i fought off an overwhelming urge today to visit the supermarket and gather up supplies, in preparation for the hurricane scheduled to arrive tomorrow. from what i gathered watching the news nonstop, the storm won't even arrive until 8:00 at night, and will be gone by 2:00 in the early morning. what's passing through boston isn't even classified as a hurricane, more of a tropical storm, and predicted rainfall of less than 2 inches. there's really nothing to be worried about, but still, suddenly i have a craving for milk and bread and canned goods.

i still went out though, but only to pick up a few snacks from the neighborhood rite aid (a sale on häagen-dazs ice cream). i also visited the dollar store looking for furnace filters (they don't carry any).

i soaked one of my fishy boxers in bac-out and cold water overnight. i washed it this afternoon and hung it outside to dry in the outdoor heatwave oven. result: not only does it still smell, but it smells stronger than ever. the stink that will not die! tonight i'm soaking the boxers in vinegar and water. at least point i'm not confident it's going to work. bac-out did remove the fishy smell from a pair of shorts though, so it does work, but maybe not if the smell is heavily embedded in the fabric.

the used replacement motorcycle kickstand i ordered off of ebay tuesday afternoon arrived today, just 2 days later. talk about fast service! without installing it on the bike i can't tell if it's going to work, but there's no reason why it shouldn't. i'm shocked by how straight a normal kickstand is compared to my bent original. i'll replace it this weekend, then i can get back to riding again.

i had some ramen for dinner because i couldn't think of anything else to eat. instead of cooking it over the stove, i just boiled some water with the electric kettle and steamed the instant noodle for a few minutes in a bowl.

my roommate came home later in the evening. she has a way of stumbling into the house, and occasionally spending as long as a minute trying to lock the door (even after weeks of living here, she still hasn't quite figured it out). she asked me when the hurricane was coming, and then i didn't see her the rest of the night.

i stayed away from the air conditioner for most of the day, finally turning it on for a short period when the temperature inside the house reached 84 degrees. i used the table fan into the evening until i remembered i had a window fan as well. i set it up so that one fan was blowing in while the other was blowing out. it quickly cooled down the living room, with one problem: now it was also blowing in all that ragweed pollen, so i suddenly started getting congested.

with hurricane earl scheduled to arrive in boston friday afternoon, i thought it best if i could temporarily shelter my motorcycle in my parents' garage. a heavy motorcycle on two wheels could easily topple over in hurricane-force winds. combined with a broken kickstand, i figured better safe than sorry. i arrived in belmont early enough that my father was still home so the two of us could lift up the bike onto the hydraulic jack and push it into a garage corner. he gave me a ride back to cambridge on his way to the cafe. i kept on sneezing due to all the ragweed pollen in the air when i rode to belmont.

today's project was to make some alton brown style beef jerky using a box fan and a bunch of furnace filters. i brought up the fan from the basement, which was in okay condition, but i removed the front and back plastic grills so i could wash them as well as the plastic fan blades. perched on top of a bar stool, i was measuring its electrical output when the fan fell over and hit the floor, becoming a rhombus fan instead. i hammered it back into shape, but it's not going to win any beauty awards. box fans are cheap anyway, i always see them thrown out on the sidewalks.

i finally took a wattage reading for my air conditioner. it wasn't as bad as i'd imagined: i thought it used 1000 watts but it was actually around 600 watts. still, it's much cheaper to run a fan than the AC. it'd take 6 box fans running at maximum to equal the amount of electricity used by a single AC. of course a fan can only circulate the air; sometimes you need the help of an AC to actually lower the room temperature.

when is it not good to have a bicycle? when it's too hot outside for any kind of physical exertion (like it was today, another 90+ day), and when you need to get to someplace in a hurry. but with my motorcycle in temporary storage, the bicycle was my only mode of transportation. first stop was the somerville home depot, approximately 20 minutes away via bicycle (actually not that much faster via car/motorcycle, which would've taken only 12 minutes). i was looking for cheap furnace filters. according to alton brown, you can find cheap ones that are 99¢ a piece. all the ones i saw at the store were at least $4. if i needed at least 4 filters, the cost of buying them (for a one time use) would not make it very cost-effective to make my own jerky. i decided to go down the block to k-mart, thinking they might have some cheaper varieties. they were just as expensive, with far less selection. i left the assembly square mall area empty-handed, stopping by market basket to grab a few grocery items before finally returning home.

with the homemade jerky idea put on hold for the time being until i can find some cheaper filter alternatives, i worked on my other project: getting rid of the fishy oil smell from my clothes. i think i must've been searching the wrong thing, because googling "fishy smell on clothes" brought up a bunch of different advices. apparently laundry clothes with a surprise omega-3 fish oil tablet is a common household accident (that wasn't what happened to me though). i already tried presoaking in detergent, baking soda, stain remover, fabric softener rub, but none of them worked. i read that vinegar might do the trick, and i bought a new bottle from the supermarket for just such an occasion. i also read about something called bac-out, which a good number of people had success with (a lot of folks used it for cloth diapers). the closest place that sold the stuff was whole foods in fresh pond, a 9 minute bike ride.

