Category: Topics

General

Are You In For Freebies?

Some say that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.  They’re wrong.  With the saturation of internet use and everyone rushing online to digest their daily share of random writing (like this one), the paradigm has shifted for the publishing industry.  Advertising revenues are declining for publications such as newspaper and magazines, and they need more subscribers.  By now you’re probably thinking, “That mumbo jumbo’s cool, James, but what do I care?”

Well, this is where you and I come in.  I, for one, am more than happy to aid these poor publication companies in securing their advertisers by subscribing to their magazines–for free.  Skeptical of this? Check out this anonymous quote from… uh… someone… “I’ve had so many free magazines sent to my door in the past year that I’m contemplating about cancelling some just to free up some real estate in my mailbox!”

If you’ve never received anything for free in life except junk mail, it’s time to break that cycle!  Check out techbargains.com’s free magazine section now! Most offers are for obscure magazines that need publicity, though, so patience may be a virtue here.

Family and Friends

Little Kam–Made In USA

If you haven’t heard by now, congratulations to Justine for producing the next baby in the Kam line organically–100% natural!  My first impression in seeing the baby was that it looks just like a cacoon, wrapped up in a tiny, bitsy little space.

Despite my efforts to have her named Handy (Handy Kam), they went against my wisdom and named her Madeline instead.  Allen, being the spiderman zealot, really wanted to call his daughter MJ (Mary Jane), hence the name Madeline Joy Kam.  From this point forth, she shall be referred to as MJ.

And here’s my futile attempt at pacifying MJ, shortly before she began wailing.  It’s still difficult to make out whether she is predominantly Justine or Allen.  I must say, though, she is one cute baby…  I guess I answered my own question.  She’s gotta be closer to Justine.  😀

Home

AQ’s “Specially Flavored” Ramen

Carol my sister-in-law, who had just returned from a business trip to Vancouver, excitedly handed me two bowls of ramen.  “Oh you got to try this!  It’s very delicious!”  Promptly Karen and I altered our lunch plans from dining at Canlis to eating these bowls of ramen at home. We anxiously boiled some water, and with the whistle of the kettle, deluged the styrofoam bowls with steaming water and sealed the bowl.  After waiting what seemed like an eternity, we lifted the lid.  If you’re expecting mouth-watering, delicious fragrance, think again.

It stunk.  Like the gutter.

A closer inspection of the packaging revealed the words, “AQ Stinky Stinky Pot”.  In which part of the world do companies intentionally use the word “stink” to describe its own product as an advertisement?  And where do people line up to indulge in fermented, foul tofu flavored with Chinatown dark alley aroma?

Only in Taiwan.

Now personally I enjoy the Stinky Tofu, but this Stinky Ramen didn’t meet the bar.  To be frank, it just didn’t stink enough, as the weak smell seemed more like an afterthought.  A word of advise to AQ: Next time you advertise something, take it all the way.  Don’t wimp out and give us some half-baked aroma thinking that the consumers wouldn’t notice the difference. That nasty stench needs to permeate through our mouth, nose, and pores with each bite to attain the highest level of satisfaction.

Only then can this stinky culinary product be complete.

Health

Dandelions: Don’t Weed Them, Eat Them!

Today as I researched for a method to organically eliminate dandelions from my yard, I became enlightened.  Why remove them when you can eat them? After all, they are more nutritious than spinach.  They’re high in vitamin A and C, and contains an impressive amount of calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and copper!  Just look at this nutrition fact box:

Let me present you with your next Valentine’s dinner menu:

Appetizers
Hot Dandelion Root with Salt and Butter
Roasted Dandelion Roots

Salad
Dandelion Salad with Warm Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Entree
Pan-Roasted Chicken with Wilted Dandelion and Bacon

Dessert
Dandelion Ice Cream

Drinks
Dandelion Coffee/Dandelion Beer

You can visit this site for more Dandelion specialty ideas including the Dandelion Omelette, Veal and Dandelion, and Italian Dandelion Casserole.

So stop dumping those dandelions into the Yard Waste Bin!  You’re literally throwing your dinner away.  Do yourself a favor and save yourself a trip to Safeway by preparing your hearty meal with the superior, nutritious substitute!

Oh, and if you don’t have a backyard or just want free produce, contact Vivien Ng.  She has a massive dandelion vegetable garden in her backyard, enough to feed a family of four for an entire year.

General

All the closet Anthony and Scott fans show yourselves NOW!!!

