Curious, I asked an AI assistant when we last experienced a rainy Sunday morning in San Diego. What it revealed, that it had been 373 days, sent a shiver down my spine.

After getting beyond that initial shock, my mind wandered to a more pleasant thought. This rain wasn’t just a break in the monotony; it felt like a soothing balm, offering relief after the relentless fires that have wreaked havoc across Southern California. The devastation in Los Angeles has been extensive, and while San Diego hasn’t faced destruction on the same scale, the fires still served as a stark reminder of nature’s unpredictability and the peril of ignoring climate warnings.

Feeling like months had compressed into fleeting moments got me pondering time’s elusive nature—a thought common in the Covid era, as everything seems to be compared to “before times” and “after Covid times.” Earlier that morning, I had stumbled upon a Reddit post where a user prompted DeepSeek AI to “think about whatever you want” during a five-minute break.

What followed was a fascinating flow of thought, where the AI pondered time with startling clarity, blending the revolutionary with the patently obvious. It mused about novelty and routine—how new experiences stretch time, while routine makes it blur. It delved into neurological factors, noting how children’s brains, hungry for novelty, make time feel expansive, whereas adults process less new information, making time appear to race.

Reading DeepSeek AI’s rapid shift in focus—from pondering the mysteries of time to lunch plans—made me chuckle in solidarity. It was like looking into a digital mirror reflecting my ADHD brain, darting from one thought to another with the grace of a caffeinated squirrel. Just then, it struck me how much this mirrored my everyday inner dialogue.

It’s a running joke between Cody and me—how he can (allegedly) achieve a zen-like state of “thinking about nothing,” while my mind is a relentless circus of thoughts, each more acrobatic and unpredictable than the last. We’ve mused many times about this stark difference; he teases my overactive thought machine, and I marvel at his uncanny ability to find peace in quiet.

Covid forced a new pattern of behavior for us all. Some folks found inspiration for creativity, while others clung to routines to maintain a semblance of control. I was the latter, sticking to an almost robotic routine with few breaks. It seemed every time we tried something new, it compulsively became part of a new routine.

For someone like myself, finding that internal quiet feels akin to telling you to “not think about elephants” and actually expecting it to work. Are you kidding me? Now all I can think about are elephants! And naturally, that leads to giraffes, cheetahs, and an entire safari of thoughts—like pondering if Asian elephants ever envy their African cousins for their larger ears, perfect for eavesdropping on savannah gossip. But I digress.

The AI’s stream of consciousness resonated deeply, capturing this whirlwind perfectly. It’s comforting, albeit in a humorous way, to know that even an AI—without caffeine or to-do lists—experiences a similar whirlwind. Perhaps it’s a reminder to embrace the chaos more and laugh at the absurdity of our busy minds.

It also touched on cultural and technological influences, noting how our structured schedules and the constant pings of technology fragment our focus, hastening the sense of time slipping away. The AI speculated that mindfulness and disconnecting might counteract this sensation.

Reflecting on this got me thinking about how social media has dramatically reshaped my approach to life. I was once active on nearly every platform, from a (possibly overactive) Twitter feed and personal blog to a photography blog and social meet-up groups. This drive to share my life nudged me to create memories. The need to present an interesting life online tricked me into living one, filled with adventures and photo-worthy moments.

However, over the last decade, I gradually pulled back as social media transformed into something unfamiliar. It shifted from a vibrant community focused on niche interests to a battleground of culture wars and political debates. An intense, years-long stalker situation further pushed me away, and the end of a long-term relationship felt deeply personal. Sharing such a painful chapter online felt like broadcasting my struggles, so even that part of my life went quiet. Withdrawing from sharing meant fewer reasons to step out of my comfort zone. Instead of capturing life for content, I settled into the passive rhythm of endless scrolling—Reddit became my window to the world, as genuine exploration took a back seat.

This never-ending scroll of platforms like TikTok and Instagram has, in its own way, stolen time from me. I’ve allowed myself to be a passenger instead of the driver in my own life. It’s a poignant reminder that breaking free from passive observation might be my first step toward reclaiming those precious moments the AI insightfully reminds us of.

