i used too much fish sauce when cooking my dinner. now my apartment smells of something fierce.

its been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, now that works back to normal and im not staring at my work monitors for periods in excess of 12+ hours a day.  im slowly resuscitating my dead social life too…tho its gotten incrementally harder as people decide to get married, make babies, and whatnot.

MAY AND JOSIE
the past month saw my two nieces co-birthdays…conveniently sitting in the middle of january between my younger niece josie’s birthday (january 4th), and may’s (february 4th).  god i hope those birthdays are right. if they were wrong and my sister saw this post, she’d probably kick me in the dick. before josie was born, may’s birthday would sit right on superbowl weekend. the conflicted look on my brother-in-laws face was always apparent, so the current arrangement works to everyones benefit.

VACATION(S)
im sure i also went out a few times between then and now, but meh…my memory (and calendar) fails me.  i blame all the relaxation i partook in this past week…taking off friday and monday for my comp time for all the extra days/hours id worked over the holidays. i did however refinance my mortgage…tho that is painfully uninteresting. i wont even bother with the details. what else…oh right. im in the midst of planning my forthcoming vacation.  beijing!  thats the plan so far anyway.  i just need to get moving on booking things. 

i actually get a second vacation as well in the summer…seattle for a friends wedding. i got decidedly lazy and booked the closest hotel to the venue (olympic park).  im pretty sure its more posh than i had originally intended to book…

I DID STUFF
hmm, still cant recollect the majority of what id done in the past month. ah well.  green hornet was in there somewhere, with sally. that was fun to watch. and last friday we were supposed to try this pulled-noodle place called hung-ry (clever fucks), but the wait ended up being somewhere north of an hour and a half.  so with all of us starving and such, we said ‘fuck it’ and headed north instead to menkui-tei, who would never make us wait that long. <3 you menkui-tei.  and yesterday i met up with marisol and jess at barrio chino in les for some yum mexican.  mexican-ish anyway.  i had the pulled lamb and rice, along with a really nice soup that i couldnt recollect for you for the life of me. after having the grilled cornish hen jess ordered tho, hmm…i wish id ordered that instead. so yum…

…and so are my allergies.  motherfuck i hate allergies.  i guess there are worse things to have than allergies…like missing body parts, or body odor.  but the congestion is still fairly irritating.

EARLY MARCH
it’s been quite a busy month.  my social life came roaring back to life, which was expected given a myriad of things…like good weather, and a sunnier socio-economic climate.  or something.  gabor made his way to nyc from amsterdam (via hungary) and is so far lovin’ it in that mcdonald’s jingle kinda way.  he was one of the animators at my last job when i worked in their amsterdam office.  the office has since shut down (a casualty of the shitty economy) so he migrated to their nyc office.  so far he’s taken a shining to the city…woot.  the first week he arrived, he came out to join the crew (pho, troche, dano, ivor, etc…) for some excellent pork chops, followed by some whiskey taverning.  max was craving burgers the following friday, so we met up at corner bistro after work and gabor joined us in the noshing.  fridays have been proven to be approximately 80% better when you combine burgers with mcsorley’s.

MID MARCH
the following wednesday found me at boka for korean fried chicken with di and emily.  i had been planning to meet another friend that week for the aforementioned chicken of korean origin, but she had to reschedule…and my cravings remained.  so hey…this worked out.  we migrated to the second floor bar in the astor hotel to meet up with ngozi and boyer, who was in town from slovakia (?) i think…yea, slovakia.  she’s usually found romping around europe these days, so the trips to the stateside are a rare treat.

we headed to the black door for after-work drinking the subsequent friday.  it was somebody’s last day…or something, which usually means drinking.  max joined in later in the evening, and the remaining five of us migrated to hill country for bbq lovin’ since we were starving at that point.  m3ntal note tho…never drink with these people ever again.  i understand that office gossip makes for fascinating times, but there was some shit i never cared to know or wanted to know.  dear god i can’t unhear these things…

i tried to drown away the memories of the prior nite with beer and sliders at…some new place on st. marks i don’t know the name of…with sean and anna, followed by heavy drinking at hallo berlin with max and crew.  apparently max had found the nite before amusing, while i found it to be detrimental to my brain functions.  i still have nightmares.

