that rosebud girl

got the shutterbug …

last summer, when my parents were about to visit here, i requested they bring me an old camera that once belonged to my dad. it was this sweet canon 35mm camera (the ae-1 program) that was pretty much manual everything.

problem was, this camera hadn’t been used in probably 15 years or so. and it was more than 20 years old — the box says it’s the “official camera of the 1984 Olympics” for crying out loud! the family was pretty much split over whether it worked or not. but mom and dad brought the camera over, i took a look, and everything sounded okay, except for the fact that i couldn’t get the damn film door to open.

so this box sat in our house for months until i finally decided to take it to a ritz camera today. i’d been thinking about cameras lately (like a sweet digital slr that i can’t afford at the moment), hence the trip to the store with the old canon.

the guys at the shop were pretty amazed. (“wow, that’s in excellent condition.” “damn, she even has the box!” “that was my first camera.”) and lo and behold, the guy who was actually helping me said the film door wasn’t stuck. he put a battery in and said the danged thing worked. the shutter sounded fine and the mirrors looked fine too. it was just a tad dusty (which is to be expected, since the camera had resided in a drawer for 15 years).

bad news, though, was the lens was kaput. (i probably broke it somewhere along the way. maybe twisted it too hard when i was a stupid 13-year-old kid.) but the guys said the camera itself was probably still in decent working condition.

so i got on ebay and picked up a couple of lenses for dirt cheap. and now i’m waiting for them to come. and i’ll probably pick up a roll of film and see if this baby still works.

i’m pretty stoked about it. if it works, i do want to take a photography class at sac city. and i’ll probably use this camera.

it’s a damn shame that lens is busted, or i would have bought film on the spot at ritz. oh, well. hopefully the lenses come before the end of the week, or early next week, so i can get some film and do some shooting when ed and i go to san francisco.

light-headed …

… only because i chopped a bunch of hair off. woohoo!

and i managed to get my hair donated to charity, which i wasn’t counting on, but a nice perk indeed.

it’s been about a year since i got a haircut, so i finally meandered down to a friendly neighborhood supercuts. i sit in the chair and tell the lady, “i want 6 inches gone.” she shows me in the mirror what six inches is, and i say, “well, i want way more than that gone.” so she tells me that i might be able to donate my hair if i wind up lopping off 10 to 12 inches. and that sounds nice to me. i’m a believer in good karma.

now my hair doesn’t get in the way. it’s pretty short, but it should grow out to a decent length by the time recital rolls around. i’m just happy that i don’t require a hairtie just to eat a meal.

oh, and my hair is one color for the first time in a really, really, really long time. dang, that’s weird.

playing catch-up …

following up on a couple of earlier posts:

• according to ahmed, bubb rubb has actually been around a few years. like four years or so. i guess we were behind the ball. whatever. but bubb’s got his own website — http://www.bubbrubb.com/ — and he’s even got a shop in there. shirts and buttons and stuff. crazy, crazy stuff.
• usc lost to north carolina. i didn’t even have time to shed a tear. i was stuck in ncaa editing hell. oh well. there’s always next year. and there’s always football season.

the fact that it’s almost april is freaking me out. where the hell did the year go? *sigh*

at least spring break is coming up soon … it’ll be nice to have a week without regular class and dance class …

my kind of homeboy …

ahmed showed me this clip while we were at work today … it’s hella funny.

nothin’ like them oakland homeboys …

stay with it, though, ’cause the good stuff is about halfway through …

i’m gonna use the name bubb rubb somehow, i swear!

tim floyd, miracle worker.

who knew usc had such a good hoops team? seriously.

i expected usc-texas to be a hell of a basketball game — i mean, this kevin durant kid is ridiculously out of control. and usc can counter with some decent hoopsters, you know? but i never expected an ass-kicking.

unfortunately, i didn’t get to see much of the game — i had to meet someone for an appointment while it was on — but i was able to listen to some of it. it was pretty impressive. some pretty solid defense.

so much for that nationally-televised ass-kicking from oregon in the pac-10 tourney.

who knew tim floyd was a miracle worker? he just might make basketball relevant all over again at SC. good for them. i remember the 2001 tourney and the upset of kentucky, which i’m still proud to say i watched in person. they definitely haven’t had a team as good as that one in a while — david bluthenthal! jeff trepagnier! kevin augustine! (i meant, brandon granville!) sam clancy! — so it’s nice to see usc back on the radar again.

