Coffee, Photography, & Sushi… Oliver the Writer, the Photographer, the Foodie

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Yesterday I had a great pleasure to attend a photography business workshop. The workshop was insightful, informative, and fun.

The time leading up to the workshop was awesome. I actually got off work early enough that I was able to complete a few of my task that I wanted to complete today. The first and foremost pressing task was to get another batch of HOBY DVDs out to the kids. So with all of the work that I did the night before I was eager to get them sent off to the kids. Hopefully next week the kids will receive their packages.

After mailing off the package I saw that I still had some ample time so I decided to head over to the bank to cash in my monthly paycheck. I didn’t go I my normal bank because I wasn’t going home because of the photography meeting so I went to the closest one to work. It was cool heading over there and cashing my check. And getting my check was a little delayed because when they are passes out the check I was a meeting so therefore I couldn’t get my check. And the reason for the not getting my check is because I am one of the few people that doesn’t have direct deposit. I honestly didn’t get direct deposit because they was a cute teller at my bank that I liked and so I would always get her to cash in my check. What can I say other than, I’m only human. But unfortunately she has since moved from bank to bank. It’s been all of the same bank but the branches are not too close so he moves to different one every once in awhile which makes it hard to predict if she will be there when I cash my check.

Well after cashing in my check I looked at the clock and I saw that I had some time still so I decided to get some coffee at a place that I have been wanting to try out. So I checked the traffic via Waze and made my way to place.  After driving up via Washington Street, I made it up to the Tea & Coffee Collective.  The Tea & Coffee Collective has been a place that I have been wanting to try out for awhile.  And since I had the opportunity and time, I decided it was about time.

When I first get there, I found out that I didn’t the change to feed the meter.  I figure just my luck not to have the change avalible.  So I went digging in my car hoping that I would find some.  I was only fortunate to find one quarter so I put that in the meter and then just decided to head in, purchase my coffee, and then ask for change.

The Tea & Collective Collection is a simple laid back storefront.  It reminds me of the simple times and the not in your face fronts that we are use to seeing in other coffee places.  One of the most notable features of the collective is the very large COFFEE letters painted above the store.  When you enter the collective you enter through a actual door.  What I mean by this is that you actually have to turn the knob and then push.  For me it was something that you don’t run into everyday but when I run into one it puts me at ease.  Once inside the collective, you will notice the simple layout.  To your left is a peg wall where local arts and crafts hang in what looks like hand made frames which highlight some of the local goods on the display and on sale.  The bar is located towards the back.

It is at the bar that you place your order.  The menu is simple.  On this visit I ordered a Iced Coffee.  I do love coffee warm but my preference is to have it iced.  The coffee is favorable and strong.  Since I had some time I decided to take a seat at one of the tables and do some writing, thinking, and planning in my very handy always there Moleskine notebook.  I know a lot of people romanticize the idea of writing, sipping on coffee, and sitting in a coffee shop as cool and even hipster.  In the act of doing this it does change your mindset that lets the creative juices flow from your head to paper.

Coffee, a @moleskine, a pen, and ideas. #writing #thought

I sat inside the Tea & Coffee Collective for about 20 minutes just writing some ideas and just taking in the quiet, then I headed off to the meeting.

The meeting was down in Mission Valley.  The meeting is part of the Pricing, Processing, and Profit tour created by Shoot Dot Edit.  It was cohosted by the San Diego SmugMug group.  The toured featured Zach & Jody Gray, Leeann Marie, and Jared Platt.  The one thing that made this tour special was that it was in the home town of the Shoot Dot Edit founders Jared Bauman and Garrett Delph therefore the crew from Shoot Dot Edit came out as well.  The presentations by all of the presenters were awesome, informative, and very business oriented.  Overall a great tour!

How do you build a freeway? Economics of Scale from @jaredplatt #sdetour #business #engineering

After the tour I met up a few friends for Sushi at one of the places down the street from the hotel.  It was a nice meeting and chat about food, health, photography, and just doing some catching up.  Overall it was a good day.  It was also there that I realized that I should just let some things and move on.

