middle.of.july

The idea that the fourth is long gone and the start of school at the end of August is fast approaching is almost paralyzing some moments. Still onward I press. I am working nights this week and I can only describe the experience as confusing. As I look at the clock now shortly after 4pm it is impossible to really understand that I will be awake 12 hours from now heading into the last hour of an 8 hour worknight. At least I have the work I say to myself when I pull up into the driveway after the sun is up and wave to my roommate just heading out to work. OK, so I didn't actually wave and he was actually already on his way to work but this is a more poetic image. I suppose I should figure out a way to sleep all day and work all night but is no way to spend a summer. Is it?

optometry?

Almost as a way to remind myself I say this now. I am planning on becoming an optometrist. The road is long and not entirely smooth and yet my heart is filled with excitement. What does the future hold for me and those around me? "God knows the plans he has for me..." Here goes the next step.

map.to.your.head

"I need a map of your head translated into English so I can learn to not make you frown."
- Clean (Make Yourself) - Incubus

That line always makes me laugh and then think about how true it is that we just don't really understand what goes on in the minds of the people around us. He is singing about the mind of a woman but I think it applies in a much more general way. There is so much that we don't understand and most of it seems to be trapped in the minds of the people around us. How much more do we wish we had a map to the mind of someone who knows all and understands the whys and hows for every action and circumstance in our lives.

the.low.fare.customer

In recent years the "low fare" airline has come to dominate the airline industry news. As it turns out this has had several consequences. The most obvious result is the current affordability of air travel for most middle class families and individuals. That has drastically changed the demographics of the passengers. Certainly the middle class families that saved to fly and see Grandma seem to make up a large portion of the flying public today and their frequency of travel has increased. Now the groups who would have never considered the ability to fly will save up and fly to visit Grandma. This has intensified the number of angry passengers who feel that they are paying good money and deserve something. Don't believe me? Just watch "Airline" on A&E with their coverage of Southwest passengers. Southwest is of course the airline that pioneered the low fare, no-frills, airline. They have maintained profitability where others have failed but air travel will never be the same. You can always tell which people fly often and know that this time they will have to put up with the insanity the "low fare" creates.

Some might say that it is far too easy to split people into groups and we are certainly all guilty of classification based on preconceived notions. I for one am grateful for the low fare trend especially when it come to convenient and reasonably priced travel between Boston, Long Beach, Oakland, and Washington DC. Those just so happen to be the cities I travel to. I don't know if that is because JetBlue flies there or if I want to fly there and JetBlue has obliged.

Speaking of JetBlue, there is an airline that gets what today's price conscious but feature focused consumer wants. I am loyal for now. The only thing that could sway me is the launch of Virgin America (that assumes of course that I can afford to fly them).

no.april.fools

Here I am on April 4th sitting in the only Starbucks I can really stand to spend time in watching the snow fall. San Diego sounds better and better every minute.

carne.asada.bol

So little sister, this is for you...



It actually saddens me that life in Boston has turned Chipotle into a delicious Mexican treat. I suppose that is what happens when you can't get the real thing.

well.that's.how.it.goes

I just had a conversation about the mid to late 90's trend of using no spaces, no capitals, and straight lines as a design aesthetic. That got me to thinking about this blog (neglected since last summer though it may be) and the way I have designed it. I suppose the holdover from the 95-99 design style stems from the fact that the last time I really designed anything was during high school and specifically for LHHS MUN and a particular square program and other documents. We all thought they were fantastic (and I might add that the current LHHS MUN design is certainly inferior, regardless of taste) and I still think it was. The logos, the promotional videos, the over the top production values (ok, so production value may be pushing it...) and the assurance that we were on top of our game.

The years have passed (only two more until my 10 year reunion) and the confidence and ease have morphed into a cynicism and resignation to the daily grind. Sure I am far more confident that I can meet and handle myself in the urban social situations I encounter but the creativity and belief that everything was possible has wanned and doubts abound. I often wonder if I can make ends meet (interesting turn of phrase that is), what the future holds, will I lose my hair, what about my closest friends?

