answer me why?

morning commutes into the City can be annoying, tiring, aggravating, angering, etc. For instance, yesterday i got onto the smelliest E train at 42nd Street. i mean, i've been in smelly cars before: sometimes it's pungent food or (usually) the noxious smell of pee. This time though, the smell was reedonkulous. it was a very smack-you-in-the-face body odor and it was unbearable. when riding on NYC subway cars, you can usually tell the NYers from the non because they have stoic faces in the face of the unusual. in the face of panhandlers, kids peddling candy, fights breaking out, NYers keep completely straight faces as if nothing happened. however, on this particular day, about 80% of the car had their noses buried into their jacket collars or scarves; and about 25% of the people were having physical reactions to the odor. it was so offensive that even when i stepped off the train and got to work i still had the feeling of being dirty, as if the smell had somehow attached itself to me like a thin layer on top of my skin. ::shiver:: even now, the memory haunts me...

Sometimes, on those rare occasions, the commute can also be entertaining. for instance, a few days ago i had missed my initial bus to work and was waiting for the next one. my bus stop is right outside of a 7-Eleven and is a high traffic area for kids on their way to the middle and high school. i also happened to be wearing jeans to work that day. as i waited, a yellow school bus stopped in front of me and opened it's doors. i was confused for a moment until i realized: the driver thought i was a student waiting for the school bus. not bad for a 27 year old i guess. or is it?

i've recently been reading the book Eating a Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman. i had NO IDEA what the book was about when i picked it up at the library. i just thought the cover was interesting and then i read the inside jacket and my interest was piqued enough to at least check the book out from the library. i figured if it sucked i'd just stop reading it.

the 1st chapter entitled "Something Instead of Nothing", asking the question "why do people feel the need to answer questions?" was mildly interesting. there was one part that i found particularly interesting:

"I'm not sure that we aren't seeing the emergence of

a society in which almost everyone who isn't famous

considers themselves cruelly and unfairly unheard.

As though being famous, and the subject of wide attention,

is considered to be a fulfilled human being's natural

state-and so, as a corollary, the cruelly unheard millions

are perpetually primed and fired up to answer any and

all questions in order to redress this awful imbalance"

-quote from Chris Heath in Eating the Dinosaur

this concept feels true. look at this blog for instance, and all the millions of other blogs out there. everyone's just spilling over to share their opinions, their ideas, their voice. hence the appeal of appearing on reality television.

i had no idea when i started to read it, that the book is a collection of essays. which was a pleasant surprise because i don't know if i could a read an entire book about interviewing and why people answer questions. i haven't finished the book yet (i'm currently on the chapter about ABBA) but i heartily recommend it. the topics are entertaining and completely relatable. they're relatable because they feel true. his topics have a very Murphy's-Law-feel to them and often they're concepts you've discussed yourself with friends or had fleetingly thought about at one time or another.

my favorite essay is "Tomorrow Rarely Knows" which discusses time travel. it touches upon every concept you've ever discussed or thought about time travel and then explores it a little more. but that's not why i like it. for me personally, was extremely relatable. at one point, Klosterman talks about having the fantasy of reliving his entire life while still possessing his present-day mind. and i have that fantasy ALL THE TIME. okay, all the time is exaggerating it a little. but i do think about it on more than one occassion. it's just such an appealing idea to me but i never delved into exactly why, aside from the obvious. but Klosterman provided a motivation that, while not a great revelation about me, still seems pretty spot on:

"I used to have a fantasy about reliving my entire

life with my present-day mind...I imagine the bizarre

things I would have said to teachers in junior high.

I think about women I would have pursued and stories I

could have written better and about how interesting it

would have been to be a genius four-year-old. At its

nucleus, this fantasy is about never having to

learn anything. The defining line from Frank Herbert's

Dune argues that the mystery of life 'is not a question

to be answered but a reality to be experienced.' My

fantasy offers the opposite. Nothing would be

experienced. Nothing would feel new or unknown or

jarring. It's a fantasy for people who want to solve

life's mysteries without having to do the work...

