Escape from New York

What a long strange month it's been...

I have to say that this has been an emotionally trying time for me. Coming to grips with the reality of certain relationships in my life and really buckling down for school again like I haven't done since my program started.

I think it's all paying off though. I've blasted my depression in the face with a shotgun called booze and my grades are the best they've ever been. I've had only one thing keeping me going really. And that would be my 16 day vacation where I get to fly back home to California and forget all i've learned and reconnect with my east bay gang.

A break is sorely needed. Enough said.

I think the most fun i've had this past month was ice skating in Bryant park.



That was nice. Aside from that it's been a series of headaches and hard work. And now in just 48 hours i'll be maxin' and relaxin' and eating a goddamn decent burrito again finally!!

Probably the most exciting part of my trip home is a reunion hip-hop show in San Francisco where me and my oldest and bestest friend, Mister Salty, will be reprising our role as the super duo called "Semi-Tuff". I've been out of practice for about 2 years but i'm ready to get back behind some turntables. We've got a couple amazing acts joining us on stage and I think it's going to be a fuckin' party. I'll be sure to post the video on here as soon as I can as long as someone is nice enough to film it.

Speaking of video...here's a great timelapse movie that my homey C. Bay made of a mexican x-mas party we went to on Saturday. The results are pretty epic. I'm glad we were all able to put up with the blinding flash going off every 30 seconds.



And that's that. I'm looking forward to spending time with some very important people back home and hopefully setting the ground work for what my life will be like in 7 months when I finally finish school and move back to reality. I'll be sure to post the results for all to read. Until then, merry ludachristmas ya'll...

The Big Chill

I have to blame my recent lack of posts on the fact that the heating system in my house is on the fritz and the mere act of exposing my fingers to the keyboard for an extended period of time is quite painful. Not to mention the fact that the numbness in my hands causes quite a few gramattical errors.

I think it's pretty clear now that my aunt has completely stopped giving a shit. Not to sound like a baby but i'm really painfully poor, cold and hungry. I know i'm an adult and all, but she's a WEALTHY adult with a JOB who could easily send the heat fixer guy over here and drop me off some groceries before she goes to work. I don't know what I did to garner such indifference?

Add to that, the fact that there hasn't really been too much to update lately. I've really been immersed in school and hospital work. I haven't missed a day in weeks and i'm really trying to keep up these good grades i've got going. Mid-terms are right around the corner!

Last weekend's respite came in the form of heading to damn near the Bronx to help my friend Vicky learn how to use her new turntables. She got a super good deal and is a quick learner. I was teaching her how to scratch and juggle and beat match a little. I still remember how excited I was to get my first tables when I was 16. Nothing like it. Luckily I had a great advisor in the form of DJ Platurn (www.djplaturn.com/)



That training session was followed by a $4 six-pack of King Cobra tall cans and a delicious torta from her neighborhood truck. Then me and my friend Oi Yin trekked back to Brooklyn where we got hammered at Bay's and crashed out. Only to be lovingly woken up by chocolate chip pancakes made from scratch. (I love you Bay)



Following that amazing morning a gang of us theatre hopped and caught "Quantum of Solace" and "Role Models" back to back. Both were surprisingly good and it was a perfect way to spend a hungover lazy afternoon...

And now i'm finishing off a week of hepatobilliary and gastrointestinal system testing. Advanced lower extremity positioning labs and patients who can't speak english flashing me their boobies.

This weekend I return to Boston with Casey to celebrate Leile and Kuau's birthdays. Watch Casey play in a volleyball tournament, and possibly get super high off of bottles and bottles of Robitussin :) TGIF!!

Past blastin'

I decided to search for an old blog I attempted to start over 2 years ago. Back when not everyone and their grammy had a blog. I found it too! I had called it "The drunken everyone" The title is an homage to one of the funniest and truest things my friend Abdul ever said. Allow me to regail you with the story...

Back when I was living in El Cerrito and DJ'ing on a semi-regular basis. I came home one night drunk with my two equally drunk friends Abdul and Leile. I had all my equipment to bring back in the house so I asked them to help me. I handed Leile an expensive reciever that I was planning on returning to Guitar center the next day. Leile proceeded to do the drunken, obvious thing and drop it on the pavement hard and cause dents and scratches all over it. I was fairly pissed and as I was yelling at Leile as to how he could do such a thing, Abdul interjects with, "Hey man...the drunken everyone makes a bad choice for all..."

Truer words were never spoken...my drunk ass should have known better than to trust Leile's even drunker ass with such a pricy piece of hardware. A group of drunkards will do nothing but make bad choices for each other. It's science FACT.

So anyway, I dunno, I was bored and thought i'd start a blog back then I guess. As you can tell it never got off the ground. But here today, seen for the first time ever i'm sure, I will reprint the only 2 funny posts out of 4 total. This should give you a nice picture of my life 2 years ago... Enjoy...


Pie-man strikes
September 28, 2006, 5:56 am
Filed under: first down beer
I drove up and down solano ave. today looking for a bakery to get a decent chocolate chip cookie at. No luck. You know what the best fuckin’ cookie ever was? The ones they gave us at lunch time in high school that were super huge and crunchy around the edges but soft on the inside. Oh man! I’ve been hella hungry lately, what the hell? I ate like 6 slices of pizza at work last night. That shit was gross too. It was Laval’s. That shit has a burnt crust and no sauce but it was free so I ate the shit out of it. Long story short: not drinking equals more eating. I took a 3 day drinking hiatus after a BBQ/80’s party super smash session helped me decide to end a 14 month bender to see if my head would become any clearer, and if I might be a little more cheery and active. It didn’t work. I’ve been eating junk food to keep myself busy, sleeping in later and i’ve been quite depressed today. I think i’ve reached the perfect balance in my body where as long as I keep eating just one shitty meal a day and about six beers then i’ll stay perfectly healthy forever. No need to stop drinking, right??




Swansons
October 1, 2006, 7:46 pm
Filed under: first down beer
I chugged an entire can of beef broth last night on a drunken dare for $15. Needless to say, it was a fun night. People aren’t down enough to do dumb spontaneous shit anymore. I felt I was making a stand for childish drunken antics. Oh yeah, my jerk ass friend payed me in dimes, adding insult to injury.


So yeah, there you have it. Have I changed much since then. No, I don't think so. I still don't think my friends are reckless and wild enough sometimes. And I would still probably drink a can of broth for ten dollars in dimes. That was Abdul's fault again by the way! :) It's great to have a snapshot of your ridiculous life to look back on. I'm glad I have a shit ton of old photo albums and diaries in storage.

Your mission today is to go do something totally spontaneous and possibly dangerous. If drugs, booze, or a moving car are involved you get double points.

CHEERS!


and DOUBLE CHEERS!!

Flux capacitating

Tonight my sober self from the past was kind enough to leave the porch light on for my drunk self from the future. Thanks past self!! You made it very easy to find my keys and the knob hole. It's good to know that SOMEONE has my back out there.

Also, I was out drinking with Bay and Casey tonight and I came really close to getting all emotional and admitting to both of them my undying love and the fact that if they weren't here with me, I would have dropped out of school and moved back home about 11 months ago.

I'll tell them some day...

Hotsaucesoysauce?

It's fuckin' COLD in New York already! What the hell man! I thought I had at least until late November to break out the winter wear. Sheesh!

I got my birthday package from Leile 1 today. Including his brand new CD "Tobacco Road" which you all need to cop right over here... http://cdbaby.com/cd/mistersalty2 It tells the tale of a twentysomething hip hop songwriter exploring issues including American guilt, adversity to the workplace, communicating with aliens, and drinking by yourself. The beats are pretty good too. (I stole that description from the site)

ALSO in my awesome bday package were the new Tobacco, Restiform Bodies and CRAC knuckles cd's. Not to mention a book of short stories by Charles Bukowski. Leile got me hooked on Bukowski after we watched a documentary on his life last time I was in the bean. I think all troubled young men like myself can relate to this guys life of perpetual lust, alcoholism and as Leile himself put it, EXTREME adversity to the workplace.. His poetry is fantastic...see for yourself.



I'm watching "Dune" in the background as I type this. I feel like it's one of those movies that alot of people haven't seen and if I were to quote something from it and someone told me that they hadn't seen it I would just have to hang my head and cry. I once had a girlfriend who had never even seen the original Star Wars trilogy for fucks sake! Granted, she grew up in Iran, but STILL!! :)



Funny how movies fall under the radar like that. I used to be quite the film buff a few years back having worked at an art house movie theatre and then at a video store that prided itself on an extensive collection of rarities. Adding to that numerous film classes I took in college. I don't really know where i'm going with this, but I guess one point of it is that we should all find time for more movie watching. Anything, Buster Keaton, Takashi Miike, Werner Herzog, Flight of the navigator, Irma Vep....oh and Anime too...go watch somea' that...

...I'm still cold...and the heating system in these rusty old pipes is so loud that I can't sleep through it. Gotta' be able to sleep for my 5am wakeup tomorrow. Thankfully only 4 more of those for now. Shit is unbearable! Got me drinking coffee again...

