I’ll be the first to admit that I really have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to cooking.  In fact, learning to do so was one of my New Year’s Resolutions.  Sure, the year is almost over, but thanks to the Nintendo DS and “Can’t Decide What to Eat?” (a digital cookbook) I’ve finally begun.

It makes it so much easier to grasp cooking concepts with speech, video, and plenty of photos and additional instructions should you not know what certain terms mean.

I took a lot of liberties with the ingredients and did things not exactly to the recipe, but I’m pretty happy with how my fried rice turned out.  It was pretty tasty.  Here are the results!

I’ll keep experimenting with it and will report back with updates as I gain more experience and become more comfortable with cooking.

Tags: cooking,fried rice,nintendo ds
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On one of my sites, people waxed quixotically and discussed their resolutions. Of course, theres the standard: work out, lose weight, spend less.. ideas that never work out — so I figured this year I’d do something different.

I haven’t come up with a definitive list, but here are a few of the things I want to accomplish by the end of next year.. sorted in order of difficulty.

1. Start biking again
2. Read more.
3. Update this blog more often and take more pictures.
4. Update, modernize, and promote the many sites I already run. Do something with the plethora of extra domain names I own.
5. Develop a video game. I haven’t worked on one in ten years and will have to relearn.
6. Buy a house.

To keep myself on track, and to help fulfill step 3, I will keep track of my progress on here.

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I feel like I should explain why I haven’t updated the site or really gone out or done anything for the last few weeks. In the last three months or so:

Twisted ankle at Bay to Breakers

Hit by car getting off of the K MUNI street car on Ocean Ave.

Exposed my kneecap when taking a spill on my bike on Market St. (ER visit required)

On top of that, I’ve been carless for two months, and it’s still being worked on, so this continues for a week or two, hopefully it finally gets fixed.  This past weekend I spent a lot of time in a convertible, so now I’m sun and windburned too.

I think being outdoors isn’t for me, maybe theres an upgrade or something I can take advantage of? (o_O);;

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In no particular order..

• Fart. A lot. Especially on crowded trains while trapped in a stuck train underground.
• Block entry and exit. When you get on the bus, just stop right in front of the door, who cares if people are trying to get on behind you. Bring your humongous shopping bags and guitars on the bus during rush hour. Who cares if someone misses their stop because you wouldn’t get out of the way.
• Force your way through the back door. Never mind that there are people trying to get off. Bonus points if you’re elderly and stare people down or simply demand a seat. Who cares if the whole front of the bus is vacant? Save your 50 cents.
• Make sure you carry excessive amounts of baggage with you at all times. If you’re standing, hit a few people in the head — you’ll get more room for your things that way.
• If you’re homeless, a bus shelter is the perfect place to get drunk. Who cares if it’s raining and there are old folks and kids without umbrellas.
• When your bus arrives, push your way to the entrance as aggressively as possible. Even if the bus is empty, you want to force your way on. Why? You’re more important than the people that have been waiting an hour before you got there.
• Don’t move to the back of the bus. The people trying to get on can wait for the next.
• Give yourself an hour extra to get to your destination. After waiting 45 minutes, expect several buses to pass you at once — filled to the brim with passengers. If you want to arrive sooner, take the bus backward and get on an earlier stop.
• Don’t expect the N-Judah to ever be on time.
• Don’t trust the drivers that say “There’s another bus right behind me” Yeah. 45 minutes behind.
• Don’t rely on the LED Displays while waiting on a platform. Often times it’ll say N N in two minutes. Fifteen minutes later, nothing. In twenty, two empty trains pass by without stopping, leaving you to wait another fifteen minutes for a crowded one. This is when everyone pushes their way on, don’t be surprised if your face is pressed up against the window during the majority of the trip. It just goes with the territory.
• Leave your garbage on the bus. Especially drinks. Everyone loves stepping on sticky floors.
• Every time you wait, then give up and decide to walk or take a cab, the bus will come.
• Enjoy your trip!

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I went to see a sneak preview of Super Bad yesterday — abnormally crude, but very funny. It’s by the same guys that made The 40 Year old Virgin and I have to say that they’ve outdone themselves.

While it was pretty good, I have to say that it’s like most comedies, certainly a rental, especially if a bunch of you are going out to see it..

That said, the whole experience of going to this preview was horrendous. They required that cell phones be confiscated for the duration of the movie, and we had to pass through a security checkpoint complete with a metal detector. Imagine the line, as hundreds rushed for the exit to claim their phones. Ridiculous. They even lied to us and said that this was stated on the flyer — it wasn’t. Thanks Sony. You’ve added yet another reason for me to continue to boycott your products.

I managed to get my phone through security, and I guess I could have taken some still photos of it, but well, what good is that? They actually didn’t say no camcorders, I guess I could have snuck one in and pirated it.

Anyways, watch — this is the future of movie watching. If they think this will prevent piracy, they’re sorely mistaken. I’m sure it’ll be available, as with every movie online shortly.

Of course, if you have a common name, you could always bring an old crappy phone with you, and claim that shiny iphone on the way out. (^_-)

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I heard through the grapevine that I broke both my ankles — that sounds like an amazing feat. I’m not sure how, or why, but I ended up twisting my ankles and severely bruising my feet. The tops, bottoms and back of my feet are black and blue. It’s quite amazing. It took a week but I can kinda hobble around now. It didn’t start to hurt until the very end, when we stopped — otherwise Bay to Breakers was a lot of fun. I’d do it again, but with better shoes next time.

