The building that I work at in East Williamsburg is being repaired and painted right now. They have already filled cracks with cement and now primed the exterior with a blinding white coat of paint. I wish the landlords would allow graffiti artists to come in and fill the canvas with some great pieces. It would be pretty cool to work in the building if that happened. Somehow, I don't think that will happen.

Last night, I went to the New York Photobloggers 2 at the Apple Store. Just like the first photoblogger event, there was an impressive roster of people (all of which people should check out). Unfortunately, unlike the last post-event gathering, there was no grinding, make out action at MercBar.

The most interesting thing to me was Keith's presentation. Coming into the photoblogger event, the thing that I wanted to see the most was shots of how photos looked before and after the Photoshop process. Now, everybody says they just use curves, but if you've used Photoshop, you know that curves can really do a lot. (Not that you care, but for the record, I just use curves and unsharp mask.) In his presentation, he showed everyone the before and after of his photos, which was very eye-opening. Keith flat out stated that his photos at Overshadowed do undergo manipulation, sometimes through a lot of editing, but he's not necessarily looking for a realistic representation of what he took, but more of a "movie" view. With the work that he does, he wants to recreate the New York that he sees in movies.

To be fair, just because someone does post-photo work, it doesn't detract from the talent of the photographer. I'm just curious as to how the photos we see compare to what actually came out of the camera.

Update:
- Rion has all the information on who was there and links to photos from the night in her entry on pastries. (I say she's evil).
- Keith's presentation from last night, including his "post process" stuff.

Posted by tien mao in Blog-ing, Photos at 7:48 AM

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So it looks like this pipe might be the issue that's been causing my problems. It's also possible that the water is coming from underneath the drainage area outside the window. We'll have to flood the drain to test it out. Things would be so much easier if it really were the pipe. That wall almost looks like an excavation site or something. Dram. The only plus side I can see to all this is having another party when my apartment is fixed.

Sorry for the boringness as of late, but I'm busy, tired, and...tired. Yikes.

Posted by tien mao in House and Home at 7:23 AM

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There is nothing quite like rushing home from work and mopping all night long. Apparently that's what you have to do when you have a steady flow of water coming into your apartment from at least 2 sources. I swear that I must have emptied more than 25 buckets of water, if not way more than 25. I think my feet are finally dry.

Now I really want that weather shield to be built. At least my washer and drier are getting a good workout. Why? Because of all the towels that I have to wash every time it rains. I also went through my whole stockpile of newspapers to help soak up some water during the day. Good thing I had those down on the floor during the day otherwise I might have had well more than a 1/2" of water on my floor.

To think that New York City didn't get the brunt of this storm. Sigh.

Posted by tien mao in House and Home at 7:52 AM

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Tired and sore...but a quote.

Mao said:
Taught by mistakes and setbacks, we have become wiser and handle our affairs better. It is hard for any political party or person to avoid mistakes, but we should make as few as possible. Once a mistake is made, we should correct it, and the more quickly and throughly, the better. - June, 1949

- All "Quotations from Mao"

Posted by tien mao in Mao Quotes at 10:30 PM

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It seems like a lot have things have changed in Ann Arbor since I last walked around. I know that there have been renovations (damn alumni emails), but I had yet to see any of them. The law quad remains unchanged, but Haven Hall was updated, as were the computers in the computing center. They are even dual monitor G5 towers. I too have a G5, but not dual monitors. Those kids at Michigan are living it up! Somehow though, my uniquename still worked from my college days. I even deleted some 3000+ emails.

Something that has not changed is Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger. Still delicious, still greasy, and still handing out new $2 bills. It's no longer cheaper than food. I had a quad with swiss and bacon. Yum!!

It should be noted that the sky on Sunday really was as blue as they are in the photos. Except for #1 which seemed to lose it's blue-ness when I saved for web.

Posted by tien mao in Photos at 7:59 AM

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Over the weekend, I headed west to Michigan to visit the old college haunts and attend a football game. There was loads of food, great company and good times had by all - especially since Michigan beat Iowa. 30-17.

The weekend started with some flight delays because of some airplane issues. Typical Northwest airlines. After a brief pit-stop at the hotel, we went to Leopold Brothers, "the world's first environmentally sustainable brewery."

