Cream Brule
Yes, I know it's spelled wrong. But that's how it was in the menu.
Tin, OJ, Shirley and I decided to have dinner at
Brisdini in Belden Place. I never knew this little alley existed...basically a street open to foot traffic only. It had lights strewn across the alley overhead, with quaint outdoor seating for the restaurants. The food was quite good -- I was pleased with simplicity of my red snapper dish (sitting on a bed of crab meat risotto!) I hate it when they smother red snapper with all this crap to cover up the fish taste; here, it was just salt & pepper. Yummy. And the meat was firm & flaky, just the way I like it. I keep forgetting to shoot more food pictures during dinner (I was a bit distracted by the good wine, good food, and good company) so here's one of dessert:
If I keep up this eating out business, I'm going to lose the fatboy challenge. Time to really buckle down and eat right. I can just feel those inches of gelatinous fat creeping around my jiggling waistline.
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Me So Happy
It's twenty after midnight and I can't sleep...so I might as well put some miles on the keyboard of this Thinkpad while I enjoy some tunes from a couple of OPM classics CDs...it's been playing for the past couple of days -- stuff that I haven't heard in a
long time. (I think that time sitting in front of my parents' TFC subscription has got me craving some tagalog somehow -- if only I wasn't so much of a coconut; I could only make out about 50-60% of the lyrics).
Let's see...it's been a week since I've sent out anything. So an update...
- While my brother was up here last week, he helped me haul home a somewhat new (demo/floor model) Samsung TV. I'm going to return it. It's a lot of money ($600) to pay for HD programming that isn't there (and they were asking one hundred freakin dollars for a damned DVI to HDMI cable!!! WTF!?!?), a picture tube that is of incredibly crappy quality, and a user interface/remote control that just plain blows. That kind of money is better spent on a used DLP projector (for movies) and a smallish TV to satisfy those rare occassions when guests are over. It's funny how after 4 months without a boob toob, a new TV still sits idle except to watch DVDs. Or The Sharks (if I'm home to catch a game - I can't believe they lost to Columbus by the way).
- Here's pictures from the funeral ceremony for my beloved Sony KV32XBR48 Trinitron. Thanks to help from Randy, I was able to say my goodbyes in the only way possible to one of the best picture tubes I've ever seen...by smashing it with a hammer. It makes a cool hissing sound, by the way.
- After a 2 week workout hiatus (being sick and visiting the parents) I restarted tonight -- it's amazing how much I regress after only 2 weeks -- I was struggling with just one plate on the flat bench press. :(
- I miss my (dorky) old team from VMware. Regardless of whatever struggles I had at work, the people I worked with always managed to make things better.
- Making travel arrangements for a two city European tour for close to forty performing artists sure is fun. Speaking of which...Bryan suggested fundraisers for our trip (and boy, are we going to need it!!), after seeing the success of his choir's fundraiser at Baker St. Bistro Monday night (excellent food and even better singing, well worth my money!!) I think it's a great idea.
- Turning 35 really isn't all that bad. It definitely doesn't compare to the freakout that happened when I turned 30. (I had fun though at the Ruby Skye pre-party!)
- My goddaughter cracks me up sometimes. Last week I asked her what she wanted for her fifth birthday present. What does she say? Well..."I want a jack-in-the-box Ninong because I asked for it last year and you didn't get it for me." (Her parents were laughing their butts off) Oh my. It's now waaaay past her birthday (the day before mine) and I've spent the past few days searching for one with no luck. I'll make one last attempt tomorrow (no way I'm letting down a five year old).
- I gotta get off my ass and sell that S2000 so I can get crackin' on a track car. It blows to be sitting in the pits watching my brother have all the fun. Even if it's in the rain.
- I'm excited for the trip up the coast next week. I have a feeling 5 days is not nearly enough time to rekindle my love affair with Vancouver, start a new one with the rugged Oregon coast, and maintain the ongoing relationship with the car of my dreams (well, one of them at least -- that blazing red 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO is next).
- Pictures from my road trip to San Diego are here. It turns out that I missed the wildflowers at Anza Borrego (boo!). I was only able to see this once in my lifetime so far (it was freakin' spectacular!) but stupid me didn't have a camera. I'm going to catch it on film next year. Oh yes...I will.
