Yes, two more dreams...

At the risk of turning this into my dream blog or something, oddly enough dreams are sometimes the most interesting thing going on with me at a given time.

The first one was kind of sketchy. I was playing in a softball game or something (I think that has something to do with the fact that I watched a King of the Hill episode about softball last night). Anyway, there aren't too many specifics about the game, but when I got back to the locker room, I couldn't find my locker. I checked every single one there was, for a good 20 or 30 minutes it seemed like. I think I was still in my gym clothes, which added to the embarassment because I was having to cut in and out of other people who were trying to change their clothes, or whatever. Finally I found my locker. It was stuffed on the bottom, and it was more like a drawer than a locker. I had found out someone didn't like the locker I picked and decided to move everything to an inconvienant and confusing place. Worse yet, I had my camera in there, and they had taken the lense apart to be able to fit it in the drawer. Not knowing how those things are put together, I was really pissed off, because I had no clue how to fix it, and I was worried about the bare glass getting scratched. And I also found a note in there, something to the degree of "you suck, you just take snapshots and pass them off as 'photographs'", etc, something really rude.

The second dream was a bit more intriguing. It was a Saturday morning, not too early, probably 9 or 10 O'Clock, and I was driving around the city of San Francisco. What I was doing there, really I dont know. I parked in some neighborhood, got out, and walked over to a club or a bar or something. I don't really know why I was going there, but just by a coincidence, my friend James was there with another friend of ours. Its odd because it seemed like the last place in the world to meet him. But anyway, he mentioned he was taking the other friend to the SF Airport to see him off, and if I wanted to come along. I said sure, and I wanted to kill some time in the day, so why not. Heres where a strange aspect of this dream comes into play. At the beginning, I'm driving the first car I ever had, which was a copper colored 79 Thunderbird. As I'm pulling out of the parking lot to go the airport, the car stalls, and I had to push it out of the lot. But fortunately, the car fired again, and I was on my way.

Somehow along the way the car I'm driving (the Tbird) somehow becomes the car I'm driving now, a '91 Aerostar. No real transformation took place or anything, it just sort of *happened*. Anyway, I pull up to the Airport, and I'm driving along the frontage road, just completely unable to find a parking spot. A garage door opens and some dudes are bekoning for me to park there, so I do. They told me I could stay there for a little bit until I could find a more permanent place to park.

Unfortunately, through all this, I also lose track of my friends, and I never see them again throughout the dream. But because I had lost my friends, I had decided to get out and look for a better parking spot so I could search the terminals for them later on. I end up walking through some promenade or shopping mall (again, probably relating to TV...I saw an episode of "American Dad" too that took place partly in a shopping mall). I walk through the mall, pass by many shops and restaurants, and climb up a bunch of stairs until finally, I find the parking lot. And even better, there are literally hundreds of empty spaces!

So I go back the way I went to try and find my car, but theres a problem...I can't exactly remember which garage door I was parked behind, because there are several doors to choose from, and they are all shut. I finally figure out which one it was, and I'm certain it was this one...but I lift up the door, and nothing was there. I walk out of the garage and out of the corner of my eye see a regular door slam shut. I open the door right away and see someone disappear behind the a trap door. I trip the trap door and fall down a long slide. I emerge to find what looks like a huge club/restaurant/party going on. Someone greets me and explains that I was "brought" here to enjoy the party, and lo and behold theres my van sitting right there, untouched and ready to drive. But instead, I decide to stay and enjoy the party going on. The guy makes me a mexican sub sandwhich (whatever that is), and the dream ends.

So anyway, its raining today, not much to do. I have a meeting for work later this afternoon, so maybe I'll get more days to work next month, but who knows, heh. Bye for now I guess.

The Delta

I decided yesterday that I needed to go out on a little photography excursion. Nothing major, only a few hours, but dammit I need so much more experience with shooting not only different locations, but different times of the day and in different weather conditions as well. A dark, cloudy, off-and-on rainy day seemed perfect then.

Now regarding the California Delta. Its basically the confluence of the Sacramento and San Juaquin Rivers (plus a few others, I think the Consumnes the Moukalume, and the Stanislaus all of those spelled incorrectly mind you). Much of it now is reclaimed farmland behind levees with a few towns here and there. Although, more and more, the outlying suburban communities are emproaching further and further into the farm lands--especially the town of Brentwood (not the upscale LA neighborhood, this is an actual town up north here). However, except for the areas around the surburban cityscapes, much of the area remains as it has been for years.

