San Fran Castro Street On Halloween

So today I went to the famous Castro Street Halloween Party in San Fran. Supposedly, they block off this section of the street and then people just walk around and party... costumes were not as nice as Sat nite's outing, but still pretty nice...

All in all, it was ok... the atmosphere was great... but alot of people and alot of shoving and pushing around to get around... and the fact that you can't legally walk around w/ a 16 ozer killed whatever mood that could have been created...

Events to highlight:
- catfight between 5 girls vs. 1 girl... didn't see too well w/o my glasses... but I felt sorry for that one girl

- gunshots were heard, followed by hundreds of ppl (imagine a herd of those animals that killed simba's father in lion king) walking or running all in one direction away from the sound... (fences were knocked over as well)... ambulance and police cars followed shortly

- some very interesting costumes... when I get the pics from the other cameras I will update this blog entry or provide link to the pics

In other news... because of this outing, my leather shoes have taken another hit... aiii..... I haven't even wore it for more than 15 times, and the leather is already all scratched up in the front. For those who don't know, it's a very nice pair of soft leather shoes... guess I am not yet cut out to where such nice shoes yet.

Goal in the near future: Be able to wear nice things and not ruin it!

Lobster in San Jose - Part III: Sleep-a-thon

So today really has nothing to do w/ Lobster... since I didn't even see her.

Today was about me, and my bed!

Sequence of Events:
1) Got home at around 3am-ish... slept.. woke up at 12:45pm (by alarm clock time)
2) Cooked, ate lunch, did dishes, then sat in front of computer... looked at a few things, saw it was only 1:30pm... then thought to myself... wtf... I swear it takes me more than an hour to do all those things...
3) Light bulb goes off in my head... its daylight savings time today! Upon realizing it, set my alarm clock to the right time (from 2:30 to 1:30)
4) Second decision of the day: decided that waking up at 11:45pm (by daylight savings time) was too early... so went back to bed... time: 1:31pm
5) 5:30pm. That's the time I saw when I next opened my eyes :D...

Total sleep time: 9 + 4 = 13 hours!

6) Ate dinner w/ little andrew and BJ, went to tea shop... came home.. slept by 12:30am....

So ends the day... I loooove daylight savings time!

Lobster in San Jose - Part II: Halloween Bash

So after McDs... we went costume shopping then went to San Fran...

At San Fran, we walked around for 30 minutes to find food... and encountered numerous drunk ppl... summary:
- one guy shatttered a bottle of liquor near me after chasing his own bag
- one guy gave us a balloon sword
- one guy walked around asking for change saying he's honest for asking $ for booze
- one guy standing in middle of street pointing at the traffic light
- numerous paper bags holding liquids...
... and this was before 9pm!

After eating at a place similar to Mel's diner, we went and got ready to club... lineup was super long... but the costumes there were AWESOME! No pics were taken by me. So readers will need to either wait for me to see them, or hunt around and find the city boy's for them... I took a pic with a guy dressed as Optimus Prime... his costume was awesome (he won $100 for it)...

Back to the scene... at first, the bar was very hard to get a drink from as there was a HUGE lineup... but on subsequent visits, the line was alot shorter; but still had a slight wait. Sometime during the night though, I officially became a 'VIP' of one of the bartenders... haha.. meaning I basically walk up to him, and get served right away!... I guess that's when you know you've gone to the bar too many times! :)

But this clubbing experience is starting to look too similar to those of my early university days... so with that, I think I will abstain from this kind of life for awhile... or should I?

Lobster in San Jose - Part 1.5: The Twillight

As I mentioned, since it was late (early) in the morning, was velly velly quiet getting into aunt's house... so no one except me and city boy (CB) knew I was there that nite...

Here's what happened at twillight...
City Boy's Uncle (U) opens door to a room usually open and empty... unexpectedly finds a guy sleeping on the bed!

