Looks like someone is living in the past...contemporize, man!

With much of the same attitude as in a previous post of mine about my favorite backpack pocket, I must again inform the world that I've lost another dear friend of mine. Well, it's even more depressing than that. My original hard drive from circa 1999-2004 did not turn on today, decidedly erasing years of data I had accumulated from the end of middle school (the days I discovered the internet) to the end of high school.


And really, this is more than just a loss of a $70 30 gigabyte hard drive with a $20 hard drive enclosure, this is the loss of countless essays and aim conversations and pictures and really, memories. A huge chunk of my developmental years could be defined by the documents or pictures I saved on there. Gone, gone, are the old high school essays, the old aim profiles, the old emails from friends, the old pictures that girls would send me while I pretended to be a 15 year old when really I was only 12 in AOL chatrooms. Wait...I never did that...of course I didn't...

On that note, and in tribute to our formative years, I'll give you an example of the kind of (I can't believe I was into this!) crap you would find on there (warning: you may throw up, you will be gagging):

..:"IF...":..

If i din`t meet u,
I wouldn`t know u,
If i din`t know u,
I wouldn`t lyke u,
If i din`t lyke u,
I wouldn`t lub u,
If i din`t lub u,
I wouldn`t mish u,
But i did n i will...
-uhm iono hu rote dis! lol

LoVe iSh.......
A BeLL iS nOt BeLl UnTiL soMeOnE RiNgS iT
A sOnG iSh NoT a SoNg UnTiL sOmEoNe SiNgS iT
StOrY iSh nOt A sToRy iF nO OnE rEaDs iT
LoVe iSh nOt LoVe iNtIlL SoMeOne ReCeIvEs It

*If I HaD Da LeTTuHz "HRT",
I CaN aDd "EA" tO GeT a "HEART"
Or a "U" & GeT "HURT",
BuT I`d RaThEr ChOoSe "U"
AnD GeT "HURT"
ThEn HaVe a "HEART"
WiThOuT "U"

B4 u go to sleep at night there is 1 person of the opposite sex thinking of u. They want to kiss u, They want to be with u they are always thinking about u b4 they go to sleep at night they are longing to be with u. This is all true not a fake if u repost this to in 5 mins the person that is longing to be with you will approach you in a month and ask u out or grab u and kiss u. But if you break this chain no1 will like u or ask u again for 5 years!!! Post this in the next 200 seconds and you WILL have THE best day of your life THIS SATURDAY.


Who wants to have the best Saturday EVER? You've got 200 seconds to re-post this.

On a less serious and cringe-worthy note, I must also mourn the passing of this guy:

A lotion bottle?

Yes. I first purchased this in September of 1999. For years it has served me well, keeping my hands moist and crack resistant. Originating in the Costco at Fremont, it has traveled all over the country, from Hayward to LA to Chicago to Riverside, where its supply was finally depleted in South San Francisco.

Why would I pay tribute to such an inanimate object?

Because it's one of those things in my life that has actually stuck around. 10 years. I dunno if lotion has an expiration date (hey it still served its purpose), but this thing has been around me longer than some of my closest friends have. I suppose it's one of those things that I assumed would always be there, like my backpack pocket or my hard drive of middle school memories. But that's something that never runs true for anything, does it?

"by god i will at least have an easy bake oven from target"
-JC

So...what kind of music do you listen to?

...probably one of the most bland, cop-out questions someone will ask in an attempt to try to get to know you...and yet for some reason people willingly ask it, and others willingly respond.

I never usually have a straight, common answer for this question, so I let my zune do the talking. Here were the first 5 songs that came up when I put it on shuffle:

What Music Do You Listen To?

So what kind of music do I listen to? Hell, I still I don't have an answer for you.

"smells like food of cats"
-CG

EWDBF

I hate to be categorized to be one of those bloggers who doesn't blog enough, to the point where every post I put up always starts off with "sorry everyone, I haven't updated in like...forever," but for those of you who do know me, my normally less substantive posts about what I'm doing with my life at the moment or the random news articles I run into have been relegated to my more popular alter-ego on a certain site known as twitter. As such, I only write in here when I have something inspired to write. Thing is, if I haven't been inspired...I don't write.

And perhaps it's because what's been going on in my life has been kinda uninspiring...by my standards, at least. 6 months prior, I was living thousands of miles away in a big city that was in the running to host he Olympics in 2016, and had already seen everything in between. I was young, I had savings, I was sightseeing, I was criticizing students' hilarious attempts to celebrate diversity, but most importantly, to put it one way, I definitely wasn't home.

