help the cause, not the effect

I read an article today that seemed very positive. Google is giving all of san francisco’s homeless free voicemail. As you may or may not know, sf has a very, very high homeless population. Rather than giving out food, or esp not money, which are just chipping away at the wrong end of things, this is helping people help themselves. Now, homeless people can apply to jobs, and have a callback number. Who will hire someone where they can’t contact them? I guess they could always list a friend or something, but this is their # and they can call back, and maybe get a job, which will help part of the source of the problem. Ditto with doctors calling back if they need treatment, or maybe getting back in touch with friends or family who can help them out. I just think it’s really smart thinking on google’s part, and will likely help a lot of people.

restaurant review: mokis sushi and pacific grill

i came to mokis one wednesday night, around 830. we were seated right away, but the place was pretty full. this is not a japanese sushi place, but whats wrong with having different flavors in your sushi? nothing! service was good, the prices were moderate ($36 or so for 2 people). We shared 4 rolls between the 2 of us. z is not a big eater. you may be safer ordering 3 per person, in which case, it will become a little more expensive. i wasnt hungry after (maybe because i ate way more than half) but i wasnt stuffed or anything or even particuarly full. a lot of the rolls have macadamias in them, so watch out if you're allergic. a lot are also vegetarian. out of the four we had, i liked the one called something like sunrise or something or hmm i am not sure, and the menu wont open here. it had fried sake in it. sake is shrimp i think, because i saw shrimp. anyway, it was good. a very different flavor, kinda tangy, and we both liked it the best. there are also some non sushi items on the menu, which looked pretty good too. i had the spicy papaya salad, which was not spicy (i had one just like it at osha recently). it was pretty tasty too. z asked me why i was gonna give it 4 stars instead of 5. cant place my finger on it... i did like it a lot and would definitely go again... maybe just that it's all the way in bernal heights.

feed us!

We all know that Americans overeat. Everyone’s read the articles about supersize me and super chug sodas and gigantic muffins and all of that. But I think there is another phenomena happening in restaurants workplaces that is just as bad. Underfeeding. How many times have you gone into a restaurant, especially a fancy one, but not necessarily, and come out hungry? I bet it has happened to you! How many times has work made you attend a luncheon, only to give everyone miniscule portions that can best be described as a snack, and not a meal? I’ll be a lot of you are nodding your heads right now. yah. I had a work lunch today. It was for a large roomful of people. And what did they order? Grocery store food. 3 long sandwiches, purposefully cut into small tiny pieces to make it seem like they’d feed more people, one sort of pizza thing, ditto on the cutting (I heard them planning it that way), some fruit and a couple tarts for dessert. Oh and salads. This is a meal that might feed 4 of my friends, or maybe 10 regular people. There were a lot more people. I was smart. After my friend at another company was served a tiny meal the other week, I brought a sandwich. I knew I’d be hungry. Why did they serve us such a small meal? Budget? Maybe. Why do restaurants serve tiny food? to look fancy? Save $? Maybe. But I also think a larger thing is that people think hey I shouldn’t eat much. Maybe I should eat this tiny mostly lettuce salad and call it my meal. That’s healthy. Then later, they are starving, and pig out on junk. If you go to a restaurant with a lot of people, especially females, they don’t eat much. They leave stuff on their plate, they order soup or salad. Hmm. Why? Don’t they need energy? Maybe not. but hey – I DO! feed me! Stop giving me tiny food! if you’re taking up my lunch break with your work lunch, give me something to eat. Something substantial. Don’t make me feel like if I take my fill, I wont be taking food out of the mouths of my colleagues. I guess its better than my old work, which used to order fried food and greasy pizza. Ew. I wont even touch that. I enjoyed my spinach salad (which was just plain spinach, because the dressing looked suspiciously like peanut sauce), but is that gonna fill me up? No. if it does fill you up, maybe you’re not moving around enough. Breathe harder or something. But please, don’t make up for the overeating of junk by skimping on my real food. Yum yum yum…

