January 31th, 2005 - 7:05AM

I got gas in Livermore and they had a station that was 1.72, 1.87, 1.97! Premium for under $2 is pretty rare. I took the mountain road which is VERY interesting late at night/raining/lighting/fast.

Went to Westwood Brewing Company (BrewCo) with Chee on Friday. Had Onion Rings/Buffalo Wings and a Hefe Weizen for dinner. Sooooo bad for health reasons but sooooo tasty. The onion rings were juicy (like Din Tai Fong Chee would say)...hehehehe. First time I had juicy onion rings.

These mini dumplings were amazing...they even had juice inside them as well.

Kiwi drink! Chee told me about this before I visited and it's pretty good! How many Kiwis did it take to make this drink?

French Connection shirts are great...too bad I don't have the balls or the lack of common sense to wear this to work. This shirt reminds me of the Neural Networks class I took so long ago.

We went to this Japanese place called Manpuku on Saturday night. REALLY good place. It's like how my dad usually orders whatever I order when he's never been to a place, if you order what Chee orders, you can't go wrong.

Hmmm....excellent wakame salad. I had my doubts when Chee said it was very good and ended up not ordering it. After I tasted it though, it was so good that I started stealing pieces throughout the dinner. heh heh heh

Had tongue and rib meat...they grind their own special salt/onion/garlic mixture on top which made the meat extra extra tasty.

Meat on Grill action

Balazs and Lauren...I finally got to see Balazs Halloween pics...I think he'd kill me if I posted them up here...or at least die of embarassment. My readership seems widespread enough that people could transmit it around pretty quickly. Hahahahaha

Afterwards, me and Chee went to the Century Club, where they were taping an episode of this International Channel show called "Strut". Pretty consistant good music which is somewhat hard to find in SF. They had Go-Go dancers! :-P I had a Belvedere Vodka Martini and a Screwdriver and a buzz the rest of the night. Very nice.

On Sunday, we had Dim Sum! Chee didn't mind helping me out by holding the Siu Mai which we ended up not being able to finish. We waited for about 45 min to get seats.

Here's my old friend (any person I met in college is now considered old...lol) Wai-Lin and her bf Collin (I think it's double Ls) and a Soy Sauce bottle.

Me and Chee and a Tea Pot....I was soooooo full after this meal...it ended up being $10 a person which is incredible. I think we didn't even have enough room for Dan Ta's!

We had after-lunch dessert at the Grand Lux Cafe. Chee was right, the weekend really was about eating!

Chee's recommendation, Buffalo Chicken Rolls. On the mark again although I do like the Avocado Rolls at Cheesecake better.

Sushi at Isshin. This sushi deluxe special plate had Spanish Mackerel in it. It's very good compared to regular mackeral which I don't like at all (I'll eat it but I NEVER pick it up at Todai...lot less of that vinegary taste). It took a while for our stuff to come out so they gave us Edamame...which was a good thing because we weren't really that hungry when we walked in! I had 2 Rockstars on the way home. Man that stuff has an interesting kick. Anyways, big thanks go to Chee for a wonderful weekend! It was REALLY hard waking up today but I made it.



January 29th, 2005 - 8:32PM

Snowboarding at Squaw was sweet...

Awesome mountain. You take gondolas to the top and ride all the way down.

Doesn't it look like some Swiss village? Actually all the swiss villages that I passed by a long time ago were a lot smaller than this.

Going up and down this mountain was a lot of fun...

No, it wasn't this bright outside. I used a long exposure.



January 25th, 2005 - 9:13PM

Walking along these tall buildings, you find yourself easily dwarfed and impressed by their size. Everyone is busy and trying to get somewhere.

Went to a Mexican place called Tlaloc with Nancy today. I had the Ceviche de Camaron in preparation for Miami and Peru (both places where ceviche's are highly recommended). It really was an appetizer though and not a meal (gotta remember that). Pretty good although I would have preferred that they leave the shrimp alone instead of chopping them into bits.

Starbuck's Chantico. "A drinkable dessert with an intense, full-bodied chocalate flavor and silky, rich texture"....390 calories in 6 fl. oz. I split one with Nanny or else I'd be jumping off the walls. Darn it was good though.



