Over the past year, there have been many instances where I see something, find it humorous, and take a picture. Usually, I intend to post these pictures on my blog, but due to me being incredibly lazy, that hasn’t happened. Fortunately for you, I happen to be more bored than I am lazy, so I think I’ll post a few of these pictures. Enjoy.
Archive for the 'Pictures' Category
I’ve been pretty horrible at keeping this updated. There are plenty of things I’ve been meaning to post for the past few months now, but I guess I’ve been too busy sleeping and reading Harry Potter.
I’m going to try and get on a flight to San Francisco tomorrow, which seems to look like it’s going to happen. After that, I’m going to try and connect to Salt Lake City, which seems less probable.
Because it’s Christmas, I’m bringing a giant suitcase full of presents and a small drawstring bag full of underwear and base layers. Also, I’m bringing three cell phones, each with different SIM cards. I feel like some sort of trendy, world-class traveler Santa.
Because this post has no point, I would like to show what Facebook was advertising on the side bar for me just now:
Since Caitlin and I both got paid and were feeling pretty happy, we decided to go on a Saturday shopping adventure to more appropriately clothe ourselves for the winter and get started on Christmas shopping. As we were expecting (albeit not hoping), the latter was consumed by the former.
I ended up getting some really sweet wingtip shoes, on sale for 200 RMB. They’re cheap, leather soled (slippery!), and pretty funky:
It’s kind of hard to make out with the webcam (not very romantic, either), but the leather is a faded texture and the heel is rounded rubber.
One of the main things I was needing was a warmer winter coat. I had been wanting a pea coat, since I find them classy and attractive. It needed to be thick, fairly long, and something different. I already have my grey Banana Republic one that I love, so it needed to be something that I wouldn’t be duplicating if I brought it back to the states. Thus, when I found this lovely piece of clothing, I was very happy:
It’s a dark olive green with eight wooden buttons, and it’s furry on the inside! It’s labeled Gucci, and simultaneously made in Italy and China!
New clothes make me feel classy!
Last week, the night before I was scheduled to leave Davis for Santa Barbara, Tom, Cody, and I were at Burgers and Brew, eating away our sorrows of departure. As we were walking back to Cody’s house, we ran into our former professor Raúl Aranovich, who just arrived back in Davis from his honeymoon. I mentioned I was leaving tomorrow and that he promised me months ago that he would take me out on his boat. After several joking requests for a boat ride before I left, it became apparent that we would actually go.
At 10 a.m. the next day, I walked up to his house, fully decked in my boat shoes, linen shorts, and Kangol hat. I tried to find a blazer, but since I was moving, my more boaty apparel was already in Santa Barbara.
We packed up some food and water, then we hopped into his car and drove to the marina in Vallejo. After unpacking the food and supplies, we walked down the marina until stopping at a cute little boat named Nonika. We tied up ropes to sails, he explained and I forgot all the jargon and knots, and we took sailing pictures:
Proof that yes, I went sailing with my professor:
It was a perfect day for sailing. There was just enough wind to make it a pleasant jouney, but not so much that it would be miserable.
If you’ve never been sailing, one of the first things you notice is that you rarely spend time with the boat level. Most of the time, you’re at an angle something like this:
It was a totally amazing experience, and now I’m looking to find some sailing buddies in Santa Barbara. If you know of anyone who needs a deckhand, send them my way.
Of course, one of my favorite parts of the entire journey was that I finally got to use my boat shoes for their intended purpose. I was so excited about this, I think it was starting to get on the captain’s nerves a bit. Nevertheless, I still had to take a picture of the event:
More pictures can be seen here.
So, I’m still working on my piano. I took a long hiatus, finishing my undergraduate career, but now I’m back in the heat, cutting up my fingers with razorblades. So, here’s an update with a few pictures:
A mass of hammers, in the process of having cloth attached at various points:
A mass of dampers, seven of which had to have ingenious ways of affixing new springs:
A mass of naked hammers, getting ready to have felts and bridle straps all gluey and on them:
So right now, I’m finishing up the hammers. The stickers only need two dabs of graphite each, and the dampers are all done. Then it’s a wire brush on all of them, cleaning up the dust and grime, then back on the rails they go.
