#NerdsUnite: Around the world with @HeatherReusz

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Heather. She's a nerd who is currently living in Japan by way of Chicago. Yep, talk about a culture shock. She's here today to talk about her life, love (which she is currently balancing long distance) and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT HEATHER!!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @HeatherReusz

I’ve had a crazy couple of weeks! This past week and a half has been Golden Week which is basically Japanese spring break. I knew that this was my last break before leaving Japan so I wanted to fit in as much sight-seeing and random adventures as possible. I knew exactly where I wanted to go too, Kyoto. As the old capital of Japan, there a ton of shrines and important historical sites in the area as well as some super cool nearby cities like Nara, home to the biggest Buddha statue in Japan, Osaka, with super amazing terrible for you food, and Hiroshima, which was a historical must-see for me. I won’t tell you all of the details but suffice to say it was an amazing trip that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I will share with you my favorite day of the trip though. It all started with a sudden change of plans. I was going to spend the day seeing the Golden Pavilion and Kiyomizu temple. However, that morning was cloudy. I wanted to be able to see the Golden Pavilion in sunlight to get the full effect so I hopped on a different train last minute to a temple called Fushimi Inari. Some of you other hardcore Japan nerds may know this temple as the one with thousands of tori gates in a row. It’s featured in plenty of animes where the main character runs through the winding tunnels of crimson gates. It was definitely on the top of my list of places to see in Kyoto. Once I got there, I started reading the guide book and stopped dead in my tracks. The gates all lead up to the top of a mountain. Cool. Except that I was nowhere near dressed or prepared to handle a two and a half mile hike up a mountain. I’ve gotten really into Japanese fashion. Anyplace where it is socially acceptable and encouraged for you to wear a black mini skirt with knee high socks, heels, and an oversized shirt is totally awesome in my opinion. So there I was staring at the gates up the mountain with my heels on and no water. I decided it was just time to put my big girl pants on, suck it up, and do it. I didn’t come across the country to NOT do this hike.

It was well worth it. There are no words that can describe how beautiful and peaceful it was on the path. When the sunlight hit the tori gates in just the right way, they shimmered. I swear I can understand why some people say it’s a path that can lead to inner enlightenment and peace.That’s not to say it was easy though! It was very hot. I huffed and puffed my way up taking frequent breaks. My legs ached for days but it was all worth it.

After my exhausting hike, it was only about 1 o’clock so I couldn’t very well call it a day. I took the train back, napping the whole way, to get to one of Kyoto’s most famous temples: Kiyomizu. It’s mainly notable for the fact that the whole thing was built off the side of a cliff using no nails in the construction. It also has a famous spring that people from all over Japan flock to drink from. Taking a drink for this spring supposedly grants you a wish if you wish and pray hard enough while drinking.

I was totally surprised by the size of the main temple off of the cliff. It was almost unbelievable that this thing was standing and stable let alone that no nails or anything like that was used in the construction.

There was a long line to get to the spring but I waited patiently to get my wish granted. The water from the spring is pumped into three overhead rivers. It comes down almost like a waterfall next to a platform. When it’s your turn to drink, you have to take this metal cup attached to a long bamboo pole to catch the water and then drink what you got out of your hands. I was surprised by how strong the water flow was. I almost lost my grip on the cup. Then there was the difficulty of trying to fish it back onto the platform without hitting anyone else. I got about three handfuls of water in my cup. Hopefully my wish will come true after all that.

After my fun afternoon at Kiyomizu, I headed towards a nearby shopping district: Gion. Gion is most famous for how well preserved it is. The shops and restaurants are very reminiscent of Kyoto in its heyday as the capital. The reason I was really interested in going though was because that’s one of the only places in modern Japan where you can catch a rare glimpse of geisha. I’ve been fascinated by the geisha culture and profession for many years now. Before you even ask the question, geisha are not prostitutes. That’s a myth that was really reinforced in post war Japan when prostitutes would dress in gaudy kimonos and paint their faces white to attract foreigners who came looking for “geisha”. A true geisha is a living piece of art. Literally, that’s what geisha translates to. They are trained in all traditional arts from dance to tea ceremony to conversation. They are the perfect hostess. It takes a lot to become a true geisha. It is a very respected and revered profession.

