Granada & Sevilla

aahh I just woke up from my last nap before I start my first days work from my flat in Barcelona. I returned from the airport a few hours ago having spent the past 3 days of my week long vacation seeing Granda, Cordoba and Sevilla with Binx.

The venture ranged from relaxing to exciting in all the right places. All three cities we're gorgeous. The food, the sights, the atmosphere, the weather... all perfecto.

I've been reminded that I am not much for sight seeing. For example the Mosque in Cordoba was imaculet to say the least. Amazing architecture filled with priceless works of the catholic church and after about 15 minutes and 5 or 6 oohs and awes I'm done.

I get so much more about of the social content of a foriegn country then anything else. Which i am getting little to no exposure to here due to the massive language barrier.

That said there are a lot of none social aspects to Spain that I wish there was more of in San Francisco. In particular the narrow cobblestone streets. They are of course beautiful but more importantly they encourag less autoportation and more human powered movement.

Plus it helps that all three cities provide publicly usable bikes!!

My favorite part of Spain so far, particularly in Granada, has been sitting in small restaurants sipping coffee and eating cakes or drinking summer wine and eating ham sandwiches. It's quite nice.

There are a lot of these little tiny 30 to 50 person bars. Often long and thing with soft to no music. It's quite. The amenities are amazing and the atmosphere is just something I've never seen before in the states. I'm not much of bar person. I have only recently started drinking in the past few years and this is the first drinking environment I could see my self being drawn to on a regular basis.

Binx and I spent our last drink in Granada in a small bar packed full of maybe 40 people, no music, soft conversation, drinks for less then $2US and with each drink you got your choice of a free tapas. I could see my self dragging a few friends out to place like this every Friday night for a few light drinks and snacks.

Ok its just about time to start my work day. Hopefully Binx will post her pictures soon cuz I didn't take any =P but for now Granada, Cordoba, Sevilla.

My Apartment in Barcelona

I just laid down, exhausted, in the wonderful furnished room I'm renting for the three weeks I'm going to be in Barcelona. 

It was a bit of a trek to get here. Partly because my travel skills have dulled and there is way way less english here then anywhere else I've ever been to. Nothing is in english and the few people I have asked for help spoke little to no english. This is certainly, at least so far, way more challenging then anywhere else I've been to. 

Even my house mate doesn't speak any english. We did a little hand gesture song and dance as she showed me around the place. I busted out babble fish but we had managed to cover the minimum with what little language we share. She makes rad art, I'm tempted to google up some spanish compliments =P

The other house mate Marana, who speaks english, will be home later. Maybe she'll be up for showing me around a bit. Oooh maybe I'll take the ladies out to dinner. 

ok I can believe I'm needing more rest but I'm exhausted so nap time for me. 

[random thought: gtalk should enable a babel fish pipe]

A Plane to Spain

So I'm getting on a Plane to Spain tomorrow Morning at 8:50am. I'm going to spend three weeks living in downtown Barcelona! I randomly found a room to rent through a swedish girl I met in Nelson, New Zealand around 4 years ago who noticed I was going to Barcelona on Facebook. So score one more point for avid social networking.

The first week I'm there I'll be on vacation exploring Barcelona and then flying to Granada and Sevilla next weekend. The later two weeks of my trip I'll be working full time. I've arranged to work from 2pm until 10pm mon-fri to put me closer to California time. This means I get off just in time to have a late dinner and go out dancing. This schedule is exactly what i worked when I was partying every night in Bangkok so I'm stoked to be able to work and travel at the same time. My employers rock!

Ok I'm off to finish my absentee ballot and to exchange my dated travel gear for some freshies at REI.

DING!

Tonight I totally leveled my swing dance skill!

I've been going at it for a couple of months and tonight it all finally clicked. All the moves we're flowing out of me like never before and I'm finally starting to see the ways the peaces I have can fit together. 

Before tonight follows used to know the mistakes we're my fault,  you could see it in there face, but now a lot of them think my mistakes are there due to their shortcomings. Hurray for improvement! 

