/mike

Monday was unique. I was shipped off to Sacramento early in the morning to participate in a California Energy Commission Roundtable discussion on Petroleum Infrastructure. I flew back that same evening.

I imagine this sort of assignment is somewhat tiresome, but it was lots of fun for me. I listened to the presentations, gave some comments, answered questions, met some people and had an airport beer with the Long Beach port planner. I've always wanted to be sent on a business trip.

Now I'm beat. It's my own fault though because I went out to dinner after I got back and also played LOTR until midnight. I'm Legolas and I'm at the black gate.

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This month's APA magazine has an article on planning efforts to establish mixed-use schools.

Co-locate the school with a public library, fine arts center, senior center, community college branch, soccer stadium, public park, museum, or zoo, and you crate a valuable new community asset that reaches beyond the traditional function of a public school.

It is an obvious move and I'd like to see more of it. I think this movement is long overdue because it's such an old idea; churches have historically combined with schools, even including a variety of community facilities too.

Last, the APA also posted results of their Planner salary survey. Very interesting stuff! Among US cities, LA has the second highest average median salary for planners.

The other night, Jesse was playing Jason's LOTR The Return of the King on my ps2. Jason left early and when I reminded Jesse to take the game with him, he said that he didn't even have a ps2.

So I have it now. haha.

Last night I was having problems passing Level Three of the "Wizard's Path". I'm overrun by the Orcs!

Video games are fun, but if I play them before I sleep, the nervous tension keeps me up an additional 45 mintues before I can fall asleep.

I used to be able to have the radio on during work but my current cubicle set up doesn’t have good AM radio reception. It sure would come in handy, especially on days like today when I could use a diversion and the Angels are playing a day game.

I can still check the score online. Apparently, the good guys are leading 1- 0 in the second inning.

The big news in the office is my boss just got promoted to senior management. A coworker has been named interim Director of Planning, which is causing quite a stir in the office. I think I’m in shock. To be honest, I don't think anyone in the division is looking forward to this arrangement (except for the new interim boss!) This isn’t good for moral but other than that, it is unclear how this affects me. My response has been to reorganized my cubicle space. I guess that’s just my way of dealing with sudden organizational change.

The better work related news is that I’m going to be sent to Sacramento next Monday. I’ll leave early in the morning and will return the same day. I’ll be on a panel to discuss Petroleum Infrastructure Development Constraints. This is a new experience for me so I’m looking forward to it.

I'm back. It's been a slow blog week for me. That doesn't mean a lot of stuff hasn't been going on.

I'll get back in a groove.

One problem is that I had some really great blog topics but I didn't want to just shoot from the hip.

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I've been following a new condo project in pasadena for the past two years. I signed up for the notification list and even submitted some information for a prequal. The other day, I called them and asked how much they were going to cost. The answer was a disappointing 450-550K, which I obviously can't afford.

Sometimes I daydream that they will let me buy one as a "low income" candidate. Of course, I'm hardly low income (and there is no such program with this project), but those prices sure make me feel that way.

I'm left wondering if the Condo market in Pasadena will become glutted. There sure is a lot of new construction going on. A friend recently told me that Paseo is probably only 30% rented and has changed ownership three times (but I'm not sure how reliable his information is).

Matt has inspired me to try and cook foods that we like in restaurants. Today we made Smoked Bacon & Gorgonzola Chopped Salad from CPK. Actually, it turned out great!

I'm looking to try The Old Spaghetti Factory's Spaghetti with Browned Butter & Mizithra Cheese next. I found two recipes but one was eliminated from contention because it didn't even include Mizithra cheese! Here is the other:

For a sinfully rich dish of pasta, toss a cup of hot, lightly browned clarified butter with warm spaghetti and sprinkle with a generous grating of Mizithra cheese.

I think I'll add garlic and parsley for some piece of mind.

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I picked up The Straight Story dvd today. Watching it with my Dad on the day we celebrated Father's Day was everything I could have hoped for.

I think there's untapped potential in Little Tokyo. Off the top of my head, I have three specific action items for the "LT":

1. Address parking - Increase the maximum meter time from one to three hours. Strategically build a new parking structure. Subsidize the existing parking lot to offer an hour and a half free (like Old Town).

2. Add residential units - There are some local apartments but the LT needs more condos. I've got to believe that there is a market for LT / downtown livin'. I'd do it.

3. Sell out (a bit) - I suggest that the LT needs to be a little more tourist friendly. Start a program to encourage stores to be more accessible to non-japanese customers (language, etc.). Along that train of thought, add more variety to the retail mix.