The desire to travel through time is electrifying and

rational, but it's a desire of weakness... People who

want to travel through time are both (a)unhappy

and (b) unwilling to compromise anything about who

they are. They would rather change every element of

society except themselves...

It takes a flexible mind to imagine how time travel

might work, but only an inflexible spirit would

actually want to do it. It's the desire of the depressed

and lazy."-excerpt from Eating the Dinosaur

...and cue the choir of angels and the light bulb suddenly lighting up above my head. while i've had the fantasy plenty of times, it's Klosterman that revealed why. hmm, i don't feel depressed, but lazy? spot on. i admit it, i have an i-wish-everything-would-just-fall-into-place attitude about life most of the time. kudos to you for revealing my inner psyche Chuck Klosterman!

hangovers need starch

there's always something daunting about going into a new place for the first time. there's something even more daunting about doing it during midtown lunch. the hustle-and-bustle of a midtown lunch spot can be intimidating when you're the newbie. if you don't understand the ordering methodology or dawdle too long about what to order from the menu, you inevitably feel the death glares from all the regulars standing behind you as well as from the person standing behind the counter taking your order.

::shiver:: NYC can be a harsh place when it comes to food. luckily for me, i tried El Papasito on the day the snow storm started, so no one was really venturing outside to get food.

i was slightly hungover from the previous night out at Go. i'd planned to meet Kiddo there for drinks and then head over to meet She and Egg for dinner at Klong. however, as always in the legal profession, work caused me to change my plans. i ended up being 30 mins late (not counting that at the last minute i rescheduled for another 30 mins, so in total it was an hour) but luckily for me Kiddo was also running late, not to mention Egg was over an hour late after that (but he works at a big-time law firm so he's forgiven because we expect that). needless to say, by the time i got to Go i was in dire need of a drink. Egg and i have decided we're going to give Go a shot as our new go-to spot (no pun intended, honestly). they have a great drink deal of sake and 16 oz. beer for only $6.50. the price has risen significantly tho since the 1st time i was there (which was probably a year ago). the drink deal used to be $5.00. if Go keeps raising it's price i'll have to stop going (again, no pun intended).

by the time Egg and She showed up, i was 2 orders into the drink deal. we decided to forego Klong (although i will go one day-i promise you that. who can resist delicious affordable Thai food and $16 bottles of wine?) and just eat at Go. being economically aware that i wanted to spend most of my money on drinks, i only ordered 2 items: a yellowtail and scallion roll ($5) and deep-fried tomato wrapped in bacon on mashed potatoes ($5). O-M-G. completely unhealthy but totally amazing. there's only 2 pieces per serving but it is so good. the outside's all crispy bacon and then the inside's the soft tomato, which is also hot. YUMMY. because it was so good i offered the other serving to Egg to try and in exchange he offered me 1 of his salmon skin rolls. so not an equal trade. the salmon skin roll was salty, which i guess is good when paired with beer, but definitely not the equivalent of my deep-fried-bacon-tomato-yumminess. it's the one that got away... ::forlorn::

afterwards we headed over to Spot Dessert Bar because i've been reading about this place for a while and it was conveniently located almost directly across the street. i kept going on about how the chef for Spot is very well-known for his desserts but i couldn't remember his name and just kept randomly spewing out famous chef names, and still getting them wrong. but now i know: Pichet Ong. rolling into Spot at around 11ish doesn't bode well for them having everything on the menu. by the time we got there they were sold out of a few things, but we made do. compared to the meal and drinks we had at Go, Spot doesn't seem as good a deal. things on the menu ranged from $4-8, but since they only serve dessert, it does seem a bit pricey.

