Jesse Tobler

Kristen & Joe 10-16-10

2010-10-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

Currently editing the video for Kristen and Joe. I had a chance to meet up with them a few weeks before the wedding and I was very excited once I found out how relaxed and chill they were. Kendra was there with me to help out and made working weddings a lot less stressful for me.

As a one man operation, I'm running around back and fourth so much that by the end of the wedding/event, I'm dripping in sweat. Gross. Not this time though, Kendra stayed in the back and helped me by snagging a few of the wide angle shots and pans.

Here are a few unedited screen captures of what was happening at the wedding. Can't wait to deliver this one to the newlyweds.

AT&T Wireless = Hot Salty Garbage

2010-08-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

I've absolutely had it with AT&T. I'm a mac user and love my iPhone but I find it a damn shame that Apple decided to go with a company that can't even come close to being able to support the iPhone to it's fullest potential.

For the non-iPhone users out there, imagine this... being able to send pictures from your cellular device via MMS or text message. Sound incredible? Well it's not, it's everyday common practice with all wireless providers and devices. The joke of a wireless provider AT&T, was unable to handle the data load with the iPhone and iPhone users couldn't send MMS/text pictures when the phone first came out. Keep in mind that any other phone on the market with any other wireless provider was able to do the same thing for YEARS!

On a regular basis, I receive and make about 5-10 calls a day. Granted there are those days that no one calls me and I don't even look at my phone but on the average, about 5-10 a day. Out of those 5-10 calls a day, roughly 3-7 of them are dropped and cut short due to poor reception. You can imagine how incredibly frustrating this can be.

The worst part about all this is that I pay $166.00 a month (Family plan with 2 separate iPhones) and can't hold a call in my own house without stepping outside to my front yard. I could go on and on about all the crap I've had to go through to make a call or reconnect a call but I'm completely over it. I love my iPhone but my contract with AT&T is over in October and if I don't get a normal English speaking human being on other end of the line when I call AT&T to bitch and complain about how big of balls they suck... I'm going to get a prepaid phone and wait for another carrier to take on the iPhone.

So on that note I would like to leave you with my final words for AT&T Wireless.

Dear AT&T Wireless,

Your service is one of the worst I've ever experienced and I would rather have the body odor that smells like the the inside of an old wooden leg than sign another contract with you.

I have more dropped calls than completed calls which makes me want to head butt your eyes shut.

You claim that you have the largest 3G network. But it seems that along the Interstate 5 corridor that passes through the biggest and most populated city in Oregon (Portland) I still manage to be stuck on your archaic and slow "Edge Network" and proceed to have even more trouble keeping calls connected. And for that, if I ever find out where your headquarters are, I'll be sure to either urinate on your front door or mail you a box of feces.

Thanks for wasting my time, frustrating the hell out me, and over all, providing terrible service.

Suck my ass you laughable excuse for a company,

Jesse E Tobler

Bikes!

2010-08-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

I just got my old road bike up and running and it reminded me of a previous post. A little while ago, I mentioned a cinematographer named Russell Brownley (Russ's website) who did a small piece on a bike company in Zambia called ZAMBIKES. I found out that Russell put out a longer version of the video in more of a documentary style that's actually about the economic and social impact of this company and how it is improving the lives of the people in Zambia.

Amazing work and the bamboo bike frames are pretty amazing. I really want one... alas, damned priorities. Check out the video and don't forget to check out Russ's website too. He does some awesome work.

Zambikes Promotional from Russell Brownley on Vimeo.

Packing It Up

2010-07-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

It's finally all coming together. Kendra and I moved to our very own place. Ever since we moved back to Eugene/Springfield we have been living separately at our parents houses. Not something that is easy to do after being out on your own. But at the same time, extremely lucky and thankful for us to have parents that love us unconditionally and allow us to live under their roofs while we try and get our feet back under ourselves.

We've both been working hard and it's all finally starting to look like a house. Painting, ripping up the carpet and discovering beautiful wood floors (why anyone ever covers up wood floors is beyond me), organizing and the like.

I'll have pictures and/or a video up after we are a little bit more organized.

Do Want!!!

2010-06-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

Kendra has a huge crush on this videographer/cinematographer named Russell Brownley (Russ's Vimeo Page & Russ's Website) and I have to admit, the man knows his stuff. He produces very professional videos and loves the "Super 8" effect (complete with film burns) almost as much as I do.

Anyway, point being we saw that he did a documentary on a bike manufacture in Zambia called "Zambikes". Zambikes has recently started production on hand building bike frames out of local bamboo. I can't express how much these bikes impress me and how much I want one. I love biking and I love most anything that is handcrafted.... except for wicker anything. I mean c'mon people, find a hobby.

I suggest you watch this video that Mr. Brownley made and check out his website and/or Vimeo page.

Zambikes Preview from Russell Brownley on Vimeo.

tear A Dream Come True

2010-06-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Curt (curtnova.com) I have been given the opportunity to help a company he works for called Push Play Productions. They were in need of another camera operator and Curt gave me a call. I was thinking that I was going to be using one of their cameras, which is always a joy to use a nice camera but I knew that they didn't own anything extraordinary or anything that I haven't had the opportunity to work with before.

So when I got to the location and saw what cameras we got to work with I nearly wet myself. I had my hands on a Panasonic AG-HPX 500 all day and it was really hard to not smile the whole time. Never really been a part of a real production and it was so much fun. Below I included a picture of the camera I used and YES, I purposefully left the price tag visible.

Best part about this situation is, that I get to go back for three more days of playing with this camera.

Running On Fumes

2010-06-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been so busy and stressed that I have done all of the following in the past week:

Stayed up for more than 48 hours continuously while editing and burning projects to DVD's.
Found out that my DVD burner and or DVD program is on the fritz.
Nearly pulled out all my hair trying to figure out where all the memory on my MacBook Pro keeps going. It's only 150GB hard drive but I'm very organized and it seems that it's constantly full and I'm not sure why.
Had my time and effort volunteered to help out with editing a video project I didn't shoot that nearly ended in disaster due to the aforementioned computer problems.

And all of this while working a 45 hour week at my regular job and being constantly attacked by a bombardment of seasonal allergies.

Aside from being stressed and running on fumes, this last weekend I went with Kendra and two of my good friends Mike and Fletcher to Blair Lake and camped overnight. Needless to say, a case of assorted micro brews and a midnight trip to a nearby natural hot spring is exactly what I needed to recharge for the rest of the week I have ahead of me.

Blair Lake at dawn.

Fletcher pumping Mike full of Giardia.

A peek over the edge of Hell Hole. 200ft straight down.

Our hike out from Hell Hole, we stumbled upon a scene from Lord of the Rings.

Mike decorating the forest.

Busy

2010-06-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

What a past month I've had! I have been working a ton and trying pretty hard to focus on getting more video jobs going.

Just a few weeks ago I filmed a Orthodox Jewish wedding and finally was able to finish the editing. Now it's just a matter of getting the DVD menu finished and sent off to the client. The wedding itself was unreal and nothing like your traditional Christian wedding. It was a non-stop party and I was running around from shot to shot. Needless to say I've never been so tired and worn out at a wedding. The bride and groom are a super nice couple and I hope they like what I did and maybe recommend me to a few of their friends. (Shameless self plug)

All this time sitting at my computer editing is starting to actually pay off though. I'm becoming more efficient with my editing and learning new things. I really would like to talk to a few pros to try and figure out some new things or maybe even find a class to help broaden my repertoire.

You can check out the wedding video just below or if your feeling adventurous, just go to my new website HERE. (Huge thanks to the lovely Kendra Handke for whipping up a lovely website for me.)

Eric & Lynne from Jesse Tobler on Vimeo.

I Wish All My Dreams Were Like This Music Video

2010-05-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of most music and I am also a very visual person. So when I see a very well done music video, usually regardless of the musical genre, I almost instantly fall in love with that band.

Well this is no exception. My brother introduced me to this band only a few hours ago and I can't stop watching this exceptional music video. I am currently in the process of finding out more about this band named, Romona Falls, but I think they're great.

Watch the video and tell me what you think. (I recommend clicking the link HERE to watch. Apparently YouTube and Blogger don't know how to cooperate very well as you can tell by the poor sizing of the video.)

Weekends and Wallets

2010-05-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

For those that don't know, I am a cabinet maker by day and do film/video by night and/or weekends. My point being that currently I am working for a really great guy named Robin.

Robin and I share a love for climbing and he took me to a "top secret" spot in Oregon and it was a blast. While he was climbing and 110% of my attention should have been on him and making sure I didn't drop him while he was 25-30 feet in the air, I decided to take this picture. Much to his dismay. I had a blast until it was my turn to climb and the rain started and didn't let up until we got all the way back in town. Still a fun trip.

Did I mention it was a "top secret" spot? Cause it might be the coolest place I have ever climbed in my entire life and I can't wait to go back.

On a completely different note, I recently found out that an extraordinarily handsome, funny, and talented friend of mine started a blog pertaining to his extraordinarily handsome and fashionable wallet and accessory company by the name of Rouge Empire.

Rogue Empire Blog HERE
Rouge Empire Etsy Account HERE

Below are some of the great items he has handcrafted and are for sale.

Necktie Billfolds

Necktie Key Fob

Topcoat or Necktie Flask

All images courtesy of Rouge Empire.

Jewish Weddings...? Yeah, I Do Those Too.

2010-05-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just got off the phone with a client and I have the wonderful privilege to film a traditional orthodox Jewish wedding in about a week. The client is emailing me a sort of schedule/program that, supposedly, will have all the information I should need. Yet, she still warns me that it'll be like nothing I've ever seen before. I've been doing a little research via YouTube and Google to hopefully catch a glimpse as to what to expect and looks like quite the party. Needless to say, I'm excited.

The client made it a point to tell me that there will be an open bar as well... let's just say that I just might stick around and keep the camera rolling just for kicks.

Of course none of this would be possible without the recommendation from my good friend and amazingly talented photographer, Joshua Rainey. Please check him out if you have any photography, web design, or hosting needs. The man is simply amazing.

I Dream In Pixels

2010-04-08T23:36:00.000-07:00

I was just shown this video on Vimeo and it instantly became one of my absolute favorites. Sometimes I feel like I play way too many video games and at some point I'm convinced that I'm going to start dreaming like this video portrays.

PIXELS: Retro Gamers from addwork on Vimeo.

I can't seem to find any real info about who made it on their Vimeo page but all I can say is WOW!

Ode To GryllsStroudMears

2010-04-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

When you think manly, courageous, brave, and fearless, your first thought should probably be Jason Statham, but in a close second should be Bear Grylls, Les Stroud, and maybe even Ray Mears (in no particular order). Being greatly influenced by the shear ruggedness and masculinity of these outstanding examples of men, my good friend Ken and I decided to venture forth into the great northwest and prove to Mother Nature that we can survive anything she can throw at us with nothing more than a knife and the clothes on our back.

The weather was terrible when we thought of this idea in the comfort of our own homes.

The weather was terrible when we left town.

The weather was terrible when we built our lean-to out of nothing more than what the earth provided.

The weather was terrible when we cooked our hot dogs on the fire we successfully lit in the rain.

The weather was even worse when we decided after 4 1/2 hours of proving our manliness to head back to civilization.

Basically it comes down to two grown men, going out into the woods and building a fort and starting fires while it was near monsoon conditions. We decided to head back home and not rough out the whole night after it started to snow on us. All in all, a wonderful way to spend your Friday afternoon.

New Video Work

2010-03-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'll get right into it.

I've been working on building a portfolio and exploring new programs for editing and this is kind of what I've come up with. More to come soon. Keep an eye on my Vimeo page.

www.vimeo.com/jessetobler

After Effects Test 1 from Jesse Tobler on Vimeo.

Sin City Blood VFX Test from Jesse Tobler on Vimeo.

Cocktail Birthday Party from Jesse Tobler on Vimeo.

Mom Dad & Dogs from Jesse Tobler on Vimeo.

Yeah Yeah, I Know, Long Overdue

2009-07-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Well this has been quite the summer. So far I feel like so much has happened and it’s really only half way over. I have been so incredibly busy and really enjoying it. I won’t bore you all with the details of what has happened in the past two months that I have neglected this blog. No, that’s what pictures are for.

First and foremost, if you don’t already know I moved back to Oregon. I stayed at my old place in Springfield for about four weeks and recently have been kickin’ it at Ian, Jane, and Cody’s apartment in Eugene. I'm having a great time and want to say thank you to everyone for letting me use their floors and couches.

Shortly after I moved back to Oregon, I headed back down to the Bay Area and joined Kendra for a Mute Math concert. Mute Math just so happens to be one of our favorite bands and one of the most entertaining shows I’ve ever seen. For example, near the end of their show, the drummer ripped off one of his floor toms, ran and stage dived, had the crowd hold his drum and mic and proceeded to play a wicked solo on this single drum. I just so happened to be in the perfect spot for a picture and posted it up on Twitter. Shortly there after, the band saw what I had posted and ReTweeted my photo. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure I wet myself. Silly, I know.

A couple more weeks went by and Ian, Jane, Kendra, and I went on our annual Smith Rock climbing trip. If you haven’t been to Smith Rocks near Bend, Oregon, I highly suggest that you go. Even if you don’t rock climb. It’s absolutely mind numbing how gorgeous and utterly ginormous it is. Here are a few pics from the trip. All are pretty self explanatory... but for real, go there. Great hikes and it’s. just. freaking. HUGE!

[above: at the top of Smith Rocks, Bend, Oregon]
[above: Jane looking good on the wall]
[above: Ian tearing it up, as usual]
[above: Kendra smoking that route]
[above: And me... looking like a goon]

[above: Ian and me doing our manly duties]
[above: Cheese ball? Yes, I know]
[above: Oh weird... I'm acting like an idiot again]

One early weekend morning, my dear best friend, Zachary and I decided to strap a canoe to the top of Thug Passion and go
fishing. Apparently we are both terrible fishermen because we didn’t catch a damn thing. We did, however, have a great time and found out that there are some of the coolest camping spots on the lake we went to. In fact, the very next weekend was the two year anniversary for Kendra and I and we wanted to go camping, so I took her there.

