Learning to Bum

Though it’s been a while since I’ve last posted, my life has by no means been entirely boring. 

For one thing, I’ve finally moved out. I share with others but at least there’s a room I can finally call my own. It’s small but I love it still. With the help of Danica, I’ve even put up shelves. Nothing like good ol’ Ikea. Funny enough, part of what I miss most of having a place in Pittsburgh was about having cable again. I just love watching Food Network! Who else is excited about the Next Iron Chef - Superstars??? The chefs of food network are competing against each other in an next iron chef competition. I’m so excited.

I’m also watching Paula Deen right now though I don’t normally. She has Sunny Anderson as a guest and she’s doing a butter show. I find this disgustingly hilarious and that’s the only reason why I’m watching it. I’m watching it for Sunny’s reaction to how much butter Paula uses.

I went to an Pens vs Islanders game this week. It was all about a bit of nostalgia for Pittsburgh. Game ended 3-0 so I’m happy. I was partially hoping for an all out brawl again but that didn’t happen. I was actually surprised about the number of Pens fans there. There was even a time where our “Let’s go Penguins” quieted the “Let’s go Islanders” chanting. Awesome. 

I also saw Anything Goes with Sutton Foster. She won a Tony for the role and I must say she was quite amazing. It was funny and light and reminiscent of the classic 1930’s style of show. It was a revival after all. Money, the privileged life — those who have it versus those who don’t and how that affects relationships and love was often the focus of with the story. The 1930’s was a tough time and comedy was often a release. 

I can definitely say Sutton Foster controls the audience in comical tongue in cheek way. Her character was tough, yet bold; a woman that speaks her mind. I think I appreciated most Foster’s ability to really shine in the center throughout. Her singing and dancing was effortless. I could rant more but let’s just say I was happy to have seen her perform. 

Lastly, I did go to a Michelin two star restaurant last night. It was delightful but I think it deserves a post on it’s own. I’ll post for it later. 

http://m.cbsnews.com/blogsstorysynopsis.rbml?feed_id=71&catid=20117176&videofeed=null

Wow.

I’d hate for this tumblr to degrade to me posting random thoughts and complete mindlessness but every now and then I do find some things interesting and perhaps even funny enough in my head to write about.

So what is this you ask? Erotica.

Feel free to stop reading at this point if you so choose…

I happened to be riding the subway on the way to work when I noticed the lady next to me reading erotica. I wasn’t purposely searching for it but the text was fairly large and with a title like sixty-nine, it was quite obvious.

I find reading erotica on the train to be a little awkward. For one thing, and not that I’m judging but I wonder what kind of people read erotica on the train and what the motivation behind it is. Why wouldn’t one just save it for the privacy of one’s home? I think of it similar to watching porn in public only a little less graphic and more imaginative. I guess i wonder if it attracts the wrong kind of attention.

Another thing, don’t you end up at least a little aroused? If you don’t, it must not be very good then but assuming that you do, what happens at work then?

I think I originally had more to write but I forgot… What’s your opinion on this?

What scares me more than horror films are ones that actually could be real. Contagion did that for me… The idea of a pandemic is altogether completely possible. Just think about it. All it takes is a highly resilient, resistant, yet relatively unknown and potentially even mutating strain; plus high traffic locations and densely populated areas — essentially major citys. Millions of people are travelling all over the world any given day. One area gets it and a person travelling very well may bring it another place. Given the hygiene of most restaurants, public transportation systems, Apple product displays, high traffic locations could be the very brewing ground for this potential super bug. I also wouldn’t be surprised that with the advance of modern medicine and research, that the existence these various rare but potentially deadly virus strains already exist in a lab somewhere.

The idea of immense fear, panic, and utter chaos following the news isn’t surprising either. It’s human nature. Fear of the unknown is perhaps far worse than of the known. At least the way I see it, what’s worse than contracting the disease and dying from it is the constant paranoia that ensues. Every person around you becomes a potential carrier. Every interaction becomes a potential point at which it is spread. You cannot see it but you wonder about the people who’ve potentially touched or coughed on the very surfaces you touch. It feels hopeless. But still, I’d like to think that potential for such an occurrence is small but you can’t help but think the what if’s?