M: Hello!
U: (stares and walks out)...
[mumble downstairs in unknown language --> Mson's interpretation:
U: you know a stranger is sleeping in our house
Aunt (A): huh... [blah blah blah]
[Silence for a bit, then Aunt comes up and peeps in]
M: Hello. I am Vince's friend. (in cantonese)
A: ok ok... [then closes door]
[Mson's interpretation: Mson spoke too fast in cantonese + his half asleep mode = unintelligible babble to even the most experienced chinese person]

Once morning (11am) came around, we were ready to head off to rendezvous w/ lobster and co. So me and Vince explained why I was there that nite... A and U are very nice ppl... and it made it easier since I was able to communicate w/ them.

Then before we headed off, I learned about the history of Vince's ferrari (the mysterious mark on the hood) from A and U before riding in it to pick up the rest of the City Boy's for some good ol' fashioned monopoly McDs.

To be continued...

Lobster in San Jose - Part I: The Friday

So this wkend is lobster and co.'s travels to San Fran.

The start of this wkend was not good for us (palo alto/san jose ppl) at all.

Fri nite:
We went for driving range...only to find they didn't rent clubs
We went to DnB... only to have jacka55 security dude refuse us entry just cuz we are canadians...
We went for McDs...only to find it closed
So we settled for some chinese food, only to find the chicken, duck, BBQ pork were all slightly cold... ...

Only good thing of the night must be lobster's arrival at 2:30am in the morning!

Having seen the lobster, ended the nite at City Boy's aunt's house since the next morning, me and BJ were getting costumes b4 heading to San Fran for some halloween bash!

Another Safeway Raid...

So today I went to my favorite store... (no... not the LCBO), and stocked up on some good wholesome meat and STRAWBERRIES... buy 1 get 1 free... what a lovely store Safeway is!

I also bought some candies in anticipation for the children that may come by on Halloween! :).. And to add that extra little touch, I even bought a bucket to put the candy in! I bought two types of candies... snickers and skittles (ie. nuts and no nuts...) just in case the kid has allergies they won't go home w/ inedible candy... hope it works out to their favor...

I also almost bought the single malt that was on sale today... it was only $33.00 + tax AND it came in a nice box. Was very very tempted to get it. If I was at the store for 10 more minutes, I probably would have picked it up... maybe next time.. maybe next time.

Today I started to realize I've been idling way too much; as a result of this, I have now created a schedule for myself that I will try to keep for the remainder of the term... hopefully doing so will get all the work I am suppose to do done... this plan begins next week...

Blogger Mson out.

Funny Work Day at PARC

So today, I finally got the Ms. Vickies' Jalapeano chips I so wanted for the last month. For those who don't know, the week before I asked the lunch lady why they had almost every single flavour of Ms. Vickies but not the green one, and lunch lady told me she would get it for me. And today, she DID!!! (this was the same lady who was present on the day I achieved goal #1: buying chips w/ all my US coins...she was actually the cashier who took those coins)

Then before I left work, me and 'young grasshopper' got our hands on some bubble wrap, and pure immature kid style, we started popping them (for the record, I was still writing some code when 'young grasshopper' began popping the bubbles with his hands, then I fell into peer pressure and joined him)...

Now in this process, I have come across my first patent :)

**Patent 001: Quick method for optimal bubble wrap popping
Procedure:
1) Place the bubble wrap under a chair with wheels
2) Sit on the chair, and then try to move around as you would normally do

Result:
Enjoy the popping sounds of bubbles popping at an alarming rate... effortlessly!!!

**Note: Patent pending...

After this ground breaking patent pending invention, I left for soccer :). The last game of the season (since it gets dark early starting now...), pretty good turnout! Playing soccer in the dark is an interesting experience... but too dangerous for my blood!

Oh.. I also made slight progress at work today!.. goooodo stuff! And yes, starting tomolo, I will REALLY start to do the things I am suppose to do... I really will... Just a tiny bit behind these days... but still good.. still good...