In the modern world though, it is slowly becoming less prominent. I knew the odds were against me to have a geisha spotting but I patiently strolled to streets seeing if I could catch a glimpse of one heading to an engagement. Lucky as I was, not only did I see one but two. They were hurrying along the street to get to their destination. A couple of people approached and asked for pictures but they continued on ignoring them. I thought I would give it a shot as well. I approached and tried my best in my stumbling and broken Japanese to ask them for a photo while bowing just to show how passionate about this I was. They got a kick out of it and said sure. So to these two lovely ladies: Thank you for making my life!!!

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Heather on Twitter!

#YayLife: Last night I rode bitch on the back of a bike and toured Hollywood

OOOHHH life, the adventures never stop do they?

First up, I want to tell you all something that my loverly mother said to me yesterday that has stuck with me. So my parental units read this site, obvi, and my mom called me yesterday morning just checking in on how I was doing as she was concerned with my tone in my latest post regarding Romeo.

I explained to her that I was fine, but that I was ridiculously angry over the whole situation. I went from being shocked, to excited, to UNBELIEVABLY angry (my use of the F word increases in my writing when I'm mad, btw). I'm pissed it has been almost a month now and I'm not any better than I was before, except psychologically I haven't been able to take a breath without thinking about him. Romeo coming back into my life will ABSOLUTELY change my views on dating, and will make me re-write the ENTIRE chapter on love in my first book .... total fucking bullshit for a duderino to do this to someone who documents dating and relationships for a living, but this is my constant and this is my reality.

I sent out a call to the universe that I was ready for a relationship, and of course, as always, he has answered.

I expressed all of my fears to my mom, and was literally holding back tears the entire time. My mom knows that I'm not exactly the most "loving" person, I'm very much a shut up - and just get the job done kinda chica, and for me to even tear up at the THOUGHT of Romeo was actually a pretty big deal.

My mom then says, Jen, you have to understand when it came to me and your father, I was the one that said I love you first. That was a really big deal - I took an incredibly big risk.

Risk, I thought? But you guys were in grade school when you met!!! My dad always told me that he knew my mom was "the one" at age 12 when he saw her in her red sweater with the D embroidered on it. Yes, she said, he did know faster than I did at our long term trajectory, but I was the one who put myself out there first by telling him how much I loved him.

I never knew my parents risked anything when it came to their love. I just assumed because it was so story book that Walt Disney literally had a pen and paper in hand when it came to dictating their journey.

It was a risk, Jen, and you above everyone else in this world know what it is like to take a risk.

My mom has never been able to give me dating advice since she's never dated ... but this was the first time that my mom actually said something to me regarding Romeo and regarding dating that truly struck a chord.

You just have to let go, she said. If it is meant to be, you just have to let it be. You can't analyze it, you can't dissect it - you just have to let it go Jen.

What?!?!?! I thought. Let things go to ... "chance???" Do you not understand the amount of social engineering that goes into "chance???" I do not ever ever ever just "let" things happen - I GO AND FUCKING GET THEM. There is ALWAYS an organic component to things, but I am EXTREMELY driven and the more that I know I focus on the end goal, and the more that I know that I focus on myself and the PURE nature of my intent and the PURE heart that I give to a executing a goal - the universe will always always always connect the dots for me.

I've done this time and again in business, but never ever when it comes to dating. I've always studied people, and analyzed their personalities to see what their constants are.

I can tell you right now by studying Romeo he's not in the happiest place right now, but there's nothing I can do about that. When we kicked it a few weeks back when I was showing him the Chevy Volt I saw in his eyes how much he still loved me. It was that same look he gave me when we were in San Fran, only this time - I could tell his love for me scared him. He didn't kiss me at the end of the night, we instead just held each other in one of the best hugs I've ever had from someone.