I've been here many, many times. My family had (well still has though they rarely take it out anymore) a boat, and due to the fact that I live barely 30 minutes away from the delta area, many many watery excursions have been taken. As I mentioned though, since my family doesn't really use their boat anymore, I haven't been out to that area in years. I decided then, what better place to take a short photography excursion than the delta? It's relatively close, yet can seem like miles away.

Here's the first photo...
Towers like these are found all over the delta, as I suppose the relatively flat lands give the power company a chance to run high powered lines. I've always been a bit fascinated wit their design--like two long-legged sentries guarding the land in tandem, stretching for miles on end.

I liked this large, lone structure seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. The mountain in the extreme background is Mt. Diablo, which I live on the other side of (that should give some indication as to how relatively close to home I am). Area closed, yes, but fortunately this was from a public road.

This is actually looking across the river in the town of Isleton, a tiny community full of mostly empty stores right now. It dates back to the turn of last century, when immigrant chinese workers helped to build many of the levees in this area.
Now this is odd, because I can remember this ship being there years and years ago. And it's still there! This is (I think) looking across the rather rough Sacramento River from the town of Rio Vista.

Okay, I think I'm killing bandwidth, so I'll stop with the photos for now. Bye!

Ahhh...the internet...

Lord knows thievery is as profuse on the internet as a case of acne is on the typical teenager. I'll be frank--I've "ripped off" more than my share of stuff online, whether its using others' photos as "inspiration" for my own work, downloading music, software, movies, or whatever. I guess its...I don't know...flattering when it happens to you.


Case in point, go to this link, a Cartoon Network (Latin America) Bio on animator David Feiss. Pay close attention to the photo.

Now, look at this photo. The person on the left is me (at age 19), and on the right is Feiss.


If you can't really tell, I'll spell it out for you. Its the same photo, cropped, and greyscaled. Yes, I'm such a fountain of greatness that apparantly a major corporation needs to use my photo to talk about an animator who (at least used to) work for them, instead of perhaps looking for one in their own archives. Okay okay, Ive taken my fair share of images from the Cartoon Network, so I guess its only retribution. Then again when I did reproduce them, I did at least give them credit. This photo was pretty easy for me to spot, as not only was it a significant time in my life, the actual photo is hanging on my wall. As far as I know, its the only copy too. A short backstory about this if I may.

Years ago, I became, eh...I guess slightly obsessed with a cartoon show called "I am Weasel" that aired on the Cartoon Network in the late 90s. Thats really the genesis of the whole "weasel" persona. It was a cool show that came along at a time in my life when I needed something to give me some sort of direction, and its really the show that eventually led me to get interested in art and design. This photo was from the first time I met the creator of that show (as well as "Cow and Chicken"), David Feiss, at an autograph signing in Sacramento, California. Still, it's one of the greatest moments of my life--not just because I met some dude, but because his great attitude and friendliness really and truely inspired me. That photo was actually taken by David's aunt, who at the time promised to mail me the photos...which she did! I was really touched by his families' generosity as well. A couple months later, in early 2000, I visited Mr. Feiss at his studio several times and had a friendship with him over the phone for several years after that. However I got kind of wrapped up in my life, and he got wrapped up in his (as an animator *not* living in LA, he had to travel a lot), and we sort of drifted apart. But that was the reason why that photo exists, and long ago I digitized it so I could display it proudly on my website, which isn't really focused on I am Weasel anymore, though I think there is a section devoted to it still.

But anyway, I guess I can't say I was ripped off after all. If anything its tit for tat. But it did at least provide me a nice chance to stroll down memory lane, heh.

In better news, I fixed the seatbelt in my van, at the mere cost of only $10 to me. And I started (yet another) model race car kit. Hopefully a pic of the finished unit will come within a week or two. Until then, bye...

2 dreams

Heres the portion of the blog where I talk about dreams again. Today I had not one but two memorable dreams, or at least memorable enough to where I could recall them some hours later.

The first one isn't exactly all that detailed, but seems to be increasingly more and more a reacurring theme with me. It's been some time since I've in college, well a few months anyway, and this dealt with that subject. This dream dealt with me taking some kind of course on, I can only remember it vaguely, but it was "package design" or something like that. In fact I had a whole schedule of classes, yet I kept forgetting when they exactly started. I was nervous and confused because for the first day, the time of the first class kept changing--from 9 am to 11 am--every time I looked at the paper. The other days I was solidly on, yet this class seemingly changed times without rhyme or reason. Another odd thing about this dream, while it was a college class, it was held at my old high school. I've had quite a few dreams in recent months in fact involving having to go back to high school. Why that is, I just don't know. After that I woke up around 6:30 am, not able to really get back to sleep.