Here’s my gallery. (Photos from our last dinner outing are in there too) Faithy’s photos are on flickr.

I’m not sure who’s in the middle. Just some random passerby?

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As a vehicle owner who resides in San Francisco, I do realize that it was a bit hypocritical for me to have gone on a Critical Mass. Though it does state “Many do not ride in opposition to anything: they simply enjoy an opportunity to cycle socially and in safety, or in a boisterous and celebratory crowd.” which is the umbrella I’d find myself under. I certainly had a lot of fun, and even spotted Jebus — who knew that he rides a bike?

While I did witness a few minor altercations, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article that recounted events completely backwards from my experience. For the most part, everyone was jovial — I don’t think the majority of the riders were out to cause trouble — in fact, the mood of the crowd was definitely friendly. There were several cars that unfortunately got stuck in the mass, and no one cared — unless the driver was trying to push their way through by running bikes off the road. While I wasn’t around at 9 during this minivan incident — I know for a fact that there wasn’t thousands of bikers surrounding it, by then the group had split up and well, there couldn’t have been more than thirty left. Their story doesn’t check out..

I had fun though. With all this controversy I’ll probably skip the next one though.

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You. Yes, you. If you’re a repeat visitor, or someone I usually chat with on AIM or hang out with in person — I’m not avoiding you, or anyone else for that matter. I’ve just been busy and haven’t really felt like sitting for hours in front of the computer waiting for you to respond. If you do see me online without an Away message and you don’t get a response from me, I could be just listening to music — I have a remote that I can use to skip tracks or change the volume — using that takes me off idle mode.

If you need to reach me, you can always just leave a descriptive message on the aforementioned AIM, don’t just say yo, hey, a, or hello. I’ll respond to those eventually but if you log off before I get back to the screen I’ll never be able to get back to you. I apologize for not getting back to each and every one of you. I will do a better job of doing so, or at least marking myself as away when I’m not there.

Of course if there is something important, you could go back to using good old fashioned email or just call me. Oddly enough I’ve been using my phone a lot more lately.

Regarding the site — 20,000 hits in less than a year! That’s some motivation to keep the site going! I have a bunch of content that I’ve been cooking up and I am hoping to start updating on a more regular basis, since apparently someone out there is reading this. I’ll outline my plans in an upcoming post.

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Now, my primary fun mode of transportation is sort of disabled — at least I can’t rely on it starting without it cooling down after a drive due to it’s engine flooding constantly, so I decided to take my older RX-7 (a GSL-SE). Now despite it’s somewhat disheveled exterior, it has been an awesome, reliable car. I’ve taken it to both Buttonwillow and Thunderhill Raceways and used it as a daily driver for the last year. There was no reason for me to expect there to be any problems whatsoever.

Guess what. I loose my clutch at the top of Highway 9. Now, normally this means the car is disabled and has to be towed. But thanks to Ghetto Dave I learned how to do clutchless shifting and was able to make it back to San Francisco somewhat unscathed.

While disheartening, it wasn’t all bad Don was nice enough to let me drive his Acura NSX throughout the twisty roads of Highways 9, 1, and Skyline (35). Seeing as though both my RX-7s are disabled, this ways *almost* enough to get me to sell them to buy one of my own.

Of course this wouldn’t be all that interesting unless something else happened, and oh, there was much more.

While driving, a car spun out just a few feet away while I was driving the NSX. That car slammed into the side of a hill, and luckily I was smart enough to not be following closely and I braked early enough to avoid impact. Now, the RX-7 that was behind me, he stopped in time, but the two Toyota Celicas behind him hit each other, and ultimately hit him. Not fun. Photos from our jaunt.

Of course this wouldn’t be all that interesting unless something else happened, and oh, there was much more.

Even after all this, it was barely noon. I started working on my other car. Besides being prone to flooding, it’s passenger side headlight motor had become disconnected due to my negligence in installing new HID lamps. Of course I’m not bright enough to remove the correct fuse, and while fixing it it decides to bite me. Fun times.

By now I’m tired and quietly cursing to myself — when Marilyn, Marvin, and Nelson show on their bicycles, I’m somewhat relieved and happy to not think about cars for a bit.. So we go for a jaunt through Golden Gate Park. Partially due to exhaustion, and partially due to my inexperience, I end up flying off my bike on a dirt trail. During which, I loose a contact lens. Fun.

So I have two dead cars, a bruised and battered body, a slight limp, and one contact. Of course I had to go to work the next day to deal with Day Light Savings. Wonderful.

At least I can look forward to better days to come. Inevitably someone will leave a comment and tell me to quit bitching, but since I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what’s going on with me, I figured I could bitch, just this once.

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I just finished watching Welcome to the N.H.K., a light hearted story of self imposed isolation and the efforts put forth to solve it. While probably intended to help those afflicted with the problem, it worked in the reverse for me, and I wouldn’t mind hiding out for a while. Wait.. I have to go to work, and I still go out, rarely now, but once in a while.. plus how am I going to go out to eat! I guess I can’t do it .. but I can pretend.

Hikikomori lit. “pulling away, being confined,” i.e., “acute social withdrawal”) is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents and young adults who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement due to various personal and social factors in their lives. The term “hikikomori” refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to individuals belonging to this societal group.

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