anime_chef

Saturday was the date for the January Otaku-Rehab gathering. I woke up late because on friday i drove down to long beach to put in my support for Starpool at Di Piazza. I ended up leaving at 1AM and thanks to the 405 being shut down at wilshire, i ended up taking a super long detour where i didn't get home until 3:30AM

I ended up waking up at 9 and rushing over to smart and final to pick up stuff before heading to the park.

I ended up getting to the park at 10:05 and felt bad because nergene was already walking around. Lit the fire and proceeded to make the chimichurri sauce.

Brasillian style bbq was ready by 11:30 and I was cooking non-stop. I managed to step away to socialize with people and at least introduce myself to everyone. Ben came all the way from SD. two parents drove their kids all the way from big bear. I was really impressed by the turnout since i was expecting like 10 but 30+ showed up. I think I could almost claim 40.

Good thing I was fully prepared because Abbot filled me in last minute he was showing up as well as Raul, louis, jo and company.

Some crazy girl named jackie showed up at 3 with frozen lamb. i was like WTF... lamb. was able to get some chops done by 4 so nishi was able to grab some before leaving. I broke down at 4:30 since i had to meet my new roomies at 5.

saw the new place which was gorgeous, but found out the move in date got pushed back because the tenants haven't moved out yet. so i'm waiting for word.

Sunday i got ready for the gordon ramsey cook off. sadly he didn't show up.

I made a simple vietnamese spring roll which was made from jicama, eggs, chinese sausage, vietnamese mints, hoison sauce, and shiracha (rooster sauce)

the judges liked it, but i failed the interview because i couldn't take 5 weeks off of work in february. the thought of unemployment for a reality tv show didn't sound appealing at all.

I took the leftovers and paid lorena a visit who also gave me the thumbs up. came home, picked up the nanny, and crashed.

what a weekend

hey everyone. I'm gonna audition for a new show with Gordon Ramsey called master chef

i doubt i'll be placed, but i'd like the opportunity for Gordon Ramsey to try something I made and probably tell me it's shit or say i'm worse than a french pig.

Anyway it'll be this sunday at Sur La Table at the Farmer's market in LA
http://www.3ballproductions.com/masterchef.html

i had a stroke of bemani madness

man.. how awesome those days were

Hi all.

I'm looking to hit the fairmont again for fanime in that double room suite. I have one queen size air mattress I'll be bringing up. I'm looking to fill this with 8 people total including myself, but I'm asking for a few requirements before I get desperate in May.

What I'd like
1. cool peeps who are drama free
2. don't have too many space requirements
3. don't have highly combustible items
4. people who don't mind slight to moderate drinking in the area
5. people who can either
a. hold their liquor
b. know their limits
c. don't need to get drunk
6. don't need to 1up he next act of stupidity
7. can behave and conduct themselves in a dignified manner at all times

I know that's a hefty list, but I'm gonna start high and then slack up my standards later when it hits May.

Right now I've got 3 maybe 4 including myself so would like 4-5 more.

work life has been fairly awesome. I've gotten over the whole staring at all the young prime large breast in my department, because the people they've been attached to have been putting me for a bit of a rollercoaster. Like I know i'm the low man on the totem pole since

1. i'm the only guy
2. i'm new
3. the only other new person is like best buddies with someone on the crew already

only problem is that my group is slowly imploding because there hasn't been very clear directions. My manager took off for medical leave since she's having her last treatment for breast cancer.

In her stead, they appointed a contingent worker and though I've given her my full respect as my superior, the rest of the crew hasn't been as inviting and decided to make policy without a manager title. Needless to say I've been locking horns because I'm trying to follow policy that has been passed down, and the rest of the group feels that because this person isn't a company employee, they don't really regard her as a superior and do what they want. Well, I do what I can and mostly stay out of their way, but one of them is trying to show that she has leadership skills and has been calling shots and bossing everyone around when she's only the same level as me and only worked a few more months than I have. hardly any position to be creating policy, especially without the approval of the director or any other higher up. When my manager comes back, I wonder how this will unfold.

