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| Triple event weekend | |
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5.03.2008
9:23 PM | Link |
 This has been a jam-packed weekend so far, and tons of fun! Friday night there was a bachelor dinner in honor of Jonathan's wedding (coming up in a couple weeks!), so all of gathered for a long meal at the Clay Pit with plenty of drinking, story telling, and lots of laughter. After dinner we decided to walk to the Cloak Room, which is one of Jonathan's secret late-night haunts. Most of us had never been there before, and it was cool to discover this tiny, dark bar that's famous for being filled with Texas legislators (since it's right at the foot of the Capitol). It was a really fun evening!Today I got up early to get my weekend chores done so I could head out to enjoy Free Comic Book Day! Matt decided he wanted to check it out also, so we went to Capstone Comics (a really nice place that I'll definitely revisit) and ran into George and his grandson Devin, which was nice since I love seeing kids getting excited about free comics. The store really went all out for the event with raffle drawings, guests artists signing things, and even guys in authentic Star Wars costumes! Next, after an hour or so of rest, the Greatest American Heroes drove to Temple to play a benefit for the American Cancer Society. We played in a high school football stadium, right on the 50-yard line, and although we were missing Chris on guitar and had a guest bassist, we had a great time and seemed to be well received. It was so refreshing to play outside in the beautiful weather, and then have an awesome meal together at a 50s themed diner. Now I'm finally home, a little sunburnt, and a lot tired, but I've enjoyed every minute of this crazy weekend! I'm definitely going to kick back tomorrow!  View photos: Jonathan's Bachelor Dinner View photos: Comics & Heroes
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| Carmen / Austin Lyric Opera : 4 of 5 | |
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4.27.2008
12:08 PM | Link |
 Last night was a special opera evening for me, since this was Austin Lyric Opera's debut production at the new Long Center (which means this review is for both the venue and the opera)! Since I had no idea how parking was going to work out, I arrived almost an hour early, which turned out to be a great plan, since I had time to explore (and take a few photos) before the show. Actually, this may be my new routine, since the Long Center has a beautiful terrace that overlooks the city, which is perfect for enjoying a glass a wine before settling down to three hours of entertainment. The architecture is modern, but still feels somewhat classical to me, but unfortunately everything (right down to staircases) is labeled with donor names, which gets old pretty fast. The theater itself is fantastic, designed so every seat is much closer to the stage compared to the Bass Concert Hall, and I was thrilled with my new seats! So, on to the opera, which was an incredible production of Bizet's Carmen. I think that operas containing so many "hit" arias are difficult to make relevant, since the audience just ends up tapping their toes to the tunes they know, but ALO really did a fine job at making the story itself more prominent. In fact, I think I got into the characters in this production more than any other Carmen I have seen before! The sets and lighting were wonderful (although I have to complain about the incredibly long pause during the third act for a set change, which was simply uncomfortable), and the performers were absolutely amazing, especially Carmen herself, who really made some sense of the character's thoughts and motives. And of course, the popular Habanera and Toreador arias were fantastic and full of spirit! For me, it was a wonderful first experience at the Long Center, and I'm definitely looking forward to many more arts events there in the future. View photos: The Long Center
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| Amazing weekend, amazing athletes | |
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4.16.2008
7:24 AM | Link |
 This past weekend was fun-filled and fantastic! It began with playing a Casa del Swanko gig at North by Northwest, which was completely packed because the weather was so nice. Lots of people we knew came out to see us, including some folks from work and my pal Melinda. On Saturday night, I went to see Master Panckake's showing of E.T. at the new Alamo Ritz with Matt & Kumiko! This was my first time to visit the new downtown Alamo, and also my first time to see Master Pancake (although I was a loyal Mister Sinus fan!). The movie was hilarious, so I'm sure I'll be back for their future shows! Finally, on Sunday I got to watch Chris & Carlos ride to the finish line of their MS150 bike adventure. This is a huge two-day ride from Houston to Austin (180 miles), and they made it easily! It was nice to have lunch with Eliza, Matt & Kumiko (plus I got to help with Baby Emiliano), and the atmosphere at the finish line (in front of the Texas History Museum) was full of energy - it was a blast! Congratulations to Chris & Carlos! View photos: MS150 Finish Line
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| Star Trek stands | |
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4.12.2008
5:17 PM | Link |
 I've slowed down just a wee bit on my toy collecting, but I'm still buying all of the reproduction Mego Star Trek figures as they are released! I can't even begin to count all the fantastic, 8-inch Mego action figures (with real clothes!) I had as a kid - lots of super heroes, Planet of the Apes, and of course, Star Trek. I love watching home movies of me playing with the Transporter on the Enterprise bridge playset! These new reproductions are incredible, right down to the accessories and packaging, and even though I know I shouldn't open them, holding them in my hands again really makes me feel young. I've been buying mine from BigBadToyStore, and I have six so far, so I decided I should get some stands to display them. I spent forever digging around Google looking for "action figure stands", but I couldn't find anything for 8-inch figures! Finally I stumbled upon a place that had "doll stands", and when I discovered that was the correct term, they were easy to find. When I was a kid I always hated it when people called them dolls instead of action figures, so I guess the term "doll stand" never occured to me! I actually found the perfect stand from an Amazon seller, and they work perfectly. The waist clamp holds the figure snuggly, and it's so nice being able to arrange them without spending an hour getting them to balance. I wish I had these stands when I had all my original figures - but actually, I wish I had still had my original figures even more! View photos: Mego Star Trek
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| Designing dungeons | |
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4.06.2008
11:48 AM | Link |
 The web was swamped recently with memorials to Gary Gygax, the creator of role-playing gaming as we know it today, and after reading my pal Barron's excellent post, I was inspired to add my own memories. So. here's my late tribute to childhood fun with Dungeons & Dragons, although for me it was all about an inspiration to create!I don't really remember how I first heard about D&D, but I remember getting the basic set while I was in 7th grade and marveling at how you could play a game with no board or pieces to move around! It finally dawned on me that role playing was just "pretending with rules", and I thought all the crazy math formulas used for battles were cool. Of course, I had a few sets of dice (I remember how you could ink the number using a fine pen or by rubbing them with a crayon), and even though everyone thought the 20-sided die was the coolest, I liked the simplicity of the 4-sided one. I think I started saving my allowance for the hardback Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books before I even played my first game, because they were full of fascinating character types and awesome illustrations! I read through the Monster Manual over and over, enjoying the gross creatures and imagining epic fights. I started collecting the small metal figures, too, and spent lots of afternoons painting them with toothpicks and learning wipe-off antiquing techniques from magazines. My geeky group of school friends became my playing group, since we were all into Lord of the Rings and D&D at the same time - it was just inevitable! My pals Scott, Chad, David, Galen (who had the best medieval-sounding name) and I would meet at the public library, where we could get a little private room to play in. I was almost always the Dungeon Master, since I liked being able to play all of the various non-player characters that my friends would interact with in the game. I was