The only problem with that was, we didn’t plan for the trip very well and after we got the tent all set up, started a fire, and cooked some hotdogs.... we found that we were incredibly bored and extremely thirsty. Yes, that’s right, we didn’t pack anything to drink. Idiots, I know. So after a short debate, we decided to pack up and come back into town where we made some food and watched some Ninja Warrior and Entourage. Not a bad way to end a six hour camping trip if you ask me.
[above: Kendra being bored]
[above: Jesse being bored]

Before Kendra had to go back to Berkeley we went to my good friend Gabe's birthday/graduation party where I found out that an old house mate/friend of mine named Aaron was getting married. I don’t normally like going to weddings that I don’t get invited to but Aaron personally invited me and he’s such a rad guy that I just couldn’t say no. That and I was lucky enough to car pool with Zachary’s family and listen to their daughter sing along with the new New Kids On The Block album. No really... I’m not kidding... she freaking loves it almost as much as her mom does. Probably one of the cutest kids in the world. So thank you Leia for being the entertainment for us all in the car that day.

I bet the wedding was nice but information was relayed to us incorrectly and what we thought was a seven o’clock wedding, was actually a five o’clock wedding. By the time we got there, the reception was nearly over and people had already started leaving. Not a huge deal, because we still got to see a ton of people and Aaron and his new wife Jessica looked amazing.

A few things to finish up here:

I’m currently working with some of the greatest guys anyone could ask for and really enjoying it.

I decided to shave my head. I haven’t done it since the 8th grade and I have to say, it’s absolutely wonderful.

Been going to the lake with my parents on their boat and today Gracie decided to come.

Things are great and they are soon to be even better. On the 13th of August, I’m heading down to Berkeley with a truck and trailer and bringing Kendra back to the beautiful North West. She’s excited, I’m excited, and needless to say, her family is very excited.

Like I said, this summer is only half way over and I can't wait to see what happens next. Things are good and I'm really enjoying it.

There's Giants In San Fran

2009-05-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

[pictured above: panoramic shot of Embarcadero, the main waterfront street in San Francisco]

As my last week in the bay area begins, I feel like I’m trying to make the most of it. Like it’s some last ditch effort to hang out with everyone I want to hang out with and go do or see the things that I should have done while I was living here. But then I remember that I’m going to be coming back here only five days after I leave. Kendra and I have tickets to a concert to go watch one of our favorite bands, Mute Math. Even after that, we have camping trips planned throughout the summer and I plan on making it to the bay area at least every other weekend. Especially when we can find plane tickets for forty dollars from places like Allegiant Air.[pictured: Kendra & Jesse in front of AT&T Park, San Francisco]

Well, like I mentioned above, Kendra and I have been making the most of our time together here lately. Today we went AT&T Park and watched the Giants play the Atlanta Braves. As some of you may already know, I’m not a huge baseball fan. Honestly, I really couldn’t care less about it. But, I’ve come to the conclusion that whether it be a professional game or minor league, if I’m sitting in the bleachers with the right people I will definitely have fun.[pictured: panoramic shot from inside AT&T park]

Just so you know, baseball tickets are super cheap. Kendra and I got our tickets for only $10.00 off the the San Francisco Giants webpage. Which was a very good thing because Kendra insisted that she try feeding me some of the ballpark food that we’ve been hearing so much about. I got a hotdog out of pure ballpark tradition and Kendra got the most bomb ass amazing garlic fries. Aside from the food being the usual ridiculously high price that you might have come to expect at an event like this, everything tasted so damn good.[pictured: Jesse about to mow through a tasty dog]

One thing that I was really surprised about was the price of beer. I was honestly thinking that it might be around 5-6 dollars for a cup of beer. I was unpleasantly surprised when I saw a $8.75 price tag on a cup of beer. I’m sure at one of the other concession stands, that might have been dedicated to selling beer, there might have been a cheaper choice but still... $8.75 for a 12oz plastic cup of beer?!?!?! Yikes. I had to respectfully decline Kendra’s offer to buy me one even with the lofty price tag.

Nothing much more to update everyone with other than with the beautiful day it was for the game, my forehead got a little sun burnt. I suppose I could ask everyone about this photo I took while coming home from the game [below]. I couldn’t help but notice this woman, that seemed to be dressed like a mennonite or amish, holding a cellphone and capturing a picture of the streets in San Francisco. Is it only humorous to me or is there actually something a little quirky about this old fashioned woman with a cell phone?One more small update about everyone’s favorite San Franciscan, Super Twat. Kendra has been terribly worried that she would bump into her on her way to and from work and have some sort of “altercation”. Turns out that last week went on with out a hitch and when we were walking up our street back from the game, there stood Super Twat. Just chillin’ underneath a different building, with her rolling backpack.

Kendra and I muttered under breath as we noticed her, “Oh shit.” As if we should expect her to lash out and yell at us about the recent “Flash Flood” incident.

Fortunately for us, Super Twat is bat shit crazy and we think the only thing that she remembers about last week is to not stand on the corner of College Ave. and Alcatraz or she might get wet.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed the sun. I’ll be seeing most of you pretty soon.

It's Raining, But Only On You Ho!

2009-05-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER:
Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent, but what is stated here is all true.

Here is a little story about a guy and we’ll call him Not Jesse. Not Jesse and his lovely girlfriend... Not Kendra... had been enjoying a stroll around the block to enjoy the wonderful spring air and beautiful green leaves in... Not Berkeley. Just as Not Jesse and Not Kendra were rounding the corner to the entrance of their apartment, there stood the old woman who says terrible things to passers by, loitering at the bus stop. We shall call her, Super Twat (ST).

I suppose I should preface this story by letting you know how much of a rectal wart this old woman is (aka, Super Twat). Since the day Not Jesse and Not Kendra saw her, Super Twat always asked for “a dollar to ride the bus”. However, Super Twat had never looked disheveled or unfastidious in anyway. Granted she did wear pretty much the same thing and always had Not Jesse’s least favorite object known to humankind... a rolling back pack, but she was never dirty or unkempt. Although, only an assumption, it was an educated guess that Super Twat was not homeless.

The problem with Super Twat was that every time Not Jesse and/or Not Kendra declined to make a charitable donation or ignored her plea for some sort of economic gain, Super Twat proceeded to insult the couple and threatened to call the cops. Most, if not all of her disrespectful jabs and aspersions where just that. Usually the two would look at each other in surprise because the last time they checked, coercing someone into giving you money was usually frowned upon.

Before I carry on with the original story, I should also let you know that while loitering at the bus stop, Super Twat diligently tried to board the bus whenever it made a stop only to be turned down. More than likely due to the fact that she had no money. Hence her poor habits in trying to solicit charity.

Shall we continue? Good then.

The moment Not Jesse and Not Kendra noticed Super Twat, they were a bit taken aback. It had just struck them that they have not had an encounter with Super Twat for some time due to her absents. Alas, it was as if the trio hadn’t skipped a day. Not Jesse and Not Kendra made their way to their apartment buildings door just when Super Twat turned and noticed them. Instantly launching a barrage of muttered insults and put downs.

“I’m not the one who is bi-polar, you are. Anorexic bitch. Everyone knows about you. Everyone talks about you. I’m going to call the cops.”

As if Not Jesse and Not Kendra were l verbally fighting back, Super Twat relentlessly mocked and taunted the couple who hadn’t said a word. Not Kendra made her way up the stairs to the apartment with Not Jesse right behind her. Once again, the two caught themselves looking at each other with surprise and bewilderment. A moment passed and they laughed and toyed with the idea of having a squirt gun at the ready so that if Super Twat decided to hang around the bus stop again, they could perhaps score a few shots to the back of Super Twats head out of their second story window.

[pictured, right: the NOT window, which was used]

Low and behold, just after they had finished their conversation, the couple had heard the city bus pull up. As usual, Super Twat tried to negotiate with the bus driver and was once again denied. Upon her denial to ride public transit, Super Twat must have saw it fit to call the large african-american bus driver the N-word, along with other racially slanderous terms.

At this point, Not Jesse wasn’t really paying attention but still entertaining the thought of keeping a water gun at the ready. Not Kendra, on the other hand, was enjoying the entertainment just outside the second story window. But when Super Twat dropped the N-bomb, Not Kendra quickly demanded Not Jesse to pay attention and watch the drama unfold.

From their perch, Not Jesse and Not Kendra watched the bus driver pulled the large vehicle over, opened the bi-folding doors and calmly began to approach Super Twat. With his hands resting on his bulky hips, in a collected voice, the bus driver spoke,

“Mam, if you call me a nigger again, I will call the Transit Police and the authorities will arrest you.”

All the while, through out the bus drivers clear message, Super Twat was in a serious uproar.

“Someone call the cops! This man is trying to hurt me! Quick, call the cops!...”

Finally, Not Jesse couldn’t take it anymore.

“This woman is crazier than a shit house rat.” he said out loud and rushed to the kitchen. There he grabbed the largest pot he could find and began filling it up with cold water. Not Kendra still adhered to the window, keeping one eye on Super Twat and the other on the bus driver.

Soon, Not Jesse had the pot nearly filled and hurried to the window. The bus driver had given his warning and saw no reason to continue the meaningless conversation with the clearly insane woman. He turned his back and reentered the large bus and began to pull off. Just as the bus was rolling away, Super Twat reached for her rolling back pack and was instantly met with 4 liters of cold water falling from the sky.

[pictured, above: the NOT sidewalk moments after the water hit Super Twat. Super Twat not pictured]

“Ha! Direct hit bitch.” Not Jesse snickered and caught a glimpse of Super Twat frozen in surprise right before he slammed the window shut.

Not Kendra was in a state of half laughter and half shock. Not Jesse couldn’t contain himself and was sitting on the couch laughing uncontrollably when Not Kendra heard Super Twat abandon any miniscule shred of sanity she had left. Most of what was heard was completely unintelligible verbal diarrhea but Not Kendra froze when she saw Super Twat flag down a passing by... Not Berkeley Police car. She warned Not Jesse and for a moment, they stood in silence and listened for the conversation that Super Twat was about to have with the Not Berkeley Police Officer.

The officer pulled his car over to the side of the road and began to exit his vehicle. Not Jesse and Not Kendra couldn’t help but notice, that the police officer was another black male.

“They threw water on me!” Super Twat screamed.
“What?” the officer asked. “Who threw water on you?”
“Them! The people up in that apartment!” More banshee like squeals shot from her mouth as she pointed up towards the second story.
“Do you know them?”
“No! But they’re up there right now and threw water on me!!!”

Not Jesse’s heart was in a bit of a race but was relieved to see that the mentally stable have no problem spotting the mentally unstable. The officer turned around and made his way back when Super Twat rifled off, “Stupid black man!”

The officer sat down in his patrol car and began driving away as if to completely ignore Super Twat’s cries for justice to be served. As soon as the Not Berkeley Police Officer was gone, Not Jesse and Not Kendra erupted into laughter and enjoyed the rest of the evening up in their second story loft apartment wondering if anyone else on the busy street below had witnessed what happened. The only regret that Not Jesse had was not having the incident recorded to share with all of his friends and family. To show them the amazing things that he gets to be a part of while living in the... Not The Bay Area.

Couch Surfing In Oregon

2009-05-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

It’s my day off and I was really hoping for another hot and beautiful day outside. Apparently every weather man and woman in the east bay thought so too. It’s 3:38 pm and it’s supposed to be 81 degrees today in the east bay. Alas, it’s but only just broke the 60 degree mark and I figured that I should just chill at the apartment and write a blog instead of ride my bike or long board around Berkeley. Ugh.

Well it’s not all bad. With writing this, I can tell everyone the good... slash... not so good... slash... I’m really effing stoked... slash... kinda sad about... news. Now if that made any sense at all, I guess I shouldn’t be wasting your time anymore.

It has come to my attention that I am unable to find a decently paying job here in the bay area and heard that an old employer of mine needs some serious help back in Eugene. And since I am sick and tired of not being able to contribute to my relationship with Kendra monetarily, I’ve decided (after a few phone calls) to head back up north to make some money.

This might raise a few questions and I’m going to do my best as to answer them right now. One question that I got from one of the few that I have told this news to personally was, “Are you and your girlfriend okay?” My answer to this in all honesty, “Never better.” She is an amazing woman and I am so blessed to have her in my life. I made some sacrifices to move down here to be with her and it just isn’t really working out right now so I’ve made the choice to go where the money is. I’m used to working 40-60 hours a week between 2 to 3 jobs. It’s a bit of a financial shock when you go from 2 to 3 pay checks down to one tiny, minimum wage job with only 30 hours a week.

And, I thought this whole “Sugar Momma” thing was gonna be easy. Damn it.

Another question that was asked was, “Where the heck are you going to stay?” I’ll be hijacking Ken’s couch... well, one of his couches. Word on the street is that there is a enough couches in this house to facilitate a mexican family. Also, for those of you that don’t know Ken very well, he is one of my old house mates and good friend.
Shown here is the only picture that I have of my dear Kenneth that is neither

A) Not incriminating
B) Not nude, and
C) Does not question either of our sexual orientation.

Now whether or not B or C have anything to do with each other and the fact that he is planting a wet on me... well, let’s just say that living together with the same guy for nearly 3 years in a small house brings out the best in friends.

*ahem* Back to the questions. “Hey Jesse, when do you actually plan on being back?” To put it simply, I just put my two weeks notice in on Friday the 15th. So my last day will be the 29th and I’ll be there more than likely in the evening of the following Sunday the 31st.

Like I said before, I’m in a state of feeling happy/sad and excited/bummed. I feel like this is a good thing and quite honestly, the only option I have right now due to the lack of jobs around here. It’s definitely hard having these contrasting feelings about something in your life. I seriously recommend that you avoid feeling like this at all costs.

However, I am confident that this is going to work out and I thank all of those that have offered up your extra beds, couches, and back yards to pitch a tent in. It’ll be good to be near the family but you can bet money that I’ll be back to visit my girl as often as I can.

I’ll do my best to bring back some of the Californian sunshine with me. Now if I could get an answer from you guys that’d be great. How the hell did Zach’s mom find out about this before I even told my own parents? I only told Ken and Kolby and planned on telling others soon after, but somehow, Kellie Chambers got ahold of the news. Not that I mind but I swear that woman has got some kind of mental telepathy and mind raped me before I even knew what hit me.

