Do Not Cross

Kick ass!

This photo I took of a Dell advertisement adorned with some 666 graffiti was used on a Consumerist article today. I submitted the photo to their flickr pool a while back.

Ever since I was in 5th grade, I played the violin. I always hated practicing and playing in front of others. But it wasn’t until around 11th grade that I started to actually enjoy it. It was probably because I was finally (after only 5 years) good at playing. So for those last two years of high school, orchestra was my favorite class.

Once I went to college, I knew that balancing being in an orchestra and trying to be a physics major weren’t going to be easy. So I chose to give up the violin. I told myself that it would only be temporary and that one day, after I graduated, I would pick it up again. And I did, a few times. I would download some sheet music from the internet, dust off my violin, and try it out again–but it never felt quite the same.

During the times I played violin, I also was secretly jealous of my friends Cameron and Matt, who both played guitar. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play guitar. And finally, last November my father-in-law gave me one of his. I was really excited and grateful, but I also felt like a n00b. I barely knew anything about guitars and I was in constant fear of breaking it or scratching it.

I really like the guitar he gave me and I also love the amp that my brother-in-law got me for Christmas this past year. But because of the ass surgery I had back in January, I haven’t had a lot of chances to practice. This is because it isn’t always wonderful to sit, so I’ve always put practicing on the back burner. But I’ve finally began to heal and sitting is something that I can do now without too much discomfort. Thus, I’ve gotten the itch to begin practicing again.

So yesterday, Cheri and I went out to Guitar Center and bought me a music stand. I really needed one since I couldn’t stand trying to read my music while it was lying on the couch or something next to me. Perhaps that was just a pet peeve of mine leftover from my violin days. But now that I have a music stand, I think I’ll be more encouraged to practice. Maybe I’ll break out my violin one of these days too.

Yesterday morning, while waiting at the bus stop, I watched some dude wipe out hard on his motorcycle donorcycle. I was just standing at the stop, minding my own business, mildly irritated that someone didn’t pick up the present left by their dog at the stop. Then I looked up to my left and saw a guy on a yellow motorcycle (not a Harley Davidson, one of those speed demon type bikes) getting ready to take a left turn out of an apartment complex. The ground was a little wet from the previous night’s rain, but I wasn’t really thinking about that–and apparrantly neither was he.

As he began to make his left turn, he gave the bike a little too much gas. At first I thought he was just trying to show off, but then I watched as his bike swerved quickly back and forth followed by him falling on his right side with his bike landing on his right leg. I was mortified at the sight and didn’t really know what to do.

I ran over to where he was (he probably wasn’t more than 200 ft from where I was) to see if he was ok. By the time I got to him he was standing up on his own but limping and in some obvious pain. I was about to call an ambulance when a woman in scrubs pulled over to help. I didn’t speak to her but I assumed that she was either a doctor or a nurse and she began to examine him to see if he was alright.

I walked back to the bus stop, slightly shaken. I’ve seen in my forensic pathology course the kinds of injuries people sustain in motorcycle accidents, but it didn’t really phase me until I saw this guy eat the pavement. All I could really think of was that my father really really wants a motorcycle and he’ll probably buy one within the year. I hope he changes his mind.

Yesterday Cheri and I got a postcard from our good friend Cameron. He’s out on vacation in East Asia. He’s visiting Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I knew that he was going out there sometime this month, but couldn’t for the life of me remember when he said he would be going. And since I hadn’t heard from him in a long time, I began to worry if he was still alive. But luckily the postcard proves otherwise :).