I went Reel Big Fish concert a couple weeks ago featuring Starpool, The Maxies, Skapeche Mode, and Stupid Flanders at the Observatory. I didn’t get chance to share any photos. Better late than never.
After watching The Maxies on the main stage with gem, I switched rooms to watch Stupid Flanders. That’s also where I ran into my friend, Amit.
gem left Stupid Flanders to be sure to catch all of Suburban Legends. I missed the first half of the first song or so by the time I got over there. It was packed, and we were separated.
After Suburban Legends’ set, I switched back to the Constellation Room for Skapeche Mode. Can you guess that they do Depeche Mode covers?
I got nice and close! Skapeche Mode has great energy, and I love fun 80s tunes. Plus, they’re pretty friendly! I actually ran into Bryan, the trumpet player, at SDCC.
gem managed to find me at this point even though we couldn’t text. Signal was so bad that our text messages were actually lagging by 20 minutes or so.
After their set, gem and I chatted with Bryan briefly, and I got this photo with Skapeche Mode’s singer. Note the David Bowie homage.
Last was Reel Big Fish. By that time, I just wasn’t feeling it too much anymore. Plus, there was a lot of weed around us, so we left after a couple songs. We did, however, run into Brian Klemm, guitarist for Suburban Legends. I think this is the happiest I’ve ever seen gem. Plus, when I asked Klemm about the band since this is their last tour, he confirmed that they’re not breaking up and should still be playing locally. Awesome!
Last week was the opening reception of Firsts, Seconds and Thirds: African American Leaders in Los Angeles During the 1960s & 1970s. My friend Kristine has been working at the Los Angeles Public Library Central Branch Photo Collection Department as an archivist for the Rolland J. Curtis Photo Archive. Curtis was the Field Deputy to Billy G. Mills and Tom Bradley, who were two of the first three African-American councilman on the LA city council in the ’60s. Kristine sorted through thousands of photographs and was the curator. How cool is that? You can read more about her project on her blog, Film Is Memory.
Look, her name’s on the poster!
gem and Kristine!
I had to show her fiancé, Justin, some love too. Here’s gem and Justin as well. gem wanted to get a photo at the podium. She’s a thinker, that one.
I didn’t realize the mic was hot, and when I chuckled, it amplified it. I don’t think anyone noticed luckily.
gem also took this of me through some furniture.
After the opening reception, during which I managed to stuff my face full of cookies and miniature cinnamon buns, we had some dinner at Chego, a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant in LA. I got a tasty kimchi spam bowl. Rather than show you that, I’m going to show a low-quality photo of the “Ooey Gooey Fries” – very unhealthy, I’m sure.
After dinner, we took some photos with Pooh and got some ice cream. Funny how my lips were inches away from Justin’s face in the photo I posted above, but when taking a photo with this disgusting public Pooh Bear, I accidentally touched my lips to him. Ugh. Pooh looks a bit bashful, don’t you think?
Christmas is a time for giving, and this year I gave a few homemade gifts. I thought I’d share some here!
This is a Christmas card I gave. Yes, there was writing too, but I’m not sharing any.
Here’s another one. I was pretty happy with it.
One last card. These took hours each on average. I suppose I’m slow.
This chubby little bunny was made for gem. I had to learn how to hand sew to make this. It was slow at first but got faster as I learned different stitches.
The side angle lets you see his little tail.
She liked him! I’m really happy with how the bunny turned out. I think he’s pretty adorable, and he’s quite cuddly too.
This is a cute photo. I like the bow tie. It’s attached with a safety pin rather than being sewed on so that it can be moved to become a ribbon on the ear instead!
Anela likes alpacas – particularly stuffed alpacas in costumes.
I made this alpaca and then decided to put it in a belly dance costume.
Anela recognized it right away, which definitely made me happy!
It was based off one of the belly dance costumes that she’s worn. Plus I added a bell because… well… I like bells.
Evyerthing I made was well-received, and I had a ton of fun making them. It was strange when I finally finished; I didn’t know what to do with my free time. I spent countless nights in December working until 6 in the morning. Most of my free time the entire month was spent working. I decided to watch Parks and Recreation while working and got through three and a half seasons. I might be slow, and I might not be the most skilled, but I’m diligent!
I thought it might be fun to look at what I listened to in 2015. I use Last.fm, which tracks music you listened to by linking to Spotify, using a Chrome extension for YouTube, and getting play counts from iTunes. You can find me on Last.fm here if you’re interested. This is Make a New Dance Up by Hey Ocean! at the top. It makes me happy; It’s very upbeat, and it really does make me want to dance. Sometimes I listen to it when I’m about to go dancing.
Here are my top artists played in this last year. What a good-sounding bunch.
