Thursday, May 29, 2008

Night of the Living Thumpers



I stole that picture from somewhere on the internet, but it's too perfect not to share. Hey look, it's the animated, rotting corpse of Disney, come to devour your wallet! Hooray!

Not much going on here - some tutoring early today, then a bike ride is on the docket. Wrigley is off with Beck today to get her teeth cleaned, so it's just Sparkle and me holding down the fort today. Hopefully Russell Crowe won't show up, because DAMN.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Sparkling Ring Finger of the Speckled Belly

YAY!!! I was just talking to Beck the other day about the back in the days when the Speckle-bellied Jullietta and I used to play croquet on my friend Nick's lawn, and one time in particular when J-ette sent my ball sailing approximately 2/3 of a mile. And then I got an e-mail yesterday announcing the impending wedding of these two crazy guys:



HUZZAH!!!!!!!!! Congrats Julliette and Rob!!!!!! Many a nature-show host will now eye Rob enviously, realizing that he has landed this supremely excellent rare bird. See you in N.O., guys!!!

I Won a Con'-test!

Yep, that's right. I dropped my business card in one of them business card fish bowls and lucky me got drawn - I got to meet a real live Diamond Back! SWEET, I thought. Eric Byrnes? Hope not. Justin Upton? O-Dawg? B-Webb? Maybe a parlay into meeting Mark Grace? No, sadly, no. Instead, I met this guy:

DSCF3971

Yep, that's Joe Rattler, hanging out underneath a rock approximately one foot off a hiking trail Beck and I trekked up the other day. Yikes! He was actually pretty chill; there were rumors of a different snake who was hanging out by a tree and "really angry." Thankfully by the time we made it to that part of the trail, Mr. Angry Snake had found better things to do than scare the pants off of Nyets. Phew. So that's the second bona fide killer and embodiment of sin that we've encountered in our various hikes. And I survived, despite its merciless attempt to kill me by sitting still under a rock. Beck owes me for risking my life to accompany her on these hikes. (Note - in the interest of my own survival / urine-free status of my shorts, Beck led the way for the bulk of our hiking. You may call this wussiness; I call it "Darwinian adaptation"). Here's a snap of the Beck mocking my trepidations at the ol' hitching post:

DSCF3951

So in addition to near-deaths by poisonous snakes, Beck and I had an eventful Memorial Day Weekend. After encountering the Indiana Jones movie closely on Thursday, and after Beck got home late Friday, we decided not to rock Scottsdale's collective nightlife and stayed home with Chinese. Excellent. Crosswords may or may not have been done. We both worked Saturday - I had the usual uneventful day, but Beck had a ridiculous case with a sick kitty. They had placed an esophogeal tube in a cat, and everything was going fine when suddenly it started filling up with air everywhere. The best they can guess is that it got a tear in its trachea from the intubation and the anaestheisa gas was leaking into the cat's tissues. But then gas started showing up in the cat's abdomen, and if you got even an F+ in Anatomy class, you recall that there's not really a direct path from the mediastinum to the abdomen. So unless this was one of those rare cats with tube-and-circle anatomy, there was a coincidental second tear in its diaphragm, or something equally bizarre. Because of all this, the cat essentially inflated, and Beck et alii had to deflate it to keep it alive, and then check it into the emergency clinic overnight for observation. All of this was understandably distressing for the Beck, and she fretted over the kitty for the remainder of Saturday and Sunday - fortunately, everything turned out fine (for the time being - the cat is still sick), and the owners were understanding of the freaky circumstances that caused their cat to balloon. The general freakiness of the episode was confirmed by other doctors, so it's been thoroughly confirmed that Beck did nothing wrong. There are acceptable risks to procedures, and sometimes those risks include weird stuff.

That whale of a Saturday more or less incapacitated our Saturday night, but we picked up festivities for Sunday - the weather was silly beautiful (a high of 80 or so, nutsoid for this time of year), so we hit up Camelback. We took the other route this time; unfortunately, I forgot the camera so I'll have to head back soon. It's pretty steep and involves much more scrambling to get to the top. We didn't see any snakes, but we saw plenty of chuckwalla lizards, big fat guys who have the funny habit of crawling into tight spaces and puffing up their bodies so you can't grab them. Awesome. ANyhoo, great hike, pretty serious workout. I rolled my ankle on the way back down, but thanks to having sprained my ankle 14,000 times in high school and college, it seems I have no ligaments left to tear: I was fine, and even played Ultimate Sunday afternoon. (including a captain ridiculous layout grab of a scoober to win the game. WOOHOO).

After Ulti, we headed down to D&C's for sausage, corn on the cob and Mario Kart on the Wii. Beck and I are terrible at this game. Ugh. A lot of fun, but if I drive into one more pit of lava... anyways, good food, good times, great to see our Phoenician pals.