January 25th, 2005 - 12:28AM

Spent the weekend researching about Peru but also about snowboarding gear! Spent a couple hours at Wilderness Exchange, REI, Destination 1440, Sportmart, Copeland's researching and learning more about boots/bindings/boards. You can't get everything from websites but you get a good enough idea so that you don't let salespeople harass you. I ended up getting my board (Ride Control) from a place in SF, then Vans Fargo boots (I love the boa system...I never seem to tighten my boots enough), and the El Habano Cartel Burton Bindings. The Control is a progression board so hopefully after another season, I'll outgrow it and get a better looking board that matches my boot/binding better...hehehe. The Vans boot also has the Recco system so that if I'm covered in an avalanche, it reflects transponder signals. I don't know if I'll ever find myself in that situation but better safe than sorry. The Cartels use a toe cap binding that felt really good. Can't wait to try all of it out.

Now all I need is a helmet and a better jacket...snow kinda got into my gloves last time (they crusted along the side)...so maybe I'll need new ones of those too...

My sister posted these up of her and my mom on her site. Geez...I heard that they go shopping together at South Coast after school...hehehehe...that's so weird.

A bunch of us went to Great China tonight for food. I hadn't been there in such a long time. We actually got to eat in the 2nd floor! Not the raised section but up these stairs next to the kitchen. Well we had 9 people so it we needed a big table. Got 7 very excellent dishes...everything was cleaned up in the end. Hmmm...we had a Spicy Tofu, Ant Climbs Tree, String Beans, Napa Cabbage with Dried Shrimp, Yummy Roast Pork, Mongolian Lamb, and Green Onion Beef. Pearl seemed to enjoy it the most for some reason cause it seemed like she hadn't had good Chinese food in a long while. She actually thanked me twice for recommending the place. Hahahahaha, "Food Database" strikes again! I just wish I worked close by to a place like Great China. I guess the closest would be Henry's Hunan in SF.

Look at these Michelin Tires!!! No more punctures and probably better for the environment too!

Margaret made dinner on Sunday using ground meat, these "grape" seeds that her mom brought from Taiwan, and kale. The kale turned out great which is really impressive since kale is hard to cook and make it taste good by itself. Food Network has a recipe for a traditional Portuguese soup called Chourico. People commented that it was hard to cook. I'll need to pass this on to Margaret. We spent quite a while talking about all the options for our South American tour. After looking at all the things to do (there are so many!!!), we settled on 2 itineraries. I'm going to be responsible for researching a Machu Picchu -> Amazon -> Rio de Janeiro -> Iguacu Falls route while Margaret's going to research the Machu Picchu -> Amazon -> Galapagos Islands route. Hopefully, this'll yield some good itineraries.



January 22th, 2005 - 10:39AM

Yesterday after work, I went to Scott's Farewell Drink-Party. He'll be working for us still but from Chicago. Here's Darcy, Richard, and "Waltie".

Hahaha, Darcy clowns around

Smallest Screwdriver I've ever had

Eric had invited me to the SF Sketchfest so we saw Demetri Martin and Olde English. Here's Olde English's "Swastikats" sketch. Maybe it was funnier in person. But it was funny...seriously.

Olde English did have a few dud sketches but overall, I'd say they had some pretty good stuff. Liked the "Oranges", "Dead Kid's Grades", "Swastikats", and "Lightbulb Rap Video".

I took this picture of Demetri Martin without flash (as directed) but my camera uses this low-level red light which meters the subject. Demetri saw the red light and instantly used it as material. The guy is VERY good at that. First he was like "Whoa...those are one of those high tech digital cameras with those red lights...for a split second there, I thought it was a sniper gun..." I wonder what he would have said if I brought the "Predator" along (for people who haven't been keeping up, my Sony 707 shoots out actual lasers in a funky Predator pattern), instead of "Predator Jr." Demetri then went on and said,"The next time though seriously, let me know ahead of time, so I can pose". He then struck out these really funny rockstar-ish poses. Demetri had a lot of good material esp his intro video about less famous imaginary animals.

Afterwards, everyone piled into my car and we headed over to King of Thai Noodle. Had Roast Duck over Rice. Sweet.

Always obliging for the camera...Eric eats his Pad Thai

Beef Noodle Soup...Yellow Curry...Pad See Yue...all good stuff.



