two steps behind

Exactly, that is what I thought too… this is GINORMOUS, but hey, I am talking about the Cathedral of Malaga, Andalucia, Spain here in the picture okay? Let’s not carry ourselves too far, ya? So I was confused about the difference between a church and a cathedral because when we ask the locals about the church, they did not understand. Then they said, oh! You mean the cathedral. So what is the difference? After doing some googleing (can you believe it, it actually a word now… to google = to search information online) I found that, a Cathedral is actually a church that houses a Bishop or Arch Bishop of the city.

Always we have something new to learn everyday, don’t we? As for this picture, I took it during the trip to Malaga 3 weeks ago which is the same week that I took the Picasso Balcony picture. It is amazing how so much architecture is still intact and that there is so much of it in the city. Unfortunately for us, they were closed that day, so we did not get to go visit inside. It is really really big, I wonder how it would feel inside the Cathedral.

Also, can we have weddings inside the Cathedral? If yes, how much would it cost? Anyone know? Please get back to me if you do. Why do I want to know? Just curious, Just incase… incase what??? Well… just in case… you know!

It has been one month since the first post here at www.TwoStepsBehind.com and thank you to all the visitors… I will keep up the good work and keep up with my commitment of ONE post per day, at least. Well someday I might feel like posting more than one… never know. ^_^ And yes, I have broken the promise twice this month, as I have missed 2 days.

With this month’s statistic of 126 visitors (one of them is my mother whom recently learn how to go about on the internet and doesn’t know how to stop browsing online, talk about addiction / obsession),  749 page views, and 117 feeds. The stats are way more than I have ever hoped for.

And again… this is where……… hope achieves the impossible.

After weeks after weeks, I have been learning how to serve, set up tables, arrange forks and spoons, how to serve drinks and so on. Finally, I got to be the customer this evening. Most of the students here, especially the 1st years, hate coming here to eat because the portions are really small and the food… sometimes is not that great, well most of the time… why? Because the food are made by students as well.

They decorate the place every Friday night and tonight, is no exception. They don’t allow the use of cameras in there because it disturbs people while they are eating. The restaurant suppose to be a classroom for students to practice, just like what I do most of the time. It has been a month since I came to Spain and I am already exhausted with all the activities here… but not that I am complaining… I do enjoy working and studying here… it’s FUN!!

Well, this coming week… it’s going to be crazier than before… because all of the posters will be due, along with a preview video for the event that we are managing for 400 people. I will post up all the posters and the video after March 11. Because I don’t want the students here to see all the “secrets” yet.

Until then, I am going to have a good nights rest, and start thinking about the 3 essays that will be due on Tuesday.

Bon Appertito… Did I say it right?

After I was reading the email, I was confused for a while… because I forgot that I had flickr account set up a while back. I think I should link it to this blog (after I figure out how). About this picture, it was taken in Los Angeles one weekend, that I was bored. Me and my other photographer buddy decided to go for a walk in LA and just start point and shooting at everything. We spent the entire day until night time; way too cold to take any more pictures, ran out of memory, then ran out of battery too. Oh well it was a fun day to take pictures.

So yea!!!!!!!!! I finally made it to some “short-list” which I don’t really know what it means… a final list? Oh well, whatever it is… I am really pleased that my photo caught the eye of the public and that people appreciate the work… The more I miss Los Angeles, the more I get remind by all these Los Angeles things.

Humm… now I get to figure out how to link Flickr here.

A long day, a really really long day… and then it just reminded me of another long day I had in San Francisco. However, it was a totally different experience and feeling, because the long day today, I just wanted to get away and go back to one of those long “relaxing” days where I had nothing to think or worry about.

Well, the day is way too exhausting, so much so that I don’t really know what to write about… all I want to do is blank out and look at the picture… the today picture. It was so beautiful, very vivid, very calm, and very very peaceful.

