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beautiful cold steel so the gf and i decided to take some instruction on handgun shooting. both of us being n00bs to pistols made for an interesting day. her co-worked happened to do weekend instruction for a course that teaches "a variety of stress techniques necessary for the administrative and sustained operation of the pistol as well as the concept of Tactical Firearm Safety, Sight Applications and Target Zoning at Close-Quarter-Battle distances." really..does the course not sell itself. so needless to say we were in for a treat. i would recommend this course to anyone of any skill level. we had a couple of classmates that had been shooting for more than 20 years and even they learned something new. coming out of the class i think i've picked up a new hobby we both can share \m/. now to decide on a starter handgun..

so we meet again... naturally work brings me up to the northwest which i can't say i mind in the least. flew up to seattle, then proceded to drive down to Portland with a small stop in Olympia. A nice tour through the rain, snow, and hail. coming from the native californian i was more than happy to see/enjoy any kind of precipitation, even if it was in the 30s. After a day of doing what i do in the field and impressing the customer, my partner in crime and i settled for a contratulatory malted beverage at the local Rock Bottom Brewery. most would thank god for the beautiful scenery. i thank him for nitrogen poured drinks :D though the trip was short, it was savored.

new experiences as it just so happens i was lucky enough to ride shotgun on quite an interesting job. turns out a little village in new york is home to a rather large glass plant and museum. flying into rochester and driving the 90 min to corning was an experience in itself as i'd never driven in snow before but no better time to learn than the present i say. being from southern california i was expecting a small town atmosphere but i didn't expect a "village" that was 2.5 miles long. the rather large and beautiful glass museum building was about the only thing that denoting the center of the village. apparently Steuben Glass is quite the prestigous name in decorative glass (the county was named after the Steuben family) so it was quite the treat to be able to see the actual glass plant/blowers at work. after finishing up there i took a small trip to the museum side. luckily for me the museum allowed photography so i was snapping shots of everything. quite amazing what people can do with glass is all i can say. flying out the next morning wasn't too bad save for landing at LAX at 6pm only to be back the next day at 4am for a flight to Seattle. good thing i love flying!

bandfest so my mom tries to draft me to go to the Tournament of Roses Bandfest performance to see the marching bands that were selected to march in the rose parade. not being a band geek in the slightest i can't say it was greatly appealing or my cup of tea. but my talked me into it explaining what actually goes on and the level of performance i'd expect to see. i'll have to admit i was pleasantly surprised that i found it all pretty entertaining, especially the marching band from Japan. i went expecting to see some football game halftime show but the performances were really quite intricate. while i'm not ready to take up an instrument i do have a new found respect.

float decoration being a family excursion we got talked into going to see the float decoration exhibit for a couple warehouses where Rose Parade floats were being prepped. naturally it takes an act of god to get all 3 vehicles in our caravan to arrive a few miles away from the bandfest venue. then the line...we were told it would be 45 min to which was gritted and said ok. reality turned out to double that time. good thing appropriate family members were chosen to wait with that made the 90 min go by quickly. our pit of sarcasm seemed to inpire hope for the nearby people waiting in line as well. it was interesting to see the floats up close and what actually goes into making them. apparently they have to be made from flowers or parts of them. not only did they glue whole flowers but for colored areas painted seeds were used. other areas they meticulously glued single petals. course being a group of engineering types we pointed out some areas where efficiency could be inserted but that's another blog entry...

it hurts so good nothing like a friendly game of broomball. for those that don't know what broomball is, its essentially the same as hockey. trade skates for shoes, sticks for brooms, puck for plastic balls, and six players per side for like 15. really the only similarity is the ice. with that many people crammed on the ice and two balls in play it really is quite the action packed game. unfortunately injuries, bruising, and soreness are also guaranteed. hopefully my knee will recover soon!

home away from home so officially i wound up in seattle for work but i decided to make a proper scouting venture out of it. with the promise of rain and cold weather i wasn't disappointed. between great food and great hosts i had a blast and got to walk the town...literally. ended up on my own walking tour after a small navigational error allowed me to walk the length of downtown seattle. to complete my city sampling, a nice pub crawl was in order and quite successful. sufficiently hammered with no hangover \m/

its that time again
abortion, beer, blitzkrieg, blogging, chance, conventions, emo, epic security, fish, foresight, furries, futurama, grabass, linux, masturbation, neediness, pr0n, sasquatch, self worth, sexual harassment, slumber parties, swinger parties, teamkillers, temptation, testimony, value size, virginity, women, xenophobia. thanks to inox and everyone else these were stolen from.

random road trips without the road nothing like alcohol to bring a random group of people together from the corners of america north. naturally all the incriminating photos were left out so what's left are the pretties. one may use their imagination to fill in the rest. but too be fair there are two other sets that were rolled into this weekend with a quick romp around Pier 39 and Mount Tamalpais. the pier was typical touristy. not really excited for those that have been there before but people watching always makes for interesting ventures. read more tells the tale.