I'm still debating whether to reply to my dad or not. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've never been one to forgive wrong doers easily so I don't know why I should start now. It seems like 1 out of every 2 families nowadays is torn up by divorce so I don't think it has the social stigma of being some life shattering event that scars you forever anymore. I think I might just have to leave it alone.

I'm going to go scurry off to the kitchen now and make a chicken ramen with just a liiiitle bit of water and crack and egg in it for dinner. Top THAT! :>/

Another chance at a year

I've become 27 since I last posted. Hooray for me! I made it! When comparing my life at this point to my friends and families, I think i'm doing okay. Going back to school was really a lifesaver for me, (if I graduate, that is) And when i'm done i'll finally have the financial freedom that has eluded me my whole life.

It makes me understand how one of my best friends, Kuau, was able to turn his life around from drinking 40's and doing drugs everyday to graduating with a quadruple major and going on to manage a hedge fund. It just comes to a point where you realize that you can't and you WON'T ever work in customer service again! I DO plan to continue drinking and partying though ;-) I met that point a long ass time ago but lacked any motivation to do anything about it simply because my life was pretty comfortable. I was making just enough to live with roomates and get drunk and have fun as often as I wanted.

I kept the thought in the back of my head that I would someday graduate from community college and get a real job. Meanwhile the truth was that I was taking 2 or 3 classes a semester tops and for that matter, skipping a semester here and there if I got too lazy. At that pace nothing would have ever happened for me. I guess I owe it to my aunt for dragging me out to the east coast kicking and screaming.

Funny thing about me being 27 and actually being on a career path is that years ago, maybe 5, my mom went to go see a psychic in California. My mom is a big believer of paranormal bullshit like that. She saw this woman who was supposed to be the real deal in most circles. And the woman told her among other things that her son Patrick (me) would be involved in his lifelong career that would make him happy and wealthy by the time he was 27...

Now, I don't know how much I really go in for this sort of stuff. It seems to me that 27 could be an age where alot of people get their shit together. Nobody wants to be 30 years old and working at a Trader Joe's. But stll, it feels good to think that maybe in some cosmic, destined, whatever the fuck kinda' way that i'm maybe doing the right thing here.

I've celebrated this new year of mine so far with a couple interesting developments. The craziest of them being that my dad, yes, my dear old dissapeared dad has contacted me. The funny thing is that he contacted me through...MYSPACE!...

WTF!?!

I checked my messages the day before i turned 27 and there was a random one from a girl with the headline "I am looking for my son". I opened it and it read like this...

Were you born 10/19/81 in Houston, TX??? If so, please call me at 731-xxx-5xx7.. I love you son. Kevin M.

Fucking CRAZY! I looked more closely at the picture of the girl whose account it was sent from and she was clearly my half sister. A girl i've never met but whose features are so similar to my dad's that there's no other way. My dad used his daughter's account to hunt me down. For what? I don't know. Regret? Guilt? Love?

He left me and my mom and half brother (different dad) when I was only 9. He cheated on my mom with another woman. My mom found out. I was once forced to endure a car ride in which me, my mom, dad, and the woman he was having an affair with were all riding together to some forgotten destination. My mom had already correctly guessed that this was the housebreaking woman unbeknownst to my dad. This led to one of the most horrific memories of my childhood. My mom and dad and this woman fighting and yelling and throwing things in the car for hours. The uncomfortable tension before it erupted, trying to just put my head down and sleep but finding that the trip from hell had not yet ended, the aftermath where their marriage finally, painfully ended.

It's memories like this that make me not want to talk to this man. Aside from that, I have never felt like I missed out on having a dad. I never felt cheated or longed for him. I had my older brother to take his place and my friends to act as my extended family once I moved to the east bay. I knew he fucked up and I saw no reason to forgive him. He chose not to pay any child support and he got no visitation rights. My family moved from state to state. Not staying anywhere more than a year till' I was 13. Partially avoiding him and also following my brother from college to grad school. It was tumultuous to say the least. So when I settled in California and finally relaxed I never wanted to leave. I finally had a family.

My dad tried to send a sporadic letter here and there or contact me through my aunt. But I just never had the desire to reopen that chapter of my life. And I still don't. But I suppose i'll give it some thought. At the very least i'm interested in seeing how many half siblings I have lurking about!


So yeah, that happened, threw me for a loop. But i was still ready to party and get wasted and have an awesome birthday month. Prior to the whole myspace thing I went to Boston for 5 days to cool out. I went apple picking in Stowe with friends. Beautiful, relaxing, and my mom made a pie out of my pickin's! I felt like a real farm land motherfucker. I drove back down to NY with another friend from home who just moved to the east coast. He's been staying with me the past week. Nice to have more company in this shitty old house. I think having him be the sober driver everywhere we go is spoiling me a bit too much though :)

The day before my bday I gathered the whole NY crew and headed to a beer garden in Williamsburg. The hipster hub of Brooklyn. It was great getting everyone into one place to celebrate. Even most of my manhattanite friends who cringe at the thought of trekking into BK showed up. It was just dandy. I think I consumed at least 13 pints in liter form throughout the night.



http://www.cbaymilin.com/

Being surrounded by all these great new friends i've made here really made me appreciate my situation. They might not be as willing to go crazy and party with me at the drop of a hat as my Cali friends, (Except for Casey and Bay!) but we do have alot of fun and i'm really going to miss them when I go back. Strange to think I won't be spending any more birthdays in New York...

And now here we are. The weather is getting colder and windier. I'm in the midst of enjoying another 5 day weekend with Ben here. I have an important letter to write and a trip home in december to look forward to. I plan to make the most of this whole year and hopefully return to the bay in one piece with my life in order and the future waiting.

Wanna know what to get for my birthday??

Well shucks man, look no further!!

http://gizmodo.com/5064523/endless-banana-enjoy-the-soothing-banana+peeling-experience-forever

Like the Mugen PeriPeri before it, the Endless Banana' from Epoch is the latest in the growing Japanese market for "infinite toys"—devices that allow users to enjoy mundane, but strangely thrilling experiences over and over again. In addition to simulating the feel of a banana as it is peeled, the toy also features the voice of an actress named Saki Fujita. Apparently, her task was to make the "sound" of a peeling banana—whatever the hell that is. Unfortunately, finding out is not going to be an easy task. As far as anyone can tell these are a Japan-only release. [kilian-nakamura]



It just looks so satsifyingly awesome that I yearn for it to be in my hands...
If anyone feels like going to Japan and hunting it down for me that would just be keen.

This is the type of shit I have to deal with at school...

I'm gonna' let my Facebook status and resulting comments tell this story for me...


Patrick 's phone was thrown into coffee filled trash by his insane classmate as a joke. HAHAHAH! $120 later, I have a shitty new phone. Fuckin' great... 3:13pm

8 Comments
Emily at 3:28pm October 7
shit! man that sucks. two tests and a coffee-fried phone. this is what we call a bad. effing. tuesday. i'm sorry!

Julian at 3:29pm October 7
omg funnay joaks lol

Brent at 3:37pm October 7
what!? are you fucking kidding me? that asshole didn't pay for it???

Sonja at 3:40pm October 7
Do you go to school with teenagers?! They pay for that phone, buddy. Thems the breaks. That's what you tell that retard. I'm sorry.

Patrick at 3:50pm October 7
Yeah, she's a fuckin' child. Said my phone was old and shouldn't cost that much. And I have school grants so I can pay it myself...
These are the type of people I deal with, my friends...

Julian at 4:06pm October 7
whites lol

Ashley at 4:22pm October 7
are you serious? thats what she said?

Jorge at 5:34pm October 7
UNREAL!

So there you have it. Say goodbye to our little friendship Olga. Thanks for showing me what a bitch you are before I got too attached :)

Ain't seen a fall since last autumn

I've been doing a good job of staying (somewhat) positive lately. I've taken a couple mental health days off of school and that alone is enough to turn a whole week around. Also, I just got a 94 on my first test so I feel like i'm off to a good start this semester. And as usual, my friday and saturday nights remain full of booze, intrigue and excitement.

I've almost completely gotten over my cold but I still have the occasional cough attack. Once I get sick it's insanely hard for me to get over it. I remember going entire winters where I stayed sick growing up.

I'm completely loving the beginning of Fall. This is my favorite season of the year. The perfect transition from hot to cold. I can wear all my hoodies and jackets and there's always a nice cool breeze in the air. In northern Cali it sort of feels like this all year, but in NY it's an all too brief respite between the hellish summer and the frozen tundra of winter. October is my birthday month also so I get to plan out my festivities and get all my friends together to celebrate. (http://www.radegasthall.com) I've never understood people who don't want to party for their birthday. But then again, i'm alot more socially needy than most people so i'll take any chance I can to gather a crowd for drinking and debauchery.

