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Steph brought up something that I haven't really thought about in a while, keeping a journal--an actual, physical journal. "Psh", you say, "what's this here blog then?" I brushed off her IM with a nonchalant, "Oh well I blog now and I don't have too many incredibly personal things I need to keep hidden on paper." She replied, "Sure there are." Then I realized how lame and ignorant my response was. Of course there are! There are things I never really put out here for all to see and I do think it would be nice to return to and turn to (in times of need) a diary.
The conversation triggered some good ol' nostalgia, got me thinking back to when I was obsessed with diaries as a little girl because they made such darn cute ones--Sanrio, Suzy's Zoo, generic flowery ones from Hallmark--gotta catch 'em all! and I did. I collected diaries like I collected pogs and Pokemon cards. Though, there were two points during my childhood that I sat down and seriously kept a single (okay, maybe two) diary of my deepest and darkest secrets, Ooo ominous. You're probably thinking, "how deep and dark are a middle-junior high schooler's emotions?" But I can remember that the writing was, in fact, cathartic for my pre-teen soul, as were those delicious Chicken Soup series! I drank them up! If I correctly recall, there were recurring entries lashing out at father about how he kept "forcing" me to practice piano--my eight year old emotions tended to exaggerate, but I did go through some miserable times with discipline on lessons and practice. Now that I'm older, I can understand why he was so adamant about me sticking with piano for the ten trying years. His explanations are clear now and I'm sure further life experiences will continue to elucidate his reasoning. I also realize now that some of my reasons for understanding are a bit more personal and probably more relevant on the pages of a diary. Perhaps someday soon, when I'm more comfortable sharing those juicy stories, I shall, but I gotta keep something in the suspense box out of fear of losing you, my avid reading audience of three, or four, or maybe more?! I iz basically famous!
_________
In less dense and weighty news, I believe I have officially crossed over from Daisy Fail Scout to Junior Fail Scout after sleeping 20 hours from 6 P.M. Tuesday until 2 P.M. Wednesday (yup, straight through my classes). At first, most of you may be happy that I finally slept, but the cause of this mega-slumber was a weekend of insomnia. So, fail it is!
I spent the rest of the day glued to TED Talks and fortunately, they're more guilt-free than watching trash tv. I like to think that my IQ goes up a few with each clip. Wishful thinking? Oh well, eat, pray, love. Gilbert also has a wonderfully soothing voice much like Karen Sharp. Gawd, that voice! She can make anything sound like a spa tape. I'm always tempted to call in with a dedication just to hear her say it. "___, Megs is stuck out there cursing up a storm in L.A. traffic, but she wishes you the best Vday ever. She hopes you stickittodaman at your new job and wants to dedicate 'B*tch' by Meredith Brooks to you. Sleep tight." So soooothing.
26 February 2009
25 February 2009
all night long
I'm not sure what brought about the insane munchies, but my Monday all-nighter from dinner 'til dawn was steadily comprised of:
rice, salmon, steak, seaweed, salad, tomato basil wheat thins, teriyaki beef jerky, fruit leather, goldfish (pepperidge farm, not live), ghiradeli, a bowl of apple jacks, a bowl of healthier cereal (boxless and anonymous), maple brown sugar oatmeal, a slice of toast with TJ whipped cream cheese and smoked salmon (as close as I could get to lox on a bagel), all washed down with water, O.J. and diet lipton green tea (diet, only 'cause that's what the coupon at Costco was for).
I posted this solely for your sake. Hopefully you feel a bit better about yourself.
_______
dineLA Ocean Avenue: 3 stars mainly for the dessert and 'cause it's pretty and located right on Ocean Ave by the beach.
Appetizers::
Raw oysters: Nothing amazing, decent oysters but they gave us the dinky leftover ones. I understand that it's the tasting menu but the whole point is to make a good impression for us tasters to want to come back.
Clam Chowder: Pretty good, not over-salted, thank goodness. That's always the downfall of a clam chowder. The floaties--what I like to call the chunky ingredients in soups--were fresh.