after picking up a bottle (16 fl.oz. $5.79), i stopped by the cafe. my mother was there with my aunt and her ultra-religious husband. he disappeared briefly but returned to offer me a bible tract (something about repenting from sins). i thanked him but stuffed the pamphlet with a bunch of mail when nobody was looking. the electricity was out again for the entire block, although my parents' cafe wasn't affected for some reason (thank god, otherwise all the ice cream would turn to soup). this happened last night as well, which killed business for the nearby restaurant on a hot evening. when i left i saw an nstar crew working on some utility poles.

back at home, i was excited to try the bac-out. the label said "live enzymes cultures" which sounded cool but i think that's a bit of false advertisement because enzymes are just proteins and not actually alive. i poured the solution onto my smelly clothes. it actually smelled pretty good, like fragrant grapefruit, and the fact that it was non-toxic and safe for the environment saved me from feeling guilty when i usually muck around with chemicals. saturated with bac-out, i couldn't smelly the fish odor anymore, but the final test would be to run it through the washer/dryer, which i did next. the moment of truth was when my clothes finally came out of the dryer. THEY STILL SMELLED! although maybe less so than before, but it could just be a placebo effect. tomorrow i plan on using a combination of bac-out treatment plus a vinegar presoak.

for dinner i had the wheat mantou my parents made along with some sliced scallions, braised beef, and pig ears. when my roommate came home in the evening, she went straight to her room. she must've ate out because i didn't see her making dinner. i notice she's been leaving for work later and later, like around 10:00 now. i wonder if she notices that i go to sleep later than her, but i wake up earlier? it's something i've noticed, because the past few days i've felt pretty sleepy in the afternoon, further exacerbated by the recent heat wave. she's only here for less than 2 more weeks. that doesn't mean i revert back to my bachelor lifestyle: i think i'm getting another roommate soon afterwards, this time for 6 months. i hope he's not a weirdo. that's all i really ask of my roommates.

i finally ordered a new replacement front fender (in pearl crystal white). after a brief search, i went with www.hondapartsteam.com based out of michigan. my initial research yesterday found one place selling fenders for $145, but later i found another site selling for just $130. the place i finally ordered from tonight was only $119, plus $16 for shipping. afterwards i found yet another place that was selling the fender for a dollar more, but that included fedex delivery service. where i ordered from, the fender won't arrive until the end of next week.

the final days of august is a dangerous time to be a motorcyclists, at least it is for me. i was trying to get by a whole season without incident, but incident found me anyway. last year somebody cut me off and i ended up trashing my old motorcycle. this year, today, my new motorcycle was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. i just can't seem to catch a break.

i was visiting my parents at the cafe and was about to leave, when i noticed my curb-parked motorcycle was leaning at an unusually steep angle. at first i thought maybe it was sinking into the asphalt on this record hot day. that's when i noticed the kickstand was strangely curved. i still didn't quite connect the dots until i looked at my fender and saw it'd been crumpled, probably from somebody backing up without looking. whoever did it must've hit the bike with enough force that it actually gouged out a scar onto the asphalt from the dragging kickstand.

i stood there for a few seconds feeling slightly nauseous, as the memory seared into my brain, catalogued as another day that will forever live in infamy. "i think somebody hit my bike," i told my father back inside the cafe, who came out to inspect the damage.

unfortunately this wasn't the first time my motorcycle has been rear-ended by a negligent driver. a few months back, a woman struck my bike while trying to perform a 3-point-turn. i actually witnessed the whole accident, and ran out of the house barefoot to confront her in case she tried to leave. there was no damages that time (somewhat of a miracle). then my old honda rebel was backed into from a hit-and-run a few years ago. the collision actually sent the bike toppling onto the sidewalk. i didn't see the accident, just saw the end result one fateful morning. there were some cosmetic damages, and i ended up replacing the kickstand (purchased used off of ebay). so yeah, car people don't seem to notice motorcycles. even with my defensive parking, people still find ways to smash into my parked bike.

if i knew who hit my bike i could've got them to pay for the repairs. but since this was a case of hit and run and i don't have collision coverage on my insurance, i would have to pay out of pocket. i called the police anyway, just so i could file an accident report, even though it wouldn't do anything.

20 minutes later a cop in a police SUV showed up. he basically told me what i already knew, taking down my information as a formality, then returning to his vehicle to type up the report. he was surprised the collision didn't dump the bike on its side, which would've caused more damage. speaking with the officer, i found out he rides himself, a fully outfitted 1990 harley-davidson cruiser. at least they sent a biker to ease the pain, i thought to myself. only another fellow biker would understand the indignity of somebody messing with your ride.

as far as hit-and-run accidents go, this was manageable. it could've been a lot worse. after removing the front fender (it was crunched up against the tire), i rode the bike into the parking lot. absolutely no problems with the steering or the suspension or the engine. the folded-up kickstand pointed out at an unnatural angle, digging into the back of my leg whenever i planted my left foot. kickstand down, the bike leaned at some an extreme angle that i could actually see the bottom of the motorcycle and it looked like the bike would just fall over completely. shifting the bike back into an upright position was difficult, essentially leaning 500+ pounds of chrome metal.

