Climate control is awesome

In what was a tremendous Mother's Day weekend for me got bookended by a terrible case of the sore throat sickness. Obviously, it hasn't been much fun these couple of days. It's definitely passing out though so hopefully I'll be alright by the latter half of this week. 

Temperature has returned to the 90s here in San Francisco once again, which can only be described as torture. At least its forecasted that during the nighttime the mercury will come back down to sane levels, so at the very least I don't have to lie in my own sweat just to get a decent sleep going. Because you're delirious if you think we got air-con here in San Francisco. 

Air-con in the car though, is very nice indeed. Who cares if it degrades my car's already horrendous gas mileage. First world solution to nature's problem, yo. I bet there's a huge subset of people who couldn't care less about climate change because they're so used to man-made climate control in cars, building, and homes. 

Vulnerability

“The harder we press on a violin string, the less we can feel it. The louder we play, the less we hear.... If I “try” to play, I fail; if I race, I trip. The only road to strength is vulnerability”

— Stephen Nachmanovitch

RIP Leonard Nimoy

“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. ”

— Leonard Nimoy

Time is eternity

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”

— Henry Van Dyke

RIP Robin Williams

“Poetry, beauty, romance, love: these are what we stay alive for.”

— Robin Williams as John Keating in 'Dead Poets Society'

Get your face off the phone

It used to not bother me at all, but lately I've been rather miffed when I'm amongst company and people are constantly on their mobile phones. I understand the need to check whether or not a message is important, verify a scoring alert for your favorite sports team, or looking up something on the web the relates to the topic at hand - otherwise, you really shouldn't be on your phone.

Speak; have a genuine conversation. 

That bad habit is made even more glaring when you see one friend who's never had a smartphone before and only recently (finally) transitioned to one. Yup, unfortunately, he has also joined the cult of screen staring. It's a virus.

Of course, I've been guilty about this too. These days I'm really trying to make a conscientious effort to not have my mobile strapped to my face when I'm hanging out with other people. 

Weird-Al is a legend. That parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", turning it into a song about proper grammar usage, is absolutely genius. I'm certainly not the staunchest of grammar nazis but I do appreciate well-constructed sentences that are free from blemishes. 

Plans to go to the Ramen Festival in Japan-town this past weekend were a bust. The festival was beyond crowded, and reportedly it took a good three hours of waiting in line before one gets the opportunity to savor a bowl of noodles. While I like to think I've more patience than most, waiting multiple hours for what ultimately boils to food just doesn't seem right to me. I don't care how awesome that specialized bowl of ramen is - there's but a finite amount of hours in a day. 

Besides, the San Francisco Bay Area has no shortage of ramen restaurants. Now that I think about it, not sure why there was a need for a ramen festival at all. At the very least, organizers should procure a (much) bigger venue next time.

Midsummer

It was an interesting weekend for the most part. It marked the final two days of the 2014 World Cup, which is a bit melancholic when you think about it. Granted, fours years will undoubtedly fly by in seemingly no time until the next world tournament. Unfortunately that is to be held in Russia, so only the most hardy of fans in the United States will be willing to essentially not sleep at all to catch games during the early hours of morning.

Pass the snacks, please. 

It was also a rare weekend where I went to two Giants games. Well, two if you only look at the ticket stubs. Due to the World Cup final I had to abort the Sunday game, having only entered the ballpark to receive the bobblehead giveaway. I didn't even pay for seats - it was a standing room ticket. Quite clever, if I do say so myself. The game on Friday that I actually did stay and watch was a good one, though. The team actually won, which is a rarity of the Giants this past month.

I am miffed that I missed seeing the two grand-slams hit by Posey and Bumgarner on Sunday. Damn you, World Cup! 

A Facebook acquaintance of mine flew to Spain this week to partake in the historic running with the bulls. Tick one off the bucket-list for that guy. Personally I don't think I'd be brave enough to risk getting impaled by an angry bull many times my size. But a lesson for the younger people out there: stuff like running with the bulls is proper "you only live once" type of shit, not getting hammered with alcohol and peeing on a police car (massive cookie points if you get this albeit obscure reference).