FEB

07

2010

for whatever reason, i seem to do a lot of cleaning when i'm over at my parents' place. i ended up spending 2 hours vacuuming the house, mostly getting rid of the dog hairs that seem to accumulate everywhere. for a dog with such a short coat, hailey seems to shed a lot of it.

i also did some rosemary maintenance. besides watering, i noticed some powdery mildew on a few of the lower branches. i snipped those off with a pair of scissors. it seems like every year around this time my indoor rosemaries succumb to the mildew. i was hoping this year would be different. one year i didn't give it enough light (rosemaries need a lot of it) and the plant shriveled up and died. another year i kept it under a bank of artificial light, but it was too tightly packed with some other plants and the poor circulation caused the mildew to set in. this year i had plenty of sunlight and good circulation, but i think the mildew in this case happened to leaves that aren't getting enough sunlight. i moved the potted plants higher up so they can get more sun exposure.

when my sister came back home, we watched the hoarders marathon on A&E. i wanted her to see it because i think she has a bit of the compulsive hoarding herself (when it comes to clothes and shoes). we watched an episode where this old lady wouldn't throw anything away, and even when her plumbing was turned off, she'd go to the bathroom in adult diapers and keep those in her house as well (the human waste was so awful that it ate a hole in her bathroom floor). some scenes were so gruesome i couldn't even watch. it was probably even more horrifying since i was seeing it in HDTV clarity. after they cleaned up her house, it was in such terrible shape that she ended up selling the place for just $5000.

when my mother finally came home, we had dinner. my father was stuck in new york and was only getting on the fung wah bus at 7:00.

tonight was also the superbowl. i was rooting for the saints because 1) being a patriots fan i'd never root for the colts and 2) the saints seemed to be the more-deserving underdog. it was a great game made greater when the colts lost and the saints won. it seemed like a pretty clean contest, not a lot of suspicious interference calls that'd sway the outcome (of course colts fans might disagree, for instance the 2-point conversion challenge that was overruled in the saints favor). the saints made it fun with that on-side kick at the start of the 2nd half and capped it off with an interception of peyton manning that essentially sealed the new orleans victory. during a few commercial breaks and at halftime we'd turn to the puppy bowl on animal planet.

were my eyes deceiving me but was there a late show commercial featuring dave letterman, oprah, and jay leno(!)? i thought letterman and leno were feuding? does this mean things are cool between the two late night talk show hosts? at first i couldn't believe it, and was sure they were using a fake CGI stunt leno. i think this publicity stunt helps leno more than it does letterman. if dave is okay with jay, then jay can't be all bad, can he? where is conan in all this? i thought letterman was on team coco, but now i'm not so sure.

besides the late show spot, i can't really remember the other commercials. a lot of budweiser, godaddy, and etrade. at one point there was a pair of consecutive commercials featuring men wearing underwear, which was followed later by another consecutive pair of ads showcasing midgets. coincidence or conspiracy?

i wasn't looking forward to biking home. there was the issue of the cold (24°F), but i was feeling too tired to spend the next 15-20 minutes pedaling back to cambridge. it wouldn't be so bad if the terrain was flat, but there'd be some hills. my love affair with bicycles is starting to wane. i still love bikes, but now only like 80%. bicycling can be hard work. it's okay when it's a nice day and you have tons of energy, but it sucks when the weather isn't so great and you're tired. times like these, i sort of yearn for the automated acceleration of a motorcycle. but as much as i complain, i know in the end bicycling is a good thing. besides being free, it doesn't pollute, and i'm getting the most exercise i've gotten compared to any other winters.