I hope that you guys enjoy today’s pick as much as I do. Just sit back… and relax…

Love, what is it anyway? Do you even remember what true love feels like?

I am sure, I should be the last person on earth to discuss about this topic, why… ? Because I am never good at it, but hey… that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I am talking about.

So do you remember that moment, when you were a child… let say, when you just start learning how to walk and all you can say is… koo koo ka ka. Yes that moment.  While your dad, your mom, grandmom, grandpa and your families are all trying to teach you how to walk. I would call that; love… the love that was given to us from our parents without asking for anything in return.

No, we never really understand what that love truly is. After we grow up in this world, the word of trade and capitalism, where if you give then you must get something in return. That is how we generalize everything else along with it. We study hard to get good grades, work hard to earn more… everything is a competition… if you have more, or better… then you are “whatever it is” more than others.

So what happened to love? Love is no exception fell in the same scenario where if you love then you must do “all the criteria” to be loved in return. If you fail to do one, or if you do less than it mean that one love is not as strong as the other.

How do we really measure this thing called “love” ???

Really, I don’t know how. But I know for sure that, love… true love… should be very similar to that love that we received when we were child, back when everything is pure and innocent, when everything was unconditional.

It is not easy for us to do anything “unconditionally” because we always wanted “something” in return. But it isn’t impossible to do… we all can do anything unconditionally, we only do it “just because” we love that person, that little one… that we won’t even know how will they turn out when they grow up. But yet, we love the little one anyway.

So, to conclude this… I still don’t know what love is… but I believe that being unconditional is one of it criteria.

For the picture, it is one of the drive by photos that I took in San Francisco.

So… do you remember that moment?

On Sunday, my friends and I spent 3 hours in Old Town Marbella. After stopping at a cafe for some coffe and fresh orange juice, we just walked around and found this church in the middle of town, hidden from the street view. So we entered the church… and the entire environment, surronding, feeling and emotion has CHANGED. It was an amazing feeling to be in the church… it was very peaceful. After weeks and weeks of dealing with projects, one after another… this is where I want to sit and just be left alone.

However, all the boys are not that into the Church as much, so they do a speedy tour of the church then left. I didn’t have that much time to take pictures due to the fact that I was way too amazed by it. So I was kindna blanking out at that moment.  The next thing I knew is that… the boys were gone. Sigh… so I left to catch up with them because I didn’t want to get lost.

I had only been in the church less than a minute… but it has reminded me so much of how simple life can be if we choose to make it simple.

If it is to be, it is up to me !!!!!!!!!!

During the Food and Beverage class we discussed about vinification, the wine making process and viticulture, the vine growing process. The discussion lead the class to talk about vineyards, which then lead to California’s vineyards. Ever since I drank wine, I never really like any of them but one, the Stella Rosa 1917 IL CONTE D’ALBA. I was introduced to this wine by David… It has a transparent pink color with a very smooth texture, no residue, a scent of wild fruit, tastes lightly sweet (just right!) and very bubbly. I LOVE THIS WINE…!!! I couldn’t find one here in Spain. Oh well, we should discuss more about wine on later date.

Talking about the wine and where to get the Stella Rosa reminded me of the photo I took of Hollywood. After searching into my photo archive for about an hour, I finally found it!!!

Welcome to Hollywood’s Beauty!!!.

Asking myself, what am I doing, why am I here, when am I going to reach my destination and WHERE would I end up? Why so many questions??? I really don’t know, but the only thing I am certain of is that I am doing my best every single step of the way. With Hope, Love and Faith… I will keep walking forward to the unknown, I will only be two steps behind.

With that mood, today, I chose this picture. A picture that was taken somewhere in Canada on the way back to the United States border. I wonder, where would that take me if I were to keep walking toward the mountain where the golden light are shining, how long will it take, will I be able to make it and why do I want to go there?

Curiosity will take you to many places, but it is Hope, Love and Faith that will guide you to the destination… and with that, “the well will never run dry.”

