The Miracle of Life (Wildlife Edition)

A mini documentary about an elephant giving birth in an Elephant Safari Park in Bali, Indonesia. It's quite graphic and moving at the same time. It shows you how intelligent elephants are.



Quite cute and also cute:



Other than being in the verge of extinction, it seems that the lazy giant pandas do have something to contribute to our society in general. Well, not as much as the panda themselves, but their poop. Panda poop is very rich in fiber from their munching on bamboos all day and it can be made into paper, but what's more is...

Via Pink Tentacle

One Japanese and two Chinese scientists work together to ponder how pandas can digest something as fibrous as bamboo. And after identifying 270 different kinds of microorganisms in panda dung obtained from Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, the researchers isolated five types of bacteria that were the most efficient at breaking down proteins and fats and that could reproduce easily even under high heat.

In one experiment, the researchers mixed the bacteria with 70 to 100 kilograms (lbs) of raw garbage, including vegetable stems, potatoes (raw and fried) and fish remains, and placed it in an industrial waste disposal machine. Seventeen weeks later, only 3 kilograms (6.6 lbs) of waste remained, while the rest had turned to water and carbon dioxide. With a digestive rate of up to 96%, the bacteria from panda excrement is significantly more effective than most commercial disposal bacteria, which has a digestive rate of around 80%.

Their discovery had earned them an Ig Nobel Prize.

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Getting Ready In 5 Minutes, Part Deux

After last month's clip of Getting Ready In 5 Minutes. The folks at 8Asians found the housewife version, which requires a month to wake her son up, get him changed, washed, make him breakfast and lunch and take him out the door and to the school bus.



Other than the weird mom sleeping on the kid beginning, I have three questions: Doesn't the takoyaki grill needs some time to heat up, like my George Foreman? What did mom wrote on the kid's shirt and why is it necessary? Isn't that highly inappropriate (especially in Japanese culture) for the kid to pull off his mom's pants? No trauma (i.e. Oedipus complex), really?

I'm sure the single mom situation is not easy.

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Wanna Take This Outside?

It's already the first week of October, so I guess we can call it Fall now. It's not beating down sunshine and the weather had cooled down, going out had became enjoyable again.

The past Saturday there was a great street fair in Philly with a weird name, it's called the Fourth Fall Festival in the Midtown Village. After living in Philly for nearly a decade, I've just started to find out that the center city part of Philadelphia had little districts with names that I've never heard of. A few weeks ago, the boyfriend and I stumbled on a sign saying French Quarter around Rittenhouse Square and I thought that was a New Orleans-only reference. Anyhow, in the past 4 years or so, Midtown Village had been bought up by a developer and transformed the two block area into various shops, bars and restaurants. A lesbian couple has opened up 2-3 ethnic restaurants and a corner prepared food store called Grocery. One of my favorite home goods stores are also located in the same block. It's all brand new and very exciting. The street fair provided an excellent occasion to get people into the area and promote the shops.


The Japanese restaurant brought out the big guns to attract customers.

I guess it's partly because of the weather but I haven't seen that many people out in a while. Also due to the occupants of the block, this fair turned out to be more food and drinks related than anything else which I really do appreciate. Mexican, Indian, Japanese, various BBQ food, chocolate, gelati, baked goods, all lined up in one for purchase. I had an order of pulled pork tacos from one of the Stephen Starr restaurants, which was good. An Indian spiced chili dog which tasted great but require a spoon to eat after the flimsy bun got too soggy to hold itself up and a mango lassi that wasn't quite cold enough to be refreshing. I was tempted to get a $2 pork slider from the Marriot restaurant but I guess I was full by then. The side streets were crawling full of booze vendors, though I did not have a single drink. It was a great event on a great day.


Cute, but I think I've made tastier tacos. (Lol, everyone is a critic.)

---

This Sunday is the National Coming Out Day and in Philly we have OutFest which is a GLBT street fair that happens once a year in our Gayborhood. It's the less commercial version of Pride and what it's used to be before setting up camp elsewhere and charging a $10 admission. Different organization having booths to recruit members, different causes excepting signatures and donations, corporate sponsors building alliances and relationships. Gay guys who likes to see and be seen. You know? The usual.



At the same time, DC is having the National Equality March for us gays to raise awareness and demand our rights. Since we seems to have a competent president in the White House this time around, maybe showing up in numbers will do some good. Though I have to say the recent health reform efforts had been quite discouraging, but it maybe politicians no matter which party they're in will always choose the side of money and it might not have to do with the competency of the president. (Eh, did we just put the abstinence only sex ed back in place?) Anyway, I'm always cynical on what good will a protest or a march could achieve, but then I know sitting on my ass won't do much good either. Besides, it could be the biggest GLBT march in our generation, if it's not for the historic side of it, think of the potential number of hot guys and celebrity sightings. And if it's not for the march, what about the cruising of bars after the march?

The only problem for me is as always - transportation. While there is a relatively inexpensive bus going to DC from Chinatown, they only operate 3 times a day and if the march starts at 12:00 noon, I may have to rise in a good awful hour and still be late for the event. I couldn't possibly afford to stay overnight and it could well be all booked up by now. So my best bet is to find a friend who is going to drive down and see if I can bum a ride, or maybe hitchhike down to DC, maybe I could get a sense what Woodstock was like.

Go to the site to learn more. (Honestly though, it seems like the site and its message was put together in a hurry, doesn't it?)

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Movie Review: Zombieland

Went to see Zombieland with the boyfriend because he likes zombies and it seems like a fun movie. For some strange reasons I have found Woody Harrelson to be quite sexy, Matthew McConaughey and him seems to emit the same kind of energy even though Woody has a lot less hair.

Anyway, zombie movie... another virus outbreak. In the beginning of the movie, they showed a globe seemingly destroyed; The oceans seemed to have gone and replaced by and gleaming, menacing red lava lines. In this post apocalypse world, most people had been turned into zombies, so a young kid nicknamed Columbus developed a list of rules for himself in order to survive. Along the way, he meets a crude drifter that takes too much joy out of zombie slaying and driving big cars, also two female tricksters that have serious trust issues, but who can blame them? The zombies are everywhere.

