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I’ve always said to myself, “When not inspired, see a musical.” I’m sure the rest of you could benefit the same way. – Jon
Posted in Jon Thoughts
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Vegas
I had a good trip in Vegas; I stayed at The Plaza Hotel & Casino next to the Fremont Street Experience. (The Plaza has been remodeled.)
Some memorable moments: having pancakes at Du Pars at the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino
Walking under the The Fremont Street Experience.
Going to The Gunstore and shooting off a Beretta M9 , a M4 Carbine , M249 SAW and a M1911 Pistol. My dad shot a H&K MP5 SMG and a SIG P226 Pistol
And of course spending the holidays with my folks.
It was a short but nice trip.
Posted in Jon Thoughts
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Scooters
I had a dream last night that I got injured where I had to go to school in an electric scooter. It was a brief dream but I could feel all the frustration of having to commute by bus in a electric scooter trying to get around city college in that thing and all the judgement by others. At the end, I refused to use it.
Posted in Dreams
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Winterbreak has arrived…
I easily overslept by 6 or 7 hours today but I feel great. I wouldn’t say this review semester wore me out, in fact, I’m ready to go back in a week or so but I’m happy I get a month off instead.
This review/return semester was only 9 units (9 hours of lecture) this spring will be 16 to 20 units. A lot of people have noted their concern that such a jump will be a shock to me. Their point is valid but what they don’t know is that many of these classes are filler. It’s a catch-up semester so I can juggle my future, more challenging courses with less annoying required classes. This spring will be exhausting but I’m confident it will be fun as well. It will also prepare me for bigger workloads but with easier concepts.
My three review classes have prepared me well. I’ve learned how to study, how to be organized, and I’ve got my routine back. When I first wrote this blog, I was sliding in the opposite direction. I just need to keep this routine alive and make it better. Today academics, tomorrow more academics followed by working followed by working and getting side projects finished and so on.
There is a lot I still have yet to catch up to on the things-to-do list but I’m not so much worried as I am now excited.
- Jon
Posted in Personal
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Office Crisis
(Sorry, I’ve been pretty busy with my academics.)
I had a dream last night where I had a full time career. Dress shirt, tie, suit. I was sharing a long table of computer terminals with other white color employees and the room had like 5 or 6 rows of this type of arrangement (I suppose it was similar but more modern to the broker setup in the 80′s film Wallstreet.) The only problem was, I wasn’t finished with school – I had jumped into a career of some sort, it was my first day and I didn’t know what I was suppose to do. My supervisor was a friend’s father and since I found him a little intimidating in real life (as in you could see past his smile that he barely tolerates me) I found him just as intimidating in the dream. There was no room to ask him what my role at work was. While phones were blaring and people were running around, I sat there just trying to get my bearings – hating this environment – waiting I suppose for this ‘dream’ job to end.
Posted in Dreams
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The Sound of Fear…
So I just had a terrible idea: someone with a lot of money and talent should do a tribute of the Sound of Music (with high production values) but with zombies. Imagine the opening sequence with Maria singing on the top of the grassy hill “The hills are alive with the sound of- baaa!” (as she is singing a zombie out of focus runs up behind her and is sniped by the helicopter filming her scene) and the helicopter pilot takes over from Maria “with the screams of zombies” (they throw down rope ladder as Maria escapes more zombies piling around her as she sings) “A fear that I felt, that I’ve never felt before…” (The camera crew fights off a few zombies that have hung onto the robe ladder, losing a member of the crew to the zombies as they hover away) “The thing that I fear, is a world of zombies!” (chorus gives a backup “ooooing”) (tears roll down her eyes) “And I sing… with… fear…” (helicopter flies off in the distance)
So yeah, pretty awful but may have the potential for a zombie musical film that breaks down the fourth wall (they’re trying to film a musical in a set time while fighting zombies in real time – all that is keeping them going is that the show must go on)
Posted in Film Concept / Idea
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Blackout
Last Thursday, we had a blackout here in San Diego County.
We didn’t know at the time, but this blackout spread up to Los Angeles, New Mexico, Tijuana and Arizona (where it originated.) From what I heard it was a chain reaction of substations going offline coincidentally around the same time an engineer in Arizona was working on a substation that had some problems. We were in the dark for about 6 to 7 hours. Restaurants and shops shut their doors. Bars stayed opened serving cold draft beer (but no food.) The only store a few friends and I could find to get some food was Target which was secured with local law enforcement.
It felt like we were about to be in a Zombie Apocalypse Thriller. With Target’s generators on with half their lights on and people emptying the store of food and supplies.
And I have to stop here and say the police did a really good job at keeping the peace. They directed traffic (which was a little chaotic) and their presence made sure no one got out of hand.
Cellphone access was inconsistent. It was the first thing to come back on. However our cellphones lied when it came to accurate cellular access. My phone the entire time said I had 4 bars. I could only get a connection 50% of the time. Text messaging was also 50% of the time. I was on Verizon and according to passerby’s and friends on other phone plans – Verizon turned out tob e the more reliable service in San Diego County at the time. LAN Lines were supposedly working but most people have phones that require power from a wall outlet. My family has now located our emergency phone which runs off 3 AA batteries (it’s still better to find an emergency phone that is powered off the phone line.) We may also consider a long range two way radio and an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for our electronics – it would buy us time to shut down our hardware safely during a blackout.
The situation was freaky. It was a reminder that as we continue to advance and adopt new technologies – we are still a very vulnerable civilization. Especially when it comes to energy. Becoming reliant on electronics and information technology has made us more vulnerable then our descendants were to technology in the 19th century. I wouldn’t say their lives were better but they certainly could handle our situation without much hassle.
