San Diego Fires

Back in May 2014 there was another round of fires in San Diego.

I missed the one in 2003 being away at UCLA.

I also missed the one in 2007 being away in England.

I had never experienced the panic, rush, fear, and adrenaline of the fires before…but this time was too close for comfort. The closest fire started at the golf course to the East of my backyard. Then burned North and West and then South and then West again… basically just perfectly around my house by one block!

My coworker came into my office at work and said “dude there’s a fire up near your house I think,” and I just kind of brushed him off. Then he was like, “it’s right by my friend’s house off at the corner of ___ and ___.”

I was like, “uh, that is one block from my house. Shut down for me I’m done for the day!”

And I sped home.

The view from my front door!

Good to know I evacuated the most important items first right…?

Well that fire got put out by the evening and I snuck back to my condo even though it was closed off. I ran around to friends homes to send them picture texts that their homes were standing. Some of their houses had very very close calls!

Anyway, ultimately I had a new appreciation for firefighters and their work, and really what mattered in life. My surfboards.

The view of another fire from my balcony that night.

Big Pine

Last year, I went backpacking near Big Pine (twice!). The first time was snowy and cold and wet and treacherously beautiful.

I went with the best backpacking partner, Morgan, my dog, not a human, because humans talk too much on trips like these. Just kidding. I talk to her all the time. I’m not crazy.

After driving up late at night, we slept at the freezing trailhead and started off in the morning.

Hiking up into the snow

The half doberman side of her likes the snow, the other husky side of her loves the snow!

We also spent some time camping at the filthy camping zone of Alabama Hills near the Whitney Portal.

Whitney is somewhere up in there

After driving around looking for a site and seeing nobody for a long time, I turned a corner around some rocks and find… three Asians holding large cameras taking pictures of rocks! Hahaha…I started laughing out loud so hard! So very hard because the stereotypes are so true about Asians! And cameras! And their picture taking!

Ha Ha! I was laughing so hard that I did not notice that I too had instinctually raised my own camera to take a picture of how ridiculous it is to see Asians out here taking pictures. Of all the places to run into three of them shooting away in nature in the middle of nowhere. What are the chances! This was just all too comical, just all too…SNAP! Yup, I took a picture of them too. Like the good Asian I am. It takes one to know one.

Giant rock silhouettes dominate the view at night

Tons of Weddings

2014 was another year of weddings (yes I know I’m late…shaddup)

Aside from averaging approximately 8-10 weddings annually for the past six years, this one was special due to my brother and a couple of close friends getting married. Yes. You read that correctly. And yes, 8-10 friends hemorrhaging my bank account every year is quite painful and time consuming.

But worth it.

Some engagement photo shoot thing I went to

Some wedding thing I went to

Here’s to many more weddings in 2015!!… happy hemmoraghing…

*whimper*

Anza Mud Caves

Earlier this year, I took a trip out to the Anza Mud Caves. It was fun, tight, dusty, and sand somehow managed to work its way into any and all little crevices and openings in my body. I know it sounds gross.

Here are the cross streets for getting to Anza Mud Caves… don’t tell anybody!

Entrance. Start crawling

A couple of more entrances…

This entrance actually winded a long way into the mountain and we found out afterwards it was where some guy died a few months ago climbing this area by himself…not such a smart idea.

We camped out under the stars and it was a nice cool evening. The views in the morning were nice as well.

Morgan leading our morning yoga routine

Valladolid & Chichen Itza & Tulum

I left Mexico City on New Years Eve to head to the Yucatan Peninsula for Valladolid, Chichen Itza, and Tulum. Remember when flying in Mexico to keep all of your valuable possessions on you always! For example, if you want to see it again, do not check it in!

I checked in my waterproof camera and after seeing it go into the conveyor belt labyrinth of thieves… I thought to myself, “hmm.. man I should have kept that on me. Oh well, I packed in WAY in the middle they won’t find it.” Ha. Haha! Upon arriving in Cancun and picking up my bag in the carousel, I checked and my camera was gone.

Dude, I wanted to fight everybody at the airport!

But we also had a bus to catch so…!@#$!^!!%^!!%$#%@$^&T&I*!!!!!

We spent the night at a crappy hostel/hotel thing… they blasted techno music until 4am and ear plugs could not keep out the constant bass.

Oh, and aside from the camera thievery, the lack of sleep on a horrible mattress, I had major food poisoning and did not eat for the rest of the trip. Yup… I did not eat for the next four days and spent every single day looking at beautiful views… and occasionally hustling myself carefully to create pico de gallo bowls if you know what I mean. Disgusting.

Anyway, it was a painful adventure that kept me on my toes…and the toilet bowl.

Here are some pictures:

Mayan tic-tac-toe

I know what you’re thinking (or probably not).

