About a month ago (give or take a few days to a week) our very close friends whom we love dearly, Mike and Rebecca, asked Amanda and I to come eat with them after work at a nice Chinese Restaurant.  We complied with their request happily.  While we were there, they told me that they had bought the new Nikon D90, and they literally GAVE me their older Nikon D70s!  They told me there was a small problem with the card reader, and that it could potentially eat pictures before they’ve been uploaded to a computer, but even getting that fixed, which I intend to do soon costs less than buying a new Nikon that’s lower end than the D70s, and in the meantime I have not experienced this occurrence.  I thanked them profusely, and I have rarely parted with the camera since then (except the 40 hours a week that I work). I am extremely grateful and will forever be in their debt.

I have always enjoyed taking photographs, and like most people have a point and shoot camera.  Those are convenient, and really take the guesswork out of taking a decent, maybe even good picture, but they aren’t really capable of the higher-end tricks that can be performed with a DSLR camera like slow shutter speeds, setting the depth of field with the aperture size, and simply having higher quality pictures stemming from higher quality hardware.  I’ve always talked about getting a “real” camera one day when I have the money.  I knew that If I could get a DSLR, I would learn all the ins and outs that I could and try to take really artistic pictures, and push myself creatively with photography and photo editing, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing since I got it, slowly but surely.  Baby steps.

A praying mantis. One of the few daytime pictures I've ever taken. I like the depth of field. This was taken with the standard zoom lens.

Since I spend most of my time either at work, or taking the train to or from work, I mostly go out at night.  Even on the weekends, I tend to go out more often at night than In the daytime, so one of the first things I’ve been focusing on is taking pictures in low light without using the built in flash.  I think flash photography is awesome, but it seems that the built in flash with any camera is not really recommended.  I may one day buy an external flash, but for now, I’m using various shutter speeds with various aperture sizes - and lots of trial and error -  to get the results I want.  I find that I am able to take pretty good looking pictures that aren’t all washed out from the flash.  they often come out a little too dark, but I can usually fix that be editing the levels and curves in Photoshop, although I try not to rely on that too much.  I’ve also learned for low light and night photography, having a tripod is pretty much mandatory (which I don’t have) unless you can find some halfway decent light and are capable of holding very still.

I took this picture in relatively low light at Knott's Scary Farms 2008.

This learning process has been quite enjoyable, and I’ve decided that in the future, after getting the camera fixed, I’m going to buy various lenses, a tripod and probably, eventually an external flash.  The great news is that these items are forward compatible with future Nikon products, as apparently all DSLR lenses are.  Meaning that in the future I will always be a Nikon man!

A picture of passing traffic taken with a slow shutter speed and an unsteady hand.

I want to go out and take some pictures of downtown Los Angeles since I work here all week.  There are a lot of cool old buildings, and sleek new skyscrapers to take pictures of.  But also since I work here all week, I don’t want to come here on my days off.  Ironic isn’t it?  Also, I sometimes worry that maybe my camera will get jacked.  If that happened, I’d probably end up getting killed trying to fight for it.  Did I ever mention that I’m a lover, not a fighter?  True story.

Another huge thanks to Mike and Rebecca for this gift that keeps on giving!  If anyone reading this has any beginner’s tips or resources that could be useful for me, let me know in the comments!  Check out more of my photos and watch me grow as an artist on my Flickr photostream.

One of the things I see pop up time and time again is how to throw an “80’s themed party” or “80’s themed party ideas” due to the fact that I wrote about the awesome 80’s party I went to last year.  I figured I would go ahead and give people what they want by sharing tips and ideas for throwing a kick ass 80’s party!

I’ve never actually thrown an 80’s themed party, but I did attend an awesome one almost exactly one year ago for my friend Mike’s 40th birthday.  Let me tell you: it kicked ass!  Fellow attendees and I still speak of its glory to this very day.

Me (dressed as Robert Smith fromThe Cure) and Amanda (as Jem, from Jem and the Holograms). In the back is Sean as Marty McFly from Back to the Future.

I will now explain exactly why this party kicked ass, and in doing so, I will hopefully be giving you tips on what to do to ensure that your own 80’s party is successful!

