living proof

i'm rowing in the essex river race tomorrow with my dad. we're rowing in a 29 foot alden double. check out the site if you wanna take a look. i'll have another post with maps and photos and such.

Essex River Race

i've been training for it for the past two weeks. just 20 minute ergs, but i've got myself in decent shape. i guess i've been kinda busy, so the blogging front has been kinda quiet.

but at least now i am hopefully going to be able to finish the race. it's going to take 40-55 minutes. i hope that we finish under 50. granted, we're two pretty big guys, and the conditions are going to be windy, but i'm optimistic. we're tough cookies, and i hope that we row fast.

i really love rowing and being on the water. i think i'm part fish. or no, maybe part duck, because ducks mostly hang out above the water. i don't think that i'm part water buffalo. i don't wanna be part insect either, so i'll stick with duck. or maybe swan.

sunday is eastern sprints in worcester, the rowing championships for eastern colleges. i'll be going to that with my family too, should be fun. ok i gtg, ttys. peace

celtics won last night. they play again sunday. i'm more amped than you can tell. (thanks for the photo jeff)

the real deal

hi everyone how are you. i've just been posting random quotes for a couple days, so i thought maybe i could actually write something for once.

well, i had a cool weekend. friday night i watched bruins at my place with friends (god it's awesome when people come over to your place). bruins lost. instead of watching the whole celtics game i just watched the first quarter then pretty much assumed that the celtics would lose, which they did.

we went out, went to the model cafe, played a lot of buck hunter, galaga, and ms pacman. drank beers, danced, had a good time. went to sleep at 2am, naturally.

got up at 7am saturday morning and went to community rowing boathouse. with the help of my dad, i arranged us to borrow a boat to go rowing with some older dartmouth guys, including ted murphy, who went to belmont hill and dartmouth, won a gold medal at sprints, and is an olympic silver medalist.

i got to row in a 4 behind him for 6 miles, then switched out. the guys rowed 15 miles, from cri to museum of science and back. oh yeah and it was pouring for a lot of the way. and thunder and lighting towards the end. and we had to stop at cambridge boat club because we were worried about running out of gas.

so, pretty epic row. quite an adventure. everyone's hands got messed up pretty bad and people had blisters due to the plastic handles and rain, but everyone was in good spirits (including us soaked in the launch), and i made some people happy, so that felt good.

saturday i thought i might take a nap, but instead i drank a diet coke and stayed up all day while miserably tired. however, i did manage to watch some movies. i watched fantastic mr fox and defendor. defendor was ok (woody harrelson is obvi really good, and i'd rather watch that then some of these superhero movies), but fantastic mr fox was incrrrrrrrrrredible.

i really liked it. meryl streep, george clooney, bill murray, jason schwartzman doing voices. so cool! my favorite character was kylie, the little opossum dude. he was so cute! anyway i thought that movie was awesome, wes anderson is a legend, animation was terrific. good times.

i started watching terminator salvation last night too.

ok i gtg, i'll try to get some links up. am i doing a decent job blogging? i hope so.

peace

i need to stop pulling random photos from facebook. i'll work on it.

Mambo

"What is my perfect crime? I break into Tiffany’s at midnight. Do I go for the vault? No, I go for the chandelier, it’s priceless. As I’m taking it down, a woman catches me. She tells me to stop. It’s her father’s business; she’s Tiffany. I say no. We make love all night. In the morning the cops come, and I escape in one of their uniforms. I tell her to meet me in Mexico, but I go to Canada – I don’t trust her. Besides, I like the cold. Thirty years later, I get a postcard: I have a son, and he’s the chief of police. This is where the story gets interesting. I tell Tiffany to meet me in Paris, by the Trocadéro. She’s been waiting for me all these years, she’s never taken another lover. I don’t care. I don’t show up. I go to Berlin. That’s where I stashed the chandelier."

from the ladies in green series

Steam locomotive

Closing Words (Margaret Williams Braxton)

Once upon a time I was
Now I am
Some day I will become

Once there was
And now there is
Soon there will be
And some day there surely shall be

Once upon a time we were
Now we are
And some day (Hallelujah!) we shall surely become

Amen
Amen

it's 11:11, make a wish

hi folks. how are ya. do you make wishes when you see that the clock reads 11:11? i think i started doing it in middle school. not sure i ever stopped.

i'm trying to stay prolific here, and keep on posting, even if they aren't epic posts. i'm not doing a good job of posting links, but i'll try to be better.

