Baggy Pants

NoBS 1:

Sometimes I just want people to shock me with being honest. I’d love to see the non perfected side of a person. I’m sure there are plenty of selfish and flawed people out there. I’m not saying that I don’t see that. I do. But even those people have a hard time just showing their baggy pants side.

Don’t brush your hair back, don’t sweep the strands back. Sometimes I just want to see someone in their raw state with simple little flaws and mundane boring streaks.

All around me, people are telling me they are honest but what they are really being is shocking or bold or an asshole. It’s all show and it’s incredibly hard to peel back layers when people present themselves in perfect little blurbs.

We were just talking about the state of presentation in Bindpoint the other day. We’re now a society of 15 second attention spans and our insatiable desire for instant gratification limits how we value content these days.

We don’t care if we get someone or understand something. All we care about is are we entertained? Am I still bored? If yes, then skip to the pictures or move onto the next video. Most of us can’t even finish a single article or a thirty second Youtube video because we get bored so fast. Is it the content? Or is it us? or both?

I’m guilty guilty guilty of not reading articles anymore. I just skip around to the bullet points and glaze over the pictures. I find most blogs uninteresting and the few that I keep bookmarked have nothing to do with the best tips or tricks or news on the latest gadget. The blogs I value the most are from people who will write a post on how they almost forgot to buy stamps at the store or how they noticed a weird tree formation on the way home. It’s not for show, it’s just for sharing and logging thoughts down.

After our reflections on this meta cultural shift, Jaminbee from Bindpoint came up with a proposal/experiment for us all to counter our growing need to only do things for entertainment and show. We’re to journal/blog three times out of the week with a few guidelines. We can’t edit our post (to avoid tweaking for “readers”), we can’t post pics (so that our content is free flowing thought rather than illustrated by bullets or pics), and we must post three times a week (so we are forced to start writing about every day things). This is to go on until the start of 2010. I’m going to do my best to keep it up with probably a few extra blogs where I can post pics. :)

So yaya! Now I have a great carass of bloggers to appreciate the non perfect acts of our lives with… Cheers to Jaminbee for this exciting new experiment. I think I’m mostly just excited to be collaborating with the group and hopefully getting to see their baggy pants side soon.

I Don’t Regret It

I tried so hard to fight taking a nap this afternoon but I couldn’t help myself. I actually crashed on two couches. I started downstairs but the sound of an axe on wood bothered me (Sahd is building a bench out of spare cedar logs in the backyard). I moved upstairs to my favorite couch and bam…. next thing I knew the sun was setting.

Now I’m totally wired and it’s 1:28am. We went to eat at Taint and Tivi’s house this evening. They cooked curry fish, fried eggs, sweet and sour chicken, and stir fry veggies. We topped it off with a slice from the 7lb chocolate cake they bought at Costco’s. OMG.

We went walking afterwards for about an hour and stopped at their neighborhood recreation center. While the rest of them went to tackle the weight machines and such, I danced around in the free dance studio. I figured I would have tired myself out by now but I’m still wide awake.

I think I’m still a bit stressed from dealing with WoW-related things. The game has proven to be quite stressful lately in dealing with people who refuse to commit to a static raid schedule. It seems that in-game as in real life, people want their cake and to eat it too. Then want the revolving door raid where they can breeze in and out whenever it’s most convenient for them while the rest of us suffer. We put in the time and want to push forward but are limited on lack of commitments from a few. I’m teetering on the notion of taking another extended break until after the holidays. This might give people a chance to bow out without feeling guilty.

When all around me, all I hear is people dismayed with having to play the game, it makes me crumble a little. I don’t want to play with people who don’t appreciate the experience. It makes you feel bad. I don’t want people blaming me for wasting years of their life on something they’d rather not be doing. I always feel like if you aren’t going to look back on this time and say, “I really did enjoy it despite all the ups and downs” then raiding isn’t probably for you.

I hate hearing “I could have been hanging out with friends or family all this time” or “I will probably look back on this time and think I have wasted my life on this stupid game.” It really makes me sad. One, they are probably playing for the wrong reasons and two, they never got the potential of what this experience can be…

I know it might sound pathetic but I’m one of those people who looks back on my time in WoW and appreciate the memories as valid experiences. Even when I was soloing by myself or the bad times of dealing with crazy evil epeen freaks, I felt like those times reflect me doing something I wanted to. They are as valid to me as my memories of going hiking or dancing or having fights with friends. *shrug* I guess I have never had issues with validating my online experiences as “real ones.”