The second involves an afternoon nap, and this was a bizarre dream indeed. It references that pyramid scheme thing I almost got involved with a few months back. In the dream, I thought for whatever reason, it would be a smashing idea to try and catch the guy who was in charge of that office in a "sting", but of course I had to pretend to be actually interested in doing this venture. So I set up a sales day where we could go over the what territory we would have to and the merchandise itself with the guy that was in charge of the office that I met. We ended up driving around in my stepdad's old chevy truck, presumably because it was big enough to hold all the boxes of crap. I also decided to bring along my camera, with the excuse of "staking out territory" but really to get photos of him in action.

Along the way though, we meet up with, of all people, pro wrestler Ric Flair, who is apparantly a high up in this operation. We also meet up with some kind of grandma-type person who I think is another higher-up in the company. They are shooting the breeze with each other, and all the while I am capturing them on film (well digital film). Then, my stepdad comes up and, I believe, asks for his truck back, but him and the boss dude and Flair get to shooting the breeze too. They decide to head back to the office or whatever to get the merchandise and they said they would meet me back there.

But heres where it takes a really strange turn. All of a sudden, its raining, just coming down in buckets. I'm wearing sandals with socks too, so I'm just getting soaked. Then there are some incredible flashes of lightning! Just a grand, magnificent display, which I attempt to capture with my camera. But the lightning isn't exactly lightning, its explosions! I look over to the horizon, at the old abandoned theme park/carnival which I guess is just somehow there, and its being overrun with police and swat teams. They go in an fire up all the rides, and all the lights, and just decide to invde the place for a massive party. Thinking this could be some sort of sign of police corruption, I sneak over to the park with my camera to catch a few shots. But I wander into a bar area, and I'm soon discovered. To my advantage though, everyone is so wasted, that they either don't realise I'm trying to take their picture, or just don't care. Then, one cop starts an argument with me, and wants me to take his photo with his girlfriend. I demand at least some sort of compensation in the form of a beer. We start to argue back and forth and finally he capitulates. And then, all of a sudden....

...I wake up! Doh...

Sunday Night

Well I can't make this too long, I have to go take close the skate park in about an hour and a half. Strange, I thought I had posted since last Tuesday. Oh well.

Spent the rest of the week since then sick with the flu. Finally felt better yesterday, but honestly I didn't have much to do. I spent the morning cleaning up my room some, and doing laundry, then in the afternoon decided to see how much a new Game Boy costs, and visit the hobby store.

Coming out of the hobby store and climbing my van, I go to (as always) click the seatbelt and start up the engine, when I notice the damn thing wont, you know, click. Apparantly the little spring or whatever that keeps the button up failed somehow, and so the thing is just plain broken. I was able to stretch the belt enough to plug into the passenger side belt until I could get home. I was really belted in though, as I could barely move, heh. After I got home, I removed the passenger side clicker and switched it with the drivers side one. Its still not completely comfortable, as I had to twist the thing around to get it reach close to the regular spot, but its good enough for now. It looks like another trip to the junkyard is in store for me though.

I spent today working on graphics for a project I mentioned some time back (I may or may not have mentioned it...). Anyway, its for someone I know online, though I don't know if I'm at liberty to discuss the product so I won't right now. But I think...or at least I hope things are turning out alright on that front. I emailed the guy my latest revisions this evening.

Also I was able to catch some of the AFC/NFC conference championship games. Looks like its the Steelers and the Seahawks this year. My pick, for what its worth, is the Steelers. They are playing incredibly well right now.

Thats about all for now.

The Concert

I completely forgot that I didn't mention how the concert went.

Got to my friend's house around 6:30, and after that we went out to this nice little Mexican place in Alameda. I can't remember at all the name or location, but it was on a street corner on the main street. Got some fantastic chile rellenos...damn they were good...

After that we headed into the city. The traffic wasn't too bad considering he had one of those "fasttrack" automatic toll takers. The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco was the venue. I'd never been there before, and it really was a nice place. Its an old dance hall/theater dating back at least 60 or 70 years, if not more. The walls have all these wonderful art deco plaster decorations with a mural on the ceiling. The place was packed too, and packed mostly with younger folks like myself. With all the older, more sophisticated acts that I'm into, it was unusual to be around a crowd of mostly people my age, heh. But the place was definitely packed.

