i’m not sure what it is that is getting me so nostalgic, but i’ve been thinking a lot lately about life, universe, and everything. wait, it must be because the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy open this friday! but i digress.

i have been thinking about how much life seems to change. it seems that friends seem to come and go, it makes you wonder what it is about certain people that draws you to them and what makes one person a keeper while another a passerby.

just recently, i had chatted with some friends who i haven’t heard from in ages. when i had first met them, they had become my life. i did everything with them. eat, play, and even vacation with them. and i don’t know what happened but there was some distance that came between us and we sort of just drifted apart. other people came into my life, more people left. it seems like a rotating door.

but it does leave me to wonder, what is it about some people that have come into my life that stay? what is it about others that i meet and just as quickly forget?

starbucks employee: what would you like?
me: i’ll have a venti mocha frappuchino, please.
starbucks employee: sure thing. that’ll be $3.95.
me: ok.
starbucks employee: and your name for the order?
me: josiah.
starbucks employee: didn’t you say your name was bob last time?
me: oh, did i?
starbucks employee: yeah, i think you did.
me: oh.

man, no one has ever remembered me before. i need to stay consistent with my names!

it used to be that i would bemoan all the reasons why being single sucks. you don’t have that other person to spend time with, to share your innermost thoughts with, to tell them the inane details of your day to day life.

it used to be that i would be very sad when i was single and i would desperately try to get out of this state of loneliness. it’s strange, because over the years, my attitudes have changed about being single. sure, it’s true, it would be great if i had a little someone that i could call my own, but it doesn’t kill me that i don’t.

part of me wasn’t ready to date, either. part of me wasn’t ready to move on. but i think that i’m at a point now where i’m ready to date. the only problem is that i keep meeting cute, interesting women who end up being married, engaged, or already spoken for. go figure, eh?

oh well, i guess i’ll keep my eyes open and see what comes my way.

it does seem, though, that it is during my singlehood that i tend to make my major purchases. so far, it’s only been one LCD and a camera…but i do feel a lens coming in the works. what is it with me and electronics?

and you think this is a good idea because…

hmmm, after some careful thought and consideration, i’ve thought about it and as idealistic as i want to be sometimes, i guess i do live in what most people call reality. i suppose that maybe i should tone down my expectations of what is realistic and just accept that some things just aren’t possible.

it’s a tough pill to swallow, but when enough people tell me the same thing, it seems like maybe there’s some truth behind what they are saying? after all, a thousand lemmings can’t be wrong, can they?

this was yet another packed weekend with what seemed like too much stuff to do. after dinner with thanh and tung on friday, i woke up early on saturday to start the festivities for warren’s bachelor party. it started off with a drive to vallejo where we went to paintball jungle.

paintballing was a lot of fun. it’s been a long while since i went, but we had 12 people in our group. it’s interesting to see the group dynamics at work here. anyway, there were a few moments where it had started to rain pretty hard, but it never really rained while we were playing.

after paintball, we headed back to the city to eat at palomino right off the embarcadero. pretty nice place, i enjoyed the dinner.

we finally headed back home after that, it was quite an exhausting day.

sunday came and went pretty quickly, though. i slept for a good part of it, catching up on the sleep that i had been deprived of earlier. i caught up on a bunch of tv and finally went to play volleyball in the evening. we had a good shot at winning playoffs, but missed it.

this sunday team that i brought together was an incredible amount of fun. not only did i feel that the team really grew together, but it was such a blast. the team humored my random cheers and they were all very cool people. i could not have asked for a better experience. this was my favorite team at JACL so far.

this is the second team that i’ve officially been captain for and i think that i’ve really changed the way that i captain a team. though i do believe that democracy is a good thing, when it comes to team sports, i feel that the presence of a strong leader who makes definitive decisions really helps out quite a bit. i also believe that it is the attitude of the captain that really carries the team. if the captain is down, too competitive, or perhaps unsure of themself then i think it is felt by the team.

i really strove this season to put an emphasis on having fun. we came off on a rocky start in the beginning of the season, but i still had a good time playing with everyone there. i think a large part of the joy comes from staying positive, not being critical of others, and remembering that this is just a game, not life or death.

in previous teams i’ve captain’d, i felt that my leadership wasn’t very strong. i didn’t feel like i really paid attention, either, so i didn’t know how we could improve. i also felt that people just weren’t having fun because we weren’t winning. though it’s true that it is great to win, i would not want to win at the expense of not having fun. i’m just not that competitive and most teams i play on aren’t either.

anyhow, all in all, it was a great season, and i hope that next season will be just as fun.

i learned something very important about white balance this weekend. though i love the 20D, its automatic white balance certainly leaves a lot to be desired. i didn’t think it made much of a difference until i started to compare some pictures i had shot in RAW with their JPG equivalents. i think that i may be doing a lot more custom white balancing in the future. when did taking a picture become so much work?

on friday i met up to have dinner with thanh and tung. i haven’t seen thanh in so long, i had almost forgotten what it was like to talk to her in person! most of our communication these days is over IM. anyhow, i met her and tung at their new home. it’s quite nice, i like it, cozy and inviting. their walls are painted various pastels that i think really warm up the place.

we had dinner at this korean restaurant in oakland. the food was great and i was stuffed. after dinner i headed over to eric and ivy’s place where we talked about photography stuffs before settling in and getting ready for warren’s bachelor party.

last night at volleyball i introduced myself to this japanese girl.

me: hi, i’m mike.
japanese girl: ah, i’m atsuko.
me: oh, you’re japanese!
japanese girl: yes. and you are?
me: i’m japanese too.
japanese girl: what?? you are? no…
me: …
japanese girl: you must be japanese american.
me: …

why do i keep getting this reaction from japanese people? am i not good enough to be in your club?

of course the second that i decide to go outside it starts to rain HARD and the wind picks up.

i ran over to my car to get a jacket and an umbrella. main, how did this weather come to be?

i wonder how bad paintballing is going to be now tomorrow.