Entrees::
Seafood linguine: Bummer. Strange texture to the linguine, unlike any I've ever tried. Bland sauce, skimped on the seafood, tiniest mussels I've ever seen! The scallop was cooked well, but that was about it.
Salmon: Again, nothing spectacular. It was cooked nicely, but the dark meat was a bit tough and didn't cut easily. Mashed potatoes were mashed potatoes. Highlight was the Pinot Noir dried cherry sauce, delish!
Dessert::
Chocolate bread pudding w/vanilla sauce: Warm, rich, creamy, win.
Key lime & coconut tart w/strawberry sauce: Another win! Tangy and refreshing with crispy fried coconut shavings.
Oh, the bread n butter was excellent. I LOVE bread n butter...
All in all, they probably have some specialty foods that are amazing, but none of what we tried yesterday. I spotted numerous other dineLA restaurants across, down, the street and ones over includng BOA Steakhouse and I Cugini. Probably just try them out on their own some other time.
On another note, the roomie brought up the question of what in the world I might be like when I am with child and with cravings. What else could I possibly eat? I'm frightened for myself in the future and for my child who will probably be the fattest baby ever. Eesh, scary.
________
Going out to Roscoe's in about 20 minutes. All night...
rice, salmon, steak, seaweed, salad, tomato basil wheat thins, teriyaki beef jerky, fruit leather, goldfish (pepperidge farm, not live), ghiradeli, a bowl of apple jacks, a bowl of healthier cereal (boxless and anonymous), maple brown sugar oatmeal, a slice of toast with TJ whipped cream cheese and smoked salmon (as close as I could get to lox on a bagel), all washed down with water, O.J. and diet lipton green tea (diet, only 'cause that's what the coupon at Costco was for).
I posted this solely for your sake. Hopefully you feel a bit better about yourself.
_______
dineLA Ocean Avenue: 3 stars mainly for the dessert and 'cause it's pretty and located right on Ocean Ave by the beach.
Appetizers::
Raw oysters: Nothing amazing, decent oysters but they gave us the dinky leftover ones. I understand that it's the tasting menu but the whole point is to make a good impression for us tasters to want to come back.
Clam Chowder: Pretty good, not over-salted, thank goodness. That's always the downfall of a clam chowder. The floaties--what I like to call the chunky ingredients in soups--were fresh.
Entrees::
Seafood linguine: Bummer. Strange texture to the linguine, unlike any I've ever tried. Bland sauce, skimped on the seafood, tiniest mussels I've ever seen! The scallop was cooked well, but that was about it.
Salmon: Again, nothing spectacular. It was cooked nicely, but the dark meat was a bit tough and didn't cut easily. Mashed potatoes were mashed potatoes. Highlight was the Pinot Noir dried cherry sauce, delish!
Dessert::
Chocolate bread pudding w/vanilla sauce: Warm, rich, creamy, win.
Key lime & coconut tart w/strawberry sauce: Another win! Tangy and refreshing with crispy fried coconut shavings.
Oh, the bread n butter was excellent. I LOVE bread n butter...
All in all, they probably have some specialty foods that are amazing, but none of what we tried yesterday. I spotted numerous other dineLA restaurants across, down, the street and ones over includng BOA Steakhouse and I Cugini. Probably just try them out on their own some other time.
On another note, the roomie brought up the question of what in the world I might be like when I am with child and with cravings. What else could I possibly eat? I'm frightened for myself in the future and for my child who will probably be the fattest baby ever. Eesh, scary.
________
Going out to Roscoe's in about 20 minutes. All night...
24 February 2009
keep an eye out
I'll be spending a great deal of moolah over the week, eating.
I have three dineLA reservations lined up starting this afternoon and there is a strong likelihood that I'll be adding another.
Where will this magical mystery cash come from, you ask? Nowhere that I know of. I might as well be pulling bills out of thin air. My checking account dwindles quickly before my eyes, but all I can think about is food. I, the insatiable appetite, the black hole stomach, eternally hungry.