another absolutely gorgeous day here, but looks like it's gonna cool down next week.

this weekend was mayfair in cambridge, which was fun. i went with ben and chris. we listened to djs and bands, and played a lot of hacky sack. i gave away bens hack to a kid like an idiot, but then we went and bought two more hacks and taught kids how to play. spreading the gospel!

it was really nice out, really hot. we got some street food. indian food, and then ribs from Big Moe's M & M Ribs of Boston. really good ribs too. i love street food. i only really get it during festivals in cambridge, but i'll take it.

i'm currently training for the essex river race on may 15th. gotta get myself in shape. i'll write more about it and blog about it soon. later

photo of some hills. scenery. nice. except for the power lines.

untreated pond water

not to gross you out or anything, but there was a gigantic water main break (10 foot pipe) that busted out in weston, ma on saturday. one official said that the emergency water supplies that had to be activated more or less contained some "untreated pond water". thanks guy. keep that quote to yourself next time.

so yeah, as of saturday us here in greater boston (minus cambridge and burlington), have been having to boil our water to drink and brush our teeth. this water comes from the quabbin reservoir, and it's delicious all the time, but now it is not!

i got more to write about but i'll leave it at that for now, later.

oh yeah apparently at one point some dude wanted boston to secede from massachusetts and become the 49th state. it didn't happen. but here's a photo of how it would look.

oh oh oh oh oh

folks, what's happenin. man pretty wack that i posted on monday and then took the week off. what the heck was i doing with myself all week? moving on.

celtics are in the second round of the playoffs, bruins are in the second round of the playoffs. kentucky derby is tmrw. dartmouth is racing wisconsin and mit tmrw morning. it's going to be a long, long day of watching sports. i'm amped.

beautiful day outside today, just gorgeous. i can't wait to do some hiking or camping or kayaking this summer. i don't think i'm gonna get a new boat, which is a shame, but it's alright.

i've got some links for ya, but i'll hold off for now. i just wanted to get my blogging momentum up again. i'll be in touch.

-splat

here are some photos of boston. sunsets are good.

ps i had to turn on the security feature for posting comments, so you have to write those stupid little messed up words before you comment. i had to do this because i was sick of getting spam comments. cool.

slicka picka uppa

hey folks how's it going. not a bad day out eh? let's hope the rain holds off.

i just had a very fun and satisfying weekend. i realize i havent posted since thursday, but i swear ive been busy since then and just cramming a lot in.

it's going to sound like kind of a march if i just go over everything, but i'll try to throw some images and links in there. ok here we go:

friday -- watched celtics with jeff and chris b. the celtics won at the buzzer on a paul pierce shot. i swear, chris b and jeff are good luck for watching celtics games with. that's the 2nd memorable buzzer beater ive seen with chris b. so that was a lot of fun. chris b crashed at my place, and i went to bed at a decent time. jeff brought me over one of those relaxation drinks which totally made me pass out. so that finally kinda fixed the jetlag.

saturday -- said bye to chris, went to arams in cushing sq with kane. it's this cool little armenian breakfast place. my previous two times there i had been there with someone who was armenian, but not this time. food was still good tho. i got eggs benedict. we walked there and back. pretty fun.

i then went and saw pelada with jeff and people. here's the imdb link, it was a good movie, a documentary about pickup soccer being played internationally. recommended.

Pelada (2010)



sweet! one of the directors was there and answered questions afterwards. my favorite part in the movie was when they went inside the san pedro prison in bolivia. its kind of an infamous prison where inmates live with their families, and the inmates kind of rule the place instead of the guards.

after that, we went to orleans in davis sq for lunch. these movies were part of the boston indie film festival. here's the link with the actual correct name:

Independent Film Festival Boston 2010 : April 21 - 28

hey, it's still going on! some good movies tonight and tmrw. ok well there ya go.

so after lunch we walked over to kickass cupcakes (was it a good idea naming it that? do parents not bring their kids there because of the name? i wonder).

at kickass cupcakes, we were in for a surprise. inside the tiny bakery was a full film crew filming for an upcoming food network show called "kid in a candy store" hosted by adam gertler. we met him, he was super nice, and he asked us if we wanted to be interviewed on camera because we were from boston. i let my brother do the interviewing and i did the cupcake eating.

it was so cool! we signed release forms. the show will air this summer. apparently that was their only stop in boston, so it was massively fortuitous. i hope that that's a sufficient explanation of the story.

