Photo Crawl - Mission

This past weekend, I attended my first digital photography class! For some reason, the class reminded me of my hs days. Maybe it was the sitting in the back of the classroom or staying after class to ask for help that incited these adolescent memories.. but at least this time, I wasn't alone. I had a fellow dork with me: my college friend.

Here are a few pictures from class:


The Mrs.




NO PARKING!




A hipster moment...


STOP! I like this picture a lot for some reason.


This about sums up things.. Eats and..
(Photo taken at 3049 20th Street)

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While I'm posting pics from the Mission, I thought I'd share this one that I came across several weeks ago on Guerrero/19th as I was on my way to Tartine Bakery to meet up with my friend, Eliza, who was visiting from out of town. It's SF's version of Seurat's famous paintings, and it got me in a pleasantly nostalgic mood. It reminded me of my semester abroad in London when I would take notes at the National Gallery for a paper I was writing, and of my Bueller-istic days in Chicago when I used to wander around the Art Institute.

I haven't forgotten you Kensington and Lincoln Park. I miss you, Eliza!

(Btw, I really want this chair.)

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I think my neighborhood in SF has promising potential for a photo crawl. Even though I am still a novice, I feel like I at least have the basics to get started. So excited for the Mrs. to get her new lens :)

Hopefully my fishing trip this weekend will produce a couple of good shots!

Avant Chanel

Un:
I come home after church and a trip to the candy store, pick up my roomie, and head to cupcake camp at Pier 38. I am quite satisfied by the sad-faced red velvet cupcake, but not so much by the blue Hawaiian cupcake, which I actually end up throwing away after a bite. The cupcake that looks like a ghost is cuter than it tastes. But free cupcakes, I can't complain.

<-- Us today.

I come home and attempt to re-arrange my room. I am not super successful, but my mom's "Good job!" email from earlier in the morning makes me feel better about my attempt anyway. Yesterday, I was useless at home while watching the USC vs. Cal game on tv (Cal, so disappointing) so I re-folded everything that was in my mom's dresser. So how does this have anything to do with Chanel? I actually found a cool vintage scarf circa 1970's in my mom's dresser.

As a true descendent of Korean heritage, I asked my mom, "Is this real?" She said, "It was from grandpa. He gave it to me when he found out I was dating Dad."

Okay, so this is the real deal. I packed the scarf in my bag. No shame.

Deux:
I decide to change into something warmer and more fashionable to honor Coco. I even wear baby pink, but not the Chanel pink because I can't afford that. I head over to the movie theater to watch Coco Avant Chanel. Not alone this time, since I have my mom's scarf and my earrings with me to keep me company. I get to the theater a little early, so I buy my ticket and then head into Bloomingdales to see if there's a dedicated Chanel section, but all I see is the makeup counter and decide to window shop until the mall closes.

Trois:
I love the movie. Audrey Tautou does a great job portraying Coco Chanel as a simple, charming, sophisticate, nonchalant, warmly cold, and elegantly rebellious hipster. I really respect her after watching the movie, and I really do think she makes smoking look classy. I kind of regret not making an effort to see the Chanel mobile art exhibit when I was in NYC last October.

Thank you for your story, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. Thank you, Audrey, for telling it. It's always nice to know how people were before they were anybody.

In honor of avant-garde society and my other favorite Audrey Tautou movie, Amelie. Renegades and photobooths!

Fuzzy Feeling

I was reminded of what it felt like last week when I boarded the fishing boat and we rocked back-and-forth, side-to-side, and up-and-down simultaneously. The feeling was like this, and it came from having watched District 9 because of the handheld camera footage. I wasn't really scared to watch the movie, even though I got a couple of heads up warnings that it was gory and bloody. If anything, I was maybe more self conscious that the handful of people in the theater might be wondering why the girl sitting alone is staring at the wall and at the ceiling instead of at the screen.

