Merry Christmas!!

I just got back from Las Vegas where we spent Christmas. I'll actually be back there again right before New Years with the usual posse. This trip though was a crazy one. First off we took the 168 out of Bishop to the 266 over the high sierras until we hit the 95 in Nevada. We were pretty much the only fools out there over Death Valley on windy mountain roads. Nobody for 200 miles except for this hippy in a pickup that we seem to keep passing over and over. No gas stations, not a single building, no restrooms for pretty much 3 hours until we saw this brothel where the 266 and the 95 meet. Welcome to Nevada! Sophia was puking and crapping the entire time since she caught the stomach flu right before we got to Mammoth.

So when we got to Vegas we went to the Sam Woo on Spring Mountain Road. My dad must have not liked the fine dining in the high Sierras so much cause he went straight for the seafood tofu hotpot. We checked in at the Tuscany Suites afterwards. Its becoming my favorite place to stay now but still second to the Venetian. Funny I ate at the cafe there and I recognized the filipina waitress from when me Dan and Jerome ate there in May. She didn't believe I was born in Manila until my dad started busting out the Tagalog. That night we went to the Wynn to get tickets for Le Reve but it was sold out so we went with plan B, RAIN at Ceasar's Palace. (Kathryn, your mom is going to be jealous!) What do you know they had tickets in a block of 6 for us.

On Sunday Sophia still couldn't hold down food or liquids so we took her to the ER and we chilled there while they hooked her up to an IV and gave her some antibiotics and cramping and nausea drugs. We also went shopping and went to church in the meantime. It was Christmas Eve after all. So this church on the strip was really weird. It was sandwiched between the Wynn and the Convention Center. Ironically its probably the one place on the strip least likely to have a wedding at any given time.

Once Sophia got better and got discharged we got ready to go to the concert. Oh man that was something. I have no idea who Rain is but hey how can you go wrong with some song and dance right? So we showed up at the Collesium and most of Rain's fans were already there. Lot of young Korean girls, middle aged asian women, (a number of whom came alone), girlfriends with their disgruntled boyfriends, other families, and other groupies like the motherly blonde woman that sat behind us who knew all his songs. Anyway the show starts and I kid you not, he pops out of a huge inflatable submarine and starts singing and break dancing. Other highlights include Rain taking his shirt off and getting drenched in rain on stage. Some dancing with his fly girls, a flag sequence and of course the grand finale, Rain being raised on a pedestal superimposed over giant animated wings on the LCD screen. The military motif throughout the thing was kinda odd.

I gotta give the guy credit, I mean he's playing Vegas to a packed house at 23 and it takes some incredible conditioning to sing and dance for 2 hours and keep the energy level high. His English isn't so great, but he's probably had to memorize the whole routine in Japanese and Chinese too for the world tour. The winking and the "how are you my babies?" was pretty cornball, no smooth operator there, but his fans though it was cute. The songs are pretty catchy, haha too bad I don't speak Korean. I only wished the White Zinfendel I snuck in didn't run out halfway through the show.

So Vegas and Mammoth were pretty fun, good few days to fart around.

>On 2007-01-01,05:51:41 Blaise wrote:

>>And a happy new year!

Greeting from Mammoth

Chilling in Mammoth with the family. Will be in Vegas the next few days.

Lucky the Cat

This must be a lucky cat since I caught and rode my first shortboard wave today. My surfing days are numbered. Man, what timing I have. Right when things are working out and I can't help but reach for what lies ahead... I have to let go. I wish nothing ever got abandoned. You hear that CAT, are you in the business of wishes too? This was my choosing though. Well I've still got a handful of days to make the most of. Hopefully Lucky Cat will be back so I can worship him and capture some of his cat balance. Maybe I should offer a gift, what do cats like, chicken hearts, livers? I'll be back. Back on this path, if I have a week, or if its for good because of what lies ahead. Whatever it is, the ride of your life, the greatest bone crushing, and everything in between is better to have happened than to not.

>On 2006-12-21,04:37:53 grandmasophia wrote:

>>meow


>On 2006-12-22,10:29:35 daniel wrote:

>>sounds like you are getting nervous about OCS.... just dont go.


>On 2006-12-22,19:29:48 Blaise wrote:

>>Open for interpretation. Going is the easy part, commiting the mind was the hard part.

No WIII

Sophia and I half-heartedly looked for Wiis this weekend. We found a lot of laughing sales clerks instead.

USMC Officer Candidate

I got selected! I'm somewhere between excited and HOLY SHIT! I should get the orders about next Wednesday but it looks like I'm set for OCC-194 commencing January 20th in Quantico, VA. Now its time to live up to my end of the bargain and earn a commission.

