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2009-08-28T10:32:00.001-07:00

Posting Internet Messages and Such

2009-04-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Je suis fatigue aujourd'hui. Hier soir je suis alle voir un concert de Death Cab. Ce n'etait pas mal du tout. J'aime beaucoup leur musique. Ce n'est pas la premiere fois que je les ai vus en concert. Il y a peu pres deux ans que je les ai vus en concert a l'embarcadero de san diego dehors (l'etage a été dehors). Au fait, le concert que j'ai vu il y a deux ans a été gratuit parce que j'étais juste en dehors du concert et pourrait voir parfaitment le groupe. Ca a été genial quoi.

Alors, hier soir je m'endoutais si ca aller etre bien parce que je trouve ces jours-là que les concerts en general me font mal aux oreilles parce que le volume soit toujours très fort. C'etait pas le cas hier soir heureusement. Bon, j'etait content d'y être. La musique etait bonne et j'ai pu ecouter sans couvrir mes oreilles. :)

Genial!

O, et je vais essayer d'ecrire plus souvent a mon site internet. Essayer. C'est le mot clé.

A plus.

Estoy tomando una clase de espanol

2009-04-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

So I recently was considering taking classes in the Fall. But as I thought more about it, I figured it might be best to try one class to see what it felt like to be back in school before jumping in head first. Plus, I've been wanting to learn Spanish for awhile and know it should come pretty quick given that I already know one Latin language. So I enrolled in a Spanish class. I probably won't be taking classes full time anytime soon, but at least this way I can learn Spanish. The idea is to take several consecutive terms so I can at least be conversational.

I also have been getting up early this week. The last couple of days I went up to Sunset Cliffs around 6:30 am.

A New Post

2008-10-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

I took this picture in Ocean Beach where I'm living, and I'm posting a blog since it's been a while. I've been really busy lately. I'm going up to Fresno, CA this weekend. The drummer with our music team, Drew, is getting married to Rebekah. I'm going to ride up with him Thursday night and come back late Saturday because we have to back for church Sunday morning.

Then I'm taking Monday off because it's going to be a busy weekend.

Free-Range Chickens on 125th Street

2008-09-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

(Photo: Corey Kilgannon/The New York Times)

This article appeared in today's New York Times. Newsworthy. Enjoy.

Kyle

September 15, 2008, 12:29 pm

By Corey Kilgannon

Why did the chicken cross 125th Street? That’s what some Harlem residents are trying to figure out. Last Thursday, a bunch of chickens and a big white turkey suddenly appeared near the corner of 125th Street and Second Avenue and promptly began pecking around in traffic.

The chickens were loosely gathered in a vacant lot next to the gas station on the northwest corner, but they were hardly confined to the lot. They roamed the gas station and strayed all over the sidewalk and the street. They darted in front of traffic and generally amused passers-by and the people waiting at the nearby bus stop.

“You see a new group every so often,” said Monique Dudley, a paraprofessional for the Department of Education who watched the chickens as she waited for the crosstown bus and began taking photographs of the chickens with her phone, to send to friends.

“I have to send my friends pictures or else they would never believe we have chickens on 125th Street.”

Frankie Quinones, 42, of Manhattan, a hospital administrator, said, “I don’t know why they’re here, but the people around here seem to look out for them.”

“They better not go too far, or they’ll be chicken soup,” he said. “You see that big turkey? I hope he’s not around here by Thanksgiving.”

Don Newcomb, a construction worker renovating an apartment building across the street from the lot, said that “some guy” keeps dumping chickens in the area.

“This crazy guy keeps buying them from the market — some animal-right guy, but I think he’s messed up in the head — and he keeps leaving them here,” Mr. Newcomb said. “He thinks he’s saving them, but it’s not like they’re safe around here. Somebody told me the hawks swoop down on them, too. Eventually, the Health Department comes, or whatever, the A.S.P.C.A., and they pick them up.”

“They run out in the road, I’ve already seen two of them get run over,” he said. “It’s a shame, because they’re cool chickens.”

The Center for Animal Care and Control, which handles such problems for the city, has been repeatedly called to the 125th Street spot because of complaints about chickens, said Richard P. Gentles, a spokesman for the group. In the summer of 2007, its officials recovered 25 chickens and a turkey. On Aug. 20, they recovered 13 chickens, he said, which were taken to farms outside the city.

Chicken complaints are not uncommon in New York, he said.

“We usually get one or two, but to get 25 is a lot,” he said. He said that it was not known where the chickens come from, but that “when you get a stray chicken, it usually comes from a live poultry market in the area.”

