Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Random Musings
















So, final product of Chicken Stew. Needs salt...
















Where did this come from? What to do... I have no games. Should I sell?

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

This is about a week's worth of food.





















Pat down the chicken breasts. Or as the noZone refers to them as, "Bumpers"





















Cutting and parboiling of Flesh.
















Don't wash your mushrooms! Peel them!
















Extraction
















Veggie Prep
















Stewing of the Flesh
















Salmon and Brocolli because Stewing takes so long!

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Weekend Weekend Weekend
















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It's a Toyota Handi-Van!
















C... R... V... eating my... soul... I want this in hybrid form.
















This ridiculous Jaguar has these seat memory setting buttons. On setting two, it would squeeze your ass.
















Snootty Jaguar Face.
















Impreza for Johan
















350Z - the sports car of choice.
















1.21 Gigawatts!
















Maybe this sports car of choice? Unlikely sports car of choice.
















Satan's Car. Or maybe Witch-mobile.
















Shrek Super Slam and Madagascar at EB Games
















Shrek Super Slam at Playstation Store courtesy of Oscar.
















Madagascar also at Playstation Store.





















Madness of H & M opening in San Francisco




















Union Square

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Saturday, November 12, 2005

ichi-ni-chou-gohan-rendan!!!

Kabuto Sushi. Sushi with personality. Fridays. Most people are heading into the city on Fridays causing a lot of traffic on the Bay Bridge, my preferred route of travel so on Fridays I take the Golden Gate Bridge into town. I swung by the apartment I've been trying to get. The "for rent" sign is still up so there still may be a chance! Keeping my fingers crossed! I haven't heard from the land lady in some time. Maybe she's on vacation. Or maybe getting NO rent money is really worth looking for someone who's willing to pay $50 more than me a month. And it's been over 6 weeks since I've tried to get that place. that's close to 2000 of my dollars they could have already had just to hold out for 50 x 12 = 600 extra bucks? Kabuto! Yes, normally you have to wait quite awhile to get a seat but both times I've gone the solo-bar-seat approach has sped me in in just about a 5 minute wait. sweet. The sushi at Kabuto is really something special. The way they are prepared. Presented... There is deliberate thought put into these dishes. Little details that... a SUSHI SNOB as myself can really appreciate. I ordered one dish and had the chef provide the rest of my menu. I ended up with a colorful selection of sushis. Each with its own appearance. Each with its own flavor. Each with its own personality.
















Distinctive - HotApple, seared scallop with apple and some leaf thing. Rice. Sauce. Thing sushi let me know who it was. Eat me cause I'm mecha-umai! I still like the pear-hamachi better however. This was the only one I ordered off the menu.
















Sophisticated - Topped with I think a maguro tartar of sorts. Season tuna or other fish atop seaweed and rice. The flavor was very complex with the seaweed sort of coming in from the background of your palette. well my palette.
















Purity - some fish. I didn't find out which. Might have been a brand of toro. This nigiri was so pure, like the essense of fish. The zen of sushi.
















Flamboyant - Kastunagi. I love that name! Leave it to the Japanese to come up with such clever names. Katsu + Unagi. I don't remember what the lower layers consisted of but a raspberry sauce made this dish particularly robust, almost a lustful feeling. HotApple is much more of an eye opener. Katsunagi was an experience that makes you flushed and warm.
















Invigorating - Tart with an exciting explosion in your mouth. I later saw this being prepared for another group who sat next to me. Lime and salt were the side ingredient that brought this sushi's personality to the forefront.
















Solemn - I couldn't understand the waitress when I ask what fish this was but this felt like the epitome of sushi. Very simple. Unlike Purity, this was more typical of sushi. Served with cranberry, the flavor was given more character. Because the chef picked the lineup, I ended up spend more than I wanted to, despite giving them my budget. Sigh. As I sipped my tea towards the end of the meal, I felt and soothing rush of endorphins flooding my brain.
















Part 2, down the block at Creations Dessert. Order 22 - Pudding with Pomelo and mango - it made me very very cold... I got a frequent eater card. If I go 7 more times, I guess I get something? Free dessert?
















After eating, I called Jimmy up to see what he was up to. We decided to go see a movie. I picked him up at his apartment and we headed to the Jtown Kabuki AMC. With 1 hour to blow before the movie, we partook in some snacks. Mocchi & Oolong Tea - dessert 2? snacks with Jimmy!





















Jimmy takes On the Bridge XXX Curry Challenge. Well, it's not really a challenge but he had to size up their very spicy standards which fell short which seems to always be the case. I mean, the guy can drink habenero sauce. And I'm not talking about a spoonfull. Like a cup full of it. Nevertheless, he was very happy with the meal and the Japanese curry experience. Spice. Jimmy's endorphin.

