i, object part ii

Another ten random objects from my room:

1. Bat Signal flashlight - Can't remember where I got this from, but it's pretty cool. You project the bat signal on your wall whenever you need saving by the Dark Knight.

2. JJ Cole Urban Bundle Me - Bought this for a coworker's baby shower. So many freaking people are having babies in our office in the last few years that I swear it's in the water. Either that, or everybody else is having more fun than I am.

3. Gap wool newsboy cap - I can only wear this on a day when I know I don't have to take my hat off or at the end of a day. My hat hair is really funny looking. How do those guys do it, that they just take off their hat and brush hair with fingers and everything looks cool???

4. TV Guide with Conan on cover - Starting Monday, he's starting his reign on The Tonight Show. And best news of all - Andy Richter will be rejoining him!!! Reunited makes me feel so good. Somehow I will feel better about the world knowing Conan and Andy will from this point forth lull me to sleep with a chuckle.

5. Obama's Be The Change inauguration poster - Got this by donating $25. It's a nice memento from what everybody called a historic event. I say, half-black president - what's the big deal? Wait til we elect a real black president.

6. Eric Ericsson's On The Pier matchbook - This matchbook reminds me of when I used to travel down to SoCal with my coworker GT for work. It seems so long ago, like a past life. My work is very different now. Things always change, and most of the time, for me anyways, not for the better. I like the past a lot more than the present and probably the future too. But I shouldn't feel so nostalgic. I should try to fight for a future instead.

7. Madonna Music belt buckle - It was a promotional item when I bought the Music cd from the Virgin Megastore. Remember the days when you get all excited on record release day and run to the store and check out the displays and whether other people in line are buying the same thing? How long ago was that anyways? And why am I so sentimental today?

8. Rick Steve's Europe 12 New Shows 2009 dvds - Borrowed from coworker who went to Istanbul recently. With no trip planned for the year, the best I can do is to watch other people on tv go places.

9. Ped Egg - As seen on tv. This thing really works to scrub off all the dry, dead skin on your feet. And I think it shreds cheese too, but you should buy a separate one for that.

10. Coat hanger antenna - Home-made, for my mom's tv. She doesn't get cable, and the rabbit ears she has are not doing their job, so I made this thing of coat hangers. I haven't gone over to hook it up, but it was able to get not-too-bad reception for my tvs.

rolling rolling

I love these photos from the 2009 cheese-rolling contest, held annually in Gloucester, England:

so i think i can watch people dance

So You Think You Can Dance is back!!! Reminds me of how much I adore Cat Deeley.

Here is one of my faves from the audition (Nathan Trasoras):


BTW, wiki says Cat Deeley is currently some actor named Jack Huston; and his wiki says he used to date Helena Christensen. Jesus, who is this bastard???!!!

throw up your arms into the sky

My top 10 songs this week:
10. Santa Cruz - Pearl Jam
9. Favourite Things - The Golden Filter
8. It Don't Move Me - Peter Bjorn and John
7. Heartless - Kris Allen
6. The Girl & The Robot - Royksopp featuring Robyn
5. Day N Nite - Kid Cudi
4. Can You Tell (Discovery Remix) - Ra Ra Riot
3. Osaka Loop Line - Discovery
2. Don't Stop Believin' - Glee Cast
1. 21 Guns - Green Day

1q84

murakami

don't stop believin

Oh TV Gods, you took away my O.C. and killed my Veronica Mars, please let this one stick around for a long, long time - the GLEE pilot is so awesome that I want to just start bursting out in songs:

oh baby baby please

Ra Ra Riot is my new favorite. They are like the new Vampire Weekend:

i want my babyback

What was on the menu this Memorial Day:

- bbq baby back ribs (turned out pretty good; fall-off-the-bone tender; I baked the dry-rubbed ribs in oven for 2 hours at 325 degrees, with one cup of water in pan and with pan tightly sealed in foil, and then finished the ribs off on the grill with bbq sauce)


- grilled pineapple (lightly coated with brown sugar; juicy and sweet; will try cinnamon & sugar next time)

- macaroni salad, with cucumber and dill and sour cream/mayonnaise dressing (too much dill and sour cream; should have gone for a more traditional recipe next time)