restaurant review: el toreador restaurant

b and i came to el toreador restaurant one saturday around 530, 6ish, for dinner. i had just moved into a new apartment and was in a great mood. we randomly drove to west portal cuz we had the car, and randomly went in here. it's so cute! so colorful and just packed with stuff! i know people will think oh it doesnt look authentic enough because it's so spruced up, but i liked it. reminded me of a mexican place i went to in san diego yrs ago. looks like it'd be fun for a group of people to have a margaritas and mexican food party. i definitely liked it better than the places in the mission ive been, and it was tastier too. we were seated right away, the waitress was nice enough. i had the enchiladas verdes and b had fajitas. they gave us chips and salsa (which was a ltitle hot, not too hot for me, but maybe spicy for some) and kept our waters refilled. the dinners come with soup, which b liked, but i found was just like colored water. he ate both of ours. he loves soup. my enchiladas, rice, beans were all yum. b liked his a lot too. very tasty, and i'd come back here again too, when we have the car. when i told another friend i'd been here, she said shed either liked it or heard it was good as well.

rosabel weekend

I definitely have fallen behind on current events in the merri world. This past weekend was its usual kinda busy…. Friday after work and gym, I had dinner with Diana. I hadn't gotten to actually talk to her in a while, so that was nice. We were going to stop in at harveys for the glf meeting, but it was pretty late. I came home and got changed to go out to the dragon. S was dancing there, so j, b and I went to support him. Unfortunately, it was flip flop nite. Usually there is house music downstairs and hip hop downstairs, but last Friday, they switched it. It was so crowded and filled with that dumb misty stuff clubs spray in, that usually makes me cough but with my cold was making me feel faint. Upstairs was better. really hot, but the music was pretty good. Not sure the dj… he was playing things straight off the ipod, and only bad thing was when he played one 3 word phrase for about 5 minutes straight. Seriously, it was on skip and he forgot or was too lazy to move it. Still, I had a better time than I expected, so yay.

Saturday I got to play rockband for the first time! N had bought it for us a few weeks ago, but the xbox360 was broken. It came back, and we got to play! Its harder than it looks. I started out on drum, and ended up on guitar. I like guitar. We played till poor s lost his voice! Then b and I went to target, where I got stuff I needed, and unnecessary things like kiddie sheets. I like kiddie sheets. You can spend a lot at target, without even trying. After a yummy salmon dinner (yah I don't usually like fish but this was cooked yum) it was time to go see rosabel. Rosario came back in November or December, and, as I reported, didn't do too great, which was a disappointment, since I love him. Then abel came for black xxmas and did great. So I was really looking forward to rosabel together. It was great. At probably my favorite venue, mighty, they were right up close, and it was packed. We came in, and they started playing their me dub. I was listening to that the other day in the gym thinking how excited I was to see them, so that was great to play it when I got there. Then they were doing this weird mega mix thing, with just the beginnings of a bunch of songs, which turned into keep your body working, the Martha wash song, which yes, s, it really is one of my favorite songs. Esp the rosario version, which abel had played when I saw him too, but this was even better this time cuz it was right in prime time. It slowed down a little when they did this lame one night only thing… it was sooo slow and prom-ish. I remember abel played that before too, and I think maybe the intro slow part was if possible, even longer this time. Nelly and Emily liked it at abel but no one liked that intro here. But yay, they played please don't stop the music, the rauhoffer version. I was thinking as it started, hey I hope they play the new rauhoffer one, but they prob wont. And then they did. I think it payed off, him waiting longer to make a better version instead of doing it right after the song came out. the thing about nites like rosabel, vs a dj like the night before, is that its something you cant recreate yourself. The afterhrs-ish ness is unique each time, because they mix everything together and it's amazing. I was sooo happy to just dance, because although I go out a lot, I haven't been able to do that in a while. So yah, a very great night. I cant wait to see them again in april.

Sunday, I just read, and watched tv, my cold was back, worse than ever, so I was just in a walking coma lol. I did help make chicken and dumplings, but missed the mix cd thingie and transfer. Oh well. It was a great weekend, and more to come like it I'm sure.

