Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

Arriving in Portland, I was more interested in visiting a street faire that I had found my last time in town. I purposely skimped on breakfast at home so I could eat more later.

I was pretty sure that my flight was leaving Portland around 1:30 PM. I wasn’t too sure, but I wasn’t too worried, either. The light rail to the airport wouldn’t take too long, and I still had an hour and a half.

At the faire, I was faced with a difficult choice: Thai? Burgers? Indian? Philly Cheese Steak? I walked back and forth between the booths, realizing that while everything looked delicious, I was limited by money and stomach space. After deliberating, I decided on a philly cheese steak and a box of Pad Kee Mao for later.

Suddenly, I was very aware of the time. I had only spent half an hour at the faire, but less than hour to get to the airport suddenly seemed sparse. And I realized that the light rail would take longer than I had previously thought. I wasn’t sure of my departure time, and as I thought about it, I couldn’t remember waht airline I was even traveling with!

As the MAX light rail rushed to the airport, the clock’s hands seemed to be rushing even faster. I pleaded with my watch to spare me a few minutes, but it ruthlessly counted down to my unknown departure time. Halfway to the airport, it was already 12:50 PM, and I wasn’t sure about making the flight anymore.

Finally, the plane pulled into the airport. I almost yelled at the operator as he took up valuable seconds lining the train up with the station, seconds I could have been using to run to my flight of unknown departure time and airline.

The train doors finally blissfully opened, and I darted out to the terminals. As I neared the check-in areas, I heard a dreaded call: US Airways flight to Las Vegas, departing at 1:24 PM, final boarding call.

Right then, I figured out my flight time, airline, and also that I was not going to be on that plane.

Luckily, US Air transferred me to a later flight at no charge, and the connections worked out. I bought a Jamba Juice, sent out a flurry of text messages, nervously ate some Pad Kee Mao, and settled in with the other thousands of travelers waiting for their flights.

On the train, on the road again. I don’t know where I will end up. I am making my journey as I go along…literally. I am at the whim of uncertainty. But unlike before when I have faced uncertainty, I will not let that strike fear in me. Armed with a camera, pen and my wits, nothing can stop me! Brimming to the top with confidence and excitedness, but free from expectations or goals.

The train tracks next to ours are steadily keeping pace. It seems just right that Oasis should be playing now.

My brother announced today that he has his first date! He’s going to see a movie on Wednesday with a girl.

And then my sister’s friend’s dad called in today and asked about a sleepover that they were supposedly having at our house. It was the first we had heard of it, and all her friends were going to be guys.

My mom sensibly put a stop to that!

But anyways, it’s cool watching my siblings grow up. And I’m just happy that they have my parents to guide them with their wisdom and the lessons they learned raising me.

On my drive home from zeroing my rifle today, I thought about firearms and tools.

I’ve always purported firearms as tools, especially to my more skittish friends that were wary of my interest in firearms. And they are: a firearm never hurt anyone on its own. A gun left alone won’t do anything, but the moment someone lays a hand on it, it becomes a potential danger. And the gun doesn’t care who is pulling the trigger (unless it’s a Lawgiver) meaning that it has no partiality. It will assist anyone in their task, whether that task be a good or evil one.

Then I started thinking about tools, the slang expression for people. I’ve called many people tools throughout the year without much thought to why they are tools. It was always just a gut feeling, and it was usually on spot. I realized today why, at least for me, those people are tools. They are weak-minded or have no backbone, and are easily influenced by stronger opinions. They are the type of people that annoy by never being sure of anything, or always agreeing with me. People without principles. In a sense, they can be swayed easily to side with anyone. Much like guns, they can be utilized to align with good causes or bad ones.

For the summer, I have done these things so far:

Read Dune, The Alchemist, Animal Farm, and parts of Leviathan and Two Treatises of Government.

Finished Call of Duty, Call of Duty: United Offensive, Call of Duty 2, and about 90% of Fallout.

Left Oregon (and will again on Monday!).

Floated down a river.

Took over a hundred photos a week.

Mowed the lawn.

Remembered more than a few dreams.

Saw Wall-E.

Shot guns.

Played Axis and Allies.

Cooked dinner for various people.

Slept in until 12.

Oh boy.

What a book. My buddy over at Bryan’s Sophia had been recommending this to me for the better part of a year. I was daunted by it, since everyone else I had talked to said it was dense. When I tried to get through it when easily distracted by other things, it was dense.

