Pudding and Chopsticks

There is a custodian cleaning the already spotless floor. He looks like a greaser from a movie. He’s made the same lap about 3 times now. I am wondering whether I should continue on. I could just go gamble. I am heading to Vail to see some old friends and get my fair share of the high altitude air.

America is weird. Having lived outside of the States for about 18 months I find myself wondering what the hell is going on. For instance, I travel in China a bit, mostly fly, and when confronted with airline travel within the States I just wonder what foreigners think. you must remove your shoes, be stared at, inspected and frowned upon. Remove your belt and whatever else you got. Where as in China you don’t have to remove your belt, or shoes, hell even you cell phone. It’s a little less paranoid. I am all for flying safe but when does it become, lets all get naked and strip searched, you do want to keep our skies safe right?

As for adjusting to America, well, it’s awkward. I find myself speaking softer, slower, more laid back. I feel weird speaking to regular people. Not sure why. I have been in LA for a stint. We will see how I feel when I get to a place that I have actually lived in. Maybe that will make a difference. I roll into Vail today. I’ve had some lag from the time change. That could be affecting me somehow. During the night I seem to be the most awake.

So good times. I’ve been taking photos so when I get a chance to fix’em up, I’ll post them on here for all the world to see in all their glory.

Or something like that.

I went to In N Out burger when I was in LA. Thus I have concluded that I am going to move to LA. Preferbly to a loft apartment ontop of an In N Out. Pretty sure it would be the closest thing to being in Heaven.

Read the story here:

If you don’t agree with me on this.. Well then, we got beef. In fact, lets make that a Double Double, with Animal Style fries. OH baby…

The next couple of posts are going to be what I wrote on the plane and the first day here. Enjoy.

Jesus. This flight is taking forever it seems. So far we are 9 hours and 45 minutes into it. It feels like a week longs detention.  Really. Man. The flight from LA to San Fran was good. But when I got to San Fran I didn’t have time to blog or even watch people. I didn’t even have time to hit up a McDonalds. It’s beside the fact I couldn’t find one. I had to go to the international terminal. Wasn’t in any real rush but I didn’t have much time. I wanted to get boarded and see what I could do about these two carry on bags. I really didn’t want to have one by my feet. I have one by my feet. If the bin was 1-2 inches taller. It would great. I guess it isn’t that bad. I can stretch one leg out by the airframe and the other we might have to amputate. Lets see, we are just inside of China, passed Khabarovsk a while back. Think that is in Siberia. Who knows. 977 miles till touchdown, 31,500 ft high, 5,074 miles since San Fran, I got a little reggae on. Katchafire. Awesome.

Did you ever wonder what the hell a country is anyway? I got to thinking about it. It’s a line in some dirt or sand. Either it was taken by force or by barter. For survival. Think about it. I need land to grow crops and what not. The more or better land I have the more that I can survive and provide for my family and the betterment of my species. That’s about it. Kind of weird. Man there are lots of Chinese people on this flight. Full too. What I wouldn’t do for some In N Out right now.. Even some DQ. An Oreo blizzard. I might even let some kid turn my face into a pirate. Who wouldn’t want to go through customs with a pirate face? That would be awesome. Yeah awesome. Anyway I took some pics of some noodle snack that tasted like cardboard. 15-cent roman is better. But whatever I took it down. I guess lunch is coming up soon. Can’t wait..

I just want to get up and dance and shake the booty. I need it I can’t feel my butt checks. Is that bad? Whatever. Ill be out of here in 2 hours. Oh I forgot you know what made me super mad… yeah no free booze. What the hell is that? I want my international free booze. 6 bucks a pop. Yeah f that.. You can that that and shove it United. Damn that sucks. So far 3 diet cokes with ice. A white Russian would be so bomber right now. Man. Cream and heavy on the Kailua. Boooya.

