Is my geek showing?

Merry Christmas Friends!

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:56:45 GMT

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Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:03:03 GMT

God, we are such dorks.

(We went to my coworker's son's first birthday party. It was robot themed and BG (dad) made these awesome robot heads for "pin the head on the robot". There were some leftover and we decided that it would make a great photo op. So pictured above are my coworkers, myself, and our surprisingly willing spouses.)

It was about time

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:42:31 GMT

Hi guys! I feel like such a loser for not updating in forever. I have the typical half entries written in my head dating back to my birthday (9/27, if you were wondering how long) and it just kept getting more and more daunting. I am on the computer literally all day. I have an iPhone and that has spoiled me in the sense that when I get home, I don't need to pop open the laptop to check email and other things. So I don't. And composing entire entries on LJ from my phone is not the greatest thing, so I keep putting it off until I can't remember what I wanted to talk about anymore.

So I will try to be succinct and use pictures whenever I can, starting with my birfday!

I am now 31. Feels weird, like I am a full-fledged adult and should have some serious accomplishments. I guess having a steady job and still being happily married can be construed as big accomplishments, but I mean more. Like a house. If we lived anywhere else, I think this would have happened already. Damn mortgage prices around here are still ridiculous. But anyway, I had a lovely beach day and bonfire which was poorly attended (and that includes our dear sun which made a late and momentary appearance sometime around 3 pm). I have to be honest and say that I was really bummed out about it that day but as the few people that did show up, well, showed up, it made me feel much better (thanks @emilyyam, ressacjane/Jane, and ozo_head for not making me feel like a total loser).

It also helped that my whole family was there, including my in-laws and that kaptainsnot made me some really pretty and delicious cupcakes. And then we had delicious fire roasted sausages that night and some smores (with Reese's Peanut Butter cups instead of regular Hershey's!).

Interestingly enough, the fog rolled in around 4:00 p.m. and stayed for good (even posted a video while I was there to my FB, which is embedded below, behind the cut). Made great bonfire weather. [Pics on flickr]

I briefly entertained the idea of going to Disneyland on my actual birthday because it landed on a Sunday and it was free (for me at least) but the fact that it was the day after the bonfire nixed that real quick. Juan took me out to dinner with my family instead because he wanted to celebrate on my actual birthday. We went to Shakey's and had the yummy pizza and mojo potatoes. It had been a while! And my sister Sabi gave me an awesome present!

I had eyed these myself before, but never mentioned it to anyone, and lo and behold, she got them for me a long time ago and was waiting for the opportunity to gift them to me! My favorite, by far, is the octopus, as you can tell! [More pics of this day]

Soon after that, we went to the Star Wars in Concert show and were blown away, as you might remember.

Other significantly memorable events in the past month and a half, behind a cut because it was about time...

	Sea Fare 2009 The Aquarium's annual fundraiser was very well-attended and a lot of fun. You get all the aquarium die-hard staff there, you know, all the ones drinkin' the Kool Aid. We believe in the institution and are happy to join in on the fun. [More pics.]
	Staff Pumpkin Decorating Contest I submitted an entry for the first time ever. We are not allowed to pierce or cut into the pumpkin in any way, so I painted mine and hot glued fun foam to make it look like a penguin. Unfortunately, someone else thought penguin too. Mine won one of the prizes though ;) (I got two tickets to Knott's Berry Farm). So that was fun! [See the rest. Oh and here's the video, cued up to my prize announcement!]
	Alejandra's Birthday Pretty much the same day, we went to Knott's, but it was for Halloween Horror Nights in honor of ozo_head's birthday. The night before, I took some fun foam and made her a crown, complete with adjustable velcro and a pocket to stick glow sticks in. Why glow sticks? Because I cut out her name on the crown and wanted it to glow! It looked pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. [More pics]
	Cirque du Soleil's Kooza We went to Santa Monica and saw Cirque's latest show to come around this way. First of all, we had fantastic seats (which I got at a great discount)! This show was beautiful, wonderful, and fun. It harkened back to the days of old circuses that focused on classic acrobatics. There was high wire, contortionists, and my favorite: the wheel of death. We totally recommend you go watch it!
	Halloween 2009 kaptainsnot hosted a nice family party this year that consisted of a lot of cookies and other food. Some family was invited over and we took out the kiddies trick or treating. They actually showed up sans costumes so we whipped up some real quick. It was fun! [Rest of pics]

Wow. So, yeah, that's me trying to catch up. I know I totally missed stuff but I just want to feel like I can come back and type up a quick entry without the past looming over my head. So, now it's all about the holidays and while I am not ready, I am excited!

