Or 2's Review: Part III - Times That Could Have Been (and Should Be, Damn it!!!!!)

See the man with the cap in front? The one who's actually looking straight at me regardless of who's reading the blog?
He should be mine!!!!!!!!! I'll even take the white pants! Why didn't I talk to his mother?! Why?!!!!!! Damn my shyness and fear of being tossed out of MSG!!!!
Chris is looking at who knows what and drawing something with his finger on whatever that is...
Timmy's looking at Brad. I think.
And Brad's looking at the camera (what a good guy, normal guy).

Or 2's Review: Part II - The Not So Awesome and/or Downright Hideous Times

HOchie 1 or 2 have never quite learnt to turn down things that are cute. Two examples are "Aqua, Aqua" & "Sheep". Those are two puzzle based videogames that we'd rather not talk about.
Apparently Or 2's poor judgment is shared by Beetchie.
What we have here is that Bitter Melon drink that we had a hard time getting down after the grilled quail during the second trip to St. Mark's Place. Upon further inspection, we call bitter melon something else. And it's not something HOchie 1 likes to eat at all. I, on the other hand, really enjoy it stuffed with shrimp & pork or fried. But what isn't good fried?
This here was not one of our finest moments but not a hideous moment either.

I'll tell you what a hideous moment is - looking at nasty asses during Halloween. :::shudder:::

People wearing tight, white pants before and after Labour Day.

Another hideous moment is walking down the street with HOchie 1 and being referred to as "Cute Twins" (which in itself is not too bad) by a "not cute at all" man.

Katamari Damacy - nauseau inducing 'fun'. Truly, truly hideous.

And a moment that could have been hideous but thankfully wasn't: Tom wearing white pants. What saved my eyes from melting out of their sockets? They weren't tight. Thank goodness for small mercies, I suppose. Truthfully, I was mesmerized.

Currently craving: Dumplings...of the street variety.

Or 2's Review: Part I - The Awesome Times

In pictures:

Here we have poorly scanned tickets to the good times: U2, Foo Fighters, Weezer & Audioslave.

And here from that time I was 48th Street & 5th Avenue Ho.

I will thank you for not laughing at me like Miyamoto san did.
Isn't Link the cutest?





And to the right - the top of his head where the signing was done. So can anyone tell me? Does it say "Shigeru Miyamoto" or does it say "Idiot Child"?
Note: Ignore the hand and ugly fingernails.

And now for some other things worth mentioning in the Month of October:

1. Keane (opening act for U2)- You keep rocking out to music that is virtually impossible to rock out to, little keyboardist!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Hot Hot Heat (opening act for Weezer & Foo Fighters) - Enjoyable enough for me to buy 3 songs from your band off Itunes and trying to fanagle your albums for a friend.

Witches, A Pumpkin, 2 wagoms full of pamcakes (?) and Nicholas in His High Heels

Happy Halloween!

We are in the middle of dispensing candy to hordes of children and we are grading them as they come along. A lot of kids got 'C's this year mainly for lazy costumes. There were a few 'F's for a total lack of creativity or caring who got Tootsie rolls for their all round greediness at the thought of easy candy. The 'A's went to Nicholas, an 8 year old in drag who was complaining to his sister that his heels were hurting him, to Michael our cute little neighbour who was a firefighter this year, to the cute pumpkin who lives at 815 and to the little froggie who was adorable.

We did not decorate this year and the Halloween mood just was not there for us so we get an 'F' too.
However, HOchie or 2's Gloomy Bear costume was a hit with the children. Some were appalled by the amount of blood HOchie or 2/Pitty produced from wounds given by Gloomy and could do nothing but stare.
Others were not too bright and wanted to take Gloomy away from HOchie or 2. Did they not see the claws on Gloomy? Did they not see the blood on Pitty?
On a side note, HOchie or 2 has come up with a theory on the Japanese made Gloomy Bear. Pitty is representative of America. He's a little white, blonde kid who wears a blue shirt and white pants. But where's the red? It's his blood from wounds inflicted by Gloomy! So the conclusion is this - Gloomy Bear is Anti-America! Why are the Japanese represented by a little pink bear? Meh.

All in all, October was a great month and with that in mind we will now do the October wrap up with a list of our highlights and lowlamps.

The Highlights:
U2
Foozer
Audioslave
Beard Papa's for Cream Puffs
Kenka
Chris Cornell in his tight tight jeans
Spaced (courtesy of X)
Wallace and Gromit


The Lowlamps:
Seether (Worst opening act ever. Talk about boring)
New Jersey
Mini flood in the basement
Tom's White White Pants (At least they weren't tight)
The Not-so-goodlooking Ass on the Girl in the Police Officer Stripper outfit at the Hairy Halloween Ball
The Girl at the Audioslave concert in front of us who insisted on reinforcing the stereotype that white people can't dance (aggh, our eyes!!)
R-Lamo (ALWAYS a lowlamp no matter what the month)


There may be more to add later on. I just cannot remember all at the moment.

Laters.

