May 16th, 2007
Samuel Merritt College has given me permission to pay them a ton of money and attend their nursing program. I’ll be at the SF campus which I hope means I can ride my bike to school. Things get started in early November and last for a year. For now I have to buckle down and finish pharmacology and pathophysiology.
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April 30th, 2007
I am in the land of the fabulously hip. The signposts are many. Much black. Obscure designer labels. Fixies languish on the street corner like million dollar sports cars. Or maybe it is just a coffee shop with a bunch of weird kids that have all congregated here cause they don’t fit in anywhere else. For sure the music and coffee are good.
Wingo, like the ninja, has dodged a bullet. I am working on my bomb shelter. It shall be in the shape of sailing craft and will pass through the world without notice. From it’s deck I will launch a mighty campaign for the 10 hour work week.
Which reminds me. I have a new jobby job. Helping a local naval architect (brooks dees) build a boat he has designed. It looks like a pretty sweet craft, and I anticipate I will learn quite a bit from working with him.
I’ve resolved to put my earnings away. Why? Treatment. It has a price.
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April 13th, 2007
When I was a very small child a chihuaha bit it and came away with a chunk. I have tried to find the missing part in the mirror but it evades me. Sometimes we have to trust our parents.
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April 2nd, 2007
I have a new house mate. Don’t worry, she is a sailing dork. We have already watched our first tactics video together and exchanged rule books as a preliminary bonding experience. Charlie, aka “the chuckler”, is well on his way to an uptown bed after a short stay here. But I think this new house mate is going to work out well. She is also into bow hunting. From the 3rd floor you have access to a lot of backyards. The local cat population is going to take a serious hit.
Tim and I have been rocking it hard. Last Saturday we corrected out to win first overall in the double handed lightship. We’re both a little shocked, but it feels great. There’s been a lot of boat work the last week. Maguro (see background photo) is looking sharp.
Coming up Sarah and I will be doing the double handed farallones next weekend on her brother’s express 27. I’ve taken to calling it the death race. Six people have died doing it since it started in 1979. We’re going all out but it is going to be really tough competition.
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February 7th, 2007
Ahemm…… Sarah and I got 3rd place overall in the Three Bridge Fiasco. There were 300 boats entered and the race relies on a lot of luck, but also knowing the currents and playing the wind right. We managed to pull out fair measures of all 3. There were still boats finishing 2 hours after us.
I am off for Chile to visit Seth for a few weeks on the 19th. The padre will be coming along as well.
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January 16th, 2007
This is a recipe that my family used to make in the old country.
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 lg. egg
1/3 c. buckwheat flour
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Whisk buttermilk, butter and egg in bowl until blended. Combine flours, soda and salt in another bowl. Whisk buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients until just blended. Heat skillet, grease lightly with vegetable cooking spray. Cook until bubbles form, about 2 minutes. Turn over and cook additional 1 to 2 minutes more. Makes 12 pancakes.
HINT: If you have no buttermilk, use almost full amount of milk and small amount of vinegar.
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January 16th, 2007
I have a new motorcycle. A VFR (V Four!). I decided I could buy it because it would cost the same that I could sell my old motorcycle for. My new motorcycle is better. Better in many ways. But mostly in the amount of happiness I experience when riding it.
Since people want to “KNOW”: I own two boats. Big deal. Don’t even try to tell me I am a yuppy. Right now there are 3 people living in my 250 square foot apartment. Some of my friends live in Europe and have changing rooms bigger than that. They should be making me low interest loans.
There is nothing else. Only white noise when I close my eyes at night. I’ve been spending a lot of time on ebay shopping for designer jeans recently.
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November 29th, 2006
I just contracted myself to build a website to sell unusual plants, including poison ivy. The good news is that I managed to get the check into my bank account without buying a new motorcycle. The cash has been securely sequestered in the coffers of my creditors. This new project is in Rails and I am genuinely enjoying web design for the first time in a couple of years. It feels good to have a simple straight forward project that I can just dig into and be productive. The money doesn’t hurt either.
The padrino just left town. We went to yosemite for thanksgiving. House sat over in Berkely for sarah and ate a lot of good food there. There may be a new mansion in the works for the Trachy estate. Houses and architectural spaces in general are really fun to think about.
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November 9th, 2006
I have raised the temperature in my apartment 3 degrees. Only 2 more to go!
I had a lovely dinner last Sunday. Saw the nonoman. I think that I will seeing him a bit more in the coming months. Not too much new in these parts. I am staying the course and have acquired a daily intake of 2,000mg of creatine. My net mass is ~80k grams. The heater makes the smoke alarm go off intermitently. I have a new small sailboat called a laser. And a new boat co-owner. My 3rd. I recommend it.
