My much beloved high ceilings have turned out to be my biggest tactical setback. The skeeters can merrily perch themselves up on the ceiling and digest my blood while watching me helplessly agonize over their existence. My other problem has been my slow (i admit it) reflexes. Even though mosquitoes are by no means the zippiest zippers out there, they out maneuver my fly swatter like a Porsche does semi’s on I-5.

Luckily for me, evolution has given me the ultimate trumph card… Ingenuity. So how pretel did I conquer the beasts? A can of compressed air, shaken and sprayed upside down. By disregarding all the warning labels on the can, you cause the liquid coolant to spray out along with the air. Apply this on a mosquito (even one a few feet out of reach) and viola, you’ve stunned them long enough to splat them with your fly swatter. If they’re still too high, give them a few more sprays and they’ll fly around and settle someplace more accessible.

It’s funny, I always make fun of people who buy more than one of the same item – but right now, man how I wish I was one of them.

Strange… (or maybe not so strange considering what you find these days) but there’s a commercial on YouTube for my sneaks.

Adidas Grand Prix Commercial

…now if I could only find a place that had em.

Check out this Flickr Album featuring Lego art. The remake of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” is my favorite.

…on their recent nuptials. Man, it seems that I’ve been saying this a lot lately. It seems that everyone I know is either getting married or breaking up. I guess it’s a sign of us hitting our… I won’t say it.

Thanks to both of you for inviting me to be a part of your wedding. Also for spending all that time hanging out w/Jojo and me while we were in Taiwan… I’m sure there are a lot of other things you guys could have been doing w/your precious days off. I wish you guys the best.

Here’s the wedding pictures: click here
Here’s some more pictures of the venue where the wedding was held: click here

Here’s an article on How Stuff Works describing everything you’ve ever wanted to know about hangovers. How Hangover’s Work.

In case you don’t have time to read/study/commit to memory this article, here are the highlights:

1. The adage “Beer before liquor never sicker” is true… The carbonation in beer causes your body to absorb alcohol faster.

2. Dark liquors/red wine have the greatest amount of congeners (toxins) and those cause the most severe hangovers. Drinking lighter liquors such as vodka and gin will result in a lesser hangover.

3. Fried/Fatty foods after drinking will just irritate your stomach further; having them before however will slow down your body’s intake of alcohol thus reducing your hang over the next day.

4. Eggs for their cysteine, Bananas for their potassium, and sports drinks for potassium and other minerals are good morning after foods.

5. Fruit Juice increases your bodies energy and increases the rate at which the body gets rid of toxins. They also contain vitamins that you lost from the diuretic effect of alcohol.

6. Take Multi-vitamins for the same reason as above.

7. Avoid Coffee. While caffeine will help your headache since it’s a vasoconstrictor; it’s also a diuretic and will result in you becoming even more dehydrated and thereby increasing your hangover. (Note: there’s also a study that says that drinking coffee helps reduce the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver) – so it may be worth the extra pain.

8. If you’re going to take Aspirin make sure it’s non-caffeinated and acetaminophen-free. Acetaminophen + alcohol causes liver damage.

Obviously, the best way to not have a hangover is to not drink excessively… but since y’alls can’t seem to help yourselves…follow the above and Happy Drinking.

Despite the complaints I’ve had over the years, or perhaps because of it – and all the weekends and late nights spent in that office; it’s hard to fathom Broadlane not being there. I tend to be easily nostalgic about things, but I considering it’s the longest time I’ve ever spent under one roof (except for the house I grew up in), I think it’s fair. Everything else aside it was at very least a pretty damn cool office.
Here’s a photo tribute to my home for the last half-decade. [photos]

When I was packing all this stuff up for my move to New York, I tried my best to get rid of things that I “wouldn’t” need. Now while in reality this is pretty much everything other than a few scotch/wine glasses; there’s a bit of guilt and remorse involved in getting rid of all your stuff. [And of course I need stuff for my parents to cook with when they come visit].

So when I finally started unpacking the kitchenware in my new apartment I did so with a bit of anxiety that things wouldn’t fit. Surprisingly and much to my delight, everything fit AND there was even a bit of extra space. I remember saying to myself… “Wow… this kitchen has a lot of storage space considering how small it is”. So for the last month and a half or so I’ve lived in bliss thinking that I have a very compact but usable kitchen.

Now, despite having all this “cookware” – I don’t cook. The reasons are a plenty. 1. I don’t know how. 2. I’m afraid of cockroaches 3. I’m too lazy, 4,5,6. I’m afraid of cockroaches, and 7. I’m too lazy.

So as a result, my kitchen currently contains:

• 1 unopened Kit Kat bar
• 2 cans of Arizona Green Tea
• 5 bottles of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice
• 5-6 empty bottles of the previous beverages (I store the empty bottles in the fridge so that the cockroaches won’t smell them)
• 1 bottle of Scotch
• 5 bottles of wine
• 1 box of cookies that Michelle brought over cuz she knows that I don’t have food
• 1 can of walnuts that Angela brought over cuz she knows that I don’t have food.

And of course all of this (except for the wine and the scotch) are stored in my fridge because of the whole cockroach thing.

So today, while IMing w/a friend about the fact that I really should get some food; I decided that I was going to go grocery shopping the next chance I get… And then it hit me… I HAVE NO SPACE LEFT FOR FOOD.

Unfortunately that night we were greeted by two unannounced visitors (read: coachroaches). BLEH, BLEH, BLEH. I saw the first one and was poising myself to kill him when a second one ran out to run interference. Unluckily for him I was ready to strike. His ploy did partially work though as #1 disappeared by the time I looked back. I haven’t seen any of those buggers since, but I’ve been sleeping with the light (read: clip-on desk light) on since. BLEH.

The funny thing is that even before seeing the roaches, I had gone out to the hardware store around the corner and spent about $45 on ‘preventatives’. I wasn’t expecting to have coachroaches, but seeing as the fumigator wasn’t coming till the end of this week I figured I might as well take some precautionary measures myself. Tonight I was at home depot about bought some night lights (I read that they don’t like light).

In other news, my bookcase and desk have arrived. I must say, I’m pretty impressed with Crate and Barrell. Next day courier service is only $15 per order.

As promised, here are some pictures of my apartment/neighborhood.