already an acting ham, so I didn't want to limit myself to just one character when I could be several at once! I also liked knowing the secrets that everyone else had yet to discover, and I thought the Dungeon Master's screen was so cool - it had fantasy paintings on one side for the players to look at, and tons of reference tables and formulas on the other side! I remember several really good games, and I also remember being a lenient Dungeon Master, since I didn't want my pals' characters to actually die since they had worked so hard on them. But by far my best D&D time was spent creating my own fantasy world for our games. You could buy tons of game modules that included all of the background material and maps for an adventure, but I wanted to make my own from scratch. So, first I made a few "mini-modules" for quick games, and later embarked on giant stories with hex maps and multi-level dungeons! Back before home computers, I actually owned a typewriter and did all my "serious" work on it, so I spent lots of time getting my modules to look just right, and even adding illustrations to the pages just like the pros. I used to draw a lot (although I barely doodle now), so I really enjoyed sketching castles and coloring maps, even if I had to draw hundreds of little symbols. My drawings also were a part of my own Monster Manual supplement, where I designed my own creatures with their crazy stats, and I tried to incorporate these into my custom modules. Truthfully, I enjoyed all this creative activity far more than playing the actual game, but I'm really glad I had a group of D&D friends to inspire this in me! When I was decluttering my college notes recently, I found most of my Dungeons & Dragons creations, so I scanned a few pages (only maps and parts of modules with drawings) for you to enjoy (and for me to remember forever!). Remember these are from the brain of a 7th grade geek! View photos: Dungeons & Dragons Memories
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| Having fun morning till night | |
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3.30.2008
10:48 AM | Link |
 Yesterday was jam-packed with fun - I was out of the house from 8:30 AM to 11:00 PM! I'm pretty sleepy and lazy today, but the memories were so worth it! There was a huge wedding shower for Jonathan & Anne Marie held at a ranch in Round Top, which is a little country town halfway between Austin and Houston. We started with some great chip and dip and sausage (and plenty of wine), listening to a really cool musical duo who played everything from tub bass to bowed saw! I had so much fun spending the day talking with so many of my pals, which was wonderful since lately I haven't been able to spend much quality time with them. I had a great time taking photos of Emiliano and Miles, both unbearably cute and hilarious as only babies can be. Later we ate an awesome lunch of chicken, potato salad, incredible corn bread and salad, later followed by pie and ice cream, and then relaxed in rocking chairs singing along with the band. The whole event was a peaceful, fun celebration, and I'm so glad I could be there! After the party, Jonathan and I had to drive back full-speed to make it to a Casa del Swanko gig at North by Northwest, and even though we were beat we played a nice show, and the crowd was really generous with their tips, too. It was one of those days were it just felt good to be tired, since the experiences will last forever! View photos: Jonathan & Anne Marie's Wedding Shower
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| Bowling night | |
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3.12.2008
7:21 PM | Link |
 Last Sunday my pals Matt & Kumiko and I decided to go bowling at Main Event, and it was a really fun evening. I hadn't been bowling in years, but it just seemed like something fun to do, although it was quite a bit different then playing my Nintendo Wii! Matt and I seem to have about the same skill, but Kumiko is a total ace - she scored 150 easily, I pulled in 105 (which is kind of rare for me), and Matt scored 100. Our second game doesn't really count, because we were trying to bowl as fast as possible since our time was running out - in fact, we went so fast that I ended up pulling a muscle that's still healing (I'm such an old man!). After the bowling we played glow golf, and I'm happy to say that I won (but then again, I've played that course a few times now)! It was a nice change from sitting at home on a Sunday, so enjoy a few photos!In other pals news, Jonathan asked me to be in his upcoming wedding, and I'm really happy - maybe those cigars I got him for his birthday paid off! And today I had a surprise present in the mail - my pal Shelly in Portland sent me a 1984 vintage set of Golden Trivia Cards, Disney Edition! I don't know where he discovered them, but they are really cool - it's like you have to go back in time to answer the questions correctly, especially about the parks, since Epcot is such a different place now! As always, I'm thankful to be remembered by such cool friends! View photos: Bowling at Main Event
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| Christmas wrap-up | |
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12.28.2007
5:28 PM | Link |
 I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I'm back in Austin now, trying to get used to reality again, but I'm still enjoying that Christmas afterglow from the past few days. Before Christmas, we finished the jigsaw puzzle (which was really cool looking!), made another trip to the casino, and enjoyed a nice candlelight service at Mom & Dad's church, which was so nice. On Christmas Eve, my parents finished opening their gifts from me, then we watched A Christmas Story (which we do every year) and laughed at Ralphie's pink bunny suit for the 100th time. The next morning, I got to open up my incredible pile of gifts - I got so many DVDs this year that when I was packing them in my bag it looked like I had robbed Best Buy! I also got a special surprise gift - a wonderful figurine of Mickey Mouse with Santa! After the gift unwrapping, I got to watch the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade on Dad's new HDTV, and it looked spectacular! The entire holiday was fantastic, which makes it even more difficult to get back to my everyday routine, but I think I'm finally coming around. I'm already looking forward to Christmas 2008, though! View photos: Christmas 2007 View photos: Visit to Pops
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| Laughter for Christmas | |
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12.05.2007
9:43 PM | Link |
 Yesterday was the official world premiere of my Christmas video for 2007! It was a really fun evening with all my pals, and everyone really enjoyed watching it! This year's video was a totally new experience, since I shot all new footage (rather than using clips from the past year) and decided to turn the whole thing into a kind of variety show. So, this year's project included a reality game show, two fake movie trailers, a horror movie (written and directed by my pal Ernesto), a documentary, a silent movie, and two music videos (and the whole thing clocks in at 1.5 hours)! I loved watching everyone laughing and enjoying themselves - hearing that laughter is an amazing moment that keeps me making these videos each year! View photos: Christmas Screening 2007
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| Test preparation can be fun | |
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9:31 PM | Link |
 Besides studying and test taking, I had a blast in Los Angeles last weekend! Dae was an incredible host as always, and it was great to see my pal Ernesto again for the first time since he moved from Austin. We had a huge lunch at the famous Canter's Deli, then saw a musical based on Burt Bacharach's famous tunes, and later went back to Dae's to watch my annual Christmas video project. Dae cooked up a bunch of appetizers, and we all had so much fun watching the DVD. I was really glad that Ernesto enjoyed the way I edited his horror film project, and it was cool to be able to watch it with my LA pals in person! After that, Dae's band had a gig to play, so Ernesto and I got to see the Highball Five for the first time! It was a great show (they even let me sit in on a tune!), and the band sounds awesome! Our pal Jerry was also there, so we got to talk about the amazing work he's doing, which is always incredible to me. The next day after the test, we immediately duplicated last year's post-test fun by going to the same bar for a few beers, then we walked around in Santa Monica and had a nice dinner. Taking a tough test is definitely a lot easier when you get to spend time with such cool friends! View photos: Highball Five Gig
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| Balloons, butternut, benkyou | |
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11.24.2007