Monday, Beck and I headed to McDowell Mountains to take a five mile hike through rattlesnake country. Aside from the shadow cast by imminent death, it was a nice hike; not too steep, great views, lots and lots of cactus to highlight the scenery. Here's a smattering of photos to keep your 21st century dearth of an attention span focused:

DSCF3946 DSCF3948 DSCF3949 DSCF3955 DSCF3956 DSCF3958
DSCF3961 DSCF3962 DSCF3969 DSCF3972 DSCF3974 DSCF3978
DSCF3983 DSCF3977 DSCF3984 DSCF3986 DSCF3987

(1,1) Fields of choalla cacti; (1,4) You can see the Fountain Hills fountain and surrounding disc golf course in this shot; (1,5) Beck binocking; (2,2) Memorial Day Photo Op; (2,4) & (2,5) & (3,2) Beck's artisitc shots of octochillo cacti; (3,1) Close-up of the Hitching Post; (3,3) Trail to the peak where we saw Joe; (3,5) The "Saguaro with Dreads," according to the Beck.

Came back to the condo for some quality poolside chilling, and I mean chilling: it was still pretty temperate Monday, so not exactly ideal for floating with your mesh-bottomed raft. COLD. We capped off the weekend with some quality burritos and Summer Sams, quite nice.

And Beck and I have returned to the working week unwillingly; Beck rented some movies to keep the party going, so we've tackled The Bourne Ultimatum and the first hour and a half on 3:10 to Yuma in the past couple of nights. Why the first 1:30? Take a wild guess. I've also be assaulting the world by using my car as little as possible; I ran three and four miles in the past two days and biked 20 miles yesterday and have already gone on some long walks on errands and with the dogs today. I think this is supposed to make me feel good about myself.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Look Out Honey, 'Cause I'm Using Technology

Underarmor technology. In Arizona; in May. Late-ish May. Egads, I ran 3+ miles this morning and needed a long sleeve heat-conserving wet-suit top to do it in. Hace frio. We're all gonna die.

Here's wishing the Spurs good luck tonight, and here's posting two videos (thanks Karen) that I've encountered in the past couple of days:

(Scratch that, the first one won't let me embed. Here's the link).

WHen I first heard this Weezer song on the radio, I thought, "Wow, that sounds like some crappy band trying to sound like Weezer." I haven't decided whether it's better or worse that it is Weezer.


Indiana, No Relation to Nyet

Beck finished work at a reasonable hour last night, so we booked it over to the garish cineplex - complete with gigantic Indiana posters, more-than-life-sized Hulks, and loud sounds oh my the loud sounds - to watch, on opening night, the new Indiana Jones movie. On the way to the the theater, I asked Beck if he she was excited to see her boyfriend ont eh big screen.

"Boyfriend? He's old enough to be my grand..."

And we both though it at the same time - he's old enough to be her grandfriend.

"Oh, so he's your other grandfriend. I see."

Back when the Beck and I started dating, beck's parents, probably in effort to not commit a mislabeling faux paus and/or some kind of residual Victorian ethical code, would never refer to me as "Beck's boyfriend." I was either "a friend of Beck's" or, most often, "Beck's special friend from Texas." (Cue remark from Ali re: "special" in 3, 2, 1...). Beck's grandfather Papa / Alan was not one for such indirect euphemisms, so once I passed muster (I think this required being able to talk baseball and admitting the demigod status of Ted Williams), he referred to me as his "grandfriend." So now that Harrison has attained a similar though reverse direction label, I think all is right with the world. Nice.

I won't spoil the movie - and it's worth seeing, by which I mean it's fun and loud and exciting and all that and actually manages to make some rather funny meta-jokes - but Beck, post-movie, delivered what in my estimation is the most perfect review ever:

"I really wish they hadn't included the _________________."

Let's play the comment game - if you can guess what goes in the blanks, you win the prize.

So 'twas a good Thursday night - looking forward to the weekend and the end of a week in which I'm pretty sure I've had more cancellations at work than actual appointments. Blar. I'm off now to finish a couple of books; reviews coming later.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

3 Days of Dumb

I'm thoroughly aggravated at my workplace right now. In the past couple of days, I've had numerous students cancel on me - not entirely surprising, it's finals week - but no one really called to confirm their appointments, so this resulted in me going in several times from Mon to Wed and waiting for students who didn't show. I was biking to work, so several of those trips involved biking back and forth, getting sweaty and all hair-a-tussled for no good reason. Did I mention that it was 112 on Monday, in the hundreds on Tuesday, and still 95 yesterday. Awesome!! So i am sub-pleased with the folks responsible. Oh, well. That's what I get.

I've attempted to direct some of my ill-energy at exercising and guitar playing which has worked to a mixed degree. I ran about 3 miles Monday, 4 miles Tuesday and 7 miles on Wednesday - the last one turned out to be a bad idea as my left knee started clicking at about the six mile mark. Boo-urns. So I've decided to take today off and jump back on the proverbial running horse tomorrow (Note - taking the day off still includes running a 400 yard dash with the pups on their walk. Which is, as mentioned, awesome).

