I have 3 of these "poet shirt" type shirts

It's weird going through your old clothes. A few weeks ago I picked out a bunch that I knew I had not worn for a long while. I put them in a box and a luggage and left both in the living room. I was thinking, "Oh I will donate them to Salvation Army." Then a week ago I changed my mind, "Maybe I should take them to Out of the Closet." So day in and day out, they just sat there, next to my shoes, collecting more dust. Today I finally decided to check on them again so I could get them out of the apartment for good. Then just like that, suddenly I felt like I should hang onto them! This jacket looked fine. That shirt still looked new. I thought to myself, "Why would I get rid of them? I should keep these!" I even tried them on again to convince myself they were just as good as new since I didn't wear them for years. I wanted to save them from my heartless expulsion! Then I realized one thing, that there's a reason I forgot about them. There's a reason why they were hidden in the back corners inside my super cramped, small closet. They have simply passed their prime. They no longer represent their best. And, I look ridiculous or just so wrong in them, even if they fit me fine. So I put them away once again. I wish my mom was here. She would just throw them out without mercy. What is it with men? I notice a lot of men just hold on to old stuff permanently. My dad is like this, with everything from car magazines to old furniture. I am going to bring them with me to Dave's tomorrow and perhaps we'll stop by Out of the Closet together. Gee, I just remember, he is like this too!!! Who knew saying goodbye to old, outdated clothes would be this hard?

Summer's here

I woke up kind of early this morning. It was already bright and sunny outside. "Ah the summer is here," I thought to myself. It was mostly a relaxing day. I did a little shopping at OfficeMax and Albertson's in the afternoon. Caritas was feeling ill and weak. She also was very homesick and crying sadly. I got her some bread and chatted with her on and off. Sometimes I feel there's nothing I can do to cheer her up, so I just listen. I hope she feels better soon.

Shaved Snow Ice

I went out with Megan tonight. We had dinner at Kanpai and drove across the street to Class 302 for shaved snow ice. Shaved snow ice and shaved ice are very similar. Both are shaved, thin ice topped with fresh fruits and/or Taiwanese treats, but snow ice is sweeter, softer, milkier and creamier. It's very popular in Taiwan, and in LA, it seems like only Class 302 serves this awesome, yummy icy dessert. Too bad and too late for us, it was "sold out" for the day :( We were pretty disappointed, so I drove us to Jungle Teabar for regular shaved ice instead. We ordered a Japanese "muo-cha" green tea shaved ice and a Moroccan coffee shaved ice, enjoyed them on their outdoor patio, chatted about everything from her long trips to random people around us. It was a perfect evening out, making at each other laugh out loud and enjoying sweet things.

Home mostly

Spent most of the day at home today. Went to Post Office and Trader Joe's in the morning, came back and stayed on the couch lazily. Watched a lot of random TV, took a short nap, ate tortilla with cheese, ran to the bathroom because of the cheese... Jose and Dave called right before 8 to see if I wanted to do Chinese vegetarian dinner. Of course! I shouldn't be having lactose, dairy anymore. Vege House is usually consistent and tonight was no different. We ordered Peking "Duck," stir-fried A vegetable, bean curd with gobo strips, and steamed pumpkin with "pork" in lotus leaf. I stuffed myself again. It was a great meal and full of vegetable awesomeness. I love hanging out with Dave and Jose. Whenever I get to spend time with my family I feel very lucky, very blessed.

Simple, Infectious, Fun

I spent a good amount of time on Youtube today, watching music videos, talk shows, clips of this and that. It definitely was better than watching the horrible TV programming which all concentracted on Michael Jackson. I didn't want to see or listen to another person saying how much MJ would be missed. If you weren't there to support him in the first place, I don't want to hear it.

I found a few music videos with an emphasis on hand-held, lively scenery element that I liked very much. Yes the music paired up nicely too :)

Who knew Jason Schwartzman from all them Wes Anderson movies could make sweet, simple melody like this? So pretty.
Any Fun - Coconut Records - Music Video


One of the prettier, infectious tunes by Taiwanese wonderboy Jay Chou:



A fun, upbeat song "Lov-ING" by the "heavenly band" Mayday:

Disturbed

I was at Carita's apartment when her husband called to tell her that Michael Jackson just died. Immediately we went to turn on her TV and watched the coverage over his death. I felt perplexed. Very. I still remember vividly when all the news he would get were negative, extremely negative. Every talking head on TV and radio was nasty towards him. They used to call him wacko jacko. They used to bash him mercilessly. I am not even talking about the supermarket tabloids or the PerezHilton's on the web. Michael Jackson was a joke. Yes he was a legend, but for the last, oh roughly 20 years, I couldn't remember anything about his work that made him a legend. When Michael Jackson was mentioned in the headlines then, it was about his plastic surgery, his abnormal behaviors, his child molestation cases, his inevitable bankruptcy, his strange marriages and children, I could go on and on... Nothing was ever positive. And all of sudden, today he was "innocent" and he was "loved." Wow! And all these random celebs came out to voice how sad, devastated they were! Wow again!! It was disturbing to watch and listen to, really. Where were these supporters when he was being attacked? Where were these positive, glowing quotes and praises for him in the last 20 years? Where?! I was disgusted. Why did the media subject us to this obvious, in-your-face hypocrisy? I seriously don't know what to say. I am sad that he's gone. But I'm a lot more grossed out by this intensely warm and fuzzy media reaction and overwhelmingly friendly TV programming covering his untimely death today.

Finally went

I had work today. Spent a few hours making a new ad and updating the site. I felt quite good to be useful. Went to the gym after work. Hurt my leg again. Every other week I manage to scrape one of my poor legs. Really should be more careful - I don't want to spread my blood all over the place. Yuck.


I finally visited Cheesecake Factory last night. A friend invited me after he found out that I never ate there before. He insisted on "popping my CF cherry" - I happily accepted. I had their Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, it was very decadent. Smooth, rich, started out slow then exploded with dark chocolate bitter-sweetness and flavor. I knew it was not the healthiest food to have late at night, but how could I refuse such deliciousness. I was very glad that I went.

Fish Fiber (sounds yucky in English)

I was a good boy today. Around dinner time I went to El Pollo Loco, thinking I was going to get a 8 PC for $6.99 and go back home. I looked around the place and saw the long line. I thought about it some more and walked out soon after. There was still stuff in the fridge and I should cook if I was to eat by myself. So I went to the supermarket, got some produce, and decided that I was going to make some soup at home. Oh, before I checked out at the market I saw different types of Taiwanese Fried Fish Fiber there. I knew it wasn't really on my list, but I was really craving it for some reason. So I got a can of Swordfish Fiber with Seaweed and had some when I came home. Usually I would eat it with rice, porridge, or soft toast, but I just couldn't wait to make stuff to go with it tonight. I just ate the fiber by itself. Oh it was SO delicious!

Stay Golden

Two birthdays this weekend: Caritas is celebrating her big day tomorrow, and Eric today. I hooked my awesome neighbor up with a prepaid cellphone, which she had been asking for and needing for a while. She was very happy, so was I when I surprised her yesterday. I sent Eric a Golden Girls' t-shirt, a very cute and small present. Thankfully he sounded like he loved it. I don't have that many Cancer, Leo, or Virgo friends... So I'm done with birthdays for a while.

Uneventful

Another uneventful day went by, which was nice. No news is good news, right? Well, I really would like to hear from one of the companies, organizations, or schools that I sent my resume to recently. Nothing has come back so far. So, other than continuing my search and thinking good thoughts, I try to find other stuff to focus on and tell myself something great is about to happen. The weekend is here again. I think I'm going to finally catch Star Trek and The Hangover. I hope the crowds have cool down somewhat.

There's a fair amount of tear-jerking Ch-Pop to go around these days. This one just dropped and really got me all sappy inside. Lost Sands by Lala Hsu:



Then there are ones like Baby that's so sweet it makes my heart sing :) Baby by Deserts Chang:



This is an oldie but goodie... both sweet and sentimental. She was a good friend of mine back when I was in Jr. High. Because by Fanfan:

Villains escaping

I'm so lucky. I have been having free HBO since last Friday. It's so awesome. So... I really like those scenes involving a villain escaping some type of prison 1/6 into the movie. I really liked the part where Tai Lung broke out from his imprisonment in Kung Fu Panda. I also loved, loved the part where Magneto escaped his plastic prison in X2. Of course, I'm only talking about the movie bad guys. I don't want no real-life criminals plotting how to escape their confinement, getting out successfully, and doing all sorts of bad things all over the place.

Out and about

Went to Cru tonight with Jen and Elo. Very raw, very new, very inventive, and very small portion! I would not say the food was extraordinary, but it was pretty exciting. Warning: Raw food could give you gas! After the meal we went to Good Microbrew & Grill to continue our night out. I had a great time catching up with them. Everyone had some stress, and everyone could use some good laughs. Tomorrow is another new day. Gonna think healthy, think strong, and think positive.