>On 2006-12-14,13:10:55 Sheila wrote:

>>congrats!


>On 2006-12-14,20:37:26 grandmasophia wrote:

>>!!!!!


>On 2006-12-15,12:15:55 Kathryn wrote:

>>Nooooooo!! I am so sad, but so happy for you.


>On 2006-12-20,12:48:03 lysette wrote:

>>wait, what? hmm...

Surfing and your Mind

The waves were big today. Big is good, it keeps you from thinking. Last week it was flat, lot of time to float and wander for both body and mind. When its big, you just do. You ride the waves, you paddle hard, keep charging because they keep coming. No time to think about where to put your hands or when to go for it, just do what feels right. Finally when you have expended everything and no mind tricks will raise your arms once more, you come out to sit on the sand and you think to yourself, "that was alright." And the next day you'll be back, be it big or be it flat.

AGU

Slow week at work because all the scientist and researchers are at AGU, American Geophysical Union. I don't know the day to day goings on there but they always make yahoo news, this time its about the upcoming manned lunar missions and possible mars mission.

Article

UCLA Identity Theft

Oh oh, a database got hacked. Sounds like it was either a database in financial aid or admissions.
Article
So all you Bruins keep an eye on your credit reports. Actually since I worked for the state I didn't get to contribute to social security, so I hope whoever steals mine works nice and hard to give me a little suprise when I turn 65. Just don't ruin my credit and have fun pronouncing my name, imposter!

Spuce Grove

Otherwise known as the one of the infamous Camp Mofa. After my fillings I killed the rest of the day hiking. It was about 6.5 miles roundtrip to Camp Mofa from the trailhead, not too bad, but I humped along a couple gallons of water in my pack for some exercise so now my entire body is sore. I so need a massage. Also saw Borat at the mall afterwards. SBC must have gotten arrested about half a dozen times in the filming of that movie. Ugg, I better not be sore tomorrow, I commited to riding with someone from Pasadena tomorrow and falling over at a stop light would suck.

>On 2006-12-12,03:07:23 lysette wrote:

>>well looks like you had a fun day! and yeah...hope you don't fall over tomorrow.

Dentist

Got two fillings from Dr. Yan today. I'm sure the work is superb like always, but I'm kind of alarmed at the rate that I'm having cavities filled. My beautiful teeth, I hope they stick around.

The Chewable pill

Awesome, for the preteen demographic right? Next up chewable viagra. Hmm, maybe mashed up and mixed in with apple sauce might be a better idea. Ya can't eat solids, but ya can still "stay harder then a cinderblock man/Hey I'm just a bedroom gangster" (Ludacris, Moneymaker).

>On 2006-12-08,00:12:06 Kathryn wrote:

>>Mmmm. Do they have strawberry flavored?


>On 2006-12-09,03:47:43 Blaise wrote:

>>I was thinking grape or wild cherry, like Codeine.


>On 2006-12-12,03:04:36 lysette wrote:

>>hahaha...silly cousin...quoting Ludacris

Dog Book

Criteria for choosing books lately: dog on cover.

Crack O Dawn

On the ass freeze scale, today was about a 5 out of 10.

Thanksgiving Surfing

With Scott and Mimi. I have to live closer to the beach, driving there is too much of a pain.

>On 2006-12-08,22:38:34 Blaise wrote:

>>I think its a bird.

Casino Royale

Pretty good movie. I thought there should have been more development on the villian's characters and less poker table drama but the action was good and bond's character and the love story was almost Shakesperean. Go see it.

UCLA vs. BYU

The mormon's got rocked, but it was close until the very end. This was the first time I saw a UCLA basketballg ame at Paulley. Not bad except this bar sucked.

Nina retired

Nina from work retired. Wow she's good at keeping secrets, I didn't find out until yesterday. Cake and Coke all around. Nina will be spending the next 6 months travelling.

Yogurt

Activa brand. More like Assplotiva. See that arrow pointing down? that must be the Assplotiva molecules doing their business.

Lakers vs. Pistons

Don't remember if the shot went in, but the Lakers lost. The pics came out kind of dark since the lights at Staples were off, they're doing this thing all season called "Lights out Lakers" so its all dark in there.

Lakers vs. Pistons

Pictures from last Friday's game. Here's Farmar with Jack and Sean Penn is the background. What a leap, this time last year Jordan would have been in class.

Flags of our Fathers

Saw this movie on Saturday, couple of things I was mislead about. I though for the whole time that this guy was Freddie Prinze Jr. The depiction of Mount Suribachi in all its CGI glory looked as big as Mount Everest even though its only 546 feet high. Everything else around it was really flat though so it looked huge by contrast.

