Archive for 'friends' Category

2010.03.23

Childish Things

“When I grew older I gave up childish things. Then I got married and my wife made me give up more.”
-J.E.G.

I ain’t married and I can still attest to the truth of this quote!

2009.11.03

Halloween Pictures

I wanted to thank everyone for coming to this year’s Halloween Party! It was great fun and I can’t wait to do it again next year. In the meantime I’ve put up some pictures. Here they are!

2009.10.18

4th Annual Bury These People in a Cemetery Party

As previously mentioned here is the invitation for the Halloween party. Click on the picture for a larger version. It’s a bit busy, but that’s because I cobbled together various pictures I’d previously done to make it work.

Details:

What: Fourth Annual Bury These People in a Cemetery Party
Where: The French Embassy (768 16th Avenue x Fulton in San Francisco)
When: Saturday, October 31st from 8PM until it ends

Now with a Facebook event page.

2009.10.16

The Halloween Party is a Go!

I got the call last night; our (relatively) famous Halloween party is going to happen. This will be our 4th.

What: Fourth Annual Bury These People in a Cemetery Party
Where: The French Embassy (768 16th Avenue x Fulton in San Francisco)
When: Saturday, October 31st from 8PM until it ends

More details to follow, along with a proper invitation. I realize the announcement is coming late but here it is; spread the word! All invited! Meanwhile I’ll be working on A) the invitation picture and B) trying to figure out what to wear. Maybe I could make a costume out of corks?

2009.06.13

Curtis Jones, RIP

I’ve just gotten news that Curtis Jones, a mainstay of ex-pat culture in Prague for more than two decades, passed away.

RIP, Curtis. If you find the afterlife half as interesting as we found you here I think you will have a pretty good time.

2009.04.19

A Bevy of Updates

I haven’t written Jack Crap here for a long time now. It’s not that there hasn’t been anything to write about… I’ve just been a lazy SOB. Not that it’s any consolation to me or you, but here’s some tidbits to maybe distract you from noticing it’s been some three weeks since I wrote here last.

Unemployed? Over 11% in California are. Looking for a career change, probably in a more tech/sci direction? Check out MIT’s Open Courseware. They have courses in architecture, biology, electrical engineering and tons more. I don’t know if you get a degree for this sort of thing, but it certainly can’t hurt, and for the whopping price of free you can’t go too wrong, either.

At long last Zombies are getting representation. The Zombie Anti Defamation League is live and active addressing the concerns of the Post Vital as they continue through existence.

When I was a kid in Korea there would come occasions when a friend was going to Japan and would ask if they should bring something back from their trip. The answer was almost always Felix Gum. Allegedly made from whale blubber, this gum could be chewed for days on end with little diminishment of its flavor. In fact we’d have contests. The funny thing is that when I ask my Japanese coworkers about this stuff they look at me like I’m an alien. Well, prepare to be probed because I found Felix Gum here in San Francisco. Behold.

Hmm… Many of the other updates I won’t be going over because, well, they’re not that big a deal for this venue. Been to a few parties, hung out with friends, work, etc. I will just try to keep this up now at my more frequent approximation of a post a week. Ciao for now!

2009.03.01

California’s 10% Unemployment

I haven’t been posting much lately. It’s been a rough several weeks partly/greatly because of work. This is life.

California recently hit the 10% unemployment mark. Generally speaking, one in every ten people you see around you has no job. That’s quite a bit of people. Over the winter holidays I was out on the east coast and it was obvious the economy wasn’t doing well out there. Tons of stores were shut down, not nearly as many people were out and about as I was used to, and everyone seemed to be talking about the loss of jobs and the fact that the economy was in the crapper. I came back to San Francisco and looked around and things didn’t seem that bad and I was A) relieved and B) worried it might happen here.

Well, it’s happening. I’ve never seen so many houses for sale in all the time I’ve lived here. They are on the market because folks are either foreclosed or realizing they really can’t afford the mortgage. Stores are starting to shut down, and I’m hearing about more coming. Worst of all is that every company seems to be laying people off. Every day I hear about it from the news and from friends. It’s rough and I wish there was something I could do about it because I have the strong feeling it will get worse before it gets better.

2009.02.13

Banana Boy’s Moon Video

Banana Boy posted his time lapse video he shot the same night I did this one. He was having troubles focusing and kept moving the camera around. It actually made for a very cool effect and the music he added makes it feel like a prelude… to Friday the 13th?

2009.02.11

A Birthday Moon

Monday was the birthday of one of my best friends (who prefers anonymity). It also happened to be a full moon. I couldn’t pass up the chance to do another time lapse video, this one dedicated to my friend.

The focus on this one is better, though not great. I’m thinking the Samsung SC-MX20 just isn’t a great device for night shooting. It would be really good if there was software that could view and manually tweak a lot of the settings it already allows a user to play with. Oh well. Ironically my biggest issue is that when I upload these videos to YouTube the 16:9 widescreen ration is lost. I just learned about an application called MPEG Streamclip that should embed the ratio tag in the file. We’ll see if it works the next time I try uploading something…

2009.02.06

Samurai Umbrella

With great amusement I present to you the Samurai Umbrella (via DVICE.com). It brings me back to days in college, lugging about my wooden bokken, whacking and being whacked by my friends. Since those days, whenever I’ve carried one of those long, non-folding umbrellas I noticed I tend to carry it like a sword, ready to be drawn. The Samurai Umbrella takes that one step beyond. All I need now is a hidden blade inside. Then I can fight my enemies and keep dry at the same time!