JUL

08

2008

almost started a fire in the kitchen today. i was heating up some beef hot dogs in the toaster oven. for whatever reason these oscar meyer franks are extremely oily and usually leave a spatter of grease all over the aluminum foil. the hot dogs come out of the oven looking shriveled, like they've been fried. today i smelled some burning and went to investigate. i noticed smoke coming out of the toaster oven and when i opened the door, the oil suddenly caught on fire. i managed to quickly blow it out, but i shudder to think what would've happened if i wasn't there in time. somehow having my house burnt down because of some hot dogs doesn't seem like a good way to go out.

while making lunch, i started thinking about the recession. one of the great things about a recession is suddenly being cheap ("frugal") is cool. for instance, i've been eating a recession diet for the past few years, before the recession even began: shopping at market basket and buying generic food over name brand. and riding a motorcycle - a much maligned mode of transportation - is now getting a serious second look from people when you frame as a money-saving alternative to cars now with the high price of gasoline these days.

i tried renewing my library books online. it's my second renewal; i'm just too lazy to go down to the library and return them (for obvious BROKEN FOOT reason). however, i got a weird "library card expired" error. so i ended up calling the library. sure enough, they told me my library card did expire (every 5 years), but they'd just renew it for me (along with the books). is this something new? i never remember library cards expiring before. not like you could ever use a library card other than to borrow books since they all look the same, the same generic blue plastic with a barcode sticker in the back.

in the late afternoon my father dropped by to help me install my air conditioner (which normally lives in the basement when it's not summertime). it's an old american model; you can tell because it has fake wood paneling, for that rustic look. i've always wanted to get rid of it and replace it with a more energy efficient model (and maybe one with a remote!) but every year when my father installs it for me he comments on how great the one i have is, and that it's super quiet compared to a lot of other air conditioners. i don't use the AC that much anyway; only when it gets too humid and hot. who buys a new air conditioner anyway during a recession?

this past weekend my 2nd aunt expressed some interest in getting a cheap computer to watch some movies online and possibly do some light web surfing. it's a personal mission of mine to get everyone i know online. now that i'm no longer using the m0n0wall, i've decided to give her the $20 used PC i bought. it's only 800mhz, but that's fast enough for what she needs. i installed a fresh XP system, then replaced the old circa 1999 cd-rom drive with a circa 2003 dvd-rom burner. the machine works like a charm, the only thing it needs now is a wireless internet card (it has an ethernet card but it's easier to set up a wireless PC).

later in the evening i went online to order a cheap (but reliable) wireless card (i tried looking on craig's list first, didn't see anything). the card that i found (TRENDnet TEW-423PI 54Mbps Wireless G PCI Adapter) ended up costing more than what i paid for the computer! i bought it through amazon.com, got a cooking thermometer as well (for the next time i try deep-fry cooking or if i want to make fudge).

as promised, here are the pages from the zine i found in the chinatown supermarket. maybe you can make some sense out of it! i think "porta rican princess" would make an awesome tattoo...

finally, nstar's automated caller got in touch with me earlier, informing me that there might be a blackout between the hours of midnight and 2am. another night ruined!

JUL

07

2008

i paid the garden a visit in the early afternoon after lunch. the mulberries were still falling as always but they seemed to be on the decline. only one of the cypress vines had started to coil on the chicken wire trellis; something which the wild morning glories had no problems with. the few nasturtium seedlings seem to be doing well, while the one i had from february that i transplanted outdoors isn't doing so bad either. i also sprinkled some cilantro seeds, hopefully a few will sprout out in time for august. maybe tomorrow i can collect some golden raspberries.

i called client B again, this time they were on the phone. once more i left a voicemail message, my suspicions growing. however, a few minutes later i got a call back. i listened to the message, apparently everything is still according to plan and they'll be finally sending me the script i've been asking for the past 2 weeks.

in the late afternoon i went with my parents to do some grocery shopping in chinatown. on the way out of the supermarket, i was browsing the collection of free circulars by the entrance when something caught my eye. it looked like a homemade fanzine featuring an orange cover with a drawing of a woman and the words "B.E.M." which stands for "blood, earth, & man," and apparently produced by somebody named howi lily. inside were several more pages of drawings featuring mostly scantily-clad women and one illustration of a football player. there were actually two copies left and i was so intrigued i ended up taking an issue. i'll scan all the pages tomorrow so everyone can enjoy this interesting find.

