RIP

Two of my cousins and their dad were killed, along with their driver and two muslims in a gunfight that occurred on father's day in the Philippines. Really sad as it was apparently a road rage incident that blew up into a full blown gun battle. The rumor is that after Raffy was shot in the back, his body was dragged into the street by muslim onlookers and stomped. The driver was also apparently shot in the back in what appears to have been an ambush by the muslim cell phone store owner. At any rate, six people died in total and that is a sad thing, especially given that it was a seemingly innocuous road rage incident that started it all.

Plagiarized by Pat Cates

This piece was written in 2002. Digital Photographer Magazine printed an article on Adobe Photoshop Elements written by me that the hack, Patricia Cates, or Pat Cates stole off the internet and pawned it off to the hapless editors of the magazine as her own.

By far the most significant professional accomplishment that I was the unfortunate recipient of was the plagiarism of an article that I wrote, which subsequently appeared in a national magazine with my name not on it. In journalism school, the single most important code, above writing a good lead, or maintaining objectivity, is to never plagiarize the work of others. If you paraphrase, give attribution. if you present a similar series of thoughts, give attribution. When all else fails, give attribution. In an academic setting, committing the act of plagiarism are grounds for suspension, and in many cases, expulsion. We all know that plagiarism is not accepted in academic settings. But how are such acts treated in professional settings? The act itself is tantamount to the act of stealing copyrighted songs from a service like Napster without having actually paid for the music.

Within the digital media industry, most writers, editors, and reporters have a good grasp of certain aspect of that industry to which they are well known.

Having been in the industry since before the days of Windows 95, I have written more than 500 articles related to computer graphics and digital imaging. Until recently I have never had the experience of someone stealing my "stuff." If it is said that copying is the sincerest form of flattery, then I have been truly flattered (though also bitterly disappointed) that an article that I wrote was stolen and reprinted.

In this industry, you are always toiling, pushing yourself to maintain the reputation and expertise that you have worked so hard to build up. You maintain visibility by attending the mandatory trade shows. After the trade show day's end, you schmooze at the social events put on by companies. You get wined and dined by these companies, in hopes that you will write something that sings praise toward company A's particular product. And in the event that the product that you look at lives up to the claims of the company, you do sing praises about that product. However, you are constantly questioning your intent and talent, as well as the end product to that which you work on daily. Are people reading your articles? Do my opinions count?

When I first picked up the magazine with the plagiarized article in it, I was fuming, on the verge of going ballistic. Only after I showed the purloined prose to my wife did I realize the true meaning of the thief's actions. "The thief must like your representation of the content of your article, consider it a compliment," she said. Sure the thief's intents were perpetrated in an effort to do minimal work to get a paycheck, and in a sense, stealing an article off the Internet, complete with section headers, and pasting it into a word processor and sending it off to some hapless editors is surely an easy way to procure a paycheck. After the discussion with my wife, my views on the whole act changed. To have someone plagiarize an article can be construed as a form of flattery, even though the total act of plagiarism is reprehensible.

South County People are MENTAL

Disclaimer: I lived in South County (Laguna Niguel) during the middle of the 1990s, from the end of 1996 up until we up and moved to Hawaii in 2000 for an extended two year "vacation."

Today I surfed Doheny, When I first got to the parking lot, I parked facing the beach, and was about to paddle out when a bird dropped a load of bird shit on the trunk of the Chitty Chitty. Pissed, and not wanting my car to be covered with shitn when I got back, I got back into the car and pulled into a parking spot that was tree free. When I did, an old man in an SUV who had been sitting in his car, started his car up, rolled down the window, and said to me, "Nice View, until you parked in front of it." and then he proceeded to leave before it even hit me that he was pissed I parked in front of his precious view, IN A PARKING LOT. What a fucking sense of entitlement. That is a South County attitude.

So Im paddling out at Doho and there is this older blond Japanese woman paddling out to. She turns around to catch a wave, and I am sitting on the shoulder, well out of range for her to even remotely catch up to me, and she hoots me off. Fair enough (I guess). So I don't take off. About 20 minutes into the session, the waves were getting better and I am taking off on wave after wave after wave. I chase everything down, and I happen to catch almost everything that comes my way. So Ms. Blond Japanese lady paddles over to me and asks, "Are you from here?" and I say "No" and she says, "well what do you want us to do"? And I am like WTF? and then I got it, and I say "what you want to drop in on me? Go ahead, and she says "well I don't" and proceeds to catch a wave. Then another guy paddles up to me and says, "What is her deal?" and I say, I had no freakin clue. Turns out that guy was at my neighbors house a few years ago for a fireworks show, and we knew some of the same people. Every wave that I caught, either came to me, or I chased it down. I didn't snake any one, and if they don't want to chase waves, they ain't gonna catch waves. Ms. Blond Japanese lady can basically screw herself, because 1. I was catching waves like you are supposed to, and 2. if she doesn't want to work for it, then she isn't going to catch anything. Waves aren't just handed to you. Well they can be, but she was a dick in the first place for barking me off when clearly we could have shared it.