My top artists aren’t a surprise. However, I guess I should admit that I think all 214 plays of The Orion Experience came from a single song. Wow.
Here are some more interesting notes. Scott Bradlee and the Postmodern Jukebox is tracked under two different names.
Combined, they’d beat Suburban Legends for the most played artist.
I don’t own any music by Taylor Swift, and her music is on Spotify. All of her plays are from YouTube. While I already liked a few of her older songs without really knowing who sang them, her recent rise in my listening habits can be attributed to Anela playing the music videos in Daniel’s apartment. Kat DeLuna and Priyanka Chopra are also from her.
The Orion Experience, Cascada, Lena, My Crazy Girlfriend, Hey Ocean!, It Boys!, Hailee Steinfeld, and Kerli all came from Spotify’s Discovery Weekly playlist that changes weekly and is customized to each user. It’s fantastic.
Colt Ford is all Crank It Up. I line danced to it at Atomic and had to go listen to it a thousand times (well, 156 times).
Suburban Legends and Half Past Two are two of my favorite ska bands and local to the area. They’re not new to my listening this year. Half Past Two is taking a break, and Suburban Legends just announced that their current tour is their last, so I’m mad at them! (I’m sorry; I’m not mad. I love you. Thanks for making my ears happy.) Scott Bradlee and the Postmodern Jukebox and Regina Spektor are both favorites of mine for longer than 2015, and I actually saw the Postmodern Jukebox in early 2015.
I was introduced to Daniela Andrade by gem. At first, I mostly listened to her cover of Crazy, which is crazy good. She’s very talented.
Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy is actually the podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me. I don’t know what they have against the Oxford comma.
What can I say about Carly Rae Jepsen? I really, really, really, really, really like her. (Do you get it?!)
Here’s my all time top artists in 2015. Again, no surprise, but there is one caveat. My play counts in iTunes were also increased by gem, and she went completely crazy on Owl City for a while. That was the only album she listened to for far too long. I couldn’t stand them for a while. I like them again, but they wouldn’t be this high without her.
When I look at my list of all time top played artists, it makes me want to listen to some of them more. I need more Liz Phair and Vampire Weekend.
These are the songs I listened to the most in 2015. I can’t say much about them. Obviously I love all of them or I wouldn’t have listened to them so many times.
These are my top all time songs. Some of these are artists that made it on my top artists of 2015 list. Some, like Suburban Legends, already had a lot of plays from previous years and continued strong with me in 2015. Others, like The Orion Experience, Cascada, Lena, Colt Ford, It Boys!, and Hey Ocean! I only learned about this year and they already shot into my all time list. I knew of Taylor Swift, but Shake It Off was new to me. Again, Owl City has infiltrated the list thanks to all those dang plays from gem.
Less interesting, but for completion’s sake, here’s the top albums in 2015.
This is the top 20 list.
Here’s the all time top albums. Ugh, Owl City! You’re a fine band, but you make me angry that you’re so high.
And here’s the final list for all time top played albums.
This song didn’t make it on the list, but its album did at least. I want to share it anyways.
I wonder how these lists will change next year! I think it’s fun to look back at what I’ve been listening to!
Following tradition, I ended 2015 by attending the Ska Luau on the 30th and going to a New Year’s Eve party at the Carters’ on the 31st. It was a lot of fun!
gem and I were looking good at the Ska Luau. I need to work on evening my tan.
The two of us were rocking our Suburban Legends shirts! The Luau featured the Magnolia Polynesian Dance Troupe, Karate in the Garage, Hooray for Our Side, Suburban Legends, and Starpool. What a sweet line up!
We ran into our friend Bryan who’s the trumpet player for Skapeche Mode and Failed to Victory. All the bands performed amazing sets. I’d never heard Karate in the Garage, so that was a treat. I’d only seen Hooray for Our Side once, and they gave a great performance. Suburban Legends and Starpool are two of my favorite bands, and they somehow always exceed expectations. I didn’t take many photos of Suburban Legends. There choreography is so awesome that still photos wouldn’t do them justice. However, I have some videos of them playing and dancing in the playlist at the top of this post.
Starpool came out in a bang of confetti!
Throw my hands up and shout! I love when they perform this. You can see T-bone Willy Wonka and an Oompa Loompa on stage too. My ears were ringing all day the next day.
I brought a lot of food to the New Year’s Eve party – brownies, lemon bars, and biscuit pizzas.
I told Henley that I had a gift for him in the car, and he was pretty excited. He was so adorable asking if it was time to open it yet. He needed some help getting it unwrapped!
He seemed pretty happy with his new Buzz Lightyear! As it turns out, he had really wanted one too. While I was undoing the ties to get Buzz out of the package, Henley repeatedly gave me hugs. He’s so cute.
