About two days ago, I was getting ready for work when I glanced out my window. A bird seemed to be looking for a place to make a nest, and it landed on top of my window outside. It walked back and forth, and appeared to be pleased. It tested another window, but decided it liked the first one better. Then the bird's mate joined, and I deduced that the first must be the female, the second the male. The male was bringing twigs to the mother bird, but the area above the window is about 1.5 inches wide, so the twigs just kept falling to the ground. I wondered if they would eventually give up and move on, and thinking no more of it, I left for work.

I looked out my window this morning, and lo and behold, the two birds are still there. For the last two days, the female bird sent the male bird out to get twigs for a nest, but the twigs just kept falling to the ground. I glanced below the window, and there is quite a collection. See the pictures below. What silly birds!

During my cousin Joy's wedding a couple months back, I took a video of my niece Kiara attempting to walk with shoes on. She can be so funny sometimes. Check the video clip out:

In other news, I played in a sand 4's volleyball tournament yesterday, and got 1st place! The only bad part was getting a minor sprain to my left wrist (now both wrists are messed up) and connecting knees with another guy under the net (ouch). I'm also leaving for my trip to San Padre tomorrow. A week long trip with the family on the beachside is going to be amazing. The condo we are renting is right on the beach, so we can just walk outside and enjoy the ocean. I can't wait!

Well, I've done it again. I've waited far too long to make a post, and now I have a ton of stuff to cover. I'm gonna break up sections over the last couple months and summarize each one individually.

January

I last posted about my disappointing play in the tournament in January. What I failed to mention is that I actually played in a sand tournament several weeks before that indoor tournament (Jan 3rd). While playing in that tournament, I sprained my wrist attempting to dig a ball that was crushed at my face. This injury made it very difficult for me to play volleyball, and actually stopped me from lifting weights for months. This partially contributed to my poor play in that first indoor tournament. After almost 3 months, I'm finally able to lift weights again, although not quite at 100%. Wrist injuries truly suck!

A couple of interesting things also happened this month. I came home from work one day, stepped out of my car, and immediately smelled something very odd. After verifying that I didn't have some strange B.O., I realized that there was a gas leak, and that I had a serious problem on my hands. Over the next couple days, I learned a lot about water heaters, and proper maintenance. Even though my water heater was only a year old, and never should have had an issue, the water here is so corrosive that it ate through the metal over time. I managed to get a free replacement with my warranty (still had to pay for the service, ugh), and the guy showed me how much sediment build up was present. The milky fluid that was left in the bottom of the tank really opened my eyes. Looks like I will be draining my water heater every 6 months! At least my house didn't explode...

I also had a chance to spend time with my cousin, Steve, who stayed at my house for several days. He is my best friend, and one hell of a guy. We had a blast jamming out to "Don't Stop Believin'" and trying to get the harmonies down. We also managed to beat all of Resident Evil 5 in his short stay (hardcore determination!). I only wish he lived closer...

February

February started out with an interesting experience for me. I got a new dentist, and he was doing a thorough inspection of my teeth and found a few cavities. When I went in to get the bottom one filled, they could not seem to properly numb my jaw. Every time they started to drill, I could feel the pain and pressure very clearly. After about 4 attempts at numbing the area, I decided that I just needed to be a man and suck it up. So I told them that I was properly numbed, and just let them drill. Now, I've never felt a cavity being drilled without being fully numbed, but let me tell you, that is a WHOLE new experience. I was gripping the chair very tightly and trying not to show my grimace. And to make matters worse, my tooth still hurts at times, so I don't think the cavity was properly filled. Looks like I get to go back again...joy...

I started playing volleyball a TON in February/March. I managed to play in a couple tournaments in February, and they all went fairly well. I played in a co-ed sand tournament with Emy that went especially well. I don't think the two of us have had so much fun at a tournament since the ASU grass tournament we played in years back. As my wrist got better and better, and my legs got stronger, I was really becoming a force on the court again. I always seem to forgot how nice it is to feel respected for your skill - it makes the early morning tournaments and going all-out worth it.

I also had a fun experience where all of the warning lights in my car suddenly lit up on the dashboard. I thought my engine was going to explode! I quickly looked through the manual, and called Toyota, and found out that the behavior I experienced was "normal" behavior if the gas cap isn't fully tightened. The car goes into manual mode, and you get worse gas mileage and handling. I wonder why they couldn't just have a little indicator for a loose gas cap...I guess that would be more difficult than lighting up like 5 things at once and scaring the crap out of the driver...

