Overheard in New York
Once upon a time, some anonymous bastard listed websites he likes to read. I got a bunch of other websites from him, but I only recently started subscribing to Overheard in New York via bloglines, it having come up in my list of recommendations.
This is some seriously hysterical shizznit.
HS girl #1: I have a question. No. She gotta question, but she makin’ me ask you for her because she embarrassed. What’s “drag school”? Thas where you go to learn howda be a drag queen?
Teacher guy: What? Drag school?
HS girl #2: Yeah, you said you was leavin’ us because you gotta go to drag school.
Teacher guy: Grad school. I am leaving you because I am going to grad school.–Prospect Park BBQ
Guy #1: That’s a cute dog.
Guy #2: Thanks, she’s my daughter.
Guy #1: …How is that possible?
Guy #2: Yeah, that’s right: I gave birth to her, she came out of my vagina.
Comedy gold.
on the spot
Crooks and Liars has links to video and audio of Scott McClellan being grilled. As satisfying as it was to hear the peeps (esp David Gregory) go to town on him, it was deeply unsatisfying in what it says about where we are.
omgwtfbbq!!!1!one!1!
We worked late for a Friday today, so Seppo and I stopped by In ‘N Out on the way home, then picked up our dog, then got home at the late hour of 9:15. I was tired after a long day, but was glad to be home. Besides, I always perk up after picking up Mobi, driving back home with him on my lap while I babble like a foolish idiot to him about his day.
I tried to open the downstairs door, and I didn’t have my keys, so Seppo laughed at me and started to walk upstairs. Apparently, he had his keys with him. I followed along, and noted that Joe’s light was on, but the rest of the house was dark. It seemed kind of weird, because whenever someone is home, at least one of the livingrooms has the light on, but I didn’t think anything of it. I entered the door after Seppo and turned around to turn on the porch light, noticing kind of absent-mindedly that there were a bunch of people in the livingroom.
My first fleeting thought was the Joe had guests over to watch a movie, but the tv wasn’t on. In the next split second, I thought, Oh no, am I walking into a bunch of people doing something bizarre (at our age, anyway) like playing Post Office? Or is Joe having a meeting of kinky sex orgy enthusiasts? Why are they all staring at me in the dark? Ack! Who turned on the light? Wait, who are these people? I know these people. They just said something, but I’m too busy processing the group. It just clicks that all these people are linked by me, and I finally chug through the words I had heard moments ago. I think it was “Happy Birthday” or “Surprise” but I honestly am not sure.
At some point, my brain decided to start working again, and it actually (finally) dawned on me that this is a surprise party! For me! Woo!
Seppo had gotten together a bunch of people behind my back. Hee. Sneaky. Alan, Becky, Dara, Lindsi, Joe, Stephen, Vis, Max, Claire, Nick, Gene, Heather, baby Aiden, Klay, Nana, Edy, Jeannie, Uyen, and Charles all showed up, coming from all over the bay area. So wonderful! I got a couple of incredibly thoughtful and personal presents (a book I really am itching to dig into and a personalized CD and a truffle-like cake ETA: and a Flickr Pro account), but mostly, I was so overwhelmed that all these people had spent their Friday night to come to see me. I got to see Gene and Heather’s baby for the first time, and he was really cute and tiny. I held him for a bit, but I must have been somewhat awkward, so he cried a little. Gene was really good at making him stop crying by making a vacuum-like sound.
There were friends from school, friends from jobs, friends made via Seppo, and a friend from high school, and it was so great to spend an evening with friends. As I get older, I get to value each friend more and more, and realize that I don’t really have a strong desire to make other, newer connections, but to really dedicate myself to the friends I already have. I forgot to take pics, but Edy took a bunch of pics which I will steal from him. 🙂
When we clean up the house, I vow to have more casual dinners where we hang out with our good friends. I wish I could have tried to figure out how to properly encourage friend mixing, but I’m so bad socially. Heh.
Thanks everyone. It’s one of those memories I’ll have for a while to come. :’)
stop following me
I got tailgated in 70-80 mph traffic for about 15-17 miles on my way in to work yesterday. He was so close I could only see about 2/3-3/4 of his hood the entire time, otherwise I would have gotten his license plate number. If I changed lanes, he changed lanes. If I sped up, he sped up. If I slowed down, well, he had to slow down because he wouldn’t budge from his position behind me. It was annoying, then funny, then really damn scary. I was worried he was gonna follow me to work, but he got off the freeway a few exits before me.