Lately, I've seen a couple of movies that features fast moving zombies, zombies that can run, climb and jump. I always thought that zombies were slow and move in drones, that's why it wasn't exactly threatening to me, but these are different. Other than the usual goo spewing, broken limbs and the chewing of human flesh, it was explained that the virus they contracted inflamed their brains and make them violent and hungry, but how come they only attack humans and not each other?

But that's besides the point. It's about fright and flight and big guns! Inventive ways to smash and kill zombies. To the contrary of the common sense on epidemic outbreaks the quartet chose to go to a metropolis and go to an attention grabbing venue at night, but of course it's not logic that we needed, they were asking for trouble for sure. I especially enjoyed the opening sequence of the rules and zombie outbreaks, smashing stuff in a Native American souvenir shop, flashy guns and different action sequences. It's like being a little kid at the candy shop, though the ending sequence is a little bit lazy. I would enjoy a Kill Bill style sequence with more inventive ways to kill then guns.

It was fun, it could be more enjoyable if there were more substance, in the form of a few more rules might work. B

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Weekend Meme: The Alpha Meme

This week, the Boyfriend and I went around to take some pictures with his Legos. the Boyfriend is a huge Lego minifigs fanatics. We walked around town to take some cute pics with them but at the end of the day, he didn't like any pics that I take at all. Phooey... Maybe I'll post them here later in a more appropriate time.

Since the upper and under 2 cents have both done this, I thought I'll make my own attempt.

My roommate and I once: shared a can of cherry coke. He was my first roommate at a college that I thought I'd attend. After I've heard that I need 2 years of prerequisite work for course and that I've been accepted at another college, I moved away after 6 weeks.

Never in my life have I: been so old. (Like now... and now...! Ha!)

High school was: one of the happiest periods in my life. Lots of friends and lots of hanging out time.

When I’m nervous: I become very talkative, that would be called a 'tell' when I gamble.

My hair: is looks best when it's short and washed everyday.

When I was 5: my uncle took me to Southern France


Count the candles.

When I turn my head left: someone is playing air bowling on TV.

I should be: so lucky. Lucky, lucky, lucky. I should be so lucky in love. (Kylie US Tour, get into it.)

By this time next year: I should be working. (Oh, come on!)

My favorite aunt is: my aunt Grace who's always pleasant have around.

I have a hard time understanding: how anyone can insist on being ignorant. (i.e. homophobia, racism, the existence of Fox News, going against health care reform and the public option.)

You know I like you if: I tease you. I have to feel comfortable enough with someone to cross that impolite boundaries.

My ideal breakfast is: Sunny side eggs with turkey sausage, home fries and buttered white toast. Orange juice and a tall glass of ice tea on the side.

If you visit my home town: take me with you. I'd need a tour guide myself. Though maybe you can bring me back some stuff.

If you spend the night at my house: then you'll be forced to share a bed with me. My place is not that big. And yes, I'd most likely to take advantage of you.

The animal I would like to see flying besides birds: humans. I'd love to be able to fly.

I shouldn’t have been: born. I was an accident but yet here I am!

Last night I: saw Zombieland with the boyfriend, I'll report back on that later.

A better name for me would be: The Great Procrastinator!

I’ve been told I look like: I'm Korean, a lot.

If I could have any car, it would be: A blue AC Cobra with white stripes. A few years ago, I've seen a great looking car on the street that might have been a lotus. It's blue with white stripes. It's showy in a trashy nouveau riche kinda way, I love it.


What do y'all think about trunk space?

Hope you feel appreciated and have a great weekend!

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Because I'm Such a Nice Guy...

Last week when A&Y threw a party, the one that I happened to have made a cheesecake, helped move and won some money at the mahjong table, they had also given me an industrial mouse trap. We have mice in our building, not fierce huge rats, but little bratty mice. Since I cook so much at my place, they like to come to hang from time to time. They don't do much harm but it's just annoying, really, and I'm not much for uninvited guests.

So late last night after I went to bed, I heard a loud clank like a robot had stepped on the ground and then a lot of lighter metal clinking sounds followed. Somehow I've forgotten that I've set out the metal trap and apparently one of the mice got caught. It's one of the humane trap that doesn't kill the mice and it's designed as a little metal tunnel where the mice see the other end and thinks that it's a passageway but in the middle of the tunnel there's a trigger where it'd turn and flip them to the other side of the box with a little glass window so the user can see what's in there. It is also recurring where it will keep catching mice until it's full. I try to ignore the noise as much as I can until I wake up in the morning.

My friends had instructed me that I could perhaps starve the mice to death or submerge the whole contraption in water to drown the caught creatures, but I know it's not something that I can do. So here I am with the cage in my hand walking two blocks away and release the mouse near a park. The mouse leap out two foot away, if there was ever a record for the furthest leaping mouse, it could have broke it. Here's to hope it doesn't run back to my building and make a habit of being my roommate. And if he does, maybe he can tell his little friends (assuming that he has any) to leave me alone too.



Gone to my barber yesterday afternoon to get a cut this afternoon in Chinatown. The guy had been cutting my hair for the past 8~10 years, followed him around 3 different barbershop until he got his own, I guess I can call him a friend. I've known him before he knew his wife when I thought he might be gay and now he's expecting his third child. Time flies. In the past, he had me helped him repairing his computer. Yesterday, he asked me to see if I can go to his lawyer's office to help translate something to him. Apparently 2 years ago someone fell down in front of his barbershop and now the person is attempting to get some compensation out of it.

My barber has insurance just for these kinds of occasions, so everything is taken care of. The person who fell, didn't fell because of there were merchandise in the way or because of the street is badly repaired, so I don't think it'll stick. Since he is sorta a friend and I don't want people to take advantage of him just because he doesn't speak much English, I guess I'll go help him even though the meeting is three weeks from now at 9:15am and I haven't woken up that early for anything for a while. At least, it'll give me a sense of belonging and usefulness.