I've been really good about my health ever since I started working. I eat at my desk and use my lunch break to jump into the company yoga class or work on the heavy bag. The company is awesome enough to have certified athletes instruct the group classes. for example the spin class is actually held by a professional triathelete and the trainers have more certification than i can even count.

The Yoga classes are awesome. I've been really enjoying them even though I can't hold a true tree pose for more than a minute. But i feel the benefits pretty instantaneously. the instructions are very clear and by the end of class, i've sweat a few cups of water out and i feel really relaxed, stretched out, and aligned. Way much better than any yoga class that i've ever taken at 24 hour fitness. It has really made me understand why people spend 100 bucks a month on yoga.

my diet has been superb lately. my average intake looks like this

2 bananas
2 cups of brown rice
1/2 lb of lean protein
and probably 1 lb of greens.


if i keep this up, i'll be slim in no time. my belts are already feeling loose, and thought it probably has alot to do with the diet, the yoga makes me feel alot better and less hungry.

So after alot of bickering, I ended up driving Preston and his annoying friend Andrew. Like andrew is the guy i really can't tolerate and I had no idea why he got invited to the trip since it was suppose to be steve.

as much as i like preston and all, this will probably be the last snowboarding trip i take with him for this season. the guy just invites too many issues.

so with the chain fiasco, i googled which walmart would be open on the way and stopped by the one in palmdale to pick up some chains.

the drive up was alright. We finally hit some downpour a little bit after bishop and put on the chains. andrew decided to test my patient by getting in my way. the chains ended up being a little loose but we drove at 25mph until the next stop to pick up some fasteners. Andrew pushed my buttons some more by letting me know that tons of people were passing me. I mean really now, i'm the only person in the car who's driven on snow and have put on chains. he kept on asking me if he could drive and start drifting. in the back of my mind i still wondered why preston invited him when he knows i specifically have a hard time tolerating andrew.

get to the mountain and it's pouring like we're in the storm of the century. no joke there. i mean there must have been a good 6+ foot dump today with winds. andrew went to go rent some equipment which delayed us getting on the mountain for about 30 mins. get on the gondola and noticed that andrew is ill equiped.

he has no goggles
his gloves are workman's glove
and he has no face or head protection, not even a beanie.
later i found out he didn't even have thermos

so on the gondola ride he was bragging about how he's an expert skiier and that he needs a challenge like he wanted to race me or something. i just told him that getting down the mountain in one piece today would be a challenge enough for me and that i don't have a need to go fast, especially given the conditions.

get off the gondola, onto a lift and we're warming up with an easy blue. off the bat, andrew fall and is stuck in the slow net and couldn't even get up. while preston was laughing i ended up helping him up.

so he somehow disappears and preston and i go down a run.
long story short preston and i did a few runs thinking that we'd find andrew frozen and saved by a st. bernard with a barrel of whiskey.

preston ended up gassing out early because he's never really boarded in powder before and kept on getting stuck. he decided to bail and look for andrew and i went up a few more times.

i was hoping to get up to the top and hit dave's run or huevos grande, but it was closed. i got as high as i could and it was a bit more than i could chew. the winds were kicking at 65 mph and i got knocked down a few time by the wind. like seriously it felt like i got hit by a football player. this was the first time to experieince whiteout.

whiteout is quite scary when it comes to snowboarding since i couldn't see where i was going not to mention if i was carving along the side, or actually going down the mountain head on. it was all done by feel, and even then i'd get it wrong and tumble a few times.

i eventually made it up and down a few more times before getting kicked off the mountain. found preson and andrew at nakilama for their 2 buck mai tai special. andrew got drunk off of 1 mai tai and wasn't much help.

