hotel in phuket for Grace and Steve's wedding!

woot-woot!
katathani

Spam musubi

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Trix gave me this to snack on at work. Whata nice guy.

sick again

caught a cold on thursday and have been nursing it since.
tonight i applied a few generous helpings of 'tinolang manok' to my tummy to try to alleviate my symptoms.
chicken with ginger soup (with thin cut onions, spinach and fish sauce for some kick). delicious.
cut my right ring finger on the mandolin. hopefully only have to learn that lesson once.
just took my nightly dose of nyquil, now i'm ready to pass out by an ungodly hour of 9:00.
zzzz.

Eggplant n tofu in black bean sauce

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With snap peas and over garlic fried rice

Wang du - enter

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Cornelia parker at ybca

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K48 camp at ybca

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Wang du at ybca

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Janice's belly

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Little witch

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Cutting the prime rib

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My very first prime rib

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Just got home

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Last call

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Soulspeak

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My first sub $30 tank of gas in a long time

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www.lime.com

great podcasts with a fresh and interesting content angle.

from their site
LIME is a next-generation media brand that values community and participation at its core. LIME offers entertaining and revealing programming focused on the environment and sustainability, personal growth, alternative health, healthy foods, and business ethics. Our multi-platform programming on LIME Television, LIME Radio, LIME Online, plus LIME On Demand and LIME Mobile will extend to DVDs, books, and lifestyle products and take the LIME brand virtually everywhere.

roots research - ras tanura

was doing some research on the history of saudi tonight.
interesting tidbit. Aramco was actually started by Standard Oil of California SOCal (today's chevron) in 1933. The arabian oil industry started with Californian entrepeneurs, not Texans!

Also found my home town (Ras Tanura)on the wikipedia.
I actually grew up on the world's largest oil refinery. I totally forgot about that.

here's a link to a google pic of my hometown. map

here's come pics from my hometown -> pics

pretty cool

Hog island oyster for sues bday

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woof!! Traffic sux!

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Stuck in traffic

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Oysters at goreign cinema

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harry potter and the goblet of fire

saw a preview of this tonight through work. was pretty good. i've never been a huge fan of these movies though, but this was entertaining. special effects were good. the pacing of these films always puts me off a bit. there are just too many lulls in between action scenes. the visual style is consistent with all the others. just once, i'd like someone to change it,,, maybe up the color saturation a bit. the kids are starting to hit their teens. that ron kid is as annoying as ever.

weird dream

"Haaaave you ever waaaanted? to mash it up....smash it up?"
This was the chorus of a song that this pair of mc's where shoutin out at this MTV like awards show on tv. i'm not sure if this is actually a real song or a figment of my imagination. was a pretty catchy tune tho.
hold up... lemme back it up.
i was on a volleyball team.
the other teams were all musician/celebrity teams, but mine consisted of people from work. we were playing in a highly competitive tournament.
was it volleyball? or dodgeball? it was one of those dreams where real world elements kept mixing in... like my gray corduroy pants. i was wearing a pair in my dreams... and i was in my room. and there were two volleyball players in my living room. they were from another team... ironing their shorts on my coffee table. we were all late for a game... then i changed into another pair of pants,,, they were the same only bigger... and they had some kind of red spray paint stain on them... was that from halloween? but i didn't use any red spray paint for my halloween costume. then we were on our way to the game... i remember sliding down a blue hand rail down some steps. then into the gym where we were supposed to play.
damn, for some reason the details are too hard to recall now... and they don't flow like they usually do.
oh well.
good morning world.

Seriously man, you gotta go.

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Dude, i'm crashin out.

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Supper club entertainment

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this cirque reject had everyone enthralled during after dinner drinks. was actually pretty damn cool.

Kitchen at range

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took d out to his b-day dinner to range on valencia and 20th. really tasty. we had manila clams and a cheese stuffed pasta for apps, followed by a bluenose bass and a steak for mains. all cooked perfectly. they coulda added a few more oz's on the serving sizes,,, but then again, i didn't leave hungry, so maybe it was just right. we hit the supperclub for a couple nightcaps and to meet up with jenn lim and her haamoni crew. jenn's friend clara and i challenged each other to an iron chef duel. we're going to select a panel of judges and then have them select an ingredient for us to battle over. we'll start the game at 8 am one saturday morning and will serve 3 courses to the judges at 8 pm. judges will pay $25 per head and we'll each get to work with $100 to feed 8 people some small plates. should be fun. can't wait to kick her ass.

