This is Gloria. I am trying to paint her as my latest piece. I like this a lot. The design is going to be sick! I love this photo a lot. Everyone also comments on this photo. I don't know why but there is something really amazing about this moment.
Since I was having such a crappy week, I decided to treat myself for a good Greek dinner. I had a delicious lentil soup, some eggplant salad, and some chicken kebob wrap. This was a good meal. It was warm and kind of healthy for a cold and crappy week.
Today was a tough day. I don't want to go into details, but I ended up eating some healthy foods. The fruit salad and cesar salad was great!
My old heater broke, so I got this hardcore looking heater now. It looks all hardcore and clean. It's been in the 40s in the mornings in the Bay Area. That is incredibly cold for this area. Last year I didn't light the pilot light for my central heating. This year I asked my landlord to fix that issue cuz it is freakin' cold.
So I decided to cook today. I cooked some penne pasta and some meat sauce with some turkey hot dogs. When I was little my parents would cook spaghetti and meat sauce with hot dogs. I am Filipino so this is standard operating procedure when there wasn't a lot of ground beef. So we used hot dogs or vienna sausages. It sounds weird, but it is hella good. Also the Filipino Spaghetti is typical sweeter than the original Italian version. So this wasn't a sweet spaghetti.
This is my new Threadless.com t-shirt It is the milk and cookies one where the cookie says "I love you" to the milk. hahahahahahahaha I love threadless!
These are my neighbors Hannah and Aaron. We went to see the Golden State Warriors vs. the Houston Rockets. It was a fun and entertaining experience. We had real nose bleeder seats at the top of the arena, but the view on the floor still rocked. Plus I used a 70-300m Canon lens. Yao Ming is still HUGE.
The moon was incredibly big this afternoon. I had to take this picture through the trees. For a second Mountain View, CA looked like some place in the east coast. I like this mood a lot and the colors too.
Using my new 430 ex II for the flash. It makes cheap Chinese food look hella good. I get half white rice, half chow mein, house chicken, and some eggplant. This always hits the spot. This lasts like 2 meals for me. It is a bit bad, because of the carbs, grease, and sodium but its tasty.
My moo stickers finally arrived. I like moo.com a lot. The stickers turned out great. I don't know what the heck I am going to use them for, but they look pretty dope. Please check the site out.
www.moo.com
My parents and my aunt and uncle decided to visit Uncle Peter in San Francisco. He looks exactly like my grandfather. He came to the US via the US Navy. The Navy recruited Filipinos before WWII. He has been a San Franciscan since the 1930s. He is looking pretty strong for 96. We Filipinos live a very long time.
:-)
Dinner tonight was chicken and rice. This hit the spot. The chicken was bought at a market in Palo Alto. It was pretty good. The price was pretty good too. Anyways day 302 is now done.
We went to Palace BBQ Buffet in Sunnyvale, CA for a dinner. This is a staring contest with an infant. I caught this moment where they were staring at each other. Day 301 is complete. :-)
I waited sooo long for these moo mini cards of my art. I love them. I think they turned out great. I am ordering more moo cards for my other art works. The first batch I made looks pretty awesome.
Art Pieces
Cuban Guy
X-stacy
Cesar Chavez
Blues Guitar
Barack Hussein Obama
This is Light
We Believe (Baron Davis)
Thelonious Monk
James Brown
Dexter Gordon
Che
The ramen place in El Camino is now a Thai restaurant. We went to Palo Alto right across the street from Stanford Univ. and found a new ramen place which was Chinese owned. This place was good the noodles were good. Price was pretty good too. I have no idea what the restaurant is called but it is a hole in the wall kind of place. :-) Day 298 is complete.
There's a party in my tummy, so yummy so yummy yummy...
Turkey!
So yummy, so yummy yummy!
Words from this Sunday's preaching. Be strong and courageous!