- summery corn salad (very summery but also very onion-y; if I do this recipe again, I am going for a quarter of an onion instead of a whole)


- fruit salad with kiwi, strawberries, pineapple, watermelon, apples, oranges, and banana (delicious)


- basil lemonade (really refreshing)


- apple tart tatin with vanilla ice cream (too much caramel left in pan with I flipped the tart over, so it just tasted like an apple pie)


It turned out to be too cold of a day to bbq. Chi Young invited a couple of his friends over, and we were all freezing in the backyard while tending to the grill. And those teenage boys didn't eat as much as I'd expected, so I ended up with loads of leftover in the fridge. I'll be having babyback back and back again.

we dance, we sing, we steal things

We win some, we lose some. I was disappointed that the munchkin gymnast (Shaun Johnson) took the Dancing With The Stars mirror-ball trophy from the Sexy-In-The-City French guy (Gilles Marini). It's so unfair. You American Olympic medalist supporters can all go suck it. But then just as I was about to denounce all of middle America, you go and surprise me and make mellow nice guy with the cool acoustic vibe (Kris Allen) the winner of American Idol, over the guy-linered Glambert (Adam Lambert). Kris Allen IS the new American Idol - that's sweeet. I am not hating on Glambert. To quote Randy Jackson (and I will only quote Randy Jackson once in my lifetime), the guy's got mad vocal skillz. But he is way too Rocky Horror for my taste. And I can't stand the hair. Eeks. Kris on the other hand is more my thing. I actually bought his acoustic version of Kanye's Heartless off iTunes, and my doing that is as likely as my quoting Randy Jackson. I would have never thought America would go for an American Idol who doesn't oversing, but I am pleasantly surprised. What next? National healthcare??? Social conscience? Compassion for the poor? I kid, I kid. Let's not go crazy here.

it rises

Rate everything weekend.

Angels & Demons - Watched Da Vinci Code; didn't like it too much. This is about the same. Kinda drawn out, not too exciting. Too predictable as to who bad guy is. My favorite part is the whole white smoke/black smoke thing that they do when choosing a pope. I first heard of it when the current pontiff (the guy who looks like Darth Sidious and wears Prada shoes) was chosen. That's one cool Catholic tradition - who thought of that? C+

Red Lobster - I hadn't been to Red Lobster for probably a decade. Due to my cholesterol (doctor's office called), I chose to be healthy and had the woodfire-grilled Pacific Snapper with rice pilaf. It's not bad. The cheese biscuit was really good though. I ate three of them - which I know sort of defeats the purpose of the fish and rice. B

Strawberry milk custard @ My Favorite Cafe on Clement - Tasted smooth and warm and comfy. I like the strawberry taste but it's like hot pink-colored, so I feel like I am eating artificial flavoring. The next table had the beef stew lo mein, which looked damn good. B

Gunter's chicken apple sausage omelette - Gunter's is a family restaurant that Charles took us to once. It's kind of an old-fashioned diner, and not in a retro chic way. But it's got solid American food. A.K., Paul, and I went there Sat morning for breakfast. I hadn't seen AK in like forever. He was my best buddy, along with David W., in middle school, but now we see each other maybe once a year, if that much. Anyways, seeing old friend gets an A, but the omelette only gets a B-.

Grey's Anatomy season finale - I was dead tired and fell asleep during the last half hour of this past Thurs' season finale. Thank goodness for the internet. Phew - what a heartbreaking last five minutes. Bus accident victim John Doe turned out to be George, and Izzie was on her way to recovery and then suddenly died (I think). And how sweet was it the way McDreamy and Meredith made their promises to each other on a sticky note? I am putting Grey's Anatomy back on my Tivo season pass, even though I am really hoping they didn't really kill off George and Izzie, especially Izzie. A-

Comcast digital conversion - Now we need these digital converters or digital boxes to watch Comcast cable tv. This was all fine by me til I found out that these digital devices basically render my Tivo machine useless. I hate evil empires. F

Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown - I love these Berkeley hometown guys. I've loved them since Dookie, all the way up to American Idiot. 21st Century Breakdown is wistful, melodic, and defiant and shows Green Day to be the most ambitious and thoughtful snot-nosed punk band there ever was . A-

Coldplay's leftrightleftrightleft live cd - It's free, it's Coldplay, and it reminds me of their great live shows. What more can you ask for? A-

