at some point in 2004 i decided to actually make myself a website.  created a template and embraced CSS and used a not so friendly template version of wordpress.  once i got everything working and wordpress all settled.. i never finished.

the other night i made my kitten her very own blog. decided to go ahead and give AdSense a holler, i had never bothered before because about 3 of you actually come to my website (hi guys..). however part of AdSense policy is they don’t give accounts to unfinished websites. I’m going to be putting AdSense on sachi’s website, and figured might as well put one on mine, i figure after 3-4 years of you guys reading my blog i might make enough to finally make a $100.00 check and cash in!

i have now completely updated all the content on my website. updated my theme and made some fixes (but i did this a week or two ago), added a contact form, links (while that’s still unfinished at least i started it), a brief gallery(ill link my crappy gallery some other way), my resume, and a simple home page.

holy shit guys, i finished my website. finally.  now its time to redesign it!! haha.

i have a new scottish fold kitten named sachi!  view pictures and read about her here.

born and raised in hawaii, spam musubi is a classic treat that ive turned many of my round eye spam fearing friends on to

if you’ve been to hawaii you are familiar with spam musubi. everyone has their own method of making it, since my friends enjoy my version i’ve decided to share it. i see a lot of people who cook their spam in shoyu (soy sauce) but i prefer using a marinade. i don’t usually make it with tamago (sweet egg) but sometimes i do.

Ingredients:

• 1 can spam (i use 25% less sodium)
• 1 pack sushi nori (dried seaweed)
• 3 cups of cooked japanese sticky rice (sushi rice or sticky medium grain)
• 1 cup shoyu (i use to prefer kikkoman or aloha shoyu, aloha has a much higher sugar concentration, kikkoman is salty)
  

  i have gotten several “2 cups???” response. i modified it to say 1 cup. i generally use 1-2 cups simply because when im done marinating the spam i do not throw the marinade away. I will generally use it once or 2x again for either beef and chicken (i will toss it after i put chicken in it).

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (use more if you prefer a sweeter soy base)
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 bunch of scallions diced
• 1-2 tablespoons ginger shredded
• 1-2 teaspoon sesame seed oil
• 1 serrano pepper minced (if you don’t like spicy don’t use this)

Instructions (marinade & spam prep):

1. In a medium sized bowl mix Shoyu, sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved.
2. add garlic, scallions, ginger, pepper, and sesame seed oil to the marinade and stir to mix together.
3. slice spam into 10 slices one way then cut across other way to form 20 square pieces.
4. add spam to bowl and allow it to marinate for at least 4-6 hours.
5. fry spam in pan.

Instructions (tamago):

1. beat 4 eggs in bowl, add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar (or as much or little as you like for taste) .
2. fry egg in pan with oil, don’t scramble or overcook.
3. pat oil off egg and chop into squares similar to the spam size.

Instructions (creating the musubi):

Some people use the actual spam can to shape the rice and spam but i find that messy. i have on a few occasions just used my hand, also messy. you can easily online or at most asian supermarkets buy a “spam musubi” maker. it looks like a rectangle. I have both a wooden and plastic one and tend to use the plastic one more as it just seems to be easier and faster. some makers are as large as 1 piece of spam, some as large as 2. i have the large one. all this really does is press the rice into compact rectangle shape.

1. use spam musubi maker to make enough rice squares as you have spam. some people use a lot of rice others less. i like to use about as much rice as equal to or double the size of the spam.
2. cut the nori to whatever size you like. i prefer my nori to be the same width as my musubi.
3. place rice square on nori, then the spam, then the egg. “roll” the stacked musubi to be wrapped.

i am by no means a chef or pasty chef of any kind but i do love to cook and bake nonetheless.  i have owe’d joel "obligation cupcakes" for some time now and finally decided to make them.  we decided on red velvet cupcakes with a whipped butter cream cheese frosting.

red velvet makes me think of christina so in honor of her and of course joel since they are his obligation cupcakes, i took some pictures to share.

