Shit!

Yes, that's right, horse shit! Immediately after opening presents, as
per Joel family Christmas tradition, it was off to the barn to shovel
horse shit for an hour. What a way to end a beautiful morning ^^
actually, it *was* a pretty nice day outside..

..as my father likes to say, "a family that shovels shit together, stays together." There you have it =]

To Conclude..

All-in-all, I think we could all agree that Christmas was a success.
To top it off, this is probably one of the happiest pictures I've ever
seen of the three of us.

The Christmas joy, however, was far from over..

Post-carnage

The Christmas tree just doesn't look the same without the presents
underneath =\ I guess that's a given though..

Victory

Our work here is done, the carnage complete; there were no survivors.
A very satisfied Joel family looks on =] the remains of our vanquished
foes lay scattered at our feet.

Merry Christmas, Comrade!

My parents managed to find these really campy army snow hats from
Soviet-era Russia. Here's Luca pledging his allegiance to the
motherland =]

Tormented Creature

Finally, Lucy hits rock bottom. She has become totally unresponsive,
and the mere mention of food causes an awkward rumbling noise to sound
from her gut. At least she'll know better next year.. Or not.

Gentleman of Leisure

The great scholar appreciating the first of what would become a
proverbial mountain of books that he would receive over the next hour.

Geology Rocks

Enough said. It looks like my brother has finally begun to appreciate
my dad's sense of humor; Geology jokes were a common occurance this
morning.

Poor Thing

Lucy is beginning to regret her decision to devour her gift so
quickly. She left a quarter of it on the floor, and she is now laying
in anguish on her chair. Little does she know that the worst is yet to
come..

Kiss!

I think this one was enjoyed a little bit more by the giver than by
the receiver...

Mmm Books...

Gifts of all shapes and sizes were given this year, but as always
books continued to dominate the playing field. My dad gave my mom a
really awesome one about dealing with neurotic dogs. Poor Lucy xD

VERY YES

Bingo! Robots xD Luca really hit the nail on the head when he combined
two of my favorite things in one gift: Robots and Legos. I think I can
officially call this a good Christmas.

Beef Sausage

Dad's got his droewors, we can all go back to sleep now~

And then?

Magnetic erotic Shakespearean poetry for Chris. Go figure..

Magnetic Erotic Shakespearean Poetry

First gift of the day: magnetic erotic Shakespearean poetry for Luca.
Sounds like magnetic poetry has finally found a theme that speaks to
its core market xD

Number One

Lucy was the first victim of the day, quite literally. You see, she
got this awesome treat and my mom gave the whole thing to her at once.
Lucy proceeded to devour it voraciously, an act she would later regret..

Fooding

Christmas breakfast with the family; how deceptively happy they all
seem ;P still, it was a good breakfast!

Food

Luca dishing up some delicious grub and simultaneously making fun of
me. The food was indeed tasty ^^ eggs, toast, sausage (which I didn't
eat) and banana pancakes!

Another Shining Ray

Luca, being as resentful as ever of my Christmas cheer =]

Good Morning, Sunshine

I had to go wake up my dad at his plac, and as he put it, this was
probably the one morning of the year when I could actually wake him up
(my mom is making boervoers for him). He's checking out the after-
Christmas sales.

More Lucy

The Christmas dog on her special spot xD

Breakfast

My mother is preparing her famous pancakes for breakfast. Christmas
carnage is on the cusp of certainly commencing. Lucy looks on..

Lucy

Speaking of the Christmas dog, here she is. She's begging for a treat
from Darla, which is one of the few instances where you can actually
catch her standing still =]

Stockings

Stockings =] roaring fire courtesy of moi~ The middle stocking is
Lucy's xD

More Tree

Okay, fast forward to Christmas morning~ The presents are ripe for the
picking xD

Tree

The tree on Christmas Eve~

Christmas Village Redux

Same village lit up in all of its Christmas Eve glory =]

Christmas Village

Every year, my grandparents give each of their children one of these
light-up houses as a Christmas gift. What started out as a somewhat
cheesey gesture has become a tradition that we look forward to and
laugh about fondly, especially now that our collection has become so..
comprehensive. Also, there's Luca =]

Photostream: Christmas Morning Edition

I'm sitting by a freshly made fire in our livingroom posting from my
phone on Christmas morning. It's that awesome time just before
everyone get's up to open presents, where Christmas feels most like
the special, picturesque holiday we so often have to force ourselves
to believe it is. I have a few photos to post now, starting with last
evening shots of the tree and decorations courtesy of my mom, and
those will be followed by post-Xmas present-carnage. Here it goes~

A day in SF..

.. And all I got was this shitty picture.. And cookies :D

BART

They need something like BART up in Wash, but I guess I can't really
complain when it only costs me 2.50 to take the bus into Seattle.
Round trip BART to SF is almost ten bucks.

