Chad Things

I grew up in the south, but last week i learned to apreciate the carolinas a bit more. I spent 10 days with my older sister, her husband, and their 2 kids, Addy and Sam. The 5 of us drove around north and south carolina in their big red truck (chevy suburban) towing their Outback trailer. Thats right, an RV. But the best part was spending quality time with family, doing nothing but enjoying ourselves – hiking, swimming, eating, and drinking.

I met up with them in Boonville, NC, on Tuesday, July 11, after they’ve been on the road for over a week. They were staying in a private campground, with a pool, putt-putt, general store, and an amazing hiking trail down to a river. Of course we did that river hike, and had fun with the whole family (including rigby, their boston terrier) playing in the water. We also spent some time at the Rag Apple Winery, which had decent wines. The man pouring was very knowledgable about NC wine – many tobacco farmers are switching to grapes. Lara and bryan hope to switch to grapes from their jobs, too.

On Wednesday we drove to Boone, NC, a bit more in the mountains. We stayed at the Boone KOA tent/RV campground, the nicest spot we’d stay. It had a pool, putt-putt, playground, pond, goats, chickens, cows, green grass and blue skies. We got some serious chill on there. The weather was great – we were almost at 4,000 feet, much cooler than the rest of the hot humid south this time of year. On thursday we drove to blowing rock, a not-so-great tourist attraction, but a nice trip. On the way back we stopped in town for a tastee dinner near ASU. Friday we stayed at camp, enjoyed the pool and nature.

Saturday we packed up and headed to Asheville, NC. This was my favorite city – small mtn town that attracts people from all over the country, including artists and hippie types (gotta like a splash of san francisco in the south). On the way we stopped at another tourist spot, Grandfather mountain. This was much better than blowing rock, they actually had a zoo with cougars, bears, eagles, and more. And of course, they are famous for their swinging mile-high bridge. Later that night my parents met up with us in asheville, driving about 4 hours up from atlanta. The first night they actually slept with us in the trailer – and lara and bryan took the tent. But the next night they opted for a bit nicer bed at the Grove Park Inn.

On Monday we drove to Greenville, SC, and stayed at Paris Mountain State Park, the first non-private spot we stayed. This was right outside of greenville, and my grandfather used to take my mom there to swim when she was a kid. It was beautiful – the lake and the nature trails around it. We were also lucky enough to have my mom’s mom, edith, join us for lunch on monday and tuesday. Tuesday was especially nice, we got to celebrate Sam’s 3rd birthday (his actual birthday was wed, july 19). Larry and Evelyn treated us to lunch from whole foods, Sam got presents and a cake, and mama was very happy to spend time with her great-grandchildren. It was good to see her out and laughing.

Tuesday afternoon we headed to the beach, arriving at Hunting Island just after dark. The next morning i got up early and walked along the beach. It was perfect. Tide was almost all the way out, revealing the coolest patterns in the sand i’ve ever seen. And the lighting was amazing – the sun still coming up over the ocean – the waves were carefully crashing around me, birds flying above, a few people strolling about, not too hot yet, quiet, calm, peaceful. Later we came back out with full family, swam in the ocean, built sand castles, and walked an hour down to the lighthouse. An amazing view up there.

Thursday, July 20, was my last day. We stopped at the hunting island nature center on the way out, then headed for the airport. I got the pleasure of eating waffle house for my last meal – can’t beat their waffles! All in all an amazing and relaxing trip. Thank you lara and bryan for letting me into your mobile home!

Priceless is the name of the campout thrown by false profit and downLow crews. It was an amazing 3 day event in Belden, 2 hours north of Sacremento, filled with tastee bass, hot sunny afternoons, cool rivers, and soft sandy beaches.

Did i mention the bass? Ernie told me it had more bass than the boombox did at bman in 2003. Damn. And the DJs were kick-ass – Ernie on friday night and several others saturday night, including the live combo of Ooah and Troubled Youth. As expected, they all served up heavy bass, breaks, organic beats, and a dash of hip-hop. My booty is shakin’ right now just thinking of it.

