current news
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 12:50 | So Angela and I just got our marriage license today, on our sixth anniversary. :) I'm so stoked. I like how it's now "Party A" and "Party B" on the forms. I can just imagine the prank forms for the queer crowd that will begin circulating: "Butch" and "Bitch" come to mind for the guys as do "High School PE Teacher" and "Lindsay Lohan this Month" for the ladies. Oh well... |
| posted by bighead @ 9:38 | I'm going to wish Angela and I a happy 6th anniversary today! Also, one month and one day to the wedding! woot! |
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 23:46 | OMG! A Jewish Twinkie! If you look closely, it is certified kosher dairy by the Orthodox Union! |
Saturday, May 10, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 20:17 | Though not a home OWNER, I am a home renter, and I found something that I really, actually enjoy. Mowing the lawn, I have found, is quite an enjoyable activity. Not only am I supporting America and not subsidizing some illegal immigrant's family back in Guatemala or Mexico, I'm getting some decent exercise and fighting the obesity problem (a few little steps at a time.) I also enjoyed fertilizing the lawn and spraying for insects. I suppose after a while it will not have the same pizzazz as it does now, but for now, it's going to be awesome. I know, I'm strange. |
Monday, April 14, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 0:26 | The following is an entry I wrote in December of 2004 but never posted. Since we are moving to El Toro this month, I thought it would be a relevant and unique perspective of parts of the city that have been destroyed in the name of (sub)urban renewal: El Toro Road is being widened by the city. There are tons of places that are being destroyed, including the Edwards Cinemas that used to be there. Screens 1, 2, and 3 were on the northern end of the shopping center, and screens 4, 5, and 6 were on the southern end of the shopping center. The 1, 2, and 3 building have already been destroyed, and they are right next to the Golden Spoon frozen yogurt place Angela and I go to. There's a light pole we sit down at (or used to sit down at) and ate at. It's no longer there. A few months ago, we were over there having some frozen yogurt and the lights at the 4-5-6 were on. It was very strange, since I hadn't seen the theatre lit up since I was a kid. One of the screens at the 1-2-3 was also lit up, but there was nobody there to see, aside from Angela. It was very eerie, and I was able to snap some pictures of the place before we left. If anyone is interested, I'll be more than happy to post the pics. I also got pictures of Rod's Liquor, which is a local landmark. Rod's has been on El Toro Road since before my parent's were married. In South Orange County history, 35 years is a very long time. |
Sunday, April 13, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 0:36 | Every time I see how much I pay in tax each year, it frustrates me to no end. I guess because I'm now over the magical $50k mark in gross income, I'm considered rich. And because some of that money is capital gains from my stock plan, I'm considered some Wall Street high roller. I'm sure Barry and Hillary would love to take more of my money to provide medical coverage to uninsured "undocumented" folks and other fancy benefits that I have to pay for as a United States citizen. The state of California is no better. They want to take as much money as possible to pay for all sorts of fancy things for illegal immigrants. I'm not going to bitch about the $600 check I'm supposed to be getting from Dubya. It's a refund of my money, after all. Not having to pay it out in the first place would be nice, too. Having a more reasonable tax system in general would be fucking wonderful. While I'm hitting the proverbial crack pipe, I'll also mention that having all of my Social Security contributions diverted to my 401k would be fantastic. I'd love to take care of that little nest egg (seeing as I'm told that it's my money to begin with.) The only good thing about the checks I'm writing this month is that my car insurance is finally under $100 a month. FINALLY. I don't want to spend it, but at least it's less than what I have been spending previously. |
Saturday, April 12, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 0:20 | So Angela and I get home just after 11PM, looking forward to a quiet night's sleep. We come home to the anus shades above us projecting a movie on the adjacent wall and talking loud as hell about all of their loser friends' dramatic lives, drug and alcohol problems, etc. This is one of many reasons why City Lights is the place to live only if you're on the top floor and have a sniper rifle to pick off people who can't shut up. Case and point:   And video just in case you wanted to know:  After the fact, I'll say that my sniper rifle comment was made in jest and ONLY in jest. |
Sunday, April 6, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 22:16 | "...the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle- class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight-or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning-or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff-or even worse, male working stiff-because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?" -Charlton Heston (badass) |
Thursday, March 27, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 20:54 | So after meeting with two wedding photographers today (well one photographer and one consultant for Bella), Angela and I were semi-jokingly mentioning that we should become a husband-wife team and shoot weddings for a living. It's somewhat recession-proof: people are always going to want to document their weddings, and people will always be getting married. Then, in my ever sarcastic way, I realized that with the increasing divorce rate in America, if you're a good photographer, imagine the amount of repeat business you could get! HAH! |
