the dodgers concessions or whatnot entities are out of their fugging mind if they think people will pay 60 bucks for an image download. seriously bonkers. i screen printed the photos of some of us from last saturday's game. fuck the police

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

the dodgers concessions or whatnot entities are out of their fugging mind if they think people will pay 60 bucks for an image download. seriously bonkers. i screen printed the photos of some of us from last saturday's game. fuck the police

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

its been approx. 2 weeks of successful healthy eating

• saving money by packing lunch from home
• and saving gas by not going out to buy lunch 

score one for the environment and minus one for the economy

healthy type activity during last 2 weeks has been a bust

• 2 hours of OT every day of the week left little time to work out after work
• endeavoring to make a new habit of taking a walk for 10-15 minutes around the campus as a break from being a chained to a desk for 10hrs a day
  

bought barry's bootcamp box from target at jen's suggestion, and because it was on teh price cut. recently tried it out. pleased with it so far. i can see why people would want to do barry's bootcamp in person, barry seems quite the charmer on the dvd, though richard's stories might make one think otherwise.

gah on this saturday's mandatory OT, 4 fugging hours, plus i have to call Eri-san, my sensei's TA and schedule a lunch with her and my peeps from Japanese class. ugh iono where to go! blargh!

must get my shit together ASAP... 

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

i'm officially claiming its spring in LA

there might be rain tomorrow or not but seriously it feels like winter is over.
weather was nice on saturday and sunday.

saturday was japanese class, popping down to kaiser for a doctor's appointment that is actually this next saturday... Doh!, me writing a letter to kogi bbq's alice about the bad service we got at the alibi room friday night and getting some late night kyochon with jen, jose andy and jik... talking about how a monkey or ape has crazy strength and can potentially rip your face off. like what happened to this lady in real life... strike one for healthy type eating

sunday was me taking my fams to dim sum in alhambra... strike two for healthy eating. the rest of the day was hanging out at jik's, playing with the house cat, watching teh very bratty kaylee pulling temper tantrums as usual and watching horrible realty tv and too many u-verse tv choices, harry potter and a bit of live free and die hard. which made me think "america, fuck yeah!" and going to eat breakfast for dinner at IHOP and then Fosselman's Ice Cream for desert... strike three for healthy eating weekend!

ugh. i miss hanging out w/ my BBC but it usually involves teh bad food choices. bleh. we should try and do something that doesn't involve eating food or drinking booze. maybe trips to places where you have to walk some distance. the weather is totally nice enough for that. meh on teh lazy mornings. must get back on track.

i anticipate monday will involve some stupidly long OT. bleh. bleh blah blee bloo blargh. i am the はたらきばち (hatarakibachi) worker-bee... >_<

Bumblebee

buzz buzz buzz

one thing to look forward to is that watchmen is coming out. definitely gonna pick up some tickets at the arclight at the dome, yay! me and most of the bbc appear down to do the damn thing.

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

eh 30 what the fuck

my birthday celebrating has a a bit of track record of being either spectacularly non-spectacular events except for a few exceptions. while i was in school it was the finals/midterm whatever have you test times. lots of pressure to study, very little impetus to party it up on the actual day. postponement always ran into valentines day and then pouf kaput, the celebrating drive has passed completely and on to living the rest of your life like on the regular.

now that everyone or nearly everyone is out of school, most of my bougie bitch clique are working stiffs, being full-time-grown-ups for 40 plus hours a week. its just rawrsome when i can spend any sortof extended amount of time with my favorite people. so last time i was in SF with Renee and her friend Jenn, kipping it a Vanessa's apartment for the weekend. Porkchop and I talked about what an awesome b-day event it would be to go winetasting up in vineyards in Santa Barbara/Santa Inez.