During tonight’s American Idol elimination, my jaw dropped to the floor as Constantine Maroulis was booted off the show.  I was so appalled that Scott wasn’t in the bottom three that I almost threw Karen’s little brown honey bear at the TV set!  While I must sheepishly admit I did not vote last night, it wouldn’t have made a difference as all 600 of my votes would have gone to Vonzelle.  Nevertheless, it was inconceivable for Constantine to get eliminated while Scott, whose voice has no lower register–or higher as witnessed by that whimpy falsetto today, continues to weazel his way to safety from week to week.  Okay, who voted for him?!!  Stop hiding in the corner of that dusty closet!  Come out and stand still while I slap you silly!

General

Star Wars Fanatics

It never ceases to amaze me how much time people have on their hands.  Ever since the first Star Wars film, fans have dusted their trusty handycams and created fan films in their closet, bathroom, gazebo, you name it.

The best so far is Star Wars: Revelations. This is not your typical Star Wars Kid type of fan movie, but forty minutes of special effects virtually indistinguishable from production film.  I tip my hat to these folks that dedicated three years of their lives on this.  Impressive.

But my favorite is Sith Apprentice, a more comedic piece of work.  If you religiously watch The Apprentice, this film will have you rolling around hysterically on the dirty carpet picking up bits of cereal and cracker jacks.

Personally I have a few fan films up my sleeves, including a Nightmare on Carlota Street, where I was an elementary school student running away from Freddy Kreuger around the house.  Maybe I’ll post a video of it later.  😎

Home

TGIFO!

They just announced at work that we get Fridays off until end of May! During the busy work week, it is quite difficult to find an open time slot to call stores that open 8-5 M-F, so time to take care of errands, work on the fence, do yard work, and relax in the lawn staring at the aphids devouring our plants.  Oh, it also means four day weekend on Memorial Day weekend!  Yeah!

General

Miss Saigon the Freefall Ride

Finally, I’ve experienced the third and final installment of the Big Three musicals last night, Miss Saigon. Our party included my wife Karen, Jimmy, Andrew, Carol, Howe, Jeffrey, and Grace. Here is the rankings from one of the foremost authority on musicals, the James Lee Musical Meter:

1. Les Miserables
2. Phantom Of The Opera
3. Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon is like Freefall from Magic Mountain amusement park–it takes you slowly up to the top, then drops you down. For most of the musical, it seemed like a flat movie that plays, and for a moment I pushed myself to keep my little yawn in.

It starts with some spicy scenes deemed inappropriate for children under 18, so I wouldn’t recommend bringing your little nephew to the show. No dozing off here. Then strangely you start watching some acrobatic men in disturbing masks and dragon chasing the tiger. Just when you thought it was over the top, you get to see the overly enlarged face of Ho Chi Minh along with all his moles with facial hair growing out of it. Then you get the famous chopper scene, but with the blinking light and people falling, for a minute I thought “What tha…?!?” as it was taking out civilians. Then there’s some Elvis and Marilyn scene and more raunchy scenes in contrast to the dragon dance.

Then as you approach the end, you see the inevitable coming, and before you know it, you’re balling. Then the climax, and Bam! Game over. Thank you for using Saigon Eye Lubrication Services. There was not a dry eye in the theatre, except maybe Jimmy and Andrew who adopted an analytical approach to watching musicals. For the rest of us, it left us in a funky state.

What’s missing from Miss Saigon is recurring melodies. In Les Miserables, you hear similar melodies over and over again, rehashed in different forms, so that when you leave the musical, the melody sticks out of your nose and ears. With Miss Saigon, there was nothing. Dead silence on the way back in the car, well, except for Andrew getting shut down but that’s a different story.

As we were leaving the theatre, we noticed that Jeffrey and Andrew decided to show their brotherhood:

Good thing they’re guys. I can’t imagine the pain and suffering for two girls to wear twin outfits to a musical…

On the way back, we discussed how musicals sometimes need to substitute actors of different races, and that the evil dude who got wasted by Miss Sai was not Vietnamese. But it wasn’t as disturbing as the last Les Miserables that we saw, where Fantine unexpectedly became Fantina (black), which… kind of changes things.

Anyway, in the end, it’s still worth watching Miss Saigon at least once, but remember to bring your tissues so you won’t be wetting your pants with your tears.

Sports

Despite Gloomy Season, Incredibles Win Championship!

It’s not a story about the superheros in the new DVD.  The Incredibles is a volleyball team in Michael Chang’s CSL Volleyball League, and one of the players is yours truly.  If you need a story for hope, a story for inspiration, a story for comeback…  search no further than this.