FEB

06

2010

FEB

05

2010

i've been on a manhattan history kick recently, and i'm almost finished with the island at the center of the world. the skyscaper and the city is a surprisingly heavy book (must be the paper it's printed on) and filled with all sorts of historical photos, drawings, and blueprints. i already read a little bit (the writing is a bit scholarly, but still readable), regarding the original history of the woolworth stores. i'm of the generation that can still remember the woolworth that used to be in central square (went out of business in 1998 i think).

coming back from the library, i made a detour to market basket to pick up some milk and cereal (corn pops). from that point on i didn't leave the house the rest of the day. by the late afternoon i received some more content from client N and made the necessary edits to the 2 interactives.

must be something in the air but seems like everyone is going on vacation this week. john and is family are in mexico while alex and his wife arrived in hawaii today. my vacation? my rest and relaxation? maybe a nice hot soak in the tub before i go to bed.

finally, this weird dream i had last night (managed to write down as much as possible before i forgot it). what does it even mean?

FEB

04

2010

from there i biked along the charles river bike trail over the eliot bridge to my parents' cafe. i had to ride over some frozen grass turf at a few spots, my bicycle rattling like it might fall apart any moment. once i arrived, my mother was showing me some of the stuff my 2nd aunt brought back with her from taipei.

i finally got around to finishing the last of my pulled pork. i was having it for lunch and dinner everyday and was starting to get a little sick of it.

FEB

03

2010

my citizens bank debit card arrived today. i'm still waiting for the pin code. it's a pretty card, with a bucolic image of a tree with some floating clouds (i almost wish there was a little twitter bird or a squirrel). i've been automatically enrolled in their green$ense program, which allows me to earn 10¢ every time i buy something using my debit card when i go paperless. the thing is other than online transactions, i normally prefer paying with cash. businesses pay a fee for every credit card transaction, so they earn the full amount when i forgo the card and go with cash. i have some doubts about citizens bank bank though. when i was in new york city this past weekend, i couldn't find a single citizens branch office or ATM. they're more of a new england bank. but since i don't see myself doing any traveling anytime soon, it's not a big deal. at least i'm almost free from clutches of bank of america. once i get my pin number in the mail, i'm closing out my old account. i'll try out citizens for a while, see how i like them.

worked a few more hours for client N, increased the size of some target areas in the interactive for seeing-impaired users. i'll be heading into their office tomorrow afternoon for a review, hopefully we won't find any bugs, and then i can invoice them and finally get paid.

finally saw an education, wanted to know what all the fuss was about. a nice little film but i don't think it'll win the best picture nor best actress oscars. maybe it's a british thing, but i can't imagine any parents would let their 16-year-old daughter "go out" with some 30+ year old man, no matter how charming he is. everybody knows the best actress is going to be a toss-up between sandra bullock and meryl streep (my money's on julia child), and the best picture category is so muddled it's hard to make sense out of the 10 nominees, but i'm hoping it's the hurt locker but i'm really afraid it'll go to avatar.

FEB

02

2010

5 lbs. of pork butts make for a lot of pulled pork. today was the clean up. i spooned last night's creation from the crock pot into 2 32 oz. plastic containers. as for the bowl of fat and meat juices, i poured all that into another quart-sized carton and tossed it in the trash - toxic waste. the fat had thickened into a half inch opaque layer floating on top of the juices which had set into a gooey meat jello.

while drying a comforter cover that i'd washed for my 2nd aunt (who was returning from taiwan with her husband later tonight after a nearly 3 month hiatus), i took a short ride to market basket to pick up some more onion rolls (for the pulled pork) and a jar of pickle slices. i got a jar of mt.olive "bread & butter chips" because i saw there was no sugar added. what i didn't realize was it still had nutrasweet (i try to avoid the stuff if i can, i don't like the unnatural aftertaste of artificial sugars).

once the cover was done drying, i left for the cafe to drop it off. i also gave my parents half of the pulled pork.

back at home, i did a quick bug fix for client S before doing some descriptive audio work for client N (have another office visit with them scheduled for thursday).

in the late afternoon, my latest dealextreme purchase arrived in the mail. that was pretty quick, considering they just notified me of the shipment (from hong kong) last thursday. in the padded manila envelope was a computer security cable and a mini wide angle lens. the lens will be used on the wireless security webcam at the cafe to give it a more extensive view. originally designed for cellphone cameras (which also use a tiny lens), it can also be converted into a macro lens by unscrewing the wide angle attachment.¹

¹ my father dropped by later in the evening to pick up the lens. he tried it on the webcam, it works, but one problem: there's some serious vignetting around the corners. fortunately nothing ever happens in the corners. 0.67x is wide, but even better would be a 0.28x fish eye lens which i've seen for sale online (although costing twice as much). i think for now this will do.