I plan on keeping up on this blog, but I think it’ll be mostly for my bay area friends now. Or at least, until I’m back.

P.S.
Don't forget to click on my meaningless ads on the right. I'm almost a ten dollaraire thanks to Google.

The First 27 Days Of Being 27

2009-05-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

Looking back, it seems that the last entry was on my birthday. Nearly a whole month has gone by without updating this little window into my life. My sincere apologies to all of you back home who tell me every time I see you that you check it almost every day. I suppose I could touch on a few things to update you on how the birthday weekend went.

For those of you that don’t know, I have the best friends and the most amazing girlfriend. The plan was for Kendra and me to make a trip to Mt. Diablo for some camping and rock climbing but unbeknownst to me, she had been planning a trip back up north with all of my friends and family. It just dawned on me that this is probably rather redundant for most of you due to the fact that I was the only person that didn’t know about it. So a huge thank you to all my friends and family that know how to keep secrets for all the right reasons and I had a ton of fun.

As you may all know, with birthdays come birthday presents and first of all thank you to Ian and all that pitched in and got me the sickest long board known to all mankind. It’s a Never Summer and it’s fast as hell. My parents supplied me with a new cooler for camping because I can’t seem to keep track of one or somehow it is melted by a huge bonfire, so thanks mom and dad.

Also, a huge thank you to Zachary for building me a new bike. I haven’t picked a name for her yet but but the names “Vivian” and “Esther” keep floating in my head. She is a vintage Trek frame, so I figured I should pick a vintage name. Another thank you to the rest of Zach’s family for having a sweet ass BBQ at their house. I had a blast and most definitely ate too much food.Other than a BBQ, we went and visited all our favorite bars and danced until we could dance no more... or at least until some of us were unable to stand up without assistance.

After Kendra and I got back to Berkeley, the weather decided to make our apartment so hot that we used that wonderful cooler my parents got me as a little indoor kiddie pool while we watched movies.

I’ve been working more here but the more I work at an “upscale” coffee shop the more I become bitter and annoyed with the sense of entitlement that these yuppy pricks think they have. But then I remember that I have friends who shave lines in the side of their head and rock that shit like Vanilla Ice just gave them a high five. Hell YEAH!

I’m sure I forgot something in this much needed update so you can more than likely expect an edit or two to this post or maybe a part two. Also, here are a few photos of the "pre-funk party" while we were up north for my birthday.
Zach, Jesse, and Ian. We're pretty funny actually.

Jane & Kendra. The lovely ladies that can tolerate Ian and me.

Ian & Kendra. Siblings... in case you didn't know.

Jane, Jesse, Zach, Ian, Bryan, & Tiffany. At least Ian looks cool... PSYCHE!

Zach, Jesse, Kendra, Jane, & Ian. Zach left the wifey and kids at home.

And since you are reading down this far, do me a favor and click on a few of the little ads on the right of this post. Try and make Google make me a ten dollaraire.

27 Is A Solid Number

2009-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, there goes another year. Today is my birthday and I am now 27 years old. I can go on and on like some people I know about how “old” I’m getting and how life is just racing by me but I refuse to do that.

Did you know that, according to the World Health Organization and Wikipedia, that in the early 20th century, the life expectancy of an average human was 30-40 years? And now the current world average is 66.12... That means, if I were to die the second that I turn 66.12, I still wouldn’t even be half way dead right now... or half way done being alive... however you want to look at it.

So with these statistics on my side, I have no reason to think that I am on my way to being “old”. In fact, with the advances in medicine, I bet I can expect to live to 100... granted I don’t fall off of a mountain or get pushed into traffic. My mom’s life goal is to live to 100 and if you know anything about her, I’m sure she’ll have no problem at all doing that.

I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that I am still young and even though I haven’t accomplished.... well, anything that I’ve wanted to yet (very strong emphasis on “yet”), I am happy to be alive. And because it’s my birthday and I can do what I want on my birthday, I’m going to share with you all why I think I should be glad to be alive:

First and foremost, I am still alive. I am in relatively good shape and health and have all my appendages, even after working as a cabinet maker for 5 years.

I have the most amazing family in the world. My mom can literally kick the shit out any of your moms (refer to above picture) and she’s probably one of the smartest and bravest people in the world. My dad is a freaking rockstar and has been ever since I can remember. Always encouraging his kids to play music or be creative in some way and to follow their hearts. Not to mention he gives great hugs and can tell you stories for days. Then there is my younger brother and sister. Two of the most creative and sarcastic people I know and I’m happy to have them so well trained... ;)

I have the greatest friends that anyone could ask for. One I’ve known for 17 years and counting and some only a couple years. However, these are the friends that I would do anything for and I know if it came down to it, they’d do anything for me. Being away from these people, that I’ve grown up with and grown so close to, really is hard but I know that we shall all be together once again. There’s no need to name names, you all know who you are.

And speaking of friends, one of my very best friends is my amazingly beautiful and terribly supportive girlfriend. I can’t thank her enough for everything she’s done for me and all the wonderful things we’ve done together. I can’t wait to see what’s next in our lives.

These are just a few key reasons that I’m glad to be alive and kickin’. I hope this was slightly encouraging to you and makes you look at all the positive things in your life. Even though I miss all my friends and family, I think things are going to be going my way really soon here.

Pronounced: [muhs-tash]

2009-04-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

If you have experienced any serious disappointment in the past week or so, then you'll know exactly how I feel right now.

Since I have moved down to the bay area I have been a little bit more lackadaisical about keeping the facial hair to a minimum. I'm not sure if it's because I'm almost 27 and finally hit puberty or if it's just good old fashion laziness.

Regardless, I had, what some people would call, a beard... ish... sorta thing attached to my face and I decided to shave it all but the upper lip region, thus creating a whole new level of manliness, known as the "Mustache"

Well, I really thought it would be funny to wear the mustache to work and get some funny looks and/or comments. Much to my dismay, I hardly received a second glance. Aside from two of my co-workers, Miyuki and Sammy, I was not on the butt end of any inappropriate child molestation jokes or clever jabs at how I should be riding in my 1986 T-Topped Camaro, blasting Journey as if Steve Perry were in my passenger seat.

Yet, even in the face of adversity, I am still bearing this banner of manhood in hopes that someone will look up at me and say, "Now there, there is a man with a story to tell."

Sunny Days In The City

2009-04-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the sun and a good bit of driving, my left arm is now nearly burnt to a crisp and my right arm is still pasty white as ever. But you won't find me complaining any more than that, because any amount of vitamin D introduced to my life is more than welcomed.

Today we decided to head out and do our best to find an energy drink suggested to us by a Jean Aw of NOTCOT. The energy drink is called Rubyy. And yes, I know that there is an extra "y" at the end. We drove all around and finally found our prize at a really nice deli in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco.

After driving more and enjoying our chilled beverages, we decided to navigate our way up to Coit Tower. We both haven't ever been and figured it was about time. The view was outstanding, but being the cheap bastard that I've become, I quickly vetoed the $5.00 admission to walk up the stairs to go to the top of the tower. The view from the small park the tower sits on was breath taking enough. At the bottom of this post is a quick little photomerge of the actual tower.

Trying to take full advantage of the sunny day we found ourselves sipping on iced coffee and eating a delicious couple slices of pizza, while lying in the grass of Washington Square Park. Couldn't really ask for a much better day.

Trying to keep up on my P90X workout and it's seriously kicking my ass. I'd like to consider myself someone that is relatively fit, but this program has shown me muscles that I didn't know really existed. Honestly though, I can't wait to have most of the DVD's somewhat memorized so I can turn the tv to mute so I don't have to listen to that tool of a host named Tony Horton.

Some Seriously Needed Friends & Family Time

2009-04-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

Clearly I haven't been keeping up with this blog for the past couple weeks. In my defense, these last couple of weeks have been rather busy with friends and family. I had so much fun with everyone here and couldn't believe how fast it went. Also, I knew I needed to see everyone for my own sanity but I really don't think everyone stayed long enough cause I'm right back on that razors edge of teetering over to craziness. So if you don't mind, everyone, come back very very very soon.

I'm not going to be writing much about anything other than just describing the barrage of photos I'm going to be cramming into this post. So please enjoy and I hope to have videos up soon cause I definitely used my Flip Cam more than taking photos.

First things first. These two lovely ladies, Kellie and Alisa (left and right), took us out to a fantastic sake bar called Ace Wasabi, in the marina district. Not only did I drink my very first Sake

Bomb I was

also sitting next to Tory Belleci, one of the newer guys from MythBusters on Discovery Channel. Pretty sweet... I guess if you're a nerd like me. I unfortunately didn't have the balls to ask for an autograph or even say hi. Not really my style I suppose. As for Sake, I was totally expecting something with more of a burn like a mix between wiskey and vodka and after about seven shots I decided to break out the iPhone and look up the average alcohol content of Sake. Yeah, right around the same as a bottle of wine.

The next evening my mom, brother, and sister showed up. I couldn't have been more excited to see them. Not only was it great to get some well needed hugs from the family, they brought a real bed, a couch, my carpets, and all my camping gear that I had in storage up in Eugene.

I tried to take my family to all the touristy places and show them what everyone should see while in San Francisco. We made it to the Golden Gate Bridge and chilled down at Pier 39 for a while. I personally don't have very many pics of my family because I forgot my camera and all of them had cameras. I suppose I should have been a little bit more proactive in asking for the photos via email or something before I wrote this. Damn.

Either way, we had a blast. My mom tolerated her boys swearing like sailors, my big city driving, and everyone poking fun at everyone. It was like I never left.

Then Monday rolled around and even more guests showed up. Ian (Kendra's younger brother), Cody (friend, old co-worker), and Jane a.k.a. Janice (friend and Ian's lovely girlfriend) rolled in and it was time to RAGE!

We strolled around the city, back to Pier 39, some of the really expensive designer stores, all over and around the San Francisco Zoo, back to the city for more strolling all with Ian hobbling around on a broken big toe. Let's just say, I wasn't kidding about the RAGE part. Our first night all together was fueled with alcohol, longboarding, and Ian deciding to go into a full out sprint and kicking a curb. Not to mention he just crashed on his longboard and acquired some amazing road rash, including on his ear. Silly Schmian.

[left: Ian and Kendra with matching scarfs.]

[right: Kendra and Jesse looking sexy in the city... duh]

[left: Cody & Ian riding a big furry tractor]

[right: Jesse double fisting the best thing to come out of mexico... Churros]

[left: Giraffes at the SF Zoo. My new favorite animal]

[right: Two pasty white kids smooching]

I had so much fun with everyone here and I can't wait for everyone to come back. I hope it's sooner rather than later but I think we'll have to make a trip up there to grab a breath of fresh Oregon air.

[EDIT: I nearly forgot, and with a polite reminder, before anyone even showed up my friends Kolby and Allison showed up at my work disguised behind newspapers and visited for a brief moment. Unfortunately it was super busy and I could only get out and take this photo with Kolby with a quick round of hugs. Love ya guys.]

Rhinovirus and St. Patty's Day

2009-03-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

You know when you wake up and your throat feels like you’ve been trying to swallow gravel all night? When no matter how many gallons of minty mouth wash you gargle, your breath always feels hot and gross? Well that was me yesterday morning and I decided to be proactive and give this pending sickness a big “Eff You!!!”

I took a few sips of this god awful echinacea herbal tea and thought, “Screw that.” So I went and purchased Airborne and I’m nearly halfway through my 4th glass. Needless to say, my pee is an awesome radioactive green color and I’m feeling much better. I recommend the Lemon Lime. It seems to taste less like ass than the rest of the flavors and it really works if you take it right when you feel like you are getting sick.

Lately, all Kendra and I can think about is this upcoming week when we are going to have a full house.... and by house, I mean, tiny one bedroom apartment. Starting early next week, my Mom, little brother and sister are coming down in a truck. I’m super stoked to see them but they are bringing a real bed for us that we’ve had in storage. I can’t stress to you guys how much the idea of sleeping on a comfy bed excites me. For the past 4 or 5 months we’ve been sleeping on an air mattress. It’s not all that bad for one or two nights, but every night and it starts to really take it’s toll on your ability to sleep well when you’re so used to having something solid under you.

That’s not the end of our guest list either. Right before my immediate family leaves, Ian, Cody, and Jane are going show up and I’m not going to make any promises, but it might get a little rowdy. I’m just saying.

Captain Listy McList-maker and I haven’t written anything down as for an itinerary but I’m sure we’ll have fun either way. I’m just excited to have friends and family around me. It’ll be a first since Christmas for the both of us.

I suppose I should wish everyone a happy St. Patrick's Day but I'm not terribly sure what this day was even invented for. As far as I can tell, it's just another reason for most people to get sloshed in the middle of the week.

And if you haven't voted yet or are one of my awesome friends and family and keep voting. I'm in an online contest and you should go vote for me so I can win. Just click right HERE and then click the "I like this" button. Each and every vote counts so hop to it.

I Think He's A Blues Man?

2009-03-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

I understand that this is coming to everyone rather belated but in my defense I have been waiting on my updated version of Final Cut Pro. So without further ado I present to you the latest installment of Logically Sound.

I hope you enjoyed that much as I have. That fine gentleman definitely brightened up my night. Especially when he broke out in the blues.

Lately, the weather has been tolerable and I’ve been making an effort to get outside and check out some local rock climbing spots. Nothing extraordinary around here so far but the area is teeming with bouldering problems only a bike ride or short car ride away. And with views like the one below... I’m not going to complain.

[Pictured above, panoramic view from on top of Indian Rock, North Berkeley]

No need for Bromance

2009-03-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

As of late, I’ve been having serious friend and family withdraws. There’s just something about having those friends of yours that you can call up, have come over to your place and do absolutely nothing. You can even just sit and watch television, and I don’t even like watching tv. But having that companionship of someone that you’ve known for years and years sitting there in the same room is comforting.

You know you’ve reached that point with someone when, as silly and cliche as it sounds, you are finishing each others sentences and thoughts. Even when you see 450 pound woman rolling along on her motorized scooter, you know exactly what the other person is thinking and you don’t even have to say it.

I’ve been trying to keep myself occupied with the things that I used to do at home such as working out, rock climbing, bike riding, and yes, even video games. But all of these things are the things that I used to do with my friends and family. So it’s just been a constant reminder of the fun times that I have had with those people in my life.

