this waste of mental energy

hot dog

2011-08-10T06:31:00.001-07:00

awesome nytimes article and slideshow of the evolution of the hotdog vendor in nyc.

that rascal

2011-08-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

i was going to post a photo of my franken-foot stitches, but opted against it.

i don't know why i thought surgery would be a piece of cake. but i did.

recovery is a few weeks.

i've got a walking boot these days (still using w/ crutches), but i've also gone to using the scooters when i go to stores.

wish it didn't beep so loud when i backed up.

sympathy or no?

2011-08-02T08:34:00.001-07:00

for the past week i've been on crutches.

when i was a kid i always sort of wished i had crutches.

now i know. crutches suck. 1 leg, no arms.

most difficult task: getting myself a glass of water.

photo: me, bandaged up leg, ice pack on site of surgically sealed wound.

usmnt

2011-07-29T10:53:00.001-07:00

that stands for u.s. men's national team. as in football. as in soccer.

we just got jurgen klinsmann as our coach, which makes sense. he's a big name. he lives in the u.s. and he's probably the best guy we'd ever get to coach the u.s. team. every other major coach knows that this is a shitty job.

why? b/c this is the u.s. and we expect to win everything. even when u.s. soccer has less money, less fans, and let's face it, worse athletes than the best teams worldwide. but what if we didn't?

what if the best u.s. athletes went to play soccer like they do in europe and south america? what if instead of being lured by money and the chance to make a living playing professional sports in the u.s. these guys went to soccer instead of other sports as young kids, developing their skills all the way? what do you need? speed, agility, footwork, coordination.

my dream team starting XI of american players that play other sports, that would have made great soccer players, w/ help from felix:

GK: tom brady (iker casillas), dwight howard (tim howard), lebron james (dida), peyton manning (manuel neuer)

RB: curtis granderson (sergio ramos), michael vick (glen johnson)
CB: matt kemp (rio ferdinand), ray lewis (john terry)
CB: clay matthews (carles puyol), josh hamilton (jamie carragher)
LB: darelle revis (ashley cole)

DM: troy polamalu (javier mascherano), adrian peterson (edgar davids)

RW: russell westbrook (lio messi), desean jackson (mesut ozil)
AM: derrick rose (xavi), chris paul (iniesta), drew brees (xabi alonso)
LW: reggie wayne (arjen robben)

ST: brian urlacher (eric cantona), chris johnson (wayne rooney)
ST: dwayne wade (david villa), kobe bryant (miroslav klose)

top 5 least favorite smurfs

2011-07-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

i love the smurfs. but in anticipation of the new smurfs movie, i shall hereby list my least favorite smurfs of all time--based on my memories of watching the cartoon.

5. vanity smurf

little did i realize when i was younger that this guy was basically "gay smurf." the overaffected voice, the flower in the beret, and looking at himself in the mirror all the time.

4. clumsy smurf

hilariously, this was basically "hick smurf." southern accent, couldn't do anything right. why did the other smurfs ever trust this guy with anything? i was waiting every episode for them to do the village a favor and just kill him.

3. brainy smurf

just looking at this guy's face, you can hear it: "papa smurf always says..."

2. smurfette

cried too damn much.

1. papa smurf

paternalistic megalomaniac in red tights.

clean up your act

2011-07-26T13:46:00.001-07:00

but save the tiger suit.

best wishes, david wu.

article 1

summer of the stingray

2011-07-26T05:01:00.000-07:00

here's a photo of the bottom of my foot the day after the stingray sting.

the bruising went away, but my foot turned into this:

some random thoughts this has brought me to:

-thank god for summer vacation.
-R.I.P. steve irwin

-back in the day, i probably would've gotten gangrene and just died from this.

to paraphrase jarvis cocker

2011-02-28T22:08:00.000-08:00

this is hardcore

stollen from my friend's fb page.

GER v ARG

2011-02-13T20:00:00.001-08:00

we went to cape town and saw this quarterfinal match (instead of seeing the usa-ghana match, we are bad americans!!!)

we got scalped tickets at face value, but ended up sitting right in front of the german team's friends and fam seating area.

hey look! it's 3 turkish looking guys w/ mesut ozil jerseys on! i wonder if they are related to ozil!

state of the union

2011-01-26T00:12:00.000-08:00

my house of representatives rep from LA:

my house of rep from irvine:

endless winter

2011-01-23T12:20:00.001-08:00

by the time i got to south africa, it was winter time there (southern hemi). kinda shitty that it had to be so cold for our surf trip. there is that surf movie "endless summer" where they try to leave cali during the winter in search of waves.

they went to africa during the right time.

this perfect wave clip is probably the one that surfers remember the most, because it's such a dream.

according to comments: they developed those sand dunes into a little town, developed the beach, and ruined the break.

now, there's still a break there, but it's not perfect. nor is it sandy on the bottom.

it is rocky and has sea urchins. but still, it works. i probably got my biggest and best wave of all time there.

also saw a giant pod of dolphins (about 40) pass underneath me as i was waiting in the lineup. it was in about 6 feet of water. amazing. something i'll never forget.

another amazing thing i'll never forget? the giant turd cloud that drifted over. clear skies, then this big long sausage of a cloud drifting over us. so spooky.

video:

there was also a nearby penguin rescue.

new blog!

2011-01-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

hilarious screenwriting and pole dance performing (think dance artistry, not stripping) friend bianca has a new blog.

check it out.

i'm also a big fan of her twitter feed. here.

jeffrey's bay!

