Let It Snow...

This past weekend I was able to go snowboarding in probably the best conditions that I have ever gone snowboarding.  It rained for a week straight here in L.A. and all the local mountains were pummeled with snow. Before I went snowboarding, I wanted to get a few things arranged...


//begin side story

Last year I purchased a Ride snowboard on craigslist, complete with boots and bindings, for $150.  If you know  a few things about snowboarding and how expensive it can be, you would agree with me that for $150, the deal I got was pretty sweet.  However, there was one slight problem. The board was a little too long for me.  The boots fit fine, the bindings were in good shape, but the board was slightly longer than I had hoped for.  The board measured 162 cm.  I learned on a 155 cm, so these extra 7 cm (yes, I know, only 2.7559 inches) messed up everything.  Nevertheless, the package was a good deal, so I kept it.


I used the Ride board for a year and decided that I wanted to shift back to a shorter board, where I might feel more comfortable. I looked on craigslist again but couldn't really find anything that would fit me. (See, I want a sweet design on the board too because, let's be honest, snowboarding is at least 90% looks).  On my way back from work last week, I stopped by a local snowboard shop to talk to them about rentals.  Some friends were going to join me at the mountain and needed to rent and I wanted to see how much they cost.  The conversation at the shop turned into talking about the Ride board and how I wanted to get a shorter board because I would feel more comfortable on it.  The owner of the shop agreed to take a look at my board and upon doing so, offered a Nitro 156 cm board that I could try out.  He said that he'd hold onto my board and if I liked the Nitro board, I could keep it.  If I wasn't the biggest fan, he'd swap my bindings back on for me and give me back the Ride board (for the simple price of a 12-pack of New Castle).  


So I came back on Friday to pick up my "new" Nitro board and to get rentals for my friends.  My bindings were on the Nitro board but before I took it back with me, I found out from another employee that the Nitro board was in fact a girl's board!  It didn't look like a girl's board, but now I'm all thinking "Man, I'm going to be the laughingstock of the entire snowboarding community."  Lucky for me, this other employee told me that a Neversummer 155 cm board had just been brought in and that it would probably suit me perfectly.  I asked him if I could take that one for a test run and he said sure thing.  So he swapped off the bindings from the Nitro (girl's) board and put it on the Neversummer (manly) board, sharped the edges, and waxed the bottom.  Now I was in business.  


I rode the board and it was a lot smoother than my previous Ride board.  I felt like I had much more control on this board than I did the Ride board.  I wanted to keep it.  But I didn't know how much extra the shop would charge me.  I told myself I was willing to spend up to $50 because I knew that it was a better board than the Ride I had.  I brought back and talked with the guys at the shop and they said that I could keep the Neversummer board for $40.  I was pleased.  Now I have a new board! Yay!
//end side story


...so after getting a few things arranged, off I went to the mountain.  We departed home around 5 in the morning and didn't make it up the lift until slightly close to 10:30.  Traffic like crazy.  Anyways, that's not what this post is really about. (not that I know what this post is really about anyways...)  As I mentioned earlier, it had been raining in these parts for the entire week.  I looked at the weather forecast and Saturday was supposed to be the day that it stopped (and this is why we chose to come snowboarding on Saturday).


The rain stopped.  The clouds moved away.  The sun shone brightly.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.


