Story Archive - July 2008

Just Pictures (07/31/2008)

I'm an old-fashioned guy... I want to be an old man with sitting on a porch, looking at a lake or something. - Johnny Depp

I mean, I could try and write something, or I could just lazily post vacation photos.

Fire in the Sky (07/20/2008)

There's no point in being grownup if you can't be childish sometime. - The Doctor (Tom Baker)

Yet another year at the lake passed by in stride. It was another year where I got to enjoy trying to coordinate things a little more than in past years. In 2007 we went out the night before the lake for my brother's twenty-first birthday party. This year, the kids brought it all together and we went out again. One more year and it will become a tradition. It was a good tradition this year as well, because many of the usual suspects at the lake couldn't find the time off work to make their way up and instead just came for our pre-party. I suppose that's what happens as the younger sibling's friends get jobs: they have to work.

The lake itself was calm and peaceful and good. California is still burning due to the various fires and that made "Clearlake" neither clear in the sky nor clear in the water. That was a little sad really. We had three dogs, and Killer spent the week the way he spends every week: lougning.

Best moment? There was one unplanned moment out on the boat where we paused in the middle of the lake for the first skier to go out and I looked around and realized it was just the five kids. It is probably the first time just the five of us have gone out together as a group without anyone's parents around. Even if we weren't born siblings, we will spend a lot longer of our lives related than we didn't. I found that moment touching, even if no one else noticed it.

Worst moment? During the drive home we were happily heading at legal speeds on the freeway when I noticed the tail end of the car starting to shake. I looked out the rearview mirrors to notice a lot of smoke and sparks coming from the right wheel on the trailer. "We just lost a tire" I calmly say to my father as I start to pull over to the side of the road. As we slow, said tire goes whizzing by still traveling a happy fifty miles per hour. It turns out all five of the studs snapped off inside the wheel hub. It was not pleasant, but I followed the rule I have always been told: "when it comes down to a choice between you and the boat you should always save the boat. It's easier to have more children."

Great Anime Expo or Greatest Anime Expo? (07/04/2008)

It was very exciting for her: taking his dignity away in the name of love. - Kurt Vonnegut (Slaugher House 5)

It's that time of year again when the gang all packs their bags, gets on planes, and meets in the city of Los Angeles (I can't bring myself to call it lovely) for Anime Expo. Obviously, AX is our annual excuse to gather, socials and catch up on the year. This year turned out a little different on the trip than the previous ones. In previous years we've slowly been growing to more and more people taking up more and more rooms.

This year, "what with the economy and all" the group of people fell apart. While I do consider myself the life of the party, I wasn't able to rally the troops. Excuse after excuse kept rolling in: "now I'm unemployed" or "now I live in Boston" or "I hate you people." So it trickled down to just three of us doing our best.

Two things happened. The first is that with only three people is not like herding cats and it's quite easy to actually go to everything you want to and to avoid any kind of arguments. The second is that all of the stars aligned and everything worked out perfectly all the time. Even when things went wrong, things ended up going right. For example, one of the three people wasn't on the reservation to get tickets, but we go tickets anyway. But the tickets were to the wrong show! Oh no! Except when we came back and told them, they gave us tickets to the right show and extra tickets to other shows. Time after time things just sort of worked out. First night there after we had nothing to do, but two LMU girls gave us a call and asked us to go out with them. Win win win!

As usual. Please enjoy this important photo.

What Else You Know About Love (07/02/2008)

Creating love is not for the soft sentimental; Creating love is a tough business - Alix Spiegel

The second rule of love doesn't have much to do about the people who were sitting around the table. It has to do with the metaphorical empty chair next to me where my plus-one was sitting. Except that chair was empty because there was no plus-one. Except there was no chair. So it goes.

Up until recently I had a good friend who served as my backup plus-one. She would go to things like weddings, company holiday parties, and all those other social events where I run the risk of not knowing anybody. You see, I am terrified of strangers. All those years growing up with an over-protective mother have nurtured and innate fear of people whom I do not know. I assume these strangers, as nice as they may seem, are probably going to offer me candy and then steal me away to their cult ranch for various nefarious activities.

At this wedding, the reason my standard plus-one wasn't with me is that she has recently taken it upon herself to get engaged. While I understand the intrinsic desire of getting engaged to someone you are in love with, I think she has failed to fully think out how this decision will affect my life. Luckily for her, I am kind enough that I do not often remind her of this fact by saying such things as, "well I guess I'll go to this wedding alone and stand in the corner." So I am in the market for another backup plus-one if you are interested.

My family now seems to consider me the most eligible bachelor around these days and during family get togethers encourage me with things like, "why don't you go the gym more to meet people?" "Why don't get a dog so you can walk it and meet people?" "Why don't you hang out on Stanford campus more and find a nice co-ed." They do their best to make me approach the hook-up in my life as a goal. Some sort of target where I should change my daily activities and seek someone out.

I have a Type-A personality inside me. Often at work I reach it and bring it out. I can be enormously competitive. I can be enormously driven towards a goal. When I do it, it stresses me out and strains me emotionally. It feels like a secret weapon I've got deep inside waiting to be used, except that I am a pacifist. When I strike with it, that silly Catholic guilt I shouldn't have to live with rises to the surface and asks, "Jordan, is that really what a man for others would do?"

Dating can never be a hunt for me. Yes, the arrogant person inside says, "but ha! if you unleash me I can make you happy so fast." But would he really? Or would that person find for me someone he likes and not someone that both of us can live with? I am sure it would be the former.

Lesson two is when seeking a goal of the heart, follow the path of your heart.