OakMonster’s Den

I’ve got 2 words for you: Ren Faire.

Had an absolute blast, and got a free ticket to go back again. Photos will be uploaded to my Flickr album shortly hopefully. We were supposed to go last weekend, but we didn’t. So this time, it’s Brandon and I, his friend from work Eric, and people they work with Megan, and Donna and her son Evan.

A quick summary: Lunch. Beer. Boring fencing training. Hit bullseye in archery and was honored for that. Got dressed up as nomads. Sin on a stick (frozen cheesecake dipped in chocolate!). Rum royale tea. Stalked by an archer all over the faire. The boys threw axes. Megan on the wrong side of spontaneous Tug-of-War. Washing Well Wenches. Captain Jack Sparrow!? Donna and Megan played with the pole…I meant javelin. Got my hair braided. Lost Eric. Found Eric. Hunted for Megan’s car.

Brandon, me, and Eric rounded off the day with Thai food.

Can’t wait to go again! This time, I won’t spend so much money…I hope.

So Jack Osbourne was in Thailand, getting high colonics and training in Muay Thai. He ended up KO’ed his Muay Thai opponent.

The AP story makes it sound like Jack kicked some real ass, “facing off against an experienced Thai boxer known only as ‘The Man.’ ” You know, like Jack fought an uber Muay Thai fighter.

AP completely fails to mention the following pieces of information as reported in Thailand’s The Nation:

1. “The Man” is a veteran muaythai professional on his comeback fight. Translation: the dude hung up his gloves and came back.
2. “The Man” said that he would continue to fight despite being “around 40 [years old]”.

Jack the strapping 21-year-old celebrity KO’ed a veteran 40-year-old Muay Thai fighter. There are probably a few reasons why “the Man” doesn’t want to be identified. Afterall, Jack is a celebrity kid who is overcoming his addition and gaining control of his life. It would crush him if a Muay Thai fighter of the same age destroyed him, you know?

One thing I love about being Thai is how considerate and empathizing Thai people are. We are all about saving faces…especially of special foreign friends and guests.

I smell gratuitous victory here. My Thai pride is a little hurt, but you know what I’ll get over it. Good publicity for the country is better than nothing.

I came running home, busting in the door at 7:35 p.m., armed with grocery.

Goddamn it. I NEEDED to cook. I didn’t care what Brandon wanted for dinner. I had a recipe in mind, and with God as my witness, I was going to make it tonight.

And so I did.

Another Rachael Ray’s miracle. Stuffed Italian Meatloaf and lemony creamy pasta. Go over to Hmm…Food…Good to read about it. Belly full…must go sleepy…

If you like to cook, you should definitely stop by Hmm..Food…Good sometimes. It’s a blog of tried and true recipes. So far Amy’s been so busy she hasn’t posted much. But I’m trying to try a recipe at least once a month. If you want to join us there, let me know. I’ll send you an invite.

My boyfriend Ben is BACK! (That’s Ben Browder aka Captain John Crichton of Farscape.) He’ll join the 9th Season cast of Stargate SG-1 as Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. About damn time! SG-1 desperately needs a new action smartass hero since O’Neil got benched, I meant, promoted.

Hence, Brandon is calling it FARGATE. Heh.

Don’t call me about going out Friday once the new season begins. I shall not be pried from my television!

From this picture, it seems at least we’d get to see Claudia Black (aka Aeryn Sun) a bit too. Double yippee hallelujah for all Scapers!

Thank YOU, Richard Dean Anderson for recognizing such fine talent, and how to rope SG-1 more audience. I know MacGuyver would come through and save the show! You are indeed my hero.

My heart screams that I should write. Write about everything and nothing. I don’t know what I’m going to write about or if I should write about, but it feels if I don’t write something my heart will explode. Or may be it was the bananaberry cream pie I just had for dinner. Or the decaf coffee. Anyway, I’m thinking of this like the Drunkity Post. You know, blogging when buzzed/drunk. I’m not going to edit anything out afterward, just grammar and spelling correction along the way. Let’s see if this experiment work. I shall call it…something. What should I call it? Stream of Consciousness Blogging? That’s a mouthful and a half. And a little bit snooty. Random Ranting? Spur of the moment writing? Pouring of the heart and soul at the oddest hour of the evening? What should this be called? What should this be called? Fingers are tapping. No brilliant idea comes to mind. May be it’ll just come to me. Kind of like how I’d go about naming a car. Things that want to be name will let you know what their names are. Eventually. Looking at Rude Cactus and his car Zippy! Eventually, the name will come. Then this random no topic run out of my mouth/hand blog shall have a name. It’s 11:02 and I’m stuffed. I had panang beef and rice at 4:30 and pie at 8:30. It’s been a greatly relaxing day although something in the force seems a little disturbed. How did I know that? Because earlier on when I sang, I actually sounded okay, hitting all the high notes without straining too much when belting them out. Funny. It seems how the world around me is crumbling, and I should go crumbling with it. But somehow I’m standing defiantly, thumbing my nose at the world, and said, fuck you world, I can do this on my own. It feels like everything is going by, life is rolling past, and I decide to just stop right here and watch it all go by and doesn’t give a fuck. Interesting. Is this depression? Or may be it’s just gas. *Burp* Well, it’s not gas. Have I gone mad and give up caring? All I want to do is write. I don’t want to go to work. I don’t want to go to sleep. I just want to write. Write write write write. Eventhough this is all nonsense that I’m writing but I can’t stop doing it. It feels like life is not going to be complete if I stop now and go to bed. Am I delusional? Delirious? Mentally unstable? Does anyone have a spare Prozac? Zoloft? Happy pill of some kind? Will Vicodin work? Nah. That damn thing gives me hives on my neck. A beer would be nice but I have no room in my stomach for that. A shot perhaps? But I don’t really want to drink. Oooh I know what it is. It’s sugar. I have an obscene amount of sugar today that I normally do. I had a Thai iced tea boba. I had a few pieces of See’s Candies sampler, and I had one more piece at home after panang. Then I had a personal size pie. And decaf coffee. That’s a hell of a lot more than my usual one carton of soy milk and a cup of tea when it comes to sugar. Madness! MADNESS. It’s crazy I tell you. Why am I feeling so crazy? Oh, yeah. I guess watching BRAZIL last night before I went to bed contributes to a little bit of that. Has that movie somehow trigger the flood gate of insanity? Or may be it really is all the sugar I consumed today. Sugar. Must be sugar. Must not lose mind. Mind is a horrible thing to waste. Ooh I know. Tsunami of Thoughts post? Nah. Too cliche. Too tragic. Damn it will I ever come up with a name for this? I don’t know. I don’t think so. May be it’ll come to me in my dreams tonight. But then again that means I’d have to go to bed. I hate going to bed with a full stomach. Ah crap. I’d better go to bed though because if I don’t go then I won’t wake up tomorrow and that’d be really bad. Ooh I have a name for this style of posting!

