People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support,
To aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are..
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
This person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.
Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons,
Things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson,
Love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant
Thank you for being a part of my life,
Whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

http://kenttuttle.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/single-and-steadfast/

So I recently (well in April) threw out old hockey pants and gloves. It was a bittersweet moment. The pants kept my butt safe for 40 or so hockey games. They were a trusted ally. The gloves, well they were replaced at the beginning of the winter season. But I kept on to them for a while figuring it might be nice to use them again. Turns out, the idea never crossed my mind once. Goodbye gloves. Goodbye pants. You were cherished, you're worn out though and I just don't need you anymore. (Ok this isn't 100% just about hockey equipment)

Notes

Those notes are crazy...

If I could take notes like that, maybe i'd have actually read my notes in school.

http://northtemple.com/2012/04/05/im-always-amazed-at-peopl

New Pants

So after 14 years, the hockey pants have been replaced. Lasted 45 games or so. The inside leg ripped slightly about three games ago or so.

They're light, they seem nice, we'll see what happens Tuesday at the game.

They don't have suspender buttons though. A little disappointed about that since I miss the floating feel (til I broke a button because I stepped on it in 99).

Goodbye Bauer Supreme 3000s, Hello Bauer Vapor x60.

Women's Basketball

So the last couple restaurants I've been has had women's basketball on. I can think of 2224 things I'd rather watch than women's basketball.

Heck just in the women's sports category. softball... soccer... volleyball... cheerleader competitons that get those strange early morning weekday time slots in the summer on ESPN 354. I've never seen field hockey but i'd probably watch that, heck apparently the lingerie football league is still in business?

Has there ever been a first or 2nd round upset in women's basketball? Doesn't the final four always consist of 1 and 2 seeds? Why not just skip the extra week and just start out with a Sweet 16 and save some schools some bus fare. Does Title 9 count in transportation budgets as well? WHO IS WATCHING six rounds of women's basketball?

Apparently someone, because 3.8 million households watched the women's final game last year.
Last year's MLS Cup MAYBE got into 1 million households. Come on MLS. Isn't Donovan the poster boy of US Soccer?! Beckham the face of tighty whiteys??

Which just goes to show the sad state of US Soccer right now. Heck when a country the size of New Jersey eliminates you from qualifying for the Olympics, maybe its good for the country's morale that no one saw that.

Service... or Something.

So Alisa had a friend of a friend that was going to San Jose for a reception.

I got to play chauffeur.

It was... interesting.

She was 23. Married. kids. AND i'm positive that SHE COULD'T function on her own if she had to.

One year of school, got married. no more school.

Her husband found her a hotel to stay at. Said she could walk to the reception in 10 minutes.

The hotel was 18 miles by freeway from the location of the reception. So yeah, that drive was a little bit longer than 10 minutes. And about 12 minutes into the drive...

Kaakun: so what do you do?

girl: im just starting a business?

K: oh really, what kind?
G: a wedding photography business
K: what do you shoot?
G: a 30d? 40? with a 18-70 ml lens... ml... ml.... whatever.

I find it funny that photography is probably the only profession where people think they just have to buy a tool and they're a professional. No one buys a hammer and calls themselves a part-time carpenter.


All and all an interesting evening. Would have been interesting to go in and get some free food. Maybe there were some single friends of friends she could have introduced me to...

Guess Whose Back, Back Again...

ok probably not...

so yes, the blog has been ignored, i realize i've said i'd fix that in the past...

Well it's been a nice little streak of daily activity. Is anyone still reading? The tracker seems to say no... maybe those with RSS readers?!?! Notice some strange activity from a once familiar source?

I still stalk people via the Internet the old way before facebook took over all Internet stalking.

I love sandwiches. When XXXXXXX and I first began dating, he asked me what my favorite food was, and almost broke up with me when I answered "sandwiches". He didn't understand. And I didn't understand what there is to not understand. And in time we ate eachother's versions of sandwiches and we understood.