- These are the best damned cookies I have EVER had. (Thanks Tina!) But jeezus -- 150 calories for two tiny cookies?!? Maybe Canadian calories are less than U.S. calories? :)
OK, that's it for now. I'm sleepy.
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Pera O Bayong?
Funny. There's only 2 things that I do when I visit my parents:
- Eat
- Watch TV
I arrived Tuesday night after an all-day drive (the weather out here was GORGEOUS!)...What did I do? Eat a bowl of pancit and had a girl scout cookie, snacked on some turkey jurkey and ate more of my fruit & nut trail mix. All this while vegetating in front of the TV... My parents recently added TFC to their cable lineup (among other things) and I so want it now. We ended up watching Wowowee...what was interesting was that earlier tonight, my Mom was in charge of the remote control. So she was flipping back and forth between Wowowee and Deal or No Deal; my brain hurt from jumping back and forth over 3000 miles in a matter of milliseconds. It really put my life in perspective -- here are people -- real people -- trying to sing and dance, having the time of their lives on this game show when they have so little. I wasn't sure how to react, whether to be offended or to be entertained; their lives were downright rough...a woman whose husband left her, with no job, trying to care for a daughter; and another woman who peddled fruits on the street while her husband was a scavenger; one woman whose family was stuck in Manila with no money and no way to pay for the ferry ride home. It was apparent that a lot of the contestants were uneducated or had stopped attending school early. All the while the host was tossing around money -- $20 here, $20 there.
And here's this cracker family: well dressed, and oh so fake...turning down an offer for thirty eight thousand dollars to pay for suitcase #21 (which I'm pretty sure contains $5). It just felt so unreal...Maybe I'm racist. Or maybe Deal or No Deal is just a really lame game show. But let's just say that I wanted my mom to keep it on TFC. At the very least, I could brush up on my ability to understand tagalog. And watch those two young hostesses prance around the stage. Hey, I did learn something! "tupa" means "sheep". And if you have patience, you have soup -- Kung may tiyaga, may nilaga! :)
Speaking of food...it continued into today. My dad made me 2 fried egg sammiches for breakfast; then for lunch I had a pollo asado burrito & a shrimp taco courtesy Valentine's. Then for dinner it was a chicken quesadilla finished off with a slice of cookies 'n' cream ice cream cake. My parents think I'm too skinny; I think they're trying to stuff me with food. Thank goodness I'm heading back tomorrow; I'll probably gain back all 50 pounds if I stay any longer.
Anza Borrego State Park early tomorrow morning! Woo hoo!
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It's a Wonderful Life
I just spent the past hour or so responding to the fifty something e-mails that I got from various people across the company, e-mails containing emotions that ranged from shock to congratulations. And this in addition to the twenty or so that I got last night from the private announcement I made to some individuals. Each e-mail was like a voice from the past, echoes of a time when the company was smaller (some may even say crazier) when I worked some wild hours and shuddered in fear when we shipped a product out the door -- fingers crossed that it didn't blow up in someone's face.
Software has a strange tendency to do that sometimes.
But alas, I'm proud to say that for the most part it didn't (except for one version that had out-of-the-box licensing issues for a percentage of customers). Times have definitely changed, with the company ten times bigger and in three times more buildings than when I started three years eleven months ago. A part of me still contemplates whether I made the right decision to leave. For some reason, being flooded with e-mails of well-wishes and regrets starts me thinking about poor old George Bailey, a poor broken man deciding to leave it all behind...but decides against it when he realizes just how much of an impact he actually had.
It's strange how easy it is to forget how many lives you're a part of, how many you've touched in your day-to-day dealings. And it's even the little things -- a smile; a joke; a compliment; asking how things are going with such-and-such project; and just listening... That's the one thing that I'm going to miss the most -- being able to listen to all these different voices, attitudes, opinions, and personalities from people in various levels and departments of the company. From directors to managers to individual contributors...it's what made QA
so great. You get to talk to
everyone.
It has certainly made it all the more difficult to continue with this process, which is one of the reasons why I've tried to make it swift and quiet, leaving only a few days after handing in my resignation letter.
Like ripping a bandaid off your leg.
Regardless, I still believe this is the best move for me -- I can't explain it -- there comes a time in your life when you know in your heart that it's time to walk away and chase something different...no matter how much you know it's going to hurt or how much you're giving up. And so I leave it up to fate to be my guide, that the future will remain bright and filled with success in my new endeavor.
