slice.

This one is on net neutrality, and explains it fairly well I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP_3WnJ42kw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
(it’s long but absolutely worth it)

but not necessarily in that order.
I’m finding that I still haven’t gotten used to working all day. Does that ever get easier? I feel like I’m in a downward spiral of energy. All of it goes into working, and then coming home, I’m starving and exhausted. I have no energy for working out or doing fun things, the only thing that gets accomplished is some TV time and dinner. And I haven’t joined that gym yet either.

Oh, speaking of depressing…I’ve finally made it official. I spent 3 hours at the DMV Friday, and in 3 to 5 weeks, I’ll be the proud owner of a California drivers license. For now, all I get is a hole punched in my old one and a piece of paper telling me that I can legally drive. Of course on thing that I’ll miss is the odd looks I get from bartenders when I show them my ID. Gone are the days of getting a chuckle as I show them what I look like with long hair and a goatee. Oh well, you gotta grow up sometime I guess.

I spent entirely too much time sitting on the couch this weekend. Friday night consisted of Guitar Hero III, followed by about 5 hours of Rock Band. It’s soo fun, and hard to put down, even at 3am. Saturday consisted of sleeping in, Rock Band, work, some crazy (but delicious) Japanese food, then more Rock Band. Sunday you would think I would take it easy? Nope, the only thing accomplished was laundry and about 10 hours of Zelda. 10 hours! I couldn’t believe it either. The sad thing is that I had every intention of being active this week. Big Bear was in the works for Friday, but fizzled out, biking was a possibility, that is until Rock Band was purchased. So not only did I do nothing, but ate a bunch of crap too. Albertsons is minus one bag of potato chips. I feel like shit right now because of those delicious pieces of lightly salted fried goodness.

And the icing on the cake? I was going to join a gym this weekend. Maybe tomorrow

I finally got back on my bike this weekend after about a two month hiatus. It felt good, but I continue to wonder if the clipless pedals were the right choice. It seems like about every ride I have a little tumble that I can blame on them. The good thing is that they have all been at slow speeds, which leads me to believe that it is my balance, and not the fact that my shoes are clipped to my pedals. In fact, I know thats what it is. I have horrible balance and control. I do a lot of looking directly at something in front of me that I want to avoid, which, of course means I run right over that huge rock, or wide deep rut. Meanwhile, there is smooth trail a foot to the right.

I really need to add a pictures page; I’ve been sitting on 400 pictures from Dublin and I have no idea how I want to put them up. It’s possibly a job for flickr, but in the meantime, enjoy the one good picture of everyone.

That is all. It’s 80 here. It wasn’t 80 in Chicago. In fact, much much less then that.
Despite the temperature, I really like Chicago. I don’t think that I have ever had a bad experience there (this, of course, does not include O’Hare Airport) despite usually going there for some form or another of helping my sister move. This time it was only putting up pictures and such though, I can handle that.

We took a really cool behind the scenes tour of the Field Museum that one of her friends bought at an auction. I never realized what went on there. Everything from using a glorified toothpick to clean actual fossils to an enormous room in the basement filled with jars of almost every sort of animal. Yeah, not for the squeamish. Everything from more fish then you know what to do with to a baby tiger. No joke. Needless to say, sushi was not an option for dinner that night, so we basically just went bar hopping. Unfortunately, it’s still damn cold when you’re drunk

We also hit up the Chicago Auto show. It’s cool to see something that came out of the doors of your work being displayed for probably millions of people to see, the plaque even had our name on it. I had seen it at the LA auto show, but somehow it hits a little harder when you realize that it has traveled across the country and is surrounded by people taking pictures.

The CD “The Legend of Johnny Cash” just isn’t long enough. I’ve had to hit the back button a few times simply because I want to listen to more, but I don’t have any other Cash. For shame. Maybe some Jurassic 5 will fill the void…

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. Since Christmas my weekends have been full of such things as a vacation in Dublin, moving into a new apartment, 3 ski/snowboard trips to Big Bear, a trip to Vegas and to cap it off next week a trip to Chicago. Despite all the money I’ve spent, I think it is all well worth it.

Everything on the preceding list was about spending time with friends or family. My only wish is that I didn’t have to go so far to spend time with the people that are important in my life. I keep thinking that I should find new friends and meet new people, which I am actively doing, but no matter how far away I am or how long its been, I’ll always miss being close to the people who have been there for me, and whose lives I can be a part of.

On thing that I never considered was how easy moving was compared to how hard it is to stay. For as much stock as I put into picking up and moving, I never realized that it was the easy part. Is this the point where I fail in my journey to self reliance, the point where I realize there is something to be said for the way it was, some comfort in it?

