tag: journal

Action shot on a Polaroid Go

Noo Arts performing Growing Takes Time at Kingsland Wildflowers, an interactive contemporary art performance based on a certain early-2000s Nintendo game.

Woke up to the news that a friend of 14+ or so years passed away yesterday. As is typical at my age, and of friends my age, the passing was sudden, unexpected, and incredibly sad.

Scrolling through the dozens and dozens of social media posts with outpouring support is surreal. I'm glad eulogizing people on social media can at least bring some comfort.

I don't know. He was a singular person. I don't want to see friends pass away. My relationship with death has evolved as I've gotten older. I've accepted that it's part of life.

I've had so many long, interesting conversations with him, except, of course, the last time I spoke with him. I just saw him a few weeks ago, as I was leaving something, I can't remember what. He put his hand on my shoulder and said "you doing alright?". I said yeah and I asked him how he was doing and said I'd see him again soon. I guess not.

Rest easy, Johnny Ro.

Well, I never have much to say when it comes to things like this, since so many others say it better, but I tabbed over to write this because shortly after reading the wall of love and support for this man, with years of past friends and acquaintances I haven't heard from in forever all in the fray. It felt overwhelming.

I came across the Lego Sega Genesis in the Mall of America's Lego store while idly browsing the shelves. I'm not really into Lego, but I am into plastic Sega stuff that I don't have space for, so I picked it up.

There he is.

Entombed in the first layer of Lego bricks is this Sonic face, which can only be seen after completion by removing the top of console.

Altogether, this thing took most of my morning to complete. I get why people like Lego, since it's basically a 3D puzzle (except most of the challenge comes from finding the tiny pieces you need in the big pile of other tiny pieces), but this wasn't for me. It's fun though.

Another piece, this time a flash from Nasa at 10K Foxes in Astoria. When she asked me if I wanted to change the cat breed, I knew I had to ask for a calico, so the colors are loosely based on Mochi.

She's saying 「たいやき～」 (taiyaki) and the fish is saying 「たいやきじゃねぇよ」 (I'm not taiyaki), I love it

Nasa's the artist did my leg ice cream in 2014, which is my favorite tattoo to this day, and I'm really happy to get another piece done by her.

Also, here's a Gum Nendoroid, which I grabbed for a good price after 100%-ing my Jet Grind Radio file from 2000.

HEY YOU!

I'd free her if I had somewhere to display her...

Polaroid occasionally will release a "duo-chrome" film pack swapping the typical white in b&w film for some other color. In honor of them recently releasing a purple variant, I busted out my old yellow 600 film, loaded it in my Polaroid Flip, and took some photos in and around Long Island City's Gantry Plaza State Park.

A side-street leading to the Manhattan skyline.

Prudence Ferry against a very industrial backdrop.

A small geometric area owned by the Department of Sanitation, near Anable Basin.

A lonely discarded toilet.

As a bonus, here's a black and white photo of a Virtual Boy.¹

You know you want it!

My Game Boy Printer still has plenty of life left in it.

Power duo

Essentially a receipt printer for kids, the Game Boy Printer uses thermal paper (and 6 AA batteries) to print stamp-sized images from a surprisingly robust list of games. Of course, I had to run a few tests using my favorite subject with the classic Game Boy Camera/Printer combo, such as this multiprint test with 0 margin.

Triple Mochi

Just for fun, here are some images from Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (top/middle) and Austin Powers: Oh, Behave! (bottom), the latter of which has a modes where you can just print whatever you type on screen, and even a "realtime" calculator feature that prints as you enter calculations. Developed by Rockstar, the game is presented like a mobile "OS" and is bizarre in its own right, but maybe I'll write about it another time (plus its companion game, Welcome to My Underground Lair, because every Game Boy title needed two versions in a post-Pokemon world).

Super Austin Powers Bros Deluxe

Finally, a handful of games have illustrations that you can print, such as Link's Awakening DX and Pocket Puyo Puyo~n.

Pocket Puyo Puyo~n, currently the best way to get a tiny, low-res printout of Arle

Some of the fun is lost without the sticker backing of the original printer paper but hey tape exists.

After a short archeological dig at my mom's house, I found my old Game Boy Printer. I have a lot of great memories with this, and it even still had some paper inside, though unfortunately well past its shelf life, being thermal paper. Luckily, I found that Seiko produces thermal paper rolls that fit the printer perfectly, albeit without the sticky backing.

Game Boy Printer, with the box and instructions!

We couldn't find the cable, so now I'm waiting for one to arrive from eBay - sadly a bit of a collector's item. Are there better ways these days to get pictures off of a Game Boy Camera? Yes. Do I have said ways? Yes. But also, I have this.

I was worried that it might be dead due to some corrosion on the battery pins that I managed to mostly pick off. Turning it on while holding the feed button prints a test image and after two tests, it was looking good.