LATE MARCH
thursday was an after-work meetup with lena, a former coworker and the person mentioned above in the same sentence as korean fried chicken.  instead of the impossibly addictive bonchon variant, we headed to baden baden for the crispy type.  <3 baden baden.  the next day was bday drinks with dano at do hwa near my old office.  i found it immensely entertaining seeing old coworkers walk in, give that “hey” nod in my direction, then proceed to avoid me the rest of the night.  i must’ve made a pretty good impression during my time there…teehee.  well to be fair, christa did chat me up during the food-eating portion of the nite.  i thought that was nice and civil and friendly-like.  thumbs up.

oh, and the first scrimmage of our soccer league was the following sunday.  yes, i joined a soccer league.  no, i am not in shape.  but yes, it is ultra-casual.  or it was suppose to be anyway.  we got the impression the first team we played was anything but casual.  when you’re calling out “flag” and “cross” and snipering the goals from 10 yards, you’re anything but casual.  on the bright side however we outnumbered them greatly, and were subbing pretty much every 2 minutes.  they still won by 2, but we did score 10 of our 11 goals the second half.  worth mentioning in this paragraph too is that we decided on our team name during the post-game happy hour (icanhazgoalz?)  lulz…and that our charity of choice will be doctors without borders.

APRIL
whew this is tiring.  thank god i keep my plans on my iphone calendar.  this past wednesday was foodage and drinks with max and patsy at half king to hash out their wedding plans and my upcoming vacation (yes, they are related).  i’m off to scotland in may!  word!  doo didilee didilee….*dances a céilidh*

they were married last year, but had yet to hold a proper ceremony back in scotland for their family (they’re both from glasgow)…so that’s coming up in may.  i plan on wearing a full-on kilt and outfit, complete with the jacket, socks, pouch (sporran)…the whole nine yards.  as a bonus too, i’ll be taking a one-day layover in amsterdam…woot.

HOUSING WORKS
i did some last minute photog’ing for rebecca and housing works on thursday.  i can’t say i was properly prepared for it (i got the call at 4pm)…so i had to cab it home just to grab my camera, and as a result didn’t notice til it was too late that my battery sign was blinking (that’s not a good thing), AND as a result of me fearing the battery would die any second, didn’t check that the ISO was set to some ridiculously high number (huh…so that’s why i could set it to f22 in the low light).  all in all though, i did get off 50 or so shots, and they don’t look bad (just don’t zoom in). the event itself was pretty fun…it was tied with men’s health magazine and was a promotional sale too.  alot of painfully beautiful people roaming about, along with television personalities that i had no clue about.  whups.

TOO MUCH CHICKEN
i wonder how many times ‘korean fried chicken’ is mentioned in this one entry.  probably not enough…so here’s another mention.  friday nite we decided to head oot and aboot…because that’s what people do on friday nites.  we (as in mai, jon, max, patsy, and later on ivor) hunkered down at mad about chicken (formerly bonchon k-town) for plates and plates of chicken, alongside liter after liter of beer.  by the end of the night, we had finished off four plates and 9 liters worth of beer.  my liver would hate me for the rest of the weekend.  and i was actually content to stay in the rest of the weekend to rest if plans didn’t suddenly appear on saturday…

WHITE STAR BERFDAY
…which was what jess did for last minute bday drinks at white star.  the drinks were good however, albeit on the fancy and expensive side.  this was alleviated however by the fact that we didn’t pay.  yea…we skipped out.  or more precisely their tab-keeping system failed them when they insisted our tab was paid for.  i didn’t know this, but i did notice everybody making their way outside very fast.  and i didn’t want to be the last one of the crew to not know what the shit is going on and get stuck with the bill when (and if) they wised up.  anyhoo, i spent my surprise refund on a really good kebab on houston.  that was yum.

long post done…yay!  what, no picture?  bleh…whatever…

USELESS HEADER
it’s been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, january and february.  my first attempt to see my new niece josie was thwarted by a massive snow poop.  then my niece may’s bday celebrations were snowed out too by passing snowstorms (whups), which in turn pushed our backlogged plans into my dad’s 60th birthday vicinity.  eventually we just met up this past weekend to consolidate my seeing my new niece for the first time, may’s birthday (well…really just giving her her gift), and a lunch for my dad.  silly weather…stop fucking up my plans.

