Category: Hobbying

Hobbies and extracurricular activities

Long Weekend

This weekend has been one of the longer ones I had in a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I still had just 2 days like everyone else, but it felt like a week.

I guess when you helped others, pampered yourself, and did things you love, it was just as rewarding as a weekend away on a vacation.

It’s hard to belief that I voluntarily rolled out of bed at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, but I did.  I was up to bake chocolate croissants to take over to my friend Greg’s garage sale fundraiser for his very first AIDS Ride. I met up with James and Dresden around 7:15 and we headed over.

The sale was HUGE! And we had TONS of people showed up.  I’m waiting to hear from Greg as to how much money his group raised that day. We had all sorts of stuff up for sale and whatever leftover would be donated.  Except for this one .  Although a few people made us offers.  😉

Not for sale...

Someone actually picked up this wood cabinet that nobody seemed to want for a good amount of money.  When they were loading up, apparently he told the boys that this was a real 1950s era antique. Just a little touching up and he could sell it for a whole lot more!  We were quite amazed.

After spending the morning helping out and chasing Dresden around, James and I joined his wife, his friend Bob, and Brandon for late breakfast.

Oh and then Dresden did this on the ride over.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFRnuEf1Saw]

Later that afternoon, I had my first facial, crashed out until we walked to our corner restaurant to pick up dinner.

Because my face still felt sensitive on Sunday morning, our plans to go out riding bikes or hiking had to be canceled.  I mean, I wasn’t about to put this brand new skin out in the sun.  So we stayed home and geeked out.  Brandon on his new Star Ocean game and me re-organizing my closet, learning some new songs, and fixing up this blog.  You like?

Two songs have been stuck in my head for days.  I know they’re not the regular earworms because I still have them in my head even after I listened to them.  It’s usually a sign for me to learn the damn thing and give myself a real reason to have the song stuck in my head!

Now that I’ve got rolling on two new songs for my repertoire, I’d better practice.  Besides, my fingers have lost the agility for piano and the calluses to withstand guitar strings.  Thank god my breathing might actually be better now that I’ve been doing yoga.  One out of three ain’t bad!

Let me get a little better on this and I might, MIGHT, just record a bit of it for you guys.  😉

Oh, the two new songs? These are them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJbz5HaKCJc]

I can’t really do the lovely guitar work he does here. I’m learning the basic chords for now and will be watching some tutorials and practice, practice, practice!  However, I hope my piano rendition might be okay for now.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEKCsSlK3jg]

There’s a bajillion versions of this song out there (including Sad Kermit and K.D. Lang), but since we’re talking Damien Rice here, I’ll just give you guys his version too.

Golden Boy

All of us survived the Oscars Marathon.  Olaina and I actually stayed for all five.  There was a good 45 minutes break between Ben Button and Slumdog Millionaire.  We all had a wonderful time.

I still like Slumdog Millionaire best.  An FB friend raised a question of Slumdog being overrated and that there are better screenplays out there that should win.  I agree with him on that.  Lord knows how the Academy votes this year.  Are they looking at the craftsmanship?  That case, Benjamin Button should take the cake for the epic scale.  Screenplay and directing? Perhaps Frost/Nixon should win for that.  Overall excellence plus the effects on your emotions? Slumdog should be the winner for the fact that I was completely lost in the movie.

Will I be disppointed if Ben Button took the cake tonight? Yes and no. It’s a superbly crafted film. But N’awleans doesn’t have my heart the way Mumbai does.  So I’m sticking with my choice even if I’m completely wrong about it.

Sean Penn carries Milk through. I don’t think this movie would’ve survived anywhere without him.  He’s the only well known actor out of this five that truly disappears.  Ditto Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin.  I kept slipping that I was watching a documentary until someone else showed up to remind me that it wasn’t.

The Reader left me pondering my own morality afterward.  You can shoot me now but I was rooting for Hanna and hating Michael for not being a man he needed to be.  You can also shoot me for agreeing with Hanna’s explanation of why she did what she did.  However, unlike Milk, I still see Kate shining through Hanna.  But yes, it was a very raw performance.

Benjamin Button is excellent.  It’s a lot like Forrest Gump and instead of being “stupid”, it’s aging backward.  Taraji Henson is wonderful, and I think someone should’ve given Cate Blanchett an award too.  Brad Pitt’s performance, however, isn’t mind blowing to me.  It feels like watching Legends of the Fall all over again.  Ah, the glory and yumminess that is Brad Pitt!  To quote Daisy, he’s “perfection” here.  And THAT distracts from what the movie is supposed to be.  I can see this movie being a much better one if it’s someone else not on the list for the Sexiest Man Alive.  Seriously.