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Viral Videos: "100 Greatest Hits on Youtube In 4 Minutes" & "PS22 Chorus Yoga"

The first clip is a montage of the 100 greatest hits on Youtube, though I don't know how it is determined. I guess I've seen about half of them, some on Youtube and some on those clip shows on TV. Pretty nice background music, pretty well made. I especially liked Ninja Cat, but I wonder why the single ladies guy wasn't on it.



The one below is from a music teacher from Staten Island who formed a chorus with his students called PS 22 Chorus who is gaining fame recently for his exceptional work. His taste in music is pretty close to mine, so far he had performed music from Tori Amos, Bjork, Fleetwood Mac, Lady Gaga and Nina Simone. It raises awareness to music education and also each kids are empowered to express themselves physically while singing like little rock stars. It reminds me of how much I enjoy the TV show Glee these days. Watch it, enjoy it.



I've also belonged to several choir when I was young, I wonder how many of those kids will grow up to be gay.

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G.O.D. - Full of Hong Kongism

This Saturday, it'll be the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival, where the Chinese celebrates the time where the moon is supposed to be the fullest and clearest. As a celebration, we eat moon cake, which is a pastry filled with lotus paste and usually stuffed with a salted duck egg yolk. When you cut the cake in the middle, you should get the image of a yellow moon in a dark sky. It's awfully high in calories and cholesterol, even when you eat 1/8 of that small cake, it'd fill you up in hours. Even though it taste pretty good, it's not something that people seek out during the rest of the year. So people keep reinvent the meaning of a moon cake to peak sales.

Over the year, people reinvented the outer skin and replace it with mochi, lighten up the lotus paste, replace it with some kinda ice cream and change the flavor into strawberry, mango, durian, whatever would intrigue people to try and buy. Sell them in eights because that's good luck. When I was reading my food porn blog Serious Eats yesterday, I found this:



"Moon" cakes in the shape of bums. Not exceptionally clever unless you know Cantonese and mahjong colloquialism, but then i think it's too hard to explain those terms to non-mahjong players. I kinda wish the filling is not the traditional dark lotus paste though, or maybe I do... Each of them are sold individually in mysterious unmarked boxes for HK$65 each (Approx. US$ 8.35), you'll have to buy a whole bunch in order to collect all the styles. Or, if you have the dough you can buy the whole set for about US$ 105 for all eight of them in a deluxe collection box, which is more than silly. Moon cakes are not collectibles and they have an expiration date. If you mark it too expensive and nobody buys them, they'll go bad and after this Saturday, nobody will touch these until next year, however, I do appreciate the creativity.

It is sold by a store called G.O.D. (Goods of Desire) and when I look into it, the store seems to be very cool and contain a lot of item with Hong Kongism that's quite unique. Further search Flickr, I found out that it is indeed the nostalgia rabbit hole that I thought it'd be. Models of old street scenes, old items and furnitures. The quick fixes, of course, are the T-shirts. Full of inside jokes in the forms of Chinglish and other forms.


It might not look like anything special but "Delay no More" sounds like "F#*k Your Mom" in Cantonese.


Rising a kite or a flag means getting a hard on.


In the same spirit, shooting the planes means masturbating.


Endangered - Chinese Buildings and Chinese Dogs (Mongrels)


Charm Bracelet (from top right, clockwise): aluminum mail box, giant iron tailor scissors, piggy bank, tall hot water bottle, spit pot, red candles. Oh god, nostalgia.

I've already send out my minions to secure one of the delay no more t-shirts. I must have it! And maybe one of these days I could go back and go to the Delay No Mall myself for a shopping spree. Meanwhile, please enjoy the typical skyblocking scenes in Hong Kong.



I miss my city sometimes.

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Disturbing The Peace

At midnight Sunday night, the fire alarm in the building right next to me started beeping, there was a smell in the air that resembles fresh baked cake and the alarm went on and on. It's not the first time that there's a fire around my neighborhood so I watched closely for a while to see if it was anything serious. Nope, no smoke, no strange blazes of flame, the family downstairs were sitting on in their "yard" and had no intention of fleeing, everything seems fine. After what it seems to be an hour later, the sirens of a fire truck came by, stopped, and left 15 minutes after, but the fire alarm just keep beeping and beeping with no end in sight (or should I say earshot?). I guess no one living in the building knows how to turn the fire alarm off. I couldn't sleep and the beeping was more than annoying, it drove me wild until I was absolutely exhausted at 5 am.

Around 8am, the voices of kids from the same building came out yelling while they go to school. Twelve o'clock the father coughing while talking on the cell phone. Seven o'clock through ten o'clock, the father and a friend yelling and screaming possibly to a ball game. It really gets on our nerves sometimes. It haven't been like this before until last summer. It's especially getting on my nerve since the lack of sleep. I started wondering if it would have been a good thing if the building had burned down before or after the fire alarm went on since if it's after the firemen had gone, they won't come back thinking it was a false alarm, but then I don't have any control who would have moved in afterwards and the construction of a new building would be even noisier and since it was just next door, there's no telling whether a rundown building like the one I lived in won't caught on fire and leave me homeless, so I've kept my urge inside my arsonous mind.

Other than that my weekend had been quite excellent. Spent two nights sleeping next to the Boyfriend, which always make me very happy being able to wake up next to him. Saturday, I went to a Moving/BBQ/mahjong party with friends. One of our friends is moving from a $300 all inclusive place to a $900 one-bedroom 45 minutes away the city and he had to change 3 different public transports to get to work from now on. We helped him move his furniture and belongings to his new place. His mattress was tied on top of my friend's van and we had to hurry and made it in before the rain. I feel very good helping a friend and having the rare endorphin release.



The other accomplishment that I was proud of was my creation of a caramel banana coconut cheesecake, my friends told me it was better than any shop bought cheesecake they have ever tasted and even I'm quite bad of accepting compliments, I still took it hook, line and sinker. And to top of the cake, other than the caramel sauce and bananas and the delicious BBQ food, I also had an incredible run in Mahjong this week and won like $40. Yippee!