• Take people somewhere they’ve never been before. You could have the party at you or someone else’s house or apartment, but go the extra mile and rent out a hall instead.  It shows you put a lot of effort into the planning of the party and renting out a place for a party just seems like a bigger venue (i.e. more important) to your guests.  People like to feel like they’re ‘going out’ to a party every once in a while, not just going to their friend’s house.
• Have a professional bartender on duty and plenty of snacks. This would work for any party, but it’s a must for a “kick ass” party.  Have a wide variety of both alcohol and snacks to suit everyone’s tastes.  The bartender should be personable, funny, cool, sexy, handsome, laid back and an all around nice person.  Oh yeah, and they should also be a kick ass bartender!
• Have a great DJ spinning 80’s hits.  For greater 80’s impact, hire an actual 80’s icon to perform! Richard Blade was the DJ on duty at the party I went to.  This detail was extremely important and helpful in creating an authentic 80’s vibe.  Not only was Richard personable and friendly, allowing guests to take photos with him, but he was an authentic and well known 80’s DJ, as opposed to just hiring a random local DJ.  As a partygoer, I thought he did a great job and he was definitely one of the major highlights of the event.  In any case, have a wide variety of 80’s music playing including pop and rap, and if your guests are into it, some hair band music.
• Have your guests dress the part. Don’t just have a party where 80’s music will be played, and 80’s decorations will be used, have everyone come as their favorite icon of the 80’s.  Not only is playing dress up fun for everyone, it’s very disarming for those who are usually shy at parties.  It’s hard to walk up to someone and introduce yourself, but walking up to someone dressed up as a Ghostbuster and complimenting them on their outfit is a great icebreaker!
• Have wacky 80’s contests and giveaways. At the party I went to, they had a best costume contest.  The prize was a mint condition, possibly brand new Members Only jacket (I won, of course).  There were also other giveaways that my friends won for their costumes, but I can’t remember much about that because I was very, very drunk.  The contests definitely made the party more fun, since people like winning things and it was nice to have some kind of event happen other than just chatting, dancing and getting krunked up.
• Invite everyone! “The more, the merrier” definitely applies here.  When you throw a party, a percentage of people simply will not show up, so the more people you invite, the more you can offset this little rule.  Invite as many people as you can, even if you aren’t on great terms with them.  Inviting someone to your shin dig is a  nice way to bury the hatchet and have a good time.  Just don’t invite anyone who you believe will be disruptive or bring a “bad vibe”.  Have your friends bring along their friends.  You’ll definitely want people to RSVP though, so you don’t run out of party supplies, i.e. booze!

These are just a handful of ways to make an 80’s party great and/or kick ass.  If you are one of the ones who stumbled onto this site by searching for 80’s themed party ideas, I hope you find these tips helpful.  If you’d like to leave any tips of your own for other readers, please do so in the comments.

For more pics from the 80’s party that I attended, visit my wife’s Flickr account.

That's me with Richard Blade. He's probably saying something like, "Hey this guy's really drunk! Can someone get him off of me? Please?"

From Wikipedia:

Ketamine produces a dissociative state, characterized by a sense of detachment from one’s physical body and the external world which is known as depersonalization and derealization.  At sufficiently high doses (e.g. 150 mg intramuscular), users may experience what is coined the “K-hole“, a state of dissociation whose effects are thought to mimic the phenomenology of schizophrenia. This may include distortions in bodily awareness, such as the feeling that one’s body is being tugged, or is gliding on silk, flying, or has grown very large or distended. Users often report feeling more skeletal or becoming more aware of their bones - the shape of their hands is also often of interest. Users may experience worlds or dimensions that are ineffable, all the while being completely unaware of their individual identities or the external world. Users have reported intense hallucinations including visual hallucinations, perceptions of falling, fast and gradual movement and flying, “seeing God”, feeling connected to other users, objects and the cosmos, experiencing psychic connections, and shared hallucinations and thoughts with adjacent users.

How much of that sounded like WoW? 