This isn't about my birthday

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:20:55 GMT

Star Wars in Concert was simply amazing.

In July, I bought tickets for this show and in particular, bought some for my dad as a birthday present. He loves Star Wars and loves musical scores (another one of his favorites is the soundtrack to the Gladiator). It was at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles in the L.A. Live complex. It is turning out really cool and will look awesome once the hotel finishes up construction. Aside from the ridiculous parking cost of $20, the place is just cool. They have figured out the best ways to move thousands of people in an orderly fashion (in and out of their cars), so that is to be commended.

As part of the tour, they also had displays on all levels from the different movies, including the Yoda pictured with me above. There were costumes, displays, TV's with artistic renderings, they even had a couple of Ewoks. And on the Mezzanine, they had live costumed characters so we got to take photos with Darth Vader, a Storm Trooper, and Imperial Gunner (in the spirit of full disclosure, I had to look that one up).

The show is like Cliff's Notes for Star Wars as wonderfully narrated by Anthony Daniels and scored by a massive orchestra and choir with a three-story LCD in the background (oh and let's not forget the lasers and pyrotechnics!). They started with the THX sound bite and then moved on to the 20th Century Fox Fanfare as the curtain went up and then the lights went out and BAM!! The brass and I don't even know what else just blares the first note of the famous Star Wars theme and the "Star Wars" logo is emblazoned on the 30 foot screen. It was enough to give me goosebumps and made me get so teary eyed with emotion. I found out where I get this from. Seems like my dad got real teary-eyed at the opening too.

It was a fantastic night and I recommend that if it comes near you, you go out and buy tickets to it. Don't think about it, just do it! [pics at flickr]

My birthday week!

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:10:39 GMT

The last time I started an entry was when we went to see District 9 a few weeks ago. This is what I had to say:

While the buzz about District 9 was pretty big IRL, I didn't really come across too many people talking about it on LJ. Juan and I went to see it last week and we loved it. It's been a great year for Sci-fi (Trek and District 9!). I loved the story, the effects, how it left me wanting more. I was emotionally exhausted after watching the movie because it was intense and really depressing in some spots. I look forward to seeing it again at some point.

Still feel the same way. :)

In other news, summer is now officially over and this year is flying by! I had a Beatles Rock Band party during launch weekend that almost nobody came to (last minute crap popped up for everyone, 'twas a bummer). But it was The Beatles and we managed to have a ton of fun playing anyway. Have another one scheduled for October, this time with some of my Aquarium wet-siders. The game is beautiful and so much fun to play.

In my department at work, it is a tradition to take the birthday people out on lunch every month and today was my turn. We went to George's Greek on Pine Avenue (with a stop at Pinkberry afterwards!). It was delicious and nice to get to hang out with my buddies downtown. Even had them take the shuttle with me instead of piling in cars, made me feel very green. It was funny though because AR sent out an email stating "ANITZA's BIRTHDAY Shuttle from 320 building leaves at 12:02. Downstairs near 340 building!!!" People were a bit confused by that, they ended up in weird places expecting a van to pick them up carpool style. It hadn't occurred to them to take public transport! They found us in time though, so all was well!

I had lamb slouvaki and it was cooked just right, so tender. I mean, just look at it (unless you are vegetarian, then I won't force you to look). I am stoked because they are opening a new branch right up closer to where we live. Juan has never dined there, so it will be great to introduce him to one of my favorite places to eat.

After what was quite possibly the slowest service ever (good thing we weren't in a serious rush!) we visited the Pinkberry up the street for dessert. I didn't know they had new flavors for summer (passionfruit and coconut)! After trying them out, I still opted for my pomegranate with fruity pebbles, strawberries, and blue berries. Yum. It was a perfect day for it too, it was so hot walking around outside! We burned off those calories walking back too! The shuttle was delayed (thank goodness for the scrolling information bars at the bus stops) so we figured it would be better to walk back (it was).

Tomorrow I will be on a panel at a local conference for volunteer managers. I was approached by a friend and coworker who wants me to talk about (and answer questions about) how to use the web for your non-profit organization, in particular, how to use social networking tools (and how the world is not going to fall apart if your organization gets a Twitter account). This is the first time I have been asked to speak on something about my current profession, but since it is a panel and kinda informal, I am not sweating it too much.