You already know my stand on Slumdog Millionaire.  It’s a jubilant film, that’s how I describe it.  Beautifully shot. I laughed. I cried. I cringed. I cheered. I gasped.  And the entire theater were doing the same thing more than any of the movies at the marathon.  Both dramatic and serious, and yet funny and has the heart all at the same time.  It’s like a bacon caramel: sounds weird, but it’s the sweet and savory combination that is pure magic and make you want more.  Wow. I just compared a movie to food. Good god.

Finally, Frost/Nixon.  I actually nodded off here and there through this movie, but the bits of screenplay banter I caught were great.  Frank Langella did wonderfully.  I have a hard time connecting with ANY of the characters in this one.  Frost is desparate but I had no sympathy for the man. The girlfriend? WTF is her purpose really?  NOTHING!  And I guess the major disconnect for me is that it’s the part of U.S. history I don’t really care about much.

Here’s my explanation about that.  I came to the U.S. in 1993 for 11th grade, just in time for U.S. history class.  When Forrest Gump came out, I understood most of the relevance.  However, when I came home for the summer, I can’t even find one person who liked the movie.  Nobody really knows that much about American history outside of America to really care, apparently.  Frost/Nixon feels like that to me.  I know about Watergate from history lessons, but I wasn’t all that into it.  I didn’t feel that burning betrayal Americans of the time felt.  I didn’t care about that.  Sure, for some people, this was like a metaphor for George W.’s comeuppance.  But it’s not Dubya on my screen.  I can’t connect with it.  At all.

Now, it’s ballot time.  I’ll update with my statistics after the Oscars.  I actually saw 2 of the nominated documentaries this year.  So the wild guesses are going to the shorts and the foreign films. My prediction in **bold/italic.**

ETA: 58% accuracy this year, kids.  Still off my A game but not quite as bad as last year’s.  I had second thoughts on many of these because my super emotional ties to Slumdog.  And those were the ones that cost me.  Next year, listen to my gut for sure.

BEST PICTURE
Winner: **“Slumdog Millionaire”**

BEST ACTRESS
Winner: **Kate Winslet, “The Reader”**

BEST ACTOR
Winner: **Sean Penn, “Milk”**

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
**Taraji P. Henson, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” **

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: **Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”**

BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: **Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”**

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: Dustin Lance Black, “Milk
**Marttin McDonagh, “In Bruges”**

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: **Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”**

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: “Departures” (Japan) – Is everyone as surprised as the entire room?? **“Waltz with Bashir” (Israel)**

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Winner: **“WALL-E”**

BEST ART DIRECTION
Winner: **“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”**

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: “Slumdog Millionaire,” Anthony Dod Mantle
**“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button,” Claudio Miranda**

BEST FILM EDITING
Winner: “Slumdog Millionaire,” Chris Dickens
**“The Dark Knight,” Lee Smith**

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Winner: **“The Duchess,” Michael O’Conner**

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Winner: **“Man on Wire”**

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Winner: “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Jai Ho,” A.R. Rahman
**“WALL-E,” “Down To Earth,” Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman**

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: **“Slumdog Millionaire,” A.R. Rahman**

BEST MAKEUP
Winner: **“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Colleen Callaghan, Fionagh Cush**

BEST SOUND EDITING
Winner: “The Dark Knight,” Richard King
**“WALL-E,” Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood**

BEST SOUND MIXING
Winner: “Slumdog Millionaire,” Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
**“WALL-E,” Ben Burtt, Tom Myers, Michael Semanick**

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner: **“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Eric Barba**

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Winner: “Spielzeugland (Toyland)”
“Manon on the Asphalt” – And I was going to pick the German sounding one. You know, the holocaust story almost always wins, right?

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Winner: “La Maison en Petits Cubes”
**“Presto”**

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Winner: “Smile Pinki”
“The Final Inch”

Holy Trinity Weekend

It’s over. My big event is all done.  Hellooooo, normal life! Kind of.

I have next week to get content to our web people and we need to launch that puppy at the end of next month.

But today, I will wrap up other things and will lunch at Drago Centro.

Yep. Treating myself to a Dine LA menu as a celebration of having managed a sold-out event and having been with the Office for 4 years.

I’ve also been blogging a little prolifically at the food blog since I started to remember to pick up my camera when I was done cooking.  It’s really interesting to try to take picture of food and making it look yummy.  Food photography is not as easy as you think!