Nowadays, while I live under my parents' roof, sleep in my sister's room, and have nightly whiskey and cokes with my dad, I wake up everyday to commute to an office at the top of a building where I sit in a cube and stare at bus schedules all day...leaving me to wonder...

...is this it?

"you smell a maple bar too? phew...I'm glad I'm not the only one...I thought I was havin' a stroke or something."
-AL

this is what gets me through the day

"i want to say thank you so much for making me see yet another interesting perpsective in regards to UCLA. i really need those kinds of things to hear, and places to see, and so i really appreciate the effort and actual interest into making my first UCLA experience a good one."

"haha dude just wanna thank you so much for that whole weekend. you worked really hard and i realllly appreciate everything you did. i know you had other stuff to do, but you took the time to do that stuff for us and i really am grateful"

"THANKX MARK!!! AND EVERYONE ELSE!!! i just wanted to send this personal messege to you and the others just to tell you that i appriciated you guys coming and enjoyed every second with you guys!! im going to miss you for a while but i cant wait to see you guys again!!! SEE YOU SOON AND HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK!!!!"

"ps. MARK I MISS YOU! dude i keep forgetting to call you but i wanted to thank you so much againf or all the help you've given me, not just through prep, but everything including my major, crap ab out the school, my bday, and just someone to talk to. im glad your my friend :) have a good one!"

Here's something to try for fun. Read through old facebook messages, emails, blogposts, AIM logs, and relive the past 4-5 years of your life. You'll discover some interesting things about yourself. And then you'll wonder how the hell you ended up where you are now.

I for one have concluded that as much as I enjoy climbin' that ladder and workin' for 'the man' (in the partial hope that someday eventually I'll become 'the man'), some days I do miss servicing the community as well. You're so much more appreciated there.

"if you decide to come by, your face would be a welcome...face"
-RM

"I don't hate you...I just don't get you people"

Just some truths about the arts and original student compositions found in college:

-Usually comes in the form of experimental jazz, interpretive dance, modern art, or indie films

-Since the student artists' fields are already inundated with established professionals and styles, they must turn to unconventional methods to grab the attention of their audience. This may include the use of unnecessary musical instrument modifications or arrangements or inserting vague monologues in between dance segments to convey an ambiguous underlying message about the environment or puppies or some other popular college cause of the time.

to be fair, this guy admitted he was "extemporizing"

-The best part about creating art in this fashion? You can miss a note, paint something that has form whatsoever, or forget a dance step and make it up on the spot and no one will notice. It's naturally assumed that since you composed it, you meant to do to that.

-The only people who actually do honestly understand your work and its underlying message are probably already in your classes anyway.

-Most students will see an ad or a listing of an original student composed concert/showcase/performance/film screening, and figure that it's the "college" thing to do to check it out. Or cause it's the only free thing to do on campus at night.

-Out of the fear of sounding uncultured or unappreciative of the arts, everyone who does attend these concerts/showcases/performances/film screenings will praise the artist on how amazing their work was and how they liked the use of the Tesla coil and synth keyboard as the melody for one of the pieces or how effective the use of straight lines in blue paint is an effective way of sticking it to the man. In actuality, unless someone already was a student in this field (or currently working on their own original student compositions), the whole time they're probably thinking "...huh. how...interesting."

-Believe me, I know, I've been to a trombone quartet concert, an interpretive dance performance involving naked people and fur coats, an indie film that could be equated to the movie "Ass" in the cult classic Idiocracy, and so many more original student composition showcases I thought would be interesting. And they were...interesting.


-That said, I'm not trying to criticize student artists everywhere. I'd probably never be able to perform or create anything you've already done, so more power to ya and I hope someday you gain a lucrative career in Cirque Du Soleil. Support the arts!

"that sounds the opposite of fascinating"
-KE

Pedal Driven Adventures Part 2

I'm sure I don't need to make an argument for bikes. Everyone already they're better for the environment and are more accessible in most areas than cars, they're faster than walking, and best of all, you get a pretty decent exercise. I've made a post in the past in which you don't really experience the street unless you're walking it. You drive in a car, you turn up your radio, you forget everything you see as you drive by and don't really absorb the community, the neighborhood. Well, look at biking as sort of, walking really fast. So you get to really experience a street...slightly faster.

...granted you don't mind your ass hurting for an inordinate amount of time after a ride.

I've had my share of bike rides in different cities, and everywhere I go I'm never disappointed at the exceedingly picturesque natural (and even man made) scenery these rides have to offer.