FEB

01

2010

later i went to market basket to pick up some ingredients for making pulled pork (partially inspired by what my sister made last night). i bought 5 lbs. of pork butts for $8.50 along with a bottle of special spicy BBQ sauce. i found a bunch of slow cooker pulled pork recipes online, but in the end i just went with the simplest recipe. i basically cut the pork butts in half so it'll fit inside my crock pot. i cooked everything on high, and added some chopped garlic and about a cup of chinese rice wine. the wine was a suggestion from my mother, who said it'd mask the unpleasant pork smell during cooking.

i started slow cooking at 2:00 and didn't get to eat until well after 10:00. around 8:00 i took out the pork butts and shredded (pulled) it with some forks. apart from the rice wine, there was also a lot of leftover juices, which i threw away. any part of the pork that wasn't covered in liquids ended up being a little dry (so in the future, add more fluids). i then put the properly shredded pork back into the crock pot, emptying the full 16 oz. content of the BBQ sauce into the mixture as well. the final pulled pork was okay, but i wonder if it would've been better had i slow cooked with the sauce from the beginning. there just seems to be a slight blandness in flavor with the pulled pork that i made tonight. another future idea would be to create my own BBQ sauce (a combination of apple vinegar, brown sugar, and other ingredients).

a little home renovation project: i sealed the threshold of my bedroom door with a clear silicone caulk. i discovered a few days ago that there's actually a draft that seeps out from the small crack below the floorboard. that's why when i walk into my bedroom in the wintertime it always feels so cold. hopefully things will be a bit warmer now.

JAN

31

2010

football season is essentially over, with just the formality of a super bowl scheduled for next sunday. with the patriots not playing, it looks like a good night to check out the puppy bowl instead. i imagine most of new england will be rooting against the colts. there was a basketball game in the afternoon between the lakers and the celtics. lakers have remained hot since winning the finals last season, while the celtics have been struggling recently, even losing a string of home games. i watched it intermittently with the expectation that boston would eventually win once they overcame los angeles' early lead. however, the ending upset me so much i changed the channel immediately when kobe scored the final point for a laker steal.

my sister made most of dinner again, this time preparing a slow-cooked pork entree with rice. it felt very indian but without all the sauce. i was the first to finish and even had seconds.

about to ride back home, i had some problems opening the bike lock. i was afraid to turn the plastic key any harder for fear of snapping off the tip¹. maybe something had frozen on the inside. i was ready to pour some hot water into the keyhole but my father suggested a blow dryer on an extension cord instead. that didn't do anything other than to produce a burning smell. finally the solution was to spray some WD40 into the mechanism. the problem has less to do with icing and more to do with rust.

¹ that's probably the number one problem with onguard brand bike locks: cheap plastic keys. maybe that's why they give you a set of 5 when you buy one of their locks. not much help that'll do you when you snap off the key inside though.

JAN

30

2010

deanna dropped us off at le petite cafe for brunch while she herself went to go pick up william at her parents' place. afterwards john and i returned to the house, where i gave him some movies i had on a thumb drive so he could test out his new dell netbook. deanna called to let us know she'd be late in getting back. i decided to head home to boston and john said he'd see me to the bus stop.

john handed me a pair of disposable hand warmers before we left the house (his mother gives them away during christmas, they have a whole bunch). we got off at east broadway in manhattan and walked to chinatown. since neither of us had anything else to do, we decided to explore the southern tip of the island a bit more, walking down towards the direction of wall street.

i love the art deco skyscrapers! the AIG building is most impressive and worth a second look the next time i return to new york.

