2007 was a pretty interesting year for the rockbandit.net domain. Despite not doing too much with the website this past year, I still managed to rack up quite a lot of readers. For a small blog, I’m pretty happy:

~60K unique visitors
~450K pages served
~1.1M hits
~33GB of bandwidth used

Crazy!

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Wow. It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since I last posted! Thanks to graduating from college, getting a real job and figuring out how life works in the real world, I’ve sort of neglected my poor webpage. Perhaps 2008 will be a time to change that.

2007 was an absolutely amazing year though. How do I even begin to catch people up on what has gone on? Perhaps the best way at the moment is through Flickr.

Click on through, as I take you on a photographic journey of the last 12 months…

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Ugh!

I am still shaking. 🙁

Anyway, it’s totally my fault and I put myself in that situation. But regardless.

My plan was to take some night photos of the waterfall behind the Metreon in downtown SF. Normally, it’s a very pretty area during the day, but it can be kind of sketchy at night. I figured since there was a big convention in town and so many tourists would be nearby at the Moscone Center, it’d be okay.
Way wrong.

I was carrying my huge camera tripod with me (obviously looking like a target) and my camera in my backpack. I get to the middle of the grassy field (which is dark of course) and started setting up the tripod when I noticed someone running across Mission Street in my general direction and kind of sticking to the trees. This creeped me out.

So I folded the tripod back up and decided to walk back towards the Metreon. This dude ran up and cut me off. He had a hoodie over his head and a black bandanna over his face (total robber style apparently). His hand was in his pants and he said “Hey fool, give me all your shit!”

I was shocked even though I knew what was happening and all I could think to say was “What the fuck?”

He said, “I said give me everything, like your camera and wallet. I have a gun and I’m not playing” and stepped towards me.

So… I hit him in the chest with my tripod.

Ugh. (Stupid, I know!)

He backed off and said, “Alright, I see how it is. You better watch yourself” and ran off!

That was it. No fight or anything. Thankfully, nothing taken and I’m not hurt. Just shaken up a bit.

I flagged down a police car up the street and filed a police report. I doubt they’ll catch the guy though. I told the officer that I probably shouldn’t have hit him in the chest and he said, “No way, it’s great you did that. Next time, hit him in the fucking face though.” Ah… vigilante justice at work.

Eh… anyway, that was probably the scariest moment of my life.

I know you can’t put a monetary value on your life and objects can just be replaced. But my first thought was simply “My cell phone, wallet, iPod, camera and lenses are all in my backpack right now. That’s almost my entire life right there…” Not to mention my New Zealand sweatshirt… now *that* is irreplaceable. 😉

Joking aside though, it’s weird how instincts work. I wasn’t trying to be a hero or go Rambo style. But damn, I’m not a pushover either. That said, things would have been different if he actually had pulled a gun on me. I’m willing to wager at this point that he didn’t have one (he never showed it).

But I was still worried that maybe I’d get a bullet in the back as we went our opposite directions. 🙁

What a stressful night.

Anyway, here’s a photo of my savior and hero. (And probably the key reason I got mugged).

The American Geophysical Union conference is being held this week in San Francisco. Something like 13,600 of the world’s top geoscientists are congregating around town to present and talk about the latest earth science research. It’s a really awesome experience.

I got to help present a research poster this year on behalf of the SF-ROCKS outreach organization I work for, helping high schoolers get interested in the sciences. It’s definitely awesome seeing the kids talk to real scientists about what they learned and the research they carried out as part of the program. Some of the kids are absolutely brilliant too, and have a better grasp on science in their sophomore and junior years than I did when I was starting college!

Anyway, highlight of the day was attending one of the keynote speeches at the Marriott, given by none other than Al Gore! It was great getting to see him speak in person. His speech focused on how ”inconvenient truths“ (ie, research that challenges conventional wisdom) are being censored by the current government and that we as geoscientists have a huge moral responsibility to make sure that our research and its implications are heard by the media and general public, especially in regards to climate change. It was a neat sort of speech in a ”rah-rah let’s do it“ sort of way. He definitely does a great job. When he started his speech, he introduced himself by saying, ”Hi, my name is Al Gore. I used to be the next President of the United States.“

Hah.

Anyway, in other news, I am now in the new place. It’s on the 17th story of this apartment building in Lower Pac Heights (which I think they only call it that to give it a classy sounding name… we’re right in the middle of Western Addition and the Tenderloin. Hah… at least this immediate surrounding area is nice though).

Check out some photos!

Definitely love this place. My roommates are quite cool too. We also have very similar schedules and habits. Apparently, we’re all snooze button sleepers. So in the morning, the house is a chorus of alarms constantly going on and off for 30 minutes. It’s kind hilarious actually. A nice way to wake up. 😉

Last bit of news:
Just got my work schedule for next week and I’m pretty disappointed. They didn’t give me the days off that I requested, so I will not be coming home for Christmas. 🙁 Ugh! That makes me pretty sad. So many friends and family members I haven’t seen in so long that I was looking forward to see again. Thanks to the wonderful world of retail, I’ve missed out on two big holidays this year! Boo to that. I’m actually currently looking for a real job at the moment as well. Something that will utilize this nice, shiny and expensive geology degree that I’ll now have!