Constructability & Getting Things Done… Oliver The Engineer, the Photographer, the Friend

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Today wasn’t as bad as yesterday.  Let’s start that off.  I actually got stuff done, attended a meeting, submitted a report, and caught with some good friends.  Overall it has been a great day with a side of OMG here we go again.  🙂

The morning started off as it always does.  Normal routine, Starbucks then work.  When I arrived to work everything was just fine and normal.  My coworker doing their normal morning banter.  But I immediately got to work on my report because today was the meeting of our constructability review.  The constructability review is a basically the first time that every department sees how the project is coming along and also to see if the project is “buildable.”  When I say this, it means this is when everyone looks at the plans and see if all steps where considered and if the proposed design can work under real work conditions.  There’s a saying at work that just because it looks good on paper it doesn’t mean it’s going to work.  Basically we have do a double take on our work to make sure that everything works not just from an engineering stand point but also a construction stand point.  Because there really is no use for us to continue working on a project if you can’t build it.  Or the better way to look at it is design it in away that we can avoid problem when  it is in the field.  By doing this alone can save thousand and in some cases millions of dollars of change orders because certain things just can’t be bulit because of certain constraints.

So with my meeting at 10:30pm, I wanted to get my project done early enough.  I knew that during the day they would ask me if it was ready to be reviewed and submitted.  I needed to make sure that it was reviewed accordingly therefore I can have a fresh set of eyes look at a report that to me looks the same after the months that I have worked on it.  Now it was 10:30am and the report was about 75% completed but I had to go and make sure to be present at the meeting so I can hear the comments that the other departments were making and also so I can defend our design.

Engineering is more than just the math part, engineering is also base on teamwork and communication.  Without at least one of these aspects a lot of our project will not get done or design with all interested parties involved.

During the meeting our section of the project came up and surprisingly there wasn’t much comments.  It was interesting that there wasn’t as many comments but at the same time I wouldn’t think there would be because I assumed a lot of the reviewers didn’t have ample time to review the plans because this is a very complicated design.  The only comments that were made for our part of the project were things that we already new and just had to fill in people on the reason why we did certain things.  But overall it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  So I left after my section was completed and when the discussion just changed from OMG really, why are you talking about that now kinda of thing.

Lunch today was one of our normal hunts.  Lefty’s pizza, where I usually get a slice and a side salad.  Always good and fast.

Then after retuning from lunch, I promptly finished and reviewed and project and I got it all submited and approved from my leads so I made it look a little more pretty and then submitted for more review.  It is this review that I am more interested in because it is there signature that we need when come down to crunch time.  But I was just happy to get one of the thorns pulled out and off my butt for a bit.  So I couldn’t ask for more.  Progress comes in small little victories everyday is what I say.

After getting off work, I finished I finally caught up and purchased some supplies that needed to fulfill photography order for the HOBY organization that I photographed a while back for.  After working on this project for the last two months it was nice to finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  I got most of my stuff from Costco and Staples.  The beauty of the system is that I got everything I need ahead of time but I need a few more things to arrive to me before I can package and mail the products out to the students that were eagerly awaiting for them.  I hope that when they do receive them that they will like them.  So currently I’m working on burning their DVDs for them.  It is this burning process that takes forever to do for them.  Especially when you have to burn 40 or so full DVDs for them with only one DVD burner at your disposal.  So it is just a matter of waiting for the disc to be burned and packaged that takes the longest.  The only thing that I have to do after the burning process is acquire the correct postage for the packages to mail to the kids.  BTW kind of off the record, I guess it will be on the record via this blog. But is it me or is it them, do kids get taught what it means a mailing address consist of, because I got a few forms that simply just had their house number and street but that’s it or other pieces of information where missing from the form.  Luckily enought I had a google maps at my disposal because without it would not be able to find the correct address for these kids’ home.

