I wish I could art like that

Working in a cubicle is pretty uninspiring. Not much to stimulate the right side of the mind. I always look at work like this with admiration and longing. Then again, the money I make from my dayjob affords me such pastimes. Sigh.

Sketch of the day

I got two new sketchbooks from Blick's art store yesterday, and I'm having a blast. I have to say, out of all my hobbies, drawing is arguably the cheapest and possibly the most rewarding when good results come out. I left virtually all my art supplies in TO when I left; replenishing them took a grand total of 35 bucks. I wish photography was as cheap. :(

PS, does anyone think I should sign or digitally watermark my "work" I post on the 'net? It would suck if people stole my pics.

Gimme one reason

I had an art attack, and decided to break out my Wacom tablet today. Recently I've picked up how to play Tracy Chapman's Gimme one reason on my guitar -- it's quite a nice blues progression -- so I had some subject material as a model.

My art skills still need a bit of work, though. That, and I'm really clumsy with the "airbrush" tool in Photoshop.

The century post

Post # 100 (huzzah!):

I really like how Kim posts some photography on a regular basis to her blog. I think I shall attempt to post weekly photos (or possibly sketches/drawings) myself. There's nothing quite like a pretty photo to spruce up a webpage.

Gremlin destroys Ninja

I'm in a foul mood today, mostly because my bike died yesterday morning due to dead battery. Nothing like suiting up, putting the key in the ignition, hitting the starter button and getting "clickclickclickclickclick" I stood there like an idiot for a good 5 minutes trying different combinations of choke, clutch, fuel petcock (yes, I know - Ha Ha) settings to get the thing started.

Today, I tried charging it with a trickle charger, to no avail; instead of a feisty "beep!" from the horn, I get a sad "hooooonk". The headlight couldn't even turn on - it looks like it's time for a new battery. And we were having so much fun together, too.

Microsoft destroys Apple

Virtually, at least. These days, mapping software have become quite prevalent. Take a look at an overhead view of Apple Inc.'s Cupertino headquarters, both from MSN Virtual Earth and from Google Maps. Notice that in MSN's version of reality, the only thing located on that site is bare earth.

This is why competition is a good thing.

The Draft

So Anaheim won the second overall pick in the '05-'06 NHL draft. I think this year I'll finally be able to afford to watch a hockey game, seeing that around Southern California, only half the population even knows what hockey is. No matter how well the Leafs did, I don't think I could ever justify spending $100+ on crap seats.

Go Ducks! Though with the Samueli family purchase of the franchise from Disney, rumor is that they'll change the name to simply the Anaheim Ducks. I'm all for that.

Happy birthday to me.

So, it's my birthday (I turn 26) today, and co-incidentally I picked up my very first motorcycle yesterday, a little 1992 Kawasaki Ninja 250R! I had a guy help me bring it back home in the back of his pickup truck, then the second I arrive, I throw my gear on and go for a ride... What a rush! I remember now why I got into the hobby in the first place; there is no comparison to anything on four wheels. When I hit 40 mph it felt comparible to going 80 in my cage (car) down a residential district. Nervous about making a fatal mistake, I was sweating through my gloves and had to keep my visor halfway open just to keep it from fogging up. Riding without insurance didn't help, either.

I have to admit to making a few newbie mistakes in my first trip around the block: I stalled it a few times from a red and almost tipped it over at a stop sign when I squeezed the front brake too hard. No harm done, however... I must say, it's not even noon yet and I'm already waiting for the work day to finish so I can go riding again.

So, that was my first ride on my first bike... Happy birthday to me!

Sure, they're cute when they're little, but...

My dog Wookie got real big in my absence (I realize that the official spelling in Lucas-land is Wookiee, but like the superfluous apostrophe in "D'oh", my internal spell-check forces me to omit the extra "e"). When she was just a puppy, she looked just like a teddy bear:

Now, by some miracle of dog-evolution, she's dropped her ursine features for ones of the lupine persuasion; i.e. she looks like a small wolf. Which is fine, but now she terrifies my mother's neighbors:

Still cute, no?

What's the point really?

So I was out for lunch with some of my co-workers at Souplantation today. A regular lunch destination, it's mostly vegetarian salad and soup buffet attracts some of the more attractive denizens of its Brentwood neighborhood. Ogling is usually standard between the second trip to the buffet table and dessert. Today, across from us was a 30-something lady who obviously had a LOT of work done. What was more attention-grabbing was what she was wearing - or rather not wearing. Imagine surgically "weightless" 36D's floating without a bra in a mesh white tank. OK for Maxim magazine, not OK for Souplantation; not when you can tell the color and shape of each areola. I suppose it gives her comfort to have people carry on conversations with her chest.

Doh

First: I can't abide by the "official" spelling of D'oh! It just doesn't seem right, like some sort of perverse Wade-Giles romanization. Doh it is.

Second: It's impossible to find new people on a daily basis when you only spend about 20 minutes outside your office searching for food. I'm revising my goal to 4 people a week. I think that's more like it. Oh how the resolutions bend...

Talking to strangers

On Friday, I was walking to my car from the local taco store when I passed by a bunch of protesters - apparently they were protesting the bombings in London. Nearby was a man with a camera with a big white lens. Obviously a photojournalist. Seeing as I was getting more into photography recently, I wanted to ask what publication he was shooting for and what type of equipment he carries, but at the last moment I decided it wasn't worth the time and I just walked on by.

As I got to my car and drove towards home I started regretting it more and more. Eventually I got to thinking how many times in my life that I've passed by fascinating discussions and meeting interesting new people. In fact, not being proactive about meeting people, and being generally antisocial is one of my biggest pet peeves with other people (it's also an unfortunate "Asian" stereotype), so it would be rather hypocritical of me to do so myself. So I made a resolution right then and there that, from now on, every day I will attempt to start up a conversation with a complete stranger. The progress is as follows:

• Yesterday, the stranger was a guy at the local motorcycle shop; we discussed merits of various chain sprays, and I learned that MotoGP racing at Laguna Seca was the only race that was held in the USA.
• Today, I was shooting a wedding. I think I must have met like 100 people.
  

Let's see if we can keep up this pace, shall we?

Back in LA

A big thanks to everyone who had the time to see me on my trip back. I got tons of work to sift through, so a bigger update is to come.

Cheers!