We’re engaged! December 16, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Random , 6 comments
PHP/MySQL Tutorials & Books November 6, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Software , 5 commentsI want to learn more about PHP and MySQL. Does anyone know any good books and online tutorials that would explain these? Thanks.
All Moved In November 2, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : San Diego , 3 commentsThis is where I’m spending about sixteen hours of my day since I sleep and work here.
My Eternal Quest to Fill my iTunes Catalogue with Album Art November 1, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Friends, Music , 1 comment so farDuring the search for Seam’s Headsparks on Google Images, I was delightfully surprised to find Adrian’s head with a foam Statue of Liberty hat. At first, I thought Google became incredibly smart by guessing that Adrian liked the band Seam and mistook Lady Liberty’s foam hat for a large green spark emanating out of Adrian’s head. Hence, the shocked face. Unfortunately, Google is not that smart (yet). Adrian wrote a post about never ripping this album to mp3s. I never ended up finding a decent, high res image of Headsparks’ album art. So I think I will use Adrian’s head instead.
Cutest Housemate
Posted by Patrick in : Friends, Photography , add a commentI usually don’t like using the word cute, but I have to in this case.
The Hand of God? October 31, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Photography , add a commentI just learned that the grandfather of the people that I’m staying with has a darkroom in his garage, lives a mile away, and he likes to teach others how to use it. And I coincidentally just bought five film cameras. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited.
Spoils from an Estate Auction October 29, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Photography , 4 commentsA week before I left for San Diego, I traveled to the Royal York Auction Gallery in East Liberty. They’re housed in a storefront in Penn Circle, across the street from AAA. I heard that they would auction off different photographic equipment. Since it was within walking distance of my house and I was on a hunt for a TLR, I decided to check it out.
An estate auction is an experience. The adrenaline dosage was drastically higher than eBay. Two men sat on a high pulpit overlooking the bidders. The man on the right described the item to be sold, while the other one auctioned it off. When you actually bid on an item, the auction is intense as the Micro Machine man is slurring together numbers and babble as he points between the different bidders.
My eye was on a Rolleicord TLR and a tray of antique cameras, which contained a few TLRs. One of them, a Yashica D, looked like it was in great condition. I ended up winning both auctions for $22 a piece. The tray of cameras ended up having a few more goodies than I had first thought.
One is an interesting Olympus Pen F, that is a compact, half-frame 35mm SLR. That means that the camera uses half the size of a regular 35mm shot, and doubles the amount of exposures on a roll of film. A 24 exposure roll turns into 48. I’m interested to develop and make some prints, and see how they turn out.
Another interesting camera is a Polaroid SX-70, which is a Polaroid SLR. I was pretty excited to have a Polaroid camera that was also an SLR. Unfortunately, I cannot get it to work yet. It shoots out the test card, but doesn’t make any prints yet.
I just had several 120 rolls developed at Chrome Digital in San Diego. After I get some images in digital format, I’ll post them.
From the Inferno October 24, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : San Diego, Christianity, Friends , 2 commentsSo, I finally made the leap from Pittsburgh to San Diego a week ago. The transition has been fairly smooth so far. I’m living with friends of Chelsea and mine in the Clairemont area and I work for the same company that I worked for in Pittsburgh. Albeit, remotely and temporarily.
My first week started relaxing and is ending surreal. Moving was fairly easy because I ended up mailing everything by US mail since most of my stuff was media. The latter part has been a little hairy because of the fire. Chelsea’s neighborhood was evacuated when I was visiting on Monday. We escaped to her relatives in El Cajon. Their family was able to return to their house earlier this afternoon.
As far as seeing the fire, we only saw lots of smoke. Chelsea’s school has the entire week off. She always wondered what a snow day would be like and I think she got her wish. Instead of snow, it’s ash. The sidewalks and roads have a light dusting of ash every where you go. It also smells like someone started a large bonfire.
The fires are spreading quickly because of high temperatures, extremely low humidity (<10%), and high Santa Ana winds. These winds start in the desert (east) and blow westward. Hence, the fires start and move very easily.
I’ll try to serve some photos of SD life in the ensuing weeks. Still have to get lots of stuff: a car, driver’s license, etc. I do have a church though, which I’m pretty excited about. I’ve known about the church for two years now because I’ve been reading one of the pastors’ blog since October of 2005. One of my first posts linked to his.
Last Day of Work August 16, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : San Diego, House, Travel, Pittsburgh , 1 comment so farTomorrow marks the last day of my almost five year stint at my current employer. It’s unreal to think that I spent more time working there than I did either at college or high school. It will be bitter sweet to leave. I developed a lot of good relationships over the past years, so it will be sad to leave everybody. On the other hand, I’m looking forward to a change and a new chapter. Everything will be different - new place, new culture, new job, new church, new serious relationship, etc. Though some things won’t change. Colin, rest assured that the Pirates are still my home team.
One of the really recent developments over the last couple of weeks is that I rented out my apartment. It was my first time advertising and showing the place. I put the place on craigslist and within twenty-four hours, I showed it to seven different people, with the last one wanting it. It’s a huge relief to get that piece over with, so now I can concentrate on moving and house improvements.
In case anyone is wondering what I’m going to do with the place, my friend will be the property manager. And I hope to collect some handymen in the meantime so issues can be handled.
On Monday, I head to Seattle to spend eight days hiking in the Pacific Northwest. For the majority of the time, we’ll hike through Olympic National Park’s diverse landscapes. We’re pretty psyched for the trip. After that, it’s off to San Diego for a week to visit Chelsea and take an interview.
Exciting times ahead…I’ll keep you posted.
Flood at Work August 9, 2007
Posted by Patrick in : Videos, Pittsburgh , 2 commentsIt poured at work today in Monroeville. At 7:30, when I came in, it wasn’t raining at all. About 30 minutes later, it looked like Jesus was coming back. Here’s a video my coworker shot:
You can see that the creek next to my building reached the bridge that led to the second parking lot. From what I hear, we’re supposed to be receiving a second storm in the next couple hours. Watch out!