i was still in a daze when my mother offered me some beef tendon noodle soup for lunch. i ate silently, still thinking about the motorcycle. after i finished, i went online searching for parts. a replacement OEM fender would set me back $145, while a brand new kickstand costs $90. i went on ebay and found somebody selling a used 1998 kickstand for $40 (including shipping). after checking to see that the 1998 would be compatible with my 2003 model, i bought it. i also saw used front fenders for as low as $20, but they were all in the wrong colors. maybe i could repaint it? i held off on ordering the fender, figuring it wasn't as critical as a replacement kickstand.

finally returning home, i layered some wood about an inch thick to give the kickstand some elevation. that seemed to be better, and the bike doesn't look like it's in danger of toppling over.

i continued my fender research. after further examination, most of the fenders for sale on ebay were salvaged off of junked bikes (i wonder if my old honda rebel ended up in pieces on ebay?). that being the case, all had cosmetic damages hinting of their catastrophic past. i looked to aftermarket brand fenders as well. some had cool shapes, but they all came unpainted and undrilled, and i neither have the expertise nor the time to finish the fender (special body paints would also add to the final price). besides, they cost about the same as a brand new honda fender anyway, easier just to go with something that works.

this little hit and run will cost me about $200 to repair on my own (with the help of my father naturally). if there's one good thing to come of this, it's that i may treat the bike with less kid gloves now. i basically babied this motorcycle, afraid to ride it too much, or even expose it to the elements. but after this latest accident (i'm sure there'll be more), i've lost a lot of that sentimentality. in the end, the bike is just a tool to be used, nothing more.

earlier this morning, prior to the accident, i'd biked to union square to deposit a work check from client S. now all that's left is for client P to pay up. i also went to the cafe to further discuss a cell phone plan with my parents. in the end, both my sister and our relative bing bing would be getting new blackberries, my mother would lose her phone in exchange for a pay-as-you-go cell, and my father, my aunt, and myself would received an "upgrade" to new LG accolade phones (verizon has very limited selection, and they're mostly pieces of crap anyway, but at least i may get some better battery life out of it, definitely functionality over coolness).

i finally brought the 20" samsung tv down into the basement. electricity-wise, it used about the same as the 20" emerson, and i like the colors and the stereo, but in the end, the emerson felt more comfortable, with its sans-serif closed captioning font and its numbered volume display. plus, if i ever wanted to watch something on VHS, i'm pretty much covered with the built-in VCR.

in the midst of a heat wave, i finally turned on the air conditioner today, but only briefly. i didn't dare do a kill-a-watt check on the power consumption, but maybe tomorrow. i did a small load of laundry, trying to get rid of that fishy smell that continues to haunt my clothes. i thought i contained the outbreak, but now it's on my jeans and my second to last pair of shorts. i think i might've found a solution though: if i rub a piece of fabric softener on the offending smell, it's strong enough to cover up the stink. i'll have to do some further testing, but a resolution may be close.

i ran into ed while tossing out some trash in the evening. he was mumbling my name and for a split second i was scared because i couldn't quite see who it was yet. he'd also gotten a haircut since i last saw him. it was a hot night, the kind that brings people out into the streets who otherwise would spend the night cooped up inside with or without air conditioning. we watched a bunch of people moving out, perhaps on their final lease day before the start of september tomorrow. i showed him the extent of the damage to my motorcycle.

a brand new week, and my upstairs neighbors are staging another rendition of early morning stomp. this may sound cruel, but i wish nothing more than to have one of them (or both) be stricken with some debilitating disease preventing them from ever walking again. i swear, there are some mornings where it sounds like they're purposely moving furniture around, denying me my beauty sleep and forcing me to plot their eventual murder. should that day happen, this post will mysteriously disappear because i don't want to leave any evidence behind.

the one good thing is if i ever have a normal office job that requires me to wake up early in the mornings, they could act as by backup alarm clock should my own alarm fail to go off.

when my roommate finally left this morning for work, i used the bathroom, took a shower, then cooked breakfast in my underwear (by cook i mean i toasted a bagel with some cream cheese). i tossed out my old broken 14" samsung television (who knows, maybe somebody will take it for parts) and picked up a plastic wedco gas container that a neighbor had tossed out. it looked good at the time, but its kind of useless without a functional cap (i could salvage the detachable accordion spout though).

i left for julie's place in the late morning to continue fixing her machine. figuring maybe a defective drive was causing her other startup disk from booting up, i decided to selectively pull out cables. it took a while to isolate the offending drive, made more difficult by a seemingly impossible-to-remove hard drive chassis. when that one drive was finally disconnected, the other backup drive booted up just fine. other than a few essential applications, most of her data was on this drive as well (from a prior backup earlier in the summer). before i headed out, i left disk warrior do a catalog rebuild of her bad drive. best case scenario it fixes it, worst case the drive is about to fail, but at least so can still salvage any un-updated work for the time being.

