Happy Birthday!

To Dearest Gen'Frien',

Happy Birthday!

I hope you got your Hello Kitty boots.  Take pictures if you did!

Lots of love,

H1 and Or 2.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. Hare, Hare, Hare.

Happy June, peoples.

Summer's on the horizon along with some awful hot weather.  Yuck!

Let that not get to us and good luck to all.

And Happy Birthday Month to Sandy Cheeks! 

This Week: The Rapture

The world may not have ended last Saturday but I certainly had some sort of messed up week.

Two tickets to Arctic Monkeys went to a sad waste, work was less than kind, my good speakers could not console me after a bad day because they decided not to work, and I got my ass kicked by Ghetsis in Pokémon: Black Version.

Seriously...Pokémon.

Yes, it was a trying week but things can always be worse.

I mean, I could listen to this new Arctic Monkeys album I am holding in my hand (more than a week early, mind you! For some reason it was shipped to me ahead of its June 6th release - did they think I was from Rotherham and not New York City? Longer shipping times?) and discover that Suck It and See, sucks and I see what it did there.

What I did there, did you see it?

Or...it could be really great and make me feel even more miserable that I missed the show on Tuesday.

It sure is sounding like a lose/lose situation all around.

Currently listening to: "She's Thunderstorms" by Arctic Monkeys.  Uh... hmm.  This is just okay.  "All My Own Stunts" is sounding like better times and "Library Pictures" is sounding like a win (and a winner is me with number 6, H1).

But this right here?

Wait for it...

This is my jam!!!!!

Brisas Del Caribe

After our visit to the Bronx Zoo two weekends ago, we went to Brisas Del Caribe located at Castle Hill in the Bronx.

Likened to a Chinese Take Out joint for cheap eats and that same sort of atmosphere, Brisas was full on Puerto Rican good time, homey meals.  The place was crowded - both the take out line and the sit down restaurant section.  H1 and I were ignored for the most part, attributing the lack of service to our lack of enough Spanish blood.

If not for Luuuiiissss, we would not be there because we would never get served, and if by some way we managed to be noticed, we would not have been able to order food with polite service.

Rushed, selective service aside, I cannot say the food was all spectacular but it certainly was more on the good side than bad.

That is to say, anyone who can provide me with a soursop shake is more than okay to me.

Ah the grainy texture of a soursop.  Awesome

The Bronx Zoo: More Pictures, and More Jerks...Oh My! (Part II)

I do not know what's worse, the fact that I said there was a Part I and now have to force myself to post a Part II to this blog post, or the fact that I am too lazy to go remove "Part I" from the other title and leave you with nothing.

It's too late now, I already started writing...::sigh::

Really I only have a few more pictures to share and some captions to read.  Without further nonsensical ramblings -

The Bronx Zoo: With Lions, Tigers and Davids...Oh My...Glob? What? (Part I)

I'll explain!

There's so much wrong with that blog title and I'll tell you why...soon-ish.

First, I would like to say that going to the Bronx Zoo for opening time is the best.  I'm sure it's even better going during the week but we do what we can, when we can.

Some of the animals are fairly active and not lazing about in that hot ass midday sun or napping after lunch, and the Zoo grounds were just an entirely different experience for me.

Which also leads me to mention that Membership is also hella' awesome (do people still say 'hella'', by the way?).  Pesky lines are mostly eradicated and 10% at the gift shop is 10% at the gift shop.  Hey man, it's better than 0%.  Why go to a gift shop though with all things tourist trap? I'll tell you why...soon-ish.

For once, in the few times I have been to the zoo, I enjoyed myself.  I enjoyed walking around at ease, the cool air and the lack of wild animals people crowding me like the plague.  It was no surprise then that when we were still jaunting around there at around 3 p.m., annoyance took over when the zoo became packed with some rude jerks.

However, let us not think on the negative but instead focus on the thousand plus pictures I took whilst there.

Well, I wouldn't want to torture neither you nor myself with thousands of pictures but here's a sneak peek at the adventure the HOchieS enjoyed on Saturday morning (click the pictures to enlarge):

This Saturday Morning felt like Toco, with more waterfalls.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Momma's in the House.

And the one next door..., the two in Tennessee, the one in Bim, the one in Crooklyn, the countless others in Trinidad and the world too, let us not forget the world.

Fortunes and Pearls

More often than not, I get to suffer the abuse of fortunes from fortune cookies I consume.