Not to jinx myself or anything, but the year is going by pretty quickly over here. I came back from my summer break home in mid-August and it's already been 2 months. And in another 2 months i'll be back home AGAIN for winter break (hooray!) After that it's just another 7 months or so till' I graduate. I think I just might make it!! My brother wants to take me globe trekking for a few weeks when I finish. I'm excited for the opportunity but part of me just wants to hop on the first flight back home and get back to reality. But no, i'm sure we'll have fun. So far i'm thinking of Denmark, Milan, Amsterdam and London. I'll have friends to visit in 3 out of 4 of those places so that should be interesting. But yeah, that's still a long ways away.

I've been toying with the idea of nerding out and buying some anime and some comic books and never leaving my bed, but I don't think I have the time for all that. As a matter of fact I should be studying for advanced positioning and cross sectional anatomy right this second. 2 big tests tomorrow. I took the day off from the hospital and all i've done is lay around and dork out. I guess I just answered my own question....I had probably not buy any new distractions if I want to keep passing tests! But damnit, I really wanted to watch the entire series of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya! Hmm...but if any of my loyal 3 or 4 readers wants to buy me a birthday present though, I wouldn't object... ;-)

https://www.sundevildvd.com/store/product.php?productid=17692&cat=0&page=1

Alright...that's it. I need to go to the supermarket, I need to wash clothes, I need to open a book...I HAVE TO GET OUT OF BED!! Blargh!

Before I forget.....here's some rap!

I've been meaning to post these videos from my first ever hip-hop show in New York (can you believe that??) Anyway, it was at the knitting factory a few weekends ago and featured 4 of my favorite indie-alt-art-hop acts from back in the day...

Alias, Buck 65, Jel and Dose-one. Buck 65 is one of the greatest of all time, I swear. And he's Canadian to boot. These guys all represent a crew called Anticon that I used to think was the hottest shit around the bay area until they all got bored with plain old rapping and had to get all ultra avant-garde on me.

I still have love for them though. Dose-one is an old buddy of mine from back in the day when he was a hip-hop buyer at Amoeba records in Berkeley and I would sell him my janksy little mix-tapes. I was super pumped that they were coming to NY.

But anyway, some fella was kind enough to film Buck 65's performance that night and I would like to share some of it with you here. I highly reccomend you buy all his albums ever right now...

"Bandits"


"Enter Governor Bolts"
He hadn't played this song in so long that he had to read the lyrics off an airplane sick bag...


And as a super special bonus, here's a link to an album he just released for free along with his press release for it. Go listen to some real music folks. It'll make your heart smile and your brain cry...

From Buck:
"Lovers, I’ve been doing some woodshedding. I’ve been making beats and collecting them from some friends. I put together this thing called Dirtbike. Actually - at the risk of sounding nuts or esoteric or pretentious - the project is called Dirtbike (I figure it will be an on-going endeavor) and the first piece of it is called Lettersongs (Different Kinds of Dirt). I don’t really even understand it myself. Anyhow, it’s a new project. It’s kind of an album. It’s one very long piece and in many ways it’s a lot like the original versions of Vertex and Man Overboard. It’s an hour and ten minutes long and is very lo-fi (sounds like crap). This is just something I did on my own time for fun - like I said: woodshedding. But I didn’t work alone. My old friend and collaborator Jorun contributed an amazing beat that Moka Only raps on. Moka also contributed a beat for a part that was inspired by Vivienne Westwood’s Active Resistance Manifesto. There’s a “hook” in the song that goes “take action…”. I also had input and added production or instrumentation from: Buddy Peace, Emily Wells, Tom Inhaler, D-Styles, Skratch Bastid, Andrew Glencross and Serafina Steer. Oh yeah, and Doseone raps on a part - yes, raps. There’s a “song” about Fatty Arbuckle, one about St. Anthony the Great, one about La Golue who was featured in many Toulouse Lautrec paintings. There’s also a cover of a weird French song (in English) from the late ‘70’s (maybe 1980). Anyhow, it’s a very strange, experimental, un-commercial project. I made it for my own perverted pleasures and never considered for a second that it might be a proper release. I gave a few copies to friends and that’s all I ever planned for it. Well, I tell you about all this because it’s out there. If you’re interested in hearing it, I don’t think you’d have to search on the internet very long or hard to find it. The key word is Dirtbike1/3. Before I put it together I felt as though I was sitting on around four hours worth or material of the same sort that I now plan to complete before the end of October. So there may be more of this kind of thing to come - soon. I’m also working on the “proper” follow-up to “Situation” and the Bike For Three! album will be out in January. That’s all. Hope you’re good. Buck"

www.zshare.net/audio/17691744a94f4663

After the show, Casey, Leile, Mary and I wandered into a mystical little absinthe lounge in the middle of nowhere and drank for a thousand years. I managed to fall UP a flight of stairs...

Sick and Tired

I think I have the flu. I woke up at 5am today to trek my ass to staten island. But the coughing, sore throat, raspy thick chest noises and general aches and pains told me that i had better lay the fuck back down. This is just the cherry on top of my shit flavored sundae.

I know I tried to promote a more positive outlook in my past couple posts but I have just not been having a good week.

LAST week was fine. It was great actually. One of my best friends back home, Parisa sent her cousin to come stay with me during her visit to America from Italy. I was a little unsure as to how I could entertain some perfect stranger who didn't even speak english that well. But it turned out to be really nice.

She was so friendly and genuine and curious about all things American. It was her first time to NY so every little thing was amazing to her. It really changes your perspective on your own life when you have someone around who is so fascinated and entertained by the things you take for granted everyday. And it helped me to understand myself a little better when her and I would have discussions about politics or evolution or any random thing and I would really have to stop and figure out how to explain myself and why I actually feel the way I do about things.

I actually really really missed her when she left and I still do. Aside from being a really fun and kind person she also just reminded me so much of my old friend Parisa that it hurt worse to see her go. She left Friday and then on Saturday I went on a big Park Slope pub crawl with Bay and Casey. Then I went into the city with Casey for a party and some more bar hopping till 4am. I was amazed that I could still function at that hour. I hadn't had a break all week.

But now i'm alone again in this big ol' house. The studies are piling up and I sure as hell don't have the concentration to open a book. I'm sick and lazy and bored and lonely and basically just FULL of complaints. I have friends telling me to stop being such a pussy. I have dreams day and night of my life one year from now. When Hopefully, if I play my cards right, i'll be with a special someone...enjoying my well paying career...and living back where things make sense. I know, I know, New York is great, it's amazing, it's fun, I have amazing friends here...

But damn, sometimes friday and saturday night can't make up for everything else I have to deal with all week!

Saturdays were made for...

Bloody mary brunches with an awesome girl...

Running through a Brooklyn rainshower with her on a search for socks...

Beers and bowling with your homies and getting dry again...

Getting off at the wrong train stop and finding an unexpectedly delicious dinner there...

A rooftop penthouse party with $9 beers... (okay, that last part sucked)

Working my way uptown with Casey for various bars and frolics...

Passing out at her place fully clothed and fully drunk. Having made the most of a day and without a care in the world... (Until sunday, that is.)

Tonight I saw...

1. Tropic Thunder.
Kinda' good. kinda' not so good. Jack Black kicking heroin and RDJ being a black guy saved it.

2. A clearly european man on the subway wearing a pair of those big dumb Ugg boots. He seemed to not realize that everyone was staring and laughing. I aaalmost felt bad.

3. A cat in a bodega with a dead mouse in it's mouth. It came towards me like it was delivering a gift of frankincensce and mihrr.

4. An unexpected and boisterous rainshower that forced me to buy a tallcan of tecate and wait for the bus in order to get home.

5. The fact that I need to start seperating what I want from what I could possibly have...

I'm fuggin' psychic!

Tonight I ventured out into the hot cruel world to wish my pal and longtime acquaintance Medwards off as he returns to the bay. I was tired and pissed off from a long last day of summer interning but I felt like I owed him some face time since I haven't seen him more than thrice the whole time we've lived here.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that I correctly predicted tonight that,

A. The only person that was going to remain on the train ALL the way back to my neighborhood from Manhattan was the russian girl in front of me. The entire full train was gone by Church st. No white or black people live in my 2 mile radius.

And...

B. As I stopped to get a delicious halal cart chicken platter dinner I was wishing and hoping that the friendly vendor would offer to throw in some fries and maybe a falafel ball. I could just tell that he liked me. And sure enough, he said, "Hey, you want some fries too?" As in, free? "Oh sure!" I said. Then came that lovely fried ol' falafel ball as well.

It was really good. Not as good as the chicken platter in front of SUNY Downstate hospital, but pretty darn good. And that's my story.

Do I ramble when i'm drunk? I guess i'll find out tomorrow...

I've turned the corner on bullshit lane and have entered high hopes avenue

After 4 months of torture, my cousin is GONE!!! My aunt finally put her foot down and that's that. I don't even want to get into it. I'm just going to put it behind me and focus on getting this senior year of mine off to a good start...

I've been subletting at Bay's place in Park slope for the last week. Mostly to avoid the troubles of home, but also to enjoy his awesome neighborhood and close proximity to even more awesomeness. His roommate Jaygee is great too. She's an actor who does shows for disney and off broadway and USO tours and stuff. I love their roof more than anything...