I will need to steal pictures from the only guy on the trip who brought a camera.  But even after I get those pictures, I don't think a picture could capture what the view was like from up on top of the mountain.  We could see out for what seemed to be hundreds of miles.  The sky was a rich deep blue color and the weather was much warmer than I had initially thought it would be.  The trees were each covered in a fresh layer of snow from the previous night and everything looked so entirely majestic and serene.  I rode up the lift a few times just by myself (no friends :( ) and each time I did, I closed my eyes for a moment thanking God for such a wonderful creation and then opened them to see all that was around me.  I was at peace.  It felt like all the temporary troubles that I've gone through recently and all the negative things in my life just melted away [perhaps this is worthy of another post, maybe].  God was truly in control and seeing all the beauty around me made me believe that even more.  I don't know why, but there's something about sweet-action landscape views that make me weak in the knees.  I think maybe it's because there are certain things in life that you imagine, but you never have the chance to see.  We've all seen postcards with cool views or pictures from other people's trips, but there's something different about seeing it firsthand.  I've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words.  If that's the case, I don't even know how many words are in seeing it with you own two eyes.  At least two thousand!  Or...a billion thousand!  And when you see it, you just look... and look... and look.  So when I was on top of the mountain riding up by myself, that's what I did.  I looked.  And it's crazy because at that moment I told myself, "Only my God, the creator of the universe, could design something so spectacular, yet so simple."  After all, it was some mountain ranges with a few clouds, some trees, some snow, etc.  But the way it all came together, it was glorious.  It reminded me that if God can design something so intricate as the earth and have it so beautiful, then surely He must be able to handle all the problems and burdens in my tiny life.  I just need to be able to lift them up to Him and trust that He truly is sovereign.


So thanks God, for allowing me to see all that You wanted me to see.  Thanks for the wonderful earth that you have created and the marvelous sights you have designed.  And thanks most of all, for loving me more than I will ever understand.

An Increase in Productivity

Tonight I was very productive. Perhaps the most productive I have been in a while.  I am quite proud of myself.


-I finished up watching some lecture thing / started homework assignment
-I organized my school stuff into their respective folders
-I did laundry (just pants and some dress shirts)
-I sewed back 3 buttons that had fallen off my pants (3 different pairs)
-I played guitar.


Excellent.

Double Dash Insanity

Two player Mario Kart Double Dash.  Baby Park.


I was in 1st place, friend was way behind in 8th.  He got the leader shell and was starting his comeback.  He fired. He hit both me and himself.  I had just lapped him.  w00t.  We laughed for a good 2 minutes.  Never before had we seen the leader shell backfire like that.

Traffic Galore :(

I live 4 miles away from work.  On an average day, it takes me anywhere from 13-17 (plus or minus 3) minutes to get to work.  This depends on a few variables like traffic and hitting certain lights.  Leaving work is about the same.


Except for today...

The blue route is what I was aiming for.  I wanted to go east (right) on Manhattan Beach Blvd. and then south (down) on Inglewood Ave.[The green is what I ended up taking.]  As I approached Inglewood, I noticed that traffic was really bad. I wondered why.  I soon saw that the cops had shut down a section of road (denoted by giant red box) because of a huge accident.  As I turned right (green) onto the side street, I did indeed see that there was a big accident and it looked like a car had been Hulk Smashed. (I hope that person is ok...)


Once I entered the side streets, I had a feeling that it would be backed up there too because all of the traffic funneled into that side street (there were stop signs).  I've been in this area before so I thought I would be tricky and bypass this traffic so I made a swift right turn (going back west still denoted by green) and proceeded to the next side street.  I made that left turn (now going down again) and I was stopped in traffic.  I wondered why this was.  My roommate and I put on our "save the world" hats today [meaning we carpooled].  He decided to get out and walk to see what was happening.  I did not pick him up until way later.


Apparently I wasn't that familiar with the area because now I see that making that turn did not do me any good.  In fact, it may have made things worse.  That street (Johnston) is very narrow.  This being a residential neighborhood, many of the residents parked alongside their house on the street.  Johnston Ave. is not capable of handling 4 cars side-by-side. So there were some instances in which traffic would just be gridlocked with no cars able to move. (The red arrow pointing upwards denotes an onslaught of traffic heading northwest).  So we were stuck.  Well... I guess just me at this point.  My roommate was far away at this point.  At the next few intersections (Thomas and Hawkins), I was met by other drivers who also thought they were being clever by avoiding the initial traffic on Dow.  They too were misled.  Traffic traffic traffic.


As it turns out, everyone ended up together anyways. I wonder if it would've been better if I just stuck on the initial street.


I picked up my roommate at the orange dot.  Luckily, he was able to avoid all the traffic.


It took us about 30 minutes just to get back out onto Inglewood.  Lame.


I don't even normally take this route home.  I only did it because I wanted to go shopping at Von's to buy some fruit....


Lesson learned:  An apple a day will get you stuck in traffic.

