Find love in the simplest pleasures of life. Smile without reason, jump without abandon, and rub your belly once in a while just cos it feels great.
Weekend pictures from Sequoia National Forest camping here.
Got back a few hours ago from the depths of the Sequoia and Sierra National Forest. Left Friday after work, and met up with Ismael, Alessandra, and Katrina at a developed campground around Lake Hume. I got detoured for an hour thanks to my impeccable pidgeon-like navigational skills, compounded by the lack of a GPS nav unit (aside from me being cheap, the '79 VW bus does not have a cigarette light accessory charger. I know.)
Saturday was spent "exploring" the back roads, which consists of lots of dirt, the occasional washout and a few deep ruts. At some point, I was even second guessing how the hell Basso convinced me to take a 30 year old VW into the forest trails. Yet Vanessa performed admirably, the engine kept its cool and she meandered gracefully across deep ruts and danced on the gravel. Almost as if she's more comfortable in the outdoors than she is on pavement! The main goal was to take a specific trail down to the Kings Canyon River, but we were faced with a giant muddy puddle that scared me and we settled on Plan B instead, which is on a small meadow with a great view. :P
Among the highlights of the weekend was going up to "Delilah's Lookout", which is this fire lookout point which we chanced upon at a dead-end after getting lost on the trails. We scaled the 70 foot metal structure (and slightly soiled my pants since I'm deathly afraid of heights), met the two volunteers manning the station, and soaked in some pretty awesome 360 degree views of the entire forest. They showed us a few tools they used to track and report wildfires, and I got a kick out of this small 2'x2' wooden platform raised by glass bottles that they need to stand on during the duration of a storm to insulate themselves from lightning. Plus, Kat scored a vintage copy of "The True Story of Smokey Bear" comic book that they gave us while he was going through the stuff for a fire permit. Very cool stuff.
The other highlights I need to point out are Korean BBQ short rib tacos, chicken skewers glazed with dijon honey mustard, blue cheese hamburgers, and lots of ice cold Tecate. Mmmm. Pictures tomorrow!
Holy Fuck at the Troubadour. I don't understand how these guys are not selling out their gigs, everyone had a great time and they put on such awesome energy throughout their set. Can't wait to see them again! I know the GIF animation is ghetto-fab, but hopefully it makes the HD uploads crawling to Youtube right now look even better ;)
What a weekend! Congratulations, Brother Bear and Ate Pat :) I love you guys!
Photos here: https://lovine.com/photo/2010/gangoso-santos/
Back in Los Angeles.
Thank goodness I got upgraded from coach (c/o King Benny's friendship counter), and it was finally one of the newer refurbished PAL planes that have seats that lay flat.
Am tired, but waiting for a giant load of dirty laundry to finish. If there's one thing that I miss, it's doing my own laundry. Back to the grind tomorrow.
I need to take a break. I miss my sidekick who understands what its like to explore what's out there, and is never afraid to get lost with me as I am apt to. (Although she will discreetly let you know that we've been through this route before, but that's besides my point.) I really need to get out, get dirty, and know the world a little closer, away from this damn compooper.
One can only take the dreary consistencies of routine so far, before starting to babble helplessly like an idiot. I feel like I just keep waiting. And waiting. Wait.
To our favorite baby boy.
Can't believe you're turning 6, and I'm not there to be at the farty! Hope your Mama Kat gets you tacos and a big fat burrito cake for you to stuff your face on. I bet that'd make you happy :)
I love you!!!
Yesterday's marathon started 2pm at best friend Cyrus's house, where I met baby Via for the first time and proceeded to polish off their baby Heiny keg and a case and a half of San Mig light with his brother in law and friends. After replacing my blood with alcohol after 8 full hours of drinking, I took a quick shower and headed out to Establishment with the conyo crowd for TFlo's birthday bash, and joked about my life long dream to appear in the society pages with Maurice Arcache. True enough, he was there! Other highlights were catching up with Ramon and Karlo Miguel, and capped it out when TFlo and ate Mia introduce me to the concert queen Pops Fernandez. Party till 4am, just like how Manila does it.
Today's sunset is brought to you, by the world.
Today's lesson number one. When working with filtered columns in Excel, doing a "Paste Value" will also plow over the hidden rows. Which you won't see until you unfilter the column. Hurrah!
Today's lesson number two. When you save a document right after doing something incredibly awesome, it wipes out the Undo cache which makes it impossible for you to get back to the version before saving it. Hooray!
Life's lesson: Don't save, and don't save often. Stop working and go buy vinyl records instead.
Taking the bus for a long trip to San Francisco this weekend, possibly through the 101. Looking forward to that certain magic behind the wheel, a comforting lull that brings me closer to the salt of the earth. Always a guaranteed break from the routine, which I find myself needing more often as I age. Instead of accepting everything as you've decided them to be - ask yourself more questions, and the world will give you even better answers.
Just don't die on us, or catch on fire - and we will love you forever. Guaranteed.
Just got back from the desert.
Friday
Hockey
Ra Ra Riot
She and Him
Passion Pit
Them Crooked Vultures
LCD Soundsystem
Vampire Weekend
Benny Benassi
Ceu
Whitest Boy Alive
Saturday
The Temper Trap
Band of Skulls
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
The XX
Corinne Bailey Rae
Hot Chip
MGMT
Muse
The Deadweather
Die Antwoord
Devo
Sunday
Deerhunter
Matt and Kim
Florence and the Machine
Julian Casablancas
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Phoenix
Pavement
The Big Pink
Sly Stone
Gorillaz
2010 is a good year. With a lineup like this, it's hard to get my head wrapped around the fact that I saw and heard what I did.
Music is life. Life, is music.
Nickel's first time. I think he is finalizing an exit strategy on the last frame.
Taken last weekend inside a vintage/thrift store in the city (SF) which had one of those old school photobooths hidden in the back - the kind that still develops the picture. None of that digital crap. Hooray for analog! And using chemicals! Digital photobooths have no soul!