I know I'm just blabbing but this is the kind of stuff I daydream about. Also, I have good memories of Nisei week; Cindy and I had one of our first dates there.

Taco Bell for lunch is quite tasty. The introduction of the Nacho Supreme has been my downfall. It's the happy joining of Regular Nachos and Nacho Bellgrande. Regular Nachos don't have any essential toppings and Nachos Bellgrande is too big. I want my cheesy sauce, beans, beef, chives, sour cream and tomatoes on an appropriately portioned bed of chips. I tried eating the Bellgrande a few times but it was just sick.

That's Taco Bell for you. Good up to a point. Don't ever get there because it will take you down a path you won't want to remember.

This past weekend, I was very pleased with my ebay transactions... until I totally screwed up the shipping. Ultimately I had to apologize profusely and pay for someone's inconvenience. I don't want to beat myself up over things like this but I really would like to not screw up in various little things I do. Cindy is my role model. I used to call her anal but now I call her thorough. I'm a rushed type of guy. Doesn't this blog say as much?

More on being distracted: We were watching the Lakers lose last night when I thought I lost my wallet. The game was on and while I was paying attention to it in the background, I was so tense that I kept doing errands around the apartment. I cleaned up. Organized. I printed out an application. I checked the web. When filling out the app, I reached for my wallet... but I couldn't find it!

I immediately thought that someone had come in and stolen it from my room. I had left the door unlocked for about 5 minutes that same day and watching the Lakers left me feeling fatalistic. I scoured the entire studio twice over before calling Bank of America to see if idiot from Detroit was buying Rasheed t-shirts on my dime.

Once the TV was turned off (somewhere in the middle of the fourth quarter), I calmed down and rationally deducted that it was left at work.

The thing about the Lakers is that I'm honestly not a big fan... I realize how unlikable they are. I know that if I didn't live in LA, I'd hate them. But somewhere during the playoffs, I started to get more and more invested in the team. I want them to win. I want LA to win. I want to see my city happy. It's civic pride, damnit. I'm a homer and I'll always be a homer.

I'm just about to head for bed.

The night is warm and it seems like the outside air refuses to come in to cool me off. I talked to the landlady today and the air conditioning probably won't be installed for a few more weeks. I'm getting the run around. Of course, I didn't expect anything less. I love my Brookmore apartment. I love the hassles. I love having to deal with the landlady. I love walking two blocks from the parking structure to the building, my hands full of groceries or laundry.

Today, Cindy stuck around after class and took a nap waiting for me. When I got back, I had two great gifts waiting for me: a man bag and an ice cream scoop. We had frozen pizza and left over sandwiches for dinner and went for a walk around Pasadena. I rediscovered the Pasadena library, borrowing Hamlet and a Tolkien commentary. We went to Paseo and ran into some people from Epicentre. We might go jog with them next week. Supposedly, there's free food at the Yardhouse too. This has got to be as close to city living that I'll ever get. It's about all I want too.

I could just sit in my apartment all night long. It's great fun, let me tell you. I'm going to enjoy the next few months. There is so much freedom and urgency in knowing this will be temporary. I can't explain it.

From RollingStone.com:

Brit-pop pioneers the Trashcan Sinatras will release Weightlifting, their first album in eight years August 31st on spinART Records. The Scottish band, whose breezy guitars and emotive vocals anticipated those of early Radiohead, Travis and Coldplay, had been stagnant in recent years due to bankruptcy.

"We didn't actually break up," says guitarist Paul Livingston. "We just stopped answering the phone and leaving the house. Everybody's been in a bit of a bad mood."

I'll always root for the trashies.

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The LA Film Fest is just around the corner. I took a peek at the Program Guide but nothing caught my eye. I'm mildly interested in one of the Chinese shorts...

On the right corner of /mike is my new icon! I love it. Cindy put it together for me through this. (Here's the one I made of her.) My icon has me looking very intense at a baseball game, which is appropriate right now because the Angels are in a tailspin. In fact, they just sunk into second place.

Teams with big payrolls get big expectations. Second place teams with big expectations get guys like Rob Neyer to write things like this:

And the Angels? They need to get healthy, and quickly. Entering this season, the Seraphs had two big question marks: the long-term health of a few key players, and the returning starting pitchers.