January 21th, 2005 - 5:05PM

My parents got back from their cruise to Hawaii...apparently my dad didn't get to walk on the volcanoes so he wants to go back. Hehehe

Had lunch with Nanny at Chaat near Moscone a few days ago. Tried the fish thing which was a bit too salty. The lamb curry was very excellent though. We were going to go to Max's but Max's is now closed. Look she has a new cellphone!

I made Mandarin fish which Leah's dad got me hooked on. It's got this really good texture and everything. It's not as good as Chilean Sea Bass but still it's pretty good. Unfortunately, it's not a cheap fish. But you really get what you pay for. The sauce below the fish was EXCELLENT.

I also made my version of Lih-Chern's Oxtail Soup/Stew. It has mushrooms and more meat but unfortunately less carrots/potatoes because there just wasn't any space. Hehehehe

I got a collection of Stan Getz songs from iTunes...I have a few here and there but I wanted more of his music. It's some really great stuff.

I'm so glad I'm not playing World of Warcraft or else I'd be cursing Blizzard and their wait times and server situation.

I got my W-2 forms yesterday and filed my IRS stuff that night. Hehehe...do it through the IRS website so that you can file your federal for free. If you use Turbo Tax, the state return is only $10. This year I could use the 1040EZ cause I didn't have any extraneous crap to declare.

Since I'll be in Miami in April, I checked up FoodNetwork to see what they had to recommend. I love doing this for new cities (unfortunately, they didn't have one for Fairbanks so I had to do my own thing up there) and usually they're really good recommendations. Here are the two pages that will help my out in planning my visit...Page 1 and Page 2. Apparently I need to try cuban sandwiches...ceviches...and stone crabs. Also I have to see if we can go to this restaurant called B.E.D. where you sit on beds instead of chairs. Hehehe, I saw this on TV once (either FoodNetwork or Travel Channel).

So I haven't had Chilean sea bass in a really long time but I feel bad about eating them because supposedly, they're not fished using sustainable methods. The Monterey Aquarium however says that cod and Alaskan halibut are the closest to Chilean sea bass in terms of taste and texture so I'm going to have to try those fish out. Read more about fishes and sustainable methods here. You can even download and print out a little card to keep in your wallet to help you decide at restaurants/markets.

Went to the Academy of Science's "Third Thursday" event yesterday with Margaret and her coworkers.

They have this whole exhibit on Ants which is really neat. I really liked watching the Leafcutter Ants because they're so industrious.

Here's a Fireant Nest that someone filled up with metal.

Honeypot Ants...my book on eating insects says these are pretty good.

They have a mini aquarium there. These are axolotl (aquatic larval stage of salamanders) with their external gills.

Huge snapping turtles

Giant Sea Bass with Moray Eel...the guy in the background is wearing a tie...use him for size comparison.

Nautiluses are cool...these were right next to the indiglo fish

Piranhas...they didn't move around much. Just kind of hovered there.

Margaret getting close to a alligator...remember, the difference between an alligator and a croc is that the alligator has a wider nose than than the crocodile.

Anyways, afterwards Margaret and I went to Osha Thai Noodle Cafe (on Geary and Leavenworth). Totally pigged out on Chicken See Yoo, Seafood Coconut Milk Soup, and Duck Curry. Actually we didn't finish half of it but I was so hungry I didn't take a picture!!! Hehehehe.....OH NO!!!!! I guess I could take a picture of the leftovers hahahha jk.

Margaret also mentioned a Korean show (dubbed in Chinese) that she's been watching. It's called "Jewel in the Palace"...since it's on everyday along with another drama called "Paradise"...I guess it can be my default thing to do at night. Sounds pretty interesting and I can work on my Chinese. Hehehe...



January 19th, 2005 - 11:27PM

I'm totally loving this crisp and clear weather we're having. It's not warm enough to go eat outdoors but just having it not rain is pretty nice. Chee tells me that it's incredibly hot in LA right now. Such a different climate than here...

Della was in my car while I was playing Frou Frou and she asked me what kind of music it was. I said "Alternative?" and that it was whatever genre Dido is in. Della likes Dido so by relation she also liked Frou Frou. Later when I was on iTunes, I looked up what genre they had them under and it said "Rock". Imagine that. When I think Rock, I think Lenny Kravitz or someone like that. Not Dido and Frou Frou. For me, the difference between Rock and Alternative Rock is about as thin as the difference between Bossa Nova and Samba.