March

During the last 6-8 months, I've worked extremely hard and put in a lot of OT. Well my hard work is finally coming to fruition, and I'm seeing the result not only in a soon-to-be finished product, but (hopefully) a promotion! It's an exciting time for me. Unfortunately, at the same time, Lockheed is trying to find ways to raise more money so that employees aren't fired in the short term (due to the sucky economy), so they are (for all intents and purposes) no longer paying any overtime. This may, ironically, stop employees from feeling motivated to work as much overtime, resulting in less money overall. I'm very curious to see the outcome. Either way, it looks like my days of working extreme OT are now over. I guess that means I'll finally get back to making music, which is my most rewarding and fulfilling hobby!

I had some of the best volleyball tournaments so far this year in March. I was able to set pretty well for my indoor team, which renewed my confidence in my setting abilities, and helped lead a team of four to third place in the Grand Canyon State Games by being the primary go-to hitter. The only bad part about the GCSG tourney was that it was played at Indian School Park, which has some of the worst sand courts around. The sand is so compacted that, by the end of the day, my right knee was completely screwed up from all the jumping. I guess the courts used to be really nice, but the people in charge stopped players from using a roto-tiller to soften the sand, as it was an "inconvenience" to other people at the park. If that's the case, they should do it themselves...

This month, I also registered to go on a trip to the Caribbean in November. I'm participating in the Volleyball Vacations/GoBeachFest week-long trip to Turks and Caicos. The trip is somewhat expensive ($1450), but it is all-inclusive, and the location looks AMAZING. I've never done anything like this before, so I'm hoping I have an incredible time, and make some great memories. In past years, volleyball pros like Kerri Walsh have attended the Turks and Caicos trip, so I'm hoping I get to meet some incredible people!

On a side note, I saw Alice in Wonderland this month. Personally, I love Tim Burton films, as they are always unique and different. I heard a lot of people had mixed feelings about the movie, but I for one really enjoyed it. I saw it in IMAX-3D, and while it was cool, it was nowhere near as good as Avatar visually. This is one movie that you don't really need to see in 3D to enjoy it.

Another big thing that happened this month is the release of Final Fantasy 13. I've been waiting for this game for awhile now, and it looks incredible. Square Enix is pretty much my favorite game company (other than Blizzard), and almost everything they produce is gold. The only problem is that I'm currently playing Kingdom Hearts 2, another Square Enix game, and I refuse to start another game until I finish this one! I guess it will be a true test of my patience and resolve

At the end of this month, I'm taking a trip to San Padre with my whole family for about a week. It should be a fantastic trip, and I couldn't imagine spending it with better people. I probably won't post again until after that, so for the very few (if any) people that read this, until then!

After a long hiatus, I'm finally getting back into writing and recording music. Last night I started writing a song called "Never Say Never Again." I think it will be a really great song when I'm done with it. I've been spending a fair amount of time studying music recording books to try and improve, so I hope I will be able to apply the information with my next recordings. I plan to release one original, one piano instrumental, one cover, and one instrumental cover before I go back to finishing out my catalog of songs that need to be recorded.

In other news, I started playing volleyball again. I had a men's 6's tournament last Sunday, and it was somewhat rough. I struggled to get into a rhythm, and never had a chance to work on my hitting. I'm going to train really hard so that the next tournament is a lot better. There is nothing worse than walking away from a tournament being disappointed with your play.

I also watched Inglorious Bastards the other night. What a lovely family film! It's perfect for ages 3 and up. It's right up there with any Disney film. I mean, who doesn't enjoy watching people getting scalped, or getting their heads beat in with a baseball bat with their loved ones? Quentin Tarantino definitely has a way with violence... It was definitely an enjoyable film though.

As most people know, AVATAR came out in theaters three days ago. I decided to be brave, and went to the midnight showing Thursday night/Friday morning. I did this knowing that the movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes long, and that I probably wouldn't get much sleep (if any) before going to work the next day. While I was seriously doubting my sanity while sitting in line for hours (to ensure the best possible seats), my resolve paid off. AVATAR is an incredible movie. I can say, without any doubt, that it is one of the best movies I have seen in a long, LONG time. I saw the movie in IMAX 3D (and again today at a local theater), and I have to say, the IMAX 3D version is mind-blowing. The visuals are beyond anything that has been filmed to date, and the sound was exceptional due to the IMAX sound system. One thing that really amazed me about this film was the quality of the CG. They used real actors, and then grafted CG over them. The result is that the CG characters show so much emotion, and appear so life-like, that you really forget that you are watching special effects. The Navi people (the blue cat-like creatures in the movie) at first seem somewhat alien, and odd. But over the course of the movie, you find that they are actually quite beautiful and graceful, and you wind up cheering for their species over the humans. I think that everyone should see this movie, but if they do, they should see if in Digital 3D (this is a MUST in my opinion), and if possible, in IMAX 3D. The 3D effects were done so well that it will set a standard now that I will expect for future 3D movies.