Overall, the movie is decent though not exactly my couple of tea. The star studded cast gets a bit of attention but none dominate. I can’t say I quite understand the added value to some characters but still, a decent watch. Go ahead, go scare yourself a little bit.

Sorry kids. I’m bad at following through… I had a number of good entries I wanted to write about but never got to it. 

For one thing, I’m currently no longer a bum. Well, I guess it depends on how you define it… Previously, I wanted to use this tumblr to keep track of the period in my life in which I had neither classes or work. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t waste it and thus “learning to bum” was very much about learning to use the foreign concept of free time well. Now, I feel the need to use this tumblr to make sure that I am bumming, that I have free time and that I’m still doing cool things.

So for now I will call Learning to Bum revived. Who know’s how long I’ll actually keep to it but I hope you enjoy reading. I’m not sure how disciplined I will at keeping up with this but we’ll see. Just come and see. 

I don’t really have a good entry to start with. I went to a funeral today. It was my granduncle (?) —basically my grandma’s brother-in-law. Both my grandfathers had died before I was sentient and so the only grandfather experience really came from him. For one thing, he had served in WWII and experienced various pieces of American History first hand.  I remember loving his stories and discussing politics and just about everything my childhood brain could wrap itself around. It was all in all awesome.

Anyway, in tribute to him… here’s the NYT article they interviewed him for… http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/nyregion/30chinese.html 

more posts to come!

March 10th, I went back to the SF area with Brendan. I directed him to Chinatown without a GPS. Quite proud of myself actually. We went to the Golden Gate Bakery to get some egg tarts. It’s one of the best egg tarts I’ve ever had. The crust is soo amazingly flaky without being overly oily. I just wish it was slightly thicker because the egg tart portion was really soft and smooth. After, we yelped for our next destination. It led us to the San Francisco Fortune Cookie Company. Pretty cool. Hopefully I could get some pictures from Brendan. He got two shots in before a worker said that they charged for pictures. I had a fortune cookie made with a personalized note. It was my “birthday card” for Amy because what’s better than getting something that’s edible and still personalized? I thought of getting more but I was just afraid of crushing them.

Later that evening, I had dinner at Zachary’s Chicago style pizza with Bradley Miller. It was good but I still like actual pizza from Chicago better. It made me think of Meronie. What was different? The crust mainly; it was thicker and doughier than Chicago style pizza. Not bad for Berkeley I guess.

March 11th, I drove down to the Great Mall because my mom wanted me to drive. Um made some interesting purchases which I will not reveal. I met up with Amy later that night by the Ferry Building and got some drinks.

March 12th, I went to Northern Sonoma with Amy, Max and Hao. There was a barrel tasting event going on with six different wineries offering food and unlimited barrel wine, essentially wine that’s still in the barrel and not bottled yet. The whole thing was only $30 and each location had their offering of live music. I had tasted some good Pinot Noir and one good Chardonnay. Otherwise, I realized I don’t really like Zinfandel. I had a good nap after Sonoma before heading to Spices 3, a Szechuan place in Oakland, for dinner. Not many notable comments about it. I generally like spicy food. 

We went karaoke afterwards and met up with Michelle and her boyfriend Stanley. We snuck in a bottle of Jameson and let’s just say it as a interesting night from then on. =P 

March 13th, we took a nap and made a fire at Max’s. I find fire utterly captivating. I think we spent like two hours trying to get the wood to burn, half an hour toasting marshmallows, and then another half an hour throwing marshmallows into the fire. It looks a lot like necrotizing fasciitis. Apparently marshmallows can explode too.

Dinner that night was at Skates by the bay. The place was a finer dining place with a nice view. Of what I had that night, I liked the focaccia bread and crab artichoke dip probably the best. I ordered the Parmesan Crusted Sole stuffed with mushrooms and spinach drizzled with hollandaise sauce. Halfway through I realized I don’t really like the parmesan crust, and the dish overall was alright. Nothing absolutely mind blowing. Perhaps meat would have faired better.