got back to he car and had to dig out way to the door since the car was totally caked in snow. i was starting to really get frustrated by everything since preston was too drunk to be able to fold his bindings in to stick into my car and asked me to do it. andrew was stupid enough to open the door and leave the door open letting a bunch of snow get piled into the car. not to mention the idea of having the car running and heater running was totally negated by the open door.

got all that done and had to push the car out of the lot since we were liteally stuck in snow. we kept on digging ourselves deeper the more we drove. one of the chains ended up coming off because the wheels were spinning.

i was on it fairly quickly, but it took time since i had to untangle it. andrew started pissing me off some more by asking me if i needed help when it was very clear to me that it was a one man job and not to mention he wouldn't even know what to do. preston was complaining the more we i fiddle with the chain the snow keeps on piling up more and we'll never get out and suggested to drive on one chain. i definitely vetoed that idea since even if we got out of the lot, driving on one chain means no control and the safest place to install the chain was in the lot.

with enough luck i ended up getting the chain on and driving out.
we were seriously in the thick of the storm and were only driving at 20mph from mammoth to bishop since visability was shot. that and the chains didn't sound too good. (1 of them ended up snapping just outside of bishop, probably from the cold weather)

2 hours to bishop at 20mph andrew was trying to be smart by telling me tha there's a cure for frostbite since preston thought i might have gotten it working with the chains without gloves. of course andrew didn't even know what frostbite was and when i asked him what the symptom were he said heavy breathing. after i explained to him what frostbite was and there's no cure for frostbite, he still said "yeah so it's characterized by heavy breathing"

i seriously just wanted to kick him out of the car and tell him to find his own way home.
but anyway we got to bishop and past a few clone towns before i handed the car to preston to drive the rest of the way since i needed some sleep.

got to northridge at 1AM and here i am back home lying in bed.
it was an awesome adventure that really

if any of you have ever gone snowboarding with me, you know how much I spend on safety equipment. Last year my trunk got broken into, so i haven't been able to replace my chains yet, but other then that. Everything is replaced.

So thanks to MLK, I'm going to mammoth with my buddy preston. Since I haven't replaced my chains, preston vouched to drive (assuming he had chains) I called him today at noon and left a message to make sure if he had chains and if he didn't, let me know and i'll pick some up.

He just left me a message at 10PM
Hey man, i don't have chains, but i think we'll be okay.

3 years ago he witnessed my buddy james get stuck in the snow and a person rear ending us because people were driving without chains. It's kinda like, what the fuck is wrong with you people and not wanting to have chains. you wanna snowboard, you get chains, it's as simple as that. if you don't need them that day, oh well. But if you go more than 4 times a year, you'll run into a day where you need chains.

like today
where there's a dump alert and it's fucking raining in simi valley.

GOD!!!! i'm gonna smack him when he gets here. because we'll drive on the 5. get stopped my cal trans who will charge us 100 bucks for cables that sell at walmart for 30 bucks.

pennywise, pound foolish..... it's a reoccuring theme.

The first major issue of living with my brother just hit. There are things that I buy with an intended purpose, and the nanny doesn't know that. A few days ago there was a beautifully marbled rib eye roast that went on sale at fresh and easy that i picked up. I figured that when I have time, I'd make a nice roast for the family. The past 2 days we've had beef and it was cut in pieces. I never really thought where it came from because it was poorly cook. Basically the pieces of beef tasted dry like cardboard.

After dinner today I looked in the freezer and noticed that the rib eye roast was gone. it doesn't bother me since it was meant for myself and the family, but it was more that I had a vision for that beautiful cut, and instead I got pseudo beef jerky and broccli.

sigh oh well... i'll let it go.

Other bad news is that i'll probably need my brother to co-sign with me for my apt lease. I knew my credit was terrible and i'm digging my way out, but it would seem that it's so terrible that I'm 1 point under the barely acceptable range. how sad.

Hey guys

if you're free this saturday, i'll be showing some of my photos at the Santa Ana Art Lofts off of Santiago and Grand.