Saturday, there was much fun had. Sleeping later because of the late game time and lots of tailgating. Food, drink, food, drink. Not to mention, some gummy objects in between. The game was excellent. There's nothing quite like a Michigan football game. The band, the team, the stadium. Spending time with 111,000+ like-minded people.

I've got a few more photos from the weekend that I'll post tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a great time.

- Last year's trip to Michigan

Posted by tien mao in Friends/Family, Sports at 6:49 AM

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Last night I made my first pizza with toppings and it turned out pretty damn good. Using homemade tomato sauce again (also spicy), the pizza was topped with mushrooms and pepperoni. Just like a pizza at Grimaldi's, the mushroom made parts of the crust soggy. I had some issues getting the pizza off the peel, but that might be a combination of waiting too long to get the pizza into the oven and not enough flour.

While eating my tasty pizza, I watched In the Cut. Meg Ryan's in the movie, but it's no Sleepless in Seattle. It's more like the scene at Katz's from When Harry Met Sally - over and over and much more graphic. There's no denying that Meg looked good in this movie despite being 40+.

Towards the end of the movie, I was greeted with a surprise at the door that I thought was my idiot neighbor, but thankfully it was not. The surprise has given me a smile that will carry right up until Monday morning though.

I'll be out of town this weekend enjoying a football game in Michigan. See you when I get back.

Posted by tien mao in Food/Drink, Friends/Family, Movies at 7:53 AM

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Today is the first full day of fall, and I welcome it. Gone are the days of sneezing and allergies for me, and in are the cooler days where air conditioning is no longer needed. The only negative of this is the days are getting shorter and shorter. And you get beautiful sunsets like the one above. Problem is, you won't be able to see them anymore since the sun will set sooner and sooner.

Back to allergies. I've noticed this strange phenomenon of people blessing themselves after they sneeze. Has anyone else noticed this? The sneeze followed by, "bless me." Is it me, or is that wrong and should only someone else be able to bless you? I mean, if you really believe in all that blessing mumbo jumbo, how can you bless yourself? What would the point of church be? Maybe you can just say "excuse me" and not "bless me". Makes more sense to me.

Posted by tien mao in Random at 7:41 AM

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Nothing like exiting the office after a long day of work and discovering oil all over your bike. That really sucked. Because of that, I had to ride home with sticky hands (the oil was really all over) and when I got home, I had to wipe down my bike. That kind of sucked.

But I do like riding the bike to work, especially in this cooler weather. No more very hot Tien when arriving to work. Monday and Tuesday, I actually wore a fleece while riding to work. That's three days last week, one over the weekend, and already two this week. The bike really saves me a lot of time commuting and it's pretty easy and the route I take is virtually traffic free. The only problem now is that it's getting dark earlier now so I'll have to pick up some lights lest I get run over.

I even replaced my lock with a super heavy lock from American Lock. Now all I need is another one and I can open up my own bodega.

Posted by tien mao in Rants at 9:29 AM

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All I wanted was one bag of Smartfood, but I ended up with two totally different types of popcorn. I made the best of it and ate some Cracker Jack before eating the Smartfood.

Posted by tien mao in Food/Drink at 7:49 AM

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Hmm, is there something about adding a last second field goal in NCAA 2005 that is against the rules? You would think not. But if you're already up 52-10, with four seconds to go in your version of NCAA 2005, you might not want to kick that figgie. I would normally say that I didn't deserve to have the game freeze on me, but I was thumping my opponent. Since Michigan is rather "eh" this year, I've got to live vicariously through my game. I was close to setting the single game rushing record for Michigan and kept my first team in. Padding stats to remain the Heisman favorite. All for naught.

I was so close to breaking Ron Johnson's single game rushing record of 348 yards and already broke Tshimanga Biakabutuka's 317 yard record. Again, all for naught. Oh that poor Penn State defense - shifting one way as I run the other. Fools! All for naught. Why was I running up the score? Because their damn offense kicked a field goal on me. And they returned an interception for a TD (that was actually my fault). In all fairness, PSU was ranked #10, so it's not like I was beating up a bad team. That said, I definitely need to increase the level of difficulty for next season.

Mental note for when I play that game again, run, run, run. I'm so going for that record.

Posted by tien mao in Sports at 8:39 AM

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You know the drill.

