I’ve been hearing about SockDreams for ages. Cute socks, colorful socks, long socks, decent prices. Finally I’ve placed my order, and 36 hours later my socks arrived. Nice job, guys!

What pleasing colors, stacked all in a line. I’m wearing the green ones today.

I like to consider myself a connoisseur of wheeled footwear. I’ve got rollerblades, rollerblades that convert into boots (and from there into ice skates!) and shoes that have hidden wheels. My brand of choice for concealed wheel shoes are Heelys, which I’ve actually been wearing since I was about 16 years old! I’m regularly stopped by people surprised to find out that they make the shoes in adult sizes. I recommend trying out a pair if you have the chance. They have a bit of a learning curve to use, but add a small burst of joy to your life whenever you use them. It’s nice to have something super fun like skating being accessible whenever I’m walking somewhere. They do have a downside, in that they don’t seem to last as long as you might hope shoes would last. I go through a set of wheels about 5 times a year, which cost 20 each (but come with the shoes) and go through the shoes themselves every 7 months. They aren’t particularly spendy as far as skates or shoes go, so I don’t feel so bad, but I do wish they made their adult shoes a little bit heartier. Maybe I’m just hard on things.

Anyhow, recently my pair of Heelys gave up on me while I was walking around Disneyland, so once I got back I ordered a new pair from Zappos, and I’m really pleased with how these ones look. Digital skull camo! How very strange. I took a few shots of them and posted it up on flickr. Aren’t they awesome?

You all know about shirt.woot, right? One day, one shirt, one future?

Well, occasionally they have random shirt days, where shirts are cheap and unknown. I was in for three, and curious to see what would show. The results came in just a few days ago! This is now the second time I’ve tried this game, and I’m thrilled with what I received.

Shirt the first is a dark grey with a bomb of some sort making impact with ground in a caution triangle.

Shirt the second is binder paper and scribbley cute things, with the words ‘draw more’

The third shirt is entirely covered in weird creatures. One has a knife! One’s a jellyfish! One says BRB! Fun for hours. Seriously!

Anyway, sharing is caring, so I’ve taken some pictures and put them up on flickr. Enjoy~

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to get involved in pyrotechnics. I’d occasionally ask around and see if anybody knew anyone involved, but this summer I made it a point to find a way in. I met Jeremy at a party, professional, licensed pyrotechnician involved in the fire art scene. Said he’d give me a call when they needed some help. Finally I get a call in September, but it’s for while I’m in Japan! Drat. He mentions that they may need some help for New Years Eve. I keep following up, and find myself on a barge, tuesday morning, building racks, loading shells, wiring up modules. Wednesday I’m back doing more of the same, getting to know the various operators involved, explaining my work with propane. Wednesday night a tug takes our barge out into the bay, underneath the bay bridge, and out in front of pier 14, and I’m directly underneath one of the biggest fireworks shows I think I have ever seen!

I figured I’d bring a camera, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the task of shooting photos while simultaneously avoiding the smoke, falling bits of fire, and other related shrapnel. I managed to get one or two shots worth seeing, but luckily I’ll have a chance to try my hand at it again… I got called back on the first with thanks for working so hard, and that I’ll be called to work on another show soon!

Hopefully I figure out a way to do this regularly, as it’s completely fun. A good start to my 2009, don’t you think?

I was mostly shooting for HDRs while I was in Japan. Some of them worked out. The ones I posted a while ago, for example. However, this last batch were ones that I initially rejected since they failed as HDR composites, but taken individually and fucking with the color, I find myself liking them even more. In this one I took the most over exposed out of the three I shot, blew it out even a bit more, and reduced the saturation for each color Yuki had on her till she was greyscale, which left this nice bit of sparkly wall to her side. Yay!