The first band was named "Secret Chiefs 3", apparantly run by former Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance, who also runs the record label that both he and Sleepytime Gorilla are on. They played a really interesting mix of middle eastern/persian music, surf guitar, heavy metal, and rock covers of stuff Morricone orchestral scores. Trey was the lead guitarist, and they also had a killer bass player and drummer, with two violin players and a keyboardist. Later in the night I picked up one of their CDs, as recommended to me by the keyboard player.

About halfway through the set though I just couldnt stand being packed in so closely to everyone so after going to the bathroom I went and stood near the front door for some fresh air and some space. I could still see/hear the band though. Funny thing was, since every employee on had a black sweatshirt, and I had a black sweatshirt, a bunch of people thought I worked there and asked me questions like "wheres the bathroom, can I go in and out", heh. I guess I looked like a security guard or bouncer or something.

Anyway, after about a halfhour break, Sleepytime came on. This is really a wild band, as I mentioned blending heavy and gothic metal with art rock, minimalism, and just plain dada stuff. The bassist had an 8-foot long, what could be be described as a "slide bass". The violin player also had a violin with a horn attached. There was also a drummer and a percussionist that pounded on everything, including a kitching sink. The guitarist mostly played guitar and sang, in addition to playing clairnet. It was really a fantastic show, but with two songs ago again I had to sort of "check out". Standing that long, especially in a crowded area where you can move around, on a hardwood floor, is literally a pain for me as well as a figurative pain. Camper Van was similar but there were far fewer people there so I could move around a little and take some of the load off. Not the case here, unfortunately. I'm so conflicted about small venues like this because I just love being so close to the band, and literally being a part of the performance itself--yet I hate being packed in a huge crowd standing for hours and hours at a time. Oh, and if you're interested, the record label both these bands are on is called Web of Mimicry, and they feature a lineup with a number of fantastic groups run out of San Francisco.

Sunday I didn't really do much except get breakfast from Nations (a chain of diner-style restaurants in the Bay Area) and watch football. There was a fantastic Colts/Steelers game on early too, one of the best I've seen in years.

The past two days my younger brother has been home and sick, though today he's feeling a lot better. But suffice to say I haven't been doing much at all.

Weekend Alone

Actually it was really unexpected, but my parents ended up leaving for the weekend, and my younger brother is over with a sitter for the weekend, so yeah I get the whole time to myself. I'm going to do something fun tonight, that is, go see a concert! Who am I seeing? They are a band named Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

The best way I can describe is they are sort of gothic metal/art rock/dadaistic music. Their music is wild, but I hear their stage shows are even wilder. They don masks and play homemade insturments. They are one of my favorite newer bands, and they are also locally based (I think they consider Oakland to be their hometown). Anyway, I'm going with someone I know off the "progressive ears" music board that I belong to who lives in the Bay Area. I'm going to meet at his place then hop over to SF from there.

Other than that, I don't really have much planned for this weekend. I finally got around to watching my DVD of "Office Space" last night that I got for Xmas. Really, what a brilliant satire of the corporate world that is. It makes "Dilbert" look like a boring piece of crap;). After that I blasted music until the wee hours of the morning, then went to sleep. This morning I put on some Looney Toons off the DVD set I have. Daffy Duck may just be my favorite character, and even though Chuck Jones turned him into an incredible asshole, Daffy makes a good asshole. The earlier Clampett Daffy is still preferable though. I know Jones had a reputation early on for making sappy, Disney-esq stuff, but that dude just seemed to have a real mean, bitter streak about him that materialized in a lot of his later cartoons. They are also incredibly, incredibly funny. Of course we can't forget Freleng, who also made a lot of funny stuff, as well as McKimson. Unfortunately Tex Avery is barely represented by this set at all, but just for the record, of all the directors in the golden age, he's my favorite overall. His stuff with MGM contains some of the most insane examples of cartoon action ever put to a sheet of acetate.

Okay, enough of that for now.

More stories about me buying useless crap

Right now this is really all my life is...just out buying stuff, heh. I think last time I posted, I mentioned I had spent a $100 gift certificate. I got stuff I wanted, but you know, there was stuff I wanted more that I didn't get because it wasn't in stock. I ended up taking back one of the things I got because it didn't work as well as I'd hope (the universal remote control), and I got some store credit back. I went back to said store, and lo and behold, just about every DVD I wanted was there, in stock. Doh! Oh well. I ended up picking up the first "Looney Toons Golden Edition" DVD set with the store credit.