Mao said:
Pleasure-seeking. In the Red Army there are also quite a few people whose individualism finds expression in pleasure-seeking. They always hope that their unit will march into big cities. They want to go there not to work but to enjoy themselves. The last thing they want is to work in the Red areas where life is hard. - December, 1929

- All "Quotations from Mao"

Posted by tien mao in Mao Quotes at 7:52 AM

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Recently, my cousin Julia got engaged to Jeremy and they had a combination engagement/housewarming party yesterday. They moved into their apartment a while ago, but just got around to the housewarming thing. I'm still convinced that their apartment is the nicest that I've personally seen in Brooklyn.

Yeah, I have no pictures of them, or the ring. I am very smooth. Anyway, congrats to Julia and Jeremy.

Posted by tien mao in Friends/Family at 9:18 AM

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Yesterday, scores of motorcycle enthusiasts gathered in the Greeenpoint/Williamsburg area to memorialize "Indian Larry" Desmedt who died on August 30th after an accident during a stunt in North Carolina. Larry was a builder and sculptor of custom motorcycles and the gathering took place outside of his shop on N. 14th Street.

It was a bit odd this morning when I kept hearing the distinct sound of the Harley Davidson motorcycles throughout Greenpoint. I even saw a pack of NYPD bikes parked outside the local police precinct. Nothing like seeing a pack of bikes pull out.

Posted by tien mao in NYC at 7:51 AM

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Yesterday, I participated in the first owners for my building since I've moved in. We were supposed to elect a board of directors, but never really got around to it. I was late to the meeting, due to some water issues, but there were some important issues discussed.

Garbage, extermination, mail, common areas, and the all important building of a roof deck. There are still quite a few things to get out of the way before we even consider building a roof deck (structure of the roof, water flow on the roof, size, cost, impact on tenants below, etc), but it seems like everyone is pro-deck. It might even become a communal building thing where we all arm ourselves with hammers, nails, and make a booze inspired deck. With that in mind, who would want to be on the deck?

I think we got a good number of issues out of the way, and hopefully, we can get some things figured out before the next meeting takes place.

Woo, roof deck!

Posted by tien mao in House and Home at 11:45 AM

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Water is a resource that people can't live without, wars starting over it and such, but it's something that I certainly don't need any more of. I'm tired of all the water that has recently flooded New York - and my apartment. All this water is arriving in the form of rain. For the second time in recent memory, there has been a shallow pool of water in one area of my basement. The most recent storm wasn't nearly as bad as the last - no flooding from the roof - but I still spent a good deal of time attempting to mop up the basement.

I think someone needs to build a hurricane stopping machine or mechanism. Sure, it's an impossible task, but if they contain and release enough energy to power the United States for a year, then there must be a way. Or maybe we can stop those winds from coming off of Africa that start the tropical storms. Cooling the waters in the Atlantic would also be a good idea. But seeing that these are more than likely to be impossible, I really need to get that basement fixed.

Oh, and the neighbor upstairs was flipping out again. This time, slamming on the door of the apartment above his at 7 AM demanding that the TV be turned down. Guess he chooses to ignore the fact that nobody is living in that apartment.

Posted by tien mao in House and Home, Rants at 3:14 PM

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Is sugar free candy still candy? I mean, when I hear candy, I think sugary and delicious. While there are plenty of tasty sugar subsititutes, it's surely not the same. Main reason - I actually want the sugar. I might be a candidate for onset diabetes, but I love me some sugar (I used to eat sugar from the packet as a kid). Maybe they can start making some good candy with Splenda.

And with sugar free candy, you just don't get the same sugar rush that you do with sugar laced candy. Actually, maybe you do. I have no idea. Maybe your mind just needs to recognize the sweetness and the high will kick in. I think I need to experiment on people. Any volunteers? Not sure how I would measure your "rush" since I don't have any scientific instruments, but I think that could be interesting. Of course, it's possible that someone already did this study. If not, feel free to go ahead. Just give me some credit somewhere. Thanks.

Posted by tien mao in Food/Drink at 7:25 AM

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The other night, I was trying to open up a new jar of salsa and was having major problems. I couldn't do it with my right hand, my left hand was too weak and any cloth I used had too little friction. So I resorted to something I learned from my parents - I heated the top. I fired up the range and held the top close to the flames, being careful not to actually put it in, rotating while maintaining a safe distance. After about five seconds, I tried to open the jar again. Success!

