Oh…

Monterey….

That’s the phrase I said whenever I would be asked where we were staying.   At one point I kept saying it because it gave me something to look forward to.  not that I wasn’t already looking forward to it.  It just got me even happier than usual whenever I would say it.

So, come Monday the 16th we set off on a 2 hour journey to Monterey.  The weather was pretty bad at one point.  Highway 17, was probably the worst ever.  Sideways rain and a mixture of hail and traffic.  After awhile traffic cleared up, hail reduced to just rain, and instead of being sideways it turned 90 degrees and became regular.  1/4 tank was all I had left before we left Daly City.  When I finally got to Monterey the low light fuel lit up.  Took the first available exit I could find with a guaranteed shell gas station and BAM! The hotel we were staying at was right there.  How convenient was the exit that I took.  Also the sign when I exited had an arrow pointing to the left where Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway was at.  We gassed up at Shell at 2.43 a gallon, then went to McDonalds 10 piece meal for the win.  Then off to Laguna Seca it was.  Laguna Seca was something different than what the game was offering.  Haha. I’ve played way too many racing games to really see how it is to be on the track.  Fortunately there was an Audi Open Track in which we got to see and take pictures of.  Lots of Audi’s, but there was an Evo, and an STI.  Which was pretty awesome.  Evo was loud, but slower than the Audi’s haha.  How gay.

Here’s one of the pictures from Laguna Seca.

Next on the stop was Monterey Bay Aquarium.  I would say it’s an overpriced aquarium, but it was still fun regardless.  It is a lot smaller than what he had both imagined.  Seemed like it was bigger a while ago.  There were a lot of pictures taken from the aquarium.  It’s so amazing seeing all the fish just be there.  There were sharks and Sea Otters.

LOL these sea otters wouldn’t stop moving around.  It took me forever toa ctually take a picture of them.  They were just rolling around or tossing around in the water.  They reminded me of two kids who wouldn’t stop wrestling.  They were pretty adorable.  I won’t post many pictures onto here so it’s not Picture heavy.  Click on any of the pictures and it will take you to the album directly.

If the weather was cooperative I would’ve gone to 17 Mile Drive.  It was getting late and the weather was very gloomy.  There is always next time!  It was time to go to the hotel.  Yay…me! JK.  The hotel was called Best Western Monterey Beach Resort.  We went to a safeway with a full service restaurant inside it.  It was pretty crazy.  Anyways we went to the hotel.  She made sushi and brought champagne with her.  She says the dessert would have turned out better if the chocolate was still runny, but I think it was great chocolate or not.  Anyways theres more to talk about, but that’s not for this.  Overall, this valentines day/birthday was a lot different from last years.  Teatro Zinzanni and dine and dash haha.  What a turnaround.  What’s in store for next time?

PS.  I will try AGAIN to update this more often.

Live free, act random, think smart

October 28, 2007

Normally Sunday nights I go home right after work. My normal shift of 9:30-6:30 is usually enough for me on a Sunday, considering that I don’t usually sleep early to get a full night’s rest. That night my Auntie was having a birthday dinner at some filipino restaurant in Westlake. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a normal dinner that I would expect. This had a different atmosphere, they had full lightning with enough equipment to hold a concert. The only thing missing was the band members. What they did have, was sort of an open mic event. A lady was playing some songs on guitar for all participants while we ate dinner. It was rather a very relaxing atmosphere, one that I don’t usually partake in. Definetely would go back and maybe even consider playign a song or three. After dinner, mother went on with her friends to go celebrate more of her birthday while I almost went home, until Ter called me up and invited me to eat. I already ate at this point, so I watched him eat at Ling Nam. After this I realized I had my gear in my car so we set out to find a spot to take pictures. We drove out close to College Drive. Skyline College that is. We parked, walked along Highway 35 for what seemed like miles, but it was probably only 1/4 to 1/2 mile. Kind of long considering that I don’t normally take long walks anymore. It was around 11 when we were packing up everything, the tripod, and the cameras when a police car drove by and flashed the lights at us, or that little flood light he has outside his car, whatever it is. In my head, on snap, here we go again, encounter with the cops. We weren’t doing anything wrong, or at least in my head we weren’t, probably the only thing we did wrong was walk along Highway 35 at night. The cop was sort of nice, didn’t know much about photography from what he asked us. He did the usual Routine check, ID/Drivers License. Though I am quite unsure as to why he asked us where we worked and what not. Oh well, nothing better happen. He kept asking us questions what we were taking pictures of and where else do we go take pictures. I said we were taking pictures of the city in general. Landscaping is what we do, told him it was more of a hobby than anything else. Took pictures of the airport, since the plane’s lights provide that streak of light across the frame, which really does look nice. Before he let us go, he asked us if we took pictures of PG&E power stations, Firestations, malls, police stations. I was like wow he thinks we’re planning on doing something. Whatever though, it wasn’t a big deal since I wasn’t doing anything of that sort, well except I took pictures of the airport, but not for any particular reason. Weird thing before we left was he said, “Be safe walking back to your car.” WTF dude! First you were telling us how dangerous it was being there, now you’re going to tell us to walk back. Haha, was quite a funny experience. Got a kick out of that. Here’s some pictures from that night actually I like these pictures a lot.One of the pictures is a slow shutter speed with it facing HIghway 35, it was pretty cool I like how pictures like those turn out. The other was a shot of South San Francisco/San Bruno/Part of Daly City. Airport is visible in the picture as well too. Really is quite an oustanding view up there.

