Blog: friends

Recording Song Covers

2024-06-20 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

three friends hanging out Three friends hanging out

Back in Elementary, I was in this friend group who enjoyed music. This must have been in 2009? (That was a long time ago!) When you're a kid, you slowly discover music that you enjoy and not enjoy. What better way than to expose yourself to other individual's tastes in music? I would hang out with Abraham and Luke. I'd say, they influenced who I am as a person and the direction of my musical tastes.

Abraham grew up in Colombia and moved out to my hometown in Nebraska. Luke grew up in Hawaii and had moved to Nebraska a year before. Both Luke and Abraham played the guitar. I was super excited to have friends who had come from cool places!

I was the only one who didn't play the guitar, much less have a passion for playing an instrument. My friends at the time still took me in and accepted me into the group. It was super duper to watch live shows in my friend's basement. They used to play covers of Subline, Linkin Park, and Bullet for My Valentine.

At that time frame, I was very interested in photography and videography. I always carried my Sony Cyber-Shot with me because you never know when you would need to get that cool shot. You're probably thinking, "That's some lame point in shoot!" When your parents buy you a camera, you have to work with what you got! A camera is a camera!

Question time!

Can you guess which role did I play in my friend group? If you guessed the camera guy, you win a cookie! Do you like internet cookies? I don't know how to share a real cookie via the internet.

I would record their guitar sessions on my camera. It was a pretty cool experience getting blasted with hardcore metal while figuring out the best way of recording! I learned important fundamentals of video recording. I focused on stabilizing the camera, considering lighting, and audio clipping (which I had no control over). Not only was I enjoying myself but also I learned a lot.

One of my favorite memories when we weren't in Luke's basement was walking to get pizza. Living in a small town, things are relatively within walking distance.

As time went on friends came and went. We all went our different paths even though we lived in the same hometown for years. I am thankful to have hung with these guys for a few years. I hope these guys are happy and living fulfilling lives.

Here are a few videos that I recorded.


Another s

Saying Goodbye to Friends

2024-03-12 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

robot saying goodbye

Yesterday was a bitter sweet day for me. This has been a day that has been coming. It doesn't really hit you until all their things are packed up ready to be loaded in the moving truck. I look around at my friends almost empty apartment with nothing on empty walls. The sad feeling the emotions take place. Maybe, it's the allergies. These friends are very special to me as they are one of the first friends I made in California. These friends made me feel right at home as I moved a place unfamiliar to me. It all started just by saying "hello!" as I was moving into the unit I was moving into. We hit it off right off the bat. We would go cruising on our boards. We did disc golfing (which I'm not good at). Go on adventures throughout California. We would go over to each other's place. They threw a welcome back party after returning from South Korea after being gone for a month. They help me experience new things that definitely got me out of my comfort zone. My friends helped me grow as a person. Most importantly, they taught me how to be more fun.

I'm happy they are off to a new adventure. I want them to be happy and do what is best for them. I am grateful to have made friends with them. I know that this is goodbye for now. We'll be in touch. I'll send post cards. We'll see each other along the way. I wish you all the best. See you all soon.

Thank you for all the memories,
Pablo

Showing Friends Around Where I Live

2024-01-26 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

I've lived in California for over 3 years (who's counting? Oh wait, me!) I've got to the point I know where most of the popular places to visit in San Francisco, Sacramento or places in between. I would consider myself feeling somewhat knowledgeable of the area. My common expression here is, "I'm new here!" I live in Sacramento but I go to San Francisco all the time that I know the city pretty well enough to wonder off to different places. I like to wonder around even if my feet start hurting so I simply push through.

I'm showing my colleagues' brother, Rami since he's visiting from far away. I feel comfortable walking around in San Francisco. I'm very fortunate to have friends who live in the city who I've learned so much from. I feel that I can be a good tour guide. We're both dudes who are young and like to have fun. That makes it easy to keep our minds open and try new experiences. I love doing all the touristy things again especially when friends or family come to visit. I get to help people experience the city the way I did or at least provide that feeling of novelty.

End of the Year Coding Night

2023-12-28 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

dudes coding

Tonight will be a fun and exciting night. We're closing out the year by having a hackatron coding night with my friends. Just a bunch of dudes in a room coding the night away. We will be working on a game and our personal projects. There will be of snacks, lots of laughs, throwbacks and more. We all help each other out. We all live in different parts of the country but during the holidays we are back in our hometowns in Nebraska. It's always good to back with the lads and to reconnect and share what we have been working on. I love these guys. I'm going to continue to work on an IndieAuth project at some point but the focus of tonight will be a game or however the night takes us.

See you all in the wee hours of the morning.

The Friend I Made on the Bus

2023-12-20 by Pablo Morales

This post was written in en

I was browsing the web and I happened to stumble upon this Instagram post. It was a screenshot of a tweet OP posted about two girls on a cruise who became best friends for the day. One of the girls was looking for her best friend that day.

Here is what the post said, if you don't want to open an Instagram link. The post also has the picture of two girls on the cruise sitting next to each other.

in Hawaii in 2006. We were basically best friends for that night so I need y'all to help me find my bestfriend because I miss her and I need to see how she's doing now. Please retweet this so we can be reunited.

This helped me unlock a memory of an experience I had as a young kid. I remember my family and I took the Greyhound bus back from Mexico all the way to Nebraska. This was in the early 2000s. Let me tell you. When you're six or seven on a bus from Southern Mexico to Nebraska, you feel like dying, died, and forgot you died on a 48+ hour (or however long) ride. Maybe I'm being dramatic. It wasn't a pleasant ride, at least most of it.

I remember when the bus made a stop somewhere in Texas possibly in Austin or Dallas. I remember I was already having a bad time since I've been on a bus for an extended amount of time. Then some kid around my age got on the bus with his family. I gave him the nod to acknowledge him. He happened to sit near us. An hour or so had passed and I was curious and was desperate to talk to someone who wasn't in my family. So I said hello to the kid. I don't regret doing so.

When I said hello, right off the bat we hit it off. We were talking about a bunch of nerd stuff that kids our age were interested in.. I remember bringing up our computers and we lost our minds. I was telling him about the iMac G3s I would use at school or how my friend built a small website on his computer. He would tell me about things he'd create on Kid Pix. We also talked about our favorite TV shows, our hobbies, and upbringings. We shared stories. This kid was super cool! I hope he thought I was cool too. We had a grand old time.

At some point, he and his family had to get off to their transfer point or it was their final destination. We said our goodbyes. Then I waved at him, he waved back when he was on the ground. It was a very warm and sad moment to say goodbye to my best friend of that day.

I unfortunately don't remember his name and I doubt he remembers mine. At that time, it wasn't common for young kids to have a cell phone. We didn't exchange numbers or email. I think about this often. I wish I could find out where he is and if he is doing well. Who knows what paths we've taken? Have we crossed paths and not known it? I hope we get to meet someday and this post comes across him and we could reconnect.

If you're out there man, say hello!

Do you have a story similar to this? I'd love to hear from you.