2006-2007

I got back from a 6 day vacation/hell in LA to see my family.

I'm no astrologist but I predict 2007 to be a year for creativity.

Happy New Year!

pshhhhhhhh + LA

I finally took the plunge today and ordered an airbrush spray booth. I hate to admit it but I'm hoping that this will give new life to my modelling hobby. I have at least a half dozen scale models in half built stages because I need to airbrush it before completing the models.

Then I want to create dioramas. Then I want to sculpt figurines of bands like Sleater-Kinney and Erase Errata. Then I want to create dioramas of shows I've been to with details like the stage, what they were wearing, what instruments they were using, and to be most ambitious, the intricacies of each person in the crowd. I found a miniature drum set which is a relief since trying to create a drum set in that small scale would be insane. A bass I can probably pull off but not a drum set.


I'm headed off to Los Angeles tomorrow night. I'm trying to have a meet up of all the LA people from myspace, mostly folks I met from all the s-k shows. Hopefully it will work and we will be talking s-k T_T and whatnot over some Korean bbq (or veggie rice for vegetarians/vegans). Six days might seem long but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. I'm just stressed about Lindsay. My landlord will feed her but she'll be so lonely. T_T T_T T_T

late night!

God damn it.

I happily went to bed around 9pm and woke up at 11:30pm and now I can't go back to sleep and I spent an unhealthy amount of time responding to Georgina's excellent blog entry. And it was good sleep too with Lindsay by my side and an extra layer of blanket. It's been pretty cold her (in the 20's at night!) so the bed is one of the nicest places to exist in. Sounds weird but lately, I've only wanted to things: to sleep in my bed at all hours and have Linds next to me.

Speaking of which, nothing stressed me out more than going away on a trip and having someone else take care of my cat. The moment I leave the door, I get anxious and sad. When I left for the Sleater-Kinney shows in the east coast, I left at 4 in the morning and I got so nervous thinking about her being there by herself (my roommate was in Atlanta and Leah couldn't come by until the next day). I mean the whole taxi ride to the airport I was shaking (but not in tears). That damned cat!

God damn it. I really need to sleep. I HATE the feeling of lacking sleep. Clearly one of the worst feelings, other than sickness. I can't wait for the scientists to invent something, anything that makes us feel like we had 9-10 hours of sleep. That would be perfect.

a dilemma at the ATM

On my way home from work, I had to stop by the ATM because lately I'm spending way more than I earn. As I step up, I notice there are two crisp twenty dollar bills laid out in front of the machine. I look around but no one is near me. I don't touch it and withdraw my money. I look around again but no one seems to know about it. I take it and am forty dollars richer.

I thought about turning it in to the bank which is right next to the machine... but I can only imagine someone from the bank would pocket it.

Would you have done anything different than me?

zzz

Lately, I've been falling asleep after dinner and waking up near midnight and staying up until the early morning. Nothing sucks more than having to wake up for work with 4-5 hours of sleep. Nothing feels better than slowly, naturally waking up covered in a nice warm and fluffy comforter. And nothing makes me more happy than waking up with my cat snuggled right by my chest. In a dream world, I would wake up whenever I wanted to start the day for whatever reasons.

Primo

For my first crab of the season I tried to experience it as a tourist would.

I hopped on the F-car on Market. You can make out the Sutro Tower on the upper right and an F-car approaching.














(look a Mini Cooper in San Francisco)

It took about 40 minutes to get down to Pier 39 or 41 (I always forget). It's basically one pier away from the tourist trap pier with the sea lions. Every year, well, since last year, I've been going to the Crab Station which is the 2nd stall type of eatery. They have an indoor seating area but I prefer the tradition of standing outside near the cooking vat.










































(The crab cracker (?) was an expert flipping his tool and cracking it pretty damn fast)

There was a lot of people out at the wharf even though the weather was cold (We had such a nice and warm summer and fall that I had forgotten San Francisco has a "winter."). I had to wait for sometime just to get a spot.

I started a new tradition by naming each crab. This one is Primo. Recently I've been trying to thank every animal I eat which is kind of hard since I eat meat probably more than once a day.

I finally got Primo, it's on the smallish size but for 15 bucks that's not too bad.














I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture before I started eating. I didn't like it that they left the body meat in the shell where it was soaking in crab innard juices. The big surprise was that the best part of the meat isn'tin the main claws as I always thought but in the "thighs" of the 8 smaller legs: slide them right out of the shell and dip that nugget into the cocktail sauce... mmm. Tradition again dictated that I dance in place with each huge nugget. All done:














Overall, a great experience but how can you go wrong with fresh dungeness crabs? I would have liked it to have boiled with a bit more salt but that's minor. To bookend my tourist experience I discovered a WW2 submarine and ship musuem just behind the restaurants. I gotta go down there again very very soon.