Herr Houser

Shout-out to Dotted Route

2009-11-20T15:22:00.001-08:00

I recently created a personal travel blog website called Dotted Route. Take a look and let me know what you think. My goal has been to write an entry a day. For some reason it has been easiest for me to write about food. Anyways the address is www.dottedroute.com

Flashback 2005: Schloss Hohenzollern

2009-11-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

This was the day of the Lunar Festival while I was in Germany. My sister was visiting for a few weeks and my friends Jose, Jacek and his girlfriend Sylvia wanted to go visit some castles. I was very tentative about going since I had promised to make some small gathering in my kitchen to celebrate. I was going to make dumplings from the recipe Li Mei gave me. A friend I met who also worked at Bosch. But, they didn't have the five people needed for the ticket so I was persuaded to go.

Well, anyways this picture is either from Sindelfingen or Sigmaringen. I'm not sure. It was a fun day although I have no idea what kind of hand gesture we were doing.

A Conversation with my Dog

2009-11-02T15:29:00.000-08:00

Four o'clock and I am getting burned out from trying to get something accomplished. A whole day and nothing has happened. I take a swig of water from my water bottle. Hm... it's almost empty. I head over to the fridge and refill my Smartwater bottle. The imprinted text on the bottle is starting to chip away. How long has it been since I had this bottle? It doesn't matter. The world feels numb.

Out of my boredom, I walk over to the door to the backyard and see my dogs laying down napping in the sun. The golden retriever is on its side on the concrete while the pug has his head on front paws in the dog house. I open the door and they lift their heads up at the same time.

PUG: Oh! Oh! Person! Pick me up! Pet me! Give me ATTENTION!!
GR: Oh! Person! Ball! Ball! Where is the ball?! He needs to throw the ball!

I put on my sandals and the dogs are wagging their tails as I step outside. The retriever sprints off to pick up what can only be his ball. The pug leaps up and claws at my jeans. He stretches on the pavement. The retriever returns with the ball and drops the ball at my feet.

PUG: Bouncy! I will claw at it. I will bite it.
GR: RAWR! Stupid Tiny! Stay away from ball! RAWR!
PUG: No! My ball! RAWR! RAWR!
GR: RAWR!

My two dogs growl at each other and run around each other trying to get a good hold of the purple rubber ball covered in dirt and spit.

PUG: Fine! I will find an avocado and chew on it.
GR: Ball! Throw? Yes?

I pick up the ball and lob it to the far end of the yard. The sun is setting behind the hills in my house. Rays of light flicker in the dust my dogs kick up chasing the ball. Before heading back to me, the retriever stops and sniffs around for a good spot to relieve herself. She always does this at the beginning of any kind of exercise; either walking or playing catch.

GR: Ball. Ball. Oh wait. Poop! Need to poop.
PUG: Found an avocado! Now to bring it to person's feet and chew while he watches. Nom nom nom...

Trick throws and hitting angled boards are the best. The retriever will quickly turn and leap to catch the ball. I will do this and until she doesn't come back to me and instead finds a spot to rest.

GR: Ball. Pant. Ball. Pant. Tired. Lay down. Oooo.. Water.
PUG: Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom.

Facebook Games Perspective

2009-10-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

After having tried a bunch of facebook games for interviews that went less than stellar. But I think these are my perspectives on what makes a successful game on facebook.

Viral Hooks! The in-game gameplay elements that tie in with getting more people so that both players get rewards. Mafia wars does a really good job with getting multiple viral hooks in its game. Examples:

- Vault Collections: A whole collection gives you stat bonuses and other players gets to get rid of their excess items. And it's cyclical, people give and you give back.
- Help Bonus: When you help other players, you get a little bit of XP. And the bonus XP incentive applies for the player posting on their wall as well.

The best way to get new people (your friends) to play is definitely a wallpost. That's how I get hooked on Bejeweled. But that's just more from brand recognition. To make a good wallpost ad for your game it really has to appeal to the player's interest and the strong points of the game. That's one thing Farmville does really well. It appeals to the playful childlike nature of lost cows and ducks. It also showcases the eccentric nature of the game.

However, other types of games such as puzzle games suffer from this. Bejeweled only has its competitive nature. There is no progression of small achievable goals. It's all about skill in what you have. Puzzle games and quiz games have it tough in that there is no natural, organic viral hook besides its competitive nature. Quiz games could be more viral with UGC quizzes but that's really specific.

When these facebook games company make new games, I wish they'd look to cult classics that were really fun on console but weren't that commercially successful.

Harvest Moon - I think all the farm games pull some inspiration from 'Harvest Moon'. Although, I definitely think they could do a full on 'Harvest Moon' with house, dog, and town. Namco should do it I think.

Cooking Mama - There should be one where it focuses on cooking mini games and not leveling. Restaurant City and Cafe World pull some inspiration but it's not nearly enough. The minigames were the fun part and collecting all the recipes was fun too.

Pokemon - I really can't believe there is no pokemon type game yet. It could play like the text RPGs but you can have different pokemon do different mission chains. And it instead of a linear progression like chapters in Mafia Wars. It'll be more like a branching mission tree. And collecting pokemon will give different boosts and mastering will give boosts too.

Big Brain Academy - There are two games one with a game like this. One from Playfish and one from Wooga. The Playfish game is actually really similar to BBA. The other game too. How they make this super viral, I don't really know. That's probably why I did so bad in the interview. The suggestions I made weren't organic and I was racking my brain trying to put together any semblance of a usable viral hook.

Puzzle Fighter - This game would lend itself to a RPG/Puzzle mix. It could be a puzzle experience with leveling and stat progression. Kind of like Puzzle Quest for XBLA and PSN. Puzzle Fighter could be a good inspiration too.

Sims and Simcity - Although it would have to be stylistically similar because that's what made it successful IMO. It's realistic yet playfully cartoonish. The Farmville, Country Story, Restaurant City is too cartoonish. The semi-realism added to the appeal.

Out of all the facebook games company I like Playfish the best. Their games are original and there is some thought put to the gameplay. It definitely helps that their CEO is a gamer. Well, app notifications are annoying but I definitely get used to them after playing. But I do remove all the unnecessary posts. I don't need all my FB friends knowing that I'm playing Bejeweled Blitz at odd hours of the day.

Addendum to Back2School Night

2009-09-11T23:51:00.001-07:00

I forgot to add this to my original post, but here is some more bashing about that night. I don't know what planet these parents are from but I felt like I was the only one asking questions. Maybe they've heard them all before but it seems like I was asking legitimate questions about the success of my cousin in school. Maybe the evil and conniving side of me made me more talkative but I don't think I asked questions that were too broad. They were pretty specific to the class. For example, in science class forty percent of their grade is based on labs. So I asked if any of that was done at home and the teacher said no. It would be good to know that wouldn't it? So I know that the student needs to be prepared to do labs and that he knows what's expected. Especially since it's such a big part of their grade.

I attribute that to L-A-Z-Y parenting and the general decline of focus into education in the US. Le sigh.

A trip down middle school lane

2009-09-11T15:12:00.001-07:00

So living at home unemployed for a better part of a year has its responsibilities. My cousin is currently going to Orange Grove (ha!) and yesterday was back to school night. Her parents wanted me to go since they spoke almost no English and wanted someone there who could pick up any important information. I felt no apprehension about going since most of my teachers were fairly old when I was there and have probably already left. *Disclaimer: I have the utmost respect for what teachers do and if anything they are the ones 'indoctrinating' children with their philosophy.*

Ok. We start with homeroom. My cousin's homeroom teacher is pretty nice no weird kinks or whatever. It's an ESL class what can I expect. Next we go on to history. Again no weirdness or nothing. But I do find out they have some sort of state exam now for graduation. What the hell!? And it's cumulative from sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Okay so that rang up a warning to me since my cousin just arrived in the US. So talked to him for a bit about the test and how to help my cousin. Said he'll give her a handbook to study. Whatever.

*Side note: What the fuck is up with the student guides wearing cop uniforms? What a waste of money. Just make them wear a sign or make them hold posters or something. I thought that was embarrassing but not as embarrassing as the 'head' cop. We'll get to that soon.

Back to the night of classroom hopping. So this is where shit starts to get interesting. Her 'science' teacher is tightly wound up. It's all about the rules with her. Rules and rules and more rules. She said it's all about preparing them for high school. I was going to grill her after the presentation about her curriculum, if she's connecting with the high school science program, and if she's connecting with the engineering program. I wanted to bring down this blowhard. But buzz, the bell rang and it's on to the next teacher and I didn't care enough to go back.

Her 'english' teacher. Actually, quite nice, very peppy, and gives off a good energy. She looks like the portly girl from 'Hairspray' with about the same demeanor. But this is a blog entry about judgement so here we go. I asked her about what books they're reading this year and she just said whatever they bring in. I'm like "Huh? There is no assigned reading? Well aren't you lazy." A thought bubble didn't actually say that. Then I asked her to take a look at my cousin's personal novel and see if it's level appropriate (I gave her a collection of short stories from my college English class). And here comes the fake Cali smile. It's that smile you see when they are trying to be nice but really they just want you to get the fuck out. I've grilled her enough. I just told her I'll give my cousin a different novel.

Now for PE. Mac is gone but guess who's still there. Out and proud lesbian Ms. Fowler (I don't actually know this but with that lesbian bob.. come on.). She and the other PE teacher starts talking about etiquette and dress code. I noticed a third name on the slide, Mr. Duncan. From what I remembered, I heard a story about some inappropriateness in the locker room early in the morning. And then he wore those ridiculous short shorts during sports day or whatever event that was. But he wasn't there yet. So the two teacher keep going on about locks and lockers and in walks 60-year old roided up beyond Lou Ferrigno, Mr. Duncan. I gave a little gasp and had to stop myself from bursting into laughter. He was wearing the most heinous security guard outfit that was bursting at the seams. He walked up and gave out an invitation to a girl in the first row to fist bump. Clearly, uncomfortable the girl did it and the dad sitting next to her pulled her in closer to him. That's some funny shit.

We end with the 'math' teacher who is as tightly wound up as the science teacher. She isn't espousing preparing for high school BS but again with the rules. So, it seems that all eighth graders now take Algebra 1. Good for them.

So my cousin and I did share some similar classrooms. Her history teacher shares the same classroom Ms. Wallace had. That was homeroom and Algebra for me. I remember lots of card games with Kelly and Katy. Lots of games of Speed if I recall. Fun times. Her science room was my seventh grade science class. Didn't step in Wilda-beast's room but doubt she's still there. Her math room was the Spanish teacher's room.

In closing, her ELD, History, and English are fairly nice. Science, math, and, of course, PE a little too much anal retentive and not enough of the absinthe. Orange Grove looks the same but it's definitely different in how it's run with the exception of the slightly mentally retarded stragglers. Wait.. that includes me.. Fuck it. I own my unemployment.

Dotted Route: The Epic Journeys

2009-07-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

Seeing how my ideas are always stuck in my head, it seems prudent to start putting these down onto something physical. I am going to start compiling a list of epic journeys and great travel trails.

The Routes:

Mao's March
Asia
*Marco Polo and the Silk Road
*88 Temple Pilgrimage
*Trans-Siberian Railroad
*Annapurna Circuit
*Overland Southeast Asia
*Karakoram Highway
*Everest Base Camp Trek
*Taman Negara Salt Licks
N. America
*Lewis and Clark Expedition
*Appalachian Trail
*Pacific Coast Highway
*Route 66
*The Colorado Trail
Europe
*Ring of Kerry
*The Amber Road
*The Romantic Road
*Rhine River Valley
*Way of St. James
*The Orient Express
Africa
*Livingstone's Travels
*Mt. Kilimanjaro

This is a good place to start but I would like to reach out to the tens of you who read my blog. Let me know if there is a route that I completely glanced over. I think it'd be fun to research these routes famous and the not so famous.

2008: Katong District, Sluts, and the Culinary Journey

2009-07-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

As I savor the joy that is Hainan Chicken Rice at the famous Tian Tian booth in Singapore, I wonder what other foods could match or possibly surpass this. The chicken is stewed in its broth making it so tender that it melts in your mouth like butter. The thickened soy sauce adds its bit of sweetness and tartness to every bite of the white rice cooked in broth instead of water. Even on a hot day like today, I sit down and think 'This is some trip'. That is of course until I get back to my hostel, the Betelbox in Katong District.