Incidentally, I was also asked to be on another panel in October. This one is as a young female professional in the green industry that doesn't necessarily involve a job in recycling or something. Basically, it is a conference for girls and the panel is about green jobs and the person in charge of putting it together wanted more than the typical green jobs that people think about. So she picked me. We'll see how that one goes.

I'm looking forward to Saturday because we are spending the entire day at the beach and ending it with a bonfire. I still have to buy everything, but that's what tomorrow is for. :)

[rest on Flickr]

Dinner at Brian & Mai's

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:19:49 GMT

Went to a dinner party at Brian and Mai's house (Brian is a friend I know from work). They have an adorable little baby named Vaughn.

And I think he makes my ovaries hurt.

Wish I was there.

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:31:52 GMT

Seriously. How can it already be Monday?!

A couple weekends ago we had a nice BBQ at the park. It was really nice because we took our bikes out, my dad brought a hammock from home and tied it up between to perfectly spaced trees, my sisters cooked an amazing carne asada (and pollo asado too), and was just overall awesome. [pics @ flickr]

Then, we went to a midweek ballgame last week at the Dodger Stadium. They played the Cardinals and were ahead the entire game. We had really nice seats (nicer than any I have ever gotten) and had a good time overall. It was a trip organized by people at work, so there were a total of almost 50 people there from our group. I kept playing with my phone until Juan got there. I couldn't help it, I was a tad bored so I kept posting tweets and photos while I was there. It was just nice being out and about doing something different in the middle of the week. Oh, and eating a Dodger dog again was great too. [four pics]

So, how are you guys doing? Been pretty quiet around here lately.

We be rollin'

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:33:32 GMT

So this last weekend, we did two things. Saw Harry Potter IMAX in 3D (I hadn't seen it at all yet) at the Bridge. It was about freakin' time. It was an enjoyable movie, as far as movies go, but I will never understand all the need to change things you don't really have to. And of course, there is the tug of all the things you hoped would make it in the movie but never had a chance. I long ago divorced the books from the movies, and I am much happier that way.

So anyway, bottom line, I would give it a solid B. I loved all the goofy teen dorkiness that abounded in this one.

The other thing we did this weekend was get new bikes! Juan has been wanting to get bikes for a while now and after stalling and research, we finally got a couple. Our price point was pretty low, so we weren't looking for professional bikes or anything. We ended up at a local bike shop where the owner helped us out himself. It was nice, like a real neighborhood. It's hard to explain, but in LA, it's hard to get the real neighborhood vibe. That place was totally giving that vibe though. Kids and adults, all ages, walked in with their bikes or parts for help and/or replacements. It was nice to see a small local businessman doing well, especially in this economy. Been there for around 17 years or something like that.

Juan got a mountain bike because he wants to be able to go off the main road sometimes.

I got a 7-speed cruiser (with a basket!).

We went for a ride by the Los Angeles River (which you can see from our apartment balcony). We didn't ride much, I am so out of shape! It totally kicked my butt.

But I guess that is the hardest part, starting, right? Here's to making positive changes!

Finally.

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:21:47 GMT

So, this has been a fun and busy summer. I keep thinking to myself that I really need to write it all down in my LJ but it seems I can only think in 140 characters at a time lately. As many of you have seen, I am constantly on Facebook and Twitter, well, FB more because that is more active. My job has me sitting at the computer and part of it is to check on our official page too, so it's not all goofing off ;) Even started a fan page for Immeritus even though I am not quite sure what to use it for just yet. Probably just another way to keep in touch. It's funny to see OL and RL intersect like that. No LJ/forum avatars, just head shots of people I had never seen before!

Last we left off about 3 weeks ago on our anniversary. Before we get to that, it just so happened that on that same day, I went on a tour to the local oil islands off the coast with a group of people from the Aquarium. You can see these islands off of the beach here and everyone wonders what is on them (is it some exclusive resort?). Well, they look pretty because they have to. They're really just there to dig for oil. It was an interesting tour and I just remembered that I have video to edit from that-crap! Well, here are the photos.

Past events also include a day at the beach capped off with a bonfire, and 4th of July BBQ and fireworks. Speaking about that bonfire, we came out on channel 7 that night because of it. Got interviewed, but they didn't show that part, just us having a good time around the fire. They just wanted a story on what people were up to on the holiday weekend. penster even saw it and texted me ("OMG were you @ the beach today & did channel 7 crewfilm you?! I swear I just saw you on the news!") Hahaha!