A dissociative state, characterized by a sense of detachment from one’s physical body and the external world?  Check!  Users may experience worlds or dimensions that are ineffable?  Yes!  Seeing God?  Well, no.  But I saw lots of demons!  Feeling connected to other users?  Yes.  On the Mok’Nathal server to be exact.

If you see this man throughout your journeys in Azeroth, don't play with him. You'll only enable his addiction.

Today I played for about 7 hours straight!  Then, suddenly, because there weren’t a lot of people on on the realm I’m on I started having less desire for playing it.  I’ll probably play a little later, but I feel that the “addiction” is wearing off.  I tend to relapse when I play.  I’ve been relapsing off and on for about a year or two now.  I tend to get really into the game, then I get bored.  Then I get bored in real life and go back to playing again.  The cycle continues.  Maybe I should go into WoW Detox.

All joking aside, I think I’m back off the wagon (or is it on?).  Besides, I was never really addicted.  I could quit anytime I want.

I’m serious!

Don’t look at me that way!

Welcome to an online chat session at Bank of America. Please hold while we connect you to the next available Bank of America Online Banking Specialist. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes. Your current wait time is approximately 0 minutes. You are currently 1 in queue. Thank you for your patience.

Chat InformationThank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.

Jesse: Hello! I am Jesse.
Jesse: Please give me a moment, while I go through the conversation you had with our previous representative.
You: Ok, thanks!
Jesse: I apologize, but just to reaffirm. May I know with whom I am chatting with?
You: My name is Paul Johns.
Jesse: Thank you, Paul.
Jesse: Please give me a moment, while I access your account information.
You: I was in my wife’s account, but I changed over to my account (which is the same) so that I could get assistance via chat.
You: Okay.
Jesse: Thank you for your patience, I will be right with you.
You: Ok, thanks.
Jesse: Thank you for your patience.
Jesse: Paul, I see that your account balance on 09/04/08 was $xx.xx.
You: No prob. Thanks for your assistance.
You: on 09/03 it was, according to the web site
Jesse: Absolutely, your opening balance on 09/04/2008 was $xx.xx.
You: Correct, then the rent check came out and left us with $xx.xx.
Jesse: I also see six check card transactions which reduced your balance to $xx.xx.
You: I’m not showing that at all.
Jesse: Paul, these transactions are check card purchases and are in authorization.
You: what do you mean by ‘in authorization’?
Jesse: When you make any purchase with the check card, the merchant requests for an authorization to check whether the account is active and funds are available.
Jesse: When we authorize the purchase, we become obligated to pay the merchant. So, in most cases we reduce your account balance at the time we authorize your purchase by the amount stated by the merchant.  When you use a Check Card or ATM Card to pay for a transaction, you should treat the money as spent.
You: Ok, so the money doesn’t show up as spent, but I just have to remember that I spent it? Is there a reason it doesn’t show up under my transactions on the web site?
Jesse: Paul, as of now you can only see the transactions posted to your account.
You: Oh, so these aren’t posted yet. What are they for?
You: And If they haven’t posted yet, why am I being charged for overdraft fees?
You: Shouldn’t I be charged when my account is actually overdrawn?
Jesse: Although these transactions are not posted to your account, the bank is obliged to pay the merchant as it is authorized these transactions.
Jesse: Your available balance will be reduced immediately, as soon as you make any purchase.
You: So it will be reduced, but it won’t show up on the web site.
Jesse: You are absolutely right, Paul.
You: Wow, that really blows, Jesse.
You: I wish Bank of America would let me see everything that’s going on with my money, instead of just some things.
You: Can you tell me what these transactions are?
Jesse: Sure. Please give me a moment.
You: Okay.
Jesse: I see a transaction for $xx.xx to Granville Cafe.
Jesse: $xx.xx to Olive Garden.
Jesse: Two transactions for $$xx.xx TVM-North Hollywood
Jesse: And two transactions for $xx.xx each to TVM-7TH St Metro.
Jesse: After a debit of $xx.xx for check #xxx, your balance was reduced to $xx.xx.
You: I see those transactions as clearing on 09/05, meaning that there were sufficient funds at the time they cleared. I don’t think I should be charged these overdraft fees, since they cleared on 9/05 and I had sufficient funds in there since 9/04. My account was never overdrawn. Can you please take off the overdraft fees?
Jesse: On 09/04/08 you made a purchase of $xx.xx, which resulted in your account being overdrawn and overdraft fees was assessed.
You: I’m showing it resulted in my account being $xx.xx
Jesse: Paul, once we authorize the merchant, we will immediately reduce your account balance as the bank is obliged to pay the merchant.
You: That’s fine, I’m just showing that when that happened, my account became $xx.xx, not 0.00 or less.
Jesse: Okay. I will try to explain it to you.