Okay yah so — i suck at this blog thing apparently.  Every time i come up with something i want to blog about i never do it.  I really need to discipline myself to take out a few minutes just to do it.  birthday resolution. anyway..

everyone has been posting simpsonized versions of themselves around lately and i’ve even played with the tool myself, but after my friend Nina made one of herself and Chad and put it on her blog, the likeness was so great to see i decided to copy and do the same so i could share with her.

easiest way to share.. is to post here. this is joel and i as simpsons.

so that’s it, you try it and share

i usually get my hair done once a month.  sometimes ill lag and i miss a month.  this time around it took me almost 4 months to get my ass back in the salon.  theres just been a lot going on in my day to day life, finding the time or energy to go in was just a bigger task at the time than i needed. 

its autumn about..soon? presently i have tricolor highlights with my own black hair serving as low lights.  its generally really pretty, with a mix of a blonde, brown and plum. I only highlight/color the hair on the top of my head, the rest of my hair stays untouched and black, by just dying the top, it pretty much gives the illusion that my entire head of hair is done.  My hair has been this way for over a year and i decided i wanted to change it up.  with the seasons changing and with christina gone, i needed and wanted some red in my life, and to darken up the look.  as i was talking to danielle (my amazing stylist of 10 years) we decided to keep the brown we use, its a bit of copper color almost, and to keep the plum purple.  i try to always use permanents because semi perms and vibrants never last and all they do is make more mess than i care to deal with.. i miss my purple hair but i don’t miss the upkeep. we changed the blonde to a red. a beautiful vibrant fiery red.

it looks amazing. my hair looks like autumn and in the sunlight or direct light, it looks like fire.  with a mixture of a fiery red with a darker red, no more blonde, the brownish coppery color now against the red almost makes some of the hair look orange and the bleeding into the plum is just georgeous.. oh yah and the standard lowlights of my black hair.  every time i look in the mirror i think of christina. i miss her big blue eyes and red brown hair keeping me company everyday at lunch.

hair tech? oh yah.. i’m getting there.  so as i’m sitting down, my hair colored and trimmed another stylist walks by and says “that color is amazing. what is it”. Danielle proceeds to speak in a technical language i found fascinating.  I thought to myself “this is what people must feel like all the time when my friends and i are talking”.  They talked about how my hair is a level 2, they talked a lot about numbers 20, 30 and 40 and what you use. and the colors? they don’t have names, just numbers.  “8F with a mix 6E, this is a 5F and a 4E.”  “Wow you used 40? i thought 20″ “I have to, with Level 2 hair think about it, she needs 6 levels of Lift not only that but she has asian hair. i mean feel it.  you put 40 on my hair and my hair will fry off.  touch her hair. it still feels silky.” “Wacka wacka wacka…”  After calling a few more stylists over to discuss the method, levels, weird NumberLetter names for colors… I realized i was the subject of hair tech, and i loved being witness to a new kind of geek, all of its own, and i had no idea what anything meant.

//j

i love pedicures.  i love foot massages.  i like having my toenails painted.  feet are infinately cuter when they are all dolled up.  a while ago i went in for my monthly pedicure and the girl asked me if she could give me a flower on my toe.  i said yes.  she did a really good job and ever since, everytime i get my feet done, regardless of if its a different place or different lady, they always ask me if i want a flower. the latest flower i got is my favorite.  she did a really good job and i liked her style and detail.  she even put on this cute little gem bead for the center of my flower instead of using nail polish.

rock on toesies.

