OakMonster’s Den

Coworkers congregated in my cubicle over some chocolate covered almonds.

“Have you seen Oakley’s article in the Daily Breeze?” Coworker #1 referred to my 15 seconds of fame.

“No,” Coworker #2.

CW#1 continued to tell CW#2 about Temple of Fresh & Easy blog.

CW#2 snorted.  “Who has time for that kind of thing?”

And of course, CW#2 ranted on about how he doesn’t have time to do the Facebook or “such nonsense” because of his busy social schedule, implying along the way that folks who do those things don’t really have a life.

That did it.

Seriously, I am getting tired of the whole implication that because I put my life online that I have nothing better to do with my time.

Do I talk down on your hobby of fixing up classic cars, pimping rides, antiquing, woodworking, gardening, or, in CW#2’s case, hanging out at bars and clubs?

You choose what to do with your free time.  You make time for your hobby.  Mine happens to be blogging, social networking, and video gaming.

Yet, these “normal people” constantly talk down to us geeks.

I used to just laugh it off and went with the “Oh, I know. I don’t have a life,” as a reply.

But I’m not going to do that any more.

Fuck you and your “normal life”.

I *do* have a life.  It’s not the same one you live or the one you think it’s “cool”.

My life is online, digitized, and pixelated.  But it’s a life I’ve chosen to live.

I find my meaning in writing and sharing my thoughts with the world, whether the world wants it or not.  I find my meaning in sharing my life with other I don’t know as a window into some new experience that is not my day-to-day.  I find my meaning in squashing the bad guys in my games with my controller until my hands cramped up.

Like I discussed with fellow Twitter-ette SallieB before, some of us have the ability to build relationships both online and off.  Some of such relationships only get better with the reinforcements from the other source.

I have human interaction with my local friends, and even better relationships with my long distance buddies.  I actually get to “meet” new people across the world I would never would have met in a bar like Rude Cactus, Steve and Richard of Thai-Blogs, Chef House, and many readers that I have come to “talk” to like Irish Cousin Robert and Amy of the Q Family.

And there’s also the new circle of friends we built around Brandon’s World of Warcraft guild and occasion gathering of the geeks at James’ house.

I put my life online originally because half of the people I know live half the world away.  Blogging was the best way to keep everyone in touch.  Not that they really swing by here often either, but I give them an option to be updated.  I know going in that if I put this online, everyone gets to see it.  I know that since I started my first website back in college.

My blog and other social networking media is a newsletter or a zine that happens to be online.

I’ve always “printed” some kind of zines since I was in 3rd grade.  It’s the same concept with a new medium.

Still my hobby.  Something I love to do and make time for.

So, go on out with your cool kids to the hip bars, “normal people”.  I’ll be right here with my computer and game console, enjoying my own life my own way.

…do not tell of war or of waste, but about a fan blog called Temple of Fresh & Easy.

Yes, sirree!

Finding Nirvana at Salad Bin ran in the Business Casual Column in the Torrance Daily Breeze today. (Folks reading this 2 weeks from now may not see the link. I’ll be sure to post a PDF later.)

Thanks, Muhammed again for coming down to my humble abode last week!

ETA: Muhammed also posted my picture on his blog and described me as “vivacious”.  That’s the biggest word anybody has ever used to describe me! 

Photo by Muhammed El-Hasan.

Muhammed from Torrance Daily Breeze was in my home office on Friday night to interview me about the Temple of Fresh & Easy blog–you know, my store obsession blog.

Then came the questions about why I blog about a grocery store. Why especially would I give a business free publicity and get nothing in return? Do I feel like I was taken advantage of?
I know that it is his job to ask the questions and get to the bottom of why some random person would start blogging about a grocery store and expect nothing in return.

The fact that he asked me that question got me thinking.

Have we as a society become so jaded that we question people’s motive for saying nice things about others?

With Web 2.0, we as consumers can now raise our voices like we could never have done before. We can band together to cheer on for the restaurant we love. We can link our arms in verbal protests against a salon that wreck our hair and rape our wallet. We can rate the deodorant we bought yesterday so others may use our input to make a better decision before they buy.

As consumers, you are no longer alone in the dark. Many of us are out there with you.

Sure, floating out there are also people who are professional promoters and endorsers. I can see why some folks, including Muhammed, would question my motive.

I did tell Muhammed that I just like telling people about things that I love. There’s nothing in it for me. I don’t do it for the glory. I don’t do it for fame. I don’t even know if anybody else would drop by any of my blogs at all.