Don't get me wrong, these questions don't always consume my thoughts but they are there and from time to time demand attention. I am forced to comment, if only to myself what I truly believe. That there is a hope and a future. That regardless of situation there are still options. Even if I do lose my hair I can still have people in my life that I love and care about and who return the favor.

How can I be sure what makes this possible and why do I even bother? Ah, there is the rub. On my own it does look hopeless, a never ending descent into cynicism and depression. Am I alone, hardly! Do I know all the answers? No. Do I believe that there are answers? Yes. Nothing in my life has confirmed that there are answers (even when I don't see them right away - or ever) than all the upheaval and change that has happened since those heady days at LHHS. Hard times? Naturally. Happy times? There have been some of those too. Confusion, despair, hope, fear, love, hate...? Of course. All through that I have to say that the freedom to ask questions that I think I should already understand the answer to is more of a gift than I am worthy to receive.

Well, that's how it goes...

family.photo.day

Well now that I am back in Boston I am looking through the pictures from my trip and there it was... a picture of the sunset that we looked at while we had our traditional beach family photo taken. What a nice place to spend the summer...

old.school.video.fun

I recently got a new computer and decided to go through all of the video I shot when I was in school to see if there was anything fun I could do with it. Here are the first fruits of that labor.

illegal.fireworks

As I sat on my parents roof to see not one but three professional fireworks displays (Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, and Aliso Viejo - for those who care) I was treated to another fireworks display. This display was so close I could feel and smell it. Why, you ask? Well that is just what happens when the next-door neighbors decide to fire off some illegal fireworks for the kids.

Now don't even get me started on the whole illegal fireworks thing. All of Orange County has a fireworks ban and as far as I can tell all of the cities around here have outlawed everything to the point of not even allowing sparklers for the children. I grew up here and am used to only having the occasional opportunity to fire off some good stuff (when I was a lad or when I am out of state somewhere like The South or Midwest) but no sparklers. Apparently the message we are sending is that the celebration of our nations freedom and history is best left in the hands of Professionals and I thought that we wanted to raise Americans who can take the responsibility of their freedom into their own hands and never be satisfied with the way things are and always strive for a better future.

day.at.the beach

Treasure Island beach in South Laguna. Yeah it was a beautiful day and I understand why everyone is constantly trying to move here. Images like this really remind me of the beauty in the world around me and I just wish I knew how to appreciate it in all that I do. Wow!

This one is for all of you stuck in the muggy weather Boston has been so fortunate to receive this past week.

slingin'.and.slopin'

What has Ryan been up to the first week of his vacation here in Southern California?

That's right, I helped my dad paint a house in Corona Del Mar. I guess some people would find this odd since I am supposedly on holiday right now (that's correct, I said holiday). In reality there is little I enjoy more that being outside on a sunny summer day near the beach spending time talking about life with my dad. I have to throw in a little bit of thankfulness that my dad and I have the relationship we do. I guess the years of haircuts, paint jobs, and Flamin' Hot Dorritos and Coke developed a bond that I really value and has affected my life in ways I will continue to discover as I continue to live.

polo.and.waterfire

So on the 18th of June I went down to Rhode Island to watch the Newport Polo Club play in Newport International Polo Series against a Scottish team. Good times to be had by all. I have never watched a polo match before and lets just say I didn't know what I was watching most of the time. The Newport gents won and we all cheered. Of course there was the traditional stomping of the divots at the half. Fun for all!! You just have to be careful of the "steaming divots".

After the match we all drove over to Providence to enjoy waterfire an every-other-weekly event along the canals in downtown Providence with floating bonfires all down the waterways and street vendors and performers for the enjoyment of the visiting population.

favorite.flower

A special post for someone special!



Images courtesy of the sisters.

air.and.space

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is my absolute favorite DC museum and I have included a few choice images from my slightly obsessive visit. I made a point to look at and photograph almost everything in the museum (see collage).


