Take a Long Walk On the Redondo Pier (a.k.a. Go Fly a Kite)

So we had this meeting at work Thursday concerning communication between generations and technology and blah, blah, blah, you don't care. The reason I mention it was near the end of the meeting, the presenter asked who amongst the audience was a "blogger". So in the interest of honesty - certainly not in the interest of pride and or non-embarrassment - I raised my hand. And I was the only one. Amongst hundreds of engineers.* So I'm either a) the coolest most with-it person in that room embracing technology and using it to further my social interaction with others or b) the hugest nerd among a room full of huge nerds. You decide.

*I'd like to point out here that using technology doesn't necessarily make one a huge dork. And conversely, not using technology does not prove that one is not Nerdy McNerder. For instance, I know someone who does not have the internet at home, but at the same time, is one of the nerdiest people I have ever met. You know who you are. Consider this a partial argument for option "a)".

The reason I even bring this up is that I haven't blogged in several days, and this raising of hands - or, hand, if you will - has spurred me to write another post lest I be accused of being a poser or guilty of poserism. Well that and I finally made it through some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, last weekend there was another photography group meeting at the Redondo Beach Kite Festival. It wasn't a large turnout as I only saw Peter (pictured here in the beginner's yo-yo contest - he won a yo-yo!), Jeff (new glasses here - Hugo Boss I'm told - ooooohhhhhh fancy), and Erik (not pictured here).

Nevertheless, it was a really fun time. There were, as the name might suggest, lots of kites,

a Hot Dog On a Stick (corndog for the non-Left Coasters) Eating Contest (this one is when Backwards Hat was holding back a digestive refusal which as you can see worried the other contestants),

but the highlight of the afternoon (at least for me) was the yo-yo exhibitions and contest. These kids - and, yeah, adults - did some amazing things with yo-yo's. And it was a huge turnout. Who knew there was this underground yo-yo brotherhood? (Wait til the hipsters get ahold of this.) Most amazing of all were the yo-yo's that could actually leave the string. LEAVE. THE. STRING. The yo-yo-er would be doing, you know, regular yo-yo stuff, - i.e. holding wound up yo-yo in hand, release it to unwind, do trick, retract back up to hand - then all of a sudden the yo-yo-er would somehow (magic?) release it from the string into the air and catch it holding both ends of the string. After the untethered yo-yo portion of the act was over, a shuffle of the hands would return the yo-yo to normal state prepared to walk-the-dog, around-the-world, rock-the-cradle or whatever. Here's No Face in mid trick:

Unbelievable. I'm still convinced this is some sort of witchcraft. All in all, a ton of fun. Full gallery of the day's pics here.

Watching - Buckaroo Bonzai. Incredibly goofy, enjoyable film. Too hard to explain in this limited space, but Buckaroo is a Scientist / Samurai / Rock N' Roll-er / Action Hero that ends up saving the world from an alien threat from the 8th dimension. Recommended. Also: Pinky Carruthers, one of Buckaroo's bandmate / sidekicks played by none other than Billy Vera.

Using - Boxee. Media browser. Can access local or networked digital content (stuff on your copmuters) as well as internet content (Netflix, Youtube). It's great for me as I can now control Netflix via remote.

Happy Birthday Peri Paul!