This was because he was driving so close and aggressively behind me when we were getting on the lead up to the on-ramp that I gave him a tiny brakeage, while we were going maybe 20 mph. So he tailgated me even more aggressively as we were getting on the freeway, and I let him pass me to get ahead. I gave him a good-bye flip-off. I guess that’s when he decided he would get behind me and tailgate me as far as he could. I don’t know: I gave him the finger and he decides to explicitly threaten my life with his reckless driving, as well as implicitly threaten me by appearing to follow me to my destination. I am so angry that he was able to make me feel as afraid as I was. The worst thing about the situation is that from the start, he was the one driving recklessly and I was the one driving sanely. And he felt like it was his right to get so pissed off as to chase me about. What the hell. I wish I could kick him in the balls, that jerk off.
ETA: I also forgot to say that he put his highbeams on the entire time after he got behind me. If it were night, this would have been pretty bad, but luckily in the daylight, it barely made a difference in my vision.
—
On a completely separate note, I was thinking that I need something like news.google.com but for my subscribed rss feeds. A lot of the political blogs I read cover the same general topic, so it would be nice if something could collect similar entries and group them together from across different blogs.
recap: philly
I took some notes on the treo while in philly, so here they are ’cause, you know, you care so much. :p Like my recounting of my trip to Korea, it’s all (ok, mostly) about the food.
Sat 6/25
- Ate hoagie from Sarcone’s after nap at Hajeong’s.
- Drank Cream soda from Panera Bakery while killing time with Uyen and Charles between wedding and reception.
- Ate Rita’s water ice while doing same.
- Took an obscene pic while doing the same.
- Ate ten (I think) course Chinese banquet for Chau’s reception, where I took lots of pics.
Sun 6/26
- Had lunch at the Royal Tavern with Hajeong, Seppo, and Deanna. Delicious Brioche French Toast.
- Went to some sort of culinary street fair where Paul Green’s School of Rock played.
- Took a nap.
- Went to Morimoto with Seppo, Hajeong, and Steve.
Reviews are on the foodblog: Seppo’s review and my review.
Mon 6/27
- Lunch at Continental Mid-town with Ryejin, Jung, Mii Ae, Hajeong, and Seppo.
Had some good fusion food. Yeah, I know.
- Took yet another nap! I love vacation.
- Ate Korean food at a place called Porky and Porkie with H & S.
- Went bowling in Jersey with Hajeong, Seppo, and Mii Ae. You know, those south jersey kids…
Tues 6/28
- Ate bacon, pork roll, and eggs courtesy of Chef Hajeong.
- Ate cheesesteaks and cheesefries at Pat’s.
- Picked up some pastries from Isgro (Italian bakery). Crap! I just remembered that I didn’t get to eat my biscotti!
- Burger king at airport for dinner.
the entry where I just quote someone else
Chris Bowers:
I can’t stand the nearly ubiquitous, juvenile machismo in the blogosphere, especially when coupled with mind-numbing refusals to admit that there is sexism in the blogosphere. Among other things, we call people pussies, talk about people getting bitch-slapped, tell people not to get their panties in a wad, demand that people grow balls, order our comrades to sack up, challenge people’s manhood and sexuality, regularly discuss whether certain women are “doable” or not, and we wonder why men outnumber women in the progressive blogosphere two to one? Sexist and homophobic language of the sort that I haven’t heard since I was in the locker room in high school flies around left and right, and we are surprised that more women don’t feel comfortable here? And the excuse that it doesn’t bother all, or even most, women doesn’t fly. The fact is that it does bother quite a few, and helps to build an atmosphere that lets many potential members of our coalition know that they are neither equals nor welcome. And if being polite to our sisters doesn’t jibe without your libertarian ethos, my initial response is to tell you to either deal with it or ram it.
via MyDD.
It ain’t just the blogosphere, Chris. Lately, I’ve been reading a bunch of women/feminist progressive blogs (which I swear I will post about at some point), and it’s been like a breath of fresh air. ETA: I know Chris is a guy, and he’s one of my old reads, not the new batch I’ve been reading.
Kitchen Nightmares
I write not of our house’s cooking space, but of Gordon Ramsay‘s tv show, Kitchen Nightmares. It is awesome. Did I say “awesome”? I meant kick-ass. He goes to four different restaurants that need help and consults with them for a week, really getting into the kitchen and into the business to try to help them. He finds the weaknesses in their operation and in their menu and offers up pragmatic suggestions for how to fix their problems. He’s got a filthy f*#$ing mouth on him, you can see that, yeah? I laugh to myself because that’s how he talks. It’s my new favorite show. In the second season, aptly titled Kitchen Nightmares Revisited, he goes back to the same restaurants after a year to see if things are working out.