So my last meal in American was enchiladas. Thanks Jenna. It was awesome. Not even regretting it today, so far so good. I had some reservations about taking down Mexican food before a day of 14 hours worth of flights. But all is good. I’m hungry.
Order of business one when I get to Shenyang, foot massage. Soo good. Soo cheap. So good. That’s all I want. To sit there and have some girl rub the bejesus out of my paddles. Size 12.. You don’t get that in China. In fact I should have brought more shoes because you can’t find much over size 10 there.
There is a guy behind me that must be married to a Chinese women, younger guy, they have a cute little girl. The thing that kicks ass is that he speaks English like me.. Then busts out some Mandarin like it’s well water at my mom’s house. Which by the way is way, way better then tap water from LA. Let me tell you. Huver you agree. We talked about that. I am again hungry. Damn. There’s some women across the aisle she looks like she’s is about to turn to dirt she is so old. No offense. I just get a running nose around dust. You know. Cute little girl speaking Chinese.. Awesome.. Old lady about to turn to dust is smiling at little girl. Opp now she’s back to sleep. Must be great to be able to fall asleep. I slept 2 hours last night. That’s it. Then when I get to sleep on the plane the damn stewardess hits me with a styrofoam thing of cardboard noodles. What’s this world coming to?  10 hours and 7 minutes.  Some guys walking laps. Still cant fell my butt checks. Will try again in a minute. Really want to open window shade. Would that be a d bag move when everyone else is sleeping. Probably. Saw a girl that looked like she was twelve with two cartons of cigarettes form the duty free store. Damn. What the hell is duty free? I swear that the stores in the airport are nicer than the mall. Don’t save much, 10-20 bucks, but then again that like 6 foot rubdowns. Now I see what the big deal is.. I must investigate. Watching some Discovery Channel. Got to love it. Hey look Kidrobot. That’s cool.

I want more Diet Coke.. Wait, I see movement, maybe some food. Or booze. Ok that’s wishful thinking.

Well, it’s been a adventure here in Los Angeles. I’ve had some awesome times with some awesome people. But it’s time to move on. Tomorrow I board a plane to San Fran, from there to Beijing, and from there to Shenyang my final destination. thirteen hours and fifty two minutes to Beijing and another hour and ten minutes until I finally arrive in Shenyang. Total 15 hours of flight time, close to three hours of layovers, one international date line, and a lot of sleep (I hope). I’ve got an Ipod, Psp, in flight movies, magazines, and thumbs to twiddle just in case I can’t. I will no doubt write about watching people. I think it’s fun. So get ready for some more nonsense.

Some may ask why I am moving to China. I argue why not. I’ve come to a point in my life where I don’t quite know what to do but didn’t want to do what I was doing. Colorado is amazing. If you have lived in the valley you know what I mean when I say that it’s a stagnant pool. Not much unlike living in Lowell or Saranac. As of 2000′s census, Lowell contained 4,013 people. Avon contained 5, 561 people. Here are some more stats for you from Wikipedia.

Avon:

There were 1,890 households out of which 27.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.4% were married couples living together, 5.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.6% were non-families. 21.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 1.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.23. In the town the population was spread out with 20.6% under the age of 18, 17.5% from 18 to 24, 47.1% from 25 to 44, 13.3% from 45 to 64, and 1.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 29 years. For every 100 females there were 141.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 144.0 males.

Lowell:

There were 1,492 households out of which 38.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.1% were married couples living together, 14.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.4% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.17. In the city the population was spread out with 29.3% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 17.6% from 45 to 64, and 13.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 89.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.8 males.

Interesting huh? Well take a look at the last line. In Lowell there are 100 girls per 89 guys. In Avon there are 100 girls per 141 guys. Nice huh. Yeah just awesome. This isn’t my only beef in the valley. And yes it’s a little extreme. There are girls in the valley. Some I found interesting but most were just pro hoes or miss independents. You get the picture. Everyone moves there to have fun, be independent, and live their own life.