C

www.last.fm

my new source for all things music
for a good time, hit this link ->last.fm
simply amazing. thanks to brent for pointing this out.

Martini a day

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Keeps the dr away...

when the asking outweighs the doing

I feel like my head is all over the place, and not heading in any particular direction. getting jerked around into all these different cross-currents.. one minute i'm trying to decide what kind of job i should be looking for,,, should i go for that associate producer spot? or that gig in the UK? is the UK opp just an excuse to escape? the next, i'm trying to decide what kind of house to buy. TIC or single family home? another escape opportunity? then i ask myself, why the fuck am i buying a house anyway? so i can be broke and live all alone in it? and then there's the love life... do i start dating now? do i just keep busy with work/friends? what should i do to nurture my creativity? paint? music? should i buy serrano?

i guess it's not that bad. at least i'm asking the questions. better than not asking any. it's just that i hit this discomfort zone when the asking outweighs the doing... i tend to be more of a doer, or at least i think i do. being alone has definitely removed some of the old drivers for my life's decisions. with c in my life, i had an external purpose that guided my path, without her, i'm back to carving out my own. it's been a while since i've had to live it like this...
again, have to get grounded, find my direction, then follow it for a while till it eventually takes me somewhere better. hmm, let's see if i can remember how.

Reyes twins' baby shower

Mike and Janice had their baby shower this saturday at their house in antioch today. it was really fun. i drove over in the morning to help put together their favors. i had burned a bunch of cd's through the week and then labeled them at their house. learned how to operate a glue gun and pieced all the treats together into the final package, a ribbon wrapped package containing 2 madeline cookies, a bag of tea and the cd of lullabies. burned my fingers a few times. i seem to have trouble staying away from hot things these days. must be losing my heat sensitive nerves or something. anyway, by 2:00 i had completed all 60 of them. there's something therapeutic about repetitive manual labor. probably wouldn't be saying that if I did it day in day out though. i can't imagine that sweatshops are the most zen places in the world. we played a bunch of games and ate a ton of food. everyone was really nice. for some reason, it felt like everyone at the party clicked together which isn't always the case at these parties. i actually met some people and remembered their names through the night. brian and sophia made it out which was nice. soph came out as well with a huge box of diapers. she took home one of the raffle prizes as well.

dinner with family

went out to dinner with my cousin michelle who was visiting from outta town. christina, emmanuel and danielle met up with us too. emmanuel stepped up and picked up the check. sneaky bastard. i'm proud of that kid. my cousins are all grown up now.

Chillin wit the boo

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Glenmorangie

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Friggin 16 bucks for a 12 year!!!

the important thing is...

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
- Albert Einstein

up late

been up burning cd's for the baby shower this weekend. mike and janice are giving them out as favors. not really sure how many people will rock out to baby einstein soundtrack. was just looking through some old blogs
looks like i've been doing a good job with doing the things that keep me happy
i posted this list of stuff to keep me happy a little while ago...
1) go fly your kite - done
2) go work out you lazy shit - done a bunch of times
3) get on your motorcycle - done
4) cook something besides ramen or a totino's and feed someone with it - done
5) paint something - not yet
6) make some music - not y et
7) play a video game - done
8) read a book - not yet
9) buy something ridiculously expensive - got a new pair of shoes,,, but not that expensive
10) go figure out what you're going to wear for halloween - done.
7 outta 10 ain't bad.

Nate wins $111

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how i'm feeling these days

Without going into details, this picture pretty much sums it up...

Sinigang na baboy

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Had amc over for dinner tonight. cooked sinigang na baboy (sinigang with pork). it's a tamarind based stew with with tenterized baby back pork rib meat, okra, daikon, spinach, long beans, onion and tomatoe. all you gotta do is stick all of it in a pot in the right order and voila! best served over rice with a side dish of fish sauce for taste. it was delicious. i added a little extra vinegar and lemon juice to kick the sour up a bit. yummy. anna mae had a great idea tonight about me having a bistro night. i could invite some people over and cook up a meal for 10 then charge people reasonable dinner prices to cover the cost of the meal. that way i can host dinner parties while not breaking my bank... gonna think about that one. if i do it, i'll call it 'barrio bistro'

i just got into bed and discovered a pee-pee spot that my cat sebastian had left me. damn, and i just did laundry yesterday :(.

jarhead

took myself out for a treat to a movie this weekend.
saturday afternoon decided to stop by the century daly city theater on the way to el rancho 99-o. got there just in time for the 5:00 showing of jarhead from sam mendes starring jake gylenhaal and jamie foxx. brutally honest portrait of the inside of the marine corps during operation desert shield and desert storm. dust. dirt. oil. blood. bullets. alcohol. hundreds of thousands of men trained to kill all waiting to unload their first shot but never getting the chance. not so much a political commentary as i was expecting, more of an insight into the frustrations of being a foot-soldie/grunt in the age of the wars won by targeted missile strikes.
my review?... one thumb up, the other sideways.

