November 7, 2010 - New York Trip pics

So...this trip was back during August. so I'm a bit behind getting around to doing a post about the trip ^^;

Well, lets get started. The trip was at the end of August and it was for a week.

Personal Guidelines for trip

- Eat,eat, and eat some more - Eat til I wanna puke. I'm in NY. Tons of great food available. Gotta take advantage of it

Feed the need- While I wasn't in NY for comic con/ anime festival, that shouldn't stop me from going to shops and buying stuff. I wanted to buy at least a plasmo, a manga I can't find locally at home, some art books, definitely figures, wall scrolls, etc.

Shoot like life depends on it- I have a phone with a decent cam and a data connection. Also have a digital camera with extra cards and batteries. pics, pics, and more pics. Snapshots of everything,yo.

Sleep when you're dead, fool - again, on vacation and in one of the most lively cities. Especially if you're young. tired? sleep when the vacay's over or on the plane.

Rock out with your cock out - plenty of little guidelines, but most important- enjoy, chill out, and enjoy everything. nothing's concrete so improv is totally cool as long as its enjoyable for the trip and the experience.

The trip itself was very memorable. In more ways than one. Overall, very awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Its not Japan, but I sure as hell had fun regardless. It was only at the end that crazy shit happened that wasn't so pleasant.

During the week, I went just about everywhere except the Bronx and Staten island. Like everywhere. Little Italy, Chinatown, Upper East side, The village, K-town, hell, I accidently almost ended up at coney island. I even had so much stuff that I had to rethink my luggage coming home since there was so much stuff to take home! Lots of food,lots of cool stuff, cool people, but leaving was another story. Essentially, JFK- Delta was a bitch and totally fucked up lots of stuff for many passengers, including myself. I also had an incident with a moron(whom friends & family totally think was trying to steal my stuff). When things got fixed, I had a really crappy layover that was hella long and they totally complicated things with luggage even more. When I got back to Texas, Half my luggage made it back fine. The other one was in the missing luggage/unclaimed office. My other bag got misplaced and was practically trashed. It was even wet inside! Why the hell was it wet??! Some of my stuff was dinged up a bit, but nothing worth making a scene over. well, so I thought. When I got home and unpacked, Some boxes were a bit more messed up more than I liked and as a collector, thats kinda not cool. Also, some of my sd cards became corrupt! Some vids and pics totally trashed and wasted. so much rage. Over it now, but that really sucked. Besides the end, my trip to New York was really fun, can't wait for the next ^^.

And now for Pics! Sorry for the weird order, blogger has the oddest pic uploader sometimes. Enjoy.

The first place we ate at our first night. It rained all day, but it was worth it. And that IS totallly the actual name: Tasty Hand-pulled Noodles,Inc.

No lie either, actually homemade and handpulled. potstickers,too. totally a hidden gem. so damn tasty.

Gotta have dim sum in Chinatown of course. Enough with stacks! Spread it out and let's eat!

So many little buns and dumplings...no more...dumplings...dying...

Sees more dim sum and faints*...wakes after small nap and continues meal...literally.

Pomme Frites,mmm. Belgium fries. more that 30 different dips and sauces, it'll make your head spin. and open til 4am.

No White Castle location back home so had to stop by.We were in Brooklyn...there was bullet proof glass for the cashiers...how safe ^^;

Something for all the big music fanatics out there. Yup, Electric Lady Studios. Too bad we couldn't go in.

Here's somewhere special. This is Kinokuniya, A Japanese book store. Only a few in the states. Pretty awesome. Its like a JPN barnes and noble. This pic is the first floor...

And this is the 2nd. Don't know bout the whole store, but 2nd floor had no pictures signs everywhere. shhh! I pretended to "text" here. So many manga,artbooks,figures,a japanese bakery and cafe,imported cds and dvds.simply amazing. Pricey, but so damn awesome.

Its really cool how depending where you are, the architecture of the area can really vary.

This is the bottom area in front of the Rockefeller Center.

And this is the Rockefeller Building itself. hella tall. What a time not to own a nice camera with a wide angle lens...

New York Public Library. Really really big, its under construction right now and it was cloudy so hard to get a good shot. There was an awesome japanese place nearby called cafe zaiya. folks there are always so nice. I had breakfast there like 3 days in a row ^^;

No store bought ramen will ever beat real made in restaurant ramen. And no ramen is complete without fishcake.FISHCAKE,nom nom nom

Also, this was our chance to try out momofuko finally. Quite popular and for good reason. food was delicious. Coney Island lager had alot of hops,but wasn't bad. Neither was the sake.

Bok Choy is always good, its kinda hard to screw up bok choy. And DAMN that sauce was good. I would've drank it if I could have.

Public Library on a better day. Nice steps to read a book or have lunch.