The Betelbox is a neat little hostel with lots of bunk beds. I met some interesting characters here in this hostel. A girl from Hong Kong who is starting an accounting job here in Singapore. She has a rather distinct distate for Singapore elitism. I do too. I feel it on the streets and on the subways. Just the way people interact with you. It seems like they are too busy to bother with you. Not a very hospitable country when you dig a little deeper. I also met Matt who lives in the bunk room that I'm in. He's a down to earth Australian guy who is constantly wearing a hat. A little bit peculiar but endearing at the same time. He was showing me his new camera that he bought for his trip to Thailand. Cool guy overall who seems happy from his persistent smile.

I arrive at my subway stop after a long day in the hot Singapore sun. The sun has already set and the night walkers come out to play. Walking down the little street to my hostel, I see drunk businessmen surrounded by these girls in short-shorts and mini-skirts. Their big fake smiles reflect the ambient lights coming from the shops and restaurants lining the streets. I pass a bar where a couple girls are hanging out texting and chatting away on their phones. They seem non-chalant about my presence. I finally reach the tiny door leading to the hostel. I punch in the code and drag myself up the stairs to the top floor to wash away a day's worth of sweat and dirt. The shower was cold but just what I needed in this blistering humidity. I go down the stairs to the lobby and ask the receptionist a good place to eat around the hostel. She suggests that I go south to get Katong Laksa.

As tired as I am from sightseeing, I walk the 6 blocks down to get me some local speciality. I am always up for good food. My god. I had no idea what I was in for.

Katong Laksa is heaven in a bowl. The most insane flavor I had in a while. I still miss it today. It is like a sweet curry noodle soup with bits of spices in every bite. The noodles are soft and slippery. The blood clams and the shrimp add a bit of sea brininess. Heaven, heaven, heaven. I loved it so much I went to the next food stall and had another bowl.

The second food stall, number 51, is climate controlled. Late night school children have converged into the far corners in the brightly lit room. I sit down and devour my second bowl. Completely overflowing with flavorful food from my stomach to my throat, I sit there contemplating what extradorinary things can top this delight. So far nothing but I hope someday and soon.

Los Angeles Cupcake Challenge and Other Musings about Travel and Food

2009-07-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

This picture is of the box of cupcakes my sister brought back from the L.A. Cupcake Challenge. Man that was a good day. I think I ate more red velvet cake (in cupcake form) than any other time in my life. The raspberry red velvet cake was definitely my favorite. Not too sweet but oh so moist.

In other news, I think I'm motivated enough to really put one of my ideas to fruition. I'm going to make a fancy blog about how to eat food. It isn't going to be about how to cook or how to prepare. It's going to be all about my opinion on how to best savor food. Things like drying out the basil leaves before putting them in the pho or taking a small bite into a dragon dumpling and SLOWLY sucking out the sweet soup out of it. Hopefully, the site can get some traction and I can add my own colorful commentary to the food dialogue out there. Here's hoping. (Dotted Route is a little too ambitious for now I think, little steps).

On to another topic. I was just browsing through one of my facebook friend's (read lost friend) photos of her trip to Hong Kong and looking at how she has so much fun. Wish I could have had that experience in Hong Kong. It took me a split second to snap back to reality. I had an AWESOME traveling year last year. I met an awesome Swiss friend in Joachim and went all around Hong Kong. I went to Singapore and had some of the best street food in the world. I still crave that Katong Laksa. Oh my God!!! I want some now. I traversed some of the most beautiful places in the world in Tiger Leaping Gorge, Guilin River Area, and Pulau Perhentian. Travel is who I am. I am a traveler. I want to share my experiences. Hopefully these little flashback blogs will keep me motivated to keep sharing and to actually travel more. To the few people who actually do read these blog posts, thank you for your comments. It keeps me motivated to write.

San Francisco Treats.

2009-07-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings from San Francisco! I write this to you sitting from Fisherman's Wharf. The wind carries the taste of the briny sea onto my tongue. The aroma of fresh sourdough lingers in the air. Tourists line up to look at kitsch curios like ants to sugar. Cooks are busy moving pots, frying shrimp, and cracking crab shells. There is no where else were I can be completely be at ease being a tourist. With all my love and adoration, H.

2008: Brighton, the seaside playground

2009-06-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

On a sunny seaside day,
There will be no other place to play.
Brighton I come to you
When things are just too blue
Walk along the boardwalk
And your small whimsy streets.
I know time floats on a hot air balloon
Never caring about the people below.

Note: This post was more of a throwaway. I just wanted to test out my new template layout. Still working on bits and pieces (header graphic, color palette), but I think I got the gist of it.

2008: Jane, the Florence clone

2009-06-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

This picture is of Jane the Indonesian/Australian happa I met on my Halong Bay boat trip. When I met Adam on the day I was going to Halong Bay, even he remarked upon the similarity. I don't have a clear picture of her, but this is the best one I could find. Anyways, she's a lifeguard on a beach somewhere and she is crazy about kayaking, she always insisted on going solo. Another crazy coincidence is that she is also allergic to gluten, though Florence does eat it now. Anyways, this is one of my traveling companions that I met along the way.

2008: Pho in Hanoi

2009-06-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Bowl of Pho,

Thank you for providing the the sweet relief of satisfying my hunger during this late night in Hanoi. I had just come back from a horrible, yet interesting trip to Halong Bay. The nerve of those people to charge for clean water where the only other source of water was from the sea. Thank you for being delicious with your layers of beef, bean sprouts, herbs, and rich broth. The street outside is noisy like every other Hanoi street but never mind the noise. Thanks for being satisfying and cheap like the hooker standing on the other side of the street would be.

Yours,
Traveling Minstrel

2007: Tsukiji Fish Market

2009-06-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

The sun hadn't risen yet this morning. It is dark outside. Below the hostel room, I see the old tilt-n-whirl. Its light dimmed after all the excitement from yesterday. My traveling companion, Adam, is in the bathroom washing up. Our other hostel roommates must have stayed out all night as their beds were empty. I trip over my suitcase and curse my drowsiness. Today is the day we are going to the Tsukiji Fish Market and we are already late. I walk slowly down the outside hallway toward the bathroom with toothbrush in tow; my feet cold from the cement. Across the railing are more rooms and below is the small hostel garden. I see Adam walking back from the bathroom and we grunt in greeting.

"We're late", I mumble.
He shrugs.

I brush up in the bathroom. Being in Japan, this bathroom was cleaner than normal. Clean white tiles on the floor. Shower stalls are well ventilated. The mirrors hung on industrial concrete walls. I hurry back to the room to put on my socks and shoes. Adam must be downstairs eating breakfast. I take the elevator down. I stare at the advertisement for a tempura restaurant inside. It has a picture of a bowl of tempura and the word happy amid a bunch of Japanese. I push my index finger against 'happy' hoping today would be just as good as the rest of this trip has been.

The elevator opens up into the lobby and dining area. Adam is chatting up the morning receptionist Yuki. He is leaning in against the counter and smiling awfully wide for this early in the morning.

"Oh, really? Harajuku... Yea I wanted to buy some toys for my brother. He is a huge Gundam fan. Not me though. I just want to eat and soak in hot springs this trip.", says Adam, grinning toothily.

Yuki smiles awkwardly and agrees, "Yes. Harajuku area good for toys and unique items.".

If I didn't know better I'd think he was flirting with the idea of dating a Japanese girlfriend.

"Hey, man. Let's get going.", I say. I smile to Yuki in greeting.

"So.. I'm going to the hot springs town tomorrow. What are you going to do for the next two days?" asks Adam.

"Probably do a day trip to this outdoor hot springs I read about online. Suppose to be pretty good. Other than that, eat my way through Tokyo. More sushi. Although, no more tempura. I don't need to have an elderly waitress giving me scornful looks." I chuckle.

"Hey! She had in for me. I bought the most expensive meal. I should have gotten a geisha serving me!"

"Dude. You paid 30,000 yen not 300,000 yen. Maybe the next trip when you come back as a millionaire." He laughs.

We walk past the adult theater behind the hostel. Being the Asakusa temple area, I found it funny that there were so many vices in this vicinity. Questionable theaters, pachinko parlors, and plenty of bars. At least it's fairly quiet and close to a subway line.

As we get on the subway, Adam turns on his ipod and pushes his cap below his eyes. I reach into my bag and start reading my Lonely Planet: Japan for the hundredth time.

******************************

Upon reaching the stop to reach Tsukiji Fish Market, the sun is already up and out. Adam forges ahead. There are cargo carriers zipping all around the warehouses. The smell of salt is pervasive. It isn't as fishy as I thought. I have my trusty camera in hand, but there hasn't been any fish yet. I reach into my pocket for my cell phone. It's 7am. We missed the auction.

"Hey, try over there. There are some lights over there." I yell to Adam. The noise is like the sound of traffic. Loud.

We pass some stalls selling knives and finally make it to the fish. There was fish everywhere. Small fish, big fish. Fish in tanks, fish on ice. There was even an octopus tank. We see a young Japanese man buying a large fish. The old lady promptly wraps it up for him. After walking past several stalls, I spot a huge tuna being carved up on my right. It's probably as big as my twin bed. It is the first time I saw a fish that big.

"Let's get some sushi. I read that there are good morning sushi stalls around here." I yell. He nods. It's too loud to really hear anything.

We make our way toward the main road and there are stalls with fish displayed proudly and patrons hunched over in enjoyment. We sit down at a stall at the end of the road and order. There is an English menu and I get the uni-tuna set. Adam picks the tuna set. The chef is recommending the fatty tuna set to Adam but Adam isn't really understanding what the chef is saying. Adam just keeps pointing at the tuna breakfast on the menu. The chef resigns himself to defeat and starts making our orders.

I get my uni-tuna set. It is the first time I will eat sushi for breakfast. Good. Very good. Melt in your mouth tuna and perfectly briny uni. A good start to another Japanese morning. I'd say so.

2005: The S-bahn

2009-06-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

So with my sporadic blog posts, I thought that I might as well share some stories about my travels and life. The above picture is taken on the S-bahn in Stuttgart. I don't exactly remember if this was taken going to Schwabstrasse from Mitte or from Uni. Either way, I have some very exciting stories and also mundane stories aboard the S-bahn during my time in Germany.

In the beginning of the Amsterdam weekend, we all gathered to meet to take the S-bahn together to Hauptbahnhof. I remember it was fairly early on a Friday. My sister was in Stuttgart at the time and I think we were all packed. After having been in Germany for so long, I didn't even think of taking my passport out when I traveled. It just didn't occur to me since every weekend we would go somewhere in Baden Wuerttenberg or Bayern. No passport required. Anyways on the way to Schwabstrasse, someone mentioned passports and I completely freaked out because I know I don't have mine. I think it was Milos who brought it up. I got off at Schwabstrasse and called Jacek. He had my room key for some reason. I don't exactly remember. Maybe to borrow some stuff while I was on the trip. Anyways, I asked him to meet me halfway to the subway stop with my passport. I ran from the Unit station to meet. I remember I was very out of breath and tired. It was a foggy, wet autumn day. So I was wet too. I got back on the S-bahn all the way to the main train station and barely made the train with 2 minutes to spare. Very exciting to say the least.

I have also seen my share of people caught without a ticket. The way the transportation system works in Germany is based on an honor system. There are no turn stiles but you have to have a ticket to legally board the train. As a student worker, I had a monthly pass I had to buy every month. The ticket checkers aren't always there. They appear about once every two weeks. The fine back then was forty euros, which was about the price of a monthly pass. Anyways, I remember seeing two Americans without tickets or passports. Without passports they were taken into police custody. They were checked on the train from Mitte to Schwabstrasse. They had to get off with the train police at Schwabstrasse. No handcuffs though.

Another story I have about the train is throwing up in Ludwigsburg. My co-worker at Bosch invited me to the Weihnachtsmarkt there and we had Gluehwein (spiced mull wine). Anyways it didn't sit very well and I had to stop once on our trip home to throw up in the trash can. Sven was a very nice guy. I wish him all the best wherever he is.

The S-bahn was my constant source of transportation in Stuttgart. My friends and I would take it anywhere in the area. It was the way to travel longer distances within the Stuttgart metropolitan area. There was one thing that's pretty interesting about the S-bahn is that there is a first class. I would see the suit types in first class. It was basically two booths closed off by glass. Their chairs were larger but I think first class in public transportation is funny.

Synechdoche, New York

2009-05-02T00:51:00.000-07:00

This might be the weirdest mind fuck of a movie I have ever seen. It's one of those movies where you sit in your chair for about 30 seconds after the end of the movie and you say to yourself, 'Self, what the fuckk was that?'.

It was released in 2008 and directed by Charlie Kaufman. So Mr. Kaufman is a famous screenwriter with such indie hits like 'Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation', and more recently 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. But holy hell, this movie is a cluster bomb of ideas.