The agency recovered 354 chickens in 2007, he said, compared with 425 rabbits and 396 raccoons. The most rescued animal in the city, however, is turtles — 754 of them in 2007. “I guess a lot of people have turtles,” Mr. Gentles said.

Joseph Pentangelo, assistant director for humane law enforcement at the A.S.P.C.A., said his agency had responded twice to anonymous complaints of chickens in the area.

“It’s illegal to keep a rooster in the city, but chickens are not illegal,” he said. “Abandoning any animal is a crime, and chickens can’t really fend for themselves in an urban environment. I’ve heard of groups buying them from slaughterhouses and repatriating them, but to place them on the streets of New York is creating a hazard for the chickens and for drivers who have to dodge them in the streets.”

An animal care official said that a note was left on a nearby fence. “Please do not bother the animals,” it said.

The note continued: “I removed them from the chicken market and they are sickly and unfit to eat. Please provide them with food and water if you think they need it.”

A phone number was listed. A man who answered that line said that he was Alex LaForte, 38, a New York native, and that he had been feeding and caring for the chickens for almost two years. He said he had kept them in a henhouse in the vacant lot, but it was taken down.

Mr. LaForte said he picked up castoff food from supermarkets and delivered it on his bicycle each night. “I’m just doing all I can to help them survive another night out there,” said Mr. LaForte, who said he had no job or home of his own and was staying with friends and relatives in East Harlem.

He added: “I don’t know who’s putting them out there, probably some rescue group, but whoever it is is saving them from suffering. I’ve seen the way they’re mistreated and made to suffer in those slaughterhouses.”

“We’re all struggling through these hard times, and the chickens are struggling to survive, too,” he said. “They find freedom on the city streets, and once they find freedom, they can eat and survive, rather than be put in a pen or slaughtered and eaten. I’m a struggler, and I try to help others struggling. If I feed them, they’ll survive.”

The original article can be found here.

New Desk - A Sigh of Relief

2008-08-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

I'm composing this blog at the site of my new desk at work. The last two years has seen it's fair share of "work station moves", and I'm thinking this current move will stick as long as I'm in this job.

You see, when I first began working here at the Registrar's Office at UCSD, I began in the most miserable of desk locations. It was right beside the door, in a waiting area, in a HALLWAY, right next to a conference room (where miserable academic faculty would come up to me and ask me to make them copies - I usually stared blankly at them until they left), and the site of frequent office get-togethers (spilled drinks on desk, someone sitting on my computer, cake in my chair, confetti in my hair, etc.) Once I had been sufficiently humbled into submission, a colleague suggested that I buy plants as a sort of barrier since this desk had no walls. I made a vow to never complain about a cubicle again. Anyway, these plants... They served as a sort of barrier between me and the outside world of office-land. It was glorious. My work place was suddenly transformed from a harsh concrete reality of abrasive, obtrusive ugliness into a dream-scape of green, lush countryside. It was a temporary reprieve of sorts, even if most of it was just in my own head.

I should mention the plants would not have been enough to keep me from quitting my job were it not for the promise of that glorious day.... What glorious day? The promise of a new day when the Registrar's Office would be moved into a nice, new building just across the street. After a month or so of glorying in my fauna, we moved that clear, spring day in March of 2007. This particular day, the air outside was crisp, the sun shone clear, and the sound of birds singing was music upon my eardrums in such a way only Tim Burton could dream of.

My object of my hopes, however, would soon fade again in 'light' of another reality. The new desk in the new building, though surrounded by windows and far from any beleaguered, academic soul, was, once again, too much for me too handle as the bright uninhibited San Diego sun shone through untinted, unblinded, unrelenting windows. I was blinded. The long sleepless nights and days of headaches ensued. For two weeks, all I could think about or see was the sun branded, as it were, upon my psyche and more literally upon my retinas.

I would move again, temporarily, to another desk until the blinds were installed. Five weeks later, these were installed and I moved back. I was finally settled... or so I thought. I should digress to note that I experienced almost one year or "workstation settledness" until my former boss, on his way out the door, decided I should be moved to a new, more miserable desk since I "would not have a boss..." "Hmmmm, whose fault is that?" I thought. Nonetheless, I would be the one to receive the punishment. And for the last 6 months, I have. Surrounded by student workers stamping and copying, an unmentioned employee who liked to ask me lots of questions in a high-pitched voice, ten people looking over my shoulder. If the objective was for people to keep an eye on me, my former boss' goal was met. Too bad he's not here to give me the performance appraisal for that misery.