so this Sunday we took a limo up to 3 vineyards. Sunstone, Gainey, and Rideau.and of course the best part of any trip is how you get there. after the initial snaffu with our train trip to SB via Amtrak getting cancelled, the plan modified to a limo picking us up at Andy's. 2.5 hr car ride flew by in a lovely bubbly haze a 5 bottle bubbly type of haze. 12 quality hanging out hours with lots of laughs and wine and minimal debauchery. generally being a bit inebriated before and after drinking wine is kinda fun. i decided that i didn't fancy the spicy wines. and nothing is better for a tiny wine hangover than jumping up and doing jump kicks.

the worst of the wine hangover feeling caught up with me after dinner. too much wine, yep there is definitely such a thing. maybe we were showing our age by calling it a night but it was pretty much a perfect day for me. spent with the best people i know. i am grateful for these bitches in my like, for the Vanessa's especially. Porkchop for being La Jefa you are my Barney, i know i said i didn't like you when i first met you but really i don't like most people when i first meet them, 1st impressions dont hold much water with me cause i usually give out a pretty lousy 1st impression.  VDG coming out from Boston to celebrate the celebrations and bringing the tasty bubbly y agua.

kindof looking at the whole thing as a non-milestone. its been said that 30 is the new 20. maybe that's not just wishful thinking after all.

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

my old doggy dilemma is over. our final decision was made yesterday and it was for the best. and kinda surprisingly it was my irresponsible brother that took the initiative in saying what had to be said and pretty much we all agreed with him. it was time to let elmo go. he just wasn't living the way a dog should. he was too old and too sick to manage even the basic stuff. so yeah this is the first doggy heartbreak for the barrera family. farewell loyal and true elmo, always scared the shit out of the mailman and neighborhood cats. he is gone but not forgotten *pics below are from last year

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Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

i've had a rough couple of days.

my poor dog elmo is quite old. roughly 14 yrs old which is about 98 in dog years.

so monday he was totally listless, not eating or drinking water, just laying in his dog bed.
i decided to take him to the vet next morning, a vet which he hasnt seen in near forever.
yeah we don't visit a vet on the regular cause yeah, we just dont do that kinda thing

anyhoo the vet says he's dehydrated and has a fever and yada yada they gotta put an IV in him and give him antibiotics and what not and do tests to see whats wrong. but prognosis is not good to very bad. sigh...

i go to work that day and am totally hanging on to my sanity with my fingernails. i called the doc for a status report at 3 and they tell me he's got tumors in his lungs and liver and prognosis is very bad, will he make it thru the night? who knows? i'm supposed to come in this morning and we'll be making decisions.

we as in me, my bro and lil sis roll into the vet this morning at 9. expecting the worst. and doc comes out and says that elmo's looking good. we see him sitting in the kennel with a sad expression until he sees us and tries to get up to say hello.

sure he need's help getting up but he's able to stand and drinks water even though he's got an IV in him. doc shows me the x-rays with the bad stuff going on in his lungs and liver and yeah pretty much tumors and long term prognosis maybe sooner or maybe later buy not much longer left, maybe not the rest of the year. but at least he can go home with us today. which he did. he's chillin in his dog bed now. i paid a grip and i've got meds and vitamins for him...

sigh

my nerves feel shot. dog is home, but hasnt shown an interest in eating. i hope things work out for the better but im still expecting the worst. cautiously optimistic... meh

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

was it a merry x-mas? i think subdued merry-making is still pretty good

no x-mas parties or x-mas eve family get togethers, we're not into those type shennanigans like other filipino fams.
renee and i spent the better part of x-mas eve looking for a meat thermometer for the roast we were going to have the next day. several ralphs and jons and cvs and finally a last ditch trip to food4less in the hood yeilded the elusive meat thermometer. we bought 2 just cause. along with some esentials for the potatoes and i got an assortment of eggo waffles to bring to the BBC Secret Santa to be held at andy's tomorrow, brunch-ish time. w00t!

anyhoo jamie came over x-mas eve to deliver the presents and i scored a new book and a very rad lego set

The Encyclopedia Shatnerica: An A to Z Guide to the Man and His Universe

Robert Schnakenberg

Lego4996

so i gave her 30 bucks in itunes gift cards and pushing daisies 1st season and renee gave her a mini burger's mold and the latest cooking mama game for wii which was quite difficult looking. then we played some rock band 2 where jamie was totally channelling gwen stefani singing a lot of the no doubt songs we had yet to play. and then she totally realized that eye of the tiger had very inspirational lyrics *duh... yeah she went for it 2x and closed out or set with it. she had work the next day with her home health job so we packed her a ham sammich and sent her on her way sometime around midnight i think?

