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

I-5, 150 miles North of Los Angeles, California

Posted at 8:40 pm, June 22nd, 2003

An awesome although ridiculously full weekend:

  • The insomnia continues, so after an hour nap and two hours of lying in bed I took off at midnight Friday for San Francisco via Highway One. Stopped near Hearst Castle at 4:00 AM and fell asleep.
  • Woke up at 6:00 and within ten minutes found a huge group of elephant seals. The secret to elephant seals is apparently to catch them early — when I’ve seen them at mid-morning in Ano Nuevo they barely move, but from sunrise until almost 8:00 AM this group was bellowing and fighting. Got a few photos that should be nice.
  • Continued moseying along the coast, eventually stopping in Monterey to search for sea otters (saw one) and chowder in a bread bowl (ate one).
  • Got back to Concord, unloaded some old clothes to Goodwill, some old books to various used book stores, some hair at Supercuts, then scanned in more of the Galapagos photos. Nap time followed.
  • Took off with the Goob, Jenn, the Tall Guy and Dave for Sam Woo’s and then a rather painful three hours watching the Hulk at the Metreon. The only highlights of that movie were Lou Ferrigno’s cameo and Jennifer Connelly’s close-ups.
  • Finished scanning in photos today, watched a bit of the USA Track and Field Championships on TV (Jorge and Goucher qualify in the 5000, Lincoln takes second in the steeple, Teter qualifies in the 800, woohoo!), and now I’m cruising back home.

It’s all good.

Concord, California

Posted at 9:30 am, June 22nd, 2003

As a public service, I’d like to warn people against giving their money away to movie theatres in order to see The Hulk. If a movie theatre should try to take your money in exchange for a ticket to this movie, grab your money from them and run away as if you were being chased by packs of rabid pit bulls. Do not look back.

Burbank, California

Posted at 12:25 am, June 19th, 2003

Not a lot worth recording in a web log lately. The running is going well, insomnia has struck again, and hopefully I’ll get the remainder of the Galapagos photos scanned in this weekend. Since my life is fairly dull to read about, here are a couple of links to someone who’s life has been pretty exciting recently:

Also, on a very random note, www.powergenitalia.com is not what you would expect.

Glendale, California

Posted at 12:55 am, June 15th, 2003

Someone’s car alarm is now going off for the sixth time in the past hour and a half. Rather than trying to sleep only to be woken up every fifteen minutes I’ve been updating the software page with new photo gallery code. The new code still isn’t very user friendly, but it’s getting better — the current version will automatically determine image width and height when generating the required XML files. I may also add some logic to simplify the properties file, as that seems to be a source of confusion for people. While the code is still meant primarily for those who understand Java, if you do use it and would like to see it changed in any way let me know and I’ll see if I can get around to updating it.

Burbank, California

Posted at 7:00 pm, June 12th, 2003

Dave Barry’s log entry for today:

TECHNICAL ADVISORY (posted by Dave 5:05 PM)

This blog has thoroughly screwed up everything in its house related to computers. It started when this blog, which has always been a PC kind of blog, bought an Apple Powerbook computer. Please understand: This blog loves its Powerbook very much. But the Powerbook was not getting along all that well with this blog’s network, the rest of which is PC computers. Sometimes they would let the Powerbook in, but sometimes they would laugh and call the Powerbook names, and not let it play their PC games. So today this blog, having learned NOTHING, EVER, IN ITS WHOLE LIFE and being A COMPLETE MORON, decided to make a few little tweaky adjustments to the network, and now this blog is in TOTAL LINKSYS ROUTER HELL, which involves 53 MILLION SETTINGS with Martian names like “PPPoE” and “Subnet Mask” and “DHCP” and God only knows what else. And of course NOTHING WORKS, NOTHING, and NOTHING EVER WILL AGAIN until Technical Support arrives, if it ever does. This blog is publishing this item via a primitive telephone line made of rope. It may be the last one for a while.

