What’s Going On?

Settlers of Catan is probably one of the best board games ever invented. It is a game that can last a long time and never get boring. Settlers of Catan is a 3-4 player game which can be expanded to 5-6 players by purchasing an additional expansion set. It was designed in Germany by Klaus Teuber and distributed by Mayfair Games in the United States. The game was introduced in 1995.

The basics of the game is to reach 10 points. There are various combinations of getting to that goal by collecting victory points from development cards (1pt ea.), building settlements (1pt ea.) and cities (2pts ea.), having the largest army card (2pts), and having the longest road card (2pts).

The game is based on collecting resource cards need to build such roads, settlements, cities, and purchasing development cards. To collect resource cards you have to roll the dice. Each resource on the game board has a particular number corresponding to that tile. When that number is rolled with two dice a person with a settlement or city built in one of the intersection of the resource tiles collects that particular resource. Exchanging of resources can be done with other players, with the bank or with harbors. Trading to the bank is always 4 cards of the same kind in exchange for any card that you would need to build. The harbors are different. If a person has a settlement built on one of the harbor points then it’s possible to trade 3 similar cards in exchange for one card that you would want,  and there’s other harbors where you can trade 2 cards of a particular resource for a resource of any one kind you would need to build.

I know all of this sounds complicated, but once you learn the rules and get started it becomes very addicting. Sometimes when you play the game gets really tense between your opponents and you just go nuts.

I played this game in some spare time that my friends and I had and boy was it a crazy game. Never in a long time have they and myself yelled and screamed over a simple little game. It was probably one of the best times that we’ve had in a while. This game is addicting and if you want to have hours and hours of fun and mayhem get a hold of it. If the basic set is not enough for you Mayfair has come up with some expansion sets that make the game a little more interesting. Two of the designed expansions that make the game much more interesting are Cities and Knights of Catan and Seafarers of Catan. Go and get yourself Settlers and have fun!

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt helpless? Well I’ve been there plenty of times and it’s not the best place to be in. I was at Safeway shopping for some drinks and I came out of the parking lot and I saw two people stranded with their car that wouldn’t start.

At first glance they seemed like they just finished shopping and a woman was just waiting for her husband to return the cart back into the cart return area. In a faint cry for help I heard, “Does anyone have AAA?” I wasn’t too sure if I heard correctly and even if I did hear that correctly I couldn’t help because my AAA insurance does not cover the AAA membership roadside assistance. As I finished putting the drinks into my trunk a man approached me and asked if I had jumper cables. I looked in my trunk and I realized that I did have them in my car.

This situation is ironic because about a year back I had a car battery that was dying and I too needed my car jumped. I had gotten the cables from my dad because I knew that my car would continue to die until I would replace battery. I eventually had the battery changed, but the cables stayed in the car. Despite cleaning out my trunk a couple of times, I didn’t know that the emergency kit that I once used in the trunk would come in handy so soon in a similar situation with my battery already replaced.

Anyhow, I brought over the cables to the couple’s car and attached the positives and the negatives from the dead battery to my battery. While I was in the process of jumping the car the woman suggested to her husband to pay me, but while over-hearing I said to myself, “are you serious?” I had the woman crank the engine and it was running again. As I was taking off the clamps the man hands me money, I looked at it with hesitation. A part of me wanted to take it because it was green and I haven’t gotten green for some time now, but nevertheless I had to fight myself. I declined the offering and I just told the couple to both have a good day. I’ve never seen two people go from desperation to emotions of joy and happiness in a period of ten minutes. This situation was probably one of the best moments of my life this year and it was the moment of a situation where I was a little help to someone in need.

If you see someone in need, pitch in and give a little help. It doesn’t hurt to take the time to make someone happy. All you need is a little push and in this case, jumper cables.

Ocean Beach is a beach along side the western coast of San Francisco. It has been for me a great place for rest, relaxation, reflection, and much much more. I’ve been going to the beach for as long as I can remember, but I noticed that I’ve frequented the beach as I get older. It’s something about the crashing waves that makes me at ease. The repetitive motion and sounds of the water is quite hypnotising. The hypnotising noise is so hypnotic that it draws me easily to fall asleep, block out all the other noise around, and just paves the way to meditate on life.