Restaurant review: alborz persian cuisine

we were trying to go to a tapas place in nob hill, but couldnt find parking. we randomly drove past this place and thought hmm persian food that sounds fun, found parking right there, and went in. alborz is dark, but looks nice. you do have to go out of it, down a hall, to a shared bathroom. they give you yummy bread with yogurt. this was the very best thing in the restaurant. id eat more of that anytime. i got a lamb with rice dish... it had almonds or something in it i think, and pomegranite. it was pretty tasty... liked it a lot... a little sweet but of course it should be. the rice, everyone agreed, was really really good too. m got mixed meat kebobs, which is just meat. hard to mess that up, and they did not. he liked his. j got a stew with tomatoes and eggplant. it was gross. i took one taste and ew. he couldnt eat his either, just ate his rice and picked off of m's kebobs. b got another stew, his was green, i think it had lentils... he liked the lamb out of it, but not rest. i tried it and it was even ew than j's. this is only the 3rs time i've had persian food, and the first times, it was homemade and delicious. i'm giving this place 3 stars because mine was good, and the rice and app. but it was pricey for what we got. i wouldnt come back, because it seems like everything else isn't to my, or my friends, palate. i would try another persian place, because of my previous experiences. but did have to wipe my tongue off to get the ick taste of those other dishes outa my mouth. PS this was a friday night around maybe 9ish and it was pretty empty - seated right away, just one, maybe 2 other parties there.

Living the dream life of a kid

I was thinking the other day… my friends and I live our lives the same way kids would, if they were in charge. So many people my age, and a lot younger, have aged quickly, with tons of responsibilities…. And here I am, in great shape and probably having more fun playing around than when I really was a kid. I always see tons of articles about how horrible people are who refuse to grow up. But I don’t see why that’s so bad. Why should everyone have to be serious and worrying all the time? Of course, the whole married, 2.5 kids, a dog, a car, a house, blah, is good if that’s what you want. But I really think having fun all the time is great. In fact, when I was younger, I looked at the tv show friends and thought wow, what a fun way to live. And its kinda like I live that way now. wake up, dead tired, muddle thru work, which is not the least bit stressful, then wake up enough to go to the gym and work out. I like working out, and wish I had time to do it more, but work takes up too much of the day. Go home, and there are friends there, and yummy food. and we do whatever, yay! it’s mmm let’s make this food, ok, here it is, oh hey lets have chocolate yay make brownies! Ooh we should watch this movie! Yay! and here’s rockband! Yippee rockband! We all stay up late, people are always coming over, and we sleep really late on the weekends. Waking up means more good food, playing games, video games, movies, online, reading… and getting ready to go out. we even have a maid to pickup after us. Whenever you see movies, and the kids are being tempted by the evil grownups, with a house full of fun, that’s life. Ok, it’s not like every second everything is the best ever… but it’s usually pretty good. Im still single… but its hard finding someone who will fit in. instead, im enjoying being a big kid, and having fun, being with my friend family who cares about me, and even being recognized when I just step into the street. Yay.

Restaurant review: zadin

on a saturday night, we didnt have enough time to actually go out to dinner, but there was no food in the house. so we decided to take out from zadin. i cant say for certain that the sit down food is the same (it should be) but it was j's 2nd time there, the first time he'd actually gone in, and he found it to be the same. we live around the corner, so it didnt have time to get cold or anything either. b had the soup, as usual. it was the soup that had the most stuff, some meat and chicken and seafood i believe. this was the largest of the dishes. it had way too much broth and both b and j who tried it said there were too many leafs. the customer service was good. j asked for the chicken in one dish to be replaced with steak and the steak itself was very good, rare... but the meal was tiny and just ok. i had a shrimp thing that had eggplants. the shrimps were battery. it was tiny soggy and not great. i was STARVING after. we all were and a couple hrs after had to go out to loris to eat. my stomach was actually grumbling after eating the full meal. the mango salad that came with it was tasty for the 2 bites it lasted, but it wasnt a real salad. it had no substance. i would not go here again... the food was eh and too small. customer service over the phone was good, so thats a plus. the people who were eating there, their food looked the same as ours. so go for the atmosphere.

