QICBoy - LIFE category

NaNoWriMo

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT

It's a little over a day and a half before National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts. I have my novel cover graphic, outline and rough character sketches ready. I can't wait!

Rock star

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

I feel like a total rock star in this picture. I can't help but feel like this is a cover to a record album. It's my favorite picture in the bunch.

PDA

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

This image makes me think about babies for some reason. I thought I might share some ideas on what I thought it would be like, all my brave and naive ideas about raising kids that will almost certainly go out the window once I actually have one. I will save that for another post. Check out the lady to our left. She is clearly not comfortable with the PDA.

Curves

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

The lines in this picture are really interesting. The cement lines approaching the camera are straight but the building itself appears to have a slope. In fact the girl herself seems to be curved in the direction of the building. It's almost as if the intensity of the singer in the background is causing some sort of bend to the picture.

Latino

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

This picture reminds me of a cover of some sort of romantic latin band. The jacked conveniently covers the gun rounds on my belt. We went shopping the day before for a belt that didn't have any studs or bullet rounds and came up with a compromise that I accidentally forgot at home. I like the texture of the wall in the background. It seems to have as much personality as the other walls but without the vivid colors.

SFPD

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

One of the photos we took during our Oct 18 photo shoot was with this SFPD officer who looked like he was trying to catch people for traffic violations. Ken went up to his and asked if we could take a photo. Ken told us that this was supposed to be a sexy shot but it all happened so quickly that I didn't really give him a chance to turn this up a bit which is probably for the best. I really like the way he kept his stern look during the shoot.

Marriage (6 of 6)

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT

We hiked to the top of this beautiful waterfall and were eating lunch just a little way back from where it dropped. I was going to propose at the top of half dome but thought it would probably be crowded and realized that the place we were at was perfect. We stayed at our secluded little spot for some time and eventually decided to shift over a bit to get more sunlight. She got up and I started my speech. She sat back down and again and I stopped. We did this a couple times until I finally convinced her that she didn't need to sit back down. I didn't want to give away the surprise until the last second. I got on my knee. I told her that our relationship had been filled with first times and that I had cherished her individuality. Since it was our first time to Yosemite, it was appropriate to ask her for another first time: to allow me the privilege of cherishing her individuality as her husband. I showed her the ring. She was wearing sunglasses so I couldn't make out her expression. I told her that I guess I didn't need an answer right away but.. She interrupted with an enthusiastic yes! When she removed her glasses I could see that her eyes were filled with tears. We never made it to the top of half dome. Instead we were in our cozy little cabin a few hours later.

Marriage (5 of 6)

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

The ring I wanted was being shipped across the country. It arrived the day before we left on our trip. I raced from my parents to her parents to her sister's. I wanted to let everyone in on what was going on and to ask for their blessing. I'd hidden the ring in my pocket. At one point when we were packing the car I slid the passenger car seat back accidentally revealing some packaging. I dove into the car and managed to conceal it in time. At another point, her mother, who had been unavailable the night before, called to return my call. I managed to talk my way out of it, dismissing it as some sort of a mistake. When we went on our hike I managed to avoid letting her see the square shaped bulge in my pants the whole way up the trek.

Marriage (4 of 6)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

I'd made my decision. I suppose some people might have made it sooner. For me, this was the perfect moment. So I raced back home. In Yosemite's valley there's a place called Curry Village where you can rent cabins. The weekend after I returned we headed to Yosemite to hike Half Dome. I suppose I might have been acting a little stranger on the days following my return from the desert. Her friends were trying to convince her that I was going to propose. So, in the last few days leading up to the trip I had dropped subtle clues indicating that she might be mistaken. All the while I was trying to get the ring that I would present her with on our trip.

Mural titled "Gold Mountain" by "Ann Sherry" depicting the history of Chinese in San Francisco.

Marriage (3 of 6)

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

I was in the middle of the desert. My desert family and I had built a lounge in the middle of the second largest flat region in the northern hemisphere. We were exhausted from the work, dehydrated from the heat and probably more than a little tipsy from the Jäger. I was with a friend who had just been married. He had met a girl and married her soon after. Their life was turned upside down as they struggled to move her into the country and obtain the proper authorization to allow her to work in the country. I asked this friend if he was afraid of being married, afraid that things might not work out and he shared a revelation that made me change my entire outlook on marriage. He dismissed the idea that he might be afraid of the outcome of his relationship. He said that it didn't matter. It was more important that he had the experience with this girl. Out of all the girls in the world, this was the girl he wanted to experience marriage with. I don't know why, but at that moment I looked at his ink. He had this elaborate tattoo around his torso. I remembered that someone had told me that tattoos weren't supposed to be about finding a design that you would be happy with for the rest of your life. It was about celebrating a moment in your life and commemorating it in a special way. When I started to think about what he had said I started to panic. This whole time I had been living my life with someone that was incredibly special to me. If something were to change I could see myself looking back with regret at not having shared the experience of marriage with this girl. If this window of opportunity were to close without me sharing a marriage with her, I would have made a decision, a very long committal one, the wrong one.

Quote reads: Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. Maya Angelou.