Weblog

Monday, July 21, 2008

  • The Move. (+ Book list)

    Though it usually involves one of the most dreaded activities known to man - packing - I'm excited to be moving.  Oddly, two moves coincide - my office and apartment.  Make that Beverly Hills, CA to Downtown Los Angeles.  From the Roar Building on 9701 Wilshire to 555 S. Flower at City National Plaza. 

    The apartment is simpler, from Toland Way in Glassell Park/Eagle Rock to Solway Street, my humble abode since high school.  Yes, I'm moving home folks.  I don't know how it'll be moving back home at the tender age of 23, but this past weekend I spent some time at my parent's home and it was very peaceful.  I think I'll get used to it even though the prospect of living with the family could raise my blood pressure.

    I'm ready for the change of scenery.  From glitz to grit for my office venue and grime to comfort for my living space. 

    Change is good, let's see how I handle it.

    btw, read my food blog if you're starved for more food related blogging.  I'm going to try and make my xanga more about my personal life and separate out the food topics.  Find my blog here: http://mattatouille.blogspot.com

     

     

    I found this on a xanga friend's blog:

    bold if you've read it

    italics if you want to read it

    star * if you've read part of it

    underline if you love it.

         

          1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen *

    2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

    3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

    4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

    5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

    6 The Bible

    7 Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte*

    8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

    9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

    10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

    11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

    12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

    13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

    14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

    15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

    16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

    17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

    18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

    19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

    20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

    21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

    22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

    23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

    24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

    25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (this is another one I’m confused about)

    26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

    27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *

    28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

    29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll *

    30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

    31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

    32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

    33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis *

    34 Emma - Jane Austen

    35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

    36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

    37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini    

    38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

    39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

    40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

    41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

    42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

    43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

    44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

    45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

    46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

    47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

    48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

    49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

    50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

    51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

    52 Dune - Frank Herbert

    53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

    54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen *

    55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

    56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

    57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

    58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

    59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

    60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez*

    61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

    62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

    63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

    64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

    65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas*

    66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

    67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 

    68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding

    69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

    70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

    71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

    72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

    73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

    74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

    75 Ulysses - James Joyce

    76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

    77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

    78 Germinal - Emile Zola

    79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray*

    80 Possession - AS Byatt

    81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

    82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

    83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

    84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

    85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

    86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

    87 Charlotte's Web - EB White

    88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

    89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton  

    91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

    92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

    93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

    94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

    95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

    96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

    97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 

    98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

    99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

    100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo*

     

     

Monday, July 07, 2008

  • The Road.

    I think more than being born to eat, I was born to travel.  My first sojourn on airplane was to Boston as a 9 month old infant.  My parents took a picture in front of the Harvard Law School hoping I'd be a student there. Maybe...although I don't really like law and my GPA isn't worth of such lofty ambitions.  My mother took me to a suburban Burger King in New England where a line of young Caucasian children formed just to marvel at this little chinese-looking boy.  Let's just say I was a cutey with my golden paper crown.

    I've been to more countries than people three times my age, from Cuba to New Zealand to inner China.  I've seen New Orleans pre-Katrina, walked on the turf in Twins Stadium in Minnesota, seen Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State, and skied through the quiet powders of Utah.  Throw in white-water rafting in Denali National Park in Alaska, camping in Jackson Hole Wyoming, and gater-hunting in Florida to that list of American travels.  Still, I haven't officially driven across the entire continental US but I've driven from south to north, from LA to Whistler up in British Columbia.  I haven't been to Texas which is heresy to my Houston-born roommate.  I've only come as close as Tulsa, OK which has some pretty good barbeque too.  I still haven't ventured into the Midwest though the feature in this month's Gourmet Magazine featuring the summer life on cozy lakes just might be my next ideal vacay. 

    Driving through the amber hills of Central California with the olive-green trees dotting the landscape, I realized I revel in seeing the world.  The perfect soundtrack and some delicious car-munchies like beef jerky and fruit can make for one happy camper on a long windy road.  The company helps too and although it was frustrating at times, it was ultimately worth traveling with my family this time around.  It's been our first vacation in nearly three years. 

    IThis year I've seen Las Vegas (which is a big deal since I almost never go there and it was my first time after turning 21), Japan (first time), and now the Central Coast of California (sadly where fires have ravaged the area).  I never realized how pleasant Monterey was until I leaned on the deck overlooking the bay, with kelp forests and feasting sea otters (on sea urchins nonetheless) in my midst.  Paso Robles is a burgeoning wine country, where I tried perhaps its best winery at L'Aventure.  Even the vintner poked his head into the tasting room, not a common sight in Napa or Sonoma. 

    This trip was a bit too short to bust out my usual recording device of choice - a trusty old journal.  I have dozens of journals scattered throughout my apartment and parents' home, intermittently recording my travels around the world.  I need to organize those but for this past weekend I think this blog spot will suffice.

