Say, What Chu Looking At?

Cooking away today..  Some of you will recognize what I’m putting together..

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So, thanks to circumstances and timing — I will be going to the West Coast for a few days at the end of the month. I will start in Los Angeles, and end in Las Vegas.   In between is somewhat open.

At the very least I’ll try to wander Los Angeles, and then I’ll probably take a bus to Las Vegas.  Possible detours include Malibu, San Diego or Santa Barbara.

Goal is to travel light, travel fast, and camp out on people’s floors.

Any suggestions?

We’re past the hump, and the days will only start to grow longer now.

I’m doing ok! How are you? “For now we’re healthy, for now we’re employed, for now we’re happy, if not overjoyed, and we’ll accept the things we cannot avoid… for now…”

Anyway, 1/2/2010 – Saturday after New Years Day, the Day After… Potluck lunch and dinner hangout day at my place in Harlem! Videos, games, food, but most importantly, good company. Daytime party, so folks have the option of going out on the town in the evening.

Ping me here if you want to know the details. Space is limited! XD

Rumbling right along the December rush.   Both work and life are going to be fighting for my attention, and this week alone is going to be pretty busy..

Poker this past weekend was kind to me, rough to others.   Any short-handed poker session that hands me three pocket Aces, two pocket kings, and other assorted prime cards is a good session – especially in comparison to the way I’ve BEEN trending recently.  Came out making about 150% of my buy-in.   Wrapping up at 6AM was fun, albiet tiring… Slept away sunday.

Anyway, not here to talk about that.

Saturday, 1/2/2010 – Daytime potluck party at my place.    Bring something fun to eat, share with anyone else who comes by.  I’ll make something as well, sho’nuff.  Expect food, music, casual lounging, and frozen patio action during the day.   XD

As for the evening, there are no specific plans. This way anyone who wants to brave the holiday weekend crowds to hit the city for a night on the town have the option of doing so. 

No crash space folks, sorry but all available spots are already occupied!

More details to follow over the next few days, but ping me if you are interested.  Let there be food….

Time for the last home game of the year.

Saturday December 5th – from 5PM until whenever the last person standing is.  Last game had people playing until 7am.  (Eep!)

Usual low stakes game, but even at low stakes last game there was a $120 pot that fell.  That’s no joke!

If you are interested and want details and an invite, shout out here. 

By request of one of the regular players, an impromptu game is being held this saturday evening.  Usual low-stakes lunch money game.

If you want in, let me know.

Spent Friday and Saturday Morning working at the “day job” – keeping busy.

Saturday afternoon was occupied with meeting up with Anna, running home, cooking, then heading over to Radio City Music Hall for the Lord of the Rings orchestra/choir performance. Hobbits!

Epic moments were punctuated by an entire choir standing in unison, and laughs at watching the children’s choir try not to look bored. The show was great, with my only major critique being their sound balancing. See, they showed the movie WITH SFX and dialogue, with the track stripped out and performed instead by the live orchestra. This was a surprise to me already, but their pre-recorded audio was just a hair too loud for the first half of the movie. Thankfully they adjusted for this after the intermission, just in time to hit some of the really epic scenes.

The solo vocalists raised eyebrows, they were excellent. Afterwards, Howard Shore was signing autographs but only for box sets of 60 or 100 dollars each. Seeing the hour long line, we decided to take some photos and hit the road. Went to Roxy’s, where I had a sammich as large as my head.

Sunday was a mostly lazy day filled with Futurama. Went back to Chinatown, saw her off, and rushing home to now work on “real life” work again.

Would gladly repeat weekend, wish it wasn’t abbreviated, and its back to work on Monday.

Simple fare tonight.

My aunt gave me two fresh Bitter Melons (Or Bitter Gourds for some of you) from her garden last week.

Cut them up, cleaned out the inside.. Defrosted some london broil, sliced that up thin. (I don’t have flank steak and didn’t want to go shopping, k?) Salted lightly. Tossed in nice hot wok with some peanut oil, fried for about a minute, then tossed in a liquid mix of sugar, soy sauce, a little more oil and some water. Let that sizzle for about two minutes, then tossed in a slurry of corn starch and some more soy, tossed and served on top of rice.

Bitter Melon is an acquired taste, but I’ve been craving it for months now. Mmmmm… *settles in and gets back to work with a bowl of warm rice and melon*

Spent about 10 minutes at the convention.  Spent rest of Saturday in the park, taking photos, and spent most of Sunday getting to a slow start.  Fun times!

Already feeling like its too quiet again.

Will post photos later, except for one, which we have titled the “Lionel Tribute shot” with great respect for Lionel. 

Anyway, more serious photos when I’ve had some time to rest, recover, and edit. 

Spent the weekend working with the 40D and the fixed f2.8 17-70 Tamron, and being a combination personal photographer / pack mule.

We hit up the Nintendo World Muramasa launch, and ran into some familiar faces doing costumes for the event..

A few photos and thoughts after the cut!

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