Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Eddie Murphy gave me the SARS

Posted from Culver City, California at 9:45 pm, August 31st, 2008

Between work, JAMWiki development, Iceland photos, the Skipper’s retirement, and various other odds and ends I’ve done a craptastical job of updating the journal – my apologies. Here’s a breakdown of the major events of the past six weeks:

  • The Skipper retired after 814 years in the ministry, and went out by having a bunch of his Native American friends play the drum and sing some songs during his final sermon. What he does next is anyone’s guess.
  • Eddie Murphy was filming his next flick here a few weeks ago and managed to completely shut down downtown Culver City for three days. Not only was it more difficult to get to Starbucks, but I got a cold for a week after seeing him. Coincidence? Probably.
  • Aaron is living in the Bay Area again. He sells houses and stuff and lives with Charlie Chi. They see deer outside.
  • DirecTV decided to reward folks for a good quarter by having a city-wide scavenger hunt. The idea sounded good – limos, drive around looking for stuff… the execution, while fun, involved a camera and tasks including such gems as “take a picture with a lifeguard”, “do yoga in front of Yogaworks” and “take a picture of your (predominantly male) team piled on a store’s floor”. There are now significantly more skeletons in the closet should I ever run for public office.
  • A friend at work got married last week, and I was lucky enough to be a guest at an Afghan wedding. The dancing, singing, tublas, food, and all was a real trip – at one point I remarked that it was a made-for-the-movies scene straight out of My Big Fat Afghan Wedding, and those at the table all agreed.
  • And good news about someone other than me: JB was named MIT’s 2008 Young Innovator. He rules.

Pictures from Iceland are only about halfway done, so it will be a while yet before they’re online. In the mean time, here are a few of the ones that turned out reasonably well:

Razorbills at Latrabjarg

Razorbills at Latrabjarg.

Landmannalauger Landcape

Landmannalauger landscape.

Haukur Snorrason

Hawk, elevated. In the foreground you can see the Barbie fun stool.

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