    I'm always looking for new things, new sights, new smells, and new tastes and traveling gives me the best excuse to find them.  I'll post pictures later, but the film camera works mighty fine overall.  Developing the dang exposures cost more than $40 (including picture CD), so I think I'll stick to the digital stuff next time around.

    mommish

    dadmish

    mishtank

    seaanenome  stickyrice

    dad  crab

    mish

    me

Monday, June 30, 2008

  • Central/Northern California Roadtrip!

    Yes, finally another vacation.  I recently went to Las Vegas for the food trip of my life (which I still have to complete blogging...) and I went to Nagoya, Japan for another amazing food trip (although the purpose for that trip was different).  It's my dad's birthday this Friday (lucky birthday).  We're going to be traveling as a family to San Luis Obispo for their famous Thursday Farmer's Market, then we're going up to Monterey to see the World Famous Monterey Bay Acquarium (fish will make me hungry), then we're completing the trip in Berkeley where I'll show my parents some of the wonderful food finds I've discovered there over the years.  I am extremely excited, to say the least.

    Ah...just think about - fresh produce from Central California, fresh seafood in Monterey, delicious cuisine in Berkeley, pizza, ice cream, fruit, etc etc.  ZOMG! it's so over...(and best of all, Dad will foot most of the bills)

Friday, June 27, 2008

  • 52 Week Vacation

    If you could go on a one year vacation, where would it be?  You can't travel more than 100 miles away from the center point and you must stay there for the whole year.  You'd have enough to live, but not extravagantly, though you don't have to work obviously. 

    This is a tough choice for me because while I love city life, I'd also want to be someplace peaceful. 

    Of all the places I've visited in the world, I've loved New Zealand and Switzerland the most.  I loved Auckland, so I think I'd want to be there since I could find a good mix of city life and country life in NZ.  Plus, I could speak the language.  And, there's good Korean food there.  That's a must.  What about you?

     

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

  • macgruff


    I need to watch this again on Blue-ray.  Like now.

    Mac MacGuff: Next time I see that Bleeker kid I'm going to punch him in the wiener.
    ---
    Juno MacGuff: I could so go for like a huge cookie right now, with like, a lamb kabob simultaneously.
    ---
    Juno MacGuff: I'm losing my faith in humanity.
    Mac MacGuff: Think you can narrow it down for me?
    Juno MacGuff: I guess I wonder sometimes if people ever stay together for good.
    Mac MacGuff: You mean like couples?
    Juno MacGuff: Yeah, like people in love.
    Mac MacGuff: Are you having boy troubles? I gotta be honest; I don't much approve of dating in your condition, 'cause well... that's kind of messed up.
    Juno MacGuff: Dad, no!
    Mac MacGuff: Well, it's kind of skanky. Isn't that what you girls call it? Skanky? Skeevy?
    Juno MacGuff: Please stop now.
    Mac MacGuff: [persisting] Tore up from the floor up?
    Juno MacGuff: Dad, it's not about that. I just need to know if it's possible for two people to stay happy together forever, or at least for a few years.
    Mac MacGuff: It's not easy, that's for sure. Now, I may not have the best track record in the world, but I have been with your stepmother for 10 years now and I'm proud to say that we're very happy.
    [Juno nods]
    Mac MacGuff: In my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think the sun shines out your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with.
    Juno MacGuff: I sort of already have.
    Mac MacGuff: Well, of course! You're old D-A-D! You know I'll always be there to love and support you no matter what kind of pickle you're in... Obviously
    [nods to her belly]
    Juno MacGuff: I need to go out somewhere just for a little while. I don't have any homework and I swear I'll be back by ten.
    Mac MacGuff: You were talking about me right?
    ---
    Juno MacGuff: I'm pregnant.
    Paulie Bleeker: What should we do?
    Juno MacGuff: Well, I should just... I was thinking I'd just nip it in the bud before it gets worse. Because they were talking about in health class how pregnancy... It can often lead to an infant.
    Paulie Bleeker: Typically, yeah... Yeah that's what happens when our mothers and teachers get pregnant.
    ---
    Mac MacGuff: And this, of course, is Juno.
    Mark Loring: Like the city in Alaska?
    Juno MacGuff: No.
    Mark Loring: No? Hon, shall we sit down and get to know one another?
    Vanessa Loring: Oh, I thought I would get some drinks. What would anyone like? I have Pellegrino, or Vitamin Water or Orange Juice or...
    Juno MacGuff: I'll have a Maker's Mark, please. Up.
    Mac MacGuff: She's kidding. Junebug has a wonderful sense of humor. Just one of her many genetic gifts.

     

    OK, I'm totally not original today. And I feel escapist. Like high school escapist.  Get me out of this necktie!