Year-End Review

So have been reading a bunch of year-in-review articles and other assorted similar material, and I wanted to post a couple of my favorite moments from the internet this year.  Now, I know that these videos are rather common and popular, but I just wanted to do a bit of commentary on them myself.  Take it or leave it.  :)

Well, the first thing that I wanted to talk about was what I considered the most amazing moment to watch, both live and whenever I watch it on video, and that is Felix Baumgartner's record-setting freefall jump.



I had been following this story for a few months after I first heard about Felix and what he was attempting to do.  When the days grew closer, I grew more and more excited.  How often in the world do we get to see moments like this live, true moments of human strength and ingenuity, "...because it was there" moments where we as a species reach new heights?  It is rare in these days to see science in direct action, see someone put their life on the line for the advancement of science and technology.  Add this to the fact that as I watched this live, as he jump, I thought "Holy shit...no one can ever question that guy's manhood again.  He has some of the biggest balls ever placed onto a human."

I still rewatch this video with child-like wonder and amazement.  I put myself in his shoes and try think about what would be going through my head as I stand there on that platform, many miles higher in the air than is even fathomable.  Congrats to Felix and congrats to science for that one.

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My other top video of the year is one that, no matter how often I see it, still brings a tear to my eye.  They are not tears of sadness, but those of pure human joy, and this is Isaac's Proposal.



So what if this guy ruined all marriage proposals for everyone else until the end of time?  This video is not only amazingly sweet and caring full of the romance and joy that we all wish for in life, but in the end, what puts it over the top for me is to think about the effort, the planning, the logistical feat it was to put it all together.  They say it was about 60 people, family and friends, that all helped put this together.  Getting Granny to learn dance moves and lyrics to a pop song is no simple feat, but also to inform everyone involved and get them to keep their trap shut during the planning and rehearsals is no easy task.

This man earned his wife full-heartily.  I hope for them many happy years together.  Come on ladies, who could turn down a proposal like that?  Hell, I am a straight guy and I wouldn't have been able to refuse him at that point!

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My final video is a bit egotistical because it is one of my own.  I know not many people give a shit, but I like it.  When I was younger I was in various bands, playing various instruments in various place around the States.  Of all the musical work I have done, the work I did during the early 2000's with my band from the Central Valley of California named "Cheshire" was my favorite.  While we broke up many years ago and went our separate ways, recently I started getting requests from people for the old Cheshire music, so I finally took it all and uploaded it to Youtube.  As I was doing that, I recalled listening to this one song in particular and felt nothing but pride.  It is a local Valley favorite still to this day.



The song is called "Manipulated," recorded in 2003.  I played drums for my this band and overall I not only proud of my work on the song (rhythms, and overall structure) but proud of my friends that we put this all together.  The lyrics were actually written by the lead singer's girlfriend at the time which she gave to us to make a song out of.

The picture shown in the video was the base for our promo pack picture.  I am the tall one with the Samhain "November Coming Fire" shirt on.  We decided to take a series of pics in a pool for some reason which I can't remember why now.  Out of the series, the one with our backs we just thought worked so well.  We ended up editing it and added our band logo and whatnot to the top of the pic, which is not shown in this video, but is in other of the youtube videos.

With very little effort we got rather popular along the West Coast at the time.  Things were being just dropped in our lap.  While I wish we could have devoted more time and effort to the project, after a while we all needed to part ways.  At least I still have the two EPs, a long demo tape, and a live recording of us playing at the Whisky-a-Go-Go to hold on to.  I like watching this video for the song and the memories.

What are your favorite memories of the past year?

Dear Son

Some times things happen that cause me to think and rethink things over and over, and with normal adults I like to talk things through.  With a young child though it is both easier and harder in some ways.  It is easier in that I can do something wrong, say I am sorry, and they tend to act like they forget about it and become distracted with toys or whatever, but at the same time, because I know they lack some of the same level of cognition, it is harder because I feel like things are not really settled. 