Back to the anniversary part... you were all so lovely. I meant to reply with a follow-up post but that never happened, so sorry. We went out for sushi that night and talked about the past, present, and future. Where we're gonna be in five years, how much has changed these past five. It is enough to give me goosebumps, thinking about it all, but also anxiety. So let's just stop talking about it.

We thought about going all out at first, but when we realized we had already committed to going out with friends to Disneyland that weekend, well, there's only so much money to go around. Dinner out ended up being really nice, especially since we tend to visit my parents on Fridays.

So like I said, we went to Disneyland with some of the Chusma that same weekend. It was a lot of fun even though it was so hot and tiring (it made me feel so OLD!). It actually was not as bad as I thought it would be for a Saturday in summer. We got on all the rides we wanted to without waiting too long (nice combination of luck and planning with Fastpasses). I am always amazed at how awesome the Indiana Jones ride is. We all wore buttons for various celebratory things, like our anniversary, Juan's birthday, graduation, etc. I had no idea they had so many of these buttons, but thanks to Heyzen and Lynette, we all got at least one. We of course capped off the night with a Denny's run. [Photos on Flickr]

Juan's birthday was last week, and we celebrated his birthday the weekend before. It was a simple affair at his parent's. Invited chusma and immediate family only. My mom made her famous cheesecake, we ate carne asada, played games, and just had a good time overall. 'Twas nice.

This past weekend we celebrated my dad's birthday by going out to breakfast and then going to their house to watch movies. Once again, a simple affair. But the going theme is that we are all together having a good time. I haven't given him his present yet, though. I have it in my purse. It is as much a present for him as it is for me: tickets to go see Star Wars in Concert. He loves music. He loves Star Wars. We all win.

So as far as making a post about everything so that I can start posting like a normal person, I think I am done. Sure, I missed some stuff, like getting a shout out from the news anchor, or the fact that we are looking to purchase a couple of bikes, but this is long enough.

Oh wait, just one more thing... tomorrow we (that is me + 15 friends/family members) are going to see Harry Potter in IMAX 3D. I can't believe I actually managed to wait it out!

Lucky Number 13

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:30:48 GMT

13 years ago today...

Juan and I were sitting at the bus stop on Atlantic and 6th Street in East Los Angeles. I was waiting for the MTA 260 and I think he was going to take the Montebello 10 and transfer at Whittier Blvd. We sat next to each other fiddling with our hands and looking out onto the street. He was nervous. Fumbling around for what to say, not able to look me in the eye. He was about to ask me to go steady and couldn't find the right words. I was excited and savoring the moment because I knew what he wanted to say. It was adorable. Of course I said yes!

We celebrate five years of marriage on Friday, but it is hard to ignore the fact that for eight years before that, we finished high school, went away to college, supported each other through thick and thin, and basically grew up with each other. So while it may seem a little girly to keep track of the "boyfriend/girlfriend" anniversary after having gotten married, five years doesn't really reflect our relationship.

13 years sounds just about right.

Who knows where we will be 13 years from now. Will we have our own house? Will we still live in Los Angeles? Will we have kids? Who knows, but there is no one on this planet that I would rather be on that road with than Juan.

Forget strikethrough, let's talk some real jailtime...

Thu, 28 May 2009 04:38:22 GMT

Wow, flist, what do you think about this?

U.S. Manga Obscenity Conviction Roils Comics World

In an obscenity first, a U.S. comic book collector has pleaded guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex abuse and bestiality.

Surprise, surprise...

Tue, 26 May 2009 19:23:47 GMT

Congratulations, you are a Shark Scholar. You sit at the apex of shark knowledge! You're likely the type of person that understands the connection between sustainable seafood and sharks. You are cautious of products that contain shark oil, cartilage or shark-derived squalene and you wouldn't dare eat shark fin soup.

Keep the ocean healthy by spreading your knowledge and share your wisdom with your friends.

Take the Aquarium of the Pacific's Shark Quiz to test your shark smarts.

Rock and Rollin'

Tue, 19 May 2009 23:18:10 GMT

So, we had a pretty good quake on Sunday night around here, it was a 4.7. Nothing scary, but not something to scoff at either. We were in the car almost home when it felt like our back tires ran something over. We were sure we hadn't run over something because we didn't see anything that we could possibly run over, and also, you know, it was just the back tires. We were literally almost home, so we get home, park, and inspect the car for damage. There was none and we brushed it off.