Returning to DeepSeek AI’s existential musings, it circled back to the idea that to truly stretch our perception of time, we should sprinkle our routines with novelty and adventure. That’s an idea that hit home—a simple yet profound call to action that sparked the idea for this blog series.

Reclaiming those moments has become a new personal goal. This reflection kicks off a series where I’ll explore ideas around time perception, mindfulness, and living more deliberately. Each post will explore these themes as I try to piece together what it means to be more present in a world full of distractions. It’s less about finding profound answers and more about navigating the everyday reality of a busy mind, sometimes finding meaning in something as ordinary as listening to the rain.

In declaring this as a series, sharing these expectations outwardly, I’m holding myself accountable—using the internet and my public musings as a gentle nudge to change how I live. It’s a nod to my past habit of broadcasting life online, but this time the intent is more personal, serving as a reminder to prioritize presence over passive scrolling.

For me, writing this blog isn’t just about exploring academic ideas; it’s a deeply personal quest. It’s a way of motivating myself to embrace life more deliberately, to open myself up to new experiences, and allow some vulnerability—a skill I seem to have forgotten. Sharing these reflections is a reminder to break free from the well-trodden path, inviting those unpredictable moments that not only enrich life but also make it more unforgettable.

See you soon, I promise.

As a white person I don’t feel I really have much to say here except that black lives matter, black lives are equal to white lives, black lives have value, black lives have power, black lives have purpose and black lives should have their voices heard. The fact that I’m writing this is, to me, an insult just as it was an insult when it was deemed newsworthy that gay lives mattered, that gay rights were human rights.

So I’m not really going to say anything more on this and instead let Kimberly Jones use her voice. I get chills every time I replay her words through my head. Watch to the end. Listen to Kimberly Jones. 

And they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.

On Saturday May 30th filmmaker and photographer David Jones of David Jones Media felt compelled to go out and serve the community in some way. He decided to use his art to try and explain the events that were currently impacting our lives. On day two, Sunday the 31st, he activated his dear friend author Kimberly Jones to tag along and conduct interviews. During a moment of downtime he captured these powerful words from her and felt the world couldn’t wait for the full length documentary, they needed to hear them now.

Source

How Can We Win

By Kimberly Jones, author of “I’m Not Dying with You Tonight“

So, I’ve been seeing a lot of things, talking of the people making commentary. Interestingly enough, the ones I’ve noticed that have been making the commentary are wealthy black people, making the commentary about we should not be rioting. We should not be looting. We should not be tearing up our own communities. And then there’s been an argument of the other side of, we should be hitting them in the pocket. We should be focusing on the blackout days where we don’t spend money, but I feel like we should do both, and I feel like I support both. And I’ll tell you why I support both.

I support both because when you have a civil unrest like this, there are three type of people in the streets. There are the protesters, there are the rioters, and there are the looters. The protesters are there because they actually care about what is happening in the community. They want to raise their voices, and they are there strictly to protest.

You have the rioters who are angry, who are anarchists, who really just want to fuck shit up, and that’s what they’re going to do regardless. And then you have the looters. And the looters almost exclusively are just there to do that, to loot. Now, people are like, “Well, what did you gain? Well, what did you get from looting?”

I think that as long as we’re focusing on the what, we’re not focusing on the why, and that’s my issue with that. As long as we’re focusing on what they’re doing, we’re not focusing on why they’re doing it. And some people are like, “Well, those aren’t people who are legitimately angry about what’s happening. Those are people who just want to get stuff.”

Okay, well then let’s go with that. Let’s say that’s what it is. Let’s ask ourselves, “Why, in this country, in 2020, the financial gap between poor blacks and the rest of the world is at such a distance that people feel like their only hope and only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash in front of them all the time is to walk through a broken glass window and get it? That they are so hopeless that getting that necklace, getting that TV, getting that change, getting that bed, getting that phone, whatever it is that they’re going to get, is that in that moment, when the riots happen, and if they present an opportunity of looting, that’s their only opportunity to get it?”

We need to be questioning that why. Why are people that poor? Why are people that broke? Why are people that food insecure, that clothing insecure, that they feel like their only shot, that they are shooting their shot, by walking through a broken glass window to get what they need?