A conversion lead me to think of what I was doing in during winter 2007, and it was the trip with family to Chao Lao beach, Chanthaburi, Thailand.

It was the first time that I got to use SLR camera. The camera was in this drawer for years and I have never seen anyone at home in Bangkok use it before. Later I found out that it is my mother’s camera, it was a Nikon F3 SLR Camera. So I took it out from the drawer, spent a few hours to understand how it works and how to open the casing to change the battery and film roll. To be honest, it took me a while to figure out how with the help from internet. Then I took the camera to the shop to get a battery and some film. I then asked the sales representative about the camera. At the store, they were surprise to see the camera because it is really old. Older than me, as it was from 1980. After understanding some concepts and functions about the SLR, I bought with me 4 rolls of 36 picture film.

I used 4 rolls in 2 days during the trip. The unfortunate part of this is that, more than half of the picture from the film were bad due to Under or Over Exposure because I didn’t know how to use SLR camera. Anyways, after much frustration, I decide to get a DSLR, a Canon Rebel Xsi after I graduated from SCI_Arc, Southern California Institute of Architecture. The camera, well half of it because I paid for half of it, was a present for graduation… and because of this present, it accompanies me every where I go, recording pieces of my memory from here and there.

Life is full of distractions, activities, and beautiful memories. Unless we can capture and share all the moments in life with this tiny brain of ours, photography is the only method that I can use to share those moments with everyone.

*The picture was not taken from the SLR nor was it take by me. It was taken with a Sony Ericsson W810i, camera-phone. Thank you to the photographer, for this beautiful moment.

First of all, before I blog any further today, I would like to say that… the internet at the campus is beyond!!!!! words!!! I am way too upset to even start writing. For the internet, there are 2 choices, connected but slow… way slower than dial-up… and another choice is… not connected at all! It is just depends on the routers mood. My mood right now is… !@#$!@#$!$#

Okay… that was unprofessional, but I just wanted to share this experience to the world. Anyways, while the router still in good mood, I am trying to blog as fast as I can before the router goes out on me again.

For today, it is Asti Ristorante Cucina Italiana in San Diego, California. hours of driving from Los Angeles to San Diego, we craved Italian food, so we went to this restaurant for dinner after checking in at U.S. Grant, San Diego. Because we didn’t make a reservation, it took us about 20 minutes wait before we get a table.

The food here was superb, we ordered Lasagna and Panni because we felt like something really CHEESY. Starting off with bread and butter, we ended up with an extra order bread and butter because they were so good!!!

Well, I choose this picture today because we have a project to start our own restaurant that has to have a marketing plan, menu, theme and kitchen plan, so the asti restaurant inspired me to wanted to open one that is as successful as this, with people lining up waiting for tables, providing great food and service.

Now… I just want some of that Lasagna and Panni!!!!

I noticed regarding my patterns, that I am likely to post photos that are related to some source of activities that I did during the day. Today is no exception. We had a Stage Fair in the lobby area and in the Bristol bar. The event consisted of students presenting their experiences during their internships around the world. The way the table was organized reminded me of the moment I took this picture at Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant which I remember as being in the middle of nowhere; check out the map here.

Because it is in the middle of nowhere, I wasn’t really prepared for what it would be inside. To my surprise… it is nicely decorated. It feel nice and cozy in the restaurant. As for the food, I tried the “Mediterranean Omelet”, a really interesting meal for breakfast because the omelet is sweet and sour in the same time.

This is a bad idea, blogging about food at night… makes me really want to eat something right now. Well, the food here are way too oily / unhealthy for me. Because of that, I am on no-meat diet… again!!! But I still eat seafood, just no more beef, chicken, pork or lamb. I have enough of those for a while.

So what do they call people who only eat seafood? Seafoodarain???

Mush mush… !!!