Survivor-eye of d tiger

x-mas day of x-mas with the family was ultra low-key this year as is most years. no traditional presents under the tree or church goin'... unless my mom went which she probably did so, but quite early and she didn't drag any of us heathen chillun's wif her. i actually got up quite early like it was a work day and just shut off my alarms (plural) and went back to sleep.

renee and i helped her whip up the last parts for the x-mas luncheon, scalloped potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. and i periodically checked the roast in the oven with the damned meat thermometer we searched high and low for the night before. the roast came out great, not over cooked, just right. we had a portion of miz b's famed tyler florence inspired black mussels in a white wine curry saffron sauce along with the meat and mushrooms and taters and a little white wine goes good with the food.

20950

read a bit of the shatner book in bed and unintentionally took a nap, so i'm totally not sleepy right now, maybe i'll start in on that lego set... i dunno. i should get in on that elusive sleep that i don't get enough of but the prospect of making a very cute two story beach property, which would make a perfectly good 2nd home or investment property or time share seems to be calling to me.

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

so my lil sister renee being the crazy concert go-er she is, saw snow patrol at jimmy kimmel on thursday, left for vegas on friday to see franz ferdinand, bloc party and the ting tings at hard rock and then flew to san diego today to see snow patrol again at the house of blues.

on sunday she got tickets for us to watch kroq's almost acoustic christmas, nite 2 baby! the show sold out in like 5 minutes but according to renee the trick is to have 2 different browser windows open, like say a internet explorer and a firefox to double your chances and also to only pick one ticket, which is why we won't be sitting or in most cases, standing beside each other at the concert. but hey vampire weekend, snow patrol, scott weiland, franz ferdinand, paramore, death cab for cutie, the killers, the cure...w00t w00t! im kinda meh on seeing scott weiland and especially bleh on paramore, so those will be our snack break sets. and planning to twitter up a storm between bouts or rawkin' out

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

having some dubious breakfast comestibles on Thursday led to food poisoning kicking in at work at about 10 o'clock...
i threw up in the ladies room. not once but twice. not pretty. not fun. but at least i didn't get vomit in my hair or clothing... ah skillz... asked my boss to leave, which luckily i was granted, having serious pains and nausea i threw up before getting in the car, threw up in the trash bag i had in my car 2x before finally making it home to bed with chills and breaking out in a cold sweat and getting up every few minutes to empty myself of liquids. dozed off sometime and woke up by 6 something, nauseated, discombobulated and such but plans that night so i got cleaned up and made my way to LA to pick up uccloud9 for Ro's birthday celebration at Marix. which was chronicled by andy here.

the dinner was good from what i remember, i was in a bit of daze. hoping that i'd be well enough to do disneyland with elaine which luckily i was able to do, i am in the process of uploading the photos and video i took to my flickr account. it was a fun day, sunny but not to busy at the park for a friday. highlights include kicking elaine's but in buzzlight year, air conditioned rooms, racist fake parrots, dole whhhhiiip and pineapple juice, pirate hats and nightmare before christmas in the haunted mansion as andy used to say rocks my sock. elaine's the best disneyland tour guide ever and i think she twittered our whole time there. oddly enough, cell phone reception and interwebs connection sucked in the d-land and california adventure had a roaming high school musical 3 stage. ugh. this is the link to my d-land shots

i had japanese class saturday morning with some shodo which is japanese caligraphy and potluck. yeah im no artist when it comes to caligraphy, im sure any elementary school student in japan would totally kick my ass at it, tis not easy to use a brush and ink and make summat pretty kanji, we chose 4 character idioms from a little booklet my sensei put together, which was really pages off of a calendar like this one.
相思相愛 "To be in love with one another" makes for a cool tat i guess since this is about all i can find online for the saying. that and some song from a japanese band.