about to leave on my motorcycle, i had a heated argument with my mother over the phone. the whole family including bing bing were down at the verizon store in the burlington mall about to enter into another 2-year contract (after finally being free of a previous contract). i told them to discuss it with me beforehand, but they seemed oblivious to the fact that it seemed like a pretty bad deal. it was more expensive for one thing, and it continued to support my sister's blackberry habit with an undeserved phone upgrade. i went to belmont, where i continued to have this argument with my mother. i told my mother that my sister shouldn't be allowed to have a blackberry when she's functionally unemployed and that my parents should stop paying for her $40/month habit on top of their already exorbitantly priced cell phone contract. i nearly had a stroke trying to convey my strong objections over the phone, and i seethed over the idea that my sister had once again talked my enabling parents into spending more money on her own behalf. the dog was coming over to make sure i was okay because i was about to pass out. finally i managed to convince my mother to hold off, crisis avoided for now.

when my mother came back at home, i had another talk with her. i said i didn't have a problem with them extending their contract with verizon, but at the very least my sister has to pay for her own portion of the bill, since she's the only person on the family account that uses the web and does any sort of texting (much to my chagrin; i think texting at the family dinner table is beyond rude).

with my sister at some doctor's appointment, my parents and i ordered some pizza. my mother seems to be on a domino's kick, even though i think their food is so-so at best. we continued experimenting with the toppings, trying to find the best possible 2-choice combination. my mother selected pepperoni and jalapeno peppers with white sauce, while i went with a bacon and garlic with marinara sauce. i went with my father to pick up our order, where i briefly confronted him about his not-so-secret return to smoking.

back at home, i finally took some electricity measurements with my kill-a-watt meter, given my recent craig's list acquisitions:

i *hate* any sort of appliance that still sucks power even when it's turned off. certain electronics i understand, like a cable converter box that needs to download the latest television schedules. but a lamp? why does a lamp need to have standby power? that's the dark secret of the antifonis. i may have to put them in the basement, i can't bear to use them.

another surprise: although the 20" televisions are rated 70-80 watts, they actually only use about 50 watts. and the samsung and the emerson are about the same, so i may want to switch back to the samsung if i haven't already gotten used to the emerson tv/vcr combo.

finally, i figured out the electric kettle uses 1250 watts of power to boil water. a check of the label at the underside of the base revealed it's actually rated at 1500 watts. i think that's the maximum wattage for a small US appliance, limited by our 120 voltage. in europe and asia however, with their 220 voltage, they get double the boiling power.

not sure what was going on with the garbage, but it stank so much i could smell it even with the lid on. it smelled like fermentation, this acrid ammonia stench that nearly made my eyes water. my roommate didn't seem to notice, hanging out in her room with the kitchen garbage directly across her open doorway. i wonder if she tossed some raw meat into the trash. whatever the case may be, i ended up tossing the garbage a day early.

i left the house before i had a chance to see my roommate. i didn't even have breakfast, knowing that there was plenty of leftovers in belmont. i arrived just when my parents were about to leave for baifu to pick up some cafe supplies. they left me with hailey, who tricked me with sorrowful looks into giving her a few dog treats before sleeping for the rest of the day. i heated up some leftover pizza in the toaster oven, admiring the heating efficiency compared to my own toaster oven.

a survey of the backyard garden shows that the growing season is practically over, which is seemingly early for just the end of august. most of the leaves on the gourd vines have shriveled up, and the cucumber leaves look weathered. some sort of animal (raccoon?) has been feasting in the garden, eating every one of the sweet corn cobs and snacking on some low hanging tomatoes. normally i'd be pretty annoyed but i seem to have a surprisingly zen-like calm about the situation. maybe i'm just all gardened out.

when my parents returned in the afternoon, they brought back some date-filled mooncakes my aunt lili had made. the small piece that i had tasted pretty good, which inspired my parents to try making some of their own (using an old mold that's been in the family for a few decades).

my weekend project was to hook up the freebie old desktop pc my sister picked up from one of her nanny care families to the HDTV in the living room so i can stream some video content. the chinese software didn't work initially, but i managed to fix it by copying over the codecs folder from another machine that was working. with that in place, i finally managed to stream the videos. the quality ranges from watchable to good, but beats watching it on a small monitor. now all i need is a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. craig's list to the rescue!

i came home after dinner, got back around 7:30. my roommate and i watched the emmy's broadcast. both aaron paul and bryan cranston won for their roles on breaking bad, which hopefully will clue more people into probably the best series on television right now (i'd argue better than mad men in some respects). after the broadcast i switch to AMC to watch the encore of mad men.

another end of august, another caribbean parade in boston (my 5th; past years: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009). i'd been talking about it for weeks with my roommate, so of course i had to bring her along. in hindsight maybe that wasn't the best idea, since it limited my mobility, but i still got a bunch of photos, which is all i really care about.

we headed into roxbury-dorchester via MBTA. my roommate did something i thought was kind of rude when we got on the subway: instead of chatting, she put on her earbuds and began listening to her mp3 player instead. we switched to the orange line at downtown crossing and got off at jackson square. i was here less than 2 weeks ago, for the dominican parade, so i was pretty familiar with the area. from there we walked to martin luther king boulevard.