So in England, pub owners apparently are spraying WD-40 on their toilet seats in order to discourage people from sniffing lines on them. People sniff lines off of toilet seats?!!! There's something really wrong about doing anything like that in some bar's dirty toilet seat. In any case, the WD-40 reacts with the cocaine to become this putty-like mixture which is quite nasty and unsniffable. Supposedly, it's worked very well to keep people from using the bathrooms as drug dens.

For many many years, I never experienced watery eyes from cutting onions. I'd see people cry and I could never understand why it happened to them but not to me. It's actually because of my contact lenses. They acted as some kind of barrier against the acids in the air apparently. Now that I no longer need contacts, I've had to experience this onion cutting/crying phenomenon and it's no picnic. Especially since I love to use onions in my cooking.

Yahoo released a new feature recently where they overlay their map with traffic information. It's so cool. Here's a SF real-time look.

So glad I don't live in LA...

Google also recently announced that it had bought Picasa and was releasing it for free. If you take as many pictures as I do, then Picasa 2 is a godsend. Check it out...it may change the way you organize/view digital pictures.

Thought people might enjoy a picture of Mr. Paul Hindemith...this guy's music disturbs me in my sleep. If I showed this picture to a baby, I bet it would cry.

Thinking back on how my cousins reacted to the stuff that I got them...Donkey Konga for Eric and Legos for Ray...I have a sense that my cousin Eric is incredibly spoiled. At least he hasn't been given lessons on being strict Chinese. Instead of being grateful for getting anything at all, the guy just looked at it like he had no idea what to do with it. Truth be told, I guess it was very possible that he didn't like it...although the kids I saw at Fry's loved it which got me into it...but still, common courtesy demands that he say Thanks and at least pretend he liked it. If it were me like 15 years ago, I would have gone nuts. What a spoiled kid....next year I'm getting him a pet rock. hehehe



January 19th, 2005 - 6:00PM

On the bus today, there was a couple who both had ipods firmly attached to their ears. Both didn't say a word but listened to their own ipods. For some reason, that seemed really weird to me...was listening to their own blend of music more important that talking about the day ahead? Could Bob Marley or Eminem replace valuable conversation time? But maybe they work together or something and needed the time to themselves. Perhaps their musical tastes are widely divergent...

Yesterday, I bought my first music online. Used iTunes to download some classical music that you just can't find online. Very cleverly marketed...I wanted the entire Hindemith - Mathis der Maler Symphony but iTunes only sold Mvmt 2 for 99 cents. In order to get the other 2 movements, you needed to buy the whole album. Still, I needed the music (we're playing this for our February concert) so I plunked down the cash (or in this case, clicked the button). Very pleasurable experience although I'm already figuring out ways to get rid of the DRM features of the audio files so I can put it as an MP3 for the car. Since I got the album, I got some more music by this disturbed German which turned out to be not too bad. The Maler though is incredibly complex and very hard to follow. At Monday's practice, I totally welcomed playing the Mozart/Grieg pieces...

Eric came by to visit Sunday night. Didn't do too much although we did play a little Halo Live and then some co-op.

In the Examiner today, there is a front page article in the Food section about the Taiwan restaurant on Clement. It goes on and on about how good the dumplings are and everything. I don't know...the last time I went to the Taiwan Restaurant in Berkeley, their Shiao Long Bao wasn't that great. At least the reviewer didn't order Sweet and Sour Pork or Fried Rice or anything like that.

So in addition to San Antonio next month, I'm heading to Miami in April for AAN. Everytime I hear the word Miami, I think of the Will Smith song. South Beach...neon lights...I've never been to Miami or the Deep South for that matter so hopefully it isn't too much like Vice City. Hehehehe



January 19th, 2005 - 12:11AM

While I was looking at Yahoo Movies the other day, there was a sidebar ad for a movie called Appleseed. I obtained it and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the sci-fi anime genre (think Ghost in the Shell).

Saw "The Life Aquatic" and "Kung Fu Hustle". Both are pretty good movies. The CG in Kung Fu Hustle was much more obvious than in Shaolin Soccer but there was so much of it that it was understandable that they couldn't clean all of it up.