In a previous life, one of my former bosses told me that in the Chinese language they have no word for "Goodbye". I wish I only spoke Cantonese.
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That Mediciny Feeling
I hate this feeling, being pumped up on Tylenol Cold. Feels so artificial.
Granted, my nose is clear, my head doesn't hurt, my throat ain't sore and I'm not coughing anymore, but I sure feel "weird". Like I'm detached from my body, floating in air -- numb to the world around me.
Can anyone recommend a good place to eat lunch in the East Bay near Hayward/Fremont?
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Airborne
Sometime a few days back, somewhere in the vast expanse of air that I was breathing, there was this itsy bitsty teenee weenee microbe flying carefree...deep within its tough outer shell lay dormant a deadly viral payload. In a strange twist of fate, I unwittingly came into contact with such virus and yesterday found myself feeling those telltale warning signs of an impending illness: sore throat, runny nose, aching muscles, sluggish demeanor.
Hm...What was the incubation period of the common cold again?
In an effort to combat the cold, I went home early yesterday, skipped my usual afternoon workout (
frustrating!) and took a nap before heading down to Santa Clara to pick up some car stuff my brother bought. Upon hearing of my growing cold, two different friends of mine on two different occassions advised me: "Airborne!" The disbeliever that I am, I tried to fight it off with more sleep. Wouldn't you know it...I woke up this morning feeling 10x worse. Desperate times call for desperate measures -- I slept in all morning before joining an old friend of mine for lunch at
Maru Ichi Ramen House (my first ever ramen house -- good stuff!) and ended up not going into work until 3PM (after a doctor's appointment). Then immediately went home, but quickly realized I had no food! So ended up going out in the freeeezing cold again to load up on soup, TheraFlu, Tylenol Cold, and a tea kettle at Bed Bath & Beyond...
It took me 30 freakin' minutes to buy a tea kettle. I'm guessing it must've been my tired , sick and hungry state of mind. Or mabye it's because they had at least
sixty freakin' brands and models there! I circled the store twice while contemplating giving up and going to Target or IKEA. But I finally caved and picked up what seems like
a reasonable one. And I don't care how nice that stainless steel Calaphon whistling tea kettle with solid aluminum base was, but it is
not worth
sixty bucks.
So standing at the checkout counter, what did I see off to my right, but a big huge wall of little tiny boxes of Airborne, arranged 15 rows high and 25 columns wide, looming over my sick decrepit old body, mocking my decision to "fight it".
Grrr.
And by the way -- don't go shopping at 99 Ranch when you're tired, cold, sick and hungry. You're libel to pick up something without reading the Nutrition Facts label:
Look closely...
610 calories.
250 from fat. 1.7 grams of salt.
And in other news...Today I told my boss I'm quitting. I'm definitely not looking forward to the coming days having to face my coworkers...
my friends that I've come to know and love for the past four years of my life. But I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do at my company, the leader in virtualization software. It's time for this weary soul to take flight -- airborne -- and land myself in greener pastures, at a job filled with brand new challenges in the world's
#2 wireless handset maker.
The time off will do me good. If the weather holds up, I'll take a couple of road trips to spend some much needed quality time with my 'Bahn-storming four door...one to destinations due North, along the coast [finally!!] ...a trip I've been wanting to do since high school... oooh, I could revisit Seattle & Vancouver! And another due East -- to catch the
cherry blossoms. And maybe one to the Southwest to see the Slot Canyons. And maybe catch a quick flight to Tokyo. And maybe hop on a plane to New York & Toronto to finally stop paying lip service to a promise I made to my cousins nearly 17 years ago. And... And...
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Mental Note Part II
Never assume that you got all the shrimp out of the bowl, especially deep bowls...
Sayang.
One of these uncooked critters sure does reek after spending the night in the kitchen. :)
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Mental Notes
Shrimp scampi isn't just garlic, parsley and butter...it's lemon & fresh grated parmesan too!!!
Rice mix != seasoning packet. Sautee the rice in butter
before adding the seasoning packet.
Cook frozen vegetables 14 minutes before dinner is served.
14 year old Scotch + Ed Cruz + Paradigm Speakers == Bagsakan... Thank goodness Canadians know how to make tough speakers. :)
Always avoid ghetto-ass basil tomato bisque recipes from kraftfoods.com -- make it from scratch next time! And 3 ounces of cream cheese per 1 can of tomato soup is
too much.