Joshua 1:7
7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
This is my neighbor Hannah. She created the skirt modeled here. I rented a Novatron strobe kit from K&S in Palo Alto, CA. This was the photo session. I have no idea what I was doing, but hopefully most of the other shots looked cool. Wow day 295.
I can't believe it but my nephew is turning 2 years old on Wednesday. This is crazy. BTW that pumpkin bag was his trick or treat bag for Halloween. It is so amazing to see how fast he grows. Like every week he learns something new.
This is ube ice cream from Kuya's Asian Cuisine in San Bruno, CA. This is really good Filipino food. Ube is purple yam.
Ube:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ube
What we ate:
Kare Kare (oxtail in peanut sauce)
Trout Sisig
Fried Pampano
Pampano in ginger, chili, ampalaya
Coconut sauce, green beans, squash, beef
Ube Ice Cream
Halo Halo
Great meal. This place is really good, I only eat here when my parents are in town. Its great!
I rented some strobes from K&S in Palo Alto, CA. I love this camera store! One of the best in the west coast. Anyways, I took photos today of my art using real professional lights with umbrellas and everything. Really cool. I am debating whether or not to buy lights. So I figure I will rent them first.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. I ordered out this year from Twist in Campbell, CA. The Turkey was juicy and the sides were great. My parents drove up from LA and my aunt and uncle drove from San Jose. My aunt (tita) makes Filipino noodles called pancit every year. It is our tradition that she makes it :-) Anyways, God bless to all and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Flickr land.
He looks like he is saying... "Hmmmm How am I going to make life miserable for Jonathan today. Who should I bark at randomly? Where is that damn squirrel that keeps on bothering me? Aaaah shenanigans!!!!"
I had a small group thanksgiving dinner. We had KFC biscuits, KFC mac and cheese, Popeyes deep fried turkey, green beans, yams, and mashed potatoes. We also had some pumpkin pie for dessert. This was a good dinner!
I was running out of white and I bought some baby blue for skies or something. I have no idea what to paint next. I am thinking of going with more landscapes, nature, and nekkid women. I think those sell.
I am currently reading this book. It is a good book against the norm of Americana. I find it really interesting. It deals with concepts of convenience of technology, the spirit of instant gratification, and general laissez faire attitude of life. I like it.
This is technically Friday night, but it was after midnight so it was technically Sat. Morning so this is day 286. It was her birthday so we went for some drinks to celebrate. It was really good to see some old college friends. Also I managed to talk to some of her old friends who run a interior design company. I told them I was an artist and they gave me their business card. So maybe they can use my art for one of their design ideas. Its all about networking in the Bay Area. Not with wires and computers, but with words and character.
I went to the game on Friday, Nov. 21 2008. This was a good game. Derek Rose is going to be a beast in the NBA. He is quick, he can dribble, he can pass, he has decent range. All I am saying is he is going to be a good guard in the NBA for a long time as long as he doesn't get injured. He is as strong as Utah guard Deron Williams and that guy is pretty strong. Also it was Filipino Heritage game for the Warriors. It was hella sold out with Filipino people. My college friends were there to do cultural dances before the game. What I didn't get were the Tahitian dance group to celebrate Filipino Heritage game. Tahitian != being Filipino. I mean seriously its quite a stretch. What I really don't get is why so many Filipino women dance Tahitian. I don't get it at all.
I started this painting back in October. And I really enjoy this painting. It is for a friend's niece who is sick. I told my friend that I would paint something for her niece. I hope my painting helps her heal.
This is a tuna fish sandwich I had for lunch. I am trying to eat healthy these days so this was on wheat bread. Day 283 is complete.
This is me with a hat and a threadless.com t-shirt. The shirt is pretty funny. The egg is cow colored and the chicken and cow staring at the poor little egg. I noticed I don't take a lot of pictures of myself throughout the project 365.
I painted this a long time ago. This is a Cuban guy in black and white. He is smoking a cigarette with a grin, just chillin' out. No real worries, but you can tell he has had an interesting life. I love painting people with character. Day 281 is now complete.