Not only did I find someone I really clicked with but I actually got complimented on my being a good lead from not one but two follows. This came as a pleasant shock. One girl actually made the comment that I should tech the other guys how to do a swing out without grabbing a hand full of her breast. This was fascinating because in the one hand this means to so some degree she enjoys the way I lead her but in the other is not her beast... exactly.

That girl was fascinatingly awesome.... amazingly fascinating...? wow its late. Point is I hope this trend of meeting awesome new people continues. Its exactly what has been missing from my last few months and I'm almost high from its return. 

More to say but.... I'll try and blog more often for you 3 subscribers!

Chromeo

I watched Chromeo perform at the Fillmore last night and it was by far the best concert I have been to in ages if not of all time.

The DJ who opened for the event was an ass hat with no skill what so ever. All he did was play music videos on a projector and occasionally scratch them. The only reason it was at all entertaining was because he played a few popular clips. Most notably for me was the Flat Eric - Flat Beat video.

The overall performance was amazing. It had just the right amount of cowbell and hot chicks. I went my co-worker and new friend Aaron who I turned on to Chromeo and he's never been happier.

Not only did I get the epic entertainment of my current favorite band but I also got some unexpected sexy butt grinding. Thats right butt grinding. Right before the main event began this girl and her friend asked us if it was ok if they smoked a cigarette, we are in the middle of a huge crowed 4 people back from the stage mind you, and I said I didn't mind. Aaron however objected and she began to flirt with him and eventuraly he agreed to aproove in exchange for a few extra feet closer to our Tenderoni.

As soon as the music started this girl was all over Aaron dancing with him and her friend like crazy. I kept look back and making eye contact with her and at the beginning of like song three she shoves her self in front of me. Her eyes on the stage and never making contact with me she shoves her butt in to me and we start ass dance grinding in ways that would make baby jesus go to conffession. It was totally hot!

Chromeo played just about every song they have on both Fancy Footwork and She's in Control. They would have skipped some key songs like Mamma's Boy had the grown not chanted P-Thugg and Dave 1 back out 4 times!!!

When it was all over and people started clearning out Aaron and I started to help ass grinding girl find something she dropped. While scanning the floor I could an male RCA jack turned into an earing and thought it was so cool I pocketed it. Moments later I showed it to Aaron and he spotted the girl who was missing it. I returned it to her and she had no idea it was even gone.

Jade, the one with the awesome earings, chatted me up a bit. In retro spect I totally fumbled this one failing to find a conversational path towards re encounter. I am definitely out of practice. To top it all off while I was chatting up Jade the hot ass grinding girl (who I never formally met) disappeared.

Double Darn.

But Dude!! CHROOOOMMMEEEEOOOOOO!! OOOO!!! OOOO!!

Kanoodling

Gah! I don't blog enough.

I just got back from a 3 day weeked in Albequerque, New Mexico visiting my friend Binx.

I had a crap ton of fun. BTW FYI Binx FTW.

Friday night we went to the Albuquerque version of the Exploratorium call Explora which had all kinds of cool shit. This mirror box thing they had was wicked cool, check it out:

They also had a paired of those half dome sound bouncy thingies. While we were playing with them it inspired me to want to make a gigantic pair for the playa that requires megaphones to use. Anyone interested for 09? Binx?

Saturday night was probably one of the funest times I have had in a good long time. I never seem to remember how much fun I have dancing. Binx and I went to a club called Club 7. Which is an 18+ hiphop club that I would never be caught dead in if I wasn't with the best dance partner in the world. You guessed it. The Bixatron 5K.

It harked back to all the horrible hiphop clubs I loved going to in Thailand because that where people actually danced there asses off and that we did. We were the whitest kids in the club and if you happend to be scoring on how ass-grindingly sexy our dancing was; then we were the blackest kids in the club too. You should have been there but your wernt to HA!

Another more mentionable activitey among our adventures envolved a little dinner called Flying Star. At the request of Mr. Slim we excitedly ordered a plate of yummi noodles and proceeded to Kanoodle the shit out of eachother in front of shocked and awed onlookers. That's right readers! I present to you KANOODLING:

Btw, if you've never Kanoodled you haven't lived!