Thats a shame, it would have been lovely to pick up the pieces of that relationship based on sandwich issues.

Facebook stalking just isnt as interesting. Probably because people tend to share all kinds of stuff on a blog.

Last night at three a.m. we were awoken to news that our car had been involved in a beer hiest. Really, the mormons holding up a gas station for beer? The cop came and checked out our car. Fortunately, our "Y" sticker was not observed on the video tape and greg isn't latino. The case of mistaken identity, another reason to love houston....

Entertaining, yes. But we all know this isn't Greg's first run in with the law in Houston

Some jealously kicks in.

So my announcement is this: we (meaning me, mostly) set up a blog, Nathan’s Delectable Dinners, just for the sake of sharing pictures of the food that we eat, prepared by Chef Guapo. Be jealous.

.

I want a delectable dinner. Im jealous.

Thats enough of my admitting to stalking...

As you can see in the last couple of posts, we remedied the lack of travel in 2011, by traveling some in 2012!!!!

Hoped on a plane and went down to Los Angeles and Orange county on a free ticket.

Hoped on a boat and off to Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel.
Hoping back on another plane to go to Georgia.

Hop Hop hop.

So

One of the minor reasons of buying a Nikon was because it uses pretty much ANY Nikon lens. The father had an old film Nikon and a 50mm and a 35-70mm.

Never was a fan of the 35-70mm. But as a macro shot, that doesn't look half bad...

6 Years Old

The bloggy blog is a six-year-old. Sure its been ignored like a red-headed stepchild the past 2 years or so...

at least before the banners used to be pics of where i lived. Now the background picture is just a picture of the ocean in the middle of the central coast.

Howdy 2012

Boy 2012 is just flying by. Thanks to a lucky break of being in the right place at the right time on the World Wide Web. I got a free ticket to LAX. So I dumped some stuff in my bag, grabbed the camera bag and zipped down to sunny southern California. Sunny it was, mid 80s inland. yesh.

Well, turns out all the people I know have kids... so I have a bunch of so-so pictures of other people's kids. I did go to the park in Irvine. They have a huge balloon that offers free rides.

It looks like the place was sponsered by ING (since they're logo has an orange ball on it... does no one use ING for banking?!?)

Besides mingling with friends' mini me's, I ate. I ate good. White House in Anaheim, Tony Pepporoni in Aliso Viejo. Bruxie in Orange, Cafe Rio in Manhattan Beach.

I rented a subcompact. Because I wanted to spend like $15 on gas... Well all they had were minivans. So this was my ride for the trip. I'll admit the stow and go seating and remote control doors did win me over by the end of the trip. Til I gassed up and ended up having about a whopping 17mpg hwy (mostly highway, i dont remember any real traffic either).

Yeah, no getting the mommy wagon then finding the mommy for me. Good quick trip, good times.

Went to my first Warrior game. 3rd NBA game ever. It was alrighty. Dont really like basketball, but it gave me an opportunity to bust out the new "professional" lens

It goes wide. 12-24mm. So now the bag has that, a 35mm and a 55-300mm.

with the kit 18-55mm and old film 50mm and 35-70 sitting at home.

If Only I Had This on the Mish....

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/helmet-camera-mount/

The Happy Helmet Camera Bike Camera Mount.

Documenting all the awesomeness of riding around Japan on a bike. Mix this in with the pillow tie and I'd have been the most amazing missionary ever.

Where's My Water?

So Amazon has me hooked on checking their app for their free app of the day. Sure its usually something crappy, but every so often there is something quality. Where's My Water? is something quality they gave out.

According to wikipedia, "After only one day on Apple's U.S. App Store, Where's My Water? ascended to the top of the list of paid apps, surpassing Angry Birds."

Who knew? Its a great deal easier than Angry Birds, which was entertaining, til you finally had to google a walkthrough for a level you got stuck at.

So go look at Where's My Water? Its addicting and easy. Which makes it a quality game (til you run out of levels to play).