Took my friend Emily up there for a couple Yuenglings Thursday night to kick off my 5 day weekend. Then we went to 4th ave. pub and watched the big Obama speech. I must admit, I was moved. Up until that point I had never heard him speak but standing at the bar half drunk with a mob of equally buzzed and enthralled young liberals all cheering was sorta' exciting. Obama has a bunch of big ideas and I like to pretend that he'll be able to follow through on them without falling into the usual presidential puppet role.



Also spent a lot of time with Casey this labor day weekend. She just came back from Spain. I accompanied her to Ikea for bed shopping and hot dog eating. Went to a really awesome Japanese yakitori style place in times square called "Hagi" apparently as close to authentic japanese as you can get in the US. Quite delish. Anthony Bourdain loves it so it's good enough for me!



Unfortunately I fell asleep on the train that night and didn't get home till' 4am. LAME!

Other highlights include sangria brunch and a riverside walk on sunday with Casey followed by beers "to-go" at McCarren park with Emily and her friends :) It was rad...you go to this bar directly across from the park and they sell you a giant Bud in a to-go styrofoam cup complete with straw. Then you walk on over to a grassy field and get tanked while watching hipsters play kickball. It's my new thing.

I went to a wild party in Williamsburg that night with Emily and her friends also...it was quite the night...needless to say I was up drinking whiskey and white wine till the sun rose. And then crumbled out of bed at 4pm the next day. Yikes!

I played tour guide a couple weekends ago when this girl, Sydney, that I met at Beerlympics came out to NY for vacation. It was fun doing the touristy thing again. We went to the David Byrne art project called "Playing the building". Basically there's a big organ set up in the middle of a warehouse and hitting the keys triggers all these different clangs and bangs and air horns throughout the walls of the place. Pretty nifty.




Then we hit the staten island ferry and back up to Chinatown for delicious ice cream and miles of Central park. All photographed beautifully by C. Bay...


www.cbaymilin.com

Which basically brings us up to date. I'm fuckin' sick and tired of my summer internship. The classmates i'm with have all formed a secret gang that i'm not apart of and their little condescending additudes and retardoid conversations have become infuriating. This is my last week there in Far rockaway. After this i'm in a small clinic in Staten island with a girl that i'm actually friends with. She's a complainer though, and not exactly the best worker. I hope we can get along after the next 2 months of just me and her in each others face 3 days a week.

I'm trying to keep the ol' hopes up. I've got interesting things happening and i've been squeezing in alot of good times with good people. I can't really complain at the moment. Positivety is the motto as Jaygee has told me. And with my cousin gone I can enjoy my home base relaxation again at least.

Here's to the beginning of my last year in New York!! Cheers, Motherclucker!

Worser still

Hey remember my dumb ass inconsiderate possibly mildly retarded cousin from a couple posts down?

Well instead of moving back in with her dad she has now invited her boyfriend who she met ONLINE to come stay with us for 2 WEEKS!!!

My aunt of course told her no, but he FLEW IN anyway. She plans to hide him if my aunt or her dad comes home. I told my aunt about this of course. But aside from being furious she hasn't done a thing about it yet. WHAT THE FUCK!?!?

I got to hear them having sex as I was waking up for class at 6:30 am the other day. That's it...i'm moving out. I quit...

It's like the shining...but funnier...

Petur, one of my best friends has returned to his home of Iceland to work in a hotel. I'm assuming it's all abandoned and scary like the Shining. That would explain his cabin fever and copious amounts of free time for acting and editing :) He's also an amazing drummer and one of the funniest people I know. I just had to share this video of him enjoying his one year drumming anniversary...

Damn, I miss you!!

I am not a family man

The passive aggressive tension in my house has reached a boiling point.

I'm living in my aunt's house while here at school. It's a large 3 bedroom place in Brooklyn. My aunt and I keep very different schedules and in fact she doesn't even come home most nights. Which is fine with me. I basically feel like I live here on my own. Which aside from being a bit lonely during the week is also pretty great. Sometimes I won't see her for 3 or 4 weeks at a time.

I enjoyed my privacy and freedom until my cousin moved in that is....

About 3 months ago around memorial day my aunt informed me that my cousin needed to stay with us for a "couple weeks" because there was some family trouble that she couldn't get into over the phone. Now, I have a very small family. And i'm certainly not used to being around any of them but my mom, brother and aunt. So this was very unsettling news.

I knew that my cousin was odd. She's sort of like a 12 year old trapped in a 21 year old's body. My uncle has been so protective of her and not allowed her to socialize her entire life so now the poor girl can barely hold a conversation. It's like talking to a goldfish. I knew this was going to suck.

The first few days I felt a need to be sociable with her. Offering her dinner and sitting around with her. But that quickly wore off. Her dad started to come around the house also. Bringing her food and just hanging out. So that killed my theory that the two of them had gotten into a big fight or something. It turned out that she was staying with us for a much stranger reason...

Her brother, my other cousin had gone crazy apparently. He threatened his whole family and ended up in a mental hospital which he quickly released himself from after refusing meds. He scared my uncle and his kids so badly that they moved out of the family house with nowhere to go and all split up to stay with different friends and family until finding a new place. That's the story I was told anyway.

Which leaves my cousin here indefinetely. For what was supposed to be 2 weeks and is now 3 months. It would have been one thing if he admitted that he had no plan for a new house and that her stay was going to be this long. But my uncle always made it sound like it would be just a short while. There's nothing I hate more than house guests who lie about their intentions.

Even more pissed off about this than me is my aunt. She's furious about her brother dumping his kid on us. And the fact that my uncle and his son will come over here and barbeque and hang out while neither me or my aunt is around makes her crazy. But sadly, my aunt is being a giant baby about the whole thing and won't confront the situation head on. Instead she has just been avoiding the house more than ever and shuffling all the problems onto me.

The other week all the electricity upstairs went out thanks to 3 air conditioners being run nonstop. Not having AC on a sweltering hot night is torturous. But then, to add onto that, the upstairs toilet broke and began leaking into the walls. A couple days after that the water started spilling down and leaking from the upstairs ceiling. When I told my aunt about these problems via text message she informed me that she was "starting to feel like a landlord" and that I should tell my cousin to have her dad get things fixed.

Needless to say, I was pissed. How did this become my responsibility?? I'm busy too, y'know? And suddenly i'm the middle man for the whole situation? My aunt blames my cousin for the problems here and blames my uncle even more for creating the problem. It's crazy.

So after a week of having to constantly switch out towels and change the buckets catching the ceiling leakage things seem to be fixed. The plumber came today, (I say "plumber" but it's just an illegal immigrant my aunt pays peanuts to do everything around the house) So hopefully that problem is fixed. And the upstairs power was rewired from the basement by some guy my uncle hired. It's a real makeshift job that I doubt will last too long. It's all just ridiculous.

Now the walls are all filthy and dripping from under the bathroom. I'm sure that my aunt's unwillingness to fix the problem earlier caused thousands of dollars in damage to the walls. And above all else, my cousin still remains. Giggling like a moron on the phone all night (Literally. I've woken up for school at 6:30 and she's still been on the phone!) Sitting around watching Spongebob squarepants. And just today...leaving me a present of what I can only assume was period blood on the chair in front of the computer....

Yes...I said it...

It's awful...

My house used to be a sanctuary after school and work but now I find myself having to escape to Bay's or Casey's all weekend. I usually leave friday afternoon and come back home sunday night. I can't deal with this much longer. Am I overreacting?? How would you deal with this situation? Comments are welcome. Here's a little gift for having made it through this whole rant...

Arcade Fire in an elevator...

Before the end of summer...

I really need to:

Go to the Bronx zoo...
I've never been to the Bronx and I hear their zoo is the best in NY. Also, I luv aminals ;)



See Aesop Rock for free at McCarren pool...
I have yet to witness a hip-hop show here, and Aes is one of my few remaining favorite mc's. I'm sure he'll rip it up. And for FREE!



Go on the NY ice cream sandwich crawl...
Sounds creamy and refreshing on a disgustingly hot afternoon. However, i'll probably be sick after 2 of these behemoths.

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/06/new-york-citys-top-10-best-ice-cream-sandwiches-nyc.html



Also there's talk of a road trip with Casey, Kuau and his wife up north. Perhaps Maine. Maybe we can pick some local fruit and get pie from a roadside shack. Or some ol' other New England type shit.

I personally can't wait for summer to be over. Bring on the snow!! I'm melting!!

The results are in...

Report card. Semester 2.

Advanced Nursing - Pass

Human structure & function - 91

Comp. with radiographic apps. - 92

Math - 80

Radiographic Procedures - 89

Principles of radiographic exposure - 79

Image analysis - Pass

Clinical education - 95

"Patrick is a pleasure, and a hard worker" they say...

Aww, i'm blurshing :)

Central to Prospect. Uptown to down

Last weekend I saw two amazing performances at Central and Prospect parks, respectively. The first was a free summer stage concert by Diplo, A-trak and Santogold.