Speaking of which… my thesis defense went AWESOMELY! I just have a few minor edits to make on my actual thesis paper, then I am home free and done with my undergraduate education. Out into the real world! What a crazy prospect…

Things have been extraordinarily hectic and busy for me as of late. My apologies for the lack of updates!However, tomorrow morning, I leave with my family to go on a week long cruise to the Mexican Riviera!

Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas will be the three stops we check out while we undoubtedly do all the touristy things.

In other news, I recently picked up a nice, swanky digital SLR camera (Nikon D80) and will be lugging that along with me. Hopefully I’ll snap some cool photos with it. 😉

Played around with it quite a lot lately. You can check out a lot of the photos I’ve taken with it on my Flickr page. Pictures from the trip will go up once I get home! 🙂

Here are a bunch of awesome pictures I’ve taken in the past few weeks with it. Enjoy!

Alright!

Things have been insanely busy lately between school, work, BBQs and other assorted things. I’m not going to bore everyone with the mindless details at the moment, but I do want to show you something!

So I’m currently taking an “Art of Comedy” class. There are a series of projects throughout the semester that we can do and we have to choose one. For some strange reason, I chose to perform 3 minutes of stand up comedy in front of the entire class (this is a theater filled with something like 250 students). Holy Crap!

Anyway, today was the big day! (Err yesterday/Tuesday was now that I just looked at a clock). My friend David decided to stop by to offer moral support and even film it, since I’ve never done anything like this before.

As luck would have it, out of 10 people who were going to perform today, my name was randomly drawn first! So how did I do? Alright I suppose. I went a little fast (but you only have 3 minutes and then they cut you off!).

The first few seconds of the video is missing, I am basically saying how iPods are basically the most popular music players ever…

How did I do? Judge for yourself!

My friends and family who know me well enough are always both amazed and appalled at the junk that goes in my system and the fact that I’m somehow still a skinny guy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually pretty amazed too, but I think I really should start changing that before it’s too late!

A few months ago, my mom bought me this book after I commented on the fact that I’d like a cook book that shows me pictures of the meals I will be making. I guess it has to do with me being a visual person (and wanting to know what meals actually look good!).

This is all fine and dandy, the problem being that my only cooking experience up to this point in my life is heating up water for pasta and occasionally making banana bread. However, I’m always up for a challenge! I opened up to a random page and found a recipe for ranch chicken. It looked and sounded good!

So I went to the store, assembled the proper ingredients and went to work. Most people would consider this a scary proposition, since I nearly burned my parent’s house down one day simply by trying to cook popcorn in the microwave!

I have to say, I’m actually quite pleased with how everything turned out!

And the final product! Ranch chicken with fettuccine alfredo and vegetables!

It was EXCELLENT too! And now I have a few days of leftovers too! I think I might be able to get this cooking thing down. It will actually be nice to not eat out for something like 5 days a week now and save money (and potentially eat healthier too!).

Now the real test will be to see whether or not I get sick within the next few days… hah.

The summer solstice was yesterday, and like a law of nature, the fog arrived back in San Francisco on cue! I’m kind of bummed about that. At the same time however, I am happy that my “Law of the Wintery Summer” is still valid.

Summer Solstice = Fog for 3 months

Yes! Time to get used to it. I just had a feeling about that too… this morning when I woke up, I saw an AMAZINGLY awesome sunrise! So I decided to take a picture:

Of course, as the day goes on… here is the SAME view! Basically 10 hours later…

Yes! That is something I haven’t seen in quite awhile. Time to get used to it again! 🙂

Luckily, we’ve been taking advantage of it up here as the new house mates and I have been having some friends over for BBQs the past few days!

A new feature recently added to the awesome Google Maps website is that users can now view the handy KMZ files created in Google Earth right in Google Maps. This means you don’t have to download any software. Just visit the website and you can see a list of locations and such.

So! To test this new feature out, I uploaded a KMZ file I created in Google Earth that shows every single In N’ Out that I have ever been to.

I know I posted a graphic last year about it. Now thanks to Google… it is a fully interactive map!

Check it out!

Alright!

This is a crazy post. For your reading pleasure, I have created a table of contents!

Table of Contents
I. Hiking Whitney
II. Friends, Games and Losing Money
III. Xenophobic Dentists
IV. Beat Boxing
V. Bloody Dancing

Hiking
I returned back to the Bay Area on Friday after spending the last two weeks in Southern California. The first week was spent roaming around the Eastern Sierras in preparation for our Mount Whitney climb. Unfortunately, the day before we were to begin our climb, Dan sprained his knee on a practice hike.

