Sooooo, I've been a little remiss with my dear ol' blog. No posts since May! But as usual I have excellent excuses.

End of May I got really sick. Really really sick. And I NEVER get sick. And if I do get sick, I get better in 24 hours. No joke. But this time, I got so sick that after two days my family and friends were like, WTF? No worries though, I've recovered from most of it, and I've been getting better and better the farther from May I get!

In June, Trevor and I went to Japan for the first two weeks. We had a great time seeing friends, ate lots of yummy food, I bought a shit-ton of records, and Trevor got a bunch of training in.












Yep, that pretty much sums it up!

Then in the last two weeks of June, Trevor and I moved from our beloved studio in our beloved Oakland Temescal to a sweet two bedroom place with room to BBQ and garden in Albany. And so July, besides being about celebrating my birthday and picking mad blackberries and BBQ-ing and gardening and biking and baking pie and generally enjoying summer, has been filled with getting settled in our new home.

But be forewarned: I'm back baby!

Oh Denver, I will never forget.














Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy! -- Eric "Cobra Kai" Baus

There's only one good thing about Trevor being sick.

He wants Korean food. Hot, spicy, make-you-sweat, burn-the-sickness-out-your-pores Korean food, four blocks from our place at Pyung Chang. Sweet mother of god, it's good stuff.

The best thing -- those little side dishes of goodness (panchan) you get at the beginning of your meal.















The main event:
























From front to rear: hot, bubbly soft tofu stew (soondooboo jigae), bulgogi, and bibimbap.

Soondooboo Jigae

4 oz pork (or beef), sliced thin and chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp kochukaru (Korean chili powder)
3 cups water
1/2 cup kimchee, roughly chopped
1 pack Korean soondooboo (or soft tofu)
1 tsp saewoojeot (salted shrimp)
1 red hot chili, sliced
2 green hot chilis, sliced
2 green onions, sliced
1 egg (optional)

Marinade pork with ginger juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, and minced garlic. In a pot, add canola oil and saute pork. Add kochukaru and stir. Add water and kimchee, bring to a boil. Scoop in soondooboo with a spoon. Reduce heat, add saewoojeot, all chilis, and green onions. Cook for a minute or so.

Serve with a raw egg cracked into the center (if desired) and a dash of sesame oil. Serve with rice.

New Threat to Our Way of Life: Giant Pythons!

The giant snakes are slithering from Florida toward the Bay Area, very slowly to be sure, but inexorably. And they can strangle and eat an entire alligator.

The U.S. Geological Survey released a map Wednesday showing that the Bay Area has comfortable climatic conditions for the python. It also said the reptile, which prefers to swallow its prey in one gulp, is "highly adaptable to new environments" and cannot be stopped. (emphasis mine)

The snakes weigh up to 250 pounds and slither at a rate of 20 miles per month, according to USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda. They are not staying put. In fact, one of them has already slithered about 100 miles toward San Francisco.

...

At 20 miles a month, a determined Burmese python from Florida could arrive in San Francisco as early as August 2020.

Oh SF Chron, you rascal -- it's not even April 1st! Though I must admit it is slightly exciting to imagine pythons or anacondas or some other crazy shit in San Joaquin Valley irrigation ditches, eating coyotes and city folk. I suppose to be safe, in 2020 it'll be time to move to Denver.

I feel compelled to say yet again that this is why I don't live in Dixie -- the Australia of the United States.

Completely off the subject, but I dreamt last night that I was in a fast food restaurant where there were live kittens curled up in those flat french fry boxes like you get in a cafeteria or stadium, and then being placed under heat lamps and people were picking them up like rotisserie chickens.

must. stop. being. ill.

I'm so sick with the flu. I only get sick about once a year, so woo-hoo -- here's hoping I've put my time in for the rest of 2008 because this flu has been a royal pain in the ass.

Positive side, I do get a bit of time to catch up with some things. Like this freaky Japanese real doll website my friend sent me. Totally NSFW unless you work in the sex industry or in an office full of horny dudes in a country with no sex harassment laws, but you must check it out if only for the "breasts motion picture" in the Q&A. Creepy, but I suppose someone who is spending upwards of six grand for silicone companionship needs to know these things. Also watch for the explanations of the "marriage hole" options. The Japanese take their craftsmanship very seriously.

In more tame unreal women news, I just picked up Woman's World by Graham Rawle.

From Diesel, A Bookstore:

Painstakingly assembled from 40,000 fragments of text snipped from womens magazines, this strange and wonderful novel moves at the breakneck pace of a pulp thriller. A stunning visual tour de force, "Womans World" is also a powerful reflection on society's definition of what it means to be a woman.

Check it out:














(you really really should click to embiggen)

How cool is that? Even if the story ends up so-so, the book is a piece of art.