7:33 AM | Link |
 I'm really enjoying this Thanksgiving holiday! My pal Tom came over with breakfast to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with me, and I thought the new balloons were cool, although Shrek seriously had a "pull my finger" pose, and Scooby Doo's nose was deflated. Hello Kitty looked great, though, and I always like seeing Pikachu, since he makes a great balloon! In the afternoon my pals who were still in town met at Chris & Eliza's for their annual Thanksgiving feast, which was especially incredible since she's going to give birth in just a few weeks! The food was awesome, and I was touched that Eliza made her yummy butternut squash soup just because she knows I look forward to her Thanksgiving soups. Yesterday I stayed at home all day to study Japanese (since the JLPT is barely over a week away!), and I met my goal for the day of re-taking both the Level 4 test from 2006 and Level 3 test from 2004. I can score really high on the Level 4 test now, which proves to me that somehow I have improved since last year, which is usually hard for me to see since each day of studying is a challenge. I took breaks by watching Jpop DVDs and a little anime, reading some comics, and doing a few other things around the house. It's been relaxing and fun for the past couple days, and now I have two more days of weekend to enjoy! View photos: Thanksgiving 2007
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| Ernesto says goodbye to Austin | |
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11.08.2007
7:51 AM | Link |
 I'm about a month late, but I finally have the chance to write about my pal Ernesto's last few fun days in Austin before his big move to Los Angeles to help out his family. Our last Greatest American Heroes gig with Ernesto seemed pretty crazy, since we played for a gathering of several hundred Lutheran women (mostly on the old side)! When were setting up, we were sure they had no idea they had hired a TV theme song band, but when we started playing, they turned out to be the best audience we ever had – no kidding! Those Lutheran ladies just loved our stuff, and they really got into the show and even bought tons of CDs! Next there was a going-away party for Ernesto, which was a combination celebration for the publication of Tom's book, Taxi to Tashkent. Besides Tom's fun live readings, there were lots of toasts for Ernesto (with crazy gifts), making it another fun party at Jonathan's house. Finally, we had our usual Sunday guys night together, and Matt made Day Jobs, the drink that was actually created for our swing band at the Caucus Club back in the old days. They tasted a lot better when we were younger and could handle more booze, but it was still some nostalgic fun. All of us really miss Ernesto now, but I'm glad that I'll get to see him whenever I head to Los Angeles to visit Dae (and Mickey Mouse)! View photos: Ernesto's Goodbye
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| Super-fun Disneyland weekend | |
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10.17.2007
7:19 AM | Link |
 Last weekend I had a fantastic time in Los Angeles with my pal Dae, the best host on the West Coast! We went to the Disneyland Resort for two days, starting with Disney's California Adventure (which I hadn't been to in over a year). We had a really leisurely time at the park, taking a long lunch break with a couple glasses of wine just before riding Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue (which was even more fun after the wine!). It's a cool little attraction with fantastic theme details in the queue, and so much better than Superstar Limo was! After riding all the major attractions, we hopped over to Disneyland the same evening to take on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage! We had to wait about 75 minutes, but it was worth it! Just seeing the subs in action was incredible, and going through that hatch and down the spiral staircase brought back a flood of memories. Who knows, I may have been sitting on the same seat I was in around 30 years ago! The new effects on the attraction are wonderful, and I was glad the shark scenes weren't too scary. I can't wait to ride it again each time I visit the park! We also rode Space Mountain that night, so we could avoid the biggest lines the next day.The next morning we hit Disneyland right at opening, and we were amazed at the crowds - definitely more than the average October attendance! But since we're Disney pros, it didn't matter - we still got to ride everything, including Haunted Mansion Holiday twice! I really enjoyed the new Pirate's Lair theme on Tom Sawyer Island, and it was fun watching watching an excellent Jack Sparrow actor stealing kids toys, looking through women's purses, and generally being a pirate. To top off the day, I beat Dae at Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (which hardly ever happens), thanks to a tip I read earlier in the week - go for the diamond-shaped targets! Our last day was a little rainy, but we had a nice lazy day anyway. We started with hitting some golf balls at a driving range, which was fun since I'm such a novice, and then we played cards at a coffee shop. Next we shopped Toys R Us, where Dae bought an RC helicopter, which we flew (and crashed) around his condo! Next we went to the movies, and finally we had our usual "break the budget" meal at a four-star restaurant called Nico's, which was pretty incredible! As always, it was a fantastic trip, and I'm already looking forward to doing it again! View photos: Disneyland 2007 View photos: Disney Pals 2007 View photos: Los Angeles 2007
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| Photos on Schmap | |
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10.08.2007
7:16 PM | Link |
 I think it's so cool that people have found various photos of mine on Flickr and asked if they could use them in various projects. It's just one of the reasons why Flickr is so cool! Anyway, recently a couple of my photos were used on Schmap!, a website with maps and travel information for various places. They wanted to use one of my shots from my Niagara Falls trip (of the famous floral clock), plus a picture I took of the carousel inside Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City (I couldn't believe that one!). They're just a tiny little photos, but it's still fun to see them on the site. You can check them out using these links! Visit site: Schmap Niagara Falls Visit site: Schmap Oklahoma CityLabels: photos |
| Mom & Dad's Austin adventure | |
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9.10.2007
7:40 AM | Link |
 I just finished enjoying a wonderful four-day weekend with Mom & Dad, who came to visit me in Austin for the first time in a few years! We had a fantastic time together (as always), and we did some really fun things together. The biggest adventure was exploring Inner Space Cavern, which is a really amazing natural underground wonderland just outside of Austin, filled with beautiful rock formations. The tour was exciting and our tour guide Sam was hilarious - he really made the visit memorable! We also made another visit to the Texas State History Museum and enjoyed an IMAX African safari, and we did lots of shopping at The Domain and the outlet mall in Round Rock. Speaking of shopping, my parents decided to buy me an iPhone (just after the huge price-drop) for a super-early (and super-generous!) birthday present, so I've been a total Apple geek for the past few days, playing with it every five minutes! I also had fun re-introducing Mom & Dad to all my friends - they got to see everyone at Chris & Eliza's baby shower, and we had lunch with my pal Melinda, too! To top off the visit, we had a nice dinner and movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, and Mom & Dad enjoyed coming to church with me, too. All four days were simply wonderful - I just love spending time and having fun with Mom & Dad! View photos: Parents Visit 2007
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| Flickr accomplished | |
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8.30.2007
6:58 AM | Link |
 I had planned on mentioning this morning that I recently finished moving all of my 2004 photos from Kodak Gallery to Flickr, but I've been so obsessed with this project for the past few nights that I'm happy to report I'm now completely finished with the whole thing! That's right, during the past few weeks I moved over nearly 200 albums of memories, and now everything is in one place on Flickr, nicely tagged and ready to enjoy! My Flickr counts are seriously huge now, since I have over 11,000 photos and more than 250 sets. I love being able to browse around and see pictures that I haven't viewed in quite a while since Kodak Gallery was so clunky. I've really been into setting little personal goals for myself lately, and finishing this one makes me feel really great!