picked up renee from the flyaway this morning, she went to visit to see jason mraz and hang out with her friend aaron. she stayed at the palms which is apparently a hotel that caters to "bros" if you know what i mean. dudes, men that spend too much time with their hair and are not gay. like the guys you can see on www.hotchickswithdouchebags.com she said that though the staff was nice its very catered to bros as they have aveda products and 2 axe body sprays in the room. and the elevators to her room were right near ghostbar. anyhoo got home, had some lunch and promptly passed the fug out. catching up on some zzzzs. woke up in the early evening with a phone call from jen, she was at my door with the angry little asian girl tote bag jose got for me during the halloween sale at the ucla store. must schedule a hang out with those 2 sometime before the end of the month.  

10/11/08

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

making an uber sappy 80s ballad cd reminds me of my old forgotten project of making another kind of cd

the "awesomely sad mixed CD" an audio cd with some of the saddest most pathos enducing or laughably sadly themed songs that you've ever heard anchored by such great hits like  

Melissa Manchester- Don't Cry Out Loud - Live

Phil Collins - Against All Odds

Phil Collins Farewell Tour - Separate lives

or maybe

Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough - Patty Smyth (Cover)

or anything where you think oh i love this song and then you think about the lyrics and you're like damn this song is about such a depressing situation... i loves it!

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

renee's non-halloween birthday theme was classy dinner

just me, renee and jaime at craft located near the century city mall

owned by chef tom colicchio of top chef, the food was awesome, pricey... no doubt, but just phenomenal... one of the bestest meals i've had this year and really its been quite a foodie year for me so i'm not kidding, good eats

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perfectly fried pork belly, just like your asian mom makes if your asian mom is a good cook

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bacon and egg risotto, they had me at egg

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this is jamie's we ordered too much food face, which was totally justified, we did not expect the portions to be so generous so we experienced the whole, ok one bite and im stuffed! so most of the main courses came home via doggy bag

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the creme de la creme... maple bacon ice cream, i kid you not, this was by far the most awesomest ice cream i've ever had, sweet and meat was never done so right..

the bacon is like the marshmallows in a rocky road ice cream except its little cubes of sweet bacon heaven

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Happy Birthday Renee!

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

thats something im striving for daily, getting important to semi-important stuff done/handled/managed whatevs. and like most things in life its hit or miss. but mostly in between. big event of the last week was going out to dinner with peeps at Sampa Grill on Thursday. that was done pretty well, withstanding flakes and fires in the sepulveda pass. folks were flexibly late. but good food and good conversation was had by all; which includes me, my brother, jamie's new bf nick, nick's brother alex renee and andy.

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no food pics at this place for me, im too busy using tongs to grab meat of swords, andy posted some on his blog, check it out there @ Xanga.. ConFyuShis

went to Japanese class after missing the week before. being in SF with Porkchop was great btw. we had the fun times. lots of foiled attempts at getting into the Cal Academy of Sciences... lots of walking and great weather.

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went to 2 back to back WAS and Kings of Leon concerts

but back to this weekend. Japanese class was a bit meh for me. showed up hella late because i just cant seem to drag myself outta bed early on Saturday and miz B had to drop of her rental at Enterprise. here's to hoping no more car accidents for the family this year and next. *knock on wood* hit up target for some essentials like desk candy other essentials. let me digress...

i've been obsessed with manga, manga, manga, manga... free scanlations make me happy. CBR. makes it easy to read. One Manga is a good alternative. So I've read the following for free 99 and promise to buy the actual books once I have the money and or the price goes down enough to make it economically feasible

Tenshi Ja Nai!! (I'm No Angel) Volume 1 (Tenshi Ja Nai (I'm No Angel) (Graphic Novels))

Takako Shigematsu

Hana-Kimi, Vol. 23 (Hana-Kimi)

hisaya Nakajo

W Juliet, Volume 1 (W Juliet (Graphic Novels))

i've been on a cross-dressing high school setting rom-com manga kick lately. when i think about the type of anime and or manga stories i enjoy, i think back to my first anime love. Ranma Nibunnoichi aka Ranma 1/2. Thermo-water transformations, more fiancee's than you can shake a stick at, rom-com with lots of action and an immature but earnest hero and tsundere 1st fiancee to root for as the OTP, I'm sold, sold sold sold. 

