A day in the land of Nerd.

I flew down to San Diego and headed to the convention center to partake in some comic book geekdom.  I had a free Southwest flight was going to expire... today actually, so I felt the need.  The need for comics.  That doesn't rhyme, I know.  But you know what, I don't care.  Ha.

And as much as I thought I'd "grown" out of comics.  I haven't.  I LOVE pop culture.

Walking around and seeing thousands of people dressed as comic, TV and movie characters, I'm thoroughly entertained.  Seeing Thing push his way through the crowd, or hordes of Final Fantasy characters with oversized swords working their way through the crowds, or drooling at the Naughty Nurses, Vampirellas, Black Cats ... ...  ....

....

...wait what?  I'm sorry I just got stuck in that flashback.  What?

What I love too, is checking out the small artist booths.  You get to see so many styles from people who are just trying to make a name for themselves.  It's so cool.  I bought like 5 prints from these sections for pretty low prices.  Shit, buy a frame hang it up, looks frickin cool to me.  And it helps out an up-and-comer.  Actually I did buy one mainstream print of Shi, by Billy Tucci.  It just looked hella cool.

They hand out so much free shit too.  Stuff that I was totally excited to get at the time but now I'm looking at it wondering what in the hell I'm going to do with it...

Am I really going to wear a Spike TV shirt promoting "Sream Awards"?  I don't even know what the "Scream Awards" are!  But hell's yeah, I totally kicked Wolverine in the nuts to get one.

Anyhow, it was cool.  Alot cooler than I thought it would be considering I've "grown" so much... who am I kidding, I'll be 12 for the rest of my life, laughing at crude South Park jokes, watching cheesy horror shows, and drooling at Naughty Nurses.  God bless America.

Four coworkers talk about wanting to go on road trip, and decide to stop talking and actually go on one.  Sounds like a pitch for a TV show or an indie movie but that's basically how it unfolded.  Our plan was to rent a car in Sacramento, drive as much as possible in 5 days, then fly back home.  Of course we needed to plan for leisure time and not just rush through the country burning gas for no real reason.  We decided as a group that we all wanted to see Yellowstone, the Four Corners and hopefully see as much as possible inbetween.  Our final destination was Las Vegas.

After immediately after the workday ended on Wednesday, we drove towards Nevada planning to drive through an all-nighter taking shifts for sleep.  This night I would like to call Hell.  I actually drove by some fires in the hills of Nevada.  The mountains were glowing red, and at one stretch of the highway I could actually see the flames lapping the hillsides.  I was in Hell, the only option:  Keep driving forward.

When dawn broke in Idaho, I felt a real sense of accomplishment.  My own private Idaho.

Driving through Yellowstone, I didn't take many pictures.  But for the most part this is what Wyoming looks like.

When we hit Colorado the geography changed for the better.

We stopped by Telluride, which I would seriously like to explore in more detail next time.  I want to check out the Bridal Veil Falls too, which we didn't get to do.

Four Corners was hot!  So hot... Like why-don't-the-souvenir-shops-have-misters hot???

On our way to Vegas, driving through Arizona.

Dusk in Utah.

So I got to go to The District of Columbia on a business trip to attend a national conference to "Save the MAA", which basically means it's a grassroots nationwide effort to save school-based Medicaid billing.  The company I work for has the utmost interest in this, so they sent two of us out to make an appearance and observe.

Who gives a shit about that, right?  Right.  I got to go fucking D.C.

Dig it!

D.C. is a fuckin' hoot!  Like most of the North-Eastern cities I've visited, public transportation is easily accessible, cheap, and in most cases the easiest way to get around (great for a traveler like me) and the cities are vibrant.  It makes me realize that even our downtown area is a suburb... we are not a city, this is SacTOWN.

The first day there we didn't get to see much, but quickly found out (although I was a little slow on the uptake) that our hotel was in the middle of the Lavender District.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  It was a nice hotel and the restuarants and night life were plentiful.