Try hard, because I’m real stupid!

You: Okay Jesse. Thanks!

That was sarcasm, kids!

Jesse: On 09/04/08 your opening balance was $xx.xx.
You: But no matter what you say, I’m looking right at it, and you won’t be able to convince me that I was overdrawn.
Jesse: On that day you had six check card authorisations and a check for $xx.xx, which reduced your balance to $xx.xx.
You: On 9/4, I’m showing I got down to $xx.xx
Jesse: I also see a purchase posted to your account for $xx.xx, which made your account overdrawn.
Jesse: On 09/04 I see four transactions which overdrew your account.
You: I’m showing that when that happened, my account was $xx.xx, then I spent $xx.xx, which made my balance $xx.xx, then I spent $xx.xx which brought me to $xx.xx, then I spent $xx.xx which brought me to $xx.xx. Those are the four transactions. The balance is > 0.
Jesse: I really apologize, but because you are not able to see the transactions which were authorized, your ending balance on 09/04/08 is $xx.xx.
You: Right, I agree with that. The ending balance was $xx.xx.
You: Then I got paid the next day, and everything was right as rain until these overdraft charges came out.
Jesse: Okay lets do this way.
Jesse: Opening balance on 09/04/08 was $xx.xx.
Jesse: If you reduce the dollar amount of your authorizations your balance got reduced to $xx.xx.
Jesse: After a check debit your balance was reduced to $xx.xx.
Jesse: You made a check card purchase for $xx.xx, which reduced your balance to $-xx.xx.
Jesse: There was another purchase for $xx.xx, which again reduced your balance to $-xx.xx.
Jesse: There was another purchase for $xx.xx, which again reduced your balance to  $-xx.xx.
Jesse: There was another purchase for $xx.xx, which again reduced your balance to $-xx.xx.
Jesse: As a result you were charged with four overdraft fee.
You: Thanks, Jesse, I think I understand now. What you’re saying is that Bank of America shows me one story that’s happening with my money online, but in actuality, something else entirely is happening with it, and if I don’t figure it out for myself, you’ll charge me. So the web site is not there to assist me with my finances, it’s there to confuse me so that Bank of America can charge me overdraft fees. Wow, that’s a great system!
You: So anyways, now that we have that out of the way, can we remove the overdraft fees?
Jesse: At present, authorizations are not shown in online banking.  However, we are trying to put it in place.  We definitely take this as a suggestion from you and forward to our authorities.

I’m sure it’s not too hard for some web developers to figure out how to make it work. Also note that he says they “definitely” take this as a suggestion. Gee, that’s good to know that you didn’t think it was something other than that.

Jesse: I really apologize, I am unable to provide you with the refund at this point of time.
Jesse: I wish, I could have been of any help to you.  But my scope is limited and I am unable to provide you with a refund.
You: That’s okay Jesse, I probably won’t be able to eat this week since I can’t afford groceries, but as long as I know Bank of America is working on fixing the issue with their web site, that should sustain me through the week.

Yep, more sarcasm!

You: Anyhoo, can I speak with someone who CAN remove these overdraft fees?
Jesse: Let me check for any feasibility of the refund.
Jesse: Paul, I am able to provide you with a refund $xx.xx.  This is the best I can do.

He offered to take off one overdraft fee.

Jesse: Would you like me to proceed and refund the fee?
Jesse: of $xx.xx
You: I have had overdraft fees before, and I’ve called to have them explained to me, or it shows up on the website in chronological order. when that happens, I have no problem paying them, but in this case, I really don’t believe I should have any o/d fees. I’d rather have all of them removed, please. If you are unable to assist me, I’d like to speak to someone who may be able to do so.
Jesse: I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you, but I am able to refund only one overdraft fee.
You: I understand. In that case, I’d like to speak with someone who can do more please.
You: BRB, I have to use the bathroom.
You: ETA is 2 minutes…

I drink a lot of water at work.