Instead of lemonade, I bought limeade recently. There's a marked difference between the two but I can't decide which one is better. I think lemonade could be but I really need to drink them side by side to be sure.

Got a new pot for hot pot while I was down in Milpitas at that kitchen supply place. Haven't gotten around to trying it out yet. I was thinking that we could do a 2 butane setup with Chu OR a hot pot / teppanyaki mix. Maybe I should have picked up the special grill that does both...hmmm



January 17th, 2005 - 6:26PM

Lih-Chern made this awesome Oxtail Stew with carrots and potatoes. Very very tasty.

99 cent breakfast at Ikea...the potatoes were not to my liking though. Still for 99 cents you can't expect too much.

On Sunday, I went to Dim Sum at Legendary Palace with Lih-Han, Della, and Lih-Chern. Got a lot of good grub. This weekend has turned out to be a Dim Sum Weekend. So much good Dim Sum. I wonder if Emily has ever been to Legendary Palace. I think it stacks up pretty well against the Milpitas Dim Sum place on Saturday. After Dim Sum, Della and Lih-Chern bought bread at this place (Napolean something) where there was a really long line.

Later that day, me and LC went to shoot hoops. Went to the school court on Ashby. Had to squeeze in through the chain-link fence...felt pretty ghetto. :-P I bought an Infusion ball but apparently I still need to pump it up. Weird. We played a 2 on 2 game against these kids but it wasn't much of a fight.



January 15th, 2005 - 10:37PM

Saw this and thought of Nanny and Della, hehehehe, I think they'd go nuts over this...

This week, Macworld was at Moscone Center. I ended up going to the Exhibit Hall twice. At first I was very excited about the mini, but after taking a real close look at it, I'm kind of disappointed. The $500 is a real low-end Apple when I was hoping it'd be a mid-range model. I'd almost rather get the FragBox still.

The Shuffle does look promising but I just know that in 4 months, they're going to have upgraded versions of it.

Entrance to Macworld Exhibit Hall

The Shuffle...here you can see Lih-Chern trying to steal it. :-P

The Mac mini

40GB harddrive. Plays video and shows slideshows...plus has flash memory slots...for me, this is really cool.

Someone had a little too much time with balloons

Today I went to a BTAA event in Milpitas. There were only 4 people there (incl me) but it turned out fine because we had Dim Sum and 4 people is MUCH MUCH better than 5. It was a lot of fun meeting other Berkeley alumni. 3 of us were EECS and 1 was Haas I believe. Actually, the other 3 people were all working at Xilinx (EECS150 anyone?) so that was pretty interesting. Afterwards, Clarence (co-op intern at Xilinx) took off and the rest of us went to this theatre in Milpitas where the ticket was $3.50!!! And they have double-features. It's the Cinema Saver. We watched Alexander because Emily really wanted to and honestly, I didn't see anything else better. It turned out to be better than I expected (I had low low expectations) so that went well.



January 13th, 2005 - 5:15PM

For some reason, I feel like I haven't talked about how I FELT about the whole trip in my last post. As I re-read my words, it seems like there's a whole lot missing that I just couldn't describe or get out. Stuff that I still can't all the way. I can't express how good it felt knowing for some strange cosmic reason that everything was going to be alright even when the elements swirled around us. Even when there were warning signs all around...there was something about that trip that made it different from all the other trips I've taken. Sure there were mishaps (none major and all recoverable) but when I look back upon it (EVEN WITH THE battle with my stomatch when I got back), I'd love to do it over and over and over again ad infinium. Well, maybe we'll leave the stomach part out.

Just out of curiosity, I started to look for fencing clubs in the Bay Area again. I had tried to start up in college but for some reason, my parents feared that I would stop studying altogether to fence. Hahahaha. Anyways, it came up actually during the Xmas party down south, and I started thinking that it'd be nice to start poking people again. AND hitting people's fingers/gloves. There's a place in SF that I might go to although there's another in Oakland and of course, the UC Berkeley one does allow alumni to join in.



January 13th, 2005 - 1:21AM

This weekend was really great except for when I actually got home from Tahoe. I'll explain it all as I go along.

