The Austin Visit - Barton Creek

"Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." - H. L. Mencken

The weekend before last I watched the World Cup Final. Spain came out victorious, but man it was a boring game. I mean, there was a point where I was happy it was going to penalty kicks

because at least that would be exciting. But then Spain scored, a nice goal I admit, and the game was over. Well good for them and here is looking forward to the next World Cup in 4 years or the Women's World Cup in 2011. I don't know why, but this year just felt like a let down soccer wise.

I have exciting news, on Sunday, July 18, 2010, my friend Jorge's daughter Sofia Mendoza was born. I don't know much more than what I can tell from a picture of a new born baby that he texted to me, but I'm very excited for him and especially his wife Michelle. Jorge is the first of my close college friends to start a family. I hope to be a great fake uncle to this little girl. She was originally due on July 21st.

This weekend my family came up from the Valley to visit my brother and I in Austin. My sister Ana came with her daughter Sarah and my nieces; Rebekkah, Jamie, and Tori. My cousin Alex came with her two girls; Victoria and Isabella. They rented a van, they dubbed as "big sexy" and while on their way up, they were asked by the border patrol at the checkpoint if they were part of some church group. I thought it was pretty funny.

They got in on Friday night while I was napping. I awoke to have a full house. Even my cousin Ralph (Alex's brother) dropped by, who I hadn't seen since we were little kids. I got to meet his wife and kids which was nice. We ordered pizza and watched movies. Here are the photos and videos I have from the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hyadus/sets/72157624546412944/

On Saturday, Abram took everyone to Sculpture Falls at Barton Creek. We hiked about half a mile and then they swam in the water. There were a lot of people there, and lots of dog owners with their dogs. After, we hiked another mile to Sculpture Falls and hung out there for some time. It was a fun experience and that is considering I'm not really the outdoor type.

On the hike back, we stopped at a rock wall that I had been eying. I wanted to see how far up I could climb, so I decided to try it out. Half way up, Abram decided to try as well and made it to the top. I was ready to quit half way because I couldn't get to the next rock and I knew that if I fell, I would likely be badly hurt. But I did not, and I made it to the next rock and made it to the top. It felt great, that sense of achievement when you do something you didn't think you could do. I'm glad someone took a picture of it It probably wasn't too difficult, but falling is still scary.

That night we came back to the house and BBQed and watched more movies. It was overall a very enjoyable weekend and everybody was well behaved. I think it will be an adventure they remember when they are older.

On Sunday I saw the movie Inception with Christina. I somewhat regret not watching it in IMAX or in 3D, but it was a great movie. I highly recommend it. It really gets your brain working. It is a must see.

Finally, I'm working on a petition for review to the Texas Supreme Court. It is my first one and it is a great learning experience. I really think I can win this case, but there is a lot of hard work that has to be done. It is out of place I know, but it was on my mind.

fading memories

Summertime Experiences

"Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness." - Chuang-tzu

The summer has hit and the heat has been mixed with lots of rain, which I do not mind considering how hot last summer was. I have yet to see a beach this summer, but hopefully I'll find some time to take a real vacation, but honestly I haven't thought of it much. I haven't been doing a lot of thinking lately it feels like. I just feel very uninspired as of late.

I'm a bit delayed on this, but I recently got an iPhone 4. I must say is a pretty awesome phone and my favorite part is that camera/video camera. It is much better quality than my iPhone 3G and has a flash. I was able to test it out at Mark's wedding and rarely used my digital camera. I did have some issues with my mic, so I exchanged it, which wasn't too bad. Now I'm trying to find a good case for it, but there are not many options out yet. I just hope they fix their reception issues.

One thing that sucked was that my iPhone wasn't working on my TomTom iPhone car kit mount when I plugged it in. I use this everyday and paid way too much for it, so this was disappointing. After reading some ideas on the web, I decided to try my own fix. I used velcro and made a quick video to test out my video camera on the phone. Well that video got posted on Engadget.com

Here is the article with my video embedded: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/25/iphone-4-and-tomtom-car-kit-brought-together-with-velcro/. I was very excited about seeing my video on a site that I read daily.

I sold my old iPhone 3G, which I kept in pretty good condition and even gave the person the original box, bag and a free case. The cash came in helpful for my trip to Louisville. I probably could have gotten more money for it, but that always feels like the case after you sell something.

I can't seem to cement Chloe as my puppy's name. So far it is winning and I'm going to have to make it official at some point very very soon. I usually don't take this much time on picking a name. I guess I was really excited with Maddie (the kitten) and I wasn't as creative after. So I have been crate training her. This is not going as well as I hoped. She is getting used to her kennel. So I think we got this routine down, I take her out, she doesn't pee, I think I mistimed it and bring her back in where she pees on the carpet. Patience. Puppies are so much more work than kittens.

The other day I was out having sushi after playing tennis and I ran into an actor (Frank Lapidus) from Lost. I thought it was cool. I just admired from afar.

I'm still watching the World Cup despite the US and Mexico being out of it. I really thought Germany would make it to the finals, but I guess Spain was too much for them. I'm looking forward to the final this weekend. Another 4 years before I watch full games of soccer again.

While I was at Mark's wedding, I was recommended the series Mad Men. I had been wanting to see it for some time, so I decided to watch it. Less than a week later I was done with season 3. It is a very good series and I can't wait for the new season on July 25th on AMC.

There are not a lot of shows on this summer. There is Trueblood which I watch, but am not as big of a fan as others. I checked out Persons Unknown and wasn't too impressed, too bad it got bad ratings and was moved to Saturday. I like how they called it a mini-series since it wouldn't last past one season.

I got plane tickets to Phoenix, AZ for the end of the month for my cousin's wedding. I'm looking forward to it and to visiting a state I have never been to before. Too bad I'm trying to boycott AZ at the same time. I'm going to spend as little money as possible. I would really like to visit all the states (with exception of AK) at some point. I got a lot of them down and I can't imagine a reason to ever be in the Dakotas or Wyoming, but I'll figure it out.

Finally, my eyes are still healing from the Lasik, but I wish it would be quicker. I'm still seeing rings around lights at night, my eyes are a bit dry (not as bad as before) and they strain when using the computer at work. Of course, all this is a great trade off for being able to see and I'd do it again, but I'd like those side effects to go away anyway.

can only imagine the two weddings I did not attend