After 4pm I didn’t think there was much to do unless you were an alcoholic. I want to see art, shows, photography. I want to see more than 4 movies at a theater, walk around, etc, etc. Pretty much the only venue to see a show in Vail closed last year. That sucks. You began to feel trapped. Not just figuratively but for real. I mean really there is only one road through the entire valley. No culture was my biggest thing. Or a lack of the culture that I wanted to participate in. I didn’t want to always be in the snowboarder crowd with the grungy look. I wanted to be in the east village in NY or LA. Somewhere you could talk to other people with the same interests. The valley didn’t provide this, at least outside of snowboarding. The winter was the only time that I could do what I wanted. And during those six months all I did was work, shred, take photos. That’s it. Like I said I had some awesome times with awesome people. This is just my take on it. Working there was also pretty chill as long as you could deal with rich people yelling at you because your three minutes late. That got to me. I don’t like getting ripped into even if it’s not my fault. Especially if it’s something so dumb like being a few minutes behind. I also didn’t find it challenging enough. Everyone wants a job that they can sit around and do nothing. You can only do that for so long until you get bored. That’s what I was, bored. But whatever, it was a cool job and was fun most of the time. Cost of living was a big thing also. I made pretty good money but I think that I could of made the same somewhere else. I paid more for rent that some of my family did for their house payments, and I had three roommates.

So why China. Well, I needed a change. I want a challenge in life. I want to take photos other then snowboarding. I want to learn a second language. I want to experience something other than America. I want to see as many perspectives in life as I can. So that’s why. I thought the country was so interesting the last time I went, that I am moving there for at least six months. And who knows I may be there much longer. This may or may not answer any questions. But if it doesn’t then go ahead and ask. I’ll answer. If anything it will make myself think about what I am doing. I’m glad that I started this blog. It’s for me as much as it is for anyone else. My brain needs an outlet and whether anyone listens matters not.

I went to a store today.. It could be the greatest store of all. Or just a really cool store. Actually it can’t be the greatest store of all. Nope, I would have to conclude that it is just a really cool store. You maybe asking yourself, “what’s so cool about this store?” Well the only thing they sell is… Soda pop. That’s right. Soda pop. They have some candy and an aisle of beer, but they have four or so isles of nothing but soda pop. I must thank my cousin for cluing myself in about this national monument. Or should be national monument. I took a couple photos. I should of took more but I was astounded by the selection. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Again like the Grilled Cheese Invitational I have been training 27 years for this. Life goals achieved… two..

Here is what I purchased. A fine selection I must say. I even got a “nice” from some girl that was working there.. I should go back and start some sort of relationship with her. Perhaps she gets a discount at the soda pop store. Which would be awesome.

So I’m a big fan of cream soda. This vanilla cream caught my eye. It looks old fashioned so it has to be.

I like grape soda. This is NuGrape, ” A flavor you can’t forget.” Yeah well, we’ll see about that.

Strawberry soda sounded interesting. But.. Hot Lips is much more interesting..

Vanilla bean soda pop.. yes please.

An orange soda is great. But an American classic orange soda is awesome.

Club soda blows unless it has some vodka in it.. I got this one for Huver who couldn’t make the long perilous journey to the soda pop store with me.

I like me some root beer. I remember getting root beer from the gas station in town and chuggin it like a real man would chug a beer. Of course I was 12 at the time.

Who doesn’t want to get creamed. Not me, bring on the cream.

I have a small obsession with Junior Mints, so I thought that a Mint Julep would be awesome. Look at the label, it has a steam boat for god’s sake.

I got it because it’s blue.. Is that a bad way to pick a soda.. Nah……

So.. I think this calls for a giant scientific taste test. Or something like that. Stay tuned.. I might get around to it. Oh and the store is called Galco’s Soda Pop Stop. Probably should of said that earlier.

I went to a concert last night of a band that I enjoy very much. Thao With the Get Down Stay Down. I was blown away. Thao walked on stage, a seemingly cute shy girl, a red dress with small black polka dots, cowboy boots, and tied back black hair. But when she picked up that guitar and made those first strings vibrate, no longer was she a shy little girl. No. She became a passionate, soulful singer. Belting her lyrics as loud as she could. A phenomenal guitar player as well as quick witted and funny. Her lyrics hit home in your heart and make you want to dance. The entire show she never stopped moving once, and neither did I.

So far in LA I’ve done a lot of things. Most have been off the beaten path. The Grilled Cheese Invitational, driving on the PHC, restaurants, and this. The Elliott Smith memorial wall. I had no idea who Elliott Smith was until I heard him from friends in Colorado. I liked it. Lately I’ve been getting into singer/song writer music. Elliott is awesome. I don’t want to pretend that I am this mega fan and know everything. I digg the music. I listen to him a good bit but I listen to others more. Goodwill Hunting is one of my favorite movies. I don’t think any other soundtrack would of done the movie justice. You can find more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Smith and http://www.sweetadeline.net

The wall is from the Figure 8 cover shoot. Soon after his death fans initiated a memorial there. What follows is some words that caught my eye.