i have a big problem

I have a big problem… with guys, I can almost always tell if they’re gay or straight. Even if they are gay but not really gayish acting, I can usually tell. Once in a while I’ll think a gay acting straight guy is gay (there are more and more and more of those, and more and more straight acting gays) but usually I think I get it right. But when it comes to girls, I pretty much fail. Here in sf, there are a bazillion girls that you can definitely tell are lesbians. They are so gay that your blind gramma can tell. So obviously, I don’t need help with that. Unfortunately, those girls are not my type. As friends, sure. But even the more femme of those girls are just not what I’m attracted to. basically, if a dunce like me can tell you are bi/lesbian, I’m not interested. Therein lies my problem.. for everyone else, I can’t tell. If I see a girl walking down the street and she is cute, unless she is actively all over and making out with another girl (in which case shes off limits anyway), I have to assume she is straight. Not even bi, which wouldn’t matter, cuz im sorta. But straight. Because I just cant tell. Of course, girls think the same thing of me. I don’t like just about anything that bi or lesbian girls like, as far as clothes, music, overall culture, knitting, etc, so how would they know? But I have a big problem – I need to be able to figure out who these girls are that are just like me, and find them. or at the very least, have them find me. Its like a secret society, we aliens blended in to the rest of the people, and only people with great gaydar can find them. because of this, I’ll probably end up with a guy or single. Guys are easy to tell who they like, they are more straightforward, fun, and easy to get along with. Or maybe if I get tired of being with guys because I miss that sizzley feeling, I’ll just stay single. There’s nothing wrong with an old maid. If you know someone who has combated this problem, please write in with a solution. Let’s make this blog more interactive.

movie review: the invasion

I liked the premise of invasion. An alien virus that infects people and makes them more peaceful, causing the ubiquitous ‘world peace’ that everyone says they want. They could have done so much more with the movie, in my opinion. Angel had something similar on that tv show, but they had a whole season or so to develop it. Im also not a big Nicole kidman fan. She really has gone downhill… I think the kid did the best job acting out of everyone. Kids often do… this was an interesting movie – I fell asleep for the end, because it got a little dumb by then, but early on, very thought provoking. I’d say, you should see it.

Radios

Every day at work I have to listen to the radio. I don’t want to, but I have to. the cube next to me plays a non stop output of first xmas music, and now EASY LISTENING. I must digress for a moment to point out that easy listening is one of the worst forms of music ever. Any songs that may have been good or popular for a minute, then people realize, wait – no it’s really not that great – are relegated to easy listening. Don’t wanna close my eyes, lion king, my heart will go on (apparently movie songs are big in easy listening), cool night let me hold you, and only a couple of others play over and over and over again, a few times a day, each day, 5 x a week. And right there is one main reason I don’t like the radio… it overplays. You can take a great song, very fun and catchy, but hear it over and over, on all the stations, for months, and it just loses its appeal entirely. Who wants to listen to the same thing so much? There are a bazillion songs in the world, there should be plenty of them so that they don’t need to do so much repeating. Obviously you’d want to hear a good song often, but not THAT often. And then there’s the song quality. They so often don’t have the best versions of a song, or even the best songs at all, on the radio. The radio is good, I guess, for quickly acquainting yourself with the most popular songs out there, but once you’ve heard them, you’d do better to go out and find the long, extended versions, or remixed. We have that energy station here in sf that’s supposed to have house music. I like that there is such a thing… but it is pretty bad. When I’ve heard it in peoples cars (everyone has that playing in their car if the radio is on), I sometimes squirm at hearing songs butchered by discordant remixes. Eek. So, if you listen to the radio a lot, try out something different – cds, ipod, mp3s, streaming online radio stations, etc… if you were only a so so music lover before, you may find that you LOVE it. Radio is such the lukewarm unspicy bland diet compared to real music. And I guess im stuck here listening to this blandest of the bland easy listening for a few more hrs.

movie review: live free or die hard

I know I’d seen at least the first die hard movie before. But I don’t remember it too well… bruce willis was great in 5th element. Then he seemed to get all eh.. but he did a very good job again in the new die hard movie, live free or die hard. Yah sure, he’s old to be doing all this die hard sorta stuff, but they incorporate that into the story, so it’s believable. It was actually interesting to think how computers really do run everything and it really could happen that some hackers could shut down entire cities, countries, or more. We should be careful. Technology does run our lives. I love technology lol. So, lots of fighting and things getting blown up in this movie… really gets your adrenaline going… I liked it.