On Friday, I had a meeting in the morning so I couldn't leave as early as Margaret and I had planned. However, after the meeting, I went and picked up Margaret and then went to Wilderness Exchange (Margaret had never been before) to get tire chains. We got these Swiss style chains where the tightening mechanism is another chain. Spent some time learning how to put them on although we actually wouldn't totally get the hang of it until later in the trip. Went to In-N-Out in Pinole and then headed onwards to Reno. Along the way, we had to put on the chains and had to deal with whirling snow (which looked like ghosts which seemed to kinda freak Margaret out cause she's not into scary movies at all). Felt so lucky and grateful that she'd help put on the chains...Margaret is very great like that. We made it to Reno ahead of the I-80 closure which unfortunately the others behind us did not. They were only 1-2 hrs behind us too. They spent the night in Dutch Mill at a gas station either sleeping in the car or actually in the gas station. Man, I felt sorry for those guys/gals. Those CHP people can be so cruel...I think Jerry told me that they were like the 4th car when they stopped letting people pass so it was like a difference of 10 minutes. Sucks. Reminds me of the time, me/Chris/Adam spent the night in the Harrah casino parking lot cause we were too cheap to pay for a room. That was cold and it wasn't even snowing. Anyways, once me and Margaret unloaded our stuff at the Peppermill, we went to El Dorado for some buffet.

Hmmmm....good stuff. Prime Rib/Crab/Oysters. Their crab cakes were bad but not as bad as Harrah's...bleh Crab was pretty good and the prime rib was juicy. Their Boston Chowder was good too.

Margaret's Crab Salad...at first I didn't realize what she was doing while I was eating but then I noticed that her salad suddenly had lots of crab on top of it!!! My sister should remember how I used to do this kind of thing? Cathy, you still do stuff like this right? It was so cool seeing someone who understood what was going on in our minds when we do this kind of thing.

I didn't realize that a few of the big casinos are connected on the underground level. Went around to try and walk it all off. Lost a few dollars on Margaret's favorite slots, the "Wheel of Fortune" slots. If we get a Wheel of Fortune touching the middle, you get to spin the wheel on top to see how many quarters you get. I never got it though Margaret did only after a couple quarters. Good thing none of us we're not big gamblers or else we might have lost more than we did.

Here's the view from the hotel room early on in the storm. This was the "Storm of the Century" that everyone was warning me about at work. Everyone had heard that exact same term from somewhere. If anything, it was the first time I had seen snow in Tahoe or seen that much snow in the Tahoe region.

Later on in the storm. It got stronger and more intense.

The next day the car was covered with snow...my car has never been like this. Even the car I drove in Alaska never got this covered. :-D

So much snow at Northstar...it was really great up there. The other people in the group made it to Reno early on Saturday but they ended up just crashing in Reno.

After a couple hours with my old goggles, they just kept on fogging up so I got new ones. These worked like a charm. I had tried going down this blue square run called "Crazy Moguls" without them and I kept plowing right into the moguls and falling waist deep into snow. The next day when I went down it, it was MUCH BETTER being able to see the freakin things.

Hope Margaret uses her blog to put pictures up sometime.

Harrah's Buffet...I think I got my food poisoning there...go to El Dorado...much better.

Reno City Lights

As you can see from these pics, the 2nd day was much brighter. Although the first day involved a lot of re-learning, I really took it on myself to start relying on toe-side turns instead of doing my useful heel-side falling-leaf moves. After a couple times up and down, I really started to have the confidence to try linking the toe-side and heel-side turns together. Though my toe-side is still weaker, it'll totally help my legs from being so sore so soon. Hehehe...before, it was like I was leaning backwards the entire time which was killer on the muscles on top of my feet. With a constant rocking motion, it became quite enjoyable. Sure I still fall still but I actually went a lot faster than ever before so that's ok. At least I feel like I'm getting somewhere. :-D I'll need to get up more often to keep practicing.

Cool Spike-Spider chains that I saw. They are actually Swiss Chains which come on and off easily. Look very cool.

Ok so that's it for the weekend. On the way there and back, Margaret and I sang songs I didn't know she knew and probably annoyed the heck out of the people in the back on the way back but it was fun all the way. Even got to listen to some of those great radio stations that they have in Sacramento/Davis...even ate at Murder Burger/Redrum Burger. Almost everyone had a ostrich burger. Anyways, it seems that everyone came back safe and sound which is good because Richard Ozer's brother went up last last weekend and actually got clipped by a snowboarder, broke his leg, and had a titanium rod inserted in his leg. Apparently the surgeon who operated on him does 600 of these operations a year and while he was working on RO's brother, there were 3 other patients waiting outside. Very crazy.