I would also like to make something very clear. Kendra and I have tons of fun together here, but that tends to be only on the weekends because she is exhausted from work and I usually work the afternoon shift and don’t get home till 10pm.

I think I just need some “bro time”. For those of you who have never experienced bro time, due to the fact that you are:

a) A female, or
b) A loser with no friends.

You should probably do your best and log in some serious bro time. Some fine examples of bro time include:

Running and jumping up to touch stuff
Laughing when old people trip
Pumping iron
Urinating while standing up
Eating steak

Things that are not considered bro time and are actually prohibited from bro time:

Knitting and quilt making
The sharing of personal grooming of any kind
Hanging out in a dressing room in a department store

The point that I am trying to make here is that I miss my friends and family. As cool as it is being in a new place and getting absolutely raped by bills constantly while working a minimum wage job, I truly miss being comfortable.

I understand that things are going to get better, sooner than later I hope. So if you feel so inclined, make a trip here and gimme that very needed bro hug and lets do something manly like throw a ball, chop some wood, or even climb something.

(Pictured, man made wall underneath an overpass. Perfect for bouldering)

Pay Attention, This Is Gonna Be Quick

2009-02-24T17:58:00.000-08:00

I feel as if I have been worn down. My patience has been tried in a few different ways. I have had to make the decision to not follow through with one of the main reasons I moved down to the bay area.

Making the decision to not go to school wasn’t really all that hard. Not hard at all in the fact that when you’re as “young” as I am (so say the loan companies based on my credit history) you almost get laughed at when you ask someone for $30,000.00 for school on a private loan.... twice. I think in the long run, if I keep making short films and start saving my money, when I have a chance to I can get the proper equipment and do the kind of things that I want to. All in all, I believe it’ll be much cheaper and more rewarding path. Plus, I keep meeting people that are into film and have some sort of skill in the craft. Which is good because I hear it’s all about connections and I’m thinking of investing in a little black book

I am going to attempt to update you on the happenings of my life in the bay area, so bare with me if I kind of jump around:

The weather has been, shall we say, Oregon-ie. One minute it’s raining and the streets are flooded the next it’s a blue bird day and there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

Last weekend, my dear friend Michelle flew into Oakland International Airport and we rocked San Francisco and Berkeley like it was... 2009? We had loads of fun and Kendra and I tried our hardest to show her everything we could but honestly this city is freaking huge and we haven’t explored the whole thing ourselves. Not a very flattering picture of any of us but we were more into having fun than looking pretty.

I still haven’t heard back from the people that interviewed me from On24. I’d be extremely happy if I got an email asking for another interview but I’d settle for an email or a call letting me know that they have decided to go with someone else. Just so I can at least have a little closure.

Another thing about jobs, I recently met the the “On-Premise Manager” for the east bay area of Red Bull. A really nice guy, and I told him that I was looking for another job. I’m going to leave it there as to not jinx anything. Let’s just say that I’ve secretly wanted to work for Red Bull for ages and I’m willing to do almost anything. Childish... nah, just motivated.

My taxes are done and e-filed. Needless to say, I’m pretty happy about that. Which, if you ever have done taxes and are happy at the end of them, that means that you are getting some sort of return or at least don’t have to pay.

I’m currently in a contest trying to win some technological gadgetry and if you care to check it out by all means be my guest. The more votes, the merrier. I am currently in first place but there is still tons of time for other contestants to gain more votes, so if you are so inclined, vote daily. Here’s a direct link to the voting right HERE.

There is more going on here but I currently have the attention span of a five year old. One more thing though, Kendra and I are trying to prep the apartment for more guests. Spring break is going to be... cozy to say the least. We love having visitors, so if you think you are going to be in our neck of the woods, by all means just let us know.

Oh yeah, and if you are on Twitter, follow me. You can do so by clicking the "Follow me on Twitter" link to the right of this page.

War In San Francisco

2009-02-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

Another quick update here. First and foremost, I’ve come to realize how quickly the start date for my school is coming up and that I still haven’t been really approved for any of the money to attend. In fact, I’ve been denied on two separate occasions. However, I have been approved for the “merit loan”, which the name alone sounds like something extraordinary and remarkable. Quite the contrary actually. This “merit loan” is, in essence, just like any other loan you would take out for a car or a house. Which means that you have to start paying it back immediately. Now don't think that I am, for one second, not grateful for being approved for the "merit loan". Apparently this particular loan is only awarded to one person each session. Quite the honor really.

Well, this is bad news to a student that would be using that loan money to attend school full time for a solid year. With being at school full time, it would prove to be rather difficult to work as many hours as he does already, barely make ends meet, and take on another loan payment....? Like any other loan, the “merit loan” requires a down payment. General rule of thumb for down payments is 10% of your total loan should be your down payment. If you do the math for that, 10% of $30,000.00 is $3,000.00.

If you are clutching at your throat right now, gasping for air at the thought of slamming down $3,000.00, then you and I are in the same boat. That, to me, is a lot of money.

The beauty of student loans is that you apply for the money to attend school, the loaners understand that you will be bettering yourself with an education and give you time to actually go to school. They don’t expect you to pay back the loan until you have graduated. Now that makes sense to me in so many more ways than the “merit loan” that expects payments immediately plus a hefty down payment.

I have high hopes. I also, thanks to my mother, have a good sense of reality and know when to stop mindlessly chasing your dreams. At least until your dreams are a little bit more attainable.

And speaking of dreams, pillows are usually where they take place. Which brings me to something a little lighter and not so depressing also the reason for the title of this post. Kendra over heard a couple of ladies talking about a huge pillow fight happening in downtown San Francisco. So naturally she Googled it and found out that it has been running for a few years now and is an annual thing every Valentines Day. Apparently thousands of people meet in the Justin Herman Plaza and when the big clock on the Ferry building stikes 6pm, the feathers begin to fly. I nabbed a video from YouTube (below) of previous years and ones in different cities, so you can get an idea of how big this thing really is.

If I can weasel my way out of work early I am going to pack my bag with my weapon and try to make it down there to, at the very least capture some video or photos.

You can see more information for the craziness that is the Great San Francisco Pillow Fight right HERE

Dirty Martinis = Hair Tonic

2009-02-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

What a week. My apologies for not having an update for everyone right away. With having guests this weekend, working, an interview on Monday, and our shower not working, I was a little busy.

This weekend, one of Kendra’s long time friends came into town on his way to Hawaii from the Washington D.C. Keelan and his friend Andrew were so much fun to hang out with. I unfortunately had to work all day Saturday and missed their trip into the city where they saw some crazy dancers down by the cable car stop near the bay. Don't worry, she was mindful enough to bring the Flip Cam and got some really great shots of the dancers going to town.

As soon as I was off of work I raced home and met them at Zachary’s Chicago Style Pizza. I think I have mentioned this restaurant before but it’s really worth a second noting. We ordered a couple of their thin crust pizzas and we were all very pleased. The only problem with this joint is that you seriously have to have some patience. On average, it takes nearly an hour to get seated let alone the extra time you need to order and have your pizza cooked. Needless to say, we had plenty of good conversation and with that many people crammed into a small building drinking beer, there is always something going on around you.

Later I called my friend Roger over and we proceeded to enjoy some adult beverages and more fantastic conversation. Kendra had mentioned before that she hadn't ever had a dirty martini before and really wanted one. Keelan being the jack of all trades he is, whipped her up one and she found out shortly after her first few sips that just because it comes in a martini glass doesn’t mean it can’t grow hair on your chest.

After sending Keelan and Andrew off early Sunday morning we had the whole day to ourselves and decided to do some research of our own about local climbing areas. When I first moved down here, Kendra and I made the mistake of asking the manager of the local Marmot store if there were any good climbing spots near by. He proceeded to ask where we were from and after I told him Oregon, he then replied, “Oh, Oregon... We’ll nothing around here that you would like.”

I wasn’t really sure how to take that but I’m assuming that he meant in a way to show praise for all the amazing climbing spots in Oregon and there isn’t much in comparison here in the bay area. At least, that's what I'm going to pretend that he meant. With that rather discouraging comment we decided to finally do our own research and we found that there are at least 7 spots to do outdoor climbing all with in 15 mile radius of our apartment and some only one mile away. By far, the coolest one we found was Indian Rock up in the north eastern part of Berkeley. It’s up in the suburban hills and at the top of nearly every climbing route there is an outstanding view of the whole bay area.

When we got back to the apartment we were reminded that we had a small “get together” planned with all of our new neighbors. I was actually a little nervous that it was going to be really boring and we would have nothing in common. When we walked in to apartment #3 I realized, given how small these units are, that you can have a party of about 5 or 6 and it’s going to be a hoppin party. We actually had fun and realized that the only thing we had in common with our neighbors was that we lived in the same building. You might think that would be a boring and arduous set of conversations but with all the history that this building has and how outside each of our windows something crazy is always happening, there was plenty to talk about.

When Monday rolled around, I started to get a little uneasy and nervous for my interview. Then I realized how absolutely outstanding I am at selling myself to anyone or anything. The place I interviewed for is called On24 and they are a webcasting and virtual event solutions company. Basically if you think of all the money it would take for a company that’s putting out a new product to throw a huge convention with thousands of attendees to put on demonstrations of it’s products and or services, On24 provides an alternative where you can have all your potential buyers visit a webcast, webinar, or a virtual show of your product. (examples of virtual shows pictured above and below) Pretty cool idea, especially in a time of economic crisis, companies are looking for so many ways to save money and having virtual trade shows is one way that can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on how big your turn out would be.

The position that I interviewed for is basically a back end/behind the scenes job. Making sure that the webcast or virtual show is going as planned. It would only be a part time job but it pays really well and will be worth it if I get the position.

At the end of my interview, my interviewer said, flat out, that he liked me and how “forthcoming” I was. It was a real confidence boost to hear that, so naturally I had a fantastic rest of the day. Things are looking good, I hope to hear back from him very soon.

As for the loan money for school... well let’s just say that’s up in the air and we’re still working on it. If I haven’t said it before I would like to say it now, a big thank you to Ann and Tammy for helping me on all this confusing and crazy loan business. You ladies rock for sure.

I’ll keep everyone posted a little more regularly on what’s going on... hopefully. For now, I’m going to go see the musical Wicked with my friend Roger. I’ve heard it’s amazing and Roger has seen it twelve hundred times already and still wants to go more. That’s gotta say something in itself.

Images courtesy of On24

Quick Updates Are Easier To Write

2009-02-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

Definitely not crossing my fingers but I am slightly hopeful.

I just wanted to give a quick update to everyone back home and to all those others that might care just because you love me anyway. Recently I reapplied for the ungodly amount of money that it costs to get into my school this coming March and it sounds like things are going really well.

One more thing that seems to be note worthy is Kendra passed around my name to a few people at work and it seems that I have gotten myself an interview for a much better paying job. If I get the job, it seems that the schedules won’t be conflicting so I’ll have to try and keep them both. Don’t want to jinx it by blabbing it just yet, plus if they happen to Google my name they might read this. Ha ha.

Anyway, wish me luck for that.

Looking forward to this weekend. One of our friends is coming this week before he jumps off to Hawaii. Just wish I didn’t have to work all day on Saturday. I’m sure we’ll be able to at least go out for a drink or dinner all together.

Seriously though, kind of nervous for this interview. I honestly don’t know if I’m quite qualified for this position but i am awfully crafty and creative so hopefully they’ll recognize that. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on the interview situation on Monday.

Bike Rides, Vodka & The Ivy Room

2009-02-01T19:32:00.001-08:00

I wanted to let a few of my boys know that I'm in good hands down here. I have recently found out that the little produce and specialty market less than a block from my front door has a wide range of Guayaki Yerba Mate. Cody and Ian can rest easy now, knowing that I won’t have to rely on them to partake of this delicious beverage.

Saturday was an amazing day. It definitely started off right too. I woke up around 7AM to get ready for a short shift at work and my lovely girlfriend, Kendra made me an outstanding omelete.

After work I hurried home cause Kendra and I wanted enjoy the outstanding weather on our bikes. We ended up riding all the way through the Berkeley campus and realized how much it was not like the University of Oregon. In fact, I’m sure it is double the size of the U of O at the very least. Lot’s of up hill streets on the way to the campus, and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard more whining from one person, but Kendra made it just fine. (insert winky-face icon here)

We weren’t terribly sure what we were going to be doing for our evening but my co-worker, Roger suggested we come to his place and have a few drinks. While at Roger’s apartment, I came to the realization that I am seriously allergic to cats. I’m already not a fan of cats, with the exception of a few select felines, but I seriously had snot running out of my nose constantly and my eyes felt like someone poured jalapeno garlic sauce in them. Honestly, not a pretty sight, but we still had fun. I knew later on we were going to head out somewhere, so I took it easy on the drinking, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t entertained. Kendra was definitely the life of our pre-bar party. She kept telling story after story, keeping Roger and I very amused with how animated she was. Amazing what a couple healthy shots of vodka will do to a girl with an empty stomach. (eww, that sounded like the beginning of a date rape story... sorry, but you guys know what I mean.)

Roger suggested we alleviate my waterfall of mucus and head to a bar up the street called The Ivy Room. At the door I had to use my pass port for an ID and proof that I was at least 21 years of age which reminded me of how ticked I was that my drivers license was gone. Anyway, the bar was awesome, big plush leather couches, lots of baroque-esk wall hangings and lighting fixtures. Also, there was a live DJ set up on top of a cool old dresser.

After a while of Kendra spilling almost every drop of her drink and mine and Roger’s sides hurting from laughing so hard, we made the group decision that we needed some Taco Bell. Lucky for us, the nearest Taco Bell was 2 blocks north and apparently able to withstand a missile strike. The drive through was equipped with a one and half inch bomb proof plexi-glass food delivery mechanism pictured here just below. Regardless, our $20 order of delicious mexican cuisine was delivered to us without error. And if you know anything about Taco Bell, you’ll know that $20 worth of Taco Bell is a feast of epic proportions.

Needless to say, we had a glorious night and can’t wait to have friends and family to come visit us so we can share these great bars and restaurants with them.

