Oh -- final note and need of assistance!

A friend asked me to plan a little get-together for ECE grads after convocation...my questions are.

1. will they be likely to just hang and lunch with their families right after instead?
2. should this be lunch or dinner?
3. i need to get to work the next day so probably no clubbing or wild drinking. would a lounge kind of thing be a good idea? if so, which one? i've never really sampled the nightlife!
4. suggestions on what to do? :D

thanks!

today was pretty packed and fun :)

the weather was gorgeous again and so i went downtown. the goal? to see the seattle art museum. as i was headed there, some guy off the street came and started on this elaborate story of how his car got towed and he was a diabetic and just came out of a diabetic seizure and his wife was just across the street but i couldn't see her and etc etc...i had to stop him and ask exactly what he wanted. he wanted $20 for gas. somehow i was feeling like a philanthropist and thought i would give him something (but not $20 because dude, that's a lot of money to me and he doesn't exactly NEED it). was i cheated? probably but sometimes it's nice to see someone just helping someone else out when asked. :)

seattle's art museum was nice though! (just a note to all art-museum-goers, the pass here is also a pass for the seattle asian art museum if used within a week.) they had art from japan, korea, the near east, china, africa, natives, and a plethora of blown glass and american/modern american stuff. japan's collection was nice (they have tea ceremony demos on occassion but not when i went). korea's involved a lot of tiger paintings -- something about power. the exhibits I enjoyed most were those of China and the blown glass. The Chinese exhibit had a study laid out, a large stone horse, various artifacts (i.e. finger nail protectors, seals, pendants, hair pins, bi's, bowls, belt buckles, etc). I thought it was a very small sampling of artifacts since these were rather trivial things in comparision to EVERYTHING China had to offer but they were still lovely to look at -- the best handicrafts amongst all the cultures on display -- but then again, i might be biased ;) What's funny is that at some point i walked into a new display room and disliked everything in it. Looking around, I found what the room was curating: american art. go figure :) (again, i'm biased though). Second funny thing is that i blatantly disobeyed museum rules by taking a picture and talking on the cell. *sigh*. not deported yet but i'm working on it. :)

Moving on... my next love in life: food. today i was having lunch and had this idea to critique all the places i go to eat (i usually have good things to say) but sure...there's a lot of critics already out there. what would be so special about my critiques? well...not much. i would blog-format it, not get paid, and if there were people who miraculously wanted to give me money, it would be donated to a charity working to feed those that don't have enough. I was even going to call it The Food Project...only to realize that's already taken. long story short, i have a lot of silly ideas and i guess this goes into that pile. but i must say that food is still a big thing for me :) so...here goes with my daily food rantings...

Bambuza Bistro: viet food but probably with a little north-american touch (and no pho). I had garlic-spiced chicken on rice noodles with a spring roll (mainly because it was the cheapest entree at $8). Luckily, it tasted REALLY good -- that, plus i love viet rice noodles and spring rolls. Also had a Hawaiian blend iced tea and although refreshing, wasn't as effective as I would have thought. To me, i think Nestea (or equiv) when i order iced tea. For a brief moment there, i forgot iced tea in the US is not sweetened and to all those like me who like sweet, use sweet & low rather than equal since the latter has aspartame. (but it's still up to you. both are easy to dissolve in a cold drink which is why i like them instead of regular sugar). after this lovely meal in a restaurant i've wanted to try for a while, i headed over to the seattle art museum (above) and so went my day :) (I have pictures and looked like an idiot taking pictures of the venue and food but dah well -- remind me to post them when i get pics uploaded!)

Lastly, go to Gelatiamo for some EXCELLENT ice cream (great for a hot day). Prices are bit high ($3.20 for a small with taxes included). The small is 2 scoops and that means 2 flavours. I had spar...uh...i don't remember. it was sweet cream with chocolate shavings (that's what i was told) and frap...uh...(some berry thing). they went really well together (not too sweet or too creamy since the two offset each other), though I did have a preference for the cream + choco one :) hey -- ice cream is ice cream. you can never go wrong.

and....so goes my tale of the day. :)

AMAZING weather today. wow. for once i left without anything long-sleeved on and didn't shiver or wish i brought a jacket. if anything, i was worried i would get sun stroke (haha well i'm probably just a little pink from the sun but oh well) :) not much of a big day today; i just enjoyed walking in the weather. had some good pho and walked around the town center (outdoor mall).