back at the cafe, i helped my parents unload the supplies before riding back to belmont with them for dinner. my mother made a dish with garlic scapes which she bought from whole foods ($8/lbs). she told us some story how this used to be her favorite food growing up but it's too expensive a delicacy for her to have often. i just thought it tasted like thin asparagus stalks with a garlicky flavor. afterwards my father and i investigated more gps-imported waypoints on google earth. while playing with hailey, she ripped another hole in my t-shirt. her tiny teeth are just too sharp! later my sister squeezed a rubber toy that emitted a series of high-pitched squeaks while scared the hell out of hailey, making her run back her sleep pen to hide. the rest of the night she seemed out of it, still too freaked out by the squeak toy.

so engrossed with google earth that when i got back home, i signed up for a panoramio account and uploaded a few photos that i also have gps coordinates for. so hopefully one day when you're playing around with google earth, you might just happen to see a photo i took.

JUL

06

2008

spent a few hours doing some research for a possible project. never worked so hard on something that i'm not even sure if i'm going to get. i finally figured out a viable solution, but need to write a proposal tomorrow. looks like i'm going to be busy next week. a project for client S, and i need to get in touch with client B. i tried to get some instructions from them last week but they were mysteriously silent. i'm sort of worried that maybe they decided to go with somebody else for the project, so i need to call them up, figure out what's happening.

had dinner at my parents in the evening. hailey bit a hole in another one of my t-shirts.

unsuccessful at installing the garmin mapsource program on my father's pc, i returned home to download the gps data onto my own computer. i never realized it, but during that two tumultuous years when i did a lot of asia traveling, i plotted waypoints wherever i went. i did it not because i wanted to be some amateur cartographer but rather just in case i got lost, i could always retrace my steps. i never bothered to take the time to check out all the waypoints until tonight, but looking back on it now, it's a bread crumb trail of my travels. the best part is merging the data with google earth, so i can view satellite maps of where i was. maybe i can combine the data with my photos and turn it into some web 2.0 project.

JUL

05

2008

fairly lowkey saturday, left the house one time to run across the street to pick up some bags of potato chips for my weekend binge. happy the weather has cooled off, but the sky still looked like it could rain at any moment. enjoy it while it lasts though, i hear next week we're getting another mini-heatwave.

JUL

04

2008

one of the reasons why i bought an external flash last november was to improve my macro photography. the problem with insects is sometimes i find them in the shade. without enough natural light, i'm forced to open the aperture and bump up the ISO in order to increase the shutter speed. the problem is the fast aperture (f2.8, the fastest on my macro lens) reduces the depth of field. instead of getting a clear shot of the entire insect, i end up getting just a shallow cross-section. however, with the aid of an external flash, i can not only have a slower aperture but a faster shutter speed as well. this would've been the summer where i got a lot of practice shooting flash-assisted macros, if it weren't for my season-ending foot injury. but today i got a some photographic exercise when i spotted a green bottle fly resting on a grape leaf.

spent most of the day over at my parents. traditionally they like to drive up to maine on the 4th of july, barbecue some lunch, eat some lobsters, visit the coastline, maybe do some outlet shopping on the way back (like what we did last year). but with the addition of the dog this year, they couldn't decide if they should bring hailey or leave her at home. i then convinced them they should just stay home instead, with the cost of high gasoline prices being what it is, use that money instead to go buy some lobsters and cook them at home.

don't worry: i'm not going to turn this into one of those blogs where i post a million photos of my pets. although to me, it's just a natural extension of my usual nature shots. hailey the labrador retriever-hound dog mix is particularly hard to photograph because 1) she's always moving and 2) the camera has a hard time focusing on her black fur. at 13 weeks old, she's starting to show some non-retriever like traits, like a more pointed muzzle and longer legs.

we ended up not having lobsters, but just had a barbecue for dinner. lamb chops rubbed with cumin, shrimps, italian sausages, and barbecue corn. missing was one of my favorites, taiwanese sausages.

today hailey learned how to jump onto my parents' bed. after she'd been outside rolling in the dirt, she ran into the house and disappeared. my mother found her standing on the bed, almost like she was waiting for some sort of reaction. as punishment, hailey spent a few minutes locked in her dog pen where she went to sleep.