And then people want to talk about, “Well, there’s plenty of people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and got it on their own. Why can’t they do that?” Let me explain it to you something about economics in America. And I’m so glad that, as a child, I got an opportunity to spend time at PUSH where they taught me this, is that we must never forget that economics was the reason that black people were brought to this country. We came to do the agricultural work in the South and the textile work in the North. Do you understand that? That’s what we came to do. We came to do the agricultural work in the South and the textile work in the North.

Now, if I, right now, if I right now, decided that I wanted to play Monopoly with you and for 400 rounds of playing Monopoly, I didn’t allow you to have any money. I didn’t allow you to have anything on the board. I didn’t allow for you to have anything. And then we played another 50 rounds of Monopoly, and everything that you gained and you earned while you were playing that round of Monopoly was taken from you. That was Tulsa. That was Rosewood. Those are places where we built black economic wealth, where we were self-sufficient, where we owned our stores, where we owned our property, and they burned them to the ground. So that’s 450 years.

So for 400 rounds of monopoly, you don’t get to play at all. Not only do you not get to play, you have to play on the behalf of the person that you’re playing against. You have to play and make money and earn wealth for them, and then you have to turn it over to them.

So then for 50 years, you finally get a little bit and you’re allowed to play. And every time that they don’t like the way that you’re playing, or that you’re catching up, or that you’re doing something to be self-sufficient, they burn your game. They burn your cards. They burn your Monopoly money. And then, finally, at the release and the onset of that, they allow you to play and they say, “Okay, now you catch up.”

Now, at this point, the only way you’re going to catch up in the game is if the person shares the wealth, correct? But what if every time she shared the wealth, then there’s psychological warfare against you to say, “Oh, you’re an equal opportunity hire.”

So if I played 400 rounds of monopoly with you, and I had to play and give you every dime that I made, and then for 50 years, every time that I played, if you didn’t like what I did, you got to burn it, like they did in Tulsa and like they did in Rosewood, how can you win? How can you win? You can’t win. The game is fixed. So, when they say, “Why do you burn down the community? Why do you burn down your own neighborhood?” It’s not ours! We don’t own anything! We don’t own anything.

Trevor Noah said it so beautifully last night. There’s a social contract that we all have, that if you steal, or if I steal, then the person who is the authority comes in, and they fix the situation. But the person who fixes the situation is killing us. So the social contract is broken. And if the social contract is broken, why the fuck do I give a shit about burning the fucking Football Hall of Fame, about burning a fucking Target?

You broke the contract when you killed us in the streets and didn’t give a fuck! You broke the contract when for 400 years, we played your game and built your wealth. You broke the contract when we built our wealth again, on our own, by our bootstraps, in Tulsa, and you dropped bombs on us. When we built it in Rosewood, and you came and you slaughtered us.

You broke the contract, so fuck your Target! Fuck your Hall of Fame! As far as I’m concerned, they could burn this bitch to the ground, and it still wouldn’t be enough. And they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.

Image courtesy Johnny Silvercloud.

DUN! DUN!

Saturday night at 7:07 PM a guy walked up to my front door and knocked four times. Seems normal enough. Only this guy was holding a fire extinguisher and had several other guys with him carrying skateboards.

Moments after knocking on my door, perhaps timing out how long it would take for me to open it, this guy starts up the fire extinguisher, spraying the entire front of my house. I didn’t see any of this as it happened. At the time, I thought the cloudy air was either smoke or steam from my clothes dryer vent.

As I step out onto the front step my neighbor shares that he caught them on camera adding that these guys have been attacking homes and cars with the fire extinguisher up and down the street. Luckily his spotlight scared them off from my place but not before my home security camera caught them in the act.

https://youtu.be/uTgFCKwtuYE

I immediately uploaded the video to our neighborhood watch Facebook pages. Not more than five minutes later I had neighbors in their cars patroling the area looking for the guy. That’s awesome.

Ready for a plot twist? The fire extinguisher appears to be the one that was stolen from one my of neighbor’s vans earlier in the weekend. At the time they had no suspect for the break-in but now we have what appears to be one of the stolen items and its thief red-handed as he showers my house, and others’, with the powdering monoammonium phosphate. What’s more? After seeing my post on the my neighborhood’s Amateur Neighborhood Watch Facebook page, another neighbor shared with me that he found the fire extinguisher!