You win some, you lose some, right?

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Music Invasion: Leela James' Mistreating Me

Leela James has a very soulful voice and A Change Is Gonna Come was an amazing record even it didn't get the commercial success it deserves. Like I've mentioned on the meme, this song had been stuck in my head for about a week now. It's the kind of R&B songs that can penetrate your brain, easy to remember lyrics and repetitive melody. Her studio work is much better than her live work, and I'm still waiting for another album from her with original works, hope it'll be soon.



Mistreating Me

Keep on pressuring me to do more and do more
But move on lest you can see that I'm all that
It ain't easy waking up early to stay up late
I know god won't put more on me, on me
Than I can take and I know, I know...

Yes I know that I, I must take care of me
(You better love you better) say (love yourself first)
And I been told that I can't put you above me
(You better love you better) say (love yourself first)

No I'm not gone keep on mistreating me
I have decided to love myself (and)
No I'm not gone keep on mistreating me (I'm not)
If you don't love you, you can't love nobody else

I do love you but sometimes (I feel)
I feel like this whole one thing is so, so unfair (so unfair)
You don't even know this when you're down
so I pray everyday you start loving me better (much better, much better)

Yes I know that I, I must take care of me
(You better love you better) say (love yourself first)
And I been told that I can't put you above me
(You better love you better) say (love yourself first)

I'm not gone keep on mistreating me
I have decided to love myself (and)
No I'm not gone keep on mistreating me (I'm not)
If you don't love you, you can't love nobody else

And I know, I know...

Yes I know that I, I must take care of me
(You better love you better) say (love yourself first)
And I been told that I can't put you above me
(You better love you better) say (love yourself first)

No I'm not gone keep on mistreating me
I have decided to love myself (and)
No I'm not gone keep on mistreating me (I'm not)
If you don't love you, you can't love nobody else

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Weekend Meme: Long-Ass Meme

Saw this sign at the movie theater when the Boyfriend and I went to see Meatballs, and I got a kick of saying "Two Meatballs, please" to the ticket seller.

This weekend I revisited Tense Teacher and fond this long ass meme. Hey, I've got the time, alright?

1. Can you fill this out without lying? I think so.

2. What was the last thing you put in your mouth? A coconut tomato curry sauce/soup. Haven't decided what to do with it yet.

3. Have you ever kissed anyone named Matthew? Not that I'm aware of, it's a good name but I don't really know a lot of people named Matthew.

4. Where was your profile picture taken? It's at my current home, you should see a bookshelf on the left of my head.

5. Can you play Guitar Hero? I've played a whole lot of video game but they mostly just require dexterous thumbs and at most index fingers. Guitar hero would require nimble middle and ring fingers. I don't know how good mines are.

6. Name someone that made you laugh today? Joe McHale from E!'s The Soup

7. How late did you stay up last night and why? Til 6:30 in the morning, I was playing video game and reading.

8. If you could move somewhere else, would you? Possibly, it depends on where it is.

9. Ever been kissed under fireworks? Nope, I might have kissed someone while watching firework on TV but I think it's different, right?

10. Which of your friends lives closest to you? The Boyfriend lives across the street, other than him BL lives about 4 blocks away.

11. Do you believe exes can be friends? Depends on why and how you've broken up. I think some could.

12. How do you feel about Dr Pepper? Doesn't quite hit the spot, maybe too syrupy.

13. When was the last time you cried really hard? It had to be a long while ago, I don't quite remember. Honestly, if I remember I would have mentioned it.

14. Where are you right now? At home.

15. What bed did you sleep in last night? It's my own bed, a queen from Ikea. It was breaking apart a few months ago but I've fixed it.

16. What was the last thing someone bought for you? Um... does groceries count?

17. Who took your profile picture?
I did it myself.

18. Who was the last person you took a picture of? The Boyfriend with a nice blue t-shirt, he looks too good in it that I've to take one.

19. Was yesterday better than today? Marginally, but I think so.

20. Can you live a day without TV?
That's gonna be very hard, but then it's possible.

21. Are you mad about anything? Not at the moment.

22. Are you upset about anything? Sometimes. I think if I can get a job, it'll improve a lot of things in my life.

23. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? There are good moments and bad moments, but I think generally yes, it's nice to have someone to share your life with. Adds meaning to life in general.

24. Are you a bad influence? Depends, I don't think I am. I try not to be one.

25. Night out or night in? They are both good, but most of the time is night on.

26. What items could you not go without during the day? Wallet, phone and keys when I go out. My computer and TV when I'm at home.

27. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? It was a volunteer that used to work with me.

28. What does the last text message in your Inbox say? I'll call you soon

29. How do you feel about your life right now? It's a bit idling, not going anywhere far.

30. Do you hate anyone? I do, and they well deserved it.

31. If we were to look in your Facebook inbox, what would we find? That I'm an avid mahjong fan and that I do indeed have friends.

32. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? Yeah, my life is not that interesting... lol.

33. Has anyone ever called you perfect before? Yeah, but who could believe such lies?

34. What song is stuck in your head? This few days, it's Leela James "Mistreating Me".

35. Someone knocks on your window at 2am, whom do you want it to be? That'll have to be a ghost, possibly a dead relative. My only window is on the 2nd floor.

36. Wanna have grand kids before you’re 50? I don't think that will be possible for me and the answer to it is probably no.

37. Name something you have to do tomorrow. Preferably breathe, eat, sleep and s**t. Not necessarily in that order.

38. Do you think too much or too little? Too much.

39. Do you smile a lot? Not nearly enough.

40. Who was your last missed call on your Mobile phone? My friend BL.

41. Is there something you always wear? I have wore a white gold chain that my aunt gave me for my graduation for the longest time (approx. 10 years). I took it off a few months ago and haven't put it back on since. No rhyme or reason.

42. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Watching TV in front of my computer.