now all i need is for usc to beat north carolina and we’re in business. and that would help my tournament pool a great deal.

fight on.

it’s madness!

ah, selection sunday, my second favorite sunday of the year behind super bowl sunday.

of course, it also means that everyone here in the office is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. i personally like the craziness. though i can’t say that i miss being a writer for selection sunday. some of the worst sundays of my life have been selection sundays when i was covering women’s hoops. seriously.

anyway, the tourney is coming to sacto and sadly, i missed the boat on tickets ages ago. because i’m a slacker.

but we’re getting some pretty good teams here — gonzaga, wazzu, fucla. someone in our office is already asking about tickets because his wife went to fucla and she wants to see her bruins. i would love to see a first and second round, but then again, i already ordered the ncaa march madness package on directv and i could watch all the games from the comfort of my couch on thursday, friday, saturday and sunday. i think it’s a tossup.

and usc got a 5 seed. not bad, except they’re playing arkansas and i’m always leery of that 5-12 matchup. and they’re in the same bracket as texas! fucking texas! &^%$#$$%(*

oh well. should be a good tourney. i heart the tourney.

when mascots attack ….

we were talking about mascots and their shenanigans at work today, and i brought up the classic cal bear-stanford tree dustup from a college game many, many years ago.

so i said, “i should youtube this to see if i can find it.”

and lo and behold, here it is:

it happened in 1995, which just makes me feel damn old. i remember watching this on sportscenter. i remember it clear as day!

it’s still damn funny after all these years.

oh, and the old-school sportscenter graphics are a freakin’ bonus!

random stuff …

had more sushi at zen sushi today — ed and i went with katie and jake. awesome stuff again. it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite joints in sacratomato.

the crazy thing, though, was that the bathroom had one of those far-out japanese toilets. it’s like a self-washing toilet. squirts water at ya. i wish i had the presence of mind to take a picture because it was crazy!

i also saw eric musselman (kings coach, if you’re not in the know) chillin’ out at supercuts in natomas today. hey, nba coaches need their hair cut too. though you’d think they’d have their own barbers and stuff and not have to go to your friendly neighborhood supercuts.

oh, and ed and i bought a new printer today. it’s sweeeeeeeeet. it even has a fax machine. i feel all office-like now.

okay, back to work.

oh, candor.

you know, most sports personalities just aren’t as colorful or interesting as they used to be.

but this quote from royce waltman, the indiana state (soon to be ex-) men’s basketball coach is priceless:

“Don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t take this as a bitter comment, because I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m not one bit bitter, but the administration handled this with the deft touch of a 20-mule team.”

he goes on to rant:

“They said it at a board of trustees?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ meeting, which is obviously going to leak out, but yet said they didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t want to announce it until after the tournament. So it just left us with every man, woman and child in Terre Haute knowing I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m fired, but it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s not official. It still hasn’t been made official by whoever?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s going to make that statement.”

i wonder what would happen if i ever ranted about a previous employer in a public forum like that.

again, a lack of super colorful characters is sad. well, except for ozzie guillen, i guess. he’s always entertaining.

thank goodness for baseball season because ozzie is guaranteed to say something crazy.

karma bites.

i forgot to make a revision to the post about having the bestest day in a while … because that night as i was driving home …

… i was pulled over by the cops!

stupid me, not stopping fully at a blinking red light. or that’s why the CHP officer said he pulled me over. (i plead the fifth.)

so he pulls me over and he asks, “why do you have out of state plates?” (which i do … i’m still rolling with my del plates. they don’t expire until 2008.)

and i say, “well, sir, california registration is expensive and i can’t afford it.” (also not bullshit.)

so he proceeds to tell me that i really should have california plates since i’ve been here a while. then he walks away with all my info, presumably, to write up my ticket.

but it takes him almost 15 minutes! and i was pretty danged cold. and my car was idling forever. and i probably needed gas. etc.

he comes back and says he’ll give me a warning on the light deal, but he’s going to cite me for not having california registration.

so it was kind of sucky but not as bad as it could have been. but still, flashing lights in your rear view mirror is not cool. especially at 12:30 a.m.!