The last thing I must inform everyone about is another quick story about my wayward identification as mentioned in the previous post. Today we met up with one of Kendra’s college friends, Melissa, who also lives in the bay area. We decided to check out Ici, a local ice cream shop that, from the moment it opens to the moment it closes, always has a line of people out the door no less than 20 deep. After we finally got our delectable frozen dairy products, we started our journey back to our apartment. Just about 30 yards from our front door, I caught something out of the corner of my eye sitting in a little tree on the sidewalk. I instantly snatched it out of the tree, realizing it was my drivers license. So it seems, that there are good people in the world and that somewhere out there is a very unlucky underaged Pete Wentz look alike that won’t ever have my ID.

Hope everyone had an awesome Super Bowl Sunday and enjoyed all the commercials. Sorry for the mindless plug here, but if you are interested in a first generation iPhone, I'm selling one on eBay right now. Click HERE to see the auction.

Wayward Identity

2009-01-30T15:50:00.000-08:00

It seems, as of late, I have been misplacing my personal items. Most recently, my drivers license. In the process of photo copying and faxing my identification, it has seems to have vanished. Best part about this situation is that I actually never had a chance to photo copy or fax it to the people who need it. I’m sure it’ll turn up. Or at least I hope so, because I’m almost certain that I do not qualify for residency in California yet, to get an ID.

Perhaps, for some strange karmic reason, someone will send it back to Oregon, to the address that’s on the license and my boys there will let me know... or keep it and sell it for $50 bucks to some underaged, Pete Wentz look alike.

Lately, the weather here has been outstanding, mid 60’s to mid 70’s. I really don’t have any complaints other than for some reason, my body thinks, “Hey, it’s nice outside. Perhaps now is a good time for me to make Jesse sneeze all the time and make him want to scratch his eyes out.” Right now, my body is in a full fledged allergy season mode. Which I find very strange, seeing as how there isn’t a single leaf on any of the trees and not one god damned flower in bloom.

Yesterday I didn’t have to work until 4:30 PM so I decided to go check out the local indoor climbing gym. Berkeley Iron Works is an outstanding facility and if i was a million billionaire, I would probably have a membership there. Maybe I haven’t completely adjusted to the fact that everything here in California costs more than it should. Regardless, I went climbing by myself and had so much fun. Unfortunately, my forearms and hands are so sore today, that I was having a hard time lifting my RedBull without trembling.

Last and certainly not least, I miss my family. I could use a hug from my dad, some encouraging words from my mom, a healthy pat on the bum from my brother, and a solid eye roll from my little sister.Photo taken by Kolby Schnelli Photography. (Check out Kolby's Flickr Photo Stream HERE)

People These Days... Yikes

2009-01-29T09:43:00.000-08:00

So if you know anything about me, you know that I love playing video games with my friends. Just about any video games that include some sort of multiplayer capability are the ones that I tend to lean towards but mostly the games in the Halo trilogy is where I have spent a majority of my nerd-dom.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve met some people online that I have played with and they have been really great guys and even girls... yes girls play video games... sometimes. But this morning, I found this video and believe that it’s gone a little too far in some peoples lives. Like, a little, way too far.

MTV Shows

In other news that makes me say, “Really?!? You’re gonna cry about this?”

On January 22nd, there was a story about a couple of private girls high school basketball teams in Texas that had a blowout score of 100 - 0 on January 13th. (click HERE for article) Apparently, the whole crowd was into the game minus a few whiney parents who say that the winning team should have let up. It’s stated that there is no mercy rule in girls basketball, but "they should have played by the golden rule”. Golden rule? Don't tell me they're referring to the attitude of "Aww, now Jimmy, don't beat your little brother too badly at checkers, or he'll never want to play again." Get over it.

Later on in the article, “Renee Peloza (mother of a player on the losing team) said the coach and other parents praised the Dallas Academy girls for limiting Covenant to 12 points in the fourth quarter. She added that neither her daughter nor her teammates seemed to dwell on the loss.”

In another related article from the New York Times (found HERE), I found out that the head coach of the winning team who was stated as being “unapologetic” for the win, was fired. Now Covenant (the winning team) never answered if the coach was let go because of not being apologetic, but earlier they said that, “This (the coach’s email stating that he’s not apologetic for the win) clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition.”

Now please tell me if I’m being a complete asshole here but last time I checked, competition is competition. It takes a great deal of honor and dignity to win and not be boastful, which the article says the winning team wasn’t. Equally, it takes a great deal of honor and dignity to not be a sore loser, which the article also states that the loosing team didn’t “dwell on the loss”.

So, congrats to Covenant for the amazing victory and better luck next time to Dallas Academy.

I wish I had more to tell you guys about my life and how amazing it is down here but lately I’ve been working and trying to get the loan thing figured out. It’s looking good, except that my loans from my Lane Community College back in Eugene are due for payment and I am figuring out how to defer those so I can pay them back later... say, when I actually have money.

However, I am very excited for February 20th. My good friend Michelle is flying in and Kendra and I are going to show her around town. I can’t wait. Hope all is well with everyone up north.

Not So Sunny Santa Cruz

2009-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we drove to Santa Cruz. Despite the weather being overcast and slightly drizzly at times, we had a really good time. We really didn’t have any goals while we were there mostly because we weren’t really sure what was going to be open. Even though the weather down here is tolerable t-shirt and jeans weather, most of the local attractions are shut down for the season. Surprisingly, most of the boardwalk in Santa Cruz was up and running with it’s roller coasters and silly haunted house. But the boardwalk itself was rather barren. Not a whole bunch of people hanging out. I imagine in the spring and summer months, it’s probably insane.

I threw together some clips and music for your viewing pleasure. Towards the end of the trip I made Kendra drive. She is a fantastic navigator and I figured it was time to let her shine behind the wheel but she wasn’t really happy with that decision... that I made for her.

One more thing, don’t forget to comment on these blog posts. You kids say you read them but you sure as hell ain’t calling me to tell me so. So leave a little NorthWest love for me on the blog. I miss everyone from home and think it’s about time for some visitation from up north.

In Addition To Tuesday's Post

2009-01-22T06:00:00.001-08:00

I feel sorta bad. In the huge mess of a blog that I wrote on Tuesday telling you guys of the amazing weekend I had I totally left out the fact that Kendra got a promotion at work. I was so jazzed about it when she told me. She actually got a text from her boss over the weekend we were up north, telling her that she needed to call him.

[edit] Basically the girl got a promotion.

The point I’m trying to make here is that Kendra is kicking ass and taking names and I’m very proud of her.

On top of that, I figured this would be an appropriate time to let you all know why my girlfriend is better than yours.

She bakes me cookies.

She feeds my addiction.

and most importantly, she’s my sugar momma. I seriously wouldn’t be able to survive so easily down here without her.

One more thing. Am I the only one who thought this was a funny sub-headline for the inaugural ball?

Delay, Wedding, Cancellation, Obama

2009-01-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, I hope everyone that considers them self to be an American can truly understand and recognize that today was a historic day. One day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Barack Obama, was inaugurated to be the 44th president of the United States of America. Very exciting stuff indeed. I am excited to see what happens in the next few years and I feel blessed to be alive and witness history in the making. If you didn’t get a chance to see the inauguration speech, I found it on YouTube in two parts.

The speech isn’t long and I think that everyone should watch it and hear what our new president has to say.

Part One:

Part Two:

This last weekend was amazing. Like I said in the previous post, we went up north to the Portland area for Kendra’s big sister’s wedding. We had a 9:00AM flight and I figured that with traffic, check in, and the security check, that we should be there kind of early. So we woke up at 4:30AM and finished packing, grabbed some food, and hit the road to Oakland Airport.

Funny thing about traffic here in California at 5:30AM... there is none. So, our trip to the airport was very short. After all the usual preflight crap, we ended up finding out that our flight was delayed for about an hour. With this all taken into consideration, Kendra and I sat at the terminal for almost 3 hours waiting to board our plane. All I have to say is thank God for iPhones. We battled it out on a little puzzle game called Trism for a large portion of our delay.

Right when we got to PDX, we sat at a window that overlooked the Arrival Pick Up area while we waited for Justin and Jenae to pick us up. As you may know, it is strictly prohibited to leave your vehicle unattended at the Pick Up area. I saw this lady park, rush out of her mini-van, dash into the airport, and was hurrying back out to her car in less than a minute. I can only guess she needed to use the restroom. In this very short minute, an airport meter maid made her way to the front of this lady’s mini-van and started writing a ticket. Now keep in mind that I couldn’t actually hear what was being said but the expressions on the mini-van lady’s face were absolutely priceless. I could tell that she was completely dumbfounded that the meter maid caught her in less than a minute and while the meter maid was finishing up writing her ticket, her face went from, “No no no, you don’t need to write me a ticket, I was only using the restroom.” to “Un-F#@&ING-believable. I was only gone for a minute you wretched bitch. I bet you eat your young, huh?”

Honestly I felt bad for the mini-van lady but it goes to show that the airports mean it when they say, “Do Not Leave Vehicles Unattended”.

The first day we were in Portland we played it low key and took the time to relax and catch up with Justin and Jenae. They are renting a house from a friend of theirs that is outstanding. So outstanding in fact, that when you use the microwave, instead of it just beeping at you it plays a little tune to let you know that your tasty food is done being cooked.

Then came the wedding the next day. Jenae looked amazing and everything went off without a hitch... well, most everything. A little miscommunication with the DJ but other than that, it was awesome. I feel bad though. Jenae asked me if I could be in charge of the video recording of the wedding and I of course said yes. That morning I was having a hard time waking up so I downed not one, but two RedBulls followed by a cup of coffee. Some of the shots that I thought would be pretty cool came out pretty shaky because I was so cracked out from a caffeine overload. Hope my Final Cut Pro editing skills help me out on that one.

Later that night, after everything was winding down, I had a chance to meet a couple of Kendra’s high school friends. Honestly, I’m not sure a girl could ask for better friends. From what I’ve gathered, these boys haven’t seen her in almost a year or more and it’s like they had been hanging out the whole time. We met Cole, Trevor, Nick, and Mark at one of their friends penthouse condos in the Pearl District. His name was Darren and talk about an amazing place. Straight out of MTV Cribs and he’s a really nice guy to let us in his house and mingle.

After that the party moved right down the street to Aura where, because Darren knows the promoter pretty well, the bouncers let us in for free. The music was loud, the dance floor was packed, and everyone was having fun. Darren is the dude in the front with the green t-shirt on and Kendra and I are in the back. There are tons of pics of this party, and it seemed that Ian was in the background of almost every one of them. I guess he's pretty hard to miss. To make the night even better, my friend Michelle came out and met us. Kendra’s friend Cole worked his magic and got her in for free too. (She's the one being kissed by the blonde)

I loved how one by one, each of Kendra's friends pulled me aside and said in a mildly inebriated manor, "Ya know, Kendra's a good girl. An angel! You're a lucky guy, man. If she approves, I approve." Then proceeded to mention that her ex-boyfriend was a "Douche". Which is even funnier to me cause Kendra told me that they never even met him. My point is, I'm really glad that I finally got to meet these guys and hope to see them again real soon. (By the way, that's a hint to come visit us boys.)

The day after the wedding we hung out and enjoyed another low key day before heading back to the airport. We packed up and said our goodbyes then Ian drove us back to PDX. By the way, huge props to Ian for bringing me 6 bottles of my second favorite beverage in the entire world, Guayaki Organic Yerba Mate. I downed 3 of them while up in Portland and knew I wouldn’t be able to take them on the plane so I put them in the fridge to chill and then forgot all about them before I left. Thanks anyway, Ian.

We where basically already checked in and just had to drop off our only checked bag when we found out that our flight had been canceled. Not to worry but tell me if this makes sense, they rerouted us to Seattle then back down to Oakland. Not a huge deal, just thought it was strange. Either way, when we got to Seattle, they bumped us up to first class for the flight to Oakland. Pretty sweet... minus the old guy that asked us, “Do you feel lavish?” and when I said “No.” his reply was, “Well you should.” Like I was intruding on his magical and sacred first class territory that he actually paid extra for. What a tool.

I have video footage of most of the weekend and I'm sure I'll have something together by the end of the week so keep an eye open for that. Another thing that I thought was pretty cool is that my little brother is creative as all hell and is designing a few t-shirts that should be for sale very soon. Go check them out on his RedBubble page right HERE!

He's From Oklahoma

2009-01-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today Kendra and I are flying out of Oakland to go back up north. Her big sister is getting married. I’m really excited to see the family but it’s going to be weird going from the climate here to back to the frigid temperatures of my northern homeland.

For the past 3 days it’s been in the mid 70’s. I’m not one to really complain about fantastic weather but it’s a little strange to think this is only January. Some of the random people I’ve talked to say that they are afraid of the summer and what it might bring as far as having to "use water rations again". They say that California is still in a drought but I’m not seeing any signs of that. Then again, I wasn’t here during the summer for the last few years.

Just to the east of our apartment is Grizzly Peak Boulevard which is up on a huge hill.... well, huge for around here. I drove up there by myself to kill some time and couldn't believe the view. (above picture. Left: Thug Passion, Right: Jesse Tobler) I would have posted a pic but it was too late in the day and my sweet iPhone camera, or any camera for that matter, was unabl to take a pic with how bright the sun was.

This is were I introduce the second installment of what I like to call, Logically Sound. Now I’m not going to promise you that this will be coming out with every blog. Although, with the amount of people that California has crammed into such a small place, such as San Francisco, there really shouldn’t be a shortage of top notch citizens for me to capture for your viewing pleasure.

I had a particularly hard time deciphering and translating what this gentleman was trying to say. Especially right around the 1:22 mark of the video. He mentioned something about a “peh-die-nikul” and both, Google and Wikipedia were unable to give me a definition.

Enjoy.

Butter On Toast

2009-01-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

I want to start off and say that I had an amazing weekend. The weather had been outstanding so we made plans to go into the city on Saturday to the Haight Ashbury district. Haight Ashbury is basically a street, close to the Golden Gate Park, that’s full of trendy little hipster stores, tattoo and piercing shops, countless amounts of amazing cafes, restaurants, bars, and on just about every block are “medicinal marijuana” shops. It’s basically like 23rd Street or Hawthorne up in Portland, but bigger, with cooler shops, pseudo legalized weed, and more black people.

