ramen house

2012-01-21T22:37:00.001-08:00

"Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship." ~Gautama Buddha

2012-01-12T07:01:00.001-08:00

"You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it." ~Albert Einstein

2012-01-01T01:36:00.001-08:00

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." ~Albert Einstein

Happy New Year, everyone!

last morning of 2011

2011-12-31T08:24:00.001-08:00

phoenix layover

2011-12-24T17:25:00.001-08:00

I am sitting at the Phoenix airport waiting for the last leg of our
trip home. The bright orange of the Christmas eve desert sunset is
rapidly giving way to the deep blue of twilight.

The week in New York City was fun and exciting, but both Michael and I
can't wait to be home again with our pooch Eli.

2011-12-22T16:31:00.001-08:00

I still find it incomprehensible why people like sharing their nasty, unattractive buttcracks with the rest of the world.

cloudy with chance of rain

2011-12-21T07:02:00.000-08:00

What is walking the streets of a big city without rain? After
Michael's elegant birthday dinner at Cafe Boulud last night, it is now
time to walk around and see a little bit of the city.

2011-12-20T18:55:00.001-08:00

Emeril Lagasse is two tables away from us. How cool is it that he's enjoying Gavin's food creation?!

made it to nyc

2011-12-19T16:10:00.001-08:00

What a treat: The Empire State building is right outside our window.

2011-12-19T07:04:00.001-08:00

Start spreading the news, i'm leaving today. I'm gonna be a part of it - New York, New York... for about five days anyway...

urgent care

2011-12-18T11:08:00.001-08:00

2011-12-18T10:23:00.001-08:00

Altered weather patterns from climate change + irresponsible logging practices = 650 deaths in Mindanao. Who do we blame?

saturday morning

2011-12-17T09:05:00.001-08:00

2011-12-11T09:17:00.001-08:00

Fire three houses down..

2011-12-11T08:06:00.001-08:00

"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?" ~Gautama Budda

cool air, bright moon, great night for walking

2011-12-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

I logged almost three miles tonight walking around the neighborhood
tonight. Houses are bedecked with Christmas lights and all kinds of
decorations -- a great incentive for me to explore and get to know the
area a little better.

knowledge is power

2011-12-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

It's World AIDS day today. One in 5 positive Americans do not know
they're positive. Get tested -- knowledge is power.

vintage shop

2011-11-27T15:39:00.001-08:00

tourists at main beach

2011-11-27T07:29:00.001-08:00

With expectations based on what it was like around our hotel, I was a
little shocked at how crowded and touristy the downtown area was:
throngs of people waiting to cross the street, lines at restaurants
and ice cream shops, musicians at street corners, neverending stream
of cars... Then I realized expecting anyhing different was a mistake
-- this is a beach town, after all.

low tide

2011-11-26T21:56:00.001-08:00

Walking back to the hotel from Main Beach, we decided to walk on the
beach and saw this interesting water flow pattern on the sand.

claiming the freshly-made bed

2011-11-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

cress street beach house

2011-11-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

the holy bible

2011-11-25T18:35:00.000-08:00

dog and sunset

2011-11-25T16:58:00.001-08:00

coffee and the sea

2011-11-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

sunrise at cress beach

2011-11-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

family and the sea

2011-11-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

la casa del camino

2011-11-24T20:28:00.001-08:00

I was supposed to be on-call the whole Thanksgiving weekend, but at
the last minute my co-worker asked to swap. Freed up, I looked for a
getaway that was close enough to drive to but far enough to feel like
we actually went away, where we could escape for a few days and bring
Eli along for the ride. I found it in Laguna Beach.

happy thanksgiving

2011-11-23T21:15:00.001-08:00

mugshot

2011-11-22T06:17:00.001-08:00

eating my carnitas torta by the water

2011-11-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

fever

2011-11-18T22:22:00.001-08:00

I am crouching on the floor, so low that I am almost flat on my belly. The room, my parents' room is completely dark except for a single candle on the floor about a foot from the wall near the door. I feel the firmness of the wood floor on my palms and on my knees. I smell the warm waxy scent of the candle.

A little plastic ballerina is spinning on the floor in front of me, the kind that you find inside a music box. She has pasty yellowish-pink plastic skin and painted-on brown hair and golden shoes. Her eyes are two black brushstrokes and her lips a red blob on her flat face, making her look haughty and clownish at the same time.

Her tutu is made of stiff lace. She spins continuously in her ballerina pose, one bent leg, one hand up over her head. She is standing on a clear blue platform inside which is a magnet that makes her spin around inside the music box. But this time she isn't in a music box, and there is no music playing except a chorus of dogs that are barking incessantly outside.