So after I got back home and went to sleep, my stomach started feeling bad and I ended up throwing up. The rest of the night wasn't great for me and I ended up taking the next day off and working from home. It was hard being sore and sick at the same time. Still got a lot done...and I finished the new E3 Housing site last week. I ate only a couple quiches Monday night and spent most of the Monday either working/sleeping/drinking water or Sprite (LC's recommendation) or Gatorade (Margaret's recommendation). Richard's wife drinks Coke. Hehehe...I'm all better now though so tomorrow I should have an update of this week's events (besides Monday...my sickday).



January 11th, 2005 - 5:21PM

So sorry about the lack of updates but I had a wonderful weekend even though I became sick Sunday night and puked. I had felt bad beforehand so I was smart and had a bowl near my bed. Hehehe Things are looking better now so I should have updates up either tonight or sometime tomorrow.



January 7th, 2005 - 6:21AM

Going to head up to Tahoe/Reno with Margaret and others after this morning's meeting!!! Very excited.

Yesterday, I was able to finish the install of my new car stereo! Finally I can play MP3s...while I was doing my laundry last night, I hung out in the car just listening to music. It was great! I'll try to get some of the pics of the install up later. The hardest part was getting the right harness. I had almost given up on that too until last night. What happened was that my car has a different stereo system than many other Toyotas because it has an amp and tweeters. The factory harness is different from the harnesses that many places like Crutchfield/Best Buy say would fit my car (1 pc harness instead of the 2 pc harness that's typical of Toyotas). Just when I was going to cut the factory harness off and splice the wires together, I decided that the best idea would be to see what the Best Buy audio-installer guy had to say (esp after I talked to Eric and he told me that he didn't have to do any splicing at all). The previous guy I had talked to had just told me to buy the 2-pc harness. Turns out that in the shop they have a ton more harnesses than in the store! I don't know why they don't sell them. It's weird. So I was able to buy the correct harness, get some tips, and then connect the whole darn thing together. Got the wiring right the first time too (Left-Right...Front-Back not mixed up!!!) It was such a great feeling seeing it come up like that. Also, since this deck doesn't have a tape player, my tape player adapter doesn't work anymore. However, it has a RCA input in the back which I have an audio cable adapter for to hook up anything with a audio out. I hooked up my laptop last night and it worked just fine. :-D

Spliced wires...I don't know how Eric managed not to splice any wires with his installation. I guess his harness didn't come with wires?

Everything's connected and ready to go.

Done! Now I just need to get a pocket to put under the deck and drill a hole for the audio cable to pass through.

At orchestra practice this monday, we were at the Greek Orthodox Church. This place has some very interesting acoustic abilities. If you sit at certain locations, it seems like the walls/ceilings are talking to you.

In honor of Adam's return, I prepared a hot pot party. Got all the stuff from Pusan/Koreana.

Made these homemade pork balls using Eric's dad recipe. I probably changed it a little bit since I didn't know how much of everything there should have been.

Yummy hot pot...

LC brought out the "Pyro Diablo" sauce she got for Christmas. That stuff is dangerous. Couple drops is all you need. Here's LC wiping her hands off. She said that she got it in her eyes when she put on contacts in LA. Stung apparently. I put a couple drops in my noodles which became pretty darn hot. The killer came when Adam, LC, and I put a drop on our finger and licked it off. I was drinking milk and eating bread like crazy to try to get rid of the spicyness. Luckily it abated after 30-40 min. I'll see if I get the video/pics of me hyperventilating online...they're actually pretty embarassing.

When playing video games, Lori likes moving her controller around. Hehehe

Afterwards, Chris and Lori went home while Adam showed me and LC some Brazilian Jiu-jitsu moves. It's a very interesting sport but I don't think I could get used to guys trying to straddle/mount me. That's actually what the call some of the moves. weiiiiiiiiiiiiird.



January 5th, 2005 - 3:20PM

I actually wrote this post a few days ago but never got around to posting it since I hadn't created the video yet...that's right...another video. Couldn't help it. Kit's impression of Lil Jon was priceless.