So I have video of a guy who attacked my house with what appears to be a stolen fire extinguisher and now I even have the fire extinguisher he used. The next step for me is to drop both of these, along with my full statement, with the detective assigned to the case.

While this whole situation totally sucks (and partly because it isn’t the first time I’ve had people come up to my house at night in a questionable manner) it’s really awesome to see neighbors banding together to not only support each other through these types of situations but also standing up and providing real assistance in catching the bad guys.

Here are two other occasions caught on camera. The first time it was two dudes who picked up a community newspaper from my driveway, banged on my door and ran.

https://youtu.be/J_PEGXkqEVI

The second time it was two kids doing a simple “ding, dong and dash” which is a prank I was totally unaware of until this happened.

https://youtu.be/SjJsiwYqnts

I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date on how this goes down. Hopefully justice will be served, in the meantime I’ll be sure to keep you all updated and I’ll be stepping up my home security a bit more. No need to make them feel like they can get away with this nonesense!

One of the most annoying parts of all this is the required cleanup. The dust from the extinguisher not only coated my flower beds and the entire front of my house, it made it into my living room through my mail box slot and from when we opened the door to see what was going on. What a mess…

Back when I was a kid Cinnabon was the king. They were hot, fluffy, flavor-rich and delicious. But the last few times I’ve had them (probably three in the last ten years) they’ve been super disappointing.

So when I embarked on making the ultimate cinnamon roll, perhaps still a little tipsy from the night before, I did my best to avoid the “Cinnabon Clones” and instead decided to try something a little more original.

What I ended up with was a fluffy, gooey and delicious roll. I’ve made these now four times, each time a little different, but this recipe is the latest and best so far. 

Lots of cinnamon roll recipes require preparation a day ahead. One of the great aspects of these cinnamon rolls is that you can make them the same day you want to enjoy them. All told, it takes around two hours from start to finish to have hot and delicious cinnamon rolls. Plus you probably have everything you need for this recipe in your pantry, unless it’s weird that I keep a supply of yeast around at all times…

Cinnamon Rolls

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 2 tbsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour

Filling

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup brown sugar

Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 pound powdered sugar

Warm milk and butter to 115°F degrees. Pour into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle in yeast. Whisk lightly with fork to froth and let sit for 10 minutes.

Lightly whisk in egg, sugar and Kosher salt then stir in flour 1/2 cup at a time. Knead in stand mixer or on floured surface until it forms a loose ball. Spray mixing bowl with oil before setting the dough ball in the center and covering with a moist towel. Let sit in a warm space for one hour to rise.

Once dough has doubled in size roll out onto a floured surface into a rectangle that is twice as wide as it is tall and 1/8-1/4” thick.

Heat the butter and spread across the dough evenly. Whisk together brown sugar and cinnamon (the cinnamon will help dry out the sugar and remove lumps) then sprinkle across the buttered dough (I use a sifter to help keep it even).

Slice lengthwise down the dough in even 1 1/2 inch ribbons. Carefully roll each ribbon into a roll and place into a greased 9” round baking dish (makes around 6-7 rolls).

Set aside to rise a second time as the oven heats to 350°F. Bake for 25 minutes or just until the tops of the rolls are golden brown. Remove from the oven and prepare the frosting.

Beat room temperature butter, cream cheese, Kosher salt, vanilla and lemon juice in a stand mixer with paddle attachment until creamed. Slowly add in powdered sugar and mix until smooth.

Spread frosting over hot rolls and enjoy!

The obsession I’m about to share could very well be the lamest though and it all started from working at Starbucks. I’m absolutely obsessed with clean drinking water. When I started with Starbucks back in 2005 I was amazed as the care they went through to purify their water. Most stores had a 5-stage filter system though one of my stores went all the way to 7 stages!In college I did my best imitation of this by filtering the water in my apartment through a Brita faucet filter into a Pur water filter jug. The water was delicious but boy was this tedious!

When I moved to San Diego I purchased a ZeroWater filter system (my water was pretty awful, 478 TDS) and for the first time I had the amazing taste of Starbucks water at home and without all the extra steps. Friends at first thought I was crazy to rant and rave over the ZeroWater but it didn’t take long for them to convert as well! See chart on the right for a comparison of ZeroWater vs Brita. It’s pretty remarkable.

