Went to San Francisco last weekend, walked across the city so many times I got blisters. I went to the MOMA, Audium, and Howard’s Cafe (If you ever go to Howard’s, my friend Jesse’s art is all over the wall.) I got a nice calligraphy marker & I got to drive a 50 year old superbeetle. (And! I will probably get to drive it again.)

In Minnies House

I went to Disneyland for the first time as a belated birthday present. It was quite magical. I think I would have loved it as a kid, or maybe I would have been completely overwhelmed. I went on all the major rides. The second time I went on Space Mountain (which is a ridiculous name) I managed to do a Rodin’s The Thinker pose at the end of the ride, when I walked out to the picture area, someone saw the picture of me and came up to me and shook my hand. Everything is incredibly overpriced, so overpriced that my friend David chooses to look at prices in churros, as in “this lunch costs 3 churros.” I think it’s a good way to try to forget how much you’re spending and be able to actually enjoy it. Plus, Disneyland’s churros are pretty amazing. In front of the castle on the ground is the lyrics to the song from Pinocchio. I teared up a little when I saw that.

On Splash Mountain (seriously these names are terrible), my friends convinced me that the front seat is the best seat. Best seat if you want to be completely soaked. Thankfully it was hot outside. I then went up to hug Tigger. Lauren has a little book with all the Disney Characters she’s met and she gets their autographs. They’re actually quite good at mimicking how you would think the character would sign, but unfortunately the characters don’t talk. Not even the stormtroopers. But the stormtroopers have all the body motions down perfectly. They were a blast to hang out with.

It’s a bit strange how colorless the world feels after you walk out of Disney. Things are no longer themed, organized and extremely clean. And all of a sudden everything’s priced normal again.

After Disneyland I found out I got accepted into every school I applied to. Now I’m just waiting to see who gives me the best financial package, and seeing if there’s anything significant enough to sway me from, ya know, the fact that I can go to UCLA and double major.

xx

This was an assignment for a class

First Attempt:

My first reaction to the drumming was anxiety. I felt as though I was walking through a place filled with plants. At times it felt like a field, other times a rainforest. I fell into a swamp that seemed to be quicksand. I struggled to get out, the anxiety increased. I think I was struggling for about 5 to ten minutes. I breathed in and froze, and let the swamp devour me.

I fell into an underground cave filled with tunnels. In all directions, the tunnels looked to be smaller. I could hear angry dogs somewhere in the caves. Then, I saw the pack and their beady red eyes. They were wolves, not dogs. I ran as fast as I could away from the dogs, but they were so close I could feel their slobber slapping agaist my calves. I felt as if I was going to die. I ran and ran until I fell into another cave.

Here there was a pond. In the pond there were many fish and sea creatures. They all danced and sang in unison. They all smiled. I sat on a lily pad and my anxiety lowered. I noticed there was a whirlpool in the pond, and I was sucked into it. As I was being sucked down, I told a coral-colored octopus that I didn’t want to go down, it just smiled at me. Then, I found myself in a blank expanse of white.

It was a white desert, similar to what White Sands is like, but it went on forever. I think there were snails on the sand leading me somewhere, so I followed them for what seemed like hours. They pointed me to dig into the sand, so I did. In the sand I found a dying young wolf. The snails said this is what I was. The wolf was bleeding and had a broken leg. I felt the intensity of the drumming again and the anxiety of death. I panicked and woke up.

Second attempt:

I fell into the swamp with ease this time. I didn’t struggle. When I reached the first cave, there were no angry wolves. I found my way to the pond. Once again I sat on a lily pad and got pulled into the whirlpool once again. This time, there was a pack of wolves in the white desert.

The wolves were not hostile, and the one in the center was the same wounded wolf from before, but older. The wolves pushed down against the ground and we were back in the whirlpool. We swam to the top of the pond, passing by the smiling coral octopus once more. As I was sitting on a lily pad, the wounded wolf pulled out a heart shaped ( the natural shape of a heart) gem from his chest and placed it in my chest. The pond became a river, and it started flowing up the caves, pushing me away even though I wanted to stay with the wolves longer. My chest cavity was glowing. I suddenly remembered I wasn’t supposed to bring anything back, and then I woke up.