2011-01-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

so from port elizabeth jL and i decided to take a little surf trip down to jeffrey's bay, the legendary site of supertubes.

we have heard a million stories about how "sharky" it is in south africa. durban was so sharky that they have nets positioned outside the beaches protecting them from sharks. so we were a little wary of heading out somewhere without the protective nets.

we asked around at the surf shops: "no, no sharks here, bru." btw, "bru" = "bro." we went down to the water to check out the breaks. we found this:

the most famous break at jeffrey's bay, and maybe the most famous right handed point break in the world, is supertubes.

this is what it looks like:

now you might be thinking, "jk, that is amazing! did you go out and surf in that?" of course not! do i look crazy? those guys are professional surfers. the reason this wave barrels so well is because there is a rocky reef that comes out from the shore, which pushes all the water up into the wave. also, please not how fast the water is moving. it's crazy.

this means, that if you are on the wave, you are surfing on top of about 3 feet of water. that means if you fall off, you are falling into about 3 feet of water on top of rocks. which is fucking scary.

i did, however, surf at some of the other spots down from supertubes which weren't so crazy, including the point and windows.

korea is out!

2011-01-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

so korea lost to uruguay and we had a week to kill in port elizabeth and thereabouts. we went surfing a few times, and it was pretty weak. and our surfing abilities were also, pretty weak.

we went on some minor hikes in tide pools and coastal areas.

and hung out at a guest house run by some dutch exchange students doing an "internship." they loved playing FIFA on the PS2 and rooting for the dutch nat'l team.

port elizabeth also had this awesomely cheesy light display near the beach.

games

2011-01-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

via the kid

my dream last night

2011-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

i was in a movie or maybe it was my life. i was either the actor in a movie and all this stuff was happening, or this was the real life thing that a movie was going to be based of off. either way, my sister (older) was maggie gyllenhall.

there was a serial killer who had a pistol w/ a silencer. he wanted to kill a bunch of people in one place. my whole family (parents and one sister) were in that place. we caught wind of it, and me and my sister (maggie gyllenhall) made a run for it. we saw this guy kill a few people, including our parents, and we jumped out a window (of what seemed to be a very high-tech treehouse).

as we jumped out the window, the serial killer (played by a lithgow/malkovich type) shoots at me and maggie. he gets me, but misses her. i'm shot in the stomach and somewhere in my head. my stomach hurts a bunch and for some reason for the rest of the dream, i can't talk. i can only make grunting and screaming noises. no words.

the evil villain starts stalking us, since we're the only ones he hasn't finished off. i/we start seeing him everywhere. but it's too public. he's just terrorizing us psychologically. every time i see him, i just put up both middle fingers (i am possibly in a wheelchair), and put them in his general direction.

my sister (maggie gyllyenhall) generally ends up screaming hysterically "that's him! that's the guy who killed my parents! he's trying to kill me!" and the guy just stands there and stares at us as we run away.

the interactions are pretty crazy, like we'll be on the subway, and as the doors close, he'll tap on the window we're next to and just smile at us. to let us know he knows who we are, who knows where we are, and he could kill us at any time.

in the end, he tries to kill us, but maggie ends up stabbing him or something. we try to get the cops involved, and i think we become minor local celebrities for being stalked by this guy, but just like a REAL (fake) movie, the cops get distracted at the crucial moment, and the heroine is left to defend herself. maggie either shoots him or stabs him. i can't remember which one.

it was a pretty intense dream, but the whole time i remember knowing that it's all just a movie, and the name of the movie is ASSASSIN. i looked it up on IMDB this morning half-expecting it to be there, but it wasn't.

alaia surfboards

2011-01-03T23:52:00.000-08:00

i know these have been hyped for a few years, but alaia surfboards look so much fun.

the match

2011-01-03T08:35:00.001-08:00

chilling w/ uruguay fans!

korean nat'l anthem!

beautiful stadium in the rain.

my favorite stadium. aesthetically, cloudlike and awesome.

korea lost a heartbreaker!

then ghana beat the U.S. double sad!

took this photo of the partying south african (white guy) on tv rooting on ghana.

happy new year!

2011-01-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

happy new year! the world cup blogging continues!!!

here's a video showing me in the airport in jozi. on my way to port elizabeth.

overperformance

2010-12-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

this wasn't supposed to happen. the usa was not supposed to win out in their group as the #1 seed. korea was supposed to lose to nigeria.

if you went by the fifa world rankings, usa's group would have finished like this:

england
slovenia
usa
algeria

and korea's group would have finished like this:

argentina
greece
nigeria
korea

since the top two teams in each group advance, jL and i would have had tickets to see the first place teams in the knockout rounds: england and argentina. those matches (the ones of the first place teams) took place in or near jozi.

INSTEAD our teams overperformed. the USA was top seed and played in rustenburg (4 hrs from jozi, including traffic) against ghana. and since korea advanced, they played uruguay in port elizabeth (roughly 700 miles from jozi).

it would have been a scalpers dream to sell england tix or arg/mex to needy fans, but it was not to be.

jL and i had a big choice on our hands. do we stay in jozi (probably the least attractive of the big cities in south africa) at the crackhouse where we are fighting freezing temps, rats, and the crackheads in our backpackers--or do we jet over to port elizabeth, an hour's drive from some of the most iconic surf spots in the world, and have a week-long beach holiday away from the claustrophobia of jozi?

we were sad to miss the USA-Ghana match, but this was our only chance to surf j-bay, and we took it.

the mayor of durban

2010-12-16T06:41:00.000-08:00

mr. whiskers:

>

the USA - ALG match

2010-12-15T10:23:00.000-08:00

a must win match for the USA! 3rd match in group play. if they win, then they go through. if they lose and slovenia beat england, then algeria and slovenia go through. if they draw and slovenia draw with england or beat england, then i think usa goes through. so many options! every team in the group still alive!!!

we knew that england was beating slovenia, so we needed a win to make it through. and if we did win, then we'd be top of the group and ranked #1!!

we made some friends with a south african kid with signs:

"USA. SORRY BAFANA BAFANA" -- bafana bafana (trans. "the boys, the boys") is the name of the south african team.