I just don’t know. I can be stubborn with things like this, spiting myself. Make no doubt about it, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I need this in my life.

Now that that is out, and I have used some form or another of “i” far too many times, a picture is in order. I only took a few in Vegas, but I think this one is pretty cool, and perhaps more importantly, not of me…

I got moved into my new place in Costa Mesa this week. Today we finished up moving some living room furniture that Doug’s mom graciously donated to the cause. I’m not quite sure what the cause is, but it apparently needs a couch, some chairs, a few end tables and a truck to move it. Actually, what the cause really needed was to not move everything up 3 stories, but thank god thats all in the past now. On the way out everything is going over the balcony into the parking lot, including the couch…especially the couch.

I went snowboarding for the first time since a disastrous attempt way back in Jr High on Friday. Much to my surprise, I can actually walk, and in fact all the previously mentioned moving took place the day after, so it couldn’t have been too bad, which it wasn’t. I feel like I actually got the hang of it a little, but we only went a half day. Thats not to say I’m not sore, and I was certainly wishing I had my skis. Surprisingly, I only took out one person. Luckily it was Paul, a guy from work, so there wasn’t that awkward “oh my god I’m so sorry” moment where you hope to god they aren’t hurt. Of course I was concerned that Paul wasn’t hurt, but at least I knew that when he got up he wasn’t going to fake a neck injury and sue the crap out of me.

I’m now officially on the hunt for a Wii. I’ve got a sort-of-lead on the GameStop that is about 2 blocks from my new place, so I’m gonna bug the hell out of them next week. Fun stuff.

Oh, I’ll take some pictures of the new place, but I’m not going to quote some time frame. They’ll get here sooner or later.

It’s been a while since I posted, actually, quite a while. In fact, I believe I forgot about my blog until I got an email reminding me that the domain needs to be renewed. Silly me, I should use this thing that I am paying for. So, I guess I will.

Now for some updates:
I just got back from a trip to London and Dublin with my family, well, mostly with my family. First two days I was in London by myself, then flew to Dublin for two days in a Hostel. Finally, I met my family at a Hotel for the final four days. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can get my sister to upload them. I took a few of my own, but she took many, many more.

Christmas was spent sitting around the Hostel, which was, in fact, slightly boring. Nothing is open on Christmas in Dublin, or probably anywhere for that matter. I was very happy to meet my parents and sister the following day. I really went from one extreme to another on this trip, first, I was the lone traveler on a budget, staying in small hotels and hostels. The second half of the stay was hanging out with my family in a high class place called the Shelbourne. It was really like two vacations in one, and I think I got everything I needed out of it. I spent time alone wandering two amazing cities, and I spent time with my family and enjoying a relaxing and comfortable place. Just what I needed.

So next on the list of things is for me to move, which I am in the process of doing. This week I’ll be gradually moving to Costa Mesa, mostly to save money, but also because my current roommate is moving out sometime in the next couple of months, but doesn’t have a specific date. So the new place isn’t in quite the posh neighborhood that I’m in now, but it will do, especially for ~$300/month in savings.

For new years I went to a party in LA with my new roomie, Doug. It was mostly an asian thing, so I felt slightly out of place, plus, it was a club atmosphere, which I’m not really into. Oh well, at least I wasn’t sitting in front of the tv getting drunk by myself. I’ll refrain from commenting on weather or not that last comment has taken place in the past, but considering I still don’t know too many people in my new home, it was dangerously close to happening last night.

Back to work tomorrow for a short week. Like I said, I’ll be moving all week, and should be in my new place by Saturday. Thats been my life as of recent. I’ll try to keep you updated better in the future, but I have a feeling that the only one who reads this already knows everything I just said. Thanks for the trip Mom, I had a blast!

new years wishes and such.
-ethan

It happened. My first earthquake. It wasn’t too bad, but I could definitely feel it. It lasted about 5 seconds, and first I though my roommate was just walking around in the hallway, heavily, very heavily. I was in the bathroom of all places and it wasn’t until I came back to my room and there was an instant message waiting from a co-worker that I realized I just felt my first earth quake. I responded with a quick yep, I felt it (he lives about 60 miles from me) and not 30 seconds later my roommate appeared and asked if I felt the earthquake. It was a first for both of us, although she has been living here for 2 years, she has been out of town every other time there has been one you could feel.

I suppose it’s some sort of rite of passage, a little like the first of many mosquito bites, or my first traffic jam. Something that will grow to be annoying, but for now, is just new enough to be exciting.

-ethan