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.

Leland's Wedding

Never cared for the cultural hall reception, but they did spruce it up pretty nicely.

So Kaakun's intro to photography continues without Josh. After night shooting, I forgot to turn the AF back on... and i didnt notice at the temple on the little lcd with such a WIDE lens...

other lesson, when you have the whole set up in the car, take it out of the car.... the bride took forever to change and I was just expecting a few wide angle shots and not expecting to zoom in on anything...

Shooting with Josh

So it helps out having a professional photographer at your disposal. You know, to point out reasons why its not working... like AF trying to do its thing in the dark = camera doesnt take a picture...

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...

I'm On a Boat (well in Feb)

Mexico

Roatan

Mexico

Cruise

Roatan

Cruise

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).

2012: Week 1 Fiiiiiiiiiiight!

Wed

So Kaakun asked El Jefe about starting and ending work an hour early to go to the temple. That was denied. Kaakun was shocked, because this worked earlier two weeks ago for a hockey game. Anyways, Kaakun decided to bypass lunch and slap his "lunch" at the end of the work day. Not quite kosher in most states' workforce laws but whatever.

Well, Kaakun was on his way up to the temple, when dispatch sent out a call. Disgruntled at his attempts failing over and over, Kaakun grunted out a "boy guess someone doesn't want me to go tonight" and went on his merry way down to the site.

There was nothing wrong with it. Up and running, being used by a customer. No one was freaking out. So Kaakun quickly took his foot out of his mouth and went off to the temple.

Funny how things work out. In a long drawn out, nerve wracking way.

Kaakun v Lexmark
So back when Kaakun worked at UCI. He was always fiddling with Lexmark printers. Changing toner, un-jamming paper jams, cussing up a storm. etc. Fast forward to 2012, jumbo together three letters, you get NCR and Kaakun is still out fiddling with Lexmark printers.

Now it gets more intrusive. Taking apart printers, pulling out fusers, ripping out rollers, inhaling toner. If i sneezed and there was a charged paper nearby, I could technically be a printer.

Needless to say, not a fan of seeing printer issues make their way down the pipeline into the work orders. Mainly because of being tired of losing skin jamming stuff back into a metal cage of a printer. One day Lexmark, you and I will co-exist peacefully.

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.

The Pillow Tie

So in the Sky Mall there is "the Pillow Tie"

A clip-on tie that has a bladder that when you're sleepy, you blow up. Hello pillow.

It doesn't look comfortable at all. Might as well just sleep on the $20 bill it costs.

Question

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

Sing-a-ma-Jigs

So I was down in Southern California two weeks ago. There I learned about Sing-a-ma-Jigs. Which apparently were a hot item last year. They're entertaining yet kinda creep me out at the same time.



(borrowed from the Sing-a-ma-jigs' website) Yeah. Its like letting your kids play with singing clowns...

But apparently if you get a bunch together, they harmonize. interesting.

Southern California was ok. Mostly sat on a beach, ate mexican food or socialized with toddlers. Somehow this is a recurring occurrence for me down here. All the single friends are off busy. Jen was in Vietnam. Ashley was at a wedding. So yep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing-a-ma-jigs

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.