What to say...

other than I love Tom Morello and always have. He's amazing. Absolutely amazing.
And I was so close to his mother...but no! I didn't take my chance! Unlike my 'one day you'll be mother-in-law #2' (because I haven't forgotten about my Matthew) I am shy and couldn't go over there to tell her that her son is a master.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Audioslave rocked. Timmy, Brad, Chris & Tom - you guys are hella awesome.

And in my defense, I honestly didn't think they'd play "Getaway Car" and was really happy when they did except I really missed my guys when Chris did his solo performance. And as for "Shadow on the Sun", I gave that a 50% chance.

Anyways, more on my boys tomorrow for the end of the month wrap up.

Currently watching: "A Haunting" on discovery channel. Poor, poor little boy. Your mother told you lies when she told you the green light flashlight would get rid of the monster.

A Few Words from two Audioslave Bitches

Hochie 1... Or 2 signing in...

"Well settle down I won't hesitate
To hit the highway
Before you lay me to waste
Settle up and I'll help you find
Something to drive
Before you drive me insane

oh, get yourself a car
drive it all alone
ooh ooh oooh oooh"

- Getaway Car by Audioslave

After weeks of being told by the resident expert that Chris and the gang would not perform Getaway Car or Shadow on the Sun and then almost believing it because after an hour and five minutes they had not performed either, my husband-to-never-be busted into Shadow complete with cheesy glowing sun backdrop and I could not sing any louder. AND just to prove that he is as broken up about us never having found our way to each other before we each commited to others, he launched into an acoustic dedication of Getaway to me. Chris, I do so love yo' ass... and moreso in those ultra tight jeans. Thanks and Thanks.

Audioslave performed for almost two hours last night and for those of you who passed up a chance to see Audioslave perform in New York City on a cool night at the Garden, let me just say that you missed your chance to be a bitch like the rest of us and we loved every minute of it.

I will easily dismiss the Soundgarden songs since that now defunct group was never a favourite of mine but those Rage Against the Machine songs got the Garden jumping and I truly regret never having seen RATM perform. Tom, you are indeed the master. Timmy and Brad, you guys rule. Chris was secondary in the RATM songs because the crowd could easily have supplied the vocals as we were wont to do in the instrumental smackdown of Bulls on Parade that the three masters laid on us when Chris left the stage.

Tom's mom, Mary, introduced the group as the "Best Fucking Band in the world" and then was escorted to a seat two arms' lengths in front of us. Hochie or 2 recognized her or figured out that it was her potential mother-in-law but was too shy to go try to weasel her way into the good graces and Hochie or 2, you are right, "Sweet D" ain't got nothing on thee.

October was really a great month for all the things we did. There were some not so good times which we will list but overall, October was awesome. Halloween tomorow and a review of the neighbourhood kids' costumes as well as the October wrap-up.

Laters and goo'day.

The Audioslave SetList:
1. Your Time has come
2. Set it off
3.Doesnt remind me
4.Out of exile
5.Be Yourself
6.Spoonman(soundgarden)
7.Hunger Strike(temple of the dog)
8.The Worm
9. Like A stone
10.New Song
11.Bull On Parade(Instrumental)(R.A.T.M)
12.Sleep Now In The Fire(R.A.T.M)
13.Testify(R.A.T.M)
14.Shadow Of The Sun

Encore
15.Black Hole Sun(chris Solo Accoustic)(soundgarden)
16.Getaway Car(chris Solo Accoustic)
17.I AM the Highway(1/2 Chris Solo Accoustic)
18. Show me how to live
19.Killing In the name(R.A.T.M)
20.Cochise

And They Called it "Cheating"

Can anyone see the difference?
Anyone?
No, no...Besides adding a whole other character, that's not what I meant.
I argued with myself for quite a while - do I copy/paste my eyeless friend to the wacom art? Or do I re-create him using the wacom?
My reasoning & conversation with myself for choosing the first was this -
"Screw this! I drew him a long time ago and just because it wasn't with my wacom, it doesn't make him invalid. I created him with a pencil on paper. There's nothing wrong with that!"
"But...didn't you say something about how until you re-create him with the wacom, you cannot call yourself wacom master?"
"Shut up, B- Logic!"
Yes, that's EXACTLY how it went down.
I decided I'd just do touch up with the wacom on him. Why waste a perfectly good drawing that there's no way in hell I could re-create.

But now everyone knows my horrid little secret...
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful, a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical. And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily, joyfully, playfully watching me. But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical. And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical. There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep for such a simple man.

And that's because I'm a "B-" logical buffoon.

Quote of yesterday's luncch "Sad Puchuh =( "
Quote of today's luncch "HOchie 1's Luncch =( "
Why the sad faced quotes? HOchie 1 was stuck in Hell a.k.a. NJ for most of this week.
Ah, the new axis of evil - NJ, CT & LI...


People to thank for the making of this blog entry: Supertramp.
Currently playing: "Tales of Symphonia End Theme" by Matoi Sakuraba
What I wanted to be playing: "Hero" by Bloc Party. But that Matoi Sakuraba is good times as well.
Currently playing: "#1 Zero" by Audioslave. I'll be singing this tomorrow.
"Just when you think you've left me blind... I will keep you in the corner of my eye." And you will be, Tom. Oh yes. Oh yes.