It stars Philp Seymour Hoffman as Kayden Cotard. He's a theater director who gets a MacArthur grant. This is basically the genius grant. So he goes on to build this lifesize New York city theater production.

Spoilers Ahead

My god. I'm still not sure if I just saw pure cinematic genius or utter insanity.

On one hand it's completely magical-realism like Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. This person is building a theatrical production to mimic his life. It runs parallel and intertwines with his life. In the end, it's almost the story of everyone trying to figure out what this life is. He is dying but we see time jumps and becomes old. Everyone dies is the message here I think. In the end, there is nothing. All your work is for naught, deserted, meaningless to you.

On the other hand, the pacing just crawls to slow pace and really throws a lot of weird details at you. The woman that he desires lives in a house that is constantly on fire. His daughter is brought up by german hippie that sexually molests her, in which the daughter translates in to love. These fantasy elements really play with what is a stage and what is life. Is life a stage? Are we all playing a part in the grand play?

It's only been five minutes. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.

What the fuck? Sieg Heil?!!

2009-03-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

I have this share this fucking ludicrous picture I found on facebook. I mean I'm sure they have 'good' intentions but what the fuck is with this harking back to the nazi era. Did these people not go to school and learn their world history? This is bible study so maybe they're so caught up what happened pre-BC that there is no history after that.

I think the funniest thing is this photo is the white girl in the picture. She barely has her hand raised and her thought bubble is "What the fuck is wrong with these honkies? Have I actually joined a praise Hitler cult?"

This is comedy gold. Gotta love them bible thumpers!

When things fall.

2009-03-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

For the last three months I have been trying to get associate producer positions at various game studios. I have sent resumes, cover letters, and even video interview DVDs. All to no avail so far. I am completely frustrated with this unemployment. I am in a purgatory of boredom and leftovers. This is my personal punishment for being too idealistic or optimistic. I am not the ideal candidate for any kind of corporate job. What am I suppose to do? I feel that any kind of knowledge is slipping away from me and the sense of dread and pessimism is creeping in. I am getting desperate now just to get any job. Being choosy isn't maybe the best option right now. I don't have the entrepreneur's will and concentration, but I have stupid idea.

It's times like these that I fucking hate life. So frustrated. It might be time to resign myself to the fact I will just have to settle for mediocrity.

Stories from family

2009-02-27T02:24:00.000-08:00

I want to write the story of my family members. Every family has a story to share. I think more so when you are an immigrant from a war-torn country of the past.

My father who was orphaned at such a young age and had to make the 174km journey on foot to Hong Kong to a distant relative that might not even take him in.

My grandmother, a priced princess, of the deputy mayor of medium sized city in pre-war China that had to start again in foreign land.

My grandfather, who came from mountain village with no roads connecting it to become a ranking officer in the KMT.

If you talk to Chinese people, I am sure you will hear these stories of survival through war. Almost everyone will have a relative who have these stories. My granduncle, the former secretary of the former Penchan-lama.

I'm sure it's not just the Chinese but everyone. America is the land of the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses; mainly from war torn or crisis nations.

Maybe it's too late and I have been listening to the song 'No day but today' too much but this will be ambitious if I try to actually put any of these stories down on paper; sensationalized or not, though I know the truth would probably less believable than a lie.

Transcendental Happiness

2008-12-22T05:07:00.000-08:00

My favorite year was 2005. School was not that stressful that semester and I loved my activities. I graduated that year. I got my degree and happily walked down the stage of the Greek Theater. But there was no greater joy than the beginning of using that degree. Touching down at Frankfurt International Airport was perfect. I loved the familiarity of German. The smell of fresh bread walking into Koenigstrasse for the first time in Stuttgart. Being there underneath the clear blue sky. My life was exactly how life should be. Carpe Diem. Live for today. Love your life and loving yourself. And I loved it.

So why the trip down nostalgia lane? I feel have reverted to a lesser state now. A state of uncertainty and confusion. What am I doing? Where am I going? After watching the 14e Arrondissement section of Paris Je 'taime for what could be the tenth time, I want that transcendental happiness back again. I want the security of knowing that I am okay. I hate that life is so confusing and so staid. Maybe this is just a battle cry for life or maybe just a whimper into submission.

Relearning German and the holidays

2008-12-16T01:41:00.000-08:00

The holidays gives me a time to reflect back on my year so far. (Actually, I always do it... nevermind) The point is, it's the end of the year and a good time to evaluate what has happened in the year of 2008.

January - August
Work drama. Olympic, pro-China propaganda.

August
Olympics!

September - November
Hooligan travel!

November - Present
Getting fat and anxious. Job stuff is stressful even though I only really applied for two jobs.

This year all and in all has been a transition year. Unlike my transition of 2006, I did not sit on my ass in the house most days. The work drama of the first half of the year really came down to: do I see myself doing this line of work if I keep advancing along this career and do I really want to keep the faith in my life in China. No and No. I did not see a future that would achieve any goal that I would have wanted in China. China was toxic. Literally and figuratively. My lifestyle was not healthy. Eating out everyday is not normal. Working at all hours is not sane. The work/life balance just wasn't there. I would love to hang out with work people after work but not bring it with me after a reasonable hour.

The Olympics were great. A met up with a lot of friends and all in all a good time.

Traveling was fun although less exhilarating than Europe. I guess it's easier the second time around. Although, I am still afraid of India. Too many stories of culture-shock. Someday I hope. India would be a real adventure.

Which brings me to the point I am now. I love video games and I believe that game development is where I want to be. I love the art and complexity of a good story. To be able to tell an elaborate puzzle/riddle of a tale. That's where I want to be headed.

Germany is where I want to be headed. The more I think about Berlin, the more I miss it and want to be there. I have so many good friends in Germany right now. I want to go back. Maybe the picture in my head is too idyllic but I remember the good times right now. I am currently trying to re-read 'The Reader' in German (Der Vorleser) It's actually not that bad. It looks like I am having the same problems I did when I took German 3 and my German was pretty good back then. I'm just hoping to get back to German 188 level. Oh! I'm going to a screening of 'The Reader' on Thursday! I hope I can get seats!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T06:41:00.001-08:00

Here in the US we have three more days until the Thanksgiving holiday. People fly all over the country to go home and see family. It is a time to give thanks to what we have.

I am thankful to have my health, a somewhat happy family, prospect of exciting work, and warm clothing for these cold LA days we have been having.

This year I am in charge of Thanksgiving dinner. I am totally unprepared to be cooking again after having not really cooked for the last 2 years. However, one has got to start sometime and this is as good a time as any. There was a butternut squash soup recipe that sounded really good and I will give that a shot. Other than the roast beef I will be making, I really don't have any idea of what to make. I have a day to come up with a menu.

The week after Thanksgiving I have to go to the San Francisco Bay Area to meet up with my old boss. He is going to introduce me to a online game company. It should be really exciting but I really did want to spend more time with my family. It has only been five days. The prospect of getting on to another plane is one that I don't really want to think about. Also, now because I have to fly up north in a week, I have to book plane tickets and I might not be able to go see 'Spring Awakening', which is okay.. I don't really know anything about it but I haven't been to a theater in a while and I do like the Ahmanson.

Well, breakfast calls.

Movies to watch

2008-11-07T23:18:00.000-08:00

In my absence from watching trailers, I have only recenlty picked up where I started. There several movies I would like to see and they are in no particular order:

Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Brothers Bloom
Quantum of Solace
Twilight
Australia
Yes Man
Cadillac Records

No Burger King! and the dilemma of choosing food

2008-11-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Singapore today at 12pm and was really hungry and the only thing available at the airport was Burger King. I thought to myself 'Mmm.. french fries. Mmm.. whopper. But fuck I'm in Singapore. One of the culinary capitals of the region. I can't eat freaking burgers in Singapore.

Anyways, I resisted and persevered to the hostel. It was actually pretty hard to find. It was a long bus ride into the city and I didn't have a good map of the hostel area with me. After some struggling I found the door at last. It wasn't really well marked and it had boxes of fruit in front of it. It's called Betel Box Hostel. Wouldn't really recommend because of the location. It's not central and it's a small trek to the metro. But I must say it has really good food recommendations for the area around it. I had the most awesome Katong laksa for dinner. Two bowls in fact. It's a curry coconut noodle soup with clams, shrimp, and fish cake. I think the stock is made from shrimp heads. Really, really good. Can't wait to try the Hainan Chicken Rice tomorrow. Singapore's most famous dish.

Overall, I really like Singapore. At heart I am still a city boy. I like how in such compact spaces there are hidden gems to be found and Singapore is such a diverse place. That's probably why I liked KL so much too.

I went to the National Singapore Museum today and was really impressed. In the history gallery they have really interactive stories of the people throughout it's history. It was really interesting learning about Pernankan Chinese in Singapore and how they learned to adapt to British rule. There was this cool little booth about opium addiction that told the story about how opium did not discriminate to anyone whether it be socially or economically. It ruined all lives. Then there was this cool exhibit about amahs (the nannies for rich family) and how they formed these sisterhoods to survive together. I wonder if that's what the filipinas do in Hong Kong. Some sociologist or ethnologist should really study this phenomenon. And another cool exhibit was the one about a Chinese performing troupe. The women had these cool 1920 Shanghai vibe about them. Well, the main female performer was born in Shanghai.

I saw something really cool and that might infuriate strong Chinese patriots. During World War II, there were the support the troop posters made by the British in Singapore. It showed it's allies. China was one of them and it showed what is today the Taiwanese flag. I guess during that time the Kuomintang was still the recognized party.

The last gallery I went to was the food gallery in the Living section of the museum. It showed the unique foods of Singapore and let you smell some of the food. They held the smells in a jar and you push a button and whiff of the food smell would come out. It was really cool, but I think I kinda twisted the coconut smell the wrong way and the knob was stuck. Whoops.

Can't wait for tomorrow and all the good food it will bring.

So much to do in Singapore and so little time

Election Anxiety

2008-10-31T23:52:00.000-07:00

I am extremely nervous for the turn out of this election. The polls are looking good but I am still scared. Voting for McCain is like voting for me not to come back to the US for the next four years. Voting Obama is the other way around. I don't think I can look at some people the same for a while.

McCain has no judgment, a bad support team, and has the worst VP candidate in recent history. I have been checking the political news and blogs twice a day and it's driving me mad.

Vote smart. Nervous breakdowns: I don't like them.

Wat-ed Out

2008-10-31T05:52:00.000-07:00

I am officially overdosed on temples. But what temples they were. The majesty of Angkor Wat. I think I've seen every major temple in the area except for Bakong, of the Rulous Group, and Kbal Spean, the river bed temple.

Banteay Srei really surprised me today. I took a motorbike from Siem Reap to the temple, which took about 45 minutes to get there. The carvings were really exquisite and the temple was compact that you can take in all of the carvings. My favorite one might be Banteay Kdei or Angkor itself. Kdei was not touristed at all for being one of the big temples of the region. There was even a huge cotton silk tree growing into one of the gopuras, the west gopura I believe.

Alright, I don't really want to talk too much more about the temples. I'm burnt out on them. Ask me in person if you want to know more.

Let's instead write about the people I have met recently.

Kamil and Marie: Marie and Kamil are a couple I met in Si Phan Don, Laos. Marie is Danish and Kamil is French. Both are trying to learn their partner's language, but they are using English in the mean time. They were really laid back and easy to get along with. Very friendly and open to striking up a conversation. You can tell that they were definitely pro travelers and their tales of India definitely confirmed it.
Dave: American guy from Marin County. Seemed like a surfer type with a slow, deliberate speech. Young guy that's still learning the world.
Jan: Cool German dude trying to stay in Asia. I feel that he has a lot of sadness within. He's reading the poems of Lao Tse and unofficially learning about Taoism without realizing it. Hope he finds what he is looking for.
Maud and Thomas: Very nice French couple from Lyon and Paris respectively. They have been traveling for a month and just traveling for fun through the former French colonies plus Thailand. Maud is in consulting (strategy) and Thomas is in school studying business administration.

Been on the computer at the internet cafes for a while. Bored of temples, unfortunately. Three days is enough for the Angkor experience. Week is really for true enthusiasts. I'm half way in between. Although, mosquitoes and the heat don't help with creating enthusiasm.

Foiled by rain again!

2008-10-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

That's three sunsets in a row that rain has foiled my attempts to see sunset at Angkor Wat. Going to try for sunrise tomorrow and see what happens in the morning. I really apologize for the lack of pictures in these entries and that this one is rather short. Really short.