Part of the project this week is to design a poster for our Tale of Four Cities advertisement and one of the cities in the tale is… Tokyo which remind me of the time that I visited San Francisco… Yes it is that same road trip from the previous post. Well, for today, beside making the ads for the Tale of Four Cities, I also made cookie ads (VERY CUTE) and also beverage ads that were too SEXY and get rejected by the Academic department. Oh well… I made a new beverage ad but it is nothing compared to the SEXY one.

For the picture, it was the first day of the road trip. The boy and girl wanted to rest in the room and … I dunno what they were doing. So I went out to walk around the Hotel “Tomo” and came to find the Japanese town that is just a block away. The town kept me occupied for a few hours, walking around it, in it… it is a very long plaza that has so many Japanese stores in there.

So much to see, so little time

I should get back to finish my ads now.

Before you is the picture of the balcony of the legendary man who redefined Art.

Everyone knows “Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso” or Pablo Picasso for short.

The name Picasso has been associated to me, in my early years, with abstraction, broken, messy and chaotic; however, these associations have changed thru time after in-depth study about him during my studies in Architecture. Art, just like everything else, has it time from the classical to modern eras and in my opinion, I believe that it is he, Picasso, who redefined ART forever. When we are thinking about art, we think of the beauty of the work and how the art pleases everyones eye. But for Picasso, his work went beyond the realm of reality. He brought us into different dimensions, the emotional.

How could one create works that express emotion? Till today, Picasso is still my hero!!!

The photo was taken during the trip to Malaga at the Fundacion Picasso. Lucky for me that the Foundation is open on Sunday FOR FREE!!! However they only open 2 floors, but it is better than nothing. There were so much, too much, for me to take in about this life and his work but it is for sure… an unforgettable memory, to be in the house of Pablo Picasso.

Opsie, I meant to say… Architecture. A visit to Malaga, Spain has brought me to this building that reminded me of architecture that I had studied in the past. And to define what architecture is, there is only one man… and he is Vitruvius.

However… after thousand of years of architecture… it does not seem to evolve much. Well, I do not want to get in too deep into the topic because it was my thesis… about why architecture’s evolution does not really evolve. We should leave that topic for another time…. but if really interested, you can visit my website at www.NattMuangsiri.com about what I believe that architecture should be.

Today… lets just enjoy the picture of the Bank of Spain in Malaga.

Below is more information from Wikipedia…

“The earliest written work on the subject of architecture is De architectura, by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century CE.^[10] According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of firmitatis utilitatis venustatis,^[11][12] which translates roughly as -

• Durability – it should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
• Utility – it should be useful and function well for the people using it.
• Beauty – it should delight people and raise their spirits.

According to Vitruvius, the architect should strive to fulfill each of these three attributes as well as possible.”

Valentine’s Day… It’s finally came, once again. So yep, I went out on a date… a date between me and music. At the school, we have a piano concert by Duo del Sol that will be playing songs from 2 composers. And interesting enough it was the 2 favorite composers that my dear Jenny, is so passionate about which are Franz SCHUBERT and Robert SCHUMANN. It was my first time attending a piano concert but instead of feeling weird about it, I actually enjoyed it. I was alone, but yet, I wasn’t alone.

I am sure that you must have heard the phrase that “a picture speaks a thousand words” and the same can be implied regarding music with the exception of the intensity of the words that are being spoken by the music because the vibration of the sounds vibrate in me from within.

Today’s piano concert has reminded me of the day that we went to San Diego not long ago before I came to Spain. The picture above is the crystal piano from the Museum of Making Music in San Diego. We had less than an hour to go around the entire museum, so we just went around as fast as we can, pressing every button there is on the way and listen to the different sound of the instruments. Read about the history of music and instrument, and then we came across this KAWAI crystal piano… my imaginary dream piano that actually exists!!!

One day, soon enough, I will have this piano in my living room. Last I checked, it is going for $94,000… so it is going to be a while before I get to see it in my living room. None the less, there is nothing wrong dreaming about it!