So on one of my runs I listened to the indomitable "Omaha Stylee" by 311 and decided to learn it. And once that fell easily, I started conquering other 311 songs. Yeeha. SO if you're in the need for some white boy funk metal, give me a call.

Tonight: the plan is to go to see Beck's boyfriend Indiana Jones. Don't know if that will pan out timing-wise (Beck gets off from work about 7, which could mean 8, and given her circa 9:30 bedtime lately, probably not a great idea to head to a 10 o'clock showing. Especially ona school night).

Two "shouldn't we talk about the weather" items: one, after being well into the 100s on Tuesday, today it's maybe 80, if that. Wa-friggin'-hoo; we push the deadly summer off at least another couple of days. Two, this Sunday past was absolutely fantastic - my back was bothering me a bit, so I skipped Ultimate and opted for a sit out by the pool day instead (and put a healthy dent in what might be one of the best novels I've read, The Sot Weed Factor). Just a gorgeous, perfect day for it, 100 degrees notwithstanding. I also had a bizarre string from Sunday through Monday where every single sporting event I even glimpsed came out favorably for the team for which I was rooting. Off the top of my head, in that two day span, The Cubs won twice, the Dbacks won twice, the Celtics and Spurs won Game 7s, the Penguins and Red Wings advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Red Sox won twice (and threw a no-hitter) and the Yankees lost. Great stuff.

Of course, that little streak was certainly not in effect last night. No analysis here - but if you can't cash in on the game where you have a 20 point lead midway through the 3rd quarter, it might be a hard series for you. Ugh. Not giving up, of course, but that was pretty barfariffic last night.

Alright, here's to upward facing days. I've been funked by bad Ultimate, bad work, bad disc golf, bad condo car thieves, aching backs and knees, just general badness of late and it's time to bust out. RAWWWWWWRRRR!!! Condo, hear my electric guitar!!!

(Oh, and if you are ludicrously bored, I just finished a fantasy strat-o-matic season and documented the results here). (Yes, I'm a dork).

Next Stop: Ashland

Congrats go out to Alexandra, "Cat in a Boat" career statistics leader and employed professional veterinarian type in the fine town of Ashland, MA. Way to go Ali!!!

As her first act as vet extraordinaire, she would like to remind everyone of the etymological roots of the phrase "shoo in." (Note: not "shoe in").

And now, some links:

This piece of work is extraordinary. I especially like the Bob Dylan moves he uses to start off. Seriously, what the hell is up with local news journalism? Are we trying to be stupid? "Here, i found one example of something; that means ALL people must be doing it!" Not that the girl in this segment deserves sympathy, but man, the whole thing is more interesting for the coverage, methinks.

Fun perfect pitch game. I cheat and use the star spangled banner (which starts off G-E-C - thanks Jimi!) as a reference.

Where you from? Speakin' wise?
Syncing metronomes.
Unwritten rules of baseball. Oops.
An interesting if a little off base argument that questions the ubiquity of Darwinian mechanisms.
Remember Kerry Wood's gem references a couple of weeks ago?
Fantastic blog of Crossword-inspired sketches. If you like the NYT Xword puzzle, you gotta check it.
Cool album covers, maybe.

My dad needs to have this as his homepage. For his puns.

Aaron thought I was kidding.
The entire catalogue of ACME products. Genius.
And some funny comparisons in the biking v. driving wars.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Lest I Forget

There's a pretty solid argument that maintains that the primary purpose of blogging is bitching and moaning. In that spirit:

Guess how happy I was on Thursday afternoon at 2:20 pm.

If you picked "Not very," then

CONGRATULATION

You a winner, HA HA HA.

Because on Thursday at 2:20 pm, I had the idea that I should bike down to the golf course on Friday morning. But in order to do that, I needed a pump for my bicycle tires - it wouldn't be too bad to have a flat en route to work, which is only ~1.5 miles away by roads, but getting stuck 9 miles from home without a functional cycle would have been bad. But it was 2:20, and I had to work at 3, and the bike store closed at 7, before I would be done with work. So in order to save time, I decided to drive over to the bike place real quick, head home and then bike to work. So I walked out to the parking lot.

The eerily empty parking lot. The one WITHOUT MY CAR!!!

After about 2.3 seconds of brutal panic, I realized that everyone else's cars were gone, too, so unless we had just been victimized by a very shwanky and very targeted crime syndicate, my car was probably not gone. Also, there was the fresh smell of tar in the air - I am, as mentioned here, Smelltard the Magnificent, but that putrid scent does not escape my attention. It turns out that though they cannot afford to pay their water bills, my condo association can afford to repave the parking lot. And apparently can afford to tow people's cars out of the way.