Diplo and A-trak were kind of super boring. It was easily 100 degrees out and nobody was in the mood to dance to dj's for 2 hours. One girl literally passed out from heat stroke onto Bay. It was ridiculous!

But Santogold was AMAZING! She only performed for about half an hour though and it left everyone wanting more. Equally amazing were her super choreographed, matching back up dancers. I couldn't stop watching their funky fresh moves.



The next day at Prospect park there was a free movie screening of "Enter the Dragon". They opened with a really great Taiko drumming performance. It was hypnotizing. There was this ultra cute little old Japanese lady in the troupe bustin' cartwheels who just looked so damn happy that my heart got a boner... (Umm, *ahem* just forget about that part :)



Afterwards they showed the movie on the most ginormous outdoor projection screen i've ever seen. And to top that off, they had a group of live dj's and a drummer playing their new remixed score as the movie played. It was pretty amazing. Sometimes you forget how fuckin' badass Bruce Lee really was. What a shame.



This weekend my friends Yousif and Kyla were in town seperately. I got smashed drunk and rode a mechanical bull at a western bar twice! And I saw the Dark Knight. That shit is every bit as good as it's hyped up to be. Go see it now! It'll change your life maybe.

Weekends are fun...

Summer vacation part deux. beerbeerbeerBEER!!

And then the big day arrived...Beerlympics.

What started as a drunken pipe dream over 2 years ago is now a full fledged yearly tradition. I was a little bit worried that this year wasn't going to go as well as last, but all my fears were quelled when we entered that big beautiful park and it was completely empty and ready to be taken over by our gang of hooligans.

I arrived around noon with Jehan, Lauren and a keg. Shindig and his girlfriend were next to show up. They had with them the silver cup from last year that their team had won. I was so happy that they still had it! Last year Mariza was awesome enough to paint 3 mugs gold silver and bronze for the winning teams.

As more people started pouring in and enjoying our keg of Pabst I began to feel like it was really going to work. I was worried for a second that people were going to bitch out on me because I hadn't really done more than posted a couple Myspace event invites. But the turnout was really great. Old friends like Tai, Babak, Emily, Dana and lots more came through. About 60 throughout the day I think.



We didn't have teams with funny names and rules and score keeping this time around but I think the unplanned aspect of it made it a little less stressful. We just ended up playing rounds and rounds of flip cup which eventually organized itself into a boys vs. girls bragging rights challenge. I'm not ashamed to say that the girls kinda outperformed us that day...



I think it was thanks to the fact that they were CHEATING and had more team members than us!! :)



Anyway, it was fantastic. A real tribute to the undying spirit of alcoholism that my friends and I all share. Pretty much everyone stayed in the park, playing wiffle ball and enjoying Jehan's pork loin sandwiches until the sun went down. I must have personally consumed the equivalent of a 12 pack or more. And as a final farewell to the festivities, a single firework was blasted into the sky, which ended up getting us our only complaint of the day from the parks distant neighbors. Whoops!

Afterwards we went to barclays on college ave. to eat somehow. We were all so tired and smashed drunk we could barely keep our heads up! I don't think that more than 5 words were uttered at that table... :)

Then next few days I thought I would relax a bit but that didn't really happen. I hung out in SF with my friend Yumiko a couple times and did quite a bit of daytime drinking with her. I rested for about half a day after that before heading to the next big drunken adventure... Shabu-Shabu! An amazing all you can eat japanese stew and all you can drink beer and sake experience in Japantown.



They serve you plate after plate of this delicious, super thin beef that you can dunk in the stew for about 10 seconds before eating. I had been hoping to do this again ever since I first went with Robin and Casey almost 4 years ago. It was fairly pricy but worth it. Mariza's friend Sara that I had met at the food fest came and we were kind of overdoing it with the sake bombs! But it was great, Sara and I got to know each other pretty well in the next few days after discovering that we were both big fans of booze and cartoons.

That was a pretty intense night of drinking, lemme tell ya'. Jehan played me a message I left on his phone when I was smashed and I didn't even recognize my own voice!



Highlights of the last couple days there include hanging out with Parisa at her bar near Lake Merritt and, you guessed it, drinking all day! Kenya and Jehan and I enjoyed her kooky martinis and fancy fries. I think Parisa was a little dissapointed that we never had a solo kick it session while I was there.

As my trip drew to a close I finally got to see Billy's amazing new place in Rockridge and a few of us enjoyed some BBQ and a few rounds of Rockband. Is it weird to say that playing Rockband with 4 people on all instruments is so epically fun that it makes me want to cry?? Billy and his girlfriend covered the guitar and bass, with Sara on drums and me singing my little heart out to some Pixies tracks. (Here comes your maaaaa-aaan!!)

On my last night I had to gather the family one last time. We met up at the Missouri lounge. My favorite old haunt, and had a grand time. People who I hadn't gotten to see much showed up. All the guys who abandoned my beerlympics plan to go to Lake Tahoe (jerks!) And others who I just didn't get to see as much as I hoped. As expected, it was bittersweet. Mostly bitter. The dread was creeping up on me. I knew that in 24 hours I would be back in NY and hating life again. Not to sound too overly melodramatic or anything! And anyway, that night turned out to be the best of the trip overall so I can't complain :)

But all in all I'd have to say that this was an even better trip than last winter. I really needed this vacation. And the fact that in just one short year i'll be back in the bay with so much to look forward to will really help me get through this damn school shiiiet. I just hope that this initial homesickness leaves quickly. I wish I could immerse myself in all my amazing NY friends, but i'm so friggin' busy with this 8 to 4 hospital internship everyday that I can barely think!

Wish me luck. Wish yourself luck. Be good to each other. Drink a beer for me, friends!

How I spent my summer vacation... pt. 1

Here we go...my first week home in a nutshell.

I'm writing this not only for any potentially interested readers but mosty so that I can have a written description to look back on and enjoy after i've killed my next bushel of brain cells. Forgive my diary-esque prose style but that's basically all a blog really is isn't it?.

*Ahem* After a grueling 3 hour delay on the tarmac at JFK and a 6 hour flight to SFO I was greeted at 2:30 am by Benjamini monster, my hero. He was in town from LA and couch surfing himself for the week. He swifted me away to the homie Evan's place over by lake merritt. On the way there I could just feel the joy of home washing back over me.

The first morning Evan, Hippy, Brian and I hit up the Triple rock brewery for some 11 am drinks and to watch some soccer game that was actually kind of exciting. Soon after I met up with Some of my special ladies; Parisa, Ali, Mariza, Valentina, Vicki for the Berkeley international food fest. They had closed off some side streets around San pablo and University. It was there that I had some delicious indian ice cream, bought a new pair of hologram money shoes from fashion 4 less and last but not least met Mariza's new friend Sara who was super awesome...

There was a strange feeling like I had simultaneously never left and had been gone for 10 years straight. I felt right back at home but like everything had changed ridiculously.

I visited some of the favorite old spots those first days...the Mallard, where the bartender Robin frantically raced around pouring drinks for people like her life depended on it. Gordo's, sweet gordo's where I was reminded why it's always the first place I have to eat when I get back to the bay. And a couple trips to T-rex for happy hour and delicious ass BBQ.

There's just something so pleasant about a gang of good friends, food and booze. It's just so amazingly relaxing when we're all together and laughing, talking and reminiscing and creating new memories. I can say without a hint of sarcasm that i'm really blessed (in a non-religious way) to have these peeps in my life.

After Evan and a handful of friends bounced up to lake Tahoe to celebrate Evan's birthday up there I was offered a place to stay with a couple of ex-coworkers and roomates of mine, Richard and Andrea. Things have always been cool with me and Rich ever since he was a degenerate little kid hanging out drunk at 7-11 and I was popping acid like tic-tacs. But things were not so peachy with me and Drea once they started dating after meeting at work. Living with them was kind of a huge disaster a few years ago so i've been a little butt-hurt with her ever since.

But to Drea's credit she tried hard to make nice with me offering me a place to stay as long as I needed, making me early morning ramen and just being fun in general. We all went golfing along with Jehan, Ben and Brendan out by the Oakland airport.

I say "we" but mostly Rich, Drea and I were just drunk driving the golf carts, smashing into each other and peeing in the tall grass. So much fun! For some reason golfing has become a new thing for Jehan and Ben. Their trying to bring upper class pleasures like golf and paella back the the proletariat.

Went to a Giants vs. Cubs game that I actually enjoyed also. We got tickets from a scalper and had a few $9 beers. By the middle of week one my spending was already getting out of hand!

When the 4th of July rolled around I was thoroughly blissed out. A little dissapointed that some friends had left town or were so busy with work, but that's sort of what I expected. On the day of the 4th I went to a BBQ at an old coworkers from Trader Joe's place. It was pretty great to see some of the old TJ's freaks. Wacky drunkards like Velvet and Sebastian that seem like their characters straight out of Fear & loathing in las vegas.