Goals for 2010

Except taken from email

1) Read more.  I've always grown up in the library's book club that my mom made me attend.  Each summer there was a book list and I think the more books we read, the more stickers (or something of that nature) we received.  Reading was enjoyable.  For the most part.  And then high school hit and we had to write book reports.  Lame.  Reading changed from a source of entertainment to an assignment and it just never was the same.  I hope to pick up reading again for the enjoyment of reading.  There are a lot of talented authors out there with stories to tell and I hope that I'll be able to read some of their works.  There are a lot of Christian books that are filled with lots of wisdom and knowledge that can draw me closer to God so I hope to read those as well.  I'm open to suggestions of any kind.

2) Play piano more.  Again, I grew up playing the piano.  I never learned the theory behind the music, I just played.  My piano teacher just gave me sheets of music to play... and that's what I did.  The more I listen to random songs on YouTube these days, the more I want to be able to play them.  I'm hoping that sometime this year I get my hands on a keyboard (piano too big to be moving around) and I start to play for the enjoyment of playing.  Like the reading, piano got to be an assignment as I'd come back from lessons every week and I needed to practice every night for a certain amount of time.  It got to be a chore and I started to dread playing.  Perhaps this year will be different.

3) Play guitar more. I've never been all that great at guitar.  I know most chords and can strum decently well, but like piano, I don't understand the theory behind it.  I'm hoping to steal my roommates (yes, Alfred, you) talent so I can play better.  I never took lessons in this, so I can't say that I dreaded playing this instrument growing up.  I wish to continue learning and improving and that can only be done through practice!

4) Finish writing script for something. I've liked creative writing for as long as I can remember.  I don't think I'm good enough at it for it to amount to anything, so now I'm an engineer.  But I still like writing.  I still like telling stories.  I'm hoping to finish a script (don't know how long or how short) by the end of the year.  I like the idea of creating a story and having that story tell a message.  I don't exactly know what story or what message I'll end up telling, but hopefully it's a pretty good one.  For those of you that don't know, I will openly admit that I like romantic comedies (I know some of you may think this is the same as a chick flick - we can debate that some other time).  It's looking like I'll be going down that route.

5) Start filming for above script.  Not only do I want to write something, but I want to be able to capture it both with audio and video.  This will take a tremendous amount of time, but I think I will enjoy it very much. I will need to obtain a hefty amount of equipment before all of this happens... so it's good that the year just started!

6) Take pictures more.  I've obtained a DSLR in recent months and I'm slowly learning how to take pictures.  Most of them suck still, but with some practice, I think I can get better... It's all about lighting! (This will ideally help me with #5).  I'm trying to carry with me my point and shoot when I can so I can start better documenting my life.  It will be cool to look back years later and see all the crappy pictures I've taken and how I've (ideally...) improved.

7) Write in blog more. I dropped Xanga because I don't like the ads in it and have started a blog somewhere.  I want to make sure I like the layout of it (template-wise) before I start using it more frequently, so that may pose a challenge.  But given what I said in #4 about liking writing, I figure this would be pretty cool to do.

8) Finish school. 4 semesters down.  1 more to go and then I will be done with my Master's in Electrical Engineering.  I remember thinking to myself that it would take forever to get. Now I'm 1 semester away and it's so close. I want to finish strong.

9) Pray more.  I've seen in the past year how prayer is huge and how God answers so faithfully. I want to continue to seek out God's will in my life and I know that can only be done through trusting in Him.

10) Share life with others more. I think I've been the type of person to be friends with almost anyone.  I can fairly easily have a conversation with people just about simple stuff. I've never really opened up to people or shared more of my life with them so I'm making that one of my goals too.  When I have been able to do this, it's really cool.  Words can't really describe it, so I won't try. But I recommend that all of you go and have deep conversations with other people! It'll be worth it.  If it's not, I'll buy you ice cream.

Fitting First Entry..

PortaJon. I've used this name for as long as I can remember. Well, as far back as StarCraft days go, so since...maybe 1997. My first name is Jon and I wanted to come up with a clever name, so PortaJon became it. Since then, I've used it for numerous applications. Yahoo accounts, YouTube accounts, you name it, PortaJon all over the place.