I was, understandably, miffed, as there had been no warning of any of this. But mainly, I just wanted to find my car so I could get to the bike store and then on to work. So i went to the office, land of the Pep-Squad-to-Sorority-to-Real-Estate Career Track Girls. Who are OH-SO-EFFING-HELPFUL, not. Beck has a particular hatred for them since the incident when they refused to let us park our moving truck in front of our apartment (they claimed it would block the sales spaces, and made us park across the complex. It was 115 degrees at the time. And no one parked in the spaces the entire time; Beck checked). So Beck routinely parks in their Sales spaces out of spite. YEAH! I have had several encounters with them where they treat me with something in the contempt to utter disregard range, so I am not a huge fan either.

All of this is meant to indicate that I didn't particularly expect any help when I got to the office. I was not disappointed. I first asked, "Do you know where the cars are?"

Unhelpful lady says, "I don't know; I think they're around back."

"Where around back?" I asked, as "around back" is about a mile long area.

"I don't know. You really should have moved your car ahead of time."

"Um, how was I supposed to know you were repaving today?"

"Uh, yeah, we sent a letter." Trust that this was in the best possible tonally inflected Frank Zappa valley girl type accent.

"I didn't get a letter. To whom did you send them?" (And yes, I busted out an objective pronoun).

"Well we sent them last week to the condo owners."

"But, you see, I am not an owner, I merely LIVE HERE."

"Well, the owner should have told you."

"You didn't think notifying me directly or maybe posting some signs would have been a good idea?"

"That wasn't my decision to make."

Buck passed! Obviously this interaction was going nowhere, so I left, tracked down one of the pavers and asked him where they had moved the cars. *He* was helpful and even apologized for having to move the cars, realizing that the complex's representatives had not exactly done the world's best job of notifying people. So I found my car, drove to the bike store, got a pump, headed home, and rode my bike in, just a couple of minutes late. So all told, no damage done. But in the eternal humankind basically evil / basically good game, chalk another couple up for the BE. Though I don't know if the Pep-Squad-to-Sorority-to-Real-Estate Career Track qualifies you as human. Can those gals use tools? I mean, besides blackberries and dirty looks?

----------------
Now playing: Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It

Friday, May 16, 2008

MBM



Frank: Changing the World One Nyet at a Time

Exciting week in the Ballad - I took my bike into the shop on Monday to get tuned up / new tires. Taking the bike in was interesting - it just barely fit in the Honda, kinda diagonal across the back and front seats with the front tire off. Yikes. So on Wednesday when I went back to get it, I though it would be smarter just to run to the store, a scant three miles away. No big deal. Except I got there and despite the fact that the bike was supposed to be done on Tuesday after 5, they were still working on it. So I jogged around the block for another half an hour while they fixed it. Fun! After they finally financially molested me, I got my bike back - brakes sweet, derailers sweet, tires nice and pumped and shiny, good to go. I rode home in just a few minutes; much more fun than the running it took to get there.

So since Wednesday I've been biking into work. And besides the sweat and the interesting hair formations that the helmet (yes, Frank, the HELMET) gives me, I'd say it's working great. SO great, in fact, that this morning I planned a little jaunt:

That's a 9 miles bike trip (18 miles total) down to the disc golf course at Vista Del Camino. Big fun, except of course I picked a gusty windy day to do it - biking there with the wind at my back wasn't too bad, but on the way home with the wind in my face was a little exciting. And the gusty winds made for a terrible round, too - a pretty decent par start got super derailed on the back nine, and I ended up about +7. Ouch! My back has been bugging me since Wednesday - here's hoping that's just coincidental and not caused by the biking - so thanks to that and the gusty wind, my drives were going nowhere and or majorly askew. And predictably, putting was a joke. No fun. But the bike ride was sweet; I was on the Green Belt the whole way, and except for a couple of traffic lights, it was completely easy, traffic-free riding. Huzzah.

That's about it. Trying to get in contact with the Danimal to see about going to DBacks - Tigers games this weekend. We'll see. Otherwise it's a light day of tutoring today and all day tutoring tomorrow. Bleh. Will see you on the flip side, hopefully with more enthralling things to post.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

39 Across: 1997 Green Day Hit

I played in the worst Ultimate game I have ever had the displeasure of playing in last night. We're talking worse than any of the idiotic LoG B team games I played at Rice with Algus the Boss. I mean, hey, LoG didn't know what it was doing, but at least we TRIED.