Brandon and Oakley waking up from a Sunday afternoon nap, a newly resurrected tradition.

Oakley: Ah. Cuddle time.

Brandon: I don’t want to cuddle with you. You stink. Hehheh.

Oakley: I do not!

Brandon: Yeah you do.

Oakley: At least I don’t smell like pine. Because you know, if the Oak smells like pine…

Brandon: But you know, actually pines are better. They have cones.

We brought the frelling house DOWN. All the pieces were just perfect. We all had a great time.

Extra kudos to Jacqueline. Her piece included the issues with her mom, and touched on the tension of having a black boyfriend (”Brian and my Black Baby” is the name of one of her sections), and both mom and Brian were in the audience, sitting together. That girl has balls!

And a quick shout out to Eric. He will have an encore performance of his piece on Sunday for Hapa USC group. You go, boy! ( For those of you who don’t know, Hapa is a term derived from Hawaiian for “half”, it’s used to describe a multiracial individual.)

Alex will treat us to dinner tonight as our celebration dinner. Yey. Food.

Here’s a quick recap of last night’s show:

Love/Hate opening
Each one of us represent one thing we love/hate about being Asian/whatever we identify with. Hate: Exotic Oriental (Shan), Duties to Family Before My Own Happiness (Jacqueline), Unassertive (Nathan), and Being Called Fat (Alison). Love: History (Patrick), Compassion (Oakley), and Soul/Seoul Food (Eric).

Greek Life - Shan Shi
Chinese? Japanese? American?…No! A year studying abroad in Greece, Shan faces identity crisis forced on by everyone around her.
Quote: “Oh, I bet you want to know where I come from. [Greek stranger:] Oh, no. I just wanted to tell you you are very beautiful.”

Yesterday Once More - Jacqueline Lee
Starting from being “Kindergarten Feminist”, Jacquline bravely told the tale of fighting off her father’s poor treatment of women, and “the Myth of Asian Daughter’s Duty to Her Family”.
Quote: “That is just so…so…so…MULAN!”

Now Boarding - Alison Walker
A tale of a Korean girl adopted at 2 months old by white parents in MA reuniting with her biological parents and 6 older sisters, and learning about her roots and family.
Quote: “I used to think that airport is kind of sad. But then my friend told me that actually, it unites you with your family.”

Words Not Spoken - Patrick Shin
Hilarious and touching look at his interpration of what love is and how to show it revolving around his grandfather, a pink blanket called Pinky Boo, and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”.
Quote: “Celine Dion sings like an angel. She sings every high notes 10 times louder than it has to be.” (Later on, he did channel Celine for a few bars.)

Of Mom and Elephants - Oakley Boren
This story of displacement weaved through Oakley’s happy childhood, feeling of displacement at an American high school, and being branded by her mother as “looking like a prostitute.” And of course, superstitions about elephants.
Quote: “I’ve heard of Neo-Nazis before. But I didn’t expect them in such a nice, predominantly white neighborhood.”

Kigger - Eric Ferguson
Yet another brilliant comedic talent. Half black, half Korean, Eric allowed us to see what it is like to be “racially anonymous”, fighting off prejudice for the African American side, and enjoying the Korean side.
Quote: “Hell, I didn’t start a riot. I didn’t rob the liquor store. Did you see me running with someone else’s TV?”

Slaughterhouse - Nathan Go
A Philipino-Chinese growing up next to a slaughterhouse, Nathan introduced us to traditional feast of Philipino roasted pig or Lechon, and opened up his struggle with body image.
Quote: “I was playing ping pong. Some people call it table tennis. But I don’t think so.”

A whole lot of laughs. Some gasps and awwww. A few tears.

We indeed kicked ass and took names last night. Thanks everyone who showed up to support us. Another thank you shout out to Brandon, Shane, and Nora for coming out to see me last night.

And Alex. Dude. You rock. You brought us out of our Asian shells and let us loose on stage. Thanks, man.

Say hello to the cast of ASIAN VOICES. Alex (the ring leader), Shan, Jacqueline, Patrick, Alison, Oakley, Eric, and Nathan.

See you at the show tomorrow!

Congratulations Chris Long and Jamie! Their baby, Jackson James Long (aka Baby Bald MoFo) arrives safely today.

I’m in as Guest Bloggers on Thai-Blogs. Here’s my first post.