Happy Valentine’s Day… ^_^

Currently, I am living in Marbella, Spain. The closet beach we have here is Port Banus… as most of my friends know, I have an addiction with Beaches… Sand, Sound, Sea, Waves and Wind. But here, in Vancouver, the dock is to the far right behind the bridge. Here, it is placed in very unique in such a way that I cannot really explain. It was freezing cold at the moment I took the picture, 2 degrees Celsius, but I just really wanted to capture this moment.

I mentioned that it is very unique to me because I got the beach feeling here without the sand or waves. There were only wind and cold… but it was the peacefulness that captured me.

Looking at it further, it reminded me of my childhood when the only game I played was Tetris because those lines of buildings look exactly just like in the game. Don’t you think?

Back to the road-trip during the New Year Holiday, with my friend Hans and his wife. Our first stop was San Francisco and as a passenger, you could imagine how boring it was in the car. Luckily I am with my buddy, Canon Rebel Xsi, and it kept me company.

I didn’t plan to go anywhere during the holiday but it just happened so fast on the morning before they planed to leave for the trip. Fortunately there is open spot in the car, so there is where the trip began.

Go with the flow, be spontaneous and just improvise the situation. That way… life is much more enjoyable.

Okay, so I took this picture while we were in traffic looking for our hotel in San Francisco. He said, “ohhh look to your right”, then I say, “whaoo!!! STONED.” Nope, it’s not that kind of STONED!!  It was an awesome feeling to experience and see the architecture of San Francisco.

US Grant, San Diego, California, USA. It was just a week before I left to Spain to pursue my career in Hospitality Management. Thank you to David, my friend and boss at the same time for hooking me up for this hotel that cost $675 / night. I get to stay 2 nights there. It was an amazing experience, and that gives me hope in Hospitality Management again.

Today I felt like writing this review due to the lecture in our class in Room Division Department and to understand about how they operate each room and how does house keeping work. The best way I believe is to organize the house keepers in teams. So that the teams can be self motivated and self check to keep everything up to the hotel STANDARDS.

It is best to work in teams, it is the TEAM EFFORT that bring success to life. I have realized that, we cannot do anything by ourselves, ever. There is always someone somewhere that is helping you to become successful. What do you think?

I took the photos from the front of the hotel, the interior and the view from the room. Awesome room upgrade

About the Hotel… US GRANT San Diego is part of Starwoods Hotels.

Today, I spent 40 minutes walking to Puerto Banus, Marbella… and on the way to the Puerto (port) Banus, it remind me of the feeling that I had on Christmas 2008 because of the short-cut that I took while walking to the Port was very JUNGLE ‘s like. It was damp, wet and full of branches. The feeling brought me back to Christmas afternoon. Sunny and nice until I get to Angel Point, Los Angeles which is when it started raining. I continued on, walking there for about an hour or so, in the rain, looking for locations to snap pictures but it was so gloomy. Right before sunset, the sun shown below the clouds, allowing me to capture this scene. This moment only lasted about 10 minutes before it is gone.

It was one evening that I would never forget. A Christmas to remember.

About the picture, to the left, is the U.S. Bank building in Los Angeles and to the right is the famous Dodger Stadium!!!

So finally, a friend of mine… Ye, mentioned to me that my English grammar is horrible. I really wish he read the first post where it mentioned that I need an editor. Still looking for a volunteer to work on this. How about you, Ye? I am sure you’re a fine candidate for this position.

But you know what I wanted to do to you? Drop you off the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Hehe, just kidding! I am sure that you enjoy the picture as well, right? And I am way too happy to know that you came to drop by on my website.

Thank you for your support. Come by more often, yah?

No, it is not that kind of shooting. Sorry to disappoint you. ^_^

This photo was taken on a morning that I was trying to apply for my Spanish visa. In one week, I have been down this street for more than 10 times and I have noticed the churches on Wilshire blvd. I then kept telling myself to bring my camera the next time I went to the consulate, but it wasn’t until the last day as I kept forgetting to bring my camera along with me.