But just in case they do, now they would know about something good they can pick up or a product they shouldn’t try.

For those who know me in person or from this blog, they know that I’m just, well, too damn quirky to have a motive.

I am passionate about things that I love and hate. I will rave about things I love and rant about things I hate. Mediocre stuff just doesn’t really get the mention because, well, it’s not worth the time.

Look at my Yelp! reviews. It’s either love or hate. I don’t do in-betweens. When I love a restaurant, I get everyone to go there. When I hate a restaurant, I will tell anyone who’d listen. I have a coupon for places I love to shop, I pass it around too.

Heck, just last week, I hauled cupcakes from Charmed Cupcakes in Long Beach on the bus to my office Downtown because I love their cakes and want everyone to try them and experience the joy. I could have easily ordered the cupcakes from Silver Lake where we usually do. But we’ve done that. This LB place is new, and it’s good. I feel obligated to spread the word.

See? Here goes the link and the shout out. Haha. Can’t help myself.

Do I get free cake from the shop? No. Just the pleasure to know that now people will enjoy something yummy.

Is my desire to spread the joy I have experienced considered a motive?

Well, heck. I guess I do have a motive after all.

Y’all, I once again bought a bike.

This is my new baby, Electra Townie, souped up with a cargo rack, a makeshift cargo hold (container bin and bungee mesh), and, of course, a bell. Brandon also scored his new cross-country bike, replacing his undersized cheapy that’s been killing his back and, more importantly, his bad knee this whole time.

While Brandon’s purchase was planned as he’s taking the riding a bit more seriously now, it was a slightly impulsive buy for me. But I’m tired of being left behind when the boys go out to ride. Sure, they can do the rides on their own, but at least Brandon and I can do something together in addition to just playing games, watching movies, or driving around.

So, Brandon and I went on a test ride today to, where else, Fresh & Easy store. My goal is that I could ride there on my own to do some shopping before it gets dark. And eventually, we’ll ride all the way to James & Aurora’s house. And eventually after that, all the way to Seal Beach and back.

Finally, my “cousin” May (her mom is one of my mom’s best friends) is acclimating to Beijing. Her brother Nicky is blogging about it here. I will leave the link up for you on the right column through the entire Olympics.

My dad is all excited about the Olympics too. It’s always been big deal for us growing up, watching the coverage and sometimes live broadcast of the Olympics. The opening ceremony was never missed in our household, no matter what time it came on. The 2004 Olympics were especially good for Thailand, most medals ever won. I hope we repeat ourselves here. Come on, Paradorn. Bring us home some bronze, at least, bro!

And speaking of the games, does ANYONE know where we can watch the opening ceremony LIVE? NBC’s schedule shows that they will broadcast at prime time. But Beijing is 15 hours ahead of PST therefore that can’t possibly be live! If we want to see it live, then we should have to resort to the internet? Seriously, any lurkers with the knowledge, could you please de-lurk for the day and clue me in, I’d really appreciate it.

Well, at least I found out that USA channel will broadcast badminton live. At least we can try to catch May there.

Hope everyone’s weekend was great!

I used to dance.

I’m not particularly good at it, as in I could never go to Juilliard, but I wasn’t horrible.

This might come to surprise to some, but I used to be THE choreographer at school back in my days.  Mainly because nobody else would risk the embarrassment to do the job, while I, on the other hand, have no concept of shame.

There wasn’t a school show I didn’t dance in or choreographed or both.  I was in every Christmas pageant since kindergarten.  I was on the “dance team”, a handful of dancers teachers would call on to perform somewhere.

I started ballet in kindergarten and took the standard tests for it up to level III before I decided that I didn’t want to be tested any more.  The instructor didn’t seem to mind me continuing to take classes  with everyone without the test.  As a matter of fact, at some point, for the big multi-school production of The Nutcracker, I was taking 3 levels of dance lessons.  Because of my size, I was to perform as the clowns with the girls one level below me.  Then I’d take my regular class and learned all the moves as Clara’s friends. And I followed that with the advance class, but just the regular class but not the choreography.

Anyways.  By 6th grade, I started on pointe.  First of all, I was the only one left in the class who actually haven’t done any testing.  I was also the only one left who actually didn’t have the goal to go to dance school or have a serious career in dance.   I surely didn’t have the long, lean body for a ballerina.  I was there purely because I love to dance.

