Kerry and I participated in the Color Me Rad 5K run in Fontana today. It was a fun, festive, and very colorful event!
Then and Now
This weekend, I went back to Redlands for my cousin’s wedding. A few of my close friends growing up were also in the wedding party.
We decided to sort of recreate a photo we took together at our high school prom in May 2000. Here are myself, Nate, and Nic.
Here we are, 12 years later in April 2012.
2011 Photographic Year in Review
What?! Another year in the history books? I say this every year, but time sure does fly. Especially when you’re having fun. This year seemed like one of the busiest yet! Let’s take a look back at my photographic year in review for 2011.
See previously, my photographic year in reviews for 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.
Help save our friend Amit
Our friend, Amit Gupta, was diagnosed with Leukemia. He needs help in a major way.
I got a call from my doctor, who I’d gone to see the day before because I’d been feeling worn out and was losing weight, and wasn’t sure why. He was brief:
“Amit, you’ve got Acute Leukemia.“You need to enter treatment right away.”
I was terrified. I packed a backpack full of clothes, went to the hospital as he’d instructed, and had transfusions through the night to allow me to take a flight home at 7am the next day. I Googled acute leukemia as I lay in my hospital bed, learning that if it hadn’t been caught, I’d have died within weeks.
I have a couple more months of chemo to go, then the next step is a bone marrow transplant. South Asians are severely under-represented in the bone marrow pool, and I need help.
There’s a few things you can do to help. Are you of South Asian descent? Swab! Or help organize a drive!
[more info Amit Gupta Needs You]
Word of the Day game
My sister and I have been playing a little game that involves texting each other a sentence based on Dictionary.com’s word of the day.
It’s especially fun when we start trash talking each other using past words of the day.
A beautiful Sunday
Nothing like watching the World Cup final with friends on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
Photo in Geeksugar
A photo of mine appeared in an article about Veronica Belmont and Ryan Block in Geeksugar, for their series of “Geeks We Love” articles!
Nikon D300, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8, and an SB-600 flash w/ LumiQuest 80-20 diffuser.
Perfect way to start (and end) any trip
This weekend, a number of our friends ventured to Lake Tahoe for some R&R. We stayed in a friend’s family’s cabin, went snowboarding, and watched the Super Bowl.
Of course, the perfect way to start (and end) the trip is by visiting In N’ Out.
Fighting dirty in Scrabble
Recently, I downloaded a game for the iPhone called “Words with Friends.” It’s very similar to Scrabble, with a different board and slightly different letter values (one would assume to avoid Scrabble’s IP lawyers).
Many of my family and friends are playing the game and we’re all having fun trying to best each other’s scores. I like to think I have a good vocabulary, but apparently I don’t know how to effectively play for points, as evidenced above by the 60-point bomb that Kerry dropped on me, two moves into the game!
No matter though. I’ll just have to brush up on the following video, “Fighting dirty in Scrabble.”
2009 – The Year in Review (Photos)
Funny shorts in Barcelona
While traveling through Europe last year, we stopped for a few days in Barcelona to check out the capital city of Catalonia. The hostel we were staying in gave us a flyer of interesting things to do over the next few days.
One particular entry caught our eye.
“¡Una nit de curts còmic!”
It’s written in Catalan and basically translates to “a night of funny shorts!”
That was pretty amusing to us, especially because we all agreed that Sanjin had just bought some ridiculous and funny shorts right before we left on our trip.
So we made plans that evening to set out for the bar / lounge (called the Mau Mau Underground) that was hosting “funny shorts night.” Sanjin decided to pack the shorts in his messenger bag and change into them when we got there, just in case the night ended up being a bust.
When we arrived, we noticed a distinct lack of activity in front of the bar. We paid a small cover and went inside, only to find the place fairly dead. A few people sitting on couches and either drinking beer or smoking.
We decided to make the best of our time there and plopped down on a couch and ordered a few beers. After a few minutes, they started playing some ridiculous and hilarious movie. It was over within a few minutes. Another one immediately started, and it was also over within a few minutes.
One of us turned to the rest and asked, “what’s with all these funny short movies…”
Their voice trailed off and instantly, we all knew what funny shorts actually meant! We shared quite a bit of laughter over our pretty obvious mixup. We sat down, content to enjoy the rest of the evening, watching funny shorts and having some tasty Spanish beers.
As an aside, one of the short films we saw that evening particularly stuck with me. It was an amazing stop-motion film focused on photography. Which is why I think it made such an impression on me. Ten Thousand Pictures of You.
“¡Una nit de curts còmic!”
Funny shorts night. It’s a phrase that will always bring a smile to my face.
Halloween party and uninvited guests
Last night, we ventured out to the East Bay for a friend’s annual Halloween Party. Hilarious and creative costumes were the norm of course and good times were had by all!
Mostly.
Last night, towards the end of the party, I posted a message to Twitter, which received a number of responses this morning:
One of the guests last night brought their chihuahua to the party unannounced. It was dressed up in pirate gear and actually made one of the cutest little pirates around.
The hosts of the party have a larger dog who isn’t too keen on strange animals invading its home and the hosts weren’t aware that someone had brought another animal over. The chihuahua was kept in a small bucket, and set on a chair to keep it off the floor and away from the other dog.
Unfortunately, all it takes is one mistake for someone to move the dog from the bucket, not realizing the potential consequences of what could happen.
Anyway, a number of us were chatting in the kitchen later in the evening when we suddenly heard some pretty ferocious snarling at our feet and a blur of twisting and shaking fur.
It was over before any of us could comprehend what happened. The little
chihuahua was laying on its side on the kitchen floor, twitching while blood spread from a wound on its head. No one moved at first because we were all shocked and trying to understand what just happened.
The owner of the chihuahua is a vet, so she immediately began trying to stop the bleeding and was soon conducting CPR. The whole situation was dire, and we were all huddled around her on the kitchen floor, watching as she frantically tried to save her dog.
After a few minutes, she picked up her dog and left with a small group of friends to try and find an emergency veterinarian clinic.
We got word this morning that the chihuahua didn’t make it.