Albatross was our next stop. It’s a Berkeley bar with board games and popcorn. This place would be honestly be one of the bars I would go to on a more regular basis if I was around the area. I just really really like board games. Cafes that have board games gets an extra point from me. In terms of the atmosphere in Albatross, it just seemed like a place that was often filled with regulars. It was lively yet laid back. Patrons sat down playing various card games, backgammon, chess even. Further into the bar, tables filled in their trivia answers as an announcer quizzed the audience. In another nook, darts flew as simultaneous games happened across the several boards. Overall, we were amidst people playing, laughing, and just having a good time. 

March 14th, I had brunch at Gregiore’s with Amy, Michelle, and Max. I shared the spicy avocado with lettuce and tomato on a pantofolina and the five spices roasted chicken with pickled fennel and cucumber in a sweet roll with Amy. Both were pretty good. Can’t go wrong with avocado, lettuce, and tomato. Avocados - amazing; lettuce - great; tomatoes - awesome. Just wish the sandwich held together better. The five spices roasted chicken really hit the spot for me. The chicken was tender with just the right amount of flavor complemented with the light pickled veggies. The roll also had this crispy crunch to it; it reminded me a little of viet sandwiches. We all shared an order of their crispy potato puffs. Delicious also. It’s basically deep fried mash potatoes. I like. 

Okay, I’m tired. Time to sleep. Sorry if the quality of this post is terrible but I’m tired. 

Anonymous asked: Who are you? and why is this blog so cool?

Well I thought most of my readership comes from people I’ve shared this with or people who found me through Facebook so in that case you should know who I am. Otherwise, I’m quite curious as to how you found me and hi, I’m Regina. 

I really hate answering who are you questions. For some reason it always has this existentialist bent to it. Who am I?!?!? I’m not sure what else you’re looking for but I’m just a recent graduate from Carnegie Mellon that’s has some time on her hands before starting work in July.  

I’m flattered that you think this blog is cool. I’m just trying to document this period of bumming before I really enter the real world. I just want to make sure that I don’t waste it. So this blog is just to keep me accountable to it. Happy reading =)

March 7th I had lunch at Cheesecake Factory in downtown SF with two of my mom’s friends and then explored the union square area a little bit. Shhh but I went into Saks Fifth Ave and tried on a Burberry trench coat and since, other trench coats just don’t seem the same. 

Later that day, I went to Katana-Ya for some ramen with Stephen and his boyfriend/hubby Thurman. It’s basically this small tiny place that seems to fill up pretty quickly. It also seems fairly popular as a good place to get ramen in SF but I can’t say it can compare to ramen in New York. I’ve reviewed Hide-Chan in the past and commended them on the broth. Katana-Ya’s just wasn’t rich enough. You had a choice of either a soy, miso, or salt broth which is definitely different from Hide-Chan’s pork broth. The ramen itself was also rather average. Nothing special. I had the Katanaya Ramen which came with corn, fried chicken, fried potatoes, seaweed, scallion, bbq pork and a boiled egg. My main complaint was that the fried stuff arrived soggy. What’s the point of frying it then? Anyway, I don’t want to keep ragging on SF for not having good ramen but really, New York wins this time.

March 8th, my cousin drove me down to San Jose. I spent part of the day with Brendan at Valley Fair and then had dinner with Jon P Lee, Tim Yang, Calvin, Chengjou and Alice at BJ’s before heading back to stay the night with Alice. 

March 9th, I went the Santa Clara City library to get some work done. It was a bit of a fail because I forgot to grab my charger to my laptop. Oh well. I did read a little more of Middlesex. I pretty much entertained myself until dinner time. I had Falafel’s Drive In and Crawdaddy which each deserve their own little paragraph. 