At any rate, I've now endured it heartily for the prize set before me; my new and current workstation. I now have windows (with blinds) once again, no one looking over my shoulder, and even my peace lily to keep me company. Not to mention the fact that I can actually work now without being interrupted constantly. Novel thought, really.

Now, you might ask, what was the purpose of writing this blog? I mean, really, what is the purpose? To you I answer this: It is a bold, hearty assertion of my new-found freedom away from all that which annoyed me before. It is very bold and very free. Free bird. Because I can.

Cases or sleeves? That is the question.

2008-07-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've written, but I thought I wrote something in e-mail today that was so brilliant that I had to share it for the edification of humanity.

A little background...
We're currently trying to figure out the CD case for my (former) band's record. The choices are jewel-cases or sleeves (which are more earthy). Nate sent an e-mail to inquire as to our thoughts regarding this important decision. I have included Nate's original e-mail and then my response below that.

Here is Nate's original e-mail. Quite entertaining in itself:

So, give me your pros and cons on:

CD Jewel Cases

CD Sleeves

Jewel cases are expensive, really expensive...and they (the manufacturers) seem to nickel and dime you on jewel cases. Example, I found a site (diskfaktory.com) that offers 300 jewels for like $700...but that doesn't include color printing on the disc itself, that's an extra $150. And that was the cheapest (not necessarily the best quality) site I found.

Sleeves, on the other hand, are MUCH cheaper. discmakers.com (supposedly a reputable site, from what I've heard) offers 1,000 sleeves for around $900...a much better deal. I guess my main question to you twos has to do with your opinion on sleeves.

One last point...I think that since we made a self-financed indie album, we could get away with doing sleeves...people will most likely say, "Oh look, sleeves, these look and probably are cheaper than jewel cd's...but I guess that's probably because this is an indie album, and yeah like whatever, we're totally buying it for the music, not for the album case...oh my god Stacey I love your new shoes..." Anyway, you get the point, after the initial reaction, they probably won't care anymore.

WHATCHA Think? -Nate

My response:

This reminds me of the time my mom and I went out to this old dirty barn in the country where these hippies lived and fed themselves with the food from their vegetable garden. For a living, they sold ocarinas which are little clay, ovular-shaped flutes. They valued the good stuff in life... bare feet, good music, long hair, tie-dyed t-shirts, Phish, herbal supplements and large amounts of wheat and other grasses. It was the good life. I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure the guy's name was Steve. But I think he tried to go by Stephen at one point -- he had said something about how the "ph" seemed more earthy and organic than Steve. But there was a simplicity to the name Steve that he appreciated just as well. He and his wife had two kids, who happened to also have bare feet, long hair, and large amounts of dirt caked in various bodily crevices. To get down to their house you had to take an old dirt road, down past Harry's BBQ off of Highway 15 and Old High Shoals Road. You knew you were getting close when you passed the old broken mail box with the rusty faux-tin roof that kept the rain out on the stormy summer days. Those were the good days. There were times when it would rain so hard that we would huddle under blankets and watch the sky light up with those stark lightning bolts -- the kind you normally see in old black and white movies -- before we got all this lighting technology that have since rendered thunderstorms in film so fake-looking. I remember this one day in particular when mom had just gotten back from the farmer's market with a fresh batch of peaches and cantaloupe. The smell of fresh fruit in summer was one of my favorite memories as a child. Shortly after she got home, the sky began to darken. It wasn't too long before we began to hear the clap of thunder in the distance and the rain started slowly pelting the window - first one at a time, and then so hard that it became rhythmic and would often send me into a deep, summer afternoon nap. We just sat there looking out of the window at that dark sky eating fresh sliced cantalope. Then mom would read us a story from her Uncle Remus book that had been passed down from her mother. A young boy never knew so much joy.

Anyway, I actually bought one of those ocarinas that day from Steve. Still have it actually. It sits on my dresser at home. Sometimes, on a lonely rainy day, I look at that old ocarina and think of Steve and his wife and kids and wonder what it would be like to live like Steve and his family. They didn't have much. But they had a lot of things that I didn't have at the same time. And I wonder if they really needed or even wanted what my family had. Something about that ocarina takes me back to my roots and reminds me of what Steve thought was important. And makes me wonder if we could all learn a thing or two from him.

Kyle

P.S. You should go with the sleeves.

