Things seem back to normal now that the traveling has ceased.

Photos from San Diego and Spain are available for consumption on pk photo albums.

San Diego was very relaxing and incredibly beautiful. Wook and I drove up to Los Angeles to meet up with Mung. We later met up with John Jung on his turf in West Hollywood. “GAMeboy” – could you figure out what it means? KASCON21 workshop at UCSD went well, although we liked the Princeton audience and setup better.

Spain with Melanie was very pleasant, although Madrid could have been warmer. The city was a pretty and interesting place to walk around. I took the “company” Canon EOS 10D SLR camera and snapped away 800 shots, only to come up with a few dozen decent, non-blurry ones. Wook says he should’ve taught me to use F-stop. The food in Madrid wasn’t that great – not sure if my expectations were too high or we just didn’t know the best spots. Walking through the Prado Musuem with Mel was great. We saw El Greco, Velasquez, Reubens, and Goya among others, and I actually remembered studying a few of them during my few alert moments in Art Hum in college. The touristy highlight of the trip was our visit to Segovia, about 2 hours by Renfe train from Madrid. Segovia is a very old town situated high up in a mountainous region. It is know for the majestic Cathedral of Segovia, the castle Alcazar that inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland, and the Roman acqueducts that frame the entrance of the town. I must have mistakenly called Alcazar “Alcatraz” – how stupid.

I was very pleased to finish David Mamet’s On Directing Film and Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love on the plane ride back from Madrid. I highly recommend both – the first for its clarity and no-nonsense advice about storytelling through films and the latter for its high-intensity drama from start to finish – even more so than Atonement, I thought. Enduring Love was adapted into a movie that starred Daniel Craig (the new James Bond) as Joe, the science journalist who is the object of another man’s obsession. I am guessing that the movie didn’t stay completely loyal to the novel since Joe is described as very big, clumsy, and seriously balding.

And this past weekend was the return of Entourage on HBO. Brandon, Andy, Mel, and I celebrated with sam gyup ssal, beer, and lots of kimchi as we watched a brand new Sopranos and then the premiere of Entourage Season Three. Didn’t realize that its creator Doug Ellin was a Brit. The next several Sunday nights are booked – will keep travel limited for at least the next few months.