Dinner parties are fun! Just remember to bribe someone next time to stay behind and help clean.
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If Only...
If only she was able to know exactly what my heart was feeling at this very moment.
If only I acted on my emotions, never letting logic and common sense get in the way of blind passion and crazy notions of happiness.
If only I was richer; thinner; handsomer; younger; sexier; smarter; wiser; snazzier.
If only I didn't let that one moment to make an indelible impression slip between my fingers like the sands of time, forever lost in a sea of historical nothingness.
If only she was able to peer into my heart and catch a brief glimpse of how much she has changed my life for the better.
If only...
...I had just once chance to see her again and tell her exactly how I feel.
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Fake Model Photography
Now this is neat. Maybe one day I'll make using (and learning) Photoshop a priority in life so I could be cool like everyone else.
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Burning Rubber, Loud Motors, and Chicken Sandwiches
(...and obnoxious L.A. drivers)
The relentless buzzing of an annoying alarm clock slowly rattled me awake from the dark comfort of a somewhat restful sleep. The tiny Clarion Suites Comfort Inn in Monrovia served its purpose...reasonable lodings for weary travelers, not unlike our rag-tag team of four bay area filipinos on a quest for some loud drifting action.
Only hours before, my body was desperately fighting the caffeine flowing through my brain as I hustled that blazing white Pontiac Grand Prix rental down the 5. They
Build Excitement indeed...three-something liters of rambunctious American fury and a brake pedal that sat 12 inches higher than the gas pedal (oh how my ankle hated me!). But hey, can't go wrong for 25 bucks a day! Its little trip computer did spice up the five hour journey a bit.
My bunk buddies slowly gathered themselves and prepared for the day ahead...we finally rolled out of the concrete driveway on that chilly (not too cold!) L.A. morning somewhere near 8AM. With the gates opening at 9, and our past experience with long lines, I was a bit concerned about the possibility of a long line ahead (and the far worse implications of not being able to get an infield pass). My worries were dashed, however, when my eyes couldn't spot a single car after making that left turn from Arrow Hwy onto the frontage road in front of Irwindale Speedway.
We patiently waited in line for our will call tickets (a line
significantly shorter than previous events, despite the 8AM-ish arrival time). Then it was off to the gate line for another half hour-ish wait to pass through the security gauntlet. If you listen closely, you can just about hear the busy pit crews uttering orders in Japanese, wrenches and hammers clanging away, drivers focused on the day ahead -- OK, maybe not.
The day was off to a great start -- short will call ticket line, short gate line, and a virtually
non-existent line for the fifteen dollar VIP/Infield Passes. And it got even better...no one was guarding the infield wall!! Unable to contain my excitement, I hurriedly picked out a spot along the steel and concrete fence, plopped down my folding chair, and sat. Just off to the southwest, the high-pitched rumble of thirty-two 400-plus-horsepower cars idled their way onto the track. Blow-off valves whistling away, the drivers called attention to themselves with loud jabs of the throttle...and the obligatory screeching of expensive Yokohoma rubber as they went up in delicious plumes of white smoke. The wildly painted and stickered cars slowly made their way around the track, only a few feet away from our face. Then with an incredible roar they were screaming down the back straight, kicking a long smoking left-hand drift around the high banked first corner before the first turn.
Hot damn. A few seconds later, they explode onto the second apex
sideways! at 80+ mph, and head straight for us. With every passing car, our clothes and face are sprayed by an obligatory coating of rubber, our nose is burned with the fresh aroma of spent race fuel & smoking tires, and our eardrums are hammered by the sound of 8000rpm feeding through 100mm titanium exhaust pipes. YAY!
It was too good to be true... The fun came to an abrupt end with D1 Staff removing us from our intimate perches, pointing us toward the infield grandstands. BOO. Injuries? Lawsuits? What's that? Hell, a chunk of a thousand dollar wheel can come flying in my direction, chop my fingers off, and I wouldn't care.
(Well, maybe I would).
Whatever, the twenty minutes of fun was well worth the trip. The experience from the benches wasn't as exciting... You definitely lose the sense of speed when you sit higher up, and the noise is not as fierce. Previous years, we stood behind a concrete barrier, and it was quite an experience seeing the cars do their ballet through the course at speeds that defy belief, exhausts screaming at ear level.