Ocean Beach has just about been always good to me. It’s a great place to park the car and people watch, to sit back and relax, to take a walk or even bring out the old bicycle and ride along the 4 mile or so stretch of road. Sunsets at the beach are just mind-boggling on a clear sunny day.

The times that Ocean Beach can be a bad place to visit are when the fog rolls in and salt water air is just thick, cold, and soaks your skin with a thin layer of salt. Other horrible times you don’t want to be at the beach are when windstorms reach the coast and sand is just blowing all over the place; getting pelted by sand in the face is no fun. Sandstorms are sometimes so strong that they fill the Great Highway full with sand that they have to close the road to traffic and have to use bulldozers to clean up the mess.

Recently, this year I’ve back to the ocean for a bonfire, to nap, a photo shoot, to eat, walk around, kite flying, watching water sports, and even to witness a friend’s baptism. Overall, the Ocean Beach may not be the most beautiful beach in San Francisco, but it is a great beach that is accessible by car, bus, bicycle, and foot. It is one that I can always go to whenever I’m wanting time alone. If you can’t find it while visiting San Francisco, just keep heading west and you can’t miss it.

This year, I had the privilege of listening to Groove8 once again for two performances. They came back to California, but with a name change. Formerly known as Audioform, Groove8 has been able to bring back funk and soul to the western United States. The group is mainly comprised of eight members from Charlotte, North Carolina and a couple from other areas on the east coast. Every year they come together to bring something special to the Fillmore Jazz Festival; this year it was a third CD in the three years that I’ve known them (they’ve been at the festival for 4 years).

After performing in front of the Marcus Bookstore (one the oldest independent Black bookstores in the U.S.) on Fillmore and Post Streets, Peter Fitzsimmons asked Groove8 if they  would perform at the Jazz Heritage Center and they accepted. The Jazz Heritage Center is located inside of the same building as Yoshi’s on the corner of Eddy and Fillmore Sts. The great thing about the Jazz Heritage Center is that they hold a vast amount of art work relating to that of the greatest jazz musicians that ever lived. Paintings of all sorts line the walls from ceiling to floor. I believe some of the art is available for sale along with other jazz items.

Groove8 set up their equipment in the main exhibit room where they captivated the audience there. Because of the size of the room and with hardwood floors, the acoustics were amazing. The sounds were similar to that if you were playing music in the shower. Imagine that. A live band blasting amazing music in your shower. It was that great.

Band members of Groove8 are as follows: Keith Whatley- Guitar / Tony McCullough- Alto Saxophone, Vox / Joe Smalls- Bass / Antonio Diaz- Percussion / Audi Jones- Drums / Joey Rayfield- Trombone / Travis Calvert- Tenor Saxophone / Johnathon Ayala- Keyboards / Mac McClain- Vox (added vocalist)

More information on Groove8 can be found on their website here at this link. Please keep local jazz alive and help purchase their latest CD and/or single tracks.

For more information about Marcus Bookstores click this link.

For more information about the Jazz Heritage Center click this link.

Today I decided to spend a day out in Pacifica. I first started out the day at Camelot Fish & Chips, a local pub that serves great food. The restaurant does wonders on fish and other seafood. I haven’t found one in San Francisco that was consistent and I’m glad I came to this spot because they know how to prepare a mean meal.

After my delicious meal, I drove around the small town of Pacifica and checked out a few local shops and found myself at a sea cliff. I spent some time here just smelling the fresh air and checking out the view for as long as the eye could see. While there I saw a man fly over head with paragliding and in the distance Pacifica Pier. Finished checking out the greenery, I decided to take a drive and find that pier.

When I got to Pacifica Pier I took a stroll along the concrete seawall and proceeded to the concrete pier. While on the pier I noticed that there was a high volume of men, women, and children fishing and crabbing off the side. Some had poles and some had nets. I came across a nice couple of folks while there. I conversed first with an elderly gentleman who brought out his kids to go fishing because he wanted to get the kids away from the television. We began to talk about the whole fishing season and what’s legal and illegal to catch. He then on informed me that fishing is totally free as long as you are on a public pier. I had no idea of that and I hope to bring back my old school fishing skill one day.