The moral is: If you have a computer, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING. Just LIVE WITH IT.

TECHNICAL UPDATE (posted by Dave 5:27 PM)

If your computer system is working properly, be advised that this blog hates you.

Glendale, California

Posted at 10:45 pm, June 11th, 2003

Today was my second day running again after just over a month off, and I am a hurting puppy. Meanwhile there are a half dozen high school kids out there on the verge of breaking four minutes in the mile, and a number of collegiate guys getting ready to race in Europe this summer. I’ve got a long way to go.

In other news, moving in with JB has thus far been a good thing. With Felicia more or less a persona non grata these days we’re living the bachelor life, highlighted by last night’s three pounds of sushi. The only things in the fridge are some Dr. Pepper, a jar of olives, and one of JB’s vacuum pumps (no, I don’t know why it’s in the fridge). Life is good.

Glendale, California

Posted at 9:30 pm, June 9th, 2003

First, a question: what is it in your brain that will allow you to drive along, completely bored, for hours, but as soon as you leave the flat, straight stretch of highway for a curvy, busy stretch through the mountains you immediately think “I need to look under the seat to see if there are any Junior Mints there RIGHT NOW?” This also happens when construction causes traffic to become bumper-to-bumper and suddenly it becomes imperative that the CD be changed — why is that? Maybe my brain is missing an important filter that should re-schedule these sorts of events, or maybe I’m just a statistic for Darwin waiting to happen.

Rambling aside, not a lot going on lately. I scanned in a ton of photos over the weekend, although unfortunately I only made it about two-thirds of the way through the Galapagos pictures. I’ve also got my brother’s Galapagos photos online — I think on this trip he got better pictures than I did. I should have the rest of my photos online after the next time I get home, probably in a couple of weeks. Captions and such will get added as I have time over the next several days.

Burbank, California

Posted at 1:15 pm, June 3rd, 2003

Here’s the latest:

  • The 3rd annual Meat Massacre took place over the weekend. Apologies to those left off of the invite list — we didn’t get the corporate sponsorship we were hoping for, and with NY Strip running $8.00 per pound we sort of limited it to people we had seen recently. Still, two grills, thirty-five pounds of meat, the Tall Guy, and many people grabbing their stomachs and screaming (but still eating more) made for a memorable event.
  • Because I can’t remember my own phone number it will be another week until the Galapagos photos are online. The photo lab has shipped the slides now, but I still need to scan them in. Aaron’s photos were digital, so with luck those will be up before the end of the week.
  • I moved to Glendale. JB had a room to rent while his girlfriend is traveling, so I’ll be missing Argus and Fendy (the German shepherds I lived with previously) although I won’t be missing the LAPD helicopters that buzzed the house each night.
  • For anyone interested in going to the Galapagos next year, Greg & Thalia are going to be doing another trip in May with the exact same itinerary. The trip will cost about $300 more since they don’t have someone chartering the entire boat, but it’s still a good deal. I’ll probably be going unless something comes up, and I’d be glad to pass on any information to anyone else who is interested.

Concord, California

Posted at 7:00 am, May 25th, 2003

As amazing as the nature experience was in Galapagos, the trip was made even better by doing it with a great person like Greg and with so many friends. A few random memories:

“It’s a crapshoot”
“So since this is an active trip…”
“WHOOOHAHAHAHAHA” (the sound of Paul on a horse)
“Where did JB go?”
“Heeeeeeey”
“It’s all in your head”
“Tip Top Tres, Tip Top Tres, móvil”
“Oh my, there’s something running down my leg”
“There are bananas?”
“Argh, it’s drivin’ me nuts”
“But they’re endemic snails”
“Shit woah shit woah shit woah!!!”
“So, uh, this is the one time where I can’t guarantee your safety”

Cheers to everyone who came along and helped to make it such an amazing trip.