Goo'day.

Guest Wacom Art

"Drunk Evil Clown Under Bush" by X.

And the gOOd times continue...

...this after a week of craziness in the work place. Work does that sometimes. It sometimes produces 'buckets full of helluh' for me. But anyway...on to the gOOd times!
Beetchie and I stormed Toy Tokyo again today after work. Did I not say to mark my words that I would storm again soon? I got all I needed for my Halloween costume and a few Christmas pyos for some people. But Beetchie, being very awesome, brought me, 1 or 2 bags of fun times. One filled with stuff from her European trip (and I feel a little itchy...fleas from Germany perhaps?! Aha) including Belgian chocolate and the love of my life...printed on a T-shirt. "Bells". Future husband that.
In bag or 2, I received birthday presents. It's my birthday month...good to see people remember. Kidding. And I say that because she might read this one day...heh heh. But seriously, she gave me toys. And not just toys...Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit toys! "WOOOOOoooooooo!" Goddamn I love those rabbits. Why I can't find any pictures of them though is beyond me.
Then we trekked off again to Kenka for some eats. And eats we did eat. A quick evaluation of the selection today:
1. Japanese Beef Curry (over rice) = B- (curry should be spicy, not sweet - apparently the Japanese can conquer lots of things but curry, not so much)
2. Pan-fried pork with kimchee = A (for the extreme spiciness, for the pork as pork is most always good times and for another fine display of showing up Koreans by the Japanese)
3. Onigiri with salmon = Ummm, as expected. It's rice and seaweed. It's good but it's rice and seaweed. The salmon however was quite tasty. The salmon gets a B+.
4. Grilled Quail = A (nothing like eating little skewered birds)

Then we headed off to the Japanese grocery for our ritual 'let's buy something new to eat'. Well we couldn't make up our minds so we bought a new drink instead. Two, actually. The first was this tiny can with a cactus or something on. Bitter Melon flavour..."Ew! Melon!" Yeah, we were not really concerned about the bitter part when bought it. But we certainly were when we were drinking it. Ooo, the aftertaste. Let's not talk about it. And by the time we got to the second drink, we couldn't handle anymore. Turns out the second one wasn't so bad but bitter melon had us reeling. All we could do at that point was stuff down a specialty pumpkin cream puff to forget our Bitter Melon woes.
5. Specialty Pumpkin Cream Puff = A+ (How to fanagle getting more of those pumpkin cream puffs within the next week...)
6. 2nd Japanese drink = meh. Taste like gatorade mixed with tang to me. So I guess it really deserves a B+ since tang and gatorade are B+ kind of beverages. But what does that make B+ + B+ = this is why I failed Math.
7. Bitter Melon Japanese drink = U (for Unsavory)
8. The Bitter Melon packaging = T (for Trickery)

It's raining again. We're hoping no mini-pool parties are thrown in the basement tomorrow.

Quote of yesterday, since it's now way past my sleepy time and I'll regret it at work tomorrow, was this "I'm not like other people. I don't like pain. It hurts me." - Daffy Duck.

Currently Playing: "When You Wear That Velvet Dress (Live at Foro Sol Autodromo in Mexico City, Dec. 1997) " by U2

Mother-Snobs

Hochie 1 ... or 2 signing in and VERY cranky.

This is not a good day for me. The train was making weird grating sounds so I had to use my ipod and since the Audioslave concert is in a few days, I just made a playlist of the 14 songs that I have on there and listened to that. And of course, all the songs that I really know and can sing along to are not on their set list or so I have been told.

Anyway, there was this woman with her baby on the train. The baby is probably a little over a year old and she is cute with her dark brown curls and big Irish eyes and she loves the sound of her vocals. The mom was trying to get her to fuss less by doing some weird thing with her hand that I could not quite understand since it started off as a flying motion and then a pinch on the baby's nose followed by a turn towards a wall and a bang of the fist thereupon. Strange. Exactly repeated though so it is some ritual. Now this woman walks around the train with her child just to keep her quiet I suppose and now that the baby is learning to walk, the mother sets her down and guides her through aisle between the seats. I constantly find myself hoping that the train does not have to break suddenly resulting in flying baby and mother. This mother is mindful of her baby's squalling and will try to reduce it for the sake of other passengers or to reduce embarrassment to herself, whatever the reason I am grateful for the courtesy. This woman in question is obviously proud of her baby as she should be and thankfully has not shown herself to be guilty of that disgusting type of motherhood for which I am compelled to blog.

