Tag Archives: pictures

5 Years Ago & 2001

Today marks 5 years from the day when I asked Larry to marry me.

Engaged! (the whole story)

It had been a long time coming, and honestly long overdue on our part to finally make that leap, but we did. We leapt.  And 11 months later, we got married.   It was amazing times, and we had our life together, and then cancer came and ended it.  I can mostly ignore the end months nowadays, but those memories don’t truly go away.  It was awful.  It makes me cry when I do think about it.   I’ll never not cry when I think about that.

But the times before that, engaged or not, won’t be forgotten.   I’ve got pictures, blog posts, memories to help me remember those good times.   Nothing was ever perfect and I won’t claim that here, but god damn, it really was just wonderful to have found someone who got me.  I got him.  When we needed space we figured out how to reduce getting on the other’s nerves.  We helped each other live more full lives.   It wrecks me to know I won’t ever see him again.

Larry’s birthday is tomorrow.   A group of friends and family will be getting together on a call to celebrate.  Not everyone will be there, and I completely understand.  I’m not even sure how I feel about it – I want to see people but “celebrating” his birthday doesn’t sound right – he’s dead.  I just want him back and for the last 2 years to be undone.   It’s naive.

I am not in the same emotional state as I was earlier this year.   I don’t know how to really describe it.   I am used to being alone more than I was.  I guess old habits die hard, as yeah, I have been alone before Larry so it comes back to you.   The bed is all mine.  All this room is mine to manage, and not share.  Cooking meals is up to me.   If I get lazy, I can order and Larry isn’t there to mock my laziness.  No one is.  It’s just me.  The scar tissue is building up.   The good memories fill me with melancholy, but don’t hurt as much as they used to.   The bad memories rip me apart as I mentioned above just as much as when they were new.  I guess it’ll be about managing how to deal with that going forward.

I loved him so much.   I will always be so happy we had that time together.   He was the best husband I could have asked for.

I found myself reminiscing about times pre-Larry – basically, Air Force times.  I dove into looking at Azores memories – especially as I realized that my site links to those primitive HTML pages and small-res pictures still.   Those pages were also written when I was under DADT so it felt good to actually write a little bit more with that added context gone.  I’m going to keep diving into these older pictures and keep updating, but here are some recent ones I’ve posted – good times had by all!

Halloween Party at the Salga House

An Initiation to Tropical Point

So young!   I then also was thinking about my San Antonio summer in 2001 right before I left, and the fact that I jumped out of a plane that summer!   What a trip.  I found the official video that I bought through the company as it’s like, who knows if I’m doing this again?   Let’s get the video!

It doesn’t look like there’s a previous time I posted pictures and such from that time, and I guess when I get to it, I’ll do a proper post there and include this video again.   But it was too good to pass up and not show immediately.  Again, the youth of me back then, and I remember how much I hated how I looked then.   People are always so stupid about how they look – just give yourself 20 years and you’ll realize how cute you were!

A random thing that I was entertained by – while I’ve been heavily playing the game Anno 1800 (as it is amazing and addictive), I also work in occasional playtime of The Division 2, which I’ve talked about before.   So, there’s an expansion that puts you back in NYC, the site of TD1, but this time in the southern tip of Manhattan.  Anyway, you can wander around Battery Park and the Castle Clinton area, and I was doing that in the game when all of a sudden it looked and felt very familiar.  It’s not surprising, as the videogame makers did a really good job of recreating the city, but it was particularly jarring.   Then I remembered – oh yeah, Larry and I had walked around this park one day in February 2009.   I didn’t have a post about it but I did take pictures!  And I remembered a particular picture and was like, can I find that angle again in this game?  Yes, yes I can.

So here are the pictures from that day (Feb 15, 2009) so long ago – note I had just moved into the city so I was totally a local by then.

It was a nice day for that kind of a walk, and memorable.  And then I played the game, and you can take in-game photos:

Contrast with this:Crazy, huh?   Well, it’s not insane, but I just remember tripping out realizing I’d taken pictures right there!

I’ve been keeping sane by still doing yoga – in fact, this was Day 96 straight of Yoga w/ Adriene.   I’m currently doing her 30-day Dedicate series, and I gotta say, it’s a lot more intense than the previous programs.  I like it.