oh yeah then on the way back to the car i bumped into a friend. i had also bumped into someone in line for the movie, then bumped into someone in the checkout line of a store later. that added to the awesome weekend, i love bumping into people.

i then went home and three groups of people came over in succession, which was cool. i then had to go back out to see a movie with rob. we saw life during wartime. imdb link here -- Life During Wartime (2009).

it was a weird todd solondz movie. he's one of my fav directors. it was a good movie. it was like a sequel to Happiness (1998), which i wasn't super familiar with, but i still enjoyed the flick.

but here's the best part -- he was actually there! not only that, he introduced the film (i cheered my head off. he was flattered by the warm reception and remarked that the festival was 'so hip'). todd then did a q&a session after the movie. he was terrific and did a great job answering questions, and people asked some really good questions.

i even got to ask him a question! i asked him "how is florida different from new jersey?". this was in reference to the setting of his films. he gave me a great answer, explaining that felt that florida was a clean, fresh place where you could start anew.

here's a photo of todd at some festival in the middle, and here's the movie poster.




so that was awesome. i had zero idea he was going to be there, and it was a total surprise.

then i ate homemade onion rings at robs, went home, and called it a night.

sunday -- slept in, watched the celtics lose with kane. lame.

went grocery shopping at three grocery stores and took care of a couple other things, then made fish/shrimp tacos and guacamole with a couple friends. here's the recipe for the tacos.

Fish Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Crema Recipe - MyRecipes.com

and here's the recipe for the guac -- Perfect Guacamole Recipe : Food Network Kitchens : Food Network

deeeelicious. and that's mostly it. phew what a post. i'll talk to you soon. many hugs, Dave

here's a screenshot of an ad i saw on nytimes.com today. something about investing in kazakhstan. very nice! great success! borat borat borat.

but seriously, kazakhstan is a huge country, maybe it is a good place to invest in.

you care about this

pretty cool! look at all these folk waterskiing in tasmania! they got 114 people on at the same time.

my favorite line from the video -- "hang on you buggers!"

i liked this video because everyone was so pumped and smiling afterwards

also, i'm kind of conflicted -- i don't like blogs with a ton of youtubes on them. i've been trying to selectively post video. is that cool?

ok i'll keep on writing, having a good time over here, decent weather out.

i've gotta keep on making new paragraphs so that the video doesn't break my silly ray kurzweil feed.

break.

break.

k that's better.

later yall

Water ski record is smashed | The Sun |News

the land of fire and ice

check out this incredible video of the volcanic explosion in iceland

Close Encounter with the Iceland Volcano

That boy has a funny way of looking

i am so obsessed with the blow. or BLOW. or whatever the band is called. how about just "The Blow". she's so amazing. sometimes depressing, but so catchy and smart and good.

and by she i mean Khaela Maricich. i'm actually just now listening to her first album under the name of "Get the Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano" and her album "Look for It in the Sky It Will Always Be There", which i'm digging!

ok here's a weird article -- 10 Weirdest Urban Ecosystems On Earth. some of them are pretty gross, but theyre pretty wild. not sure i'd wanna visit them all, but they're at least cool to imagine.

i'm still kinda jetlagged and a little loopy so i may not be making total sense and i may be a little space cadety and all over the place than normally, but that goes with the territory.

ok i've been feelin bloggin so you'll be seeing more, later.

gardening?

Boston-born

Rest in Peace Guru from Gangstarr -- Keith Elam (July 17, 1966 – April 19, 2010)

Guru, RIP: Our four favorite songs | EW.com

all of these emotions are pouring out of me

to quote kid cudi...

i was able to watch the boston marathon today, albeit online. that guy from kenya ran the fastest marathon ever! pretty incredible. also the 3rd closest finish for the women in history! wow what a great marathon.

i watched this movie called burma vj this weekend, actually on the flight home. it was intense. burma is such a bummer. my goodness. i'm going to avoid talking about anything political here, but if you're familiar with the situation, you know how much of a bummer it is.

there's a really good book called "finding george orwell in burma" that i may have mentioned on here. i want to revisit it now after seeing that movie.

here's a photo. i could link to the article that i found it from, it's a time.com one, but i'm gonna let you find it yourself. there have been some recent goings on in burma that you can read about it if you really feel like.

but be careful, big brother is watching.