We suggested he open gem’s gift while I got Buzz out of the box. gem gave him a jacket that looks like a polar bear, complete with bear ears of course. He’s wearing it in that photo, although he didn’t want the hood.
Dev’s dog, Happy, is totally a lap dog.
Here’s me and Dev! He’s one of my oldet friends. We met in 8th grade.
I guess Mike likes my brownies! Actually, he was wondering why Dev scooped them out of the pan with a spoon.
gem made cheesecake ice cream as gifts and left them in a freezer. I realized that Gracie and Jon forgot to take one, so we began discussing the ice cream. Somehow we realized we could heat up my homemade brownies and serve them with gem’s homemade cheesecake ice cream.
Super success! A picture doesn’t really do it justice, but trust me that it was delicious.
And that was my New Year’s Eve! Thanks to Alex, Darnell, Henley, gem, Devin, Lorena, Gracie, Jon, Mike, Dev, and a couple people who I didn’t really know (sorry, I forgot names after a day already) for a fantastic end to 2015!
This was quite the year filled with many fun activities. It seems like a nice time for some reflection. I went to Michigan, which was beautiful, with Duncan. I’d never been that far north or east.
On that same trip, I left the country for the first time to visit Niagara Falls.
I also visited Toronto! It was an awesome city.
I went to San Diego Comic-Con again. Here I’m dressed as an Aquabat with Holland Tayloe Gedney’s Elsa.
It was also my first year cosplaying – not counting the Aquabats costume I’ve worn to SDCC previously for concerts. This is Professor Monty Corndog from the Aquabats (with the Aquabats)!
And let’s not forget Fix-It Felix, Jr.
I visited friends in the Bay Area when I went to San Francisco for a conference.
I did a lot of yoga, including paddle yoga. I started practicing yoga in the summer of 2014 and continued in 2014. Starting in June, I did yoga daily, never missing a day. I took over 130 yoga classes in 2015. My wrist is still healing but is feeling much better. I think the glucosamine sulfate (thanks to the pianist from Intergalactic Nemesis for the suggestion) and vertical mouse is helping quite a bit. I also hurt my knee, so for the past few months I’ve only been doing restorative or yin yoga. Honestly, I can see the good in this. I’ve learned to appreciate yin and restorative so much more, which helps give me a deeper understanding to my practice and myself.
Speaking of hurting my knee, I’ve also been dancing a lot more. I took 40-something dance classes this year. While I tried a lot of different areas, I like Balboa, Argentine tango, and Lindy Hop the most. I’m glad I have fun friends who like to go dancing.
I baked an ooey gooey berry pie for Anela to celebrate the fact that she passed the bar. I also got to attend her bar admission ceremony and law school graduation.
gem and I went to the Dapper Day expo at Downtown Disney and to Folly, the afterparty.
gem and I were extras during the filming of The Big Day, and gem got this great photo of her with Suburban Legends.
I saw so much talent in my friends. This is Free Comic Book Day show at ImprovCity with my friend Alex Bower front and center. Besides some regular shows, I saw him in Scary Pants (which he wrote), Millennial Falcon at Second City, and HIStory/HERstory.
Speaking of talented friends named Alex, I saw Alex Foster clowning around and got pulled on stage for more participation (just like the last clown show I saw before this one).
I painted a little Jimmy the Robot.
I also painted this Adventure Time mug.
You have to see both sides.
That’s not to mention the cool Christmas gifts and cards I made this year. I haven’t given them all to their recipients yet, so I don’t want to show anything.
gem took me to a sushi class where we prepared sushi rolls! She’s the best 🙂
We also saw Kindred Throats, an amazing musical comedy duo. She liked them so much, she baked them cookies. Twice.
I attended Anela’s law school graduation from Chapman.
…and her CA Bar admission ceremony.
gem and I saw Cirque du Soleil’s KURIOS! Amazing!
I saw Anela dance a number of times, including the really fun Bellydance IDOL presents Om Kalthoum Tribute Show.
I helped solve a mystery at the Watson Adventures.
I ran (jogged/walked) a Blacklight Run with these two fun people.
I even got to see snow for the first time.
Heck, the year even started with my friends getting engaged.
I did so many other cool things too such as…
Reading all surviving plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides that I hadn’t read previously.
Having agents draft social media responses for me at work
Participating in a behavioral study
Becoming friends with Bryan Lackey, awesome ska trumpet player
Wakeboarding
Watching my brother perform in the Spectacles Improv Engine’s Student Showcase
Seeing a meteor shower
Attending a sand sculpture festival
Jogging/walking a Blacklight Run
Running the Walking Dead Experience
Seeing bands such as the Aquabats, the Interrupters, Starpool, Suburban Legends, LA Swing Barons, Imagine Dragons, Metric, Halsey, the LA Philharmonic, and Scott Bradlee and the Postmodern Jukebox
Vacationing with my roommates and friends in Vegas
Thanks to some reminders from WordPress and Jetpack, it seems like a good time to look at blogging in 2015. They’ve put together a report you can look at here, but I think I can find some interesting numbers myself.