I WENT OUT
prior to that tho was the usual smattering of dinners and drinkage, amongst them ippudo with sara (wow…finally.  fuck you ippudo), le singe vert with margie, and harefield road drinkage for fonz and erin’s post-wedding celebrations (even tho they married over a month ago).

THIRD PLACE
as a random aside too, while we were hanging out at my parents house this past weekend, i went digging thru my room for some things i’d left behind when i moved to my new apartment.  and by chance i came across a bronze track medal i won my freshman year (the only medal i won during my short but illustrious career).  so of course i snatched it up to bring home.  my brother-in-law dave mentioned how they don’t really give out medals anymore.  instead they give trophies to the school.  i’m thinking to myself, wow…that sucks. so much for individual achievements.  not to mention the medals pretty boss.  anyhoo, it’s going on display somehow in my apartment.  maybe i’ll frame it.  woot.

i really do wish there were a way to stretch the period of time between thanksgiving and christmas.  it flies by way too fast.  maybe we should move thanksgiving to sometime in…august.  yes, august…then we can pop out the christmas decorations at the end of summer and ride the holiday season all through fall and winter.  word.

END OF NOVEMBER
hmm, i guess i haven’t posted a “journal” entry in a while.  bullet-point time…or at the least a summation of various things i did, but without the specific times or days.  the end of november saw fonz’s berfday drinkies at 2a in e.vil, luis’ berfday drinks the following day at the whiskey tavern in chinatown, brunch with pho at nyonya (hey they moved across the street!), and thanksgiving with my sis and her extended family in joisey.

DECEMBER PROPER
decembers events are a bit better catalogued, and it started with a mini-hot pot gathering at my place last weekend with i4, max, patsy, mai, and john.  we loaded up enough food from chinatown for probably a small village and fired up dual hot pots.  we got stuffed.  it was good.  i spent the rest of the week in a food coma, then met up with melissa friday nite at robata-ya for plates and plates of robata goodness.  i think (it’s a bit fuzzy) we also tore thru a round of shochu, followed by 3 rounds of sake.  this was then expounded upon with 2 more rounds of sake at decibel, and another 2 rounds of…stuff…at angels share.  i’m surprised that i shook it off as easily as i did the next day.

di and i went to check out the samurai exhibit at the met the next day.  the exhibit was ending january 10th (it’s a relatively short exhibit), and this was one exhibit that i would stab someone with a shank if i missed.  the sizable collection of robes, samurai armor, and seriously gorgeous katanas made me giddy, though i sort of regretted that i took this long to see it (they change out the exhibit every week or so since their collection for the exhibit was larger than the amount displayed).  god i hope they bring back a similar exhibit in the future.

afterwards, we decided on a ramen dinner in midtown.  this was actually a stupid idea…i don’t know what i was thinking.  we got out of the 6 train and had to fight our way west towards sapporo on 49th and broadway.  and for those unfamiliar with midtown geography, rockefeller center is between the 6 train and the aforementioned ramen joint.  *sigh* well, i will admit it was nice walking past the rockefeller christmas tree.  i hadn’t actually seen it in person in years.  so purty.  after our ramen dinner, we decided to get the fuck out of midtown and back to more familiar locales (e.vil, duh).  we actually had decided on cha-an for a post-dinner tea retreat, but that was overruled after seeing the long line winding down the stairs.  fuck that…we’re going to go get liquored.  i’m not usually one to double-dip bars on the same weekend, but yea…i found myself back at angels share. this was however ok, as we tried out their seasonal fair this time around.  di had their “hot cocoa” drink (earl gray infused godiva chocolate liqueur) and i had their “hot apple cider” (calvados, hot apple cider, caramel syrup, and roasted apple slices)…holy shit good.  we also chatted up our neighbors to our left who were curious about the drinks and about eats around the area (you asked the right dude!).