Survivor Tocantins finale - As expected, JT walked away with a million bucks, beating his unworthy opponent Stephen, who, for being an Ivy League grad/corporate consultant, was surprisingly lame in making his case to the jury in the final tribal council; he practically just handed the win over to JT. It was all very anticlimatic. B-

Haruki Murakami's South Of The Border, West Of The Sun - Finished reading this yesterday nite. Again a beautiful novel, full of music, melancholy and mystery. Did it all really happen, or was it hysteria siberiana? Who knows? I am next reading Milan Kundera's Ignorance. A-

The Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus trailer - Omigod. So freaking good. "It rises," a dude says ominously. And Deborah Gibson's line delivery ("We'll get them to kill each other.") is Oscar-worthy. The best part is the very last second. A+

slaying the dragon

Kris Allen killed it Tuesday nite with his amazing acoustic take on Kanye's Heartless, thus getting him to the finals with Adam Lambert. He IS my American Idol!!! They keep saying all the pre-teen girls are voting for him, but hey, I am no pre-teen girl. At least I don't think I am. But how can I not root for the guy who sang Falling Slowly from Once while everyone else sang Bryan Adams and Endless Love on movie-theme nite? And Tuesday nite, he did Heartless while the Gokey (guy with dead wife) sang You Are So Beautiful (barf) and Adam (over)sang Aerosmith's Crazy. No, no, Kris is da man...Amazing Race 14 ended last Sunday, and thank goodness the redheads didn't win. They were so annoying that a cab dispatcher actually said to their cabbie in Maui, "''You need to tell your people that I'm not their personal concierge." Word! Anyways, the Chinese brother and sister lawyers won. While they were hardly endearing, they were the team I was rooting for amongst the final three (my other choice was evil deaf kid and his overly proud mother). This was admittedly not my favorite season of Amazing Race. It started fantastically (cheese wheels!!!) but most of my faves got eliminated too early. At least they went to Guilin (look, ma, I've been there!), and then there is another season to look forward t; it's been renewed for the fall season...Coach got voted off Survivor tonight. Dragonslayer my ass. If you look up blowhard in the dictionary, it would be this dude. He actually read a freaking poem at tribal council!...French guy Gilles got 2 perfect 30's on his dances this week on Dancing With The Stars, while the wooden rodeo cowboy/husband of Jewel got sent off into the sunset. So, it's French guy, munchkin gymnast, and the bachelorette in the finale next week. Go, French guy!!! He deserves it.

to boldly go

Saw Star Trek in IMAX at AMC Eastridge in East San Jose yesterday. I was not a Trekkie. Never seen a single episode of any of the tv shows. Saw a few movies but never cared for them and don't remember much about them. I couldn't tell a Vulcan from a Romulan. But man, I love this reboot! It's funny, action-packed, and touching in all the right places. I love all the characters: the swaggering James T Kirk, the emotionally repressed Spock, the coy and sexy Uhura, the who-knew-he-could-kick-ass Sulu, the irritable McCoy, the hilarious Scottie, and the boyish and heavily-accented Chekov. I also love how the parallel time-continuum concept now allows them to boldly go where the previous series and movies have never gone. I am a fan now. Dare I say it, but my first movie summer 2009 is even better than last yr's (Iron Man).

P.S. Yesterday, aside from being a good movie day, was also a good eating day. Had beef stew ho fun and avocado boba drink at Pho Hoa Hiep @ Westlake before the movie. Then had Mojo burger (Snell Avenue in San Jose location) and an orange creamsicle shake for dinner, and then a snow azuki at Hello Desserts afterwards. Yum. I love eating throughout the entire day.

in osaka i saw u last

I love this song Osaka Loop Line by Discovery (made up of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot members). Check it out here. Very Postal Service, and since there isn't likely ever going to be another Postal Service cd, this will have to do.