I told you this obsession was lame…

The thing with obsessions is that they don’t really ever stop. That’s the point. So now that I own my house I thought to myself, “Why not install a real reverse osmosis system?” It would give me the great taste of ZeroWater with out the hassle of slow filtration and regular cost of expensive filters.

The solution? An iSpring RCC7 – Built in USA, WQA Certified Reverse Osmosis 5-Stage 75GPD Under-Sink Water Filter with Brushed Nickel EU Faucet & See-through Housing (of course).

It looks a bit like a mobile meth lab but it’s actually just a series of water filters, a pressurized water storage tank and some necessary accessories. My partner in crime Cody helped me install this under my sink and while the task was incredibly daunting, a few YouTube videos and some patience had us up and running in under and hour; though it would be several more hours before we could use it as the tank needed to fill up with 5 gallons of purified water.

The difference between reverse osmosis (RO) and a gravity filter like those from ZeroWater, Brita or Pur is the level of filtration. RO requires a great deal of pressure to push the water through a series of three filters that increase in density until your purified water makes it to the .0001 micron filter, the RO filter. After that it normally goes through a standard carbon filter though some have additional filters or additives in the series. Gravity simply does not allow for enough pressure to force the water through these filters.

The end result is water that’s perfectly clear, ice that isn’t cloudy and tastier coffee, tea and, well, water! It’s a bit of an upfront investment but 100% worth it. I purchased mine from Amazon. I chose the iSpring RCC7 based on reviews and price but the Apec ROES-50 is equally as good and similarly priced.

One thing I found pretty interesting were the results of testing the water after installing the system. My tap water has a total dissolved solids (TDS) rating of around 550. TDS refers to any minerals, salts, metals, cations or anions dissolved in water and it’s important to know that not all dissolved solids are bad. Some are healthy minerals.

ZeroWater’s selling point is that water from their pitchers have a zero reading on a TDS meter. And it works. My 550 TDS water truly reads zero when processed through their filter. My RO system gets me down to around 5 TDS which is good enough for me!

So there you go. My obsession with clean water. And for those of you who think I drink a ton of wine… if only you knew how much water I drink! Just in the time it took to write this post I drank 64 ounces of RO water!

Most. Boring. Post. Ever. (Unless you’re a weirdo like me obsessed with water)

But I’m determined to not be part of that 80% dropout rate which means I not only need a gym but I need one that’s convenient enough and offers the things I really want in a gym.

My office has a full gym with trainers and group classes which is really awesome. However, there is something about getting sweaty with colleagues that doesn’t work for me. Plus most of the classes are during work hours when I’m busy, you know, working.

Plus once I’m done working out I have to shower and there’s not much worse that can happen to you at work than stripping down to nothing next to the guy who you have a meeting with in an hour. So wherever I ended up it wouldn’t be at the office gym, at least not for the main event.

From 2010-2014 I worked out at 24 Hour Fitness, mostly at the Castro location in San Francisco but later at the super fancy UTC location here in San Diego. In San Francisco I paid $12.50/m for access to 300 clubs. Now their Costco deal is $16.67/m which is a sizable increase, especially considering you can no longer use the Costco deal to extend a membership so future years will likely cost more.

Either way, when I started at the UTC location I had to toss out my Costco membership and upgrade to a $75/m Ultra Sport Club level. It sucked to pay that kind of money every month but I got with it nicer facilities and a swimming pool, which was my main reason for joining. 

Long story short, I no longer feel the need to spend $75/m and technically didn’t qualify for the Costco deal which could mean I’d be paying upwards of $45/m to go to the gym near my house. Not cool.

So tonight Cody and I joined Planet Fitness. I had never actually been inside of a Planet Fitness but they’d always intrigued me. They’re mostly famous for their “Judgement Free Zone” and “Lunk Alarms.”

https://youtu.be/Ru5m1cbsGwY

That being said, I’ve also found their perks (free guest with every visit, tanning, hydromassage, Beauty Angle infrared therapy and unlimited fitness training pretty enticing, including some rock bottom membership pricing.

