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My most artistic of friends, Mr. Jason Pietrucha (the "Patroosh"), came to visit me after a stint in L.A. with Steve. Jason is one of those amazing types that was smart enough to be any of those professional occupations (and was well on his way to medical school), but eventually chose to follow his natural artistic genius and go the artsy design route. I'm slightly jealous at all the awesome projects he gets to work on in school, and it's made me think a bit more seriously about starting a design oriented degree program around here. Part time, for the hell of it, with no motivation other than to do it.

Every time someone visits, I get to do something touristy that I should have already done. Jason and I went to Moma over the weekend and well, I was unimpressed. Admittedly, I've never bought into modern art. A blank canvas with one neon light is not art. It's a blank canvas. And a light. Oh well, we gave it a shot. On the positive note, their book store is amazing. I could sit in there all day and look at the gorgeous art books and trinkets. They have some especially impressive pop-up books.

A week later, my mom visited. Our excursion of note was to Sonoma, which was just lovely. On top of the winery hopping, we did a few circles around the town and stopped by the famous cheese and fudge factory (free tastings!), had lunch in an outdoor garden at a perfect little cafe, and found one of the best thrift stores I've ever been to. It was so clean and organized and had great prices (e.g. I bought a perfect quality free form wine rack originally sold for about $75 for just $10). I'd return to Sonoma just for the thrift store.

For those nearing the bottom of their Netflix queue, I shall supply two recommended documentaries:

1. Jesus Camp: Follows a Pentecostal summer camp for children who spend their summers learning and practicing how to "take back America for Christ." There is no strong hidden bias in this film (unlike your typical Michael Moore flick), and the main characters depicted in the film were generally pleased with the resulting film. Amusingly, the only character displeased with his depiction was Ted Haggard. Then again, he was probably just bitter because of some incidents that were exposed months after this film was released. This was quite disturbing, at least for someone who is otherwise unfamiliar with religious extremism. Still, a worthwhile watch.

2. Grizzly Man: Follows the adventures and not too unexpected death of Timothy Treadwell as he lived among Grizzly bears for 13 years in the Alaskan wilderness. I know what you're thinking... "Bet all those trees and bears would look really nice on a big screen... Yawn." And yes, there is some nice bear footage, but the more entertaining part of this documentary is watching the eccentric, bipolar, yet at times charismatic main character spread his controversial Grizzly gospel.

And remember, even if the documentary is bad, you sound that much smarter for watching it over some crappy romantic comedy.

I took a glass blowing class about a month ago and thought I'd post some of my finished products. There are a few places in the bay area that offer glass classes, typically for lampworking and typically for around $400 for a weekend workshop -- pricey! I really wanted to try out glassblowing (think glory hole and big vat of molten glass) over flame working (think little blow torch and rods of glass), and I finally found a dude in Santa Cruz that offered to teach me out of his rented garage. Hooray for hippie art dudes on Craigslist! So we set up a time to do it, I paid him some money, and he taught me the basics of glassblowing while helping me make some paper weights, some pumpkins, and a drinking glass. I'd love to continue doing this, but it's a pretty expensive hobby, requires a lot of equipment or studio rental and you really need a partner to work with. Until I figure out those details, I'll just have a much greater appreciation for glass work.

These suckers are stealing my letters!

...annoyed (as always) that there are two exits for Mission Blvd on I-680 (how confusing!). This means nothing to most of you, but if you live in Northern California, you can appreciate how stupid this is.

...listening to the "Time after Time" cover by Quietdrive.

...adoring a baby pineapple, which was twice the cost of a regular pineapple, a quarter the size, and five times the cute.

...making my obligatory post for March.

Who actually is buying this stuff? And no, the irony of selling paper on the Internet is not lost on me.

The weeks of 2008 are flying by, which is good. The less time I spend writing in my blog, the less time you have to spend reading it. At some point in January, Leo visited and we started our career as rock stars. I still have a lot of practice to do before I can play in the same room as Josh, but we just got the game for my team at work, so I will be training until my fingers are worn and blistered. Shortly after Leo left, Will visited from Calgary. Will, Peter, and I drove down to Joshua Tree for some southern California sun. We did one day of climbing, one night in LA, one morning in Venice beach, then dropped Will off at LAX and drove back to Mountain View. Meder was supposed to join us on the trip, but a series of canceled flights kept him in London. After a short stop in D.C., he eventually did make it to California to play. One night we watched his favorite movie while eating chips, guacamole, pizza, and beer, followed the next morning by a stop for donuts on the way to play video games; you know, the typical way we entertain in America.

More recently, I went to Disneyland on a company trip. There were no lines since we went midweek in the middle of winter, but the park was closed for Google after 8pm, which meant we were only limited by our stomach's tolerance for rides. The rides are more tame than those at Great America, but Disneyland just has this amazing fluid fantasy feel throughout the whole park that can't be matched.

A few days later, Dawn visited. Among other lazy activities, we toured the Sharffen Berger chocolate factory in Berkeley. The one hour tour was free and included tastes of their different lines of chocolates, the main reason we were attracted. I actually learned a lot about how chocolate was made and would definitely recommend the tour for anyone looking to entertain or waste some time on a Saturday. Plus, walking around a factory where all of the rubble, dust, and debris comes from some part of a cacao nut is awesome - I want my own chocolate factory now.

And now pictures to prove that some of that happened and I'm not making it all up.