Turtle rock

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Mikas dolls

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Mikas pet turtle

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Lime

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Lime on market

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Ahi with blue cheese rissoto

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My entree at catch in the castro at derek's bday

Curious about 31

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Cold dog

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This poor dog was shivering and yelping outside of cancun

saw metric tonight

they're just as good the 3rd time as the first.
they played a lot from the new album 'live it out'. i loved it. went with brent, brian, amc, mariel and her friend melanie, and my friend mj from work. they rocked. i was surprised that i had managed to learn as much of their new album as i had, was singing along to most of the tunes. picked up a 'monster hospital' tshirt.
i hope these guys don't get too huge. i want to keep seeing them in small clubs.

clara et moi

saw this french film tonight on sundance... i love directv now.
Clara et Moi. Was pretty good. pretty sad though.

Here's the premise... taken from IMDB
Antoine has what every young single man could wish: a promising career, true and loyal friends, and an apartment of his own. However, he's a lonely man, until he meets Clara, a beautiful and exciting woman, and deeply falls in love with her. All his loneliness turns into joy... but...

i've cut out the rest of it, because it's a spoiler. if you're into french films and semi-tragic romances, i recommend it.

Battlefield 2 Nations site

This is the site that i've been busting my ass to get together over the past couple months.
It's a website for battlefield 2 modern combat. probably EA's biggest non-sports online console game.
Xbox live players can track all of their gameplay data, such as how many bullets they shot, how many grenades they threw, how many kills they had when they played against another clan of players. They can even replay their games to see how their opponents play the game so they can create strategies on how to beat them in the future. The gaming communities eating it up. The site tracks the rankings of all the users, so that you know where you stack up relative to other players.

Battlefield 2 nations site

If I played the game, i'd probably be pretty into this. i imagine lots of people are.
No time for game playing these days though. i'm hooked on tivo.

For Final Jeopardy, name these Sin City characters...

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gail and stuka

miho and stuka

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me and sue at the sin city party.

Ish in padded cell room

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Ginsberg house 3

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Ginsberg house

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Karina, sue, pilar

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View from ginsbergs

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Mission graf2

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Mission graf1

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this past week

took me a few days to recover from the kadium party on wednesday.
took a couple days rest off of work on thursday and friday to catch up on all the lost sleep from the past month and to decompress from all the stress.

amit brent and i dj'ed at a sin city halloween party last saturday. party was up at upper terrace in an amazing 4 story home owned by shane and kate ginsberg, friends of karina. everyone was dressed up as characters from sin city. met a lot of people there, made a couple friends neil and lilu who live a few blocks away from my place in the mission. they run a web design shop here in the city. gonna try to hang out with them at some point. ended up back at the guerrero house for our weekly poker-followed-by-early-morning-desperation-cocktails session. gotta try to moderate on that tip.
got home just in time for the direct tv guy to come and install the dish and receivers in the house. I slept while he worked away at the installation. i must say, i wish i had gotten this thing ages ago. it makes watching tv a whole nother experience. i have everything that i want to watch saved onto my dvr now. lost, the daily show, family guy, curb your enthusiasm, a bunch of movies from hbo. totally worth the additional $20 per month. amit came over to chill and watch some tivo on sunday night.

wore my costume to work on monday and entered the costume contest. a few people actually recognized me from the movie. made some more work acquaintances that day. Matt and Kathy both from the pogo team upstairs. I went out to the xlr8tr party at the social club that night. avoided the castro crowds altogether. ran into sean fruth there, turns out he sells business properties so introduced him to brent. they're gonna try to work with other to find brent and chris a space. sean introduced me to his friend craig who i'm gonna hit up to show me some places as soon as i get my loan pre-approval wrapped up. we ended up not staying out too late and ended the night eating some bus stop pizza on his stoop and watching some halloween revelers pass by.

I think i'm close to over the party-to-numb-my-feelings stage. think i broke my own personal record for most brain-cells killed in a month. reached a point this weekend where it all felt so pointless. no more need to run away. got to get back to finding my own direction. I seem to be into meeting and reaching out to new people these days. i take that as a good sign.