43. Did you have an exciting last weekend? I believe it was good but I already forgot what I've done.

44. Have you ever crawled through a window? I think so.

45. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, my all time favorite hair color is dark chestnut brown and I've done so before.

46. Are you wearing a necklace/chain? Nah, I absolutely dislike things around my neck. Even bed covers or a shirt collar.

47. Are you an emotional person? At times, I could be. I thought myself to be a very logical person but I've found out that I could be very emotional with personal stuff.

48. What’s something that can always make you feel better? Chocolate and other carbs.

49. Will this weekend be a good one? I'm hoping it will. I might have to help a friend with his move and then perhaps a BBQ/Mahjong party.

50. What do you want right now? A job offer and a few hours of mahjong.

51. Have you ever worn the opposite sex’s clothing? I've played with my grandma's clothing before. But it's just that once or twice when I was around 12.

52. Have you ever worked in a food place? I was a waiter at a HK cafe for my first summer job.

53. What’s on your schedule for tomorrow? Redesigning some decals for some lego figures of me.

54. Does anyone know your Facebook password? I used to teach people about computers and I've told an acquaintance what I use for passwords as examples. I kept using something that I've told that person. I don't think he'll remember anyway.

---

Made a coconut cheesecake with a caramel sauce to bring to the moving/BBQ/Mahjong party, I plan to pour the caramel sauce over the cheesecake and the slice up some bananas to put on top. Sounds pretty good, no?

Anyway, enjoy your weekend.

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Movie Review: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (3D)

In June, when me and the Boyfriend went to see Up in 3D. We also happened to see the 3D trailer of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. If you've been reading my blog, you would know that I'm quite into food and food porn alike and it sounds great to see food flying at you in 3D even though it's merely animation. The concept also reminded me of (perhaps) a TV episode of Scrubs where a patient's wish was putting her feet in a tub of spaghetti.

The story itself is quite simple. On an island off the southeastern coast, a little boy named Flint Lockwood grew up wanting to be an inventor but produced a series of failures. He has invented spray on shoes to cure the epidemic of untied shoelaces but the shoes stuck on his feet and he can't remove them. He has successfully given rats wings but they've became the worst pests on the island. He created a remote controlled TV robot who rampaged and ran out. But through it all, he hasn't given up. His latest project is a machine who would change the molecule in water and turn it into food and things go awry when it accidentally launched into the sky.



The movie was charismatic, the 3D were decent, there were food falling everywhere, it brings out the kid in you but there's not much food flying at you. The jokes were subtle, quick, on point and at times, silly. The boyfriend and I were cracking up the first two-third of the movie. We seemed to be the only people to laugh, probably because we watched the 4pm show and aside us there were only maybe 7 other people in the theater and 3 of them were kids. You can't really do subtlety with kids.

I'm quite impressed with Bill Hader's voice acting, even though he's quite a few notches down the list of my favorite SNL actors of all time. Anna Faris sounds very much like Drew Barrymore. Neil Patrick Harris plays a monkey's translator voicebox which is a very insignificant role for him to take. Mr. T's voice is very recognizable as the ninja-like black cop, but that's because he's awkward and can't go out of the Mr T. box and speak naturally. It's distracting, really.

One of the movie reviewers took the movie to the next step and said it is actually an activist piece about obesity and gluttony which went on criticizing they not being able to deliver a moral of the story, but for me that is all good clean fun. Though I would never want it to rain food, it'd be so unsanitary... lol.

Though I might be craving meatballs for a while, I had a fun time. B

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Clip You Can't Unsee

Watching back-to-back episode of Web Soup tonight, and there is a segment on it called Stuff You Can't Unsee and it reminds me of a clip that I've seen a few weeks ago on Vik's Blog Maybe It's Just Me. So I thought I should share it.

When I was a teenagers, I loved zapping pimples. It's disgusting and feels good at the same time. But this clip is on a Ho 'Nada Levo. The pimple is huge, more like a nasty mini infection hump and the girls were so squeamish. Honestly I can't even bear to watch the whole clip myself. Make sure you're not eating anything while watching it.

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The Marshmallow Test

There's a relevant article on the New Yorker about this marshmallow test. About kids who have self-control are more likely to be successful in life. I guess that explains why I don't seem to have much success, I'm too into instant gratification.

In the video, kids are given a single marshmallow and are told to wait while the examiner goes out of the room, the kids are told that if they hold off on eating the marshmallow they will get an additional marshmallow when the person returns. Meanwhile, they are secretly taped. You can see the kids eyeing the marshmallow and having inner turmoil, they are struggling to not eat the treat in front of them even though they wanted to. It's cute in a sense, but then it's also very cruel. The tester leaves the room for a prolong period, there's no explanation on why the waiting was necessary. The whole experiment is pretty much just toying with the children and adding unnecessary stress.

Does the test really teaches anyone anything? I submit that there's a very little difference between eating one marshmallow or two. The taste is the same and I doubt that the kids would save the other one for later, so it wouldn't matter. I hope they are well compensated to participate in this experiment and being exploited with a video. We all know how these things can come back to haunt us when we grow old.

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Pretty People Factor

This past Saturday, me and The Boyfriend spent some time helping out a hot bartender in need. I've seen the bartender around since I've moved to Philly some 12 years ago, good looking, well built, muscular guy of mixed race. He looks Latino but he's actually Filipino. I wouldn't mind seeing his in a porno.

Anyhow, during the past 12 years we've seen each other passing by and since he's grown a reputation of mixing wonderful drinks, I've made an effort to seek him out to mix my drinks whenever I'm at his bar. The boyfriend has also befriended the guy, again because he's hot, and also because he's an artist and the Boyfriend likes that.

So on Friday night while we were out having a drink, he talked with the bartender for a while and the bartender was looking for someone to help him make a website so he can showcase his art some where where potential buyers can see his work and have a way to get in touch with him. The boyfriend being a nice guy volunteered me out to make one for him, honestly I don't mind since I have a lot of free time at hand and since one of the few hot bartenders in town has left his post, we'd be spending a lot of time with this one and it's always good to have a bartender owing you a favor. So I've given him my contact info and he already jumped on the offer and set up to meet us in a coffee shop the next day.