"Little Pieces of Shit"

2008-10-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

When I was in Guilin, I met this Kiwi girl that worked as a tour guide for Southeast Asia. She was based in Hanoi (She suppose to tell me this place for a great fruit shake but she never bothered to remember. She couldn't describe the location). When I was asking her about Vietnam and Cambodia, I distinctly remember that she called the children around Angkor Wat little pieces of shit. I was taken slightly a back since it's very hard to see children being so totally aggravating that they would receive such a moniker. After all, Cambodia was hit very hard in recent history and they are still trying to recover.

Enter the present day. After four days in Siem Reap and exploring the Angkor temples, I can honestly agree that the children here are little pieces of shit. They put on a show and know exactly to put on the poor, innocent, helpless face when they are trying to sell you useless junk for a dollar a piece. After, they go on smiling and arguing with their relatives. I remember on the second day when I was at Banteay Kdei, this boy kept saying his family was very poor. I wouldn't give him anything and the next thing he was doing was playing with sister and eating snacks. Snacks are a luxury my friend that even I don't indulge in too often.

On a more positive note, Angkor temples are awesome. I loved Angkor Wat and it's bas reliefs. Seeing the churning of the milk sea and understanding the story behind was very incredible. There are some great views all around. The sunrise at Srah Srang was beautiful and sunset at Phnom Bakheng is breathtaking. Most interesting experience thus far was finding Ta Nei temple. It's a temple that's hidden in the forest and you have to follow a small forest path. It's not on any of the main routes. So following this temple path I fell into a big puddle of mud. Most of my calves and feet were caked in mud. It was actually very cool if one got over the fact that it was dirty mud. Ta Nei was definitely hidden. There were no ticket collectors, no children selling crap, and no other tourists. I had the temple all to myself.

Today I've holed myself up in Siem Reap town until mid-afternoon. It was raining in the morning and it's really hot to go out now. Maybe two o'clock would be a good time to start. Going to explore the whole of Angkor Thom today. This includes the famous faces of Bayon. I've also saved sunset at Angkor for today. Hope it doesn't rain at sunset like the last two days. Should be exciting

Khmer-chameleon

2008-10-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

My first full day in the capital city of Cambodia. I apologize in advance as I got a little emotional visiting Tuol Sleng prison today or rather known as S-21. It was such stark visualization of the terror and horrors left behind by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. I find myself crying in front of the pictures of the children who were imprisoned there, who were eventually executed. There is no rhyme and reason to that place. People of all walks of life were killed there. Even associates in the Khmer Rouge who were thought to be traitors. It was the most depressing place I have ever been and it is such a horrible atrocity that few people know about this. Hello USA!? I believe the administration was responsible for a lot of the follow up to what happened. Especially for backing the Khmer Rouge after the Vietnam War.

Enough with the sadness and darkness of man. In Phnomh Penh, there are a lot of charity restaurants. These are restaurants that provide aid, training, and support for street kids. It's really hard to say no. The food is good and when they ask you for dessert, you think 'Why not? It's for a good cause'. Definitely a dangerous way to make your wallet shrink fast. Food is not that cheap in those restaurants.

Tomorrow I'm going to Siem Reap, home to the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat. It will prove to be an exciting day. I already bought a book which I will be reading on the ride there and tonight as well. Angkorian history here I come!

In the heart of questionability

2008-10-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers from the land of Phnomh Penh Cambodia. Supposedly a lukewarm like it or hate it city. It's just okay so far. A lot of pushy touts like in Hanoi. It's same, same but different. (God, I can't believe I picked that up)

Got into Pakse and stayed there three nights. Did Champasak, Bolaven as one day trips individually. Got a little sick. I think that I just didn't get a good nights sleep during that time. Got some Bolaven coffee, which made my bag smell entirely of coffee. Champasak is nice but getting there is a pain in the ass. Transportation in Laos is not all that convenient. But hey, with the friendly locals it seems you'll pay for it anyways.

After 3 days in Pakse, I hightailed my butt to Si Phan Don (4 thousand islands). I had a very basic bungalow with outside shower with little water pressure. It wasn't that bad that there was not much water pressure since all the water was dirty Mekong water anyways. But I had the best view and the family was really nice. I even got to join them for fish barbecue for free! Met a cool Israeli guy and a Danish/French couple.

I hope that everything will work out tomorrow. I don't like tours and I don't like touts.

Why Feet Cry

2008-10-16T03:54:00.001-07:00

Feet cry when you abuse them. Make them walk in five year sandals with no support. They cry when they have to walk on gravel, pebble, and broken asphalt to the orders of the crazy man they are attached to. I am that crazy man that made my feet cry. I have walked over 30 km today in the city of Vientiane and it was actually okay until the last bit.

Today was Visit the Cambodian Embassy Day so naturally I walked there. A good 5 km and back. So a total of 10km. Took a good chunk of the morning. Had some super duper fruit shakes (orange and pomegranate) for less than 2 dollars for the both of them and a southeast asian style sandwich. Good lunch. Decided that it was time to go see That Luang and Paxuay (sp?), the golden stupa and the Laotian 'Arc de Triomphe' respectively. That was another good 8km. And then I did the Cambodian embassy again since I had to go pick it up. Fun times for all. Except, of course, for my feet.

I can't actually remember when I last posted so let me go back to Luang Prabang. On my last night in Luang Prabang I had a lot of orange juice. They are so so good, fresh squeezed, and only about 50 cents each. Headed out to Vang Vieng and did tubing. I went out on a zipline that went into the water and bit my tongue that wasn't too fun. Vang Vieng is really a drug haven for Laos. Happy pizzas, shakes, burgers, and even cakes are available (read: opium, pot). Thought it would be rather stupid to try it with strangers so I didn't. Doesn't mean I wouldn't though. You never know.

Got to Vientiane yesterday and the boat racing festival was crazy. Wall to wall people and litter everywhere. I did my best to stay as far away as I could. Supposedly a Laotian team from some village won, but I don't think too many people cared. Seemed like more people were eating, drinking, playing the carnival games than watching the actual boat race.

Going to Pakse soon. Probably tomorrow. Ta ta for now.

Dirty Germans and Lao-style torture

2008-10-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

Back in Luang Prabang after short 2 day sojourn in Muong Ngoi. Nice small village by the river. There were no roads connecting it, so the only way to get there was by boat. Fairly pleasant town. The trip on the other hand was hellish. The one hour boat road was in a longtail boat crammed to the gills like a can of sardines. You sit on a super low bench and you are stuck there for one hour. Not very pleasant. Easy for the legs to go numb from the loss of circulation.

The local 'bus' is not really a bus at all. The bus is a converted pick up truck with two benches against the sides and tiny children chairs along the middle. These chairs are wooden hardened instruments of torture for any unfortunate falang to travel the local bus in Laos.

One thing that really bugged me was that there was a German family throwing their banana peels and orange peels out the window. Would they do that in Germany? No... So why do it when you travel. It sets a bad example for Lao people on how to behave and gives tourists a bad name for Lao people who know better

Lao, Laos, Laotian

2008-10-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

Got into Luang Prabang yesterday night and the difference between Laos and Vietnam is black and white. Totally different from Hanoi and the hustle and bustle of it all. It's so much more relaxed and not very many push touts.

Flying into Luang Prabang, I was really scared. We were flying in a Russian made ATR propeller plane. Not even an Airbus or Boeing plane. The Japanese family in front of me at the ticket gate gasp once they saw it. My thoughts at that moment were "It's okay, this plane takes hundreds of people to and from Hanoi everyday. It'll be fine". That's what I told myself anyways. The stewardesses were extremely nice and the service impeccable.

I met a Canadian named Mike and hung out with him for a bit. Basically followed him to the same guesthouse. I didn't have any reservations so I hoped for the best. I got a room and it's fairly nice. Not too shabby. I think I still prefer the dorm atmosphere.

Today, I met a group of older people at the National Museum. (Or was that the big temple on the hill?) They were extremely nice and extended an invitation out to the waterfalls with them, which I gladly took. The Kuang Si Waterfall was extremely dramatic. The waterfall was tall and the water pressure was really hard. My glasses kept misting.

I think I am going to be spending a lot of money here since everything is so speech. I already bought two linen lounge pants, a shirt, and soft slippers for all about $9 US dollars. The night market is really great for souvenir shopping. I just have to remember light and small things. Can't buy anything too heavy. (Just forgot that I bought a $5 dollar shirt from the bear rescue center. Go Bears!)

Daybreak of departure

2008-10-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, leaving Vietnam in about 7 hours. I have been here way too long and most of it in Hanoi. My readiness to leave Hanoi is beyond capacity. I have about 100,000 VND to spend and I'm not sure what I should buy. I wanted to buy some underwear and socks but they are just quoting me outrageous prices that I don't even want to try haggling with them.

Although, I did have the best time in Hanoi the past few days. There were three Irish girls and two Danish guys that were really cool and we went on an impromptu pub crawl and I finished a whole pint without feeling too funny. I think the trick for me is to finish it fast. The faster the better.

We played pool and I totally screwed up the game. Whoops. Never good at pool anyways.

Of H'mong and Motorbikes

2008-10-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

Arrived back in Hanoi today (Really. What the hell am I going to with, now, four days in Hanoi). Had a great day in Sapa yesterday. I "splurged" and rented a motorbike for the day and just rode around the countryside. It was a lot fun. The guy kind of ripped me off but I just really didn't care at that point.

I have never driven a moped/motorcycle before so it took me about 30 minutes before I got the thing to work for me. I mainly stayed in second and third gear. The guy who was renting to me I think was kind of scared for his motorbike. There is a lot of freedom when riding a bike. The sense of independence and adventure of a continuous road passing you by.

Saw the 'Silver Waterfalls'. Whatever. It was whatever. Natural wonders were cooler in China. You can see I have posted so many blogs entries from Vietnam. Mostly because I am bored here and on the computer at the hostel a lot. A lot a lot. Also, I guess because I didn't have internet access while I was on the beach in the Perhentians. Fuck, I really wish I didn't get sunburned. The islands would have been much more fun.

Sapa Ordeals

2008-10-02T04:07:00.000-07:00

Officially, I am so over Vietnam. Don't really like the people that much, except for the odd exceptions. Never liked the language. In fact, it's my least favorite language in the world. Maybe I am just burnt out from traveling. I arrive in Laos in a few days and I hope for the best.

Maybe the reason for my disinterest is that I have not found any good travel companions as of late. My last one was in Hong Kong and that was weeks ago. Joachim was a cool guy. I think the big hostels I am staying at really takes away from the meeting individual people and the hotels makes one isolated. I have to find that happy medium between overwhelming and hermitville.

On a funny note, I got 'cock-blocked' a few days ago at my hostel in Hanoi. I was talking to this French girl and apparently she was already talking to some Australian guy before. I didn't know and just talked away when this guy, I guess, when to get a drink. Anyways, sitting on this bench and talking when he came back and just completely interrupted our conversation. I would like to think that he thought I was competition, which if funny.

Tomorrow is my last day in Sapa and really tired of people trying to sell me crap. The rice terraces were cool but when trekking these two women followed me trying to sell me their wares. They just kept chatting away and all I wanted was some peace and quiet with my trekking. I was like 'Shut up! I can't hear my own thoughts.' They got the message through some sign language that I wanted quiet.

Now what the hell am I going to do with three days in Hanoi!?

Halong Bay is (eh?)!!

2008-09-30T03:34:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Halong Bay and the first thing I want to say is that it is really beautiful and the water was a very ocean green. However, I was a little dismayed when they charged us for all drinks. I just thought it was going to be alcohol that was separate but nope. It included all drinks including drinking water.

Halong Bay is recommened but maybe it not with Hanoi Backpackers' Hostel. Their tour is a little more expensive (so I thought it would be nicer). But nope it sounded like the other tours I have other people take. Kayaking was really fun though. My first time. And I ran into a jellyfish! Cool things that look like plastic bags. Good thing I didn't get stung though. Heard bats in a water cave.

Why do I feel that every Vietnamese person is trying to rip me off? I just can't shake that feeling.

Cat Ba island is a piece of shit. It's like a cheap version Las Vegas with it's changing lights and attempt at a fountain show. A lot of prostitute solicitors and people asking if you want weed. Sketchy and dodgy place.

Going to Sapa for about five/six days. I have a flight to Luang Prabang on the seventh of October.

I really, REALLY hope Sapa is nice.