winner winner chicken dinner

Another reason why you should always have faith in Oprah. Yesterday Oprah teamed up with KFC to offer every American a free 2-piece grilled chicken dinner. There were two ways to get the coupon - one directly from KFC, which required you to install an application on your computer to print out a coupon with a unique code; the other from Oprah's website, which prints out a pdf file that has a common code. Well, over at the deals forum yesterday night, people were reporting that KFCs were turning down the coupons without the unique code - which means Oprah was lying to us and giving us bad coupons on her website. Well, have no fear. Today KFC released a statement which says it will honor all coupons printed from Oprah's website. Yup, Oprah came through for us American people and gave KFC a whoop-ass. I know, it's not a car or anything, but a free chicken dinner is still a free chicken dinner. Praise Oprah!!!...I am royally pissed (no pun intended) that Kisha and Jen, black sistas, on their way to the pit stop, stopped to pee, thus allowing the evil redheads (I don't even know their names) to beat them to the mat and sneak their way into the final three. Girlfriends, just pee in your pants - who the hell cares? It's a million bucks. Ugh, I freaking hate those redheads. If they win, I am going to throw something at my tv (something soft and cushiony of course, cuz I love my shiney Sony Bravia too much to hurt it). Amazing Race finale is this Sunday...I am also a lil' upset that Lil Kim and Derek got eliminated yesterday, before that wooden rodeo cowboy, that munchkin gymnast, and that bachelorette. WTF is America thinking? Where were Lil Kim's fans? Were they all out getting their free fried chicken dinners? So go, Gilles the naked French guy from Sex And The City!...Bradley Cooper is rumored to play the Green Lantern. I think Bradley Cooper is great. I loved Kitchen Confidential, a sitcom based on Anthony Bourdain book that lasted barely a season, but I still remember it fondly....I am going to watch Star Trek the reboot on Imax this Saturday. I think it should be good. I have confidence in JJ Abrams (the man behind Lost and Felicity and Alias, which starred...Bradley Cooper), and, although I've never been a Trekkie, I like the idea of the reboot, which goes back to when Kirk and Spock and gang were young. For some reason, I always like young more than old, like I like pretty more than ugly. I am strange that way...The redheaded rocker chick got eliminated from AI yesterday. I would have preferred the guy with the dead wife to go instead, but I am afraid he is staying til the finals, in which he will compete with creepy glam gay guy Adam. My prediction is that Danny will win, cuz dead wife trumps over-the-top theatrics. Yeah, my fave Kris Allen just doesn't have the story/hype to take him to the finals; his charming smile, sweet personality, and Jack Johnson/Jason Mraz-esque singing will likely only take him to a third place finish. That's alright - my streak of rooting for non-winners in reality shows and in general continues...

they're coming to take her away

Haha...I love it. Madonna wore Marc Jacobs bunny ears to the Met Ball yesterday nite. This sort of ridiculous-ness just makes me smile. Mind you, it's supposed to be costume-y.

music for the lonely loner

Top 10 songs I'm listening to this week:
10. Use Somebody - Bat For Lashes
9. Eid Ma Clack Shaw - Bill Callahan
8. As I Em (featuirng Chester French) - Asher Roth
7. Stronger Than Jesus - A Camp
6. Love Etc - Pet Shop Boys
5. The Girl & The Robot (featuring Robyn) - Royksopp
4. Rum Hee - Shugo Tokumaru
3. Too Late (featuring Damon Albarn) - Scratch
2. Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye - Lemonheads
1. Day N Nite - Kid Cudi

the swine season

Weather: Rain
State: Restless
Music: Pet Shop Boys
Last Movie: The Wrestler
Reading: Haruki Murakami's South Of The Border, West Of The Sun
Last Pleasure: My strawberry shortcake jellies!
Last Worry: Swine flu H1N1 flu
Looking Forward To: Getting rid of my coughing
Not Really Looking Forward To: Possibly having to go on the road to do a series of training presentations for work this summer
Tired Of: Coach on Survivor Tocantins
Gas Price: $2.39/gallon
Clothes: Faded black v-neck graphic tee from Gap, RL jeans
Today's Headline: Mexico Says Flu Epidemic Past Peak, Declining
Current Desktop Wallpaper: Undoboy
Last Website Visited: invisiblechildren.com
Last Meal: Home-made peanut sauce chicken/cucumber noodles
Last Purchase: Garmin Nuvi 265t GPS
Item Off My Wishlist: Flu masks, or Le Creuset 7-1/4 Qt cast iron enamel pot, kiwi color
Latest Evidence It's A Beautiful World: The Maldives