Photogoblog

"Every camera, every phone, all the music that you own/ 

won't change the fact you're all alone!"

- from Sick of You, by Cake

I took a whirlwind trip down to Santa Cruz and biked around for a bit. I took pictures of stuff:

(For your listening pleasure while you browse)

The background is the west side of the Barbie Dream House Co-Op

I really love the pattern of the grease stains on my tape.

That's it for now while I revert to couch surfing. I'm trying to get back to where I was last May. 

Can You Find the Hypocrisy?

"There's a pre-meeting meeting after the meeting."

- Chris, clarifying the schedule of house, Board, and community meetings

Biking back from Winters, 12 miles outside of Davis

Working at Peet's Coffee involves a lot of trouble shooting when it comes to customers' needs. I have to translate what they want into what we can do. Most of the time this is straightforward and only a matter of negotiation  Yesterday, however, I had three people come in with some real brain teasers. First, a man asked for a plain cup of iced coffee with sweetener. Alright, dude, you can't have both plain and sweetened coffee and even if you could, I don't know what you mean by "sweetener", since we have literally 13 kinds of sugar and syrup.
Another customer asked for an empty cup of ice. I actually hesitated before scooping the ice, afraid I was doing something... stupid. Finally, a woman came in an asked if we put water in our iced tea. Well you see, Miss, we— by which I mean the entire world— actually use water twice: once when we BREW THE TEA and then once more when we PUT ICE IN IT. Since you seem to struggle with the concept of  tea, perhaps I should also explain the difference between ice and water.

I am way too excited about Premium Rush!

The social implications of this are, of course, huge. If being a fixie bike messenger is cool enough to be the subject of $100+ million blockbuster, then it's undeniably too mainstream. What will you hipsters do now? Bwahahaha!

Last week, midway through one the most jubilant and rejuvenatingly playful days of my life, I received a text message from my brother:

"Do you ever feel like this is the most enriched and free you'll ever be in your life?" 

I've arriving at a realization that I'm at this crucial nexus in my life where I've very recently experienced the peak of my youth, but with every passing day I grow more appreciative of what I have left. If youth is wasted on the young, when does youth end and hindsight begin? Now that school is in, I'm surrounded by truly young people just beginning to step into adulthood. I recently overheard someone defending the Freshmen, saying that the forest needs the saplings. (To cross metaphors) when I was 19 I missed that forest for the trees. I felt lost and helpless— disconnected from the community. Now I can see that I was the forest. I still am, but my role is evolving. We need the saplings and they need us.
Is this the most enriched I'll ever be? Ultimately, yes, but the less I have to get from my community, the more I have to give.