It might have looked odd to the other movie viewers, but I was trying to focus on something still so as to not actually barf. The staring trick seemed to work better on main land than on the ocean last week, that's for sure. And, in case you're wondering what I mean by Barf, here's a good reference. (Btw, such a classic movie.)



I like sci-fi and action movies but am not as big of a fan of thrillers or scary movies (by neither nature nor title). The trailer for District 9 was for the movie, The Fourth Kind, and having just returned from Alaska less than a week ago, I got pretty freaked out by the trailer, especially by this picture of a white owl that I took in Fairbanks because it reminded me of the Harry Potter owl.

Anyways, as I walked to my car after the movie, I did a head turn to see if anyone was following me. The rattling of a windblown soda can on the sidewalk kind of spooked me. Plus, it can get kind of shady walking down Harrison Street at midnight when the only thing on the street is fresh piss and drunk biker-type dudes from the corner bar.

Although the sci-fi, action movie was somewhat of a catharctic experience, all that blood and f bombs from District 9 now makes me want to cuddle with something fuzzy. But before I do, I am going to share a few photos of my travel buddies and me. The District 9 movie poster reminded me of our suburban field trip a couple of weeks ago.

I wish our B9 lane sign had said D9 -- would have been fitting for the movie and for a Deagle.


(Lame captains. I mean, lane captains. Happy belated birthday, JJ & Dummy! Woop Peeeeeeee!)


(The brave first ones. Little babushka giggling.)


(Fire down the range!)


(Hi, mom and dad. Look what I can do!)

For the record, I hit three in the chest/stomach area, one in the head, and one in the private part using a 9 mm :)

Okay, now it's time to hug Patrick and hit the crib like a baby since Max isn't around to squish tonight.

Fuzzy time for fuzzy feelings!

Eating Chinese is Laborious

You know, it's one of those nights. No one is at home. In fact, both roomies are out of town, one out of country. I'm to follow suit tomorrow.

Tonight's the type where you've maybe had a longer day than desired, decide to stay inside, eat left over Chinese (unheated), do the dishes, clean out the fridge by throwing out what looks like expired food, and watch re-runs of Project Runway. The fighting between Fatma and Vanessa is pretty entertaining, and it is making my Chinese food taste that much better. I'll put 20 on Fatma.

When I recall last Labor Day weekend, I remember having a mellow night. Good food, good company, and doing hobbies. A few friends and I went out to San Tung's in Inner Sunset for Chinese-style Korean food (see bloody aftermath picture above). After dinner, the boys went home; my girl friend and I capped our night at my place with crafts, making earrings for the first time. We ended just a little after 2 am after realizing how silly it was to be sitting in my kitchen at such an hour with bloodshot eyes and waning determination to perfect the designs.

A redefined Labor Day indeed. Am I noticing the start of a yearly tradition of indoor fun with Chinese food?

In any case, here's to my first generation set.. cheers to 2 am bedtimes.

Checklist

- Call appa
- Cardigan
- Coffee
- Cole Valley
- Corner Cafe, Cash Only
- Car stuff
- Condo stuff too
- Chinese food tonight (never a letdown, Shanghai Dumpling King)
- Chez Panisse (oh wait, that's tomorrow)
- Check if you can retrieve data from your computer after you see a HDD HARD error message (see Google result for first two keywords: "Can you...")

Man, girls must be going crazy out there.

My favorite: can you freeze cheese.

Hmmm, I'm feeling lucky!!

OAK

I park my car somewhere on 9th Street in what no doubt has to be Chinatown. At first, I think about re-parking in a “safer” neighborhood, but then I take a look at my Honda and realize that the dented hood and missing emblem caused from my highway accident a couple of weeks ago make my car look right at home where it is. So I leave it where it’s parked and feel additional security by the presence of the three different cop cars up and down the street.