2011

When "I didn't like how good you were at broomball" is the nicest thing anyone has said to you this year, you know its been an off year.

2011 is winding down. As you can see, almost all of the 2011 posts fit on the first page. There was little to no blogging, mainly because I didn't go anywhere, if I did, I didn't write anything up on it.

Yep, after traversing the countryside in 2010. Kaakun sat at home for 2011. 1 trip to Georgia for work. 1 trip to Utah for various reasons. 2 trips to Southern California(1 for Sharks/Kings, other for a break), 1 tahoe trip and a trip to Redding. (No real camping trip even, I must be getting old)

Peachtree, Georgia. For some reason, I never adjusted to the time change until the day before I left. Nothing like going to bed at 2 am, waking up at 6. Then sitting in 8 hours of class.

What made it really awesome was I hobbled all over the place in Georgia. I sprained my ankle two weeks before going (playing soccer, crossed the ball and decided standing was over-rated and took a tumble, rolling my right ankle)

Hobbling around LAX from one terminal to another was awesome...

I picked up some new skates, a stick, gloves and helmet and dropped $500 to play adult league ice hockey. Playing hockey after a 12-year hiatus is probably not the greatest idea. Especially since the sprained ankle occurred the previous month. So 10 games into the season, the team is 5-4-1. I've racked up a measly four points. I'm pretty much the Torrey Mitchell for the team, decent speed on the wing, loses the puck after getting it and can pitch in a point on 1 of every 9 goals. ridiculous.

The lack of scoring not only goes for the ice sheet but the dating field as well. 6 girls taken out this year, no idea how many dates. One of the life-changing decisions after last year's trip was to at least "practice" dating. With the hope that I could easily up my game, when potential talent and I crossed paths. Well, I'm sure if you ask, there are 6 girls that probably would give Kaakun an incomplete on attaining that goal. I do have a play fiancee to show for it, though. (After all the play wives, 5?6? this is the first play fiancee)

Working for NCR now, fixing computers, cash registers, self checkouts, pretty much anything with a plug and a processor in a retail store. NCR stock was at $19.05 the day i received the offer letter. And it has been below that (besides a few days in October). Nothing like being able to say the worth of your company's stock dropped 20% once they offered you a job.

There was a baptism by fire at work. Originally we were suppose to go to Georgia for a week. Get a crash course on Wal-mart. Finish up a project for Walmart, then return to Peachtree for a month of training. Then fix stuff. Well We just skipped the end of the project and out-sourced it, and Kaakun got dropped into the deep end.

Luckily I've been able to put back most of the things i've taken apart.(there have been a few times with a few extra screws, but we'll just ignore that, it still worked)

Picked up a DSLR. No aspirations to becoming a part-time/freelance photographer. Just embracing an asian stereotype.

Purchased it, then ended up having to shoot a dance. Getting such quality such as this picture to the left.

So that was my 2011. Not too exciting. Thanks for reading skimming this.I'll throw some pictures out there since, who wants to just read dribble?!

got a new nephew, born on the same day Sendai got tsunami-ed.

Went to a lot of MLS/NHL/MLB games. Got to sit on the glass for Edmonton/San Jose and saw Taylor Hall undress Wallin from the front row....

Utah. Not a trip to Utah without a hike it seems and seeing a movie in the theater (Super 8)

Finally went to Hearst Castle. Its pretty sweet, kinda expensive for a tour though....

kayaked. Half Moon Bay and Lake Tahoe. (those aren't my feet)

Holy Just Skipping Months at During 2011 Batman

One of the few Christmas albums I can listen to is Dustin Kensrue's "This Good Night is Still Everywhere" I'm not a fan of Christmas music. But Dustin covers two songs, "Fairytale of New York" (who hasn't covered this) and MeWithoutYou's "A stick, A Carrot and String" which really made the album worth its weight in vinyl. And REALLY, how can you not purchase a Christmas album put out by Vagrant.

He talks about Christmas music on the sleeve and this has always caught my attention.