 Today I accidentally smacked my son's head into a wall, which was 100% non-intentional, but caused him pain.  Accidents with children are so commonplace and children find ways to get hurt in every way possible, but for some reason today's event has caused me to lose sleep thinking about.  I wanted more than anything him to forgive me.  I think that because he is between 3 and 4, really starting to talk a lot, and becoming a good and interesting person, that I see him closer to an equal in some ways, but at the same time, he is a child and lacks some of the basic abilities to communicate and understand as I wish that he could.  I wanted more and anything to talk him through the pain, apologize, and receive some kind of forgiveness.

Since tried to talk with him and we got back to smiling and playing, I felt a bit better, but as I lie in bed I realized that I still felt awful.  I decided to write him a letter trying to explain how I felt and how as parents we try but fuck up a lot in the process.  I don't know if he will ever read this some day in the future or remember the pain of today at all, but I hope that he will at least come to learn and understand the sentiment I am going for in this letter.  

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Dear Son,

I just need to get something off of my chest and since you are still too young to fully understand, I am writing this down in hopes that some day you will understand.

Being a parent is really hard in many ways.  Some days are extremely frustrating while others nothing but joy.  Tonight I am having a bit of trouble sleeping because we had a bit of an incident today that I am having issues letting go of.  We get into arguments from time to time, as is to be expected from a child and their parents.  At this time, when you act out your mother and I use the "time-out" method of putting you into the corner.  Well today I asked you to clean up your room, you got mad at me, started throwing a fit, then when I warned you about going to the corner, you screamed at me.  This caused me to get up and charge at you in order to grab you and put you into the corner with some force.  In this event though I accidentally grabbed you too hard and you fell, causing your head to smack into the wall of the corner.

You immediately screamed and I immediately grabbed you and picked you up.  I felt so horrible as I do anytime I accidentally hurt you.  It is hard because we are so much bigger than you and forget our strength at times causing issues like this, or we don't see you below us and we end up stepping on you and hurting you that way.  In the end, we never mean to harm you, but in our time together it has happened from time to time, and in return you also have harmed us from time to time, never intentional, but due to you just playing or climbing on us or whatever.

When I saw that cut and bump on your head and heard you crying I was in so much pain myself.  I felt awful for inflicting this damage upon you.  I picked you up, carried you over to the couch, checked to make sure that you were not seriously bleeding or anything, but the bump still looked horrible.  Then there was part of me that wanted to be like "Well, that is what you get for not listening and arguing with me," but this was not your fault, it was mine and I did not want to make you feel like the cause at all.  I am the parent and need to be the one that sets an example of love and compassion, as well as an example of patience for those smaller and weaker than myself.

I apologized, put and ice pack on your head, which you played with a bunch because you are silly like that, and we sat on the couch together talking some.  You are such a sweet-hearted boy and told me that it is okay, accidents happen after you settled down some, but I still felt awful.  I want so badly to be a good and kind father while teaching you to be a good and kind boy, but sometimes I just don't know how to do that.  Sometimes I just think that all I am doing is wrong and all I am doing is hurting you in some way.

I just hope that some day you can find it in your heart to truly forgive your mother and I for any indiscretions in parenthood.  I know that we are not perfect and make mistakes, but I just hope that we teach you well enough to look past those mistakes and know that we are trying our best for you, and in a constant state of trying to get better at it as well.  I am always trying to change myself for the better, to set a positive example, and to teach you how to treat others, but I am also constantly afraid that in doing something wrong we may teach you the incorrect message.

I love you so much, more than I ever thought that I could.  My intentions are good and I am still trying to make my actions and my intentions line up as perfectly as I possibly can.  Please know that no matter what wrongs we might do, we are trying and hoping that our love and caring will be enough to make us the best people we can be and make you the best person you can be.

I love you son.

-Dad

A Busy Weekend

A Busy Weekend

When my wife and I go on vacation, it is usually to San Francisco, our favorite city in the world.  If not to SF, then normally anywhere else along the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway.  Those are my stomping grounds, where I am from, and where I dream to retire.