Hmmm. I wonder if I should have posted this under the WoWcast blog. Oh well. It’s here now and the “flip side” is always a little darker :)

I guess I’ll go research blogger templates now. I’m working on redoing the Warcast website. I hope I tire out soon. I’m a bit annoyed with thinking about this stuff.

NHS President- me?

I was thumbing through my old senior High School yearbook this evening. I was the Editor of the yearbook so I was kind of gleaming through it thinking of ways to creatively set up layouts and to see if I’ve improved any over the years. Sadly, the answer is not much. lol.

However, I noticed something shocking. I was the president of the National Honor Society! I totally don’t remember it really. After seeing the NHS page and a picture of me giving a speech, I sort of remembered talking during a meeting. I don’t have much recollection past that. You’d think I would considering it seems like a big deal but apparently it wasn’t.

That’s the funny thing isn’t it? That things you think are so important, especially those things society projects as important can end up meaning nothing in a few years… to the point where you don’t even remember it! I don’t even think the title served me at all in terms of college applications. The schools I applied to only cared what your SAT score was.

I’m guessing I won the title by default because I wasn’t very popular in High School. It was probably one of those volunteer to do it type things where everyone else was like “meh, I can’t be bothered to deal with this silly nonsense” and I probably stepped up thinking it would help me with my college apps.

I find similarities to this thinking in my world today. All the things I used to bend over backwards for thinking “this is of value” when in truth, it has very little value. Being in the field of Architecture, my earlier career was obsessing about getting our firm’s design exposed and not just garnering jobs from the exposure but trying to aim for the prestige of it. My boss was obsessed with becoming as famous as his boss was.

About 4 years later, a billion unpaid over time work hours later, I started to question my ideals about prestige, fame, and recognition. At the end of the day, after all the hard work had been done, if all you’re doing is trying to seem important to others, how much are you really investing in yourself? We were all climbing all over each other in hopes to feel important without really realizing our lives had dwindled into nothing.

I’m not trying to say that ambition is worthless and shallow. My issue wasn’t in wanting to be somebody great, it was wanting to be more than I was for someone other than me. I needed to feel like I was important so I pushed myself to meaningless statures in society. It wasn’t so I would feel great about myself, it was so I could feel like other people thought I was great. And in the end, it nearly drove me insane.

I quit my job at the point of breaking and went on a sabbatical for a year and after many months of self-reflecting, I finally figured out what did make me feel great and what types of things in my life were worth being ambitious about… And no title or social envy and admiration can help me accomplish it. Geeze, how did I get so off topic? Anyhow, what gives me that high now is in celebrating moments of genuine connections and flourishing creative outbursts. Heeeeeeeeyah!

The Shave

The Shave, originally uploaded by alachia.

A few days ago, Sahd and Taint made a deal to shave their heads. Sahd has been itching to shave all his hair off for some time. He's not one for vanity so he's not one to be bothered with stylish hair. He'd rather look weird than have to deal with combing his hair in the morning. It's a shame too because he looks quite dashing with longer hair.

Men are lucky for this reason...that they can belong to the awkward handsome category that eludes women. Not that some women don't look crazy sexy with short hair because I have seen several that are but it's not because they look awkward.

We set up shop in the garage after dinner since raid got canceled. Taint went first and it was definitely the most fun because he was indifferent to the situation and had the most hair. Sahd took a pair of scissors and went across his bangs near the scalp and made him look like he was wearing something from a Wigs-R-Us Reject pile. lol. At that point, there was no going back.

We shaved off Sahd's hair next and it was clear he was very happy about the situation. He was smiling non stop. We started out with a four guard which turned out looking quite nicely. It made him look younger. However, he was unsatisfied with the dramatic nature of the cut and demanded we go to a two guard! At that point, his hair cut took a quick turn for the worst! He remains oblivious to the aesthetic outcome of his hair though.....he just cares that it's convenient and cool (temperature-wise).