This entrance to the naval aviation gallery was photographed in honor of Evan my esteemed friend and Ensign of the US Navy and formerly stationed on an aircraft carrier.


I love this exhibit as it shows views of the earth from as close as the top of a hill to as far away as the voyager spacecraft at the edge of our solar system.


A classic inside look at the cramped quarters of early spaceflight.

vietnam

This picture was taken by my sister during my DC visit. I don't know but I really like it.

dc.in.the.rain

This picture was taken on April 17th in Washington DC when I was visiting my sister. It rained incessantly the first day but somehow that was perfect. We went to see all of the memorials. The rain and gloom in conjunction with the lack of tourists lent something of a more serious note to the monuments to the founders of this nation and the memorials to those who fought and died to protect the principles of our nation.

It seems like it isn't really the acceptable thing to lift our nation up as an example or praise our leadership these days. Especially if you live in Boston. I was privileged to attend a prayer meeting at IJM while I was in DC that pointed me to the fact that not all people in our country who are involved with policy making are greedy, self-centered, or even short-sighted. Here is a non-profit with all the integrity and professionalism you could imagine centering each day around hope for people who are treated unjustly. If that isn't the work of God than I don't know what is.

As for the picture of me in homage to "Singin' in the Rain" in front of the WWII memorial. I think there may be some truth here a man enjoying a rainy day and a memorial to men and women who fought with hope that a rainy day might be our biggest worry. Their dream may not yet be a reality but what a noble dream it is.

catching.up

I have recently been told that I tend to start a sentence or new topic by saying, "So, ..." I have a couple of theories where I got that strange habit. (By the way I am currently listening to Fall out Boy and in a Mexico T-shirt I got for my birthday and feeling far closer to 18 and just graduated from High School than 25 and just about to watch my first class of 18 year old seniors graduate). So, back to the topic at hand (see, I even do it when I type (which is really what I do as I don't even pretend that people can read my handwriting)). That is just too many parentheses! I can trace the first instance of starting with "so" in a note written to me during freshman year oh high school from someone who refers to his/herself as "-who else" and the recipient as "so-" after all, it was explained, I know who I am.

New paragraph because I can! There is a significant time gap (in the development of my "So, ..." Speech patterns) which I will now refer to as "the-lost-years" fast like that because I think it makes it sound more dramatic! The year is now 2004 and I begin to notice this girl and start actually conversing with her. I don't notice it then (whether because we are always careful and precise with our words when we begin relationships or just because we had everything to talk about ahead of us and there were no pauses or even because we were mostly face-to-face and that is better than the phone for eliminating strange pauses and continuity problems. So there you go, jump ahead 20 some months and here we are now.

So, I have some other stuff to say but that's for another post...

(I did it again!)

sister.and.friend

I am currently visiting my sister in our nation's capital and enjoying a few of my spring break days as a tourist and guest of two fantastic women who are a blessing to everyone they cross paths with. I am so pleased to see what my sister is up to and even more excited to see her interactions with her roommate and dear friend and even the housemates they met when they moved here.

I have been lavished with hospitality and a chance to hear my sister explain and ponder her takes on life's challenges and opportunities both personally and globally. From her work with at risk youth and her roommate's job with IJM. I can't help but be inspired that there is so much more to life than I often notice or admit.

There is much more to say but I am not really there yet and it is late and I am tired.

flotsam.and.jetsam

Just a little community service announcement. If you were not aware of the definitions of the titular words here you go:

Flotsam :
flot·sam
n.

1. 1. Wreckage or cargo that remains afloat after a ship has sunk.
   2. Floating refuse or debris.
2. Discarded odds and ends.
3. Vagrant, usually destitute people.

Jetsam :
jet·sam
n.

1. Cargo or equipment thrown overboard to lighten a ship in distress.
2. Discarded cargo or equipment found washed ashore.
3. Discarded odds and ends.