the weather was perfect, a hot day with a clear blue sky. compared to last year though, when the parade was essentially rained out, anything was better. hopefully there'd also be less drama as well (besides the parade, last year i was also going to a wedding and i ended up crashing the motorcycle). my roommate did something else i thought was strange: instead of walking around a large crowd, she had a habit of walking straight through. maybe it's a china thing, where the locals are used to mobs of people and don't even notice them. caught up in the festivities, she ended up buying a jamaica flag necklace made up of translucent colored beads (she made the decision because she likes bob marley: "what country is he from?" she asked).

every year i fall into the same trap: the parade technically starts at noontime, but in all the years i've been coming, that's never happened before. i still come early though, partly because i forget the late start, partly because i like walking around and watching everyone getting ready. the parade officially kicked off after 1:00, when governor deval patrick showed up with his entourage to lead the parade after an orchestrated photo-op with local children and senior citizens. after the initial pass of local politicians (including disgraced boston city councilor chuck turner and daughter-of-astronaut sonia chang-diaz), the real parade began.

no matter where i moved, this tall man with a camera would stand right next to me. he talked on his cellphone with one hand while snapping photos with the other. i still managed to get my shots though, the only obstacle being the crowd of photographers who rush into the parade itself to get close-ups.

this year's parade felt like a flurry of feathers and boobs. maybe it's the weather, or maybe it's to make up for last year's lackluster performance. no live marching bands this year, but a surge in speaker trucks. there was a moving steel drum platform but nobody was playing when it passed by, to the disappointment of my roommate who'd never heard steel drums before.

the parade ended when the convoy of mud people went by, followed by the city cleaning crew. it's weird seeing how much trash gets produced after a parade, by both participants and spectators. from the procession there were the remnants of tattered feathers, strands of tinsels, and sparkles of glitter dust. in the sidelines, abandoned food cartons and empty beer and liquor bottles.

coming back home, we got off at harvard square. my roommate decided to take a detour and check out the nearby harvard comparative zoology museum now that she finally got her harvard id (with just 2 more weeks left before returning to china). i went home instead, changed out of my clothes, then left for belmont via motorcycle.

only my mother was home. my father was running late (supervising a roof repair), so my mother made some fried rice for dinner, spiced up with kimchi.

i was over at julie's place in the early afternoon, trying to fix her broken mac. it was a crash i'd never seen before, a black screen with an input/output error, that seemed to have affected both of her startup drives. we did manage to restart the machine with a system disc, so at least it's not the machine. julie was leaving for the weekend, so we agreed to pick up the repairs next week.

i spent the rest of my day waiting to pick up a craig's list item, a free ikea antifoni desk lamp in brookline. originally we were scheduled for 3:00, but the seller called to ask if we could push it back by an hour, since she was in the middle of moving to beacon hill. the address was on naples street, midway between allston center and coolidge corner. i showed up via motorcycle, and carried back the disassembled lamp in a backpack with the head of the lamp dangling out. close to home, my bike was acting funny, like maybe it was running out of gas. when i finally got back, it was making a loud noise, like maybe it was overheating.

i have a nostalgic attraction to the antifoni, since it was the desk lamp of choice when i worked at screen house many years ago. i already have an antifoni, but a floor model instead. what i thought to be a good lamp at the time, i discovered it was using 65 watt of power (via an obscenely large external transformer) to light a 40 watt halogen bulb. i was hoping the desktop model would be different, but like its larger sibling, it too used a large transform between the power plug. as a matter of fact, it used even more power, 70 watt to light 40 watt. i wonder if it needs a transformer because they're designed for european voltage (220-240) and needs to be stepped down here in the US?

i already have a pretty sweet desk light, featuring a translucent blue lamp head shaped like a glowing flying saucer. it was one of the first things i bought when i started working, back when i still lived at home and had disposable income. the good old days! i think it cost me something like $130, but i was willing to splurge. what will i do with my new antifoni? hold on to it for the time being. the fact that it's an electricity hog concerns me. i'll probably troll craig's list for a better lamp.

i just can't help myself: last night i got in touch with two craig's list sellers: one with a free 20" samsung (cambridge), the other a free ikea antifoni desk lamp (brookline).

the lamp dealer (a woman) e-mailed me this morning, and we set up a time tomorrow afternoon for me to pick up the antifoni.

in the late morning my father came over to drop off the emerson remote. i went with him to market basket to get some groceries. today was the first time this week that it hadn't been raining. but now instead of being cold and wet, it was hot and slightly humid.

i fixed myself some scrambled eggs with the leftover kielbasa sausages and a glass of fruit smoothie. just when i was about to eat, a man called me about the free tv. he lived in cambridgeport, which wasn't too far, but i told him to give me 30 minutes. so i quickly swallowed down my lunch, then got on the motorcycle and went to the cafe to borrow a car so i could drive down to magazine street.

i actually forgot the house number and had to call in order to find it. a young couple was moving out. i asked them if they were returning to school, figuring they were graduate students of some sort. in fact, they were actually moving out to california. i carried the large and heavy 20" television down 3 flights of stairs, navigating a set of doors and a swinging picket fence. i drove home to drop off the tv first before going back to the cafe to return the car.

out in the parking lot, i saw the neighborhood black squirrel, along with a regular grey squirrel. i seemed to have interrupted a territory dispute.