Jesse: Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
Jesse: I sincerely apologize, I am able to provide you with only one refund fee.  This is the best I can do for you through this channel.
Jesse: If you still wish, I can provide you with our customer service phone number.
You: I understand, may I chat with your supervisor?
You: I am unable to use the phone at this time because I am at work.
Jesse: Paul, I checked with my supervisor, I am able to refund you with $xx.xx.  This is the best I can do for you through this channel.

He offered to refund two overdraft fees.

You: Ok, fair enough. I honestly don’t think I should be charged anything, but at least I can buy groceries with that.

Ok, Jesse, you wore me out.

Jesse: Thank you for your co-operation.

My co-operation in letting your company butt-rape me? Sure. Anytime.

Jesse: Before I proceed, may I ask you a few verification questions to safeguard your account information?
You: Sure.

Fast forward this part…

Jesse: Perfect! Thanks for verifying that information, I really appreciate it.

Jesse’s really happy!  Probably because he knows he’s finally going to be done with me.

Jesse: Please give me a moment, while I process your request.
You: No problem Jesse!
Jesse: Paul, I have processed your request to refund $xx.xx.  This will be posted to your account in one business day.
You: Ok, thanks Jesse.
Jesse: You are welcome.
Jesse: Is there anything else, I may assist you with?
You: No, thanks for everything. This entire chat will be posted to my blog, pauljohns.com. In it, I will say bad things about Bank of America, and good things about you. Check it out when you get home. You’ll have fun!

Boo-yah! Maybe he’ll subscribe to my RSS feed!

You: And have a nice day Jesse.
Jesse: Thank you for choosing Bank of America’s Text Chat Service! We appreciate and value your business.  Have a good day.
You: Thanks!

Ugghh.  That was exhausting.  Bank of America’s policies are whack to say the least.  They deliberately mislead you on their site so they can skim some overdraft fees off of you.  I could have and should have gotten all my fees back, since this was B.S. but I grew tired of the meaningless drivel that Jesse has to spew for a living.

In no way do I have anything against Jesse, he’s just doing his job.  He knows he works for a crap company, but he has to collect a paycheck just like everyone else.  I still don’t even know what the hell he was talking about.  If a company can’t talk straight with you and tell you why they’re taking your money, then they’re probably doing something shady.

After I already had one overdraft fee taken off, I felt like I was back in Vegas gambling.  Should I try to get more taken off, or should I quit while I’m ahead?  It might as well have been Monty Hall on the other end of the chat.  Anyways, kids, BOA sucks hairy monkey nuts.  Avoid them like the plague.

The last blog had more of an artistic flair, with the swirly colors and the presence of more gradients and shadows, but I wasn’t satisfying to me.  I didn’t like the fact that it was too thin, and I gave so much room to accents like swirly color bands.  I thought that room could be better put to use by converting it to content space.  So the main issue was solved.  The site is now wider.  I also reused almost all of the colors from the last site and worked them into this one.  I liked the colors from the last site, so I saw no point in changing that.

Something else that bothered me was that the navigation was sloppy.  On single post pages, the navigation was an image based navigation bar on the top of the page, but on every other page, it was a text-based list on the sidebar.  Although I’m certain anyone could have figured it out, it just didn’t flow well.  I fixed that by having the navigation always on the top right of the header in a little text based inline list.  See it up there?

Since my blog doesn’t have a huge following (yet!) bandwidth has not become an issue, nor do I see it becoming one anytime soon.  Even so, I decided that this site was graphic-heavier than I wanted it to be.  I had spent more time focusing on design, and given almost no thought to the layout and user experience.  I remedied this situation by using much fewer graphics, and using more CSS for design elements, when possible and sensible.  For inspiration on how to pull this off well (which I think I did, for the most part) I drew inspiration from sites such as A List Apart (ALA), 5thirtyone, and Subtraction.  From ALA I got the idea to incorporate serif fonts into the mix, something I had never really done before, although it’s very common in blog designs nowadays.  5thirtyone and Subtraction inspired me as they have in times past with their deceptively simple use of borders, lines, and positioning.  By the time I was done, I really felt like my site was leaner and meaner.  Like I had trimmed the fat.

