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Name: David
Country: United States
State: Pennsylvania
Birthday: 8/26/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: Programming, art, designing, engineering, photography, snowboarding, rock-climbing, tennis
Expertise: Computer/Art, design, origami, crafting, photography
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
4/10/2003
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| Daylight saving time, which means it turns to night at 5pm here and it feels like I'm getting off of work at 10pm. It's the usual bus ride to work and back while listening to Japanese audio tapes. That reminds me. I need to print some of the lessons so I can practice reading the language since my listening is starting to fail since I don't know how the word looks like, and if I don't know what the word is, I can't repeat it or know what to listen for. Also, the audio is already beyond what I can translate through one listen, so I need to go back to the beginning and re-read everything. I've listened to over 150 hours of audio now and still going. I should ask Eve and Mark for help later so I can start talking to them in Japanese.
Mount Washington
 The city at night with a bit of hazy weather.
A random call from Eve at night meant we would be going to Mount Washington before she left for a trip home for the weekend. I've always been curious where I should go to take photos there, and I found out that they conveniently have a touristy overlook with no fence blocking the view for photos. It was located in front of this high class hotel place as people in business suit and a lot of money to throw around were walking back and forth. I think I'll have to go back here when it snows for some more photos. I also took a full scale panoramic of the area that I'll print up at some point.
Halloween
 Space Invader!  A creature of the night (or perhaps dusk) with her tongs.  My friend got Redundant Chicken and a Whisky Tango OMGPonies drink.
There's way too many parties on this day, none that I'm really interested in going since almost all involve loud music and alcohol, and I don't know most people in those events. Instead, I went over to Robin/Mike/Dave's place and hung out. They were carving their pumpkin and after making our space invader, we went back in and basically played Beatles Rockband and Rockband 2 for the night with a dinner break in the middle. I haven't seen them for awhile, so it's nice to see familiar faces.
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| Work schedule and school schedule don't mix. I haven't seen most of my friends on campus since I'm not really there any more, though there's some events coming up so I'll be on campus for those at least. I've been around Eve quite a bit recently since we both work, so our schedules are roughly the same, plus we both can help each other out with art (I'm her photographer and she's the designer). It's fun just walking around and going to places that we both don't know about, and it's a good way to get out of the apartment.
Schenley Park and Around
 These trees are always bright yellow around this time of year.   There was a small patch of yellow trees to the side, and the photos came out nicely.  Looks like we went really far from the city to get this shot, but it's actually right by the museum. There's a small patch of these plants in a small square.  We spent a lot of time in this area.  CMU from the museum parking lot.
Eve really wanted to take pictures of the changing leaves, so we set a time Sunday to walk around the park. It was a perfect day, clear blue skies and not a cloud in sight, which is rare for Pittsburgh in the fall. We didn't get a chance to see the red leaves in front of campus, but walking around the area, we saw so many different colored leaves, especially a small patch of brilliant yellow trees in the park, which we stayed around for a long time. The day was mostly taking pictures of anything interesting, but also taking pictures of each other and to help her learn how to use her camera better. On the other end, she's been teaching me how to pose and direct people better since she knows fashion poses best, so we're teaching each other what we know. We were planning on only walking around for a few hours, but basically spent the whole day just walking around. Hopefully, we'll see another bright day like this before the snow/ice hits.
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| I've noticed recently while getting my hair cut that what I say never comes out with what I mean. My words have a harsh tone to it, even when it's not what I intended. The woman who was cutting my hair became defensive, not in the sense of me insulting her, but rather from accidentally insulting me, even though she didn't and I wasn't offended by her questions, which really wasn't anything serious anyhow. She was kind and had a gentle way of saying things, but it contrasted sharply with how I spoke. I guess I'm starting to realize the way I grew up is very different than most of my friends. The one thing I've never could understand was how people could get along so well, and perhaps due to that, I unconsciously keep everyone at a certain distance.