Later, I walked further and met up with Craig and Deborah. Craig was scaling his striped sea bass that he had caught off the pier at Crissy Field. He gutted up and filleted his fish. After taking all the pieces that he wanted, he had no need for the rest of the body and so instead of letting it go to waste, he gave the head to this elderly lady that so happened to have a plastic bag in her pocket and she was so happy. She went on to tell us that this was better than going to a casino because here she actually got something. Craig decided to give me the center body and I plan to use it to make some sort of porridge or soup with that in a few days.

Continuing on my journey to the end of the pier, I came in contact with two gentlemen who have been striking it rich with crab. Frankie and Russ told me that they got there at about 2:30pm and about every four minutes they had some crab action. Frankie went on to tell me that he made his own snares to capture crab and went into detail about how he used deer fencing to do so. As I was talking with him they kept reeling the lines in and each time they did they caught crab after crab. Some of them of were not of legal size so those had to be tossed back, but it was remarkable at how many there were able to catch. They caught a total of about 24 crabs which were a combination of red crab and dungeness crab. Russ while counting the crab towards the end of their evening decided to give two crabs and for that I am grateful. I had no idea he would be so generous, but I’m glad he did because once I got home I cooked those bad boys up. I couldn’t wait for myself to get any ingredients so I just decided to steam those suckers. And to end the whole day of my excursion after having fish and chips, I ended the night with some delicious crab to top off the day.

Lately, I’ve heard and noticed that cops have been cracking down on drivers who don’t complete full stops or yield to pedestrians at intersections. I don’t know about you, but I’ve starting to see a trend happening now. That trend is to wake drivers up and to let them know that they are not rulers of the road.

As I was having lunch with my friend, I noticed about seven motorcycle cops, probably even more stopping people for not yielding to pedestrians at 16th St. and Wisconsin St. I noticed also that there were a few down the block as well making sure cars completed full stops. I then later saw about six squad cars as well. I had no idea what was going, but my best guess was that they were either blitzing together or they wanted to get some message out to the public.

Currently the city of San Francisco is going through many budget cuts and financially I know that there are tons of cut backs. Now I’m wondering if more tickets are being issued to try and counterbalance the police department’s budget or what. It is not even the end of the month and I’m not sure if quotas are even being enforced at the moment. All I know now is that drivers need to be more cautious so that they don’t put themselves in a citation situation.

Drive Carefully!

Tonight, I had the privilege again to check out my friends comedy group called hoboFish improv and a group I haven’t seen before called Kamikaze Theory sketch comedy group.

The evening started off with dinner at Luna Park, which was pretty amazing. I had gone with a friend and the night was 50% off food night. I love discounts and when it’s on food even better. I had the red wine braised short ribs with braised greens on top of mashed potatoes all topped with scallions and the naturalau jus. My friend had the grilled salmon on top of a veggie medley along with a side of french fries. We both shared the ahi tuna poke on top of  wonton chips and the mac ‘n cheese with broccoli and ham. Every thing was delicious and filled my stomach for the show to come.

After dinner, We got to the Thick House where there was a small theater inside of this contemporary glass structure. Seating in the house was about 71 seats and the audience was packed. A friend of mine came late and did notpre purchase tickets so he ended up missing the show. I had a seat in the front row and probably just one of the best seats to have in the house. First up was hoboFish improv and as usual they were awesome. Word of the night pulled from the audience was “panda”. hoboFish had a few good liners with the panda jokes then throughout the bit it was mentioned sporadically to bring back the key word of the night. They had also some great jokes surrounding technological items and that pretty hilarious. I wish the show would go on forever, but all good things must come to an end. Bravo though.

The feature presentation group of the evening was the Kamikaze Theory sketch comedy group. They kicked things off with a creative, yet wacky song and dance. They introduced themselves that way and they even danced up the aisles of the theater with ribbons. Must say this group started things out right. It was laugh out loud. The laughter had just begun though. The theme of the night was about Unemployment and a couple of the sketches revolved around it. For example they had one about working in the office place and a honeymoon at home due to not being financially off. Some other sketches were based on someyouTube clips and they just had done parodies of them and it was pure genius. One sketch that was totally awesome was about being on Bart and that just brought me to tears, especially when a passenger was eating Doritos and had choked on it.hahaha oh man, the laughter just couldn’t stop. I highly recommend catching the Kamikaze Theory group if you haven’t seen them yet. Tonight’s show was just the first of I hope many to come in the future.