Besides the music, my favorite thing was the beach and river. Belden is basically a general store/bar, plus a few cabins and tent sites, situated along the feather river. The sandy beach is about 30×50 feet, mostly in the shade, on a hill adjacent to the river. The river is about 30-40 yards wide, 7.5 feet deep at deepest point, but fairly strong current in the middle. Next to the beach it is shallow and no current, great for the kidz or lazy chad. People would just be kicking on their rafts and tubes, starting an occasional water fight, are swimming across to the other side where you could jump off some rocks. I also enjoyed the gentle rapids downstream – fun to get a bunch of people on floaties hooked together and then get tossed about. The other thing that amazed me was how pure and silky the water was. It was beautiful just being in it.

Oh, and the people. Can’t forget those that put this together – the 2 crews, false profit and down low. Don’t want to get into names, since i don’t know everyone, but they all did an amazing job. Especially the firedancers sat night – Flame Gypsy and Sexy Bitch from LSD Fuego. And the rest of the campers were great – friendly, sharing, and some of the best dancers i’ve ever seen. I hope they do it again – belden or wherever. I look forward to checking them out at burningman.

My back has always been a pain in my ass (heh). Well, a few weeks ago in Atlanta, i got a pain in my shoulder so bad that i couldn’t lay down, take deep breaths, or even eat a full meal without pain. So I went to my mom’s orthospinologist, Dr. Parkerson in Atlanta. He took some x-rays and then told me the good news and bad news: The good news was that he found a problem that prolly caused my pain. The bad news was that my vertebrae were messed up. He told me lots of numbers, like my C1 was tilted 8 degrees to the right, but basically i was twice as bad as his average patient. He couldn’t tell me how long I’ve been that way – could have been since april when i took a bad fall while snowboarding, or as far back as when i was 8 years old and broke my collarbone. He made some adjustments, and i got better, but still far from where i need to be. Once i got back to SF i started seeing an orthospinologist here, Dr. Christina Meakim. They tell their patients they must come in about 1-2 times a week till the adjustments “hold”, usually about a month. The adjustments are very well placed, but light, and can easily be undone by jarring activities (like wrestling, heh). Although not as bad as that first pain in atlanta, i still get backaches when i sleep for just 7 hours – and i wake up tired. I feel like i’m definitely slowing down, so i finally decided i want to focus on fixing this thing once and for all. That means see her 1-2 times a week, take it easy, and not do any traveling for more than a week. Sigh. My summer trip to asia is now postponed till fall .. or longer. If this works, and my back is fixed, i cannot tell you how happy i’ll be. Booyakasha.

I just got back from a week long trip in New Orleans, or as locals say it, Nawlins, Louisiana. It’s been almost 9 months since Hurricane Katrina hit this town, and its slowly but surely coming back. The spirit of the people there is great, but i would guess half the population are back to their pre-katrina lives (some say even less than half, could not find any real data), the rest are rebuilding or relocated. The popular areas like French Quarter and Downtown avoided most of the flooding, and its possible a tourist could visit and not even know katrina happened. I stayed with my friend Shayna Cohen and enjoyed my time there seeing the sights, eating delicious southern food, riding bikes around in the hot and humid afternoons, and grooving to bands at various little bars at night. I purposely went during a time when there were no festivals, to absorb the normal way of life in the big easy. I took a ton of pictures, and spend the last day uploading them to flickr. It’s best to view those while reading this, i’m writing this blog to complement the 5 sets i created there (click on the picture below to view them).

I left SF Tuesday night, and arrived in New orleans Wednesday morning, June 14th. My friend Shayna was working at Praline Connection, so i dropped off my stuff, ate some of their tasty fried chicken, cornbread, and bread pudding, then walked around the French Quarter (or just the Quarter). I took a bunch of pics, including a jackson square, 516 doorway with tons of cool doorbells, and a store with tons of hot sauces (mmmm.. hot sauce). Later that night we hung out on frenchman street, hitting some of the best joints in new orleans – dba, ??, and spotted cat (my favorite). Thursday shayna showed me where she worked with the kids in the afterschool program. We took the ferry to algiers for that, and biked around that area till we melted in the sun. Then we ferried back to downtown, and spent some time in the Audubon aquarium, which only just opened a few weeks earlier (they lost animals and suffered damage from katrina). We were lucky enough to catch the feeding in the big tank where we saw sharks, manta rays, giant turtles, and tons of fish gettin’ their snack on. But my favorite was the hawk feeding – got a few pics of that bad bird eating a white mouse. After that we biked over to Plan B – a free, community do-it-yourself bike repair center. Then we ate at Bywater BBQ .. prolly my favorite meal. Thursday night we were too tired to make it to zydeco night at the bowling alley, as planned. That heat sure does take its toll.