TV-wise:

  • Devs:  FANTASTIC.  Very visual, very interesting, and highly compelling sci-fi that while the main premise is highly improbable, everything else around felt right at home in 2020.
  • The Clone Wars:  Wrapped up my accelerated/targeted watch of this series and it was amazing.   The story of Ahsoka is amazing.  Obi Wan proves to be one of the more bad-ass Jedis, and I was here for it.  Made parts of the follow-up series, Rebels, much more emotional.
  • What We Do in the Shadows:  Season 2 is on fire, and it’s honestly one of the best comedies going.  I love that crazy crew but every time Nadja speaks, I just laugh.
  • The Great:  Another fucking amazing show, and while it may appear that it’s some kind of costume drama, oh boy you’d be wrong to overlook it.   Loosely it’s the story of Catherine the Great while she’s still married to her husband, the Emperor Peter (not Peter the Great, who we all agree to hate as he was the subject of my Final Jeopardy question, agreed?  HUZZAH!).   It’s one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in quite a while, and the performances are all wonderful.  You’ll love it.

Alright, this post had a lot of schizophrenia in it.   That’s me lately.  Up, down, all around.   Stay safe.

Adrift in January

It’s 2012 and I have found myself in the weird position of being alone for the month of January!  What’s that, you say?  What do I mean?  Well, Larry is in NYC now and will be staying there through mid-February.  The first reason is that he went back early this month to be there for when his sister gave birth.  Happily, everything went well and Larry is now an uncle to a cute little girl named Stacy.  Welcome Stacy to your very happy family!  Also, his Strategy Farm bosses got a slew of new work and they asked him to come back for it and help.  Turns out there will be at least a month of work and so there he stays.  It’s good because the opportunities out here in LA have been very scarce, so I’m glad he can get his hands dirty and make some money again.  He can also build up his resume some more.  It does suck though to be chilling out alone.  Thank god I like video games so damn much.  And books.

Speaking of which, wow, I am reading two books right now that are incredible.  The first is Stephen King’ latest titled 11/22/63, a time-travel story that centers around the Kennedy Assassination and the conceit of “what if you could go back in time and stop Lee Harvey Oswald?”  I’m about 200 pages in and that part hasn’t even started yet.  The main character decides to test-drive the time travel rules he’s bound to by intercepting a tragedy that occurred to a friend of his back in 1958.  Of course, things don’t always work out the way you or he hopes, but in the course of the story, he runs into a few of the kids from Derry….DERRY, the city from Stephen King’s novel IT, which I coincidentally just read.  I love Stephen King.  The other book I’m reading is George R. R. Martin’s second in the Song of Fire & Ice saga, A Clash of Kings.  These books of his are so compelling and I’m utterly hooked.  I’ve been watching the HBO series via On Demand the last few nights and the producers did a masterful job bringing the first book, Game of Thrones, to life.  There’s a quote from within the book I can’t wait to see in the series, as it’s delivered from a very scheming, conniving, and powerful character to a virtuous, and ultimately foolish, opponent, concerning the way politics works/worked:  “In the game of thrones, you win or you die.”  The speaker is NOT fucking around when it’s being said.  And I bet Newt Gingrich would be happy enough to say these words to Mitt Romney.  🙂

So while I read, watch TV, and play videogames this January, I figure I should update and blog again.  When last I dropped in, it was right before I headed back to New York City for a week so that I could work and be with Larry while he visited with his sister a few weeks before giving birth.  It was wonderful going back and getting to see the tree at Rockefeller, all my team and coworkers/friends at 30 Rock and the CNBC facility at Englewood Cliffs.  I realized I miss being there a little bit, but only a little bit.  Santa Monica life is charmed.  Then for Christmas through New Year’s, we were back in LA and celebrated the holidays with Mom & Harv as well as my stister, Stacie and her family.  New Year’s was fun spending it with Wendy & Jay, and then before we knew it, it’s 2012 and back to work like nothing was amiss.

2012.  Yikes.  I read one of those books about the many different theories of what will kill us or cause the Earth’s destruction at the end of this year.  Massive solar flares.  Interstellar collisions.  Polar shifts.  Volcanic activity.  Our own tendency to self-destruct.  And hell, I’ve seen the AWESOME movie.  Yes, I said awesome.  Looks like Larry & I will have a front-row seat to California, and specifically Santa Monica & Venice, falling right into the ocean.  Totally sucks.  But if you’re going to either suffer in a post-apocalyptic world or go out early…what would you rather do?  Nuclear winter is totally overrated.

