Tuesday, February 17, 2004

this weekend...



on friday, i went to go eat at JV's with nguyen for lunch. i got the del mar burrito the size of my forearm. it came loaded with shrimp and beer battered fish. that was wayy too much for lunch. so even though i had already been to the gym 5x that week, i'd figure i'd go work it off. after the gym, i went to stan's place for some no limit texas hold em. we got 7 guys together. long story short, i got 1st place. first time i'd ever won first in the main game. by the end i was pretty much not interested in playing, but the guys wanted to play another game. so i thought i'd be good sport and just play. i had just won, and it would be bad etiquette just to take the money and leave. so on the second game, less 1 person, i was out first. i didn't really care. i was still up $40 that night. i got home at 4:30. went to sleep at 5:30.



saturday, i woke up around 9:30 cause the bird was chirping away. and i tried to go get more sleep after that. but i ended up watching tv till around 12:30 when remy messaged me wanting to get some lunch. we went to Da Kine. the food there is usually pretty good. this time, it was the absolute worst. i even wonder why they would even serve food to people when its obviously that bad. i basically had to stop eating in fear of getting food poisoning. and the best part of my bbq teriyaki chicken/beef was the salad they served to me on the side. and the salad wasn't even that good. so i met some friends of friends. we decided to get together again for dinner since remy offered to cook some ribs. since i had no plans on valentines day, me and remy went to get the ingredients. prepared the baby back ribs. ribs rubbed in massive amounts of garlic, olive oil, rosemary, kosher salt, and pepper. we kept in in the oven for as long as we can so we can throw it on the grill later. then i tried taking a nap before dinner. i didn't have much success. dinner came, we all feasted on mounds of protein (ribs, spicey pork, chicken) and salad. they were headed to a club. they dropped me off at home. i thought i'd be too tired to make it to my friends party, but feeling pretty good, i decided to get ready. by the time i was all ready to go, it was almost 11:30. i hit the wall and suddenly felt really tired. but since i told them i'd be there, i went. it was a good amount of people there. i kept myself entertained. a girl threw up on the stairs. and another one passed out. we brought her over to the toilet. and she missed completely. one guy kept mooning people and taking pictures. we later viewed them on travis' big screen. the pictures were hilarious. he may want to invest in some hot wax. i also got in on a poker game with the guys at the party. waited till my buzz was gone, and then called it a night.



sunday, i finally managed to sleep in. i woke up around 12:30, and messaged remy to get some pho. ran into peter and his gf at the restaurant. after lunch, i went straight to the gym. took my time working out. did some very mild cardio afterwards too. after that, i went to costco. got back and ate dinner. and headed out to the poker game. when i got there, i ran into the girl that passed out who was also headed to the same door. she first said something like she was sorry but she didn't remember passing out. and that she really doesn't know cause she doesn't remember a thing. and i said, "yeah, you really don't want to know". oops. maybe i should have kept my big mouth shut. i didn't hear the rest of the conversation but i'm guessing travis told her the gist that, she passed out, he carried her to the toilet. she barfed all over herself, the floors, and whatever that wasn't the toilet. 3 guys helped clean up the mess. and the bathroom stunk to high heavens the rest of the night. and she was carried out by 2 guys, who left her on her couch with a trash can right in her sight so she didn't miss again. supposedly her roommate passed out or threw up or something like that. good thing they lived next door. so poker got under way. it was a very different style of poker though. the way i usually play is tournament style. everyone has an equal buy in with no rebuys. that way, when people get eliminated, the blinds go up, and you can play more looser. so it is more fun, and you can play more hands when you are still on the game when there are less of you in the game. but on sunday, there were rebuys, so even though i was playing tight from the beginning, i lost my patience and started playing loose when basically 6 of us were still in the game. also, since the winners weren't decided on 1st and second place, there was no incentive to play even if you were holding hoardes of money and just want to wait it out until the night ends then cash out later. i was a fish out of water, and long story short, i lost a little more than what i won from the night before. it was still a learning experience.