after dinner i got a ride back to cambridge with some leftover barbecue.

although i would've liked to home gone down to boston to watch the fireworks, the idea of waiting along the banks of the charles river for hours on end before the start of the actual fireworks wasn't something i was looking forward to. and the crush of people leaving afterwards meant i'd most likely have to walk back home. with my bum leg, that wasn't an option. instead i figured i could climb one of the many hills of somerville and watch the fireworks from the summit. i decided to head to prospect hill by union square, about a 30 minute walk. i brought my camera along with the tripod. as i got to the base of the hill, i noticed the barricades and a police detail. looking up, i saw the crowd of people already positioned along the hillside, waiting for the show to start. when the fireworks finally started, most of the view was obstructed, except for the ones high up in the air. 30 minutes later it was all over and i began my walk home.

JUL

03

2008

it was finally time to transplant some seedlings into the ground. i picked three of the healthiest cypress vines and planted them next to the chicken wire trellis i set up a few days ago. they'll be competing with some wild morning glory vines that have already been growing along the edge of the wooden fence. hopefully the two different flowers can coexist. if i add some moonflowers, i will have a distinctively patriotic natural patchwork of red, white, and blue flowers. unfortunately all three flowers bloom at different times of the day.

i also noticed some nasturtium seedlings have sprouted, but given their small sizes, i think they might easily be crowded out by some of the faster growing weeds.

the cosmos are slowly maturing. i've seen some cosmo plants in the community garden that are already a few feet high, while mine are still just inches.

i also transplanted the cucumbers and one chinese melon. i only had enough tomato cages for one cucumber, while the other plants just got wooden stakes.

watched a great film, a korean thriller called the chaser (추격자) (2008). the protagonist is a disgraced police officer turned pimp, searching for his girls that have gone missing one by one. at first he thinks maybe they just ran away or worst case scenario sold to somebody else, but gradually he realizes they might've been the victims of a serial killer. the movie is a refreshing take on the "search for a killer" genre. it's also a commentary on the ineptitude of police bureaucracy by botching investigations and releasing known criminals. the anti-hero main character is truly a hard man to love. although he doesn't mistreat his prostitutes (other than the occasional verbal threat), he definitely sees them as objects to be traded, with no regard to whether they get beat up by clients or if they're sick, so long as he gets his money. even in the end, when he finally catches up to the killer (no surprise), you're never quite sure if his anger is due to his ruined livelihood or moral outrage. i did some review searches and came across the news that this film has been optioned by some hollywood studio and will be remade with american actors. i don't know how they can improve on it, but in the meantime, i highly recommend this movie to any thriller fans (and i don't mean MJ).

i also saw an episode of the BBC's wild china series. i only came across it online; why this series isn't on american cable is beyond me. it's the kind of nature documentary that makes people go out and buy HDTV. every frame is like a picture postcard. the episode i saw was focused on the flora and fauna of yunnan province. everything from snub-nosed monkeys, to lesser pandas, to wild jungle elephants. the next episode i'll watch is about tibet.

my parents stopped by in the evening, on their way to some pre-4th of july grocery shopping. they brought some burger king takeout.

JUL

02

2008

i got in touch with my old dentist today, jensian huang. when i called him last year, i just got an answering machine message saying he'd moved to allston (from boston). when i tried the new number, nobody answered. i kept on calling for about a week but finally gave up and decided to see a new dentist in chinatown. so when i phoned his number again today i was surprised somebody actually answered. when i told the receptionist who i was, she immediately remembered me. "where have you been?" she said. "i've been looking for you guys too!" i replied. doctor huang is my longtime dentist. i've known about him since the early 90's and started seeing him regularly when i went to college. most of the work in my mouth was done by him: the crown molding, the root canal, and of course all my cavity fillings. if anyone can solve my mysterious tooth ache, it's doctor huang. even if he left town, so long as i knew where he was, i'd still want him as my dentist. i've known him so long, he's almost like family. i can't wait to give him update about my life. i scheduled an appointment 2 weeks from today.

photos of neighbors from within the past few days:

julie came over in the evening, touting a dinner composed of almost entirely of vegetables from either her community garden or from the davis square farmer's market. she ended up making a thai-style soba noodle with fried gyozas.

we watched a show on the travel channel called "deep-fried paradise", featuring some outrageous deep-fried restaurants from across america. from the relatively mundane, like deep-fried turkey, to the crazy-insane like deep-fried bacon strips. later we watched the second to last episode of she's got the look. bahia, once again seemingly on the chopping block (for criticizing daisy fuentes' cooking, despite the fact that daisy purposely made an inedible creation), escaped another elimination round. we thought maybe karin (the awkward german) would get axed but hope ended up leaving in a surprising twist. last episode is next week, bahia all the way! (she had me at red pants).