Finally, I brought the camera but I didn’t have time to stop the car… solution??? I only got one shot! … The result is what is posted here today.

*We can always plan as much as we want, but there are always unseen obstacles… so we must improvise and do our best. In our life, we pretty much only have one shot!

In life, how many bridges have we crossed? But really, how many times have we actually looked at what is under the bridge and how it is being held up? It is so easy for us to just walk over “things” and be ignorant about what we are walking over on. To me, this bridge represent the many paths in life, but I have never really thought about it as much until now, this moment that I am typing this… it is the columns below the bridge that support the path above and with out those columns (obviously there will be no bridge, we can swim over, row a boat and so on. But it won’t be easy.

Today, I wanted to dedicate this photo to all of my families, my friends and my loved ones for the continuing support. With out you guys, I will still be in that river.

I love you all!

Oh yes, the picture was taken in a park “Barranca” in Irvine, California one fine evening. I miss going to Irvine

2c degree out, 8:30pm… a night spent at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, North Vancouver, B.C. Canada… at the park, I came upon this setting… and just Ahhhhhhhhh…

I really dont’ have anything more to say about it… can’t explain my feeling that I get from this picture. Can you?

Okay, so you have 80 sec to finish that DOUGHNUT, ready… set…. GO!!! Here is some water for you to chuck all these doughnuts down… well, actually it wasn’t this big. There is one that the shop “Voodoo Doughnut” has for customers who DARE to finish their 12 inch diameter monsters in under 80 sec with a glass of water helping you to chuck ‘em down. NOOO of course I didn’t make it because I didn’t want to choke myself. After watching one person who gave up after 40 sec, I, who was only half his size, did not dare to.

Voodoo Doughnut, Portland, Oregon. The only place where you can get a doughnut that’s called “Cock and Balls” and where the magic is in the HOLE. Check out the link and you would know what I mean… It is a nice cozy shop that makes fresh doughnuts every few minutes. Yumm… That is all i can say. Sigh… at myself sitting here in Spain, wanting some Doughnut’s SO BADLY!!!

Will anyone be kind enough to UPS some to me? I will provide you the address!!! Thank you!

We were so worried that the market would be closed because of the long holiday weekend during the New Year holiday. Anyways, I love farmer markets much more than any supermarket because of its sense of smell and the environment. Also, for some weird reason, everything here looks and smells fresher than any of those in supermarkets. I believe that it was because of the messiness that create such a dynamic feeling. Everything becomes so STATIC when it is TOO WELL organized.

Life is simple and, yet we can’t live with out DRAMA, at least I can’t.

On the way to Vancouver from Los Angeles, we drove by San Francisco and spend a day at their Japan Town. It was gloomy the entire day but we finally got the sunlight breaking thru the thick clouds. At that moment, we stoped our car at a scenic spot to be able to get this shot. Cold and Windy, as it is, we only stayed outside for about 10 minutes before we jumped back into the car and headed out for a nice and hot Pho noodle soup (Vietnamese Noodle) in China Town.

It has been so long that I’ve wanted to start a photoblog, finally it is up! Thank you to WordPress and DreamHost for making it so easy to start a blog and organize everything without having to do all those FTP things.

So I would like to start of with the picture that I took on January 01, 2009. After a long night counting down and all, I got up early in the morning and take bus to where ever it would take me and had come across this bridge. It was 2 degrees Celsius and it was my first time in a city with snow. So I was only wearing tennis shoes, jeans and tons of cloth. With those tennis shoes, it wasn’t enough, as I keep getting sunken into the snow ground that was knee deep! Okay, so it took me a while to get off the snowy ground and get on this bridge. And viola!

The plan is to keep posting at least 1 image per day from my photo archive. Please feel free to comment. And don’t forget to stop by for more updates.

*a quick notice… I am no English major, so cut me some slack on the spelling and grammar and just enjoy the photos ^_^