Can I tell you how bad it is to wake me up with a text early morning confirming our date and then show up half and hour late not even apologizing? I digested it as the norm in the world of beautiful muscled people who used to get their way and be quickly forgiven for it, like that Jon Hamm 30 Rocks episode. For shortly after our first seat down conversation, we quickly understood that Bartender guy is really not the sharpest tool in the shed. The guy doesn't have his own computer or an email address for that matter, but he does produce decent art and out of his connections, he managed to get a few exhibition going on and in touch with a hotel that would purchases his arts.

After much contemplation for fast results, we created a email account for him and opted to put his work on Flickr which is a place that can act to showcase his pieces, uploaded his work and taught him how to proceed adding a description and tags, so he can do it for himself in the future. As I was weirded out by how he showed his appreciation while putting his arm around me and kissing me on the cheek, I was thinking maybe that's a part of the pretty people factor as well. Good thing he solidify the deal with buying me and the boyfriend dinner, for me that's the faster way to leave a good impression. Food is the fastest way to my heart.

Maybe I've gain a friend?

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Weekend Meme: The Queen's Meme

Sorry for the lateness, this weekend somehow went by so fast, which is a good thing all onto itself. Hanging out with the boyfriend, having some fun. From today on, we're going on a low carb diet together. Hopefully we'll lose some weight.

Today's Meme is from Tense Teacher again, thanks to that always accumulating wealth of Meme. I think I'm gonna do some shopping later. It's always great to have some retail therapy.

Who(m)...
is easy to love? Little puppies and bunnies are easy to love, everyone else require a certain effort.
do you just wanna smack? Certain FOX News pundits or all of them.
do you trust? Certain family members, very close friends.
do you talk to when you’re alone? When I'm alone? Wouldn't I have to talk to myself?

What...
dangerous things do you do while driving? I don't drive, so if I do drive it would be a dangerous thing by itself.
are you allergic to? Hay, dust mites.
is Satan’s last name? Jealousy?
is the last thing that moved you? The boyfriend. I don't remember when the last time I was moved by a movie or a song, guess I got too jaded throughout the years.
is the freakiest thing in your house? The glue traps I put down for mice.

When...
is it time to turn over a new leaf? Right Freakin' Now!!! Now is always a good time.
will you be all that you can be? Wow, that's quite a loaded question, I guess that's about time too.
is enough enough? Well, enough is never enough. Too much, however, is just enough.
do you go to the dark side? When somebody do me wrong, that gets me to the dark side very fast. So watch out!!!

Where...
are your pants? Right over there...
is your last will and testament? In my head.
is your junk food stash? In my belly! (says Fat Bastard)
is Carmen Sandiego? Who the hell cares? I rather look for Matt Lauer, but then who really cares about him either?

Why...
was the Lone Ranger alone? The dude got bad 'tude.
was The Scarlet Letter scarlet? Because it's written in blood?
are musicians sexy and plumbers not? Certain plumbers are sexy, are lot of gay porn features sexy plumbers.
are there no seat belts on school buses? Because that's the only way for the drivers to make the kids quiet.

Would you...
swim the English Channel for a doughnut and coffee? If not that, what? No, pretty much never. Unless I can be wearing a life vest or some other floating devices and I get $500,000 for it.
forgive someone who deliberately hurt you? That would be very hard. It also depends on what kinda hurt though.
rather believe a lie if it hurt you less than the truth? Oh, the truth is always better.
still be alive if you were sucked out of an airplane window? Would you just float around in space for while? What? Are you high?

Anyway, have a good weekend!

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Nothing In SC For Me

I have a few friends that is from South Carolina so I must first apologize if I do offend any South Carolinians but what's with South Carolina? Ever since Miss South Carolina failed to show her smarts in the Miss Teen USA 2007, South Carolina had been getting pretty bad reps.

We all remember Mark Sanford who now famously coin the term hiking the Appalachian trail to mean sneaking away to meet your mistress. And not just anywhere close by, she's all the way down in Argentina. A man who had sex with a horse and then after being arrested, go back to that horse a year later and caught doing the same thing all over again.

Then there is Joe "You Lie!" Wilson, who's either a stupid racist or a corrupted liar. Or both. So what's wrong with South Carolina? It's on the coast, so it implies that they might have more exposures to immigrant and so they might not be just a bunch of racist backward hicks and I checked their education ranks 26 out of 50 which is not too bad. Anyhow, I know that I won't be going to that state anytime soon. Guess I'll just have to add it to the list of States to avoid.

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Getting Ready For Work In 5 Minutes

Via 8Asians. Watch this funny and kinda useful demonstration on how you can get ready for work in less than 5 minutes.



The video includes a demonstration on how to take off your PJs in one fell swoop. Putting on your pants without using your hands. Making coffee in record speed. Tying your neck tie in a brand new fast way. It's amusing but the Japanese audience's reaction is a bit on the wild side. Personally, I'm a morning shower kinda guy. I need the hot water to give me energy and wake me up but some of these tricks are good to know.

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A Belated Rant on Desperate Attention Seekers

There is a problem with people like Kanye West and Joe "You Lie!" Wilson. Attention seekers who does outrageous acts for the wrong reasons. By shouting "You Lie!" South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson fulfilled his obligation to his campaign funders, fuel the fire to the racist disparities, gain more crazy right-wing supporters, and distract the focus from the address on health care reform. Just as one of the white house health care reform address where it ended with the president's comment on the stupidity of the Cambridge police, the reaction of the public have shifted to the redneck who yelled at the forum. For all I know, Joe Wilson's moment could have been premeditated. I wouldn't be surprise next time if one of the other hicks would run down, climb up and grab the mic.