Playing Frogger in Hanoi

2008-09-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

Rash is upon me. I am hoping the medicine I picked up early this morning works. The rash isn't spreading but it's not exactly going away either. Not super itchy though, but still uncomfortable. Drinking lots of water. I went to have some Cha Ca for lunch (grilled fish in some sort of flavored oil). It was okay. They don't give you a lot of fish but a lot of veggies. The noodles were good I guess. Going to try Little Hanoi 1 tonight.

Crossing the streets in Hanoi is a little bit like playing a live version of Frogger with one life. Except there are only motorbikes and small cars. Also, the cars don't always stay in the same lane.

I am still trying to decide if I should go to Halong Bay tomorrow. My back looks really disgusting with the peeling of patches of skin. I bought some more 30pdf sunscreen. I still have four hours to decide.

Setting foot in Hanoi

2008-09-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

A bit screwed here. I don't remember my PIN for my ATM card and I just went over my limit on how many times I could try. Luckily, I had about 200 RMB left to exchange for VND. So I can live for about 2 days but not have any fun. Hopefully, I can remember it by tomorrow so I can have some real cash to do some of the tours around here. My visa expires on the 14th and I plan to be in Vietnam the latest on the 13th. Heading to Laos after Vietnam.

So... anyways. Hanoi is hectic. Really small streets and touts/hawkers are everywhere. 'Hello, motorbike' is often heard throughout the city. Had some okay Pho today but going to try the restaurant my LP suggested. Not too fond of staying too long in this city. Going to see if I can go to Ninh Binh soon.

Monkeys and the Perhentians

2008-09-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

Back to civilization people! Or at least to places where they have regular electricity for 24hours, 7days a week. Long post so bear with me (3 days without posting, so... yea...)

On my last on Penang Island I went to the Botanical Gardens and so a lot of macaque monkeys. They were swarming the place and right on the sidewalk. The monkeys were quite aggressive and seemed to want all any kind of bags people had in their hands. There was a sign, actually many signs, saying that people should not feed the monkeys. But people did anyways. Cute monkeys but just don't get too close.

Visited the colonial section of Georgetown again before waiting for my bus at the hostel. I really don't get how Georgetown became a UNESCO heritage city. It's dirty and not very pretty at all. Maybe the mixing of cultures but you get that everywhere in Malaysia. I would think more so in Melaka than Penang.

The hostel I stayed at in Georgetown, 100 Cintra Street, was very nice except it had no mosquito netting in the dorm rooms. I basically doused myself in repellent right before bed. It definitely had a very colonial Chinese feel to it.

RANDOM NOTE: I have been approached several times by people of the Indian subcontinent and they say 'Sir, you are very lucky, you want to know why?'. I think this is a scam for some sort of fortune telling but I'm not sure. Any insight would be helpful. I was approached in Hong Kong, Macau, and in Kuala Lumpur.

Alright, so after an hour or two of waiting I got on my 70RM minibus ride to Kuala Besut, the city that has the jetty where boats take off to go to the Perhentian Islands. I was traveling with Chinese-Malay family. I lied to them and said I was from Taiwan (meaning I grew up there). Then they started to talk to me in Min Nan Yu (the Hokkien, Taiwanese dialect). I didn't know what to say but lie that my family didn't speak Taiwanese in our home. They asked me about the geography which I half-assed lied about and about the military draft. I gave them some random number of years I had to serve. Anyways, they bought it but I don't know if whole-heartedly. I was too tired to care and tried to sleep in the cramped quarters.

I got to Kuala Besut at 4am! The man working at the boat office came early for me. (The bus driver arranged this). But man was I pooped and just slept in the office until the first boat at 7am left. At this time I met up with a very indecisive Spanish couple and they were just being troublesome to the travel office. They couldn't decide on a guesthouse and made everyone else at the boat wait for them. This is the second Spanish couple that made a fuss. The first was in Yangshuo (they were fighting with the boatman about the price and my friend Jason and I got in the middle of it).

Eventually, got onto the boat and got onto Perhentian Kecil, the smaller of the two islands. The guesthouse I wanted to stay at, Matahari Chalet, was fully booked so I had to find another one. I ended up at a place called Symphony Village and got a private a frame hut. It was okay but really old and creaky. Plus there was a monitor lizard who liked to lounge on my roof (monitor lizards are huge; like 1m or more). At least, it had a mosquito net, which worked, and a fan, which cooled me.

On the first day, I decided I wanted to go snorkeling. Very bad idea. I was ill-prepared for the ocean. My sunscreen was almost out and I had to scrape what I could over my body. I didn't think to take my motion-sickness pill because the boat ride there was fine. Okay, at the first dive spot and I totally kind of freaked because I have never snorkeled before. I swallowed some of the sea water. Eventually I got the hang of it. But after a while I felt really nauseous. I don't know if it was the nasty seawater in my stomach, sea-sickness, or my lack of sleep on the mini-bus. In hindsight, I think it's the combination of the three and more of the latter. Saw some clownfish, parrotfish, huge sea turtles, and reef sharks. But felt really sick so I had the boat driver take me back after three dive spots.

I went back to my hut and slept. When I woke up my back was really tender and I though 'Shit, how the hell did I get sunburned'. It's probably because my sunblock isn't waterproof for the entire four hours I went snorkeling. Probably should have re-applied it after each spot, what I had left of anyways.

For the next two days, I stayed in the shade and only went into the water twice. It was excruciating because the water looked really inviting. It's clear and the shallows go on for about 20 meters with little white fish swimming around you. But I knew I would get even more sunburned (I did; now my upper chest, knees, and shoulders are also burnt)

Took a overnight bus with a pushy Argentinian girl and dodgy Belgian guy to KL. Arrived here. Now, waiting at a net cafe before my 4:20pm AirAsia flight to Hanoi. Heard it's raining there.

Pulau Penang

2008-09-19T20:13:00.001-07:00

Blogging from Penang in an internet cafe at the moment. Don't know how long I should stay here. Eight minutes to blog. Okay, so I haven't had any really good food here yet. Maybe the agar jelly with lemon was good. But nothing out of this world to hit my tastebuds. Going to Penang National Park today but I have to buy a towel before I head out. Don't know how that's going to work. It could be interesting.

Don't have a lot to say. Penang is what you would imagine a southeast asian city to be. Small, dirty, small roads, and lots of hawker food stalls. Still super nice people. I just need to get to the beach.

EDIT: Okay just had some awesome Penang Asam Laksa, Satay, apple and orange juice, and icy cendol. To top it off I had some really good street dim sum. They had fried taro dumplings that don't taste like ammonia! Penang night markets are where it is at. The morning keow kak was not very good at all. Can't wait to try the food courts tomorrow. More Cendol and maybe some radioactive colored ABC.

So today I went to Penang National Park. It was extremely irritating because I thought I would be able to walk along the beach to get to Monkey Beach so I brought sandals. Ended up that I had to trek through the jungle to get to the beach and there were no monkeys in sight. Bad breaks. The water felt nice on my feet though. For a moment there, I thought I was getting heatstroke. My whole upper body felt really, really hot.

I have this weird roommate in my dorm room. He is half Malay, half Chinese. Stays out all night and sleeps all day. I am guessing he is a bouncer of sorts in a nightclub and is saving money sleeping in a dorm. Who knows.

All right. I have no plans for tomorrow in my last day in Penang but maybe the botanical gardens and Penang Hill. Then, the late 'mini-bus' to Kuala Besut and on to the Perhentian islands. Woohoo. Tropical paradise here I come.

Entering the land of sudden rains and satay

2008-09-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

Oh god, I love satays and Malay satays are the best. I am staying at the Red Palm in Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle district. Got into KL yesterday night and had no reservation at any of the hostels but was hoping to get a reservation here. Arrived a little bewildered at KL Sentral station but took the monorail and eventually found my way there. The Red Palm was fully booked but recommended a guesthouse close by. I stayed there yesterday night and staying at the Red Palm tonight.

Anyways, after putting my bags down I walked around the Bukit Bintang area and had some amazing satay. I had five sticks of chicken satay, five sticks of beef satay, and a seafood fried rice. That in total was about 13 RM; equivalent to approximately 4 dollars. Looking forward to trying keow teoy or curry laska or asan laksa.

Malaysia is an interesting country. Really nice people, great food, and not extremely crowded. Too bad people skip it in favor of Thailand or other locations. Although, the large amount of backpackers says otherwise.

Going to be going to Penang tomorrow and maybe headout to the Perehentian Islands. Should be an interesting week in Malaysia.

Second Macau Post

2008-09-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

Was walking around the Grand Lisboa and the Wynn Macau casinos and felt a little nostalgic about home and Las Vegas. The water show at the Wynn is a much smaller scale version of the Bellagio fountain shows. Still entertaining but doesn't carry the same wow factor.

One thing about Hong Kong and Macau that I didn't know was how multi-cultural it is. There are a lot of people from Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and the Philippines. Walking around on Sunday and Monday, there were so many filipinas sitting around the Central station playing games and reading. I even found a filipino snack vendor. Good fried bananas. In Kowloon, there is a huge mosque in the center of Nathan Rd. Many people asking if I wanted to buy a watch.

Just thinking of home for a bit after watching the water show at the Wynn. Will be fun trip but end will be sweet as well.

Portugal or China

2008-09-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

Macau is an interesting beast of a city. It has the spanish peninsular flair in some of the buildings and definitely dark yellows and whites that flow through the city definitely sways the city in a portugese vibe. Yet, they are Chinese people everywhere.

I picked what has to be the worst hotel in Macau. It's dark, dirty, the tv looks like it came from the '50s, and it's a regular place for prostitutes to bring their client. I hope my luggage is safe.

Tomorrow I go to Kuala Lumpur. One problem, the charge hasn't showed up on my credit card since they have put the block on it. I do have a confirmation email and a confirmation number hoping it will be okay.

Ciao until Malaysia.

Go straight to HK, do not pass go, do not collect 200RMB

2008-09-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

In HK and it's definitely night and day between here and the mainland. Brief entry because I have to go to the post soon. HK night markets have nothing on Taipei night markets. The famous temple st market is laughable comparatively. I definitely had the feeling of being somewhere not China the moment I stepped past Chinese immigration. The Chinese was in traditional form and people actually started using Cantonese. It was actually shocking for me that people in Shenzhen didn't use more Cantonese.

Thrice Blessed and the tourguide from hell

2008-09-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

Okay. This will be a more proper entry than the last one. I just recently came back from Jiuzhaigou (Nine Village Gully) and Huanglong. The place is absolutely pristine and immaculate. The water is crystal clear and spectacular karst formations. I know I know, pictures. But these internet places don't have a sd slot to upload pictures so it'll have to wait until I get to a place that does. That said our tour guide was a total bitch. The tour my aunt put me on said that the evening activity was optional, but when I arrived at Jiuzhai airport the tour guide said that it's required and I have to pay the 360RMB to see some 'rich' tibetan family house. (Side note: all the tibetans here are super rich because of the tourism. They all have cars and nice remodeled houses). Fuck no, I'm not going to some 360RMB activity. I called the tour company manager and he called the tour guide. She didn't persist any longer but that wasn't the end of it. Her attitude toward me was really bad from that point on. She helped others take pictures but me the single traveler didn't get any help from her. Luckily, the people in my tour group were super nice and helped me take pictures. I walked most of the place with a guy from Anhui province. Cool guy and had lots of questions about the US. Back to the tourbitch. I also had a discount on account of my 'student' id. The tour guide pays for the ticket. I asked her to reimburse the savings to me and she told me to call the tour company because she's not sure if she should pay me back. Of course you pay me back you backwards repugnant bitch. The tour company is all the way back in Chengdu. Why would they pay me when the savings go right into your pocket? Whatever, I called and told her to pay me the 100RMB (I know, not a lot but that's two nights hostel stay, which is a lot for a traveler on a budget!). She threw the money on the counter and was again giving me attitude. Whatever, I'm venting here but she really did destroy the mood of this beautiful place. Highly recommended if you don't get tourbitch. Anyways, I told my aunt this and she was absolutely livid. She called and is now trying to get the tourguide's license revoked. Take that bitch. Service job is definitely not your calling!

Now back in Chengdu, I was just notified that I would be taking a single room because of huge chinese tour group is taking over my dorm room. Lucky! Just had dinner with my grandaunt and granduncle's family. They gave two good luck charms. One buddhist charm from Chengdu and one tibetan buddhist charm from Lhasa. I had earlier received a buddhist charm from my aunt in Beijing that was from Emei mountain. They really are cool gifts and thoughtful. But I feel kinda funny wearing all three necklaces at the same time with my yak hoof bracelet. The dinner was really good and my aunt and uncle took me to a village close to the city. We had a nice relaxing afternoon eating farm food and playing cards. We played this three person game translated to be called 'Annoy the landlord'. Kind of like big two except it's two players against one.