i sort of just upgraded mt, and then neglected to take it for a spin until now.  i have however since tweaked the design and layout to a point that i’m fairly happy with.  it’s a ‘variation’ on what the old journal used to look like, which i suppose is moot considering i didn’t even keep copies of the old layout files.  oops.  anyhoo…its purty enough for me at this point.  the ajax script was a wee annoying to incorporate when combined with how the archive pages are stored (had a hiccup in the coding for a few days)…but even that’s sorted out.  go me!  and i say that with the knowledge that my web skills are pretty shit these days, compared to my more outgoing days in the distant past.

GENERIC JOURNAL ENTRY
huh, and i noticed that while i was posting up my journal entries for prague, i didn’t even bother to log into my journal my social shenanigans.  so in turn, i have to dial the journal all the way back to the beginning of october.  gar.

WILLIAMSBURG!
well…sometime in the not-so-distant past, i made it a point to hang out in williamsburg with kayako.  it was a dinner meet-up, with neither really deciding where to go til i made it a point to say “i’m down for anywhere really…even your neighborhood…hint hint“.  i just felt the need to get out of manhattan and away from my usual watering holes that weekend.  so we ended up at dumont burger…i think it was.  it was good stuff, tho at that point i was feeling a little under the weather (sickness possibly).  we hung out later at k’s place mixing fancy drinks and then imbibing the aforementioned fancy drinks.

i met my family for brunch the next morning so i could give my niece her gift i got in prague.  she sort of tossed it aside and then sat on it.  adorable.  on the bright side tho, she calls me uncle now and is growing up frighteningly fast.  ohny was that weekend too, but i wasn’t feeling so hot and ended up holing away in my apartment the rest of the weekend (sorry margie!)

FRIED CHICKEN HUNTING
the following weekend was a group trip with hosan and company to congee village to check out their chinese version of fried chicken…called garlic chicken.  that was all kinds of awesome.  sadly, that was the highlight of that weekend, as i spent the rest of it staring at my apartment ceiling.  k, big stretches of time doing nothing…super.  oh here we go…we had our second dinner with building-mates at el paso on 104th.  it was good eating…drinking too. we’ve been trying to do it every other month, but this is obviously easier said than done.  still fun tho to eat around the neighborhood, because god knows i wouldn’t bother if left to my own devices.  the following friday was also dinner at max and patsy’s.  we were expecting frightening scottish fare, but instead got pretty rockin’ lasagna.  thumbs up.  and finally…yesterday was a small get-together with cornell aap alumns in dumbo at rebar.  that was fun…and a first.  they got some feedback from us about what to do and what not to do.  do’s included short surveys, more meet-ups (preferably with liquor), and more often…because its too easy to lose touch with people.  don’ts included long surveys…and no liquor.  or something.  yea.  k…this post took too long, blah.  stupid fancy formatting.

this weekend is a photoshoot for a yoga studio.  at 7:30 in the morning.  yea, it’ll suck  massive.

ooh…a slight chill is starting to blow thru new york city. at night anyway…and early morning too. it’s actually making my apartment uncomfortable, given that they tend to crank the communal a/c regardless (which affects my bedroom, but not my living room), so i may go to bed slightly hot, but wake up freezing. its weird.

so here’s the typical summary of my life up to now. having had this journal now for 6 fucking years really takes its toll on the quality of writing im willing to expend on these posts. not that my oldest posts were in any way eloquent. i can say however that i probably put a bit more effort into writing them. whatever, thats not the case anymore. so rewinding back…plusan and her friends showed up in the city right around my birthday. it was the first time in nyc for a few of them. i met up with plusan for brunch in the morning at cafe henri in west village, but i technically spent the majority of my birthday in woodbury commons shopping with them. for 6 and a half hours. yea. well, i insisted…so we could have time to hang out. regardless tho…i just wanted to highlight. SIX. AND. A. HALF. HOURS. after we got back into the city, we immediately headed to kun jip to nosh.