Friday we biked to the cemetery – St Louis No. 3 – and then to the city park. On the way back we stopped at a nice local whole-foods-like grocery store to get supplies for dinner. We made ourselves some tortellini with pesto, apps with tomato-basil-mozz, and salami and asparagus sandwhiches. Who would have known that salami and asparagus were soo good together?

Saturday shayna worked during the day and i hit the Audubon Zoo. They say to get there early while the animals have some life in them, before the heat makes everybody too tired to move. Luckily i did, and got to see elephants, tigers, lions, spider monkeys, tons of birds, and even a giant white aligator. I especially liked the gator cuz it was inside an air conditioned building, and taking a 15min AC break is like breathing life into me after walking around in that humid southern heat. Given that alot of the city was still recouperating from katrina, I was impressed that every section had animals aparently doing well. Only the sea lion exhibit had a sign saying “gone to texas”. There was also a free concert in the zoo that day – i was hoping to see Kermit Ruffins, but he was not on till 4:15pm and the heat was too much to wait for that. So i hopped on my bike and headed back to shayna’s pad, about 6 miles away. Along the way i stopped at Mother’s (on Poydras and Tchoupitoulas) for supposedly the best po boy in new orleans. It was my first and only po boy, and it was delicious. I got the one with ham, roast beef, and swiss. I ordered a side of greens, and .. get this .. there was more meat in my thing of greens then there was greens. AND, they through in a side of savory roast pork – not sure if it was on purpose or an accident. Gotta love the south. I met shayna at her place and we sat on her porch eatin the po boy in the heat. Thas the way to soak up the culture. Saturday night we went out drinking, hitting bars, bourbon street, Donna’s, the Oz, amoung others. More on this later if i remember.

Sunday i chilled most of the day, did some reading online about new orleans and readin’ of my book. Sunday night we ate at Orielles’ creole restaraunt. It was good, but not great, but the service was excellent and affordable ($10-20 entres). Monday we rented a car and drove around to see the post-katrina new orleans. First we went to Lakeview, then saw East New Orleans, and then the Lower Ninth Ward As everybody says, lower ninth ward, right across the bridge by the canal, was by far the most destroyed. You really must see the flickr pictures to understand the devastation.

Katrina really did a number on new orleans. Even though it was all over the news, and people still talk about it, it’s hard to paint an accurate picture. I was there a week, and i still couldn’t understand it as well as my friend shayna, who’s been there a few months. And even she can’t understand it as well as the ones who experienced it. Can you imagine losing everything you know? your house, your friends, your neighborhood? Businesses were looted, people lost those closest to them, kids would see dead bodies floating in the flood waters, and there was just too many people for all to be helped. Even now. Check out rebuild status from this june 2006 article from gambit weekly, local newspaper. But as i said before, the spirit is surprisingly strong. I met many that still love new orleans, wave their rebirth flags proudly, and are there to stay.

Monday night, after that sobering afternoon we treated ourselves to a tasty meal at Jacques-Imo’s Cafe. Jacques himself was there, and bought me a shot of tequila while i was waiting for the bathroom. Thats my kind of guy.

Tuesday I hit the st. louis cemetary no 1, and then magazine street. Did some shopping, and found Juan’s flying burrito. Yes, and i had to get my friend juan a shirt – the back says “We are all Juan – New Orleans”. Classic. After that, i noticed there was a joint called “Chad’s Bistro“, so we had to hit that. Then back to jacques-imo’s for another snack. Then we got our groove on at Maple Leaf Bar, listening to the Rebirth Brass Band. Those guys were great, the crowd was totally into them, and it felt very new orleans. That and spotted cat were my favorite two spots in nawlins.

I left, but my soul is still there. I see why many want to rebuild the city – the “rebirth” flags are everywhere, and slowly but surely it will rise again. As you may know, I quit my job, and I could easily move to nawlins and become a bartender. I could use some Big Easy in my life.

