visiting the folks
Down in Diamond Bar (SoCal) visiting my folks. Erika is a bit crankier than usual because my Mom is a bit of a control freak and we were just here for Thanksgiving (though we theoretically alternate holidays between my family and hers, since her family is in Texas, we tend to not go there for T-Day cuz it's too short a holiday to be worth going to Texas -- her idea, not mine).
My Mom had me scheduled for what she said was a deep tissue massage, but it was more like reflexology in that the pressure was ridiculously painful, and plus he did this weird suction thing that left dark bruises all over my back (pictures to appear on Flickr). My shoulders are still very, very sore. Ugh, I don't know why I agree to do these things. Guess I regress when I'm with my Mom.
We just saw the Blind Boys of Alabama at the (relatively new) Walt Disney Concert Hall. Great show, had a blast. One complaint is that people don't seem to realize that, if you're going to clap to the beat to gospel, blues, or jazz music, you sound really square if you clap on beats one and three. You should always clap on beats two and four. If you aren't sure, look at the drummer's high-hat (the two cymbals with the pedal by his left foot) and clap along with that. The snare drum is also usually a good cue.
I didn't bring my Digital Rebel, figuring they wouldn't let me bring it in, but people seemed to be taking pictures left and right with nobody complaining (just not during the concert, of course). So I guess I could've. Oh well. My sister, Alvina, had her new SD400, and I took a couple of shots with it. Our seats weren't great, being behind the stage, and plus there was zero leg room. I'm mildly claustrophobic, so this was rather unsettling. But the music was able to distract me from it most of the time. It was a great high-energy show, and the lead singer was pretty funny. I'd never heard of these guys, but Erika had.
And the only reason my parents had tickets was because Erika brilliantly thought L.A. Philharmonic tickets would be the perfect Christmas gift for them a couple of years back, so we bought them tix to four shows we thought they'd like. They loved it, and became regular subscribers ever since. Best gift ever! Subsequent gifts have paled in comparison, and then last year we all decided not to exchange gifts anymore (the next natural step, after Erika and I had been asking everybody for the past couple of years to just donate to a charity in lieu of gifts).
Not much else doing. I was thrilled to see that my Dad just started subscribing to The Economist. We seem to be getting along better nowadays. I have a half-written post all about that, and I'll try to get it up sometime in the next week. Hopefully. Who the heck knows?
Oh, and Thursday was my last day at work, at least full-time anyway. Guess this means I'm officially a starving student. Well, we all got a Christmas bonus this year cuz morale's been so low (as mentioned earlier (albeit in a friendslocked post), this is largely due to the fact that the company has been committing ourselves to schedules without consulting engineering). Which means I'll probably be able to afford a really nice 24-70mm L-glass lens for the Digital Rebel to hold me over during school (I'd been previously planning on the consumer-grade 28-135mm that's about a third of the cost). Sweet! But I guess I can't count on any sympathy for starving student status. At least, not yet anyway.
And my co-workers, while disappointed that I'm leaving, have been surprisingly supportive. Many of them say they wish they could do the same thing. Almost all express confidence that I'll do really well in whatever I choose to do, and many even say that, should I ever go into politics (shyeah, right!) that they'd vote for me. Aww. So maybe I didn't really whittle away my reputation after all. At least, not that much, anyway. Well, Erika is snoring away, so I'll write more about work later.
My Mom had me scheduled for what she said was a deep tissue massage, but it was more like reflexology in that the pressure was ridiculously painful, and plus he did this weird suction thing that left dark bruises all over my back (pictures to appear on Flickr). My shoulders are still very, very sore. Ugh, I don't know why I agree to do these things. Guess I regress when I'm with my Mom.
We just saw the Blind Boys of Alabama at the (relatively new) Walt Disney Concert Hall. Great show, had a blast. One complaint is that people don't seem to realize that, if you're going to clap to the beat to gospel, blues, or jazz music, you sound really square if you clap on beats one and three. You should always clap on beats two and four. If you aren't sure, look at the drummer's high-hat (the two cymbals with the pedal by his left foot) and clap along with that. The snare drum is also usually a good cue.
I didn't bring my Digital Rebel, figuring they wouldn't let me bring it in, but people seemed to be taking pictures left and right with nobody complaining (just not during the concert, of course). So I guess I could've. Oh well. My sister, Alvina, had her new SD400, and I took a couple of shots with it. Our seats weren't great, being behind the stage, and plus there was zero leg room. I'm mildly claustrophobic, so this was rather unsettling. But the music was able to distract me from it most of the time. It was a great high-energy show, and the lead singer was pretty funny. I'd never heard of these guys, but Erika had.
And the only reason my parents had tickets was because Erika brilliantly thought L.A. Philharmonic tickets would be the perfect Christmas gift for them a couple of years back, so we bought them tix to four shows we thought they'd like. They loved it, and became regular subscribers ever since. Best gift ever! Subsequent gifts have paled in comparison, and then last year we all decided not to exchange gifts anymore (the next natural step, after Erika and I had been asking everybody for the past couple of years to just donate to a charity in lieu of gifts).
Not much else doing. I was thrilled to see that my Dad just started subscribing to The Economist. We seem to be getting along better nowadays. I have a half-written post all about that, and I'll try to get it up sometime in the next week. Hopefully. Who the heck knows?
Oh, and Thursday was my last day at work, at least full-time anyway. Guess this means I'm officially a starving student. Well, we all got a Christmas bonus this year cuz morale's been so low (as mentioned earlier (albeit in a friendslocked post), this is largely due to the fact that the company has been committing ourselves to schedules without consulting engineering). Which means I'll probably be able to afford a really nice 24-70mm L-glass lens for the Digital Rebel to hold me over during school (I'd been previously planning on the consumer-grade 28-135mm that's about a third of the cost). Sweet! But I guess I can't count on any sympathy for starving student status. At least, not yet anyway.
And my co-workers, while disappointed that I'm leaving, have been surprisingly supportive. Many of them say they wish they could do the same thing. Almost all express confidence that I'll do really well in whatever I choose to do, and many even say that, should I ever go into politics (shyeah, right!) that they'd vote for me. Aww. So maybe I didn't really whittle away my reputation after all. At least, not that much, anyway. Well, Erika is snoring away, so I'll write more about work later.