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| Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination | |
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8.22.2007
6:59 AM | Link |
 This weekend my pal Chris and I drove to Fort Worth to see Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. This is a traveling exhibit of original Star Wars models, props and costumes, presented along with kid-friendly activities to learn about the possible science behind all the Star Wars technology. I knew the exhibit would be cool, since I heard they had the original full-size landspeeder and a Yoda puppet on display, but I was completely amazed by how incredible the exhibit was! There were several rooms, each packed with fantastic treasures of Star Wars history, and I simply went crazy to see it all right in front of me. I was especially excited about the rebel blockade runner (the Tantive IV) from A New Hope, since that's the first ship ever seen in a Star Wars film. The model was huge and detailed - it's incredible that it's been preserved so well for 30 years! I also really got excited about various hand-held props, such as Han's portable scanner on Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back, because they are burned so well into my memory that it was awesome to study them up close. The three piece Darth Vader helmet from the end of Return of the Sith was beautiful in person, and I was even impressed by Leia's costume from A New Hope, just because it still exists (all of the items from A New Hope were my favorites, since I instantly felt 10 years old again). Of course, there was so much more, including a massive Millennium Falcon, plenty of lightsabers and blasters, and even Luke's training remote. It was definitely worth the drive to Fort Worth (and thanks to Chris for driving!), so if you get a chance to see this exhibit, don't miss it! View photos: Star Wars Exhibit
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| Remote Ryan | |
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6:56 AM | Link |
 Last week my pal Ryan, who also works with me, moved to Arizona, so Chris, Barron and I took him to lunch to send him off. All four of us met when we worked together at Works.com, but even though that was years ago and we've all been at new companies, we stayed good friends, which is one of the amazing things that can happen with the internet! We had lunch at Third Base since Ryan likes sports bars, and we gave him some gift cards and other goodies, so it was a fun time. Now Ryan is already in Arizona, and he's still going to be working with me online, which is pretty cool! I'll definitely miss him in the office, but we'll still be typing to each other all the time. View photos: Ryan's Good Bye Lunch
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| Party weekends | |
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8.10.2007
6:37 AM | Link |
 In addition to all the old photos I've been migrating, I have some new photos, too! My pals threw a couple of parties recently, and I was there to capture the action. First, Jonathan & Anne Marie returned from a four-week trip to Europe, so they showed everyone their great photos and movies, accompanied by great food and Jonathan's top-notch drink-mixing. The next weekend, Chris & Eliza had a pool party BBQ to officially announce the name of their baby-on-the-way, and they even picked the middle name by popular vote! The official name is Emiliano Gabriel, so now we can stop calling him Optimus Prime. It was great to get together with everyone and think about how all of our friendships are the same, even though we keep on changing (especially with three pregnant gals in attendance)! View photos: Europe Party View photos: Baby Naming BBQ
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| Ernesto's historic solo | |
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7.25.2007
7:07 PM | Link |
 The Elephant Room is widely regarded as the best, most "pure" jazz club in Austin, and I've spent many evenings there with my pals, enjoying the fantastic tunes played by incredible musicians (usually on Monday open jam nights, when the music gets better and better the later you stay!). Even though all of my musician friends love jazz, and we even play it in public, we've always been too scared to step up on the Elephant Room stage. Everyone there is just so good that we just don't have the guts, so instead we just order another drink and watch what musicians can do when they practice eight hours a day! But this weekend, history was made! My pal Ernesto was invited to sit in with Paul Klemperer (his sax teacher, an incredible horn player), and he took him up on the offer! Matt, Jonathan and I cheered Ernesto on as he blew a magnificent solo on Saint Thomas (which coincidentally we had just played the night before in the Ernesto Marquez Sextet), and it was a sight to see. Ernesto is one hard-working musician, and he deserves the props. Way to go, Ernie! View photos: Ernesto at the Elephant Room
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| The Day Jobs: more memories | |
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7.24.2007
8:39 PM | Link |
 I'm continuing to move old photos to Flickr, and now it's become kind of an obsession, since I know I will have a nice feeling of accomplishment when it's finished! Since I'm starting with photos taken in 2000, there are plenty of shots from the last few gigs of my old swing band, The Day Jobs. It's been a blast seeing these old photos again! One of these gigs was way out in the boonies (complete with flatbed trailer), and the other was on the Flagship Texas, a cool boat on Lake Travis that people rent for parties. I've also been converting my old video clips to YouTube, so I figured now would be a good time to upload some Day Jobs video! This is a performance of Mopac Bounce (an original by our guitarist Dae) from Austin Music Network, which we appeared on live. It was pretty exciting at the time! The quality of this clip is definitely lousy - I can remember that Barron helped me rip it from VHS so many years ago, and we had to make it a little postage stamp sized video in order to get decent sound. Still, it's better than nothing, so enjoy the memories! View photos: Gig in the Boonies View photos: Flagship Texas Gig Watch video: The Day Jobs / Mopac Bounce
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| Honor Among Thieves revisited | |
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7.21.2007
10:12 AM | Link |
 Having my pal Matt back in town got me thinking about my early days in Austin, which prompted me to start moving all of my old Kodak Gallery (which used to be Ofoto back when I used it) photos over to Flickr. I decided to start with my oldest albums, and I'm trying to preserve the way they were on Ofoto, so I'm including all the pictures (even though some are so bad I would never upload them today!) with my original captions. Since I'm starting with my oldest photos first (back from 2000), the first batches have to do with my pal Tom's movie masterpiece, Honor Among Thieves! The making of this 90 minute feature (way back before I ever dreamed of video editing myself) and the huge premiere party event is legendary in the history of my Austin pals! The first short set of photos is the final night of editing, where I watched Tom finish the movie on his slow PC until about 4:00 in the morning, and the second huge set is the premiere party itself, which was held in a rented art gallery downtown. I also recently converted the funny trailer for the movie into an official WEBmikey Clip for YouTube, so you can enjoy an extremely low quality (sorry, VCRs and QuickTime were pretty crappy seven years ago!) taste of the film. I remember I was so excited about the movie being finished, that I even showed it to my fellow Works.com employees at lunch one day! Memory Lane sure is a fun place to visit - I'll be uploading hundreds more ancient photos in the days to come! View photos: Editing with Tom View photos: Honor Among Thieves Premiere Watch video: Honor Among Thieves Trailer
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| Galveston weekend | |
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6.14.2007
5:57 PM | Link |