Film Logo

I worked on a film logo today. It took me a while to get each graphic look right. Then in the end, when I put them all together with the movie title, it looked terrible. It's very much like certain things in life. You are given a task. You start with an idea. In your head, you think about how to execute that idea. You go ahead and start making it com to life. There comes obstacles. You either solve them, or you go around them. You tackle the easy challenges first, hard ones later. Hours and hours you work to refine the results. Finally, you take the individual component and align them properly. From small steps to bigger steps, you complete the puzzle piece by piece.

When the big picture presents itself, you either love it, or you don't. You try to modify it, improve it here and there, but if it's not working for you, it just won't. I had to give up after I spent 5 hours on it. It looked amateur. And if I used all that time trying to make it look nice and professional, and still came up short... Then I was the problem. Oh well, at least I enjoyed the exercise.

Neighborly

I spent a lot of time with my neighbor today. We went to lunch, renewed her driver's license at DMV, shopped at Marshall's, bought more scratch cards, then came home. My landlord saw us hanging out and asked, "Are you two like BFFs now?"

"Almost there," I said.

Later I had to clarify what BFF is to my neighbor. That was funny. I got very tired from all that running around and tonight I just watched TV aimlessly. The weekend is here again. I think I'm going to take some time to clean my apartment. I know, I never do a thorough job. Here's to hoping I do a good enough job that I don't have to think about cleaning for another month or so. Hahaha!

Drainage

I stayed at home today. Had a scary, super annoying, kitchen drainage problem. The water would go down in one sink, then when I turned on the disposal, it would pop out in the other sink. I cleaned out the junk, and tried again. It helped a little, then the same thing happened. So I kept at it for a while, hoping the problem would fix itself (Note to self: This kind of things never does...). I finally gave up and went to my neighbor, my amazing, helpful, kind neighbor, for help. She walked in with bleach and some power cleaner, because she didn't have any draining solution liquid stuff. However she didn't get to use any of that. She took at look at my sinks and asked for an old towel. She stuffed the towel on the one end where water would came out, and asked me to turn on the disposal. The water was running, her hands pressed down the towel securely, the water was spinning, and I was clueless about what was happening. A minute or so after, we shut off the disposal, the water had stopped popping and pumping, and the drainage problem was no more! She's like, a miracle worker.

Great weekend

The weekend has come and gone. I had a great night at Regina's place last night. Today I stayed home mostly, lounging around, watching random TV, and of course stealing a nappy time. A bunch of my posse came over and we went to Hong Yei for dinner. It's such a consistent, awesome restaurant. We all had a great time eating some spicy. Daniel is leaving LA and moving back to North Carolina. I asked him a lot of questions about his decision. I thought about going to China, living with mom, and helping her with her new bakery for a few months before. I think that will stay a thought for now. I am too lazy to move anywhere. Besides, my friends, my roots are here. Still, never say never...

After dinner we came back to my place for some rhubarb pie Dave got from Marie Calendar's. It's our favorite pie from them. I have to thank everyone, my friends for making this weekend so sweet and delicious.

I found this clip, which features many shows I watch. Cute, and kinda true...

Movie night

The movie night at Regina's and Angelo's was very fun. Of course not everyone was going to love everything shown on the TV. Wall-E was a great choice. Dave again spent the whole afternoon cooking and brought the house down with his satay, cucumber salad, apple cobbler and whiskey ice cream. I borrowed some DVD's to watch too. It was a great Saturday evening. Thanks Regina and Angelo :)

Out

I worked for an hour this morning, then my neighbor invited me to have lunch with her. It's always great to get out of the house and hang out with one of my favorite people. We went to this Hawaiian chain restaurant and ordered their #3 chicken combo. She picked the place and I really liked it. It was unpretentious and the food was fast and yummy. We then went to Fresh & Easy to do a little bit of grocery shopping for her. After that we did more shopping at Target. FUN! My neighbor insisted on paying the stuff I picked out because she said she wanted to give me a present for keeping her company. She's extremely kind and generous to me. Before we went home we stopped by the local liquor store where she bought a few scratch cards. She LOVES those and I enjoy taking her to the store and joking with her about it. This was a very happy day.

Closet

I finally cleaned and organized my closet today. There were countless times where I would stand there, look at it and think to myself, "Ugh. What is this old thing doing in here?"

But I never really went through it. I guess something must have clicked this morning. I just started pulling clothes out, rearranging the ones I decided to keep, and I even found a box of my old shoes that I would be getting rid off as well. Yay for me.

I will have a little bit of work tomorrow. I look forward to driving in the morning traffic and making myself useful for a few hours.