back at home, i had to decide which 20" i liked better. the emerson set was okay after 2 nights of viewing. the colors seem to have a red shift, which i managed to fix once i got my hands on the remote. i also turned on the closed captioning. i just didn't like the VCR component, which made the tv seem like a million years old.

so i swapped out the emerson EWC1902 with the new samsung TXG2045. the colors were good to begin with, no corrections needed. it also had stereo sound, which i couldn't really tell, but assumed as much from the dual left-right audio ports. 2 things i didn't like: 1) the closed captioning font was in a serif typeface. i prefer sans-serif, which is what i had before with my panasonic, as well as the emerson; 2) no numerical values for the volume display, just a thermometer bar. i'm used to setting my sound at 10, so i felt a little confused.

i tried finding a pdf manual for the samsung, but apparently it was manufactured prior to the advent of pdf's, so no such manual exists. the closest thing i found was a schematic diagram, in case i ever wanted to resolder a circuit. checking the product label, i was surprised to discover that the samsung is actually older than the emerson: 1998 versus 2002. but here's the kicker: the samsung is rated at 90 watts, while the emerson only uses 80 watts (i guess that's where the energy star logo comes into play). since i'm an electricity miser, i began to have serious doubts about the samsung.

i ended up swapping the television one more time, the emerson over the samsung. besides being shackled to the outdated technology of VHS (more of a cosmetic issue), the only other bad thing about the emerson was the red color shift. that's what originally compelled me last night to look for another free television set. that problem was easily remedied via the remote controller. with that fixed, the emerson is the clear winner, as well as being more energy efficient.

now i just don't know what to do with my surplus 20" samsung television. i wouldn't throw it away since it works perfectly fine (just eats up a wee bit more electricity and has weird serif closed captioning). maybe i can save it as a backup in case the emerson decides to die. but hopefully by then i'll have converted all my sets to LCD HDTV's.

i went to the bank in union square to deposit some cash (another temporary loan from my mother until i get paid by my clients). afterwards i climbed up to the summit of prospect hill via bicycle to take some photos.

i've been using google's chrome browser since yesterday and i have to admit that i actually like it. i've resisted for a while because i didn't want to be complicit in google's slow domination of the world. i played around with a buggy earlier version, when OS X support was still in its infancy. but since v5.x, chrome is now a viable browser option. i like how the URL field is also the search field; it's so intuitive, i'm surprised other browsers don't do the same thing. chrome uses the same webkit rendering engine as safari, which is what i'm used to. i actually think it does a better and faster job at it too. i know it's a gimmick, but i also like the swappable skins, gives my browsing experience a more custom feel. i wish the bookmarks bar could be made more compact, by getting rid of the icons (the way it is in safari). chrome also caches the source files so even after i update a page, it still pulls the previous source (most people probably don't need to worry about this). one last thing: i don't like the icon. it reminds me of those simon memory games from the 80's. i always sucked at those!

talking to my roommate tonight, she listed the most popular american tv shows, according to pirated chinese video streaming sites. just so you know, the chinese love prison break and friends. one big surprise? growing pains is huge in china as well! that's primarily because the lives of the seaver family was one of the first american imports when china began opening its doors to foreign goods. i challenge you to find a single growing pains fan here in america though.

i actually thought today would be a nice day. boy was i wrong. it actually rained from last night until all the way into the late afternoon. it was raining so much that my roommate decided to stay home today instead of going to work. that kind of put a damper on my usual home alone hijinks, but it kept me honest, and i spent the day making revisions to my weblog (note the rounded corners if you're using a CSS3-complaint browser, hopefully more updates coming soon).

this wet and cold weather is the perfect excuse to drink a lot of hot beverages. the electric kettle makes it so convenient to brew a mug of tea in about a minute. i drank so much that i kept going to the bathroom, worried that my roommate might think there was something wrong with me.

i was concerned with all this recent rain that my parents' basement might've flooded again. i called to find out that the basement was fine. something about the trickles pace versus a sudden downpour.

i had my doubts that the trash collectors would take my broken sony monitor, but i was surprised to find it already gone when i looked out. next week's: a defective samsung tv!

i was happy to learn that my roommate tried out the electric kettle this morning. how do i know this? because hours later (by the time i woke up), the water inside was still warm. as for me, to be honest, i don't have too many reasons to boil water. but now i'm looking for excuses, just so i can use the kettle. suddenly i have a craving for tea, and i made myself some oatmeal for lunch¹. i can also use it as a shortcut for making pasta, by electrically boiling the water first before adding it to a noodle filled pot on the stovetop. 

my search for a replacement 20" tv continues. a woman contacted me about a free emerson tv-vcr, and the seller who i tried to score a $15 20" slyvania flat screen got in touch with me this morning as well, something about his prospective buyer not coming through and now willing to sell me the tv again. i told him if i didn't score my freebie, i'd buy his set. 