Now, there are women (and men) who walk around with a God-complex as they push their oversized strollers around with their bundle(s) of DNA ensconced within. These people expect the non-reproducing population to jump out of the way when their golden carriages appear and We, the Unblessed, really have to scurry out of the way quickly or risk the bruised limbs or severed appendages that may be lost to a SUV Stroller that will barrel down on us with no second thought... or even a thought for that matter. I recently went to a Halloween event where there were hundreds of people and, being Halloween, hundreds of kids. There were as many strollers as there were vehicles. It was really a scary place. I mean, I was scared before I even got into the event but I digress. So, there I am standing in line with the other members of my party, not a child amongst my group when I narrowly miss being rammed into by a woman pushing a stroller that was almost as tall as she. I move aside with ample dexterity and look at the woman, expecting an apology (Stupid me) - this MOTHER looks at me with this haughty expression on her face as if I have wronged her by placing myself between her husband and child since the offspring was being carried in the father's arms paces ahead. She glared at me and pushed ahead. I WAS IN LINE!!! She was coming out of nowhere!!! If there weren't so many kids around I would have let a nasty word fly but then my own mother might have not stared at me so lovingly.

I am constantly meeting women who have no other interest but their own children. They also pretend to love children when, with little effort, you discover that they really only love their own. That brings me to another woman on the train who is always pushing her way forward to ensure that she gets a seat on the train. My observations led me to formulate that she thought she was superior to a lot of other people on the train. It was just something about how she carried herself, how she never made eye contact except to icily stare at anyone who got a sit she wanted, her whispered remarks and then sly laugh. I actually developed an aversion to this woman just by seeing her. Then one day, I realized she was with child! I was absolutely horrified and yet fascinated. She began to glow but not in the way that people often describe. It was almost a kryptonian aura and her lips would curl in smugness and I could just see her on the platform, now expecting that she would have to get on the train and sit where she wanted because, Peasants, SHE WAS PROGENITOR! A few months into her pregnancy, we had the luck(?) to be sitting in front of her and her husband when she began discussing her impending baby shower. She complained long and hard about how she hoped no one gave her clothes for the baby because she had her own style and refused to dress her child in "any old rags". I wanted to slap her and it was all I could do not to turn around and look at her. People are spending their hard-earned money on something to symbolize their well wishes for you, and all you can do is criticize before you even see something?! Months passed and one day she reappeared in the distance across the platform, pushing a gigantic stroller that was trimmed in white gold and diamonds (okay, maybe not but who knows if that was stainless steel? or whatever). Hochie or 2 and I were paralysed. The moment was upon us and we were about to be graced. Mother descended the stairs with a smile, mostly directed at the baby but still a smile that had never before made an appearance here. This was the debut, the shining moment. The carriage touched down on the imagined red carpet and the carriage was slowly wheeled to the spot on the platform that afforded the advantage of viewing by the masses but at the same time prevented close contact. Then, someone was brave enough and said "Cute baby" and the Mother barely turned her head, nodded regally and said, "Thank You" that was really a "Yes, but you should have said Beautiful." I almost vomited.

Now, I saw the baby and the baby really is cute. I will just wait to see what kind of character this child turns out to be. There are more stories to be had from this procreation.

I hope to be a mom someday. If it happens, I won't be a Mother-Snob. I will remember how it feels to be mother-snobbed but if I don't, I have to revisit this or you can all remind me.

Laters.

Do you remember...

One of the greatest sources of entertainment ever?

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RECLUSIVE_CARTOONIST?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

You should. And for those of you who do not then you should get this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740748475/002-3671102-4531234?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance

Hochie 1 ... or 2 signing in and out.

Strange Japanese Anime and the strange people who watch them...

Hochie 1... or 2 signing in.

I am not averse to a good anime and will happily waste precious time with the right one, even a silly one - Snow Fairy Sugar - but there are some Japanese productions that just leave me wondering about the whole culture and the thought processes that go into making some of these shows. Take Di Gi Charat for example. Each episode is 3 minutes long. The characters are the stereotypical big-eyes - cute yet freaky looking. So far so good so I decide to give it a chance. ::OH MY JEEBUS:: -Oo- The cute bug-eyed aliens are hyper as if tripping on some type of alien hashish while the civilians are ... wait for it ... fingers!!! I have immediately tuned out and have decided to blog about it. I started feeling anxious and hysterical just listening to them but what is even worse is that my co-blogger here who shares DNA with me is laughing along! That Hochie is otaku and has been warped. Everything was more normal before BingU and I may blame a Malaysian for it.

While I am on the topic, I should say that my life has seen a little more trauma because of that Hochie and its penchant for Japanese stuff. I will never again watch Grave of the Fireflies nor will I even talk at any length about a sick little cinematic feature called Odishon (Audition). Ugh. Thanks H or 2 for shortening my life with that stress.

On another note, we recently discovered Rivers Cuomo's blog. For those who don't know who that is, Rivers Cuomo is only the most awesome lead singer of Weezer, and for those who don't know who Weezer is, then just get the heck off this blog RIGHT NOW. So, anyway, Rivers Cuomo has a cute blog on which he shows himself to be quite the normal guy or as normal as anyone can be. We want to send him a message but we don't want to say something that sounds lame and we don't want to think about it too much because then it just sounds contrived and lame-r. I probably won't write to him anyway because I have never been one to be starstruck or weird (Quiet! all you dissidents) so I will just use my own blogspace to say hello to Rivers Cuomo.

Message to Rivers Cuomo: Hi. We had great times at our first Weezer concert and will make it a point to see you guys again if you come round our way. Maybe you can play MSG next time. Bye. Say hi to Scott too.