We walked into the apartment and noticed there were things on the floor. DVDs, knick-knacks, my ceramic turtle! We thought we got broken into for a split second until I noticed that something was swinging from the ceiling (a decoration) and it dawned on us - that was an earthquake! We'd never noticed one while in the car (you usually don't) but the jolt was strong enough this time. Thing is, it was really close by and the fault line it activated runs right through Long Beach. So anyway, we cleaned up, tried calling our relatives, and I posted to FB and twitter.

Now today, about 20 minutes ago we had another one, a 4.1, pretty much same place. This time I was in the office and I heard a big crack from the building shifting (pretty normal, no it didn't fall apart) and it was over in about 10-15 seconds. Half the people around here didn't seem to notice and even less cared enough to comment on it.

Release your stress slowly, oh Newport fault. Little shakes like these are way better than releasing your energy like you did in 1933.

An attempt at catching up

Wed, 13 May 2009 01:39:25 GMT

So it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Two weekends ago was my mom's birthday and we decided we would take my mom to Descanso Gardens and then out to dinner to a place she had been wanting to go to forever.

The day had the potential of getting rained on but fortunately, it never happened (as is usually the case around here). It was overcast but very pleasant for walking. The gardens were beautiful, the roses and camellias are in full bloom at this time of year, and the place was not really crowded. We casually strolled along in no rush with no real itinerary - whatever mom wanted to do is what we did. She decided to start out by spending about 45 minutes in the teensy little gift shop. I normally would have wanted to move things along, but I resigned myself to go with the flow and it felt good.

That last photo, I printed up and gave to my mom for Mother's Day, more on that later. The first photo she would kill me for posting, but this is my blog, dammit. :D

After spending the day walking, we made our way to East LA, to a place called Moles La Tia. My mom saw a report about their moles on Despierta America (which is kinda the Good Morning America for Spanish speakers in the US) and had wanted to go ever since. It is a tiny unassuming little place on Cesar Chavez. Everything that we ordered off their menu, and I do mean everything was absolutely delicious. From the agua fresca and horchata (made from pepitas instead of rice for a smoky rendition of this classic drink) to their Botana mestiza and over two dozen moles. I ordered fresh scallops toped with a fruity mole. It was something new and I really liked it. But I also liked my dad's "Enmoladas Tricolor" which are similar to enchiladas, but instead of chile they are covered in mole, three kinds, in this case: pipian rojo, verde, y blanco. Guh, so much food, so little room. Our eyes were certainly bigger than our stomachs, if you can believe that, and we practically rolled outta there, not able to finish all the food. If you like moles at all, you have to give this place a try, you will not regret it. And if you like moles and ever visit me from out of town, let me know and we will make this a stop! [Bday set on Flickr]

Thus ended the birthday part of Saturday, May the 2nd. This day also happened to be the day that Yair, my long-time friend was visiting from Chicago, and he wanted to meet up at Alegria in Long Beach. We've been friends since junior high and I miss the punk, so even though I was exhausted, we met up in Long Beach around 10:00 p.m. Carlos also came down. We hadn't seen him in a while either because he was in Iraq. Thankfully, he came back to us in one piece, although to be honest, I'm a bit worried about him for other reasons I won't go into here (nothing too terrible, but I can't help and be a mother hen).

[the rest]

Anyway, we had a good time out, polished off the night around 4:00 a.m. after an obligatory Denny's run. It felt really good to spend time with my friends that I hadn't seen in such a long time (including ozo_head ). But boy did I pay for it the next week!

Remember how I posted that I was sick and coughing and wanting to die? Well, I haven't shaken that bug. Spending that much time out, and having to shout to keep conversations going at a happenin' bar irritated my throat. Couple that with the freezer box that the management converts this building to over the summer, and I had a good relapse last week. I am better, still coughing, but much much better.

Anyway, that weekend was polished off with a visit to the extended in-laws for a memorial service for Manny, Juan's cousin that passed away last year on my mom's birthday. We went to a mass and then to a lunch with a ton of familia and it was really nice. There weren't speeches or anything, it was just a nice time to get everyone together and enjoy each other's company. It's really the best we can do with the little time we're given, right?