Insanely stupid studies

Whenever you read or watch the news, theyre always coming out with results from new studies. Hasn’t anyone ever noticed that the majority of these studies are about something that is absolutely common sense? I just saw one that said that musicians like to make songs about drugs and sex. Hmmm. Wow I never realized that before. Sigh. There are always stupid studies like this that only say what we already know. And even if we didn’t know, what is the point? Its not helping anyone to know that. I feel like people waste so much time and money funding duh type studies. We could be using that time and money on better things… why do they do them? is it a front for some secret stuff? They use that money for black ops and then just say theyre using it for a study? And then after the program is over, they release their findings. Which they only need to spend a half and hr on because everyone knows the answer already. Hmm… I bet that’s it! All the behind the scenes stuff that runs the world masquerades behind proclamations such as “expert vets determine that your cat says meow” and “scientists declare water is wet.”

movie review: the bourne ultimatum

I fell asleep watching the first bourne movie, missed the whole thing, right in the theatre. Never saw the second. But I did manage to see bourne ultimatum. I guess I didn’t miss much, because not much seemed to have been resolved since the first ten minutes of the first movie, which was the last thing I had seen. It was weird having Julia styles pop up… it seems so not her kinda movie. Overall, it was a pretty good movie. Not much substance… but we don’t watch it for that. We watch it to see the fights! Yah beat that guy up with a book! LOL.

My first ever photo shoot

I almost didn’t go to my first shoot. For so long, I thought modeling would be fun, even when I was young, but of course I’m tiny… 5’1. so no sense running to a modeling agency for pics. No trying out to be on Americas next top model… even though I love that show. Then I started to get even better looking. Working out, eating better, going tanning, being generally more happy, will do that for you. I was practicing in mirrors for fun all the time. And because ive been pretty unphotogenic usually, so wanted to fix that, just for snapshots that happen in life. Then I got the Samantha syndrome. Samantha on sex in the city had a professional nude portrait done of her while she still looked good, to have for later when she was old and ugly. Samantha was older than I am of course, and also in better shape. But then again, I didn’t do naked. Plus, people I know get their pics taken all the time… so I thought – why not me? I set up a model mayhem account, and when it got approved, just on some snapshots I had, people started emailing me. More than I thought. I felt cute, or at least interesting looking. Most of them seem kind of far. And they all want during business hrs or early in the morning. and of course my friends don’t want me traveling far to some strange photographers place by myself. So it was getting really too complicated to set up meetings. One of the people who emailed me lived right in the next neighborhood, and he wanted to do it on a Sunday evening, plus his pics seemed pretty good… so I said ok. Just for my portfolio, not for pay. I had to supply my own clothes, and everything was still packed. Sunday afternoon, it was getting closer and closer to time to leave. I didn’t know what to bring. I was thinking, why am I doing this? I’m not gonna make any real $ off of it… its not going to get me anything… no one’s going to see those pics and be totally inspired by me and make me famous. And I’m still short. I don’t like doing something if im not gonna do it well, and I had no idea how to model… and my body isn’t in the shape I’d like it to be in at all… plus living in sf isn’t great for my self esteem… at the very last moment I threw some things in a bag, slapped some makeup on and decided to go. I figured, it’s not like either of us is paying any $ so if it comes out bad, we’re just losing time. And he knows I’m a complete beginner… so nate drove me over, and stayed to make sure it was a real person and not a serial killer, and we did the shoot. The photographer was really nice, friendly. We used 3 outfits from what I’d brought, and it took almost 2 ½ hrs. I felt like I was on the show, especially when I was dripping wet from the water and oil he sprayed on me part way through the shoot. I think I got a little better as I went along… and he said I did fine so yay on that. I know I needed a lot of direction, which jay on the show always counts off on points against the girls lol. Good thing there’s no elimination! Sunday before I left, I was ready to delete my model account. Now I decided to see how the pics come out. if I look totally horrible, I may just decide to stop. If I think they look at all good I guess I’ll stay. I don’t think I really expect anything out of it… I don’t know really what I was looking for… just that someone will see the pics and go – wow, who’s that girl?!? and change my life. No more office, something fun to do… not really a model, but see something else in me so that I get… anything. More blog readers, a column, an interesting job, favors, free stuff, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, connections… something. Haha… in reality, I guess I’ll just have a couple pics that I can look back on and think either wow, I looked great back then,,, or hmm what was I thinking..
Ps I will post up pics from the shoot when I get them.