Falafel’s Drive In was featured in Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, has four stars on yelp, and aside from that I don’t know much else about it but the fact that it’s a good place for falafels. It pretty much is a drive in with only limited outdoor seating available. Alice and I shared a falafel sandwich. What’s interesting about these falafels are that inside they are really really green. It’s not just a light green but the color of green peppers or cucumbers, green. I’m not sure what exactly contributes to this color but hey, it tasted good. The difference really was in the freshness of the ingredients in the falafel. The white sauce was also light enough to add to the overall sandwich without overpowering it. I approve. 

Crawdaddy was another interesting experience. It’s basically seafood sold by the pound served in plastic bags. Alice and I shared a pound of shrimp in this garlic butter broth. It was simple and delicious. There’s nothing like fresh seafood cooked to perfection served in a bag. They give you a bib and a roll of paper towels and you just go at it. Forget about dinner etiquettes. Just eat! By the end, I was just incredibly full. I pretty much went to bed as soon as I got back that night. Food coma. 

Today marks the day I left norcal to go to socal with Amy. Sorry didn’t get this post in time but pi day was her birthday. =) Happy birthday babe. 

Anyway, I suck at remembering to bring my camera and take pictures but I’ll try to suck less at tumblring. So here’s my adventures/revelry in norcal in slow recount installments. I don’t think I have the energy to finish everything today…

March 3rd - I had jackfruit for the first time. Though it looks odd, I think it’s actually pretty good. To me it tastes like a mango but with the consistency closer to a pineapple with the outer appearance of a durian. Hard to picture I’m sure. You just have to try it and it’s just not good unless it’s super ripe. 

March 5th was a family day. I had dim sum in the morning at the New Asia Restaurant. The only thing memorable was this deep fried flaky pastry that had durian and jackfruit together in side. It was interesting. Warm durian and jackfruit… What I liked about it was that it was creamy and it just melted in your mouth. The pastry itself was just way too oily though in terms of texture and flakiness, it was passable, nothing too special but just not great. 

Later in the day, I visited my grandparents’ grave with my family in SF and had dinner with them later. The last time I was in SF was nine years ago when my grandmother passed away. Since then, a number of things has happened with family on my mom’s side. My twin cousins has gotten married and two different cousins now have children. Clearly, it’s been a while so this dinner was epic. Three sets of aunts and uncles, the eldest cousin with his wife and two kids, the twins and their husbands, another cousin and his wife and kid, a cousin my age, and my mom. Dinner at Hong Kong Lounge that night was more or less forgettable but one interesting thing was coffee spare ribs. We thought it was strange for whipped cream to be served with meat so we were curious to say the least. One daring person took a bite and noticed it was coffee flavored. Strange but it wasn’t a good strange…

Anyway, later that night another set of aunt and uncle came up from LA (this time from my dad’s side) with her friends and stayed over at the eldest aunt’s place. It was damn loud. Wow. Freakin Chinese people. I think my mom and relatives stayed up quite late just talking. I felt quite old for being tired and going to sleep first.

March 6th my family and I went to get dim sum (at a different place don’t remember the name) with the same set of family minus the twins and their husbands but this time with the set of relatives that arrived later and their son, yet another cousin. The friends that came with my aunt and uncle met up with some of their friends. We basically had two big tables and one smaller table to the side. Nothing too special in terms of food but it was first time I had pan fried rice noodles. I’ve had pan fried noodles before but those are usually egg noodles. This one was done with rice noodles which I think of it similar to eating the hardened rice on the bottom of pots but softer. My problem with it is that it’s too oily but it’s a nice change once in a while. 

Okay battery dying. More tomorrow.

Chengjou and Brendan picked me up from SF today to go down to San Jose. We met Calvin Hsu and Alice for lunch at California Sourdough where they bake fresh sourdough on site. I can’t say that there was much of a fresh bread smell in the deli itself (or maybe my nose just isn’t that keen) but there’s nothing like biting into warm bread with the perfect crispy outer shell and light soft center served up with deli meat. The bread was so fresh that you could still see steam rising from the sub (hoagie for you pa-ers.) Heh it was my first time there and I even got something off menu… I really like pastrami but I also like roast beef so I got it together. I wonder why it’s not on the menu. They have turkey and pastrami as well as ham and pastrami. Why not beef with more beef? 