"REST IN PAECE ALGERIA"

the match was super tense. but we pulled out the win!

here's a clip i found on youtube of someone watching from the same section as me and the jL in the USA fan's section.

at the end of the match, all the USA players jumped on landon, and there was a giant party in the stadium, on the streets, etc.

for some reason

2010-12-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

watching the full minute version of this song made me like this commercial, even though, previously, watching it the first time, i was absolutely positive that it was the worst commercial i had ever seen in my life.

chanting at the USA - ALGERIA world cup match

2010-11-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

so...i finally put some videos that i shot at the world cup on youtube.

and these three are ones that i took at the match. basically, after the pre-party, where i basically drank a bunch of free beers (USA fans are very very nice), i tried to get people to chant different things outside the stadium. there are so many things in our country to be proud of, it's a shame we just end up chanting U-S-A all the time.

the day after that...

2010-11-22T06:41:00.000-08:00

we got up super early in durban (like 4 AM) and flew back to jozi for the usa-algeria match in pretoria.

pretoria is where a lot of the governmental stuff is, about an hour and a half north of jozi. also where a bunch of political prisoners were kept during apartheid.

part one was chilling with USA fans pre-match.

there was a lot of state-by-state pride on display at the world cup, and jL's outfit was his colorado state flag shirt. lo and behold, someone had a colorado state flag!

let's start a USA! chant! let's sing "born in the USA!" let's sing the national anthem! let's sing patriotic songs!

i don't even know what to say about these guys.

"why are you dressed like a mermaid?" -- i kept asking. she got pissed at me.

...and then: KOR - NGA

2010-11-18T09:29:00.000-08:00

i was talking to jL: how is fifa going to abbreviate nigeria into three letters? nig? ngr? nga? they went with ending it with an "a" which i think was a pretty good move.

nigeria supporters were some of my favorite. good vibes all around. evidently, a lot of the people that live in the slums of south africa are from nigeria and other african countries (see: district 9). so people were acting like there would be riots outside of all the nigeria matches. nothign of the sort.

also, korean folk dancers at the entry.

we ate dove bars at all the matches.

sat behind some serious korea supporters.

korea drew with nigeria and since greece lost to argentina, korea went through to the knockout rounds!

players hugging.

then the riot polic showed up--there was no riot.

we bid farewell to durban, but not for long. we'd be back!

fda just got a little more gangsta

2010-11-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

new warning labels for cigarette packaging. 36 in all, my favorites here:

one post: just the stadium

2010-11-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

so matchday finally arrived in durban, but let me just spend some time talking about the stadium.

the final photo in the last post showed the stadium as part of the skyline. very pretty.

here it is a little closer up, as you walk towards it:

as you approach the stadium, the entry is right where that double/single arch comes down and there is a fantastic plaza leading there, above field level.

inside, looking up:

all around, probably my favorite stadium at the world cup (although the seats were pretty cramped).

the warmest place to be!

2010-11-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

traveling to durban for the next batch of world cup matches saved my life! "the warmest place to be for the world cup" was not only a travel slogan that the city of durban was using to promote tourism. it was also a factual truth. durban lies on the indian ocean side of south africa, (and being that south africa is in the southern hemisphere, hence, world cup = winter time, hence, jozi was below freezing some days and i was sick as a dog there, cold), hence, the warm tropical waters heat up durban to 80 degrees.

it was beautiful and sunny every day. and the beaches were fantastic! i got in one of my best surf days of my life there, and i fully recuperated from my illness. no more cold, no more aches, no more brown gravy leaking out of my butt.

the beach and pier.

view from the pier, foreground to background: surf, stadium, sky.

they had drum circle lessons on the beach at the fanfests (also on the beach).

...and then: USA - SLO

2010-11-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

so i got vaguely deathly ill in south africa. i blame it on the crack den. i blame it on alcohol. i also blame it on taking an effervescent (think alka-seltzer) aspirin (size of a tums maybe, not too big, but bigger than a capsule), which i swallowed whole rather than dissolved into a glass of water--burnt a hole in my stomach and created what can only affectionately referred to as "brown gravy" to come out of my bottom.

despite all this, i powered through. i went to the USA-SLOVENIA match in jozi.

view from seats (note g. washington hats).

magic hour.

jL + crack den friends holding their homemade new mexico state flag w/ africa in the middle.

obligatory slovenia fans photo:

this is the match where the U.S. was disallowed a goal for no reason.

writing

2010-10-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

i submitted some writing to my workshop today. one of the last things i did was a final close read to make sure nothing got messed up.

i get in trouble for writing "anyways" instead of "anyway." there is a grammar site that says that anyways is regional and incorrect and that people--real-life educated ones--would never put an "s" at the end of it.

anyways is just how i was brought up!

which makes me think of my affinity for the song "ya got trouble" in the music man.

i'm kind of overwhelmed with a nostalgia for the midwest mixed with the desire to go see a really shitty community theater version of THE MUSIC MAN.

or maybe i'm just gay.

KOR v. ARG

2010-10-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

me and jL's second match was s. korea's second as well. we skipped the s. korea match v. greece so we could watch the usa v. eng match.

the match was at soccer stadium in jozi, so we went with a bunch of our pals from the crack den.

again, not realizing that the world cup is an excuse to just get dressed up in jingoistic outfits. these argentine fans knew all about it.

our pal leo messi w/ soccer stadium.

the view from our seats as the superfans on the bottom row unfurl a giant korean flag during the anthem.

argentina went 2-0 up early. korea drew one back at the end of the first half. i nearly passed out i was so excited. (also was pretty sick with some sort of cold).

video of goal that almost made me faint is here.

but korea ended up losing 4-1. sad for them.