Time to book my stay in Hong Kong. Should have done that a long time ago but oh well.

NOTE: Unfortunately, 'happy' meals were not on offer through my travels. Although, I did hear from another travler that they were on the menu in Dali.

Pandas! Black, white and red

2008-09-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Brief entry. Pandas were really cute in Chengdu. Black, white, and red ones. Wasn't willing to take the exorbitant 1000RMB fee to have my picture taken with one but it was a good experience none the less. Saw two pandas playing pretty roughly.

Going to Jiuzhaigou, the day after tomorrow. Expensive part of my trip. More expensive than the last two weeks put together. Oh well. So many people have recommended it, it seems I have to go. Had excellent spicy hot pot today, although I am afraid of the runs tonight.

My family is kinda eccentric but in a cool way. My grandaunt and granducle are very elegant and amiable in their elderly way.

Return from the mouth of the tiger

2008-09-05T21:56:00.001-07:00

I'm back blogging after a brief hiatus. Three days ago, I started the trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge. At the hostel in Lijiang, a group of four formed to go to Qiaotou, the starting town for most gorge treks. Two Chinese people, an Englishman, and me. As we boarded the bus for Qiaotou, we met up with five more people. Two Germans, a Dutch couple, and a Thai girl. This was going to be a group of nine. I actually found this quite funny since nine is the number in the ring fellowship. Yes, very nerdy reference to LOTR, I know. Got to Qiaotou and got accosted by a couple of people trying to see if we wanted to drive to the middle leaping stone. There weren't aggressive like the rest of the people around China trying to sell their services. Right after, the others were looking for a luggage storage. (I didn't need it because I knew I was heading back to Lijiang.)

They stowed their bags at Margo's Cafe, aka crazy-middle aged Australian woman living in the middle of nowhere China for eleven years. Crazy is actually not the right word; maybe more like quirky and eccentric. She was wearing low cut shorts for a woman who was maybe not in the best shape (Her gut was showing). I had a chicken wrap which was okay. The others had fried rice, which the Chinese duo said was actually really, really good.

After getting lost for a bit in town trying to find the starting point of the route. We were on our way. There were a couple locals following us up with horses to see if we wanted to rent them in case any of us got tired. No one was that tired to pay for horses, but they were annoying none the less. It was almost mocking, "Look here I am riding a horse, just having a leisurely stroll through the mountains." Vultures, I say, vultures.

It started raining right when we got to a rest stop so we were lucky. So was the woman in charge as she got a lot of business from our group buying water and fruits from her. There was no end to the rain for twenty minutes and all of a sudden sunshine. The weather was very fickle in Yunnan the time I have been here. Right after the rest stop was the twenty-eight bends. It really should be called on hundred bends since it felt like we already went through dozens of bends before the stop.

Our target was Halfway Guesthouse. We past by the Tea Horse Guesthouse first and it took another hour before we got to our destination. The scenery after Tea Horse Guesthouse is absolutely amazing. The trail is right against the cliff and you can see the Jade Dragon mountains on the right (~6000m) and the Haba mountains looking left and up (~5500m). We past a few waterfalls and got to our destination a little after 7pm. In total, we walked about seven hours on the first day.\

The view from the Guesthouse at dusk is spectacular. My dorm room was facing right against the Jade Dragon mountains. It really made me feel how small I am as a man against the majesty of nature. At night we saw some fireflies and the Englishman taught us a fun card game called Shithead. No winners, only one loser.

Woke up at around 9am and had breakfast. The group started out again after 10am and there was again beautiful scenery on the trail. Luckily, at that time my legs were not nearly as tired as I thought they would be. Lots of up and down but we made it to Tina's and had lunch at noon. I had fried rice, first of many I would have in the next day. Then we had to pay 20rmb just to get down to the gorge. This was in addition to the 50RMB entrance fee (I cheated this by saying I was a student; half-price!).

As we got to the middle leaping stone down in the gorge, the others decided to brave the rocks to get to it. Let me describe the path. The middle leaping stone is in the river and there are some stones that you can jump on to get to the middle leaping stone. The river was breaking against the middle stone pretty hard. The water churning was very hard against the stone. Against the stone path, there were smaller breaks but nothing too dangerous. I originally didn't want to do it because I had already slipped a lot the past two days and I didn't want to slip on the rocks and get hurt. However, so many people were doing it and without incident so I did it. The stone had a good vantage point. The river was flowing fast and strong against the rocks because of all the rain.

After we got up, we stayed at Woody's. They had ensuite bathrooms. Really good! After another night playing Shithead, our party split-up and I went back to Lijiang. It was really an awesome trek and would highly recommend it. Now to get some silk scarves in Lijiang!

Flying into a town of tea and silk

2008-09-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

Lijiang is fairly characteristic place. Lots of winding streets. One can easily get lost in a back alley or side street.

Took the overnight train from Guiling to Kunming and then flew into Lijiang. Fairly short entry again today. Am tired and need to rearrange my stuff.

Edit: After a warm shower, I am more awake and decided that the entry was way too short.

On the train ride from Guilin to Kunming, I saw a town called literally 'stone forest'. It was actually a really cool place looking from the train window. Lots of stones jutting every each way and that. Arriving at Kunming, I only saw lots of university welcoming committees (I guess it's the start of the new year for college students.) And I saw a McDonald's, ergo lunch. In Kunming they spoke a dialect I had no comprehension of at all. Stayed at the airport for a good 5 hours before boarding the plane.

I got scared on the plane again. Still have that fear of flying. Don't think it will ever go away, but I kept my cool.

The Naxi courtyard style hostel I'm staying at is really cool. Relaxed atmosphere and met some people who are going to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Yay! Company! There are these dogs here and they are so laid back. A mutt, cocker spaniel, and a golden retriever. I'm actually afraid they have fleas. Ack! Mosquitoes and now fleas. Turning into a bug infested trip.

I saw a lot of silk scarves. I think they could very well make great gifts. Light-weight. Very important when traveling, light gifts.

Being less stubborn

2008-08-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday went from Yangdi to Xingping. Pretty nice but the paradise vibe is wearing off. This blog entry will be short as I need to hurry to Guilin to catch my bus to Kunming to catch my flight to Yangshuo. I hope Lijiang wasn't too affected by the earthquake.

Anyways, on the way we ran into two Spaniards with whom we shared a boat. They didn't want to pay the full price because they only wanted to go halfway. My friend and I compromised but they wouldn't. A lesson in being less stubborn. I don't like being a translator in the middle of an argument.

The deflating intertube

2008-08-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

So made friends with my suite mate at the hostel in Yangshuo and we decided to go down the Li River by intertube. A lot of guessing and walking around later, we came to the conclusion that there was no person renting out intertubes so we bought one at a store. Was 15RMB. We took off for the river and started floating. The river near Yangshuo is actually fairly slow. We had to use our shoes to paddle down the river. We saw some ducks and a fair amount of trash. And right we were about to get to faster flowing part of the river, my intertube started sputtering. It was a hole that would deflate our planned journey to the city of Fuli.

After that bump in our journey. We took a motorcycle back to town. We went our separate ways. I rented a bike out to Moon Hill and it was really fun. The scenery is perfect as always in this area. The climb was fairly exhausting up Moon Hill. Every climber has an old woman following them. I thought they were like ghosts following you. I actually tried to ditch mine by going faster (I know :P Not very nice). But you get tired and they are slowly but surely catching up to you. They want to sell you water, soft drinks, and postcards. I was reminded of Bubble Bobble and the white whale that chases you if you are too slow.

Yangshuo has this tiny slushie stand that serves the best passion fruit slushie I had. They used actual passion fruit... preserves. A little better than the concentrate syrups. It is so refreshing on a hot summer day.

I am so physically tired that I just want to rest for a day but I can do that on the train and at Kunming airport. This is all warmup for Tiger Leaping Gorge. Gorge; I am afraid of you but I am getting prepared!!!

EDIT: The slushie stand is close to Global Cafe. On the cross street that intersects West Street closer to the Li River. Alas, the girl who've I kind of gotten to know says she is selling the place. So get there quickly! Don't know if the management will stay the same.

Swimming in River Grass

2008-08-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

My eye is bugging me so this entry will be briefer than the other entries so far. Let me say that Yangshuo is kinda expensive. Any kind of activity costs at least 20RMB. I took an hour river ride today and swam in the river. The kid driving the boat took me to the end where there was some grilled fish for 3RMB. Pretty good but lots of bones. Damn river fish. I swam in the river for about 5 minutes. Boy am I out of shape (getting more worried about Tiger Leaping Gorge). Lots of river grass were getting caught between my fingers.

I need to find cheap alternatives. I might either go intertubing to Fuli or go to Yangdi to check out that part of the Li River.

Enter Jurassic Park - minus the dinosaurs and killing

2008-08-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Forgot what I said about being glad I stayed in Guilin the extra day. Yangshuo is so much better. The karst mountains are actually right beside instead of 3 kilometers away. On the bus ride here the scenery just kept getting better and better. I couldn't decide whether to look right or left.

I got into the town center and there were plenty of people offering bike rentals and tour information. Trusting one wasn't the best idea as she lead me to a different hostel and not the hostel I booked. Really glad I stuck to my guns and went to the original hostel I booked. It's off Xi Jie (noisy party street) but still only like a minute walk away from the river and Xi Jie.

Met cool German, Aussie, and Taiwanese dude and went on a river bike ride with them. They went on a fast pace and it was hard keeping up in the beginning. Took lots of awesome pictures. Went through small villages. My bike got caught in this huge pothole and did a forward 360. Luckily the dip put my feet on the ground and I just ran forward. The lanes we took were really narrow and extremely bumpy. At the end of the Yunlong River we took a bamboo raft that took about 3 hours to get back to the beginning of the path. It was the perfect ending to the afternoon. The boat driver recommended this village restaurant and we ate there. The food was actually really except there were mosquitoes all over the food and one actually laid a larva into my standing tea.

Rode back into town in the dark and it was really annoying when motorbikes and cars turned their high beams on us. Definitely lost sight of the road for a good second each time.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Planning to go to a neighboring village called Fuli for their village market.

Tea on a Lake

2008-08-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

A much better day in Guilin than the first. The weather was not as humid today as the other day. My plan was to go through the city on foot and follow the river. It was pretty cool. Went on a very rickety old wooden bridge with no railing. It was just hoping the planks wouldn't give and these local Chinese people were just riding their motorcycles over the bridge. I'll post picture when I get the chance.

Then I kept following the river and inexplicably got lost in the residential districts amid some karst hills. I eventually hit a big street with a lot shops making and selling veranda railings and stair railings. Finally, I broke down and asked a local for directions to the main street of the city. It turns out I was in the very western edge of the city. Still not knowing for sure where I was, I hoped that the local woman was telling the truth and kept going. Eventually came upon a lake looking onto the main street. The views from the lake were gorgeous. It made the extra day in Guilin worth it. Got a good picture from here. It might have been the heat or the mountain views but I wanted tea and there was a teahouse on the lake. I was the only person insane enough to drink hot tea on a summer day, but it was sublime. The tea made my body want to cool down and there was an old woman playing a Chinese string instrument similar to a guitar but layed flat.

Met an Australian and New Zealander in my hostel. Cool people and well-traveled. Can't wait to see what YangShuo has in store for me tomorrow.

(Side Note: Internet cafes are a godsend and curse. So easy to use and everywhere, but goddamn my lungs are crying because of all the smoke in these places)

Guilin's Mosquito Mist

2008-08-26T00:48:00.001-07:00

Arrived in Guilin this morning and my first impression was, 'Wow, this really does look like the watercolor paintings hanging in museums around China'. I took the 20RMB bus shuttle from the airport to the CAAC building and then took a short cab ride. The cab driver was trying to persuade me to go to other hotels. This one is only 100RMB. Fuck man... I am paying 30 RMB for dingy room already. No need to spend more for dingy room with service.

The hostel I am staying at is well... a hostel. Little room, bunk beds crammed like sardines. What do I do but live with it. At least, the room has A/C even if it is weak.

It's almost four and I haven't eaten lunch yet. Just gonna skip straight to dinner. Had breakfast that consisted of preserved gourd of some sort of rice porridge on the plane ride. I am still scared whenever I fly but it's much better than that flight from London to Beijing.

Went to the Sevent Star Park and what rip-off. It is a nice park and it has the really cool karst formation called 'Camel Hill' but I was in and out and in like 2 hours. They had this tour of some cave within a karst hill. The guide kept describing all the stalactites as tigers or lions or elephants. I guess all the rocks look animals to the Chinese people here.