 Every now and then my pal Tom and I take a little road trip together, and last weekend we headed to Galveston. The drive was pretty easy and fun, too. We decided it was Andrew Lloyd Webber weekend, so we listened to Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Evita, and Jesus Christ Superstar all the way (and there was plenty of bad singing going on, that's for sure!). We stopped in Houston first to enjoy the Menil Collection, which is a great museum of modern art with lots of incredibly famous stuff (I really enjoyed all the Magritte pieces). We also checked out the Rothko Chapel, which I've wanted to see for a long time. Later we checked into Galveston's not-so-fabulous Beachcomber Inn, but it was nice and close to the beach, so were able to walk almost everywhere. We ate at Shrimp & Stuff and had some nice gulf shrimp (and stuff), then we did a lot of beach walking before having a few evening drinks. The next day we walked around the downtown area (the Strand), and got to see some huge cruise ships in port. All in all, it was a relaxing trip and a really nice weekend! View photos: Galveston Road Trip
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| Happy Anniversary! | |
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5.17.2007
8:32 PM | Link |
 Today in 1963 my parents began their life together! I feel like the proudest son in the world to have such a wonderful mom and dad who love each other so much, so I'm always happy each year when May 17th rolls around. One of my treasures is an album of original wedding photos, so I decided to quickly scan a few of them today to celebrate! Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad - you'll always look like movie stars to me! View photos: Wedding Day 1963
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| Wonderful waterfall | |
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5.15.2007
12:25 PM | Link |
 My parents and I always take a vacation or two together each year, and this year Mom decided it would be nice to visit Niagara Falls! It was really a fantastic trip for so many reasons. There's nothing like actually seeing the falls in person - I had seen a million photos, of course, but I was still absolutely amazed at what it was like to actually be there! The Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls are both beautiful, and it's incredible to think of the sheer power of all of that water. Our hotel was really nice and had a great falls view, but the best feature was the enclosed walkway to the casino next door, where we spent most of our time! It was fun getting Canadian money and blowing it on the slots, and we found some really fun games (I even managed to play non-stop for several hours on a single $20 once!). We took a wonderful tour to get in all the major attractions, such as the Skylon Tower (terrific view), Journey Behind the Falls (which is mind-blowing just because you can actually look out through the rushing water), and of course, the Maid of the Mist! The boat goes right up to the Horseshoe Falls, and I loved getting soaked in the mist and screaming the whole time! Everything about the trip worked out nicely - we had beautiful weather, a super-friendly driver from the airport and a great tour guide, and I even got to be together with Mom on Mother's Day, which hasn't happened in years. As always, it was a wonderful family vacation! View photos: Niagara Falls Watch video: Niagara Falls VacationLabels: niagara falls, photos, trips, videos |
| Jazz weekend | |
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5.06.2007
12:32 PM | Link |
 Besides being a great weekend for geeking out with free comics and Spider-Man, this was also a weekend with two fun gigs for the Ernesto Marquez Sextet! On Friday night we played at North by Northwest, which is a nice brewery/restaurant with a large outdoor patio venue, and we had a nice crowd of people enjoying the food and our tunes. We played a three-hour show, which meant we could be a "real" jazz band and take all the solos we wanted, since we had plenty of time. Lots of friends showed up to see us, too! On Saturday night we played our first show at Tree House Italian Grill, which is a wonderful restaurant with a huge outdoor eating area surrounding a massive tree. Fred, the guy who runs the restaurant, made us feel like stars - he fed us a fantastic meal, bought us a bottle of wine, and even piped our music into the restaurant so folks eating inside could enjoy us, too. It was a great experience, and it must have went well, since we have three more gigs booked there in the near future! Check out the official band website for details, and enjoy a few photos from last night (with thanks to Shawn for the action shots). View photos: Ernesto Marquez Sextet
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| Tofurkey fan | |
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4.16.2007
9:54 PM | Link |
 Some guy on Flickr is going nuts making mosaics of different kinds of food photos that he finds, and one of my Thanksgiving pics is included in his Tofurkey mosaic. I guess someone else eats that weird stuff besides my pal Chris! (My tofurkey pic is in the lower right corner.)Labels: photos |
| Walt Disney World wrap-up | |
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4.06.2007
9:40 PM | Link |
 Thanks to my pal Melinda, I have a few photos of myself with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip & Dale from my recent trip to Walt Disney World, which gives me an excuse to write a little more about the fun!Each day of the trip I carried a pedometer with me, and Melinda and I were amazed at the miles we walked! Of course, Epcot is the largest of the four parks, and believe it or not, we covered a full 18 miles that day! All of the other days were over 10 miles each, too. Keep in mind that the counting started by walking to the bus stop at 7:30 AM, and finished back at the room after 10:00 PM, so we definitely had some full days of walking! I've been thinking some more about Space Mountain lately, and now I think I like the original Magic Kingdom version better than the Disneyland version, just because it's little more exciting. It definitely feels scarier, but it's great to get really pumped up and enjoy it! Part of the fun is screaming at the other track during the main lift - it's so cool to look across and see the other set of rockets and cheer each other on! View photos: Mikey & Characters
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| Forever at Epcot | |
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3.30.2007
5:34 PM | Link |
 Here's the rundown for my second day of Walt Disney World fun, this time at Epcot! There were lots of fun things about this day, which included two new attractions: the amazing Soarin' (which is identical to the ride at Disney's California Adventure, but just as beautiful), and Mission: Space. My Disney pal Melinda and I were both a little freaked out by the possibility of getting woozy during our trip to Mars, so we chose the Green Team (which is the same ride with less intensity). It was a totally cool experience, and I loved being in that cool cockpit with all of the switches, buttons, and lights (you can play with them to your heart's content, which I did!). Next, I finally got to check out the Leave a Legacy photos that my parents and I had taken during our 2004 visit, and it was so nice to think of our faces being there at Epcot forever! Finally, this was my first chance to really explore the nooks and crannies of World Showcase (on other trips I always went too fast), and it was lots of fun (I even spoke a little bit of Japanese in the Japan pavilion). Have fun checking out the photos! By the way, Melinda took some pics of me, which I'll have online sometime next week (hang in there, Mom!). View photos: Epcot
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| Lights, Motors, Action! | |
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3.28.2007
10:07 PM | Link |
 One of the new attractions at Disney MGM Studios that I got to experience for the first time was the Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show. I've seen other stunt shows before (including the Indiana Jones show several times), but nothing compares to this show! The theater is absolutely huge, containing an entire French town set. To fit the MGM Studios theme, there's a pretend director and actors that walk the audience through the various scenes, but the meat of the performance is sheer action! It's really exciting when each scene begins, because you hear the roar of the cars approaching, and then suddenly they are all over the place. Each car is constantly skidding, creating tons of smoke as they grind their tires down to nothing! This is really precision driving, too - whipping around to shop inches in front of other cars, going forwards and backwards at high speeds, and many other jaw-dropping maneuvers. Of course, there are explosions, too (gotta have a fireball!), as well as motorcycles and even a jet-ski! It's amazing to me they can do this show several times a day - the drivers are really fearless professionals. If you like roaring engines and squealing tires, this show is definitely for you! Here are a few photos from the first day of my Walt Disney World trip, and there are plenty more on the way. View photos: Disney MGM Studios