However, we had a few unexpected detours. While down on Market Street, we decided to stop at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to scoop up a couple of our favorite beverages. On our walk there, we noticed helicopters in the air and motorcycle cops everywhere blocking traffic. After grabbing our beverages we walked down to see what all the hubbub was about and found out that it was a protest march for “Free Palestine”. Not a very happy group of people... and by group, I mean about 5,000 strong, holding banners and picket signs. Pretty crazy actually.

After waiting for this business to pass we jumped across the street and hung out at the Muni station. After waiting for our bus for almost 30 minutes, we decided to call the number that was posted at the stop to find out what was up with the delay. Turns out that all of the bus routes that were in the path of the “Free Palestine” protest march were shut down. So, we began our walk to a station that was still up and running. After a while I turned on the Flip Cam and blamed Kendra for everything. Then we decided to walk all the way to the Haight Ashbury. Which really isn’t all that bad except that it’s uphill... and it was hot.

We had so much fun down there and can’t wait to go back when we have more time. On the way out, I couldn’t resist and had to let my “inner thug” out. There were way too many amazing stoops calling my name to have a quick sit down and enjoy an alcoholic beverage in a paper bag. “When in rome” right?

After that was all over we figured that we should make use of the Muni station across the street. After waiting for 4 full busses to pass we got on and so did this interesting fellow in the video below. I can’t tell you how entertaining this man was. I actually have close to 15 minutes of footage and think I am going to make this a recurring segment on the blog. He had so many amazingly profound things to say that I truly was tearing up with laughter. I kinda felt bad for the young guy and girl that he was talking to but they handled him very well.

Enjoy, and remember, he likes butter on his toast.

Pimp Slaps and Pills

2009-01-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness. If you have ever had a problem getting enough sleep or keep waking up in the middle of the night, I highly recommend Tylenol PM. I slept for 11 hours straight and didn’t wake up once. I had the coolest and most in depth dreams I have had in years which makes me wonder what’s really in those glorious blue and white pills.

I’ve been working weird hours lately and which really isn't a problem seeing as how it’s really my only gig for now. On that note, there really hasn’t been anything terribly amazing happening other than we got our first piece of mail at the new place and I got my first Californian paycheck. Small as the check was and the single piece of mail was addressed to the anonymous tenants at our address, it kinda really solidified the fact that I actually live in California.

Dear God. How could I forget. Yesterday, I was just perusing the internets, when I couldn’t help but notice the sound of a lap dog being raped by an elephant outside my window. I looked down at the street and saw a large black woman producing the ungodly resonance. I realized that this would be a perfect moment to whip out my Flip Cam and take a few minutes of surveillance to share with you guys the amazingly entertaining displays of dysfunction that we witness out our very own windows.

It seemed to my eyes, that the gentleman on the right, (aka: dirty old bum) was harassing the large black woman, (aka: dirty fat bum). Then walks up this middle aged black man who wasn’t so dirty, (aka: possible pimp of the large black woman and assailant), this is where I started filming and well, the rest is in the video. Not very good quality cause it was shot at a distance with the zoom all the way up. My apologies for that, but I’m sure that you get the idea of the awesomeness that we are blessed with on a day to day basis here in the Bay Area.

The Most Stressful 20 Minutes Of My Life

2009-01-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

Let me start this story off with how NOT amazing my night of sleep was. Yesterday, I didn’t really have more than half a cup of coffee. No RedBull (I know, I know, crazy, right?) I had a great breakfast and ate a pretty decent dinner. For some ungodly reason, I didn’t get one wink of sleep last night. I actually couldn’t keep my eyes closed hardly at all. I tossed and turned for hours and eventually got up and checked the MySpace and FaceBook world, played some video games, and eventually went back to bed.

I ended up tossing and turning for another hour or so and moved to the floor. Not sure why I migrated down there. I mean, it’s a wood floor... how comfortable can a wood floor be? Turns out, that the wood floor is actually more uncomfortable than the bed. Regardless, I ended up spending the rest of the night down there watching the clock move closer and closer to 5:30am when my alarm would normally have woken me up for work. I couldn’t bare to hear the awful sound it creates, so I turned it off a minute before and just got up.

Work actually went pretty well. It was busy, I learned a few new things, and it was all around pretty productive. Coming to the end of the shift, I was seriously starting to feel the effects of no sleep for more than 24 hours. But when my shift was over, I was assigned to attend a special training class with a few of my co-workers. Not a huge deal. In fact, I was pretty excited to get some serious training so that I can at least fake my way through a conversation with a snooty specialty coffee drinking customer. The plan was for me to meet the other two co-workers back at work and we would carpool to the class which was located at the Vine Street store in Berkeley.

I left my apartment with tons of time to spare, but everything was working against me. I was lucky enough to hit every single red light on the way back to work and still make it there with some time to spare. “Oh, good”, a parking spot that isn’t just barely big enough to fit a Smart Car. I park, grab my bag and race in the store to meet my co-workers.

Wait, they’re no where to be found. I run to the back to ask my manager if they left with out me and of course they did. Apparently they won’t let you into these training classes, not even a second late. Which I’m okay with, cause that always annoyed me back when I attended school, to have the lazy ass kids come in late and disrupt my learning.

I roughly knew where this Vine Street store was so I raced back to my car to find out that some giant bucket of Summer’s Eve decided to park his Prius six God damned inches away from Thug Passion. If you know anything about Thug Passion, you’d know that her drivers’ side door lock is broken and can only be unlocked from the inside. Unfortunately, Captain Massengill was parked so close to me that I had to unlock the passenger side door, reach in and unlock the back door, open it up and try and crawl in. Here comes the best part of the story, right here. This Prius driving tampon had boxed my car in so tightly that not even my skinny ass could fit in the back door that I just tried to open. I had to unroll the back window, crawl in, and weasel my way to the driver’s seat.

“I’m in!” I thought to myself and started up the car, backed out, and started my breakneck journey to my class. Even then, there was a small inkling of hope that I might make it on time. As I was leaving the parking lot, I looked in my rear view mirror to discover that my bag had been left on my trunk and fell off when I accelerated. Luckily no one ran it over, so I backed up and retrieved the fallen soldier. I raced down the street named Shellmound to hopefully turn right up 65th when there was an Amtrak the length of the whole state of California crossing the street where I needed to cross.

I finally gave up and called my boss back and told her that it just wasn’t possible for me to make it in time. Thus concluding the most stressful 20 minutes of my life.

When I got back home I sat down and decided to take this picture. I haven’t felt this crappy in a long time. I’m not sick but I sure am on my way if I keep up this pseudo-insomnia. I think tonight I am going to have to resort to some sort of sleep aid, such as Tylenol PM... or Chloroform.

So... I made a list.

2009-01-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

Things To Do On My Days Off (that don’t cost money):

- Go on a bike ride on the many bike trails around Berkeley
- Write another blog
- Explore the surrounding neighborhoods
- Clean the apartment
- Go harass the two strung out bums that seem to think that they need to sing and yell at the top of their crusty old lungs (possible videos to come)
- Give Thug Passion a bath
- Kendra says volunteer (fuck that)
- Play through the Halo Trilogy on my X-Box (laaaaaaaaaame)
- Drive to the ONLY Gold’s Gym in the East Bay to work out
- Try Yoga at the yoga shop up the road on Tuesdays (did my wiener just fall off)
- Walk up to the Berkeley campus, which is completely up hill and ride the longboard all the way back home and pray to God that - I hit all the green lights all the way down College Avenue

I can't express how happy I am (in words) that I have a job now. Perhaps, I've had a lapse in creativity, but I've resorted to having to make a list for my days off so I don't just sit around on my ass.

Been very busy with work lately, seems that I'm sort of the new guinea pig, for the way that they are training people now. Problem is, that it gets so damn busy there that when we start to do a little "peer training" session, we have to pause and take care of the customers. More often than not, we never actually get to do the training so I've kind of gotten to do a little here and there but basically just skip the actual training and I get a super summarized version of the training. Oh well... I guess.

I wanted to apologize to each and everyone of you because I totally forgot to include a picture of our tiny tiny tiny bathroom in the post with all the pics of our new place. Deep down in my heart, I know how each and everyone of you were wondering what it looked like. So here it is.

I would have included the shower and the toilet in the picture but I was standing on top of them to take the photo. So just take that into account if you come to visit us and have to clean up or throw down the number two.

Don't Be A Scum Bag, It'll Make Me Not Like You

2009-01-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

We finally are unpacked.... mostly. Still have a few boxes of random crap that we need to sort through but I had a chance to do a little decorating in the bedroom. The tree thing above the bed is actually a set of wall stickers from IKEA. They show it as kind or a sprawling design but I felt like posting them up in the design of a tree. More pictures will be up as soon as we find something to sit on. As of this very moment I am sitting on a Sterilite 3 drawer unit and Kendra is playing Tetris on her lovely iPhone sitting in a folding camping chair.

Some of you might recall that in the recent past, Kendra and I had been denied to live in a couple of different apartments for various reasons. Nothing bad, but denied none the less. Well the last of them was by a guy named Jon Favors. He is the owner of a musty, useless, probably a cover up to a weird underground child pornography ring, shop named, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. In fact, it’s located on the very street that we live on about 7 or 8 blocks south of us. This guy is a cheap, dirty, trashy, good for nothing asshole.

You might ask yourself, “Whoa Jesse, what’s with the harsh and slanderous names you’re calling this man?”

Well reader, first of all, thanks for asking. Secondly, this man Jon Favors denied us a chance to live in his little over priced crack in the wall studio because he didn’t feel comfortable letting a “couple” live there. Reason being, he only wanted to have a single person live there. Which is weird considering that he was going on and on about how the previous COUPLE lived there for a number of years. Here’s the kicker. When Kendra and I decided that his reason was kind of lame and I had a few questions for him about it, I thought I should call him and ask him if I could have a refund on our $40.00 check that we wrote him for a processing fee for our application. He told me that he actually had never cashed it and said that “Ya know what, I’ll just rip it up for you.”

Me, looking for any kind of cooperation from this burnt out old hippie, was surprised that he was willing to do that and actually even suggested it. So I took the bait and ran with it. I told Kendra the good news and we thought we had this wrinkly old ball sack out of our lives for good.

Fast forward to Friday, January 2nd, 2009. Kendra text messaged me after consulting her online banking, and told me that our good buddy Jon Favors decided to go ahead and cash our $40.00 check. We both understand that we willingly gave him a check for the said amount but last I heard, if you tell someone that you are going to do something (ie: rip up our check) and then you A) don’t do it and B) still go ahead and cash it anyway... that there is something shady about you.

So now that we are pretty much settled in our new place and loving it I am going to make my way down to the local underground child pornography ring (aka: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly) and talk to Jonny Boy. Wish me luck.

Oh, and P.S. :

Feel free to comment here on the blog. You don't have to have an account or anything. Just click the word comment below this sentence.

10:29 pm.... Happy New Year?

2009-01-01T23:06:00.001-08:00

Have you ever been so busy with everyday life and felt so exhausted that you could barely stand on your own two feet by 6pm? Have you been so overwhelmed with this said feeling but been completely okay with it because you are having so much fun and things are finally going your way. Ya well, that’s kind of what it’s been like for me for the past two nights. As I have previously mentioned, I actually started work and even though it’s only a minimum wage job for now, I feel way better about life. On top of that Kendra and I spent our whole New Years Eve moving. [above photo: yes. yes that is my furniture strapped to the top of Thug Passion]

From Bay Street (our old place) to College Ave (our new place) is really only 3.8 miles according to Google Maps but we made that trip 5 times.... round trip. Yeah, even then, 38 miles doesn’t sound like that much but when you are moving stuff from up a couple flights of stairs to Thug Passion, down the ghetto streets between the two nicer neighborhoods filled with crack heads, reeeeeeeeally fat people slowly rolling through the cross walks, and cops accompanied by C.S.I. units you really try and take your time to soak it all in.

You have to keep in mind that I absolutely loathe having to move. Which is really strange considering the fact that I really don’t like staying in one spot for a long time. All things considered, this was actually a very good move. Not only is it our own place but it’s the first time that I have moved into a house with the hopes of it being a clean and nice place to come home to from work and I won’t have those hopes and dreams shattered by all my bachelor house mates (no offense, you know I love each and every one of you boys).

On top of it being a good move, we also recorded just about every minute of the 38 mile trek. Sooner than later I’m going to try and piece together something for your viewing pleasure. I’m not going to promise any real entertainment value but you will kind of get a glimpse into our lives and how we interact with each other. Basically, Kendra tells me stories and I sit there and crack really bad jokes about them or swear at asshole drivers and/or pedestrians.

On another note December 31st, around 11:57pm, I’m sure about 98% of the partially, if not, then fully inebriated world was warming up their vocal cords to slur through their version of Auld Lang Syne, Kendra and I were fast asleep. That’s right, we passed out right around 10:30. The whole waking up at 6am, moving all day, not eating any food until 7pm and washing it down with a few vodka crans to celebrate the new place, really makes for a sleepy couple of lame asses right around that time. Honestly, I think we both had enough fun for a greater part of the continental U.S. last New Years Eve. If you don’t believe me, check the MySpace or Facebook and look at the Polaroid Picture party for N.Y.E. ‘07-’08. (p.s. thank you once again to all of those who attended and tolerated)

Not much else to report that’s really worth typing up. So I leave you all with photos of the new place. Not really top notch but we really like it and are very excited to be here and even more excited for our friends and family to come here and stay with us. Just call us and we’ll figure something out.

[ Our bedroom ]

[ Looking from our bedroom into our living room ]

[ In the living room, that's the bedroom on the left ]

[ The tiny kitchen, with tiny counter, tiny shelves and tiny stove ]

I Think I left A Little Out.

2008-12-30T14:08:00.001-08:00

Consider this a part deux of the last blog. After sleeping on it, I felt like I left a lot out. Plus there’s new crap to inform you kids about in my cuh-raaaaaa-zeeee life.