But once school was out and I didn’t have anything else to do, I blew through the book in a week. It was an amazing exploration of psychology, religion, politics and economics (both at a micro and macro level), philosophy, leadership, and the human condition. The character development was amazing, and the story was complex, interwoven, and took many unexpected but interesting twists of fate throughout the story. I know understand what good science fiction is: it isn’t about space ships and lasers and fantasy worlds. It’s about creating situations that make humans or other beings act and think in ways that are relative to us, or in ways that teach us various aspects of life.

A synopsis of the book would be too complicated, but I’ll sum up some of the best quotes from the book here:

A popular man arouses the jealousy of the powerful - Thufir Hawat, page 4.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. - Paul Atreides, page 8. (more…)

• Spice bottles don’t have the right spices in them because my parents try to recycle everything.
  Case in point: I tried to use “Oregano” on a dish I was making this afternoon, and so I logically used the bottle labeled “Oregano”. I discovered that it was another spice after sprinkling it on top of lunch.

• We have all these weird vegetables and foods in the refrigerator, and I don’t know how to use any of them. And then my dad will ask me to cook lunch for my siblings.

• My mom and I will be in an intense discussion about something, and then she’ll get ADD and go on a tangent about her orchids.

• Everything like cleaning and washing dishes and cooking and eating are on way different cycles.

• I feel like I’m on a different wavelength than the rest of my family.

• Home cooking used to be the best…but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse…I think Eugene has gotten to my parents, and now all they cook is healthy (read: gross) wholesome food.

But it is a nice change of pace. And even though my mom is eccentric and crazy, she’s so caring and loving.

So here’s a quick update on my travel situation…

Since I’m winging it over to Europe (no pun intended), I still haven’t finalized my plans, and they won’t be finalized literally until I’m on a plane over to Europe. But here’s what I’m thinking to do:

Fly commercially from PDX over to Baltimore-Washington International, and hope for a flight to Ramstein Air Force Base (Germany) or Naval Station Rota (in Spain) from there. If BWI doesn’t have Space Available flights within a few days of my window, I’ll hop over to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, which flys more frequently to Ramstein and Rota.

Once I get to either Ramstein or Rota, I’ll have to take a train or something to Geneva, which I still haven’t figured out yet.

This travel plan is great because there are so many things that could go wrong, and so many variables that could change along the way. I’m excited for this haphazard adventure.

Here are some of the vivid dreams that I have been having (and remembering) these last couple weeks:

One night, I dreamt I was a crewmember in an AC-130 gunship:

In the same night, I dreamt that I was calling Eshwari a lot, and she got annoyed at me.

I’ve had dreams about breaking my camera and its new lens:

I definitely had one about Dune and Arrakis.

I also had a couple about being in the military, some of it being realistic, and some of it being from the games that I’ve been playing.

Last night, I had a dream about traveling to Europe, and I remember having three bags to check and how that would cost me extra. I also didn’t pack my bags correctly, and I was afraid to miss my flight. Then I wondered why no one was there to see me off, and all of sudden a couple of my friends were there around me…and then I woke up.

As a part of staying productive this summer, I’ve taken upon myself to read many of the books that I’ve wanted to read or have been told to read. For both myself and my occasional readers, I’m going to review each one that I’ve read.

I’ve already read three: Dune, The Alchemist, and Animal Farm, but I’ll only review one here:

The Alchemist

The format of this story was pretty typical: Person lives life, person encounters catalyst, person embarks on a quest, he deals with difficulty, people help him on the way, he endures tests, and finally reaches his goal, all the while learning about himself and the world on the way.

The lessons that Santiago, the protagonist, learns along the way are inspiring: follow your heart, do not let anything hold you back from your goals and dreams, and realize that you can do anything that you set your heart and mind to. I particularly liked the idea of true love not holding a person back from their goals: at one point in the story, Santiago falls in love with a woman and contemplates staying with her instead of continuing his quest. She beckons him to forge on, knowing that he’d be happy staying with her, but unfulfilled.

But that was about the extent of my interest in the book. The book has a good message and has life lessons to teach. The story in which those lessons were delivered, however, was one-dimensional, simplistic and fantastic in a manner that was hard to fathom or believe. The author, at times, uses magic and other incredible devices in order to keep the story going, but it is often in a fashion that isn’t thoroughly explained or given a context to.

While the book was inspirational, and there are things to be learned from it, I would argue that most books exhibit this trait. What makes those kind of books good are well-crafted, complex, and interesting stories, which The Alchemist lacked. It’s short, though, so if you are free one afternoon, it couldn’t hurt to check it out.