The second day we had to be at a Meet-and-greet at around 5PM, so that left most of the day to sight-see. 

The White House - We could get closer to the back of the House, but here she be, the front of The White House and a beautiful yard.

We went to the National Archives where they keep the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and they had these statues with these deep messages on them.  "What is past is prologue", wow... history is just the story leading up to this moment... It's cool to think that even if some of our politicians are corrupt (or most, depending on your personal views) that occasionally nuggets of idealism and hope plop out of all the political partisan persuasion.  Fuck you, it's a nice thing to think.  :)  And I will continue to think it!

This is a fountain at the base of the of Libray of Congress.  Check out the woman in front.  Damn!  She's havin' a good ole time!  Getting splashed by water and ridin' her... her... her horse-uhh... mermaid?  MerHorse...  What the fuck is that thing???  No seriously, what is she riding?

The Washington Monument

My "creative" shot of the Washington Monument.  As you can see from the earlier picture there's not a goddamn tree by the monument, but I found one.  And I wanted add some creative photographic liberty to this photo...

Good ole Abe, what a President!

This is from the Lincoln Memorial.  I wanted to show the symetry in the Capitol Mall, but it wasn't possible to get the Capitol (which is waaaaay off in the distance...) into the shot without being a little off symetry.  I like this picture though.

I want to see the world and know all possible definitions of the word "beauty".

I want to live forever, but I have a few stipulations to consider first.

I want to face my deepest fears and avoid all regret.

I want to never go bald.

I want to believe in an afterlife where loved ones await and where neither disease nor time will ever rob me of my fondest memories.

I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I want to share with you a story so profound that you will remember it forever.

I want a castle.  Complete with trap doors, booby-traps and secret passages.

I want to travel through time in the blink of a thought.

I want to leap to safety, like an action hero running from an exploding building, then run towards a camera and say something cheesy like "Thanks for the invite... It was a blast."

I want to kick a mime in the balls to see if he makes a sound.

I want my garden to always grow.

I want to never grow old.

I want to one day accept the fact that I will.

I want to make you laugh... if only for a second.

I want to know all of the knowledge in all of the books ever printed, then promptly forget it all, because learning is fun.

I want to be one with the ocean, though I know I already am.

I want to live a life less ordinary.

I want to move objects with my mind and not rely on my hands to be the middle-man for this transaction.

I want to make "sense" 50% of the time and make "non-sense" the other 70.

I want a grannysmith apple, an orange, a swivel chair, a rubberband and a banjo.  Do not ask why.

I want to never fail to amuse myself, because myself and I are going to be together for a very long time.  Might as well keep things interesting.

I went by the bank earlier to cash in a bunch of coins.  I always dump all of my loose change into an emerald vase in my bedroom, and when it gets full I run it by the bank to drop them in the coin count machine (it's cheaper than Coinstar - in fact it's free - and it gets deposited directly into my savings... score! for a rainy day).

My tank was on empty, but I was just off Watt and I-80 and thought I could totally make it to Northgate (the next stop in the day's errands) and I could fill up there, so I hopped on the freeway.  On I-80 my truck shut down.  I start thinking about my options and decide calling somebody to help was out of the question, since I was feeling like the total ass for pressing my luck this far.  Why drag somebody else into my bad luck?

And while I'm thinking, my truck continues to coast at a pretty good velocity, so I pull into the hazzard lane and coast.  I kept coasting (uphill, mind you) towards Norwood.  Frickin' sweet, and I'm thinking to myself... okay so I won't have to walk THAT far.  Then I get over the hill, and begin to coast down onto the Norwood offramp.  There was a gravel shoulder that I could have pulled off onto, and it would have been the safest place to stop, and for a split second I thought about it.  But then the bastard in me took over and I started thinking "rationally" again: "Fuck it!  I don't care if end up blocking the intersection, there's a slight chance I can still coast for a little bit more!  They can all drive around my haphazzard-ass!"  Like I say, I'm a bastard.  I really am.