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| Flickr fun | |
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3.15.2007
7:14 AM | Link |
I can hardly remember life before Flickr. I have thousands of photos still sitting there on Kodak Gallery (which was called Ofoto back when I used it), but Flickr is just a million times more useful. This week they just launched a new feature called Collections, which is basically a way to group Sets. I played around with it a bit and made a few collections, so I guess it's kind of cool. I tend to use tags for mini-categories, so I'm not sure how much I will take advantage of this new grouping, but it was fun to give it a try (and it's always fun to step back and enjoy all the photos I have on Flickr)! While I'm talking about Flickr, I might as well point you to some fun links. My pal Barron uploaded some really old photos recently, and there are a few pics of me from my very first trip to Japan. Nastukashii! I also want to share my favorite source of Hello! Project wallpapers, all created by the extremely talented Hachiro. She is adding new wallpapers all the time, featuring members of Morning Musume as well as other H!P artists, and they are really creative and tasteful. Of course, there are millions of H!P wallpapers all over the web, but I haven't really seen Hachiro's mentioned anywhere, so I hope they become really popular. I only wish she made widescreen versions, now that I'm on my Mac Book with the larger screen. She has a really cute blog, too (also with wallpaper links), so take a look! View photos: WEBmikey's collections View photos: Barron's WEBmikey pics View photos: Hachiro's Hello! Project wallpapers
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| A dreamy weekend | |
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2.19.2007
6:01 PM | Link |
 Last weekend was full of fun happenings. Besides seeing two movies with friends, on Saturday night I got together with Chris for a gaming session. We played lots of Wii, but I also brought over my PS2 for some Guitar Hero and Taiko Drum Master! I hadn't played Taiko in ages, so that was especially fun. On Sunday morning I got up early and met Ernesto for bagels, and then we gave our annual support to our pal Tom who always runs the Austin Marathon. He was taking a slower pace this year, but he still looked great and full of energy at Mile 16. Tom is one of my few friends who's a few years older than me, so it's pretty cool that he keeps cranking out the marathons! After all that hard work watching runners, I took a three-hour nap in the middle of the day, which was especially great since I had a dream in Japanese! This has happened a few times before, and it's always amazing to me. Of course, in my dream I can say whatever I want without hesitation (this time I was actually doing a Jpop interview of sorts), and it's a great feeling. Maybe I have much deeper language skills hiding in my brain waiting to be released! View photos: Marathon
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| Grandpa's photo | |
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2.14.2007
9:53 PM | Link |
 I only knew one of my grandfathers, my Dad's dad, William Walters. He passed away when I was pretty young, but I have many fond memories of him. After my Grandma passed away last year, I received some mementos that she had, all kept in a wooden Bible case (which is something I had never seen before), and one of them was this wonderful photo of my Grandpa when he was young (you can view a larger image on Flickr) . I'm pretty sure I remember seeing this photo often in Grandma's house when I would visit as a child, and I'm so glad I have it now. Part of growing up is eventually saying goodbye to loved ones, and I treasure the photos I have of my family, especially those that I miss. I finally got a nice frame for this photo a couple weeks ago, and Grandpa looks nice on my dresser with everyone else.
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| Birthday bash | |
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2.04.2007
3:23 PM | Link |
 Last night my "birthday week" came to a big finale, thanks to a special celebration with my pals! Things got off to a great start with some fun gifts, and then we all went to Maiko Sushi Lounge downtown for some swanky sushi and other Japanese-fusion delights. The meal was totally incredible - we tried so many different things, and everything was delicious! My main dish was the hot rock, which is a fun "cook it yourself" meal of fantastic beef, which you sear on a sizzling stone. We all shared a couple bottles of Momokawa sake, which was my first time to try unfiltered sake, and now it's a new favorite! After dinner I had a big birthday cigar (thanks to Jonathan), and then we headed out for karaoke! As always, we had an incredibly crazy time in our private karaoke room, enjoying more drinks and keeping the songs rolling. I had mixed together a special medley (which I brought on CD) of my favorite anime and tokusatsu shows to sing in Japanese, and I totally enjoyed being a crazy geek for everyone! (There are lots of photos of my amazing performance - I normally would never upload so many pictures of myself, but I can't stop laughing at them!) After leaving the karaoke place around 2:00 AM, Ernesto and Jonathan took me to get some late night tacos, which really hit the spot after exhausting ourselves with singing. It was a really fun evening, and I'm so grateful to all of my friends (who treated me all week with emails, gifts, dinners and wishes) for making my big birthday so special! View photos: Mikey's Birthday 2007
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| Christmas magic | |
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12.26.2006
8:55 PM | Link |
 I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! The final days of my Christmas vacation were simply wonderful. On Christmas Eve, my parents opened the rest of their gifts from me (and loved everything), and then we watched A Christmas Story together just like we have for the past few years. On Christmas morning I opened all of my presents, and I couldn't believe how much Santa brought me this year! I got enough DVDs, books, and Nintendo DS games to keep me busy until June! After all the unwrapping, we watched the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade and ate candy, and after that Dad and I watched some Disney True Life Adventures while I drank wine until I needed a nap. When I woke up, it was time for Christmas dinner, and Mom cooked everything perfectly as always! My entire vacation was really incredible and so relaxing, and Mom and Dad gave me another magical Christmas just like they have for the past 39 years. Enjoy the final group of Christmas photos, or take a look at all of them together in the complete set! View photos: Christmas 2006 Part 5
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| Christmas Eve-Eve | |
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12.23.2006
10:06 PM | Link |
 It's amazing how fast vacation days pass - it's already Christmas Eve-Eve! My parents and I are still having lots of fun together, and I'm still enjoying tons (literally!) of holiday food. We went to see another movie and made a quick stop at Crossroads Mall, which is always fun to see since I went there a million times when I lived here. We've still been playing games in the evening, and now we've added Derby Day to the mix, so we can bet on virtual horses and scream at the TV while they race! Yesterday I had a nice surprise visit from my old high school friend April, who stopped by for some fun conversation. We caught up on lots of stuff, and it was wonderful to see her again! It won't be long now before I'm ripping all the rest of my presents open! View photos: Christmas 2006 Part 4