The Darjeeling Limited - A Review

2007-10-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

I just watched a movie. It was called "The Darjeeling Limited." I'm going to attempt to summarize it here and give my opinion. Wow, I haven't written anything in a long time and it feels like my brain is a swing-set that has been sitting out in the rain for 3 months and then left to dry and rust. So here it is; squeaky swings and all. I write mostly as an attempt to understand what the heck I just watched.

The movie opens with a strange short film set in Paris. However, I'd like to think of it more of an additional scene rather than a short film because it played out like a scene and only made sense in light of part II. Normally, I would think that a short film with it's own title (Hotel Chevalier) would at least have some sort of self-encompassing storyline. This short film would have none of it. In this short film, we witness a character, obviously disillusioned, sitting alone in his hotel. He's watching old movies and getting grilled cheese sandwiches via room service. His lack of expression and monotone voice tell a story of their own. Then he gets a phone call. A lady friend is coming for a surprise visit. We soon find out that there had been a previous romance with her. And we soon find out that this is why he is disillusioned. She has obviously hurt him in some way and this is likely the reason for his self-imposed exile to a hotel room in Paris where he listens to cheesy, obscure music about how great Paris is.

And that is the end of the film. Not very telling. Nor even suspenseful.

On to part II; the real movie I went to see; The Darjeeling Limited. I figure any movie with a train staged in India must be interesting. The story begins as three brothers, Jack, Peter, and oh gosh I forgot the other guy's name... Owen Wilson, are setting off on a journey together in India. They haven't seen each other in a while. They all have separate lives and you get the impression that they don't really want to be together anyway. But there's some sort of mission to be accomplished. One wants to connect to God, one wants get away from his reality at home, and one just wants to have sex.

Owen Wilson has planned out the entire journey with the help of his assistant, Brennan, who provides a daily itinerary for the trip in India. As they continue on their journey, they each make very weak attempts to accomplish their goals. But their apparent lack of follow-through only haunt them the whole time. The three stooges make these guys look like geniuses. They soon decide it's not worth the trouble. Except for one small detail that Owen didn't tell them. The reason he has invited them to India in the first place to visit their estranged mother whom they haven't seen in a very long time and who has also exiled herself to a foreign country. Only she didn't even go to her husband's funeral back in the States.

The mother is the most interesting character in the movie. She has moved to this mountain in India to be a Catholic missionary. When her sons ask her why she didn't even come home for the funeral, she simply states "These people need me." Brilliantly, her son looks at her and says that there are other people that need her as well. The motivations of this woman are obviously flawed. She has left behind her sons and husband to "help" these Indian people. Her attempt at help is no help at all. It's an escape for her. She has left the people most dear to her own heart to help these people she knows nothing of. Her life has become a formal expression of faith and love amid an attempt to escape. She has left her reality to create a new one. Yet her care for her sons is still apparent during their visit.

And in a way, the sons are seeing a reflection of themselves. They have each attempted their own escapes at reality in different ways. One has done it through moving away to a foreign country, one by attempting suicide on a motorcycle and one through a relationship.

But all are failed attempts. Reality bites in spite of, and sometimes because of, attempted escapes. And each have the scars to show. Each attempt at escape only resulted in further scaring; in Owen's case quite literally. Even their attempt at this spiritual journey has only made the reality more real. And, in the end, this is what they come to realize.

At the end, they throw away their symbolic luggage of idealism and jump on the train of reality. And just as you realize it, each of the characters in the movie pass by you. Each in their own train car of life with their own realities. But their all on the same train headed in the same direction. They all have different realities, different stories, different setting, but they all have a common destination. "What is it?" you ask. I don't know. I'll have to watch it and again to figure it out. Maybe we're not supposed to know.

Oh, and that short film that opened the movie? Well, the character, Jack, who is prone to writing short stories, decides to write this woman out of his life. With his new insight, he's aware that it wasn't the woman that hurt him. It was his escapism and the woman was just a means of bursting his bubble.

Living Large

2007-07-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

I just figured out that Matt is the most comfortable person-in-his-own-skin on this little vacation. Here's why... Jamie is the only female here. But at least she's married. I am the only single person here. But at least I'm not female. Matt is neither the only one of his gender, nor is he female, nor is he single; therefore he's enjoying the good life.