(THAT, gentle readers, was my first true Dork moment.)

Just a thought to end today:
I know that one's happiness should not be dependent on material stuff since we can lose it all in an instant but I would be acutely unhappy if I had no roof over my head or a simple place to go home to with a bed to call my own.

Laters.

Song(s) for the Day: Pioneers by Bloc Party and Evil by Interpol

You know what I love...

...the blending tool in Corel Painter. Can you see the blending? Can you? Oooooo...not so shiny...oooo.
I also love the Wacom - it's gOOd times. I hope I get more time in today to Wacom.
I love rainy days (except when the basement gets flooded).
Wacom + Rainy Days = awesome times.
I'll be adding more to this drawing in the next few weeks. My goal is to have a complete piece before Christmas. I have plans.

It's all right to have butterflies in your stomach. Just get them to fly in formation.

The HochieS signing in.

What...the...cuhrap...is...that? That, peeps, is the fortune we got today from the spare rib tips and crinkle cuts that one of us ate for dinner. Seriously, what the crap.
And the Chinese learnt today from the back of that fortune cookie...
Telephone. Dian-hua.

Weakest...fortune...eva'.

A Sexy Marxist Revolutionary and other things...

Hochie 1... or 2 signing in.

Well, the Marxist Revolutionary was only really sexy in The Motorcycle Diaries which I just finished and loved. Gael Garcia Bernal is certainly a brontosaurus that gets better looking with every movie and he was voted one of the 25 Most Beautiful People by People magazine in 2002. Indeed HE is beautiful people. Heidi Klum and Seal's baby... Not so much. Some people may think it wrong to say anything negative about a baby but this is not negativity but truth. The KlumSeal baby may grow to be a decent looking body but for now ... not so much. Alright. Done.

I made friends with a salad today. Whee.

Veronica Mars was not so good yesterday. That show is great overall but I am not loving these filler bunny eps not to mention that Logan was not in it for more than a minute at the end.

So, some of us now think that our office is bugged in which case I am in a heck of a lot of trouble for the things I rant about when I think I am being private in my office. That or someone on the side of the wall is the biggest MaCo, rivalling any Trini I ever met. Either way, very unsettling. We were angry elves today.

I know that some may think Kanye West is probably a strange opening act for a U2 concert but if I were there I would be all over that GoldDigger.

I am all over the place today but that explains the "other things". Yahweh, what a lame blog entry! Ah well, it's half my blog.

I wonder what Horace did today? We have to introduce you to Horace sometime.

Laters.

Things I loathe today: Mice, People who have nothing better to do than skulk around listening to other people's conversations, Cold mornings and cold nights, Being hungry at 4pm, Spicy Chili Nissin Cup Noodles, Senators who are millionares winning lotteries, Strudeldoodles, Barbie.

Things I adore today: Drowning KuSephs, Hochie 0r 2, Spongebob Squarepants, Pumpekins, JazzieB, Sleep.

Song for the day: Quisiera Ser by Alejandro Sanz - yet another good-looking people.

Blegh, Egleh

I just spent an hour filling up a shopping cart at a certain online store in preparation for a certain costume for Halloween and presents for a friend for Christmas. I got to the end of all only to realize Halloween is only 6 business days away. With UPS ground (you know, the cheapest of all options) that'd be 5-10 business days... Lame. So I tried to check my options for priority mail and they wouldn't give me a total right now. Looks like I'll be making a trip downtown on Monday, if not sooner. Haha, yes. After all that fuss, you'd think I was screwed but no. I can always make the trip downtown to the store. I can still be screwed, mind you. What if they don't have the products I need?

The downtown store is not Chinatown therefore the Pai Mei costume is out. I will not be making a Halloween tree this year, hanging candy bags off it, sitting near the tree and distributing one knock to the heads of children who get greedy and try to take more than one bag of candy. Sorry to disappoint all who got wind of my Pai Mei idea but not really, I didn't go around telling people and getting them excited. Thank you other HOchie.

Most days during the week i.e. for those days when the HOchies have food to take to work, a comment for the day is marked on the food container with the HOchies name and date then put into the fridge. Each comment relates to whatever we have going on that day. And from now on, this blog will contain the luncch comment for the day so that we may remember the gOOd times. Or ponder why we wrote that to begin with...

As for the title of this entry - I'm off to glide from boko baba to boko baba, jump INto some trees, cut down some bushes (and collect the rupees within because you know, those monsters totally lose money under the bushes all the frickin' time. I have to say though, they're quite poor. 1 rupee, pssssshhhhh), fall off ledges and drown in the river. All because I needed to take a nap.

Currently playing: "Fillip" by MUSE
Luncch Comment for the day: "Where is the Boss Key?"
Phrase for the day: "I know who did it...it was Crabpeople." Indeed. Indeed...

And thus we present to you... The Story of X

The HOchieS signing in....

It was Thanksgiving 2001. X was invited over to our house, not by us initially, but welcomed all the same. In retrospect, the prospect of a good Trini spread is probably what compelled X to trek to the Bronx on that day. X smiled a lot that Thanksgiving and knowing what we do now, it was probably because of the warm feeling that X enjoys when the belly is full.