She ended up ordering the Vanilla Almond Coconut cupcake with a side of Coconut Sorbet. together they had a coconut-y flavor, but i thought the cupcake just tasted like out-of-the-box vanilla cupcake. and it was smaller than i expected, but that may just be because NY creates this assumption of a ginormous cupcake so when you get one that's regular-sized you're always underwhelmed. Kiddo ordered a Ginger Oatmeal Raisin Cookie which was bigger than expected and pretty delicious with a strong ginger kick. i ordered something like a Chocolate Banana Mouse-Pudding thing (i can't remember exactly what is was and it's not on the menu on-line. i DO know i did not order anything that had poached honey pear. or at least i'm pretty sure it didn't. and i distinctly remember bananas being there. but then again, i was drunk). either way, i thought my dessert, whatever it was, was just ok. it also ended up being the most expensive out of everything we ordered, maxing out at $8.00. Egg ordered the Thai Coffee Float and specially requested they add boba to it, which, after checking, they were willing to do for an additional 75 cents. Egg referred to the concoction as "perfection".

the next day, i woke up and found myself trudging to work as the snow storm officially arrived in NY. not fun. on top of that, a sake+beer headache started to creep up on me as the day progressed so i decided i needed to eat a hearty lunch with lots of starch/carbs to counteract the way i was feeling. i was gonna hit the 53rd Street Halal Cart since it's right across the street from my office but my co-worker suggested El Papasito instead. i was enticed by the concept of a $6 lunch special and was convinced after i read about the place on Midtown Lunch's site. i ordered the Stewed Beef on Rice and Beans which is served with a side of bread. i could only eat half of it before i started feeling sleepy from such a heavy lunch. the beef was good, not super tender, but better than most. and the rice and beans were also yummy. it's a good deal for $6 but i wouldn't call it the best food ever. but that might just be because i was feeling all crappy from my hangover.

it's no laughing matter...

FYI for anyone planning on becoming an attorney in New York: it's a real pain in the ass. i passed the NY bar exam officially around October 2009 and i still haven't gotten licensed yet in NY. NY really creates a lot of hoops to jump through in order to be licensed:

1. the application is extensive (a lazy person's nightmare to fill out)

2. you must obtain employment affidavits from all legal employers you've had since reaching the age of 21 or for the past 10 yrs (whichever's shorter)

3. your most recent employer/current employer's affidavit must not be dated more than 60 days from the date of submission of your application

4. you must obtain 2 affidavits of good moral character from individuals who are not filling out an employment affidavit, family, or applying for a NY license (thus all law school classmates are out)

5. good moral character affidavits must not be dated more than 60 days from the date of submission of your application

6. your law school must send a certificate of graduation and good standing

7. if submitting to the 2nd Department, you must attend a new attorneys registration class

phew, i got tired just listing out the requirements. and these aren't all of them, just some key ones. i just recently completed the attorney registration/introduction class requirement. the class itself isn't that bad since there's definitely some useful information-particularly the segment regarding client billing and funds (there are so many ways to get screwed from just the simplest actions/mistakes). also particularly entertaining is the final video about alcohol and drug addiction-i won't spoil it for you, you really must watch it for yourself.

after the class, i suggested getting a bite to eat in Chinatown and Adidas suggested going to Xi'an Famous Foods. i'd heard a stall had opened in Chinatown and had never tried it because the Flushing branch is simply too far. but not anymore...

...and totally worth it. the place is located under the Manhattan Bridge and is definitely a total hole in the wall. i actually had to call Snoopy to get directions after wandering around aimlessly looking for it for 10 minutes. there's no place to sit and it's very squishy inside. however, you can stand at the tiny standing counter to eat it. most of the food's ideal for eating in the winter because it's spicy and hot ("hot" meaning temperature-wise) so being able to sit down and eat it would be ideal, but considering the uniqueness of the cuisine being offered, i'll take what i can get.

since i was getting an order to go, i ordered the Lian Pi (cold skin noodles), which ended up being my fam's favorite dish. spicy with an intense peppercorn touch. i opted against getting the hot version because i had travel time to consider and the noodles wouldn't hold up as well if it cooked for too long from the heat. i proffer the same advice to you if you're not going to be eating it right away.

