This afternoon, I got an email via The Independent’s mailing list that Beck would be performing at the Independent on Sunday, tickets on sale at 5pm today. Now Beck isn't my superfavoritebandever, but it would have been a cool opportunity to see him in such a small venue. (Kind of like when Green Day performed the whole of American Idiot at The Warfield a few years ago. Come to think of it, couldn't get tickets for that one, either.)
At 5pm I click the link, and get about 20 minutes of “Page Load Error” messages before I finally get to the ticket ordering page. I put in the password and hit “Apply Access Code” and get another 20 minutes of “Page Load Error” messages, before finally getting to the actual ‘Add to Cart’ page, and: “We’re sorry, there are no tickets currently available through TicketWeb.”
I decide to try again a few minutes later, and to my surprise, I get to the order page, add two tickets to my cart, and through all the way to the page where I need to input my credit card info. I input it, and the page starts spinning…
After about 10 or 15 minutes, a new confirmation page comes up with my order total listed as “$0.00”. Just to see what would happen, I clicked “Submit Order” and got an error page.
Now when I try again, I consistently get the “no tickets currently available” page.
EA marketing needed a product shot of one of their books, and this one was chosen. I just signed a release so now EA owns this shot (and my mortal soul, I think.) Hooray!
Edit: Forgot I was supposed to OK all photos posted online with the bride and groom. Whoops!
Today I shot Diane and Addison's wedding at the Rose Garden in San Mateo Central Park. It was a small, intimate ceremony with only family and close friends. It was such a happy day for everyone -- congratulations, Diane and Addison!
This was also my first gig as primary photographer, so I was a little nervous, especially about the formal/posed pictures. But I think they turned out pretty well, don't you?
I first heard about Miracle fruit in an article that Yar sent me an article about them. I was intrigued, but they are apparently sort of hard to come by, so I didn't really give it much more thought. But a week or so ago, I got an email from Think Geek, saying they had the berries in a tablet form, so I went ahead and ordered a pack.
They came yesterday, and I have to admit I was extremely skeptical about it, not least because of the suspicious-looking Chinese packaging. However, Yar and Jan came over to try them anyway. We each put a tablet in our mouths until they dissolved, with Yar and I making sure to coat our tongues as it dissolved. Still skeptical, I was handed a lime and discovered it tasted like candy. Disbelieving, we cut pieces of lemon and ate them, and they tasted like lemonade. We also tried rice vinegar (meh), Tapatio (thumbs up), Sriracha (thumbs up), cherry tomatoes (thumbs down; it tasted like tomatoes with sugar), white wine (thumbs up from me; thumbs down from Jan), and rum with lemon juice (thumbs up until the alcohol burn kicked in). The biggest thumbs up by far was just plain lemons, though. It became apparent that Jan wasn't having the transcendent experience that Yar and I were having, which we think is because she didn't coat her tongue with the tablet as it dissolved. The effect lasted about an hour, and was definitely one of the weirdest food experiences I've ever had.
This past weekend I spent a few days in the Hamptons area to see the family. It was a good time as always -- a lot of swimming in the pool, going to the beach, and overeating. Mostly I was excited about seeing my family, especially my nieces, who are growing so quickly that they seem like totally new people every time I see them. On Sunday we went deep sea fishing (my second time) and although it started out slow, we ended up catching 13 fish -- 7 sea bass, and 6 blue fish. GM caught the biggest one, weighing in (we think) close to 30 pounds. We all took Dramamine before we left and it ended up working really well, but maybe too well, as I felt tranquilized for the rest of the day. Fortunately, I was able to rouse myself to have a delicious fish dinner in the evening.
Otherwise, it was mostly relaxing. I finally got to watch some Olympics coverage, which was nice. There was a brief incident where Bug had a meltdown because she turned off the TV while we were all watching Olympics (she said it was boring), and J2 told her if she did that, she wouldn't be able watch Dora the Explorer for the rest of the summer. When you're 4, I suppose that's pretty much the biggest threat anyone can give.
(Note to family: please stop asking me about pictures; I will let you know when they are up.)
I just purchased my third pair of Koss PortaPro headphones, which are the ugliest, 80s-est headphones ever, but they're comfortable, cheap, and have good sound. (If they're so good, why am I on my third pair? Because I chewed through the cord on the first two. But that's not the point of the story.)
Anyway, when I received them yesterday, I noticed that listed in the features on the back was: "New mini plug compatible with all music players including iPhone".
I tested out my new GPS watch on a hike this weekend on a nice hike in Bolinas/Point Reyes. I especially like how it maps out the route in Google maps. Ignore the fact that there are two laps -- I had some button confusion the first time it auto-paused. The little offshoot to the lake was a short detour to go swimming in Bass lake.
It was a nice hike, but also kind of weird because I'm sort of in shape right now. An unfamiliar feeling...
Okay, I guess it doesn't really count as consumerism, but I bought carbon offsets for my car from TerraPass. On the one hand, it does feel a bit like cheating (the lazy man's version of good environmental karma), but I figure it's better than doing nothing, right? I have been carpooling for a few months now, but I still drive quite a bit, so I thought I'd try to do my small part.
I also purchased a Garmin Forerunner 405 today, which is a GPS-enabled watch. I'm trying my best not to fall out of running shape again, so I thought this could help with my training. I've signed up for the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in October, and I'd like to try to beat my time again. Having the watch to be able to exactly track my pace and distance should be really beneficial for my training. Plus, it's shiny and has buttons. Okay, it was mostly that.
Lastly, I finally saw Wall-E tonight, which I thought was very cute.