20" is the perfect size for a television set because if it ever breaks, i can just toss it out since 20" is the maximum size limit the city of cambridge will allow for a discarded television without requiring the purchase of a $25 pick-up sticker. i went down to my basement today to see how many broken tv/monitors i have: a broken 19" sony trinitron monitor, a broken 14" samsung dynaflat tv (tx-p1430), a semi-broken 13" sony tv (i think it belonged to my friend alex), and a working dell 15" monitor. since i'm limited to one discarded tv/monitor per week, i decided to toss out the sony trinitron monitor. i checked it one final time, just to make sure it was really dead. the lights turn on, but there's no image, not even the menu screen. i wrote "dead tube" on the top and put it out on the curb. 

i had a follow-up doctor's appointment at mt.auburn hospital at 2:00. i was hoping the rain would let up, but it kept falling at a steady pace. i put on my long green raincoat which i bought in china for jungle hiking but never got a chance to really use. hiding my camera bag like a quasimodoesque deformity, i barely managed to zipper up the raincoat. i was pretty sure the lower half of my body would still be soaked, if not from the rain, then from the splattering of the bicycle wheels. i took a circuitous route, barely managing to see through rain-soaked glasses.

i was greeted by a different woman at the primary care reception desk, but she seemed to be adhering to the previous dress code of revealing tops. after i made my co-payment, i sat in the empty waiting room, the rain still dripping from my wet hair. i was called into an examination room minutes later.

it was a different room from the one i had last week, a large window facing the charles river, although not much of a view today with all the rain. a tough looking nurse with tattoos peeking out from her hospital clothes took my measurements. instead of using the scale, she just asked me how much i weighed and my height. she then took my pulse and my blood pressure (high, at 150/100).

i waited for my resident doctor to tell me the results of my blood tests. my aldosterone level was normal (produced by the adrenal glands), which means i don't have hyperaldosteronism, but my renin level seemed high (produced by the kidneys). my doctor told me he wanted to refer me to a nephrologist, who would have a better idea of what's going on. so just a few minutes of conversation and i was done. trying to get my money's worth, i asked him if there was a generic version of the diovan drug i've been taking, since my current insurance labels it a tier 3 (the most expensive grade of drugs, which they only cover 50%). he prescribed a 30 day supply of generic losartan, a similar drug, and asked me to come back for another visit in about a month.

it took a while to make an appointment, because residency doctors only know their schedules a month at a time. the receptionist told me to call back at the end of september to make an appointment for october. back out in the waiting room, it was suddenly crowded with people. not just people, but silver foxes. i navigated an obstacle course of wheel chairs towards the exit.

i made a stop at the cafe since it was on my way home. my sister showed up, helping herself to a salmon tomato sandwich on a cream cheese bagel. i criticized her for waltzing into the shop and eating the most expensive thing on the menu for free. she gave me a bunch of excuses ("the salmon will spoil if nobody eats it") but i told her to be more considerate next time. whenever i'm at the cafe, i try not to take anything. or i'll only take something that's about to go bad and hasn't sold yet. my sister was at the cafe to take bing bing out shopping again for home furnishing items.

by the time i left for home, it was raining even heavier than before. i didn't mind it though, since i was minutes away from getting out of my wet clothes and taking a hot shower. i just leisurely pedaled back, even whistling through the rain.

the woman giving away the free emerson tv-vcr got in touch with me around 7:30. she asked if i could come by before 8:00, otherwise figure out a time to meet tomorrow. i wasn't in a rush, but i didn't want to wait another day for fear of somebody else snagging the free tv from me. since i don't have a car, i called my father at the cafe, who was just about to close shop and said he could swing by and take me to get the tv. fortunately she lived just half a dozen blocks away from me. if it was for something smaller i could've just walked there in 10 minutes, but a tv demanded a vehicle.

it was a terrible time to move electronics, with the rain and the dark. besides the tv, she was also giving away a small bookshelf that also functioned as a tv stand. my father left after dropping me off at my place. back inside the house, i suddenly realized the remote was missing. i called my father to check the car but he didn't see anything. i ended up calling the seller to ask her if i could swing by her house and check her driveway, where the remote might've accidently fallen out of my jacket pocket. with the rain falling at a furious pace, i fitted my bicycle with lights and pedaled back to the house with a flashlight. i couldn't find the remote, but it was so dark and wet, it was hard to see anything. i figured myself i could come back tomorrow during the daytime to check again.

i returned to the house completely soaked, which was the expected outcome. that's why i didn't bring anything with me, including my cellphone. that turned out to be a mistake, because my father had tried to call me after i left, to let me know he found the remote after all. by the time i got back it was already too late. i changed into some dry clothes and set up the new used tv-vcr.

the model was an emerson EWC1902 19" TV/VCR, supposedly purchased in 2003. i wanted to check to make sure it was working okay before letting my other seller know i wouldn't be buying his tv after all. i could've done without the VCR (i just put away my old VCR this year, after using it only as a living room clock for many years), but it didn't make any difference in the picture quality. the set was mono audio only, but i usually can't tell the difference. after i hooked up the cable, the picture came in without a hitch. the only issue was due to poor design, menu options can only be accessed via the remote, which i temporarily don't have. that means i can't turn on the closed captioning² and i also can't turn off the VCR display ("SP COUNT 0:00:00 EJECT") that flashes on the screen when i first turn it on. other than that, wedged in the corner of my bedroom, i could swear i was still watching my old panasonic 20".

my roommate was out of her bedroom tonight, eating dinner in the living room while watching a show on her laptop using earbuds. i heated up some toaster oven pizza for dinner, and we watched the latest episode of warehouse 13 (the one where pete and myka switch bodies - hilarity ensues!).

