have you ever carved a pumpkin? Quite a few. I always become over ambitious and want to create designs that I end up regretting in the end. Some of my favorite pumpkins have been the Nine Inch Nails logo NIN and Link from Legend of Zelda.
6. Worst thing you’ve ever gotten trick-or-treating? One year my friends and I picked a neighborhood that was a real dud. We received walnuts, pennies, and raisins from people. Awful!
7. Best costume you’ve ever seen? For the last 4 years (this year will be 5!) I have been working the Exotic Ball in Sacramento, CA. They have a $5,000 costume contest, and some of the entries are incredible! My favorite thus far has been the man riding a HUGE tauntaun that he made himself . It was mechanical and awesome.
8. Favorite ‘Halloween’ monster? I think I would have to choose witches.
9. Favorite thing you’ve dressed up as? A couple of years ago I dressed up as Steve Zissou from the Wes Anderson film – The Life Aquatic. Only one person knew who I was, but I didn’t care, because it was awesome.
10. What are you dressing up as this year if you’re dressing up? What would you dress up as if you aren’t? I more than likely will not dress up. But if i had to choose anything, it would most likely be something from a video game.
11. Do you like going to haunted houses? No, I absolutely hate being scared and startled.
12. Haunted woods? See above.
13. Ever worked in/hosted a haunted house/wood? I participated in a haunted house one year for a youth group that I was part of as a kid. I scared myself more than anyone working there.
14. Do you decorate your home for Halloween?
When I lived in LA we would decorate a lot – but we havn’t done more than pumpkins and lights in the last few years.
15. Favorite decoration? Lights!
16. Got a favorite spooky tune? After having worked retail the last 10 years, I have been completely burnt out on Halloween music. If I had to choose one “Halloween” song, I would pick…
17. Any wardrobe malfunctions? None that I recall.
18. Scariest Halloween moment? Trick-or-treating on the block behind my old house, the owner whipped open the door and scared the living daylights out of me and I took off running down the street.
19. Best Halloween? I love every Halloween! I can’t pick one off the top of my head though.
20. Worst Halloween? Last year I slept through the entire night after getting home from work. Thanks for that depression!
So there are a few of my favorite things about Halloween. Stay tuned for some news that I will hopefully announce soon! It involves a new project I am working on.