That night we kept it fairly chill and a gang of us went up to another old friend, Shabnams house. I saw my old beer drinking partner Emi there for the first time so that was exciting. And Billy was able to kick it too thanks to the 3 day weekend.

We got drunk, made food, played apples to apples, argued, laughed, watched fireworks from all over the bay from her amazing house in the El Cerrito hills.

And at the end of the night when we were all passing out on the floor we were convinced by Brendan to venture out to the old local park to light off all the illegal 'works that Billy had been hoarding for hella years.

It was really spectacular actually and when we ran through the park and blazed off into the night afterwards I felt that old thrill that only comes from the fear of getting pulled over and arrested. Ahhh...that's what home is all about!

Well...that just about covers the first 6 days... excitement abounded. I'll be back with more tales as soon as I can put down my new PSP. I welcome any comments filling me in on any things my drunk ass forgot. (This was like a month ago already!)

I'm up out this piece!

The day has come...time to savor my 2 week vacation away from the dreary, humid hellish state called New York and get the fuck HOME!I finished finals, and had a fun ass last couple days here and in boston. But am I going to write about them?? No.

I'm gonna go pack and get the hell outta' here! No new posts for awhile either i'm sure. Everyone please wish me and my liver the best of luck. It's gonna' be a crazy old summer...

Unbeatable Banzuke

I have a strange, mid-finals calm about me today. It's like the eye of the hurricane. I have my hardest test tomorrow and yet here I am...playing scrabulous and browsing yelp. Whatever though, I feel pretty confident. I almost feel like it would be impossible for me to fail as concieted as that may sound.

I'm also too busy making mix cd's for a couple friends for when I go home on the 28th. In this modern age of 5 million GB portable players it seems almost silly making a tiny little 16 track CD so i'm upgrading to MP3 CD's that can hold 5 or 6 albums. That's the only way to fly.

For Billy i'm including all my latest indie rock favorites like Why? and Thao Nguyen. I'm so bored with hip-hop it's not funny. If anyone can turn me onto some real underground dopeness please let me know!
And for Mariza i'm putting in alot of booty bass mash-ups from the hood internet and perhaps a little hipster hop too.



Yesterday I borrowed Brent's bike and rode with Bay about 2 miles from Prospect park to the new Ikea in Red Hook. It was alot of fun! I hadn't biked like that in years. And weaving through NY traffic was pretty exhilirating. When we got there we stuffed ourselves with 2 hotdogs each, an ice cream cone, soda and cinnamon roll all for $4.00 each!! Amazing. I'm going to bring my next date there :)

On the way back we were caught in the beginning of a monsoon and were soaked as fuck! But even that was epic...soaring through the park with the wind and rain blasting us. The elements against us and our legs pumping towards the next beautiful stretch of greenery ahead of us. It was dope.

And now...after tomorrow's test I will return to Boston for my last weekend before summer break. Leile, I mean Mr. Salty, is playing a show on sunday and he's also promised me some sort of BBQ cook off festival on saturday. I'm juiced!

P.S. - New Yorkers don't seem to know what the term "juiced" means other than a steroid reference. And they certainly don't know "gaffled". It's so weird here...

This time yesterday...

I was getting nackered in Staten Island at an all you can drink sangria brunch to celebrate my aunt's graduation from business school. I ordered the 1 1/4 lb broiled lobster. It was fantastic. And the sangria pitchers never stopped flowing. What better way to get through a fake nice festival with family and acquaintances??

My mom and brother came down from Boston to join the festivities. My brother was busy being the good son and socializing with long forgotten family members while my mom just got drunk and complained loudly about how everyone was just "bullshitting each other with a bunch of stupid small talk". How embarassing....I tried to play the middle ground and just get drunk in peace and quiet.

On the ride home in my aunt's jet black 08' drop top Benz we bumped some Daddy Yankee and let the Verrazano bridge wind blow through our hair while our drunken stuffed carcasses enjoyed the sunset. How luxurious.


Today however, I blew off Casey's swim race and shoe shopping with Bay to sit around the house like a lazy sack of mexican potatoes. I would have felt bad leaving my family alone but I also didn't want to go all the way to the city in a freaking monsoon! And to top it all off, I REALLY need to study for finals.

I've been getting by so far studying only about a half hour per test but now that we're down to the wire I gotta' pick up the pace. I don't want to have to worry about anything while i'm back home for my summer break except Beerlympics training.

*Sigh* Just 2 more weeks and i'm up outta' this damn dirty ape of an island. I can't wait!!

Been awhile

I haven't had a chance to post for a bit. I was deprived of internet service by the evil outsourced vultures at verizon. It took over 2 weeks to resolve a simple reconnection problem. I've also been busy in the real world as well. I was visited by a few friends from back home and I had a great time and completely exhausted every sightseeing oppurtunity the city has to offer.

My home-slice Ben was here to interview for some design jobs in the hopes of moving out here himself. He surprised me on his first day with a duo of tattoos on his wrists. He got 2 circles of seemingly incoherent letters around his carpals. One of the wrists has all the initials of his family and the other is all his close friends (including me!) How cool is that, eh?! I've been immortalized! I was touched by the fact that I was even added.

Also visiting were 2 girls I know from high school, Lauren & Alicia. I have to admit that we haven't really stayed in touch since the old days and I was a little unsure how much we would still have in common, but it was really great having them here and reconnecting. It brought back memories of house parties and drinking 40's on staircases.

Tourist highlights of their week here include:

Pizza at Difara's and burgers at Corner Bistro
Coney Island people watching and a foodie tour through little russia
Daytime drinking and fish & chips at Pacific Standard
Wandering all through NY from prospect park to central park. Taking pictures and chillin'

But I am slightly relieved to have the house to myself again. A little peace and quiet and a day without walking 10 miles are good things. I also have mufuckin' finals to start worrying about so it's about time my sweaty ass buckled down and opened a notebook.

Speaking of sweaty, I think it must have literally been hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk today. It was a disgusting 95 degrees out! But with humidity i'd wager that it definetely was over a hundred. What the fuck, man! It was 70 and rainy like a week ago!! I hate this place and it's defineable seasonal changes. Where's my east bay perpetual 75 degrees at? I miss that like no other.

Aaaanyways, Here's some things i've recently discovered that you should get into...

thehoodinternet.com (the best mash-up architects i've ever heard)
sordomusic.com (a gigantic database of free albums collected from all over the interwebs)

The new Death Cab, Al Green and Santogold albums.






Iron Man. That movie was the equivalent of having your back scratched in just the right spot by your really nice girlfriend. All the while knowing that you're totally about to do it with her. Actually...wait...that's more like what the new Al Green album is like :)

Wow, I think i'm delirious from this blasted HEAT...

Your lesson for today is,
Appreciate and keep in touch with your old friends. Don't get mad when they leave a big pile of body gunk in the shower. They might just get a tattoo of you one day.

Listen to good music and stay out of the sun.
Buy lemonade from kids on the street even if you don't want it.
Call your brother just to say hi.

Spring barfs on my heart

One of my very bestest dear old friends came to visit the other week. He was stopping through Brooklyn on his way to his motherland of ice. It was really great to see him. And kind of cathartic, as I was finally able to hear the story of his tumultous past couple years that included lawsuits, embezzlement and a newfound passion for playing drums. I felt like we hadn't really talked or caught up in a really long time so it was good.

We acted silly all over town and enjoyed the Brooklyn botanic garden's cherry blossom festival among other things, like eating 5 burritos in 3 days and getting lost and staying out all night...


(We weren't nearly as bored as it appears. It's called selective editing, people)

After his departure it was back to business as usual. I have 6 weeks left of my junior year of school and while i'm doing well in the classroom, i'm unfortunately trapped at a pretty lackluster hospital situation where my training isn't really being put to use in the real world. All i've done in the past 2 weeks basically is help lift a 500 pound woman from stretcher to bed, learn how to prepare a barium enema bag and (today) try not to puke as one of the techs x-rayed a postmortem stillborn baby. It looked like a skinned kitten. Good times...

On top of that, I had to fight my way through what I think was a mild case of food poisoning the other day. I chose to eat some clearly undercooked chicken of my own making and proceeded to make the bathroom my home for the next 12 hours. Trying to work in the hospital like that was a nightmare!

*Sigh* I need to escape. I wish I was a drug addict. But noooOOOoooo, instead i'm fleeing to Jersey tomorrow for the weekend. I'll enjoy a potluck with Kuau, his wife and her nerdy med-school friends, play some Wii and maybe take a dip in the pool. Eeeexcellent!, (said in a Mr. Burns fashion of course)

I'm also planning some festivities for my big return home at the end of July. Last year I put together a "Beer'lympics" of sorts, where about 60 of my close, personal friends gathered at a big beautiful park in the Berkeley hills and spent all day playing drinking games in teams. We kept score and had big mugs painted gold, silver and bronze for the winners. It was glorious. I'm trying to recreate this from long distance with the help of my ex-girlfriend. I have a problem, well, not a problem but a tendancy to imagine everyone that I know back home as a member of my big extended family. It's comforting.