In Hell’s Kitchen, you can see that he’s a hard-ass and cares about quality in general, but that’s about it. You see more that he likes to yell at people. You don’t really see the side of him that seems to love seeing chefs blossom and become more than they were, praising them and building them up when they outperform themselves. Man, this is sounding gushy. Also, KN highlights that GR is actually pretty damn hot. Hee. I run away and hide.
eta: I LOVE the bumpers that take you to commercial on Hell’s Kitchen. Those people deserve some sort of award. The bumpers for KNR is pretty good too, but they’ve got nothing on the HK ones.
philos
This week, Seppo and I are flying out to Philly to go to Chau’s wedding. We are staying with Hajeong, whom I haven’t seen in over a year! Yay! I can’t wait. This is our itinerary for Philly:
- Fly in to Philly early Sat morning
- Hang out with Hajeong
- Go to afternoon wedding and evening reception
- Hang out with Chau Sunday morning
- Dinner with Mii Ae Sunday evening
- Lunch with Jung, Mii Ae, Rye-Jin, and maybe Anny on Monday
- Dinner at Morimoto Monday evening with Hajeong
- Hang out with Hajeong some more
- Leave for Atlanta early evening Tuesday
Oh, I forgot: eat lots of cheesesteaks and water ice.
I’m really looking forward to eating at Morimoto. I have been reading some reviews and planning menu strategies, mainly wondering which level of omakase I want.
As for the Atlanta leg of the trip, my mom wants to celebrate my birthday early because my brother and his girlfriend both can take a day off mid-week while we’re there. I am also thinking that I would like to take them out somewhere nice, and maybe cook them something nice — possibly the chicken with 40 cloves or teriyaki chicken. I can’t remember if my mom has any nice pans…
We fly back in the morning of the 3rd which is great because we’ll have that day off, plus the 4th to rest up before going back to work. Oh, I think I also get the 5th off, so I get another day. Yay!
politic
If you read any political blogs, you may know about a big fallout between Kos and a large contingent of progressive women (and some men). I am not going to recap the issue here, as it has been covered up the wazoo in many places, so I am going to say that the cool thing I am getting out of this is learning about the awesome women blog scene. For instance, I’m thinking about adding feministing to my daily rotation. I’ll probably evaluate a bunch in the coming weeks and add permanent links to the ones I like on the sidebar.
Via MyDD (yay Philly blog which is awesome), I learned that a Choi has won the Democratic primary for mayor in NJ! Ah, a Korean American Democratic mayoral candidate from my extended family (ok, so he’s probably not family, shut up). Not only that, but it is gratifying to see that he won the nomination after some annoying racist crap:
Choi, who made his first bid for public office, was virtually unknown until two radio hosts on NJ 101.5 FM poked fun at his Korean heritage, asking who would vote for someone with that name and insisting Americans should vote for Americans.
The comments from the “Jersey Guys” brought a deluge of criticism from Asian groups, and gave Choi weeks of free publicity. He was invited on the show two weeks ago for about two hours during which Craig Carton and Ray Rossi apologized for their remarks.
[via The Star Ledger]
A minor tick is that the silly reporter should really have been referencing “Asian Americans” and “Korean Americans”. The original cited title for the article was “Korean voters against Walmart too” makes it sound like the country of Korea rejected Walmart, which is what I honestly thought the article was gonna be about. And what’s with the “too”? Like, Americans reject Walmart, and these non-Americans also reject Walmart. Duh, you can’t vote for a mayoral primary race unless you are an American citizen. It’s like when Michelle Kwan beat Tara Lipinski (sometime in the 90s) and the article headlines read, “Kwan Beats Out American!” It’s not like I’m screaming racism or anything remotely like that at all, but little slips like that reveals the subconscious drawing of the lines between “us” and “them” that is easy to ignore, until one day when you find yourself in the position of “them”. It’s important to become clued in to the nuances and the subtext at play, because this helps you to really get it and know it, and you know, knowing is half the battle. Ahem.
Speaking of getting clued into nuances, there is a contingency of progressive people who think the best thing to do about racism/sexism/homophobia/etc is to suck it up and show them you are better than “that” (whatever The Powers That Be think “that” might be) or that you can have a sense of humor about it, but I disagree firmly and fundamentally. Ignoring a problem and/or joking about it does not make it go away. Pretending that all races in the US face the same obstacles in their everyday lives doesn’t make it so. Let’s put it in terms of illness. If you are diagnosed with an illness (in this example, the illness is racism, not your race — duh), do you simply say, “I am going to ignore this because I will not let it affect my life,” or do you acknowledge that there is a problem at hand, learn everything you can about it, and actually DO something? I think most reasonable people would learn all they can and do something about it. Similarly, if sexism (or whichever particular intolerance you are dealing with) exists in your workplace or classroom or whatever, the thing to do isn’t to pretend it’s not there. The best way to address it is to first acknowledge it in fact exists and to go from there.