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 19:29 | So, Angela and I are looking for wedding photographers, and we've been soliciting various folks and inquiring with a bunch of them. Dang, do some of them have crazy pricing changes from what is listed on their website. But anyways: One of the questions we have for each of them is if we can get copies of the camera raws and/or 16-bit TIFFs of the corrected images after they go through and do their fun work on them. Take a minute to think about this. I am asking for raw, which is not so radical, but I also mentioned "16-bit TIFF", which probably means I know a little bit more than the average potential customer. If I ask about getting 16-bit TIFFs, and you reply with simply "We offer full resolution JPEGs" that enlarge to "beautiful wall portraits in sizes such as 30x40 inches" you are a douchebag. I would take "No, we don't provide raws or TIFFs" or "We would charge extra for larger files" better than ignoring my actual question and saying your JPEGs are awesome. I'll have more to report tomorrow. |
Thursday, February 21, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 15:07 | So I am in the process of organizing bills, credit card receipts, and statements for the past 3 years in an attempt to get organized before Angela and I move again. Unless something crazy happens in the next week, it looks like Angela and I are going to be moving to El Toro. I won't post details yet, but yeah. Crazy as it seems, we'll be moving all over again. Hopefully, if this works out, we'll be in one place for at least a few years. The thing I was thinking about, though, during the organization and listening to +44's "When Your Heart Stops Beating", was that in the past few years, I have not really written in a journal. I used to pour everything out onto paper and read through it over and over. Since the beginning of 2005, or maybe even the end of 2004, I've just not really written anything of substance. The process slowed down over the period of a couple years; it wasn't an immediate change. And I've blogged on here, certainly. But I was thinking about why this is the case, and I'm pretty sure I've figured it out. For the longest time, I relished living in the past and blaming all of my problems on things that I documented in my journals. I wouldn't spend any real time DOING anything about it, I'd just read old shit and then write more weepy emo crap about how things aren't going my way. Angela has been an angel when it comes to listening to what's bothering me and helping me get through it. When I have someone who loves me as much as she does, I found I didn't need to linger and fester in the stupid high schoolish bullshit I wrote almost constantly when I was with Kathryn and Leah. And I'm a better person because of this metamorphosis. Life doesn't need a camera or an audio tape to document every moment. I think this is why I like photography more than videography. Life is wonderful when you have reminders of the good memories. Life gets better when you learn from the scars you get along the way. Life will end the best if Angela and I are together in each other's arms like at the end of "The Notebook". [Please note that this situation should be at least 75 years away.] Sorry to get all emotional on you all like I was just criticizing myself for doing. I wanted to document a semi-epiphany when I had one. (Just a reminder of it, not the whole thing of course. Hehe.) |
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 23:16 | $628 to the IRS this year. Fuck you federal government. I am not rich (unless you're talking to Barry Obama or Hillary Clinton, in which case I probably make too much money.) $329 to the California Franchise Tax Board. Fuck you Fabien Nuñez and all of you up in Sacramento. I'm sure that the "undocumented workers" appreciate the extra cash I'm sending your way. Hope to see you all in hell. |
Saturday, February 9, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 13:46 | So I realized that if Angela and I were going to be doing a lot of driving the next few weeks, I should get my car all taken care of before that all goes down. We're going to San Marcos to see an officiant tomorrow, then wine tasting in Temecula after that. Casey's wedding in Fallbrook is in three weeks, so that will definitely be a lot of miles back and forth. Better to get it all done ASAP. I realized that my transmission had not been serviced in almost 30K, so I picked up a bottle of Slick50 and decided to have them do an oil change with that and do a tranny flush along with it. It's more money spent, but it'll prevent more headaches in the future. Better be safe than sorry. Besides, I plan on keeping this car around for a long time. 3 years and 70K miles is just the start for this little Corolla. |
Friday, February 8, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 23:30 | Angela and I are not crazy! We felt the earthquake! |
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
| posted by bighead @ 22:18 | So I'm doing a lot better than I was even just a few days ago. I've still got a slight cough leftover, but the doc said last week that it might stick around for a few weeks. Why, I don't know. *shrug* I'm looking forward to doing something with Angela using my 3 extra vacation days. We're thinking of doing something like an Amtrak trip or going to San Diego. Simple, inexpensive, easy. Plus, I get paid for the time off, which is always a good thing. Extra vacation == awesome. Starting Feb 8 (I think) I will accrue 17 vacation days per year as opposed to the 12 I accrue currently. I'm stoked about that. What that means is that I'll have even more vacation time built up come honeymoon time. Score! Speaking of honeymoon, Angela and I can't figure out what to do for our honeymoon. I never went anywhere outside of the US as a kid (the Cayman Islands is the single exception) so there is a huge world out there, just waiting for me to eat roasted animals in and then use the local bathrooms in. We don't want to go anywhere on this continent, which means that frequent flyer miles may come in handy. We want to get a lot of places under our belt, and I certainly want to visit a lot of places in Europe. What I don't want to do is always be on the run, not taking any time to enjoy our new marriage. Stress is not supposed to be in the vocabulary for a honeymoon, so we have to figure out just the right balance. I just replaced the PCI blower in my server, since the old one had a crappy bearing and was making some bad rattling noises. I tried soldering some wires, which ended badly since I used the little butane iron I've got rather than the 40W station. Fine twist-braiding and electrical tape worked good enough for me after that. I think I need to learn to solder. I'm not a real geek until I can do that. Shaky hands are bad, though. I'm getting tired, and I think I'm going to have to drop a deuce in a minute. |