So while I was burning DVDs and organizing the photos and files, I caught up some friends.  Today my friend Dave got a offer of a lifetime.   He got offered a job with one of the photoshop gurus that we follow and enjoy learning from.  From what started out as a hey would be interested in coming out to San Diego to teach and the hustle that he put in for the last two days, he managed to make a good impression and got offered a position.  This is an opportunity that he shouldn’t pass up for sure.  I’m so happy to hear when friends get offers like this because when my friends are happy, I’m happy, and when we are all happy we make our worlds go round and round.  Plus I know my buddy is also perfectly suited for such a job because he is just that guy that can make things happen and he is very motivated.

Another cool surprise that I got today was to catch up with my good Hollie.  It has been maybe about a week or two since Hollie and I caught up so it was time for us to do some catch up.  Although the circumstance that we are catching up is due to the fact that, thou who shall not be named, kind of gave Hollie a very weird answer to a workshop that we are attending tomorrow.  It was weird because the answer of just show and crash an event doesn’t work especially when you are not technically hosting or in charge of the event.  So after a few text we get talking.  And rumor has it that it might be somewhat overpacked and from the sounds and look of things it just doesn’t seem organized enough.  But Hollie and I have discussed that such things would not happen if Hollie, my friend Jason, and I were there still helping because this is just crazy to host the workshop in our normal meeting place.  In my opinion the place that we meet is already crowded enough plus it is super small.  So i don’t know how a large amount of people are going to fit in the place.  So only time will tell.  Other than that occurrence, Hollie and I caught up and got some discussion / planning done for an upcoming wedding that we are shooting together.  So that was good to do so that way we can have a game so that we can most effectively make sure that the photography is a success.  And other than photography related stuff we caught up on other parts of our lives.

Catching up with friends like Dave and Hollie is freaking super nice to chat up with because these are the friends that I know have my back and they know I have their back when they need it.  It easy to make “friends” but having true friends is hard to come by these days.

Well until next time.  Laters.

Oh man, what was that? Seriously! Oliver the Engineer

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Okay so I thought yesterday’s rant was bad.  Today just seemed to be one of those serioulsy?!  You want me to do what?!  Why didn’t you say that earlier or when we were at the meeting?

So remember that report I was talking about yesterday.  Well it was concerning that report.  Apparently I was doing it wrong and I wasn’t told about it until I submitted it for the 3rd time for review.  It is stuff like this that makes me go, really?  So who’s checking your work?  And were is the communication in all this chaos.  I don’t mind chaos of sorts but the fact that we don’t communicate at least in my work environment is what drive me super nutty.   I’ve studied engineering for 5 years and I interned during that whole time.  And the biggest thing that was emphasis above all else was that it is about teamwork and communication.  With at least one of those things I think a lot of the chasing around details and the; “I don’t knows,” would go away.

But no improvements thus far have been made.  I’ve even tried to even help kick start such things but to no avail.  I have tried countless time during the pass few months to help it seem to fall on deaf ears.  But I guess karma will come back.  But I just hope that it doesn’t affect me.

Quite a bombshell or not really, was told today at a meeting.  It was just one of those things that remind that the current project I’m on is going so fast that a lot of things are not being looked at but when it does get looked at, there are more problems that arise that because of the time schedule needs attention because it effects other things.  So today’s bombshell was that there are some issues that are affecting the project that would require more changes to the Right of Way.  And Right of Way is one of those sensitive issues because the issues that are causing the problems are the first set of things that need to get built before the actual freeway gets built.  And as always the management is brought aware of these issues but because they don’t know what is going on, the subject is above their heads which leads them to harsh decisions that they don’t fully understand how it effects everything.  The problem that arise from the bombshell was that it would require some right of way changes because there was some water flows that was not considered because of other “priority” issues that we have now found out isn’t as a “priority” as it should be.  So we are stuck with a huge issue at hand that needs to be address accordingly and in a relatively timely manner because we are supposed to complete the design of the project by the end of the month.  And it seems from the plans that we have we are more at 40% than anything.  Currently there seems to be a relauntance from the people in charge of seeing what actually needs to get done.  It seems to me that they are afraid to face the fact that there needs to be a lot done but instead of showing what needs to get done, they want to hide it.  I don’t fully understand how the politics work around my workplace.  However from all of the readings and people I’ve met, it is better to admit fault and failure than to hide it.  If I was them I would show them what needs to be done ASAP and put up an accountability poster.  So that way everyone knows what needs to be done and how much time we need to get it all done.