JUL

01

2008

i didn't want to work in my plot because of all the mashed mulberries, so i went to the other side of the community garden where was some open space. i basically unfurled a length of chicken wire and stapled each end to wooden stakes i'd drive into the ground. another gardener saw me and asked what i was doing. when she heard i might staple the chicken wire to the fence itself, she said, "oh, i think that fence belongs to the people next door," which seemed like a coded message telling me not to do it.

i tried the staking method but it didn't work. i ended up removing the chicken wire and stapling it to the fence. it still buckles at certain spots but better than nothing. i finally got the attention of my garden neighbor when i essentially just stared her down. "i'm listening to an audio book," she said, pointing to her headphones. translation: technology allows me to forget my manners. "hi, my name is tony," i told her. she then did this whole elaborate thing where she dug out her ipod, paused her track, and took out her earbuds. "what?" she said. by that point i really didn't care, i'd already deemed her unworthy of my attention.

i was so tired and sweaty by that point i decided to just go home instead of doing anymore planting or watering the garden. as soon as i got back i took a shower (actually, i spent 10 minutes digging out mulberry guts from the bottom of my aircast shoe before taking a shower).

just as fast as i was done i was out the door again, this time to harvard square to catch wanted at the harvard theatre. i ambled along with my frankenstein gait, cutting through the farmer's market on the harvard campus, arriving at the theatre with 5 minutes to spare, just in time to catch a few minutes of commercials before 15 minutes of previews. wanted follows in the footsteps of the matrix and fight club, the young male office drone who discovers he's actually more important than he realizes, your basic nerd boy fantasy brought to cinematic life. this time around, instead of being a virtual messiah or the ringleader of a clandestine fight club, the protagonist (james macavoy) is a member of a secret fraternity of assassins. assassins who also started out in the business of rug making (i kid you not). story-wise, wanted is more like fight club in its subversiveness and sense of humor, but effects-wise is more like the matrix. "bullet curving" is this summer's bullet time. i've read the original comics and i'm happy the movie is only loosely based on the original source material (more superheroes and multiple dimensions). for many who see this movie, angelina jolie is the main attraction. the woman has so much star wattage her very presence is like its very own special effect. if you've seen the trailer, you've basically seen all the good parts of the film, but it's still a movie worthy of a look, if nothing else, at least you'll have an idea of what all the fanboys will be talking about.

leaving the theatre, i heard somebody calling my name behind me across the street. it took a while for me to spot the caller, but it was brice, here at harvard square taking a writing course. i was surprised he recognized me since i temporarily don't have my goatee. he asked if he could borrow a pen and then ran to his class because he was late.

i have a very mild tooth ache. i think it's one of my molars that i had some work done on it last summer, when a piece of filling came loose. i went to a chinatown dentist where they basically removed the rest of the filling and refilled it. however, more like they just coated it because they still left a big crater. i asked if it was normal and the dentist said it was fine but i definitely have this suspicion that maybe corners were cut and now something bad has happened. bad like i may need a root canal. another root canal. we'll see, i'll have to schedule an appointment for next week (routine teeth cleaning, but get them to take an x-ray). scheduling a dentist appointment feels like volunteering for an execution.