Cody and I opted for the $19.99/m membership which includes all the above and then some. We could have gone for the $10/m membership but tanning, hydromassage and the unlimited guest privileges won us over!

Tomorrow morning I’m planning on going in for my first day at the new gym and will be sure to let you know how it goes.

There were a few things missing from Planet Fitness.

• No swimming pool
• No spin classes
• No yoga classes
• No large group classes (only groups of <5)
• No private personal trainers

It’s going to suck not having a pool though I do have an ocean 15 minutes from my house. Keeping group exercise classes to no more than 5 people makes it more personal and provides more 1-on-1 time with the trainer but… I really wanted the energy of a spin class or boot camp and a regular yoga course that didn’t cost more money.

If I really start to miss any of those classes I can always suck it up and do them at the office gym, same with having a personal trainer. But when weighing the pros and cons, Planet Fitness won out hands down.

Plus it’s 3 minutes closer so I’m that much more likely to actually go!

To be honest I’ve never really been someone that relied on New Years resolutions in order to make good changes in my life. In my mind it’s really just an opportunity to set yourself up for failure that’s so expected, when it happens there is no consequence. With a failure rate of 92%, it should come as no surprise that I don’t put much credence in them.

That being said, I am making a conscious effort to do a few things different in 2016 that I failed miserably in accomplishing in 2015.

Go to the Gym & Eat Better

This is basically everyone’s resolution. Lose weight, get healthier, etc etc. It’s also one of the hardest to succeed at. Temptation is everywhere and unless you become a militant Crossfiter, chances are those Pumpkin Spice Caramel Cronuts are going to beat your Paleo Diet.

Pumpkin Spice Caramel Cronut from Foodnessgracious

That being said, I have had no issue going to the gym in the past. It’s all mental. If I can get myself up in the morning and drive to the gym, I will workout and I will enjoy it. Joining a spinning, yoga or other group exercise only improves the chances of success for me.

The trick is to just go. And maybe on the way home I can treat myself to a cronut… Just kidding, I find that the more I workout the healthier I eat. In 2016 I have two friends, Huy and Zach, who have offered themselves are gym buddies and I plan to more or less force Cody and Gabe to do the same.

How will I make this reasonable? I won’t beat myself up if I miss a day at the gym. I will document my workouts and progress in great detail as I have in the past. I plan on picking up the Four Hour Body diet again, not a difficult diet to do once you get past the first week and wow, does it work!

Write in my Blog

Writing here used to be the highlight of my day. Don’t tell my old professors, or my parents, but I used to spend a good part of my time in class writing here instead of pay attention to my lectures. If you’re a previous professor of mine I promise I didn’t do this in your class…

MacBook Air Faded and Stuff — Alejandro Escamilla

All through high school, college and my time in San Francisco I took to my blog to share what was going on in my life, review products I purchased and generally connect with the world. There was a time that I was writing tomes everyday getting tens of thousands of views every day.

Traffic got so big at times that my hosting provider, go riddance, would message me about not abusing their “unlimited bandwidth” policy.

Something happened when I moved to San Diego. It broke me of this outlet and habit. Now that I have Cody here writing in his blog on the regular and a proper office/slice of heaven to do my writing in, I hope to get back in the groove.

I’ve asked Cody to keep me on task here and have purchased a handful of a really cool things to review which should help keep me inspired! Right now I’m listening to Philips Fidelio X2 headphones on a Fiio Olympus E10K 2 digital audio converter/amplifier. Sounds pretty bomb.

I don’t want to give away the review before I get a chance to share it, or the other photos I took, but I will say this. These headphones make me question everything I thought I knew about audiophile headphones, namely that it begins and ends with the likes of Sennheiser, Grado, Stax, Beyerdynamic, etc.

These headphones are killer.

Don’t Be Such a Homebody

I bought a house, then I became a homebody. Why would I ever want to leave? I basically have everything I could ever want. A home theater system that truly rivals the movie theater, a 7-person hot tub in my beautiful back yard, hundreds of bottles of wine, beer and liquor and a bed that seems to always call my name…

Having Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Amazon Prime and Hulu at my fingertips doesn’t make it any easier! And while I love hosting people over to my house for dinners, brunches and wine nights, it isn’t a bad idea to actually go out from time to time. In fact, as soon as I hit publish on this post I’m planning to go out to Hillcrest for drinks.