good night, extended

hey, buenas noches. i'm adjusting back to the east coast schedule. i'm somewhere under 3 hours behind right now, getting there.

had a good day, went to an armenian market and pemberton market where i got a couple plants, just houseplants, i potted those and watered them and theyre in windowsills.

only watched a little bball cause i watched a bunch of bball yesterday. i did watch the movie bronson tho. pretty crazy! kind of a nutty story. guy's still alive too.

side note -- boston independent film festival is this weekend. i'll have more on that as the day approaches.

yesterday i got up at like 7 30 to go watch rowing. it was cold and windy and rainy. just so nasty out. we watched one race from the bank and then two from the car, driving alongside on memorial drive, watching the whole 2000 meters. except during the princeton harvard race, princeton lost their rudder and collided with harvards stern, losing part of their bow in the progress.

i actually saw the whole thing from the car -- princeton stopped rowing, and then i saw the coxswain hold up a big white piece of fiberglass. tough break.

then we went to victors diner in watertown (watertown is a great place for diners in case you didnt know). i ate a huge veggie omelette and a bunch of home fries, then i went home and went back to sleep til 2am. still getting over the messed up sleep schedule.

need to sign off, but just wanted to show you some tule elk. here ya go. see those little guys? click on the photo and then zoom in. here are some other point reyes photos too. i'll post some more.

leave taking

well, the day has come, and here i am, in the san francisco international airport, waiting for my flight to logan, which leaves in an hour.

it's not often that i dearly wish to stay in some place away from home, to not let the stay end, to drag out a trip.

this time, i was warned that this would be the case. i didn't really believe it at first, but here i am, with kind of a pit in my stomach that i have to go home.

but you know why? it's not because i'm dreading anything back home. i just had such a good week! really, i swear that's all it is. i had such good company, such good treatment, saw three old friends, saw tons of stuff.

so, i just wanted to come clear. i'll miss northern california, but i'm ready to face the music. though it may be cold and rainy in boston, friends are there, and that's the draw.

i'm not down with the weather here. i mean, maybe i am, but especially in san francisco it like never really gets super warm. i like it when it gets super warm! cause in the evenings it cools down a little and it's perfect.

so first things first -- yesterday i went to the lighthouse at point reyes. lemme give you a couple links --

Point Reyes National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service)

Point Reyes National Seashore - Lighthouse History at Point Reyes (U.S. National Park Service)

this was one of the most incredible things i've ever seen. we had to drive like 21 miles from the visitor center all the way out to the tip, here's a map for reference.



i took some decent photos too that i'll post. so all i really wanted to see was "point reyes". i didn't really know what meant, but it had been recommended to me, and i pretty much based this whole trip around other peoples recommendations (which worked out very well).

so we finally arrive at the visitor center after driving through state parks and up and down 8 million hills. there's a sign that says "LIGHTHOUSE < 21 MI". and i think "crap, it just took forever to get over here, now wherever we end up going it's going to take a long time.

well, we continued on sir francis drake blvd. it went on forever and ever. we drove through miles of cow pasture (get this -- the restaurant we went to that night was serving grass feed beef from point reyes, ca.)

finally after 15 miles or so (and mind you this is slow going along winding roads, getting stuck behind slower people) we arrived at some signs that said beaches. i kind of suggested that we just go to a beach because i felt bad for dragging us all the way out there. but it was ok, i was the passenger, and we ventured on.

we went hill over hill, ridge over ridge, past farms and ranches. the views were already extraordinary. tide pools and hills and peaks and cliffs. finally finally finally, we arrived at a parking lot. if you look at the map, we were at the extreme western tip of the red line that extends to the southwestern tip of point reyes. it had taken forever to get out there, but it was worth it.



i want to say it was life changing, but i think that this trip was just mostly life changing, in that ive gained some new perspectives, which were sorely needed. i think i was stuck in a little rut, and i'm in a better place now.

the lighthouse was unforgettable. we saw some wildlife, some groups of tule elk. i'll post some stuff about the tule elk, they were pretty cool.

well, i had to tell you about it. i'm still kind of floating from the whole experience, it was that memorable.

ok i'll talk to you soon, thanks, D

a couple photos, more to come. i saw these exact same views, just in the middle of the day --

two more days

and then im outta hurrrr.

i forgot to bring my camera

or, rather, i've so far forgotten to bring my camera both times that i've visited old friends here in san francisco. doh!

