Chihuly Photographer at Salk

We caught the eye of Chihuly's photographer on the last day of his glass exhibit at the Salk 50th anniversary celebration. He snapped some shots of the lab and sent them to us. Priceless.

Yeah I Shop at Ralph's

...but it was only made obvious to me recently the verbage of their name.

He ralphs, she ralphs, we ralph.

Now I can't seem to forget it.

Grad School Visits

So from the end of January through the beginning of March, I was on 27 planes, traveling across the country visiting grad schools I was accepted to. They paid for my flights, and tried to sell me their school.

I had the opportunity to speak to many research faculty and current grad students. It was incredibly educational and exciting!

Pardon the brevity and poor writing of this note, I just had some pictures I wanted to offload. While I did bring my camera on multiple trips, I only took pictures on two of them.

The skyscraper pictures were taken in Dallas, TX. We were put up in a Sheraton. I think I was on the 52nd floor. Pretty sweet.

The picture above is of some unknown building in the downtown of Dallas, but I really liked the logo on the tower.

The city parks in Dallas had a sort of... organized look to them. Too organized.

And this is ex-president G-Dubbs, immortalized right in the airport.

This is the one picture I have from my trip to UC Davis. Simply beautiful during the spring.

Locked in sleep -> is this Coma?

So I went to sleep, and passed hours and hours and hours. I met musicians whom now I forget, went to places which now I can't remember, and get to know a few people who were acquaintences really well, but for my mental figments. It was so real. The problem was, after that, I dreamt over and over that I was waking up and going about my business, except for the fact that I wasn't. It felt so natural, over and over. At the end of every time I would realize that the last one was just a dream, but then I'd be stuck in the next one. Finally, I took it in to my own hands, and the next time I "woke up," I ran down the hall, saw a door open to someone's room I knew, looked in to talk to them... except it was someone else laying there in the bed. I ran somewhere else and found some other strangers, all the while knowing it was a dream. I had a little fun with it, doing some things I otherwise would not, but the frustrating thing was that it kept on getting reset to me waking up every time there was some queue from the construction noises outside. It would be hard to get anywhere to do something really fun. For some period, I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to wake up for real. Maybe this is what a coma is like. Maybe I'm not even awake now. No... this time has to be real. The construction hammering and sawing has gone through several cycles and hasn't reset. Plus, this time, unlike the others, I woke up in a cold sweat, and when I moved, everything on me hurt. Ah, back to normal.

The Brief Stay in Hawaii (Pt. 1)

So after the Philly experience, I took off for home (Hawaii!). Well, sort of home. The place where my parents live. Countless times have I told the story of where I am and where I'm from. On a side note, since my sandals were DESTROYED at the Muse concert (very, very sad) I had to wear shoes on the plane all the way there! Believe me, not a happy Shigeki.

One of the things I like most about home is the food. Not just the fact that the food was from Hawaii, just in general. The fact that the food is one step closer to Japanese is a huge added bonus.

If you know who I am, there's a pretty good chance you know what the stuff on the right is (mochi!).

Having been my second time in Hawaii, I didn't take quite as many pictures. One day we went on a hike. At the base of the trailhead, there was a sacred Hawaiian healing site.

Much of the trail was still left to nature minus the narrow path, so it was a good feeling: envelopment by nature. Sadly, as everywhere, the presence of man has introduced unintended species that are just starting to wreak havoc on the native ones. In some years who knows what will be left of the once paradise. Ignoring this depressing fact, I will now proceed to barrage pictures.

I love how this slaughters my eyes with depth tricks.


This is so appropriate, the wood splitting into the kanji for tree. I recognize this one well.

Not all of Hawaii is wooded, as you may guess, so that will be next post's topic. The... not so wooded part...

Great song: Josh Jones - Can't Breathe. The vocals are done incredibly well. "No one told me it was going to be this way. I have such a lot to learn... I believe in wasting time, a part of me. Everything I say is not what it appears to be. Have you heard the sound that's riding out the door? The music's playing once again, but you've gone once more."