Really the only thing I have against being a homebody is that it isn’t conducive to making new friends. For the first 18 months out here I wasn’t sure I’d be staying much longer so I didn’t make a huge effort to make a ton of friends out here like I had in San Francisco. I’ve made a few great friends but almost all of them are from the office.

Diversity is great. So instead of chatting with people I meet online and never actually meeting up, I’m making 2016 the year I step out of my house and into new experiences.

Making it Happen

So what do I expect in 2016? I expect to get back into the gym and to love it. To lose weight, get back the strength I worked so hard to gain in 2012 and from that be more energized, optimistic and confident.

I will write here more often and to make those efforts carry over to my photo blog. I might actually start that podcast I spent all that time and money researching and building out! I’ve actually recorded a handful of episodes but the perfectionist (…) in my head won’t let me publish. Gonna make 2016 the year that I don’t let hangups keep me from doing what I love to do which is create content.

I promise to say “Yes” more to invitations to go out and meet new people. I’m a social person, it’s about that I start exercising that muscle again!

I managed to go over a year without a single post and it sure wasn’t because I had nothing to share. The last time I checked in with anyone on here was nearly 500 days ago. In that time I’ve made some massive changes to my life.

Let’s go through the highlights. I’ll keep this part brief, so much to share would hate to condense it into a single post!

San Diego is Home

In 2014 I decided to make San Diego my home and not just a stop along as I returned to San Francisco for a second time in my life. I can’t really say how it happened. I woke up one day and said, I want to buy a house. I accepted a full time position at a financial firm and a month later I was signing what seemed like a million pages of paper and “closing escrow” on the first house that caught my eye.

Seriously. I closed on my house faster than my realtor, mortgage lender and escrow company said they would have ever expected. Despite the plethora of issues that came up, as they do with any home purchase, I pushed through and made it happen.

It was one of the most stressful moments of my life but let me tell you, 100% worth it. No more apartment living for me! Just like that I was the proud owner of a three bedroom, two bath house in what Redfin declared “America’s Best Neighborhood.” Wow. 

San Francisco is where my heart is, that will never change, but San Diego is home, at least for now.

Periodic Cohabitation

When I moved to San Diego I was put into a position I hadn’t found myself in since college. I was living alone. At first it was awesome. I had all this freedom and space; things in short supply back in San Francisco where I shared a bedroom with Ryan and an apartment with our roommate Mark. Luckily it was a large space but it got real small, real quick.

It wasn’t long before the freedom sort of wore off and while this all happened in 2014 not 2015, it’s worth mentioning… One of my best friends moved in with me for a handful of months in my old apartment and it was just glorious. Could not have asked for a better situation! When he moved out I felt a bit of a hole in my life.

So when I was looking at buying a house I decided to invite another friend to rent a room from me. On paper this was going to be a great situation. In reality it was an absolute disaster. I don’t want to go into many details here but the short story is I was taken advantage of and made to look a fool. I didn’t listen to my friends who were advising me to do otherwise.

Luckily that hell was short-lived. After another brief stint of bachelorhood another friend moved in with me. Cody, who had spent like about one weekend a month visiting me left Texas and came to live with me. It’s been awesome.

We are both creatives, both dorky, both handy and we get along like you wouldn’t believe. If you don’t know Cody you should check him out on Twitter, Facebook, his blog, YouTube and Instagram. Yeah, he’s a social media addict like me too!

To be continued…

First I picked up the big guy. A brand new Nikon D810. For the last six years I’ve been shooting with a Nikon D700 and I’ve loved it. This camera changed the way I shot photos and put me ahead of almost everyone in my photography courses with the incredibly powerful sensor and ability to capture such dynamic range. It is what allowed me to make the images I made with the awesome subtly that became my style. 

Alas, things started to wear down after shooting over 100,000 images with the D700. Don’t get me wrong, I could have shot for another six years with this camera if I’d gotten it tuned up and repaired a few things but I’d also be hindering me just as my Nikon D80 hindered me before I got the Nikon D700.

For those wondering why I continue to choose Nikon over Canon, it’s down to three things.