>On 2006-11-16,02:03:07 lysette wrote:

>>so it's not Freddie Prinze Jr.?! haha...was it even a good movie though?


>On 2006-11-17,14:44:17 Blaise wrote:

>>If you like history or follow the military you'll like it.

Borat wannabe

Stolen from Benedict's fotolog. I think I would start running as fast as possible in the opposite direction once this guy made eye contact with me. Haha but he's giving Benedict a thumbs up.

New Stick

Got this new board from a dude on Craigslist. Man its a lot harder to ride, I haven't even been able to catch a wave yet, paddling and floating is kicking my butt right now. The big blue board, you just nudge a little and you got going already. I think I picked up a lot of bad habits from it though. This saturday I went out to Santa Monica, right off Ocean Park, practically wore myself out on the first paddle out. Way too many people out there too, a kid ran into me and two other people just missed. There was actually a pretty good swell Saturday, haha which was bad news for me on a new board. When I paddles I felt like I was just inching along, I think I need to do keep better lateral balance so my paddling will drive me straight instead of side to side and also position myself better lengthwise to keep the board in the right pitch for going forward.

Far Side of the Moon

I have to study for this astronomy class I'm enrolled in. I forgot you have to study when you take classes. We've all seen the moon, but like the Earth rise from the lunar surface, this one is striking, especially when you consider that only a handful of men have seen it with their own eyes.

>On 2006-11-03,15:58:19 Blaise wrote:

>>Compare it to what we see from earth. http://www.kuotiong.net/index_test.php?name=fotojournalandpage=commentsandentrystamp=1131919500

I love apples

What other fruit can sit on my desk for 3 weeks and only be slightly mushy.

Lookalike

Not me. This is Hsing's brotha from another mutha. Looks like there's some kind of flashbulb generated apparition in his crotch.

What's this? more meat

You would think that after having all you can eat Korean BBQ the night before, it'd be the last thing I want to see for my next meal. Well my parents had leftovers from a different Korean BBQ restaurant, so despite protests from my colon, I chowed it down anyway.

All You Can Eat Meat

Followed by all you can Nintendo DS, or in Mary's case, all you can air Nintendo DS. You can't see behind me where the little kids in my fan section were watching me play DS. I don't know if they were just that into Mario Kart, or really trouble by the sight of grown men playing their favorite video game in a restaurant. I couldn't wash the Korean BBQ smell off of me afterwards. I got home, woke up, and still smelled like BBQ beef. I went surfing, got out of the water, washed my hair, went to work, sat in front of my computer and I still smelled like seasoned beef.

Tapas

Wow tapas at the med center cafeteria, something different every time over there.

>On 2006-10-27,02:30:27 lysette wrote:

>>mmm...that looks good!

Hilarious Keychain

Don's keychain at work. I want to see what happens when the clock goes zeros, maybe a song will play.

>On 2006-10-26,19:30:10 Kathryn wrote:

>>I have one too!

State of the Art

Check out this Macbook I found in the basement. Touchpads are for warm bodies, trackball is where its at.

New Camera

Yay got a new camera! Now we'll see if its actually waterproof like the box says.

>On 2006-10-27,02:31:35 lysette wrote:

>>oh cool

Pigged out

I was gonna save the cake for later, but my stomach had other ideas.

training ring

So I bought some training rings for strenghtening grip and to mix up different type of pull ups. I realized after leavivng REI, I just paid $30 bucks for rocks with strings attached to them! Well the packaging assures me that they are computer precision cut rock. How reassuring!

Surfing

Been surfing again, I got on the UCLA surfers mailing list so its motivating me to go surf now. Anyway today I went to sunset, 11 am seems to be the best time go, since there's no traffic so its a straight shot on San Vicente to PCH. Takes about 20 minutes to get there. I think I'm getting this shit. I think my conditioning improved to where I can chase a lot more waves so I caught some good rides today, I'm finally not looking like a man falling out of a building, or a wave. The waves were pretty goodtoday too and even better, I was able to get infront of most of them. Did get tossed a few times. I did have to leave early to go back to work, but it was still great!

>On 2006-10-21,16:47:10 Blaise wrote:

>>Saturday Session was at Topanga. Pretty nice beach, its right next to the Chart House in malibu. The break point is a lot smaller though so it was crowded. We showed up around 6:30 and there were already a ton of people in the water, the Sun wasn't even up yet. On top of that the locals are terrirorial so make sure you don't steal anyone's wave. The waves were good though but a little fast. On my board I had a hard time paddling furiously enough to get infront of the big waves so I got dumped or fell off the top a few times. Got some good rides on the slightly smaller ones, and the ones where I paddled early to gain momentum. I think this beach is good to come to on weekdays where it should be less crowded.