The Brits are funny

I got this from one of my Facebook friends. I must admit, the Brits are funny folks. Ford should bring the Fiesta to theb United States.

Ala Moana and the Skip Frye

I went to Hawaii to visit Paul and he said that Ala Moana was going off. So I brought by 7'2" Skip Frye single fin. Paddling out the water, though warm, still felt a bit sharky. But it wasn't a shark, but a rather large Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle that was swimming underneath. We then proceeded to paddle in and it was pouring rain, so one of our group said he'd go and get the truck, which was a white F250 diesel. When he got the truck and we all piled inh, it really started to pour. We were still checking out the surf, but this time I was in Oceanside visiting David, who had a condo right on the beach. The waves at the North Jetty were going off, and Mike T was ripping it. And that was all I remember about my dream.

Shining Through

I remember seeing this ad on TV while in the Philippines. From 1985 to 1989 I must have flew to the Philippines six or seven times, almost every year. I spent three months there in 1985. Was there for my cousin's wedding in 1986, went again in 1987, and a bunch of times in 1989. That ad campaign was late 1980s I believe. Very cool campaign. Really beautiful country.

A boy called Milo

For those of you who are XBOX 360 fans, this technology is a glimpse of what might come in the future. It is really crazy fun technology developed my Microsoft, called Natal

Doheny

I surfed Doheny today for about four hours. The 6-8am session there weren't a whole lot of people out. The water was a bit chilly, I'd say 59, but was prepared as I had the wetsuit on. It was about 1-3ft SW swell, no wind at all, but it was drizzling on the way there. I woke up super early, which is often on Sundays, cause I like to surf as much as possible. I paddled in at around 8am and walked to the car, and said to myself, wtf, I am here, might as well make the most of it. So I went back out and surfed some more, until 10am. I rode the 9'6 OLE, and only had to chase the board three times or so. I got a super nice toes over the nose on this right. The reason I like Doheny is it is good for noseriding, which is what I've been practicing for the last couple of years. I've been getting super bold, scooting up to the nose and seeing how far I can ride it. I just need to work on the cross stepping. Going left is not a problem. I have no problem cross stepping or backpedaling when going left. It is the front side that needs lots of practice. My goal for this summer is to get better at my cross stepping going right, and that means more trips to Doheny when there is a good south swell pumping.

minding the weight

Back in 2005, I chronicled a weight/cholesterol issue that I had been dealing with. I have fallen into bad eating habits once again. Now I've successfully weaned myself off all the junk food that I was eating back when I worked in an office, what I call the del Taco diet, but I haven't completely gotten rid of fast food, I still enjoy the IN-n-Out urge every once in a while (maybe three or four times a month), and still eat the chinese fast food, and the mexican fast food (Alerto's here in Little Saigon is a favorite). I cut down on the candy and the cookies back then and have to again cut down on the sweets again now. Now I am not fat, just a bit overweight for my small frame. So, in the interest of better health (my better health), Jovi and I are embarking on an exercise and hopefully a diet regimen. Now when I first met Jovi, she had just quit flying for Pjhilippine Airlines and she was a trim 140 or so, which is proportional to her size. Although she is a filipina, she really isn't. Her mom's side of the family is more Spanish than Filipino, and her dad's side is more Chinese (Limsiaco, related to the famous Chinese pirate), so she is bigger than a typical filipina. Well, now she and I are on a mission to lose some pundage, in the interest of fending off any ill effects, such as diabetes, heart disease and all the associated diseases that come kknocking when one is overweight. We're not obese, just need to lose some of the poundage, so hopefully this blog will be updated with our progress, or at least my progress. I plan on weight training, Tae Bo (yes it helped immensely back in 2005), and of course, I plan to try and surf more, though my main surf bud moved to Hawaii! Lucky bastard.

Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago I was watching a Chinese man on Television defy a column of tanks at Tiananmen Square in China. Actually I had been watching the events unfold over the course of several days--the student protests with bullhorns the hundreds of thousands of Chinese occupying the square, and the Unknown Rebel, who most certainly was executed for his act of rebellion against that advancing column of Chinese tanks. It is really a trip on how time has flown by so fast. 1989 was a turning point year of my life. All of the actions and decisions I made during the years preceding 1989 came to a head, and I didn't know how to handle any of it. Being young and dumb, and well you know the rest, doesn't do a whole lot of good, and though you are supposed to learn from the things that you do, oftentimes you still don't and always go back and analyze things, and then just chock it all up to experience. Basically 1989 was a year of rebellion, not only with external events such as Tiananmen, but internally within my own self as well. Twenty years later, it causes me to wonder, what in all heck was I thinking? Twenty years later, I feel my age. I am no longer a 20something with $hit for brains. I've got three kids, a mortgage payment, a car payment, a boat payment, credit card bills, college tuition bills, and the list goes on. I work from home, on a computer, on the Internet, and this enables me to visit far off places during my down time and just imagine. Lately I've been looking at this place called Cloud 9 in the Philippines. Its a right reef break that is pretty much one of the best tube rides in the world. And I want to go there next time I go to the Philippines. I also want to go to La Union on Luzon, there is some pretty good waves there as well. I just need a car. And a driver.