Quito, Ecuador

Posted at 8:00 pm, May 23rd, 2003

Greg and Thalia joined us for breakfast this morning, and it was nice to be able to say goodbye to them before leaving. Greg is planning on doing another 11-day trip next May that will have basically the same itinerary. I’m seriously considering coming back for that trip, and if anyone reading this journal is interested in coming along let me know and I can forward details. This morning, while riding in the back of a pickup from Puerto Ayora to the Baltra crossing, Aaron and I were singing every eighties rock song we could think of as the scenery sped by. After arriving in Quito we ended up at a really tasty Indian place, and Aaron changed things around a bit by telling vomit stories instead of the usual pants-crapping tales. The next table over from us got eerily quiet as his stories went on — I’m not sure whether they were amused or disgusted, but Aaron didn’t seem to care either way.

On the plane ride to Quito I was giving some thought as to why Galapagos appeals to me, and I believe that it’s because it is a place where the earth feels like it has remained as it is supposed to be — I get that sense in Alaska and portions of the American West as well, but it’s an increasingly rare thing in this world. The opportunity to see animals living like they have been for thousands of years in an environment that hasn’t been disturbed is an experience that for me justifies life itself, and serves as a means of renewal. Aldo Leopold summed it up perfectly when he said that even if such refuges are never visited, we need to know that they exist and will be there when needed.

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

Posted at 5:45 pm, May 22nd, 2003

Last full day in the islands, and it’s been a good one. Scuba diving at Gordon Rocks was the best yet — the cold and the currents made it a challenge, but several hammerhead sharks, a scorpion fish, huge schools of other fish, and the usual cast of sea turtles and sea lions made it a memorable one. Unlike Southeast Asia the diving here is in deep water surrounding volcanic formations, and it’s a really neat experience to be following a honeycombed wall that drops for several hundred feet while the silhouettes of hammerhead sharks pass by above. I very nearly froze to death on the first dive — I was still shaking when we started the second dive ninety minutes later, but the sea life and underwater scenery definitely made it worthwhile.

Aaron was able to contain the “crap your pants” stories when we got back, so the late lunch was fairly uneventful. I made a quick trip over to the research station to visit the tortoises in the afternoon, but unlike our visit with Greg the large tour boats had stopped by with their legions of senior citizens — during the trip Greg made the comment that it’s a shame so many people wait to come to a place like this one until they’re retired, and as a result they aren’t able to enjoy everything that is here. A one mile hike might have killed some of the folks I was seeing today, much less the 5:30 AM to 9:00 PM regimen that we experienced with Greg. I’m glad that I was able to take advantage of the credit card company’s generosity and do my two trips here while I was still young.

Paul and I spent a bit of time looking back at the trip after the dives today, and it’s been one of those rare times when every day offers something we’ll remember forever — day one with the sea lions, day two with the huge rookery and the beautiful Elaine (who if she ever reads this journal should know that I’m single and willing to travel to any remote island you happen to be working on), the ultimate high of snorkeling with orcas on day three, and the list goes on and on. Trips like this one make me feel that my life in the “normal” world probably won’t last much longer.

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

Posted at 8:40 pm, May 21st, 2003

I think after all of the great snorkeling on this trip our expectations might have been a bit too high for scuba diving, so after yesterday’s dive the expectations were lower and as a result today’s dives were really good ones. We dove at a rock called Cousins and saw a bunch of cool little things like seahorses and christmas tree worms before crossing a ridge and running into sea turtles, rays, and several large schools of fish, including a school of barracuda. Skip also provided a highlight as he was still trying to master the BCD and would drop deeply before shooting up towards the surface — I just about choked when I started laughing underwater watching him. In addition, I got a call from nature on the second dive and discovered that unlike a short wet suit, the long wet suits will trap water. Definitely an important thing to note in the future.

After returning we were quietly hanging out in a restaurant when Aaron decided it was time to tell “crap your pants” stories. From now on any time I hear someone tell a story that contains the line “Oh my, that was a surprise” I won’t be able to keep a straight face — Trey practically lost it on one story, and all of us were howling with laughter before we left.