Restaurant Review: Little Nepal

my friends and i had a car at our disposal so we wanted to try someplace different. j sat me down in front of yelp and ordered me to find something. i thought i have no idea where bernal heights is, so i'll look there. i ended up picking little nepal. 5 of us drove over there like tourists and found this tiny restaurant and it was good! i think the best thing was the mango lassi type drink, which was called something else on the menu. i wish it'd been bigger. it was normally priced, and normally decorated iniside. we had momas for apps (pork and chicken) because everyone was talking about them on the reviews. they were good. just little dumplings... we ate them in 2 seconds. some people had the tandoori, but found it just ok, a little dry, boring. n had the chicken cashew dish. (they cant take the cashews out, theyre in the sauce). it looked good, and he liked it. i really liked my lamb red saucy thingie i had. i'd say do get a saucy or curry type dish if you go. we got the combos so it came with naan and rice. there was also a sauce and then some dal which was too watery for anyone to eat, and some yummy veggies. service was medium. they brought over a new sauce when the momas came with peanut sauce and 3 of us were allergic. but then again, every time they refilled water, they skipped me. all the guys would have their water refilled, then theyd just stop before me. no matter where they poured on the table, even if my glass was next to someone else's. finally, i just had to set my glass loudly on the side of the table while saying how thirsty i was... and it got filled. what was wrong with my cup? maybe cuz i was the only girl at the table? nah. i dont know. anyway, i'd come back, it was tasty, only that i doubt i'll often if ever be in this neighborhood again.

my maid is one of my favorite people

My maid is one of my favorite people. Ive never even met her yet, but she has made my life very happy. I’ve mentioned before that not only do I hate cleaning, but I’m bad at it. My roommates have similar sentiments/abilities. So did my mother, and my whole family. It was pretty obvious that the only answer to this is to get a maid. Maids are great. They are people who either like cleaning a lot, or even if they don’t, are at least good at it. I came home from work wednesday, to my new house, and m (short for her name, not the word ‘maid’) had cleaned everything! I know I was always over there all the time anyway, but never the first person in after m came through… it was wonderful. It smelled like cleaning. The floors shined. The tub sparkled. My bed was made, my clothes that were on it, folded. The counter was clean, the dishes done and put away. You know we will mess all that up in no time. But guess what, she’ll be here next week to fix it all up again! And all with no effort on our part! I had intended to get a maid years ago. Somehow it never happened. I cant believe I didn’t, because this is great. I have the comfort and freedom to not have to constantly be worried that I’m messing things up or cluttering or dirtying things, along with cleanliness. Perfect. So yes, my maid is one of my favorite people, and she made my week. Maids are angels.

Movie Review: Fido

Fido is a movie set in the alternate 1950s, where nuclear dust caused everyone who is dead, or becomes dead, to become zombies. After winning the zombie war, Zomcon company figured out how to put collars on zombies to domesticate them, and everyone uses them as slaves. It sounds really strange, doesn’t it? Even though it is strange, it’s also normal, which is what makes it kind of sick humor, and makes the movie good. It also reminded me a lot of Pleasantville. The whole movie is kind of like a dream, and funny and thoughtful and morbid at the same time. It also kept my attention. This movie is a definite go see.