July 29, 2005 - 7:33AM - House of Nanking / Ghirardelli / Sushi House / Pyramid Brewery

Balazs and Lauren came up to SF. Went to "House of Nanking" for dinner. Ehhhh...the place was packed...tons of people waiting outside...service was horrible...but above all else. There were VERY few asians. Although they did have authentic asians working in kitchen. However, I suspect that they did not grow up in Nanking but maybe some Brooklyn alley. If they charged what they charged in Nanking, they might be dragged out and given a "stern talking" too. Maybe it should be called "Taste of Nanking" since that's all you really get in each dish....a taste. Ended up paying $17 (split bill) for food that I could have gotten for much cheaper. Oh well.

Balazs made up for it by taking us all out for ice cream at Ghirardelli's. We had the Earthquake!!! I think it's like what 8 scoops?

Likeminded people!!! Sweet!

The group at Ghirardelli...one of Balazs' friend looks a lot like John Kerry. Guess which one.

Had a meeting at SBC's Executive Briefing Center (EBC) in SF. Had a demo of the Cisco VoIP Phones. I particular like their high-end model...it can use an XML feed so I was able to pull up airline info, stocks, weather all on the phone.

The Tandberg Video Conferencing Station...neat stuff...we used it for conferencing with the EBC in Sacramento.

Happy 25th Lih-Chern!!! I got her the Dave Chapelle Season 1 and 2 DVDs. She's really into Dave. You could say that LC could be a Dave groupie! heheheh anyways, a few of us went to Sushi House. That would be Lih-Han, Nick, Nick's wife (I'll have to ask how to spell it next time), and Harry. As usual, Sushi House did not fail to impress. Long wait but worth it.

Sushi Cruise Ship...first time getting this size. Totally worth it if you have a good sized group though.

You gotta love it...you gotta love it...($0.50 reference intended)

Afterwards, samplers at Pyramid Brewery...I like the Hefe Weizen! Thanks to Chee for introducing me to that particular brew. It's got this lemony tanginess that just isn't in regular beers. Nice and cold, these samplers were.

Harry and Ben...being as Harry was the youngest person there, he was a pretty good sport about stuff.

LC takes a swig...at this point, I was probably concentrating on perfecting my coaster flip catch moves. By the end I was flipping 5 coasters. I'll have to try with the stack that LC brought back to see how many I can flip over and catch. Afterwards, there was Halo action back at the apartment (I took on 3 of them by myself although granted, 2 of them had never played Halo before, and LC doesn't particularly like multiplayer...hehehe).

On Tuesday, I went down to Santa Clara since it was Emily's last day of summer school. FINALLY!!! hehe I ended up getting Yoshinoya for dinner (haven't had it in like forever ever since they closed down the SF branch). After her final, we went to Dave and Busters. Had some virgin daquiris (extremely cheap and good there) and played the Jurassic Park game. You know, the one where you're in the car and you shoot down all sorts of vicious attack raptors. We beat it with only like 4-5 extra swipes. hehehe So much for helping her relax lol.

Ok this story just blew me away. A blind kid playing video games?!!! Nah.....but it actually seems to be legit. I dunno about him beating people all the time though...maybe people haven't heard of sidestepping. Plus, look at the screen...he just barely lived in that match. I bet he's just another button masher (a button masher pushes all the buttons no matter the situation) who got to know the combos, and now throws out combos one after the other. I understand audio cues but I don't think that this kid could do much with Soul Calibur arenas where you can actually fall off the edge. There's no way he could know where the edge is...



July 27, 2005 - 1:33AM - Vaio / Saigon / Gold Mountain / ipod

Emily brought over a Vaio for me to fix...actually nothing was wrong with the laptop itself. I couldn't resist and had to take a picture to compare the two. That thing was HEAVY...omg but the screen was so large too.

Had dinner with Eric and Allen at Saigon on Friday. Had the Hainan Chicken again although Allen said that it wasn't what he expected. Afterwards, we all went to Fentons...got the awesome Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream. Sooooo good. Played Winning 11 and then watched Eric try to beat the God Challenges in "God of War". I had just dozed off when he actually beat it (there are 10 levels of increasing difficulty). That was like 2-3 in the morning and I watched him play from the beginning with one of the earned suits...namely the cool cow suit.

Emily came up on Saturday and after studying, we went to the Emeryville Public Market. Went to my fav Pakistani place. Had Lamb Curry, great spinach, and then a combo from Sorabol.

On Sunday, I had Dim Sum with Eric and Allen at a place that Eric and his parents had found a few weeks ago. It's called "Gold Mountain".

Yummy Dim Sum

Eric enjoys his sesame thing. I like the meat version better than the red bean paste one. Just a personal aversion to beans.

Afterwards, we went to Burlington Coat Factory...didn't get anything but saw a lot of cool stuff.

When we got back to my apartment, I saw kite boarders outside. No telezoom lens here but still it was neat to see them. They were at it again today too...

Mickey and Monkey like my ipod too.

Oh yeah, a few days ago Roger at work had the same BR shirt that I got not too long ago (the blue dotted one)...except his was burgundy dots.



July 24, 2005 - 5:16PM - Cisco / Jay / Mickey / King of Thai / Playlist

Bunch of Cisco Routers/Hub that I have lying around the office. For some reason, they're pretty cool. Too bad I only have T-1 interface cards...

Jay cuts some cake...

Cool appetizer dish at Chevy's...we had a going away party there for Jay. I had 2 Margaritas which were very tasty but I think since it's been awhile since my last drink, it effected me much more than it should have. Everyone was commenting on how red Aileen and I looked. Darn Asian Blush.

What a joker...we're going to miss Jay around in the office.