Anyway, I thought I was going to catch up with this post, but I will leave the rest for another. Stay tuned (or you're warned-either way).

A little late...

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:21:53 GMT

...but I still want to post about it (I just couldn't post about it before finishing my Photo Night post).

Easter.

It was really really nice. The whole family (including my in-laws) all made it to El Dorado Park here in Long Beach for a day's worth of picnicking and fun. The day didn't start out that great because our car made the poor decision of taking the freeway there (it normally would have been faster). The Spring Street exit was incredibly bad as it was literally the line to get in the park. We were in that line, I kid you not, for over an hour. I KNOW! When we finally made it in, we met up with my family and set up on the grass since there were no more grills or tables left. Oh well. Fortunately, we brought sandwiches, and the hot dogs were grilled at a nice neighbors grill.

Highlights included:

Watching the moms play ball and frisbee with the "kids"
Soaking up the sun while enjoying the breeze (I am still coughing, going on to week 6, so the candle flame shawl that canutius made for me was perfect that day)
Handing out the chocolate nests I made (and eating them)
Playing Apples to Apples in the tent as it got later and colder (we also played Zigity)
When kaptainsnot walked up to some random strangers (a mom and her two tween boys) who were throwing stuff at a squirrel in a tree. It was epic. We looked over and couldn't believe what they were doing (boys I understand, the idiots, but their mom?!). So I tried shouting to tell them to stop. kaptainsnot on the other hand grabbed two water bottles and ran over. It went something like this:
- kaptainsnot (in a friendly tone): Oh hey! What are you guys doing?
- the mom (in a sort of embarrassed tone): Oh we're throwing stuff... at a squirrel. *hee hee*
- kaptainsnot : Oh really? OK, how about this? You throw that to the squirrel and I throw these at you?
- them: O_O
Needless to say, they stopped out of sheer shock. Later my parents heard other park people gossiping about it. I was seriously afraid that we were going to have some sort of brawl on our hands, but thankfully the shock was paralyzing.

And this wouldn't be complete without some photos :)

The rest.

Photographers Night

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:45:50 GMT

It was amazing.

My little event that I have been dreaming about for literally years happened ~~last night~~-uhm, a couple weeks ago. I don't have the official tally, but we had around 200 photographers loaded up with the slimmest point and shoot all the way up to some crazy DSLRs, tripods, strobes, and stuff, the works!

I was very fortunate that when I was looking for a place to distribute flyers about the event I sent some to Tuttle Cameras in my neighborhood. After getting their stack of flyers, they called us to see if they could do anything to help. Soon enough I was talking to the owner and he was talking about bringing along Canon and Nikon reps with their equipment so they could have people check out lenses to play with for free. That was a fantastic. The Nikon rep really came through and brought SO MUCH EQUIPMENT. She even brought camera bodies. You could basically have walked up with your flash card and checked out cameras, lenses, etc, all for free.

The feedback I got from photographers and other staff was nothing short of awesome. And the photos! Oh boy, the photos! Let my give you a little sampling...

To see all the photos tagged for the night, click here. And if you like what you see, please click the photos to get a better glimpse and to see who took them, comment, fave, or simply see their other shots.

It was so successful, I will be organizing another one before the summer is over. :D

House

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:13:13 GMT

What the hell was that? Did anyone see this coming at all?! Kal Penn wasn't even in the show at all, so what happened there?!

In other news, after 3 and a half weeks, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been so insanely sick, last week I didn't show up to work once.

HAZMAT

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:21:52 GMT

You guys had some great suggestions for titles for yesterday's photo! I had a great time reading them. Here are your suggestions:

Reservoir Emphysema Dogs - alexiperplexy
"At least the Cab Driver warned us" - plynn78
Long Beach Clean Ports Initiative Goes Awry - speciestart
SARS in cars. - mollytype
"In the event of a drop in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling." - penster
L.A. is too hot for the traditional ski mask. - 10_rose
Smog protection masks, the new black. - canutius

SARS in Cars.

mollytype is the winner! I am a sucker for rhymes! Actually, rhymes, alliteration, and puns! I came to that realization today and if I find the trifecta, it will be glorious. So, here's the actual story behind the photo:

Brian, Nam, Andrew and I are the lunch posse. We tend to walk to lunch everyday, but when we've gotten tired of the five or so places around here, we hop in a car for a quick drive downtown. Yesterday we went to El Pollo Loco and the only people with cars for the four of us are Andrew and Nam. Andrew drove this time but here's the thing... he owns a dog. No children, his pets are his kids. So that back seat? You know who it belongs to? His adorable dog Celie.

