blogging


23
Jul 10

Comic-Con, Day 1

Convention Center Trolley Stop in Klingon
The Trolley Station near the Convention Center and the Gaslamp Quarter gate got taken over by the Klingons. Have your universal translator handy.

Comic-Con is all about the badge. I procured my badge Wednesday night, got to experience the Exhibit Hall, which I was soon over, and got to experience one of the longest bus rides I ever had going across downtown, all thanks to the badge. The next day, during the early hours, I lent my badge to a friend of mine and met up with him close to the Gaslamp Quarter gate at noon. The borrower’s definitely a good friend of mine and I got my badge back on time. However, I don’t think I’d do it again, unless it’s Sunday (by which time I’m usually over Comic-Con and just don’t go). By then, anyone can have my badge. Hopefully someone I can trust not to go psycho in my name.

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22
Jul 10

So Big It Has Two or More Hashtags

This year, I decided to do Comic-Con right. I was on it when tickets went on sale. I bought the four day pass, and I got to go to Preview Night, which is a perk that only came with tickets like mine, not the one day passes or the ones that were comped. My feeling like I had access to something exclusive was short-lived, as there were lots of holders of passes good from Wednesday to Sunday, like mine. I suddenly found myself a dime a dozen and even occasionally getting pushed and shoved like I would on any other day, especially Saturday, the most busiest day of Comic-Con. The lines for some things, such as experiencing the space travel pods in the Aliens franchise were ridiculously long and the queue management was just as bizarre and confusing. I got to experience the usual oooh’s and aah’s of all the displays and exhibits coupled with sprinklings of people who just did not know how to walk in a crowd. The benefit of this Preview Night was for me to get the exhibitor’s floor out of my system so I can go to the events and enjoy them the rest of the week.

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21
Jul 10

Pride, Killer Naps, and Comic-Con

This Pride weekend was alright. The parade, as always, was fun and spectacular, no shortage of color or scantily clothed people. The festival, though, was on the blah side. I felt like I paid $30 to get hawked and accosted by various vendors and non-profits, and I didn’t stick around the for shows. Like most Gen X’ers, I grew up in the 1980′s, but nostalgia wasn’t enough to get me to see Devo. I don’t really get into American Idol, so straight boy with the rainbow hair Blake Lewis wasn’t much of a draw either. Hanging out with some other friends, though, was where the fun was.

Lately, I’ve been feeling tired lately, snoozing off from time to time. Sometimes I stay up a little too late, from midnight to 3 am. I have to get to teaching at 9am this summer, so I have to get up on the early side. Somehow, I’ve never been able to strike the balance between being a morning person, so I find myself taking a nap in the late afternoon, only to wake up at 10 or 11 pm. When that happens, sometimes I make myself go back to sleep, while other times I find something to do for a few hours and then go back to sleep. Yes, this type of thing has happened before.  It’s strange to think that tiredness is something that accumulates, that eventually that sleep debt must be paid. Perhaps this is why some companies give recovery days to their employees when they make them work day and night for some projects, depriving them of sleep. That someone is trying to have a work/life balance isn’t something that’s always factored by such workplaces. This is part of the reason why I often stay up late.

As for things that won’t keep me up late at night, Comic-Con is in San Diego. I bought my ticket early last year, and the even quickly sold out. Tonight is Preview Night, which means I get to see all the Comic-Con exhibits an evening early and got a shot at all the schwag before the general public does tomorrow. I made a decision to avoid collecting freebees as much as possible this year, as it often leads to clutter post-Con. However, if I see something utterly irresistible, too hard to pass up, I will. A few years back, it was Star Trek promotional posters. Not sure what it will be this year. Perhaps if I’m lucky, I’ll meet the Doctor. Last year, I met Russell T. Davies in line at the Hyatt’s Starbucks.

It should be fun.


17
Jul 10

Sincerely, My Dear

The awful catchphrase “I wish you well” got me thinking about some other not-so-sincere wordings in the English language. I didn’t have to look too much further from what’s used in letter writing. First, we often salute the intended reader as “Dear,” whether we feel that way about the person or not. Those close to us, such as family members or significant others, really are “Dear” to us. However, this salutation is also used to address strangers and acquaintances, such as professors, administrators, editors, and managers who have our resumés/CV’s in their hands. I may totally hate the person I’m writing to, but it’s culturally appropriate to begin the letter with “Dear ———.” With writing to various dignitaries, such as the Queen of England or the British Ambassador to the United States, I could use a salutation without “Dear,” but the likelihood of writing such letters for me are extremely slim. For the most part, I must pretend to really like the people I must write letters to.

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13
Jul 10

“I Wish You Well.”

There’s only one meaning this phrase really has and its appropriate response reciprocates the sentiment: Frak you!

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11
Jul 10

1970′s Ugly? Sounds About Right


Photo by ThePete.

Guessing someone’s age is always a touchy subject, especially when they’re over 30. Guess someone’s age to be over 40 and you’re dead. Consequently, whenever I make a guess about how old someone is, I keep my real answer to myself. I find it’s better to let them say it, that way I can gush that they look great. Given the risks in knowing out loud someone’s age, it’s much more fun to figure out what era’s a building’s from.

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8
Jul 10

Downtown Graffiti

Silver Mural 5
Yesterday afternoon, I was walking around downtown after leaving work at the language school when I decided to take some pictures. It has been a while since I’ve actively snapped pictures and shared them. I’ve taken so many pictures of Downtown San Diego that I was starting to think that there was nothing left for me to see. However, when I was walking back and forth between the language school’s two campuses, I saw the grafitti on the walls of the old California Theatre building and wanted to take them. Unfortunately, I had no camera on me, so I more than made up for it yesterday.

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8
Jul 10

Minimally Shindo

I’ve used the Vigilance template for little over a year and it got old. For a while, I reverted to Colors, the one with all the color pencils. It did the job for a bit before I came out of my hiatus. And then began the search for a minimalist template that didn’t look like it was a WordPress default, and I found Cleanr, which really lives up to its name: a white background with clean, bold sans-serif headers and legible Roman font. Even with all that prefab wonderfulness, I still have to clean some things up, such as my links page and a few other things. Sometimes I think about tweaking a few things, such as link colors, because I prefer to have links in pale violet blue (not to be confused with lavender). Overall, it’s an attractive and efficient design, so I have no complaints.

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7
Jul 10

Throw the Cobble-Sized Rock

This post is a follow up to “Drive into the Tree.”

I suppose I should be over the awful nightmares with my bitch of an ex-boss Linda, right? Continue reading →


7
Jul 10

Drive into the Tree

As much as I’d like to say I’ve put this behind me, an incident involving the worst boss I’ve ever had still haunts me.

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