Movie - Jarhead. I thought there would be more about post-war trauma but it becomes a well constructed multi-faceted view of war. I have to ask my friend about this movie because he was apparently a sniper in the gulf war. I dunno if he'd want to see it. It was a very good movie but despite the fact, I didn't really like it. Probably my mindset. Oh yeah. And the group of YAHOOs sitting behind me. Repeating every f*cking line in the movie.
movie: that's my wife
f*ckers: Oh shit! that's his wife!
Thanks! I would've never figured that out! We even got the cliche "Don't go in there!" and "Don't put your gun down!" Christ. At one point, one of them even put their SHOELESS feet up next to my head. What the hell is wrong with these people? So I guess Jarhead really didn't get a fair chance afterall. When they finally left the theater during the credits, Jimmy and I partook (there's that word again) in what he calls a "guilty pleasure" of us watching the credits only to point out funny or otherwise amusing names. Usually amusing for no reason. Names like Edward Salmon and Franklin Carp. I think those were in Serenity. I don't remember the ones we had in this movie. Oh well... Does anyone else do wu/ liao/ (nothing better to do) things like this with their friends? So the title roughly (is supposed to) means "1 - 2 super meal combo!!!"

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

pasta night - mini penne ZMP
















Pasta: Mini-Penne
Ingredients: Prosciutto, Mushrooms, Zucchini
Sauce: béchamel w/ marscapone, guyére, & munster
Servings: 3

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

WTF (watercrest, television, fish)

Voted. All those props are misleading and most of the good ones have shitty riders tacked on to them. I think it was 79 that had discounts on perscription drugs for senoirs and the like but had a "lawyers can sue without client" BS stuck on. How am I gonna vote for that?

Swung by the ranch 99 and picked myself up a Red Snapper filet for dinner. Patted dry, salted, a bit of white pepper, olive oil, chopped garlic, and grated ginger. Baked in the oven at 500 for 15 minutes. Topped with a random sauce I made which was Sake with the alcohol boiled out, bonito flakes (strained out afterwards), soy sauce, sugar, and black vinegar (I cheated! All I had was blasamic). It was very vinegary and I thought I ruined it but once I added the seasame seed oil and hot seasame oil it was just right! that went of the fish and it was delicious! Side of watercrest.

















That game I really like, I found this video of someone doing something really insane. Like WTF?!? That's insane! Insanely awesome! To the Max!!!
http://media.putfile.com/Rundown_3

Also: http://www.everyvideogame.com/

Save dessert for breakfast. Taro Root Bun.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

I'm all in?

1st friday of the month = Shaba poker night! I had lots of fun tonight on a nice relaxed table with Jason (ran off for a World of Warcraft Guild initiation - how lame!), Robert, Noah, Bradley, Peter, Burke, Sylvain and later on with Tamsen, Romy, Jimmy!, Kevin, Chris (one hand all-in blind), Tom. Casey showed up to take away some money. Burke had a very cute cavilier king charles spaniel which made me want to get one one day. Pizza for dinner courtesey of Shaba. Ended my night up $40! Sweet! It was an up and down night where I was going up and down for the most part except for a lucky run in combination with playing my hands correctly at the end of the night. Afterwards, we went to Shaba's lounge and jammed on this new Guitar game on their super big projector screen. It was goofy but fun. Besdies, I like goofy things!





















$40 up? $900 car bill! ach!

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Blog Ro Mien part 2, Autumn Cleaning
















Let the de-fattening begin...
















Let the de-noodle-resting-in-bowling begin!



One of my roommates Dannon wants to have a garage sale so we sort through a bunch of junk, mostly left by previous roommates, to see what can be sold, thrown out, or pandered.
















I unearth my hockey equipment bag and a few boxes of old art stuff and supplies.





















Random crap. Some to bring to the office. A 2nd Place ribbon for something I apparently wasn't good enough at. A Three Amigos soundtrack casette tape. A Homer Simpson Pez despencer. A 5 year old pack of cigarettes I found one day and thought would make a good prank since I heard cigarettes get stale and nasty over time. A side of a milk carton signed by Chantel Kreviazuk. A Quebec souvenier license plate with my name on it. An old picture of me (see below). Some canvases I painted for color study. Casette singles.





















A September 12th newspaper obviously from 2001.





















Roommates Tim and Dannon dig through spray paints and fixatives.
















An old environment concept picture I did for Matt O's class.
















From a "How to" presentation I did for a public speaking class back at the Academy.
















Dannon "finds" my old toxic design markers. I haven't used them in many years so it's time to let them move on.





















An old photo spread from my Metreon days. One of the BADLANDS arcade boxes being constructed.
















Hey! How'd you get out of your crate? Look, it's my very first purchases in San Francisco. Safeway and Linens.
















A check from my old old old New York check book when I had a joint account with my mom.





















And finally, teenage Nat in front of the Beer Store in Toronto. They also have a Liquor Store and a Cigar Store. Both named thusly. And also Hakim Optical! Like 10 of them. Also in the picture is my "Brugg" hat. Unfortunately, I lost this at Yorktown H.S. after a Tennis match. Brugg is a random patch sewn onto this hat that I got from the night market during my summer in Taiwan. If you don't understand the charm of a patch that just reads Brugg, then you never will.

Well, that was a nostalgic trip but it's all pretty much clutter. I threw out a lot of stuff that at one point I might have gotten sentimental about but now it's like "whatever." Somethings I'll keep. The mysterious 2nd place ribbon will make a nice office desk decoration. Milk Carton Chantel might just go to a friend. I doubt it's worth ebaying. My animation sheets from intro to animation were tossed. I think I have a tape of that stuff somewhere. Maybe back in Illinois. Anyways, it's too bad I don't have a copy of my final animation. It never did come out correctly due to a FPS issue. I should look for my "Why does the Sun shine?" animation as well stuck somewhere on a MAC zip disk.