It’s a sad, sad day in a young engineer’s life when he realizes that he probably needs to be wearing a pocket protector. The epitome of geek (anti-)chic that just begs for a wedgie, a swirlie, or to get your lunch money taken away... possibly all at the same time.

I recently noticed ink stains on the front pockets of my dress shirts, and I was horrified by the implications. It’s like when guys start finding thick clumps of hair in the shower drain and are hesitant to admit that it may be time for Rogaine, hah.

I dunno, the funny thing is that I actually have pocket protectors. A couple of them, to tell the truth. Compliments of the college of engineering. I just CAN’T bring myself to use them. I think I’d rather have ink blotches on my shirt. *le sigh* Man, it's weird though, I haven't cared this much about physical appearances since high school... kids can be so cruel, ahahah.

Chinese New Year. So for the New Years weekend, I drove out to LA and crashed at my brother & Michael's place. Man, the highway system in LA is pretty freaking confusing; like you have to change lanes every 5 minutes just to stay on the same highway. And the traffic during the day is pretty insane.

Anyways, so I drove out on Thursday night after work (it was my Friday off). On Friday, me and my brother went surfing at Santa Monica where we met up with Lei. I didn't take any formal lessons or anything; my brother just kinda explained everything as we went. Man, it's a lot harder than it looks- like I thought cuz I know how to snowboard, it wouldn't be that hard to figure out... but I guess the hardest part for beginners is getting the wave to actually take you, and then standing up on your board. But yea, it definitely put the fear of drowning in me the first couple times getting flipped over and tossed around by the waves. Got smacked in the head a couple times by my board coming out the water; learned to come up with my hands covering my head after that, hahah. Anyways, so for beginners, you start out with this humongo board, and you paddle and paddle and paddle, but never feel like you're going anywhere. I was pretty exhausted. Later on, we went and had dinner with some of my brothers coworkers from his days back in New York. One of 'em was from Singapore, and I got all reminiscent of my study abroad trip talking.

On Saturday, we surfed again in the morning (I forget where. Malibu? Huntington Beach?). Then at night (for the New Years), we had a ton of ppl over for hot pot. Ate way too much and had some fun making experimental drink concoctions (our attempt to recreate yogurt soju turned out rather well). After dinner, we all went to the club Avalon. They were spinning trance all night though, which woulda been real cool around oh, 9th grade or so? hahaha. We found out later that it was a semi-famous dj, Blank & Jones; I was not particularly impressed by the music though.

On Sunday, I met up with Vivian, and we went to Sprinkles Cupcakes over in Beverly Hills. The place is so popular we had to wait in line outside the shop for over an hour just to get our freaking cupcakes. And I mean, yea, they were pretty good I guess, but I dunno if they were THAT good. I think they're just way overhyped, cuz they were pretty expensive too. Afterwards, we went to a quaint Japanese restaurant Furaibo. Our dinner conversation turned to the topic of cannibalism, and I think we grossed out the ppl at the table next to us, hahah. After dinner, I went over to Lei's place to hang out for a bit, then I drove back to Vegas. I guess the combination of driving really late at night and having the A/C cranked up way high wasn't good for me cuz I was sick the next morning after getting home, but it was worth it I guess, cuz LA was a lot of fun, heh.

"Danny the Dog."

ME: went out clubbing with coworkers again this weekend. wound up with a horrid hangover and a whole night's worth of nightmares
V: haha that much fun huh?
ME: hahaha, i guess depends which way u look at it
ME: but yea, got all liquored up beforehand at a coworker's place, and i let it slip out of my mouth that i've always been curious how tasty dog food is... and then they peer pressured me into trying it....
V: hahahahhaha
V: omg
V: and how was it?
V: everything u thought it'd be?
ME: then one of the nightmares i had was about being pinned down by a big dog and french kissed
ME: it actually wasn't half bad, to tell the truth
ME: (the dog food, not the kiss)
V: hahaha
ME: it was like a poor man's beef stew
ME: but it was weird, like there were potatoes & carrots in there too, and i was like since when do dogs eat vegetables??
V: haha dogs need veggies too!
V: haha so it was like human food...
ME: well, i hear the kibbles & bits style dry stuff is nasty, but the stuff i tried was the soupy canned kind
ME: the meat chunks were a bit squishier than normal meat, but taste wasn't too off
ME: the "soup" was a bit too goopy snot like though
ME: but in a pinch, i'd eat it again and not make a huge deal about it
ME: and i guess by "pinch" i mean if ppl weren't judging me, and i couldn't get human food
V: hahahahah
V: yeah i know what you're talking about
V: that stuff does look kinda good
V: but it smells... kinda funky
ME: i told rex, and he said he heard it was made from ground up fish. i had heard it was made from meat that wasn't fit for human consumption
ME: yea, i'm SERIOUS, like those fancy feast commercials? "for only the finest of tastes" looks delish

Heh, but yea, so me and the coworkers went to the Revolution lounge inside of Mirage. The place was decorated real chic and all, but the crowd was all pretty old (like 40+ I would guess). From there we went to the club Light inside of Bellagio. This club was pretty meh I would say. Kinda just a dancefloor & bar with not a whole lot of deco. They were spinning retro all night, which was kinda weird, cuz I swear like half those songs are on the "Old Skool" playlist on my iPod, hahah. Michael Jackson? Cyndi Lauper? Classic, heheh. But yea, one of my coworkers is pretty well connected, so he gets us into all these places for free, which is pretty sweet.

But yea, I got real wistful thinking about how this town feels so impermanent. Like the futility of meeting ppl at clubs and whatnot if they're just gonna be gone by the end of the week anyways. Single serving friendships. Everyone's just a tourist passing through. The transience of it all drives me nuts. I dunno, I just think it's kinda sad that I've been here this long and I still don't really have a single friend in this town outside of work. =/ (It doesn't help either that mentioning what I do for a living makes me a hated villain to many politically opinionated ppl around here. So whenever locals ask you what you do, you kinda gotta sidestep the question or use a lot of abstraction (e.g. "government contract work", "waste management").) But yea, I've never been good about making new friends and all to begin with. I gotta find out how/where to meet new ppl.

*The title of the post, "Danny the Dog," was the Hong Kong release name of Jet Li's "Unleashed," for those of you who didn't catch the reference (...which is probably everyone except Michael, haha).

**OMFG, Eukanuba (the brand that I tried) is being recalled cuz pets are dying! >=O OMGWTFBBQ!??!?! Yea, so if I keel over and die from liver/kidney failure in the next couple weeks, we'll know why. -_-

So for my b-day weekend, Michael, other Michael, and my brother came to Vegas to visit. They got in late Friday, and we went straight to the casinos. We pulled an all-nighter gambling, and I think it was around 4 in the afternoon or so on Saturday when we finally called it a "night," haha. Oh yea, and there was a good deal of drinking involved as well... (of course). And buffet action. Saturday night was more gambling, though we called it quits pretty early. They left Sunday, and I plopped on my couch and just vegged out for the rest of the day watching the Super Bowl. But yea, I ended up around $400 from the casinos, which is the most I've ever won before (woulda been even more if I knew when to walk away, hah), so I was pretty happy. I've noticed I throw my money around a lot more recklessly at the tables now that it's my own "hard-earned" *ahem* money as opposed to borrowed money from the parents. I think the casino term for a reckless bettor is "gorilla" or something(?), which is kinda cool, cuz I do rather like the idea of being a large primate, hahaha. =P