________________
Since it's already old news, here is the Oscars recap as short 'n' sweet as possible.
FASHION: A majority of the ladies looked like a sophisticated version of...
BAM! Glenda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. Mickey Rourke looked rather spiffy in his unique, white suit. RDJr. looked equally spiffy in his classic black tux. Many men had the satin tuxedo-stripe-down-the-pant-leg action.
AWARDS: No comment, neutral. I haven't seen many of the films so I really can't protest and fuss about undeserving winners or more deserving losers. You're all amazing, putting on probably some of the best facial expressions I've seen when the camera cut or panned over to your faces watching speeches. If only I could have such a convincing face while merely sitting and listening.
SPEECHES: I am belly belly happy too for you, Yojira Takita. Here is the rest of the Departures crew speaking (some of it unintelligible but too darn cute!)
And, of course, sank you my Kunio Kato, for giving da bomb speech of the evening.
PARTIES: I wouldn't know, I wasn't invited for some odd reason. Bruincard isn't accepted everywhere.
THE SHOW: Hugh da man! I already had a longstanding love for him, my music man, but he is "off the hizzoook", for lack of more sophisticated words. Surely most viewers' gag reflexes were worked during this lavish, dramatic, and oftentimes cheesy Oscars, but i absolutely loved it. C'mon, we'd all be much gloomier people without song and dance!
______________
I always end up blogging in reverse, backtracking on my days. Bummer, unlike Benji Button, I'm not aging in the same way.
Saturday was a fulfilling day. I received another reality slap-check in the face upon picking up two sisters who are both regular campers at Camp Kindle--for children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and a beneficiary of UCLA Dance Marathon. The home was cramped, far too small to accommodate the girls, their mother, father, two puppies. Appliances were basically falling apart, dusty vent on the floor taking up the whole width of a three foot hallway leading immediately into two cramped rooms. I was promptly reminded of how strong these kids are and just how meaningful the one week at camp each year is, not only for them, but also for their families.
The younger sister has ADHD. Unfortunate, yes, but also one of those situations where the CK family can laugh about it and move on. Let's just say if my car had one of those "eject" buttons, little Z would've been shooting out of my car a minute after she buckled in. Never has anyone pushed so many buttons inside my car over a span of five minutes--lock, unlock; windows up, down; radio stations galore; "What's that?", "a GPS", "Can we turn it on?", "Ohhh not right now, we're two minutes away..."; air freshener open, close. Meanwhile, her older sister sat in the back attempting to comment on the songs as they changed rapidly. The elder is stability and it's sad that she has to be that figure for the family at such a young age.
Anyway, we finally arrived at UCLA for Dance Marathon. I stayed with the Camp Kindle kids and danced for about four hours, ran to the car in Lot 8, drove to the apartment, took the quickest shower, tornadoed my room in the process of getting ready, then was off to Kollaboration, aka a CelebrAsian! All in all, the night was 100% entertaining with talented performers, amazing dance crew sets, my life saver Burger King, a dip in fun with an awful first hour at the after party, but concluding with the usual dance partaaay and me losing my voice singing along.
In related news, BoA's self-titled, U.S. debut album has been pre-ordered and been sitting in my Amazon cart for a while. I'm not quite sure what to make of
Oh! Eye muffs! I guess it's good to draw in the U.S. crowd. After all, she's not 14 years old in Korea anymore. Hopefully she doesn't get distracted and maintains the high caliber of actual dancing skill and choreography that shot her into super-stardom way back when. That was a smart move in deciding to use the American version of the "Eat You Up" MV just for intro/promo clips and release the Korean version as the official video.
___________
Continuing to read Beloved, Mrs. Dalloway, The Handmaid's Tale, and our film directing book for classes. This quarter is so-so. I'm anticipating the short, but much needed spring break to refresh and recharge.
I have three dineLA reservations lined up starting this afternoon and there is a strong likelihood that I'll be adding another.