"I love Santa Claus, presents and Christmas trees as much as the next person, but the deeper, weightier and preciously joyful meaning of Christmas resides in the birth of Jesus Christ. It resides in the unbelievable idea that because he loved us, God came into the world as a man, to live the perfect life we could not live, die the death we deserve to die, so that we might be justly reconciled to him and that we might enjoy him forever. Maybe this sounds crazy to you, or maybe you've heard it so many times that it has ceased to astound you, but every year it becomes more and more astounding to me. I celebrate Christmas not as a story; I celebrate in the well founded belief that in historical space-time reality, this actually happened. And that it has changed everything"

It is kinda of amazing to think about it as I slowly wrap my head around the importance of the atonement and I appreciate his take on it to help me understand more and more of it.

Got my Tina Fey fix from Amazon this week. I dont know why, but its hard to find women that are funny. Now I know you'll say, "what?!?!? I'm a girl and i'm funny."

No. You have a sense of humor. You laugh at things that ARE funny, perhaps have decent tastes in media. But your production of funny falls into some categories like....

"Wow i can't believe she said that, that was a funny thing to say."
"Um yeah, i'm not going to do that, that was a funny suggestion"
"yes, that was funny, that writer/actor/actress/whatever you quoted is quite funny"

Now you're saying, but wait there are PLENTY of women comedians.

Nope, not funny. Sure there might be a bit here and there that will get a great laugh. Then its right back to jokes about relationships and periods... yawn. Average male comic > average female comic. Sorry. (Margaret Cho I'm looking at you...)

You expect guys to be crude... but female comics seem to just look at that line and cross it by miles.

There are some entertaining people tweeting though. Thats one of the pluses of Twitter I think. 144 characters to either hit gold or scrap metal. Then there are plenty of other people tweeting stuff so no one notices your crappy tweets, but when you hit gold. Your followers can think you're the most amazing person out there

Horrible Movie

So we made a movie for a ward "make a crappy movie and watch it" activity.

I dont remember if youtube lets you embed movies that aren't listed.... so if it doesn't play, you just saved yourself 9 minutes of crappy video watching.



I'm not even sure what is going on and I helped make it.

Dating vs Hockey

So during 2011.

playing hockey $1017.37

dating $992.13

I started playing hockey again. After a 12-year hiatus, some equipment needed to be replaced. Like gloves... skates... garter belt. Also purchased a new twig off a clearance (see below)

These numbers aren't entirely accurate too. Since hockey will go til like April... and I probably have thrown in the towel on dating til at least then.

But if you want the girlie numbers; thats 5 girls, a decent wad of cash and nothing to show for it.

Hello Old Friend

Is anyone still out there?

So at one point this blog had a post a day. Now there are two months of 2011, with not a single post. Lazy kaakun.

So whats happened over the past 6 weeks or so?

Tahoe, went up to Tahoe. Ward Tahoe trip... in the middle of South Lake Tahoe. Yep kiddies, my only camping trip this year was pretty much in the center of a park in the middle of the city. Hello 3G coverage and walking access to civilization. The trash cans at the campsite were even just plain ole trash cans. No critter-proofing done here.

So to make the best of it, we ditched the wardies and kayaked.

It was peaceful, if there wasnt the fear of Ashley dumping me over or floating out to the middle of the lake, I probably could have fallen asleep.

The A's stumbled out of the block to start the season and continued that for the whole season. Was pretty optimistic this year and boy was I wrong.

On Athleticsnation.com's Guess outcome game thoughout the season. I got 9th place, BUT if you don't include proxy scoring, I got 6th. Which to me was pretty impressive in a pool of 20 or so regular and semi-regular participants.

Luckily hockey season has started up. 20th season of Sharks hockey. heres to a decent year.