i can't recall ever coming to wall street before (or if i have, i must've forgotten). i didn't realize george washington took the oath of office right here, where the former united states capitol used to be (federal hall, although not the original building) before it moved to washington d.c. up the street is trinity church, free to go in and take photos (when not in religious service). gothic churches like these are cool, but for my money, nothing compares to the awesomeness inside a turkish domed mosque.

we went to the (free) smithsonian national museum of american indian inside the u.s. custom house on bowling green. there was an interesting exhibit about the influence of horses in native-american culture. most impressive were indian rifles, one of them owned by geronimo himself. i was also really impressed with their computer-based touch screen interactives - my field of expertise! i couldn't tell if they were using director or flash though, but some of the effects were pretty cool (cool enough to "emulate").

after we left the museum, john got a call from deanna asking him to come home. i ended up taking a 5 train north. i could've switched to a 6 at city hall which would take me directly to canal street, but i got out instead, figuring i could walk to a noodle place for some early dinner before returning home to boston.

i ended up going the wrong way and walked too far west, defeating the purpose of getting off at city hall, and ended up going farther than i had to (the whole time my feet were killing me and i basically limped around the city slowly). the noodle shop i was thinking of was on division street, lan zhou hand-pulled noodles. i'd actually eaten here once before, back in june when i came to the mermaid parade. i got there at a weird time, 4:45. having dinner would mean i couldn't catch the 5:00 fung wah bus and would have to wait another hour for the 6:00. but i love noodles so much, i just couldn't pass up the opportunity. i ended up getting a bowl of spicy shredded pork noodles with pickled greens ($4.95 cheap!). the broth of flavorful and spicy, much water than the diluted broth found on the doyer street noodle shop. after i finished, i used their bathroom before leaving.

with about an hour to kill, i wandered the streets of chinatown. even though i wasn't hungry anymore, i was still tired and just wanted to sit down somewhere and wait it out. so i went to the fung wah ticket counter to buy my ticket. that's when i saw they actually had a 5:30 bus, which i managed to catch right as it was arriving. the bus returning to boston was much less crowded, with no more than a dozen riders. i had two seats to myself so i got to stretch out and relax. the two hand warmers john gave me earlier were still hot, and i put them on my stomach like a hot water bottle. once out of the new york city area, i fell asleep.

the driver must've been new because somewhere in connecticut we got lost and he had to exit off the highway to get back on course. we arrived at south station at 9:30. it was good to be home, as i slowly shuffled my way to the subway station and back to cambridge.

JAN

29

2010

i got to south station right at 9:00. figuring i already missed the 9:00 bus, i was surprised when the ticket counter woman said i could still make it. the bus was packed, and i kept moving further back into the rear, subjected to the gauntlet of eyes, nearing the potential stink of the bathroom. i had to ask a man to remove his bag so i could sit in the free seat he was trying to hide (not a good start for a busmate relationship). fortunately it was a window seat, which is what i prefer. he spoke french with a friend sitting nearby and also on the phone, so i wondered if he was haitian.

all was well for the first half of the ride. i listened to the 300+ songs in my mp3 player and was lost in my music. can't remember the last time i went bus traveling during the winter, but the landscape outside looked new now that all the trees and bushes have shed their leaves. every once in a while i'd spot a hawk perched in a tree.

then we took a 15 minute break at a mcdonald's rest stop. and that's when things got interesting. i got out to go use the bathroom. when i came back onto the bus, i felt the bus shaking, like maybe a strong wind was rocking it. looking out the rear windows i suddenly realized the shaking wasn't due to the wind: a large semi truck had actually collided with our bus, scraping the side for a few seconds before parking nearby. we watched as 3 truck drivers stepped out; instead of inspecting the damages though, they just walked into the rest stop, as if nothing happened. all the passengers looked around, not knowing what to do. our driver was still inside the rest stop, so he had no idea what just happened. my haitian friend sitting next to muttering "somebody should do something," but nobody did. so finally i had to step up and do the right thing.