I mostly wanted to stick concert shots up there, but i'm really tempted to just throw up that one shot of BEAST just because i was very happy with it.

come out and support!

i'm gonna have to agree with nergene on this one. total cluster fuck when it comes to photos. this was like 1 of 2 serious pictures i got at ALA, but i am very happy it came out.

thanks to elwin for coming to my "sausage fest". without him, i might have missed this moment of awesome.

to all you guys who left to go drink at peter's... you missed out.

I got to ALA thinking I wouldn't room, but I ended up getting a room out of convenience. I let nick and andy crasy because currently nick and are somewhat attached to the hip somewhat because of the mikomi core work we're doing. Andy, well seeing how much he was stumbling, i didn't want him driving home.

Friday's mission objective was somewhat successful

1. Find people who I wanted to ring in the new year with a toast. Big one was hammering my issues with Nishi on how we have yet to share a Hennessy moment. Jason, to the new year.
2. Locate Nick
3. Assess the con.

This is the first real year that I've been at ALA, and honestly I really like it. I'll have to bring swimming shorts next time and actually plan on getting a room. Though I don't live too far, the convenience was worth the money and I was jamming my room full like a sardine can. Despite all the trash talking that revolves around  Chaz, I can honestly say that he does run a fairly fun successful con and his staff is moderately friendly. I mean it's no fanime, but i had more fun here than at AX.

Day 2
I was promoting MikomiCore and I guess it was my job since Nick took the brunt of it Friday. I recruited Ashley to help me out which is a great help because without her, I wouldn't have gotten any of the pre-reg that we got. I finally paid Peter back for the room at AX (thank you peter for being so patient)

I did have a moderately small party and it was really enjoyable. Nothing to the grand scale of fanime, but just very easy going. Part of it was because I didn't plan out a menu and just stopped by smart and final and picked up a few things I could make with little prep. The photographers came on time and cosplayers trickled in and out. All in all it was a really good balance. I guess my highlight of the night was being graced by the presence of Elwin Goh who introduced me to some really cool peeps. Elwin started shooting and I was able to whip out a camera to take a short or too also.


There were alot of people I didn't really see, but I guess in the long run it doesn't really matter because everyone was doing their own thing and it wasn't like i wasn't having fun because I didn't get to hang out with so and so.


It was a slighly different approach to the con for me, and I like the direction that it was going.

I got to be alot more social and didn't spend all my time sweating over a hot skillet. I only wish the dance at ALA could upgrade a bit more. but then again, that's just me being snobby again.
Just have to remember that constance can't hold her liquor. America ended up taking care of England. how sad...

Well the year of the Ox isn't over until valentine's but i'm glad to be done with most of it. Though my sense of adventure and naivity led me on an epic fail moment.

( Read more... )

Though I doubt I can be completely honest for this coming year, seeing a guy like this inspires me to try harder and at least I'll probably be completely honest with myself. A goal that I've started the beginning of this month.

today i spent the day with agent sakur9 at sea world.

i was originally plannng to stay in SD from tony's party, but gina's party came up and alot of other last minute family crap.

I haven't been to sea world since I was 8 and my only memory of it besides shamu was being shat on by a bunch of sea gulls and sitting on my dad's shoulders.

I've been to san diego many times,but never had the opportunity to go on in there. Driving on the outside, I had this idea that the place was huge and was something to the size of the aquarium them park in JAWS 3.

I was hoping the shark encounter exhibit was huge and sported a few makos or something.

My experience of sea world was a bit lack luster purely because of size. ben and i finished roamng around in a few hours. and really i love staring at fishies.

The cost for the inteactive experieince with the dolphins and whales ws like $170 a person. Not quite what i'm ready to spend on myself yet, maybe next year if there's a bonus in the equation.

First off, thanks gina for hosting a wonderful night last night. your rack of lamb tasted awesome.