the Stewed Pork Burger was my favorite item. the dough for the sandwich is made fresh and while you wait you can watch them knead and press it. it's pretty perfect as it is, with a crispy outside but a nice soft inside. and anything's good when you get it piping hot. which this was. my fam wasn't as crazy about it, some saying it was too salty and others thinking the pork was a bit dry. i agree with it being slightly dry but the flavor is yummy and so is the bread (i'm easy to please). next time i'll get the cumin lamb.

due to the travel time issue, i ordered the Savory Cumin Lamb Hand-Pulled Noodles, the dry version vs. the soup version. the flavor of cumin was intense, but the dish was not as dry as i'd hoped because they put A LOT of liquid into the dish as well (just not enough to be considered soup i guess). the travel time made the noodles suffer and be too soft. similarly, i ordered the Stewed Pork Hand-Pulled Noodles in Soup and yes, while the noodles did get soft because of travel, the soup was delicious. and this was the only not-spicy dish out of the bunch.

from what i understand, the cuisine Xi'an Famous Foods offers is part of its allure. it offers a cuisine from a distinct province of China that has been heavily influenced by its large Muslim population (hence the cumin and peppercorn). and, as of right now, no other restaurant or food stall offers this kind of food. this monoply of supply aside, Xi'an Famous Foods does the food well. which is why i'd be willing to go back, but i'd much rather prefer being able to eat the food right away because travel time does not bode well for noodles.

jackpot

i have had zero interest in updating this blog recently.

and it's not for lack of stuff to write about. i had an amazing Satur-day and night out with Egg and recently went ice-skating and celebrated Chinese New Year, etc., etc., etc.

yet i just can't bring myself to write about it. i think it's just a case of the "blahs". work and family have been super-exhausting lately. but i'm not gonna whine, instead i'm gonna write about this little tidbit.

i was feeling snack-y after lunch so i decided to pop out of the office and get a snack from the deli around the corner. i picked up a bag of Sour Patch Kids, which i probably haven't had in at least 3 months. however, i noticed that i couldn't see the inside of the contents of the bag. usually, they have a little window so that you can see what's inside right? or am i wrong? i just remember always checking out the bag to see which one had the most reds in it.

even so, i decided to take the risk and purchase it, without knowing how many reds were inside. lo and behold, jackpot: it was an overabundance of red sour patch kids! YEA!

however, i am currently regretting ingesting this snack purchase because i ate it along with my other snack purchase: Funyuns. not a good combination.

p.s. i also just got this article from a friend and had to post it for any lawyers and law students...How to Date a Lawyer

거짓말

so Oppa sent me this picture which is entitled "(Oppa's name)'s Igloo". is he trying to claim that he made it?
......................uh, yeah, SURE you did, Oppa.

traitor

so i finally broke down and watched Jersey Shore this weekend. there was nothing else on TV while i was waiting for the Super Bowl to start. i initially purposely avoided watching Jersey Shore because of its stereotyping of people from NJ (of which i am one of them). and while yes, it's true, those types of people that are featured in Jersey Shore do exist in NJ, they also exist in Long Island, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, etc. so i don't think it's fair that the show's called Jersey Shore (although yes, that's where it's located).

i started to turn the corner when someone told me that only 1 person in the house was actually from NJ. everyone else was from NY. i thought, "ok, as long they made that clear and it's shown that these ppl are not actually representative of the NJ demographic, maybe i can watch this show." even tho i'd opened up a little to the idea, i still abstained based on principle. but then Poopy made me watch 2 video parodies about Jersey Shore.



i watched the above and "Little Jersey Shore" and my interest was completely piqued. so when the marathon was airing on MTV on Sunday i couldn't stop myself from looking at it like a giant wart on the face of someone you're talking to. i stumbled upon the marathon at the end of the episode where Snooki was punched in the face by some random guy. damn. i really wanted to see that. but no worries, i got to see Ronnie knock some guy out with just 1 punch. so it was all worth it.