PROJECTS: dog house

2010-10-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

me and my niece made a dog house for her dog.

we made it out of paper. the dog was enjoying a nice snack of grapes at the time.

she's excited:

my mom specially made that doll (which was originally a border collie dog) to resemble a boston terrier by cutting open the nose, taking out the stuffing, and shortening it. she also cut off the tail.

why, you might ask? i'll give you one guess.

biggest trip blunder

2010-10-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

ADDENDUM: we clearly should have gone to soweto on this day.

++++++++++++++++++++

youth day is a national holiday in south africa. it marks the day that a bunch of school children in soweto (southwest township--townships are the shanties where blacks had to live under apartheid) walked out of class to protest that they were being taught in afrikaans (aka antiquated dutch).

since none of the kids could actually speak dutch, they never learned anything. they walked out of class and were confronted by riot police. this happened all over south africa at different times, but youth day commemorates when riot police shot a grade school student in soweto.

of course, with the world cup in town, soweto (now a bustling suburb/city in and of itself, more so than before) became the focus of the world's attention and there were celebrations all over soweto.

LIKE TOTAL IDIOTS me and jL forgot about youth day and tried to go to a congolese market in downtown jozi. TREMENDOUS BLUNDER. as a national holiday, the market was closed. nothing was open. it was a ghost town.

even the mall was barely packed, but there was this cool installation made of soccer balls.

eventually we found a market that was open (though not the congolese one), and jL was able to buy this south korea hat. we had more matches to go to.

world cup obsessions

2010-10-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

there are a lot of ethnicities mixing it up all over south africa. it's a trading town, and there was a gold boom, so there are the english whites, the dutch whites, the east indians, the middle easterners, the black africans that were indigenous (and also from all over the continent). however, there aren't a whole lot of east asians there.

people mostly thought i was japanese--a tourist. still, there is a street in jozi that is all chinese. all the restaurants are chinese. all the people speak chinese nearly exclusively. it's weird. it's not like an american urban "chinatown" where you could see how people could live there w/o speaking english. IT'S ONE STREET BLOCK.

the food, as you can imagine, was very authentic and delicious. we went to one restaurant repeatedly. jL was obsessed (living in tanzania, he doesn't get good chinese food).

me? i was obsessed w/ zakumi. world cup mascot.

a leopard that's dyed his hair green to camouflage w/ the grass on the pitch.

the crack house

2010-10-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

we stayed at a place in south africa that we dubbed "the crack house" or someteimes, "crack den."

we never actually saw any crack there. we did see rats in the kitchen. it also smelled like dead/dying people.

it was run by a couple who stayed in their pj's all day, drank tallboys, and watched terrible tv (MTV south africa, eddie murphy's dr. doolittle franchise) 24-7. nothing worked, nothing was clean, and it was, in a word: filthy. also, cheap.

all the doorknobs were so low, we were convinced that the house used to be owned by midgets.

photos

2010-09-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

i vowed to take one photo every day of my trip.

that lasted a good few weeks, but eventually, i got tired of doing so (there are just so many pics you can take of the same haunts around jozi, you know?)

this was day two of matches. we called it "lilj day" b/c lilj was leaving the next day.

lilj day begins with a kiss from jL!

snacking on popcorn at the crack den.

ghana lines up a penalty kick and she can barely watch!

the end!

the next day

2010-09-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

was USA v. england. we took a bus out of jozi (joburg, johannesburg) to the stadium in rustenburg. it was a caravan of about 5 charter buses of USA fans.

the parade of people walking to the buses:

USA fans are confused about being soccer supporters. should they act like american football fans and get super-trashed and act boorish? should they be like baseball fans and just talk stats? it's a weird mix of people and a tough identity to hash out.

what i didn't realize before, and wish i knew, was that going to the world cup is like an opportunity to wear the most ridiculous, jingoistic costume representing your coutnry possible. i'll roll out a few pics per usa match, but here are some elvises:

this guy is the flag:

england's first and only goal was scored by my favorite player, steven gerrard.

i had mixed emotions about the goal being scored. i was standing in an all usa area, so i yipped quietly to myself when the goal went in.

my view of the goal celebration:

i love it when the players come out and clap to the fans at the end of a match. USA! USA!

we flew halfway around the world to sing the anthem and support the team. teared up a bit every time the anthem was sung and when the players clapped us. pathetic?

match 1

2010-09-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

every match has a number, sequentially. there are 64 matches total. the host country always plays match 1. the final is match 64.

there was a lot of pressure on south africa as they faced mexico because they did not qualify for the world cup on their own. they were only included b/c they were the hosts.

we did not have tickets to the match, so we went to a fanfest in downtown johannesburg.

posing by the rental car:

loads of people, plastic man made of coca-cola crates:

triple vuvuzela:

south africans w/ a mexican flag daring people to eat a jalapeno:

cutest vuvu player at the fanfest:

goal!!!! south africa scores!

the move in, the unpack.