This name originated from Porta John ("Worldwide portable toilet sales...") and my first entry into this blogging world will be just about that. Toilets.

A few months ago, I received a letter on my door. The letter said, "The unit below mine is dripping with water so the tenant came upstairs to see if it was my bathroom that was leaking. My unit is now also covered in water. I believe your unit has a plumbing problem."

You see, I live on the 3rd floor of a complex and apparently the leak was so bad that it went through not only the unit below me, but also down to the ground floor. Well, not exactly my leak, but more so my roommates leak (on his side of the condo). Nonetheless, we had a plumbing problem.

I find out later that the shuttle valve is busted connecting the toilet to the pipe in the wall. This was the reason for the leak. I called up the maintenance guys and they came to the rescue. They were able to replace the valve, but not before going through a huge hassle of turning off the water. [This is a different story...but all the labels in the underground parking garage marking the water for the units is completely wrong]. Problem solved. No more leaks, no more problems.

Until today.

Today as I'm searching for ever-so-cool blogger templates, I hear a knock at my door. It was the gentleman who lived below me. I ask him how he is doing and he says "my ceiling in the bathroom is leaking." I don't understand. I thought this problem was taken care of a few months ago. I then find out that some other plumbers had actually come during the day to do some work. They had shut off all the water and maybe when they turned it back on, maybe the water pressure was so great that it...burst some pipes? I'm not sure. I don't know what to do.

Here was the problem. The toilet has two reservoirs for water. I don't know the technical name, so I'll call the bowl part "bowl" and the part behind it the "tank." When you flush your toilet, bowl is emptied and the water in the tank goes into the bowl. (I think this is how it works...). The tank is then filled up with water until the "flotation thingy" rises up and stops the water. The tank is then filled and ready for the next flush. My roommates tank was filling up, but it wasn't stopping. The "flotation thingy" was up as high as physically possible, but the tank kept filling. It wasn't a huge problem though, because the tank can only fill so high. Once it reaches a certain limit, that overflow gets poured into the bowl. So we were getting constant water flow from the pipes to the tank to the bowl to back down a different pipe. This normally wouldn't be a huge issue (other than the extreme waste of water) because no water is leaking. Well, except for today. See, I believe the pipe after the bowl going back down to wherever it goes has a leak. So constant water coming into the tank, into the bowl, back down the pipe, through the leak... isn't the most pleasant.

I call the maintenance guy again. I ask if he remembers us. He doesn't. I explain to him the problem and he knows right away what is wrong. The flush valve is busted. Apparently there are either these rubber or plastic washers that wear away due to use and once worn out, the tank keeps filling. I ask him if he can come out to fix tonight. He says no. He says I can go to Home Depot to buy the replacement flush valve and it's a simple fix. I ask him if I can make things worse by potentially breaking it. He chuckles. No response.... He explains to me the steps of fixing it and it really doesn't sound that bad. Plus, I will get to learn stuff about the toilet. So far, I've learned flush valve and shuttle valve. The shuttle valve is the valve that maintenance guy came to fix earlier. I turn that quarter-turn to the right and BAM, no more water pouring into the tank. However, because no more water can come into the tank, that means that all the water that is currently in the tank is all the water that can go into the bowl. I have one flush left. My roommate better use it wisely. (I guess we can just turn back the shuttle valve to allow water to pass)

I tell him that I'll give it a go tomorrow and if I fail, I'll give him a call. I need to go to Home Depot though and get some replacement parts. Boo.

So there's my fairly fitting first entry as PortaJon. Now I need to go wash my hands because I've stuck them into my roommates toilet tank. Gross.

Blogging Adventures Begin...

2010 is upon us and I've decided that I will start blogging. I've kept a journal in the past, but I think my stories are much better kept through Google than they are on my desk somewhere. I'll most likely lose the journal that I've kept sometime down the future. Also, everything is moving towards the internet, so why not my thoughts...

I've had a Xanga in the past, but this is all tied in to my Gmail account and that's cool. So I will turn this into my new "Xanga" page.