Recently there was a news article about the discovery of the “First Yo Momma Joke” in a Mesopotamian Tablet. I raise you the first Hawaiian shirt. It is a scultpure called “High Priest” from the indus Valley Civilization, ~4.5 thousand years old.

I got to go to Portland this past weekend, and despite the long drive, rideshare hassles, rain, ice and snow, it was tottally worth it.

The first time I watched an episode of Portlandia was in portland with a bunch of Portlanders after spending 2 days in Portland. It hit the nail on the head.

Otherwise, Portland has a really cool art scene. The second largest hammered copper statue in the US, called Portlandia, is a nice landmark. There are murals all about, including the iconic “Keep Portland Wierd.” Chinatown is full of interesting and authentic art and architecture. Even the little nick-nack stores have some pretty unique stuff in them. Everyone was especially friendly, as I expected from what I heard about Oregonians. Portland is also famous for it’s microbreweries. I went into Rogue and Deschutes for beer tastings. It was really interesting and an awesome expirience. At Deschutes I also had an Elk-Steak burger. It had won some awards and I wanted to try it for it’s novelty. But I hadn’t eaten meat in a while and I got a really bad migrane from the meat. I think it’s because there was alot of animal fat on it, but I can’t be sure.

Ninety percent of my time in Portland was spent in the epic Powell’s bookstore. I’ve been buying from Powell’s online for a while, and always loved how cheap they were and how much rare stuff they had. The store (called “City of Books”) is GIANT and does not dissapoint. I ended up buying a book on the history of the Roma people in Eastern Europe. I also bought two Van Loon Books. Oh, and I got a notebook for drawing from the clearance rack.

The best part of Powell’s is, of course, the rare book room. Anything from Star Wars blueprints to books printed in the first 50 years of printing resides here. I was especially excited when I found a very rare manuscript of old Romanian folk songs that was handwritten on one side, and translated into English on the other side. Some books in the rare book room aren’t that old, they are just rare or in high demand. Some are books owned by famous writers with their notes in it. I also found a highly covetable first edition of Lolita.

Public transportation is free in most of the city. I explored the Portland State University campus (gorgeous) via the Portland train cars. (Basically a type of tranvai) They also have the Max, which is something like a bigger traincar. I tried the famous Voodoo donuts. Wasn’t too impressed with the donuts, but the store design and creativity was top notch.

Things I didn’t like: In the early morning when I went out to explore the city there were quite a few crazies, hobos and the like. I also didn’t like the weather that much. Cold weather is okay with me, but cold and wet is frustrating. At least the constant rain kept the city clean.

On the drive I also got to see the Davis area (!!!!) and drive through Merced. I saw the volcano Mt Shasta in the Cascade range. Stopped in Weed, CA for giggles.

Overall, really fun, tiring, and can’t wait to do it again!

Probably not. People like convenience. If you don’t offer it, someone else will. Netflix does some of this, and honestly Netflix is one of the most likely ways to minimize pirating. iTunes single-handedly stopped a huge part of music sharing. People wanted high quality sound and they wanted it digitally. iTunes provided that, people had no problem spending for that service. Until producers/companies/artists realize that:

• people want TV shows right when they air
• they want to watch them when they want
• they want to be able to pause
• they dont want to pay for a TV subscription because you don’t have time to watch enough shows to make it worth it
• they don’t want to buy DVDs, have them scratch and break, or have an “extended edition” released a few months later
• TV shows should also come with subtitles, in 4 languages minimum
• TV shows should be shown in 1080p quality

… then piracy will continue. The average user likes pirating more because it’s convenient rather than because it’s free. When you can’t offer a decent competing service, you lose. Good day, sir.