I thought this was funny. I tried to post a blog and got:
There were errors.
001 java.io.IOException: EOF while reading from control connection

Went to Preet's today for Indian food (been wanting to try out this place for a while). The place (as you can see from the picture on the site) is very nice, clean, well-lit, and they have a really nice patio (which they didn't put in the picture). It's great for a casual lunch on a sunny day. The only downside of this place (imo) is that their menu is a tiny bit limited. Also, for all carnivores out there, there is NO meat on the menu. I ended up having samosay (triangular shaped breaded pastries filled with potatoes, peas, herbs & spices) and masala dosa (thin crepe served with potatoes and lentil soup). The entree didn't come with rotis like they said on the menu but oh well; i couldn't finish it all anyhow. A little spicy (haha well, for my non-Indian tastes) but I thought the food and presentation were great :)

A funny thing i realized today is that the last time i went there, i took a copy of their please-take-one take-out menu and business card for future reference. Today i found out i didn't just take a copy of the take out menu; i took an actual menu, and it wasn't meant to be taken. The menus are the one ghetto thing about the place because it's just a folded-over photocopy. Oh well, hopefully they didn't recognize me. :)

Was also looking at the Sultan's Dowry Problem with a friend today.

We also looked at this high/low problem and all concluded it was bogus. Mathematically, the equations didn't match up. also, there was no conclusive strategy on how to get the right answer. It seemed more of a 'you have a higher probability of being correct if you choose correctly' statement. If you guys understand this problem though, please comment!

Saw Crash today -- a very crazy movie and quite well done (imo). It's a very thought-provoking movie, mainly focusing on misunderstandings and racism in LA. The tagline on imdb is 'you think you know who you are. you have no idea.' and it's true. it's very much like the amanda marshall song about how everyone has a story. Crash is a really 'real' movie, not a good-vs-bad but just a story about people. i think the fact that it's so real just makes it scary; there's no real judgement you can make on who should have been killed or punished or praised. The funny thing is that at the end of it, i couldn't even remember the characters names; i just thought about the story and how it all meshes together. There's a lot of overlap and although a portion of the outcome is apparent, you still wonder how it's executed and how it all connects.

An interesting take on life. A good movie to see too but please see it with somebody and not alone like i did. It's nicer to share the experience on this movie, review the events, and contemplate.

The happy side note: J bought me cheesecake today.....damn, i love food :)

strategic venue: sitting comfortably in black, reclining chair with feet propped up by the deck.

listening to: the dryer and my conscience saying brownies are evil....and oh so good.

preferred poison: milk -- expires june 5/05 -- considered safe.

the view of trees and sunset: priceless.

so here i am again. why i suddenly started blogging this much is a mystery but i figured it keeps my mind in check sometimes. or it just encourages my crazy thoughts which will someday make me a gazillionaire or laughed, ridiculed and ostracized by my peers. :) anyhow, i didn't update you all on the past two days which were pretty fun-filled!

friday i went to see star wars. not bad -- talked about this in another blog entry :)

saturday i went to a volunteer day event where my particular group was assigned to a old elementary school restoration project. it was interesting because i'm not quite used to volunteer work that doesn't involve directly working with the people you're helping. i.e. i've volunteered with several camps, the COM, a convalescent hospital, etc and so working on a physical building never really came to mind. it was cool though because the pta was really involved in getting this school so many new and cool features -- it was good to see that kind of enthusiasm from volunteers, especially in a 'no weapons'-signed school (guess it wasn't the best of areas). from planting, painting, raking park chips, pulling weeds, cleaning, it was a good day. got to meet a lot of people :) (note to self: best to keep head away from newly-painted walls) after volunteering, there was this event for all the volunteers (talk about getting stuff in return, eh?) :) it was nice though -- unlimited bbq, beer, and live music for all the volunteers (yes, many have said that the money for the event should just go directly to the people in need but i guess this is how they planned it).

After the event, had coffee and dinner with two of J's friends who -- i must say -- were really cool.
Cherry Street Coffee House: really nice decor and atmosphere in b-town, a place where artists used to live until it got a bit too pricey for artists. it's a small joint but a unique coffee place (not like a tully's or starbucks) and a persian twist to it (they sell persian food too).
Wasabi Bistro: easily one of my favourite japanese restaurants for rolls. low lighting and happening place with nice decor. a very good 'date' place if you find that special someone in the area who loves japanese food. the caterpillar roll (a classic in my book) was my favourite roll. deep fried ice cream (green tea ice cream fried with tempura batter on the outside) was also a hit (though i would say x-nay on the cherry syrup because it really takes away from the green tea flavour).

in my infinitesimal wisdom, i've reopened the possibilities of my getting a palm/pocket pc with my nil income.

recommendations anyone?

palm livedrive looks awesome but expensive and a little too new to judge :(

nargh.

very off topic: desperate housewives and grey's anatomy season finales are on today. how i got this addicted, i don't know.