X is a small one. Quiet when food is around since the mouth is otherwise occupied but can talk like nobody's business. The amount of food that can be consumed by X is astounding and the pork industry is strong for it.

X has endured school for over 2 decades since student is the lesser evil between student and employee but come November, X will be venturing out into previously unchartered territory - the real Job is upon X... but THAT will be fodder for many more tales.

X has become a good friend. An honorary Hochie even who may make a guest appearance here at the Hochies' blog in the future. X may tell you about X-rated Salsa, or Vacation issues but never fear, it will entertain.

And so we dedicate an entire entry to X because X is demanding.


X would also like us to mention the good time presents (courtesy of X) that we stupidly left out of previous entries, the walk-bys when the streets were dark and cold after the beers.

X would not like us to mention H.Ho's cooking or the Pumpkin Cookies or the Aims. So we won't.

And thus we present to you, the Story of X.

laters and goo'day.

Let's Go Back...To The Before Time

As in September 24th, 2005. Don't worry, it's not that far back. I'd like to recall some good times that happened the week leading up to October. Seeing Corpse Bride with my friend Beetchie. The movie itself was alright. It wasn't of the "Nightmare Before Christmas" variety/quality storywise but animation wise, well...We don't expect anything but greatness.

Good times, I believe I said. I'm getting to that right now. Beetchie and I went to St. Mark's right after the movie. We strolled over there from Union Square and found ourselves in the most hideous, boring street fair. We talked about her three week adventure in Europe this past August. The bottomline: Spain is full of thieves. Germany is full of fleas.

Then we milled around the Japanese grocery trying to decide to buy one item neither of us had tried. There were lots and we felt a little overwhelmed but finally we agreed on a strawberry type pancake thing. It was decent but meh, I think we've had better.

Then we stormed Toy Tokyo. And I will storm it again sometime soon, mark my words! We had fun and we bought tons of Gloomy Bear things (hence the picture at the beginning of this post)...Postcards and toys. I love the dead white boy. I know it's wrong. I know. I'm sorry. Truly.
We were having a hard time finding Luigi paraphernalia for Beetchie to have signed by the man himself - Shigeru Miyamoto san. For those of you who don't know and I'm sure there are many though it's not right. He is the creator of such legendary Nintendo games as...Wait for it. The Legend of Zelda (ooooo....ahhh), Mario and Donkey Kong. To put it this way: he's often described as the spielberg of video games.

The signing was on the day after and Beetchie and I had every intention of going early on the day of the signing to line up. However, after overhearing our conversation about looking for Luigi, a patron of Toy Tokyo approached us and said, "oh, you guys are going to the signing by Miyamoto tomorrow, right? You should probably go soon. My friends are already lining up there." What? No...

So with this in mind we traipsed some more in St. Mark's on a hunt for Luigi (Toy Tokyo can give us Yoshi and even stinkin' Toad but not Luigi...Poor thing, he gets no respect). We came up zilch. I was sorely disappointed to see that a mario pocketgame which I rocked as a kid back in Trinidad (and no longer had in my possession) was being sold in this vintage videogame shop for 129 dollars.

We then went to Kenka - this funky Japanese restaurant in St. Mark's which Beetchie fondly refers to as "the one with the raccoon with the big balls and red glowing eyes out front". It was quite good. Next victim...uhh, friend who comes around, they're coming with.
Dinner was followed by cream puffs are too good for me to talk about right now because it makes me sad that I don't have one to stuff into my mouth right now...
After the ...Dessert...Yes, dessert...We made our way to midtown to scope the situation with the Nintendo store. When we got there at 8.30 pm - like the guy said, people were waiting. People had been waiting from as early as 7 a.m. Freaks.

So what do we do? We became freaks too and camped out! Securing spots 46 and 47 in line was good times and thank goodness we didn't give it up considering when we left after the signing over 1,000 people were waiting to see the Man and he was supposed to do only 200 signings. So yes, I became a 48th & 5th Avenue Ho. Sleeping (using the term lightly because at most I got only 30 minutes of sleep before an idiot whose name was ironically Isaiah started preaching about the Zelda series) on the street next to my good friend and some random kid from NJ.

With no Luigi to have signed, Beetchie opted for the only worthy thing at the stupid Nintendo store - a 1UP Mushroom t-shirt. I bought a copy of "The Wind Waker" as backup. But thanks to the other awesome HOchie - my little figure of Link was brought to me the next morning. I happily went with him to the signing. Fiddling in front of the Man who was wondering what the hell I was going to give him to sign since I had nothing in my hand and finally fishing little Kujaseph (that's a gross misuse of a name to give Link, I know) out of my pocket to have signed. I gingerly put him on the table in front of Miyamoto san and Link unceremoniously decided to throw himself down. Miyamoto balanced him and started signing away but could not give me his English/Japanese signature. Instead I got it in Japanese and I was confused as to why the Man was drawing on Link's little green hat. Oh, and I was laughed at when I brought Link out of my pocket...either because a/ Miyamoto thought I was cute or b/Miyamoto thought me an idiot. I suspected the latter so I had to research the internet to ensure he actually signed his name and not 'To Idiot" on it.