November 2, 2007 – November 4, 2007

Before the 2^nd Les was @ my house chilling until we started talking about work and how we were off this day and that day. At this point one of us came up with the idea that we should go to Santa Cruz to chill or what not. Then someone else said, let’s go to San Diego instead. So knowing us, we went for the farther destination, San Diego. Called up the contacts we had in So-Cal and grabbed another one of our buddies Marv to go with us. 1 day of planning and we were off for one of the randomest trips we’ve ever taken, considering we planned a couple of days ahead. Les and I, expected the usual, Marv’s car, Marv sitting in the back me and Les split the driving. That’s what we expected and that’s what we got. Haha. It’s nothing new. If it’s Marv’s car, he’s not driving whatsoever. Everytime we ask him to drive he’ll come up with a good excuse for us to not let him drive. “You want us to get lost?” “I’m tired!!” For some odd reason that “I’m tired,” clause seems to work, even though he just sits there. Lol. It’s cool we got there in one piece. November 2, 2007 was a Friday, our plan that day was to leave as early as we could to get to UCLA, Angela’s place as early as we could to avoid all sorts of traffic. Unfortunately, us Filipino’s cannot help but run in the time we know as Filipino time, in other words being late. Plan was to leave @ 11 for LA. We left @ 1 close to 2. We stayed @ Angela’s apartment that night, her roommates were having a party so that was pretty cool and interesting. No partying for me that night, I actually got to experience a whole party without missing the 2^nd half of it lol. Oh BTW, we got to meet some of Angela’s friends. Her friends Linda, and her bf, Quy [sp?] resemble us. It’s weird. We all act like each other. Lol. It was an outstanding visit to LA.

November 3, 2007 we set out to San Diego, to meet up with our main goal of the visit, Warren Ricafort. Picked him up ate at some thai place in Downtown San Diego. Good food. Had a double dose of curry the last meals I had there. First the curry house the night before then thai curry. Whatever though, something you wont’ normally do you know. After walking around DTSD, I called up Alva in UCSD to see if she wanted to kick it. So in turn we went to UCSD and paid her a visit. It was getting late and we still had to look for a hotel/motel to sleep at, but Alva offered to let us spend the night. Felt kind of bad though. Sorry! But hey looks like we did get stuff done and was worth the stay.

November 4, 2007 back to DTSD to drop off Warren and pay Daniel a visit at his pad. Nice pad by the way. Way cheaper rent down there than up here in the bay area. Considering the transfer to down there rather than stay up here.

These are the three guys that made this trip happen.
Next picture is a random picture of someone posing.

The trip was a random trip and it was successful thanks to the kindness of friends who took us in at such short notice. I guess a word of thanks is in order for your kind services hospitality. =)!!!

I made use

of my camera today. My Nikon D70 is back in action. Most of the shots were from Palisades park. I had some dust spots on my camera, but I did not get to actually notice it till I got home and uploaded the pictures onto my computer. Oh well, things happen you know. I have not used the camera for awhile since getting it back from the repair shop. Since then, it has just been lying around in my room waiting to be used. I made use of my time there though, trying to take just some nice shots. I was waiting for the sunset, but then I just left. I did get a shot of a random cat that jsut kept coming up to me. reminded me a lot of my cat, just the way it acted. Would walk up to you then rub it’s head over your leg or somethign. This cat did not hiss or try to scratch or anythign. Very odd for a cat. Nice cat though. I should start getting more filters though, to allow for expandibility of creativity. By reading up reviews on the D70 from www.kenrockwell.com I was able to saturate my photos with even more color. That way my photos will be even more vivid. I guess thanks is in order. It’s nice because color really does make the picture come to life, especially when it’s as vivid as it can get. Blues are bright blues, for instance

The blue in the sky is so bright, rather than a dark and murky feel to it. I likehow the picture came out actually. I have no sense of creativity when it comes to the camera angles. It’s real hard for me to pose subjects. Oh well.
Here’s a picture of the random cat that I sawduring my time at Palisades park:

Also here’s a picture of Daly City and it’s surroundign area’s:

This picture seems a bit odd, mostly because of the sky. However that is because I compressed the file and resized the image by a ton. I resized to 640×480, then through photoshop I changed the quality to a setting of 3. That way I can upload the files to Yahoo! Photos in a much quicker manner.

These pictures are real nice and could be an essential tool to my portfolio, I think. Whatever. Most of what I say here is the truth anyways, no lies, no bullshit, no fake stuff. Just the bare truth. However, I will not name particulars due to private reasons and the internet being so ginormous.

Do I really talk ghetto though? I don’t understand as to how I do. I do not play the part I know that much, but speaking it, I dont know about that. A friend of mines once said that I talked or sounded ghetto. But I don’t know though. I talk the way I talk. I don’ t try to imitate a culture that I’m not built for. Just the way it is. Hopefully that doesn’t change things between us though. That would be great.

School itself is not as hard as it seems anymore. I’m just waiting for my midterms to come back to me, so I can really tell if my hardwork paid off. A lot of hardwork anyone outputs is goign unnoticed. Unfair and cruel of this world of ours. Corruptness and money is what drives the executive end of businesses. I’m sure not all are like that. Damn that’s me haha. If I only had a company to run.

Speaking of companies, I am waiting for 2007 to start up, by that time, I am hoping to have my website domain bought. By February 2007, I’m hoping to have the site up and running. This doesn’t give me much time to learn Dreamweaver and get all the information I have on it and posted. You know a lot of what I say don’t come true, but honestly, I have no one to blame but me. It’s due to lack of concentration and focus among a project that I had designed.
“Motivation is what I lack, Concentration is what I seek, Focus is what I want.”
Things might be a little different now though. The things that I don’t have is starting to show up in my work. Schoolwork that is. If all this hard work and determination can only roll over to this project I have designed, I shall be successful in no time.

I need someone I can talk to haha, I have that, but I want more people to be there to listen and respond. I don’t have many of those who actually care to respond.

This blog just seems to be mostly a rant about this and that.
“I’m perfect, you’re just awesome.”