Then time for regulating it.
In an exciting and moderately spontaneous weekend adventure, Cody, Caitlin and I traveled to the coast to the small town of Bolinas. While Cody had been many times, it was the first time either Caitlin or I had heard of such a place. In any event, it was an incredible weekend, full of small town people, coastal breezes, and ignorance of work we should be doing.
We stayed in the Grand Hotel, a quite grand hotel, consisting of an incredible two rooms. The downstairs is a quaint antique/secondhand/book store, a place where we each spent a fair amount of money. Oh, how quaint:
In the little yard before the back entrance, there were all sorts of strange ceramic creatures staring at us:
On Saturday, we decided to take a fun trip up the hills and do a little hiking. See, fun:
The drive was this incredibly windy road that felt like going through the forest then the Sound of Music.
Of course, if you see something like this, there’s only one thing to do: Stop and do push ups.
Just kidding, of course. It’s imperative you roll down the hills.
Point of information: the hills are much easier to roll down than to hike up. Keep this in mind.
Look at Caitlin. Then see what Cody is doing:
Caitlin was amused by the possibility this sign held. Also by the location in which we decided to park:
In all, it was a wonderful weekend. For more pictures, check out this link.
Last night, Caitlin and I made dinner. She made gnocchi with pesto, and I made a salad. It consisted of a balsamic vinaigrette, gorgonzola, apples, and fried onions tossed with various mixed greens. I enjoyed it, but I also enjoy most salads.
This whole piano adventure is a lot more extensive than I originally thought it would be, but I’m having a lot of fun and learning an incredible amount about this amazing instrument.
The last I mentioned the piano, I had the action sitting on my desk, ready to be worked on. For those unfamiliar with the inner-workings of the piano, the action is the part that does everything between you pressing the key and the string vibrating. It’s an intricate mess of parts that move perfectly so the hammer hits the key once, the damper lifts when the key is down, and everything stops when the key is released.
My first task was to take everything apart. I thought to take pictures after I had already started, so a few stickers, hammers, and dampers are already removed:
Now that that’s all done, I have a stack of rails next to my laundry:
And a floor covered in delicate parts:
The whole process of removal took about two hours, since every part was screwed in a few times.
The next step is the cleaning of all the parts, which I quickly learned is an extremely tedious adventure. There are 88 stickers and hammers, which have 5 and 8 parts to be removed, respectively, and and 65 dampers, which have 3 each. And, of course, the removal of these parts are not a quick peeling-off process. Here are the tools I’ve been using so far:
The most important tool is the razor blade, a very handy and very dangerous part of the experience. In the following pictures, you might notice a few injuries. It happens.
It’s mostly using the razor blade to cut off the felt then scrape off the dried glue, which is actually much more tedious than I make it seem. The felts have been happily situated on the wooden parts for over 100 years, so it takes quite a bit of coaxing for them to part.
I get really happy and excited when I get to use specialty tools for the tricky parts. In order to remove the heads on the hammers, I have a special gadget that expands to pull it off. In order to get the other side off, I have a clamp that goes on the removed edge in order to do the process one more time. Then I have a handy little animal that cleans all the glue from the hole. Check out the fun:
In all, to do one note (sticker, hammer, damper), it’s taking me at least 30 minutes. And considering that I usually need to take a break after that because my razor hand starts cramping up, it will take a while to get all 88 keys cleaned. Then, it’s a long process of cutting new felts and gluing them back where they should be. I’m excited.
Since it was a three-day weekend, Caitlin and I decided to have another Saturdate, this time in Santa Barbara. It was a pretty packed weekend, but we both enjoyed ourselves tremendously.
I took her to my favorite rare book store:
We surveyed the city from the courthouse tower:
We walked along the beach at sunset:
We made monster shadows on the mission at night:
And we hiked up to Lizard’s Mouth:
Okay, so that last one was really part of a Sundate, but David and Scott were there too, so it wasn’t that much of a date, anyway. The full album can be viewed here.
Today, Caitlin and I used her parents’ wonderful museum passes and went to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. We skipped around, then mused about painting and sculptures. Of course, we also had to take the obligatory ridiculously cute pictures, many of which involved a sunset and a tall hill.
(And an Astro van!)