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| More Christmas highlights | |
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12.20.2006
10:24 PM | Link |
 Christmas fun continues! Dad and I finished our yearly puzzle, which was a personalized map of the surrounding miles with our house at the center - it was much more difficult than I expected, but we did it. We've also been really enjoying challenging each other with Clubhouse Games on Nintendo DS - Dad is really skilled at darts! We kept our tradition of watching the Christmas home movies (this time on DVD!), and we also watched The Polar Express, which Mom & Dad hadn't seen before (they really enjoyed it). We also have been playing some DVD games I bought for them - we each played Deal or No Deal (and I'm the current record holder!) and a few rounds of Trivideo, and both are pretty cool games. Finally, we went to Sears to buy my parents' "big gift" this year, which was a new fridge, we ate out at a couple of our favorite restaurants, and we had a second day of Vegas fun at Riverwind. The time sure is flying by! View photos: Christmas 2006 Part 3
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| Casino adventure | |
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12.18.2006
9:57 PM | Link |
 My parents and I love to play slot machines, so for the last few visits together we've gone to the Remington Park casino and had a fun time. But today we decided to check out the new Riverwind Casino, which is brand new and the largest in Oklahoma! The building is really massive, and the interior is pretty cool - it definitely feels like Vegas, but the decor is nice and tasteful. Of course, there are thousands of slot machines, each with it's own plush chair in front of it, and they have several restaurants and a food court, too (just like a mall). We found one of our favorite games, Super Jackpot Party (which is so much fun because of the bonus games), and spent several hours playing nickels and pennies. We discovered when you play pennies that the machines are rigged to pay off a lot more often, and even with pennies I was able to finished the day with $45 bucks in winnings! View photos: Christmas 2006 Part 2
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| Here comes Christmas! | |
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12.16.2006
9:20 PM | Link |
 Christmas has officially begun! I always look forward to spending the holiday with my family, opening presents every single night. This year I started my parents off with some personalized Disney Santa hats, so all three of us can look extra festive for all the gifting! The Christmas eating has started, too, with plenty of cookies and some of my favorite foods (like salmon patties and homemade potato chips!). I'm trying to counteract the calorie onslaught by doing a few exercises each day, but other than that my only activity will be ripping wrapping paper and shoving cookies in my mouth. I'll try to make a WEBmikey post periodically, but it may be hard to interrupt my busy schedule of relaxing! View photos: Christmas 2006 Part 1
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| Perfect presents | |
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12.12.2006
10:12 PM | Link |
 I've received some really amazing Christmas gifts from my pals this year! This weekend I gave everyone this year's video project (which was a big success, judging by the laughter!), and they went together to buy me a fantastic new gig bag (for my drum kit hardware), since my old one was a serious pain. The new one is totally amazing and has wheels on it, so it's going to be so convenient! Then tonight, my pal Melinda and I exchanged gifts, and she gave me a beautiful Snow White figurine (part of the Disney Traditions series by Jim Shore)! It has a great folk-art style to it, and looks wonderful with my other Snow White sculptures. She also gave me a little LEGO set to add to my growing collection, too! Christmas is so much fun! Be sure to take a look at my latest Flickr photos, since I just got up-to-date with my latest toys, PEZ, and collectibles. View photos: Disney Collectibles View photos: PEZtastic View photos: Toys on Stage
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| Study week | |
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11.28.2006
10:38 PM | Link |
In a few short days I'll finally be taking the JLPT in Los Angeles, so I've been setting aside lots of time this week to get some final studying in. Mostly I'm just re-taking the Level 4 tests from 2004 and 2005, and so far I've been doing well! My latest scores (for portions of the test) are 100% (for kanji, which is pretty easy in a multiple choice situation), 88% (for particles, which always drive me crazy), and 95% (for grammar and reading comprehension). Later this week I'll use my CDs to practice listening comprehension a little more, and then I think I'll be ready! When I get back from LA and it's all over, I'm going to be so excited about my upcoming Christmas vacation! The timing of the test is a little weird, but it will make relaxing at Christmas even more relaxing. On a completely unrelated topic, I finally posted some photos of the last LEGO set I built, the Batmobile! This was an incredibly satisfying set, since it was fun to see how the working gears fit together (since the turbines and engines spin as the wheels roll), and the final car is really sturdy and solid. I had to backtrack a little bit after getting lost in all those black bricks, but it was worth it! View photos: LEGO Batmobile
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| Soup and pudding | |
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11.24.2006
9:31 PM | Link |
 Yesterday was another incredible Thanksgiving dinner at Chris & Eliza's, who always work so hard to cook an incredible feast for our happy group of pals. This year we were joined by Baby Sofia (along with parents Kristin & Carlos, of course), who is growing up so fast, and I had a great time crawling on the floor to get some fun pictures of her. The meal was fantastic, with two special bookends - Eliza made a delicious butternut squash soup (because I am always raving about her past soups) to get things started, and Bernadette made some excellent banana pudding, which is one of my favorite desserts! It was nice to get stuffed and sit around listening to music, or watching Baby Einstein via Chris' new 40-inch LCD HDTV. The whole day made me happy and thankful to have such great friends, and gave me the energy I'll need to finish my Christmas video project! View photos: Thanksgiving 2006
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| LEGO bounty hunter | |
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11.02.2006
10:40 PM | Link |
 My new LEGO love is still going strong, so it's about time that I posted these long overdue photos of my third project, Boba Fett's Slave One ship. This is a fantastic set, since the design of the ship itself is so fascinating, which means there are tons of cool custom LEGO parts to put together. They really went all out with features, too, since there are great hidden missiles and a kind of rubber-tipped dart that actually fires, too! The Minifigs are cool, especially IG-88, who is made of non-Minifig parts. This is a really solid ship, too, so when you pick it up to watch the wings swing into position you don't have to worry about it falling apart (unlike the Star Destroyer, which is extremely fragile). In other LEGO news, I recently built the incredible Batmobile, which may have been my favorite set to date (so you'll have to wait for photos of that one)! I have no idea what set I should buy next, but I think I better figure out where to put these in my house first! View photos: LEGO Slave One
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| Yet another Heroes Halloween | |
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10.29.2006
11:45 AM | Link |
 Happy early Halloween from the Greatest American Heroes! Last night we played our annual Halloween show at the Carousel Lounge, decked out in costumed craziness. I decided to go simple this year with a Fred Flintstone outfit (which was really comfortable, except for the stone underwear), which turned out great since Wilma & Betty showed up! Francis was a nice Clark Kent/Superman combo, Kirk was Mork from Ork, and Chris resurrected his Greatest American Hero costume from a few years back. Ernesto was by far the star, though, taking Chris' dare to go with an I Dream of Jeannie ensemble (and Jonathan was Major Nelson to go along with the theme)! Plenty of folks in the crowd were dressed up, too, which made for a great costume parade during our third set. It was a really fun night, but don't take my word for it, take a look at the photos! View photos: Heroes Halloween 2006