Hello!

Goodbye!

Here's a mostly-healed pic of my new Opa-Opa tattoo, referenced in this previous post!

Also a perhaps too high-res image of my dry bumpy leg.

This has some of my favorite line work amongst my tattoos and hits on what I was going for when I first started getting into poppy iconography pieces.

Some stray thoughts about a three-day trip to San Diego that we took last week. Staying in La Jolla, a laid back beachy place populated with transplants and densely packed with second homes, San Diego was the right mix of nature and urban, allowing us to get around via walking and public transit, taking relatively inexpensive ride shares when needed.

The Shoal La Jolla

Though not as centrally located as some other higher-end hotels in the area, staying at The Shoal, a recently renovated travelodge, meant having a base that was away from the noise of downtown. Staying during the week, in particular, meant that there were few other guests and almost no outside traffic in the night. There's a pool area and a front desk with free sugary instant oats. It's very conveniently located to a bus line that connects to the downtown as well as a transit center - highly recommended if you're traveling without kids and are able-bodied. If I had to lodge one complaint, it would be the bathroom door being a sliding barn door instead of one that shuts completely which is (not to be hyperbolic) a design choice that should be punishable by imprisonment at the bottom of the ocean.¹

The Taco Stand

Every listicle will tell you that the Taco Stand is a must-visit in La Jolla and: it is good. We went during the day and it was empty enough to grab a table inside - at night the line gets long and there are a bunch of other places nearby that are also really solid, so don't be afraid to ignore the hype. Mexican food in SoCal is like pizza and bagels in New York - the bar is already high and the best places to eat are usually whichever one is closest to you when you're hungry.²

The Santa Fe Depot is a historic train station with beautiful ornate ceramic tiles covering the walls and high redwood beams lining the ceilings. More importantly, it has this old school cafe with incredible hamburger and hotdog neon signs.

Coronado Island

If you walk past the area with souvenir shops and restaurants and venture very slightly deeper into the island, you can find the Coronado Brewing Company, which is more family restaurant than typical brewery. The beer and artichoke dip are good, but the burger and fries were too salty, so maybe find another place nearby for food-food.³ Then you can walk back to the piers and watch people fishing, and the sunset, if you're into that sort of thing.

Torrey Pines

With no shortage of easy trails, Torrey Pines is a fun way to spend a morning, as long as it's not too hot. The accessible hikes are clearly marked - I think most of them are fairly accessible, with the main "beach trail" having some moments that may be difficult/impossible based on your fitness. But it's still far from the hardest trips out there. The beach itself is a pretty-but-precariously-rocky sprawl that most people double back on to get back to their cars - if you instead choose to walk past it, get ready for a long, winding uphill path with plenty of steps leading to the Torrey Pines Golf Course (and a patch of dirt on the roadside where you can safely call a car).

The tide pools at low tide, allegedly a place to catch marine creatures stuck in the earthen pockmarks, though we didn't see any.

The Tide Pools

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip and a great place to take golden hour photos or, if you're me, take dozens of photos before realizing that the spool didn't catch the film in your camera and instead hastily take 3 photos before rushing to dinner, briefly stopping to tell a kid to quit harassing an unhoused person trying to sleep on a bench by shoving a phone in their face for their hilarious video. Walking up the shore, you can check out other hotspots like the Children's Pool and watch seals flop around in the sun.

Balboa Park

Though not much for zoos ourselves, we took a morning trip to the massive Balboa Park, home to an extremely famous zoo, and instead went to the Japanese Friendship Garden and OneWorldbeat Cafe - both of these are highly recommended. The latter has solid African-inspired vegan food - with the peanut curry being a standout - a nice outdoor patio, and doesn't suffer from the museum-cafe markup of many of the other restaurants in the area.

This was a really nice trip and there were plenty of honorable mentions, such as the really fresh eggplant sandwich I got from Girard Gourmet, but I'll put a plug in it. Do you have any San Diego tips? If you do, great! I don't have comments on this website enabled, so whisper them into an empty bottle and throw it into the sea.

Some photos of the Color me! tattoo studio in Dumbo.

Sitting firmly in the middle where it belongs, a case for Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy on the PlayStation, a real sleeper.

There's a great Sailor Moon lenticular poster up on a wall in the corner, though sadly I didn't get a photo.

Give Josh your business! Once mine heals, I'll post it here.

I'm going to be the first person to get some good black and white tide pool photos in San Diego.

The Prunus is a perennial favorite of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and, according to Secret NYC, they've entered peak bloom. So here are some photos!

This looks like Pendula Rosea, I'm guessing.

And this is... an Accolade? I hope you're not here to learn about trees.

Also a tree. This is getting more difficult.

This also looks like a Pendula Rosea?

Continuing the color scheme and theme of confusion, this morning I spent way too much time figuring out a foot swap on this pink boulder problem.