the irony of the situation wasn't lost on me. the fung wah bus is (was?) notorious for it's spotty safety track record. so an accident involving a fung wah bus, one wouldn't be wrong to assume that it was the bus driver's fault. in this case however, the opposite is true. i went outside and told the driver, "your bus just got hit by a semi truck." he gave me the what?! face as we walked to the back of the bus to inspect the damage. there was a lot of scrapes on the right rear corner and the tail light was broken in a few pieces. then we walked to the truck to check out the corresponding scrape marks. the driver got on the phone with his boss and i went back onto the bus figuring my job as the resident samaritan was done.

a few minutes later the driver came back inside and angrily pointed to me, "you! come here!" because i'd seen the 3 truck drivers, he told me to go inside and get them to come out. so not only was i treated like i was the one in trouble, but now i was also acting as the enforcer for the bus driver, given the task of hauling out the 3 offending truckers. i really didn't get a good look (my haitian friend had a better view, but apparently he didn't want to get involved) but it wasn't hard picking them out from the rest stop, since they were the 3 biggest men sitting at a table. "hey, you guys drive a semi truck?" i asked them, while they gave me a look that said, "semi truck? what semi truck?" i continued: "well, you guys hit our bus when you pulled into the parking lot." they seemed incredulous. "hit a bus? we don't know anything about that," one of them replied. "well, we got a bunch of witnesses on the bus who saw it happen. maybe one of you might want to come out and see?" so one of them left his lunch and followed me outside.

the trucker met the driver and i began to describe once more what happened, showing them the damage to the bus, followed by the damage on the truck. each of them then got on the phone with their respective superiors. "we all set?" i asked the bus driver, as i returned to the relative warmth of the bus (i didn't have my jacket on the whole time and it was cold). by then everyone had returned to the bus, but nobody really knew what was going on except me and my haitian friend. we watched as the two drivers talked it out. by then the 10:00 fung wah bus had already caught up to us. it was practically empty, and i was scheming to switch buses in case this accident dragged on any longer. to make matters worse, our bus - which had been on idle this whole time - suddenly just stalled. we'd been parked for about 30 minutes before our bus driver finally came back. i was afraid he wouldn't be able to start the bus (dead battery perhaps?) but he managed to get the engine back to life. he never explained to the other passengers what happened, and the police were never involved. it was all very mystery, but i was happy we were moving again. my haitian told me "nice job" and wanted to share some grapes and pistachios with me.

we finally arrived at the new york chinatown by 1:30. i got off the bus and asked the driver if he wanted my contact information since i witnessed the whole accident. i was kind of surprised he didn't make any effort to get this info earlier, but i gave him my name and phone number in case the fung wah insurance people needed somebody to talk to.

with that i began my new york city adventures. first order of business was to get some food. authentic chinese hand-drawn noodles is hard to find back home in boston (the place i used to go to in chinatown closed their doors a few years ago) but here in the new york city chinatown there are several places. the last time i visited i ate at a shop on division street, but i wanted to try a new place. i ended up going to tasty hand-pulled noodles on doyer street. there wasn't enough empty tables to go around so i had to share one with another customer. i put down my bags on a nearby empty seat but kept my coat on because i was sitting close to the chilly entrance. i ordered a bowl of lamb hand-pulled noodles for $5.50. the noodles had the characteristic bundled look of hand-pulled noodles, but the broth was very weak. i added a few scoops of hot chili oil to make it more palatable. after paying my bill, i went to go use the bathroom before heading back outside.

i wandered around chinatown a little bit. although it was 15°F back at home, here in new york it was a relatively balmy 25°F. still, i saw a lot of people bundled up like it was the coming of a new ice age. watching them struggle against temperature i considered comparably mild made me feel warmer somehow.

from chinatown i started moving north to little italy (bowery, centre, broome, lafayette). i wanted to find out how far chinese businesses have encroached into an area formerly known for its italian restaurants and shops. my plan was to then walk up to union square and take the L train to williamsburg (brooklyn) and hang out there until 6:00 where i was meeting deanna and some friends to do some surprise party preparations.