The LA group played Twister at Can't Fail. They used the different color squares of an old Perry Mason Game (inlaid into the table of course) for Twister circles.

I tried the Rainbow Trout with Fried Green Tomatoes while Lih-Chern had the Corned Beef Hash. Both were pretty good even mine took forever to arrive. I want to learn how to split the fish this way. That would be pretty impressive.

Moose Monkey and Jonathan are pretty close buddies

Moose Monkey likes Chocolate and Bananas

Shabuway on Saturday night. The guy was posing (I guess...I didn't ask him to) but I cared not for his mug. That machine WILL BE MINE someday. I think its thousands of dollars though.

Excellent marblization

Getting down to business

Even better marblization...I have a feeling that this will be one of the pictures on our wall.

Sheng, Kit, Henry had to sit elsewhere since we arrived at different times. I live having your own personal pot though. Me, LC, Dan, and Lisa had to share 1 pot.

Slapjack with Tequila Shots as a penalty. I didn't partake in the shots but I had a lot of fun watching...hehehehe

Kit and Limes...maybe someday a video of his performance will be online...for now though, in order to protect my younger readers, it'll have to be laid aside. Here however is a video of the Slapjack action and Kit's impression of Lil Jon (ALA Chapelle Show). He does a wicked one. There is some light swearing so young people/Quakers/et al...turn the speakers down.

We went to Saul's the next morning (Sheng didn't due to a hangover) for breakfast/brunch. Good stuff...I didn't see the liver and onion plate I had last time though. Wonder if they changed menus.

Eric was moving into his new apartment and got directions from me for all these places in El Cerrito (Bed Bath/Target/Costco...I messed up on the Target one...it's off a different street than Gilman) Here he is taking out some of the broth I made for hot pot. Apparently, it was too much broth.

Mmmm...vegetables. I've been trying to increase my vegetable intake more recently.

MMM...the Udon noodles were awesome as well as the soup.

OCF raised the webspace to 120MB!!! Sweet! As hard drive space grows I'm sure I'll be getting more in the future.



January 1st, 2005 - 6:02PM

Here's a pic I took when I was on Market heading west. I love how tree branches cut up the sky in all sorts of interesting shapes.

Since Lih-Chern was out shopping in the Union Square area, we went to the King of Thai Noodle House (not the one on Clement, the new one right next to Union Square).

I had the Combination Beef Noodle Soup. Good stuff all in all, the soup was awesome but the noodles could have been better. Oh yeah, the term they use for Hu Fun/Ho Fun is "fat noodle". I usually say thick.

On the way back, I decided to take a shortcut through the Palace Hotel. It's right across the street from work but I had never been inside. This is a crazy atrium dining area. I'm going to have to come here and try it out.

My Senseo thanks to my awesome Uncle Peter. Thanks Peter!!!

Senseo dispensing some hot mild roast coffee.

Here's my Simpsons DVD Collection as it stands.

In-N-Out burger goodness. Haven't had it in a long time. Me and LC are looking for good art to put on our walls and I think we're going to use photographs of our favorite foods. :-)

New table setup with the 2 benches now. Totally ready for a party (comfortably seats at least 6).

We went shopping at Stoneridge Mall before Dan and the others came up. Lego has a store at Stoneridge! You pay by the bucket (which you fill up with whatever you want). Got a TON of shopping done, going to all these stores. I love how my shopping experiences lately have all been really positive. I used to dread the word shopping but now it's like I can enjoy it again! :-P hehehe I don't think I'll ever get over the word "return" though. Hahahahaha. We went to Fresh Choice for lunch (LC overruled McDonalds).

We saw Lyrics Born at PNY 05 which is what we did this year for New Year's. I thought he totally rocked although there were some times where he had some long pauses in between sets.

First pic of 2005!!!

Quite a lot of hooches/skanks at the party actually.

Freestyling sideshows in the hallways, this was where the action was at.

Asian DJ at PNY05...mix on brother! Hahahaha...his videos had Hero and stuff in the background.

Here's a special event...a video!!! I hardly put up videos on this site since I have to host it on the ocf server which takes up space. The excitement of New Year's just wasn't captured by still images so here it is in video format. Just press the play button to start...



January 1st, 2005 - 2:55AM

Happy New Year!!! I'll try to get pics and descriptions up sometime before the weekend is out. Peace ya'll!!!