Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Custom "Lava" painting by artist Dan-O Florez


Monday, June 22, 2015

Maroon 5 is right!

I got stung by a stingray while surfing yesterday at Bolsa Chica State Beach and it hurt like a mutha.  The crazy thing is after landing on my ass a few times and shuffling through a low tide all morning, the stingray stung me when I was standing still.  The sensation is not like stepping on a jagged shell or even glass.  My sting was like someone took a gigantic needle and jabbed it into the top of my foot with all the adrenaline and force he could muster.  The pain that immediately follows is intense, burning, and cramping.  The longer it takes you to get your foot into hot water the more it burns.  Luckily my husband was on the shore and helped me hobble to the lifeguard headquarters where I soaked my foot for 40 minutes.  I left a trail of blood from the lifeguard station all the way down the beach to where we had left my surfboard.  As I sat with my foot throbbing in the red stained water I told myself I was done with surfing.  I suck enough where it won't matter if I quit, plus why go through the potential of getting maimed by sea creatures?  About 20 minutes in another surfer arrived.  He had to hobble the distance of three lifeguard stations and get a ride from his wife after being stung, so his foot was on fire. By that time my pain had lessened and I remembered that I still had four lessons that I had paid for so I may as well keep surfing.

In the end I figure I each mucho pescado, plus as a kid I had more than one unfortunate aquatic pet.  I'll take a few painful stings and know that it's karma.  My husband says we have to get good enough at surfing to paddle to the outside breaks and stay out there.  Otherwise like Maroon 5 says, this summer's going to hurt like a mutha.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Things I don't like about "Jurassic World" (SPOILERS!!!)

If The Rock was still The Rock from the year 2000 I would have watched his flick, San Andreas, yesterday.  However, neither The Rock nor I are the same people we were 15 years ago so my friend and I settled on seeing Jurassic World, instead.  My friend jumped every time a dinosaur took a booming step or a dinosaur took a swipe and ate someone. 

Things I liked about Jurassic World:  (SPOILERS)
  • Jake Johnson (from New Girl) working the main control room
  • Bryce Dallas Howard running in pumps.  We all know women who can haul ass in heels.  I don't find it too far-fetched
  • The pterodactyls soaring in the air and swooping down to grab people
  • The park goers losing their minds over the incoming pterodactyls
  • When the geo-modified evil dinosaur (GMED) stepped on people
Things I did not like about Jurassic World: (MORE SPOILERS)
  • The two child characters.  They were horribly written.  The younger brother seriously needed to be stepped on.  Writers should have made the characters kids of a rich investor or something like that.
  • The scene where Chris Pratt comforted a dying brontosaurus. The scene was over the top.
  • In Jurassic Park, the T-Rex was the ultimate bad guy.  The entire movie involved people running for their lives.  Yet in Jurassic World, Bryce Dallas Howard lets out a T-Rex to fight the GMED.  Then people smiled and congratulated themselves after the fight even though THE T-REX WAS UNCONSTRAINED AND FREE ROAMING.  What's changed people?
  • Preachy messages like, "when you have kids" and "they're worth it, I promise." Judy Greer's character (the one pressuring Bryce Dallas Howard to have kids) cried through the whole movie. Yeah, lady.  You have kids and you look really happy.

Friday, June 12, 2015

If a Japanese surfer was wearing this suit at Pipeline while shouting "Banzai!" we might be on to something




Ah, the Japanese.  Leave it to our salaryman brethren to take the wetsuit to a whole new level. See the suit in action.

My girlfriend who lived in Japan for over a decade says that Japanese avidly surf, but their beaches are really dirty.  That is certainly not how I envisioned them.

Check out Quiksilver Japan's True Wetsuit website to see the collection.