During the regular season, the team struggled.  Wins were hard to come by, and the team members didn’t gel.  In fact, we had won only 4 games during the regular season, out of 24.  It was grueling time, it was tough, and there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Some players thought this would be the last season they join CSL volleyball, as wins were tough to come by.  In a blink of the eye, the regular season was over.

Then came the playoffs.

So we began to seek practice opportunities.  Some of us went to First Presbyterian Church on Thursday night for open gym.  We also had a practice session… at 8am?!? Yeah, thanks Jeffrey.  Drousily we woke up before the rooster crowed and pushed ourselves to practice.

The team began to gel.

On Sunday, we (#7 seed) played Helmet Heads (#4 seed).  We won.  On the following Saturday, we played Friday Night Lights (#1 seed).  Another upset.  Then came the championship game.

“Da da da da da da…. INCREDIBLES!”

The game began.  It was intense, as beads of swet glided down our sideburns, and within the window of our eyes, the windows of our soul, wrote two words: “No Fear”.

Wes whipped out his Air Jordan shoes…  Yes the ref is Michael Chang the ex-tennis player…

David challenging their spikers…

Carol stepping up and getting some kill shots and blocks…

Jessica just good all around…

Phoebe holding her own…

And yours truly providing some offense and defense…

We won the first game, but got destroyed on the second game.  At one point during the third game, we were down 4-12, watching the championship slowly slipping through our swetty fingers.  Then I was up.  Having served both of my serves nicely into the net during the championship thus far, the faith of the team in winning is held by a string as thin as a dental floss.  As the crowd cheered on, “Serve it in!”  “Come on!”  “You can do it.”, I looked at the score. 7-14.  I felt a calmness, a soothing confidence that we could do this as I took a deep breath and flung the ball into the air.  Imagine the entire scene in slow motion as my hand makes contact with the ball, the ball ascends into the air, all eyes fixated widely on the ball with open mouths, and the ball flying… flying… and lands in the court!  The mojo was back.  We won the point.  Then I served, and I served, and I served, and I served, and they took a timeout, and I served, and I served, and I served, then the score was 15-14 when we conceeded a point.  The momentum was on our side, and there was no stopping the Incredibles!

In the end, we won.

So it sounds like I turned the team around, but hey, this is my blog, right?  😛  Well, we won as a team.  Some points that seemed unfathomably hard to return were answered, and everything just clicked.  Everyone really stepped up.

Here’s the team picture for the Incredibles.  During the cerebration ceremony, Carol and Grace won the Most Inspirational Player awards for Incredibles and Superheroes, respectively.

And finally, as the first ECC team to win a championship in CSL volleyball, we were ready to accept our award!  The award that symbolizes the incredulous turnaround!  The award that reflects all the hard work and hours put into volleyball! The award that that bonds our team forever as champions of CSL!  The award…

…was an edible cookie?!!  Sure it says “C Champs”, but come on…  Well, I guess it’s the journey and reaching our personal goals that’s the best reward of all.

Still, a trophy would have been nice.

Sports

Cleveland 6, Seattle 1

Last night our fellowship attended the Mariners game.  It started out with red carpet moment where Ichiro received his award for 262 hits.  The national anthem was sung by a lady whose voice was solid except for that, oh, pathetic high note, which won’t be wining any American Idol votes.  Imagine me hitting a high note with some pubscent falsetto.  Ok, don’t imagine that.  Anyway, on to the ballgame. 

Gil Meche was pitching that night, and from the looks of it, he was pitching batting practice.  From the top of the first inning, the Mariners were down 5-0.  Sheesh.  Learn how to pitch, boy!  I was hoping the Mariners would claw their way back.  First up, Ichiro!

And the balls comes to the plate!  Ichiro is locked in!  He looks at the ball! Swings!  And…

…grounds out.

Ironically, after receiving the all-time hits award, Ichiro then goes on to get all of 0 hits that night.  That’s right, zip, zilch, goose egg.  Well, that pretty much epitomizes the night for the Mariners, as we see Brett Boone strike out (no surprise here):

And Beltre still in his HR slump mapping back to the beginning of Spring Training:

During the ballgame, some of the cleaning crew started messing around:

They thought their lazy butts would slip by unnoticed, but my hawk eye spotted them from a mile away and caught them on film!  Slackers!  Get back to work!

Then there was the wave.  You can deduce how the game is going when people are paying more attention to the wave than the game:

But the take away from the game is…  The Ichiro Bobblehead dolls!

Okay, so at least there was something positive from the game.  E-bay, here I come!