Alice quote on Gordon (perhaps partially paraphrased, Alice go correct me): “It’s so intimidating! You don’t know what he’s thinking behind those pearly white teeth.”

After, Alice and Calvin went back to work while the rest of us went to go geek out at the Intel museum. There was a display where they showed how a calculator works and one of the first things we tried as a divide by zero. Then we tried to overflow it as well as underflow it. Turns out negative numbers didn’t work either… Regardless, we had a lot of amusement out of trying to hack stuff. 

Then came another display that tried to illustrate differences in speed and bandwidth between dial up vs cable/dsl vs an even higher bandwidth network. It basically involved different sized foam balls representing different types of data (email, picture, video) and different corresponding size holes. I can’t believe how much amusement we had out of trying to stuff clearly bigger sized balls into dial up. It took me a while but I eventually did get the almost impossible huge video foam ball to go through dial up. We even tried it in parallel with the picture. See! All we need is dial up! I wish I took a picture of it…

In the display next to us, we were to place in order which items came first. Following the theme of hacking, we placed virtual worlds first, followed by instant messaging. I don’t remember all the ones in the middle but clearly paper came before stone tablets. Unfortunately, the computer still recognized it as correct order. I guess it wasn’t so picky as to which way you started. 

We saw a bunch of fobby asians in front of this projector display and I knew we had to follow with some fobby poses ourselves. I believe it said that we were to extend our hands to catch “digital rain”… I wonder if these were dirty bits since they’re clearly fallen.

It’s a little sad but we did then try to hack the binary to ascii display. Chengjou and Brendan wrote my name but turns out that they didn’t allow special characters or spaces so it ended up being Regina?? (The second question mark was flashing at the time and Brendan caught it just as it was not there.)

Then came the ridiculousness of bunny suits… basically the proper attire of a clean room. We just had way too much fun with this.

Intel museum… pretty good.

Brendan then wanted to go to the mothership, Apple. There wasn’t really a museum there as well but there was the company store. We stayed there until we picked up Greg Woloschyn and headed to dinner at Kim Tar with Calvin again. Pretty standard, decent Chinese food there. Then went door for Yogurt Twist. Thirty cents an ounce for frozen yogurt! For reals yo. 

The real adventure came after dinner though. Greg had managed to break the screw that held his license plate onto the back of his car so he was unable to put in his new plates. We went to Home Depot to rent a power drill but then realized that we didn’t have drill bits. G_G. There was a bit of a Narnia wardrobe experience in the back of his trunk as we tried to find something that could work. Thanks to MIT Lincoln Labs, Greg had small screw some small screw drivers. We attached it to the end of the drill and then I started to drill into the plastic. 

Greg: “Regina, I never knew how good you were with drills. You’re like a master driller.”

We went inside to charge the batteries and watched 1040 in the meantime. It’s this documentary about revival in Asian countries between the ten and forty degrees north latitudes. It’s pretty crazy. Heh the video began with MC Hammer talking about Asia and even had Jin and Vann Ness in it. Pretty cool. 

Heh, Vann Ness: “After I accepted Christ, I made a vow to be abstinent, but then all these girls showed up around me and I was just like ughhh. It was so hard.” 

I gotta watch parts of it again. California sun makes me tired so I fell asleep during part of it. It really strains my eyes. I think I should get sunglasses or else I’m not sure how much more of this sunniness I can handle. The other strange thing that happens is that I start breaking out with these random hives and I get really itchy. Strange.

I spent the day taking care of some stuff, watched some more of Fated to Love You, then played with my cousin’s two year old. I spent the morning trying to get him to like me but he ran away and wouldn’t even tell me his name. It really wasn’t until we started kicking a mini soccer ball around that he started liking me. Thus began a period of him just being attached to me and tackling me. 

I don’t know if I’m just getting old or what… I’m pooped.