Can lunch exist with out papalote? Can I lunch without papalote? Do they worry about me? Wonder if I shouldn’t be eating a more balanced diet? Isn’t it enough to have the marinated tofu one day and the veggie the next?
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September 21st, 2006
When you are tempted to pet your child…. Remember that mother love is a dangerous instrument! Beware of overkissing!
I am in my favorite coffee shop eating a wonderfully crumbly scone and washing it down with a delicious cup of coffee. There is also a new TAL playing through my headphones. The reasons why the day is good continues! I have a new job that I do once a week trimming trees. I get paid $20 an hour, not bad, and I always seem to get paid for a full day. The good part is that I enjoy the company of the guy I work (Mark) for and we try to quit by 2. Today we worked until 3:30 and it was clearly seen as out of line by Mark.
The upcoming weeks look good too. I am crewing in the Express 27 pre-nationals this weekend and nationals next weekend. Then, there are the Moore 24 nationals in Santa Cruz. Solid racing Thursday through Sunday!
Looking back, Maguro got 2nd overall for the ODCA season. Not quite as cool as it sounds, but not entirely hollow either. Tim Nutt moved in at the beginning of August welcoming back $400/month rent. We talk about sailing a lot, it seems to be working out. And, I went dinghy sailing again yesterday for the first time since injuring my knee. It felt so good.
Come and visit.
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August 14th, 2006
A marathon summer of sailing has ended with a busted knee. I went to hike extra hard on a V15 last Tuesday while team racing and dislocated my patella. Fortunately it popped right back in as soon as I crumpled up inside the boat. It must be the small knee caps that my mom gave me. I’m on crutches now, but based on past experience with this type of thing, guess that I will be back to normal in a month or two. Two definitely being a maximum number. But it sucks to miss the end of the sailing season.
Flipping
Tuesday, near the beginning of the month, I found a Santana 22 on Craig’s List for $1k that looked like the deal of the year. It had at least $3k of new sails and the boat was well rigged. So I e-mailed Tim to see if he wanted to go in on it with me and try to flip it for some extra cash and maybe get the sails for our boat. Three hours later that evening we buy the boat. But before long Tim has fallen in love and is buying out my share. A week and a half later we are down in Monterey and Tim sails the boat to 10th in the Santana 22 nationals. Things can happen fast around here. Now T.G.I.T.W. is sitting next to Maguro at TI. Having two boats is definitely going to be fun.
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June 15th, 2006
Wingo was in town for the first week of June. I had a great time hanging out with him and the locals. We even managed to get Leif and Brynn out on the water in my boat for the first time. Which is playing out wonderfully. Leif appears to enjoy sailing quite a bit and may even be doing a race with me in the coming week! I’m quite excited about this, as not only do I get to spend quality time with Leif, but I am also convinced that he will be an excellent sailor.
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May 22nd, 2006
Internet Adictado
I moved my computer out of my house today. It is an escalation in the fight against wasting all of my time. I’ve encountered doubters about the validity of this strategy, but I think it is time for desperate measures. For now I’m subletting Tim’s old space in the Chisel Design corner of 2431 Mission St.
Sailing
I’ve been crewing for the spectacular Sarah Deeds every Thursday at the V15 TI races. She must have some remarkable faith that I will eventually turn into good crew. Otherwise, I’m not sure why she puts up with me. I also have a spot crewing on an Express 27, Xena, with what seems to be some good folk. Beyond that I’ve been racing my boat a bit. We got 3rd of 6 boats last Saturday. Getting consistent crew seems to be the big challenge. With good teamwork I think that we could be competitive with anybody in the fleet…
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May 8th, 2006
Vallejo is this event that happens every year called the season opener. A bunch (100s) of sailboats race from the Berkeley Circle up to Vallejo and raft up for the night. There’s a big party with lots of dancing old people, and the next morning we all race back down the bay. Both races have a ripping ebb and you’re always making tradeoffs between sailing the shortest distance or going in towards the shoreline for current relief. I sailed it with Jodi, who has her own Santana that is in the yard, and Tom who co-owns my boat with me and Tim.
Saturday started off a bit rough with me nailing the side of another Santana 22, Tchoupitoulas, about a minute after the start. We were both on starboard with me to leward but slightly ahead and I wanted to come over to port for better wind and current. After tacking I forgot to ease the mainsheet when we tried to duck them and it being a gusty day and all we were rounding up a bit with the tiller somewhat stalled. Anyway, completely amateur, and definitely a bit embarassing. After doing our penalty turns we rounded the mark last but managed to pass one boat and almost caught up with Tchoupitoulas a few times by the end. I’m glad they beat me though. We ended up 4th out of 5 boats.