on monday, i wasn't in the mood to cook, so i just whipped up some spagetti sauce with meat balls i got from costco. i usually go all out and make gourmet spagetti, but that usually is a complicated and expensive process, so i just used what i had in the kitchen with the least amount of effort as possible. i used some prego meat sauce, put some olive oil, cayenne pepper (substitution for red pepper flakes), bay leaves, garlic salt (in substituion for real garlic) , and onion powder (in substitution for carmelized onions), and white wine vinegar (in substituion for white wine). it came out okay. i heated it in high heat, even though it was a big mess to at least get some carmelization on the red sauce to make it a bit sweeter. so i plated that with a little bit of garlic salt, seasoned bread crumbs, parmeasan and mozerella. not too shabby. after that, i just chilled at home for a while, and since i knew the gym was closing early, i headed out at around 5pm, got my light cardio in for a little over an hour. then i was supposed to go to casey's house since he was making some sushi. that got cancelled, so i just settled in for some more R&R. but steve called and wanted to play some poker. feeling a little unsatisfied from yesterday, i was fine to play another game even though i had work tomorrow. so the first game I played, i got second with 7 people. so with that game, i was even from all the poker i played. since so many people got out so early during that game, we thought we play another one. so in the second game with 6 people, i got first. so i came out $30+ over the whole weekend. probably for playing close to 15 hours over the 3 days of play. at least i won something. i could have done a lot worse. and it was a lot of fun. i came home around 1:30, had a pleasant conversation with someone who found my blog, and that was the end to my weekend.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

I had a lot of fun cooking yesterday.



I prepared 5 dishes. It took me about 1.5 hours of total cooking and preparation.



1st dish: Kimchi Chiggae

This dish is usually made with pork, but since I never buy pork, I used the fatty parts of the top sirloin. I first seared the fatty side of the meats to release some oils into the pan. Then I put some over ripe kimchi and sauteed it. After that I poured water, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, and tabasco sauce into it. tabasco might be a weird ingredient, but it goes well. it's sour and spicey. Then I cut the meat into small pieces and put it into the soup. Then I stewed it until the kimchi got soft and less tangy. I had to refill it with water when the soup had boiled off. A long cooking time is important for a thicker broth, and more tender meats. I didn't have any tofu. Even though that would have been excellent to put in there.



2nd dish: chicken nuggets

I first seasoned the chicken tenderloin square pices in some balsamic vinegar, garlic salt, cayenne pepper. I realized I had no flower, so I used cornstarch instead for the first coat. then put it in a egg wash. then I put it in some seasoned bread crumbs. fryed it up in some light olive oil in high heat.



3rd dish: minced chicken wrapped in beef

i first minced the chicken. mixed it with some old bay, kosher salt, and onion powder. Then I had thin strips of beef seasoned in soy sauce, black pepper, sugar, honey, rosted seasame seeds, seasame oil, and minced garlic. wrapped the chicken with the strips of beef. seared the outside in some light olive oil. then put it in the oven at 325 until the chicken was fully cooked inside.



4th dish: beef with diced red onions in korean bbq marinade

with the same marinade I used to marinate the strips of beef, I tossed in some cubes of meat. stir fried it with some diced onions until the meat was medium rare and the onions were caramelized.



5th dish: chicken and julianned red onions in basamic vinegarette

with the same marinade I used to marinate the chicken nuggets, I tossed in pieces of chicken tenderloins, with some julianned onions. stir fried it in extra virgin olive oil until the chicken was fully cooked. i tried to not caramelize the onions and leave it crispy.