Man oh man, this post seems to be another rant about work.  I guess it is just one of those weeks, were ranting is needed.  Sorry to you my reader for being to negative at least for the past few post.  I hope that things do turn around for the better but I will let you guys know.  So in the meantime take it easy.  🙂

Monday Mondays… Oliver the Engineer, the

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Mondays are just one of those days that you either get right on or just never seem to get back on track until you are about to leave work. The later was true for me. This morning the day was moving quite slowly and not a lot was happening. I had some deadlines to meet. But as always the people that I needed to chat and discuss with about the pending issues was not there. So in order for me to get things done I had to assume some stuff but as always the current case it seems, when I assume it usually is wrong or the point doesn’t get address accordingly.

Today was the day that I had to get to finish the report that I have been working for a couple of weeks now. And this report at first seem like a breeze however about a week into it, I realized that there were a lot of unknowns that I need to I found out. Te most unfortunate thing though, as much as I like to be proactive to making sure things are going smoothly, it seems that the people I’m relying on are not keeping up their end of the bargain, which one makes the work life more difficult and aggravating. And to my my luck proves time and time to not work in my favor. If it doesn’t kill me, it only makes me stronger is what I say always.

But I wonder how many more times I can say that before that wears out?! I’m going to be optimiztic and say that it’s going to take awhile before a hint of that statement comes true. But something is going to have to happen I fear before anything will change. And to that I say KARMA! What comes around goes around.

So back to the report. This report is vital to the project but some people just don’t understand the scoop of which it will take. People just assume that it will happen and get done but no one checks up on the work. I try my best to make sure it is done correctly however I know that lately my work quality has been slipping. I say that because I as much as I lovey job lately it surely has gotten to be more of a chore than interesting. I’m pretty such you have fired that out by now if I have talked to you or you have been reading my post lately. It is just one of those things were the thing that you love can start to wear on you. The sad fact is that it is not the actual work that is killing me it is my coworker lack of communication with one another. Our team or from what I can make it out to be, is not a te at all. We are all like independent states working against and with each other. One person takes care of what they do and other does the same. And as long as they don’t conflict all is good. But once there is a conflict issues arise and tempers fly and it just makes it had.  So given that it doesn’t make for a productive work environment.

Luckily such was not the case for the report that I was working but the problem was that the people that I needed to submit it too for review was not in the office.  🙁  Oh well there is only more days left in the weekend.

Food & Photographs… Oliver the Foodie, the Photographer

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Sunday was for sure a foodie day.  It was one of those days that wasn’t planned at all but you just went with it.  The foodie day began with me waking early around 9am to see what I had to do for the day.  I soon realized that I didn’t have that much to do today so I dug up some old pictures and worked on them.  My home headed to church and then shortly after my dad came home from he’s round of golf that he plays every Sunday.  With it being really close to lunch, I asked what he wanted to eat and he immediately mentioned that he wanted to try out a cheeseburger in Pt. Loma.  So I said okay.  At first I was like hmmm, this isn’t what I had planned exactly for eating but it will do.  Eventually I considered this another opportunity to find another place to eat.  My mentioned that the place was called; Jimmy Famous American Tavern.  So to yelp I went to find out where it was and what people would recommend from that place because I had  no idea.  After yelping it I found that it had some favorable reviews.   So it was go.  Now we just had to wait for my mom to get home from church and then we were off.

Finally arriving at Jimmy Famous, I saw that it was in one of the newly renovated seafront properties near the airport.  The buildings were new and modern.  It had a clean, maritime look, that made it completely different from the other building around.

Jimmy Famous is located on the lower level of one of the buildings in the new complex.  The entry was relatively small but once you entered you were greet to a very awesome open space that the daylight filled.  The venue was filled with woodsy, metal, oversize letter, and retro chic decor; I would say it was a pinterest board come alive.

