Surprise

What an evening. We surprised my cousin Aileen with a going away party and for reasons I still don't understand, our party got free shots at dinner and free pitchers of beer at the free karaoke joint next door. Whew!

Time to pack for the retreat. I'll be back on Monday.

Weekend

While I fully expect this weekend's churchy retreat to be well worth the time, I'm annoyed that I'll be missing multiple social functions, including karaoke, two birthdays and a wedding. Of course, this is probably protecting me from going out too much, losing my voice, consuming a few too many fermented calories, embarrassing myself in multiple ways and probably catching a cold in the process but it would have been good times nonetheless.

People Connectors

Had a ball at a wedding banquet tonight. I was seated among the other single folk, many of whom were quite young. It was cool - I learned something new.

I already understood that people my age use friendster and that those who are a little younger use My Space... but apparently, the kids these days are all over facebook. Never heard of that one.

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OK. Actually, everyone uses My Space.

The Smiths

Before The Trashies, Coldplay, or Spoon, my favorite band was The Smiths. This week I put together a mix to reintroduce some of the best by Morrissey and Marr for a friend. Man, putting it together really brought me back. I say The Smiths were emo before the term was coined. I've been listening to it all weekend.

Here's the tracklist:

Bigmouth Strikes Again
This Charming Man
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Girlfriend In A Coma
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Paint A Vulgar Picture
Oscillate Wildly
I Don't Owe You Anything
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Sweet And Tender Hooligan
Cemetry Gates
Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours

False Start

I was all pumped up to give my first Bridge to Breakwater presentation tonight but it was a false start. Apparently, the Military Officers Association of America has the Port scheduled for June. Obviously, there was a miscommunication. It is just as well as I'd like a chance to make some changes to the powerpoint but still, it ends the work week in rather anti-climactic fashion.

At least the evening was salvaged with dinner in Long Beach. I actually have friends near work now. Who knows, maybe I'll be living there in a few months.

Apple

You know, I really don't like the new Apple commercial. It is so pretentious. I love their products but get rather annoyed at the culture. And of course the next one I saw had the Japanese girl, which was just so typical. Effective, but typical.

Now... some friends have just shown me the entire series - and I have to admit, viruses and restarting are hilarious.

Movie

Found someone to watch United 93 with!

Goals

A few months ago, I set my 30th birthday as an arbitrary date for a bunch of personal goals. Things have been progressing well. Now I'm about halfway there and beginning to lose focus. Still, it really is a matter of sticking to it. I'm trying to get myself motivated again. We'll see what happens.

I also got the itch to buy a new car. I'd want a used Acura TSX. Apparently it doesn't shift well but that is just as well because I'm not about to get a new car anyway.

Mother's Day

My Mom's gift of choice was a stroll through Cal Tech with her boys on Saturday night. A full moon was out and the weather was just warm enough to feel like the first night of summer. We cruised the campus and walked along the busts of old academics. We specifically attempted to walk through any and all water features: bridges over water, garden paths around ponds, and pools of water with lily pads. We chatted and made our way making happy discoveries amid the low light of the small campus.

We passed the genius dorms and stumbled upon an outdoor wedding at the faculty lounge. Appropriately, the groom was giving a speech thanking their parents. We walked by twice and took a turn. Soon enough, we saw a young man dressed as a conductor smoking a cigarette in the distance. He ended his break and we ended up following him into a free performance by the Cal Tech Glee Club and Cal Tech Orchestra. We stuck around even though we were slightly underdressed and listened to the last piece in the hallway. Walking out, we were quite satisfied with our discoveries but even ended up also finding a group of ballroom dancers doing their thing. I'd say something about their calculator-ish precision as they spun and twirled each other around to 80's Madonna, but that wouldn't be nice. Besides, I don't have a dancing bone in my body. Eventually we found our way back to the car, pleased with how everything went.

Quack

The Mighty Ducks continue to roll in the NHL playoffs! I'm pumped up. They have been dominating in two series and now await San Jose or Edmonton for the Western Conference finals. Aflack!

Buses

May’s issue of Planning, the national American Planning Association magazine, has some excessive praise for the new buses in LA – “you might think you’re looking at a Japanese bullet train.” I've only seen pictures, but isn't that setting expectations a bit high? Don't get me wrong, I like the buses because they are so much cheaper. Light rail like the Gold line is more glamorous but the Orange Line cost almost half as much ($24 million per mile vs. $44 million for the rail). I think I'll go check them out later this month.

Whimper

The surreal aches and chills going through my body are almost interesting. The headaches are plain annoying. I clearly have a bad case of the flu. This is almost enough for me to consider getting the dreaded conspiracy laden flu shot next year.

Canal

My Dad was born in Panama and many of my relatives work or worked for the canal. Now I'm at the Port of Los Angeles – which is technically a competitor of the canal - so I guess I have multiple interests in the Panama Canal Expansion project. BBC article here

The project will expand the width and depth of the canal to fit larger container vessels. The price tag is a whopping 5.3 billion. Final approval still has to go through a national referendum process, but everything seems to be politically lined up.

Personally, I’m not overly concerned about losing business at the Port of Los Angeles. International trade has been growing at an incredible pace and most analysts don’t see that changing for awhile. There should be enough business to go around for everyone. The real issue isn’t how much business can we have but how much business do we want.

Woof

After all the excitement of the past week, I'm happy and relieved but feeling sick as a dog. I ache all over. A while back, my Dad had the same symptoms, albeit a much more severe case. He ended up in bed for almost a month.

I can't tell if I picked up remnants of his virus by spending the weekend at my parents place or having the same bad habit of extending myself too much for the sake of sports.

Class

The final exam - which I'm hopelessly unprepared for - is Friday. I'll be up with my Ontology books all night long.

Wilshire

The big event came and went. Traffic was light on my way home. I took a detour and drove through already emptied portions of downtown. Once I turned onto Vermont, the streets became overwhelmingly crowded. It took 15 minutes to go two blocks but once I got home I went out to photo what was left of the crowds. As soon as I was out there, I noticed a Korean mom type who had the same idea.

Once I got onto Wilshire, I took pictures of the weary people now walking back to MacArthur Park, where their march began. Here's my favorite one. I went the opposite direction in the middle of the street. Even with the energy obviously sapped, it was a sight to see. I eventually ended up at the Bounty for a beer, burger and Clipper game, but that's another blog for another time.

Immigration

My apartment is only two blocks from the planned immigration reform protests. It is going to be tough passing Wilshire to get home - I might as well wait it out.