Ranma 1/2, Vol. 15

and anything and everything by Rumiko Takahashi is the bees knees or the dog's bollocks or whatever metaphor means fuggin' the bestestessss, be it InuYasha or Maison Ikkoku or One Pound Gospel. being a fan of hers makes me old school early otaku i guess according to wikipedia. and damn wikipedia knows everything... i never knew there were the opposite of maid cafe's in japan. butler cafes! wow! http://www.butlerscafe.com/

i got sidetracked by more manga and lots my train of thought but anyhoo back to business... work sucks, i hate stupid people telling me what to do... bleh i hate monday

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

thats what i gotta do right now. pack some clothes and shit in a bag for my weekend in SF.

gonna hang out with vanessa tomorrow night and do a little bit of this and that. on saturday and sunday. what is this and that you may ask? good question... eh... i don't know i really don't have any plans or ambitions this weekend. maybe i'll try to get into that new fangled california academy of science museum http://www.calacademy.org/ which i heard good things about on kcrw. or i'll just mosey on over to japantown for fun since i'm skipping out on japanese class this weekend.

gah i need to stop reading scanlated manga and start packing for my weekend in SF. gah! i need to stop adding anime and manga to my anime list with manga profile http://myanimelist.net/profile/ivy99

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

stuck in my head since watching nick & norah's...

We Are Scientists - After Hours

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

i've been organizing photos into sets divided by city and travelling and descriptions along with videos will be uploaded eventually... sigh... post vacation decompression

no car yet. boo

hopefully, lets cross our fingers that the dude tells me i can pick up my wheels tomorrow, that is today technically.

wish me luck

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

im slowly adjusting to LA time and also working on uploading my bajillion photos to my flickr

please dont check it out just yet as i have not been able to start organizing photo sets and descriptions.
its a mess.

and i have work tomorrow, not looking forward to it

anyone want to go to japan? you need an unskilled tour guide?

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

travel day was like old hat, we've gotten to be such experts when catching the shinkansen, i'll miss buying a bento for the ride and taking a nap as the countryside zooms on by. we left ian and his gf and dog guiness in osaka and got into tokyo after about 3 hrs of travel. surpised by our new swanky accomodations is an understatement.

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

just finished up my last day in osaka. ian our unofficial tour guide took us around town. we went to the sky building and one of the big malls in town. we peeped out osaka castle and didnt go in because (A) weather was tuning south and (B) i was feeling a little peaky after eating breaky/lunch and then getting our walk on.

it started raining a bit and we took it inside to the outdoor/covered mall type areas where chef tony hung out in that episode of no reservations where he went to osaka and ate okonomiyaki and takoyaki. we did both today along with eating some bomb ass fugu aka blowfish at this very cute restaurant. we had fugu as sashimi 2 kinds and one kind fried like fish and chips style. such a tasty type fish.l i got pictures.

and we had okonomiyaki 2 styles modern and kansai style seems to be my favorite cause it reminds me of omeletes and i've officially decided that i cant eat so many noodles in one day. lunch as ramen and then noodles in one of the styles of okonomiyaki. i cant do it, noodles seem too filling.

but tomorrow we're travelling back to tokyo and saying by to ian, julia and their dog guiness. who have been our gracious hosts. its been a bit hot here in osaka but it will be sad to go to tokyo and end our japan trip. its almost over and im gonna be sad and glad to get back home. sigh...