An rural American in the 19th century would be more accustomed to rationing their supplies whether it was whale oil or kerosene and they would only buy/gather/put aside what they expected to consume. Obviously this lifestyle is contrast to modern convenience.
While the blackout was resolved within the day it was a reminder that we all need emergency supplies and some reserved canned goods on hand in case there is a local disaster.
- Jon
Posted in Uncategorized
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Bio Alarm Clock
I’ve always been lousy at waking up early. For many years, I would wake up on my own around 12 to 2 pm. I hated this but didn’t really invest much incentive to change it. This continued into my days of backpacking across Europe and elsewhere – though I did do better at getting up in these regions due to the natural notion of not being comfortable with my new surroundings and having early commitments to make – I would always revert back to getting up late in the comfort of my parents residence.
It wasn’t till 2011 when I actually started getting up earlier on my own. I think the efforts of working for my grandfather while moving him and traveling to Thailand helped train my body to adjust to new hours. While I still adapt to my alarm clocks sounds, I am beyond the clock. I now dream when I need to get up. I cannot see a time in my head but I often feel a time. This doesn’t mean I always open my eyes and I’m ready to get up. Often, I open my eyes look for a clock – confirm my ‘feeling’ with the closest thing to an accurate indication of time and snooze.
So in this way I have a Bio Alarm Clock. My body does not give me answers if it gives me feeling. For some who may read this – I am speaking the obvious – for others perhaps here lies some insight on something you may take for granted or have never really considered.
Today is a good example of how my bio clock expressed a need to wake up. I was exhausted, I had 3 or 4 dreams I cannot fully comprehend but I recall myself in my own dream knowing I’ve been asleep for a while and that’s likely that time of day to get up. I opened my eyes about 3 to 4 times over a period of either 10 minutes or 2 hours and saw my alarm clock. The first time it said ’7:00′ (am) and so I ‘went back to sleep’, later I re-awoke to see ’7:00′ again. I realized I had locked the alarm into showing when I want to wake up, and it did not express the time to wake up. However due to the way the light shined through my window, I knew it was late morning possibly early afternoon.
Finally after the 3rd or 4th episode of me opening my eyes and seeing the damn same ’7:00′ on my old alarm clock I closed my eyes to return to a character in my last dream of the day to folding their arms and repeating the time and gesturing that this dream was over. In fact, I recall that the character and I were the only things left in the dream – that everything else was gone, the only element of lighting left was a white wash of light overhead.
And so I got up, woke up my workstation and found it was 11 am.
- Jon
Posted in Dreams, Jon Thoughts, Uncategorized
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It feels good to be back
Two weeks ago, I assembled with the help of our neighbor & local Handyman around twelve pieces of new furniture for the house. Quite a bit of it from IKEA (but not the easy type to quickly assemble.) Since then we have been finishing up key areas of the house and have brought a new harmony to our home. You have no idea how much joy this brought to the house, especially to my mother when she came back from a short vacation.
Right as I finished one initiative, I began a far bigger one; I returned to San Diego City College! It’s been a year and I missed the campus. I finally feel that part of my academic mojo is back. I am taking review courses and two supporting courses and it’s as if I’ve woken up the inner mummified student of myself that I left behind in middle school/early high school. (wipes off cobwebs)
For once I have a working laptop that falls into a workflow, a quality Backpack that’s designed to distribute and handle large school hauls, and a bedroom that’s serving as an effective office.
My school days start in the early mornings and end early around noon or early afternoon.
Though I’m not much of a morning person yet, I think I’ll get a hang of all this.
My family and I continue to try to better ourselves, I just hope we can continue to leap forward and don’t lose the momentum.
- Jon
Posted in Jon Thoughts
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New Beginnings
The last few weeks have been joyful and frustrating, but we are making some considerable progress.
There was Comic Con 2011, there was Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (which I not only saw but also was hired to do electrician work on.)
My family and I are also preparing for the fall. I return to classes at City in a few weeks and I’m looking forward to getting my life back on track. My Mononucleosis is nearly gone and among other drawbacks, I’ve managed to catch a small traditional cold due to my bumpy inconsistent sleep hours.
We are finally finishing the moving in of our home. It’s easy for people who have commitments like school and work to move to a new residence and take 2+ years to actually settle in. We are getting rid of a lot of clutter we’ve accumulated over the years from various sources and trading out some furniture for some new.
We’ve all been growling and snarling at each other, but we’ve worked out some plans on the living room that everyone is happy with.
Comic Con was fun, but I feel it is my last time attending as a fan. We were unsuccessful in securing tickets through preregistration (imagine 6,000 people waiting each day starting at 3 am and only 2,000 of them being successful in securing tickets. Effing ridiculous.) Besides, Comic Con has become too densely packed for me. This was my 13th or so year attending. I’m ready for new things. My dad and I will probably go to smaller conventions from now on.
I’m happy to say, my workroom is now usable. All I need to do now is a few final touches and clean up my hard drives and do some digital organization, though tedious, it shouldn’t take as much time and physical effort as my room has. I will be doing this as a break from the other parts of the house for the next few weeks. If everything goes to plan, everything should be winding down just in time for classes.
I’m looking forward to returning to the fitness center and getting my body back to some form of physical shape.
- Jon
Posted in Jon Thoughts
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Regaining strength
I’m feeling a lot better.
For a while I was wary and rundown from Mononucleosis. For the longest time I was between 20 to 40% of my normal strength.
I’m now around 70 to 80%.
I’m at the point where I can go out and work. I went bike riding with some friends last weekend. Biked 25 miles there and back with breaks which was a bit too much on the knees and thighs, but I don’t feel any large punishment like I have before from smaller tasks when talking about Mono.
I’m doing electrician work at a theatre next week for a show during Comic Con and after that I am going to comic con. So it looks like things are syncing up.
- Jon
Posted in Jon Thoughts
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