Music is very powerful. It changes peoples lives, gets them through the hard times. I know it has for me. Unfortunately people can not be around forever, but their music can. For that we can be thankful.

Two cheeses in a pod.

Just think about this. A grilled cheese contest. This has to be the best idea ever. It’s perfect. I’ve been training 27 years for this moment. But, apparently over 2,000 other people have also. I found out about this from a friend of a friend. I decided that this is the kinda of event that I would have to attend and take some photos at. I expected a smaller say.. 500 people event. Laid back, chill, maybe I would get to taste some top level grilled cheese. NO. Let me tell you what it was like. You got 2000 some odd people in line. Luckily we had Bryce and a friend in line before we got there. We took the Metro and didn’t pay. Rebel I know.  Don’t get me started on the placement of the ticket machines and lack of turnstiles. So as you can see from the photo below the line had to be 1/2 mile. It was long. Really long. We got in after waiting in line for probably an hour. Judge or not to judge? Of course judge. So we waited in another line for 10 minutes or so, signed a piece of paper and received two judging tickets. This sounds awesome, and it is. But the problem lies in how they executed the next part. Instead of having a special judges section where you can go and get a competitors grilled cheese sammich, they just set of tables where everyone could stand. We found a spot and just after someone got their first sammich. Soon after that the round was finished. Sammiches eaten = 0. We moved to an area that was thought to net us some prime cheese and was crowded by a mass of people. Some judging, some taking up precious space. Some would get their sammich and proceed to stand in the way of everyone and eat it. Not moving for the people behind them. Sammiches eaten = 0. Finally people moved and I got in front. Katie nabbed a sammich and I waited for mine. Nothing. Apparently I wasn’t loud enough, I didn’t scream, wave my hands, jump up and down, or push people out of the way. A few minutes more of battling the crowd I finally I got one. I quickly downed it. It was filled with veggies, kind of like an Italian pizza. It was ok, mediocre at best. Sammiches eaten = 1. Tickets left = 1. I stood my ground. I mean, why move? No one else was. I tried to get another piece to judge. It ended with people behind me getting to eat and myself left with nothing. I got pissed, turned around, and muscled my way out of the crowd. As you can see from the photo below there had to of been 5 people deep behind me. All and all it ended with me agro about how many people there was at the grilled cheese event. Like I said it was a good idea. Inevitably with all good idea they catch on and become “corporate” when everyone finds out about them. I bet the first 6 or so Grilled Cheese Invitationals were awesome, but the 7th…… didn’t cut the cheese.

The line. From the tents on the right back to us, around a hill, back towards LA, then to the left and down. Way too many people. Am I a hypocrict because I thought there was too many people at the event with me being there myself for the first time. Probably.

The Kama Sutra catagory.

Kraft was there making grilled cheese for all.

One of the many fine grilled cheeses.

The judging criteria.

The people.

My one and only score.

The line to get grilled cheese. I’m sure most of these people didn’t even have judging tickets either.

We walked to Chinatown afterwards.

Cool address box.

Ocean

I’ve been pretty pumped on the new light capturing device. I got to put it through the ringer today with a trip to The Getty and the ocean. It’s been sometime since I’ve been to see some art. Long over due I would say. We walked around for a good three hours. Saw some Monet, Renoir, Titian, Degas, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt. It was awesome. Really glad I went. Next stop Seven Eleven. Then the ocean. A couple photographs with nothing but witty captions.

What no instructions for an Arnold Palmer.. I’m insulted.

Van Gogh. It’s worth all the hype.

Another from the traffic chronicles.

We ended up driving through Santa Monica, getting on the PHC (Pacific Coast Highway) and going to Malibu.. Pretty rad, pretty rad.

Mom, I’ve found sand. I know, it’s awesome. Everything you said it would be.

