Hey Long Time No Post

So.. what have I been up to over the past month or two?

Various stuff. Trying to make bent allenes with various substituents to study their respective stabilities. Hillel stuff. Taking picture of stuff. Some roaming around. Riding my bike to and from my Riverside residence to school/work. Quite busy really.

I was at Banquette not too long ago when I was sitting next to these two friendly chaps. They were talking about Chicano art so of course I butted in their conversation.



The guy on the left is from Highland Park, and the guy on the right is a tortilla conspiracy theorist from San Francisco. I hope to interrupt their conversations again. They were cool.

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I ate some of the best green beans recently at Boba Cafe on University Ave. The fried tofu is terrible though. Its too greasy and awkwardly spiced.




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I went to the Getty the other day. I haven't been there in ages and the weather was just perfect. Not too hot. Not too cold.





There was a lot of people laying around on the grass relaxing and enjoying their surroundings. It almost felt like a utopia of some sort with all the beautiful vegetation and happy people.





The most violent thing I saw was a little boy hitting his older brother with a cardboard tube.




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Anyway. So I have been working long ass hours, and have lost my blogging momentum. So I think I'll get back at it again.

I am very behind in uploading my photos.

Been extremely busy.

Bye.

Serious and Personal Update

Hello.

I've been living out if a suitcase in a chemistry lab or in a pretty and cheap hotel in downtown Riverside for the past three weeks.

It feels like a month.

Alright here is the thing... I am working on a Ph.D in chemistry at UCR. This consists of teaching, preparing for lectures, gradings, attending seminars, meetings, classes, designing experiments, doing them, figuring out what went wrong, adjusting, etc. I love the work, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it.

Very long story short, I need to be closer to UCR.

I'll be in Riverside most of the time, and in the historic core a few days of the week.

Yes I will live in both places.


Ever since I was an embryo, I have been riding in public transport. All my life, I have either walked, subwayed, or bused to work/school. Where ever you have to go as a pedestrian in LA, it often takes an hour. When I lived in a different part of downtown several years ago, it took me an hour to get to work on the Eastside via public transport, where as it would have been a 5-10 minute drive. When I lived in Hollywood to get to the same place on the Eastside, it would take me 65 minutes via public transport, even though it was a 20-25 minute driving distance. So I am used to spending an hour of my time to get from point A to point B where ever I had to go.

Then I decided to go to UCR, got my very first car to be able to do it (a used red honda civic) ....

Turns out, that it would only take about an hour to drive to UCR via downtown LA, as long as I go against rush hour traffic. -Which is precisely the case in the mornings when I go, and the late afternoons/evenings when I come back.

Don't even suggest taking the train because the whole commute (getting to union station + traveling on the train + getting to UCR and vice versa) would take about 2-2.5 hours each way AND the schedules are extremely inflexible.

I miss my pedestrian ways. I would prefer to be within a five minute walk/bike ride from my lab. I am on a 1.5 year waiting list for such housing.

In the meantime, I found a cheap room in a big house filled with science nerds I haven't met yet. Its not a sure thing yet, my application is still being processed. It is biking/driving distance. But it will do for now.

I have a lot of things to blog about.

Regular blogging shall now resume.

not enough time to blog, so much to blog about.

working.
hard.
and harder.

will come back soon but not too soon.

Update

I was not sure what to do with Memo Pisa el Lodo, a blog I haven't actively updated for almost a year where I would document art in the public sphere (mostly in Los Angeles).

I have had some problems with it and I simply haven't had the time or energy to fix it.

I was not sure whether I should also document public art in this blog, or just keep it separate between urban memo and memo pisa el lodo...

But really, its all towards an interactive urban environment, so I'll mix the street art and the personal here.

Hello People...

I've been in New Jersey these past several days and haven't made the time to go on the internet.

I'm back now, with several pictures to upload to my flickr account.

More to follow.

Introduction

Since late 2005, I have been documenting public art in Los Angeles here. I have not been posting that much since 2007 for a variety of reasons which I will not get into.

On MPeL, I felt a little restricted about what I should and should not post, since the blog's theme was art in the public sphere (self-imposed and arbitrary, mind you). I was not sure whether to change the them of MPeL or to just create another blog that is not as rigid in theme.

So I finally made the decision to get a fresh start on a new blog that get a little personal, but with evolving themes that I will just make up as I go along.

Anyway, its nice to be back.