I hate when I don’t post for a while.  I feel the need to just word-vomit all over the screen.  How about I end for now, but make a pact with myself to keep at it again. I was doing good and I still haven’t lost the feeling.  I am going to look up different good and interesting blogging assignments/topics to keep myself entertained, as I really do like writing.  I swear.   Oh, and do go visit my Picasaweb site to see a slew of pictures I’ve taken in the meantime.  Here are a few to tide you over….

Larry’s Office of Clocks Project:

06-Dec-2011 16:04, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
06-Dec-2011 16:26, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 250
06-Dec-2011 16:27, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 400
 
06-Dec-2011 16:27, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 100
06-Dec-2011 16:28, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.5, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
06-Dec-2011 16:28, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.5, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
 
06-Dec-2011 17:02, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.2, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
06-Dec-2011 18:01, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 250
06-Dec-2011 20:21, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 3.5, 7.152mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 800
 
06-Dec-2011 20:22, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 4.5, 10.262mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 1250
06-Dec-2011 20:22, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320
06-Dec-2011 20:22, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320
 
06-Dec-2011 20:23, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400
 

 Thanksgiving 2011 in Duarte:

24-Nov-2011 14:30, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
24-Nov-2011 14:30, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 200
24-Nov-2011 14:38, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 160
 
24-Nov-2011 14:38, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 200
24-Nov-2011 15:26, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 200
24-Nov-2011 15:26, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 200
 
24-Nov-2011 15:26, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 400
 

A 5K through the Universal Studios Backlot:

04-Dec-2011 08:36, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 3.5, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 320
04-Dec-2011 08:41, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 320
04-Dec-2011 08:53, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 200
 
04-Dec-2011 09:06, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 200
04-Dec-2011 09:16, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 160
04-Dec-2011 09:16, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 200
 
04-Dec-2011 09:16, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 3.2, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 400
04-Dec-2011 09:18, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 200
04-Dec-2011 09:19, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 200
 
04-Dec-2011 09:25, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 5.0, 11.381mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 200
04-Dec-2011 09:26, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 200
04-Dec-2011 09:26, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 5.0, 12.281001mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 200
 
04-Dec-2011 09:26, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 200
04-Dec-2011 09:27, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 320
04-Dec-2011 09:28, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 100
 

Back in NYC (in the last pic, you can see how big the Freedom Tower has grown:

18-Dec-2011 11:35, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 5.0, 14.998mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 100
18-Dec-2011 11:36, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 320
18-Dec-2011 13:29, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.04 sec, ISO 800
 
18-Dec-2011 14:43, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
18-Dec-2011 14:43, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 200
18-Dec-2011 14:56, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 800
 
18-Dec-2011 14:56, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 5.0, 14.316mm, 0.1 sec, ISO 1600
18-Dec-2011 14:56, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 5.0, 14.316mm, 0.1 sec, ISO 1600
18-Dec-2011 17:41, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.5, 5.174mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 400
 

Back at 30 Rock:

19-Dec-2011 07:45, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 400
19-Dec-2011 07:46, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 640
19-Dec-2011 10:05, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 320
 
19-Dec-2011 11:24, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.2, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 250
19-Dec-2011 11:36, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.8, 4.3mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 250
19-Dec-2011 11:36, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 320
 

At 30 Rock for the Company Holiday Party on the SNL Stage, Studio 8H:

20-Dec-2011 09:29, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 500
20-Dec-2011 09:29, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 500
20-Dec-2011 09:29, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 500
 
20-Dec-2011 09:32, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 400
20-Dec-2011 10:05, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
20-Dec-2011 10:06, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 200
 
20-Dec-2011 10:07, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 800
20-Dec-2011 10:07, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800
 

Christmas with the Folks:

25-Dec-2011 14:25, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 1600
25-Dec-2011 14:27, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800
25-Dec-2011 14:28, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 200
 
25-Dec-2011 14:28, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.05 sec, ISO 1250
25-Dec-2011 14:29, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 400
25-Dec-2011 14:30, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
 
25-Dec-2011 14:32, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400
25-Dec-2011 14:55, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 800
25-Dec-2011 14:56, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 400
 
25-Dec-2011 14:56, Canon Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS, 2.0, 4.3mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 640
 

Snow Day?!

