more band names!!! time for dancing!!!

Posted on May 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

Here we have the latest installment in my continually growing collection of band names. There are some good ones here. Enjoy and you’re welcome.

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The Black Before the Dawn
The Amazing Persistence of Life
Claiming Our Justice
The Dragon & the Smoldering Wreckage
Shouting About Ice Cream
Neat, Tidy, Hiding Something
The Undiscovered Body
Never Leaving the Murder Hotel
Bloody Hands, Bloody Murder
Burning Human Hair
You Swallow Bugs
The Faceless Wolf
Smart Enough to Suffer
Hell Yeah & the Fuck You’s
We’re Building a Lightshow
Down at the Tavern of the Crescent Moon
Anachronistic Anarchists

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I’ve been engaged for a week now…

Posted on May 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

Booyah. It’s pretty sweet.

Last week I asked the incredibly awesome lady in my life, Cassidy, to marry me. And she totally said yes. Blammo, I win. It was pretty sweet. We made breakfast for dinner together. As in I did what my limited kitchen skills allow me to do and Cassidy stepped in when I was going to burn something or myself. Seriously, I almost grabbed a pan straight from the oven with my bare hand because I’m a super genius. If it’s not a piece of tech, I’m probably pretty stupid when it comes to operating and/or using it. But, we got through it injury free.

Then as we sat eating our meal and drinking beers (Rainier tall boys to be exact) I did the thing I had been running over in my mind the WHOLE FREAKING DAY. I talked to her Dad on the phone earlier in the day to ask for his blessing because I am a traditional guy when it comes to these sorts of things, plus I knew he and Cassidy would appreciate it. Once that conversation ended I started to get a little nervous. It wasn’t from suspicion of what the answer would be, I was pretty certain she was gonna say yes. But, it is still a pretty big thing to be doing. I don’t plan on ever doing this again. I have always thought that getting married is something you do once. Regardless of how life turns out Cassidy will be the only wife I ever have.

So, I did it and it was awesome. Cassidy and I were discussing it last night about how neither of us would change a thing about how it happened. Honestly, I am glad to finally have it done it. I have been thinking about this for quite some time now. I was going to do it when we still lived in California, but our decision to move to Seattle delayed that idea. It would be too much to be planning an out of state move and a wedding all at once. Crap, the move was hard enough. I did have the ring picked out for some time.

The ring came from a fabulous company called Monkeys Always Look. It is a simple band with three diamonds in it. The metal all comes from recycled sources and the diamonds are conflict free.

Here is an example picture, but it looks much better on Cassidy’s finger, trust me.

It is shown here in pink gold, but I chose to have the ring made in white gold.

We called our friends and family to inform them of the news. FaceTime came in handy to talk with my parents. Everyone was elated, but no one was surprised. For some time now people have treated Cassidy and myself as if we were married ten years ago. I guess that is a good omen of sorts if it seems so obvious to everyone around us.

Then there was announcing it on Facebook. Holy crap, that was nuts. With well over 100 likes and thirty plus comments it was the most popular post I have ever put up. And rightfully so, as it is the coolest thing I have ever announced in all of my life. There was this hilarious winning a jackpot on a slot machine feeling as the notifications came rolling in one after the other. It was pretty wonderful.

Now we have the awesomely daunting task of planning an out of state wedding ahead of us. It should be good and fun and drive us crazy all at once.
All in all it will be the greatest thing I accomplish in life next to somehow magically convincing this amazing woman to love me.

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the adventure begins – ruby on rails

Posted on May 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

In the last  couple of weeks I have turned on the burners in this journey of learning to code using Ruby on Rails. I have a lot of instructional videos I am watching and have been playing around with my own ideas. Plus, multitudes of books and online tutorials. It is honestly the coolest thing I have done in a long time. There is this sense of solving a puzzle and being creative all at once I get from coding. I have a hard time putting it into words.

It feels great to have something to freak out about and obsess over. I am reminded of when I was first learning to play the drums. I was thirteen and had spent the last couple of years discovering music. This was when I was allowed to pick out music for myself and began to discover the music that I loved, like Nirvana and the Meat Puppets. I threw myself into playing music with my friends. It was all I thought about and all I ever wanted to do. I have a ringing and slight deafness in my left ear I wear as a badge of honor. Now, I still love music, listening to it, and have even began to start writing it again.

But, learning to code is this whole new thing that I love. Honestly, it is just so damn cool. The idea of meticulously creating something, to fine tune each detail until the idea in my brain comes to life fascinates me. It is very much akin to the process of writing music. Coding and creating for the web and making music can both impact people on a personal level and change lives. Everyone has an album or song that when they here it transports them to a certain place and time or gives them a certain feeling. The web and technology can have that same impact on people. Helping someone to share a photo with a friend or family member can bring people closer together. Maybe they live far from each other and using a site like Flickr is the only way they can show each other the big events happening in their lives. Providing somebody a to do list can be the tool they use to change their life by getting in shape or quitting smoking. The possibilities are truly endless and that is really exciting.

As someone who lives far from a lot of family and friends I appreciate things technology provides like Skype conversations and sharing photos. I hope to use this new skill in a way that will give people that same feeling they get from that one song every time time it comes on. I want to make something significant to people.