The instructor didn’t think the same way.  Pretty much, I was given minimal instructions and largely ignored in class.  I didn’t even know I was supposed to break my pointes so that they would flex.  Conveniently for all, my motion sensitivity set in just about the same time.  I mean, I couldn’t even do a double on regular shoes without feeling dizzy.  It was never like that!  On pointe, the dizzy spell was a lot worse.  I would pretend to sit out in class, blaming it on my toes, when in reality I was so dizzy from all the spins I was ready to throw up.   I would come home and lay down for another hour before I can even move.

That was the end of ballet and the beginning of jazz.  I was enjoying jazz thoroughly when the class I could attend was canceled.  Then the school moved to a new location, no longer convenient.

Despite the fact that I was no longer taking classes, I was still called on to dance and choreographed.  I guess because, like I said, I was the only one up for the job.

I came to the U.S. and I was excited that you can actually take dance as one of your classes!  But then I got to visit the dance class and quickly realized that I would be totally out of my league.  And here, who would want me to do anything.  So I retreated to my own private production of dancing around my bedroom.

Sometimes I beat myself up for having to quit proper lessons years ago.  Same regret I had with piano.  But I still love to watch people dance.  I still feel the music through my veins.  As a matter of fact, watching a dance performance, sometimes my muscles would twitch as if they want to dance too.

And my body was doing that when I watch So You Think You Can Dance, my newest TV addiction.

I can never dance like that.  But I was surprised that my criticism from the couch was the same as the experts on the panels most of the time.

It’s not that I have the expertise.  But I FEEL the dance.  If the dancers couldn’t move me, if they couldn’t get me twitching, they’re not conveying the emotions that should be moving the audience.  And that just can’t be a good performance.

SYTYCD thoroughly entertains me and at the same time it breaks my heart that I no longer dance.

But yes, I am planning on getting my shoes back on and get back out there.  As a matter of fact, a few years ago, I took up jazz at the community center.  No offense to older readers, but the class was paced for seniors.  Not what I was looking for.

Nonetheless, I AM planning to take up the classes again. I have done some research and I know where to go now.  It’s just a matter of money at this point.

Sad: Dropped Brandon off at the airport this morning. Poor thing.

Glad: Had lunch with Nora in Irvine since I was already in the area. It’s good to return the favor.

Splurge: While waiting to go have lunch with Nora in Irvine, I ended up at the Container Store. Those of you who have been there know that when you go in for one thing, you come out with much more. I went in for two bottles of Mrs. Myers dish soaps. I came out with kitchen wrapper organizer (badly needed), closet organizers to replace my giant plastic tub that threatens to kill me every time I pull off the top shelf, sturdy clear plastic baskets for the hard to reach part of my top pantry shelves, and a travel clothing organizer to keep Brandon’s shirts from wrinkling for his next trip…which is at the end of the month.

Saving: Bought a pair of low heel brown shoes for $25 down from $60 and therefore save buying one new suit.

Fate: Someone tapped Brandon 0n the shoulder to get into her seat on the plane Cincinnati to Harrisburg. He looked up to see his mom.

Planned: Half of the things I want to get done today is done. The other half starts to look every unappealing.

Productive: Got to organizing the pantry less Brandon’s top shelf full of tools. I seriously cannot see what I’m reaching for out there. There was a moment I was going to stack my stepping stool on a chair, but since there’s no one here to call 911 if I fall, I didn’t. Also put together the first set of closet organizer and put the plastic wraps and parchment papers etc. in place.

Procrastinate: Took a break and channel surfed. Still haven’t put the closet organizer in the closet yet. I guess blogging is considered a part of this category. Now that I’ve been watching the cooking shows, I think I need to eat dinner and get started on the cookies.

Dread: 10 dozen of the Weevil Cookies I have to bake tonight.

Anticipation: That’s $150 for AIDS Walk Long Beach right there, baby!

Active: My roller skates totally rocked. I rolled out down the street with Brandon yesterday to the pharmacy and looped around the apartment parking lot for a bit. At least I seemed to remember how to do this. My body is loving a little exercise too.

Inactive: As predicted, ankle swells up just a wee little bit. Not painful to walk on but I wasn’t going to skate today even though the procrastination totally is cheering me on. Besides, the lot is kind of busy today with the neighbors downstairs moving and the other tenant getting all of his crap out of the garage.

Okay. Okay. I’ll stop stalling now.

*sigh* So much to do on my day off.

Matt the Lost Boy launched his top 100 Thailand blogs ranking.

Guess who came in at #21? ETA: Ranking changed daily.  So I’ve dropped like gazillion spots since the launch.  Haha!  Get over there and help me at least stay on the list, okay?