It's the new logo!

When I was trying to get inspired to make the header of this site, I came across an Illustrator tutorial on Veerle’s blog.  Illustrator isn’t my strong suit (that would be Photoshop, if anything) but I thought that maybe if I took the tutorial, I would be inspired by it, perhaps in some other way.  When I got a little over halfway done, something unexpected happened.  I realized that I was looking at the letter ‘P’.  I rotated it 45 degrees and voila!  I had designed a logo for myself that I actually liked!  I’ve tried to make myself a logo before, but as other people can tell you, it’s probably the hardest logo to design.  I’ve always liked simple logos, and it doesn’t get much simpler than mine.  Until I come up with something better, I am very happy with my new logo.  I changed all of my social network icons (except Facebook) and Gravatar to this logo.  Thanks Veerle, the check is in the mail! Okay, not really.

I will probably always be tweaking this design here and there, but mostly it’s just moving around information on certain pages, trying out new plugins, and checking various browser compatibility issues that may arise.  Most of my energy will now be focused on blogging, hopefully making interesting posts that people will read on occasion, and oh yeah, taking over the internets.

Well, I hope you enjoy the new design.  If not, I’m really sorry, but I got to do what I think is best for the site.  And I have to make myself happy, ultimately.  I mean it IS called Paul Johns dot com.  Give me a friggin’ break!  And thanks for reading.

One of the main things I wanted to change almost as soon as this design was up was the width.  I tend to design fast, and go immediately into coding, because, basically my workflow is poorly organized chaos.  The total width of the site fits snugly into a 1024 x 768 screen resolution, but much of that is used up by the swirly lines on the left and right sides of the main content.  As much as I like the swirlies, which help break up the squared off boxiness of the site, I am probably going to get rid of them in favor of expanding the main content column.   I don’t really produce a ton of content, and the current width definitely satisfies the amount of content it contains, but I like blogs that have a newspaper-ish layout to them.  Content is king, so I want to showcase that a little more than I’m currently doing.  Give my content a little more screen time, you know?  Plus I just like the look of a wider main content section, so it’s still a design decision, in a way.

Another idea that I’m fiddling with is importing external data from the many social networks I am a part of.  The only reason I haven’t committed to this yet has been because of the huge lag that can occur when loading a page that is pulling data from flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, and many others.  I’ve tried many different WordPress plugins, but they all suffer from the same lag issue.  So far, I have just put up links on the ‘About‘ page for the social networks I use.

The footer is nicely rounded off, but that makes a lot of unused space at the bottom of the site.  I think I am going to square it off.  I know, boring, but maybe I will make a more interesting footer with more info at the bottom,  We’ll see.  I don’t currently have a clear idea of what I will do with it.

The page navigation on this site is a little weird, in my opinion.  On the single post pages, it’s at the top where you’d expect it, but on two column pages, it’s just a few text links in the sidebar, minus the link for the home page, which is accessed by clicking my name in the upper left hand corner.  I think I’d like to centralize the navigation in one spot.  Probably underneath the name and tagline to this blog.  I think that is more intuitive and just makes more sense.

I also may or may not add a side menu to the single posts pages.  The jury’s still out on that one.

All of these changes will definitely take some time, but not as much as coding a brand new site from scratch.  I still consider this the beta version of the site, so changes are inevitable.  I’m very proud of myself for not throwing away this design, because as I stated above, I really do like it a lot.  In the meantime, when you see graphics that are out of place and the site seems to generally be in chaos, just remember, that’s me, rearranging the virtual furniture.

So, we each called our respective jobs and begged and pleaded for a week off to go to Florida.  Eventually, both of our jobs agreed, and we purchased two round trip plane tickets.  My sister, Lorraine, who lives in North Carolina, and my mom, who lives in South Carolina both made plans to be there at the same time as well.