How can I go to such a beautiful place and not have many pictures right? Well, must I remind you of the stolen camera and massive dysentery issues. Yup.

The best part of this trip was swimming in a cenote cave and diving down to check out the areas and seeing little turtles all around. Also, swimming in the Caribbean was a major highlight for me because henever I was swimming or floating, my stomach behaved itself really well and I did not have urges to pollute the ocean (don’t worry).

This was a great trip overall.

The updates will keep coming soon!

Mexico City

I went to Mexico City last year around Christmas time…and yes I have been slow to post this past year!

Here are some of the better pictures I took:

Aside from seeing things like the Zocalo and Museo de Antropologia, I took a day trip out to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids. I learned real quick at night that all of masses go down to the Zocalo and historic district at night and cause the worst human traffic jam in history. Imagine if you will driving through the 10 freeway in Los Angeles…while the Lakers are playing…and a USC football game is going on… and a Dodgers game going on all at once. That is Mexico City traffic while walking at night.

The Museum was pretty sick, you can spend an entire day there looking at old stuff and going, “wow… this stuff is really old and interesting.” That’s pretty much what I did.

World Cup Awards

Last night I watched FIFA hand out a few awards.

In addition to a sympathy Golden Ball to Messi, I watched the German Soccer Machine dance all over the field in their glorious victory. They definitely deserved their championship being the best team (by far) in the tournament. They manhandled Brazil to the point where I had to start sending text messages for the suicide hotline to my Brazilian friends.

I mean, it was so bad that I could not take an-Neymar of it…

I mean, if Neymar fracturing his vertebrae was not enough of a back breaker to Brazil, then Germany definitely came along and waltz-ed and Landler-ed all over it to make sure… nevermind, you get the point.

After doing some thinking, I’d like to contribute some awards of my own.

Here are my awards for the following…

Best Team: Germany

Worst Team: Cameroon

Surprise Team: Costa Rica

Most Improved But Not Really Team: USA

Makes You Say “Typical ___” Team: England

Best Looking Team: Spain

You’re welcome

Best Goalie: Tim Howard (USA)

Best Goal: RVP vs Spain

Biggest Crybaby: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

Player I Dislike The Most: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

Player Who Most Resembles A Giraffe: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

Snickers Hungriest Player:  Luis Suarez (Uruguay)

Suarez Dracula

Best Coach: Miguel Herrera (Mexico)

Mexico’s Secret Weapon

Most Passionate: Miguel Herrera (Mexico)

Best Double Fist Pump: Miguel Herrera (Mexico)

Best Butt Slap: Miguel Herrera (Mexico)

Best Tackle: Miguel Herrera (Mexico)

Best 0-100 MPH: Miguel Herrera (Mexico)

Best Level Up: Miguel Herrera (Mexico)

Golden State Warriors?

Remember about seven years ago when the Seattle SuperSonics relocated their team to Oklahoma City?

Aside from angering every single basketball fan in Seattle and deleting their rich basketball history and giving NBA legends such as Payton and Kemp the shaft, the new team was asking fans to help rename the new team. I submitted the idea for a new team name as the OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBERS.

And I got mixed reactions.

Firstly, half of the people did not get it.

Secondly, the other half who did get it thought I was insensitive by referring to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh…which means they did not get it either.

I was referring to bombers as in bombers.

The B-29 Superfortress!

Little do you know that the B-29 Superfortress is now parked in Oklahoma City!! How perfect would my team name be!? Utterly ridiculous. Instead they named their team the Thunder which isn’t even an object. Good luck with the mascot issue.

Anyway, I have another opportunity as it seems that the Golden State Warriors are in debate whether or not they want a name change as well.

My suggestion would be The Golden State Californians…after the best SNL skit ever created.

“Whuddaaar yewwwww doing heeerrrre?”

I knew you would agree with me.

What do you think?

Return Of The Mack

Apologies to my faithful readers (all 3 of you…)

I have been seriously neglecting this blog for almost half of a year due to many reasons:

– House got flooded
– Laziness
– Traveling
– House got flooded again
– Laziness
– Camping
– House got flooded again
– House got flooded again
– Laziness

And guess what. Last night as I was going to bed, I saw a drip from the new pipe they installed which makes this the fifth time there is a water problem in my condo! !@#$!@$%!$#%!^#$#!!@#$@%…

While there are many reasons to not blog, the reality was that I was very unmotivated and lazy to do so and for this reason… I apologize and leave you with this gift.

Mark Morrison… yes!

I shall make a big effort to blog consistently again!

And I shall update you on all of my wonderful experiences that you missed out on!

Famous Friend

I have a famous friend now.

My buddy Joey got onto the Conan O’Brien show. Check it out

And yes he does talk like that in real life.

I caught another mistake Joey, they misspelled your last name. You can send in a second correction now…

You’re welcome.