So when we got all settled in we kind of realized that we had a huge week in front of us. Kendra went to work and guess what... SO DID I!!! I was really stoked to get started. My first day at Peet's Coffee was pretty straight forward. The usual mumbo jumbo but I got to do my first coffee tasting. Just picture a bunch of winos sitting around making up silly words and putting them into sentences about coffee instead of wine. I’m learning a lot but after today, I think I need to take a break from the caffeine. I was so jacked up on caffeine yesterday that I woke up with a hang over this morning and today I did a tea tasting and had a cup of super tea. I accidently brewed my personal cup of tea way too long and made it a super tea and I was dying at work. I probably looked like a crack addict on the verge of throwing down HJ’s for their fix.

Part of our huge week thus far was getting our keys to the new apartment which included us forking over $2000 for a security deposit for our new place on top of the first months rent at $1100. That’s right kids, I said $1100 a month. You might be thinking, “Daaaaaaaamn, they must live in a castle made with gold bricks surrounded by a mote filled with grape soda. P-I-M-P”

Umm, yeah... not so much. It’s a small one bedroom with a tiny kitchen and a medium sized bathroom. It does have a ton of closet space and I’ll be sure to put some pics up of it before we really move in. There is a bus stop right out our front door and we live right above a sushi bar, as I might have mentioned in a previous post. It’s in a really amazing location. We have everything we need with in walking distance and everything else we could ever want is no more than 10 minutes down the road either direction. Including a Volcom store. Oh dear gawd!

Needless to say, we are super pumped and on top of that, we got a sweet designer custom made key for the front door. SNOW WHITE SUCKA!!!!

San Fran Is My Home Again

2008-12-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it. Made it back down to the great state of California and honestly, I can say that I am very excited to be back home. My outlook on this dirty ass state has changed a little for the better I think, but not because I had a terrible time back in Oregon. In fact, I had a ton of fun and was so happy to see my family and friends that it made it hard to really leave. These four weeks that I have been away from Oregon, hasn’t really felt like I have “moved” to San Francisco. As we rolled into Eugene, it felt very strange, like I was back home from a long vacation.

Anyway, on the way down I was forewarning all of my friends that we were almost there and contrary to what Ian thinks and says, no one had told me that the company christmas party for the Eugene Dutch Bros. (where I used to work) was going on that night until one of my old co-workers, Laura, asked if I was going. My feelings weren’t hurt in the slightest, because when you work with such awesome people they become more than just co-workers, they become friends and even family. So I had no problem dropping in and saying “What’s up” to all my friends and family.

What was pretty damn cool and probably fueled a little bit by the alcohol everyone was drinking before we got there, was when we walked up to the table everyone was sitting at, the reaction they gave would make anyone feel like a rockstar. Everyone wanted a hug and tell us how much they missed us. There was even a few tears of joy shed. You know who you are and I love you too. :)

We didn’t stay out real late that night because I finally got the okay from the higher ups at Dutch Bros. to pick up a few shifts and had a blast working the very next morning. Even with having to work early, Kendra and I, who have dubbed ourselves Bloody Mary Connoisseurs, had to make our way over to the Horse Head while in Eugene. We make it a point to grab a bloody mary from any restaurant or bar we go to if they serve them just so we can try and find the best bloody mary in the world. It just so happens that the best ones that we have been able to find are at the Horse Head. Please, do yourself a favor and try one from there. Deeee-lish.

I was lucky enough to be home in time to be a part of my best friend’s children’s baptisms. Zach and Abby asked Gabe and I to come and be a part of the ceremony and I was pretty jazzed about it. Zach said it’s basically like being a godfather to their kids, which is pretty much huge. I use the word baptism loosely because, according to this denomination of church, it was more of a dedication and a promise that Zach, Abby, Gabe, and I will help raise their children properly. Regardless of what you want to label it, I was super stoked to be there and am extremely honored.

The next couple of days was spent back and fourth between the families and trying to soak up as much of them as possible during the day and then hanging out with the friends at night. Which meant me playing video games with my old house mates or going out and grabbing a drink with friends. I know Kendra and I didn’t get to hang out with everyone that we wanted to and wish we could of had more time with the people that we did hang out with, but that would be too unrealistic and are happy we saw who we did.

One night, a large group of us went to the theater and saw Role Models. It’s got Paul Rudd (Brian Fantana: Anchorman), Sean William Scott (Chester Greenburg: Dude, Where’s My Car) and that nerdy kid named Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Fogell: Superbad). Perhaps something is wrong with me but I was dying the whole time I watched this movie and I guess it didn’t do to well. I thought it was an absolute riot. There were things said in that movie that made me think of my brother. What I’m trying to say is go see it, rent it, or what ever, just make sure you have an open mind. Funny stuff.

One last thing, my parents love me way too much and got me a Flip Cam. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a small hand held digital camcorder. But it’s beyond simple. There is no memory cards, tapes, or even software to run it. Everything you need comes built into the camera. On top of that it has surprisingly good quality. I wanted to make a stupid short film from the seat of my pants and came up with this.

(Keep in mind, I did this in 20 minutes so there isn’t a huge amount of production value.)

541, REPRESENT!

2008-12-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Home sweet home, here we come. Kendra and I are super stoked on seeing the family. I’m actually writing this in Thug Passion as we are trucking along I-5. Earlier, we stopped in Fairfield to pick up some tire chains at Les Schwab. I just hope we don’t have to use them, the weather report says we don’t have to but we have to carry them. Ugh.

Last night we went to a birthday party in Nob Hill at a chill bar named, Rye. This being the first time we had been out to a bar since my arrival down here, I’m glad it was at the Rye. On the back wall, just past the single pool table, the whole wall was a chalk board decorated with sketched sea life and other peoples personal drawings and I think a few random phone numbers of people hoping to get lucky. On the wall we stood in front of for the picture with Shashi and Laura, was their wine collection. Pretty rad place is what I’m trying to get at.

I was doubling over from laughter for a good portion of the night due to Shashi and how enthusiastically adamant about where he shops. The three stores that he sees fit to grace them with his presence are Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Amazon.com. So much to the point were he apparently is the easiest person to shop for in the world. Laura said that all he wanted for his birthday was a gift card to Amazon.com and seeing his eyes light up when Amazon.com was mentioned in the conversation was all the proof I needed to believe that. I’m not really one for purchasing things online too often but after hearing how terribly passionate Shashi was about Amazon, I just might have to check it out now.

The only thing that I don’t like about going to the city for the bars is the parking. We lucked out I think only having to walk 5 blocks back to our car but I feel like it’s not always that way.

Kendra and I decided to take advantage of the fact that we were alone for one more night down here and exchanged Christmas presents. She got me a new jacket that I had my eye on at one of my new favorite stores called Dapper. This store is totally my style.... if I had tons of money to blow on clothes. It’s the jacket that I’m wearing in the pic. Super sweet.

Anyhow, call me. We’re going to be in Eugene until the 28th.

Something is burning

2008-12-18T19:57:00.000-08:00

For those of you that didn’t hear, I decided to tidy up the kitchen and do the dishes. I had finished and was in the middle of filling out some paperwork when the house started to smell like the inside of a concentration camp. At first I was stricken with panic. I thought, “FIRE!” but then realized the only thing actually powered on in the house was the dishwasher. I quickly ran over to the dishwasher and when I opened it I was greeted by a face full of hot steam and smoke. After I let the cloud clear, I realized that a plastic spatula had worked it’s way down to the very bottom of the dishwasher and landed on the heating coil, which warms the water. As you can see, the heating coil means business and it would seem that it gets extraordinarily hot. It melted the poor spatula right in half and the house has ever since smelled like the inside of a wooden leg. Thank you Whirlpool.

I’m sure that I have experienced this before but I can’t remember it ever being this drastic. It seems that life will push you until you until you are just about to crack. Right to the point where you are just about to give up. Then life slaps you in the face with exactly what you are looking for just in the nick of time. Well, I was there and I seriously couldn’t tell you how pumped I was to finally get a call from someone offering me a job. But this morning, I got another call from a different possible employer offering me a job. So what’s the opposite of the saying, “When it rains, it pours”? Whatever, I’m just happy to have a job and finally get my life started down here.

On a completely different note, possibly by the end of the week we will have a P.O. Box. When I find out what the actual address is, I’ll be sure to let you guys know so you can send us letters and the old fashioned way. Drenched in perfumes or full of cash. Which ever you prefer.

We still haven’t gotten a call from our latest rental application and we are starting to get worried.... again. I just hope that this little string of good luck is going to last us until we get an apartment. Otherwise we will be annoying the hell out of our families this upcoming week because the both of us will be glued to CraigsList trying to land an apartment.

It'll Be Okay. Abby Said So.

2008-12-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

Well it’s about time I had a good day. I had a chance to talk to the boys at the 956 (my old house). Nice to hear what’s going on in other peoples lives because it seems like all I do here is talk about mine. Also, I wanted to say thank you to Abby for sending me an amazing message today. I read it 4 times cause it was that good. For everyone else out there, just know that Abby’s children are terribly lucky to have her as a mother. Talk about uplifting. Geez.

Anyway, last night we really needed to figure out what we were going to do for a place to live. The lease is almost up which means we have to be out of here by the 1st of the year. So last night we went to a local internet cafe and made a list of the places (ala CraigsList) we thought I should go check out while Kendra was at work. It just so happens that one of the places was having an open house right then and we decided to take advantage of the fact that we were out in that area already and went and checked it out.

When we walked in, the couple who is still currently living there welcomed us in and Kendra said, “Whoa, it’s bigger than I thought.” The couple replied with, “Really?!” It’s a small one bedroom apartment right above a sushi bar and if anyone knows anything about me, you know that living above a sushi bar is pretty much a dream for me.

So this morning I went to the property owners place and got applications and dropped them back off almost immediately and really tried my best to sell Kendra and myself to them as best as I could. So we have high hopes and feel pretty good about this one. It sounded like only one other person looked at the place according to the current residents. And as far as I had gathered, no one had turned in an application yet. Needless to say, our fingers are crossed.

On another note, I have basically given up trying to find a job here in the Bay Area. I figure that I should probably focus my attention on trying to get Kendra into a place before we left up north for the holidays. So I wrote a letter to the manager of the coffee shop (the one I had been interviewed twice for and basically my only lead) letting her know my intentions. I told her that I was still very interested in working for them but was going to head back north to try and work because of how bad the economy has been. Since it was so dang nice out today, I decided to longboard down there and drop off the letter. I also decided to snap a photo of it. I was actually surpirsed I didn’t get mauled by a bus after taking the photo because as some of you may know, double yellow lines are only found in the middle of the road. Smart, I know.

Not more than an hour had passed from dropping off the letter when I got a phone call from the manager of the cafe and she offered me a job. I am scheduled for a meeting at 2:00 pm tomorrow to go do the paperwork and other you-have-a-job mumbo jumbo and I can’t wait.

I honestly haven’t been so relieved. I wish everyone that reads this could understand how much I hate not having a job. I believe that even if I was some sort of million billionaire, I would still need a job to keep me busy. I’d eventually go stir crazy and end up like Michael Jackson... the buying stupid, useless, and expensive things, NOT the molesting children part.

In regards to my P.S.

2008-12-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

So that was interesting. While posting the last blog post, I happened to notice this dude who walked in and kinda didn’t look like he was interested in buying coffee from the cafe I was at. He walked back and forth in the lobby a couple of times and then left.

About 10 minutes later he happened to show up right in front of me and I payed him no mind. I just assumed that he was waiting for a ride or someone else to show up.

WRONG!

That ballsy asshole walked over to a gentleman who was sitting to my left and snatched his laptop and bolted out the door. Without thinking I reached for him as he ran past me but only barely even touched the back of his shirt. The gentleman then ran out the door chasing him and I wasn’t really sure what to do. I have had enough of my personal things stolen to where I wasn’t about to help run down this jerk off and leave my own computer laying there for anyone to snatch up for themselves. So I just gathered up the victims laptop power cord and wrapped it up for him and put it with the rest of his stuff.

I hadn’t noticed but the manager of the cafe had bolted out the back to try and head off the thief. She came back through the front door and asked if anyone could I.D. the thief and everyone around nodded. Just so happens that a police officer from the Oakland Police Department later came over to me and asked me if I would go with him in his car and I.D. the thief and give a statement. Hence the picture. The cop had a ton of stuff in his front passenger seat and asked if I minded sitting in the back and I of course replied “Heck no I don’t mind.” I mean who doesn’t want to have the chance to sit in the back of a cop car and not actually be in trouble. Makes you feel like a bad ass.... right?

So we drove over to the makeshift line up and I I.D.’d the thief and gave my statement from the back of the cop car. It was basically rad and just the excitement that I needed in my life to take my mind off of my own stress.

And yes mom, the cops in Oakland have AR-15’s in their cars too. I told him how excited you were to get yours up at EPD.

I know that last post was terribly dreadful but in all honesty, that’s how things have been going here. During the day I’ve been searching for jobs and places to live but it seems that the weekends when Kendra is home is when the fun happens. So don’t think that I’m slipping into this downward spiral of depression. Things are tough for everybody and I realize that now and am willing to do what it takes to make it through this crappy economy.

Ah Crap!

2008-12-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

Much to my dismay, I have been denied the opportunity to work in the great state of California thus far. As I have said before, I have been relentless in my search for gainful employment and it seems that it was mostly in vain.

I say mostly because everywhere that I have had the opportunity to have an interview, I have, not to sound boastful, blown them out of the water. I have no problem telling you that I am an amazing worker and I am really good at selling myself to an employer. So it seems that every interview that I have been a part of ends in, "We really want to hire you but we can't right now. We'll give you a call in January." This failing economy has finally materialized itself in front of me and I am unfortunately on the receiving end of it.

With that said, Kendra and I have found it clear that we have no known scheduling conflicts with a trip back up north for a much needed visit with friends and family. We are both so excited and really stressed about it too. Stressed because we have been denied once again in our search for a new place to live. Not only was the dude we had to deal with a old burnt out hippie that thought he owned the whole city of Oakland but it took him the better part of a week and 6 phone calls from me to finally give us an answer.

The best part was that while we were looking at the apartment the dude was telling us of the previous tenants and how the “younger COUPLE” had been there for 8 years. His reason for denying us the apartment was only because he and his “partner” felt more comfortable giving the apartment to a single person rather than a couple.

Anyway, with our trip north I am going to try and make a few calls and work while I am home. If any of my old Dutchies are reading this, put in the word that I’ll be in Eugene in the need of some work.