This weekend we partook in a planned trip to the SF area.  Back in March for my birthday, my wife decided that she wanted to get me some Giants tickets for sometime in the summer.  This inspired some other attractions and the excitement of my son's first trip to our most beloved city.

The Drive:
We live outside of Reno NV a little way, so a trip to the Bay Area is not too far, but far enough to make it not worth taking day trips.  The drive is about 4 hours with good traffic and depending on where you are going in the area.  We packed up and left early Friday morning in hopes to get checked in to our hotel after lunch.  Due to cheap prices, we stayed at the HoJo at the SFO airport in South SF.  While this is a bit away from the sights and sounds of SF, it was cheap and right near the highways to cut north quickly enough.  We also invited my older sister and her husband to come along.  Their hotel was also near SFO, but just a few blocks north of ours.  To top all of this off, a good ol' pal that lives in Seattle was down for the weekend as well for some concert.  Add these things to our already planned events, and it was a packed weekend.

The view from our hotel of the South San Fran sign.  Don't worry, that is just fog, not smog.

The drive took longer than normally because we had to stop often for my 3-year old son to use the rest room and prevent accidents in the car.  On the way down I-80 we pass through the city of Fairfield which, if people are unaware, is home to the Jelly Belly candy company.  We decided to stop and take our son to see the jelly beans.  When we arrived we took a few pics around the place and got there in time to see how absolutely packed it was and the long wait for the tour of the factory.  This inspired us to just take some pictures, hit up the gift shops for the candy, get lunch in their Food Court, and head on our way.

We got back into the car and back on the road for a bit, but once we got past the Carquinez Bridge the traffic was stop and go until we got past the Bay bridge area.  We decided to head south and take the San Mateo bridge since neither my wife nor son had ever crossed it before and it comes out just south of SFO anyway.  After the stops, traffic, and route, we ended up at our hotel around 2:30 in the afternoon.

My son and I at Jelly Belly in my TL shirt.

The Events of the Weekend:
First event of the night was a fancy dinner with my sister and her husband.  My wife picked out a Moroccan restaurant in the Richmond district called "El Mansour."  We met my family there and I was immediately struck by the open design of the place.  It was surrounded by open, small tables and plenty of fabric lining the walls and ceiling.  I had forgotten my camera, so I did not take pics unfortunately.  The service was friendly, atmosphere laid-back, and they even washed your hands for you.  As for the food, I liked it, but did not love it like the rest of my party did.  The Harira soup (spicy lentil) was great and I ordered the chicken w/ onions as my main course.  They also served us some Salade Mohammed V (Moroccan salad) and something called Bastela du Chef which was a sweet chicken pie.  It was tasty, but a strange mix of sugar, chicken, and spices that I was not all too enamoured with.

The best part though was the belly dancer that they had come out during our meal.  As I said, the room was open with the tables surrounding an open floor area where she danced.  With her sparkles and chimes, my 3-year old son could not take his eyes off of her.  He kept talking with her and smiling, then when we gave him some money to give her as a tip, he got embarrassed.  It took some coercing to get him to get up to talk to her, but he finally did.  What was the most hilarious though was when she was done, he kept looking back to where she came from and waving her for to come out.  He told us she was beautiful and he wanted to marry her.  It was great.  My son has always been rather into the ladies, but this took it another step further.


Our belly dancer, Jennifer.  She was beautiful. (I took this pic from their website.)

The next morning we were due up nice and early for our tickets on the boat over to Alcatraz.  On the drive from our hotel to the Pier, I wanted to find an SF landmark that I had never seen before, the Anchor Brewery.  For those that know me, I don't drink much.  The best way to not drink a lot is to be picky about what I drink, and as for beer, Anchor is about the only beer that I allow in my house.  I love the company, the story, and the tasty beverage.  It is the SF brew, so when in SF, make sure to order one.  Luckily, I did find the building and took a pic, but I did not get to go on a tour as you have to book them months in advance and we failed to do so.  It was a large, unassuming building in the Potrero Hill area of SF.  It was nice though to see where they work their alcoholic magic at.