And it is covered in fur.

No matter how clean Andrew thinks he gets his car, there is always a layer of dog fur and Brian being the gentleman that he is, always let's me ride shotgun in the front. He always ends up sneezing with an itchy nose and covered in dog hair. This time, he had the ridiculous idea of wearing a mask. So as we laughed at him, he didn't care and came back from lunch without so much as a sniffle.

And Andrew swore off driving us anywhere forever.

*laughs* Seriously? How could we compete with this?

We can't.

Name this photo

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:34:57 GMT

Just want to have a little fun with you guys. I took this photo today and it just has so many possibilities. Name this photo and person with the best title gets a cookie! Tomorrow I will update with the story behind the photo. :)

Name this photo.

On being a geek

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:29:50 GMT

So, this weekend was mellow and geeky. It started out pretty early on Saturday (get up at 7 am on a weekend?!) as I got the final touches ready for an online baby shower. We had one a couple years ago for mauvaise_etoile and this time it was her turn to visit aoife_ife for her baby shower. Fortunately, they live within driving distance of each other so the presents got sent to mauvaise_etoile this round and were delivered in person to Ife for the baby shower.

We were all in chat catching up and we played just a couple games. Aoife opened presents and as she did so, I published the online pages with pictures of what everyone got. I wanted to refine the site, but I was so slammed with work that, well, it is what it is. We got to see the presents and spend time hanging out in chat, that's what counts! And because we are an adorable bunch of babes, I want to share with your our "Guess the Baby" game. Once you give up, you can click on the picture to see who is who. :D Dora won that game. It was a lot of fun to hang out online with some of the Immy oldbies. We hardly have time for that anymore.

That was followed up with brunch and then some font making (I said fontificating on facebook and got a lot of pervs thinking the wrong thing which I never meant to do--not ever, no siree!). Yourfonts.com is amazing. Thank ali_wildgoose for sharing! You download a template, jot your letters, scan it in and upload to the site. If you follow the guidelines, you will have a font of your own handwriting in just a few minutes and FREE! You can install it and use it just like any of your other fonts. It's pretty amazing, especially if you are a digital scrapbooker, like me. If you do this, I would love to see your results, so please link me up! Here are our fonts (bigger):

La Loteria Magallon

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:15:03 GMT

So way back sometime in December, I think I mentioned that I was making a special crafty present for my parents and said that I would post pictures soon and well, that never happened. I am sure you all lost sleep over that, but in order to feel complete, I want to go ahead and share what I did.

For those unfamiliar with La Loteria, it is a table top game that is very popular in Mexico and has seeped into the pop culture. You might even recognize the iconic image of El Diablito. It is much like Bingo in that each player has at least one card called a tabla with four rows and four columns, but instead of numbers, you have pictures. These are called out from a deck and just like Bingo, the rules are set beforehand--do you need to match the whole card or just a line, an X or whatever?

So I had this idea floating in my head for the better part of a year, a Loteria where I replaced all the pictures with ones from my family. It was kinda daunting but when I finally sat down to do it, it wasn't that bad. Actually, it was kinda funny, instead of a 4x4 tabla, I mistakenly made 5x5 tablas which made it extra work for me (and will make for longer games) but by the time I noticed it, it was too late.

Let me just say, it came out awesomely.

I designed the playing cards that get called out by the cantor first. I decided I would get them printed professionally by Moo which meant I had a total of 50 cards to work with. I needed to find photos, crop, frame, and label them. I also designed a back. With all that in place, I uploaded everything to Moo and they took care of it. I got an adorable and sturdy black box with all my cards printed beautifully, one side with the game card, the other with the "logo" I created for the game.

Once I ordered those, I was able to focus on making the tablas. Oh boy, was that ever a treat! I had this huge PS file with no less than 50 layers so that I could swap out the pictures on the grid to make 10 unique playing cards. After that little bit of a nightmare, I printed them out on photo paper. I also printed the backs, trimmed, and then they went into my Xyron machine for lamination.

Cards? On their way. Tablas? Done. Now I needed a box to keep it in and possibly tokens to mark what's been called on your tabla. I kinda hit the jackpot one day at work when someone put scrap foam core posterboard in the break room. I was able to make a box from that and then cover it in scrap paper and modge podge it to make it withstand grimy hands. Then I went to Michael's on another errand and found a little round cardboard box that I could use to keep the tokens in. Bought that, covered it in the same paper as the big box and filled it with pretty buttons.