Usually, this is used with jars that contain something sticky, like honey. The heat melts the substance, allowing you to open it with ease. I suppose the heat can also cause the metal to expand, making the jar easier to open. I assume this was the reason my jar opened since there was no salsa between the jar and the lid to cause potential stickage.

I know, it sounds crazy, but it works.

Posted by tien mao in Random at 7:35 AM

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Yesterday, my period of cell phone torture finally ended when my new cell phone arrived. Gone is the week long state of being in the dark about who is calling and not being able to call people because I don't know their numbers. I can finally have a working screen again.

If you're wondering, I picked up the Motorola V300, which is a camera phone, but we'll see how often I actually use the camera. I got it from T-Mobile for $150 (including rebate) and picked it over the Samsung E105 for two reasons. First, it has a camera (yes, even though I might not use it) and my mom already has the E105. Can't be getting the two phones mixed up. That would be bad. Thanks to Halo for some initial research.

I had a Samsung before and had to get used to one huge change. The green phone button and red end button are on opposite sides! I guess when I switched to Samsung from Motorola, I had to get used to this too though. The number buttons on this phone are also a bit different than your typical phone.

What I'm really looking forward to is the Motorola RAZR V3.

Posted by tien mao in Tech at 7:30 AM

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Last night, I watched The Passion of the Christ from Mel Gibson and it was quite the movie. Ignoring the controversy about the movie and it's historical accuracy and whether it will cause anti-semitism, I tried to watch the movie with an open mind. It was a very, very powerful movie and was honestly well directed. I can see how that might add fuel to the controversy about the movie.

For me, the hardest part of the movie to take was the overall gruesomeness. After reading reviews, it was expected, but the amount of blood soaked violence was difficult to take. It's different than your typical movie. It's not your Saving Private Ryan violence where you see limbs being blown off - that's your typical movie violence - where this movie was different. Bloody torture scenes, beatings, and of course the crucifixion.

I suppose it's somewhat lucky that I watched the movie at home. With reports of people falling ill or being overcome with emotions, I could hit pause and go pee whenever necessary. It also helped that I had distractions to divert my attention from some of the things in the movie. It was really that violent. It's worth a watch if you can stomach the violence and if you can put all other feelings about the movie aside. Good thing I have Netflix, because I wasn't going to pay $11 to see this movie.

And is it me, or is watching the movie and buying movie inspired jewelry two different things. Everyone needs their Passion Nail rings! What would Jesus do bracelets replaced by yellow Livestrong bracelets, replaced by Passion Nail rings. You heard it here first!

Posted by tien mao in Movies at 8:03 AM

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Another Mao quote on a more Mao friendly (?) site.

Mao said:
We must make a distinction between the enemy and ourselves, and we must not adopt an antagonistic stand towards comrades and treat them as we would the enemy. In speaking up, one must have an ardent desire to protect the cause of the people and raise their political consciousness, and there must be no ridiculing or attacking in one's approach. - March, 1957

- All "Quotations from Mao"

Posted by tien mao in Mao Quotes at 7:35 AM

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Why was yesterday the perfect NFL Sunday? Don't know really. Maybe it was the homemade Buffalo wings, or the homemade pizza. But the biggest thing was probably the NFL Sunday Ticket package from Direct TV. Sure the Giants played poorly, but at least we could chose between the two other games on TV. The early slot had many games to choose from, but that's where the two TV setup was most beneficial. It's a minor detail that both of my TVs are kind of small, so I should buy a larger one, but I don't really have the money.

One classic moment came when a game and a Cialis commercial overlapped. Almost a subliminal message about football and the need to combat ED. There was the image of a smiling man - presumably a Cialis user - that was right next to the goalpost as they were lining up for a field goal.

As far as the pizza goes (if you must know), it turned out pretty good. Buying dough from the local pizza place makes things so much easier. I made it thicker this time, and when finished, the crust was a firm and chewy. It was kind of bland, which I must investigate, but the sauce was excellent. I used the tomato sauce that I made a little while back that had two hot peppers in it, so there was a nice little kick. Next time, I might have to try a topping.