Only disaster for the night was that I roasted some seasame seeds, and the cup that I had put that on, fell on the kitchen floor, and it wasn't a simple clean up job.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

has it been a week already?



been keeping it low key on the weekdays. been playing karaoke revolution. i'm about 60% done on expert. i don't think i'll ever get 100% on expert. some i could barely pass on expert and i might have to compremise enunciation for higher scores. that's not good. on friday, i went to phils bbq with casey, casey's gf, remy, remy's friend from hs. and got a full rack of ribs with some steamed vegetables. the first half rack had barely any meat on it, but the second owe had so much. it was perfect. after that, we met at stan's place. and to my surprise he gathered up 13 people who wanted to play some no limit texas hold em. i was glad to play. unfortunately i was the first one knocked out. but i played my hand correctly. the river card did me in, and i put basically all my money on it. we played a side game, and i won that. so i made 5 bucks that night. on saturday, i got some pho with jeff. i rebuilt his computer (put in a asus mobo, 1800+ athlon cpu, 512 DDR333, and a new power supply). the motherboard was top notch stuff, and it was super cheap. i would upgrade if it was at least just a bit practical. while i worked on jeff's computer, he detailed my car. my car surprisingly looks pretty damn good. feels good to drive.



i've been wanting to buy a new digital camera. a panasonic FZ10K. it has a 12x optical zoom with a image stabilizer. with that, you can take pretty good photographic shots, close up and stuff. but its not in my budget. i don't think i'll buy it until i atleast have the money in the bank for it. i finally finished the rich dad poor dad book, and that book is all about making the effort to not waste money so i can save money to buy assets. i don't think i would have put off buying that camera if it wasn't for that book. so how can i afford that camera practically....hmmm...



sunday i went to the gym. took my time working out since there were less people there.



i've gotten into a really bad routine. i come home and take 2 hour naps. then i can't fall asleep till at least 2 am. and when the alarm wakes me up at 8:30, i'm regretting life. i always swear i'll be going to bed so i can get my 8.5 hours and get into a normal sleeping schedule. but i always seem to fail. what is getting in my way?



today is my sister's birthday. i wish i could be doing more than just calling her. maybe i'll go see the family sometime this month.



i think i'm in the mood to cook today. i'm bored of eating canned soup and my lean pocket. i have some choice top sirloin thawing in the refridgerator. i'll break out my spices, heat the oven, put all the burners on full and play iron chef tonight.

Wednesday, February 4, 2004

back in business



i got a rec card today! i just realized that i couldn't put a price on health. the bikes at the IG gym were probably doing no good on my back, and the IG gym is closed tonight. i would only be losing out on about $40, but i've spent a lot more on my back. so i'm going to rimac tonight for about 45 minutes of light fat burn/cardio. its going to be hard trying to keep off the machines and free weights since today is a non lifting day. still, i'm excited. according to travis, rimac should have some new things to offer.



i'm once again hooked on 2 reality tv series. American Idol 3 and the Real Word San Diego. Even though I don't have a favorite this year yet, I love to see heartbreak right on camera. Nothing defines reality more than seeing someone's life long dream get crushed in mass quantities. i think i enjoy the road to hollywood episodes (where they take the 100+ that made it to hollywood and end up with 32) just as much if not more than the bad auditions. as for real world san diego, as with all the real worlds it reminds me of the time when i lived in the dorms. it was just so fun meeting and living with new people and see the different ways they deal with life/people. i really wish there was a program where i can just live with new people every year. a cool house would be nice too. and a cool job. like working on a boat. or a magazine. but even without that stuff, it would still be a blast. even with the drama queens, the assholes you might have to live with. as long as you get some good people in there too.

Tuesday, February 3, 2004

wardrobe malfunction?



there is so much gossip going around. i'll clear up a lot of things for people. it wasn't a nipple ring. it was a gold pastie that had a sunshine type of imprint on it. what both justin timberlake and janet saying could be true. it was a mistake that more clothes came off than anticipated. so it was both a wardrobe malfunction and planned at the same time. so what is with all this outrage? i agree that it was outrageously entertaining. its crazy that we get so mad at just a little bit of half nudity while they could care less about gore and violence. would the same people be complaining if someone got his leg snapped off during the game and it happed on camera? give janet jackson a break. she's just a pioneer.



so i'm 100% done with karaoke revolution on Medium. So i've been playing everything on Hard and Expert. I'm about 60% through doing that.



i didn't get to go to phils bbq this past weekend. sure sounds good for dinner tonight.....mmmm....ribs.