So, over the course of the next few days, I'll be featuring one of the many rides I've made here and there and whatnot...mostly because there's just so much to say and post, I don't wanna do it all on one post (and plus it's getting late and I'm too tired to write anymore)

So, today:

Venice to Santa Monica, CA
Sunny SoCal. The Southland. The City of Angels. Simply LA. Call it what you will...it's actually technically not Los Angeles. It's Venice.



A perpetual summer season, seemingly endless beaches, and a relentless supply of attractive people...Southern California's got it all, folks...and a nice bike path too. I have yet to actually bike miles upon miles from one beach to another (I've only really done Venice to Santa Monica and back...a short 5 mile round trip or so), but the ride is still entertaining exciting. The sandy beaches and sunset on your left, various little indie shops, restaurants and street performers on your right...it's what you could call quintessentially Southern Californian. You can't ride your bike along the coastline in April in Chicago. You can ride your bike along the coastline in Venice in January.



Most folks begin their bike journey in Venice, where bike rental tents are so abundant, you have your choice of regular mountain bikes to beach cruisers to tandems for as cheap as $5 an hour. The bike path winds through a mixture of beach and street, where the concept of LA traffic isn't lost as rollerbladers, walkers, and other bikers share the same road with you.

One of the first stops heading north from Venice is Santa Monica, boasting the world famous (?) Santa Monica Pier. By world famous, I think they just mean that it's been featured on a few movies and suddenly the whole world has seen it. Either way, the pier is the perfect tourist trap: typical boardwalk amenities serving beach food (funnel cakes, fish n chips), relatively lame (and overpriced) thrill rides and a rollercoaster, and of course, overpriced carnival games that no one can win:
did I really have to bring it up again?

but if you're willing to pay the $8 (or if you're like me, find a job with the City of Santa Monica and go for free during the company picnic), something that is worth seeing is the view from the ferris wheel along the pier, since the old one was sold on ebay some years ago. Here you'll get one of highest (and therefore "best") views of the Southern Californian coastline.


Just remember to do it all within an hour so you can return the bike to Venice before they charge you extra.

"there's gonna be no penis jokes - it's gonna be great"
-AE

Pedal Driven Adventures, Part 1

I'm sure I don't need to make an argument for bikes. Everyone already they're better for the environment and are more accessible in most areas than cars, they're faster than walking, and best of all, you get a pretty decent exercise. I've made a post in the past in which you don't really experience the street unless you're walking it. You drive in a car, you turn up your radio, you forget everything you see as you drive by and don't really absorb the community, the neighborhood. Well, look at biking as sort of, walking really fast. So you get to really experience a street...slightly faster.

...granted you don't mind your ass hurting for an inordinate amount of time after a ride.

I've had my share of bike rides in different cities, and everywhere I go I'm never disappointed at the exceedingly picturesque natural (and even man made) scenery these rides have to offer.

So, over the course of the next few days, I'll be featuring one of the many rides I've made here and there and whatnot...mostly because there's just so much to say and post, I don't wanna do it all on one post (and plus it's getting late and I'm too tired to write anymore)

So, today:

Mackinac Island, Michigan
Mackinac Island is a small 3.8 square mile island located on the northern tip of Michigan, smack dab in the middle of one of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron. For those of you unfamiliar with Midwestern U.S. geography, here:


80% of the island itself is a national historical landmark, and thus most of the island has been kept in its natural state. The island itself was originally a Native American settlement in the 17th century, and was the site of a British fort during the War of 1812. The island itself has banned automobiles completely, and can only be reached by ferry from nearby Mackinaw City, which has a museum that boasts "the largest moccasin collection in the U.S." (which in actuality, probably just means "most Native Americans pillaged.")


Much of the island's colonial past has been preserved, regardless of the fact that it's a popular tourist destination for natives of Michigan. Circling around the perimeter of the island is a bike path that is not only an relaxing, calm, flat ride, but also offers breathtaking views of the both sides of the US/Canadian border. Only downside? Watch out for the horse droppings.

what happens when you don't watch the path you're riding on? splat.

Ride around long enough and you can stop and enjoy some of the many nearly untouched and serene beaches that touch the clear, cool waters of Lake Huron.


Ok, the water was pretty fucking cold, especially when I visited in August. It is pretty far up north.


But all in all, it's a pleasant, non-challenging , even short ride around scenery us folks on the West Coast probably don't hear about or see often. If for whatever reason you find yourself in Northern Michigan, be sure to check it out!

"Grapes? No thank you. Those are healthy."
-overheard on Amtrak