This was the desert we had at this very cool secret place in Williamsburg called Zenkichi's.pricery, but worth EVERY cent. Foodgasms everywhere.

Chocolate black sesame mousse,Walnut chocolate pudding,Matcha & Blueberry Rare Cheesecake.

Roasted honey-soy duck

Zenkichi salad.with fresh made tofu. first time having fresh made tofu.wow.

Chilled Plate

- Oyster Ohitashi*

Simmered oyster with Arima Sansho pepper

Acquired taste: substitution available

- Uni Fluke*

Fluke Sashimi with uni sea urchin sauce

- Sashimi of the Day

Saikyo Miso Cod

There are privacy blinds that are pulled down at every table. And that actually a mirror in front there. crazy how clear the mirrors are. I wonder how big or small this place really is...

More pics that are clearer of the chilled plate.

The thing in the box is tako wasabi.WHEW!!!that octopus was raw and the wasabi was subtle, but WOW. it had some helluva kick in the aftertaste. Wasabi snuck up on me.

Fresh Miso soup. With REAL Fresh nori. Taste tween this and the instant stuff is like night and day.

I kinda wanted to take this with me. I think its awesome, but alas-would not have been cool to do that. chinatown to search for some later.

This was compliments from the chef. sashimi prepped with soy beans,fish eggs, wasabi, and other stuff. Not fishy at all. so fresh,too. It was savory.

Hershey's store near times square

oh no, my stock went down 5 pts,noooooo,heheh

Lady liberty looks different up close...

M&M store across from Hershey store. so many colors for m&m's...

The Jerk Chicken here almost put me to sleep. I hear it was featured on bobby flay's cart showdown show and kicked ass.

Something besides food. Was rainy off and on all week.

Of course, downtown was crazy busy, but I put up with it for....

BAM! yay, Image anime. Local anime shops always kick ass. Don't really have any back home so gotta shop online all the time. Any shops of the like in your neck of the woods?

PLASMO,GUNPLA,FIGURES EVERYWHERE. Why didn't I bring more money?? T.T

Shirts, wall scrolls and more awesomeness. the white shelving unit in the middle there has mostly master grades and perfect grades.more tears*,why????

Was a really nice shop. Wish I could've spent more...next year.next year!!

okonomiyaki, yakitori, curry noodles, and Kirin beer. life is good.

Where? At OH Taisho! nice joint in the village.

Central station's usually always bustlin

Trying to walk and snapshoot at the same time. and failing. wish I had a dslr with high speed lens right now. Lots of people walking behind me*

At the center of Times square is a central rest and hang out area.lots of street performers here.

Chrysler building! comics,movies,tv. damn thing's been in everything. What do you remember it in?

Fudgeknuckles. missed our train.25 minutes til the next one. too lazy to walk a few blocks to another one.ugh.too much food.nap....

Near central park on the way to the met. Gonna have another post just for that.

Wonton Soup with Pan fried noodles. so filling.

look at the size of them pickles!!

where? The Fatty crab. another nice joint in west village

Pork buns. the type of bread is the exact same as some of the meat buns back home. very tasty.

Quail egg shooters. not for everyone, but I'm all for trying new things. not bad.

Can't remember what kind of tea this is, but very rich and sweet.

The good morning. Deep fried hot dogs wrapped in bacon with cheese and an egg. DEATH ON A HOT DOG BUN. Isn't it beautiful?

Check it out. Its in the Village and closes 4am.

At this nice quiet Indian place since Momofuko was packed and there was a huge line outside.

I decided on meat samosaes since pomme frites and Crif Dog was on the route,too ^^;

Another Japanese restaurant in Flushing. We're in the other chinatown. Also goes by K-town.

Tears of joy*...For once, I don't have to make the curry myself. I'm so happy right now. T_T

And sometimes the subway can be so peaceful...

Post about the trip the Met later.

November 7, 2010 - Slowly coming back. priorities and where everything lies.

Its been quite a long time hasn't it? no no, I haven't forgot about this little piece of internet. IRL has just been insanely busy. That and I suppose my priorities have suffered among other things. I suppose things have slowly culminated up to a point which is a bit of a shame that it had to happen before I did something about it. Instead of letting myself fall into a rut from overworking and stretching myself too thin, I ended up doing the opposite in a sort of way. I became very lazy and shut off in ways more than one. Both works have suffered very much due to my faults. One is still ok, and while my quality of work still remains, my efficiency has drastically dropped below standards that I should be very ashamed and embarrassed about. The other one...well, things aren't looking so great right now and while I do very much believe the situation is a bit drastic, I do hold some responsibilities in not being as capable in preventing potential issues occurring. Its been a long couple of months, but the last 72 hours have been particularly more stressful.