I scare the shit out of Romeo, and he scares the shit out of me. We've never even formally dated but I've loved him for 8 years and he's loved me for almost 4.

Our love is so unconditional he once called me his sister, and I almost slapped him since we BOTH have siblings of the opposite sex and we've both never wanted to sleep with them.

I explained to my mom that I know this isn't the best timing for him, but he's LITERALLY impairing my work, and if I don't make this or shake this, I am going to go fucking nuts.

This entire experience though is also directly in line with my work the Modern Day Shaman, who is currently working with me on speaking my own personal truth. This is my truth right now with Romeo - I love him so so so much, but now I need to tell him. (I've never actually uttered the words "I love you" to him before IRL. He's read it in my writing, and in our emails back and forth over the years they always end with "love ya" or something along those lines ... but never ... ever ... those three words.)

I then hung up the phone with my mom and paced around the apartment. Could it really be this easy, I thought? I just have to let all of this go and tell him it's put up or shut up time?? Romeo always has required a gentle "push" for lack of a better word. My problem is is that I don't believe in "pushing" people. Again, I'm the chickadee with no attachments, so trying to push or change people is hella lame IMHO. You just have to keep doing your self work and then watch the people around you change. The problem with that though is that when I DID change, he still came back.

Romeo and I clearly have a lot of work to do, but tomorrow afternoon I am going to text him asking to kick it, and hopefully schedule permitting, we can have our chat and see where it all goes. If he wants to make a go of things - great! wonderful! I will prolly hysterically cry tears of joy on his shoulder. If he doesn't - that part I'm not prepared for. I'll be devastated, obviously, but as with every other time in my life that I have suffered a loss of something, I know it too shall pass and I will still be grateful for him being in my life, but will respectfully ask him not to contact me again since clearly we are never going to be able to make a go of things and our energy together just can't be denied.

If Romeo at age 32 STILL doesn't see that we have something, I very honestly can't make him. I'm 27, I am on a path of wanting more from my life, and I am 100000% ready to go and get it. If it's him, great! What an AMAZING story this all told ... if not, GREAT! I still learned so much from one of my best friends for the last 8 years.

We'll see, it's just so hard for me to let go, and so hard for me to not break a situation down and figure out how I can get the "best" possible return on my energetic investment.

FML

THENNNN, yesterday afternoon I got a text from the National Geographic locked up in a prison in Pakistan for 3 years duderino asking me to dinner. See, I asked him out on twitter after watching his show a few weeks back, and then we kicked it on Friday for the first time. (Read more about that here)

Super freaking great guy, so of course I said yes to a second date.

We then agree to meet up around 7, and he asked for my address so he could pick me up.

At 7 he then arrives and I hear the ROOAAAARRIIINNNNGGG of his motorcycle. I laugh thinking, well, that's quite the entrance.

I then walk outside and greet him with a big hug.

HELLOOOOO! I say with a big smile thinking this is exactly what I need at this exact moment.

Hi he says handing me a helmet indicating for me to hop on. 

Where are we going for dinner, I ask?

How about the Grove, he said.

PERFECT!!! I thought, I never kick it at the Grove, so this will be good.

I then get on the back of his Harley, and I am immediately inundated with a sense of calmness. This is of course totally counterintuitive when you consider the fact that here I am in a skirt, and boots strapped with my arms around this dude's stomach and my chin resting on the upper part of his back completely exposed on the back of this bike going over 40 mph through Hollywood.

For the entire ride over though I stayed focused on the wind and on the one-ness of feeling the road, and feeling how freeing this experience was.

No Romeo, I thought. Just be, and absorb, Jen.

Inside the Grove parking lot. They actually have pretty good motorcycle parking! Well done, Grove! We then have a spectacular dinner (to which again, I can't talk about since you can't date in real time) and afterwards he asks if I wanted to go and see the Nightmare on Elm Street house. I've always wanted to go, he said, I just don't know where it is.