So on my way to gina's, my gps told me to take the 71. When i got closer i saw that it was the 71 expressway and i thought.. i'm not paying for a toll road, so i ended up on the 15 exiting lamonite or something like that.

if you ever go to gina's, do not exit here. especially at night. It's like a desolate run down agricultural area with a long stretch narrow road with not much in sight besides undeveloped flatland, run down sheet metal shacks and whatnot. At points i was waiting for leatherface to jump out with a chainsaw. Being superstitious, I really didn't want to even stop at the stop signs. totally creepy.

Good thing though that after 4 miles of driving through god knows where, I did find an air musuem. i might want to check out that place later during the daytime. but man... i was shaking in my boots until got there.

i found out later that the 71 isn't a toll road, but the little detour gave gave birth to a funny story.

Well first off, all i can say was if i was ever thrown a curveball, this would be it. But then it would be my fault for assuming so. For the short amount of time that I've gotten to know tony, it's been a toss-up between photo magic and his infamous mongolian tea parties. His personality reminds me somewhat of the happy-go lucky uncle in those HK gangster movies where they're like fun and festive up front, but they're part of some gangster organization since their childhood. But I doubt tony's running drugs and a slave trade... or is he????

But anyway I was follwing my gps and came up to the house. It was a bit dark, so I was unsure if i was really at the right place and I see what seemed like a normal asian family with a kid running about. I was thinking to myself, "they can't have a mongolian tea party with a 10 year old around"

boy was i wrong. The mongolian tea party did happen.
We spent the night watching transformers and tropic thunder. I haven't watched a movie on blu ray yet and it felt like tony took me from coach to 1st class. Though i didn't care much for transformers, there were little details that I didn't notice when i watched it in the theatres.

another highlight of the night was finally meeting the mysterious andyrak. I keep on hearing his name get tossed around but now I can put a face with a name. Between him, minh, tony, and cabusi, I got to toss around my questions for my possible next camera purchase.

Though I'm really estatic about the specs of the 1d mk4, I'll probably rent the body and take it for a test drive to see if it's worth selling my kidney. A simple answer that i totally overlooked. Most likely I'll settle for the T1i because they use the same processor or the 7d if i feel fancy.

Anyway thanks tony for throwing another night to remember.

I spent christmas eve at my uncle's (really we're like distant cousins or something like that)house with my parents. it was actually quite nice since his he brought his gf over with her family so his mom was on her best behavior.

So for the first time in many years, christmas dinner was actually nice.

I woke up this morning though to what i thought was going to be a nice christmas for a change.

Normally it's been my tradition since 4 years ago to escape my parents and spend the holidays snowboarding since my dad insists that we shouldn't observe christmas since we're not christian. It works for me and I get to spend time doing what I love most. Challenging myself with what nature provides to me, probably getting my butt kicked, and somehow coming out with some funny story to tell, like last year when i got caught in a super mini avalanche and it took 30 mins to dig my way out because i did something stupid, but anyway this year...

NO $ so no snowboarding until february

anyway, back to the story, my parents were buying a new house in oceanside. why i have no clue. my mother was reluctant about it and wanted my support so she can say no to my dad. i guess i didn't see the clues and i answered with a "you should do what makes you happy since it's about your retirement, if you think you'll be happy in oceanside then you should move and not worry about things like property value" which i'll still stand by.

so little did i know that the purchase went through already because this morning my dad's like, oh.. your mom doesn't like the place and maybe we shouldn't live there.

then all hell breaks loose because well, the escrow already went through and the purchase happened which now my dad's like to my mom "if you don't want to live there, then i'll fix up the place and sell it and get your money back"

Needless to say I made a quick exit stage left to clean up my place in fountain valley before they really start dropping bombs.

yup... this is why i'm normally no the mountains christmas day. i can challenge myself with nature, but i duck for cover when it's a family argument.

I'm sure the arguments have been tossed on cosplay.com and it's been going back and forth, but the question never got answered. Should cosplay photographers charge money for their time?