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¹ i made a mistake with the oatmeal. it wasn't the instant kind, so it needed actual boiling in order to make it more palatable. i ended up transferring everything into a small pot and cooking it on the stove for a minute.

² i like to watch television in my bedroom with the closed captioning turned on. that way i don't have to turn up the volume in order to "hear" what's going on, and not disturb neighbors and roommates when i'm watching tv late at night before i go to sleep.

i started off this monday morning like most mornings this past few days: trolling craig's list for a cheap 20" replacement television for my bedroom. i found a few promising leads but nothing that screamed "buy me now." i then searched for an electric kettle, which i heard was not only a faster way of boiling water over the stovetop, but also cheaper and more efficient as well in terms of overall energy consumption. with my roommate drinking nothing but boiled water¹ (plus the occasional juice and milk), i figured it'd save everyone some time (and money) if i had an electric kettle.

i found somebody in somerville selling an aroma AWK-115S water kettle for $8; it was actually hidden in an ad for a television. i'd never heard of aroma before, and thought maybe it was one of those cheap knock-off brands. a quick search on amazon showed 344 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 stars, an unusually high level of customer satisfaction. that was all the motivation i needed to get in touch with the seller. i didn't hear back from him until the mid-afternoon. he sent me his address and cell phone number and we arranged to meet later in the evening.

with the non-stop rain happening today, i had a hard time getting myself to belmont for dinner. fortunately my parents were making a costco run and picked me up along the way. i got some frozen fruit and a bottle of generic brand multi-vitamins (consumer report says multi-vitamins are the same regardless of brand; buy based on price). they were also selling techlite lumen master, this great little flashlight my father got at the beginning of the year. the packaging was different though, 3 pack for $17, and the brightness was rated at 100 lumens instead of 160 lumens, but everything else was the same. i'm tempted to buy a pack, since my father might've lost his flashlight.

i also saw an electric kettle for sale, a hamilton beach model that came in either silver or red selling for $20. it actually looked pretty good: nice compact stainless steel shape but still held 10 cups of water; 360° cordless base; power indicator light; water level display; button press refill lid; and standard safety features like auto shutoff and dry-boil prevention. the only thing i didn't like was a metal rod inside the container, which probably had something to do with the water meter. i prefer a completely empty interior for easier cleaning. but had i not already scheduled to buy an electric kettle later in the evening, i might've gotten this one (in red probably).

coming back via union square, my mother asked to stop at reliable market so she could get some korean groceries. i waited out in the car, where i managed to borrow a signal from an opened wireless network. the weather was not only rainy, but windy as well, as the day felt very blustery and raw.

after dropping off the supplies at the cafe, we finally made it back to belmont by 6:00. only hailey was home, my sister off on a shopping trip with bing bing.

although we're a chinese family, my mother seems to be on a korean kick recently, as we seem to be eating korean food an awful lot.

my father took me to my craig's list appointment in east somerville around 8:30 when he drove me back to my place. it'd finally stopped raining, and i wondered if i could've just taken the bicycle here instead. the guy was named javier, and he invited me inside. he showed me the kettle, which was sitting on the kitchen island. it felt warm to the touch, like maybe he'd just been testing it out. i gave him the cash and left with my shiny new equipment.

back at home, i tried out the electric kettle for the very first time. it's official name is quite a mouthful: the aroma AWK-115S hot H20 x-press 1-1/2-liter cordless water kettle. it's got a whole slew of features: stainless steel construction, water level indicator; power indicator light; 360° base; and removable hard water deposit filter. it also had something the hamilton beach model didn't have: a completely empty interior chamber. the lid was also different. on the hamilton beach model, the refill lid could be opened with a button on the handle. on the aroma, you had to manually open the lid, making for a tighter (safer?) fit.

i filled the kettle with a few cups of water, put it on the base, then hit the start lever at the bottom of the handle to begin. it probably took about a minute to boil the water. the process was surprisingly loud to the point where i was getting a little scared and worried that the kettle might be defective. definitely faster than my normal stovetop glass kettle, which takes around 4-5 minutes to boil a few cups of water. i ended up having some good earth tea from trader joe's (full of rooibos and cinnamon goodness).

i chatted with my roommate briefly. i wonder if she thinks i'm a gadget fiend because i keep on bringing home gizmos: there was the window fan, the turntable, and now the electric kettle. when i told her how much i paid for a used kettle, she was shocked because apparently in china they're super cheap ($10 on the average for a brand new standard plastic kettle, less for cheaper models). i don't think she fully appreciates the fine craftsmanship of the aroma AWK-115S! stainless steel concealed heating element, we're talking top-of-the-line here! i told her she could use it to make her morning coffee; will the noisy boiling wake me up though?

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¹ electric kettles are pretty common in china. you always find them in hotel rooms, whether to make some tea or instant noodles. in all the time i've spent there, i've never really quite knew what that contraption was i kept on seeing in every hotel until my parents brought it up. they're nothing fancy, sort of a modified plastic pitcher with a metal heating coil inside.