By the time they were both finished, there was a huge pile of hair all over the floor. It surprised me because you never think men have that much hair but it was an impressive pile. We tried to convince Flipmax to join the cult of shaved heads but he refused. Next time we shall tie him up and force him. The cult needs more members of course. :)

I had a momentary urge to shave my hair as well but I have a feeling no one would have let me. Plus, despite my great desire to cut my hair right now, I'm still growing it out to donate to locks for love. I have about four more inches to go depending on how short I plan to cut it.

Family Dinners

Dinner Night: Hamburgers, originally uploaded by alachia.

While I might be quite liberal when I think of our culture, I realize that I am actually very traditional when it comes to family. I believe in strong family roots and the unconditional love that comes with it.

The most important people in my life aren't the people who entertain me the most or keep me intellectually stimulated. They aren't the people who even "get me" the best. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense as to what keeps families together but it's a bond I respect without reason.

Ever since my brother's girlfriend moved to a house about 6 minutes away, we've all been eating together on a regular basis. Usually we cook dinners together on raid nights + Thursday to watch tv shows together. It's really nice since we all enjoy each other's company... hahaha or at least I do.

We've all compiled a list of things we can cook. One of them is supposed to write a program to randomize the list and produce a grocery list from our selections. (they're all programmers). The thing I cook best is spaghetti so far and that took me years to master. lol. I also make a decent pretzel crusted chicken.

Gonna do my best to keep a photo journal of our dinners.

Austin City Limits 2009

I got a twitter message from @obiwanadobe last Thursday saying he had an extra ticket to ACL festival and invited me to go. I was free Saturday so I said yes, we had been meaning to hook up for lunch for quite a while anyhow. We met at Whole Foods for lunch and then walked down to Zilker Park for the Austin City Limits Festival.

It was about a mile walk and it was great. I love walks to destinations. I hate exercise for the sake of exercise but I'm not afraid to walk miles and miles to reach a somewhere I want to go. I'm weird like that I guess. Louis was really cool about letting me stop and take pics along the way. I kept assuring him we'd eventually get to ACL.

When we rounded the corner of Lamar and Barton Springs, I almost died when I saw all the "glass vendors". There was so much smoke and even when we got to the festival you'd see puffs of smoke coming up from various spots in the crowd. I thought to myself, so this is what it must be like to live in the Netherlands.

This was my first ACL and it was a wet one indeed! It rained all day with spotches of sprinkles and down pours. I'd turn to Louis and say, "Oh look the raining is finally clearing!" and then two seconds later it would start pouring again. doh! The music was great. I wish I had brought a chair though because my feet hurt a lot.

I was wearing galoshes because I hate having wet feet and I knew it'd be raining quite a bit. Turns out it was a super smart decision because wet + rain + lawn = mud bath by the end of the night. I ended up equipping my Winnie the Pooh Raincoat AND a poncho. Louis said he liked the rain and got totally soaked! His mom would not be proud.. my mom would have been totally proud of me. heh. I looked like a rubber trashbag.

The music does not disappoint at ACL. Even if you don't like the type of music a lot, the performances are just great and totally authentic..none of that over produced crap. You can tell the artists LOVE their music.

Saturday night finished off with DMB (Dave Matthews Band) and by that time the whole lawn was brown slush. A group of people ended up just saying fuck it and became one with nature. I called them the mud people. They were doing slip and slides all in the lawn and dancing and trying to hug people.

I definitely plan on going again next year! Louis kept apologizing for the rain but I thought the experience of it being totally wet and raining added to the fun. How often does one get to play in the rain?

More pics- Full Slideshow:

Cupcake Tree

Cupcake Tree, originally uploaded by alachia.

My brother's girlfriend bought me a cupcake tree this week. I think she saw me ogling one at Macy's awhile back. I've always wanted one seeing how it's a great way to present cupcakes.

It was a great gift and it gave me a great excuse to make cupcakes. These are yellow cake with vanilla frosting. The next batch I plan on making are going to be red velvet with a butter cream frosting.

I'm a big fan of sprinkles as you can see. They make every cupcake look about 110x better. I wish I knew more people around me who liked cupcakes because I'd make a ton more if I knew it wasn't just going to be me eating them. :D

For the record, I am guilty of eating about 3 in one sitting at minimum hence I refrain from baking them too often!