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com

so part of the reason my friend wanda conrad wanted to go to japan was (a) to visit her cousins who recently lost their father aka her uncle and (b) to climb mount fuji and a minor (c) to going to places she's never been and bringing me along for the ride

so yeah mount fuji. guidebooks say its a difficult 6hr walk. what utter bollocks! i think the guidebooks i read were meant for australians and very fit europeans or some shit cause climbing mt fuji is pretty much in the top 3 of one of the most difficult things i've had to do in my life. my whole fuggin' life... so far.

we left yokohama for kawaguchiko and k's house mt. fuji, this very neato hostel with free interwebs and access to kitchens and a living room and its just rad, next time i go to japan im definitely gonna try to book a room at k's house in kyoto or tokyo or hiroshima or wherevers they have a jaaant. so we're here somewhat near mt fuji. like a 30 min. bus ride. we met up with our former classmate ian who's into the outdoorsy thing, he's living in osaka with his australian gf that teaches japanese for a living. he's cool peeps and has very graciously allowed me and wanda to kip it at his place in osaka for the next to last leg of our trip. but anyhoo me, wanda and ian go to mt fuji at 10 or 11-ish and do the climb at night so we can catch the sunrise and the summit.

climbing at night is ridiculously ridiculous why do people do it? mt is pitch black, you go from trail with rocks and gravelly bits that your feet sink in to scaling big rocks almost real mt climbing style. i was really fearful of getting altitude sickness but i luckily didnt get headaches or nausea what i did get was short of breath like as soon as we got over the clouds.

so i've never done real hiking our outdoorsy stuff and i also havent gone up to high altitudes. and it was a feeling like you'v run a race but your legs arent tired its just that you cant catch your breath, as soon as you walk up a short piece your breathing hard like you've run a 100 meter dash. wanda and ian were very very patient and helped me soooooo much that night, ian slowed his pace and shined the flashlight on my path and wanda said encouraging things and helped me get my breathing under control by telling me how to do the yoga style breathing and what not

a 6 hr climb... wtf! no no no i dont know anyone who could've climbed that mt in 6 hrs. but that good parts were that the weather was clear, no moon which is fortunate and unfortunate too dark to see the path but you could see a bajillion stars in the sky, i've never seen so many, so beautiful! we didn't quite make it to the summit when the sun was rising we had just left the 9th rest area and were a few zigzags to the 10th so on the way up the sun started coming over the horizon and clouds, unbelivablely gorgeous in a redish hue. unfortch i was much too tired and cold to take pictures, i did get some video when i had enough sense to do it but wanda took som photos so i'll just jack some from her.

theres a hotel and hotel restaurant near the summit and thats as far as me and wanda decided to go. the very very peak was another hour up and another 300 meters, only ian had the energy to do it. wanda felt nauseated probably from the altitude and being up nearly a whole day. it took us like 12+ hrs to finally get off the mt and back to the hostel as the climb down is just as ridiculously difficult as the way up. i twisted my ankle and scraped my left leg near the knee. a nice man gave me a walking stick aka a large tree branch to use on the way down as i did not buy or rent the traditional walking stick to climb mt fuji, damnit it having it would have helped me so much! stupid rocky gravelly pumice or other volcano stones, there were some of pretty rocks up there and made me think i could ask andy all about it when i get back. no i didnt take any rocks from the mt because you're not allowed to! and having a painful ankle and blisters on your feet from walking up and down a volcano for like 11 hrs makes you a bit out of sorts.

im soooo tired, i got a coke and a takoyaki, whack instant kind at the bottom of the mt. ian at 2 hot dogs and wanda ate 1 hotdog and some rice crackers. quick eats and then a good wash in the onsen for wanda, but not for me because of my bum ankle i just gotta hit the showers at the hostel :-(. must wash the dirt of the last 24 hrs off me and get some Zzzzs. gonna travel to osaka tomorrow. gonna limp for a bit but i don't mind, comes with the territory.

lesson for the day. unless you're a crazy japanese little old lady made of titanium or adamantium or summat, dont climb mt. fuji.

Originally posted on iv279.vox.com