okay so its not exactly brand new.  last year at the end of may i ordered rays wheels volk racing te37 16″.  I purchased them through Upgrade Motoring and in the process met a really cool guy named Glenn Kowta.  It would begin an almost year long email exchange! The size, model, fitment and color of the wheels made them a special order straight from rays in japan.  true jdm i guess.  they said it would take about 3 months for them to come in but i felt they were worth the wait.  3 months later and they’re still not in!  they offered me a different model of volk racing white wheels but i declined and said I would continue to wait for my te37’s to arrive.  It would turn out that, they had accidentally placed the order for the other wheels (the ones they offered while i was still waiting for the te37’s).  It would then become another 3 month wait.  A total of 6 months pass by and Glenn informs me “your wheels are here!” with numerous emails and phone exchanges.. it still took me a bit of time to get them as I was soo busy at work, i kept not having the time to arrange shipping.  finally out of the kindness of Glenn’s big heart, he shipped them to me for free because he felt bad about the initial mixup and long wait.  They sat in my living room through most of February.. and March.. and April..  I finally took them to joel’s around May and they continued to sit until… June 10, 2006.

Thanks to the generosity of both joel and gene of jasper performance i was able to get a set of maxxis ma-z1 victra’s. here are some interesting facts about my wheels:

Material is 6061 aircraft grade aluminum. This material is hot forged. 1st forging process is done with pressure of 5,000 kilograms per square centimeter. 2nd forging process is a slow process with 3,500 kilograms per square centimeter. The lip is also forged to 3,500 kilograms per square centimeter. This allows the wheel to have less material than other wheels, but have more strength and durability. The excess material is machined off (to tolerance of 1/100 of a millimeter). Powder coating and clear coating is done by a special proprietary process to ensure long lasting quality and durability.

each wheel is 11.2 lbs each.  for those of you unaware.. that translates into “really fucking light” which further translates into less unsprung weight and that is most definitely a good thing. the car feels lighter and a lot more responsive. yay.

Yah yah yah… so its been a while.  A few things to note.

• Went to Napa and Sonoma Valleys for the first time.  Had an amazing time.
• Became a bridesmaid and found a lifelong friend i adore!
• Threw a successful BBQ – My BBQ’s are always delicious food fests
• Installed drapes for both my windows and my doorless closet (it looks like a purple theater!)
• Proud Owner of a 42″ Panasonic HDTV Plasma TV (it was a christmas gift from Joel)
• Saw Cirque De Soleil: Ka in Las Vegas and it is officially my favorite Cirque show.
• I’m still employed at CBA… Erik ditched me, we’re even now!

Holy shit I have done virtually nothing so far in 2006.

Balls.

yah so.. i kept wanting to update a post but i wanted to update the pictures along with the posts.. so i finally have all the pictures now so ill actually.. make a few extra posts with pictures!

guess i should fix my gallery too.

its been a pretty damn busy time since my last post so ill make it easy!

• overcame stomach flu
• saw coldplay live at verizon amphitheater
• celebrated my birthday with great friends
• will missed my birthday because he was carjacked due to his other crappy friends
• reactivated my wow account
• realized that wow still isn’t fun
• I’m still not any nicer. i still hate everyone
• started my japanese class
• learned and memorized all my hiragana characters
• capable of writing japanese words and sentences phonetically
• bought a new easel that doesn’t suck
• finished sam’s painting
• bought dungeon siege 2 to play with ppl i like
• capable of utilizing student discounts
• bought a new tumi bag for schoolbooks
• cut down drastically on caffeine
• eating a lot more healthy
• hung out with my sister while she visited for labor day weekend
• have 2 new friends i really like that are female
• still waiting for my wheels to come in from japan
• cleaned out my tivo and added a ton of new shows for fall lineup
• completely caught up on old tivo shows
• still hate driving in monday morning traffic from irvine
• joel now owns 3 pairs of jeans he wears regularly
• bryans moving out
• i like my life
• mom wong went in for surgery to get her gall bladder removed
• tiff gave me gir for my birthday
• hoping for new action/adventure or rpg multiplayer games to be released and not suck

so. thats kinda it. in no particular order. now i need to make a list of things i need to accomplish. pictures will be up soon.