Kanye West had always have a big ego, that's not exactly news. Even he had spoken up against homophobia and quite friendly to the gay community, there is a line where too much is too much and I think he has just crossed it. Muscially, he hasn't been showing much brilliance and maybe his career will go down the drain along with the soon death of autotune. Gotta make the news somehow, right? He could have been drunk and drugged up when he did what he did to Taylor Swift, but it's still extremely rude. Not that I know anything about Taylor Swift, her music and the now award-winning music video. I'm pretty sure that Beyonce's video is a lot better, it makes absolutely no sense that Beyonce's video won the best video of the year but not the best female video of the year. I'm sure MTV's standard to give out their awards had more to do with keeping a good relation with different companies than legitimacy of the videos themselves, so really what's the point?

Giving Kanye interviews after interviews about his lewd act just falls right into what Kanye wants and that's to talk about himself in all CAPS or not. That's what we call positive reinforcement. Oh that Kanye, that's just like him. Oh that Joe Wilson, he's just a good ol' boy who can't hide his emotions. No, even though I don't know anything about Taylor Swift, I'd rather change the focus and talk about What the hell was Lady Gaga's performance about? Or What's with the red tie on Obama and the red suits on Pelosi (and Clinton) and was that intentional to have the speech be in front of the red part of the American Flag? And What color was Michelle Obama wearing? It's not looking that great on her. That's how I deal with assholes, I rather pretend they don't exist.

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The Long Weekend

It seems that every time the boyfriend and I get out of town, somebody famous dies. First, it was Michael Jackson and now it's Patrick Swayze. Maybe it's a good thing we didn't go onto an extended vacation.

So we spent two days in New York, meeting the boyfriend's ex and his husband. Also the ex's ex and the ex's ex boyfriend. It's like a game of dominoes where you're matching the heads and tails. They are all very nice people though. I was nervous to start with buy soon found that feeling to be completely unnecessary. Bx and Bxh are married and lives in Barcelona and it's their first time visiting New York. Bxx was a former tour guide, so he led us to the High Line Park on the lower west side, it was very nice. The wildflowers emit some nutty buttery scent, there were sunbathers, mother with strollers, everyone was enjoying the novelty of an elevated park build on a former train tracks. We walked down it to the meat packing district stopping to see if there were any exhibitionists in the now infamous Standard Hotel, but no such luck, not even scanned with a zoom lens. lol.



The two days went by fast even though it involved a lot of walking. Chinatown, Wall Street, a Ferry ride to and fro Staten Island. Bxh is an avid photographer and there were a lot of Kodak moments along the way. The eye-opening moment for me is Strand bookstore where the place is crammed full of floor to high ceiling bookshelves and there's 4 floors full of them. They advertised that they have 18 miles of books and I thought it was a trick slogan where you'd have to line the books in a particular way to make up the distance, but it's not so at all. Words in different fonts are attacking you visually, it's quite intimidating, all I could think of is the bookshelves crumbling down and getting buried by books.

There were a lot of new experiences that I appreciate which include making my own cotton candy, screaming my lungs out to Bohemian Rhapsody in karaoke. It was hard to say goodbye to these new friends and I can only imagine how hard it was for the boyfriend as he hugged them goodbye and not inclined to let go. As we were riding the bus into the sunset back to Philadelphia, there was still an eerily sad look on his face. Beautiful, and so cute.

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Weekend Meme: Random Dozen Meme

This weekend, the boyfriend's ex and the ex's boyfriend are flying in from Barcelona to New York City and me and the boyfriend are gonna go hangout and sleep over for one night. I always like to go to New York City, there are so much stuff to see. And lately, I haven't got the chance to go, so I'm all excited about getting a comic book or two and eating things that I love.

At the same time, the straizian (Straight Asian) crew that I hang out with wanted me to join them for a Japanese sushi buffet that I absolutely adore. But somehow I'm afraid that if I do go and chow down, I might be full for days and ruin my NYC experience. Kinda silly, and I have no idea why I'd think like that but then saving some money is in order. I'd be hanging out the straizians today for Mahjong anyhow, hopefully I'll win some bus money out of it.

This weekend's meme is from Sunday Stealing, the almighty meme stealing machine. It's quite random, hope you like it.

1. When you go to Wowmart, what one thing do you get every single time, besides a funky-wheeled squeaking cart full of frustration?

Ooh, this question reminded me to promote the blog - People of Walmart. It's like National Geographic for the suburban America. Fascinating stuff. The Wal-mart around us is not too accessible, so I usually have to go to Target instead. One thing that I get almost everytime when I'm there is shower curtains. I changed them almost every season. It gets moldy quick.

2. What is something that people are currently “into” that you just don’t get or appreciate?

Twittering is one of them. Who needs to update everyone what they are doing or thinking every single day. It's quite self-absorbing. I thought Facebook and having a blog is already a bit too much. And then you are limited to a number of characters, it's like some kind of inconvenient censorship. Weird and I don't get it.

3. What is something that really hoists your sail that other people might feel “ho-hum” about?

Wow, I have to look up what "hoist your sail" means. Um, I guess one of the things would be white chocolate. Good white chocolate has a saturated creaminess that's completely awesome. Not a lot of people appreciate white chocolate, they call it fake but it's still a very great confection to me.

4. Favorite song to sing in the shower or car?

The classic "Summertime"



Though most of the time is whatever comes into mind, like this morning it was Stephen Lunch's Little Tiny Moustache.

5. A really great salad must have this ingredient:

Hard boiled eggs and mayo. When I was a kid, my concept of salad was a mayo or miracle whip concoction consisted with cubed hard boiled eggs, cubed ham, cubed potatoes, corn, tomato, scallion and sometimes even apples and grapes. Not the lettuce leafy stuff.

6. What advice in a nutshell would you give to new bloggers?

Try to blog consistently and use pictures and clips often. Oh and don't set up some automated audio (i.e. music player), people hates to be surprised by it, especially at work.

7. What was the alternate name that your parents almost named you? Do you wish they had chosen it instead of the one they gave you?

I do hate my first name which I rarely share it with anyone. My middle name is Yves, and I let it take over because I like it so much better.

