The Right Way to Squirrel Living

A close friend of mine who knows about my Squirrel Living philosophy sent me a link: $16 house? Dallas area man evicted after squatting. As I read the article, I thought, "Good for him if he could pull this off." Unfortunately, Bank of America took the house back. I believe that if Mr. Robinson didn't invite television cameras and heavily publicize his good fortune, he could probably live there a lot longer.

We all know that most of Lottery winners do not announce to the whole world about their winnings. The reason for that is simple. When people find out about others' good fortune, trouble usually follows. I keep my lifestyle extremely low key. My motto is "Be stealth, be like a ninja." Only my family and a few very close friends know about my squirrel living. Even though I have a website, I do not reveal personal information.

I am sure there are a good number of people out there who are squatting quietly without attracting much attention.

My Makeshift Light Table for Animation Drawing

As you may already know, I quit my full time office job back in January to do whatever I wanted to do for a year. One of the things I have always wanted to do was to learn the process of making animation. Now it's October, and I have created a few short animations. It is a lot of work. Traditional animation involves drawing hundreds of frames just to have a few minutes of animated film. A light table is essential for drawing these frames. I could buy a nice light tablet for about $50, but I doubt I'll use it often. Most animation is created with computer software now. Doing it the traditional way is just to deepen my understanding of what the animation pioneers went through before there was computer.

What is a light table? It's basically a piece of glass or transparent plastic with light underneath. It's not that hard to put something like that together. I gathered a piece of glass, which was from an old entertainment center that I no longer have. I kept the glass thinking it would come in handy for something. I have several lamps lying around. So, as you can see in the photographs, I saved myself $50 by putting together my own light table. It served the purpose.

Come to think of it, the only thing in the photographs that I had to pay for is the Cartoon Animation book underneath the lamp. It was $0.75 from Goodwill. The laptop was given to me because the previous owner upgraded. The pencil box was a gift I got when I was 10 years old, I think. I did buy some drawing pencils. The two tray tables I use to hold the glass were given to me after my neighbor passed away.

San Francisco Fallfest 2011

There are events in San Francisco all year around, and most of them need volunteers. I have volunteered for San Francisco Pride, which rewards the volunteers with T-shirts, goodie bags and lunches donated from its sponsors.

If you love food and trying a variety of it but don't want to pay for food events, volunteering is the way to go. Today I volunteered at San Francisco Fallfest. The ticket for this event was $95 in advance and $110 at the door. As a volunteer, I worked at the silent auction booth for a couple hours and got to attend the event for free.

There were live music, plenty of food samples, wine tasting, and chef demos. The money raised from the silent auction goes to Meals on Wheels of San Francisco, which delivers nutritious balanced meals to homebound seniors in San Francisco.

I enjoyed the food and spending the day in San Francisco, and it only cost me the round trip BART fare from home to the city, which was less than $8.00.

Foraging Blackberries

Blackberry bushes are extremely invasive. Once you have them in your yard, it's almost impossible to get ride of them. They constantly pop up at various spots on Sand Village Farm. Although I love perfectly ripe blackberries, I have to keep cutting the berry branches off. They are just too thorny! So, instead of growing my own blackberries, I go pick them just like I would with wild mushrooms. They grow abundantly in the neighborhood and are free for the picking. As you can see in the picture above, it grows on someone's fence. In addition to providing berries, the bushes also act as a barrier against critters and burglars. Believe me, you would not want to fall into these bushes.

I took a walk this afternoon and picked a bunch of blackberries. There were a few other people picking them, too. Some areas obviously have been picked over. It would be a shame to let these wild blackberries go to waste. Blackberries are expensive in the stores but you can easily pick your own for free!

"Spirited Away" - American version

covered carriage bridge

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Yosemite for the second time. It's a shame that it was only my second time there even though I have lived in California most of my life. My first time going there with my family, I got car sick on the way up the hill. This time I was fortunate not to feel motion sickness, so I was able to enjoy more. One of the highlights was seeing Pioneer History Center. We stopped there because the elders needed to make another bathroom stop. I noticed a covered carriage bridge on the other side of the lot and walked over to check it out.

Artist's Cabin

After crossing the bridge, I entered a pioneer village. The year was 1910. The first cabin I stopped at was the Artist's Cabin. As an artist, I can see myself living there. Actually I wish I could live there. Perhaps it's something many artists share - the desire to get away from it all, at least for a while.

I peeked into some of the cabins. I have always loved to see how people lived in the past. The furniture were simple and sturdy. People had just a few belongings that were necessities.

George Anderson Pioneer Home

I wanted to spend more time and have a better look at every cabin. I wanted to sit at the bench of the pioneer home for a while just to imagine living there.

Hodgdon homestead cabin

I wanted to run up those stairs of Hodgdon cabin but didn't get to do it. I knew that I didn't have much time.  All I could do was taking a photo from afar.

Wells Fargo Office

I peeked into the windows of Wells Fargo office. There were electronic equipments from 1910 sitting inside. You know one day our iPads will be sitting in some museum, and the people in the future will wonder why people in 2011 carried something so bulky with them all over the place.

storage for wagons and stagecoaches

I walked passed by the storage for wagons and stagecoaches, but there was no time to stop and admire them. I knew by now that my family must be looking for me.

I exited through a different gate and hurriedly went back to the parking lot. I was puzzled that the family van wasn't anywhere to be seen. I wandered around and saw the van coming from the direction of the covered carriage bridge. They drove over there to wait for me. As I settled in my seat, I checked the photos I took on my camera. All I could think of was the story of Spirited Away.