We arrived to a slightly overcast Fort Lauderdale at about 6pm, EST.  We rented a Jeep Compass and got a bite to eat at a nice little Mexican restaurant right on the beach.  Two guys were playing live music with an acoustic guitar.  It was a pretty pleasant experience, except for the fact that we were exhausted after flying for over six hours, if you include the layover in Georgia.  We killed time until 10pm, when my mother arrived at the airport, and we went home to my grandmother’s house.  I talked for awhile with my uncle Lee and my Aunt Lucy, who I hadn’t seen in years, then we all went to bed.  At this point my grandmother was still in the hospital.  She came home about two days later.

The next day, after very little sleep and plenty of jet lag, Amanda and I, along with my mom, went to visit my grandmother in the hospital.  My aunt Carmen was already there, having spent her week long vacation away from work to attend to her mother.  We spent little time in my grandmother’s room, since she didn’t really want to be seen by us.  I was more than a little disappointed, having gone through so much to be there, and being rejected by her.  Later, I was given an apology by my aunt from my grandmother, who told her to tell us, she just feels bad, and doesn’t wish to be seen in such a weakened state.  I had already gotten over it.  Who am I to argue with a dying woman?

While there at the hospital, I met up with my cousin Chris, who I love very much.  He has always been like a brother or sometimes a son to me, and we were very glad to see each other.  I hadn’t seen him in about five and a half years, so it was a very happy experience.

(From l to r) Chris, mom, Lorraine, Amanda and me.

Later that night, the usual away team of myself, Amanda and my mom brought along Chris to go pick Lorraine up from the airport.  Now the little family was complete again.  As least as complete as it had been since my parents divorced when I was four.  The rest of the day was kind of a blur.  I forgot what we did exactly.  I remember hearing lots of reports that a hurricane was coming to plague us throughout our visit.  Throughout the whole week, the most evidence we saw of that was a few light showers and some dark clouds.

On Saturday, Amanda and I woke up after not getting much sleep again, and everyone except my aunt Lucy had already left to see my grandmother in the hospital to see about taking her home that night.  At this point, we ate a little breakfast and went to Hard Rock Casino to kill time, and waste money, though at the time, I thought I was going to make money.  Oh well.  Throughout my wins and losses, I only lost seven bucks.  Not too shabby, but I’m a low roller anyway.

Later that night, we had a taco dinner extravaganza at Chris’s place.  We hung out for a long time, played some Tekken 5 on the PS2, played a little guitar, and generally just had a great time.  I also got to know my cousin Chad (Chris’s brother) more since I had never really spent that much time with him before.  We got along very well.  People kept saying he looked and acted just like me at that age.  I’d have to say I agreed.

On Sunday Amanda, Lorraine and I took the Jeep and went to visit my dad’s side of the family in Plant City.  After a five hour drive, we arrived at my paternal grandparent’s house.  We were met by my dad, my grandparents, my aunts Jan and Joan, my uncle Kevin and my cousin Aaron.  I hadn’t seen my cousin Aaron in a long time, and we really got to catch up and get to know each other a lot, which was really fun.  When I saw my Uncle Kevin, I was amazed at how great he looked!  He had lost 50 pounds just by making better food choices.  I am very proud of him.  He actually looks younger!

That night, we all went out to the Golden Corral, which isn’t the classiest place in the world, but considering we had ten people to feed, it was a good choice.  I gorged myself until my abdomen was distended.  Must have been something in the air that night.  The food was pretty good, the fish wasn’t bad, and I had lots of vegetables.

The next day we went to my former employer Hungry Howie’s for a buffet lunch.  It was interesting to see that some people who had worked there before I did as a teenager were still working there.  A bit surprising even.  The food was as good as I remembered it which is to say that it was about halfway decent.

Nothing says class like taking a family photo outside of a pizza buffet in Plant City, Florida. (From l to r) My grandfather, my aunt Jan with my aunt Joan hiding behind her, my cousin Aaron, Amanda, me, Lorraine, my dad, my grandmother.