The air is hazy with candle smoke.

And I am counting. I am counting her spins and turns, making sure that she doesn't go past a hundred. I closely watch her frantic spinning, the candle flame flickering to a music I cannot hear. 97... 98... 99... 100... 101... Stop! I cry out at her. You went over a hundred! You need to spin the other way now.

And she follows my direction, now spinning counter-clockwise, faster and faster. 87... 86... 85... It is hot. I am sweating, but I do not move. I don't know if I can't or didn't want to move. I just stay in my position, sweating, crouching, and counting. 43... 42... 41... 40...

The candle flame has a halo around its quivering tongue, a tiny circular rainbow formed by the humidity of my breath and my sweat and the heavy air in the darkness. The door is open to the room outside where I know there is an old sewing machine by the jealousy window. But it's too dark to see, as if I were looking through gauze. And I cannot look away from the ballerina for fear of losing count. If I did she would have to start from the beginning, and I don't want that.. We've come so far, we cannot mess it up. 11... 10... 9... 8...

The ballerina needs to stop at zero. Or at 100. Exactly on the number. If she goes over, even by one, she needs to go backward... or forward. 4... 3... 2... 1... 0... and she continues. No! I try to reach out and grab her so she would stop, but my arms are frozen and I stay crouching. You were supposed to stop and you didn't I yell at her. Now you have to spin the other way and stop, please try, at 100. Please! I'm so, so tired...

37... 38... 39... 40... And we keep on going. She keeps on spinning past 100 or 0, and I keep on yelling at her and counting.

And then I smell alcohol. Rubbing alcohol. And I hear voices. My mother? Another female voice. Dr. Katigbac? My head is resting on a shoulder. I don't know if it's my mother or father carrying me. I don't care, I just know this is where I want to be right now. They are talking about the shot I was just given. And something about high fever. I slowly open my eyes, but I don't move. I see the stone brick wall and the green draperies in the doctor's living room. I stay still, too exhausted to even raise my head.

They carry me out of the doctor's house. It is dark. The candle is gone. The ballerina is gone. I don't have to count anymore. I am so tired. I fall back to sleep, my cheek on my parent's shoulder, even before we got in the car.

paperclip #9

2011-11-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

2011-11-06T03:57:00.001-08:00

Working this early on a Sunday morning is for the birds.

insanity

2011-11-04T19:27:00.001-07:00

goodbye

2011-11-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

my day

2011-11-01T07:21:00.001-07:00

um... i need to go pee?

2011-10-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

sunday morning

2011-10-30T08:59:00.001-07:00

staying warm

2011-10-29T22:31:00.001-07:00

notecard

2011-10-29T15:54:00.001-07:00

sleepy but won't close his eyes

2011-10-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

2011-10-25T07:37:00.001-07:00

"In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true." ~Buddha

2011-10-24T22:20:00.001-07:00

It's disconcerting when, after you come back to work after a week of being sick, your boss asks with a smile, "Oh, do you still work here?"

occupy san diego

2011-10-23T19:37:00.001-07:00

be incompetent

2011-10-22T21:37:00.001-07:00

I read somewhere that one of he most stressful experience for a person is to be thrust into a situation where one does not know anything. Or worse, be responsible for something one does not completely understand. If this is so, then I must have been living under stress for the last 6 months or so. Proof to that is the increasing number of gray hair on my head. Getting more salt than pepper. Less spicy, more salty.

One thing that I've noticed at work is how responsibility for is not dropped upon your lap. It's more like cobwebs or molds. It creeps in. The last time you looked they were not there. You don't have the slightest clue when and how they got there.

One day a coworker who was in charge of a computer application taught me a couple of functions so that I could "take care of it" while he was gone on vacation. Suddenly after he left, I was the expert on that app, regardless of the fact that all I knew how to do was unlock people's accounts and replace their passwords with temporary ones so they could log back in.

Another time I became involved in a big side project. The way it was explained to me, I was chosen because of my knowledge in A, the second guy for his knowledge in B, and the girl for her expertise in C. Before I knew it, I was pretty much the only one attending the meetings, and I had become the expert in B and C! This is not to say that I actually knew more in those areas since we started the project. I didn't.