8. What in your life are you waiting for?

Right now it's a job and after that I think it's the ability to take on more and more responsibility to be a self-sufficient responsible adult.

9. You get a package in the mail. What is it, and who is it from?

I'm expecting two package right now and they are both from some lego vendors. They will contain some lego minifigures that my boyfriend enjoys. We'll be doing some project to design "me" and some of my outfits, also a few other figurines that we'd like to experiment upon.

10. Today–what song represents you?

Wild Is The Wind? I like this kind of weather and it makes my mind runs wild in a very soothing way.

11. What is one thing that blogging has taught you about yourself?

It actually helps me form an identity, tells me what kinda person I am, helps me to know myself better.

12. How are you going to (or how did you) choose the clothes you’re wearing today? What do they say about you in general or specifically how you’re feeling today?

Short and sandals, a t-shirt with a long sleeve shirt. It's very casual and comfortable. I'm an easy going kinda guy.

Okay, have a great weekend y'all!

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It's All About Respect!!!

On a more serious note, how much longer will it take for the new World Trade Center to be built? In some standards, it means the terrorists are still winning. If it was Hong Kong, the buildings would have been up 6, if not 7, years ago!!!

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Bento Art

An article in New York Times had reminded me of my affection for bento boxes; a single, sometimes multi-, layer lunch box filled with rice, pickled vegetables, meat and other offerings prepared by housewives for their children and husbands. There are Japanese restaurant that offers bento boxes consisted of a sushi roll, some dumplings and a main dish like shrimp tempura or chicken teriyaki. While still very nice, true bento boxes are generally small in size and overtly tricked out to impress their eaters visually and make others jealous.

On the surface it's just lunch but it is really a cult. Other than the thousands of different lunch box in different shapes and designs, there are also the little dividers that hold a salad or snacks, the different cutters that turns carrot slices into flowers or spelling out "LOVE" in cheese and then little smiley face hello kitty toothpicks to hold a sandwich together or other sick crazy crap.

I originally thought it's just like preparing another meal ahead of time but no, it is a competition between housewives, it's a show-off event that one must do everyday. The box is small, so it is very portion controlled which is good if you're on a diet. And even the box is small, people still strive to provide a balanced diet with a wide variety of selections. There are not leftovers but all fresh made and cooking small and eating small is not my thing, I long for the day that I can my time and be creative like them. It'll probably only take 10 minutes to clear the canvas but it seems fun.

It's important to shape your ingredients into creative shapes to form cute cartoon characters...






Not a fan of dyed rice if there's no flavor involved, but then they are still pretty:

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Creatures That Might Have Inspired Pokemon?

1. Jerboa - Is this Pikachu?



There are a lot of creatures that I've never seen and Jerboas are some of them. A big mouse with long bony hind legs, It's like a cross between a mouse and a bird. Weird. Their long floppy-eared Egyptian type are even more adorable. Cute.

2. Axolotl



Another one that's cute as shit. Can you look at that face and not adore them?

Currently they only exist in one area of Mexico and in the verge of extinction because of the expansion of Mexico City and water pollution. In 1998, it was estimated that there are about 6,000 of them and now there's only between 700 to 1,200 of them. I don't know how people can help them from being extinct. Can we farm them or keep them in zoos?

3. Platypus



Cute in its own right, but I didn't know platypuses have attacks to boot. Male platypuses produce venoms that can kill small mammal and paralyze and wound humans that can cause pains that lasts for months. They are also the only mammals that can detect their prey using electric fields generated by muscular contractions. Very Sci-Fi.

Speaking of which the mice are back in my apartment building. I hate to kill them but I've already laid down traps, there's nothing much I can do and I don't like having them running around. If I could have a supersonic device to chase them out of the building I'd get one, but then I don't and I probably don't have the money to afford one, so I'll be the deathbringer for now.

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Movie Preview: Queer & Asian

We all have our gay experiences and our racial experiences so it's hard for me to relate to some, especially if they are drag queens and effeminate young men. I have seen my share of documentaries in gay & lesbian movie festivals, most of them are like lectures preaching tolerance which being a gay man myself already have gotten the point. I'm pretty sure they are like a commercial for the already converted, it's extremely for the homophobic to seat through a 90-minutes gay film and then realize they have been wrong all along, right? That would be to idealistic and naive.

Well, one of my friend has posted this clip on Facebook and when I watched it, it surprised me as I find out one of the interviewee in the clip is my other friend Noel. Noel had been hanging out with me for quite a while and even though I knew he was from New York and worked at the famous Asian bar The Web, I had no idea that he was a go-go boy. The completely naked picture of him on the wall craftily hiding his privates from view kills me. It'd provide good gossip and teasing material.

The movie is still under development but if it ever goes out to the theaters or in a movie fest, I'm sure we'll go to watch it together with him and hee-ing and haw-ing all through it. Hopefully we won't get thrown out of the theaters.

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Suicidal Cows

via Lady Bunny

Apparently an episode of South Park had come to life.

In the picturesque Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen, dozens of cows and bulls had mysteriously committed suicide by throwing themselves off the cliff in a mere 3 days. 28 cows in the small village have mysteriously died after they plunged hundreds of meters to rocks below where they were killed instantly. A local mountain rescue helicopter had to be called in to remove the bodies because of the danger of groundwater pollution.

It's baffling the scientists but I thought with herd animals, one usually would follow another blindly. At the same time if the leader don't know where he's going and get pushed by its follower, it shouldn't be so hard to figure out how they'd go down like that.

Other things that came down this week was the relationship I had with the guy I call the Boyfriend. Thankfully it didn't make this cow suicidal. We were recounting our differences and hashing out things that bug us about one another, things rolled bigger and bigger, we fought and we came to contemplate whether we still want to be together. It was very upsetting. I'm happy to report that in our own way we do treasure our relationship and things might just work out if we put enough effort into it. I guess in our own way we do treasure our relationship and for that I'm glad.

I can't wait to see some snow.

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