Oddly though, stress and pressure always seem to really force me to adapt,change, and give me clarity at times. I suppose its my way of coping or reacting when things get to the point where I can't just be passive or laid back anymore. Or something along those lines. Anyways, in this case- I guess I snapped out of it, whatever it was. It may be too late and damages may already be in motion, but I'm already in motion so I'll try to do as much as I can when I can at this point. First things first, re-prioritize everything. I have many responsibilities that haven't been attended to properly so gotta remedy that. Next is to fulfill any outstanding obligations. This may refer to things I put off or continuing things I started. This blog being one of the things I need to jump back on top of; doing this blog is another thing that helps me stay structured and focused, much like my hobby work(which has suffering as well).

Long post short, I'm back after falling off the "wagon", but I'm back nonetheless. If somehow, things work out- I'll have a very fresh reminder as to why to not let things fall and become as they did. Anyways, sorry for being gone for so long. Now to commence mass posts of many things that have been in the noggin that should be posted.Thanks for reading.

P.S.- why is sinanju & unicorn destroy pic posted? I recently got around to watching my copy of Gundam UC at lunch earlier this week. so dam awesome, I feel bad for not watching til now.

August 21, 2010 - Room Tour!

After lots of renovation, buying new stuff, throwing away old stuff, and reworking around things, the room is stable. Actually, its been done for a good time. This is still an open project as there as still things on the list to finish buying, installing, etc. But, lets take a look at how the set up is now.

The Display Area

A shelf for MG's of course

Currently used by Code Geass

kits, I'll probably change items on here pretty frequently.

A shelf for 1/144 scale kits, right now-00 kits

Some Misc. Figures that fit in any particular category

A pathetic area for pvc figures.must expand on this...

Shelf for Max Factory goods, like figmas

You gotta have a spot for revoltechs!

Dante and Revy OTP?? wha???

Dangaioh is an awesome piece that everyone should check out.

And for those who like evas, but prefer the smaller sizes from old school revoltechs, mini revoltechs are really great.

GUYVER!!!!!well, guyver I that is, from the bio fighter collection. Amazingly awesome piece with crazy articulation.sad the line ended so they're all crazy pricey now.

And the most awesome mech shelf of course.

On one end, we have the ARX-8, Laevatein armed to kick ass. I hope it shows up in the next season of FMP this fall.crossed fingers >.<**

And such a shelf would not be complete without the gurren lagann. Now I just need the flight pack...

The older ARX-7 Arbalest, less armored but packing the lambda driver and duel shotguns.

Small Bookcases for Manga,blurays,dvds,artbooks,out of date reference books, graphic novels, some other misc reading material.

Some little items on display under my only framed poster up right now and the first wall rack used for comics

Another wall rack for comics(work in a comic shop, gotta take "work" home.), my to do board(which I avoid constantly^^;), some toki doki(damn little addictive little things.), and some posters I got with some games.(not just games, awesome games!)

My louging/sleeping area. Comfortable, yes? heh, it turns into a full bed. though I only sleep in bed mode on days offs.

Workstation #1. This is where the media server links up. Where video work, encoding, and graphic work(been a while since I had a project though) gets done. Its an offline unit as there's lots of data that I can't risk getting slammed from corruption and viruses just because its connected to web.Unfortunately, internet's never 100% secure and safe,y'know??

XN near my hobby work area next to tools and paints...

At workstation #2! Made from some closet free space and a whole saturday.(twas a pain to do though) This is where my old clunky laptop now acts as a secondary desktop thats connected to web and is for personal use, recreation,etc. Also where Hobby work gets done.

WFC Prime guarding my notebook and peripherals. If you haven't, play War for Cybertron.

>_>So many kits to do....

Many boxes for revoltech and pvc's. Yay for collector friendly jpn toy packaging?yeah?YEAH!

My home theater area. Really want a 360 Slim soon to go with my upgraded original 60gb(now 500 GB) monster! This is the grandfather of ps3's and still the best version as far as features.( The day it dies on me, I will mourn.Mourn heavily.)

Project Screen and Front speakers. The screen was such a pain to install. Speaker system isn't holy audio goodness for audiophiles, but I think 1000 watts for a 13 x7 room is more than sufficient.

My lonely projector up there by its lonesome. I totally cheated and am using a "for computer use" projector instead of "approved" for home theater use. Same specs, about $1200 cheaper. Still got 600 plus hours left on the lamp and I've had it for 2 years so far. no complaints.

And that ends the room tour. While still not complete as a project for renovating, its as stable as its gonna be for a few months. Next post will be a mech related post or an anime related post. Which will it be? Gunpla? TF? Fall anime schedules and thoughts? recomended shows for the current season? what will it be? what should it be??? heh, Alright thats it for the tour and the post. Time for work.

Question for the post: How's your room set up? DO you like it?

If you like looking at workstations and rooms and such, check out the otacool books. reallly great spaces and rooms.

August 21, 2010 - And the food posts return...

