adventures in obscurity

Hello from the Great Wall

The Alaskan — Sun, 29 May 2011 09:35:26 +0000

Low bandwidth requires that this post be quite short!

Last night, after a day at the Forbidden City, a group of us ventured out to taste some of the local cuisine, namely Silk Worm, Snake, and Scorpion:

Fortunately, nobody got sick from the unique food, and we made our way up the Great Wall of China today.

It was quite the trek to the top of the restored wall, and was a truly breathtaking experience.

More to come!

Beijing

The Alaskan — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:52:44 +0000

I’m at the end of day 3 in China and have just a moment to upload a photo.

As you can see above, Peking duck in Beijing is delicious.

So far we’ve visited four companies, some more impressive than others. As soon as I get a chance to upload more photos I will, but quite honestly, I’d rather be out and about taking in some sights than waiting for the pictures to upload :)

Tonight’s agenda: Kung-Fu show with the classmates – can’t wait!

Domesticated

The Alaskan — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:56:34 +0000

I picked up a few new skills this weekend. Due to a last minute switch in venue for Easter, I found myself needing to pull some things together at the last minute:

I cooked a ham for the first time.

Lesson learned: 9.5 lbs of ham is way too much food for four adults and two children.

I made frosting for the first time.

Lesson learned: the KitchenAid is your friend. This would have been a pain in the butt otherwise.

I frosted a cake for the first time.

Lesson learned: Buy your cakes. This was a royal pain.

The ham was surprisingly simple to cook. I had a moment of panic, though, when my meat thermometer crapped out on me. Luckily the timing worked out such that it was done when it was supposed to be.

All in all, it was a good Easter dinner if I do say so myself.

Thursday Morning Run Club

The Alaskan — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:57:33 +0000

After packing on the lbs since starting Grad school well over a year ago, I decided to get off my ass and do something about it. I won’t be doing anything as public or as intense as my ‘Quest for 185′ a few years back, but I need to do something. As such, I started a running club at the office. We meet once a week, and run, stumble, or walk our way through a 5-K. Today was our second venture out, and the group is coming along. I think I need to slow things down a bit though, as nobody was able to finish at the pace we started on, and one of us lost his breakfast after one of the hills.

Onward and upward.

hey look, rain!

The Alaskan — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:27:19 +0000

Ready for May flowers.

what walks in my subconscious?

The Alaskan — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:33:42 +0000

Last night I had a dream. I dreamed in anime’. It began innocent enough – walking through an unfamiliar street with friends from my days as a younger man. Matt was there. Jay. Chris. Steve. We laughed. Joked. Poked fun. Found ourselves in a bar; this is where things got weird. Naked, and painted to look like the wall behind him, stepped a man resembling Ron Meuck’s ‘Big Man.’ The Big Man stepped towards us, then burst through to an open terrace and ran.

Being the ever vigilant enforcer that I am (if only in my dreams) I took chase, and stepped out onto the platform. Running through the rain, in the way one can only run through the rain in an anime cartoon, was the Big Man below me on platforms surrounding a drab & cavernous pool. I dove into the pool, and found myself in an underwater series of caves. I swam. I swam in towards the big man, coming up for air in a small outcropping, where immediately I was shoved back down, the outcropping smashed by boulders above. Panic. Searching for air pockets, I see myself in third person sucking at bubbles at the top of the cave.

I awoke. Holding my breath.

Something’s gotta give soon. Let’s hope it’s not my sanity.

Catching a new show and some old friends

The Alaskan — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:52:10 +0000

Last night I was lucky enough to catch up with fellow Alaskan’s Ryan and Gabe while they were in town playing a show at the Rock’n'Roll hotel up on H street. I’d never listened to Ryan’s band The Builders and the Butchers before but I really liked their style. From Ryan’s ever expanding vocals to dual drummers to an electric banjo and dueling mandolins, the show was fun, raw, passionate, and full of emotion in a way that I hadn’t experienced since I was back in High School getting my first taste of live shows.

I recommend checking them out if you’re up for a different sound that’s also great music.

Thanks for the tickets guys, hope to see you next time you’re in town!

Sad News

The Alaskan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:43:21 +0000

I received a phone call yesterday from my mom telling me that a cousin had died this weekend. She was understandably pretty upset, and our family is reeling from the loss. He was only a few years older than I am, and got ran over where he was living in Arizona. Although we didn’t grow up together, and we were not first cousins, I’m finding it tough to imagine that he’s gone.

I’m really glad that I got to see him this past winter while we were both traveling through Anchorage. He was on his way home to see the family in Barrow and I was there for Work. We ate lunch at Applebee’s of all places, but had a great time seeing one another and catching up on life – he even let me borrow his Parka for a bit.

Even though we hadn’t seen each other in fifteen years before that, it’s still tough knowing he’s gone.

Rest well, Eli, you will be missed.

Remember this?

The Alaskan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:59:48 +0000

I just watched an old episode of “Secret City” – a show I used to LOVE and get really excited for as a kid. I remember how awesome the host’s space-like suit was, and how cool everything seemed. Anyone else remember this great show?

MROD DC 2009

The Alaskan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:55:21 +0000

Who ever said I didn’t love CAPS?

MROD came down for a visit this weekend and between rocking out on Rockband Beatles and hopping bars, we went out for a mid-day excursion.

MROD waltzes down the street, excited for art.

The Smithsonian Castle through some foliage:

The Jump!

A lone ball at the Hirshhorn

Inside the Hirshhorn

I’m not sure why, but I really like this photo:

This guy stuck out as cool, too

How many days do you feel like that? Great from one side, incomplete from another. Deep man. Deep.

And I leave you with a shot of a bee’s behind.

Aside from the above, we hit up two of my favorite spots to grab a bite and a brew, namely Rustico in Alexandria with always tasty pizza (duck pizza no less) and then some Zaytinya the next night for the best Tapas in town. We also found a great (new?) cupcake place in Georgetown called Baked and Wired, which in my unsophisticated opinion, is far superior to Cake Love (at least the one in Shirlington).