2010-09-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

i know how i've accumulated all this stuff. i don't know why it all still seems so vital.

i officially have 12 boxes of cd's, vinyl, books, clothes, and miscellaneous items that i can't part with. thank god for storage space.

leaving the drakensburg

2010-09-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

morning at the backpackers.

baboons on the highway.

sterkfontein lake.

traffic sign in tattoine language.

road snack!

draknesburg: hike

2010-08-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

the point of going to the drakensburg was to go for a hike. there are a number of UNESCO world heritage sites associated with the place. we did the amphitheater hike. amphitheater is a huge rock face--like el capitan at yosemite.

google image search reveals this:

but we hiked up the backside of the rock face. and it was cloudy, so we barely got to see any of this.

the hike itself was not too strenuous and had non-stop views. it was like the cool rocks and colors of the grand canyon and the elevation of yosemite.

stopping the car to take a whiz on the drive up.

the great thing about this hike is that you drive for a lot of the elevation. so unlike yosemite it's not crazy switchback and steps. it's gradual and easy.

there were some kinda scary metal ladders we needed to climb up:

if you were afraid of heights, those ladders woulda sucked.

then we got to the top, and when it cleared, we looked down again. so much vertigo.

my favorite thing was the clouds coming through the peaks right here.

the drakensburg

2010-08-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

the first thing i did in south africa was i met up with jL and lil j, and we took a trip to the drakensburg.

the drakensburg means "dragon's teeth" in what language, i'm not sure.

it's a place in between johannesburg and durban. it's mountains and gorgeous.

we rented a car. the drive out was fantastic.

the sunset looked great, especially in person. you can barely in this photo, what we could see in person: namely, jagged mountains along the horizon:

this seemed album cover-ish:

we got to the backpacker's pretty late, had some dinner and a bottle of wine, called it a night.

group photo:

before i left for africa

2010-08-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

i went to the beach with my sister and her family.

"daddy, wake up!"

"these are barbie goggles. do i look like barbie?"

pre-trip; me and some babies

2010-08-18T10:07:00.001-07:00

i guess they aren't actually "babies."

ali is 1.5ish.

rafa is 4, with a full grasp of irony.

the wedding

2010-08-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

sometimes at the end of a bachelor party you might say to yourself or your friends, "ok guys, that was fun and all, but at the wedding, we're going to really behave ourselves." and then the wedding comes around, you've got the same group of instigators together, and you realize that you never had a chance.

the wedding was fantastic, and it was a great mix of friends, which is nice. still, there were hijinks.

bruno and mojakus dancing enthusiastically to the black eyed peas.

cofree getting kissed by her best friends (rehearsal dinner).

and showing off her personal touch on her vera wang dress (she replaced the zipper with buttons):

some light reading in the synagogue library:

bridesmaids resting their legs during the official photoshoot.

innocent as usual.

all for a good cause:

the wedding was great. i was a groomsman so i got to give a funny toast about their early dating life. and i got a sweet video camera as a gift! i brought it along to south africa, and hopefully will have some time to edit down some movies.

meaty tower

2010-08-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

the most riduculous thing that i ate in south africa: the debonair's pizza meaty tower.

it is four crusts layered on top of each other with the following 13 toppings:

Meaty Tower

Cream cheese, ground beef, spare rib, sliced pork cheese griller sausages, bacon, mushroom, onion, tomato & herb pizza sauce, BBQ sauce, fresh tomato, topped with cheddar and mozzarella cheese with a sprinkle of parsley

here's a picture from flickr:

me and jL had to eat it in 15 minutes b/c we had tickets to a movie. suffice to say, we wanted to vomit.

back from africa

2010-08-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

so i am back from africa and returning to blogging.

i will be retroactively blogging the entire world cup / africa trip with pictures here, eventually.

but first, before i left for africa: bruno and brunette got married.

this is us at the rehearsal dinner post-party.

liveblogging: packing my stuff

2010-05-25T17:20:00.001-07:00

12:09 - kept an unreal amount of birthday cards and postcards. keeping all postcards. throwing away birthday cards that don't have personal messages in them. don't know why i'm keeping any of it though--will likely never read them. just can't part with them. remembering that i got up at 6:30 to go surfing this morning. unbelievably tired.

11:06 - for sake of downstairs neighbor, have stopped shredding documents.

10:22 - apt still a disaster. unable to leave apt for a drink with r+t. they will not be in LA when i return from my trip to africa. videochatted instead. they will be missed!

9:38 - is it counterproductive to buy more food to make with a single food (fresh pasta) you don't want to waste, rather than eat leftovers from yesterday? i think it is. net waste.

6:54 - hungry

6:48 - jL, i found your copy of vice magazine's story awards.

6:36 - dustiest apartment in the world.

5:57 - mega-deck of uno cards + poker chips that i haven't used in years.

5:25 - i can't throw away these mixtapes from high school.

5:20 - shocking amount of IRS-era r.e.m. and huey lewis on vinyl.

5:05 - where the hell are my magentic fields 69 love songs cd's??

your oldest friends

2010-05-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

there was a bachelor party in san francisco where a group of my oldest friends got together. the amazing thing about oldest friends is that when you've known each other for such a long time, nothing really changes. everyone is the same. you have the same reasons for making fun of each other, the same reasons for getting annoyed at each other, and you don't have to finish your jokes with a punchline for everyone to start laughing.

for instance: why is this picture funny?

it's because the person in the foreground is watching (in a very serious manner) the show "intervention." this is the same person that loved watching cops, "world's worst car crashes" specials, and the riverdance infomercial when were all lived together. no one mentioned any of this. he turned it on. started watching, and everyone started laughing.

can you look hard wearing a lululemon hoodie?

in any case, the bachelor party was a success. and sf, you're a charming city.

an april weekend in santa barbara

2010-05-20T09:10:00.001-07:00

if you go to santa barbara on a weekend in april, don't forget to check out the surf on the drive up the 101 from LA starting in ventura.

get brunch with friends at one of the many "cute" restaurants with outdoor seating.

drive some more up into the wine part of the county.

then come back down to a park on the coast, play aerobie and have a crow pose showdown.