I was raised to hate people. My mom taught me how to use people for my own needs. My dad said I had to be "tough" and independent, then left. Both emphasized that I should never depend on anyone and do things myself. Friends were hard to come by due to discrimination issues. Of the rare friends I did make, they would disappear just as fast as I made them, and it wasn't until 8th grade where friends were at least semi-permanent, but even then, I still went through so much hate and people disappearing that I got used to it. There's a lot of people who I wonder how they're doing, even though I haven't seen some for over 10 years, and I doubt they even know who I am any more. I guess through all of that, my tone has a sharp edge to it when I speak, even if that's not intended. Shove me against a wall, make verbal attacks, and I know perfectly well how to handle it. Give me a gift, or compliment me, and I draw a blank. I must have looked silly when a girl hugged me in college and I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I'm getting better at it at least, but it's sad to think that I'm "getting used to" it when it's something that seems to come naturally to most people.
Downtown with Eve
Eve wanted to go shooting downtown and though the weather was cloudy in the beginning it cleared up to some of the best weather I've seen for autumn. We walked all over and toward places where we've never been to before snapping away. On the way back, we saw a pink fountain in front of the building and stayed around there for awhile before heading back.
I've been lazy this month. I finally beat Persona 4 yesterday. That's one RPG that people should play if you enjoy JRPGs. It's very Japanese (school system, the town, mythology, etc.) and there's a lot of subtle detail in both the plot and gameplay. It's more like a mystery game, and the way everything links together once you solve it (and you do have to figure it out since some choices end the game, unless you're reading a walkthrough) is awesome. I should really do more important chores like cleaning my mail, registering my car, and reserving airline tickets.
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| I always find it amazing that with the Internet now, you can communicate with almost anyone instantly. With that, there's always good and bad side effects from it, like people becoming addicted to being "connected" with everyone and the fact that anything you put online becomes public to everyone, even if hidden (depending). However, the cool thing with being able to connect to people anywhere in the world is you can become friends with people you would have never known by traditional means of meeting face to face. You can meet people with the same interests, trade ideas, and even learn from each other. If you're close enough, you can even meet them.
That's what I've always found the most interesting when I met photographers from Xanga. I've met people I never would have seen before, and from one person, I met many more people that they knew as well, and the connections grew. I've now received a wedding invitation to one of them, to see people I've only met once or twice in my life, but know for awhile online, and I think that's awesome. (Also, they bent the wedding invitation in the mail. I was quite sad) Who would have ever thought I could meet people this way long before?
Dragon Boating
 The perfect amount of people for the boat. The guy who manned the drums sucked at keeping a beat though, so we kept getting out of sync.
I went dragon boating for the first time over the weekend, but the whole fiasco of trying to find the place was pretty bad and poorly planned. The people who planned the event didn't check where the location was, so the bus dropped us off at the wrong place. If it wasn't for the one person who drove, there would be no way we could have went. We finally got there an hour late, so the trip time was only an hour instead of the two we should have gotten. I was annoyed at the poor planning, and also annoyed that I accidentally had my camera at medium settings, so the image sizes are small. I got to meet a few more people of the new ARCC staff though, which at least made up for the wasted time.
Relay For Life
>I thought there would be some people I knew at the track, but I didn't see anyone I recognized in the beginning, plus the whole place seemed somewhat empty compared to the year I stayed the whole night. Plus, it was freezing cold. I went back home after a few initial shots, but came back later to shoot a friend's performance there. I bumped into a few people I knew while shooting there, including one person I didn't expect to be there.
Mattress Factory Redux
 I didn't know they sold those imps from the Zero Punctuation!  Eve with a new hair cut.  The infinite field of black light dots.  A blurry screen created from CMOS LED lights against a wall. This exhibit actually interfered with my camera(!). Recording video didn't work because the LED frequence was offset just enough from the CMOS in my camera that I got dark bands in the video.
I went back to the Mattress Factory, this time with Eve as she wanted to see one of the new exhibits. Half of the displays there were the same as last time during the summer, but the other half was new and interesting. I don't know. There's still some things there that I really don't get why it's considered art. I'm more of a classical style artist, so the more modern dada type art and some which appears just to be really random I don't get. I still think the dark room is one of the cooler pieces (except for that random 15 min room. I managed to get a shot with the camera, and according to it, it really is just a dim red light). I also got to see her apartment since she moved after the summer. It turns out that she's living in the same place as one of my coworkers from the previous job. I don't know where she is though, but it would be somewhat awkward to run into her there.