Speaking of hockey, Kaakun bought some new skates, some new gloves and sucked in the gut and squeezed into some old hockey pants. Yep Kaakun is playing adult league hockey. Sure he's out of shape and hasn't played in 12 years... but its gone alright so far. The pre-season game I was dead tired halfway through the 1st period. The 1st regular season game, i was dead tired halfway through the 2nd period.

SOOOOOOOO the next game I should be able to make it almost through the game without the desire to puke my guts out on the ice.

Keep on reading blog friends, I'll post something interesting for once... sooner or later.

Question

Obviously everyone is worried about there child being ugly. What is worse? Being ugly and talented. Or attractive and talentless?

What happened at Utah?!

$399.58 (in credit card transactions, who remembers if any cash was spent) spent to go to fly into Utah. buy food. buy gas. Have a rental car for half of the week. Drive back and have food and gasoline.

I think I e-mailed this story to anyone that might look at this blog. I dont even know if anyone still looks. (no way of knowing who is seeing this stuff by RSS feeds)

week before Utah
-Kaakun pisses off girl with text.

Monday
-girl posts facebook status looking for any facebook friends looking for a ride back to CA from Utah.
-kaakun texts and offers assistance if she had found anyone. Jordan is getting married on Thursday and David is moving from Provo in a week. So there could be reason to visit Utah.
-girl decides to figure out whats going on and get back to Kaakun.

Tuesday
-morning, girl still not quite sure whats going on.
-girl's mom talks to the neighbor and arranges to have her come back with girl.
-Then neighbor wasn't positive when she was going to come back from Utah.
-return day gets pushed back from Monday to Wednesday.
-Kaakun buys a ticket for Thursday.

Thursday-Monday
-typical Utah trip. Wedding, eating, sitting around, eating, movies, hiking, eating, date, helping someone move, watch movie at home.

I'm just going to copy and paste the e-mail i sent out to cover the last part of the trip.

TUES
she has a 10 month old, while loitering around in front of her friends house. There was an alaskan malamute tied up to the stairs. well the dog decided to run and play and in the process swipes the feet out from under her with the leash, baby goes flying. she bruises her butt and elbow, baby bites his tongue.

so after everyone is calmed down. try to start the car. key won't turn. 3 people try. 3 people fail. key is pretty worn out, go to home depot and make a new one. come back. nada.
i ask if the friend has any wd40. comes back with olive oil. so i'm lubing up the ignition, then try it. Didn't work (yet)

Well the car isn't going to move. its 9 pm. Grab some food and head down to her grandma's in Spanish fork who is out of town (and apparently racist against mexicans no idea about her feelings about tan asians)

WED
parade around spanish fark as a lil inter-racial family (baby daddy is mexican) getting odd looks from the cashier while i'm only paying for my stuff at Maceys and not the diapers/wipes.

her neigbor's parents are in utah as well. they drive down to pick her up and take her back to the car. He is freaking out because he has only 4 seat belts and 4 people and a car seat. i get left behind at grandmas. 20 mins later i hear people in the kitchen. Concerned because there is no way she's back this soon. I eventually walk over there and see a family looking at me like "who the f are you?" They're cousins that went there to take care of some yard work. She doesn't even know the cousin's name... cousin's wife won't even make eye contact with me.

anyways, back in provo, the AAA guy gets in the car and starts it no problem. he suggests she buys some graphite lube and use that on it.

THURS
drive back to CA, with her neighbor's mom. So now we're a happy inter-racial family with a grandma.

kinda funny, in april she said she didn't want to pursue a relationship with me and in june we're playing house.

yep that was my trip to Utah.

entertaining.

A's v O's/A's v Yankees/China Hole hike/Sharks street Rally (all jumboed up)

Josh Outman

A's/O's

me

A's/Yankees









A's/Orioles and fireworks from the field. Awesome.
A's/Yankees and well... yeah.

China Hole at Henry Coe. Ended up being 12 miles and 1400 ft of elevation change. in 4 hours. I was sore for a good 3 days.

Sharks street Rally. Well they won that game. So I guess thats good. I also got like 4 free t-shirts. So #winning.