Noise Ave. – Page 6 – Just some opinions; simple, technical, musical, emotional

New Haircut – Oh Sharon Where Are You?

So Sharon, the lady that did my hair last time did such a wonderful job that she has raised the bar. Every new hairperson just scares me. However, since I’m 1000 miles away from Sharon, I had to get a haircut. Enter one Ashley. Cute. Really cute girl. Worked on my hair. Treated me real well and the place was pretty cool. They offer a drink. Water, coffee, beer, whatever! Obviously, who would drink beer while getting their hair worked on. That’s just gonna make the person drunk and like any ole hairstyle. So I opted for water. Never got to drink it, ‘coz of the all the talking and secondly, too much hair flying around.

Back to hair, Ashley did a pretty good job, not like Sharon, but it came out ok. The layers are very visible so instead of looking like a well kept guy-mane, it looks somewhat like hair little past the shoulder with different lengths here and there. But it could be that I’m doing something wrong. Or maybe Sharon really did set the bar so high, anyone else just seems like not doing enough. Overall the look is fine. In the back tho, this lady just totally used a trimmer and almost shaved the neck hair off. Which looks very 80s when pulling the hair back. Sharon, did very nice and professional looking trimming that it looked nice and natural.

Oh well, hopefully two months later in time for the next haircut, I’ll be within 10 miles of Sharon. God willing.

Will be posting Santa Monica pictures soon. Picked out the pictures, editted them, and will post them soon.

The Search For a Band

So the search for a band begins again. Before my computer drive getting erased and the data loss, I used to record quite a bit. Now, it’s hard to just get playing and recording. I was using a lot of apps that I had gotten off of thepiratebay. Eventually, I meant to buy those and go legit. But since the crash, it’s been easier to just wait until I buy those apps legit and to not install anything that’s…. er, “borrowed”.

Now, I find myself thinking whether to buy a desktop and set it up or just buy a laptop and set that up for recording and music production. For using electronic music and techno, FLStudio and others will do just fine on a laptop. But for recording and mixing, the computer need more juice to run. Or maybe the laptop will do. Being mobile on the road, it’s nice to have a laptop without having to drag a whole desktop with you on the road. However, a bigger desktop with a tower case has more space to install drives, sound cards and to have a bigger monitor and better view.

Also trying to look for a band to play with. To at least start playing again.

The apartment search continues…. it had slowed down but I was just reminded last nite that I really oughta go find a place to move into. The sooner I move out of here, the sooner I can have a schedule that is more conducive to my work schedule. Currently, my cousins stay up and use the computer till 1am. That computer is in the same room that they have allowed me to stay in. So I can’t say anything. But I have to wake up at 6:35a and get going for the day. Feels like running on no diesel, just fumes.

Faust, These be White Sands

Faust, yarrghh!!!! These be white sandzz for you!!!!

(Note: Funny, only two people in the world know what this post is saying).

Is Google maps ever wrong?

So is Google maps always correct? Does it make mistakes…. Well you judge for yourself.

I-820 N is actually I-820 S. If you try to merge on N, you ain’t gonna find it.

I was trying to decide whether to turn and find the correct highway but the exit numbers kept going down to the 3A mentioned in the next step. So just to find out whether this is correct or not, I decided to drive another 20 miles or so to try to find out. And what do you know, it was the correct decision to go 820 S.

It made me a little nervous to have left without taking the average road tripper life-line -Rand McNally. But, Google didn’t have any other errors.

Santa Monica

The Trip to Santa Monica was pretty fun. It was a little different than anticipated. Because we didn’t prepare to go on the beach. Well, I did! But others in the party weren’t ready to go into the sand. So we stayed on the paved area.

The area was really beautiful. The place looked really expensive. In a rush now. Will post further.

I’m a Fool!

Just an emotional rant. I guess I can’t really complain here in public. Just some days you wake up to a different reality of friends and family than other days.

Road Trip Stats

Leg 1
Gas – $13.06
Gas – $26.00
Gas – $10.00

Left Dallas @ 8:30am
Arrived Roswell @ 3:14pm.

Leg 2
Gas – $35.37
Gas – $35.50
Gas – $25.00

Left Roswell @7:04am
Arrived Phoenix @ 4:07pm

Leg 3
Gas – $25.00
Gas – $25.00

Left Phoenix @ 10:52am
Arrived Redlands @ 4:24pm

Gas Total: $194.93. I left with a full tank which costs around $55.00. So final total: $249.93.

Hotels: 2 nights using reward points. So no expense.

Trip to LA and Santa Monica

So it is settled! This weekend I will be driving to LA and Santa Monica to sightsee and to really see the places. Might have to make more than one trip and might have to go to different parts each time just to really see the LA area.