<tangent> This dude, btw, is the LEAST technical person I have prolly ever met. Spends less than 2 hours a day on a computer, and genuinely has no idea or comprehension on how to connect any dots in social media. I'm not mad at it, the guy is VERY smart and obviously beat the living shit out of a bunch of people while in prison in Pakistan - but we speak very different languages. It literally didn't even enter into his brain to google it. </tangent>

I then whip out my iPhone and say, I'll find it ... and bing bam boom - 2.5 seconds later I had an addy. I then plugged it into the maps app and look at that! We are really close, I say!

I then tell him how to get there, and we hop back on his bike where again I slip into a state of bliss. I didn't think about the probability of us crashing, or taking a spill. I didn't think about anything other than the fact that this dude survived something COMPLETELY horrific and lived to tell his story on one of my favorite TV shows, so if he could do that, he could DEFINITELY take care of me and I'd just have to let it all go, and be fine.

The "letting it all go" part rang through my head again. I then realized that I needed to take this physical experience and translate it emotionally to my experience with Romeo. Be like you are on the motorcycle, Friel.

Anytime I tried looking up and looking ahead, I would COMPLETELY freak out at how fast we were moving up, over, and through traffic - but the more that I just laid my cheek on the upper part of this guy's back, and wrapped my arms around his stomach - the more that I felt at peace. I don't have to see far ahead to know we were going to get to where we were going - I was instead strapped onto this guy's back, and releasing all of my fears and all of my preconceived notions of life and safety.

Just be.

Just be.

Just be.

Just experience, and just be. Don't look ahead - feel this present moment.

This is some heavy shit, btw. I couldn't believe I was having this seemingly weird and random life experience with a dude that I asked out on twitter after I saw him on my favorite TV show, and he was now giving me EXACTLY what I needed from the universe at the EXACT time I needed it.

Heavy.

We then made it over to the Nightmare on Elm Street house over on Gennessee, followed by checking out the Halloween houses over on North Orange Grove (just north of Sunset).

It was pretty cool!! I had a great, great, time kicking it with the Pakistan duderino - but I genuinely can't see him again until I get this entire thing figured out with Romeo. Who knew I would get such clarity on the back of his bike though???

I'm so scared nerds. I'm so freaking scared!

Instead of trying to look outward and forward on the projection of this situation however, I am going to stick my cheek to the side and enjoy the ride. I don't know where this is going to go this week with Romeo but I know that if I hold on, and stay centered - I will be able to take anything that is given to me.

::deep breath::

It's just all so hard ...

#kthxbye

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

I don’t wish to dwell on the tragic passing of 42 year old Junior Seau at the moment, and quite frankly I’d like to get this tid-bit out of the way before I really start. The superstar linebacker for the San Diego Chargers took his own life on Wednesday and even though this should be what I’m writing about today I am not going to. There could be a million medical variables and reasons as to why Junior Seau did what he did, and we won’t know anything for certain until his brain is studied. I’m going to keep my opinions to myself for now, but I will be sure to write a post on this subject when more information is available. All that needs to be said for now is, RIP #55 Junior Seau.

G’day nerd nation, summer is coming up and we all know what that means; time for video games. I know I’m looking at Diablo 3 and its much anticipated release in about a week. I also have rather ambitious plans of playing through the Mass Effect series (which I’ve already begun) again just because it’s so awesome. Ya haters, the ending was AWESOME! Y’all suck. In addition, I’m far in Skyrim so it’s very likely that will be finished too. I may be stupid for thinking I can do this but three months is a long time.