Unfortunately, I didn't catalog everything worth snapping a photo for the last few months, but here's just a few food pics of some things more recent. And when my trip starts, I'm gonna eat til I hate food! So expect more food pics when I go on my trip. These are some of my favorite dishes as of late. What are some of yours? Do you have anything that screams," om nom nom!" to you?

Omlette Rice, yum.

Katsu is always welcome^^. I've only had pork though and would like to try beef.

Kare Udon is always awesome, mmm.

August 21, 2010 - Back from RL, I bringeth gifts of the progress pictured kind

Is ProjectEAE back and active again??

So its been quite some time since I've updated last. I've also had a few changes and been doing many things. However, with so much needed vacay time coming up- I can stop neglecting this, my vids, my hobbys, pretty much everything so yay for vacations!!So lets start with some questions regarding this blog-

Q:How active will you try to be from now on?

A:No clue. I'll try to put forth more effort since I'm back again, but no guarantees. But don't fret, I even lurk on my own site.

Q:Why haven't you been covering anything about animes or movies?

A:Gotta watch em first.

Q:Ever gonna get back to the hobby work?

A:Progressing back into it as you read this.

Q:What's up with food posts? I'm tired of looking at card crusher and egg in the basket.

A:Ask and ye shall receive.

Q:Should I totally follow this blog again and start commenting?

A:Damn straight. if there's feedback, I'm more likely to keep up with it.

And with that, I'll end this post and begin the posting update storm.Oh yeah, if you haven't seen scott pilgrim vs the world in theatres yet- go see it. major wicked. If you don't, you run the risk of an EPIC fail.

May 17, 2010 - Foodie Post!!!

Haven't done a food post in ages so I figured I'd throw one down while I'm making time to update and post.

This post is for one of my favorite breakfast items- Egg in the basket.

Its also gone by other names like frog in a hole, one-eyed jack,moon toast, and other names.

Just like how I love the whole compact asian food things( bun bao, other meat buns, sushi rolls, sandwichs, bento lunches, meat buns, KARE PAN!,etc.) , I totally dig this. I like to sometimes run off to work or wherever with one of these. nom nom nom.

May 17, 2010 - May Updates

So I just realized that I haven't made time to throw a post down for May yet or do an update post.

Things have really been a bit hectic here lately IRL. Work's been absolute murder with all the events and changes in Company direction,woot. Since things are in such a transitional period right now, resources preservation and time management is super Nazi enforced right now so with work comes stress.yay. o_0"

On another side on things, due to time constraints, future plans, and mostly international red tape, the gang's trip has been pushed to Beginning of New years and will only be 3 months now. That means more time for saving, and working on "kinks" on the home-front.whew, that's one less thing to have to mess with for now. just gotta get back into studying again( I'm so damn behind [>_<]!)

The last few weeks did have a snag since Hours have been cut with an increase to the workload( at both jobs) plus there was a machine that needed repairs so just when the level of debt was nearing green levels, We're back in the middle of the yellow,total lame sauce.

Still, with only a matter of months away from major developments, we can't afford to be disorientated, confused, or distracted. SO many things to do, prepare, and get taken care of. The list can be crushing at times:

-Get the area ready.

-Having dedicated area for set purposes will give me room to do all the projects that having been stacking for 2 months. This will eat up time, keep me at home and have less spending.

-Repay debts.again

- I was on track to having all debts settled before July, but some new developments have caused things to "shake a bit." With the area ready, debts can be worked toward at an increased rate.

-T.S. is being a punk. not completely his fault though...

- The cat's being a monster lately. He's not getting enough attention since I've been busy lately. That and He has some things that are needed. Things that cost money. Like I said,monster.

-Making use of insurance.

- There's insurance being paid that I haven't been using for things I need.hmm, gotta do that,too.

-Study, study, study!

-Been very bad about this. gotta catch up with current material and catch with material I haven't even started on.(bah, I need a tutor![>_<])

- Saving for trips.

- I expect most of the list to be done before my August trip.(very doable, but a pain in the butt.) After that, I'll return, work some more, finish up anything leftover and save for the trip again. Hopefully, no craziness will ensue that'll eat up trip money,again.

Aside from that, since I plan to hit the ground hard running as soon as I get back to the states, I want everything to be up, prepped, and ready to rock before I leave on trips so I won't have anything impeding me from work or school. That means, I have until the first trip to New York in mid August to get the room/office/workshop ready. We're about halfway done with gathering materials and moving things around. I expect things to be finished within two weeks time and then an additional week to reset all my tech and gear so things will be clean and ready for usage when I return. With the area ready, I can fully take advantage of easily working, studying, and doing other projects. After that, I can work on more finance related things,ugh. That and that whole studying thing, bigger ugh. Hobby Updates in 2 weeks hopefully^^;

p.s.- no idea why card crusher is the pic for this post...