well, that doesnt mean that i didn't see them. there's just no electronic evidence of the fact. no, i didn't take an iphone photo or a blackberry photo or a droid photo, which i could have to try to save the day. i just left my stupid camera at the hotel. actually, now that i think about it, i should probably just take it out of the backpack and take a photo of the wall or something just to remind myself that i have it. oh well.

soooo i'm staying in japantown here in beautiful san fran. (full disclaimer -- it rained yesterday. and will rain again today. this hasn't had a negative impact on planning, but it has made for some challenging walking. also, i left the auxiliary umbrella at the bar last night. shucks).

we happened to show up during the first day of the first weekend of the cherry blossom festival. effectively, that meant that we couldn't park our car in the lot and had to drive around for a while before i called the hotel and they told us how to bushwack our way to their front entrance.

unclear on the concept? learn yourself -- Welcome to Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Website

so the first day there were a ton of people and street vendors and tents and dancing women with fans, but then on the second day it rained and everything got moved inside. good times tho, this hotel is awesome and the neighborhood is nice.

i've been making the rounds of the neighborhoods too. let's see, so far i've seen the richmond district, the mission, noe valley, soma, and the tenderloin. i'll go into details later. i gotta bounce tho, but i'll be in touch. peace!

i found this photo from like bodega or karmaloop or something. good stuff. i wanna say that i know where it came from, but i pulled it forever ago. anyway, enjoy.

takin off

folks -- im gettin on a plane in 3 hours. not sure when i'm gonna post next.

believe it or not, i think the weather here is actually going to be a little nicer than the weather in san fran. oh well, can't win em all.

still im pumped for the trip and looking forward to relaxing.

i'll be in touch.

thanks, D

hip, fun, or free

folks, what is up. it's a beautiful day outside. a good day for caneoing say, or hiking, or kayaking, or sailing. however, i am doing none of these things. if you are, i salute you.

yesterday it was like 800 degrees. mad hot. all sorts of hot. we had a cookout for my roommates bday. it was awesome! drinkin beers outside, joking around in the kitchen inside. cooked up ribs, chicken, eggplant, pineapple, peppers, onions, even a couple tomatoes! delicious stuff. grilling rules.

boston college has a new basketball coach. you probably dont care about this as much as i do. dude came from cornell. i wish him the best. let's go eagles. (bc also plays in the frozen four tonight but im not really into hockey but good luck guys!)

so i wanna go sailing. bad. it was recommended today that i check out community boating instead of acquiring a used boat. serious dilemma. dilemma city over here. i wanna go to community boating but i also want a boat. what will happen?? time will tell.

im going on a trip in two days. im going to san francisco. ill be in the city for four nights, then in mill valley for two nights. im excited to say the least. i hope everything works out. i think it will. woohoo!

march showers bring april

hey everyone. jeez pretty bad that i haven't posted since wednesday. ok lemme see if i can get some momentum here we go.

first, a pretty cool link -- The 19 most complex and dangerous roads in the world | By the Waze. it's all these really terrifying drives. yikes.

if you've heard the jay-z long a lot then you may find this entertaining. even if you haven't, i hope you still find it entertaining



ok well let's see, right now it's sunday, what's happened since wednesday?

well, i fought off a cold last week, so i was a little under the weather over the past week, but doing better now.

yesterday i went and watched dartmouth race holy cross on lake quinsigamond in worcester. dartmouth swept, and one of the races was really close. i dont think the results are up on row2k.com yet for whatever reason, but there was a headwind, decent conditions, though probably rougher closer to the finish.

it was fun watching and i cheered really loud and wore my dartmouth tshirt. for the last varsity race i followed in my car along the racecourse. i happened to be driving behind the dartmouth crew truck flashing its hazards (i turned on mine too). pretty cool to watch a race like that.

oh yeah and i watched the boat race too. that's the oxford cambridge boat race. what a race this year! thriller from start to finish, and a come from behind victory by the light blues as cambridge won by a couple lengths of open water.

the winklevoss twins were in the oxford boat. the bbc had an interview with them before the race that was pretty funny. you know who those dudes are right? i actually beat them the summer after my freshman year (not sure if ive mentioned that or not), but they were olympians in 2008, so i cant really talk.

i had a cookout yesterday that was pretty epic. lotta folks showed up and we had a good time. im dealin with the traces of hangover but feelin ok. gotta drink a bunch of water and go to sleep.

ok yall happy easter talk to you soon

-Dave