Anyways, I’m not the video game writer on here so I’m going to shut up now. On to my other specialty…sports! Baseball saw one of its craziest days in a long time on Sunday, which included a new rivalry between the Phillies and Nationals sparked by veteran pitcher Cole Hamels intentionally hitting the Nat’s 19-year old super prospect Bryce Harper with a pitch. No that is not a typo, Bryce Harper is 19 years old, in the Major Leagues, and is the #2 prospect in all of baseball. Before the Phillies-Nats game began, there didn’t seem to be any bad blood between the two teams; that has now changed.
For whatever reason, Cole Hamels decided that he did not like Harper and plunked him square in the back with a 93 MPH fastball. (That hurts) Harper then returned the favor by stealing home on Hamels and also going 2 for 3 at the plate with a run added to his stat line. Now, much of this is very normal in baseball, even intentionally hitting/hurting someone, but here is the issue….

This is what Hamels said after the game, "I was trying to hit him,”…. "That's something I grew up watching, that's kind of what happened. So I'm just trying to continue the old baseball because I think some people are kind of getting away from it," Hamels said. "I remember when I was a rookie the strike zone was really, really small and you didn't say anything because that's the way baseball is…But I think unfortunately the league's protecting certain players and making it not that old-school, prestigious way of baseball."
HA! That’s basically my opinion…HA! Hamels is a douche, plain and simple. Let me tell you a few things about old school baseball which I happen to know just a little about. Old school guys WILL throw at you intentionally, will bark at you if they want to, and will pick fights if they feel disrespected…but the one thing they WILL NOT do is go to the media after a game and tell everyone about how “old school” they are. If you need to tell someone you’re old school, you probably aren’t. If you’re a real ball player you let your play do the talking in between the lines, and if you hit a guy then any payback is done on the field, not off! Hamels is a fake, a phony, a fraud, a fuck-o…oh and one more thing an old school guy wouldn’t do, is let a 19 year old kick his ass.

Nationals GM Mike Rizzo certainly agrees with me saying, "Cole Hamels says he's old school? He's the polar opposite of old school. He's fake tough,"…"He thinks he's going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year-old rookie who's eight games into the big leagues? He doesn't know who he's dealing with. He thinks he's sending a message to us of being a tough guy. He's sending the polar opposite message. He says he's being honest, well, I'm being honest. It was a gutless chicken shit act," Rizzo added, "That was a fake-tough act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school."

Haha! I love this shit!!! You really don’t get drama like this from any other sport. In baseball there is so much going on behind the game and so many messages being sent that most know nothing about. The game is so much more about respect than the actual rules, it’s about pride and being a true competitor by being willing to gain that edge by any fair way possible. These quotes sound like a conversation my dad and I would have had at dinner, bitching about how much of a chicken shit coward Cole Hamels is. It’s the realest emotion you are ever going to see in sports.

Oh, and let’s not forget Bryce Harper is a douche too, the difference is he’s 19 and has an excuse. He has done some stuff like blow kisses to a pitcher after he hit a home run; if he did that to Nolan Ryan I swear on anything Bryce would be dead. So don’t get me wrong, I think Hamels was right to hit Harper, but he was wrong to blab about it and let everyone know how tough he is.
Thanks for checking in again guys! I was planning on talking about a lot more, but I got excited writing this one and I just kept going. Tweet me @DerekJ_AllDay if you want to chat.
T-minus: 2 weeks until summer break.

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

Words of Wisdom with @Jesus_m_christ

#Question: Is this an orb in this photo?

SOOOOO ... last weekend I was kicking it at my buddy @acoolong's casa, and she wanted to show me her new hula hoop. 

Normally, not a prob ... I adore hula hoops ... and in fact she looked SO adorable, I decided to take a picture of her. 

I then snapped these three pictures seconds apart from each other ... but look at the first one ... WTH is that mist? 

I obviously didn't see anything when I was taking the picture - but immediately after we were both so perplexed. Same lighting in all pics ... all pics taken literally seconds apart ... what gives? 

Anyone know what that is in the lower left hand corner of the first pic? It's this creepy looking blue mist. If you know please tweet me: @JenFriel

I've never seen anything like it, and I'm DYING to know!! 

Thx nerds!! 

#nerdsunite