Beach Glow

Bioluminescence: the production of light by living organisms.

Jake and I went on a little walk on the bike path last night after dinner, but didn't get very far, because we ran down to the water when we discovered that the waves were bioluminescing (well, not the waves exactly, it's really the waves causing the plankton in the water to bioluminesce). For those of you who've never seen this amazing natural wonder, it's an awesome sight, where disturbances in the water cause plankton to emit light and the breaking waves glow a beautiful blue-green color. At first, you'd think it was a trick of the light, or your imagination, but when your eyes adjust and you realize it's really happening, it is very neat to see. Another thing we discovered was that the sand had plankton in it also, so we had a grand time stomping up and down the beach, causing the sand beneath our feet to glow. Fun night.

Things that irk me #1...

Driving into the sun.
There's this certain time of day when the sun is positioned in the sky to perfectly blaze through your front windsheild, partially blind you, make you feel woozy from the heat, and cause you to nearly miss your exit because you can't read any signs until the split second you're right under it.

Block Party, Missing Camera, Jury Verdict & Summer Sunsets

Block Party
The 2nd Annual 5th Street Block Party was this past weekend. I happened to miss the first one, thrown last year, because I was in Paris and returned from Europe 2 days too late to catch it. According to roomate Justin, this one was just as fun, so at least I was around for this year's event. The boys accross the street had 10 kegs of beer for the day, the roomates and I got our own keg of Rock Bottom Hef for our own friends, a reggae band was set up in the middle of the street along with a ping pong and a couple of foosball tables, we bbq'd up some carne, drank, and hung out all day. It was fun, except...

Missing Camera
...I lost my camera! (or more like someone stole my camera?) I am SO BUMMED about it. Now, I not only can't share the block party pics with you, I can't share any pictures period! So, unfortunately, my photoblog will be neglected for the time being. I really don't need to be spending an extra few hundred bucks on a new camera, but I guess that's what I get for being drunk and stupid--leaving my camera out, with so many random people coming in and out of our house. Arrggh.

Jury Verdict
Well, finished with jury duty Tuesday. Believe it or not, I was actually starting to enjoy it, so too bad it ended so soon. It was all just a very interesting process, from the choosing of the jurors to the way councils presented their case. The best I can compare it to is a game, it's all like a chess game, making the right moves and trying to counteract moves that the other side makes....And just for the record, we found the defendent "not negligent".

Summer Sunsets
I've been running or taking walks down on the beach bike path the past couple of months, usually around sunset-time. It's so nice breathing in the salty air, feeling the cool summer evening breeze, and watching the sky light up like a fire. I LOVE living by the beach, it makes me happy.

Traveler

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." -St. Augustine
This is a quote that I always put on the inside cover of my travel journals.

Another excerpt from my journal entry 08.22.04 Geneva, Switzerland:
To live in the moment.
To experience a moment that is unlike any other.
To breathe in a fresh surrounding.
To read the rest of the story.
To be,
be one with the earth and sky,
with the past and future,
to be in the moment.
That is why we travel...

I really miss traveling. I miss the freedom it gives us, and the clarity it brings. My previous post, about doing meaningful work, is haunting me. It was such a simple statement, such a powerful question, yet I had pretty much forgotten about it since coming back from my trip. I've just rediscovered that question by reading through my journal, and it has stirred something in me, it's waking the passions within. I was struggling with figuring out what direction to take my career in, so as a guide, I can now ask myself what work is meaningful to me--what would fulfill me as a person and the things I care about?

Make a Difference

I think I still need to find a career that means something, that makes some kind of difference. What meaning does my life have if I do meaningless work?

Excerpt from my journal: 08.22.04 Geneva, Switzerland

Tourist in my own backyard

I went to the downtown courthouses for jury duty last Wednesday, and lucky me, was put on a civil trial that will last until at least this Friday. Although it's quite boring--I have a short attention span and struggle to stay focused and awake when listening to witness after unexciting witness--it's actually not so bad. It is very interesting to see the whole court process and our justice system up close and personal, just seeing how it all works. The other plus side is that I'm in the heart of downtown LA, a place that I've grown up around the corner from but have never explored or visited much, so I'm enjoying seeing it through a tourist's eye.
Today, my lunch hour was spent at MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is featuring an exhibition on artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Being science-minded, art has, for the most part, been something very foreign to me. I can definitely appreciate something like Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece, but have a hard time wrapping my brain around the more contemporary/modern/abstract stuff. It brings up the question, what is art? And who decides what is or isn't art? And who or what exactly is an artist?

Quote-o-the-day

"I'm not saying all this because I feel sorry for myself but because I just didn't feel prepared. I wasn't ready. All those years of schooling and resume-building bullshit didn't pertain at all to the life that was waiting for me. I felt misled, the recipient of wrong and useless instruction, ill-equipped. It was like I had been airlifted to an uninhabited desert island with only a pinata and a bundt pan and was told, Well, that should do it. Good luck."
-The Frog King by Adam Davies

HaHa, I found this quote very amusing. Maybe not to this exaggerated extent, but don't we all feel a little like this when we're first plopped into the real world after college? A little awkward, a little ill-prepared. I know I did, and still do feel like I'm scrambling to figure my life out.