And it is this that both excites and drives me.

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the act of disconnecting

Posted on April 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

Hey there and hello how ya doing?

It has been some time since I last posted something here. Firstly, my apologies to anyone who may have been missing my musings, photos, or such silliness. I have been finding myself rather busy with this thing called life. Nothing scary or terrible to report, so don’t worry about me. In fact, it is all going rather well. I just have a bunch of things going on.

But, it stems from the same idea of disconnecting. Now, don;t get me wrong. I am still quite fervently obsessed with the internet, which I don’t see changing anytime soon. But, I am learning to step back and view life with my eyes on what’s in front of me instead of what’s on a screen. It all started with a Mayer Hawthorne show a number of months ago that escapes me now where he had a little musical interlude for everyone to take pictures. He mentioned that this was the time to get all of that over with. He had his band play an upbeat, simple rhythm while he ran around the stage and posed in various ways to suggest any number of moments in the show so that everyone could get all of the photos they wanted. Then he told everybody to put away their phones and cameras and just enjoy the show. He made a point to say it would be a lot more fun to dance to the music than to tweet about how you’re seeing him live and how much you love his music. He was appreciative of the love he gets online, but he wanted his fans to have great memories of an awesome night. Plus, he didn’t want people missing out on the fun taking photos for people who were too lame to get tickets and come to his show.

I took his advice that night and instead of taking photos or tweeting during the concert I just danced with Cassidy and had a great time. I did reserve the tweeting for the bus ride home about how much fun we had at the show. It was awesome.

Since then I have been thinking about that night and the advice given to live in the moment more. Seeing this story about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs giving similar advice for their shows it seems more people are of this thinking. Doing this has meant I’m spending less time wondering about what I can post on social media to be funny or whimsical or downright stupid. I’m still thinking about pretty stupid shit, but not posting virtually all of it to the interwebs. And to be honest I am liking it a lot. The world is a pretty rad place when you take the time to see it.

So, what does this mean for my blog? It means I will probably be posting less often or maybe posting a bunch at once or maybe still posting as often. I’m just not going to worry about it. I have a few new projects to work on which I will update here about their progress. One is my start at teaching myself to program with Ruby on Rails, the second is a music project, and the third is actually another blog. In the name of all that is holy another blog, but you just said you won’t be posting here often?!?!?!?!? Yes. This new blog will be one that I post to much more often about particular things that are not my own. My blog here is going to be a place for updates and such from my personal life, so it won’t need as much attention.

But, I don’t want to go into too much detail about those things. Each of these projects will get posts and updates as they come closer to fruition. All in all it is very exciting for me and I hope you enjoy what I do.

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you are my sunshine – black & white photography

Posted on February 28, 2013 | Leave a comment
Taken with my iPhone 5 at a bus stop using KitCam

Taken with my iPhone 5 at a bus stop using KitCam

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did you say, exploding satan?

Posted on February 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

explosion bear


Finding it difficult to eat enough cheese to see through time? Now you can ride the backs of hippos onto the battlefield without fearing you lost your pants.
If you act now, you can get a brand new computer for only 800 payments of $599.95 plus shipping and handling.
Simply step outside and scream for praline ice cream.

You have the power of gorgonzola flowing through your veins? Then you’re 17 steps ahead in your journey to total domination of the Napoleonic Lawn Games Federation.

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first shots with my nikon em

Posted on February 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to take out my Nikon EM camera for a little bit and do some film shooting. This camera used to belong to Cassidy’s father. He gave it to her before we moved up here to Seattle and she gifted it to me in a way as she knew I would get more use out of it than her, being the photography geek that I am.

To say the least, this was an exciting endeavor. Some of you may know about my recent experience with purchasing the film for it from Lomography, but I decided to not let that get in the way and loaded it up with the first roll of the Color Negative.

I wasn’t too sure about if the camera still worked well, so on this photo jaunt I just snapped at random things on the streets. This roll was meant to be a test for the camera. Thankfully it passed, the camera works! I guess that could be a little obvious considering I am sharing pictures done by the camera.

I am definitely still getting used to the idea of shooting film again, but very much enjoying it. There is a little bit of a light leak in the lens that only comes out when I have the sun directly on my left side. Something I can easily work with and I think will add character to a lot of shots I take with this camera.

The first shot is from the end of my jaunt when I was in South Lake Union. There is a lot of construction going on over there and it makes for a very urban feel. I like looking at it for some reason.

Secondly is from when I was over by the MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry) at the fountain outside. It looks to be always loaded with birds and after standing there for a bit they got pretty close to me. Fun fact: the fountain edge is riddled with bird feces!

Lastly, is a berry branch on Terry Ave, I believe, in Capitol Hill. This camera has a lens on it that goes down to 1.8, so I was going for blurring out the background with the focus on the branch. As usual when it comes to manually focusing I had a little difficulty. I wear glasses and have a hard time wearing them and manually focusing. In camera it tends to look good, but once I look at the photo I see that the focus is not on the direct foreground, but slightly behind it. As is apparent in this photo. The front of the branch is blurry with the back of it getting the focus. It’s something I will have to keep working on how to compensate for my ocular shortcomings. Tips are greatly appreciated.

All things considered the shots came out great and I look forward to shooting more with this camera.

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