ferntoo and I hiked up a path behind Crater Lake Lodge last year. Upwards it went, and the crystal lake below grew patterns. Its waves became a tapestry, but its width was still vast. We continued until the sun began to set, and we found a spot where we could sit--just sit and watch, as the brilliant light faded behind a mountain. Then it as a hasty ( Read more... )

We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 a couple of weeks ago, at the midnight showing. At the theater, one of the large cardboard cutouts showed a worn, adult Harry shouting, his wand raised. Beneath it were the words "It All Ends July 15 ( Read more... )

Today at the bus stop I saw Nancy, a friend in the third place sort. Third place not being a ranking, but being the location with which we interact. We meet on the bus irregularly, by virtue of living in the same neighborhood and having the same commute ( Read more... )

I changed a headlight bulb in my car today. At this current point in time, it seems an extremely simple task. Just yesterday, however, it was a source of anxiety--of cost, of worry about driving at night, and uncertainty about even who to go to for information. For future reference, parts come from the car dealership, and the headlight bulb ( Read more... )

My evil next-door neighbor moved out yesterday. Hopefully that means I'll never run into her again.

I've been playing LA Noire recently--a period detective game about chasing down leads, interrogating suspects, and putting the right people behind bars. All of it is quite well-done, from the foot chases to the tailing of suspects, from the suits detectives wear to the early landmarks of LA ( Read more... )

My parents told me that my youth was the most valuable period of my life. I would learn and retain more during that time than the remainder of my life. But it's only now that I'm seeing how true that is ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went with ferntoo to see "Jane's Journey", a movie about Jane Goodall. Her life began purely focused on research, on discovering and documenting the behavior of wild chimpanzees. For years she lived her dream of waking up in the African forest, observing and sitting among creatures who the world knew so little about ( Read more... )

I met Alicia at MSDance. She's an energetic Stanford alumni, full of the quirkiness that I can attribute to her school. She owns a red stickshift car, and was something of a fair-weather friend. I'd attended some of her social gatherings from time to time, and then she got…busy, I guess. She disappeared, both from MSDance, from attending rock ( Read more... )

There are two kinds of TV shows. In the first, every episode begins and ends with everything unchanged. The actors and actresses might show a subtle aging over the years, and someone might move from one job to another, but the premise remains the same ( Read more... )