I have not uploaded a project 365 since early September. I have just been pretty busy the past couple months. I have been dabbling with starting 100 strangers project. Anyways, this is fried catfish from Ranch 99. Ranch 99 is an Asian supermarket chain in California. You can have a fish cleaned, scaled, and fried. It is awesome for dinner with some plain white rice. Mmmmm good.
This girl who plays Sarah Connor is awesome. Lena Headey is her name. She looks pretty fierce with a shotgun. Anyways, it is weird the Terminator is a girl. The original Terminator was Arnold the govinator.
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator:_The_Sarah_Connor_Chroni...
This car is just sweet. I didn't know of this car show in Mountain View. I went to photograph some live music and this Car Show ended up on Castro Street. This orange dropped 50s car was the show stopper in the show. It was just a sick car!
C.S. Lewis is such an awesome writer. He is just uber logical. I love his writing style because it reminds me of technical writing from college. But he gives a pretty complete comprehensive proof of Christianity with Mere Christianity. He is the writer of Narnia series. I read this like 3-5 years ago, but I am reading it again. It is probably nerdy of me but whatevers.
C.S. Lewis Wiki:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cs_lewis
Sorry this looks a little unfinished, but I think I got most of the important lighting. I really like cross hatching technique. It is what I have been doing the past month. I really enjoy playing with the lights and shadows. It something different from my normal colorful paintings.
This is Elusive Photography. She is a really talented photographer and Photoshop actions queen. Her PS actions are awesome. They make your photos look like 1970s style. She likes to play with the RGB graphs. I don't know what she does but its great.
Original:
www.flickr.com/photos/elusive--/2630961272/
This is the Sagrada Familia in Spain. My abstract interpretation of it on pen and ink. This thing really pushed my skills on pen and ink. I mean I had to be more abstract with this one because there is so many details on it. so I just gave it more silhouettes and playing with the shadows with not too much details.
Wiki of Sagrada Familia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_familia
Original photo Sagrada Familia:
www-cdr.stanford.edu/~wgriffin/photoAlbums/EuropeTrip_10_...
This is a pen and ink drawing of a peace sign by Flickrite crustydolphin. I don't know why this photo intrigued me, but it did. I enjoyed drawing her fingers for the peace sign. I think she got explore for her photo. Anyways, it is Labor Day weekend here in US so we have day off on Monday. It is all good, but I don't know US workers get one day? Like Europe gets hella holidays. While we Americans typical just get 2 weeks of vacation and some Federal holidays. I think it is just wacky. I am wishing I work in Europe these days. Euro is just freakin' awesome compared to the dollar. But I am weary as well because Europeans inherently dislike each other when you study their history. Anyways, maybe I can work in Ireland or some place in Europe with lots of different cultures and what not.
Original from crustydolphin :)
flickr.com/photos/crustydolphin/2799477447/
This was Malaysian food for lunch. It was ok. I ate at my desk. I got some chicken satay, tofu vegies, rice, some fish like dish, and fruit. Busy work week as well. :( Day 272 is complete.
Decided to eat at this Middle Eastern restaurant on El Camino Real. I always drive by it because it has a big falafel sign, so last night I finally decided to poke my head in there and try it out. I have to admit the service was really good. The gentleman offered black Iranian tea. I have to try other stuff on the menu. But this was just the first dish I tried that looked tasty. And it was tasty!!!! The restaurant actually had good GoogleWifi which is free in Mountain View, CA. So I was able to watch Obama's DNC speech while eating this meal. Enough is enough!!!!!! 271 is now complete!
So I asked Jennifer if I can draw her photo of the day today and she graciously said yes. This took about an hour or so, and it was fun to do. Thanks Jennifer! This was really good practice. I was doing a lot of pen and ink recently so it was good to use the tortillion again. I am loving drawing these days, I am feeling a little better after the whole birthday day, but whatevers Let Go and Let God I guess. But it was just another emotional pain that I really didn´t need nor care to experience, but whatevers people are disappointing these days, but what do we expect people are not God.