classic new york water towers:

some random bike photos:

one thing i noticed that i never picked up on before was just how many bicycles there are in new york city. there are even dedicated bicycle lanes, which i don't ever remember seeing before. parked bikes can be found everywhere, and often times - as often the case in new york with car parking - there wasn't enough space so bikes become stacked one on top of another (literally) vying for locking positions. i also saw a lot of single speed bikes. is it because manhattan is relatively flat? or a style issue?

although i've been to new york city more times than i can count, i've never been on an official tour of the city. many of the major sights i come to visit rather surreptitiously, usually because i'm doing something else nearby. nevertheless, i still feel very much the tourist whenever i come. it doesn't matter how carefully i plan, i always get lost (usually on the subway going in the wrong direction or realizing the train i got on doesn't stop at the station i want to get off at). so it shouldn't be a surprise that i never did find union square. i had a map of course, but i was too cool to check it even when i realized i was lost, and kept on walking north up 3rd street (had i shifted just one avenue over to 4th, i would've found union square on 14th street).

somewhere in soho i think i might've had a celebrity sighting. a tall young man wearing a dark leather jacket over a yellow hooded sweatshirt walked right by me. he looked familiar. john mayer? also in the area i saw a woman i could've sworn i recognized as a model in a fashion magazine.

i got as far as 42nd street all the way to grand central station. time square was just a few more blocks away, but it was already well past 4:00 and i still didn't know how long it'd take me to get to williamsburg, so i hopped on the subway and headed back south.

i did get to union square after all, but just underground via subway. from there i switched to the L train heading into brooklyn. williamsburg was the first stop out of manhattan (bedford avenue). i went up bedford avenue, watching the street numbers go up. there were a lot of stores and young hipsters walked the streets, but off the main drag, there were a lot of industrial looking warehouses and seemingly out-of-place modern condo complexes. i hit mccarren park and turned down 12th street to check out a cool looking russian orthodox church. i still had an hour to kill before 6:00 so basically walked around the area in circles. i tried to get to the shoreline where there was a great view of manhattan but there was no access, all the piers were privately owned and at one point a security guard even came out and said i couldn't take photos ("i could lose my job," he told me).

so there i was, homeless, cold and getting colder (with the sun setting), my feet were already beginning to hurt, and i had to use the bathroom. i decided to wait outside brooklyn bowl, the location of the surprise party. doors weren't opened until 6:00, but it was nice just to sit down and rest for a little while, having been walking non-stop since 2:00 this afternoon.

before the doors opened deanna arrived. she had with her a tank of store-bought helium for balloons. her son will was spending the night at his grandparents place. she arrived early so we could reserve some bowling lanes, but apparently they don't do reservations, so we'd just play it by ear. andi showed up soon afterwards, followed by megan. we were in the waiting area but decided to move to some tables inside. balloons were blown, as we hid behind benches when john finally arrived for the surprise.

john's friend tim and his fiancee show up (john originally thought he was on a double date with them for a quiet night of bowling). deanna's brother and an actress friend came too, but they left early after his friend lost her credit card. john's high school friend kristen drove up from connecticut, john's cousin john showed up, and christine came with boyfriend lou. finally, lionel dropped by towards the end of the evening with a date.

besides bowling and drinks and food, brooklyn bowl also had a concert stage. tonight's lineup was 2 tribute bands, cheap trick or treat, and judas priestess. by the time the live music started, our 2 lanes were ready. the music was so loud that i ended up putting in my ear plugs (which i had the foresight to bring - but who brought the old guy?!). we bowled 2 games, neither time did i manage to break 100, but i did get an occasional strike or two (all that wii bowling practice paid off).

we all left around midnight. john and deanna showed up their new car (a toyota RAV4), and gave andi and megan rides back home (in nearby brooklyn). i of course followed since i was staying over at john and deanna's place for the night. i marveled at the magical glowing static electricity effect underneath my blanket before finally going to bed.