So I went on coasting.

And as luck would have it (Lady Luck, I love you so), I ended up coasting (uphill again) off the offramp and onto Norwood.  Once I was on Norwood it was a downhill coast again, right into the Jack in the Crack parking lot, which was connected to AM/PM.

I ended up coasting into AM/PM, but got stuck on the second speed-bump.  Entirely on reflex, I hopped out (fueled by 50% shock-of-the-luck and 60% adrenaline) and pushed my truck up over the speed bump and next to an open tank.  Part of me was pissed off that at a station full of spectators NOT ONE PERSON ran to help (just what the hell are people hanging out a gas station for anyway though... or do I not want to know?).

But then one guy came up and helped by pushing on the side of my front end... just how that actually helped I don't know... it's best to push from the back if you want to move anything forward... but at least he tried.

Anyhow, I was stoked.  I went from 0-60 and then from 60-0 in a matter of minutes, but filled up quickly and effortlessly and back on my way in a just another set of a few of minutes.

Luck be a lady, but I be bastard.

Have a good day.  :)

Sistine Chapel, sixteenth of nothing
Nonsensical phrases to dilude all lucidity
Derive from this, the harbinger of your choice
For I am the beacon of unclear omens
Lessen the values of signals of suggestions
For the prophets are preachers of all fair frauds

I stole a high quality picture from Osh Hardware today.

I didn't mean to steal it, but went ahead and stole it anyway.

I was browsing around the store after finding all of the crap I needed to buy (two sprinklers and a pipe fitting to hook both of them up - around a $30 purchase).  Then I came across these framed pictures for only $19.95.  There was a New York one which looked kind of weak.  A Monet looking picture, but I got a thing against putting up flowery looking pictures... nuh-uh, nope, not gonna happen.  And then there was this one I really dug, and it was in a heavy-duty frame.  The type of frame you could buy for around 30-40 bucks all by it's lonesome, and this one had a nice print in it.  So I thought to myself "That shit is mine!".

So I throw it in my cart and head for the check-out.

The cashier just won't stop about how much she likes the picture.  She asks if there are any more and I regret to inform her that no, this was the last one.  And what she doesn't realize, but I do, is she has scanned into the register two sprinklers and a pipe fitting, but hasn't scanned the picture.  So I motion towards the picture as I often do with oversized items to help them reach the UPC, but I realize she's still not getting it.

And instead of saying, "Oh, I think you need to scan this", I instead say... "Yeah isn't that nice?  And only $20!", then lay it back down, and hope for the best.

Then she says something, but I'm too busy thinking should I, shouldn't I, goddam I am such a bastard to really focus on her words.  Then she looks like at me like I'm supposed to say something, realizes I wasn't going to, and then she says "That'll be $33.42".

I would like to say that the symbolic angel on my right shoulder put up a semi-decent fight against the devil on the left, but that angel didn't even bother showing up.  It knew what I was going to do well before I did.

I payed my $30, and walked right on out the front door with my free gift in cart.  I looked the picture up on AllPosters.com just for shits and giggles, and for a framed print from their site, it would run about $99.00.

Karma hasn't detached it from the wall yet and send it shattering down on the kitchen tiles.  But I'm waiting.

Days 11-12 were a bit too short

Day 11 I took a Peter Pan bus from New York, through New Jersey (Sopranos baby! Yeah!), and into Pittsburg around midday.  Peter Pan was affiliated with Greyhound, and I had the most horrible time buying a ticket in New York.  Someone had shit in line.  This is no metaphor, or euphamism.  No.  Not at all.  I mean, in the most literal sense, that someone physically and most intentially... SHIT in line.  This was no baby shit.  No child shit.  This was a serious San Andreas sized mess.  I wasn't there to witness this happen, but I was in a chain of people who passed by this Warhol art display who said verbatim, person by person, and quite loudly "Oh what the fuck is that???"  Although each of us knew EXACTLY what it was, yet nobody at Greyhound or Peter Pan, would do a Goddamn thing about it.  When I got to the counter I made small talk with the ticket salesman:

"So, you know someone took a fat shit in line back there?"