Where will this magical mystery cash come from, you ask? Nowhere that I know of. I might as well be pulling bills out of thin air. My checking account dwindles quickly before my eyes, but all I can think about is food. I, the insatiable appetite, the black hole stomach, eternally hungry.
________________
Since it's already old news, here is the Oscars recap as short 'n' sweet as possible.
FASHION: A majority of the ladies looked like a sophisticated version of...
BAM! Glenda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. Mickey Rourke looked rather spiffy in his unique, white suit. RDJr. looked equally spiffy in his classic black tux. Many men had the satin tuxedo-stripe-down-the-pant-leg action.AWARDS: No comment, neutral. I haven't seen many of the films so I really can't protest and fuss about undeserving winners or more deserving losers. You're all amazing, putting on probably some of the best facial expressions I've seen when the camera cut or panned over to your faces watching speeches. If only I could have such a convincing face while merely sitting and listening.
SPEECHES: I am belly belly happy too for you, Yojira Takita. Here is the rest of the Departures crew speaking (some of it unintelligible but too darn cute!)
And, of course, sank you my Kunio Kato, for giving da bomb speech of the evening.
PARTIES: I wouldn't know, I wasn't invited for some odd reason. Bruincard isn't accepted everywhere.
THE SHOW: Hugh da man! I already had a longstanding love for him, my music man, but he is "off the hizzoook", for lack of more sophisticated words. Surely most viewers' gag reflexes were worked during this lavish, dramatic, and oftentimes cheesy Oscars, but i absolutely loved it. C'mon, we'd all be much gloomier people without song and dance!
______________
I always end up blogging in reverse, backtracking on my days. Bummer, unlike Benji Button, I'm not aging in the same way.
Saturday was a fulfilling day. I received another reality slap-check in the face upon picking up two sisters who are both regular campers at Camp Kindle--for children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and a beneficiary of UCLA Dance Marathon. The home was cramped, far too small to accommodate the girls, their mother, father, two puppies. Appliances were basically falling apart, dusty vent on the floor taking up the whole width of a three foot hallway leading immediately into two cramped rooms. I was promptly reminded of how strong these kids are and just how meaningful the one week at camp each year is, not only for them, but also for their families.
The younger sister has ADHD. Unfortunate, yes, but also one of those situations where the CK family can laugh about it and move on. Let's just say if my car had one of those "eject" buttons, little Z would've been shooting out of my car a minute after she buckled in. Never has anyone pushed so many buttons inside my car over a span of five minutes--lock, unlock; windows up, down; radio stations galore; "What's that?", "a GPS", "Can we turn it on?", "Ohhh not right now, we're two minutes away..."; air freshener open, close. Meanwhile, her older sister sat in the back attempting to comment on the songs as they changed rapidly. The elder is stability and it's sad that she has to be that figure for the family at such a young age.
Anyway, we finally arrived at UCLA for Dance Marathon. I stayed with the Camp Kindle kids and danced for about four hours, ran to the car in Lot 8, drove to the apartment, took the quickest shower, tornadoed my room in the process of getting ready, then was off to Kollaboration, aka a CelebrAsian! All in all, the night was 100% entertaining with talented performers, amazing dance crew sets, my life saver Burger King, a dip in fun with an awful first hour at the after party, but concluding with the usual dance partaaay and me losing my voice singing along.
In related news, BoA's self-titled, U.S. debut album has been pre-ordered and been sitting in my Amazon cart for a while. I'm not quite sure what to make of
Oh! Eye muffs! I guess it's good to draw in the U.S. crowd. After all, she's not 14 years old in Korea anymore. Hopefully she doesn't get distracted and maintains the high caliber of actual dancing skill and choreography that shot her into super-stardom way back when. That was a smart move in deciding to use the American version of the "Eat You Up" MV just for intro/promo clips and release the Korean version as the official video.___________
Continuing to read Beloved, Mrs. Dalloway, The Handmaid's Tale, and our film directing book for classes. This quarter is so-so. I'm anticipating the short, but much needed spring break to refresh and recharge.