Even if they don't all feel the same way about each other. It's always been that way for me, like I don't know what I'd do without them. It sucks when I can't get people excited or organized about what I personally think would be a really fun event and a way for us all to reconnect....but i'm trying my best. I've got some good responses so far. Who could turn down a Beerlympics?!? You'd have to have a heart of steel...and balls of glass!

*Double sigh* I have some other moth clogs in my gut throne but those concerns will have to go onto my other super secret blog that even LESS people know about than this one :) Nah, actually, I think i'll just let them fester into a black ball of anger and confusion until juUUUuuust the right amount of booze pulls it out of me one day...

*Ahem* but on another note!....here's what I made for dinner!

Trader Joe's turkey burgers!


On white bread from 7-11!


With thick, green plant juice that looks like swamp scoopings!


Mmm-Mmm, Gross!!

So this is what love feels like...

It's been so long that I almost forgot! Until I met Thao Nguyen, that is.



Her folksy-indie-alt-pop-rock melts my heart like the proverbial seasonal change from winter to spring. This music is just what I needed to keep me from strangling someone on the bus.



She's playing with her band tonight IN BROOKLYN!! But as usual I can't think of anyone who would be willing to go with me except Bay and Petur, and their otherly engaged this evening. Also, i'm fucking exhausted after a long ass day of school/work. Oh well... she's coming around again in a few months with Rilo Kiley. But by then she'll be all famous and the show will sell out or something.

I mean, how can you not love this next one? It's like a marshmallow sunbeam reflecting off a unicorn's horn and turning into a pot of gold and all your friends are dancing around it and your old dead dog came back to life too! Yay!!

(Skip ahead 5 minutes for the best song ever. I can't tell if she would be totes pretentious in real life or just kooky and fun.)


Here's to discovering new music. Thanks, C.Bay!

//www.thaomusic.com/

It was nothing, really.

Hey, no big whoop...ya' know...I woke up at 6:20 am. Took the bus and subway for an hour to go work at a hospital for 8 hours. Took some x-rays. Worked in the catscan department, studied for some tests...

Then yeah, got home at 5, washed the dishes, took out the trash checked my Myspace, whatevs...

And then I was like shit, yo! ...dinner time! Busted out some beef...

Defrosted that shit. Lightly coated it with olive oil and gently massaged it with some salt and pepper.

Seared it for about 5 minutes, then into the oven for about 15 minutes.

Ba-BLAM!


Shit needed some extra shit tho'...
Poured some red wine, buttermilk, portobello mushrooms & butter into the pan with the seared beef leftovers. Boiled it, let it simmer and stew and reduce. No prob, bob.


Hell naw I didn't forget the potato, son! Fuckin' place your peepers on this ensemble.


Come get you some.

Big city nights

Some porno website declared that Brooklyn was the "naughtiest" city in America based on the amount of pornsite traffic coming out of here. So to celebrate they sent 5 porn stars to hang out in a dive bar in Williamsburg and had a free open bar...

Does that not sound like the absolute greatest thing EVER!!?? Let me answer that for you...yes..yes it does. Who the fuck doesn't want to meet Ava Devine & Mika Tan?!?

(Not that i'm into porn or anything ;)


For some odd reason I could not find one single person to go to this with me! Everyone was either studying, recovering from a bender or just plain lazy. Unforgivable!! I'm not the type of guy who goes to bars to ogle porn stars and get trashed by himself. So with a heavy heart and a tear down my cheek I was forced to go for plan B.

My friend Anna (who I mentioned in my last post) invited me to a party in Tribeca. One thing about her invites is that she usually tells me initially that we're going somewhere with an open bar...and then there is none. Or she'll say that there's no cover charge...and then I pay $15 at the door. That sorta' thing. So when she told me we were going to a party with an open bar and no cover charge I knew to expect the opposite.

I couldn't figure out what the hell kind of event we were at. It was some kind of benefit for a play, I think? They had a silent auction where you could sign up to win things like a tour and backstage passes to the Colbert report and a spa getaway and whatnot. There were performers every now and then also. A really horrible, unfunny yet hot young asian magician/comedian. And then a USO type gay guy singing army songs or some shit. It was just weird man, weird.

I had to get hammered to deal with this oddness. I was talking to Anna's boyfriend most of the time. He's this really hunky half japanese guy. He's some up and coming movie producer. Nice guy. Some other friend of Anna's came with us. I forget her name but somehow we went from discussing her psychology sessions to tango dancing in the middle of the party (I actually know some moves, no fake)

It was okay overall. I did some shmoozing with some other industry types and had my dinner at the free buffet. I almost convinced the gang to go back to Brooklyn for the porn thing. But they decided against it at the last minute (WTF!?) and we ended up just walking to the next bar. A little spot where some friend of theres was working. So at least we got to drink free for a little bit.

One of the bartenders at this next place was so hilariously drunk that I couldn't help but laughing. She was wearing a big Chevy's style sombrero and slurring and spilling drinks. Now that's the kind of girl for me! Reminded me of my ex actually. (Haha! Hi Esther!)

I was pretty drunk at this point and was having some sort of deep conversation with Anna's boyfriend and decided he was awesome. He wanted to hook me up with the bartender but I think I chickened out.

Soon after, the 3 of us pulled the ol' irish goodbye and cabbed it back to union square. I hopped on the subway and into the night I went. The last real night of spring break was over.

I had to overdo it of course. After getting off at my stop I discovered that my local liquor store has 16 ounce Crazy horse cans for 75 cents.

Boo-yah!

Drunk.

Salmon & stuffing

They were filming a movie in the subway as I was coming home from the hospital the other day. It was odd. I was like, "Why is there a train on that side of the track? There's no service on that side!" Then everyone on it poured off all at once looking all perfectly coifed and styled. All the billion dollar cameras and police tape kinda gave it away too.

My friend Anna is in the new Uma Thurman movie and I hope she hasn't let it go to her head, cuz' I haven't talked to her in over a month! Nah, she's probably just busy.

Oh yeah! I saw Steve Buscemi getting off the train about a week ago too. (I didn't realize how much show business news was going to be in this post :) He looked R-e-a-l-l-y old and frail. It kind of ruined my badass Reservoir dogs image of him. Shame.

I'm in the midst of midterms this week and I haven't been able to make it through a day without at least a 2 hour nap. I have "Properties of radiographic exposure" and "Cranium and facial bone positioning" on Friday. I'm feeling slightly confident about them.

My PRE teacher is nuts. He's the head tech at Methodist hospital and he spends half the class yelling, belittling and cussing at us. But he's a freakin' genius and actually really great underneath it all. I was about to try and put a little audio highlight reel of him on this post but i'm not nearly html savvy enough.

After midterms this week I have spring break!! Woo-hoo! No big plans really. I actually have to go in to the hospital to make up a couple class days before they kick my ass out. And then probably back up to Boston to spend some time with the family while my mom is still around. I'm looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing. And hopefully getting my tax return back soon so I can buy some cute new summer outfits. (J/K. Nah, but yeah.)

To keep up the trend of including pictures or videos in my posts, i'm including one of my favorite cinematic love songs from "The Jerk" (an amazing movie) I guess i'm feeling cheesy and I thought i'd continue todays Hollywood theme. Am I crazy for thinking that Bernadette Peters is hot??? NAHH!



It's too funny/awesome when she busts out that horn.

Great news everyone!

Hey, check it out! I failed my math midterm by less than one point! Sweeet! I got a fucking 74.7 because i'm a goddamn GENIUS!!!

....somebody just shoot me in the face please...

Graphical ratio of drunken pie chart

Last weekend 3 of my best friends were in town visiting. Evan from the bay came to surprise his brother and my other 2 friends from Boston and NJ came to see Evan. I proceeded to drink from 3pm to 2am on Saturday. I have approximately 5 memories of that 11 hour period. I think perhaps I shouldn't hit the sizzurp so hard...

My blurry memories include:

1. Meeting Casey for liter beers at Loreley. (3pm)
2. Hella expensive dinner with Kuau, Leile and their girls. (7pm)
3. Meeting up with Evan, Sean, Ami and the gang at the "Fat black pussycat" (9pm)
4. Going to one last after hours bar with Mia and being so drunk I could hardly stand. (2pm)
5. Slipping in and out of consciousness on the subway with Leile and Mary. (???)

I would enjoy being able to look back clearly at some of these good times i'm having and not just wondering how I got home without puking on the subway.

One thing this weekend did remind me of though, is that if I could buy a big ol' mansion in the hills for me and all my friends to live in I would finally be happy.





And if you don't understand this chart, you're a zark!

Sick

I feel like shit. Actually...I feel much better than I did over the weekend. It all started last week when I was having crazy insomnia. Tossing and turning, thoughts running through my head. Getting 1 to 2 hours of sleep a night probably caused the headaches. Then around wednesday came the coughing. Which added to the insomnia and kept me from sleeping at all. Then, finally the weekend came. I was too poor to leave the house so I planned on catching up on some sleep finally. But nooOOOooo. The coughing got worse. I tried to overcome to no avail and ended up feeling like I was perpetually hungover all weekend. Headachy and coughy and too weak to move. Guh...