After being on the street and dirty for so long, Beetchie and I wandered angrily (thanks to the messed up subway runnings and that thanks to the damned yankees game and ha, they're not in the w series anyway...muwahahaha) over to her Aunt's sushi restaurant for some good time lunch. Unfortunately I was not very hungry so I could only manage one roll but it involved soft shelled crab and eel. What was really good was that lychee iced tea. Mmmmmm.
Ok, so finally after being on the street and dirty and in a sushi restaurant and dirty we parted ways and I went home. Took a shower. Came out smelling like 5th Avenue as opposed to 48th & 5th. Went to bed soon after...went to work the day after. Was persecuted for my insanity. Came home. Got incredibly ill. Stayed home for two days due to the cold I mostly likely got from the random NJ kid who sat next to me on the street. Went back to work...still ill but had no more days to spare. But it was still worth it!

October 1st: It's Saturday!!!! And I was taken to dinner by the family and it was awesome. Ah, good times...good times.

Goo'day.

Music currently playing: "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" by The Cast of Avenue Q.

Ah... The Champloo and Hot Hot Heat

Hochie 1 ... or 2 signing in.

For anyone who has any interest in anime, Samurai Champloo is a good choice. I love that damned Jin and Mugen in addition to which Fuu is the only female character that I truly enjoy.

I may have forgotten to mention that "Hot Hot Heat" opened for the Foozer concert. Well, let me rectify and say that 'Talk to me, Dance with me' is akin to crack. That song is awesome.

The Hot Hot Heat 10/14/05 Setlist:

Running Out of Time
You Owe Me An IOU
Jingle Jangle
Middle of Nowhere
Bandages
Get In or Get Out
Talk To Me, Dance With Me
Goodnight, Goodnight

Work was work today.

Dinner for the day: Mehem's Crispy golden fried chicken and potato salad.
Thought for the Day: Mehem does not make me sugary.

Laters.

The Birthday Month goes on and on and on.

Hochie 1... or 2 signing in.

It is really ass cold today but at least it is not raining anymore...

Hochie or 2 has already filled you in on its thoughts about the month so what do I have to add?
Well, to begin with I spent quite a trainload of mons on the birthday month because as we all know or will come to know, Hochie or 2 loves it some material wealth and that Hochie is quite wealthy. It really has been a good month so far with the U2 concert on the 7th that really was extraordinary as usual. Bono is still yummy even when he preaches. The Edge looks great, sounds great. Larry is sporting his Irish mohawk again but I still lurve him and Adam is as underappreciated as ever. Keane opened for them at the Garden and sounded better than expected but still the kind of band I appreciate more in the car rather than in concert. I totally recommend a U2 concert to anyone...even you out of your gourds, self-proclaimed "non-fans". I already converted 2 people and will continue to press on with that - an addendum to my life's work.

October 8: "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" opened and we ventured forth we three to give Nick Park our money in the dead of night when we were sure that any responsible parent would have their offspring in bed. Surprised at the number of elderly couples there arsen around with us while two of us three thoroughly enjoyed W&G.

Week of October 9: So while it may not be the rain and storming of Katrina proportions, our part of the world labored under 7 days of rain which resulted in our basement becoming soaked and now smelly. Lots of wet vacuuming ensued but to no avail. The carpet is coming out and the work begins. I have too many books but in that vein, why are books not recyclable in this town? There are some that I cannot donate but that does not mean that I just want to throw them in the city dump since that seems such a crime. Crap for crap. We ended the work week us 2 and three more with the Foo Fighters/Weezer concert that I have to say kicked arse. Weezer is phenomenal. Rivers is chibi. The bassist Scott is the hottest geek I have ever seen and I am hating on that girl who cheated a qualified person a chance to play onstage with Weezer so she essentially ruined some person's chance, Weezer's wonderful overture and gave me a few days of murderous thoughts.
[Give me a few lines more here on this because I have to get it out of my system - What part of "okay, we need someone who can really play acoustic guitar to come up here and help us out on Undone" did she not understand??!! Wait, wait, she must be of lesser intelligence or was caught up in a selfish moment or just really wanted to look like a ginormous idiot or all. Her parents must be so proud, which reminds me that I am hating on them too for producing that piece of quality from their loins. Okay. Done.]
Foo Fighters rocked. Us 2 sat down for "My Hero" and I would have sat down for "Monkey Wrench" if not for the fact that they closed the show with that song. Thank you Kurt Cobain for the Foo Fighters.

October 15: We set off to the Jack O'Lantern Blaze last night and were wowed by some of the alleged 3,000 pumpkins that were carved and decorating the Van Cortlandt Manor estate. I feel that for 12USD, I should not have had to suffer so many creative-less pumpkins that littered my eyesight at the beginning of the trail but they were nearly forgotten by the time we got to the celtic section and then the underwater series. Quite impressive. Of course, after getting my blood pressure down and feeling a smile in my heart that made its way to my face, we were herded into a gift shop! I almost ran over a kid trying to get out of there to preserve the smile in my heart if not on my face. On another note, We 2 were quite amused to see Jeebus carved on a few pumpkins showing the world that Pagans and Christians can coexist even if it is on a little orange pumpkin.