Score: 2/5

My second day in Boise, David, Tony, Richard, and Tom and I went out to Red Robin’s to eat before shooting. We enjoyed many a discussion while watching Tony hit on the waitresses and Richard drink Raspberry Lemonade after Raspberry Lemonade.

At one point, a fellow diner joined us in discussing world politics, the economy, and feeding the geese with our steak fries (seriously!). I wanted to tell him to use his own steak fries, but instead used the argument that birds shouldn’t have too much grease. He was weird to say the least, very forward, and very educated in history and economics. This guy, Frank, predicted that we are going to hit a domestic economic crisis in less than two months. As he said this, I chuckled to myself that his very saying that, if it was taken seriously, could be the cause of the crisis. Expectations affect outcomes on both a small and grand scale. He complimented Tony on his thinking, and then I found out Frank was a fellow Ron Paul follower, which negated all weirdness from before.

Fountain Family - Canon EOS Rebel XTi with 35mm f/9.0 at ISO 100

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Departure

I left Eugene Tuesday morning on the train with Monica, and we rode to Portland together. After getting to Portland, I saw her off at the train station, and transferred her over to an interesting cabby to take her off to Switzerland.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around Portland, taking pictures of people on the street, which is really fun! I wandered into a street faire, and ate a couple Polish sausages and a milkshake. I forgot my debit card in an ATM, and a nice Asian lady ran after me for half a block to give it back to me.

One of the things I hate about big cities is bathrooms. Public bathrooms are conspicuously lacking in big cities, and with good reason, to my inconvenience. And while they are not completely devoid in the city, I can never seem to find them when I need to go pee. I ended up paying two dollars for a mocha at a coffee shop to use their Customer-only bathroom.

Lean Back - Canon EOS Rebel XTi with 35mm f/7.1 at ISO 400

So I’m back from Idaho, and I’ll be updating that soon. I had an awesome time!

I came home to my new 17-40mm F/4L lens, and I am absolutely stoked to use it.

Earlier today, I went to a camera store in Portland to try out both the 17-40 and the 10-22, which I had also been looking at. As I used both and shot some pictures in the store, the clerk helping me went to go talk to someone else. As the customer and the clerk conversed, he mentioned the 10-22 lens, and how young people like myself really liked it for sports and landscape. Then he said something that made me day:

“See, this young man has it figured out. He’s using good lenses on an XTi, because lenses are the most important. He’s transformed an entry-level camera into an intermediate system just by using better lenses.”

These days, nothing quite makes me happier than receiving compliments on my photography or photographic skills.

Hacky - Canon EOS Rebel XTi with 35mm f/3.2 at 100 ISO

As I unpacked all the stuff from my apartment, I ran across many little trinkets that stirred memories of the year. Most of them are inside jokes that nobody else will get. These are some of the things that answer the question: What is best in life?

To crush your enemies, to see them running before, and to hear the lamentations of the women!

Tank paper
Telling
Ethnocentric Fridays
Dumplings
Red vs. Blue
The Game
Jewish Holiday
Evil Pacman
Romandy
Curry and many cans of coconut milk
Christmas and Easter Mass
Bubble Tea at Berkeley
In-n-Out
Driving through LA
“Whatever, it’s up to you.”
Half gallon of rum and Natural Ice
King’s cup
Duck Football games and their interesting scoring scheme
BBQ at my parents and Pictionary
Paintballing
Cobwebs
Cake on pants
Midnight runs down route Autzen
Smoked Lager
Pride Rock
Chocolate
Coriander
Scottish accents
Yummy!
“That’s crap.”

Stinky
Spooky
So sensitive
Food in a box
Trident Tropical Fruit Gum
Drama!
Slience of Sleep
We’re skipping class!

Ten days ago, my blog turned one year old! I didn’t even realize it until today, when moving home marked the official beginning of summer for me.

It’s been a good year, to say the least. I met great people, met even better friends, learned a lot academically and personally, did a LOT, and stirred up my share of the pot on campus.

The year was so dense and intense that I don’t remember the beginning or middle of it too well. It was very dynamic, and there isn’t one thought or word or description to sum it all up.

I don’t know what to say about this year, really, except that I grew.

I made better friends, friends that lasted longer and meant more to me.

I had fewer friends than before because I focused on the ones I had instead of trying to go out and get more. I was truer to myself, less concerned with upsetting people, and I made a lot of people angry. And I turned off a lot of other people that normally would have been ok with me. But I think it was necessary for me to explore that and not try to be nice and accommodating like before. And being truer to myself, on the flipside of pushing a lot of people away, showed me who my true friends were.

Friendship - Canon EOS Rebel XTi with 35mm f/6.9 at 100 ISO