On Sunday we drove out to a zen sanctuary where we relaxed in some clothing non-optional hot springs. On the way there we saw a tent advertising "Holy Ghost Revival" which we got all geared up to go to but they were closed. Day of rest my ass!

On the way back we got the best food of the whole trip. We stoped at this little road side sovering witha BBQ where some locals were cooking up some bomb New Mexican Native American food. mmmmm. Deep fried and covered in green chili. Yum. If you've never tried New Mexican food its a must. Some of the best American cusine I've ever had.

My weekend came to a close by the disapointing viewing of the film "Wanted" which is time I should have spent sleeping considering the next morning an exahsted Binx drove me to the airport to catch my 6am flight back to SF. That flight ended up being was delayed and I was super late to work. But my job rocks and no one seems to care woot!

yay awesome weekend! and double ya to awesome Binx!!

4th day at my new job

My New Cube, originally uploaded by deadlyicon.

Today is the 4th day at my new job and I'm really enjoying it. Last Monday I started a full time position at Vertical Response and I'm very happy i did. The working environment is surprisingly relaxed and stress free. (We'll see if I still feel that way come crunch time).

There are tons of benefits and perks. There would be more if I was a beer drinker. The pay is great, I get a company Macbook Pro, and possibly most importantly; Decent Fucking Internet Access!

I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to give up my life of independent-contractor-leaser but so far I'm glad I have. Plus as it turns out getting less then 7 hours of sleep a night and working 8 to 9 hour days has been surprisingly refreshing.

My life as a part time contractor with no real schedule resulted in almost an entire year of sub par productivity and now I feel like I'm getting away from that and doing much much more with my day. I would have though getting less sleep and working a full time shift would result in less non-work activity but i seem to be filling my non-work hours just fine. Plus less free time and more money makes for a much greater money-to-spend/hour ratio =D

The geeks here seem fun and just the source of nerd networking I was wanting. I had forgotten what it was like to work in what amounts to the nerd version of a locker room of jocks chest bumping each other to prove there masculinity. Nerdfrontations?

I really feel like I can fill a valuable position here while learning a lot of fun new skills. Skills that I'll need to move on to some of the more altruistic work I want to be doing. Plus I'm hoping Qarly and Jonathan are serious about teaching math to there friends. I'd really like to get my maths up to at least a high school level again.

Speaking of non-work / non-computer time productivity; its 6pm and I think I'm going to go get my hair cut.

p.s. does anyone freak'n read this blog? I moved from Tribe because well they are seriously falling behind in web technologies pulling a fucking myspace. seriously! I think most of my readers came from people seeing my blog when they we're surfing Tribe and no one sees my posts anymore. So if you are reading this please leave a comment so I know you're here.

I like live here now

This last friday I moved in to 525 Filmore st. I'm subletting Judit's room until at least August. So far its been awesome. I'm really close to Rubin, Ed and Heather. There are some decent coffee shops in the area and I can bike to everywhere I need. The only disapointment so far is the shitty dsl line at the house. I hear DSL in this whole area sucks balls but hopefully thats not true.

I'm thinking once I get settled I should throw a house warming party/dinner thing and have you all over. When I get room mate aprooval and and a small attendance census I'll throw out a google invite.

It was awesome to see some of you at Heather and Ed's party. I like live here so I hope to see a lot more of you people. Call me and stuff we should hang out =P

Bicycle Day

This year's 'Bicycle Day' was wicked fun. It started out with me leaving Santa Rosa at like 5am on 4 hours of sleep just barley making it off the 80 in time to ride my ass to the CalTrain station but ended up having tons of time because Ian, knowing everyone would be late, lied about the train time and we all made it with plenty of time to spare. It was good plan.

We got off somewhere in the Palo Alto and road around what used to be a dump which is now covered in dirt and looks like a vast bird preserve. At one point Reed and Colin road off down a no outlet trail and came back with a random Rat head. Which caused Rubin to say "What the fuck man!" like 40 times. Classic Rubin.

The weather could not have been more perfect. There was not a cloud in the sky and it was in the high 90s with the occasional pleasant warm wind. I thought I could get through the day without wearing any sun screen but it turns out I spent about 3 or 4 more hours then my computer nerd skin could take.