I am surprised and honored to actually get to share the edge of the spotlight where the really good blogs about Thailand are featured.

My blog is more of a personal rant and rave with some Thai flavors. Well, heck, I’m Thai! What other flavor is this blog going to have? Even my husband says that despite all of my American-ness, my instincts and habits are very Thai.

My life stories listed here also serve as a cultural study of Thai cultures. I’m one of those more previleged ones from a famous family. And I happened to be laced with some royal DNAs. My story and point of view is going to be different than others.

But I guess being a Thai living in America, writing about things on both sides of the ponds, does represent my motherland. I’m totally okay with that.

Thanks for the love, blogosphere!

Seriously.

Friday was a combination of hard work and fun. Nhien and I managed not to hurt ourselves while moving all sorts of boxes of our printed matter around the office and worked up a pretty good appetite. We grabbed Celeste and Pat and headed to Sushi Go 55 and the rest is over there.

We came back just in time for me to throw the office birthday party. With yummy stuff from Delilah Bakery, everyone had a happy afternoon, all hopped up on sugar! I mean, all 6′ 5″ of Canadian Greg scooted over to us on this thing that another coworker used during his recovery from a knee surgery.

Saturday was spectacular! My Adobe Acrobat class is still going at the pace of molasses, but at least there was something new to be learned. However, while I waited for the instructor to explain to the old lady in the front why she had restart her machine or something else, I managed to join the cult of Twitter, did the food blog entry, AND played a few games of Bejeweled on my iGoogle.

Hey, at least I managed my time well. If I’m going to get stuck there, not learning anything while the old folks catch up, I might as well do something productive, right?

Later on that afternoon, we FINALLY got to take Olaina to Las Brisas in Redondo Beach. Back in their high school days, Brandon and Justin would ditch school and drive around for adventures Brandon’s Jeep. It was destiny when the Jeep ran out of gas a few pushes away from Las Brisas. The boys have been eating here whenever they are in the area ever since.

Justin and Olaina were up in the area to hunt for their new place to live. And they found one today in Redondo Beach. Signed, sealed, and delivered! Woohoo!

And for dinner, I made a spectacular dinner without actually having to leave the house for the store: bacon-wrapped cod with caper-shallot sauce with a side of peas and carrots. Oh yes, I am good.

And on Sunday, she rests.

Like, until 10 a.m.

And then it was on like Donkey Kong for the rest of the afternoon, starting with a trip to Fry’s and a pit stop at Fresh & Easy. Then I helped Brandon patched my windshield seals back onto the car. Folks who replaced my windshield in September did a horrific job. A few months after the replacement, the seals around it started to separate. Finally this past week, the one around the top actually popped off in parts. I would be driving down the freeway with this thing flapping about, banging on my roof. The lack of seal also brought on a nasty howling/whistling, depending on literally which way the wind blows. If the homemade cure doesn’t hold, Brandon’s going to take the car back to the folks by his work.

Then again, with the gas price the way it is, he is going to start driving my car to work anyway. Sheesh! $35 for 8 gallon? I damn near cried at the pump! But I digress.

I then started the laundry, including my bedroom curtains which had been pinning them double thickness…which I intended to wash then sew together after dinner…which I pulled out of the dryer and found a tag that said “Dry Clean Only”…and which are now slightly less green and when folded in half and sewn aren’t exactly the same length.

I am an everyday fuckin’ Martha Stewart, I tell ya!

At some point while waiting for the laundry, Brandon went to take a nap. Athena followed me up hung out in our apartment for a good half hour, a new record for her. I couldn’t do anything around the house while she visit because a) sudden movement still scares her and, b) I don’t trust her alone in a room just yet. After all she IS an outdoor cat that wondered in off the street. Who knew what kind of bad habit she had picked up.

But the half hour crawling around the floor after Athena (because getting up suddenly would freak her out a little bit), following this purring, paw-pawing, cute-as-hell black fluff ball of a cat was well worth it.

Pretty much just about anything “busy” I did this weekend is well worth it.

Saturday at the El Dorado Nature Walk with the boys, Brandon and Erik.

We also got into a little bit of a public art project.

As I was coming home the past week, I noticed there were these flat, wooden stakes duct-taped to a few lamp posts along the road. I wondered what they were for so I asked Brandon when we drove by. The most logical explanation is that these were parts of political campaign signs. Folks just removed the paper part and not taking off the rest.

Brandon said jokingly, “Maybe somebody needs to protect themselves against vampires or something.”