Our roommate or former roommate, sigh, Bryce was so kind as to take us to this nice little fish eating place. Thank you kind sir, may karma pay you ten fold. Fish and fries for all and tartar sauce to boat.

Malibu.

Now this is what us photographers would call “sweet light.” Almost there..

NO.. Don’t move. Katie.. come on… Don’t move. I swear this is going to be cool. Oh.. and by the way, nice coat.

Ocean is cool, and also breathes salty. Draw a straight line you’ll hit China. I think. At least the probability is high.

Sweet, sweet light. Sweet, sweet Katie.

So peace out. I’d spent and I got a big day tomorrow. Until then.

I really wanted to be blogging everyday but things haven’t gone according to plan. But that’s ok. This morning I was already to start hacking at this when I remembered that I had to call China to figure out what was going on with some visa items. I booked my flight awhile ago and still hadn’t gotten my visa. Not good. I knew that I had to change it. So as I expected the visa papers were not done yet. After all it is China. And if I know China it’s going to take a few hundred hoops to jump through for me to get into the country. If only the US was as stringent. Long emotional story short, I changed my flight and will be in LA for awhile longer. I’m just going with the flow. My Grandma would say “don’t you worry, everything will work out.”. I hope so Grandma. So until then I got some blogging to attend to.

Let’s see, last post is about airport. Ok. Flight to LA. Yes. I remember. I was wedged in between 55 Danish people heading to Honolulu for vacation. They held up the entire plane getting on. Some how we still ended up early into LA. Noise canceling head phones are really awesome. Even though they were not the best, i.e.. Bose, they worked. PSP is handy to have. I plan on getting Tiger Woods 2009 to play on the way to China. I got to do something for 13 hrs. Metallica’s new album worked wonders drowning out the sound of crying infant. In the end it wasn’t the best flight that I have been on. But at least I didn’t need to pull the tab under the seat and use it as a life saving device.

Katie met me at the gate after she got in from her flight. Bless her heart for listening to me complain about previously mentioned Danish people. Rented a car from what I would call ghetto place (it turned out to be fine). Soon after we were at Huver’s house in Pasadena. Um. What else did we do….? Oh yeah we went to eat sushi just off from Sunset and then went to see the worst movie ever, Crank 2. Well possibly not the worst movie every but close. The sushi was good. The best part was that it was cheap, and cheap is good, thus sushi = good. Went back to Huver’s house and crashed.

LA day two. First order of business: Purchase new point and shoot camera. Second order of business: take pictures continuously. Done and done. So below are the photos from day two.

These aren’t really anything special. Just a few snaps of what I think are interesting things. WEHO. Huh, free hiv testing. Interesting. No really, I’ve seen a number of flyers, signs, and billboards advertising this. Must be a California thing. Can’t say that I’ve been driving through Vail and come across a “After you get done shredding the slopes come on it for your free HIV test.” Hollywood. So we went to Hollywood and walked the stars. Big deal. It’s a tourist trap. Just like Vail is. The Famous Chinese Theater. You know, I want to go to China to see Chinese things. That’s what you usually do, at least I would think. I want to go to a country to see their culture. I say this because there were so many Chinese people in front of the Chinese Theater. I don’t get it. You get what I’m saying? Maybe they wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I don’t know.

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight

That Elton John, what a guy. Just to prove to you I was in Hollywood, I took a photo of the street sign. I know with the advent of Photoshop I could of faked it.. I assure you sir I did not. Amoeba music is a massive place. Really massive. They had everything under the sun. You need vinyl, they got it, you need jazz, they got it, you need trendy independent music lovers that look down on everyone because your not into music as much as they are, they got that too. The traffic here is crazy. So to keep myself from rolling my neck up in the window I have began to take photos out the window when we stop. Which is why 90% of the photos I take are out the window. Seven Elevens where a 44 oz Slurpee has been purchased 3 to date. This is number two. Katie and I went to another friends house to BBQ and play ping pong. A little garage study in light temperatures. And again a photo from some road where we were stuck in traffic.

Opps, I almost forgot. We also went to the LA tar pits. We were pretty pumped on finding some dinos gasping for their last breathe before sinking into oblivion. Mission not accomplished. What did we find? A floating elephant thing and grass growing. What a let down.

Next post. The ocean.