At one point we all stopped forever at the bathrooms when most people started to eat lunch and enjoy the shade. I and some other really wanted to keep riding so we just road around that area and had a blast flying down a fairly sized hill. I wish i knew the limits of the traction on my bike so i could confidently take corners more sharply.

After we left the reclaimed dump we road the surface streets toward Stanford. Sam, Reed, myself and a couple other people i don't know enough to remember there names got off track somehow and road over a pedestrian overpass which had an awesome chain-link fence obstacle course to encourage people to walk there bikes. It was a lot of run to navigate.

It took forever to regroup. It was amazing, even considering, that we we're incapable to using some of the most advanced consumer navigational technology and yet Ian had to physically come get us. Silly.

Once we got back to the Caltrain station we all got some yummi fruit and water and sat in a park for a few hours as the day faded away. A little more then half of the group decided to take off back to the north or east bay and the remaining group, including my self, road forth to Stanford to check out the campus art.

After checking out the Gates of Hell we gave Ian a silly birthday card that when you opened it a little girls voice said something to the effect of "I love you Mommy, have a happy day. beep beep" It was adorably retarted.

We left the campus, took caltrain back to SF. Reed, Rubin, Reed's brother and I broke off to stop by Rubin's office to get Reed's brothers bag. I learned that Rubin is working for startup which is pretty cool. Then we all headed over to mella and stopped off to get some bomb Mexican food first. Awesome salsa.

When I got back to Mella's house tons of people were there. I was exahsted and I feel alseep cuddeling with Qarly.

Yay awesome weekend.

Also, pictures, and more picture

Pangea Day

This May 10th at 18:00 GMT people all over the world will gather for 4 hours to watch 24 movies intended to, among other things, inspire empathy around the world. That's my interpretation anyway. I've heard a lot about this event over the past year, mostly form Ted.com, so I'm really excited to see what films made it to the top. This is a sample video.


You can find out more information at www.pangeaday.org

Also, if your planning on or interested in going leave me a comment or let me know because I'd love to get a huge group together at one venue.

I saw Tegan and Sara!

Last night I drove up to Davis with my room mate Ann and a random girl from OKCupid. I had an extra ticket so I searched for people who listed Tegan and Sara and found the highest match and I guess OKQ's system works because she turned out to be pretty awesome.

The show was a lot of fun. The girls create an environment that feels very personal and genuine. They definitely don't feel like there fame has gone to there head.

My favorite aspect of the show was the snippets of personalization they injected in between the songs. Sara, who is my favorite of the pair, shared some back stories to her songs that were adorably sarcastic. She even joked about her and Tegan getting naked and covering them selves in soap while washing a car which was brilliant in the context of the predominantly lesbian crowd.

I was surprised to hear the two don't live in the same city. Sara lives in Montreal and Tegan lives in B.C. I wonder how they find the time to collaborate on new songs. I wonder why they don't want to live closer to eath other. I would not be surprised if they don't get along incredibly well. There was certainly some not so playful bickering on stage.

I girls sisterly playfulness was definitely the highlight of the show which is funny because the first time Sara jumped into a story this girl behind me who decided to yell "Stop Talking!" which was just mindboggely rude and everyone around her made sure she knew that.

The show was awesome although I would have loved to see the girls in a more intimate setting like a coffee shop or something. I was also very disappointed they didn't play 'Monday, Monday, Monday' but they played ever other favorite song of mine.


If you've never heard of Tegan and Sara (who I like to call "Sara and sometimes also Tegan") there are some of my favorite songs on this playlist:

New and Improoved Blogatron

I have been less then satisfied with my tribe.net blog for some time now and I've finally gotten around to moving to something a bit more feature rich. I'm hoping features like tags, full html posts and a GData API is enough to encourage me to post a bit more.

So yeah if you wanna keep reading my blog you can see it on my tribe.net page but I will no longer be posting to my official tribe.net blog. This new blog can be seen at deadlyicon.blogspot.com or deadlyicon.com and of course you can subscript to the rss feed.

Also some cold Lions