DigitalAudioTape's Xanga

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:21:45 GMT

Today was a good day. Talked with Halina on the bus. Hadn't seen her in a couple weeks.

Work was a breeze. Quickly burned through a bunch of tasks.

Found out class was cancelled and I got an extra 3 hours in my day to work on stuff.

Had a good swim during my break. The water felt refreshingly warm when I entered the pool.

Caught both my buses quickly. Got home in good time.

Went shopping and got almost all the supplies I needed for my costume.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:21:32 GMT

Spending this weekend just doing homework. I did go to Linh's and EJ's engagement party yesterday. Was very pleasant. Got plenty of good Vietnamese food to eat.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:47:22 GMT

Yesterday I wasn't able to fit a swim in, so today I made it a point to do some laps. It went really great. I made some good progress and got a great workout. Had a nice conversation with the cute girl in my lane too. I need to keep this habit up. I feel much more relaxed compared to yesterday.

My school week is half over. I feel a bit spread thin right now. A little worried I've developed an ulcer (spot on stomach seems to hurt when I have spicy food now). I'm happy to have lots of stuff going on though. Looking forward to doing stuff this weekend.

Had a good talk with Dr. Kim. Clarified what our assignment was. Also had to talk to Dr. Gorelick, and manage the KIN 697 senior research group I'm mentoring. Helped out some in the Gait lab too. Pretty full day, got home at 9pm. I'm ready to go to bed now. Better than I get my rest for another long day.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:36:22 GMT

With school, work, and trying to have a personal life, I've been having less time and energy to put into reflection. I miss it. Man, so tired. Going to do some more reading before bed.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:03:36 GMT

One Friday night I went out to a random art show opening I found on local events. The art was a bit underwhelming in quality. They were priced at thousands of dollars, which I thought was ridiculous when I know better artists not charging anywhere near that much. I took the bus to get there, got to know the busses in that area better. Asked an older woman of other openings nearby, but that turned out to be a snipe hunt.

Tim visited again for a reunion with his college department. We watched some Top Gear and District 9. I really enjoyed District 9. I enjoyed the story and how it was like 3 different movies put together. There was one subplot that was to drawn out, but other than that it was solid. The graphics towards the end reminded me a lot of Half-Life 2.

I finished reading 1984. It was a downer, but my roommate Judy said that it's good for appreciating not living in such a messed up society.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:18:41 GMT

DigitalAudioTape: since you like freaky stuff like the 1 body twins

DigitalAudioTape: did you see the 8 limbed girl

t3100e40: when you say it like that

DigitalAudioTape: really a body

t3100e40: i don't want to admit to it

DigitalAudioTape: 2 bodies with 1 head

DigitalAudioTape: haha

DigitalAudioTape: hey i like it too apparently

t3100e40: man

t3100e40: could you imagine roleplaying

t3100e40: and being like

t3100e40: actually babe

DigitalAudioTape: http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=girl+with+eight+limbs

t3100e40: can i glue this fake head onto your shoulder

t3100e40: yeah just like that

t3100e40: perfect.

DigitalAudioTape: haha

DigitalAudioTape: i like girls with casts

DigitalAudioTape: hot stuff

t3100e40: lol

Monday, August 31, 2009

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:37:45 GMT

Hmm where did I leave off...

Nikki's birthday

I went out for Nikki's birthday. Bar hopping was the planned activity. It should have only taken 30 minutes to get to the Polk st bars, but the bus I was on broke down. Had to walk to another line, which took an extra half hour. Yuka was out of it, and was really glad I had brought those Milano cookies. Met tom's art school friends, Yuka's roomate, Kari's guy friend, and Nikki's ex-coworkers. Got into an interesting discussion about quitting pot, and how it's common to suffer from insomnia. Had a good time talking to Krista about dealing with responsibilities and enjoying staying home on evenings.

Hannah's visit

Hannah came to visit. We went to the First Thursday art walk. Spent most time at 49 Geary. I really enjoyed the first exhibit. The art there reminded me of the forrest in Princess Mononoke. I packed a lunch and ate half of the way to the California Academy Nightlife. There we met up with Hannah's S.O., Jaymes and Joanna. I really didn't enjoy the thursday Nightlife at California Academy. I had already seen all the exhibits before, and the music and alcohol didn't enhance the experience. The rainforest exhibit closed right before we got there. Fortunately we all were able to catch the planetarium show, despite there being no tickets left. We waited at the entrance and they let ~15 more people come in. Hannah was disappointed the octopus was hiding.

Afterwards we hung out at Jaymes and Joanna's. Hannah made me some tea. It was mostly a disaster, with the tea ball coming apart and making a mess. It tasted good though. Also had some Asahi beer and Guinness.

It was really nice spending time with Hannah and catchign up. I think it feels good because she gets me. I really needed that after meeting mostly people I don't relate with, since moving here. The effect was drug-like.

Gotta go get some groceries. Gonna write more later.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:57:01 GMT

I had a rather full weekend. On Friday night I played some more board games at Muddy's Cafe. The game we played, Ketal, was pretty interesting, but it took an incredibly long time. 3 hours. It was about archeology, and digging for treasures and temples, and racing against other archeologists. I was a bit frustrated with getting the short end of the stick for crucial rounds, so I decided to get a drink at the Knockout to salvage the evening. I met a couple people and had an interesting time listening to their story. Got some good tips on places to check out in the city. They play oldies on Fridays. I tried dancing, but I'm terrible at it. That's probably that's the hardest for me to fathom. Things like math, computers, come much easier, and I know kinda where to start with girls, but dancing still eludes me.