>On 2006-10-25,15:58:42 Blaise wrote:

>>Topanga again on Tuesday. Its noon and its Tuesday yet the beach was crowded. We went in on the right side of the breaks this time, not too many waves on the right side compared to the left. Everybody was crowding the breaks like last time, 10 people chasing the same wave.


>On 2006-10-28,14:42:53 Blaise wrote:

>>Saturday, went to El Porto. Got lost, and there was a freeway closure, but got some directions from a gas station and drove through the airport to get to the beach. Waves were small but big enough for me.

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton spoke about prop 87 last friday. I think I will vote yes, the measure wants is allocate 4 billion dollars for alternative clean fuels through a tax on oil pumped out of California. The proposition's wording probably leaves it exposed but the message is good. I don't work for the oil companies and I don't think they have a prescence in the communities I'm involved in so I'll vote yes. M9r. President was a really good speaker, people say its like he's talking to you persanally. Here's the picture Kathryn took at the sculpture garden. Man there were a ton of people there, the yes on pror 87 websites claims 5,000 people. We almost left since the line was so long.

Harvest Moon

Took a picture of the harvest moon a couple of weeks ago. It looks no different but it was suppose to have been 12% bigger, also it happened to be close to perigee, which is when its closet to earth on its orbit. So hope everyone got their mooncakes that weekend!

Some one's hat

Who left this at my place?

>On 2006-10-19,18:06:46 daniel wrote:

>>aww man.... i did

DRPK plans nuclear test

That can't be a good thing.

>On 2006-10-04,09:58:27 Blaise wrote:

>>Opps dysleksia kicking in, PR transposed.

Chantry Flats

Went up to Chantry Flats and took some pictures.

A Butterfly

These things were hard to catch.

Waterfalls

No natives spotted bathing this time.

Some Birds

Fearsome Beast

Check out what I found hiking. Those are mean looking claws!

>On 2006-10-10,12:50:50 Steffie wrote:

>>EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Fishing Hole

Hey dudes, does this look familiar? I went up to Chantry Flats this Sunday and man, this was unmistakable. Its pretty close to the falls, I actually didn't see it on the way up, but on the way down, I recognized the old fishing hole immediately. I didn't take a dive in it or disect any fish like old times,.

>On 2006-10-01,21:04:50 Daniel wrote:

>>geeze.... I havent seen that place for close to 12 yrs?

Scary Movie Venue

Who wants to see Dawn of the Dead (1978) in Hollywood, in a cemetery on a saturday night? I got class unfortunately but you people should check it out. Last screening of the season! Bring blankets and booze.www.cinespia.org

5 legged horse

Or pony?

>On 2006-10-10,13:01:26 Steffie wrote:

>>Dude! Did you notice the pony's wee wee hanging out?!?!?


>On 2006-10-10,13:03:03 Steffie wrote:

>>Oh nvm, i didn't see your headline at the top. HAHA

Blow harder

I enrolled in a couple of classes at PCC this fall. Speech and Astronomy. So in speech there was a breathing exercise which was us inflating water balloons and blowing bubbles. I didn't think I'd ever do that in a college level course. Its not a bad class. Astronomy is cool too, I'd like to look at other things besides the moon, although the moon is still my favorite object in the sky, so I enrolled in it. Last Friday I went to a talk because it was extra credit, it was delivered by the guy from Cal Tech who discovered the former 10th planet Xena which has now been recategorized along with Pluto. Anyway learned about some nerd stuff there. The only bad thing is that Astronomy is on every other Saturday nights.

This Saturday though was an off Saturday which was good since I was a little tired from playing ultimate frisbee in Santa Barbara. Instead I went to DnB with my sister. It got weird, maybe thats why I don't go out so much. I did win the horse race though thanks to my extra ball that my sister's friend yanked for me.

Sunday sucked, I came to work but was totally unmotivated so I only got a little done.

>On 2006-09-20,03:43:00 lysette wrote:

>>which sister? i've never taken an astronomy class before, but it seems interesting so i think i'll enroll in a class


>On 2006-09-20,10:20:16 Blaise wrote:

>>Sheila


>On 2006-10-10,13:00:48 Steffie wrote:

>>You are such a nerd. Haha

Slinging rocks

Ok I got bored waiting for my tour bus back in Madrid.

>On 2006-09-16,14:33:40 Sheila wrote:

>>sounds like you're in a band

Big Brother is Watching

Is anyone eles disturbed that new computers these days come with built in cameras? A little too Orwellian for me. Bill Gates is watching! Oh thats a window alright and the vista is you! Now where did I put that isightpeep.c file.

Steve Irwin Killed

Slayed by stingray barb to heart while diving. This is shocking. I think I just got in touch with my own mortality.