I got my new pocket-size digital camera, the SD600 today. I bought the SD450 only a few months ago, but on my recent trip to New York and Philly, I smashed the LCD screen. I’m not sure how, but i prolly put my keys and the camera in my pocket together, and i think the keys applied pressure to that huge 2.5″ LCD screen. But the SD450 was great, so i wanted another one. I spent a few more bucks this time and got the SD600, which is pretty much identical to the SD450 except its 6 megapixel instead of 5, and takes better shots in low light (due to ISO 800).

Also, I’ve been enjoying my Canon 350d that i got a few weeks ago, so i decided to get a second lens – the 50mm F/1.4 lens. My friend dennis has one, he loves it, as do most people. I chose the 50mm because it is quality yet affordable, does great portraits and works well in low light without flash (gotta love that f1.4 aperture). I’ve found that my 17-85mm does a good job all-around – the 17mm is enough wide angle for me for indoor room shots, and the 85mm has enuf zoom to get decent shots from far away. However, i do want to get another telephoto type lens, but i’m not sure if i want a zoom lens, like the 70-200mm($600), or a fixed-focal length (prime) lens, like the 135mm($800) or 200mm($600).

As mentioned before, i quit my job at yahoo and plan to do some traveling. This blog entry is meant to be an overview of my travels, and i’ll update it as my plans change.

Dates — Locations
5/24 – 6/1 — NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta
6/13 – 6/21 — New Orleans
6/30 – 7/6* — Buenos Aires- POSTPONED
7/11 – 7/18 — North Carolina
7/21 – ? BALI, THAILAND – POSTPONED

10/24 – Tahoe, California (Dusty/Laura wedding)
12/4 – Costa Rica (Rick Zetta Wedding)

* Date not definite

Buenos Aires was postponed because my cheap delta ticket lets me fly standby on any flight, but due to july 4th weekend traveling, all flights
are overbooked.

Bali, Thailand are postponed till i spend some time fixing my back in SF. More deets on My Back.

Score one for apple. Ok, this is just a quick update on my apple macbook pro laptop adventures. About a week ago my laptop battery started going out, from 3-4 hours on a full charge to 5 mins or less before it would die (not even ‘sleep’). Obviously this sux, so i needed to fix. First i thought i could just go to an apple store and they would swap it. But alas, there’s only one apple store in SF and the genius bar there is always booked, making this idea and all tech support a nightmare. So i called 1-800-fix-my-apple-please and within 5 mins the nice girl resolved my issue – i’d get a new battery delivered to my door, and as long as i returned the old one, no charge. The very next morning my new battery arrived. That was 12,000 times easier than trying to goto the genius bar, and i’m super happy. Hurray apple.

Yep, today I dropped a grand on a camera and lens. Took the plunge into the Digital SLR world. With all my free time and travel coming up, i needed a nicer camera, and after a bit of research, i went for the 350D. I’m not going to bore you with how i picked, but basically the 350D is arguably the best value under $1K. You can compare canons or compare 350D to Nikon D70 for yourself.

As you probably know, nice cameras sell lenses separately. Deciding which lens is right depends on what ya gonna use it for. I’m still not sure what i want, but at a high level, i want to take
– panaramic shots of nature – beaches, mountains, lakes, etc.
– wide angle shots indoors – dinner table, people in small rooms, etc.
– low-light situations – night sky, no-flash shots of people at bars/restaraunts
– macro – close-ups of flowers, jewelry, etc
– normal shots of everything in between

Today I just got one lens in addition to the 350D body, both from craigslist. The body was $550, and i got a 17-85mm like-new lens from his buddy for $450. A good intro lens – not too expensivve, a little bit of macro (1.2 feet), a bit of telephoto, got the IS (Image-Stabilization) for low-light. So Thats $1,000 total. One grand. Lets see if i really use this and want to spend more on even nicer lenses.

Thats right, I quit Yahoo. My last day was Friday, April 14, after 2 years 8 months, i was ready to move on. Why quit you ask? Well, those that know me, know that i’m not one to sit around and do nothing. I always got ants and in my pants. And frankly, my job was getting boring – responsibilty but no fun. My last project, My Web 2, launched in the summer in 2005, and was winding down, so it was a good time to leave. Thats the team plus some other yahoo coworkers at my going away lunch. How nice. But more than that, I had some money saved, and i’m not in a relationship, no house payments, nothing tying me down – so clearly i should quit and travel. Clearly. Indubitably.