California Sunrise

Yeah, that's what I've been missing all these months. Some lady told
me that I looked like I must be freezing when I went running this
morning, but frankly it's much nicer here at six in the morning than
it is in Washington at noon. I took a couple of photos of the sunrise,
but this phone wasn't designed with the greatest camera ever, so this
is the best of 'em. Next up: SF :D

Next Up: SF

Tomorrow I'm hitting up SF with Luca to go shopping for new Chrome
bags (it'll be his first one of evar). My sleeping schedule was going
really well until I crashed rather suddenly at three in the afternoon
and didn't wake up until seven =.= hopefully I'll be able to sleep
before three AM rolls around. Night interwebs~

Picture taken tonight by Luca =]

Home Sweet Home

Oh Lucy xD I missed you too.. It's cold here! Our house has no heating
=\

All Aboard

It looks like I have made it on to the plane. Gods willing, I'll make
it off as well. One way or another, I'll see you all on the other side
<3

Nailed It

Finally, I'm inside and I have my burrito just as planned. Now for
four hours of atmosphere soaking~

Oops

Apparently I got my flight time wrong. I thought that I was leaving at
2:30, but as it turns out I'm not leaving until 3:40. So now I'm
*really* early, and I'm not allowed to check my bag until 11:40. You'd
think that the system here would reward the early birds among airport
goers, but I guess not. Now I have to wait at the terminal entrance
for the next 30 minutes, which is kind of lame; it's a feeling akin to
being kept outside in the cold by verdict of some half-sane demigogue.
Anyway, more updates when I'm finally inside, burrito and/or coffee
securely in-hand ;P

OMW

Well, it's 9:50 AM and I'm waiting for the shuttle to take me to
SeaTac. As you can see, I'm dressed in my school day 'best.' My flight
isn't until 2:30, but I want to get to the airport early. There is
something about the transience that one can observe at all hours in
the airport that I find to be deeply comforting. When I have the time,
I like to grab a cup of coffee or a burrito, sit down and just absorb
the environment around me. Those who have flown through SeaTac know
that this airport is especially good for such activities, with its
elegant, newish shop-and-eat section.

I know, i'm weird; get over it =]

Ron Paul & I

I do not particularly feel that I am knowledgeable enough in the ways of the Libertarian to fully understand the consequences, intended or otherwise, of what might happen if Ron Paul is elected president in 2008. I do not support Ron Paul openly because I cannot say for sure if the United States would be better off without all sorts of government programs, and without the IRS, and without a central bank (etc.). I have heard arguments for and against such ideas, but I know that I simply lack the formal education necessary for one to arrive at an informed opinion on the subject.

What I do know is that Ron Paul is a real person. His personality is tangible; when I see him in the debates, it is as though he and I are conversing face to face. The message he touts so often as "quite powerful" isn't just that; it's real. What my faith in Paul comes down to is not based on the quality of his policies, but rather the assuredness I feel in Paul's goodness as a human being. His background speaks for itself, whether it be his personal life, his professional career or his voting record. Ron Paul is a man composed of integrity, and when I see the other candidates on television or on the intertubes, all that can be said for sure is that each one has invested a great deal of time and money to impress upon his or her audience a very particular image that is nothing if not blatantly fictional.

However, what cinches the proverbial deal for me, as a voter, is not even Paul's character. It is the peaceful and cooperative unity with which people of all political camps the world over have gathered behind him. This unity, to me, is epitomized by this video I stumbled upon this morning:



The content of the video speaks for itself, and I could do nothing but smile after watching it. I couldn't care less what Ron Paul's policies will mean for the future of our country; Ron Paul is the man who would bring back peace and dignity to this nation, and that alone is more than I could hope for from any other politician.

Revisiting Kung Fu

Regarding my last post, I went to the guy's website and discovered it didn't exist. I then checked out what appears to be the guy's temporary website, which I found with the aide of Google, and it seemed threadbare but passable. Then I found this interesting video.

Yes. That is, indeed, a nerdy white guy performing a sequence of Klingon martial arts a la Star Wars kid. And yes, it also happens to be the guy in charge of the Wing Lam Kung Fu School. So much for that whole Tai Chi plan, but woot for the internet saving me thirty bucks!

Kung Fu

So, I've been meaning to get back into some sort of recreational
martial art. I found this ratty looking business card on the
"community board" inside Yummy, and the thought of mind-centering Tai
Chi classes was just too appealing to pass up. C'mon, if nothing else,
the ratty card makes this place look pretty legit compared to those
'hybrid' martial arts schools, right? We'll see =]

Yummy Teriyaki

Yummy is our favorite place to grab teriyaki, and we go there every
Thursday. The service is fast, the quantities are massive and it's
real enough to keep you from feeling ill after eating it =]

RTC

Ahh yes, glorious Redmond Town Center. As you can see, this place is
getting geared up for the holiday season and is packed to the brim
with... No one. It's empty, because it's an outdoor mall. An outdoor
mall in Washington. Take a look at the sky and the ground; it has been
raining all day =.=;;

Busbusbus

First day of freedom after the semester, and I find myself on the bus
heading to downtown Redmond. I know that it's not the most exciting
place in the world, but I desperately need to get out, and this is the
last chance I'll have to get gifts for Mike and Z (Sheridan is already
covered) before they take off for break.