There are a few important thing I learned through all this: never get your name associated with anything, never look like you are all together and your ducks are in a row, never excel in any particular area, never stand out. In short, be incompetent. And bring food to work all the time. Like donuts, or bagels and cream cheese. Volunteer to do the Starbucks run every morning. Offer your car when the office goes out to lunch. Your coworkers will love having you around. They will probably prefer not to work with you, but they will adore you.

dental cleaning

2011-10-18T16:42:00.001-07:00

Eli's tartar and plaque are gone but he's still heavily sedated. It's a little unsettling to see him without his tail wagging...

steve jobs

2011-10-05T21:10:00.001-07:00

I thank you with every call I make, every song I listen to, every picture I take, every webpage I view, every message I send, every game that I play.

refueling at westmoreland

2011-10-02T21:42:00.001-07:00

We couldn't drive up Banner Grade Road to Julian from Borrego Springs because of the Grade fire (somehow the press started calling it the "great" fire). Instead of finding a mountain detour, we went east to El Centro. Westmoreland was our first stop. A different country...

one of the 129 galletas sculptures

2011-10-02T18:23:00.001-07:00

caballero

2011-10-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

palm

2011-10-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

facing east...

2011-10-01T06:47:00.001-07:00

looking west at sunrise...

2011-10-01T06:37:00.001-07:00

...light and shadows converging west. Early morning walk in the desert.

elijah t. doolittle

2011-09-17T20:04:00.001-07:00

From the time I leave the house at 7:30 in the morning until I return after dark, my dog patiently waits. Sitting on his pillow, keeping an eye on the door, jumping at every sound hoping that it's finally me walking in so we could play fetch. I can only imagine what goes on in his tiny head while I am away...

blackout

2011-09-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Takeout Chinese food by candlelight. Masive power outage today from south of the border to Orange County.

it's hot today

2011-09-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

oakdale, california

2011-08-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

merced river at yosemite valley

2011-08-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

yosemite fire

2011-08-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

in monochrome

2011-08-27T23:53:00.001-07:00

my ansel adams version

2011-08-27T23:52:00.001-07:00

yosemite

2011-08-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

to eastbay on the dumbarton

2011-08-23T11:33:00.001-07:00

Philippines 2011

2011-08-20T20:34:00.001-07:00

my rubber tree

2011-08-10T20:04:00.001-07:00

imus river

2011-08-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

767

2011-08-05T15:13:00.001-07:00

san francisco international airport

2011-08-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

stephanie's car

2011-07-26T13:36:00.001-07:00

socks

2011-07-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

misty

2011-07-15T19:19:00.001-07:00

sneezy

2011-07-15T19:08:00.001-07:00

first forty-four

2011-07-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

wedding

2011-07-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

water, fire, walk-don't-walk

2011-07-09T10:53:00.001-07:00

san francisco city hall

2011-07-09T10:21:00.001-07:00

4th & king

2011-07-08T19:06:00.001-07:00

sfo: walk

2011-07-08T16:59:00.001-07:00

sunning

2011-07-03T20:06:00.001-07:00

giles in red

2011-07-03T10:18:00.001-07:00

giles under the morning sun

2011-07-03T09:23:00.001-07:00

morning sun

2011-07-03T09:17:00.001-07:00

backdoor

2011-07-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

giles

2011-07-02T09:38:00.001-07:00

first one

2011-06-26T13:08:00.001-07:00

All the volunteer tomato plants are now full-grown and heavy with fruit. We found (and ate) the first red one this weekend.

red

2011-06-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Who can resist a shiny red Cadillac in a parking lot?

father's day

2011-06-18T21:23:00.001-07:00

"It is not flesh and blood but the heart, which makes us fathers and sons." ~ Johann Schiller

emerald gas

2011-06-12T06:25:00.001-07:00

The gas staton can be a good source of industrial-type images. I was filling up at a local station and looked down at my feet. Voila!

shizuoka

2011-06-10T20:25:00.001-07:00

Friday night dinner at our favorite go-to Japanese restaurant.

burger lounge

2011-06-08T18:59:00.001-07:00

fresh sheets

2011-06-05T23:27:00.001-07:00

handbroom

2011-06-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

caught in the traffic jam this person caused

2011-06-04T15:13:00.001-07:00

lavender

2011-06-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

iPhone application: Brushes

remember

2011-05-30T20:35:00.001-07:00

wallpaperstock.net

remember those who went to fight

in battles near and far

so you can live with promise

that you can go forward

in safety, in peace.

remember those who lost their lives

in causes dear and noble

so your sons and daughters can learn

the price exacted

for liberty, for freedom.

remember those who came back home

with scars and wounds and ghosts

so your heart and soul can show

the gratitude that you owe

these men, these women.

remember.

rusty

2011-05-30T10:53:00.001-07:00

sonia's eggs

2011-05-30T10:52:00.001-07:00

sit... stay...

2011-05-30T10:51:00.001-07:00

salt & pepper

2011-05-30T10:49:00.001-07:00