I head towards Broadway Street to the bar where my friend is having a birthday party. I am a bit early, and no one is there yet, so I venture off into the neighborhood to grab a bite to eat and wait for my roomie to arrive. I figure I’ll just end up being late to the party. It’s been awhile since I’ve eaten by myself, and quite frankly, I really should do it more often.

On my way to the bar, I had passed by a couple of promising restaurants; I head back to the intersection of 9th and Washington to check out my options. On one side of the street is a fancier restaurant that serves New American (whatever that is), and on the other is a casual restaurant (but still nice) serving pizza and pasta. I decide to Yelp the fancier restaurant on my BB and surprisingly find that the reviews are decent. My rule of thumb is that the first five or so reviews have to be somewhat good for me to commit.

I decide to leave the casual restaurant and head over to the fancier restaurant. Levende East.

I’d like to say I meander through the crowd over to the bar, where I end up sitting. But in reality, the restaurant is pretty desolate despite the good sound waves spilling over onto the street. I feel the music out – the type of music that you imagine yourself head nodding or foot swaying to. (And yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition).

Relaxing lounge music. Chill people at the bar. Honest waitress who recommends the heirloom tomato salad and the lamb sliders. Nice to just unwind from what has been fast-forward momentum towards I have no idea. The last time I went to a nice restaurant by myself was back in Tel Aviv… back in January… back when… [ end of tangent ]

I like to keep busy and entertained because it helps with passing time and enjoying my 20s life. But I was telling one of my roomies the other night that I haven’t really had much alone time these past few months. So tonight. Is.a.good.night. Not only am I doing my own thing, but I will be able to do what I’ve been doing all summer… committing to not missing out.

Happy birthday to my crafty friend!

‘Til next time, East Bay. And next time, I will have my credit card with me.

(Sadly, I left my credit card in the other wallet, so my roomie is coming right now to cover for my meal as I stare at the $18 in cash in front of me with an embarrassed heh heh.)

Sto-rhie of My Life, 5-7-5 Style

There's definitely nothing like unheated kimchi boggeumbap at 1:30 am. Leftover from our first roomie dinner two nights ago at the new place. I had just gotten off the phone talking to my friend for an hour and a half, and I was hungry from having skipped out on dinner.

We somehow always lose track of time.

Our phone call started as I drove up the 101 back home to SF. The firedrill at work kept a couple of us at the office past 11 pm; I had to cancel my movie date with her, not to mention cancel my scheduled appointment to meet a Craigslister who is selling me his Canon EF 50 mm 1.4f. His name is _ _ _ _face, and I totally butchered his name thinking I was cool, pronouncing it "fah-cheh" when it really is just "face" (as in "your face is ugly").

On a good note, I got this morning off and had high hopes of running through GGP or sitting in a cafe and enjoying people watching before heading to work, but instead, I decided to unpack some boxes, sneak in 10 pages of my book, and finish up on belated haiku (both singular and plural) that I started last week:

haiku introduction
not artsy enough
to write profound poetry
i’ll try anyway

~*~*~*~

about me
accused of being
a “you’re just too nice” ice queen
i have opinions

my outlook on life
nothing to lose by
loving life as intended
give it all you’ve got

friendship
the friends worth keeping
never doubt my intentions
laugh at my bad jokes :)

5 w’s
who what where when why
ignoring punctuation
like oxford commas

things i’m bad at
posting up pictures
my BC calculus class
cardio workouts

she-car-go (Chicago)
high on LSD*
french stroking it in the car
missing girls night out
*Lake Shore Drive, duh

sf
up and down the hills
land of priuses galore
thought to be Chinese

sf restaurants
tacos from mission
at least four stars, yelp dot com
late night anywhere

remaining summer plans
play in the bay, yay
alaska with capuchas
tear it up, vegas

alaska
no sarah palin
yes! to seeing Creation
beauty at it’s best

~*~*~*~

haiku conclusion
no common theme, flow
but that’s how i roll, you know
to bed i must, go

[ edit, more like to lunch i must eat ]