Day 2. We won. I think that it was the first win for everybody in the boat. So we had some beers on the way back and I feel asleep at 7:30. I’m not sure what the lesson here is except that SF has some vicious currents and if you catch them right they will treat you well.
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April 14th, 2006
sailing
I finally got to sail on a Vanguard 15. Dinghys are where its at. I crewed for Carisa Harris, who is some sort of all american bad ass sailor. I don’t think I’ve ever learned so much in an hour of sailing. I’ll be going back for next week and hopefully become regular crew for somebody. Anyway, I’m still a little high. Riding the moto home was a bit more hair raising than normal.
house
In case you have not heard, the house has been a source of drama recently. Coming back from the heartland, I got a call from Toby informing me that Lisa (landlady) had kicked Tim out and changed the locks on the apartment. When we stopped by the next day to ask her to let us in, she was, to my shock, wearing my green wool jacket and a pair of my pants. Beligerent indeed. We went by the tenants union for some advice, and they instructed us to bring in the police. The day ended with Lisa and I talking politics living space, but not before I had to call 911 because she was try to bust down my door by throwing her body against it. I did get back my jacket and pants, but I’m still a bit shaken by the whole thing. Moral of the story is, the tenants union rocks.
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March 28th, 2006
So I passed the Junior English Proficiency Essay Test.
Visitage
Jim and Cathy Laramee are visiting me this week. We’re about midway through right now and it looks like they are going the distance in Toby and Julie’s old loft. Even enjoying it. Yesterday in evening was spent in Sac town (as I once heard it called by it’s residents while coming back from Oregon on a train) with my uncle and aunt, Fred and Janet. Sons were in tow. The Laramees will be staying through Thursday and then returning to their place in the east coast proving grounds of our youth.
Sailage
There has been some. Nothing of note. I am trying to piece together a laser. Tim has been convinced to stay in the partnership over the summer. Things are going well here. Oh… But we did hit a sunken vessel in Clipper Cove Sunday. Scared the shit out of me.
Pete
As for me… I’m rapidly approaching a point where I will be forced to find some place to volunteer in order to stay happy. I was coasting on the BFC experience for a while, but renewal is needed. Perhaps teaching youth to sail? But public health experience would be nice. BTW, is this whole nursing thing a waste of time? Yeah… I can’t figure that one out yet.
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March 6th, 2006
It’s a movie by Royston Tan about the disaffected youth of Singapore. I saw it last summer courtesy of my friend Alice, and just noticed it in Lost Weekend this evening. I can’t recommend this movie highly enough. It is raw, beautiful, insightful, real, shot with integrity and is probably like nothing else you have seen. The editing is great.
Ironically you can’t even watch it in Singapore. It has been censored and Tan is resisting cutting scenes. Besides it would be hard to reshoot since a couple of five main characters can’t be found anymore. They were just kids who let Tan into their lives.
Here is a bit more about 15.
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February 27th, 2006
Today was moving day. Kind of a pack as you go experience. The house is a bit emptier now, and I’ve discovered that the level of messiness is about the same even though only my stuff is left. This can only mean one thing about who has been responsible for that sort of activity. It’s anybody’s guess whether or not you will even be able to get the door open in a month.
Toby has moved out to be Michelle Vignes‘ assistant. She is a lovely lady and lives in a beautiful house with one of the nicest kitchens and views that I’ve seen yet.
But I’ve never lived alone before… We’ll have to see what this is like. Could go either way. Could go both. But it definitely means that I have an extra bed available for anybody passing through. Hot oatmeal with dried fruit and walnuts is usually served between 8 and 10.
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February 18th, 2006
Like many of you I have stepped back to quizically contemplate the apple pyramid. Unsure of which apple to choose, paraylzed by fear of picking cooking when I wanted eating. The names mcintosh, golden delicious, and red delicious ringing in my ears, yet a craving for something fresh, sweet, and crisp demanded fulfillment.
I turned my back on apples, let us blame Ralphs, Piggly Wiggly, Costco, and other denizens of our corporate landscape for this souring of a once fresh love. Then nonoman (note that there is a Japanese fashion line called no no house) introduced me to the Pink Lady. Ahhh… A fresh clean crisp subtle flavor. Imagine the most delicious spritzer packaged in the form of an apple on a hot summer day. My head lolls back, I find myself leaving rainbow, my pockets stuffed with 3 lb bags of apples.
One love leads to another. Ambrosia, a darker skinned beauty with a more subtle flavor. Lacking Pink Lady’s popularity, it must be stalked carefully as it’s season arrives. There is a wonderful world of apples, do not let your adventure be stymied by McIntosh and the many other undelicious varieties.
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