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| Tons of photos | |
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10.27.2006
10:22 PM | Link |
 As you probably know, one of my obsessive habits is taking close-up shots of new toys and PEZ dispensers, but I'm often lazy about getting them uploaded to Flickr. I always think it would be cool to upload one or two each day to keep things fresh, but actually I just end up forgetting about shots I took months ago. So, I decided to just catch-up with tons of older photos, so this is a good time to remind you about my ongoing photo sets! Most of the new shots are of PEZ, especially Japanese Mini-PEZ (since I've been buying lots of the sets I missed on eBay lately), but there are also some new toys to see, too. As always, I'm still working on my "technique" - I really want to capture the personality of each toy! View photos: PEZtastic View photos: Toys on Stage
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| Pals and pumpkins | |
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10.23.2006
11:14 PM | Link |
 Wow, this is the most days in a row without posting in a long time! I'm back from Los Angeles, so it's time to get back to WEBmikey. My trip was a lot of fun (of course!), so I think I'll go over the highlights in some detail.After I arrived, Dae and I went to the Farmers Market, a really cool collection of shops and stalls with all kinds of food. We checked out a cool toy store, then ate some incredibly yummy treats for breakfast (bypassing the healthier fruit). After that we tried to catch a studio tour, but it was sold out! Next we thought we would see a movie at the El Capitan, but it was closed for the day for a special event that evening! So, we decided to visit the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, and it was pretty fun (totally cheesy, but great!). Next was ice cream at the Disney Soda Fountain (my first time), and then it was naptime (after some nice scotch). Later we went to a sports bar to watch the Mets lose and eat some oh-so-tasty food. The next morning was Disneyland, bright and early! The Halloween decorations were everywhere, and they were pretty cool. The new Jack Sparrow-ized Pirates of the Caribbean was great, although I still wish I could step back into the original attraction. The biggest surprise for me wasn't the new effects or figures, but instead it was the changes in music! The dramatic movie music (especially during the Wicked Wench attack) really makes the ride more adventurous. Injun Joe's Cave wasn't so exciting, but now I can say I've been there! There were some great new music acts (Mary Poppins and the Pearly Band, plus a pirate band) that were really entertaining. As expected, we had a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious twelve hours! The next day we walked around Venice Beach and had lunch there. I really enjoyed being there with so many different kinds of people (every extreme imaginable), yet everyone seemed to have an accepting attitude - it was a cool vibe. After that we visited the Giant Robot store (that I've always wanted to see) so I could buy some cool T-shirts. That night we had dinner at a great tapas restaurant with Dae's friend Selina (whom I've met on past LA visits), his friends Steve & Sonja, plus our pal Jerry, my official career-changing, Spidey-animating hero. It was so much fun talking, drinking, and just enjoying the evening, and it was a fantastic finale to my trip! View photos: Los Angeles October 2006
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| Threadgill's night | |
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10.04.2006
10:06 PM | Link |
 Last weekend my pal Francis and his band, which also features my pal Chris (both Chris & Francis are also in the Greatest American Heroes, since all of my friends mix together in our various music projects!), played a show at the outdoor stage at Threadgill's downtown. For part of the show they were the band for Maryann Price, who was really crazy and entertaining, and they also had a pretty amazing ancient sax player who was incredible to hear. It was a fun show, and it was nice to sit outside in the evening breeze and drink with Ernesto & Jonathan and everyone else - it was a nice relaxing night with friends! As usual, I enjoyed taking some photos and playing around with different simulated film speeds. I really like a few of them, so enjoy the set! View photos: Music at Threadgill's
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| LEGO Empire | |
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9.27.2006
10:55 PM | Link |
 I finally got around to taking some macro shots of my LEGO Star Destroyer, so now you can take a look at the building experience! I just put my camera in one position and took a picture after I finished each major assembly, so the photos aren't that exciting, but you can see how it went together anyway. It was totally amazing to build something so big with that many pieces (over 1,300), and once again, I was really impressed with the engineering (although the Star Destroyer is much more fraglie than the X-Wing, mainly because it's hollow). After the building shots are some nice "studio" shots - the Minifigs are especially cool this time (but then again, Stormtrooper armor is always cool!). My next project is going to be Boba Fett's Slave One, which is only around 600 pieces, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the rotating wings work! View photos: LEGO Star Destroyer
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| Fluffer-whatter? | |
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9.21.2006
12:56 PM | Link |
 The other day my pal (and office-mate) Ryan mentioned that when he was a kid he used to love to eat Fluffernutters. Of course, I didn't know what in the world he was talking about! He told me about this stuff called Marshmallow Fluff that's only available in certain states, and that a Fluffernutter is just a Peanut Butter and Fluff sandwich. We decided to look for it online, and found lots of places that sell it, so we bought a few jars! We got it this week, so Ryan has been playing Fluff chef all week and making Fluffernutters for breakfast. I have to say, they are really delicious! The key is getting a lot of Fluff on the bread - you need twice as much Fluff as peanut butter, or the peanut flavor will over power the marshmallow. I think the whole thing is pretty cool, since it's all new to me, and Ryan's enjoying the taste of his childhood! View photos: Fluffernutter
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| Baseball adventure | |
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9.18.2006
9:17 PM | Link |
 Yesterday Barron and I drove to Arlington to see the Angels/Rangers baseball game - it was kind of a rainy day, but it was still a blast! It was fun to remember the game we saw in Houston and compare the two - we both liked the park in Arlington better, since it felt more like being outside. We had special passes to get into the Cuervo Club, so we had a beer there and checked out the view that the swanky folks get to enjoy. But speaking of view, we had incredible seats behind third base - we couldn't believe how close we were to the players (you could even hear the umpires)! We had some great baseball food while we enjoyed the game - hot dogs (of course), peanuts, beer, plus bratwurst and fries for Barron and nachos and ice cream for me! The Angels lost (bummer), but I don't mind, because we saw some great plays, including some nice home runs (complete with fireworks). The drive home was kind of intense for me since there was a lot of rain, but Barron and I just chatted our way through it (and even learned some Japanese together). It was a great Sunday, and I slept like a log when I got home! View photos: Angels at Rangers
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| Mikey's happy day | |
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9.02.2006
9:44 PM | Link |
 Friday was the first day-off I've had without a real purpose in a long time - maybe the first ever! I had such a great time just enjoying myself that I |