I think alot of people find the idea proposterous and you get alot of people who champion the idea that it's just a hobby. But lately i've been wondering, how different is it from let's say fantasy photography or any other form of modelling?

For one there's not really an industry that i know of that really gives cosplayers a means to support themselves through their hobbies. I mean sure there are booth babes and maybe costume designers, and in the rare case, commission stores. Perhaps it's too niche of a market for an industry to thrive, but should that dictate the value of a photographer?

I think the good thing about doing it as a hobby and not being paid for it is that there isn't a deadline. Thank god for that because barely touchd my PMX shots and to be honest it probably won't be until february until i touch them.

So in my boat, that's all dandy and i take it as a hobby. I think anybody who I shoot with is well aware that i'm not the most timely person when it comes to cosplay photography because I like my sleep and I have other interest too. It's not the first thing on my plate.

But there are some photographers who deliver fast and are able to balance their full time job and whatnot (still trying to figure that one out) and they can meet the demands. I mean I don't know if super no 1 gets paid by j-entertainment, but he's really diligent about getting them their stuff pronto (I hope he gets paid).

When looking at the professionalism of other photographers, I think they should charge someone depending on what they ask for. If I were to be more professional, money would drive me to work on those photos instead of deciding to watch a new episode of no reservations.

I was driving ashley, blanklogo's gf, to shiya's sewing party when we got into this discussion about if people should pay or not. And I think we agreed that depending on what's being asked for. I think moving forward, I'll be incorporating this practice being that this.

I'm going to draw the line on who's asking for service.

Am I asking a cosplayer for a photo session to build my skills
or is a cosplayer asking for my time?

I think the question is who's time is in demand.

Honestly if I don't think it would be an issue of an established cosplayer has a going rate. Maybe nt as much as a professional swimsuit photographr, but let's say it's someone i didn't kow like Zalora aka Jill. I think it wouldn't be an issue if she asked to be paid for a photoshoot since she doesn't know me and i'm probably not on the top teir of photographers that she wants to work with.

That being said, if i did end up paying said cosplayer for his/her time, I think that also gives me the right to hold onto the images.

Technically we've all been working on a TFP basis, but I think cosplay has run its course where someone like Jo Ellen can demand 300 bucks out of me, Mr. uber rookie photographer, to compensate for her day.


I think the same is true vice versa. I mean I'm fairly happy to shoot almost anybody, but someone like the great qcamera has limited time. Why should he spend time to shoot and edit a rookie cosplayer when he'd rather work with some super awesome cosplayer.

That and what is the cosplayer getting from the photographer. Some might say, oh it's digital so it's free, well then I might counter that argument with a, okay that's fine, i'll give you a 60k file for free then. 40k really is enough to show off your costume in your profile. There should little to no reason why anyone should get a high res photo for free and i'll stand by that statement.

Though it still is a hobby for many of us, I do believe that sooner or later the laws of supply and demand will enter the oosplay world and I honestly think it's justiied.

It might be just a hobby and that's fine if some people want to be a photo philanthropist, but I think that time is something that has value, even if it is a hobby.

Yesterday was the first day i stepped back into the gym for 2 weeks. man it's been terrible, but now that OT is officially over, I can focus on my health again. I'm kinda contemplating if i should sign up for the pilates reformers classes. it's a bit pricy, but then again, my ankle hasn't fully healed and it gave me alot of trouble this morning when i was playing tennis. Well probably my lungs were giving me more trouble, but i can really feel the swelling come back. Haha, I guess tennis IS more demanding a sport than it seems. I'm fairly sore today and my lower back is really bugging me since i was doing tons of trunk and core exercises. Need to concentrate on my posture. *sigh*

Holidays are coming up, but it won't be as grand for me.

Though I had a list of things I would have liked to get for family and friends, I'm probably only going to buy stuff for my brother, sister, and parents and keep it at there. Probably no christmas gift to myself since after reviewing my finances, i'll need to use that money to furnish my apt when i move in february.