We lost roughly 15-4; the game started at 8:20 and was over by 8:55. The other team turned it over maybe four times that I can think of. Our team just wasn't playing defense, dropped the disc at every opportunity, ugh. But it was mainly the complete lack of effort that was disgusting. I honestly felt bad for the other team; they showed up to play a game - even if it was the battle of the 0-2 teams - and we just gave them nothing. Pathetic, stupid, and if anything is "poor sportsmanship," that was: again, not the bad play, the total non-chalance of not even trying. We have to expect lapses and drops and bad passes and all that, but do we have to tolerate people absolutely not playing defense at all? Not running, not picking people up, not marking? Barf, barf, barf. What a horrifically bad showing in the playoffs for a team that looked like it was coming together at least a little towards the end of the season. And to cap it off with that just makes me sick. A pretty big waste of a Monday night, and I'm not entirely unhappy that my future Mondays will not be taken up with similar garbage for the time being.

Beck correctly pointed out that I saw this coming, and that maybe I should just not care and/or even play in games like this. Fair point. I knew the 0-2 game was going to leave people entirely unmotivated. It didn't help that we didn't have Al or Eric there, and Obert gave approximately 0.2% of a crap - I don't think he even put on cleats to play. So Beck is right, I should've seen it coming, and I shouldn't get so angry at people. So there's that. Sorry.

(On the plus side, a friend of mine from the other team, Eric Francisco, played out of his head with sweet catches and Ds and layouts, etc. So that was fun to watch).

Tried to get my disc sport ya-yas out by going to play disc golf down at Emerald Park this morning, only the winds were howling at 20 mph or so and the course sprinklers were on. Great. I had played about half the course when some kids showed up as a field trip of sorts - they asked me what I was doing, so I gave a little impromptu session on how to throw a frisbee. I donated an old Ultimate disc to the cause and left the kids throwing something that approximated a flick. Sweet! Not bad, especially considering how windy it was. So The Love has been spread one group farther. That took about an hour, so I didn't even bother finishing my round - I was -1 on the front nine, but the tee boxes at that course are unpaved and, thanks to the sprinklers, were becoming more and more unplayable (read - muddy / slip / fall / disc goes in pond / D'oh). Plus ye old wind was nutso. So I came home.

And now the dogs and I are going to brave the brewing t-storm and take a walk. Hope everyone is having a Groovy Tuesday.

Two Headed Muscle

After a short night's sleep, Aaron and I got up relatively early (7:30 or so) to play another course, Buffalo Ridge in North Phoenix. Beck also got up to hike Camelback, so we made plans to reconvene and get some brunch afterwards. Aaron and I headed out at about 8 and after a quick stop by the grocery stores (where Aaron got some neon pink, Pepto-Bismol flavored gatorade - BARF), we drove over to the desert park.

Unfortunately, on about the sixth hole, Aaron's elbow started bothering him. He's been having some pain in what appears to be the area of the biceps insertion (not that I would know about such things), and it flares up when he snaps forehands. Ouch. I've had a similar thing from tennis - note it's not tennis elbow, which is more of a backhand injury - and I can vouch that it is absolutely no good, feels like your arm is going to rip pout of socket. Aaron wanted to press on but I forbade him to do so; we walked the rest of the course and I took a few drives at my favorite holes (where I hit birdies, of course. It only drains when the holes don't count, eh?).
So our disc golf weekend got cut a little short unfortunately, but we did have some good times and got two rounds in on Thursday. Oh, well.

The timing worked out, though, as Beck ended up not really having to wait at Camelback and was done hiking at about 10:20. WE met back up at the ranch and headed to chompie's for lunch - MMMMMMMM. Beck had a Monte Cristo sandwich, Aaron had breakfast burritos, and I had Matzah Brie backed up by some chocolate chip pancakes. Sooooooo good. And sooooo much more food than we needed. But delicious. So brunch kept us sated for the day; Aaron and I came back and watched the Cubs complete their DBack sweep / the Jazz beat the lakers in OT while Beck Meghanesced the afternoon away in bed. Good Lazy Sunday to cap off a fun weekend. Aaron showered and packed, and then Beck and I drove him down to PHX airport with little trouble. Beck and I finished the evening by watching Lost, polishing off the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle and then destroying Monday's puzzle in about 11 minutes. Booyeah!

Great weekend with the bro! He got home safely and enjoyed his 27th birthday the following day. Groovy. And that's all from this front for now.

Flashback

Ada satu kerinduan tersendiri ketika tidak sengaja saya menemukan beberapa tulisan saya yang terdahulu. entah itu untuk mata kuliah, cerpen dan novel yang tidak pernah terselesaikan, sampai tulisan yang tidak jelas yang berkisah tentang perasaan. flashback memory, saya menyebutnya demikian. mencoba kembali membuka jelujur pikiran tentang apa yang terjadi di hari kemarin. bukankah itu esensi dari sebuah tulisan? kita bisa melihat lagi peristiwa untuk kemudian hari.
tulisan ini saya buat ketika menyelesaikan tugas untuk mata kuliah Penulisan Kreatif (kalau tidak salah), dan yang saya bisa lakukan hanyalah menghela nafas bahagia sambil tersenyum membacanya.