The morning practice showcased some new machinery -- a pair of rear-wheel-drive Imprezas, a Viper, an RX-8, a '69 Camaro, and the new Mustang. They joined the usual platforms: S13's, FC's, 86's, R32s, R34s, (and a bunch of others). After watching the practice, it was clear who my favorite was going to be...Yuke's orange Subaru piloted by Nobushike Kumakubo.
Before the official competition began, we roamed the pits, pausing occasionally to grab some pictures with some company representatives.
Falken Tire had a huge showing in this event, and it's no surprise. Imagine all the money to be had as a tire manufacturer if this competition spread like wildfire through the country?
After a stroll through the crowded vendor area, we snarfed down some pretty disgusting lunches and anxiously awaited the start of the first round of elimination. The first round went quite slowly, with lots of pauses due to course repairs and broken cars. The crowd was definitely not into it. Eventually, though, the judges selected the contestants for the round of 16. And from that point forth, it was tandem drifting, which upped the crowd factor tenfold. The thrill of two drivers sliding their cars inches away from each other at 80+ mph is just an amazing sight to behold.
The temperature dropped dramatically as day turned to night. As I bundled up inside my blue parka (yay Target!) I was excited to find that the driver I had wanted to win managed to fight his way to the final round (with some great driving!). This prompted yet another "gentleman's wager" between Randy & I (because we're on a red meat fast, we settled on a Chick-Fil-A sammich instead of the traditional carne asada burrito prize). The odds were against me this year, with Kazama looking strong and consistent throughout the entire day. Regardless, he put up a good fight, but it wasn't enough to dethrone last year's winner.
All in all, a great day in L.A.
It's just too bad that the slow shuffle out of the parking lot was tainted by an obnoxious Dodge Ram truck driver that insisted on acting like a 10 year old child. And a Grand Cherokee driver that couldn't stand to let one person into his lane. And the driver of a 4 Runner that shoved his nose closer to the car in front of him when he saw my signal light as I tried to merge. I know hate is a strong word, but boy do I
hate L.A. drivers.
We topped off the day with a 40 minute detour down the insanely crowded 10 freeway to Ontario for some
damned good chicken sandwiches.
Despite the fun-filled day exposed to the sun, the wind, the cold, the noise, and the crowd, I managed to take us home in a reasonable five hours thanks to the help of a Starbuck's Colombian Supremo (Grande) and conversation with good friends over random miscellaneous topics.
Hey Randy, thanks man for introducing me to this fascinating world of drifting over three years ago.
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You Know What I Find Fascinating?
For the umpteenth time now (even after a bunch of refills), the final emptying pour of my fabric softener bottle filled up the Downy Ball to just the exact amount prescribed for a single load of laundry.
That is just too cool.
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Taba Ako
In an effort to help motivate my fat butt to win the fatboy challenge (a great idea!), I'm going to publicly announce my starting point:
222.6 lbs
24% body fat
40" abdomen
...As registered by the Tanita scale (I need to get one!) and Randy's tape measure. I am going to win this contest or suffer the humiliation of a thousand verbal lashings from my compatriats. Nevermind the fact that last night I skipped out on my usual Thursday night workout to go have dinner at
Ristorante Capellini in San Mateo where I had an excellent homemade four cheese ravioli in a creamy pesto sauce and a glass of wine. I finished off the dinner with a creme brulee & an amazing bread pudding. And don't you just love it when you meet someone for dinner and you're having great food and the conversation just keeps on going and you're totally ignorant of your surroundings (or how fast time is flying by) because you're having such a great time? (I love that)
D1 on Saturday! Yay! Raw unburnt fuel, expensive burning rubber, four bangers spinning at the top of their lungs, and beautiful women. What more can a guy ask for!!! :) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather report holds up -- the forecast claims sunny & partly cloudy tomorrow.
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The Black Cloud
I have two favorite numbers in the world. One of them happens to be the same number worn by my favorite QB (Dan Marino). The other number happens to be the same as the number of Power Play goals the Sharks scored tonight (a franchise record!) in front of my very eyes...
Damn, hockey is so much
fun when the team you're rooting for is whompin' on the best team in the league right now. What a great game. So that makes me 2 for 3 watching Shark's games. I'm wondering now if they lost last time because of a certain Canuck fan being there... *cough* Tina *cough* :)
Speaking of hockey... If only the fights were as good as this one:
Best. Fight Scene. Ever.
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