WebPageless got around 4000 views this year, which is approximately what my other two blogs, Kor’kron 501st and Polygons and Pixels got as well. At this point, WebPageless is the only one I update regularly; the other two are about games, and I’m not really gaming much.
Here’s the breakdowns by year:
Year
WebPagleess
Kor’kron 501st
Polygons & Pixels
Total
2012
Unknown
5,969
N/A
N/A
2013
2,949
10,181
6,858
19,988
2014
3,703
6,376
7,891
17,970
2015
3,989 4,002
4,793
4,797
4,027
4,029
12,828
I don’t know when Jetpack was installed on WebPageless, but it shows data for January 2013, so it must have been installed that month. January might be a little low depending on when it was installed in that month, but that’s early enough in the year that it seems fairly accurate. Also, 2015 is only off of 4,000 by 11 views. Maybe this post can push it over 4,000. Edit: It can!
I’ve also been tracking with eXTReMe Tracking on WebPageless since May 7, 2009. It tracks visitors, not views, and its calculations can be different than WordPress’ too. While it doesn’t give me as much data as I get from WordPress, as of writing this it gives me a total of 19,858 visitors.
I made 67 new posts here – much, much more than my other two blogs. I made 34 new posts on Kor’kron 501st and 28 new posts on Polygons & Pixels. That’s not really a surprise to me. Most of my posts on WebPageless are discussing cool things I’ve done, and I’ve done a lot of fun things this year.
I know the views on WebPageless are much lower, but they’re more important to me. Kor’kron 501st and Polygons and Pixels have a much stronger ability to get views from links or search results, but WebPageless is actively about me and my life. However, all three blogs get views from people I know personally, and that means a lot to me. WebPageless is such a chronicle of my life that I’d ask someone to save a copy of it if I died to give to my children, but, you know, no kids, so we’re all good. Thanks to Blessing of Kings for linking to Kor’kron 501st and being responsible for so many of my views, the Twisted Nether Blogcast for having me on their podcast in late 2014, and everyone following the story of bob’s game on Polygons & Pixels and commenting to keep me informed – Nox, Tubero, Anonymouse, and more. Most of all, I’m thankful and surprised when my friends reveal that they read. It’s harder to gather stats on people who click through from Facebook, but I see the likes. I’m surprised so many people read. (Well, and some people like without reading, I’m sure.) I get comments in person from people that reveal that they’ve seen the post. It’s amazing. Sometimes I find myself asking “does anyone even read this crap,” but I know they do, and I know that WebPageless is basically a journal. If you read it, it must mean you care about me. Thank you.
Excluding the home page and some more administrative-focused pages designed mostly for me, here are my top posts by views in 2015:
A few weeks ago, gem and I went to see Suburban Legends at Lake Forest Palooza. While they were playing, I ran into Tazy!
gem and I also danced with All the Way Jay of the Maxies! It was his birthday!
I had to get my photo with the legends themselves too!
On a different day, I was an extra at a filming of a movie called The Big Day. Suburban Legends did some music for the movie, so they were there hanging out. It was pretty awesome. We even got to be in a promotional music video!
gem wins the awesomeness contest though for getting a picture with the band… with her ukulele… on stage! Yeah! I don’t want to post it because she should get the pleasure of sharing it herself. Fun!
My Christmas was certainly merry, and I hope everyone else’s was too. This is my little Christmas tree. I hadn’t put the homemade ornaments on it yet, but I forgot to get a photo with them and the gifts. Whoops.
This is at my aunt’s house on Christmas Eve. We do our main celebrating and gift exchange on Christmas Eve, while Christmas day is more relaxed. This photo was just my generation of the family. That’s my cousin Haley on the left, my cousin Mitch under his gifts, and my brother on the right.
Here’s another of Mitchell. He’s pretty awesome.
Now I’m standing with my grandma, my aunt, and my mom. My grandpa is on the right.
Here’s one of me and Pete. He’s trying to hold up a photo on his phone he took of my grandma’s butt.
What happened to grandma’s shoe? Weird.
Here’s a couple gifts from gem! She gave me a Bluetooth speaker, a set of bear sheets (I can’t wait to get into bed tonight), and a ukulele! Amazing! I brought my ukulele with me today when I went to my parents’ for Christmas day to practice. I’m trying to play Martian Girl by the Aquabats. Yes, gifts from me are missing from this post. I’ll talk about them some other time!
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