What’s next then? Thats the biggest question. Well, as i mentioned, i want to travel, mainly New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, and other parts of Asia. Of course I live in San Francisco and there’s tons of stuff going on here . . . all the time. So it was tough to figure out when to leave, but i did it. I’m going to visit my sister and her family in early july, then i’m off till october, when i have to be back in california for a wedding (plus another wedding in december in costa rica). I still need to work out the details of where i’ll be between July and October, so don’t ask. I’ve traveled a bit already, and i’ve found that without the time pressure, it’s more fun to plan as you go, be spontaneous, just wing it. Afterall, we do have “the information superhighway” and email to keep us all connected. Plans are soooo last century.

Vacation is awesome. Especially in Florida, with friends, and great music. Thats where i was last week – the Winter Music Conference in Miami. This was my first year, but luckily tons of my SF friends were down there to guide me to a thoroughly kickass time.

Four of us got a room at the palms – me, Fritz, Juan, and our prime guide, Sir Checkoway. When i say prime guide, i mean it – ’twas Checkoway’s fifth year, and he definitely shed his wisdom upon us. We started it off Wed at an M3 event – the remix hotel cocktail party – where i got to see DJ Krush and spend $16 on 2 cans of corona. Yes, cans, and yes, $8 each. But they also had reps from tons of companies like pioneer, denon, apple, showing off their latest and greatest DJ hardware and software.

Later Wednesday night we hit Suite Lounge to check out Steve Porter, a big house DJ. Besides that mad cash required for miami, the only other thing that sux is getting into the hot spots. Sometimes even being on the list doesn’t guarantee entrance, especially if you’re a guy. Getting their early, paying huge covers, and being on the list will usually work – and it did for porterhouse that night. I must point out that one of the dudes on before porter was really kickass – phillip gold of phil and fluff. Finding new sound like this is one of the many reasons miami was soooo nice.

The night quickly turned into dawn, and then late morning before we slept. Thursday afternoon smacked me in the face with the arrival of the rest of the SF posse – juan, dingdong, stef, j9, jay, tamo, trav, stephan, et al. A few of us hit the palms secluded beach before getting ready for the night. That evening we hit the green gorilla party (SF representin’) at the marlin bar – one of the best vibes of any miami party. We also made our way off of south beach to miami for the Future Sound of Breaks V 4.0 party at Nocturnal (next to Studio A and Space). Cool venue, music was good, but not great. Saw Donald Glaude, Baby Anne + Jen Lasher, among others.

Friday Afternoon was another family affair, hanging out at the Catalina hotel where Tamo and Viajay were spinning. That place had a real nice pool as well as .. how you say.. very miami scenery lounging around the pool area. Later we hit my favorite event of all of miami – The Stanton Warriors at the Betsy Ross Hotel. Dominic (one of the 2 stanton warriors) started spinning in their hotel lobby area with just a handful of booties shakin, but within a few tracks the entire place erupted. Too bad i was too busy dancin’ to take any good pics.

Saturday our retardness started growing roots – with fritz leading the pack. Still, rule number one of the trip was music – so we pressed on. In the afternoon we hit opium garden, a kick ass venue but the music was just begining. We aborted early and hit the beaches, then later walked down collins for some house party. One noteworthy stop was some hotel playin’ solid chicago house – the sound republic. We were a bit too tired to shake it, but hung out for a couple beerz. Later that night we cruised the strip, checking out chevy caprice with 22 inch rims and pick-up trucks with the doors opening straight up delorean-style. Heh.

Sunday woke up at the crack of dawn to meet some peeps at the pawn shop – good crowd, good beats, but only stayed a bit – then hit BED for some SF reuniting. That was trouble – we ended up hanging out at our friends pad on the 28th floor of some apt complex. Later we missed our our flight so we hit up the IO lounge for some more breaks and dnb.

Monday i was broken, but rule number one forced me out for one last rally. Nothing great, we did the usual tour, but the basic nyc party at the beach plaza hotel was a nice way to end the trip. Juan and I slept that night in order to catch our super early flight and work the next day. However, Fritz and Checkoway stayed and powered thru to see danny tenaglia play an amazing 17 hours straight. Well, they actually only caught 13 hours of it – 3am to 4pm tuesday. Damn.

All in all, great trip, but man does my wallet and my liver hurt. Not sure if i could repeat it again, but i’ve said that before. I’m definitely glad i went. Fer shure.