Chickens

2007-07-27T16:12:00.001-07:00

Fish

2007-07-23T20:22:00.001-07:00

Check out this incredibleness. - Kyle

New York, NY

2007-06-19T10:40:00.001-07:00

I just returned from a glorious trip to NY. If you've ever moved away from a place and then gone back after a long hiatus, then you know that things can change and the locale can become a very different place. New York is not like that. It literally seemed like I'd never left. Of course, I stayed in my old apartment and visited with friends, so not much had changed in that regard. On the other hand, I was able to just enjoy it without having to drown in sea of commuting and busyness and work. That was real nice. The video camera was taken with as well as the point-and-shoot digital camera.

On Friday evening we went to a rooftop film festival presented by IFC. The scene was very New York. It was (obviously) on the rooftop of a building, a high school at that, and skyline was visible from every vantage point on the roof. And all the movies were independent films about life in the city. It was the New York-est activity you could possibly imagine. A bunch of hipsters on a rooftop in NY, watching independent films about NY with an intermission featuring a rapper from East Africa. Check out more info here.

Here are a few more pictures. I made it a point to take some time to do some photography and whatnot. I particularly sought out graffiti this time around.

A Hike

2007-05-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

Make pictures from hike in the Cuyamaca Mountain ranges of the Southern California. Many burned trees, lots of burned vegetation and new ones too. Hiking mode.... Full speed ahead. Turn your records on.

In Evil Long I Took Delight - John Newton

2007-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

"In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agony and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never to my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.

A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayst live.”

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too."

Check it....

2007-04-24T13:36:00.001-07:00

My Latest Vid

2007-04-17T23:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks,

Check out my newest video. I made it for our upcoming church retreat. Feedback is welcome (if anybody even reads this freaking blog).

Here's the video.

High Strung Guitar - Nashville Tuning

2007-04-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

I learned a nifty new thing recently as I perused the web. Let me just say that it was more than a discovery. It was life-changing... It was life-changing because I had held a grudge against Derek Webb for years after he played a song on a the guitar that I couldn't figure out. If you know me, you know that I can play virtually any song by ear so when someone (like Derek Webb) comes along and plays a song and I can't figure out how he's playing it, my entire self-worth is quickly flushed down the toilet.

What Derek Webb had done was very simple and I have forgiven him now that I know he didn't mean anything against me personally. He was, in fact, just trying to make a song sound cool. It was nothing against me.

Derek used a guitar tuning technique called the "high strung guitar" or, as it has come to be known, "Nashville tuning." All that means it that you replace the top 4 strings (E,A,D,G) with a string an octave higher. That would be the strings that you would normally double up with on a 12-string guitar. Except, in this case, you're doing it on a six-string. It gives the guitar a really light sound that is great for reducing those annoying middle frequencies when you're recording. And you can also play a standard tuned guitar in a different channel which would give the sound of a 12-string but in stereo if you put the channels hard left and hard right.

What ends up happening is that you have only one string that is wound (the low E), all other strings are steel. And you have to get lighter gauge strings of course since you're tuning an octave higher (basically just the gauges of a top four strings of your octave 12-string EADG). Oh, and I've been playing "Piece of Glass" all week on my newly high-strung guitar and feeling quite the equal of Derek Webb, even superior to him.

Tim's Chips

2007-03-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

If you've never tried Tim's Cascade-Style Potato Chips, you should go out and buy some... now.

They're really good and thick, or, as the package states it, "Extra thick and crunchy." They make 'em hearty up there in the Northwest.

I just called their headquarters to tell Tim how much I liked his chips. But when I asked for Tim the receptionist said he had retired two years ago. She said he still stops in every now and again to check up on everyone in the office and the factory and knows everyone by their first name. I forgot to ask her what Tim's favorite flavor was but she volunteered that hers was garlic and parmesean. However, it should be noted that they have recently discontinued this flavor.

Video Chat

2007-02-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

I realized this week that I am able to do video chat when I plug my video-camera into the computer. I thought you had to have a webcam or something.

In other news, Macs are great computers and everyone should own one. Their computers actually work. And when you want to do something on the computer, it allows you to do it without an error or needing to shut down. I don't know why Microsoft never thought of that idea.

Watch this video...

The Google

2007-01-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

Large Angeles

2007-01-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am new to the blog. Just like I am new to the Google.

I went to Los Angeles this weekend. My friend, Mark, was in town... A former roommate from NY who now lives in Ohio but is looking at schools in CA. LA: It's a magical land filled with a lot of people and cars and hills and buildings and palm trees and houses stuck in places that only a tornado could otherwise create.

I made some pictures for to share with you. I hope you like. I like.

It's Christmas, Let's Be Glad

2007-01-17T10:12:00.000-08:00