I was done!!

Below are the files that I used for the card backs and a few sample cards. If you want to see more images, check out this collection.

I hope you liked it! My family loved it although we have yet to sit down and play it. On Christmas night we all went through the cards as a family and saw the photos I chose and the labels I created for them.

Edited to even out the number of cards at the end, it was bugging me.

o_0

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:38:12 GMT

Holy crap. I can't believe it is March already... of 2009.

Because I haven't seen it on my flist...

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:15:40 GMT

I guess it kinda shows how most of you have moved on from the HP fandom, but I still wanted to post the awesome claymation movie that lecter63 made of The Deathly Hallows. It is over four hours long and is a true labor of love. I wanted to be able to easily watch it when I can, so I made a playlist with all 26 videos embedded below.

Hai Guys!

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:23:36 GMT

I keep wanting to update and then get lazy! Grr!

So the big V-day... we played it low-key. The fact that it landed on a Saturday would normally be welcome, but for us, it just made things more complicated and expensive. So we decided that we would do it simple. The biggest thing was taking Juan's family to an early dinner because his mom went in to work at 6 pm. They wanted to go to a buffet, but it was too packed so we tried Mary Calendar's for the first time ever. I never knew that it was an old people's restaurant! LOL The menu was simple and bland but hey, we tried it out. Not going back unless it is for a pie (we bought a cream cheese one, yum!).

That afternoon, on our way to dinner, we went to the gas station for a fill up. Put gas in, turned the key, click. Dammit. Turn the key again, click. Uh-oh... so Juan checks the gas cap and he readjusts it because it was kinda loose. Click. Pops open the hood, wiggles a cable here, a cap there, click. Wiggle, wiggle, vroom.

Thank god!

After dinner, the car didn't start again. Juan popped open the hood again and this time his parents were there to help. They all agreed it was the corroded battery contacts which they tried to scrape off with napkins from the glove compartment. It was good enough to get us to my in-laws. Once there, Juan and his dad took them off and cleaned them. He'd been neglecting them in his recent car tune-ups and it finally caught up to us.

After that we went to the movies and saw Taken. It was actually better than I expected! Lots of close quarter action (think Bourne, but not quite that good). The daughter that gets abducted is annoying, but fortunately, you know, she gets abducted.

Sunday we took my sisters to see Coraline in 3D. What a beautiful film! The 3D is totally worth it. It literally adds such a beautiful depth to the film, funnily enough, the tunnel scenes were some of my favorites despite their obvious 3D friendliness. I loved the Russian character so much, "very very thank you!"

Monday was scheduled to be a gaming day with my youngest sister (she slept over on Sunday). We woke up just before noon and started what we expected to be our final Gears of War 2 gaming session before beating the game. Unfortunately the game kept freezing until we got the dreaded red rings of death. That totally sucked. So we went out for brunch at IHOP and came back to play Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 on the Wii. Fun, but no Gears. As for the Xbox 360? Juan sent it to Microsoft today so they can send us a working one back. This is the second time this happens to us and while it's a pain, at least Microsoft is replacing them. Sucks all around but it could suck more.

Anywho, that is my latest update so I can feel like I am caught up and not so overwhelmed with the thought of catching up here. :D

Power outage

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:09:57 GMT

So still no power. Apparently someone ran into a transformer on South St. and knocked out power in the area. Apparently there are people working on it, very slowly.

We're at my parents waiting for my sisters to get back and let us in to shower and stuff. The hot water relies on electric pumps at our apartments. Looks like a half day at work today. :/

ETA [12:27 p.m.]: I'm at work now, got in about an hour ago. After going to the SoCal Edison site to see what the hell the status is, I couldn't find the phone number on their site at all. Went to google like I should have and found out the following:

1-800-655-4555 7:45 p.m. on Thursday: widespread power outtage. A traffic accident caused power poles and lines to go down. Repairs may be delayed due to extra service personnel being needed. Estimated restoration of power 3:30 p.m. Friday.

I haven't opened the fridge or freezer doors since a little before the power went out. Fortunately, there isn't much in the fridge, save for some cheese and a ton of condiments. The freezer is another story, however. I hope it doesn't really thaw out but if it does, I guess I will have to spend the weekend cooking.