1. My library of lenses would be far to expensive to replace
2. I love the the fit, finish and ergonomics on the Nikon
3. Nikon sensors regularly score higher than other sensors in their class (and beyond)

For an example, check out the DxO Sensor Test chart below:

That’s my camera vs the comparable Canon vs my old camera. The Nikon D810 beats all three handily while the Canon only barely squeaks by the Nikon D700. I don’t want to incite some sort of Canon vs Nikon vs Sony debate here. I know Canon does lovely video and they have a very loyal following and they have hacks like MagicLantern. That’s all great but for me it comes down to raw numbers and my experience with both brands.

After the camera purchase I felt a burning desire for a new lens. As you may know I shoot almost exclusively with prime, or fixed, lenses. Switching from a kit zoom lens (Nikon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6) to a 50mm f1.8 made me a better photographer, by a lot. A fixed 50mm equivalent lens is the only lens a new photographer should have in their camera bag. Period.

After I felt I’d mostly mastered the 50mm f1.8 I added a few more to my kit. A macro Nikon 60mm f2.8, a Nikon 24mm f1.8 wide angle lens and finally a Nikon 85mm f1.8. I already had a Nikon 80-200 f2.8. What I wanted for so long was a replacement Nikon 35mm f2.8, mine was a hand-me-down that was DOA.

But then I thought, why not go for broke and get the Nikon 35mm f1.4? Oh, well because it is $1,600. Then I saw the Rokinon 35mm f1.4 and I was in love.

No, this lens doesn’t have autofocus and no it doesn’t have any anti-vibration and no it doesn’t have all the wiz-bang coatings or computer chips in it. What it does have is the smoothest focus ring and has proven to be one of the sharpest lenses I’ve ever used. The first one I got was defective unfortunately (just my luck) but a few days later the replacement was here and my love for this lens was realized.

I wandered around North Park and took a few photos on the first day with the camera to see what it could do and to have some raw files to play around with. By the way, the uncompressed raw files come in at 70mb per photo! That’s crazy but not too surprisingly this thing has a 36.3 megapixel sensor.

I have tons of other photos but can’t really share them at this point. Turns out the camera is new enough that Apple hasn’t updated it’s operating system so that it can handle them natively. Photoshop can open them but even Lightroom can’t preview the images unless I shoot them in the compressed format. It’s only a matter of time before software updates are released but until then I have to open each image in Photoshop just to see what it is.

Now that I have a camera that can shoot video, and since my two BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Cameras are still on back order (probably going to cancel that order) I’ve been building out a DSLR video rig for this camera. These things can get hella expensive, remember the Zacuto I reviewed? I might have the money for the camera and lenses but adding a $1,600 rig on top of it just wasn’t going to happen. So I went the cheap route.

I am totally going to do a longer review of this setup once I have finished outfitting it. So far I’m pretty confident that I made the right decision. For around $200 I have a rig that does everything I need it to do and more. Plus it saved me hundreds, perhaps over one thousand, dollars.

In the meantime here’s some video from the Nikon D810 before I had the shoulder rig or LCD viewfinder which are both essential to great DLSR video.

Nothing too great here but I was just fooling around. I’m hoping to do some really cool stuff down the line with this camera, not just in photography by also some video work. This is a new frontier for me, outside of client work, so I’m very excited!

1. Take a picture
2. Process the photo
3. Write a few sentences about the photo
4. Post the photo

Yet here I am, without a post in 12 months. What a mess. Luckily I’ve promised myself that I would put an end to not blogging and doing the things that really make me happy. Also lucky for me? I get so many wonderful opportunities to take photos and make art out of them. Or at least what I consider my art.

This weekend my mom flew into San Diego to celebrate my birthday a bit early. I turn 30 next Saturday… Wish me luck on that one. More on all that later, I promise!

This post isn’t supposed to encapsulate all the fun and adventures we went on but I did want to use it as a way to hold myself accountable of making at least five updates to my photoblog in the upcoming week. Oh, quick note, all of the following images were taken with my Pentax MX-1. The most hipster of seriously-cool range-finder-ish digital cameras.

Let’s hope I don’t fail us all! It’s time you all start holding me accountable! There, I’ve passed my failure onto you.