speaking of mindless television, i've also become addicted to We Got Married, a korean "reality" show where celebrities are paired together and act as if they're husband and wife. i used to watch this show a lot back in the day when Alex & Shinae and Kim Hyung Joong & HwangBo were on it. but after they left it was a lot less interesting and then the budget was cut and it became less interesting. until Petite Couple! the wife, Ga-In, is 24 yrs old and the husband, JoKwon, is 22 years old. they are hilarious together which makes it fun to watch but also their behavior really keeps you guessing whether they really are/going to start dating.

below is a clip where Ga-In is going to meet her "father-in-law", JYP, who is JoKwon's boss. aside from the hilarity in the clip, i really really like her version of JYP's song, "I Have a Girl".

here's the original so you can hear the difference. while they're both similar (clearly), the way Ga-In executes it is so distinctive.

it's only defamation when it's a lie

sometimes i look before i leap. and when i do this, sometimes i regret it. for instance: softrice. i'm always surfing the internet for something interesting, particularly at work. usually it relates to a good restaurant in NYC, an interesting news article, etc. and when i find a particularly interesting website, i'll add it to my "Interesting" side bar on the right. that side bar is like my recommendation to ppl who may happen upon this site and have similar interests as me or just want something to read to waste a few mins. in the case of softrice, i stumbled upon his site while searching for info on Basta Pasta (see previous entry). i took a cursory glance and noticed he was providing information on places and events in NYC and i added him to my "Interesting" side bar with the intent of more thoroughly perusing it at a later time.

which i finally did today.

and boy did i regret it.

i only made it through the first 2 entries before i couldn't contain my gag reflex and had to close the window. the guy is a complete narcissist, male chauvinist, and overall egotistical pseudo-intellectual who believes himself better than thou. the 2 posts i did read contained multiple references to how "good-looking" he is and how ppl just like to be in his presence. i perused the first page but found no evidence of this so-called attractiveness, but i'll admit i found no evidence of any ugliness either. so softrice really could be very attractive, but come on, how often do you have to talk about yourself in terms of "i'm SOOO goood-looooking" (insert smarmy voice here).

as you've noticed, he's been removed from the side bar. although i have linked him in this post (above) in case you'd like to check him out for yourself and form your own opinion. maybe you'll fall in love with him the way he apparently expects you to.

but before i do any more disparaging, i have to talk about an article i read in the NY Post. i read the article this weekend while stuck in my first 16 hours of CLE at BLS. after further googling the matter, i'm not sure of the time-frame or exact details so definitely don't refer to me if you decide to to discuss this later. essentially, a Canadian model successfully sued Google to reveal the identity of a blogger that had called her a "skank", "whore", etc. (just in case you were curious and wanted to check out the "offensive" blog, Skanks in NYC, it's been removed. i, too, was curious). while the incident itself was pretty entertaining, it brought up a lot of unsolved issues regarding the internet.

immediately at the forethought of my mind: from what i gathered, the model was obtaining the blogger's identity so she could move forward with a defamation case. defamation consists of:

"1.a false statement;
2.published to a third party without privilege or authorization;
3. with fault amounting to at least negligence;
4. that caused special harm or defamation per se"

-quoted from Citizen Media Law Project

what i find personally interesting/entertaining in how to prove the blogger's statements were false, or conversely, how to prove the blogger's statements were true? would a judge or jury of peers get to decide exactly what qualifies as a "skank"? how many guys/partners do you have to sleep with before you're officially termed "whore"?

then there's the concept of the incident itself and what it may mean for internet use. with so many blogs out there (ahem, this one included), ppl write anything they want. and, when the concept was new, that kind of action was lauded and praised for being fearless and the new frontier. now, as more and more inane blogs arise (ahem, this one included?), there has arisen more and more criticism about the lack of intelligence, wit, and depth such blogs are providing. while that may be true, isn't what everyone writes just their opinion? and opinions aren't actionable, if i remember correctly. i disagree in interpretation with Brian Kumnick about the use of "whore" as a clear assertion of fact. "Liar" yes, "whore", no. in today's vernacular ppl throw that word around with little regard to it's actual meaning. there's "camera whore" and other terms, and, to me, they're all subjective perceptions.

but just in case, i better edit my above assertions about softrice.