Fin

Finals are over, and now I can relax.. sort of. I basically have
tomorrow off, and then on Friday I'll be tripping back and forth
between here and Kent, followed by Bainbridge Island for the weekend
and home (California) on Monday. Then (hopefully) I can relax a little
bit more again. I really miss the rolling foothills of my home town.
They're probably turning green again at this time of year. Happy
holidays to all the people I didn't get a chance to say good bye to~

So close...

Just one final to go: calc. Yessir, by 11 o'clock this morning I will
be happily slumbering away, dreaming of correcting this nocturnal turn
of lifestyle that I've developed in the late weeks of the holiday
season. I haven't slept well, ate well or exercised for several days
now. No matter how I do on my final, I know that I will be a happier
computer nerd come noon than I am right now, assured of the fact that
I finally have an escape from this semester-from-Hell that I've been
experiencing to look forward to. See you on the other side, internets...

My Very Own Rock Garden

So I spent about an hour putting together this little rock garden out of random Google-scrounged images using Photoshop. I had intended to use the collage in a potential redesign candidate for Aetherchild.net, but upon finishing it I decided that I would rather take some other route. I'm thinking tatami, parchment, calligraphy, and onsen. We'll see.. I just wanted to post this picture because I know it will never see the light of day otherwise.

Blaahhh

I hate finals. CS225 is over, but I have physics tomorrow and calc on
Wednesday. Blah. I'm really smelly from too much studying and not
enough showering and sleeping. I'm going to shower, email one of my
profs so that I can get this stupid assignment turned in and then.. I
don't know, maybe eat 'cause I is hungrys =.= and sleep..

Uwajimaya

My little slice of SF nastalgia, this Seattle-based Asian grocery
store also has a Kinokuniya bookstore connected to it =]

Coffee Coffee

Vivace is this really charming espresso place near Capitol Hill. They
claim to have found the perfect method to brew espresso using science,
but regardless of how true that is there always seems to be a line
trailing out the door every time I go there..

Final Countdown

Sitting in class right now waiting for my first final to get underway.
I have a few pictures to post from yesterday. Here's hoping I survive
CS225~

Good Old DP

Well, I'm on the bus again, and this time I'm on my way to visit
Kjersten and her father for an evening of eatting, singing and general
merrymaking. It would be a lot more for me to look forward to if I
didn't also have a CS assignment due tonight that is currently
residing, partially finished, within the laptop that I have brought
with me. Sometimes it seems like I do this just to torture myself..

C'est la vie a la DP ;P

An Interesting Specimen

This 'graffiti' was created by a team of art students last year, way
back before the art kids were all moved to their own campus far, far
away. It wasn't made with spray paint - I'm sure that's cheating - but
it's nice to look at anyway =]

His First Real Photoblog of Ever

So this is my rig. It's not much, but it get's me from alpha to beta ;D

This is too fun...

Okay, it's 7:30. I'm gonna go for a jog and pretend that I got an
awesome night's sleep. Then I'm gonna go on a photo blogging spree
'cause I can! Zoom zoom here I go~

Bioshock is the New Doom 3

*shudder*

Super Sleepless in Seattle II Turbo

So anyone who knows me knows that right now, my sleeping schedule is
majorly f'd.. As in f'd in the a. Here I am at 6:15 AM. I've been
awake for almost 14 hours. Do the math and you'll find that I started
my day yesterday at 4:00 PM. I have a pretty full day today, which
means I've probably missed my last reasonable window of sleep-time by
a few hours. Finals are definitely shaping up to be grand.

On the other side of things, I'm really excited to have discovered
this blogging by email feature. It's a big deal to me because it means
that I finally have a stable, persistent way to blog with both photos
and text (though apparently not both at the same time. Grrr..) via my
iPhone, a device that has, until now, been relegated to the more
common rolls of mp3 player and cell phone.

Additionally, I have just set up my Gmail account on this thing to
work through IMAP instead of POP. I definitely see myself using the
email features of this device much more in the near future.

This is all really exciting for me. I've longed for a way to be able
to post what I'm experiencing at any given time to my blog regardless
of my proximity to a computer, and now I have one! Although it's true
that there are certain aspects of the iPhone that I loathe (closed
architecture, limited codec support etc.), it's hard to stay angry at
a device that converges so many technologies and will easily hide in
one's pocket.

Test photo post via email...

My first post via email...

Okay, so this whole post-to-blog-by-email concept, though apparently
not that new, has brought a whole new meaning to my life. This is a
test post to see how well the feature works with plain text...

~ Aariel

-----
"God will understand, my Lord. And if he does not then he is not God,
and we need not worry."