On Saturday morning I did some recovering from the previous night. Checked out the japantown street fair for a bit. Since Judy was out of town, Fritz and I had a guys day. Had dinner at In-n-out, then watched the UFC fight at a sports bar. There was Hooters bar next door, and there were Hooters waitresses in the bar delivering food. Got some wings from the lovely Mackenzie. First time watching a UFC live. Dont' really follow it. The headline fight was pretty impressive. I like MMA as a sport, the competition and technique are very interesting. However, the kind of crowd it draws as a spectator sport isn't appealing. Felt like I was surrounded by idiots.

On Sunday I worked on photos and tidying up my Flickr account. Spent the evening at juggling at the circus arts school. I'm getting better at 5-ball cascade. Was a small turnout.

Monday was my first day of work. Took about an hour to get to work with the way I tried. I stumbled on a mostly Asian populated bus line though, so that was nice surprise. My neighborhood buses usually only have Mexicans.

First day was rather easy. Mostly filled out paperwork and setup my computer accounts. Met most of the people in the department. I tried hard to remember everyone's name, wrote them all down. Surprisingly tired when I got home. Took a 2 hour nap.

Tuesday turned out to be a day off. I decided to take a crack at making Pad Thai. I got the recipe my friends have been using : http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/kuay-tiaw-pad-thai-recipe/index.html , sans dried shrimp, pork and preserved raddish. It's easier to cook the shrimp and egg before the noodles.

So I went out to look for ingredients at around 1 pm. First I went to Safeway to check out prices on usual ingredients, then I went closest Asian market, Duc Loi for most of what I needed. It's at the corner of 18th and Mission. The people there were really helpful when I was trying to find palm sugar.

Since this was my first time making pad thai, the prep took a really long time. Lots of things to cut, had to prepare the tamarind from pods, shelling the shrimp, etc. Had to make another run to Safeway too. It was about 7 when I started actual cooking. Had a problem with the eggs in the wok. Some of the egg burned in the wok, and I had to clean it before continuing with the noodles etc. I made it twice, one batch for my roommate and one for myself. After doing it, I think I have the process down, and have a rough idea of the portions. I really liked it, and was a hit with my roommate. I think I'll make this often in the future. Pretty easy and tasty. I'm glad I have another dish in my repertoire.

Today was my second day at work. Got to work faster. Fatou, an african girl who was hired the same time as me, ended up on the same bus. We did a bit of training for iLearn. Unfortunately, because she is an international student, there were some problems with her paperwork she will have to wait 2 weeks before she can work. For lunch I enjoyed some leftover Pad Thai. Took another long nap after today's work as well.

I just did some errands. Got some dish soap, dishwand, trail mix to snack on during work, and some milano cookies as a present for Nikki's birthday tomorrow. Took out the trash and recycling, and did some dishes. I put on some South Park season 1 on my netflix roku player as I did dishes to keep myself entertained. Felt pretty grown up to do all those chores.

At Safeway tonight I had a short chat with a woman in line about sweets. I'm inspired to write about the great love girls seem to have for sweets, so stay tuned for that.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:28:42 GMT

I've been actively going to meetup groups to try to get a good circle of friends going. I've attended boardgame, juggling, photography and art events/meetings. Though I've met some nice people, I haven't clicked with anyone yet. Here are some pictures from the photography meetup at the Embarcadero:

I went exploring around golden gate park. Practiced taking photos. I'm going to edit those in a bit and post those later. Also stopped by this thai noodle place for dinner. First time having thai styled noodle soup. Different from the usual Vietnames pho.

That night I took my roommates to go play bingo at the Knockout. Fritz won a felt coloring pad and pens. The cheap pens ran out of ink before we finished coloring it though. We got some mexican food after.

I went home the next day to try to find my immunization docs so I could register for school. Weren't able to find them that time, but I did get a nice food processor from my aunt. I made salsa with it that night. Turned out great. Judy's friend KT was over. She was pretty interesting and intense. She told us about some really heavy and personal stuff. I had to take a minute to process it all after she left.

I went to the Asian Art Museum to check out the visiting Samurai exhibit. It was kinda underwhelming. Not worth the 15 dollars for regular admission. It was barely worth it for 5 for the discount day I went. I did find their style of stirrups interesting. I also liked the self-expression in the sword hand guards.

I went shopping with Diem, Kim and Thuy Huong for a jacket. We stopped at 5 stores and I found something I liked and in budget. I thought that was a lot of effort, but Diem said it was much easier since I was a guy. If it was just girls, they would have spent more time looking at everything at each store.

Linh and EJ are engaged now. Pretty crazy. There'll be a bunch of weddings next year.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:16:15 GMT

DigitalAudioTape: session was really good

DigitalAudioTape: flip clipper felt great

thedisfunktion: excellent

thedisfunktion: hit anything good?

DigitalAudioTape: i hit infinity > osis > infinity > spinnign clipper

DigitalAudioTape: i mostly worked on just clipper

DigitalAudioTape: had a couple 10+ contact titless strings

DigitalAudioTape: and they were controlled

DigitalAudioTape: like i felt like I could keep going if i really wanted to

DigitalAudioTape: as opposed to 10 contacts of bails

DigitalAudioTape: had a really easy feeling ripwalk

DigitalAudioTape: some easy feeling gyro mirages

thedisfunktion: nice

DigitalAudioTape: the clipper work was the best part though, my flip clippers were looking more symmetrical with my strong clippers

thedisfunktion: Nice

thedisfunktion: that's the best feeling :P

DigitalAudioTape: oh yeah

DigitalAudioTape: knees feel nice an loose, pain free

DigitalAudioTape: i focused a lot on keeping my cg low and steady, instead of jumping