Audioslave on the 29th. The good times go on and on.

The Baby Next Door has turned Terrible Two and we are worried.


Song for the Day: "Perfect Situation" - Weezer
Show for the Day: Samurai Champloo
Thought for the Day: Killing Chu Chus is not as satisfactory as chopping bushes.

Laters.

A gross misuse of Intuos3

On to the wacom mentioned earlier - it's taking time for me to get used to it but up there is first 'recognizable' thing created on 10/12/05. It's Zarnyx! Awww, boo boo Zarnyx. So evil. He's a character from my Fauxanga. It's not a manga, it's a Fauxanga. Zarnyx is one of many that inhabit the world of "October" (yes, it's also called 'October' because I couldn't think of a better name at the time and that just kind of stuck for the past 3 or so years) but he's my favourite character. And not because he threatens my life if I say otherwise. That has nothing to do with anything...heh heh.

Music currently playing: "I'm Your Villain" by Franz Ferdinand.

(That just reminds me that I won't be on the 'dance floor/mosh pit' tomorrow at their concert. Damn it!)

It's Saturday!!!

No it's not. It's fucking Sunday. And I have to go to work in 30 fucking hours.

It was actually Saturday when I tried to sign up but this works out too.
With that said...

WELCOME TO THE BEST GODDAMNED BLOG EVA'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This here is our start up entry - the gOOd times and not as gOOd times had by the HoChies in the month of October so far.

October 4: 

a birthday of one of the HoChies. It was a good day despite turning quarter of a century old but let's not talk about it. Presento-pyos galore including a wacom. More on the wacom later.

October 5-6: 

not so good times...Work. You know how it is.

October 7: 

the best band in the world. It's U2 for you people who for some reason are insane and do not know that. "Crumbs from Your Table" was played for us (it's only been done twice in concert you know)...Screw you other people. We're special....
The not so good times that night - a three hour commute back home after the concert. Not fun times. Not at all.

First, the band that opened for U2 and sounded great -

The Keane 10/07/05 Setlist:

This Is The Last Time
Bend And Break
She Has No Time
Your Eyes Open
We Might As Well Be Strangers
Everybody's Changing
(New Song)
Somewhere Only We Know

The U2 Vertigo Tour 10/07/05 Setlist:

City of Blinding Lights
Elevation
Vertigo
The Electric Co.
The Ocean
Where the Streets Have No Name
In A Little While (partial)
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Love and Peace or Else
Miracle Drug
Miss Sarajevo (yes without Pavarotti but holy crap, Bono's voice is amazing!)
Pride (In The Name of Love)
Please (partial)
Beautiful Day
All Because of You
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
One (Oh thank god without that damned MJB)
Crumbs From Your Table
Fast Cars
Yahweh
Without or Without You


October 14: 

On an island in the sun, we were playing and having fun...Did you hear us?
The way it really happened - we left the island, it was pouring rain and had been for 7 days straight but our sore throats prove that we had fun. We were heard. I'm sure of it.
Weezer & Foo Fighters rocked.

The Weezer 10/14/05 Setlist:

Say it Ain't So
Perfect Situation
Don't Let Go
My Name is Jonas
Dope Nose
This Is Such A Pity
Big Me (Foo Fighters Cover)
The Damage In Your Heart
Why Bother?
El Scorcho
We Are All On Drugs
Surf Wax America
Beverly Hills
Photograph
Song 2 (Blur cover - sung by Pat, the drummer!)
Island in the Sun
Undone (The Sweater Song)
Hash Pipe
Buddy Holly

The Foo Fighters 10/14/06 Setlist:

In Your Honor
All My Life
Best Of You
My Hero
Up In Arms
Times Like These
Learn To Fly
Breakout
Stacked Actors
DOA
Cold Day in the Sun
Everlong
Tie Your Mother Down (with Queen drummer, Roger Taylor and Taylor, Foo Fighter's drummer on vocals - because Dave wussed out!)
Monkey Wrench

October 15: 

3,000 of them, we swear it! At least that's what 'they' said. I tried counting all those Jack O'Lanterns at the Blaze but I gave up before I counted the first. It was merely too much effort. Not to mention being that I slept for only 5 or so hours after the concert, counting pumpkins may have put me to sleep. Jumping sheep and stationary pumpkins...same difference. The highlights of the blaze - the snake display, the aquarium exhibit which was super awesome and that one pumpkin that was lazily carved with nothing but two slanted eyes. The low(?)lights of the blaze - 'they' also said we'd have pumpkin cookies and hot apple cider to look forward to at the end of the trail but all we got was herded into the gift shop. The cider ran out and the cookies were hotdogs. And we had to pay for them if we wanted as well. So now I'm thinking...if 'they' lied (lieeeeeesssss) to me about that then I suspect there may have only been 2,999 pumpkins at that damned thing.

What's coming up this week:

October 19: 

South Park, my friends. South Park

Goo'day.

Currently playing (in my head): "Helicopter" by Bloc Party