Naturally, an art project was born: “Use in case of vampire attack”.

*

Today I went on with Nora to the Brewery Art Walk in Downtown LA. For those who are not familiar with the Brewery, it’s an art colony of over 500 artists, the largest live-work colony in the world. The Brewery is a 22-building complex on 23 acres, comprises a variety of structures, some dating back to 1888. This used to be the plant where they brewed Pabst. Twice a year, they open up their doors to the public, quite literally welcoming us to their homes.

And my god, how much I still would LOVE to live in a loft. And how much I would LOVE to really have space to CREATE without worrying about messing up my space. LOL.

Nora and I perused a lot of spaces with our main focus on photography. We didn’t have the energy to do them all, but we did what we can.

Afterward, since we parked right by it, Nora and I made a pit stop at the San Antonio Wineries. We walked out with some tasty sparkling white wine. Man, that place could totally be bad news for the wallets of a wayward alcoholic Asian and an adventurous wine drinking English-Irish. But we managed to escape with 2 and 1 bottle each respectively.

I put a little slide show for you here but I have all of my pictures over here.

No TGIF for me after all, my friends.

Welcome to one of the longest day of my life so far this year.

8:00 a.m. - Woke up and had some cuddle time with Brandon. That was nice. Until…

8:40 a.m. - Startled awake. OMFG!!! I managed to the turn off the alarm. Must leave the house in 10 minutes to make my 9 a.m. doctor’s appointment.

9:04 a.m. - Walk into the doctor’s office. Annual physical exam went well. Will find out about the blood works later.

9:30 a.m. - Grabbed a tuna sandwich and blueberry smoothie from Fresh & Easy for breakfast. Headed over to the Toyota dealership.

10:00 a.m. - About a mile from the dealership, the Check Engine light turned itself off. WTF!?

10:30 a.m. - With Merlin in good hands and my belly full of food, I walked around the corner to the optometrist appointment.

11:00 a.m. - Eye exam and contact lenses adjustments. We talked about the possibility for LASIK for me. It’s a toss up, really. On one hand, my sight has steadied in the past few years, a good candidate for laser correction. On the other hand, my eyes are so dry that the LASIK might trigger the worst. It was suggested that I check with my Trojan Ophthalmologist next. (Note to self: must make appointment.)

12:00 p.m. - Met up with Terence, former coworker, for lunch, catercorner from the dealership.

1:15 p.m. - Settled into the spa pedicure chair at my favorite nail place, across the street from the dealership.

1:45 p.m. - Wandered through Marshall’s and Ross in search of a new purse. Got a few potentials but did not fall in love with any. *sigh*

2:30 p.m. - Ended up at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Sipped tea and read while waiting.

3:30 p.m. - Arrived back at the dealership. They told me gazillion things were wrong with the car, but most importantly 2 things. One of which was an utter rip off, by the way. After a conversation with Brandon’s brother-in-law the Toyota chief mechanic, we just went with the major purchase that is Check Engine light related. You see, they cited transmission fluid being old and needed replacing. About a month ago, Brandon changed my oil and accidentally drained the transmission fluid so replaced that. Suddenly, I completely lost 100% faith in that dealership. I used to trust them so much. Then again, they’re under new management. That may just be why.

4:00 p.m. - Stopped back at the old office to transfer used books out of Terence’s car. Operation Paperback is in full swing for me, as it is one of my “to do” list since the Awakening.

4:30 p.m. - Found myself at Fresh & Easy again to pick up groceries for dinner. I was making the garlic Dijon crusted pork roast with roasted veggies.

5:00 p.m. - Arrived home and started working on packing up the books and other things.

6:00 p.m. - Then we realized we had to go get our taxes signed off.

6:30 p.m. - Stopped at Pound 4 Pound and dropped off dinner for Shane.

7:00 p.m. - Signed tax paperwork. Headed home.

7:30 p.m. - I started in on dinner prep work. Brandon started the laundry and continued for all 3 loads. Meanwhile, I got to sit down and enjoyed Eli Stone.

9:00 p.m. - Dinner was served.

10:00 p.m. - I put the laundry away. Brandon did the dishes. I packed the boxes of books. Brandon enjoyed his game…

12:30 a.m. - …until his brand new computer acted up. Brandon went to bed. I’m practically falling asleep typing right now. So, good night to you.

Tomorrow? I have to wake up early again to take the boxes to the post office before the crew lands at 10 a.m. to go shooting.

Oh gosh. I’m so frickin’ tired I can’t even swear properly…