And tomorrow, Olaina and I are going to burrow ourselves in movie theater seats ALL day.  The joy of the Oscars showcase at AMC!  Darn Ben Button, the only reason why we might not be out of the theatre until 1 a.m.   The last movie, Frost/Nixon, doesn’t go on until 9:45, yo!  Nonetheless, THIS is the movie lover heaven.

My friend Greg and his lovely girlfriend will also join us.  They’re skipping out on The Reader and we’ll skip out on Slumdog Millionaire.  Even Irena and Danny who joined me last year are trying to move their previous engagement so they could go to one in their neck of the wood in MA.

Sunday, I’m planning on hanging out with my baby all day. The man put up with me all week with this work crap…AND saved me when the migraine hit!  Probably going to try hiking somewhere new if the weather permits.

Food. Movie. And Brandon. There you have my Holy Trinity of Love.

I want to go home

I technically haven’t been “home” since Monday.  Work has been driving me bonkers with how crazy busy it’s been.

I got home on Monday for 5 minutes and Brandon whisked me off to see “Taken”.  Holy crap, Liam Neeson is scary.  He really did carry the movie.  If it was somebody else, that movie would not have been that good.  But I digress.

Tuesday was Spamalot night.  I didn’t get home until 8 p.m.  Brandon was nursing a stress/sinus headache when I got home so we just went to bed.

Wednesday was yoga night.  Brandon finally was available to go to his first class.  He whisked me away from the bus stop to class.  After that, we raced to the UPS distribution center to pick up his new toy, an air rifle.  We picked up dinner, watched “Lost” and went to bed.

Last night I was supposed to be meeting up with Annette and other Twitter people, but the rain caused major snarls all over LA so we called it off.  I got off the bus at 7:00 p.m., not incredibly late.  However I was still dizzy from the bus driver’s rough driving, so it was good to just go home.  Brandon was out playing with his air rifle at the shooting range.

Finally, I was “home”.

I opened a bottle of Cabernet and curled up with my bowl of baked potato soup from Maderas, and caught up on some of the shows I neglected to watch when I was “away” this week.  Brandon came home a while later and we watched “Heroes” and “Life”.  Man, how I’ve missed Charlie Cruz!

If I had it my way, I would probably stay up to watch everything else that’s left on Tivo and had some more wine.  But nope, I was a good girl.

Kind of.  Apparently 2 glasses of wine was a bit too much for last night.  LOL.

I hope I can really be home tonight and make dinner.  Chicken and dumplings start to sound VERY good…

Magazine Drive

I was on the couch most of the day yesterday.  Oddly enough, it was quite a productive afternoon.

I haven’t quite gotten caught up with all my magazines.  I would leave them on my little side table/cabinet by the couch so I can read them when I plop down.  However, the Man of the House doesn’t like seeing stuff on there (even though he generally sits on the other side of the couch), so he would put them in the cabinet.

Since I don’t see the magazines there, I forget about them.  Until the newest one arrives in the mail to remind me about the last one that I didn’t read.

“Everyday with Rachael Ray” and “Real Simple” get read earlier on and don’t hang around the house very long.  I read through them and ripped out the recipes or tips I need and then tossed the mags.  With “Self” magazine, this one needs a thorough reading so it goes straight to the bathroom counter.  (Yes, I read a lot in there.  It’s a family thing.)  I usually keep them in there also because I see them every morning when I get ready.  Just seeing the magazines there is a good enough  motivator.  And finally, “Entertainment Weekly” gets read almost immediately, or before bed, as any good pop culture vulture would.

However, the one that I get really, REALLY behind on is “Food & Wine”.  These guys do need undivided attention.  Unlike a recipe book like Rachael Ray’s or generally boring foods of Real Simple, F&W is an educational read for me.  After all, I am an inspiring cook.  You can’t really improve your skills cooking simple stuff all the time!

I read F&W almost as thoroughly as I read “Self”.  I did put it in the bathroom once and found it thoroughly inappropriate for obvious reasons.

So yesterday, I put the telly on and parked my butt on the couch and went through the stack.  2 Rachael Ray’s and one Real Simple later, I finally got to F&W and found that I pretty much haven’t read them since August.

And boy, what a resource!  I learned all sorts of things just going through 2 of those last night.  I may not rip out all of the recipes but I briefly look at those left behind as well.  I checked out the ingredients I didn’t know and was surprised by little things I picked up like Jose Andres.  Last week I didn’t even know who the guy was until I saw him on Anthony Bourdain’s D.C. episode.  Now I saw in F&W that he has a restaurant, The Bazaar, in LA at SLS Hotel, AND next week is LA Restaurant week and you can get a prefix there for $44.