Those question marks have, at least to some extent, been answered in the negative. Oft-injured Darin Erstad is injured (even though switching to first base was supposed to magically keep him healthy and improve his anemic hitting stats). Oft-injured Troy Glaus is injured, and will miss the rest of the season. Oft-injured Tim Salmon has been injured for most of the season, and just returned to the lineup last night (though probably not for long, if history's any guide). And Garret Anderson, who's always been a healthy sort, is disabled with (of all things) arthritis.

As for the returning starters, one of them (Ramon Ortiz) has already lost his spot in the rotation, and the other two (John Lackey and Jarrod Washburn) have been almost identically lousy. Meanwhile, Bartolo Colon, the $11 million man, has been even lousier than Lackburn. The only things saving the Angels' pitching staff from complete disaster have been the surprisingly good work of Aaron Sele (4-0, 3.26) and the not-so-surprisingly great work of relievers Kevin Gregg, Francisco Rodriguez and Scot Shields.

It's only June the 9th, so there's still a whole lot of baseball left. But while the A's are right where they want to be, the Angels have a whole lot of getting better ahead of them, if they're going to win all those games their $102 million payroll says they should.

Thank goodness Neyer will soon be an "insider" espn reporter (meaning you have to pay a fee to read him). I don't know how much more I can take of him!

Here's what I'm telling myself. On paper, the Angels are deeper and more balanced than the Athletics. That depth has already been tested to the limit. All things being equal (meaning the A's suffer some injuries), I still believe that the Angels will prevail in the American League West. In a long 162 game season, the better team should win. No, the better team *will* win.

Kobe = Clutch. I can characterize any way I want: clutch, will, confidence, focus, or resiliency. Whatever it is, it's amazing to watch and I wouldn't mind having it.

From a Kansas State Sports Psychology newsletter:

Phil Jackson, the successful NBA basketball coach, emphasizes the act of resilience as the most important quality in a successful player. Resilience in an athlete is to be able to experience an inevitable set back (missed shot, opponent success, an official’s call, or even a peak success) and almost immediately refocus to the next play. They do not get caught up in self-criticism or, for that matter, self-congratulations. They stay in the flow of a game as a continually moving forward activity and respond to it naturally without self-conscious reflection. What happened before gets quickly stored as experience (not as wistful regret or worry) and what happens ahead is not the distant outcome but an immediate reaction to the circumstances that are unfolding.

How much of this sort of thing is in our control? I believe that everyone has got a range along the vast Clutch Spectrum, from chokers to champs. On one level, God blesses whom he blesses and there really is no use in crying over it (I heard that crazy passage Romans 9 this week), but looking on this side of eternity, I'm still working to maximize my personal clutch meter!

A sure thing doesn’t exist. Just ask Smarty Jones. I had serious intentions to place some cash on a triple crown being won, but I was lucky enough not to find a place that seemed safe and legal. I was looking online but Jason came over and we decided to just grab lunch. By the time we got back, there wasn’t enough time and I wasn’t quite as excited anyway. The hassle killed my buzz.

Cheers to hassles, inconveniences, and the marginalization of behavior that we know better than to get involved in. And a double for having the freedom to be idiots too, because when it comes down to it, society should never, and could never, replace personal responsibility.

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We finally saw Eternal Sunshine. I actually felt uplifted by the movie, which is high praise indeed. The last movie to have such a romantic effect on me was Amélie. They are very different films but then again I’m in a very different stage of life as well.

Besides being what you should expect from Charlie Kaufman, I was especially impressed with the emotional content. There were these scenes that really seemed to touch upon something universal and true about our modern relationships (especially the fights). Bravo for movies!

The only negative thing I’ll say is that I doubt I’ll watch it again. Somehow, I think it might diminish with repeated viewings. Maybe.

I’m especially positive about cinema in general. I was lazing around this weekend and pulled out an old favorite, The Player. Tim Robbins rubs me the wrong way, but in the right part, the guy can flat out act. On a side note, the elitist jerk Hollywood producer he plays drives none other than an SUV (and the movie was released back in 1992)! At least SUVs are now democratized. If the movie were remade today, I bet the guy would drive a Prius.

After The Player, I caught X2 on cable. After a weekend like that, it’s no wonder I’m keen on movies again.

I’ve been branded a political conservative at work. It's been a long time coming. While it’s easy to avoid the Bush bashing in the office, I came closest to being outed during the recall. It finally happened today during a water cooler debate outside my cubicle. The topic was whether the LA and NY Times newspapers were slanted towards the left or right. My jaw dropped when someone was completely convinced that they were both conservative papers. I was compelled to chime in and the rest is history.