"What?  Really?"

Like he couldn't hear the line of people yelling and the clearly visible GAP in the line as people refused to stand within 3 feet of the modern art gallery.

"No!  Really.  Somebody took a massively fat shit right in the middle of the line.  So you don't know what happened?"

He didn't.  At least he said he didn't.  He said his shift had just started.  Oh fucking God man...

Anyhow, when I got to Philly, I made a mad bastard dash to see the Liberty Bell before it closed, since I had only 24 hours in the city, and no time to see it in the morning.

Later in the evening I walked around and all over were art displays, and youngsters/oldsters selling their art goods all over the place.  I checked out several collections/galleries, then found a pub on... I believe it was Washington St.  They played mostly Indie music, and had a DJ setting up for the night.  This was hella fun.  I met SO many people on this night it was a blast.  I hung out with a younger kid (I say younger kid... he must have been like 23... but I'm getting old... so fuck ya...) who was in love with our hot bartender.  She was cute... I also met a older fella (he really was older, I'd say in his 70's) talking about the 'good ole days'.  He also spoke of the hot girlies he used to pull as a Sailor.  Good times, indeed.  Then I met this HARD looking man, who I had noticed drank one wiskey with each beer.  He was a bit rough to talk to at first but ended up being pretty cool.  When I told him about my travels, he really opened up.  Then I met a couple who had actually just visited Sacramento, and talked about Old Sac and the Railroad museum.  I spent quite a bit of time drinking with them.  They told me about the East Coast, and I spoke of the West.  Good times!

It was really fun, and I wish I had planned for one more day in Philadelphia.  It was really friendly.  In Boston and Philly it seemed as though people were more sociable and open, while in New York people seemed to stick more to themselves.  This was only one trip, so I could be jumping the gun a bit but thats the way it seemed for most of my trip.

The Liberty Bell

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Days 8-11 are somewhat of blur.  And for no other reason than I was staying only half a block from the heart of Times Square in Manhattan.  I was on West 45th right off of 7th Ave.  Fucking awesome.

The first day, which was the 4th of July, I ended up right beside the Brooklyn Bridge looking out over the East River to see a New York style Independence Day, which was Goddamn amazing.  It was the most beautiful fireworks display I've ever seen.  There were these swan-lake-fairy looking fireworks that danced through the air.  They like jetted up, then looked like they were falling into the East River, but then jetted back up.  They did this like 4-5 times before burning out.  Just amazing.  And me being a total pyro, I was happier than a retarded cat staring at a ball of dancing string.

Then I went to see Lady Liberty and again I went all of stupid.  How fuckin' beautiful she really is!  And to actually see her reaching out... ohmygawd.  I've heard a thousand times of how she is a 'beacon of liberty', but it wasn't until I actually saw her standing erect, confident and holding her torch out did I REALLY understand what that meant.  She physically encompasses the underlying thesis of our country: Liberty and justice for ALL.  And it's not that we're going to readily provide it for the entire world, but it's more of a testament to the testing of the idea of this being possible.  Fucking beautiful man!  Fuck.

Anyhow, each day blurred into the next.  I shared a room with 3 other strangers, but rarely saw but one of them.  And this was due solely to the fact that the majority of my time in New York was spent walking the streets of Manhattan, taking a bus into Brooklyn, absorbing the view from the Empire State Building, walking around Rockafeller Center, checking out Central Park... dot... dot... dot...  There was so much shit...

... that I need to go back soon...

Where I stayed right off Broadway.

Welcome to Manhattan

Lady Liberty!

