Blogging Thing

I’ve realized that I’m such a delinquent blogger. I think it’s just the general cycle of blogging in general. It’s been about 7 years since I’ve I decided to post my thoughts online. And I found that I was much more open about my life online in the beginning. These days, I find that I tend to keep my private thoughts offline. Life online is very different. There are repercussions to living too freely online. And that’s why I prefer a bit of anonymity in blogging. And why, I don’t really go out of my way to promote my blog. In a way, I kind of prefer that people just stumble upon my random thoughts.

As much I’ve been offline, I’m very much part of the online world. I twitter and aggregating most of my updates via jaiku. I find that there is a very thin line that you have to walk in this online world. Like most of my friends, I’m on most of the social networking sites. But I also feel that I have to be more careful when I’m using these sites on both a personal and professional level. As much as I want to keep both parts of my life separate, I find that they are colliding in this online world. It’s enough to feel that big brother is watching. But it’s becoming silly to feel that you have to censor yourself to live your life online. Perhaps, this is just the life cycle of a blogger. Or the changing times of this internet age.

March 15, 2008 at 7:06 pm · Daily Musing· Permalink ·

Pocket Dialing

I’ve realized that I really have a big pet peeve about pocket dialing. So this evening I got a call from a friend I don’t normally hear from. So I picked up to only find out that I was pocket dialed. Can I say WTF! And have you heard about just locking your phone. For god sakes this is the second time this person has pocket dial me. I think it’s only because my name is in the latter part of the alphabet, hence I’m usually my number gets dialed by accident. Ack! I just had to rant about that for a second.

March 15, 2008 at 6:33 pm · Rant & Rave· Permalink ·

Serendipity

At some point this weekend, I played tour guide to my friend G from Seattle. She asked me to show her New York. I was just completely baffled. I don’t think I really do anything out of the ordinary. So we mosey on over to Papabubble in Nolita. It’s this really caramel candy shop. You can watch them roll, mold, and stretch caramel. It’s pretty wicked cool. And absolutely delicious. I have no idea how many samples I devoured. I literally was a kid in a candy shop.



While in the Lower East Side, I spotted this guy who was very conspicuous. I mean seriously, a sun hat, sunglasses and a mustache to boot. He was busy defacing a movie poster. I really wanted to walk up to him and snap his picture. But then I thought, I don’t think I would be able to out run him. So I went across the street to a safe distance before I zoomed in. Snapped my picture and left. I did have a stranded tourist in the middle of the road gawking.

Eventually, I return to LES the next day to see what he doodled. But there was already another poster put over his masterpiece. Oh wells. Turns out the dude was trying to promote a show at the Bowery Ballroom. That was pretty much my serendipitous weekend.

March 3, 2008 at 5:42 pm · Mishaps & MisAdventures, Essentially NY· Permalink ·

Idiotarod 2008

As of last night, Idiotarod was suppose to start at Ft. Greene Park. Then I got a text from my friend that the starting line was moved to Cherry and Market Street in Chinatown this morning. I never knew a Cherry or Market Street existed in Manhattan. Nonetheless where it was located. I’ve known about Idiotarod for a while, but have never attended. For god sakes, they did a whole epsiode about it on CSI:NY. So I had no idea what to expect. I got there around 11:15 am. And it was pretty quiet. But then more carts started to show up. We know hipsters love being photographed. Everything was pretty civilized until the Golden Girls and the Pesky Cafeteria Ladies broke out in a food fight.

Pesky Cafeteria Lady ducks behind her cart.

While another Pesky Cafeteria Lady slips.

Man, who would have thought the little old lady would get vicious.

Why me? I guess the Golden Girls won.

It was just an insane event. People were tossing food left and right. And this all happened before the race began. As they ran through Chinatown the pedestrians were just in awed of what was going on. When we got to the Manhattan Bridge one team rigged a rope to trip the next running cart. Fortunately, they had a scissor to cut the rope. It felt like there were no rules. The only rule was to make it to the finish line and it was okay to play dirty. It was just plain CRAZY! The funniest thing, was that the whole event started pretty much on time. What has this world come to.

January 26, 2008 at 8:09 pm · Mishaps & MisAdventures, Essentially NY· Permalink ·

New Year’s Weekend

It’s been quite an eventful weekend. There was a whole lot of walking around New York City. Everything kicked off with a holiday brunch with my closest friends on Saturday. Then I went off to run errands with my friend Kat who was in town from London. We started off in the Lower East Side and then to Rockefeller Center. I will never go down to midtown during the holidays ever again. It was a complete tourist pedestrian traffic. The worse part was they don’t move, and just stand there gawking at the windows and the tree. Luckily, the stop was short. And we quickly made our way to Williamsburg to drop off her stuff with her friend Georgie. He gave us the loopiest directions. We made at least 4 or 5 turns before, we reached his flat which was only located about less than 10 blocks from the subway stations. The festivities ended up in East Village, where I sadly departed.