Rabu, 22 Februari

Waduh… tampaknya semua mesti diperjuangkan dari awal lagi, masih dalam rangka membuat demo siaran untuk diajukan pada radio Suara Medika, ini merupakan syarat terakhir untuk tes kali ini, untuk menilai sampai sejauh mana taraf kreatif yang kita miliki. Jadilah saya sudah membuat satu konsep yang namanya “Talk Out Lecture”, dimana didalamnya akan dibahas satu hal yang begitu erat dengan keseharian kita dan akan dipandang dari berbagi segi seperti psikologis, humanistic, unik, bahkan sampai ke teknologi terbaru.
Bahannya sudah siap, sekarang yang jadi kendala terbesar yaitu, dimana saya bisa merekam suara saya?, sesudah meminjam headset milik uccank, ternyata tidak bisa dipakai di komputer saya yang ada di rumah, sebab noise yang ditimbulkan begitu besar, aku pun sudah mencari mike eksternal untuk mencoba berbagai macam kemungkinan, tapi tetap tidak bisa! Akhirnya aku menyerah untuk mencobanya di komputer rumahku, sekarang, satu-satunya harapanku yaitu bisa mengerjakannya di komputernya uccank. Tapi Uccank memberikan satu alternatif lain, yaitu mencoba memakai komputer yang ada di laboratorium audio visual. Dengan berniat tulus dan sebagai pengharapan yang terakhir, maka saya pun memohon kepada pak Subhan sebagai penanggung jawab mata kuliah Media Audio Visual untuk masuk di jam kuliahnya besok, memakai satu komputer yang akan merekam suaraku ini. Izinnya sudah dapat, sekarang yang jadi masalah yaitu… listriknya mati!!!


Kamis, 23 Februari

“oh God, Please Help me..”, setelah melalui malam yang tidak menyenangkan, memikirkan deadline pengumpulan demo siaran yan tinggal 2 hari lagi, aku terbangun hari ini dengan harapan yang besar. Bergegaslah saya untuk menyelesaikan semua ritual pagi saya sebelum ke kampus, dan setelah kelar semua, menujulah saya ke laboratorium harapan.
Baru saja saya melangkahkan kaki di FIS IV, saya mendapat satu kenyataan buruk, hujan deras! Waduh, bagaimana nih? Setidaknya ini bisa menjadi banyak sekali factor sehingga saya tidak bisa mengerjakan demo siaranku. Dan ternyata… memang benar! Hmm… Hujan kali ini membuat listriknya mati lagi dan itu Cuma berarti satu hal, komputer yang ada di lab belum bisa di coba plus Pak Subhan belum datang lagi, karena terhambat oleh hujan yang tidak juga reda. Apakah sampai disini saja perjuanganku? Tidak! Dengan berbesar hati saya berharap, semoga hujan reda sehingga pak Subhan bisa datang ke kampus, listrik mengalir dan hore komputer menyala….
Sayapun mendinginkan kepala didalam korps sambil bercanda dengan beberapa teman, kebetulan semua teman lagi sibuk soalnya minus seminggu lagi acara seminar penyiaran yang bekerja sama dengan radio BBC siaran Indonesia dan juga radio Smart, dan teman-teman masih dalam rangka penyebaran undangan ke kampus-kampus.
Daripada menghabiskan waktu dengan menunggu, saya pun mengajukan diri untuk menempel pamflet di sekitaran kampus dan mengantar undangan ke radio EBS dan juga radio yang ada di kampus Politeknik. Dengan ditemani oleh Jamil dan Dhani, menyusurlah kami di selasar-selasar kampus, mencari semua papan pengumuman yang dapat dipakai untuk menempel. Menyeberang Fakultas, melintas hutan dengan keadaan tanah yang becek. Sesampai di Poltek, kami pun mencari himpunan mahasiswa teknik ketika terdengar suara.”Iqbal!!”, ternyata itu sahabatku Nuri yang memang kuliah di Teknik Listrik. Jadilah dia sebagai pengantar kami di kampus Poltek itu menuju ke himpunannya. Setelah memberikan penjelasan sedikit kepada pihak radio kampus, kami pun berniat untuk balik ke korps, dengan rute yang sama, melintas universitas.
Ternyata memang yah, kalau kita berniat baik, pasti ada saja balasannya. Sesampai di kampus… listriknya sudah menyala!!! Akupun segera mencari Uccank untuk menghadap, dan masuk ke dalam Lab untuk mencoba komputer yang ada di dalam. Syukurlah hari ini, setidaknya saya mengetahui komputer mana yang akan saya pakai untuk membuat demo siaran.