Recently, it has made been abundantly clear that I am to be a slave in life, and to life.

According to the cookies I am or perhaps, just perhaps the cookies know what they're talking about!

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. Hare, Hare, Hare.

Happy May and good luck, peoples.

Hope it's a good one, not too hot...and not at all full of crap.

The Great JDG Exchange of 2011

Last year ended like a maniac.

A brutal Winter may have wrapped up finally but a brutal Spring has taken its place.

There are countless storms brewing, humid temperatures to endure and hot train cars to complain about.

Tourists are milling on the streets of NYC, gawking and snickering and pointing.  I know they do not know me, but in my heart I feel as though they're just here to laugh at my sad little face as I stumble to work every morning.

Spring's in the air, and in our noses and eyes - allergies are hellish, to say the least.

But you know what else this April has brought?

Doctor Who.

And you know what the Doctor loves? Jammie Dodgers.

Jammie Dodgers may temporarily confuse and ultimately not save the Universes from Daleks but they do seem rather yummy.  So it got H1 and I thinking...

Are they?

And where can we get some?

When ideas brew, you run with it and if those ideas require a Call to Arms for a Jammie Dodger Trade, you listen to your brain!

There are two lessons The HOchieS learned from this exercise:

1. Somewhere out there, there's a friend willing to help some sisters out.  If you're lucky, you get two friends who are willing to help some sisters out.

2. Goldfish crackers are apparently a precious commodity in the U.K.

And with that, a pact was formed and The Great Jammie Dodgers/Goldfish Exchange of 2011 has begun!

We received our Jammies today...

The "Z" shape I made was unintentional.

Nightmares in the Garden

In what has to be the shortest scheduled time for a new, regular season layout, I give to you a page full of nightmares.

There was no love going on for oddly-coloured orchids with summery blue backgrounds or white blinding bamboo landscapes.  Or whatever.

Well, I still love you, weirdo cacophonous coloured orchids but you have weirded out your welcome.

Instead, I will present you with my recent nightmarish find in the garden.  There are a quite a few of them I discovered the eerily, chilly, still day but for now, an exuberant hello is in order for a very...ded fairy.

Perhaps it is a goodbye that needs to be issued?

Considering there are no such things are fairies anyway, there's no need to concern yourself with the Halfing adorning the new, new Spring layout for 2011.

P.S.: For some reason though, I have the urge to tell you - Don't even blink.

Happy Easter!

Today we will spend the day hunting for eggs, eating stuffing and having a tea party.  Mind you, these things may not necessarily be in that order.

We may even eat a peep or two.

Oh, stop you two peeps, with your quizzical bewilderment looks.  You know very well that's what's going to happen today.

NO!

Gerard Smith of Tv on the Radio passed away today.

Rest in peace, man with a whole lot of funk and a whole lot of soul.

I'm enjoying your bass lines so prevalent throughout this latest album and I'm sorry you were gone so young and in such a gut wrenching way.

I was afforded the opportunity of seeing your band just one week ago today at their first show at Radio City Music Hall, and you were missed.

You will be missed.

=,(

What You Need

All you need in life sometimes is some home-cooked curried crab and dumplings.

Plus a cold one

Bye Winter...Sort Of

Midway through April and we are bidding farewell to Winter.  While that should have been done some weeks ago, it certainly has still been very ass cold around here.

A day or two were sprinkled in with some mild weather but winter coats have still not gone away.

The upcoming week may look promising and many of the trees have begun to show signs of bloom.  With that, we bid adieu to the snow and ice-covered ground, burying our fallen pine tree branch.

We're saying hello to two purple orchids garnering a conversation about all the people staring, about sunlight, about the rain showers, and the birds that are singing happily in the distance.

A Little Bit Dangerous

There are some bands that take the stage, and immediately the sound hits you hard and you know it's going to be great.

TV on the Radio did it better.

I love the RCMH banner! Next time I'll get a proper picture.

At The NY Botanical Gardens: The Orchid Show! (a.k.a "Trini Bush")

Today, The HOchieS ventured to the Boogie-Down Bronx to visit the NY Botanical Gardens' The Orchid Show on Broadway.

I do not remember if I have ever been to the Gardens.  Really! Not sure at all... and that's...weird.  But there's much to do in our fair state and I've done not even 1/4 of it all.

Anyway, with membership passes, we packed up and got there at about 10:45 a.m.