View from Empire State

Spider Man worked in this pizzaria!

This picture just trips me out man...

Law and Order, yo

King Kong's last view atop the Empire State

Days 4-8 could not have been more fun.

Day 4 started out rough, but became more challenging as the day went on.  Since the bus ride from Buffalo to Boston would have taken over 10 hours, I decided to fly to New Hampshire instead, and then look for a bus from there to Boston.  Aside from the flight, nothing had been arranged, and a part of the fun on this trip was trying to see how I could get from place to place.  And it worked out perfectly.  When I arrived in Manchester, New Hampshire (which has the most green landscape I have EVER seen) I found a Trailways bus that went directly to South Station, Boston for only about $11.  And it was NICE ride too.  The subways in Boston were a little slice of Hell, but what can you do?  It was muggy, hot, and it smelled like Gym class.  Mmm, I could almost taste the sweat.  Smells like teen spirt.  Oh, but the hostel itself was great!  And I stayed in a coed dorm, which definately made for a more friendly group of bunkmates than the Buffalo guys.

Day 5 I signed up for a "Free Harvard Tour" at the hostel.  Turned out the hostel didn't really have anything to do with the tour.  All they offered was a list of instructions on which bus to take and how to get to Harvard.  I was the tour group leader, which occured partly because I'm such an awesomely strapping young man, but mostly because nobody else would speak up when the hostel employees asked "So who wants to be in charge?".  I gave it a few seconds to see if there were any takers then realized nobody was gonna say anything... so I said "I'll do it."  There were four Brazilian ladies in the group and all I'm gonna say is I HAVE GOT TO GO TO BRAZIL!!!  South America here I come!  They were the mostly friendly girls ever.  Ever.  And beautiful.  They started razzin' me about the bus stop and what not too.  Good fun.  Brazil and France were set to play later in the day, so they were riled up for that too.  Unfortunately that didn't pan out so well for them.

I was amazed though at just how popular the FIFA World Cup was in Boston.  People would crowd around any restuarant/store with a TV for each game.  No shit.  The damn Radio Shack had a crowd pouring over the sidewalks and edging onto the streets.  And in Harvard Square most of the restuarants were windowless so you could get a clear view of the tele and such from anywhere on the sidewalk.

Day 6 I took a walk on "The Freedom Trail", which is around a 2-3 mile hike throughout the city and takes you through all of Boston historic sites.  There's actually a red line of bricks to mark the entire trail.  And where bricks just wouldn't work, it's painted red.  It went by the Boston Massacre, Fanuiel Hall (sp?), Paul Revere's house, and the North Church where his Midnight Ride started.  One if by land, two if by sea!  And since it was July 2nd, there were reenactments throughout the day too.  Didn't get to see the Boston Tea Party though, from what I understand the boat is out of commision until next year.

"Red coat" BASTARDS about to do some Boston Massacre'ing.

Boston looking in from the harbor.

The North Church, where lanterns were once used as beacons to minute men.

I also checked out Boston Common, the Boston Gardens, and "the original" Cheers right across the street.  It's a trip, in Boston Common, cause they have what looks like a big duck pond, but it's called The Frog Pond, which in the Winter becomes a big ice rink, but in the Summer it becomes a wading/splashing pool for kids, and the young at heart.  Right in the middle of the city.  Tall buildings all around, and right in the middle are bunch of people splashing around like they got no sense at all.  Pretty cool.

Day 7 I went over to Revere Beach to kick-it Atlantic style, then later that evening checked out Fenway Park, and the restuarants by it.  Too bad the Sox were out of town though, I really wanted to check out a game there, but I guess I'll plan for that next time.

I'm sure I'm not quite describing just how much I liked Boston though.  It was a really a fun city.  It's like what would happen if a bunch of college kids took over a city and made it their own.  ... actually I guess that is what happened...  CHUGCHUGCHUGCHUG!  Wooo!