More stuff to do!
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| I woke up and saw the sun rise, fall, the moon rise, and fall for two days. It’s quite an experience to wake up before 5am both days, and I’m grateful for Aileen and Dave for letting me stay over at their place.
Friday
I left 2 hours before my flight to make sure I didn’t miss my flight, and since the airport is only 30 minutes away, that was more than enough time (maybe a bit early). However, for some reason, there was a traffic jam going through the city, and with a car accident further down the highway, it took more than an hour to get to the airport. There was also a flight change that went unannounced, which caused some confusion among a few people who arrived at about the same time as I did, In the end, I made it to the plane 15 minutes before it left. I seem to have bad luck getting to the airport recently.
On the plane, they now have wifi connection, and since there’s a free promotion code, I decided to give it a go. It’s surreal when you think about it. You’re 35,000 ft in the air on a giant metal object soaring through the air and you can now connect to the Internet from your seat with any computer or device. I have a laptop that can last 10 hours on batteries and the old guy beside me with a hearing aid is using an iPhone while reading Popular Science. That is pretty cool, and so many people take that for granted now. On the trip, I got a lot of progress done programming my video game.
I arrived to a phone call from Aileen, who called to see where I was, so the timing was perfect. Their house was close by to the airport so it didn’t take long to get there. They have a nice house, a simple but elegant look to it. Since it was late, we just talked for a little bit before going to sleep and getting ready for tomorrow.
Saturday
 Bye bye balloons. Couldn't get on the field on the first day.  Dave!  Aileen!
I woke up at an early 5:30am to head to the balloon festival, but we encountered more traffic than usual. The balloons lift off at 7am, but traffic was so bad that we couldn’t even get to the exit until around 7:45am. We could see the balloons lifting off in the distance, but it wasn’t the best view from the highway. I took some shots, but we decided to try tomorrow. Instead, we headed toward Santa Fe and went on a hike on the Tent Rocks trail. The place was gorgeous and amazing. The rocks had layers of sedimentary and igneous rocks weathered down to look like giant tents. There was also a thin canyon section where the rocks twisted and turned and since it blocked all light, it was very cool compared to the heat outside.
 Through the twisty canyons of Tent Rock.  Did I mention how blue the NM sky was? Even without a circular polarizer, it's so blue. (though this used the polarizer)  And we made our epic journey back to the car through desert and rocks (not really)
The hike took a lot of energy out of us, and since we were up so early, we were a bit tired. They showed me a few other places around the town before going back home and taking a break. At sunset, I took some photos of the setting sun and the rising moon over Sandia Mountains. The sunset passed too fast though and I couldn’t get the deep red color on the mountains. At night, we played Settlers of Catan since they bought it and heard good things about it, but never played.
Sunday
 Their house is beautiful. I like the size of it. This is the front area.  The dining area.  The guest room where I stayed. It's like a hotel, but better!
Try #2 for going to the balloon festival. This time, we woke up and left at 4:45am to make sure we could get there. We arrived and parked with no problems, but since we were so early, we stayed in the car until it was half an hour before it started. The sun rose through the cloud sky, and as it got brighter, the balloons started to form and lift off. In the beginning, only a single balloon filled up and flew across the lawn, probably as a signal to the rest of the balloons. After that, hot air balloons everywhere started forming and lifting off. Just being in the middle of all the balloons being filled with hot air is an awesome experience. I think the balloons were staggered too much though since I couldn’t get a good shot with the multiple balloons in the air. After an hour of watching the different balloons lift off, we went back home to rest since waking up 4am was a bit early for me. We didn’t do much after that and I said my goodbyes before leaving.
 Most of the balloons off the ground after half an hour.  Flying beer? Why not.  As we watch the balloons through sunrise.
It haven't seen them since I last saw them in DC, and that was 3 years ago, and yet when I saw them over the weekend, it felt really natural, as if I was just visiting by taking a brisk walk in college. It was great to see them again, especially after so many years. I feel like I should make an effort to meet old friends once a month, even if it means I have to fly to them.
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