Japanese Pasta? BLASPHEMY! Or Is It???

although i'm trying to save money, i can't completely close myself off from going out. especially when i live right next to and work in a place like NYC where there's so much to do, particularly eating and drinking.

case in point: i haven't seen Stitch in forever so we made plans to meet up for dinner. since we're both temping in the city right now and get out mad early from work (well, usually, until recently for me, but that's a whole different story) we also made plans to meet up for drinks first before going to dinner. i made all the drinks and dinner suggestions because i have an unending list of restaurants and places i want to check out in NYC and luckily for me Stitch is very flexible and accomodating. thanks Stitch!

we had drinks at Zampa, a wine bar i'd looked up on-line and the menu looked affordable and it was pretty close to where we were having dinner. the venue has a very romantic and relaxing ambience. the place isn't that big but that adds to it's charm. it's exactly the kind of place i would want to go on a date. i arrived horribly late (it's been a bad habit ever since i moved back to NJ. i just can't seem to properly gauge the amount of time it takes for me to arrive anywhere in the city) and found Stitch sitting at the bar with a glass of wine and a book. Egg and BBT were supposed to be meeting us as well but hadn't arrived yet (they ended up being ever more horribly late than me-which made me feel better). Knowing that we were going to be at least 4 ppl, we asked to be seated at a table. the staff was very acccomodating in allowing us to sit at a table until 7:30 pm because the table was reserved at that time. it worked out perfectly for us because Stitch and i had dinner reservations at 7:45 pm.

they have a medium-sized Italian wine list that ranges from moderate to expensive in price range. being the cheap skate that i am we ordered the $30 bottle of Salento Primitivo 2005, Le Sciare (Puglia). don't ask me what it means, but i can tell you it was very nice. slightly bold but not overly so, which is exactly how i like my red wine (hence pinot noirs tend to be my go-to red wine choice). we also ordered an antipasti plate. we had a choice of 3 salumi or i formaggi for $12 or 3 crostini for $8. we went with duck prosciutto and bresaola (i think) and robiola di tre latti which is a cheese mix of sheep, cow, and goat. the cheese was amazing because it was soft enough to spread like sheep or goat cheese but not too soft. they gave us a small basket of crostini to go with the cheese and a dollop of some type of yellow preserve which tasted like honey. eating the preserve and the cheese together was heaven.

after drinks Stitch and i headed over for dinner at Basta Pasta which i've been dying to try since forever. Basta Pasta fuses Japanese and Italian cuisine together and since i'm a big fan of both cuisines, it just makes sense that i would like this restaurant. continuing our wine trend, we ordered a bottle of red for around $30-something dollars and since we'd already snacked at Zampa, we skipped appetizers and went straight for entrees. i was torn between the Spaghetti con Uovo de Pesce (spaghetti with tobiko and shiso) or the Linguini ai Ricci de Mare (linguini with fresh sea urchin and basil in pink sauce but finally opted for the latter because of my love of the uni. Stitch ordered the Spaghetti con Prosciutto e Parmigiano which is spaghetti with parmigiano reggiano and parma prosciutto which is tossed in a half wheel of parmesan cheese which they wheel out to the table and toss for you table-side. it's a very cool presentation.

Stitch's meal was really good because the tossing of the spaghetti in the parmesan wheel provides enough saltiness in conjunction with the prosciutto to make the dish simple but flavorful. my linguini came with about 4 pieces of fresh sea urchin on top which i had to restrain myself from gobbling up all at once. i REALLY liked the meal although i can understand why some ppl might think it a little bland but i thought it was perfect because the pink sauce wasn't too heavy. after all, the restaurant does japanese and italian fusion. how else are you going to mix ultra-light tastes with extremely heavy flavor? i thought the marriage was just right.

after dinner we ordered a chestnut millecrepe desert but i was pretty stuffed at that point. the dessert was good but nothing extraordinary. the millecrepe wasn't light enough and the chestnut flavor wasn't bold or sweet enough as a dessert. after this culinary adventure, Stitch and i stumbled to our respective homes totally sated.