Posted by tien mao in Food/Drink, Sports at 8:00 AM

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Today is Christiona's birthday and to celebrate, she had some people over to her apartment last night - despite returning from Costa Rica earlier in the day. A trooper, I say, a trooper. There were mashed potatoes and meatloaf topped with bacon (made by her roommate and roommate's boyfriend), both of which were both excellent. They totally hit home twice; once when I arrived and again later in the night when I was a tad inebriated. Their apartment on the Lower East Side has spectacular views of the rest of Manhattan.

Maybe a bit eerie to celebrate birth on a day of remembrance, but life has got to go on, and indeed it does.

Posted by tien mao in Birthdays, Friends/Family at 11:53 AM

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No reason, just because - some bulldozer backhoe pictures.

Posted by tien mao in Photos at 10:43 AM

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As you may see, there have been some more changes on the site today. This is in addition to the upgrade to MT 3.11 earlier this week and then the updated look that essentially looked like the old site.

I struggled to get the comments working and MT Blacklist working. After pestering Corie and Greg Greenehouse about Blacklist, I finally figured it out. It wasn't misconfigured, it was just that I had my old version of it running. All because I wanted to make sure the new version worked. I'm still toying with the idea of requiring comment registration for the site and approval to non registered comments. So, if you want, go ahead and register with Typekey (it's free!) and you can comment at will on the site. If I'm making the changes, then unregistered people will have to wait for approval. Of course, this is only if I make that change.

Anyway, back to the changes in appearances on this site. The site is a little sleeker and a has a few more images, and a lot less white space. The biggest thanks go to Shannan, who basically redesigned my whole site. If anyone needs a newly minted expert in MT 3.11's stylesheets, let me know and I can put you in touch.

Posted by tien mao in Blog-ing, Tech at 7:26 PM

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Sure a case can be made for almost all young children, but are Asian kids not the cutest things ever? Pictured is my cousin's daughter. What that makes her to me, I'm not quite sure. But she's too cute.

Okay, okay, all young children are cute. Except those monster babies like the one from Seinfeld.

Posted by tien mao in Friends/Family at 8:41 AM

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Last night, I went to check out Franz Ferdinand at Roseland, a big venue for a group from Glasgow with one album. Despite the lack of material, Franz did know how to - sigh - rock. They had energy and were nice and loud. What more can you ask for in a show? Perhaps some entertaining members? Check. Nicolas was pretty amusing with his marching to keep the beat and his hummingbird like right hand.

One feeling I did have is that the venue was almost too large for them and not perfect for them at this stage in their careers. I think it's okay to play for an hour when you're in a small venue, but one hour at a place like Roseland seems kind of lacking to me. That and their strange bow at the end. It was like a elementary school play. Perhaps that's part of their charm. If you're wondering what they played - just take a look at the album. I believe they played one "new" song.

The crappy clips:
- Clip of "Better on Holiday" (1010 kb .mov file)
- Clip of "Take Me Out" (884 kb .mov file)

Posted by tien mao in Concerts/Music at 7:49 AM

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I seem to have new neighbors upstairs and they are already on my bad side. First, I get a note from them asking me to keep the volume of my television or radio lower in the middle of the night because they "are unable to sleep with its current volume." What?!? My TV isn't that loud. And what is the middle of the night? 3 AM? 4 AM? Well, I'm never up at those hours, so that can't be me. And if 1 AM is considered the "middle" of the night, then they need to stay up longer.

Then, in yesterday's insane deluge, the "man of the house" pretty much went apeshit. He called the building super an "idiot" because he didn't speak English and was sweeping the water out of the hallways. Sweeping seemed logical since there was so much water that a bucket, which the goon was calling for, could never hold all the water. Then the jackass starts yelling, "He needs to call a construction crew, the fire department, anyone! I'm calling the police." Uh...yeah, I'm sure that's what you're supposed to do when there is water all over the place, call the police.

- "911, what's your emergency?"
- "Yes, my building is leaking, and the super is not putting buckets down."
- "Is your life in danger, sir?"
- "No, but my precious, precious walls. And he's just sweeping the water out of the hallways."
- Click.
- "Hello?"

Ah, gotta love it when people overreact.

Posted by tien mao in House and Home at 1:48 PM

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Some photos I have from the weekend, which was really great. I loved almost every minute of it. Up until the moment when it was all over at about 8:26 Monday night.

And while I love buying shoes for myself, I do not have a shoe fetish. I just love the colors in that photo - despite the slightly out of focus quality to it.