note mutzy standing up and using the stopwatch app on his iphone.

here's the winner right here. 24 seconds. i couldn't get past 19.

here's a nice posse picture:

it's all happening

2010-05-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

today, i cleaned out my desk, took my diplomas off the walls, and brought my brobee doll down off the bookshelf to go home with me.

i quit my job because i got into writing school. i applied to 15, and i told multiple people that if i got into one of my top 3 schools (iowa, ut austin, uc irvine; all 3 tied for first), that i would probably cry. well, i got into uc irvine (and didn't get into 13 of the others), but i didn't cry.

after spending 3 years in law school and 6 years at this law firm, there were no mixed emotions about cleaning out my desk. i found old memos and research that i've done from all 6 years that've been rotting in file cabinets. it felt really cool that i got to do so many interesting things as a lawyer. i've done depositions, argued in appeals courts, gotten favorable opinions published, and i got to do it for rad clients whose cause i really believe in.

when jL got hooked on surfing, he was trying to explain to me that there is no other high like the stoke he gets from being in the water. when he's not in the water, he's only trying to figure out ways for himself to get back that stoke. he said he found his life calling. it was unfortunate that he made the discovery in his late 20's and couldn't join the pro tour.

i told him that i feel the same way when i'm writing a story. the stoke, the excitement, it's all there. i can stay up all night doing that and feel great the next day. just can't wait to do it again that night.

the program that i got into has graduated some pretty amazing writers.

so for now, i can only hope to emulate their success.

school starts in september. i'm taking the summer off to travel. the blog posts will be sporadic starting in june.

photo clearinghouse

2010-05-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

so...i can't believe i didn't post this already:

i went to six flags on superbowl sunday a few months back. we did all rollercoasters and a few rounds of bumper cars.

friends scared of roller coasters.

cody found some friends there.

made an animal friend in sf:

ate this animal for dinner in sf as well:

g-shock passes the baby test

2010-05-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

baby.

no match for g-schock.

i woulda freaked out b/c my watch is "dirty" but the kid was putting house keys in her mouth, and the mom didn't even flinch, so i thought, well, my watch is cleaner than those.

two videos i like a lot

2010-05-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

both courtesy of chelsea peretti.

everest parody.

here's the original:

and the female spokesperson:

the parody.

scary face

2010-04-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

in beer foam.

summer fox origin story

2010-04-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: fixed the link.

shout out to son of strong bear:

i'm featured in this details magazine article about sweat lodges.

more insanely boring movies that were a waste of my time

2010-04-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

BRIGHT STAR

this was so boring. and keat's friend was so archetype "bad" that this thing just didn't catch me at all.

did pick up my volume of keats and read a few poems though.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

i found this kid to be completely annoying and the non-stop montages unnecessary for the storytelling.

best of the week

2010-04-19T00:22:00.001-07:00

when i used to watch the pavement DVD slow century, it used to make me sad watching the old footage b/c i knew that i would never get to experience the joy of watching that band play live ever again.

but then, they reunited, and i got to see them in pomona for their pre-coachella show.

here's my favorite pavement song of all time:

before the show, me and tammy split a strawberry donut from the james beard anointed donut man of glendora.

more fun at the natural history museum

2010-04-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

the rest of the good stuff there:

more owls!

baby birds!

whale bones!

trippy rocks!

anza borrego - flowers

2010-04-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

"if your 20 year old self saw the 31 year old self taking daytrips and hikes to take pictures of flowers what would he do?"

"i think he'd want to kill himself to prevent the 31 year old self from living. then again, that 20 year old was still wearing giant jnco style pants and listening to 3rd wave ska."

the big draw in anza borrego right now is the flowers. there was more rain than usual this winter, so there was a pretty nice bloom.

as far as wildflowers go, i think i am generally more impressed by a carpet of colors, like you can see here. but i have to say, that there is still something totally awesome about seeing flowering plants growing out of a bunch of sand.

one day, i might be one of those really old people with a macro lens on my camera. my 31 year old self would be ok with that.

the desert

2010-04-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

i think that when it comes to being a hippie, the way you know you are truly a hippie is how much you like what the earth gives you.

animals are awesome, easy to love.

the ocean is massive and fun.

trees...sure, maybe.

rocks...ok. (mountains, kinda).

now, sand. there's just not a lot of charisma there.

or at least that's what my progression was. guess what: after 9 years in cali, i like rocks and sand.

took a day trip to anza borrego, which is east of san diego.

this slot canyon is so rad.

fake badlands.

song of the day

2010-03-31T00:45:00.000-07:00

circle ranch x

2010-03-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

ckap is new to LA. she has lived in long island/brooklyn/manhattan her entire 31 years until a few months ago. so i've been trying to show her what's good about living in LA.

she's into hiking, but all she's done so far is topanga canyon. i sent her some links of places in the wilderness north of malibu and she picked circle ranch x, deep in the santa monica mountains.

here's some photos:

balance rock:

ckap thought this looked like a mother gorilla looking back over her shoulder w/ a baby gorilla on her back.

and here's the view (ocean, channel islands, etc.):

shout out to son of strong bear, who will get this via google buzz.

r.i.p. alex chilton

2010-03-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

some other now dead musicians covering this newly dead musician. just to make you feel extra sad:

non-dead people covering music by big star (will also make you cry):

here's my favorite song by them:

current food obsessions

2010-03-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

1. cooking beans from dried not canned.
2. cole slaws; one example-here.
3. italian parsley in everything
4. bolognese sauce from this book.
5. maple syrup instead of sugar or honey.

photo of my dinner: yellow dal (#1) w/ rice and cole slaw (#2)--cabbage, carrots, cilantro, pan-toasted mustard seeds, lime juice, maple syrup (#5), and salt.