JUN

30

2008

i finally got my 2008 economic stimulus check today. not that it'll do me any good because that money is going right back to the government in the form of my quarterly tax payment. i can still remember the first year bush was president, he sent out a tax relief check as well. back then the amount was a bit less but the dollar was worth more in 2001. the euro didn't even exist yet. i sort of feel this economic stimulus is kind of like a bribe though. the administration feels that if it gives every american a few hundred dollars, that maybe we can overlook how screwed up the government is right now. i also don't understand how the federal government can be giving me money when we have so much war debt to pay off. it kind of doesn't make sense. at least i'm giving the money back. $600 will pay for a microsecond of the iraq invasion.

last night i got sick of my goatee and decided to shave it all off. i get rid of that thing about twice a year, but then quickly grow it back again. i'm not used to seeing myself with a goatee. and with my fat head, the clean-shaven appearance is not a good look for me. maybe if i can lose some of this head cheese i might reconsider going light on the facial hair. but i kind of like that scruffy look that happens when i'm growing out my goatee. i like playing with the stubbles on my chin.

tweaked my foot this morning while i was waking up. I think i turned my ankle in such a way that re-aggravated the broken bone. i hope it didn't set me back in terms of recovery. i've been super careful about wearing my aircast 99% of the time i'm awake, ever since the doctor told me last week that i wasn't making as much progress as i'd hoped. the pain this morning last just 30 seconds and was gone, so hopefully it was nothing.

going to the garden used to a fun activity but not so much now. all i can think about is how dirty the bottom of my aircast is going to be when i get back home and how long i'm going to have to scrub all that dirt out. things have gotten exponentially worse not that mulberries are involved. i'm squishing them like i'm making mulberry wine and the stench of rotting berries is kind of a turn off. hopefully another week or two more and they're done producing for the year. only then do i have the unenviable task of cleaning up the mess in my garden.

early last week i found three-lined potato beetles eating my chinese lantern plant. i also discovered a bunch of eggs which i immediately destroyed. i usually see these beetles on nightshade plants, but apparently they like chinese lanterns as well. the caterpillars can quickly defoliate a healthy plant so hopefully i managed to get rid of them all.

i have two tomatillo plants, one healthy, one stunted. the healthy one is already at the third rung on the tomato cage, while the stunted one is barely making it past the second rung. i don't care too much about the stunted plant, but i need it to survive to produce enough flowers so it can cross-pollinate with the healthy tomatillo, otherwise i won't get any good fruits.

poor seedlings! at least one is zinnia, and there's also a cup with basil and another with a chinese gourd. the cucumbers are healthy, but of the four cups, i think one of them is dead. no matter, because each cup contains 2-3 seedlings. they just need to get planted into the ground, as well as the cypress vines. i'm going to fashion some sort of trellis tomorrow, but unfortunately it'll only be good for the cypress vines (because the holes in the chicken wire is too small). but who knows, maybe they'll also work for the cucumbers. only a few of the sunflowers actually came out. not a big deal, they're easy to grow, i'll wait until the mulberries stop falling before planting some more. i also planted some nasturtium seeds last week but i haven't seen any seedlings yet. the cosmos are doing fine but they look really similar to some common weed i've been pulling out of the garden, so i'm starting to wonder if those supposed weeds are somehow related to cosmos.

in the evening i headed back to belmont again, where my sister was making chili dogs. i thought maybe we'd be having spicy sausages but turned out it was just mexican chili (the kind with ground beef) paired with hot dogs. i told them about the mexican tortilla chicken soup i made one time back in february (maybe i'll make it for them one of these days).

today was a hot and humid day. my sister was by herself in the living room with the air conditioner, texting on her new blackberry. hailey was sleeping in the kitchen, her black body perpetually hot. once i got back home to cambridge, i took a shower immediately to rinse off the stickiness, my 3rd shower of the day. since i don't have my AC installed yet, all i had was an oscillating fan, which was good enough. not exactly a heatwave this week but a series of hot and humid weather hovering in the 80's. in the back of my mind i'm already dreaming about fall weather.

JUN

29

2008

over at my parents, i let hailey out into the backyard so she could go to the bathroom. she's starting to become more hound-like now, with a pointier face and longer legs compared to a traditional labrador retriever. when she was younger she was calmer but now she's a bit rambunctious. especially since she's teething, anything is fair game for her to chew, including the wooden corners of the kitchen cabinets. my parents have this dog deterrent spray they use on furniture but it's only effective for a few days since the foul taste eventually wears off. hailey actually ripped a hole in my t-shirt when she flew into my chest at top speed and caught a piece of fabric with her mouth.

got a chance to register my father's garmin gps as well as update the software. new features include additional car icons and more languages (finally mandarin chinese). the gps is also eligible for the 2009 map updates. i got a ride back to cambridge as my father was downloading the 2gb updater software.