Posted by tien mao in Friends/Family, Photos at 7:29 AM

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I think my upgrade to Movabletype 3.11 is finally complete on this site. I still have to change the templates for the links section, but everything should be in working order. You'll see that when you click comment, there is no longer a pop up, but the whole page goes to the full entry. I can see both positives and negatives to this, but that's the way it's going to be now. Well, that's the way they built it and I'm too lazy to tinker with it enough to change it.

So test it out, play around. I'm still tinkering with the comments and wondering why I need to approve them even for people that are registered with Typekey. Strange. Drop a comment and let me know if you're experiencing any problems with the site as you are using it.

Another re-design of the site might be in the works as well.

Update:
If the site is looking very messed up, you might need to load the new stylesheet. Click here and then refresh the main page.

Posted by tien mao in Blog-ing, Tech at 12:18 AM

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Now, I've had a "minor" leakage problem in my basement when it rains heavily, but this morning it was much more than minor. The remnants of Hurricane Frances hit my building and hit it hard. I woke up at 6:30 and heard that it was raining hard, so I laid down some towels in my basement. Then I hear a crashing noise and the sound of water in the building hallway. It seems as though the building was leaking as well.

After a little investigation (walking up the stairs), it was discovered that the water was pouring in from the roof. Apparently, there was so much water that the drain on the roof was overloaded and not draining properly. All in all, about 8-12 inches of water had accumulated. The building super fixed the problem, but the damage was done. Water was all over my side of the building and down the hallways. Obviously not a good thing.

Because the drain on the roof was now clear and gallons upon gallons of water were now flowing down the drain, my basement was quickly becoming flooded. A combination of water coming out of the shower and toilet (clean water from the roof, thankfully) and water coming in from my "minor" leak resulted in about an inch of water in one corner of my basement. This combined with water infiltration on the ceilings and walls of my first floor make for one huge pain in the ass. I wonder if there's any chance Pataki declares a state of emergency or FEMA comes to my assistance.

During this, I slipped more than once, falling once and breaking my cell phone in the process. Now I need to find the charger for my old phone. What a freaking pain. At least I'm not seriously injured.

Posted by tien mao in House and Home at 9:39 AM

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Last night, I took advantage of some free time and upgraded this site to Movabletype 3.11. There seem to be a lot of new features, and I have yet to even scratch the surface, but so far, so good. I love the new, more robust, comment section of the Movabletype system. The same goes for the trackback section as well. Perhaps even better than both those features is that I can now schedule posts for the future. I can't quite figure out why that isn't working yet though.

Another new feature is the way comments are registered on the site. There is registration via Typekey, which I have yet to configure, allowing all comments or a delay for approval of comments. Right now, I've got it set for me , but if spam becomes too rampant, I can change that over. So if you comment and it doesn't show up, just know that I have to approve your comment first.

Posted by tien mao in Blog-ing, Tech at 7:24 AM

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What a good way to spend a holiday. Eating grilled pizza and chilling in a backyard. Adam was gracious enough to have many, many people over at his apartment and to feed us all. All we needed to give him was Dr. Pepper and/or beer.

Adam made dough for more than 20 pizzas, which was absolutely insane. A kind, kind man Adam is. Unlike last time, I didn't have two burgers as an appetizer, but rather as an addition to the excellent pizza. At the end of the day, I was still stuffed.

- Rachelle on "Not Your Typical Labor Day BBQ"

Posted by tien mao in Food/Drink at 8:44 AM

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Because I ran a repeat of the "Mao Quotes" last week, I'm hitting you up with two, count em, two quotes this week.

Mao said:
The way these comrades look at problems is wrong. They do not look at the essential or main aspects but emphasize the non-essential or minor ones. It should be pointed out that these non-essential or minor aspects must not be overlooked and must be dealt with one by one. But they should not be taken as the essential or main aspects, or we will lose our bearings. - July, 1955

The only way to know conditions is to make social investigations, to investigate the conditions of each social class in real life. For those charged with directing work, the basic method for knowing conditions is to concentrate on a few cities and villages according to a plan and using the fundamental viewpoint of Marxism, i.e., the method of class analysis, make a number of thorough investigations. - April, 1941

- All "Quotations from Mao"

Posted by tien mao in Mao Quotes at 7:47 AM

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On Saturday, Jeannette and Yvan finally had their wedding ceremony. I say finally because they actually got married back in March. Their ceremony and reception were at the Hyatt Jersey City, which was absolutely beautiful. An outdoor wedding with breathtaking views of Manhattan and a reception with the same view.