Knowledge is indeed power.

And all of this from sitting on a couch, reading magazines and watching television.

ASIDE: I also watched 2 documentaries over the past few days.  Encounters at the End of the World about people who live and work in Antarctica.  And then I watched via Netflix on-demand Man on Wire about Phillippe Petit who walked the wire between the top of the World Trade Center towers back in the 70s.  Both are essentially about a completely different breed of human, seeking their places in the world in non-traditional ways.  Encounters was a little bit slow at time but Man on Wire played out like a crime caper and it was quite fun to watch.  See? Horizon expanded over the time spent on a couch!

25 Things a la Facebook

I had a feeling I might have done this before but for the life of me, I can’t find it on the blog.  I guess if I can’t remember, then it never really happened.

Since I got tagged bajillion times on Facebook for this, and for some reason I’m not even tired, here’s my random 25.

  1. I’m ambidextrous. Sort of. Think I was born a lefty but then was made to use my right hand.  I write with my right.  Shoot hoops and pick up heavy stuff with my left.  I bat left because as a lefty forced to play tennis right handed, my two handed backhand stroke was my strong point.
  2. I can’t float in water. I’ve been trying to learn, but I just can’t do it.
  3. The first movie I ever cried in was when Hooch died in Turner & Hooch.
  4. The latest movie I cried in was at the end of The Martian Child.
  5. I am an eighth Iranian.  Surprise!  My mom’s grandmother immigrated from Iran, as I found out from my family history.
  6. Lactose used to be my best friend. Now, more of a frenemy.  I can have a little, but too much and you can put me in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.
  7. My mom made me swear that I will never, ever do anything to my eyebrows.  “Your grandmother gave you that,” she said.  In the olden days, a royal tradition is to bless a newborn and “draw” their features with the dye made from a purple flower.  The belief is that the eyebrows will grow in the shape that was drawn.  (Then again, mom also over-plucked hers in her youth and regretted it.)  I don’t touch my eyebrows except to stem off unibrow.
  8. Brandon and I have never said a wedding vow or any of the “For better or for worse” crap.  We got married traditional Thai way–there was no vow.
  9. I have a poster of Emily the Strange signed by her senior illustrator Nix Turner.
  10. I still have the trusty clothespin I used all semester of Cinematography class.  Love that clothespin. It holds EVERYTHING.
  11. Don’t tell anybody but I think occasionally I still have the hots for Tom Cruise. One never quite outgrows her first celebrity obsession.
  12. Lily is the only close friend who is shorter than me.
  13. I was the longest reigning shortest girl in class since kindergarten until I inched out the other shorty in 6th grade.  Then that girl left school so I was the shortest one through 10th grade.  When I came back from the U.S. after 11th grade, I outgrew Lily and therefore lost my title.
  14. I own a pair of figure skates.  Yes, Thailand DID (still do?) have an ice rink.  My 4th grade, rich BFF wanted a pair of hockey skates but her mom bought her figure.  Guess who had the same size feet?  I still have them in a closet back home.
  15. I own a pair of roller skates.  Right here in my closet.
  16. I read on the throne.  My dad sets quite an example.
  17. I went to a 10-day meditation retreat once.  Once was enough for me.  I learned a lot.
  18. My motion sickness is legendary.  I can’t get on a hammock.  Sometimes not even a swing.  Can’t spin me around on an office chair either.  I also get motion sick from a movement of the crowd–found that out from the meditation camp as I constantly got nauseated at walking meditation.  That’s why I don’t really like crowds.
  19. I had written a parody of the classic Thai epic poem “Pra Apai Manee”–in the same poetry format and of an epic proportion for a school girl.  Twenty some pages long.
  20. I once considered becoming a wicca in college.  Got a friend who was one and gave me all the books.  Freaked Nora out when I told her.  Didn’t quite get into it.
  21. I was asked to join my school’s Saturday art camp (2nd-3rd grade, I think?) because I had potentials, but was asked to not return after a couple of weeks in because I sucked.  Joy was in that too.
  22. Joy’s art from the camp made it to be printed on the school’s fundraising bookmarks accompanied by my slogan.  Take that, art teacher!
  23. I wanted to be the first Thai doctor to become a NASA astronaut who will also become a magazine editor once she retires from space missions.
  24. As far as I know, I was the only person in my entire school to have subscription to a science magazine. (Then again, back then, there was only one.)
  25. As far as I know, I am the only person in my circle of friends here and back home who has ever seen/remembered Animalympics.

But hey, we can remedy #25 now!  Someone digitized the whole thing in 9 sections.  Start here!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Zs3607vQs]