So for New Year’s Eve, I mosey on over to the dinner held by Federico and friends. There was a whole lot of food, company, and generally good cheer. But I made it back to Brooklyn fairly unscathed.

It was off to Coney Island on New Year’s Day. A cup of coffee and Nathan’s hot dog in hand, I headed over to the beach to watch the Coney Island Polar Bear Club take their first swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Most people just ran in and then back to the beach. Everything was over in a matter of 30 minutes.

January 3, 2008 at 4:34 am · Mishaps & MisAdventures, Essentially NY· Permalink ·

Holiday Cheer

On Sunday, I got together with a few of my closest friends. In true, Asian time they were all 30 minutes late. And it started with Nat and Angus. Then the twins. Can I say the shutter bugs were there in full force. I’m so blinded from all that flash action.

In fact, I even hid James camera to see how long it would take for him to figure it was gone. And of course, Kevin want to see how long it would take for James to freak out. Must be a twin thing. All in all, it was great to have a good meal laughs with my friends.

Mmmm.. Eggs Benedict.

December 31, 2007 at 6:39 am · Friends & Family· Permalink ·

Holiday in New York

Holidays have always been strange for me. It’s more like most of my friends leave the city like the plague. And normally, don’t have anything to do but to watch bad TV. So what to do on this rainy Sunday? While waiting in front of the Apple store on Fifth Avenue, I climbed up onto the platform to snap a picture of the holiday decorations only to be immediately escorted off because the security guy though I was going to slip and fall.

So it didn’t take much to be lured to the Central Park Zoo to see lions, tigers and bears. Oh my! Well it was more like polar bears, penugins, monkey, and sea lions. The zoo wasn’t the Galapagos, but it was kind of neat to see animals in the middle of the city. A bird even pooped in front of me. Did I mention that was very rude.

One of the birds was so cute. He puffed up his chest so I snapped a photo of him. Reminded me of the frigate birds in the Galapagos. He was cute little bugger.

December 24, 2007 at 4:41 pm · Mishaps & MisAdventures· Permalink ·

Santacon 2007

Ho.. ho.. HO! It’s that time of year again. The annual Santa stopover in NYC on for a day of spreading holiday cheer and debauchery galore. We started off around 10 am at Pier 45 and that is where the mischief began. After last year, my friends stated specifically if I wander off I would be on my own. So of course, I wander off.

And low and behold, I saw Rudolph in his little photo op. And I had to walk right, up to him, and pull his blinking nose. Unfortunately, it snapped back onto his nose and yelped. I think that was my cue to run. And I did. With two reindeers hot on my tail. Who would expected Rudolph would have friend with him this year. My friends heard a commotion amongst the crowd of santas and was wondering what was going on. Then I suddenly appeared. And they just knew that I was the cause of all this mischief. Both Toolbelt and Dom Santa immediately told me, I was on my own. Poor little santa was being cornered by two reindeers and santas didn’t have her back. Bah Hum Bug, I say! Eventually I made peace with the reindeer. They were surrounded by santas.

Santacon was a reunion of sorts, in that Toolbelt , Dom Santa and I had bumped into the first santa we met on the train last year. It was really sweet, that we were able to run into some old friends. Even though it was pretty brief.

Soon we migrated to Time Square where we ran into some unsuspecting tourist. The pit stop was short. And then we had a long break at Tompkin Square Park.
Everything all ended in DUMBO at a fire spinning show.

And then it was time for me to head over to my cousin’s housewarming party, in which I made my entrance in a santa suit with a bag full of cheese. Can I say, Ho.. Ho.. HO!

December 8, 2007 at 9:38 pm · Essentially NY· Permalink ·

A Floetic Surprise

In honor, of Flo’s 28th birthday on the 28th, Sandie and I organized a surprise party for her. Well, It’s really because she took so long to decide what she was going to do. So we decided to take it out of her hands, and organize something extra special on her birthday. She absolutely had no idea. In fact, she was even planning her own bash that Friday at Le Souk.

It was really hard for Sandie and me to keep a straight face during the planning stages. But we did. We started off the night at PDT. I told her I was taking her for drinks on her birthday. I even removed my watch so that I would be able to check my mobile when Sandie text me that everything was in place. In fact, I even slipped during drinks. But was able to make a quick recovery.

When we got to the restaurant, Flo was so surprised. Then she spotted her mother and realized that she was in it too. It was such a priceless moment, in that we pulled fast one on the ultimate planner. The party was absolutely fabulous. And we know it was a hit because Flo kept telling us that we suck and she hated us. But we all know she loved begin surrounded her friend’s and family on her birthday.

(the birthday gal with Sandie and me)

November 28, 2007 at 3:35 pm · Friends & Family· Permalink ·