I will take the camera with me and take enough pictures for you all to see and enjoy as well. Have to first empty out the card and save all the pictures off.

The apartment search has been going slow. Went to the Olive Apartments yesterday. The apartments are next to a church. The church custodian is also the apt. mgr. Nice fellow. He was nice enough to talk and explain that he just rented out the last unit avaialble. And recommended other places to try and other methods to find apartments. This is driving me crazy. Thinking about trading the stang for a Chevy van or something and just living out of the van. Will allow me to move more and worry less about lodgings. Well, only wishful thinking. Bathroom and shower will be a big problem. And that’s a hassle I’d rather avoid. Otherwise, the plan could really work. With the VerizonWireless internet conenction using PC Card, it should be fine to work remotely and not have to really need a landline and DSL.

Back to reality. Another option is to drive further north to San Fransisco and just find a place there. In terms of apartments, Cali is expensive. Hotels are expensive. In San Fransisco hotels are like $250 a night for regular hotels.

This whole trip needed to be better thought out.

The issue with lodgings is not due to any problem with my current setup. My uncle and his family are more than welcoming and very nice. They are very generously letting me stay here rent free and mooch all the free internet service that my work requires. But at some level, it feels like even tho I’m with family I’m still not home.

Accordings to the latest polls (of friends and acquaintances), I’d be an idiot to try to move out.

So What is The Verdict on California

Well, what is the final verdict? Was is all worth it? Was is Is it still fun? What is the city of Redlands like? How does it compare to a place like Dallas? Dallas, TX is where I started. Well Dallas is the offical address but it’s really Addison. But in broader terms Dallas, to the natives, includes Dallas, Addison, Richardson, Carrollton, Plano, Garland, Frisco, Lewisville, etc…. Especially when out of town. Or when referring to the general location. So how does this place compare? It’s only fair to compare with a known alternative to have a relative judgement so one can understand the unknown in terms of the known. Ok, enough big words.

Dallas, is a so much an unfair comparison. Dallas is a big place. A very big place. Redlands, is a small town. It’s a small enough town to where 5 minutes in one direction will take you to Loma Linda, and 10 in the other to Yucaipa. Then 5 minutes past Loma Linda you see San Bernardino. Saint indeed. It’s the biggest of towns. When lost, one is instructed to look for signs pointing to I-215 towards San Bernardino. Then further out you see Ontario. Going east from Redlands then you have Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Rialto, Ontario. These plus other small towns are all together the Inland Empire.

So the comparison is better between Dallas and Inland Empire.

Again, Dallas is a such a big place. Such a melting pot of people and lifestyles. I didn’t appreciate it enough. Inland Empire pales. It’s sort of a town split along further mini-town lines each with their own rules. Very old. Not polished. Sure it has it’s Smiley Heights area which has the million dollar homes. But that area is one main street and some culdesacs hanging off of it.

In terms of Walmart, there’s only one seen around. There’s a Von’s. There’s a Stater Bro’s everywhere. It’s a little annoying. No decent hair stylists. Meaning known stylists. And such other things.

In so many ways there’s no comparison. It would be comparing apples to oranges. So with appreciating Dallas, we leave this topic for a later post.

Final Set of Pictures From Road Trip

The last leg of the journey on the road trip was on Aug 11th, 2008.

This is the final set of pictures from the Phoenix to Redlands trip. First the pictures are posted in a table and then the comments at the bottom.

1 - Cali	2 - State Prison
3 - Tank	4 - General Patton Museum
5 - Redlands, finally!	6 - Redlands University

1 – That’s just first time there was something green in California. Until that point it was all desert and lifeless palm trees.

2 – Don’t pick up hitchhikers. Well, duh! State Prison is a little far out in the desert. Wonder how long it takes to get people there.

3 – Is that General Patton’s tank? Or does it belong to somebody from the same era. Didn’t get the opportunity to read the signs. The temperature was over 100 degrees.

4 – General Patton Museum. Just so hot that Museum on one end of the rest stop and the food on the other left no doubt as to which side had water and which side would be the saner choice. So long General Patton. Thanks for what you did. Mostly, thanks for the random quotes you enrich people’s email signatures with throughout corporate America.

5 – Redlands. Well the destination seemed old and unpolished all of a sudden. Having been here on vacay before the memory made it much more polished and in general a place in California!!!!!. Now it just seemed like any other small town. Maybe a little older and less modernized. A feeling that would be re-inforced throughout the next few weeks.

6 – The University. The town is big enough to have a University. So lay off, Bobby! Quit saying it’s a small place….