Jumat, 24 Februari 2006

Bisa tidak yah demonya selesai hari ini? demi menyelesaikan demo, saya sih sudah berniat untuk tidak masuk kuliah dasar-dasar Publik Relations, tapi kemudian saya berpikir, toh tidak ada gunanya. Daripada bolos dan memiliki perasaan bersalah, mending ikut kuliahnya saya.
Setelah kuliah berakhir, saya pun mencari Uccank untuk masuk di Lab lagi, dan langsung menduduki komputer yang sudah saya tandai sebelumnya yaitu di komputer 6, segera saya menyiapkan bahan siaran dan lagu-lagu yang akan saya masukkan dan berkutat di dalam lab tersebut kurang lebih selama 2 jam penuh!! Kelar sholat Jumat, saya pun memindahkannya ke dalam cd yang nantinya akan saya bawa ke suara medika, dan sejenak saya pun bisa tersenyum dengan riang.
Setelah mengetahui sudah tidak ada lagi yang mau aku lakukan di kampus, akupun menyusur jalan melintas jasbog dan masuk di dalam fakultas kedokteran, lantai 3, dan menyerahkan demo siaran saya. Misi terlaksana!


Sabtu, 25 Februari 2006

Ternyata sudah akhir pekan lagi, dan itu waktunya untuk beristirahat, setelah seminggu yang penuh huru-hara. Tapi, saya sendiri tidak enak, niatnya mau ke kampus lagi, soalnya hari ini ada pelatihan “In House Training”, untuk membuat film, yah lumayanlah belajar gratis, tapi karena rasanya badan ini masih capek sekali, ternyat itu yang menang, maafkan saya teman-teman. Saya juga manusia, butuh istirahat.

Minggu, 26 Februari 2006

Cerah, ceria, membakar, Cuma itu yang terlihat hari ini, dengan matahari yang bersinar cerah. Sungguh hari minggu yang indah! Jadi malas nih kalau bermalas-malasan, jadi saya mengambil cucian yang sudah menumpuk, menumpuk dan menumpuk dari seminggu lalu. Dan kerja rodi dimulai, beresin kamar, ngepel, jemur kasur dan segala kegiatan sacral lainnya, jadinya capek! Malam pun datang tak terasa, kulajukan motornya pace, ke studio Sonata untuk siaran malam. Dan sebagai catatan, ini merupakan siaran malam saya yang terakhir, jadi yah.. rada sedih juga. 3 jam siaran banyak sekali sms yang masuk ke handphone saya, untuk merequest lagu, kok kayaknya malam ini meriah sekali yah? Jadi terharu juga…

Senin, 27 Februari 2006

Banjir… banjir… banjir… saya tenggelam! Hehehe, bercanda lah, tapi mengenai banjir itu bukan berita bohong. Hujan yang sudah sedari malam turun membasahi bumi Makassar, tampaknya belum juga akan menunjukkan tanda-tanda akan reda. Dan tampaknya menjelang pagi hujan semakin deras saja, dan benarlah adanya, air yang ada di kanal depan rumah sudah penuh, itu berarti sudah tidak mampu lagi menampung air. Sekitar pukul 6 pagi air sudah tampak naik di teras rumah, sayapun bersama mace, serta adik menaikkan semua barang diatas tempat tidur, komputer, semua buku-buku saya, pyuhh… semuanya mesti terselamatkan. Memang sih, banjir ini sudah menjadi tradisi tahunan di rumah saya, karena memang posisi rumah yang lebih rendah dari badan jalan, sehingga air semua tergenang depan rumah. Apakah posisi geografis juga berpengaruh? Entahlah, yang jelasnya, rumah saya terletak di tengah-tengah. Di depan kanal, belakang sungai Je’neberang,



Selasa, 28 Februari

“Terkadang ada beberapa hal yang tidak terjadi sesuai harapan kita, dan terkadang bila harapan kita tidak terwujud, yang benar-benar terjadi biasanya justru lebih baik”
- Looking For Alibrandi –


Sedih. Cuma kata itu yang mampu mendiskripsikan perasaanku pagi ini. kenapa, ini merupakan siaran terakhir saya di radio Sonata, acara Morning Sound. Dan selama 3 jam penuh saya menemani semua sahabat sehati sebaya muda, rasanya semua memori dan kenangan di tempat ini berulang dengan cepat, mulai dari masa training, dimarahi oleh bos, sampai masalah dengan teman sesama penyiar. Pagi ini juga sengaja saya memilih semua lagu yang sangat berkesan dengan saya, untuk sedikit mengingatkan akan pertemuan terkhir di tempat ini. well, inilah akhirnya, mungkin ada waktunya aku memikirkan lagi, akan kemana kaki ini melangkah ke hari yang kedepan. Toh setidaknya saya harus berani untuk keluar dari zona aman saya, dan berjuang lagi untuk mencari tempat berpijak yang lain.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Lettuce to a Turtle

So when Aaron and I were golfing at Vista Del Camino, an old man drove up on an electric scooter. And he said, "Hey, do you know what turtles eat?" This sounded for all the world like a joke. Aaron responded in kind, "No, what do turtles eat?" And the old man said, "I don't know. There's a turtle down there by the sidewalk, and I was thinking about getting him some lettuce." He then zoomed up the sidewalk to the restaurant next to the park, presumably checking to see if they had any left-over turtle lettuce.

