scribbles

'Tis the Season to be Busy

I went to the Anita Mui concert. Ah, good ol' Chinese concerts with singers that have been on stage longer than I've been alive. Lots of fun without the worry of getting shoved around in the mosh!

After finishing Hard-Boiled Wonderland, I had nothing interesting to flip through. I was going to drop by the book store and perhaps pick up another Murakami (or one of those will-read-in-future books on my list), but then the sister decided to recommend Chronicles of Narnia to me and threw the first book at me. Welp, so now I'm going through that.

Last friday, I watched Minority Report. Good film: go watch it. :)

Oh, yes, and AX is next week! Long Beach awaits my arrival! You may have noticed I haven't watched anything in a while. Well, I keep myself busy with various other things. Hey, maybe I'll catch up on things at the Expo.

In other news, today I was cooking pasta. Now, you see, I'm not one to follow directions (such as recipes) very often and instead have a tendency to go off into inventive tangentals. So, today, I made Tomataroni: Tomatoed Macaroni. Delish!

Return of the Jedi

Alright, so I got back on Sunday, not today. What can I say: I've got more pressing matters than updating my website a google times a day!

Some of you may have noticed that I've finished Heartbreaking Work and started Hard-Boiled Wonderland. As I noted in my log, Eggers isn't really all that and a bag of chips like some people may say he is. I do like the one page where he spells out the symbolism in the book for you, however.

So, what did I do in the great north yonder of Toronto? Of course, I met up with old friends and ate
too much freakin' food. I also met up with new folks, such as a dude we call Gortex; and there was also a whole slew of new cool cats that I went to dinner and dance with.

Speaking of dinner and over-eating, I had the luxury of going to a trendy place in Toronto called Marche twice! The place is like a little market (it even smells like one!) where you walk from stand to stand and order foods. It's a pretty impressive concept!

And I also had a good time roaming around the halls of secret underground tunnels; that network they've got down (err, up) there is incredible. I've mentioned this to some people before: playing Capture-The-Flag in a mall. Now, down in these tunnels, CTF would be awesome. As I walked along those halls, I kept imagining running around with a BFG shooting down imps....

Anyhoo, I'm back! So everyone can rejoice and celebrate! Meanwhile, one of my best buds has just left for Japan to party like the crazy
monkey he is! (You better send me pics, darnit!)

(note: the "eh" is a lot like the "ne" in Nihon-go :P)

Toronto '02

Heyo! I'm in Toronto, Canada for a few days!

In the meantime, shout outs to friends, foes, stalkers, and strangers in Oakland, B-Town (werd to da Voltron Crew), SF, Santa Clara (hmm?), SJ, Aggie-land, Santa Barbara, Lost Angel-ass, China (???), and all my folk in the right-coast that I'm too lazy to mention.

Seeya when I'm back!

Sound in the Night: Part Deux

The past few nights, I've been lazy and haven't been staying around to look for the elusive Phantom Sound. There are some who claim to have heard it before the designated 2am: I am doubtful!

But! there's been a breakthrough tonight! At 2:04am, I set up shop: pulling up the blinds and placing a chair with a good view of the street. After a good amount of restlessness (and a good long piss!), 2:11 arrived, and so did an old-school Corolla (did you know they call those things "Corona"s in Japan?). It drives onto my street from a perpendicular street (see pink line in figure). So, I'm just thinking, this is a regular ol' car driving around at night: doesn't sound strange, just an ordinary engine sound. Well, here's where it gets funky; the car stops at Point A and throws a newspaper at Apartment C. At this point, the Corolla slaps itself into reverse and backs up the hill (purple line in figure), all the while making a strange whirring noise, until it turns into Point B. Then, it gets back into gear and rides on up the hill in normal fashion; meanwhile, I'm at Point D, watching/hearing in amazement.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen: I have seen the source of the Phantom Sound.

At this point, I just had to find out what newspaper is being delivered at 2am every morning. I snuck out and took a peek (with the possibility of being seen and labelled a newspaper thief; oh! the danger!) to find out that it's the New York Times!

Another case solved by everyone's favorite hero!

The Sound in the Night

Every night, a little after 2am, sometimes a little more after 2am, it comes. Like a ghost, tip-toeing on an old creaky floor, it comes! I hear it! Like Kawabata's sounding of the mountain, or Murakami's winding of the bird: I hear it! Tonight, I waited for it; at 2am, I set-up and stared out, half-expecting and half-knowing that I would or would not see it. Tonight, I waited for it; at 2am, I set-up and stared out, half-expecting and half-knowing that I would or would not see it. It knows! It knows when I'm waiting, and it knows when I'm least expecting it. It's this sound, this electric whirring sound, and each night, it teases me! Yesterday, it arrived at 2:15am. The night before, 2:03am. The night before that, 2:01am. But tonight, it has not come! It knows. Or maybe it just takes holidays on Thursday mornings.

Shit! I missed it! I'm busy typing this, and at 2:31am, it comes! I shake my fist in fury!

That aside, earlier tonight, I heard a song on the radio that I really enjoyed; it's called Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull. I love how it starts with a jazzy piano solo!

Anyhow, I'll continue to shake my fist at the phantom sound in the night!

I'm the Man!

The night started with us heading to Jillian's at the Metreon in San Francisco. We were set on playing pool, but it turns out the pool room was having a private party for a group called JMP Securities. We sat around at the bar for a bit, waiting for them to clear out, but waiting for 10 minutes turned out to be another 10-15 minutes, and then another 10 minutes... well, we just decided that we'd go somewhere else instead.

So we headed to Family's Billiards on Geary; it seems to be a popular asian hangout. It was my first time there, and I noticed that the pool tables were rather, erm, dirty. It's obvious that Thalassa has better tables. Anyways, we had a few good games and decided to call it quits.

I wanted to scope out a place called Radio's in Oakland, so we stopped in and took a peek around. The place is puny! But the crowd is intruiging!

Well, at the end of it all, I was on my way back home when I hear this guy in an old Volvo honking to a nearby car, yelling, "Hey! Do you know where we can get donuts?!" I quickly roll down my window and tell'em, "I know! Just follow me!" So he follows me until I hit the local 24hr donut shop in my neighborhood, and the last thing I hear as I'm rolling away is: "You're the man! You are the man!" :)

It's June!

It seems like some of you folks are pining for an update. Fear not, my adoring fans, I'll not leave you stranded in the dark world that is without moi! (Sometimes, I just don't feel like updating, though, so ha! Neener, neener!)

I finished Wind-Up Bird Chronicle a few days ago, and I thought it enjoyable. Murakami writes like he's sneakily growing a tree; and as it grows, he sneaks around, stringing the branches together. Now, I said I was gonna move on to Heartbreaking Work, but I've been side-tracked by Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene--such fas-kin-ating ideas! I promise, I'll do Heartbreaking Work next!

Thursday night, I visited an interesting venue in San Francisco known as Shanghai 1930. The first thing I see when I step into the door is a big red carpet leading me down into this underground hide-out of a restaurant/bar. I felt so sneaky just being there! That aside (well, not that that's necessarily a bad thing :P), the place is tre cool: blue backlit bar, live jazz band playing, extremely classy decor, and just overall stylin' atmosphere. Sweet!

And a few doors down is another classy place, Ozumo. This place has a huge sushi bar--with a view of the bay! The whole place is done in Nihon-style, and the seats against one side of the wall near the bar has pillows and seating so you can fold your legs up (and have some sake!). More sweetness!