These last four days have been a series of ups and downs of emotion for me. I haven’t felt this way in a long time and to have something so emotional just inspired me to do something about it. Lately, I’ve just decided to blog about things that have been eventful, things that have impact on society or me, and things I can look back on to remember. However, these past couple of days have included all the aspects I just described.

Friday, I had a great time going to a group of friend’s housewarming party. It was a blast. The theme of the night was “Friday Night Lights.” I had worn a pair of jeans and a shirt that my friend got me from UT at Austin. I also had made my own eye black out of  two strips of athletic tape that I had colored in black with a Sharpie. Eye black is used by athletes to help reduce glare from the sun. I, however, did not have any on hand so I just made my own for free. I must say it was very efficient and practical because there was really no mess or clean up. I just pealed them off and had a clean face in a matter of seconds. The party that night was great, friends came over and had a good time having food and drink and participated in several party games.

On Saturday, I was happy to find out that my two friends from college both got hitched. I met them both in college at San Jose State and at the time they were dating. Who would have guessed that several years later that they would go on to get married? I had no idea, but nonetheless was very happy to see a union of two people .

Sunday was a great day. I visited San Francisco Bible Church, a church that I frequented when I was in my youth. It’s been a few months since I’ve been back to my home church, but nonetheless it was great to see their faces again and to be warmly welcomed. (Currently, I frequent Great Exchange Covenant Church in SF that meets at night which offers convenience for people that cannot wake up early on Sunday mornings). Several of my friends after service went out to eat for a great Chinese meal at a local restaurant that I used to frequent because of their really cheap eats. However, I guess over the last couple of years the restaurant remodeled and raised their prices. The dining crowd was non-existent, but the food was still good. I think that the owners should bring the prices back down to increase consumer traffic. Later that night my friend had a birthday party. I just couldn’t believe how much fun I was having. It was like college all over again. We had boxes of pizza, chips, and soda. Played some Scattegories, American Idol Encoure (karaoke) on the PS3, some game I can’t recall, and watched hippos attack each other on the Discovery Channel. After all that, friends decided to go bowl at Sea Bowl in Pacifica. I must say that bowling alley has come a long way from it’s earlier days. Remodeled to have a cool retro look the bowling alley brings in more bowlers.

After having a great weekend thus far, today was probably one of the saddest days that I’ve had in a long while. One of my friends that I’ve met through a small group from church passed away. Patrick was his name and he was loved by many. I attended his funeral and burial earlier today. Patrick lived a good life where he touched many people’s lives. He particularly touched my life in ways I can never forget. He was a good friend that truly understood me, he knew when I was in a funk and tried to talk things out. He also knew when I wanted to go out and have fun. He was a guy that had a weird sense of making people laugh, he had a way of making a lot of quirky faces. He was a guy that believed in my passion of photography, he liked my work so much that it inspires me to keep doing what I love doing. It is people like Patrick that make me want to capture people’s lives on camera. Making people happy is all I ever want to do in my life and for Pat he lived it out. He helped others placing their needs before his own personal needs. Truly he is an inspiration.  Honestly, I regret not spending a lot of time and getting to know him as much as I have wanted, but I know that he will have a long lasting impression on my life.

During the memorial service many friends and family came up to the front of the room to share about Patrick’s inspirations on their lives and about the life that he lived. In addition to the service, the burial ceremony was great. At the site a friend and Patrick’s father shared. His father illustrated what kind of guy Patrick was at heart. He said although Patrick seemed tough on the outside, at heart he was really a softy. He recalled a moment when Pat broke his collar bone and Pat asked his father to hold his hand while on a gurney headed towards the operating room. He illustrated this point because most Asian boys wouldn’t ask their father for their love, but Patrick did. On this day of mourning, his father held Patrick’s hands throughout the service at mortuary, it was only fair for him to hold Pat’s hands as Pat once asked him.