When I got out of the cave, (this is where the title of this entry comes in) I was bitten six times by mosquitoes within a span of ten seconds. I was taking a picture when I felt a tickle on my leg. Taking a look at what is feeling me up I see three fucking mosquitoes. Didn't get any of them and I guess I didn't see the other three but damn. I ran like hell out of there. My legs itch like crazy. Take note to bring bug repellant if you ever go to Guilin. It's worth noting that the park had many bodies of stagnant water. Perfect conditions for mosquito paradise. I saw a white haired yak today and it was so beautiful. I don't think I can eat yak meat again. It exuded a regal presence about it and had the roundest eyes I have seen. A deep green in color.

Don't know what the hell I am going to do for the next day in Guilin but I sure am not going to another park. Somewhere along the gushing Li River, por favor.

Dole grapefruit juice and the Friday morning.

2008-07-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

It's Friday morning! Yay! It's only two more weeks until I'm out of this chapter of my life and moving onto the next. A little sad but more than relieved. I really believe I became complacent and dulled whatever sharp aptitude for learning I had. No more German language learning, no more meeting new people, no more lust for travel. A change of scenery will be good. Not that I didn't get a lot out of it, but in this little corner of the world, my life just sucked.

I bought a whole 1.8L carton of Dole grapefruit juice Monday and now I have more than have of it to finish today. The 'finish within 5 days of opening' label must have hidden away from my morning grime-crusted gaze. Oops. So more grapefruit juice for me today! Yay! I wonder what my high score on text twist will be today.

Oh! I have a rough plan of how I plan to travel.

China
Kunming
Lijiang
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Kunming (transit)
Lhasa
Rhongpu Monastery
Everest Base Camp
Lhasa (transit)
Guilin
Yangshuo
Shenzhen (transit)
Hong Kong
Macau
Taipei

Southeast Asia
Thailand(where?)
Phnom Penh
Angkor Wat
Phnom Penh (transit)
Hanoi
Halong Bay
Hanoi (transit)
Penang Bay
Singapore
Taipei (>Home)

Long Trip eh? Should take a good 2 months or so. I really need to buy all the Southeast Asia airline tickets, but a more defined plan is in order.

Ode to the ZigZag

2008-07-16T22:14:00.001-07:00

ZigZag, how I love thee. Let me count the ways... One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand.

Summer life in China has become so much more bearable because of this orange, yellow standard bearer of freezing cold ice. It has a consistency like slushie except it's on stick!

Zigzag is bright and yellow,
Giving relief to this fellow,
Life giving orange band
Almost looking like a contraband.
Quench my thirst in thirty seconds
A pop that my stomach beckons.
Hail to zigzag on this summer day
Hail! Hail to the savior, I say!

How I Eat: Pho

2008-07-14T02:03:00.000-07:00

Pho is a Vietnamese rice noodle dish in piping-hot, clear beef broth with thin slices of beef. Other potential ingredients are tripe, meatballs, beed tendon, and chicken meat. A side plate of: bean sprouts, cilantro, Thai Basil, chili pepper, and slices of lime is presented to you to flavor the soup to your taste palette. Hoisin sauce and the Thai hot sauce, Sriracha, are also usually available to flavor the soup.

My first encounter with this hearty yet light Vietnamese dish was at one of my mother's friend's house. It was during the weekend and my mother's friends were having a social gathering. The children played games and watched television together while the adults played games of Mahjong. Usually, the adults would order delivery from the local Chinese restaurant and they did, for most of the guests. However, the children of the host wanted Pho. The Chinese food came first and readily accepted this food. After most of the guests have settled into after dinner relaxation, the Pho came. I still remember the aroma of the beef broth and the plethora of exotic ingredients being put into a large bowl to be harmoniously joined together to create a heavenly dish.

Shortly after that party, I started to eat Pho on a more regular basis. My family's house is actually only a 5 minute drive from a local Pho restaurant. Pho is a dish I consider comfort food. The soup is soothingly hot, the beef is rich and hearty, the herbs give the entire dish explosive flavor highlights, and the rice noodles are still light, easy to chew. I have had my fare share Pho, mostly from this restaurant near my house. For me, the perfect Pho starts with the broth. Good, well-made beef broth can take sub-par meat or less than ideal herbs to deliver a great dining experience. I say this because of my Pho experience in China. They only give you one, count them, one sprig of Thai basil (this is actually my second most important ingredient for my Pho). The Pho was not perfect but acceptable, and I think it has to do with the broth.

To describe a good Pho experience for me, let us start from the beginning. Once I am presented with the soup, I separate the beef slices so they are not clumped together. This is to try to ensure that all pieces of the meat have been cooked thoroughly. While the meat is cooking, I quickly throw in the cilantro and mix it into the broth. Now comes the part where time is critical. The soup comes out pretty hot so that it can cook the raw slices of beef. While the soup is still hot, pluck out Thai basil leaves from the sprigs and cook them in the broth. This allows the basil to cook and release its flavors. The color of the basil leaves will change to a dark green. Take the lime wedge and squeeze the juice out. I usually use about two lime wedges. It brings out a brighter citrus flavor, which I think goes really well with the basil. Toss in some bean sprouts for good measure. Not a lot as the previous preparation already took a long time and the bean sprouts won't cook quickly because the soup would have cooled down a little by now.

Enough with the preparation foreplay and dig in. I take the hoisin sauce and put it into a side dish to dip my beef slices, briskets, tendons, tripe, and meatballs into. As a filling Pho experience, I almost always polish off the soup. Soup is still the main ingredient and there is nothing more satisfying slurping up that last drop.

Programming and Me

2008-07-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

Why am I attempting to program again? Web apps are probably easier to handle than I think they are. The problem with programming is that I was never great to begin with. The fondness and the interest is there but the skill ain't up to snuff... It is a puzzle that I was never able to fully finish.

For the past few weeks I have been playing around with Flex and Actionscript. Pretty simple stuff actually. Actionscript is not very hard at all. Everything is fine except for the big picture. The deployment part of it is the question. How do I connect to the database? What are 'pages' in a flash application.? Questions I hope to answer very soon.

In other news, the weather in Beijing has been surprisingly good. I should be in a Starbucks somewhere writing this and just chill-axing. Trauma Center 2 on the DS is fairly addicting and, might I add, a beaten game (whoohoo!)

F@#k Firewalls

2008-05-25T20:32:00.001-07:00

In other news, Beijing pollution is at all-time grim. At least, my throat doesn't feel like someone's stabbing me with spork everytime I gulp. Only the slightest burn left.

Today is not an especially good day for random ramblings. My head feels like it's about to explode and I despise my work environment more and more. Why aren't we in Haidian like the other sensible tech companies!?

I got a new camera when I was in the states in April. Got myself a Canon s5is. Pretty bulky. Pretty much only going to use it for traveling. It should be pretty fun. I want to buy a converter lens and a telephoto lens for it. I also need a bag. Insightful writing has gone out the window.

Alright, some more coherent thoughts. Yesterday, I went to a Berkeley Club Reception in Haidian. That means that there were a lot of rich managerial folks and lots of 'friends' who are here to look for their next big opportunity. Networking is fine and all, but you rarely hear back from these people. The VIA buidling, where the event was held, was really nice except that they had no fucking AC. It's sweltering hot and people were sweating through their cheap 'Armami' knockoffs. But hey, it's pretty cool that I know that an alumni has made it so big. It is more tangible than just reading it in an alumni newsletter.

Good grief, I need to get out of here.

Shoe-a-holic

2007-07-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

So I think I'm starting to turn into a shoe-a-holic. I've been looking at these sites and off such as zappos, endless, piperlime. Today there was an ad for piperlime.com in my email and I just couldn't resist. On the first page, already I wanted 3 pairs of loafers and 2 sneakers.

I think this might be residual guilt of not having bought those Adidas I wanted when I was in Europe. I already have too many shoes here in China. About 7 pairs in fact. That's too much to be traveling around with. I'll probably be taking some of them back to the US when I get home. Probably the Kenneth Coles and one of the Mossimos.

In other news, I have been sick with this cough for about 3 days now... Not getting that much better though. Still have the cough but the fever is gone. Stupid chinese firewall had to force me to use a proxy to post on my blog.

May Golden Week

2007-05-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

Golden week is a seven day holiday starting from the first of May.

My vacation plan for golden week was to visit my grandmother's house in Sichuan province. She lived in the cities of Chengdu and Nanchong. I also saw my greataunt and greatuncle.

I hope I don't forget anything.

Day One, Two:
Proved to be a very long train ride. The train took off at around 11am on the first of May. My aunt was so worried. Don't talk to strangers. Always have your wallet with you. Thank god I brought water. I hardly ate anything except for the fruits that were brought with me. The train ride was bout 30 hours. That's right 30 hours. Didn't talk to anyone at all. To let you know the setup. There are about 6 beds. Each bed is about 180cm. Just about my height. The bed is about 2 feet wide and 2 feed in height. Comfortable enough to sleep when you're really tired. Second day was really boring. I arrived at 6pm and saw my cousin.

The hotel was okay but the service was good. Another cousin picked us up to go to temple area for dinner. We had a vegetarian dinner. Not very good. Imitation meat was not very good. But the temple area was pretty cool. Lots of chinese architecture unlike Beijing.

Day Three:
Went to Qingcheng Shan. A taoist temple mountain. Our tourbus was an hour late. The tourguide wasn't very good. The other tourists complain a lot. Damn never again will I travel during a government holiday in China. It's so bad that we waited for the lift for about 2 hours. We only saw the top of the mountain for about 30 minutes and had to rush back. Had hotpot for dinner. Spicy food again.

Day Four:
Saw my grandaunt and had some Chengdu snacks. Some of them were really good. A lot of them were spicy. Left for Nanchong and saw some other cousins. Finally some non-spicy food.

Day Five:
Saw where my grandmother's house was. Shopped a little. Went to hotpot again. My stomach isn't handling it well.

Day Six:
Crazy day. I was suppose to go back to Beijing today but there were no trains to Beijing. After a lot of pondering, my cousin decided to fly me home instead. This part is really interesting. We were in the rush all the time. He was trying to transfer money from Beijing. But we were so late for the flight already that I just paid for it first. The taxi driver was driving like a mad man. We almost ran over a local grandmother and a kid. It was crazy driving so fast through residential streets.

Had to transfer at Chengdu. There were no economy seats so they had to bump me up to first class. Not so much different. Stewardesses are more attentive. That's it. First class lounge is really nothing.. Maybe international first class than domestic first class. hehe...

Day Seven:
Day of rest... yay!!

2007-04-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

This guy always makes me laugh. His job is so easy and mundane, but he treats it so seriously. He's always muttering and you can't really understand what he's saying. His voice carries a bit too.

Before I Forget

2007-04-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

There has been something that needs to be said about this capital city of the most populous nation on Earth. It sucks. Doesn't mean I can't make it my own and have a great time. Like they say when in Rome. But this isn't Rome. This is the foul-stenched, dry as a lizard's ass, rude as Rush Limbaugh without his pills crap city known Beijing.

First the dryness. My god it's so dry that I'm bleeding. Literally bleeding. I have patches of scabs all over my legs and back. I was recommended to get a humidifier. They sell for about 100-300 RMB. Relatively cheap for the comfort of non-bleeding skin. But being the cheap bastard that I am, I haven't bought it yet. What the hell? I know.

Foul -stench. People smell. Almost everyone has halitosis. Sewage lines break and yea. Poop city in front of your building. Appetizing.

Rude people. I loathe thee.

In other news, I've been trying to find stuff for me to do. I might audition for a community theater, take up swing dancing, or join a book club. Weird options eh? But that's what I have found available on the expat forums and I really don't have a choice. My chinese is not good enough. Hopefully, one of these will be fun!!

Beijing Peking

2007-04-03T03:16:00.000-07:00

So I've been in China for a week and two days now. Well it's definitely an interesting place. You can definitely tell you are not in the developed world anymore. It's the little things like the ill-planned traffic and transportation plans to the constant weird smells here. The people... I'll put it onto cultural differences.

People here very crass and a little rude to a foreigner such as myself. People spit everywhere. My uncle whom I met recently find it shocking that people are so affronted by the idea of spitting in public. The people just let one rip anywhere. Laying in the park. IN THE ELEVATOR!! OMG I can't believe I went up 21 floors without passing out. There's just a different sense of decency here. People here are like the Chinese people I met in Europe, they don't reply to you when you say hello or goodbye. That goes for some of my co-workers too.

