1592 ft

As if staying up until 4am wasn't enough I decided today would be a good day for hiking. I set out for Mission Trails Regional Park just 20 short minutes away by car from my doorstep. The visitor center is great with beautiful view and lots of information. I chose Cowles Mtn for my first hike since it had the tallest peak. About a 1/2 mile up the mountain I was regretting my decision but then a 2nd wind kicked in and the last 1/2 mile was great. There are 25 recommended hikes at Mission Trail Park with the longest being 7.1 miles roundtrip. I will definitely have to go back. On my way from the visitor center to the Cowles Mountain trailhead I passed a mini-strip mall and had a flashback. I'm sure it's the one that me and muriel and nicky stopped at on our way up to visit nicky's sister in the mountains. We had stopped to pick up sandwiches to bring to n's sister and her husband. That was an exciting day for me because nicky's sister had horses and she was an artist! I remember asking her sister lots of questions about her painting and I got to ride a horse named "Taxi" around the ranch. I think we were even driving Muriel's new car at the time (14 years ago) which is now my car and missing 1/2 a muffler. I kind of hope that I'll run into nicky by some stroke of luck...who knows.

Photos of today's hike.

Gabriel & Dresden

Skate, Kevin and I, went to see Gabriel & Dresden last night at belo in downtown San Diego.
I think their music falls into the category of Electronica and maybe the sub-category of vocal trance? If you can get past the typical crowd annoyances of being at a club there's a lot to listen for and listen to in this music. The sound system covers so much frequency it almost feels like it's coming out of you rather than outside of you. When the really low frequency of the bass drum, the melodic middle, and high frequencies (which are on the edge of detection) come together it feels like total submersion. I'm not talking about being submerged in water. It's thicker than that. If you could imagine being submerged in quicksand, without the panic of course, that is how densely the music wraps around you.

Since my Aunt and Uncle first took me at age 8 to a symphony at Orchestra Hall in MN I have always found music to be a beautiful escape, whether it's improvised jazz, a big orchestra, or the work of electronica artists. The biggest difference, for me, is whether the experience is weighted more externally, internally, or some of both. Lately, I've been attending Vesper Service on Wednesdays at the First United Methodist church in San Diego. The service begins with 20 minutes of organ or piano music for meditation. only about 12 - 15 ever show up and this is a huge church with a soaring sanctuary space. You feel that you are there alone and the music is very much an inward impression.

Back to Gabriel & Dresden for a minute...in the midst of all of their fabulous beats out of nowhere they laid down a sick, SICK track of Annie Lennox's - The Saddest Day. What they did with it was stunning and since it was live I'll probably never hear it again. Saddest Day is a deep track on Annie Lennox's last album and I don't think I've ever actually heard it played on a radio anywhere. They also played their own version of Tiesto's Beautiful Things. Towards the end of the night, Skate went out to smoke and couldn't get back in so Kevin and I snagged a cab home. We live exactly across the street from each other so getting out of the cab is kind of funny when we exit left and right and keep going.

Link to Gabriel & Dresden's new Album

I need to spend 72 hours at the movies

Who had Transformers when they were a kid! http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/transformers/transformers_large.htmlThis could be Ashley Judd's best role ever - Come Early Morninghttp://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/comeearlymorning/trailer/One of my favorite Cities and future vocation - The Architecthttp://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/thearchitect/trailer/Hopefully this is better than the Good Shepherd - Chris Cooper is way better at playing creepy smart guys then Matt Damon is - The Breachhttp://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/breach/German Spy Movie - The Lives of Othershttp://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/thelivesofothers/Maybe I'll see this after a GOOD bottle of wine - Evan Almighty http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/evanalmighty/large.htmlAny movie with a beautiful asian woman i'll see - Clean http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/clean/trailer/

Testing

On my way to the real estate exam location, rounding the corner, the 1940's architecture of the city building practically knocks you over the head. There it is in all of its horizontally dominant and retro-tiled glory. The first thing I was greeted by was a 1940's security officer with coke-bottle glasses sitting at a heavy metal 1940's desk asking me to sign in. I scribbled "Connie Chung" on the sheet and proceeded up to the 4th floor cafeteria a.k.a. the real estate examinee's holding pen. There, all types of humans were frantically doing last minute studying, eating burritos and sandwiches and drinking vending machine coffee as we waited with baited breath for the "Proctor" - very official sounding. Frauline Proctor showed up a few minutes later (German woman about 60ish) and gave some elegantly accented instructions and had us follow her down to the exam room. The exam was so back in the day!!! I felt like I was 12years old again at Afton-Lakeland elementary doing the proficiency tests with the bubble letter sheets and paper exam books! When I was in MN we did the Real Estate test via computer and you got your results right there, which could be dangerous if someone unstable were to not pass their exam for the 5th time in a row and happened to have a semi-automatic on them. Anyway, you get your results in 7 business days here because they send them to Sacramento to be checked...I think the Pony Expressdelivers the papers. Later on was the highly dramatic building codes class. I'm grateful that the folks who dreamed up the building code split it into three volumes because I rode my bike and 1 volume is enough to lug around. Getting to class on my bike down Park Blvd is fun, thrilling and a great way to experience the city. Getting back up the hill is a boot-camp excersie with the consequence being not getting home and having to sleep outside with the homeless.As part of my reward for an entire week of studying I picked up a bottle of wine earlier at Whole foods. This bottle of wine "Riven Rock Cabernet Sauvignon - California" has turned out to be the worst bottle of wine I've ever had in my near 30 year old life. I just don't feel like I should be punished for buying things on sale. I want to send this bottle to the Whole Foods wine buyer with a polaroid of the look on my face after taking a sip. Maybe I'll mix it with club soda and drink it anyway. Maybe I'd have better luck with a Target's new Wine Cube.

Koi: Real and Imagined

A composition inspired by the Koi fish in the park.

Building Codes : I read through the first 3 chapters of the Uniform Building Code Vol. 1 and found this passage under Chapter 2 - Defintions, Section 204 - C. Corrosive - is a chemical that causes visible destruction of, or irreversible alterations in, living tissue by chemical action at the site of contact. A chemical is considered to be corrosive if, when tested on the intact skin of albino rabbits by the method described in the United States Department of Transporation in Appendix A to 49 C.F.R. 173, it destroys or changes irreversibly the structure of the tissue at the site of contact folowing an exposure period of four hours. This term shall not refer to action on inanimate surfaces.

Urban Signs

http://flickr.com/photos/19321129@N00/sets/72157594467311188/show/

Photos

I love walking around the park.I like to stare at the cacti and imagine a worst-case scenario of falling on one or in a whole patch of them. I love the walking paths that go into the canyon and the river of rock below. I love walking through the park and seeing the exhibits change at the museums. I love seeing schoolkids there on weekdays pointing and chattering about the Koi Fish in the reflection pond. On Tuesdays, certain museums in the park are free and hopefully tomorrow I'll take advantage of that. School has started and so far I'm happy with my first teacher and feel she'll do well in showing us the ways of the Universal Building Code. I think by default, Elif's accent will probably keep my interest even through the dryest parts. She practices the code daily at her job and seems like the type who's wholly involved in her work and if you had to sit next to her at a dinner party and she didn't know you, she'd probably start talking about building codes. She said whenever she's out anywhere she calculates occupancy in her head and counts exits. That gives me confidence that I've made the right choice about this school. They may not have the nicest campus but if the teachers are obsessed with their subjects that's what counts. The Universal Building Code book is going to cost me the equivalent of 35 Lean Cuisines. I guess I will get on that case of ramen noodles now.