my favorite surfer

2010-03-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

is dane reynolds. he posts videos of himself surfing in places around ventura here. if you ever find yourself on the 101 btwn ventura and santa barbara, you might recognize some spots.

his surfing is insane, i can't believe how fast he is, and he's always cutting back and going back forward to make the next section, when i think he's about to get crunched by the wave. i wanna get go paddle out with him and get surf lessons on awesomeness.

he's also sponsored by quiksilver and they made this crazy video of surfing slowed down to 1000 frames/second. it's a must-watch.

it's worth it to click through and see it in 720p (HD for youtube), b/c it's that awesome. most impressive piece of surfing is kelly going switchstance in a tube in tahiti at 10:44. dude is amazing.

the natural history museum

2010-03-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

in LA has got tons of awesome stuffed owls.

in case you missed it

2010-03-10T02:01:00.000-08:00

on twitter, facebook, or google buzz:

i wrote and recorded some songs. download here.

one is about a tree sloth.

the other is about a bear and some wolves.

nojoqui falls, we meet again

2010-03-07T23:29:00.000-08:00

this time, you had water!!

same spot, in the summer.

santa barbara resident mutzy in both photos.

last word on the olympics

2010-03-03T23:01:00.000-08:00

best mascots ever. maybe.

according to my mom:

"me and your dad were watching that skateboarder that looks like a bum, but is a millionaire." [snowboarder shaun white]

according to my dad (a one-time short track speed skater and korean national record holder):

jk: "dad, do you root for america or korea?"
dad: "i root for both."
jk: "what about in speed skating?"
dad: "probably korea."
jk: "what do you think about apolo ohno?"
dad: "he's an arrogant son of a bitch. but he's a very smart skater. swift moves."

i think between the death of the luger, the canadian cover up of the luge track, the annoyingness of lindsey vonn, the malfunctioning opening ceremony torch, having to watch bob costas and cris collinsworth's smug stupid faces, and mary carillo do the late night shift: WORST OLYMPICS EVER.

antiques roadshow

2010-03-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

everytime i watch this show, i just keep thinking that these people are stupid for being on tv, because now they're just going to get robbed.

all mary, all the time

2010-02-26T00:31:00.000-08:00

i don't know if it's a masochistic ritual, but when i find a writer i really like, i tend to read as many books by that author in a row until i get completely sick of them.

recently: sherman alexie, rick bass, leo tolstoy (reading anna karenina and then war and peace in back to back years counts).

recently, it's been mary gaitskill. for a good month, her writing is all i really wanted to talk about.

after blasting through three collections of short stories, right now, i'm at about p. 220 of her 310 page book. besides a powers anthology, and your random new yorker mags, she's the only thing i've read in the past 2 months. in any case, i may throw in the towel after this novel, or power-skim the rest. my brain is starting to hurt.

but you gotta love this quote from her wikipedia entry: Despite her well-known S/M themes, Gaitskill does not appear to consider the Marquis de Sade himself an influence, or at least not a literary one: "I don't think much of Sade as a writer, although I enjoyed beating off to him as a child."

that is so brutal

2010-02-24T01:18:00.000-08:00

video of the coach of the dutch guy that lost his speed skating race...the coach realizes that he is the reason for the DQ.

little tree sloth

2010-02-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

vegas

2010-02-23T01:06:00.000-08:00

was in vegas for the weekend.

it's not a trip to vegas unless on different occassions during the same trip you are convinced that it is (a) the best place in the world; (b) the worst place in the world.

stayed at new york, ny.

more on the olympics

2010-02-17T01:01:00.000-08:00

is it just me or did the movie BLADES OF GLORY make figure skating infinitely more watchable?

everything scott hamilton says is hilarious. i just keep expecting him to say "franz and fairchild" and "michaels and mcellroy."

i was watching some of the opening ceremonies with ckap and we were trying to decide if matt lauer was a bigger douche than bob costas. my vote is for costas. hers if for lauer. both of us hate them b/c they are so smug.

mother nature weekend

2010-02-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

did some surfing. did a sweat lodge (which will be written about in the may issue of details).

this happened at the maverick's surf contest this weekend. kind of brutal:

not into the olympics

2010-02-09T22:47:00.001-08:00

but definitely into the mascots.

best pin:

just too much Q

2010-02-09T00:54:00.000-08:00

went to the PULP FICTION / INGLORIOUS BASTERDS double feature today at my favorite movie theater in LA.

it came complete with a Q&A with quentin at the end.

see what time it is? this thing started at 6:00. i just got home. that's over 6 hours of Q.

and that's just too much Q for me. i left in the middle of the Q&A.

also, split a large skooby's fries for dinner.

my head hurts. my stomach hurts.

i feel ill.

some art

2010-02-08T00:20:00.000-08:00

if pictures of monster heads on human bodies is the kind of thing that you dig, then i think lisa hanawalt might be your favorite.

how about disturbing animal pics?

maybe your more into the whimsical?

she had an art show at the best comics store in LA.

i bought a piece of hers. it's a german shepherd barfing a bunch of cars.

king mushroom

2010-02-03T23:45:00.001-08:00

random ess

2010-02-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

if laughing at these idiots is wrong i don't want to be right.

i'm currently eating split pea soup that i just made and one hour into an experimental pot roast.

emailing a friend today. she said she was trying to pitch ideas to a magazine. i gave her the following topics:

death to the indie band reunion
inter-species friendships as documented on youtube
more cop shows
fake foodie-ism
the rise of adult ass wipes

regarding that last topic, have you guys seen that in the past couple of years, next to the regular old toilet paper, they now have adult asswipes? like baby wipes, but for adults? i have friends who swear by them. i bought a box the other day. one thing is for sure: my butt is cleaner, and i'm going to be using a lot less toilet paper.

the artsy bachelor

2010-02-01T23:44:00.000-08:00

i love hating this guy as a completely transparent wannabe-sensitive loser.

yet identifying myself in the critique of the same guy.

can't say enough how much i love this clip

2010-01-29T00:34:00.000-08:00

i quote it all the time.

liveblogging watching SOTU address on youtube 6 hours later

2010-01-27T23:04:00.000-08:00

11:06 - loving biden and pelosi on the left and right shoulders. reminds me of how awesome pelosi's reaction was during "YOU LIE!"