friday nite i met up with them again at jadis for some wine and relaxation. saturday was our reservations at gordon ramsay’s maze, which was good, but surprisingly unspectacular, given how big of a raging dick he is about food and cooking. we followed this up with my mini-berfday drink-ups at en (like last year, yep)…sake and food all around. we even rounded out the nite with a bit of a crawl over to ear inn afterwards til the wee hours. ah fun fun. and sunday i made breakfast at my place for plusan…then a pinkberry run before they caught their flight out of the city. bai bai!

hmm…what did i do the rest of the time? oh right…korean with sally, then dinner with hosan at city winery (that place is massive) along with follow-up drinks at en (i like the place…deal with it). then i made my way back home to see my niece, whos now all grown and stuff and is talking and dancing around. shit they really do grow fast. after that, i bussed it back into the city because we had a rooftop party in my building. that was all kinds of awesome…ill admit i hadnt even been up there since i started looking to buy there in the first place. and now we wind up at this week, where i had intended to meet up with sara for ramen at ippudo. but because that place is still overrun by fucking nyu kids, pushing wait times to an hour (for ramen…seriously!?) we decided on setagaya instead, where we waited approximately 2 minutes after we ordered before they brought our hearty bowls of ramen out to us. <3.

prague is coming up fast…word. this time next week, i will be on a plane headed over the atlantic. wait, is it friday?

* checks email *

this time+1 day…yes, i will be on a plane headed over the atlantic. woot.

septembers right around the corner…where did august go? oh right, it came and went with a plethora of video posts from io9 and gizmodo. damn i still harefield road, dinner with building-mates at yo in yo out, a mini reunion with joan and joyce at flea market (i hadn’t seen joyce in months, and joan in…erm, 5 years?), burger brunch with hosan at blue ribbon bakery, followed by a mid-week sake tasting too at satsko, and whew…let me catch my breath.

* pause *

k…along with excellent pork chop house with troche and pho (the beef noodle soup was particularly excellent that day), and gina’s brief return to nyc this week…celebrated with hasaki and drinkies at scratchers. oh, and tomorrow’s my birthday. rock on.

FRONT YARD
as for the picture above…i spent this weekend putting up the tree graphic i had custom made from dezign with a z. it’s erm, actually about a foot below where it should be (you should see a bit of the tree trunk above the couch). but yea, that didn’t quite work out as planned. that was about as high as i could conceivably get the graphic, short of getting a mid-life growth spurt of a few inches.

compared to the original rendering also, i over-stretched the vector file i sent them. not to mention the couch i decided to use in the rendering was actually lower than my actual couch…doh! but aside from what appears to be griping (they’re not actually…just observations in hindsight), the tree actually looks pretty damn good on my wall. much dezign with a z. now to work on my bedroom (and maybe even get that rug)…

summers already half over…crikeys. and it hasnt been much of a summer either. between all the thunderstorms and chilly weather, its really only been summer for like, 5 days. maybe 6.

the term “summer doldrums” comes to mind to describe this summer so far. it cant really be helped when a good number of friends are either out of work, worried that theyll be out of work, or in general just feeling in the dumps. bleh. well, life goes on anyhoo, and hopefully this time next year, we’ll be back to “normal”…

friday was an choi with di. an old co-worker of hers was one of the owners (tho he wasnt there that night). relaxing little place with good vietnamese. we roamed for drinks afterwards too…id been cooped up in my apartment too much and was in no mood to go home.

i lazy’d around the apartment saturday, photoshopping up my atlanta trip (ooh, i keep meaning to make another post about that), and other odds and ends. sunday was harry potter and the half-blood prince with max and patsy at the imax. oooh…imax, and 3d, word. the movie was pretty damn good, even if i was disappointed with a few changes they made from the book (oh noes…im becoming like one of those people!) as a movie tho, much of it made sense in terms of streamlining and focusing on specific themes and narratives. its just…you know…there was suppose to be a big fight! ah well…

the rest of the summers looking a little dull til the end of august. *sigh*