So it seems that NYC and the whole Northeast is about to get pounded by some snow!  About time.  I’ve been cheated now for two winters from a decent snow fall.  Heck, in Colorado Springs we’d have fantastic snows all the way from November through to May or even June.  And they were good, honest snows, full of Americana spirit.  Here?  It’s a bunch of commie liberal pink-o puff snow that has no substance.  Damn Democrats.  Yeah, I don’t know, I’m sure Democrats will get blamed for this somehow by the Republicans while Republicans will mock Democrats and their "global warming" craziness.  Or neither will happen and I’m just a shithead.  Sounds plausible

Anyways, it’s Sunday night and I’m looking out my window and while it’s nice and clear of snow now, the snow is falling pretty good and trying it’s best to stick.  I have no doubt when I wake up in the morning tomorrow there’ll be plenty of stuck snow.

Went with Larry down to the southern tip of Manhattan again to finish the walk around Battery Park up to the World Trade Center site.  It had been brutally interrupted by Work (!) a few weekends ago and now seemed as nice a day as any to do it.  It’s a ghost-town down there though on weekends.  And you know what’s disappointing?  How little work or progress seems to have been made on the Freedom Tower that is being built on the site.  Apparently it’s been built high enough to be above ground level, but you could have fooled me.  It’s nothing I could see.  I am interested to see some progress as it would seem almost reassuring.  It’s been nearly 8 years now since it happened and you’d think there’d be something there.  I look forward to its eventual state, as the final rendering looks to be very nice:
proposed wtc site

It was a nice walk to have this afternoon.  We then walked around SoHo a bit, checking out the Museum of Modern Art store where there is a LOT of really cool shit that I really wanted to buy.  All sorts of ‘modern’ takes on kitchen things and stuff that just looked cool.  Me likey.  I did end up buying a Muji business card holder for $5.  Very basic, very clean, and something I’ve wanted for a while.  We then stopped by the Design within Reach store.  YEAH RIGHT!  Whose reach????  I saw these cool modern bar stools that I had the nerve to sit on……$1700 – EACH.  W…T….F!!!!!  After casually looking around and saying eff this, it was off to the Apple Store to drool over all that cool shite.  Seriously, want lots of money to just buy all their neat computers and iPods and such.  After feeling woozy from too much coffee, we ran in and got a slice of pizza – YUM.  And finally made it back to the Upper West Side where Larry & I went to Fairway, the city’s most nuts grocery store.  Apparently it’s the best prices too, which accounts for the chaos.  But seriously, it’s nuts.  And Larry made a delicious chicken with Bells seasoning, mashed potatoes and asparagus with gravy.  IT WAS AWESOME.   How great is it to be with someone who can cook like no one’s business!?

And so now it’s Sunday night and tomorrow it’ll be interesting to see if I’m working from home because of the snow.  Yes, I could walk to work.  But if it’s like super snowy, who wants to do that?????  I bet my boss would make me come in though.  I mean, I have no real excuse not to.  But I just want to sit at my awesome windows and stare outside!  🙂 

I’ll do my best to keep up to date on this blog from now on.  In the meantime, feel free to check out my picasaweb.google.com/hobiewan site.  Lots of my recent pics are all there as it just is too much effort and time to do that photoweb stuff all myself when Google does it so much better! 

Peace!

A link to my Pics

Hey there Hi there Ho there!
I’d post more here but it’s late and I be tired.  Anyways, I found a much easier way to post plenty of my pictures and that is through the magical world of Picasa!  So here is a link to my personal Picasa site where you can see the recent groups of pics I’ve been taking, including Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and the New Place!!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/hobiewan76

Talk at ya later!

Lots o’ photos

I went and posted pretty much a month and a half’s worth of photos I’ve been sitting on, finally.  They’re over at the regular hobiebarnes.com site. 

I also killed the Shooting Gallery.  No need and I was getting tons of user requests from spammers.  Bah!

And if you missed seeing the Beyonce / Paul Rudd SNL sketch, my apologies, as I see that it is no longer available.  Bastards!  OH wait, that’s my employer I’m talking about!  But why the hell isn’t that on Hulu?  It’s effin’ hilarious, much moreso than the Joe Biden cold open.  C’mon now.