11:07 - right after the first and second big claps, biden does premature clapping. love that.

11:11 - biden going bananas!!! (banks)

11:14 - now pelosi!!! (taxbreak joke)

11:15 - most of my friends on fb love the president. don't know if it's b/c he did a great job, or if it's b/c i just blocked all my republican friends.

11:16 - harry reid yawned.

11:17 - thinking of my friend ms. banana who was unable to watch this b/c she was in the west village to meet a friend after work and there were no bars showing it--they were showing the RANGERS game. hahaha. she must wish she lived in dc.

11:18 - second time repubs stand to clap (first was "i love USA"--this time jobs).

11:19 - does john boehner (R-ohio) do tanning or use bronzer? b/c the dude is from ohio and lives in dc.

11:21 - is the supreme court allowed to clap?

11:22 - unidentified ladies in bright colors are going bananas for trains.

11:23 - just checked twitter. none of my friends tweeted about SOTU. remember that loads did during the golden globes.

11:30 - pelosi going bananas for climate change.

11:33 this is pretty boring....i think i'm going to do the dishes, read the nytimes blurb, and listen to music.

END.

happy new year

2010-01-27T22:44:00.000-08:00

for the new year i was in san diego county hanging with some of my favorite people in the world.

there were animals there.

asian dog.

tame wild asian cat.

friend mocking cat.

friends.

maizy

2010-01-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

the center of my parents' universe.

she has a blanket. and is the inspiration for calendar purchases.

some stuff

2010-01-25T21:38:00.000-08:00

1. i heard the miley cyrus song "party in the usa" for the first time a couple weeks ago at a pinkberry. i can't stop listening to it.

the official video on youtube has embedding disabled, so if you want to watch it, you gotta click the link. stachi says that "miley cyrus is a hooker."

but i wonder what she thinks of these girls that made their own lip-synch to it.

2. everytime someone has put up a stupid facebook status update i've been tempted to say, "i'm just thinking about haiti right now." i haven't. and i'm glad i haven't.

3. all the gary coleman stuff; kid was a genius.

coco

2010-01-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

jay's a skunk for sure, but am i not the only one who thought that conan's tonight show sucked? it was better than jay's show, but not as good as conan's late night show.

california's gold does in-n-out

2010-01-21T22:09:00.000-08:00

for the first time ever. cameras behind the counter.

one man gets the scoop: huell howser

mark your calendars: 1/31/10 on pbs.

props

2010-01-21T22:06:00.001-08:00

howard stern creates 4.5 hours of quality comedy 4 days a week.

that is amazing. he makes me LOL almost every day.

do you miss shaygo and rogray like i do?

2010-01-20T22:58:00.000-08:00

damn, remember when my blog used to be more like a daily diary? w/ constant updates on the weekend? and loads of photos of me and my friends????

ah, the days of shaygo and rogray!!

shaygo had a blog. then she got busy.

now she and rogray are all up on peevepile.

they are doing photos to match reader-submitted pet peeves.

beauty and the beast

2010-01-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

here are photos from thanksgiving at my parent's house.

both my sister and i were in ohio for it.

dad chows down.

sister breaks glass of wine.

just your normal, average family relaxing at the table.

my aunt is of the opinion that my niece is so cute she looks like a doll. i can't blame her.

i thought this dinosaur mask would scare her. it didn't.

i wish this never happened

2010-01-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

actually, i'm not.

was just talking about how legendary this was over the wknd. best: obama punching the speed bag.

UPDATE.

actually, i think this is one of my favorite dance scenes from a movie ever:

in contrast to this:

big swell

2010-01-17T22:40:00.000-08:00

there's been a whole lot of energy in the water these days.

i've been surfing 12 foot faces, but that was w/ no one in the water but me in costa rica. if i tried it out here, there'd be 40 people with me, and i'd probably kill someone.

this past wednesday i had to go to san diego for work, i stopped by a pretty popular surf spot on my way back to check out the surf. this is the best photo i took.

professional style beautiful photos over at surfline in this feature.

foxes

2010-01-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

i think i'm going to see the fantastic mr. fox again at a freescreening by my movie arts org.

Lo models the fox hat at bari's art show.

site-specific art installation by my ultra-talented homegirl bari ziperstein.

peep this!!! you want bari's art

the new yorker

2010-01-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

sometimes when i'm reading a new yorker article, i just read the first three paragraphs, and the last one, and i feel like i didn't need to read the whole thing.

odds and ends -- movie time

2010-01-10T22:35:00.000-08:00

i finally saw the wes anderson fox movie that i thought i'd be lukewarm about. but i was pleasantly surprised. might be my favorite wes anderson movie ever. (and i do really really like his first 3 movies).

fox enthusiasts wearing fox hats at the movie.

avatar was awesome. i'm gonna see it again.

anchorman was better when i saw it stoned in the theater.

it used to be my #2 will ferrel movie of all time.

new rankings:

1. elf
2. step brothers
3. blades of glory
4. anchorman
5. old school

his cameo in wedding crashers is insane, but doesn't qualify.