Following the services, I had a chance to eat at the reception with Pat’s father along with my two other friends. At the table, we went around explaining what our relation to Pat was. One expressed concern that his father expressed was that about the guest book because it only had the information of people’s names and address, but no information on the relation that Pat had with these people. I think by having this small, but very important detail would bring more closure to family and close friends of the type of people that one reaches out to throughout their lives. Although, today was a very sad one, it was also a great day to remember the life that Patrick lived. Why wait till someone passes before we can say so many good things about someone? Make every day count. Patrick will always be that inspiration and that person that I’d like to be. He will be missed.

On another happier note, today I bumped into two friends whom I haven’t seen in over 8 years that flew up from LA who was also at the cemetery paying respects to their loved ones. Today was also great because I found out that my two other friends are going to be having a baby boy in about 6-7 months. I told one of them that they should name their child Michael because I think that name is so cool.

Overall, this weekend had it’s extremes of ups and downs and of life and death. This weekend will be one that I hope to reflect on in future years. Life is temporary. May the life that you live be one that can impact and change the lives of others.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF PATRICK ANDREW KONG (1981-2009)

Tonight, I had the opportunity to see a friend’s improv comedy group perform in front of a crowd of about 50+ people. The venue for this comedy improv show had taken place at The Parlor Room in SF at Sutter and Powell. There were three improv groups and two stand-up comedians that performed. Tonight’s line up were Rumor Has It Improv Troupe, Dave Thomason, Thursprov, Stephen Kalmakis, and hoboFish.

The night started off with a pulling of audience suggestions and random sketches. This comedy group is based out of Concord, CA and consists of seven members. Throughout their improv comedy I was a bit lost and couldn’t find how the audience suggestions were incorporated with their material. I felt that a lot of the suggested topics word just word dropped into the delivery and I felt that most of the audience was lost and confused.

Then Dave Thomason did a quick stand-up. Very funny guy, however, one thing I remember well is that he forgot a couple of liners during the middle of his performance and had to rely on his hand for notes. He played it off very well though and made the audience not think twice about it.

Following Thomason was Thursprov. Thursprov had seven members and were pretty entertaining. A few sketches had me on the edge of my seat laughing with the special technique that involves using your left hand. I can’t remember what the full term was called, but it was coined from one of the comedian’s last name. Given the chance I’d probably want to watch them again.

Dave Thomason came on soon after a short intermission. Thomason who is half Irish and half Greek comedian used slides for his act. He used his ethnicity to make fun of himself and I thought that it was in some ways funny, but it wasn’t one of those jokes that you can recall later on. He forgot some of his lines and at times a little bit awkward, but like any good comedian you move on to something else. I think his ideas were somewhat clever, but his delivery needed some improvement.

Lastly, ending the night was hoboFish, it was the group that I’ve been waiting for all night. My friend joined the group about five months ago and performed that night with three guys along side with their director who also performed with them that night. In total five of them just killed the audience. Much of their performance was so random, but the randomness was what made it hilarious. Couple scenes that I loved were a car scene that involved needing a GPS, a backyard peeping scene, and an iceberg scene which probably was the most random scene of all. The one thing I think that would make this group even more entertaining is if they involved more suggestions from the audience and props sketch. Overall, hoboFish kept me well entertained and I can’t wait to check out some more of their stuff in the future.

In memoriam, I would like to thank all the men and women who are in the armed forces that fight and who have fought, who risk their lives and to those who gave up their lives to give us the freedom that I and all Americans can enjoy to this day. I feel that all soldiers need to be given more respect for being such heroic people. Thank you so much and America salutes you all.

Wow, by far this week has been the most exhausting week ever. I’ve had so much fun photographing four wonderful women that I forgot I was photographing them. Capturing photos can be seen as a crazy job, but lately I’ve seen it as a good time to get to know the person that you are with. I mean in all seriousness, business is business, but when you can insert a little pleasure while doing it, that makes all the difference.

So lately, been getting few hours of rest and the Memorial Day weekend is upon us. I didn’t know that the weekend was going to come so quick. Plans for the weekend. None. I think I might try to get some “Me” time. One thing I know for sure is that I need to hurry up and plan my trip out to the Midwest soon. O where does all the time go?