Work is the same. A little tiring trying to catch up from the one week of non-stop case studies and packing. The people at work are cliquey. They all have their own cliques and it's hard to integrate. I hope it'll be better once Adam and the new BA's get here. I know the feeling I have right now. I'm not even going to type it but I have to do something about it or it's going to eat away at me. I fear I might be in over my head. Happiness has to be created like I how had it in Germany. God. Ich vermisse dich Deutschland. Why did I leave again?

Why I do what I do.

2007-02-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my good friend from Monterey, Mexico e-mailed after a year of no correspondence. I met this guy in July of 2005 and have known him for a full five months. When I was reading his email I just couldn't stop smiling. All these memories just kept flooding back to me and I was there in Germany again. In the warm sun of a european summer eating gelato and laying on the cool grass with my friends. I really loved the time I had in Germany. 2005 was a good year. If I loved it so much, I wonder why I didn't stay? My reasoning for going to Europe was that I wanted to relive and recapture what it was about my childhood there that I loved so much. It was everything from the surly people, but I think it was just the place. The hills, green forests, old towns. This all relates to the MBA panel I went to yesterday. Why do I want to get an MBA? It's not an easy question. I want to expand my horizons. I want to know more than just China, more than just Europe, more than what I know. I want to get to know the people in this world. What are their motivations. I shouldn't be so scared of people. They aren't that much different. Well so more than others. Sometimes I believe it's that I'm always running. Maybe it's time to stop running.

au revoir

2007-01-13T06:09:00.000-08:00

There is a trend toward me saying goodbye to a lot of people lately. In the last year and a half, I've lived three different lives and each different and unique. School life was definitely up there in quality of life and ambitious ventures. Probably not the most successful. I'm rambling.

I've said good-byes to college buddies and they lead their own lives in the bay area. I've said my good-byes to my Germany buddies. Those were actually harder to do. We live an ocean apart and it seems like I won't be in their lives rarely if never. I had a really great time with my buddies in Germany. I was so much more open and free. I miss them a lot. Everytime I hear german or smell beer or even the slightest whiff of Bratwurst. Now I have to say goodbye again to my family and to friends that I have become re-acquainted with. There is never a good time for goodbyes.

I am insecure in my sadness. Funny.

Growing Pains

2007-01-10T05:56:00.000-08:00

So just a week and half left until I leave for San Francisco and I am getting more and more nervous. I doubt my own ability to effectively do the job. I have been reading almost non-stop for the past few days. The pile of training materials that I have to go through is a lot. A lot of it is interesting so far. My favorite one probably has to be 'Competition Demystified'. It's the most knowledgable tome out of the ones I read and it gives a good overview of what business strategy and analysis is in a competitive environment.

I don't know if I am ready for the next step. Will I feel it? I knew when I was in Germany, I felt more grown-up. I had made friends quickly and got along with them really well. I cooked, cleaned, did my bills, rationed my earnings, had fun, and lived like the world would never end. There was no yelling, illness, pain. After I came back to the US, I felt the emptiness of lethargy. It's painful to think that I was once so productive in Germany and then everything came to a halt. I mean California is great but I was always curious to find out more abroad. I don't have that curiosity here.

I am getting more and more apprehensive about moving to Beijing. All I hear is duststorms, pollution, traffic, people spitting everywhere, etc. All negative things. My earning power is going to be insane there, but I definitely want the US to be home. I love CA. I love Europe. I guess it's time to find out what I feel about my ancestral home. Never know... I might like it there.

God of War

2007-01-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

I really want to play it now. I have been thinking about what I should do before I start to get into training full time in SF and it's been video games. Resident Evil 4 is definitely a good game but God of War looks similar to Prince of Persia with a lot more blood and gore. Also the gameplay looks amazing.

Friends and "Friends"

2006-12-30T02:59:00.000-08:00

It's getting close to the year 2007 and the days leading up to the New Year have been a dvdfest of Friends and more Friends. This year has also been the year of getting to know some of my high school friends better. It's really great that I have them or would have gone bonkers. So a shout-out to all those frisbee folks and dinner folks.

I also finished Final Fantasy XII recently and I have to say that the game is completely rich and dense but not fully fleshed out. The story is grand but really different from the others. It's not as epic as the previous games. They have the save the world. This is one is just save a country or land. I think something closer to FF Tactics would have been better. There are so many unanswered questions. Just like Dreamfall...

Resident Evil... 4!

2006-12-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

I have been playing Resident Evil 4 for a while. I have to admit that it is a pretty fun game, but as of right now, it's getting kind of difficult. I wonder if I should have gotten God of War instead. That also seems like it would be a very fun game. People have said that Devil May Cry was suppose to be good but I never got the hang of it and could never beat the first boss. Damn giant fire spider.

Anyways, all of this is a distraction from my training materials. I am about 4/10 of the way through my first book and I have seven more books to go. I just have to press on a little each day. I really should start to do the Google thing again. My money is depleting faster than usual because of my spending for the holidays. Hopefully, I can hit four hours today using my special method. Hohoho.

I have been watching Friends the last week starting from season three. I am now at season seven and damn some of the material is really funny. And it definitely helps that these characters are relatable. Sometimes I wish my life could be an episode of Friends.

Culebran Cobia

2006-12-21T04:51:00.000-08:00

During my nightly owl sessions sitting in front of the TV watching World News Now on ABC, they had this Nightline playback segment on future fish farms. By the way, if you are ever up late at night, WNN is a great program. They're funny and light-hearted but not stupid and cheeky like the morning programs.

Anyways, back to the fishfarms. They were spotlighting these new eco-friendly fishfarms or Open Ocean Aquacultures. It's being introduced by a company called Snapperfarm and they're cultivating a fish called Cobia or Black Salmon. The flesh is suppose to be white but whatever. When they talk about the old fish farms and how they pollute the oceans, it makes me kind of sick. So this is how most fish farms work today. They are close to the shore and bred in captivity. That's all fine and good except that in the shallow waters, there are no strong currents. With no strong currents it's easier to manage and swim with the fish but the tepid water allows the growth of algae and bacteria due to the accumulated waste from the fish. And these are the fish we eat. No wonder most sushi restaurants are not very good. It's because the cheap fish they buy swim and 'breathe' in their own filth. Plus all this filth destroys the surrounding atmosphere. These sustainable aquacultures are raised about 2 miles away in the open ocean where there are strong currents to keep fresh water flowing into the fish cages. It really just sounds like a good idea and much more appetizing than the old method.

I wonder when I'll see Cobia. Probably not soon since I'm going to Beijing. I wonder then when CA will have Cobia as a regular fish.

Check out the site. http://www.snapperfarm.com/

Holiday Thoughts... Past and Present

2006-12-19T02:28:00.000-08:00

The way things are turning is kind of weird. If someone told me a year ago that I was going to go to China to work, I would be highly skeptical about the notion. I mean from what I hear Beijing is not the ideal city for me. Even before I saw the job opening I was skeptical about visiting Beijing as a tourist. I mean the biggest disappointment is the constant air pollution. I have always thought that I would end up in San Francisco. The city is nonpareil to all other cities in the world. I mean London has its great walking streets and neighborhoods. Amsterdam has its unique water canals. But San Francisco is the city I fell in love with. It's just like Tony Bennett said. I left my heart in San Francisco. The clean air. The winding hilly streets.

Anyways, back to Beijing. The pollution, overpopulation, and destruction of historic neighborhoods. Let's hope it will get better and better as it approaches arrival day. I'm still waiting for the training materials to arrive. Although, USPS is extremely busy this time of the year, they better get my stuff here soon damnit.

Now... back to the original topic. The holidays this year is kind of weird. My sister is going off to Yosemite to the cold and damp. My brother is going to be in Taiwan. This is going to be a Christmas reminiscent of the previous Christmases I had. There have only been a few Christmases that were really special. Last holiday season was great. IAESTE had a holiday party and we had blast. Appetizers, good hearty german food, awesome pastries and apertifs. It was definitely great. The company of good friends and pals. This year will probably about sitting in front of the TV and watching Charlie Brown Christmas.

Oh my... This is sad... But let's see what I can do to make it better. ^_^

Career!

2006-12-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

So I've finally accepted the offer from Aragon Consulting Group. I think the thing I am most worried about is having the support structure in Beijing. When I went to Germany, I knew that I was going to be taken care of. The local committee of IAESTE of Stuttgart is one of the bigger ones and I got a lot of help with bank accounts, bills, and all those sorts of things. So Beijing. Kinda scary. Plus, three years with a couple of trips home. Beijing will become temporary home for three years. Scary. haha.

Thanksgiving Holiday

2006-11-28T21:30:00.000-08:00

So I am now officially 24 years of age. I have had a reasonably good life with no real bad altercations. The dinner that I cooked for my friends was considerable. It is probably something I won't do for a long time. The prime roast was such a headache to make and the mashed potatoes didn't come out quite the way I wanted. So I had basically two Thanksgiving dinners. One on Wednesday to celebrate with my friends on my birthday and another with my family.

Wednesday night dinner was pretty good. Conversation was good until the end of the party. It was a five course meal:

Spring Cucumber Shrimp Salad - Was much easier to make than I thought. It wasn't too bad without the raw tuna. Next time I think I will add something to crisp it up. The cucumbers didn't add the right texture. Maybe bacon bits added at the end.

Tomato Vegetable Puree Soup - Traditional and reminded me of my trip through Europe and the many tomato soups I had to keep me warm in the winter.

Mashed Potatoes - Definitely not as creamy as I had hoped it would be. I didn't have enough butter to mix it properly.

Prime Rib Roast - I cooked it for about 30-40 minutes too long. All of the insides were practically cooked with no pink flesh. Much tougher than I had wanted.

Chocolate Domingo cake/Pumpkin Gooey Cake - Chocolate cake was delicious like before, but the Gooey Cake didn't fare so well.

Thursday night we had hotpot. I love having my sauce of satay, soy sauce, rice vinegar, raw egg yolk, scallions, cilantro, sesame oil, and sugar. Meat was good. Tofu was good. Too bad there weren't and taro.

Avenue Q - It Sucks to be me

2006-11-21T16:13:00.001-08:00

Musicals are funny things. I've only seen the ones produced by my high school and some other comedy ones at the Pantages and Ahmanson. I wanted to see this one. It looks really funny and entertaining.

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner

2006-11-21T01:12:00.000-08:00

So this is kinda like birthday/pre-thanksgiving dinner/every weekend get together/??. It is happening in two days and I am kind of nervous about the amount of people here. What the hell is with up with these people wanting to invite all these anonymous people? People meaning this rumor I heard that Ms. Wu was gonna try and set me up. I am in no mood to be hooking up. And no physical state either. My face has gained back the fat I lost in Europe and my 'irritation' on my face never seems to go away.

The guest list so far is John(me), James, Richard, Anna, Mirna, Cindy, David. This what I know. Then I have to make extra for my family. Mom, Dennis, grandparents, Dennis' TW friend. This is a dozen people. I think they'll have to be happy with scraps. haha.

So the menu so far is:

Tomato Vegetable Puree Soup
(I am going to try to replicate the soup that Jenny made two years ago. We got the recipe incidentally at Costco while flipping through a cookbook and now I can't find a recipe online. Maybe I should pour over the cookbooks we have at home.)

Potato Salad w/Cucumbers and Apples cubes
(Hopefully I can replicate Angel's recipe pretty easily)

Tuna Tartare
(I really wanted to make use of all these fucking avocados around our house. Tuna tartare seems like a good choice. Now I just have to find some fresh sashimi grade tuna.. G'luck John. This the second hardest dish in my menu)

Prime Rib
(Easy to do. I've done it twice. Both times with great results.)

Sides: Mashed Potatoes and Bacon Corn
(Should be fairly easy to do. Hopefully)

Pumpkin Butter Gooey Cake
(This should be the hardest dish to pull off. Cakes and baking are always so unpredictable with my track record.)

I'm pretty excited and apprehensive about this menu. Everything besides the tuna tartare and the Pumpkin Cake should be easy to pull off.

Dizzying games!

2006-11-20T16:56:00.000-08:00

There are some games that just make you nauseuous after a certain amount of time playing them. My first encounter with those types of games was with Duke Nukem. Or was it Doom. I don't exactly remember. Well, I was playing with Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando and boy am I dizzy now. My god why do I even play these games. Stupid games. I just wanted a break from Final Fantasy XII but I didn't want to be sick.

Two days until I celebrate 24 years and I have a weird varied life to celebrate. Hopefully, my guests won't make too much of a hullabaloo. The dinner is keeping me on my toes. Sick. Hopefully, this nausea will pass very soon.