So that rendered him unable to carry out the climb and I didn’t want to leave him behind at camp while I spent the day hiking it by myself. Instead, we decided to explore some good old dirt roads in Owens Valley and camped out one final night in the desert near Lone Pine.

Our wonderful shrine of fire to Mount Whitney the last night we were in Lone Pine. 😉

Friends
We returned back to the Inland Empire to meet up with friends for BBQs, baseball games, and playing all manner of crazy games (Catch Phrase, Would You Rather and Cranium). Dan and I apparently have the world’s most awesome Cranium team, but we’ve never won the game. This is because every time we roll, we advance about 1 space while all the other teams blaze on by ahead of us. So we probably end up answering more questions correctly than all the other team’s put together, but it still does no good. Ah well.

We also played various Poker games (since the guys have a weekly Poker night back home that I don’t get to participate in due to my “remote” location). Fortunately, between the infrequent opportunities I play down there and playing up here with friends, I was able to continue my year long streak of LOSING MONEY in Poker. I’m quite good at it! This might also have to do with me having some form of A.D.D., where I can focus on playing the game for an hour or two and hold my own… even doing well on occasion. After that first hour though, I stop carrying and start betting frivolously when I hold a pair of 2’s in my hand. It’s awesome.

Xenophobic Dentists
Another highlight of my week was getting to visit my dentist. I know, you must be thinking, “What in the hell is wrong with you if visiting your dentist is a highlight?” Well, funny you should ask! I shall explain.

I haven’t seen her since pre-New Zealand trip, so of course she asked about it. Naturally, I start excitedly talking about how amazing and beautiful that country is, as well as the friendly people. She asked if I would ever consider moving there and I wasted no time saying “Providing my financial situation was in order, yes!” Then I went on the explain about their emigration (with an “e”, not with an “i”… meaning people leaving the country) problem and how they want young professionals and such to move there.

So far it’s a happy, friendly conversation. Cue the comment from out of left field.

My dentist gives me a concerned look, leans in close and says, “I think we should send some of our ‘South-of-the-Border friends’ there then if you know what I mean. We must get 10,000 a minute coming into the country.”

Umm… excuse me?

No, I can’t say I know exactly what you mean because I am not an irrational xenophobe. It was really nice to interject screwed up political beliefs and racist views into my otherwise happy conversation about my trip. It’s really sad that some people feel that way.

I happen to think I’m extremely fortunate for living up here in San Francisco, an amazingly diverse city in terms of religious beliefs, cultural backgrounds and ethnic heritage and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

But of course they are all savagely “stealing our jobs” and “taxing our resources.” Oh wait! Don’t forget that their skin is a different color too!

Of course it’s especially embarrassing that San Bernardino(where I originally went to school and the neighboring town to where I grew up) has decided to propose one of the toughest anti-immigrant proposals in the country. City councilman Chas Kelly (Republican of course) is proposing this legislation for a variety of reason, among them: He hears little English spoken in his supermarket checkout line!

Oh no!

What a sad state of affairs.

Beat Boxing
Anyway, back to more exciting things! This past Friday, David and I went to a beat boxing competition in Berkeley. 24 performers that would be narrowed down to one winner based on who the audience voted for. It was INCREDIBLE. For those not in the know about beat boxing, it’s basically all about creating beats, melodies and other assorted rhythms by simply using your mouth. The sounds some of these people can make are AMAZING.

The MC of the event was Kid Beyond, who is apparently one of the most famous beat boxers around. He performed for people between rounds and the sounds he could make were absolutely unreal. I found a video of him on youtube:

Absolutely amazing!

Bloody Dancing
On Sunday night, David and I hung out once again and met up with a friend of his from Berkeley to check out an Asian American dance performance. Definitely fun to see. And the things people can do with their bodies are just phenomenal and beautiful.

Of course they also had some weird skit thing in the middle that was rather intense.

In the middle of the stage a table was setup with a white table cloth, a microphone and platter containing assorted items. In front of the table, facing the audience was a large television connected to a camcorder that was placed on the table (which was on and offered an exclusive “Table-Side” view of whatever action was about to take place).

Two ladies came out dressed in nothing but white shirts. They sat down across from each other on the table and started some random small talk. One of the ladies attached a small rubber tourniquet to the other’s arm. Then she pulled out a needle and proceeded to draw blood. After filling up a vial, they pulled out the needle and switched roles… this time pulling out a new needle and filling up another vial.

All the while, they had just pulled the needles out and left them, so blood is flowing onto the table. And we have a close up view thanks to the camcorder that one of the ladies is now holding!

Then comes the intense part…

They pull out TWO SHOT GLASSES. They pour half of each vial into both glasses, count to three and DRINK IT! Then the lights went out and that was the end of the skit.

It sounds gross… and it was. But watching this live, happening not more than 20 feet in front of you was intense! Oh. my. god.

Yikes.

Anyway, this was definitely an eventful weekend full of crazy things to see and experience. Now that I’m back in town, the primary focus is to secure a job and finish working on my thesis! Excellent!

Until next time my friends.