Even though it was just good-natured ribbing, I should have kept my mouth shut. The discussion was between two management level types who are old friends with a long working relationship. And it doesn’t really fit my "office politics" rules.

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Post WWII Japanese sociology is fascinating. Here’s a suspicious but interesting USA Today article on the state of romance in Japan.

Nothing is happening with depressing regularity between Japanese men and women these days. Marriages, births and hanky-panky are all spiraling downward with troubling implications for the nation's future: A sagging birthrate means that fewer working-age people will be around to support a growing population of elderly; a social crisis looms.

There is also reference to a Durex 2001 Survey which ranked Japan last among 28 countries in frequency of sex. Americans ranked first with an astonishing 124 times a year! We nasty. It's interesting to note that the last four ranking countries are from asia.

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We played our first league softball game last night. I went 1 for 5 with an RBI and a run. I had an infield single and also reached on an error. I was happier with my defense. I played second base and fielded a few grounders and a line drive.

I feel badly about not being able to attend my brother’s graduation OR even being available to drive my family to the airport. How did things turn out this way? Everyone’s got priorities but maybe mine are getting confused. For example, just how important is work? For goodness sake, maybe I should try to take a few hours off on Thursday and help out.

Sometimes, things just seem too busy. Currently, I'm working on a rather touchy project. There’s a lot of political pressure on the organization to quickly achieve a very difficult and arguably impractical goal. As the project manager, I’m not involved in senior management decisions. I just plug away and make as much progress as I can. Still, I recognize that the winds will likely shift. There is a high probability that the project will be derailed and my work will be moot. I’m sure we’ll take the blame, too.

Work is stressful. You know how the office is supposed to be just like high school? I hated most of my high school years, mostly because I felt like the high school years hated me (I still can’t tell if my feelings were warranted). Hopefully I've grown up a little in the past 10 years, but sometimes I’m not sure how well I’m doing in terms of my people skills. Let’s just say that if I were on Survivor, I don’t think I’d last very long. I looked up some websites on office politics and found some helpful tips. Here are some of the more interesting ones:

1. Play the game being played, not the one you want or think should be played.
2. Cultivate a positive, simple, accurate image.
3. Don’t oversell. Be natural. Develop your own style.

Yesterday was a long day since I had class after work. I'm glad the semester is wrapping up. We gave our term paper presentations. I was impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit of a classmate. He is starting his own business, trying to import art from South America for U.S. boutiques. I admire that sort of high risk / high reward gamble. I’d be interested in seeing how things turn out for him.

Once the class is finished, my next goal is to test and hopefully qualify to become a “Certified Planner”. If it works out, I’ll be able to add some letters (AICP) to my business card! It probably won’t directly affect my salary. In fact, the materials and registration are kind of expensive, but I’m still looking forward to it.

Today I got confirmation that my detours don’t work. This morning, there was a fairly severe car accident on the 110-South around the Wilshire exit. Already stuck in the fallout, I exited at Avenue 43 the moment I heard the radio report. I took some turns and ended up on Grand, turned onto 11th, and got back on the freeway. Finishing up my morning drive, a coworker saw me on the road, got my attention and waved hello. When we arrived at the our parking garage, she told me that she saw me when I took my detour AND when I eventually got back on. She stayed on the freeway the entire time.

After talking about traffic, we talking about possibly carpooling together. She just transfered from another department and lives in Alta Dena with her husband and two kids. Back at my old job, my carpool partner complained that I smelled like garlic. Good thing there isn’t a Zankou Chicken in San Pedro.

Despite not saving any time, driving through downtown was nice. I got to see the historic buildings along Grand, and even got a peek at the Staples Center. I hope the redevelopment plans for Grand Ave. pan out. Sam Kaplan has been covering the process to select a design and financial team. Apparently, the big name architect didn’t make the cut for the finals.

As for Gehry, it was noted by those monitoring the selection process that the much honored architect has limited experience when dabbling beyond individual standalone institutional buildings funded by deep-pocketed donors.

The final selection should be decided by the end of the summer.

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For all intents and purposes, the apartment is officially open for visitors! I’ve been moving my stuff piecemeal for two weeks and I’m all done now. I took care of my last significant items (1 and 2) yesterday with a visit to Ikea. The Ikea cafeteria is tasty, but I think they are downsizing. As long as they have the manager’s special (Swedish meatballs, cranberries and red potatoes), I’ll be  happy.

Things I considered getting but decided against: sofa (I got floor pillows), microwave (I’ll go with jiffy pop), and a toaster (having a pan and a large oven will do).