Triple Header Wkend - Part III: San Jose

So to end the triple header wkend, we decided to lay back and chill out at one of the member of the 'city boy's' pool. This for some reason reminded me of back in the HK days when I played outdoors in the pool near the apartment where I lived; and also reminded me slightly of carriage hills... haha.. to think, here I am working Mon to Fri, and the weekends just seem like I was at a resort... I wonder if this is life I should expect if I can get myself down here in the US...

Getting a house here may be a tad difficult, but once I get one here, I wonder...

To finish the day off, we went to Olive Garden and this time, the food was alot better and the service was ALOT better... very nice place!

So ends the triple header wkend!

Triple Header Wkend - Part II: Santa Cruz II

So for the 2nd part of the triple header, we went to Santa Cruz to surf again!!!

I have to say that surfing is one of the best activity ever! The waves were very good this time and we were able to go for 3+ hours in the water. The water, contrary to what I expected, wasn't cold at all (of course this is with the wet suit on).

The rush you get from catching a wave is unbelievable. You feel like you are going sooo fast! I was able to semi get-up a few times and that feeling was great. I wish that I will get another chance to try surfing once more and get up fully and enjoy it even more!

Of course I wiped out numerous times. Lesson learned: when you see 'white water' rushing towards you and you haven't caught the wave yet, DON'T try to ride it... or risk wiping out and doing somersaults in the water... a few of them!... Timing seems to be very important in surfing, if you are too early, you miss the wave.. if you are too late, you get engulfed in it... you have to be juuuust right!

What I thought makes surfing great is that you can rest on the board when you are tired. Now for those who swim, imagine just floating in the middle of a pool (conscious - of course), and feeling your body just buoy up and down with the currents... very relaxing feeling right? Now imagine you are floating, but you are gazing into an infinite blue sky, hearing the soothing sound of the waves, and you are gently rocked by the waves while you sit on your board to take in the sight, with a very faint breeze blowing at you so that you are not terribly hot, but not cold either... that's the feeling of surfing when you are resting! And when you are moving and do catch the wave, well, I already talked about that...

Then at night, went to San Fran and went to see the night life again. The street we went to was an interesting street with LOTS of cops!.. haha... But it was ok. By the end of the night, you see drunk people stumbling around and talking about random things, very nice atmosphere! haha... ended the night with a nice midnight snack before heading back to Palo Alto area...

From the long dip in the ocean, and the lots of swimming required, sea salted Mson fell asleep on the ride back from San Fran to home.... and with that, Part II of triple header is completed.

Triple Header Wkend - Part I: Karoake Night at Fremont

So tonight we decided to go to karoake here in California! Before that, went to this place called "Denny's"... first time going there ever and I have to say, it will be my last. Reason: when you see raw chicken on someone's plate at a restaurant, thats enough to make me never go there again...

Anyway, so the first place we went to for karoake... the place apparently didn't serve alcohol. So yes, once we found out, we got our a55es out of there right away and went to another one. A karoake place that didn't serve alcohol... that's something the non fobby me would never understand...

So then we drove half an hour to this other place... (guess there's not much karoake joints around)... so at first, this place seemed good. I mean, when you get 12 beers, you get 6 beers free (before 12:30am)! And it was only $2.50 for a beer. But little did I know that they have this thing called a 'room fee'. Guess that's how they make money here at these places... since booze is so cheap, guess they gotta make a profit somehow... and make a profit they did!!!

The other interesting thing is that they had no 'ice cups'... see below picture on what they gave us when I asked for it...



styrofoam cups with ice around it??? haha.. only in America... or maybe this is another proof that I am not fobby at all! Guess I haven't been to these places enough, haven't seen it all yet!... :)

oh ya, we also got told that fitting 4 people in the back of a car was a bad thing... or at least we think we did... with Odogg yelling random stuff as the 'nice people' were telling us, we can only take BJ's word for it...

So ends the first part of this triple header weekend.