Friday night was a bit of a pain though. My stepdad took my mom out to dinner for her birthday, and I had agreed to watch my younger brother in the meantime, which of course was totally cool by me. But then my older brother calls and says he needs a ride to pick up her daughter for the weekend who lives a good 15 miles away. Not a great distance, but mind you at that time of day, getting out there during rush hour can take a good 45 minutes or so...which it did, heh. I didn't get home until about 8:00 at night.

On Saturday, I decided to head up to the "factory shops" in Vacaville, which is a town about halfway between here and Sacramento. There used to be a few good shops up there with some good deals, including a CD store with a lot of good deals on new CDs that were usually older, out of print editions. Alas, it was no more. The trip up there was, sadly, mostly a waste, heh. I did find in a discount bookstore a copy of Ralph Nader's excellent "Crashing the Party" for $5 new. Even though I've read a good deal of the book, I wanted a copy for myself.

After that I headed back to Vallejo to go to the Rasputins there. I picked up the Dead Kennedys' first album "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegtables". It was a 25th anniversery edition too with a documentry DVD that I've yet to watch. I also found a copy of The Mars Volta's "Frances the Mute", brand new, for $7.99. Thats a disc I've been wanting to get for a while, and figured the price and time was right to try them out. Then after that I went back to the store I mentioned in the first paragraph.

On Sunday, the spending continued as I picked up a new bedframe. The legs at the foot of the bed had both broken, so of course I needed something that wasn't being held up by a stack of books and an old bottle jack, heh. And today, I took in some DVDs that I never really cared for to Rasputins (to the local one) to get some store credit back. I got Aqua Teen Hunger Force vol. 2, and a disc by The Residents called "Petting Zoo", which I think is supposed to be some newbie compilation (perfect for me I guess...).

I think thats about all the spending I'm going to do for now. I wanted a "Game Boy Advanced", but I'm kind of off that idea now. This Saturday, I'm going to see a concert in SF with someone I know off the music board I belong to. There will probably be more on that later.

Right now I feel like I'm in a holding pattern. I have a small freelance design job to do by the end of the week, and I'm already halfway done with it. I'm not going to give too many details about it but its with someone I've known online for a long time, and I'm more than happy to help them out any way I can. I just hope whatever I come up with is to his liking, heh. I also emailed off a few resumes to two places on craiglist, but I didn't exactly meet the qualifications so I doubt I'll ever hear from them again. That reminds me too, I should probably update my resume again, mainly to change my age, heh. But like I said, I'm in a holding pattern. I don't really have much to do in the near future, and nothing really to look forward to. I know something will come up soon though. At least I hope...

Back to the land of the living

Man oh man. If you get whatever flu bug is going around this year, you are in for some real crap. I'll tell ya what. The sore throat alone lasted until Wednesday, although by Tuesday it was feeling significantly better than it had in a week. I've still got plugged up ears, and I'm feeling really lethargic at times, and I'm coughing off and on, but I'm still a hell of a lot better than I was earlier in the week. Needless to say I didn't do any New Years partying. Oh well.

Yesterday though since I was feeling quite a bit better, I decided to go out and get some new shoes. They are pretty huge boot type shoes with steel toes; I used to wear boots all the time, but I gave them up for lighter shoes a while back. Unfortunately, the smaller shoes dont always fit as well, nor do they last as long, so I went back to boots. I spent quite a bit on them too (even though they were on sale), so they'd better last at least a while, dammit.

Today I went out and spent the $100 gift certificate I got for Christmas. I couldn't really think of any one big item I could use, so instead I bought a bunch of little things, including Volume 3 of Family Guy on DVD. Oddly enough I wasn't even sure if I wanted that, but I knew I was going to buy it eventually, so what the hey. I also got a universal remote that I found to be less than universal, so I'll probably take that back and get something else.

Because I'm sort of coming out of an illness, I'm having a hard time "getting started" as far as life goes right now. Without a job or anything to really look foward to or get excited about, motivation is at a premium right now. If I didn't have my Christmas cash still, I'd probably do nothing, because as it is I can at least think of things I want/need to spend my money on, thus using that as an excuse to at least leave the house. However, I may have a freelance design job coming up soon. I'm not sure at all how that will go, or even if I can handle it.

Okay, bye for now..