On another topic, I recently started watching a show on NBC called the Sing Off. This show takes acapella groups (ranging from 4 members to like 12) and has them face off against each other singing songs from pre-selected categories. The one caveat is that no instruments are allowed - the acapella groups have to replicate all of the instruments. It is a really cool idea for a show, I'm definitely enjoying it (some of the groups are pretty talented, which makes it fun to watch). If you have some time, go check it out on the NBC website!

Happy holidays everyone! Enjoy the new year!

It's been far too long since I've written an article. Several pretty big things have happened in the last couple of weeks though that sucked up a lot of my time. I've also continued to work overtime every week as there isn't enough time for everything I need to get done. I also took several trips, one work related, and one for fun. I'll discuss those below.

Trip to Rocky Point

As I mentioned in the last article, I was preparing for a volleyball tournament in Rocky Point, Mexico. The format of the tournament was co-ed sand fours. I was heading down with several people, namely my good friends Emy, Nolan, and Krista. Krista was just going down to enjoy a weekend in Mexico. The fourth player on our team was driving to Mexico by himself. There was serious concern about whether he would be prepared, but we trusted that it would all work out.

We had an uneventful drive to Mexico, and got settled in at the resort hotel we were staying at. I had never been to this particular beachside resort before, and I was blown away. They had more rooms than they could ever hope to fill, and each one was filled nice decorations and comfortable furniture. Walking out to the deck led to a huge spa and pool, and a little further, the beach (and a bar right above the sand). I knew we were going to have a great weekend. We got some food that night at the pre-tournament dinner gathering, where a huge number of players came in costume. A live band also played later in the night. Nolan and I were pretty serious about playing though, so we headed back a little early and got some good rest.

The next day, we headed to the beach completely prepared to play. Adam never showed up, and didn't call us. We still hoped that he would show up, even if he was a little late. As time kept ticking, and we approached the start of the tournament, we got less and less optimistic about his appearance. Even with three though, we played incredible. Emy played solid defense, I gave Nolan killer sets, and he put every ball away with style. We were beating the best teams out there with only 3, and it felt great. By the end pool play, we were 1st place out of around 16 teams, and we were definitely drawing attention. Our only concern was if Nolan could keep up his tempo.

By the time we started tournament play, we had given up on Adam showing up. I would only learn later that he had forgotten his birth certificate, so he was turned away at the border (poor guy). We started out the tournament playing fairly well and won our first game. In the second game, we played the only team we had lost to in pool play, and once again, they proved to be too much for us. We started climbing the loser's bracket, but Nolan started cramping up, and I knew we were done for. We wound up getting something like 8th or 10th place, which wasn't too shabby for three people. The best part of the trip was just chilling on the beach, enjoying the perfect weather, surrounded by great people (and beautiful women ).

Microsoft Developer Conference

This past week, I was given the opportunity to go to the Microsoft Developer Conference. It was a really cool experience (from a software developer's perspective). Microsoft is introducing some new software that has the potentially to do great things for the web, including Azure for cloud computing, and their new Silverlight. Their new IDE, Visual Studio 2010, looks like it could really be a winner. The best about the conference was that they gave us free laptops! Every attendee was given an Acer 1420P. Talk about an amazing surprise. The laptop has a touchscreen and supports multi-touch. It has windows 7 installed on it, as well as some of Microsoft's newest software. It's my new best friend

Aside from the trips I've taken, and work, I've been using my free time to play a lot of piano, as well as League of Legends and Left for Dead 2. I wish I had more time to continue recording and writing music, but things have just been too crazy lately.

As a side note, I've been experiencing some lower back/hip pain for the last couple months ever since my trip to Japan. It just kept getting worse and worse, probably because I never iced the muscle or let it recover properly. I'm now paying the price. Doctors have been absolutely no help, of course, but I was convinced to visit an acupuncturist who really gave me great information. He helped show me which muscle was pulled (it's deep in the hip and not obvious), and told me that he could take care of it in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, he showed me some extra stretches I could perform to help. In conjunction with that, I got a stretching video from a chiropractor who I trust and respect. For the last several weeks, I stretch every morning and night, and let me tell you, it makes a huge difference. It's also really rewarding - you watch your flexibility increase by huge amounts, and your muscles feel tremendous afterward. I'm almost to the point now where I can bend straight over with locked legs, and put my palms on the ground in front of me. I've never been quite this flexible before, so I'm gonna stick with it. I think everyone should give this a try, especially if they have a desk job, as it will help keep you healthier longer (stretching throughout the day isn't a bad idea either...)

Anyways, I will try not to wait so long to write another article. Next time perhaps I can cover some of the really interesting movies I've watched, or some of the new music cds I've picked. Until then!