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Sometimes people ask me if I’m excited about going home.
Let’s put it this way, I’ve already begun planning what I’ll wear and the records I’ll have spinning on my iPod as I’m sitting in that cushiony window seat on Malaysia Airlines. I’ve imagined the glorious sunny southern Californian afternoon that will greet me and how I will make my brother treat me to an unbelievably satisfying my lunch at In N’ Out. I can already hear the beats and distortion come out over speakers and amplifiers in dark clubs as I dance my ass off.
Less than two and a half months. And, yeah, I’m excited.
Filed under: Big Bang, Cali Mucho, China Be Trippin', Fotorama, Huarong Home, Operation Engrish Prease, PDXcitement, Travelzies
More than a year ago, I began a daily photo project of self portraits for all 365 days of the year. It was completed on the eve of the Bangladeshi New Year in mid April, from 4/13/07 to 4/13/08. Here’s a small sampler, of two dozen days, from the past year. It begins with me in China, then back to the States and onward to Bangladesh. (See the full year here.)
Year two is underway, and a theme has already developed:
Work, sleep, work, sleep. (The sleeping portion is not represented in ratio to actual sleep hours.)
Being in the suburbs of southern California without a car is a sentence that I do not wish on my worse enemy.
I'm going nuts. Can't wait to return to my bike Basil, to public transportation that works and to being in Portland.
Filed under: Cali Mucho
Got in this evening and we went to a pho restaurant for dinner with a “C” rating. An American restaurant with a “C” rating is still cleaner than some of the nicest eateries in Changsha.
Logged onto blocked sites like Flickr and Wiki. I didn't even have anything to Wiki. I just wanted to see the homepage.
Did a small load of laundry and used the dryer. With dryer sheets. Everything came out crisp, warm and so soft to the touch.
God bless America.
Even from the other side of the world, I can feel the magic that is blanketing my native nation. And while I'm not a big fan of our bi-partisan blue states versus red states dichotomy, it's still amazing to see my fellow Americans voice their dissatisfaction with our present administration by splashing more blue across the country.
Bravo. The House and the Senate. Rummy resigning. Britney Spears finally filing to divorce that crumbum K-Fed.
How does it feel over there? Do strangers give each other hugs as they step on the bus? Hi-fives on every street corner? Giddy giggling fits during happy hour?
Filed under: Cali Mucho
Alright, so I haven't kept up. I haven't been written in two and a half months. But I have good reasons! For serious!
You see, February, which was the beginning of the Lunar new year was a big fat meanie to me. In that singular month, the shortest month of the year, I had some gnarly shit spat upon me.
1. I tore up my knee. I had been running and pushed myself too hard and sermiously injured my left knee. I don't have health insurance so it was lots of home remedyin' that fixed it.
2. My machine's motherboard imploded. Double sermious! I was in the middle of finishing two layout designs and creating some ads for Razorcake when the machine just died! But somehow I still met deadline because I'm a champ.
3. Lots and heaps of personal crisis between friends and faux-friends and friends that are no longer such things. Emotional havoc! But I got through that too because I don't like saddies.
March took an upswing. My machine got fixed (thanks Nick!), I stopped running and bought a fantastic lil' bike (Hi, Basil!) and I spend lots of my spare time eating raisins (super yumz!). I was recuperating and just didn't have the mindspace to write.
But now it's almost the middle of April and I promise I'll be more consistent because I've got an assload of stuff to write and update! Ya'll (who is no one, really) are gonna get learn-ed on the Adoyzie tip, yo!
In the meantime, enjoy these pics of Chinese New Years at my folks house so many months ago.
As Albert and Alan set up the alter for our ancestors, they needed a level to make sure shit was straight. Our slanted excuses for vision are incapable of what you white folks call “eyeballing it.”
Feasting like dead, netherworld kings! Do the dead even use chopsticks or can they just sort of ESP that food into their chapped-lipped mouths? (What?! They don't have Carmex in the other world!)
Here's the second alter, that faces out the front door, that is used to pray for all of distant relatives that don't have direct kin to pray for them. Check out how Dad is just chillin' on the couch because he said that we're old enough to do this on our own. What he doesn't understand is that half the ritualistic stuff we do, we don't even understand why we're doing them.
Dad is obviously a closet pimp. Do you see the Courvosier Cannon?! It came as a complimentary gift with this huge gallon-sized jug of Courvosier that Dad bought.
It sits on top of their TV set. What a classy joint!
Albert and Alan prepare piles of paper money (gold, silver and bills) to be burned. Dad watches on proudly.
Dinner! Dad's enjoying some shark fin soup and we just about inhaled that lobster.
And here's the man enjoying a glass of Courvosier.
Then here's the man totally, completely passed out like a monkey on vicadin after two glass full of the big C! (Seriously though, can I send this to National Geographic or what? Look at how his feet are pressed together! Precious!)
Happy New Years!