21 February 2009
NOM x 6
Susan and I tried out LUNA PARK from the dineLA list tonight. The restaurant was definitely opposite of what we expected--though we're not sure what our expectations were either. Located on a deserted and shady corner of La Brea/Wilshire, the only landmark immediately nearby was a Blockbuster across the street. We passed by trendy tweens while crossing the street as well, scoff.
'Twas packed. We stepped inside to a Disneyland size crowd by the bar and I observed an overall small, very dim-lit, bustling room with a casual chic crowd. Slightly awk, but, the service was impeccable* and the food...Oh My Gawd, the food. I thoroughly enjoyed every dish start to finish.
Apologies for lack of photographs, but a camera flash in their lighting would've been like the light of Jesus blazing through.
Appetizers:
+Warm goat cheese fondue with green apple slices and bread:: Inspired to melt all the cheese in my kitchen and dip everything else in my kitchen in it.
+Hawaiian marinated tuna "poke" with fried wonton chips:: Basically a light citrus marinated tuna tartare with nicely fried crispy wontons.
Entrees:
+Grilled marinated flat iron steak with salsa verde and french fries:: Wifey is a "meat well-done" but thankfully the waitress convinced her down to medium well, and even luckier for me, it came out more like medium :) Delish, tender steak!
+Grilled salmon with braised greens and grits in whole grain mustard over mashed potatoes:: The whole grain mustard n grits was the only thumbs down of the meal--incredibly bitter >_< (sometimes aZn emoticons are most expressive). Everything else, nicely done.
Desserts:
+Make your own s'mores:: Yesss. Cup of bittersweet fondue o'er candle + cup of molten mini marshmellows o'er candle + house made graham crackers. Leftover chocolate was appropriately slurped up with spoons.
+Deep fried apple pie:: 2 cute deep fried apple "dumplings" with caramel and cup of rich vanilla ice cream.
Then, we exploded.
*Impeccable service comment includes our server being thoughtful and intelligent enough to have the kitchen split our entrees, so we each had a plate of salmon and plate of steak. Four plates?! Fatties are we. It was probably just an optical illusion, but I felt like the split gave us even more food than we would've gotten--my stomach definitely felt the difference.
They also re-filled our water every five minutes, switched out silverware, wiped table before dessert (all things I thought they only did in ultra-fine eateries).
I don't dock points for the slight lag in taking our order, the place was packed, and I just accept the fact that restaurants in America just take forever and a year to complete the bill.
- - - - - - - -
I should get sleep soon because tomorrow morning I need to pick up two Camp Kindle campers from Santa Monica and bring them back here for Dance Marathon! Originally, I'd planned on taking the free practice LSAT on campus from 12:30-4:30pm, but I think I'd like to spend some time at DM with CK (hopefully you got that, not trying to pull a cool slang thing).
Also, 4:30pm might cut it close to when we leave for KOLLABORATION. Woot woot! I expect the Asian half of UCLA and of other local universities to be there, plus Matt and Alex!
SO EXCITED. Five other CEC-ers that I know of are also going. We takin' over...
'Twas packed. We stepped inside to a Disneyland size crowd by the bar and I observed an overall small, very dim-lit, bustling room with a casual chic crowd. Slightly awk, but, the service was impeccable* and the food...Oh My Gawd, the food. I thoroughly enjoyed every dish start to finish.
Apologies for lack of photographs, but a camera flash in their lighting would've been like the light of Jesus blazing through.
Appetizers:
+Warm goat cheese fondue with green apple slices and bread:: Inspired to melt all the cheese in my kitchen and dip everything else in my kitchen in it.
+Hawaiian marinated tuna "poke" with fried wonton chips:: Basically a light citrus marinated tuna tartare with nicely fried crispy wontons.
Entrees:
+Grilled marinated flat iron steak with salsa verde and french fries:: Wifey is a "meat well-done" but thankfully the waitress convinced her down to medium well, and even luckier for me, it came out more like medium :) Delish, tender steak!