It was a cool day, the Gardens open at 10 a.m. on Sundays and it was already crowded.  This is just a mental note to ourselves that people flock to the Gardens regardless of whether we think we're beating them to it on 'early' on a Sunday morning.  Don't you people sleep in some? No? I sure could have slept some more this morning.

Well, whatever it was, it was crowded (and still no cool kids at the exhibit! No one had a 3DS to do Streetpass with me.  Psh.) but manageable, and rather lovely.

Except of course, these things may be exotic to some but to us HOchieS, the Orchid Show and some of many of the greenery we saw are so commonplace and plentiful in Trinidad that we were not as 'wowed' as we probably could have been.  We lived there for so long, and had so many of these particular plants and trees along with fruit trees in our backyard that, well... meh.  Yeah, meh.

It was certainly beautiful and the Botanical Gardens designers, and staff did a wonderful job of the Exhibit but yeah, meh.  I know, we are awful.

And yet, I still managed to take 400 pictures there.

With that said, here are some pictures of flowers for all to enjoy!

(All pictures were taken by H1 and/or myself.  While I will spare you the 400+, this post is coming up bazoobs.  And by that, I mean there are still a lot of them to see):

Silly me, these aren't flowers!

Oooooo

Not the Glamour Shots I Had Hoped For

Yeah, so I wanted to some how incorporate pictures of Judge Magister Gabranth into my earlier post about my concert almost one week ago... (wow! It's just about Friday already again.  Awesome).

Unfortunately, I could find no way to write him in, so instead I'll just call this my photography post...the one where I use the macro lens to do stuff.

And FAIL!

Observations of the Past 2 Weeks

Do you see those trailers right there?

Those trailers contain the DNA of Matt Bomer or Tim DeKay.  Or possibly, Willie Garnet.  Maybe...Tiffany Thiessen?

Or even...! None of those people?

Whatever or whoever was in there, those were trailers set up for the filming of one of my favourite current shows, White Collar.

From NYC to Distant Worlds

I have partaken in some extraordinary nerd-ish behaviour in my time.

Of these...uh, exploits...there are three major ones that I can readily think of.

1.  2001 - I went to Otakon.  It was there I stood in line at a signing to meet Kawamoto Toshihiro. He signed my Cowboy Bebop wall scroll, scrawling his name all over Jet's hand (because no one respects Jet! except me?); and I made Kawamoto-san's hand smell bad for having to touch and pin down my unruly wall scroll as it threatened to make a mess of the table.

It was not my fault the wall scroll smelt of ass.  I bought it in Baltimore and who knows what was going on that weekend but the entire downtown area surrounding the convention center smelt terrible.

I always "jest" that I probably made the poor man ill because he had cookies on the table.  I'm sure he ate the cookies with his bad-smelling hand.

Zarnyx: The Nintendo 3DS Edition

I have had the 3DS for just shy of an entire week.

I did not attend the Best Buy Union Square NYC Launch Party, I canceled my pre-order on Amazon and opted instead, to pre-order the thing at damned Nintendo World in NYC.

It was the wrong move to make and I knew as much a week before the blasted thing launched.

I got zero swag from Nintendo World, and just about as much fanfare on the Monday - one day after its U.S. launch.

The girl who rang me up at 9 a.m. was less than enthusiastic.

While I was not impressed by the swag anyway (sour grapes! sour grapes! - no really, the case would have been awesome but everything else was mostly 'meh'), it still sucks to get nothing when I'm used to the opposite.

But that's okay.

I love my Aqua Blue.  For the most part.

Zarnyx, the Aqua Blue Nintendo 3DS.

Obsessions of the Week(s): 2/26/2011 - 4/01/2011

Man, I'm really slack with these obsessions.  And slacker still, as you shall soon see!

Bird's Custard

Good for regular custard eating, for making a wagom full of pamcakes, and for The HOchieS' all round well-being and happiness: Bird's Custard should be a Crown Jewel and placed in the Tower of London. There, I said it.

The April Fool is Not Me: Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. Hare, Hare, Hare.

It's not like I forgot or anything to do the monthly ritual.  Heh.  Heheheheheh.  Eh heh. Hmm.

See, what happened was, I figured we could do things a little bit different because who knows if Luck is a Prankster? If I were to wish everyone good luck on the first day of the month of April, would it count? Or would it be an April's Fool joke?

So today instead, on April 2nd, I'm wishing everyone the best of luck this month.

I think about you guys.