Colby's Christmas Lightshow

Every year for Christmas Eve and Christmas day we go to my Aunt Leslye and Uncle Walt's house in San Clemente. Among the festivities is the Shelley-Stringfellow ping-pong tournament, eating really good food, and within the last few years a new tradition of checking out their neighbor's light show. One of the neighborhood kids, Colby Nordberg, spends his free time from going to high school in working on a Christmas light show spectacular. It's very impressive and even more impressive when you find out he is in high school.
After this years show, we had some time to track him down and chat it up. He's currently applying to Cal State Long Beach and hopes to get into their theatrical lighting program and one day be hired by Disneyland.

Tom the Turkey

This morning we had a surprise waiting for us at the front of the school. His name was Tom the Turkey and he was from the local Los Altos farm. When my principal was told that Farmer Bob was going to bring Tom the Turkey to school this morning he was a bit shocked to actually find a real turkey- he was expecting Farmer Bob to be dressed as Tom the Turkey.

Rainn Wilson Warrior Princess

I can't get over this picture. I was sick today and noticed my processing was a bit slow. Shirin sent me a link to this picture and I couldn't figure out what was so special about it. I thought she was just sending me a picture of Xena the Warrior Princess who "let herself go" after all these years. Once the cold drained out of my head and allowed me to process a bit more quickly I realized that this is Rainn Wilson. Wow.

Wales Street Sign

I heard this story on npr. Apparently in Wales there was an Englishman who was hired to translate a road sign into Welsh. He emailed a translator and was surprised to get a reply so quickly. The road sign was put up and the townspeople were upset when they read the sign saying: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated"
Classic.

My new hobby

A few weeks back I decided I needed a new hobby. Being my third year of teaching, I've gotten the hang of balancing my life a bit better, so I went on a hunt for hobbies. My newest hobby is being more "domestic". Cooking, baking, cleaning...so far it's working out for me.

Sushi Stick

One of my Japanese students picked up this memory stick from Japan. Love it!
More to be found: http://www.himeyashop.com/product_info.php?products_id=7808

Pure Brilliance

"Me Gustaria tocara la guitara en la futuro (somebody just tooted)"

Bosch Jam Session!!

This past week I have been teaching at Bosch Baha'i School teaching at Youth week focusing on the Five Year Plan. It was a very memorable week. The youth were amazing, the teachers were awesome and together with the directors the teachers put together a hint of magic.

Next on the Summer of Love Trip is to Yosemite to hike half dome....that's if we don't burn!

Nerd Alert-iPhone Light Saber War

A few people in my family were a bit too excited about the new upgrade for the iPhone. Enjoy.

Blast from the Near Fashion Past

My parents finally broke down this year and bought not one, but two Mac's. Yeah for Dawn and Rod! My brother Randall who works for my dad, and happens to be one of the funniest people I know, was playing around with Pages and created this gem and sent it to me. Be sure to read the fine print.

Tony Vs. Paul

I'm on a stop action kick. This one is by two guys from Massachusetts by the name of Tony and Paul. It took two months to film and edit and they took 4000+ photos. Very impressive.

Stop Action-"Amateur"

With the continuing stop action theme, Lasse Gjersten has a classic short. He plays neither the piano nor the drums but obviously has an excellent grasp on musical composition.

3rd of July Surprise

Our self-appointed elective cross-guard at summer school decided to dress up like he was from the American Revolution for the 3rd of July.

Kids Only Party

Yesterday the big kids (Cor-te-ney, Amy, Amelia, May Allen and myself) celebrated Sophie and Luc's (the little kids) birthday. We hit up all the Palo Alto hot spots, Pasta Question Mark and Fraiche. It was a wonderful evening of party favors, good food, and great company. The kids decided to dress up. Sophie is flared up in a Princess butterfly (?) costume and Luc was Anikan Skywalker. My personal favorite touch to Luc's costume was the Jedi braid that his mom made and clipped to his hair.

Stop Action- "Go Fall in Love"

In summer school, we've been working on our stop action movies. My friend sent me this video and is a really good example of what you can do with lots of patience, time and a tripod.

A few of my favorite Palo Altans

Beware of Trustafarians

UrbanDictionary.com defines trustafarians as the following:

a. a person who, in an act of rebellion has taken to smoking pot, pan-handling, and following grateful dead rip-off bands during the week, and then returning to his or her parent's cozy home in the suburbs during the weekend. b. one who lives with poorer people in an attempt to gain credibility, or street-cred, while disguising the trust fund they actually live off

Living in the heart of downtown near the private college, Stanford University, there are pockets of these "Trustafarians" of both definitions. Other notable college towns that can find fellow Trustafarians are Boulder, Berkeley, NYU and many other high performing college towns. One of my favorite Stanford stories from my cousin May Allen is when a girl in one of her studio Art classes went missing from class for a few weeks only to be discovered in front of Longs Drugs and dating a bum that lived off of Uni. Ave.

When giving a tour of the local Palo Alto hot spots, I always give a disclaimer before we walk by the P.A. hot spot for the local Trustafarian gang, Pizza My Heart. Most of my visitors don't understand what I'm describing until they turn the corner and see the fire juggling, disheveled group of young hooligans finding their place in the world.

When doing a simple google image search "Pizza My Heart Palo Alto" you can see the notable human sized egg of computer parts. You can see some of these lovable Trustafarians loitering in the background. I find it quite interesting that the symbol of an egg made out of computer parts is a symbol of the beginning of the technology in the bay area (and arguably the world) and paradoxically the children of these inventors and creators have yet to find their place in the world.....maybe I'm not as different than them as I originally thought.

Tooting in the Peaks