We left there and went to the cultural center of Plant City, Wal-Mart.  I hate Wal-Mart.  It was hot in there, and it’s gigantic, and it just sucks on so many levels.  More than I can encompass in a single blog post.  Even this extremely long blog post.  We left there and visited my Uncle Johnny in a retirement home.  For my sister, it was a very emotional experience.  She felt so sad for all of the people who don’t have any one to care for them, and spend their days just waiting to die, filling their time with television, magazines and smoke breaks.  It felt good to see my uncle again, and I could tell that we brightened his day a little.

Throughout the rest of our time in central Florida, we spent time with everyone, including spending one night at my dad’s house with his very sweet wife Tracy and their dog, Belle.  Amanda and I took a trip to Hudson to visit her maternal grandparents for the better part of a day, and while there, spent time with her aunt and uncle.  Her grandmother had made a nice lunch, including beef pot roast.  I actually ate some, because I didn’t want to be rude by stating that I only eat fish.  Her grandmother is so sweet, I just didn’t have the heart.  So down the hatch it went.  That was a one time deal.

We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to, like go bowling with my cousin Aaron, but all in all we had a nice time, and it was great to see everyone that I hadn’t seen in so many years.

We drove back to Miami on Wednesday to be with my mom on her birthday (this was a very eventful week).  We went to Chili’s to celebrate with my cousins Chris, Chad and Chelsea (cute naming convention), my aunt Carmen, my sister and of course, my mom.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they were having buy one get one free margaritas after we purchased two.  That made four.  Yay for free alcohol (I didn’t have any, as I was driving, but yay anyway).

We got another three hours of sleep that night, woke up at 4:30am and went back to the airport.  We dropped off the car, took a bus to the airport, and had yet another exhausting, tiring, anxiety-inducing flight (with a layover, of course) back to beautiful Los Angeles.  It’s the city of angels, you know.

Amanda and I are still tired from this wild and wooly adventure, and we are just trying to take it easy, overcome our jet lag and basically chill out as much as possible.  We are very groggy people at this point in time.  I still have tomorrow off, then it’s back to the grindstone for me.  This wasn’t a relaxing vacation, it was hard work.  But it was so nice to reconnect with my entire family in one week.

Well, you made it to the end of this post.  Congratulations!  Go have yourself a beer.  Or better yet, a margarita.  Chili’s is having a two for one deal.  You don’t want to miss that.

I really hate flying, and I have anxiety about it, but since I’m not going to get very much sleep, maybe I’ll be able to fall asleep on the plane.  Not likely, but we’ll see.  It’s a five hour flight altogether, with a layover in Alabama.  Maybe I’ll just pop an extra Paxil.  We’ll see.

While in Florida, I plan on visiting my father in Tampa as well as my paternal grandparents.

I haven’t been to Florida in about five and a half years, so it should be interesting to see things there again.  I haven’t been to Miami in an even longer time.  I haven’t seen my grandmother in Miami since I was eighteen!  That was twelve years ago.  Crazy how time flies.

Well, pray for me that I make it through without losing my mind and that the trip is safe.  See you soon, I hope!

I plan on using more images in my blog posts than I used to and possibly video.  I will also be tweaking and changing some graphics as I go along.  If you have any ideas on what would make this blog look better, or be more interesting, or function better, please, for the love of God, tell me!  So far this blog uses very few plugins and has very few no features beyond what comes with Wordpress.  At least on the front end of things.  I just didn’t want to get all cluttered and crazy, and sometimes more features just make a site start to look sloppy.  I will be adding features as I see fit however.

So welcome to the fray.  Let the games begin, and all that.  Today is the beginning of the rest of my blog.

It will be simple, maybe 2-3 pages in total.  I will also start taking very small graphic and web design jobs, things that I can complete over a weekend.  I really enjoy designing stuff, and I enjoy coding simple things, like CSS, Javascript and XHTML.  I will not take any large jobs at all like blogs, or things that are involved with a database unless they are very, very simple.

Blogging, I think is best left to people that really have something to say.  I’m bored with it, not only for myself, I’m also bored with other people’s blogs. I will be spending more time with Amanda and my friends and family, or at least doing other things when I’m on the internet.  So peace out homies.  See you on the flip-side.  Thanks for the memories.