So finally today I took off from school early, spent 6 of my last 10 bucks on some damn medicine and took a 4 hour nap. I feel a little better. I thought I was going to kill myself if I stayed home all weekend but it actually wasn't too terrible. Here's some of the things that have kept me sane.

(1.) Replaying Final Fantasy 8:


I haven't played a videogame in about 3 years so I thought i'd pick up one of my old favorites. It didn't really keep me as enthralled as it used to. I don't really understand videogame culture. I mean, I understand that their fun and all, but who the fuck has the thousands of dollars and neverending free time to play them nowadays??

(2.) Watching Current TV:
Have you seen this shit?! It's really a revolution in television, I think. The channel was co-founded by Al Gore and they run little mini episodes, Or "Pods" of news and art and culture from aroud the world. It's super informative and interesting and has none of the bias or stupidity of mainstream news. They take little local stories that you would never even hear about and show them to you in a really smart and funny way. Like this look at China trying to improve it's image for the olympics...


(3.) Scrabulous:
Could this be a little more addictive please? Thanks to facebook, I am now a scrabble champion! I find myself simultaneously playing against 5 or 6 strangers from all over the world and having to fight the temptation to cheat online when i'm losing. (Even though my opponents probably do! Those bastards!) When I actually played real life scrabble for the first time in about a year at a chicken and waffles dinner party last weekend I found myself bustin' out 2 letter words and bingos left and right. Amazing how sitting on your ass in front of the computer can translate to real world skills sometime.

But yeah, the real thing that's keeping me going nowadays is my mental clock counting down 3 weeks till' spring break and 3 months till' summer. I wish I could just find a hole to crawl into until then with some booze and a pillow.

Reasons why you shouldn't have surgery

I was at the hospital yesterday working with a tech when we were told to head to the operating room. We have to x-ray periodically in surgeries to make sure screws are being put in the correct place and whatnot. I've only done this once before during an ankle surgery and it's pretty much the reason I want to work in a small, private clinic when I graduate.

We got into our sterile scrubs and headed down. Not knowing what to expect. Before even getting into the room, i'm greeted by really nasty, rude nurses and doctors who all think of us lowly x-ray techs as second class citizens. (Fuck you!) Oh, and being a student i'm definetely lowest on the totem pole. Anyway, we get our sterile scrubs on and head into the operating room.
Turned out it was a "Lumbar fusion" which was being done to repair scoliosis.


Gross. This kids entire back was spread open with you know, some kinda' back spreading pliers. And basically his whole spine was exposed. Bloody and white. From my vantage point I could get a pretty clear shot of the doctors hammering and chiseling and burning and screwing. I had to force myself to look away. Meanwhile the tech i was with is nonchalant as ever telling me about his ability to make any girl that he's with, and I quote, "Squirt their juice like crazy when I'm fuckin' them" *ahem* Yeah, sorry, his words not mine :)

Anyway, on to the real reason I would NEVER have surgery if it was for something non life threatening like scoliosis. The doctors were clowning around too. Cracking jokes and making fun of each other for screwing up. One guy was casually wiping discarded bits of spine onto his scrubs which fell to the floor. They also had their I-pod blasting. Which was fine, I guess. But it happened to be a room full of white doctors in their 40's and they were playing stuff like, Wu-tang's "Shame on a ni**a" and that stupid "My ni**as don't dance, they just pull up their pants" song by that one shitty guy.



And they were shufflin' and shakin' it and singin' along as if there wasn't a risk of ending this little kid's ability to walk and talk laying 1 inch away from their razor sharp tools.

And then the worst part....one of the male nurses busts out a little digital camera, tip-toes over the doctors shoulders and snaps a pic of the whole grisly scene. For some sick, underground myspace for doctors profile pic, no doubt. Ugh. The whole thing just felt really unprofessional and disrespectful. And seeing how they manhandle you when you're unconscious and just keep pumping you with anesthesia was pretty rough. No thanks, yo. Keep ya' spine straight, homey!

St. Pat's in Boston. Day Three

On day three, Casey and I were left to fend for ourself as Leile had to return to work and Kuau and his wife were headed up to Cape Cod to visit other friends. I had been invited to partake in free drinks by my friend Ami at her bar downtown. And being the thirsty little monkeys we are, we quickly headed down to State street in Boston.

It was a beautiful day and our heads were clearing from all the salvia and brewskies. Naturally it was time for a re-clouding. We found Ami's bar and bellied up but sadly I was informed that she had injured herself the night prior and took the day off :( She later told me that she got drunk, fell and hurt her ass bone (or, Coccyx, if you will) So me and Casey went ahead and had a couple overpriced drinks and appetizers before moving on into the cold and sunny coldiness...
We journied around the financial district a bit until Casey couldn't feel her hands anymore. Now you wouldn't expect a glove purchase in Boston in 35 degree weather to be difficult. But after a trip to TJ Maxx, CVS and street vendors we were still hella gloveless and like, "Whuu..?!?"

The lady at TJ Maxx (more like TJ minimum. Hah!) had the nerve to tell us without cracking a smile that the winter clothing season had ended and that there would be NOWHERE to buy gloves anymore....

Reeeeal smart, Boston. It's winter there 8 months out of the year but you'd better fuckin' get ready for it by March 1st! Anyways, long story short, it gave us the chance to wander into Chinatown where there were gloves aplenty. And clean, quiet streets that you wouldn't even dream of finding in SF or NY's C-towns.


After a bit more tourism we headed to the MIT/sciency nerd district to meet Leile at his dreary office job as a professors assistant. Casey had to help him figure out some ridiculous request his boss had given him for a word document with no lines seperating tables or something. *Yawn*
We couldn't get outta' there fast enough. Leile had told me about a secret MIT bar called the "Muddy river" inside one of the classroom halls. Apparently some construction workers and homeless people had taken a liking to the cheap ass beer also and began going there to mingle with the computer programmer crowd. Sounded like fun to me!

It was a nice little place actually. It was super strange walking through this giant old dormitory building to get to it though. We ordered up some pitchers of Bud for $6each and were loving it. That is...until we noticed that some people around us had not just regular old pitchers of Bud....but GREEN pitchers of Bud!! Wtf?! Where was this coming from?! We had asked around the days prior but it seemed that most places had ended this grand tradition for fear of altering the taste of the beer and for the general unhealthiness of drinking that much food coloring. We asked the bartender to hook us up and he said, "Welp. That's not up t'me ya' see. You gotta' ask ol' scrappy over yonder."

Okay, that's not really how he talked. But that's secretly how I wish all bartenders sounded. But anyway, yeah, fuckin' creepy. The food coloring was just coming out of the pocket of some old irish dude sitting at the bar by himself. Leile asked if he could score off of him and he graced us with a couple squirts. Hooray!


By then we were getting hungry and Leile, being the plan master for the day, had found out that one of his favorite bar/restaurant/bowling alleys was doing free "candlepin" bowling at 9. Now...if you've never heard of candlepin bowling, consider yourself lucky. It's a New England bastardization of real bowling. They use super tiny, handheld balls and you basically just huck them at suuuper skinny little pins as hard as you can with no hope of aiming. But it was free and the place sounded fun so we headed off to Jamaica Plains.

Upon arrival, we were met by Ami (sore butt and all) and Leile's GF. We sat down to dinner and a round of "Brubakers" which is a dirty old bottle of beer that is apparently the Boston hipster version of Pabst. The food at this place, (the Milky Way), was really fucking good. It was funny, the rest of the place was a dirty old bar but the dining area was all trendy and fancy looking. We drank, we talked, we laughed, we ate. It was a grand ol' time. A DJ spinning "real vinyl" as his advertisement had touted began playing old Dub 45's when Grifto, the hipster clown prince of Ireland proceeded to lose his mind on the dancefloor!


Hahahaha!! So funny...anyways. We played a few rounds of CP bowling and got properly smashed. I almost got into a fight with a couple townies at the bar when I remarked out loud to them that I was mad at not being able to get irish carbombs anywhere and they retorted with a big shit-eating grin that perhaps it was because of "my attitude". We got into a little back and forth about where I was from and how it was insulting to order carbombs. Oh man, I was steamed. Me and Leile actually went back to look for them after I delivered the beers but they had taken off. Fearing my unholy wrath :)

We a-l-m-o-s-t missed the last train back to Leile's which would have been pure balls. But thankfully we made it home in one piece. One DRUNK piece. But that wasn't the end, goddamnit! We were set on drinking at least one freaking carbomb before leaving this state. So Leilers rounded up some bootleg fixin's and we had our final drink in Boston while laughing in the face of irish history and all the idiots who complained about us calling them carbombers.


Dumbasses. The next morning Casey and I met up with my brother who had just returned from Italy and had some Cuban sandwiches. He saw us off to the Fung-Wah and we rode off into the sunset like Seamus O' Toolahan at the battle of Crossberry, whippin' dynamite at housewives and children with a bottle of whiskey at the ready.

THE END