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I bought these socks from Hootenanny today after eyeing them for a solid 2 minutes. The best part is that they even have fins!

This past Sunday my family held an early birthday celebration for my grandmother and I. It felt nice getting together with family because I hardly get to hang out with them anymore. My sister, the pastry chef, made us both cakes. My grandmother’s was a tasty gold cake, with vanilla frosting and coconut shavings. The best part was the homemade whipped cream used to hold the 3 cake layers together. Simple and classic.

My cake on the other hand was a behemoth; a razzle-dazzle spectacular for the eyes. It was cupcakes and mini-cakes, with home-made and hand pumped frosting. My sister called it the candy land cake because of all the different colors and yes, the candy.

Behold!

For presents I got the first 2 seasons of Futurama, a hoodie and t-shirt, Super Shiny Bender, two Nintendo DS games, McDonald’s gift certs, and some really lovely handcrafted jewelry made by my cousin Vina. The bracelet was worn to work and it already received a compliment.

She has other hand made goodies to show

I’m just not going to think about getting older. Because I don’t feel older. Just lazier. And gassy.

Last Saturday I went on a day trip to NY with Vina and Crow. We went on the good ol’ Fung Wah bus, best known for cheap fares, spontaneous fiery engulfment, and roll overs. The sky was overcast during the four-and-a-half hour ride. We had hoped it’d clear up as we entered New York because different state, different weather right? Right. The sun came out, but only after an hour of on and off rain. None of us had brought umbrellas so we ran around from place to place while getting soaked. The street vendors called out to the tourists to buy their two for $5 umbrellas but many, like us, weren’t bothered enough to. Besides, we were saving our money for trinkets, vinyls, and jerky. We went to stores selling jewelry, shoes, or discount clothing but my favorite was Pearl River, a three-floor building full of Chinese deco, furniture, food, toys, and clothes. It had a little of everything. I ended up buy a notepad made from leek, and a couple more for friends. The cover and pages are incredibly soft and bendable. They remind me of old Asian movies I used to watch with my mom. About back in the day when people carried paper lanterns for lights and dressed in silky flowing fabric and carried swords instead of guns. They had these notebooks then and I have them now.

After walking 4 blocks too far and back trekking, we found KidRobot and picked up more vinyls. I got some Mongers Menthols and Crow got Bentworld Vandals. I would have liked to stay there longer (and probably buy more than I should) but the small store was packed. A flood of people came in after we did. There was no place to move and the boxes were out of reach, so we paid and made a quick exit. We stopped at different vendors and my sister splurged on lots of things but when we stopped at an artist vendor’s booth we both bought his artwork. They were photographs of his paintings, but cropped and mounted onto a sheet of metal. The metal was then screwed into a piece of wood that was either blue or black. I got the black one, and she bought the blue one. The best, BEST! find of the day was a booth selling TV and movie scripts. I wanted many but at $20 a pop I ended up with just one - Fight Club. I love the movie and read the script on the way home. It was almost like I was watching the movie in my head, with the voices of Ed Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. There was parts of the script that weren’t in the movie, and parts of the movie that weren’t in the script. Ed’s character didn’t have a name in the movie, and is only referred to as ‘Narrator’ but in the script, he’s Jack. One of my favorite scenes from the movie is: “I am Jack’s lung. I get cancer. I kill Jack.” - says Tyler Durden as he rides his bike around the house wearing one of those super warm hats with the ear flaps until one of the tires hit something and he flies off the bike.

I read the script on the bus ride home, while eating from my pound of jerky as Vina slept and Crow listened to her iPod. It was a tiring day but 6 hours is nowhere near enough time to visit all the places we wanted to. I have a feeling I’ll be going back soon.

Here’s some pics of the trip and the purchases.

Spend spend spend. I’ve been suckered into a not-so-new craze - vinyl toys. Yes, little collectible figurines that come from all over the world. I’m not usually one to collect things, especially things that can’t be put to use except to sit there and look cute. My sister started it when she brought home a few vinyls from her trip to NY, some of which were series 1 Fatcaps. A Fatcap looks like a spray can, but with arms and legs and painted with personality. Soon after I started seeing them in Urban Outfitters and Newbury Comics so I bought her a few. Then a few turned into a purchasing indulgence with an excuse: I was buying for my sister. Surrendering to my curiosity is what was really happening since I really really really wanted to know which toy was inside the box. It could have been one of the hard to find limited edition ones! Sometimes I would get one my sister already had so those would be traded with my friend Ryan who was also collecting fatcaps. Right now I am collecting several different vinyls:
Scary Girls
CI Boys series 7 Deadly Cins
CI Boys series Sket One
The Moofia
Sho-Po Plop

I saw some Futurama stuff at Newbury the other day, an animation which by the way I am in love with and can’t wait for the DVD movie to come out - Nov 27 yeah! I got the magnetic board for my office. It reads “You’re Not Paid To Think. A mindless worker is a happy worker! Shut up and do your job!” It’s probably not the best thing to have hanging in full view from the walkway but I’m not too worried about it. My suite mates should know my sense of humor by now. Next on the list will be the bright and shiny Bender. Because I just can’t help myself.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve last updated. I didn’t forget about the blog - it was always in the back of my mind but was another in a line of things I was just putting off. Perhaps I just didn’t want to see my last posting. I feel much better now that I realize the source of my discomfort, or at least partially, is that I don’t engage in enough social activity. I should have seen it when my friends accused me of not being around anymore. They had a right to. My reasons are poor; work and weariness. The only one who can change this is me. So I’ll start. Less work, more play.

I am very excited about my week off. Not only will I sleep in til 1pm then muck around, I am going to start on my anime cosplay costume. It’s going to be Luppi from Bleach this year. Luppi is an androgynous-looking deceased espada who I thought was a female when first introduced, but who turns out to be a male. This would be my first official costume since last year’s Soi Fong didn’t work out. Tomorrow I’ll be shopping around for fabric and Crayola Model Magic for the headpiece. The hardest part will be handsewing the whole thing together. Wish me luck. I’ll be posting costume updates along the way.

This is my desk, taken from a shoddy camera phone.

It looks like a mess from afar but I assure you, it looks much worse up close. With my kinda days, I just can’t keep the area neat. So I’ve taken steps, albeit baby steps, to be more organized.

1. Write notes in a notebook, not on post-its that are then scattered around office or follow me home in my bag.

2. Put similar things together, neatly, so that they take up less room. No more tossing rampages.

3. Throw away/recycle shit that isn’t needed. The hard part here is finding the means/time to do it, and a receptable(s) big enough to fit everything.

How long will I hold? How long?

I sit in a cafeteria, enjoying a pre-work blueberry muffin and coffee. Four ladies at the sitting area in front of me get up to leave. One grabs her empty coffee cup and shoots it at the uncovered trash receptacle. She is three feet from her mark. Her aim is off, the cup falls to the right. She retrieves the coffee cup and tries again. She misses. She repeats. Misses again. With a defeated face, she places the cup into the trash and follows her friends out. I hold in a smile and think I am better than her. I am so full of myself sometimes.