Flash-forward to our hike on Saturday, when Aaron asked Beck what turtles eat - do they eat lettuce?

B: "To a turtle, lettuce is but water."

A, predictably: "Butt water? Ewwwwwwww..."

One example among many of beck's being in the zone of unintentional comedy on Saturday. She led the hike for most of the way, and as mentioned before, Beck flies on hikes at estimated speeds of 23 mph. Real fast. During one hilarious moment (re-enacted by Aaron later), Beck grabbed a flowering branch from a Bush and sniffed it, not breaking stride to do so. Of course I chimed in with all kinds of sentiments to the effect of "Carpe diem - it's important to slightly slow down and smell the roses." Beck replied that they weren't roses, that she didn't want to stop to "smell the mountain bush." Groans ensued.

But that wasn't the best - the best was when we were riding out to Sedona in the morning and beck was sharing tales of seeing people ride mules down into th Grand Canyon last weekend. She in fact specifically said,

"Riding a mule for four miles is really hard on your ass."

At which Aaron and I groaned appropriately, having completed Dr. J.'s pun-training at early ages. Awesome. Of course, this opened up a sort of pun vortex from Aaron. Many an ass-joke was told that day, my friends.

Getting back to the narrative - we woke up early early on Saturday to await the arrival of D&C and their Rav4. They ran a little late and got to ur house at 7:30, which was okay because it wasn't supposed to be too hot in Sedona anyways. We piled into the car and drove northward, entertaining ourselves with Beck's punny comments and by watching Christina get her archi-nerd on in the car:

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So Xtina's bosses take note: she does spend her hiking trips working on buildings. We rocked out to a solid selection of Dan's impeccable indie rock collection and made it up to the red rocks of Sedona in about and hour and a half. After a quick pit stop at one of what I'm sure are several reputable non-tourist trap tourist info sites, we headed to the trail. And a bumpin' we did go. mad props to Dan who navigated the choppy waters with ease and/or four wheel drive and high ground clearance. Pretty crazy, and the backseat three got pretty bruised up, but we eventually made it to the trailhead.

The hike was nice - a long flat stroll through a forest, some sandy paths, and then some rock-hopping along a river bed at the bottom of a canyon. Sweet. And outside of Beck's comedic stylings, there was some great scenery and plenty of photo-ops. Here's the usual post-hike gallery:

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DSCF3901 DSCF3903 DSCF3905 DSCF3906 DSCF3907 DSCF3908
DSCF3909 DSCF3910 DSCF3912 DSCF3915 DSCF3917 DSCF3918 DSCF3919
DSCF3921 DSCF3922 DSCF3924 DSCF3926 DSCF3927 DSCF3928
DSCF3931 DSCF3935 DSCF3936 DSCF3937 DSCF3939 DSCF3940

A little bit of commentary, (row, column) style: (1,4) is a tugboat. (2,1) is Xtina striking a superhero pose. (2,2) I believe the comment was "We have soooo much potential energy right now." (2,3) and (2,5) are pictures of Willy Wonka's chocolate-coated trees. (2,6) Aaron said, "Did it make a sound?" (3,3) Fat lizard photoed by Beck. (4,4) is where Beck talked about "but water." (4,5) is Xtina doing her best Lisa Loeb impersonation. (4,6) is not Aaron peeing, I promise. (5,1) is a leaping frog we saw. (5,6) is "beautiful," according to C.

And here we have two fantastic pics from the trip, big style:

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First one is that same frog - they jumped like crazy and were camouflaged against the mossy rocks; very cool. Second is from the insert from Danimal and the Pleasure Pumas new album, Triple Entendre. What a great shot; look out we hang out by the river all cool like, and Dan stares off contemplatively. Most excellent.

After trekking back along the bumpity bumpity, we stopped at a pizza place (Picazza's or something like that) and enjoyed strawberry lemonades and ridiculously good pies. Yummm. We all feel asleep on the ride home except for Dan, who blasted The Cure and Ugly Cassanova to make it through. We parted briefly for showers, but reunited and felt so good later for a movie down by D&C's place. We had originally intended to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but couldn't get seats together. So we opted for a later showing of Baby Momma, which was medium good but had its share of laughs (none quite as great as the lady who chewed out some drunken teenagers in the front row for making too much noise. Hells yeah!). Of course, the hours inbetween provided opportunity to chill at an uncrowded bar downstairs. Good times, good convo, bad modern jazz. Awjyeah.

Great way to spend a Saturday says I. Got to bed around midnight and got ready to wake up early for the next day's disc golf...