Original (¨Bored Now¨)
flickr.com/photos/jennifer_tracy/2804622884/
It is an oatmeal and raising cookie, but it has bananas in it. And it makes a ton of difference!!! Man this thing was tasty! I have never had a cookie with a banana in it, but this cookie had healthy chunks of banana which made it hella good.
So I got some free hardware from that 5th grade class and I was able to install XUbuntu on the machine. It had a 40GB HD, 512MB of RAM, 1.8GHZ PIV processor. Not that bad really. So I got to install the GUI version on top of the server. It is a Ubuntu Server 8.04 kernel and I put XUbuntu on top of it. I haven´t built a machine in a while. Anyways, I think I am going to go to Fry´s and buy some cheap RAM to add some power on this bad boy. There are 4 slots, so I am planning to put 4GB on this thing. Not bad eh? I made the machine come alive. The teacher said it was dead and frustratingly dead. There is no sound on this machine, but Firefox comes with it and there are some command to add Flash, once I get sound to work, then I am golden. Aaaaah I feel like a programmer again... Whenever I am feeling down or something, I turn to work as an outlet from the frustration... I actually get sh*t done when I am in a funky state... It´s my way of coping I think.
I overslept a bit after last night´s dinner. I had a small dinner kind of got buzzed with a gimlet, and some good Reisling. The food was better last night. I wanted to see Darknight so we saw Darknight at 10pm so I got home at 1:30ish. Woke up at 11:45am, missed church, but I was there ready to help out the group with helping prepare the 5th grade class we volunteer at as a church. Then after that played some soccer and went to bed.
It´s a little blurry. But I had dinner with 4 friends. I was expecting more, but whatever. People disappoint me a lot these days, I just take it as a grain of salt. It just emphasized to me that you only have really 5 good friends who will know you on the face of this earth. It was partly my fault, because I sent the invitations a bit late, but whatevers I was totally disappointed no one wanted to celebrate with me, in the past I have gone to other people´s 30th birthday and people threw big parties and what not, I don´t know, just a little jaded now. I hate being in a disappointed state, it is worst than being angry, upset, or sad. It is more like deflating, defeated, and demoralizing. I hate throwing a birthday party for myself. I just think it is totally lame. It´s all good tho, I am happy and thankful for the friends who did show up for my little dinner. Sorry this is a really selfish and self-reflective photo, but eff it... it is part of my 365 project of light, life, and love I guess. Have to document the photo and my feelings about it...
I was feeling really meh (insouciant) about my birthday this year. I think it is the fact that I am turning 30. I don´t know, just feeling down and out about it... But I had chocolate cake and ice cream. I should have gone to Manresa in Los Gatos, CA. Instead we went to California Cafe in Los Gatos. The food was not extremely good today. I picked Halibut with risotto, it was disgusting. I don´t know I was thoroughly had a let down feeling with slow service and even worse bad food. Crappy Friday night.
Dr. Horrible is great. I liked drawing Captain Hammer on this scene he looks evil. Because he's the bad guy. I mean he is a "corporate tool." And his name is also Captain "Hammer" Which is a tool. Anyways, it is like Spongebob Squarepants. You know he is sea sponge, but looks like a kitchen sponge. I love it when things are ambiguously clever.
Kind of a random night, I went to the game with 3 women friends. It was a lot of fun. I had the best seats of my life at AT&T park in San Francisco, CA. They were 4 rows behind the right field line. Totally amazing, plus it is right by the visitor's bullpen so we heckled the pitchers all night long! One pitcher's name was Gregg... So one fan blurted "Hey Greg-g-g-g-g-g you suck-k-k--k-k!" Heeee-freakin'-lari-us!!!!!