The ceremony was followed by some appetizers before the reception. During the reception, there were some more traditional activities with several wardrobe changes. From the looks of the Korean/Chinese ceremonies, the happy couple is supposed to have about 23 children - all boys.

As an appetizer, they served blasted tiger shrimp with a roasted corn and pepper cous-cous. They followed that up with a chilled wildberry soup, which was kind of like a fruit smoothie. The entrée was a filet of beef, chilean seabass, and some mashed potatoes.

All it all, it was pretty much a perfect evening. Congratulations for a second time.

- Rachelle on "Jeannette & Yvan's Wedding"

Posted by tien mao in Friends/Family at 9:51 PM

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Sunday, I went over to my local barbershop and got a lot of hair trimmed off. I told the barber that she could take 4 or 5 inches off, but it seems like it was about 8 inches. I feel like a Polish/Chinese businessman from when Regan was president. It's a strange feeling.

My last haircut was all the way back in January. A list of pros and cons so far:

Pros
- I can see.
- No longer eat hair with my food and have the subsequent food flavored hair.
- No longer called "mam" by flight attendants.
- Was not arrested all week by the police despite being near protesters.
- Now using less shampoo and grooming for less time, so it's a money/time saver.
- It only cost me $8.

Cons
- Hair now short enough so it goes right into my eyes.
- The feeling of all the wind blown hair is diminished.

Posted by tien mao in Random at 7:40 AM

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Mountain Dew Pitch Black is some sort of concoction from the makers of Mountain Dew. It has a "blast of grape with other natural flavors," but it tastes more like a strange artificial grape flavored drink that only Mountain Dew could do. It doesn't taste quite as grapey as Welch's grape soda, but it is a "limited edition" that will only be sold through Halloween. If it does well, I'm thinking it will continue to be sold. What can I say, I'm a sucker.

I don't even like grape soda that much. But when in the need for caffeine and sugar, there's nothing quite like a Mountain Dew product and it hit the spot. Sure, I crashed and couldn't keep my eyes open a few hours later, but for the hours after drinking Pitch Black, I was flying.

Posted by tien mao in Food/Drink at 7:21 AM

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Another friend, another farewell, again at Croxley. WTF? This time for the recently engaged Dahlia, who is moving out to Palo Alto to attend graduate school.

Sam and Dahlia will be embarking on a two week cross country trek. The Sam/Dahlia tour, stopping at a town near you. I'm convinced that they should map out their destinations and do a mini ballpark tour of America.

Congrats and good luck!

Posted by tien mao in Friends/Family at 7:30 AM

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AHH-nold said that he remembers an Austria where he saw Russian tanks and couldn't look a soldier in the eye.

"When I was a boy, the Soviets occupied part of Austria. I saw their tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes. I remember the fear we had when we had to cross into the Soviet sector. Growing up, we were told, "Don't look the soldiers in the eye. Look straight ahead." It was a common belief that Soviet soldiers could take a man out of his own car and ship him off to the Soviet Union as slave labor."

How is that unlike Iraqis with American tanks in Iraq and New Yorkers in New York? Find me a person that can look a policeman or a National Guard member in the eyes this week. Sure, it might be a bit crazy to compare occupied Austria to occupied Iraq, but how different are they? All we need to do is put those detainees in Cuba to work!

I also loved how his appeal to immigrants received only a tepid response from the crowd.

"It doesn't make any difference who your parents were. It doesn't make any difference if, like me, you couldn't even speak English until you were in your twenties.

America gave me opportunities and my immigrant dreams came true. I want other people to get the same chances I did, the same opportunities. And I believe they can."

I'm curious as to what America AHH-nold lives in. Not the one he spoke of last night, but one of a more privileged America where one with money can buy their way to political office and big money controls all of politics.

Was anyone else thinking that AHH-nold's neck was going to rip his collar? And can we stop with the USA chants? Seriously. Can they just chant GOP? That would be more acceptable to me. Yes AHH-nold, we move ahead, Americans move ahead to a different leader in November.

- Full text of AHH-nold's Speech (NY Times)

Posted by tien mao in Politics at 7:45 AM

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