On a lighter note, I can’t wait to see you guys and hope everyone is driving safe in all that snow that’s been dumping on you up there.

P.S.

Something absolutely insane just happened while I was posting this. I'll repost something in a couple of hours. I gotta go talk to the cops right now.

Dependancies and Driving

2008-12-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

I can’t begin to tell you how annoying it is to not have reliable internet connection. Hence, not being able to keep this blog updated as much as I would like. Even more annoying is how dependent on a connection to the world wide web we are. Although, I find it slightly humorous when I’m sitting in a cafe getting things done on the internet and the connection craps out, stay calm and you can just sit back and watch the parade of the panicked. Slowly but surely, each person comes to the realization that the computer they are hypnotized by doesn’t have the ability to bring them the information that they need.

Yesterday we had a ton of fun. We decided to drive across both of the bridges (Bay Bridge and Golden Gate) and head over to Muir Woods area just past Sausalito, which is a “National Recreation Area”. Unfortunately we drove to the entrance of the Muir Woods and they wanted roughly $80.00 per person... well more like $5.00 per adult but we were just stubborn. We think we shouldn’t have to pay a fee to look at some trees, but that's neither here nor there.

So we had this great idea to drive even further up the road, which by the way was quite possibly the windiest road I have even ventured up. When we got to the top we ended up stopping off at this overlook which was absolutely beautiful. Steep rock faces right into the ocean and you could see the city to our left and there were patches of dark and ominous clouds out above the ocean that made for some cool pics.

After we got tired of getting blown around we decided to DRIVE some more. So off we went, up a road that was even windier than the previous. I soon came to realize that we were now traveling on Highway 1. Here’s where it gets really fun. If you know anything about Kendra’s past, you would know that she used to get pretty car sick if given the right conditions. You know the situation. We’ve all been there at one time or another, reading a book while in the back seat of the family van. Which is a big YUCK for just about anyone I believe. Well, this road was so bumpy and windy that her skin had turned to a ghoulish green and she was fighting back the urge to jettison her breakfast.

The best... slash... funniest... slash... actually worst part of the whole situation is that we failed to use or fancy iPhones to see where the hell good old Highway 1 led to. We just assumed that it would eventually lead to a real highway. Who would have guessed it actually goes for another 56 miles north until a tiny podunk town named Olema. At about the point when Kendra felt the need to clear out the Safeway plastic grocery bag of our road munchies for a barf bag I figured that it might be a good time to just turn around and carefully make our way back to civilization.

Luckily for Thug Passion, Kendra never lost her guts and we stopped at a way random 7-11 and scooped up a bottle of Sprite to calm her stomach.

After all that, we figured it would be a good idea to just chill at home and watch a movie, but we didn’t have one that sounded that good so we went and picked up a great movie I would recommend to anyone that doesn’t mind a tiny bit of violence. Green Street Hooligans. One of my favorites and I am surprised I hadn’t picked it up earlier. It stars Elijah Woods and is the second movie he did after the last of the epic trilogy Lord of the Rings. The first movie he did after LOTR, was another of my all time favorites, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I feel like I’m trying to sell these movies but today is the first day that it has rained since I’ve been here and it kinda feels like a good time to grab a movie and chill at home. That and word on the street, or the weather application on my iPhone, says that it’s snowing back home and I am pretty jealous.

On that note, I would really like it if anyone from home could save some snow for me and maybe just mail it to me. Any inquiries for an address may be directed and answered in the comments section of this blog. Please and thank you.

I Have a Serious Addiction

2008-12-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

This may not come to a surprise to some of my closest friends and family who have been in it with me through the thick and the thin. Those of you who I hold dear to my heart and share my darkest secrets with, there is no reason to be incredulous about my current situation.

I have an addiction. An addiction that is not easily overcome. Oh RedBull, sweet sweet RedBull. Nectar of the gods. If not of the gods, it is at least approved by the gods. Upon inspection and a little research on the RedBull website, I found that RedBull is Kosher and Halal. Apparently “the production site and the origin of the ingredients were inspected and checked by the responsible organizations”. Good to know.

Enough nonsense, I have a meeting today with my the head of financial aid at SFSDF today and I really hope that we are going to figure out how to get to that $30,000 goal. Or maybe part of it.

On a more creative note, I have recently found out that my Sony Cyber-shot camera actually takes very clear digital video footage and I have been having fun with that around town and maybe I’ll post something up in a week or so. I only have a 2GB memory card so I have to take the highest possible quality of footage and then dump that info on to my computer and take more. I’m sure I can come up with something to make sure that my editing skills don’t get too rusty. So keep an eye out for that next week possibly.

One more thing, my mom just had surgery. Nothing major, but she’s a bad ass and I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that. If you know her at all, you should send her an email, text, or ring her up an wish her well. Knowing my mom, who is quite active and is stuck off of her feet for about 6 weeks, she’ll be going stir crazy around the end of this week. So say hi or bake her some chocolate cake. She probably love you forever.

Mac and Cheese Equals Mythological Creatures?

2008-12-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I mentioned that Kendra and I have been cooking at home, but last night it was brought to a whole new level. Not necessarily a higher level of complexity but more of a higher level of, “Oh my god this tastes like little drops of heaven sprinkled with unicorns and fairy dust”. A couple of nights ago Kendra had this craving for some mac and cheese and if you grew up like I did, the first thing that would have popped into your head would have been the crap that tastes like the cardboard box it comes in. You know the one, blue box, gold lettering... damn it I used to love that garbage.

Well apparently her mom makes this amazing homemade mac and cheese so she got the recipe and let me just tell you, ho-ly-crap. Needless to say I was saddened that my bowl was empty but that just meant that breakfast and lunch was going to be filled with warm, cheesy, gooey goodness.

Earlier today I was seriously contemplating on walking across the street and applying at Burger King but Ian randomly called me and cheered me up a little bit with some encouraging words. With spirits knocked up a few notches I made my way out to a few places that I had applied and made it known that I am freaking awesome and they should seriously consider hiring me. Which actually helped calm my nerves because I was honestly teetering on a razors edge of pulling my hair out from being so stressed.

Also, I contacted the head of the financial aid department of my hopeful school (SFSDF) and set up another meeting to figure out how to get my hands on $30,000. By the way, I’m still taking suggestions, other than exchanging sexual favors for money. However I am thankful for that suggestion Ian.

One more thing, I got bored late last night and started making new iPhone/iPod Touch wall papers on Photoshop. What do you think? Slightly conceded? Let’s just say that if I were to rule China, this would probably be the replacement of their silly and boring flag.

Hey! If you're hiring, call me... please.

2008-12-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

So like I said, I dominated the first interview and had a second one to go to the very next day. Well, once again, I ruled that one as well. Here’s where the problem comes in. They told me, “I think you should work here.” What the hell is that supposed to mean? They told me they were going to call me that very day of my second interview and if not it would be the first thing the next morning.

Yeah well, nothing so far. Kinda bummed but honestly I can’t let it get to me too much. I’ve just been continuing my search for employment and hope something comes up real quick.

Lately, Kendra and I have been trying our hand at cooking our own meals and it’s actually really fun. Our first meal was actually awesome. We made a Pad Thai and it was bomb. Yes, I said bomb. Although we made a ridiculous amount of noodles and are in desperate need of a few more pans or maybe just one bigger one... and some tupperware. The only mishap we have had was with the split pea soup. We still ate it but it was a little... well, a lot burnt. Nothing a butt-load of salt and pepper couldn’t cover up.

This weekend was a very relaxed one. We started watching the BBC series, Planet Earth which is unbelievable. We have a seriously shitty TV and have it playing on my Xbox 360 and the picture quality is unreal. Having minimal experience in working with video cameras, it boggles my mind at how they have achieved most of the shots in the show. Other than that we grabbed a bottle of this really cool vodka from Trader Joe’s and made a few drinks this weekend. It's called 360 Vodka. It had a really cool old fashioned cap and actually finishes pretty smooth... well, smooth for vodka.

The weather down here is amazing. Winter is kind of like the beginning of fall in Eugene. I’m curious to see what the summer will be like. Please Jesus, I hope I have a job by then.

Interview Killer

2008-12-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

Today I had my interview and I’m gonna go ahead and put this out there... I freaking killed it... like super ninja assassin style. I did so well and I’m actually going to go back in tomorrow at 11am for a second interview. I have never had an interview, let alone a second interview where I didn’t get the job. I just hope I can get the time off to come home and see the friends and family for Christmas.

Tomorrow my old manager from Dutch Bros. is coming into town with his little brother to go see an AC/DC concert and they are crashing at our place. Pretty stoked to see someone from the Euge. It’s only been about 2 1/2 weeks but I feel like I’ve been gone forever. It’ll be nice hang out with them.

Also I have a mixer/social thing for the school (SFSDF) that I applied for later that night.

P.S.
Does anyone have $30,000 lying around?

Interview.... please and thank you

2008-12-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

At long last, I have an interview for a barista position only but a short walk from the condo. Needless to say I am very excited and feel that it is long over due for me to have some sort of income. Although I am very appreciative and thankful that my lovely lady friend is willing and able to basically pay for everything we do and says she can help me with my bills until I get a job, I really don’t want it to come to that.

I have too much of my parents work ethic engrained in me that I feel like a complete bum if I’m not holding down a full time job and contributing to society. What can I say, I guess they raised me proper.

Something that I have recently realized is how dependent I am on the internet. Currently, each weekday morning I wake up shortly after Kendra and drive her to the B.A.R.T. station and then with my laptop strapped to my back I find the nearest internet cafe (more often than not, Spasso) so that I can continue my job searching, keep up to date on current events, and stay in touch with friends and family.

So dependent that when I am at the condo and “need” to be online and don’t feel like using the old iPhone, I resort to stepping out on the balcony and try and snake someone else’s wi-fi connection. Sad really, but “that’s how we be ballin’ on a budget.”

It will only be like this for a little while longer though. This last weekend we went out and searched one of the areas we like for a new place to live. We are both very excited to have our own place and not have to worry about our shared parking spot and a sub-lease.

I NEED A JOB

2008-11-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

I’m not going to lie. I am terribly stressed about not having a job yet. I feel like I am looking for and applying for everything. I just hope something comes up this next week cause if not.... realistically, I suppose I’ll just keep looking. Ugh. Also we are looking for a new place cause our lease is up in January. Not to mention Christmas is right around the corner. So much going on and it seems like so little time.

On a lighter note, Kendra and I drove into the city and got a few tasty beverages from our favorite coffee joint, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. After that we came back home and put up our Christmas tree. It’s hand made with the finest construction paper, glue sticks, and scotch tape.

Thanksgiving of Lasagne

2008-11-28T10:59:00.001-08:00

If you have never been to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, I highly recommend it. Unfortunately for us, it is currently under construction or maintenance rather. And good thing there was a swarm of friendly shwing-shwongs (I love you Dunny Buns) there with us too otherwise we wouldn’t have had anyone to take our picture for us. But really, by the bus load I tell ya.

As everyone may know, and if you didn’t you should probably check your calendar cause yesterday was Thanksgiving in America. I really hope that the general population today doesn’t need a special holiday of slaving in the kitchen to realize what they should be thankful for. But I can say that I appreciate the copious amounts of delicious food.

However, this year was a little different. There was no extended family and really no friends. It was just Kendra and I and we had lots of fun actually. We came to the conclusion that cooking a turkey and all the trimmings wasn’t really a great idea for two people especially since she is a vegetarian. So we made a delicious lasagne and some salads.

Don’t worry, we had pumpkin pie too. I don’t care if there is a pumpkin famine and p. pies were $1000.00 each, I will have my p. pie son!!!

We really had fun and it was a new experience for the both of us. Aside from having absolutely nothing to do after our Thanksgiving dinner due to everything in the world being closed other than Wal-Mart, I think we did just fine. I really hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving and got to hang out with the fam and friends and we both can not wait for Christmas to be here so we can see everyone.

Night at the movies... or not

2008-11-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

A night at the movies sounded like a great idea and a good change of pace for this holiday weekend. We weighed our options and decided to go see Twilight. I thought this was going to be a great movie cause all I remember from the trailer I saw a couple of months ago was some slender chicks and dudes dashing about in a forest with the speed of a gazelle on about a pound of cocaine.

I have only walked out of two movies in my life. One being Garfield: The Movie and the other, more recent, Twilight. Somewhere along the lines, Kendra and I missed the memo about how this movie was geared toward the demographic of 13-16 year old girls.

After 25 grueling and agonizing minutes of terrible acting and way too much white powder make up we decided to leave the theater and walk back home to try and get the headed in the right direction. Which is code for a few shots of vodka.

P.S.
Mountaine, If you are reading this, the answer is yes. Yes it is Popov Vodka.

Great Weekend and Good Reasons

2008-11-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

I suppose if your reading this, you just might want to know why the heck I moved down here to San Francisco from Eugene. Two big reasons are my girlfriend got a very good job working for a place.

The other reason that I moved here is that I applied and was accepted to the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. This school is legit. I’m so pumped about going here, but it doesn’t start until March of 2009. Which really isn’t that bad, because it gives me a little time to get my feet on the ground and find a job. Apparently when you leave the state, you still have bills to pay... who would have guessed that?

The only problem is that the school wants $30,000 for the year and I don’t really have the ideal credit score that they are looking for to loan me that kind of money. Not a bad credit score, but more of a, “not enough credit history” credit score. I’m sure I’ll figure it out though. Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome.

On a different note, Saturday and Sunday, Kendra and I went for a walk down to the marina that's near by and had a good time. There is so much to do here and just as long as you have a sugar momma, you can totally do it all. :)

Good-bye Eugene. Hello San Francisco.

2008-11-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

So I moved to San Francisco to live with my lovely girlfriend, Kendra and for those who don't know my car, I drive a 2001 Dodge Neon and it's purple-ish. So it was named Thug Passion after the drink of choice by only the classiest of "gangstas". Point being, it's not ideal for driving down the old interstate 500+ miles full to the roof with your personal belongings. Either way, I made it and it really wasn't that bad, especially now that gas prices are finally on the decline.

I hope life finds all my family and friends doing well and I will keep everyone posted on life down here as much as I can with pictures and video.

I love you all and feel free to come stay with us down here.