The Anchor Brewery Building.  Oh how I wanted to go in and shake their hands.

While I love SF and have spent more time there then almost any other city that isn't my home town, I had never taken the boat over to Alcatraz before.  We were a bit unlucky in that is just so happened that it was the 78th Anniversary of the opening of the prison, so it was packed all over the island.  I will drop some pics for you guys that I took.  As for being there, it was cool to see, get an idea of scales and everything, but a few things that I had never realized:

1. The island is bigger than I thought.
2. I never realized that there were multiple cell blocks in one big open room.  Blocks A, B, and C were all together, while block D was separated some and contained the solitary confinement cells as well as normal cells.
3. Overall, the main prison building was smaller than I expected.
4. I did not get to experience it as slowly as I would have liked due to my son running around and my wife who gets really anxious around large crowds.

When we got back to shore, my sister and her husband met us at Pier 39 for lunch.  I am not a big fan of the pier area being not really into the main touristy stuff, but since we were there for the prison already, it worked out all right.  I had some delicious fish and chips with the fish battered in Anchor Steam.  That was awesome.

Next we all took my son to the Aquarium that is there on the Pier.  Now, if you know me you know that the Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of my favorite places to go ever, so all in all I was a bit disappointed by the small aquarium there in SF, but overall it was neat.  They had two large tunnel tanks that you walked under for a ways while the fish, sharks, and sea stars crawled and swam all around you.  It was neat, but just small compared to what I am used to.

After that my sister and brother-in-law had agreed to take our son for the night which was nice.  As anyone with a wife and kid knows, alone time with the wife becomes rare after the child is born.  We went back to our hotel for a while and rested until late that evening when my buddy who was in from Seattle was done with his event and we could get together.  We picked them (my buddy and his friend) up all the way north in the Richmond district again, and headed over to the Mel's Diner on Geary.  After chatting, eating, and just catching-up, we drove around the city for a while.  Our buddy's friend had never been to SF, so we took her over the Golden Gate, to Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies, drove down Lombard, and just around the city.  Unfortunately it was terribly foggy that night, so we did not get to see as much as we would have liked, but it was fun for a couple of hours.  We dropped them off at their hotel and said our goodbyes.  It is nice to see old friends.

The next day we had a couple of prime Giants tickets, but first we all went out for some awesome Vietnamese food at a small place in South SF.  I had some 5-spice chicken and rice that was friggin awesome.  I invited my brother-in-law to join me for the Giants game and he was excited.  I am a huge Giants fan and going to the ball park is one of the few things that I enjoy more than almost anything else in the world.  Live baseball is the best experience for me and my wife had gotten us prime tickets on the Willie Mays Wall, front row near the foul pole in fair territory.  My bro-in-law was is not a huge baseball fan, but had only been to one game in his life before when he was young, so it was about time to head to one of the nicest parks in the major and have fun.  We had dogs, Anchor Steams, and snacks as my G-men took down the Rockies in a 9-6 final score on an 8th inner homer to center left from Hunter Pence.  It was a good day to be a Giants fan and a beautiful day to be at the park.

The view from our seats.

My sister picked us up once the game was over and took us back to our hotel.  Their weekend was over so we exchanged pleasantries and they left to go home.  We stayed one more night and left in the morning.

The Drive Home:
Overall the drive home was rather uneventful, but we did stop at Jelly Belly once more to do the tour.  A Monday morning was much less packed than a Friday afternoon, so we got right in.  It is nice to have jelly beans around because they work well as incentive for a 3-year old.  It didn't take long though once we hit the road to find out that for some reason my AC in the car was not working so well.  Damn, it appears to be time for a recharge of AC coolant.  It was cooling well enough for the drive, but barely.  Finally we reached home and had were able to settle down after a fun and exciting weekend.

God damn I love you SF.