Jimmy Famous is known for the burgers.  From their reviews on yelp a lot of people recommended getting their classic or cowboy burger.  I remember seeing a picture of the burger with a knife in it and I thought fancy.  So we were sitted and we looked over the menu.  The menu was simple and straight forward.  The service was quick.  After a few minutes of deciding what to get, we placed our order, and then what didn’t seem like more than 5 minutes our food was there.  I was it was a; Wow that was fast moment!  When we got our food the photography of food commence as always.  It took me a bit longer than usual to take the photograph.  But I managed after a few tries to get the picture.  I got the cowboy burger.  It was good and filling.  The burger also had a nice bite to it as it did have jalapeno pepper in it.  I ordered a green salad to go with it, I figure it would be better than getting the fries which are good as well ( I had a few from my dad).  Overall it was nice Sunday lunch to have and enjoy.  The place was full of people that were enjoy the beautiful Sunday afternoon in San Diego.   It was just one of those laid back days in the city.

After finishing lunch we headed home to chill out for the rest of the afternoon.  My parents both passed out and nap while I did some work on the computer, editing more pictures.  Those pictures are finally being uploaded as I am writing this post.  So with the quiet afternoon, I got another good set of pictures out of the way and shared.  It was also during the afternoon that I realized that today was the deadline to enter photos from the workshop that I did last week.  So I finally downloaded those pictures from my camera that has been sitting on the floor for awhile ( I have some other photo jobs that I need to get sent out so personal photo project get pushed back).

Now with the afternoon almost over my parents woke up and one of the first things that came out of their mouths was what was for dinner.  So the normal conversation of what to eat ensued and like most afternoons, the respond of; I don’t know was blurred out, and would remain unresolved or stay until someone mention a place and either there is an agreement or a reason for a veto on that idea.  Then the; I don’t knows usually commence further and this is usually my cue to go away for a bit and thing about it.  Today my dad mentions that he would like Chinese food.  Hearing that I knew it meant one thing, Chow Mein from Golden Chopsticks.

There is one thing you should know about my family and that is that we are pretty consistent on eating / getting food from places that we have come to love and we pretty much stay consistent with that place.  So any mention of any of these places usually makes figuring out what to eat a lot more easier than usual.  So when I heard Chinese food I knew that I would be calling one of our favs and that it would be done and ready in about 15 minutes and would require a drive to National City.  A drive you say?  Yup, a drive.  I really don’t mind driving.  I usually figure out how to avoid traffic if there is traffic and usually Sundays are pretty chill in the city so it wasn’t a problem.  And plus I would do anything for my parents, sister, and friends to help them out.  It is the least that I could do for the people that keep up humble and support me in my endeavors.

Now with that decided, I ordered – Beef Chow Mein, House Fried Rice, and their house salt and pepper chicken.  All delicious and I highly recommend them all.  FYI, I know if you are reading this post and you read yesterday’s post, you are thinking piggy or man you ate a lot this weekend.  It may seem like that but I do eat them in moderation and usually i haven’t over indulged since changing to the modified palieo diet.  Okay back to the story.  With the order placed.  My mom and I got in the car and headed down.

The drive down was pretty chill.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Mom and I just talked, caught up on things and just drove.  Good times and mom and son hang out time.

After picking up dinner and some Filipino treats at the Goldilocks near the Chinese food place.  BTW, I am now the Duke of that place on yelp.  🙂  We headed home and soon after ate.

During and after dinner I worked on two pictures that I needed to enter to the competition.  And worked I did.  It’s been awhile since I have some images my signature look but I knew what I wanted to do so I had to do the work.  Luckily enough I got to practice some of the techiques over the last few months and in those months too, I got to learn a few new tools for the belt.   So I used those and in little under a hour I got “signature” edits done on the images that I was planning in submitting to the competition.  And once I did, I sent them off.  On my soon to be new website / blog I will discuss and show how I do my “signature” edits and how they differ from the normal edits.  And with those pictures out of the way I finished a few more pictures from my trip to Austin and San Antonio from this last Thanksgivings holiday and finally posted them on my Flickr gallery.  And as of this writing they are about 90% done uploading.  So if you are reading this you can check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/olasis.

Well until tomorrow.  Have a great one and thanks for reading.  🙂