Who's that pretty girl walking this way?

Hehehe...I got Emily a Mickey Mouse but it turned out not to be the one that I had ordered.

At Jujubi Cafe, we saw a guy who had propped up his laptop with a few chopsticks. Probably to increase air flow but it sure was funny to see.

Green Curry Udon...it was pretty good actually.

On Friday's, I've been going out to lunch with coworkers. This Friday, it was Thai Food at King of Thai.

Free Thai Ice Tea (because I was waiting a long time for my food). We sat upstairs where they had a lot of air conditioning plus Premier League soccer.

Friday International Food outings are cool. I think this coming week will be Japanese or Chinese.

Duck Fried Rice (Meg got this one). I like it a lot.

Pineapple Fried Rice. This is what I got. I don't really like raisins in my food but other than that, I've always liked a little pineapple in my fried rice.

My ipod has over 8000 songs on it and it's too crazy to manage the ID3 tags. I do my best though...still sometimes I'll hear a great song on mine via the shuffle mode but later I can't find it because I don't know the correct tags. So what am I listening to these days?...

Those are the main ones...a bunch of other songs in that playlist that I skip around listening too...



July 20, 2005 - 1:33AM - Random / How to make Japanese Curry

I've actually gotten my hair cut twice by Emily now. Hairs growing longer so hopefully next time I go down to OC, my hair won't be a topic of discussion.

I went to Pac N Save in Emeryville over the weekend and what I saw there was horrifying. It's no wonder Lih-Chern almost never goes there anymore. It's huge and clean but you're really get a sense of being in the ghetto. Women with decaying bags of flesh under their arms (shudder)...shifty man trying to see how much money an old woman has...food stamps (almost unheard/unseen in OC)...the ellusive triple roll stomachs. All were in attendance. The only people I missed seeing were the guys selling dvds out front. Man, everytime I go, I think I need to etch a notch on my car, like a badge of courage or something. I didn't even know that there was a magazine specifically devoted to the hair of African Americans...

Went to the Apple store and got me some "protection" for my ipod. Got the Sumajin Smartwrap for Emily and I. Also got an XtremeMac silicon case. Made my own screen protector using a PDA screen protector film from CompUSA. I lost my ipod earbuds (again!) so I got the iPod remote which comes with a set of earbuds. If I lose these...gawd.

Went to Pho Tam, this Vietnamese place in Milpitas, on Monday. This happens to be one of Emily's favorite restaurants. We always get like the number 22 or 24...one of the noodle soups. Good stuff.

Went to Lyon's with Emily on Saturday when she came up...the Chicken Picatta is alright. I had the Pot Roast and that was a little dry but that's kinda expected from restaurant pot roast. They've redone a large portion of the menu.

Got a mystical new BR shirt...Emily picked it out and I must say...it has mystical powers.

How to make Japanese curry

Put the potatoes and carrots in hot water. You want to do this because they take the longest to get soft.

Cut up all your veggies/meat...here I have chicken, onions, and mushrooms.

Throw them into pot

Side by side

Done...

Put the potatoes/carrots in and then cover with enough water...more than that and it becomes soup.

Cut up the golden curry cubes so that they better dissolve...what I've taken to doing is dissolving the cubes in another pot...after which I then put the concentrated curry in the pot. You can put the heat down to medium or simmer.

Once it thickens...it's time for curry!!! Make sure you turn the heat down.

Yummy golden curry!!!

July 12, 2005 - 1:38AM - 60GB Photo Ipod / SEMICON Pre-Con / Sheets / Small Bird

Hello Kitty screen that was temporarily loaded onto my 60GB ipod photo. This was what engadget had on their website. Didn't have the exact picture available but I googled it and found it.

Here's how to do it...

I'm thinking about changing more of the images when I have time...it's kinda cool to customize it all...too bad my favorite color is blue or else I'd mod all the scrollbars to green or red or something.

Current Badtz Maru

Moose Monkey gives a speech

Semicon Pre-Con Reception

Jay's thoughtful look

Reception afterwards

Jay's interested in the carpet

Jujubi Combo...hmmm no good...Emily had the Udon and it was merely so so. Need to remember to do the "1 Old/1 New" entree ordering technique.

Emily got me new bed stuff...sooooo comfortable! High thread count and it matches my Ikea Poang! Thanks hon!

Little bird outside on parking lot

Soooo cute



July 5, 2005 - 7:32PM - Big Basin / Super Buffet

Went hiking with Emily, her family, and another family at Big Basin on Saturday.

Tall Trees

Field of clovers

A bright yellow Banana Slug!

Here I am about to eat the banana slug

Paparazzi Shot

Little Banana Slug

Caught some aliens trying to sneak away...

Tiger Claw...I really like this picture

I had made this on Friday...

...which was eaten on Friday and at Big Basin. I kinda put more water then I usually do so it ended up being more of a soup. A good tasting soup that is.

After Big Basin, we went to Super Buffet in San Jose. Look at these cute fake peaches! They're actually small buns stuffed with red bean paste.

It was a lot of fun going up to Big Basin and going hiking after so long without going to the mountains. I really hope there will be some camping in the near future.

Spent a lot of time this holiday weekend studying the LSAT. I think I'll be well-prepared enough to take it next month after which it's about time I started studying for the Patent Bar Exam. I've read up a lot on the best ways to study for it so practice tests are a go.

I've noticed a dearth of actual writing in my posts as of late. Last week was just too busy to get thoughts down but it seems that this week will be better although this whole BART strike will probably either make my commute a real pain or I'll be telecommuting till they figure the whole thing out. I'd MUCH RATHER telecommute. But tomorrow afternoon is the SEMI precon reception so I need to get all dressed up and go. *sigh*