+Grilled salmon with braised greens and grits in whole grain mustard over mashed potatoes:: The whole grain mustard n grits was the only thumbs down of the meal--incredibly bitter >_< (sometimes aZn emoticons are most expressive). Everything else, nicely done.
Desserts:
+Make your own s'mores:: Yesss. Cup of bittersweet fondue o'er candle + cup of molten mini marshmellows o'er candle + house made graham crackers. Leftover chocolate was appropriately slurped up with spoons.
+Deep fried apple pie:: 2 cute deep fried apple "dumplings" with caramel and cup of rich vanilla ice cream.
Then, we exploded.
*Impeccable service comment includes our server being thoughtful and intelligent enough to have the kitchen split our entrees, so we each had a plate of salmon and plate of steak. Four plates?! Fatties are we. It was probably just an optical illusion, but I felt like the split gave us even more food than we would've gotten--my stomach definitely felt the difference.
They also re-filled our water every five minutes, switched out silverware, wiped table before dessert (all things I thought they only did in ultra-fine eateries).
I don't dock points for the slight lag in taking our order, the place was packed, and I just accept the fact that restaurants in America just take forever and a year to complete the bill.
- - - - - - - -
I should get sleep soon because tomorrow morning I need to pick up two Camp Kindle campers from Santa Monica and bring them back here for Dance Marathon! Originally, I'd planned on taking the free practice LSAT on campus from 12:30-4:30pm, but I think I'd like to spend some time at DM with CK (hopefully you got that, not trying to pull a cool slang thing).
Also, 4:30pm might cut it close to when we leave for KOLLABORATION. Woot woot! I expect the Asian half of UCLA and of other local universities to be there, plus Matt and Alex!
SO EXCITED. Five other CEC-ers that I know of are also going. We takin' over...
19 February 2009
48 hours later...
I am not fancily equipped with a scanner and was too lazy to photograph my work, but I created my first-ever storyboard! Three non-consecutive scenes illustrated by yours truly via mechanical pencil--alas, I left my crayola workshop at home--based on the script for AUTUMN IN NEW YORK! Whosa Whatsa? No, not the Keanu Reeves movie; that's SWEET NOVEMBER, silly, but basically the same bittersweet conclusion (pretty lady must pass on).
Thumbs down and frown to me for procrastinating on this project. It's something I'd never done before and had I not waited 'til the last minute, I would've thoroughly enjoyed the process. Definitely felt great to have pencil in hand sketching/drawing again. The artistry did not come back easily--I tried my bestest to sketch Richard Gere and Winona Ryder, but they all ended up looking slightly Asian, and Asian they are not! After numerous rough sketches and scrolling through google images, I came up with neutral looking sketches of man and woman, decently Caucasian looking too. All my childhood bad habits rushed back instantly with this project. I spent far too much time on detail, erased erased erased, then erased some more. I guess in the shots of close-ups, the detail in the eyes did come in handy. Eyes are so tricky! And hands! I never could draw those well, still can't. They looked more like Freddy Krueger claws, so romantic. Hopefully the professor/TA takes into account the fact that some of were clueless going into the project.
In other pressing and interesting news, I found a piece of pepperoni in my purse. Not suprising since I consume at least three Wetzel pepperoni twists with butter and Parmesan a week while sitting in the CEC office with purse in lap.
Tonight will be a cozy and casual potluck: meat, meat, meat; Chinese brocolli courtesy of Jo. If interested, basic Korean BBQ marinade is easy peasy:
Soy sauce / Sesame oil / Sesame seed / Sugar /
**The last four aren't absolutely necessary, but they definitely add more flavor!
Then, Magic Bullet that sh*t. Or if you don't have one, stir that sh*t.
Then you can either soak meat in bowl of sauce and cook it pronto, or put meat in freezeguard Ziploc and pour sauce in so it's fridge/freezer ready. Orrrr you can vacuum seal as my dad loves to do and preserve in freezer for many, many uses.
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