plan b

criminal trials always remind me of the tv series "the practice," about a criminal defense law firm whose famous tactic was "plan b" - where they would accuse the prosecutor's star witness (usually the victim's close friend/relative) of committing the heinous crime. their brutal cross-examination of the fragile witness would often shed reasonable doubt on their client (and sometimes even reveal the true perpetrator of the crime!).

anyways, i spent the entire day yesterday in the courtroom, assisting our attorneys with setting up some technology for the opening of a new trial. although the brunt of the day was setting up computers and then babysitting it while the attorneys wrapped up jury selection in a different room, watching the opening statements by the attorneys was a great experience. instead of the old, crotchety judge, we had a pretty funny (albeit still old) judge, a deputy decked out in '70s style suit (too many yellows and greens), and a boring female prosecutor whose opening argument was interrupted twice by a false fire alarm. my personal highlight was when the deputy acidently kicked and unplugged the projector during our attorney's opening, and i had to crounch and run past the jurors and in front of the judge to turn the project back on, all while the firm partner was giving his argument!

i've never seen myself as a litigator, but i've discovered that i do love making arguments. howeverm, arguing over dinner about how blockbuster.com is better than netflix (it really is) is a big step from arguing in court with someone's life on the line. i guess we'll have to see how i feel about litigation after law school.

after work yesterday, i was pooped (i know pooped is funny, but it's exactly how i felt). tuesdays are wednesdays with my sun-thurs schedule, and i had worked nearly 36 hours between sunday, monday and tuesday. even though most of the day was spent reading a book while waiting in the courtroom, i was still wiped out by the time i got home. i'm just glad i forced myself to go to bed early and get a good night's sleep.

stuffed...

whew... an unordinarily long day of work today, being it was a sunday after a slow week. i was hoping to catch simpson's tonight, but it looks like i'll have to make it out to gerald's place to watch it from his hdtv dvr.

anyways, since i worked such a long day i decided to treat myself to a shwarma at mahmoun's (especially since it's been over a week since i last ate there). finding myself still hungry, i headed over to joe's pizza on carmine st. i've declared demarco's as my favorite pizza, but wanted to compare the two slices at least one more time. although joe's usually wins the quantity contest, today it was a landslide as the guy at the counter gave me two slices, as they were both a bit undersized (but about the same size as a demarco's slice). i ate one slice immediately, confirming my preference to demarco's. the other slice was supposed to go in the fridge for later, but I finished it on the way home (who was i kidding? like i could walk two blocks without eating the slice). suffice to say, i am currently stuffed...

quick note - last night i had dinner with calvin and his wife gladys at jasmine, an excellent thai restaraunt in the upper east side, and i run into mark - my friend who threw the big new year's bash! and one of the people we were having dinner with went the med school where mark is going now (cal and gladys are both soon to be doctors)! what a small world!

review - the london below

now that i haven't been surfing the web at home, i've picked up a couple of fantasy novels to kill my web-less evenings. sometimes i forget what my life was like before high-speed internet, but i used to be an avid reader. last night i finished neverwhere by neil gaiman. i've always been a big fan of his sandman series, and his other novel, american gods, blew me away. neverwhere was not bad, but it fell short of his previous work. maybe it's because the alternate reality theme is a bit played out, or that i just didn't identify with the main character, but i just wasn't impressed. hopefully the series i'm reading now, his dark materials will live up to expectations.

bonus review - call me a sissy but i have been enjoying gavin degraw's chariot. besides the title track, i recommend belief, crush, nice to meet you anyway and more than anyone.

nuts!

bye bye brownies, hello healthier snacks! last year there was no question which one i would choose from the machine below:

in 2006, i vow to pass on the peanut m&ms, my all-time favorite candy, in favor of the mixed nuts (with the occasional plain m&m). aside - i took this pic one day after foregoing the peanut m&ms, getting a huge handful of nuts, but not a single m&m. i don't expect an equal m&m to nut ratio, or even m&m to raisin, but come on, look at the jar! how could i not get one piece of chocolate? i was furious and decided to share my wrath with the world. thankfully i calmed down, and now i have a much less vengeful use for this photo.

so, back to the nuts. as another resolution of mine is to take more pictures, i set up my camera at work and experiment with different setting while photographing/eating. unfortunately, i ran out of nuts before i got the picture right...

see the rest of the set here.

the brownie stops here!

last week this would have referred to my brownie pit stops at 1PM, 3PM and 6PM, sometimes replaced by a cookie or rice krispie treat. however, starting now i am taking a the anti-brownie stand against the at-work snacking of these delicious, tasty, oh-so-good baked goods.

from now on, i will resist buying another brownie just to raise my lunch tab over $6.50 to stamp my frequent buyers card. i will turn away when we receive a gift package from one of our many clients or vendors. when a co-worker brings in baked goods for whatever reason, i will politely decline. even if it's fresh krispy kreme!

in addition to the end of the at-work snacking era, i also vow to be much better about exercising. with the help of a personal trainer, i've had some of the best gym workouts of my life recently, but i pledge to go to the gym more than once a week. i also plan to start running again, once i get a new pair of running shoes. no more broken folding chairs! never again will i experience the humiliation of having my pants button pop while sitting! this will not be me!

crazy bored

they've got nothing for me to do at work today, but it's still too busy
for me to blatantly sit around posting to my blog... yesterday chih
called the cable company and learned that our internet connection will
not be fixed until next thursday (shake a fist)! at least he got them
to not charge us going back to november.

at least i can read the books i just received from amazon today: his
dark materials trilogy and neverwhere.

review - mecha anime turned weird

i recently finished watching the entire neon genesis evangelion series. back in college, i loved this anime. i remember walking from my dorm to movie image every weekend to rent anime movies, and dubbing them using my own vcr and the vcr i would borrow from the building. i slowly built up a small collection of anime series, but evangelion was always my favorite.

watching it a second time, i relived the fascination i remembered from the past, as well as the disappointment i had forgotten. it starts off great, fast paced, cool mecha, funny characters, but slowly evolves into a psychological analysis of the protagonist. reading the wiki article reveals that the creator may have been attempting some deep symbolism, but i just wanted to see cool robots fighting stuff.

overall good, but i can no longer highly recommend it as it left me wanting more (and not in the good way).

wow, 2006

every new year i think the same thing: "i can't believe it's already ___! it's ___ and what do i have to show for myself! i'm already (____ - 1978) years old, without a career, no family plans, still paying rent, who knows where i'm headed! why couldn't i have done more in (____ - 1)?!?!"

then i calm down, reflect on who i am, and give thanks for everything i've been blessed with. in 2005 my family and friends all had good health, i was surrounded by great people, and i continued to learn, grow and mature as a person. looking back, i can't ask for more than that. i was thinking of doing a 2005 highlight reel, but i realized that every single day was a highlight, even if i didn't realize it then.

for 2006, i wish for everyone's continued good health, that my relationshiips with friends and family stay strong, and that i continue to have opportunities to make myself a better person.

thank you to everyone who touched my life in 2005, and i look forward to an even better year in 2006!

if you haven't seen it yet

hilarious - lazy sunday (free video download on itunes)

this video reminded me of another funny site - crying while eating. i think my sister actually sent in a video but i guess it never got posted. i think afshin is my favorite.

also, if you're looking for chill new music, my sister recommended james blunt. the single "you're beautiful" is nice. especially for a ballad containing expletives.

2005 --> 2006

even though i'm here at work on this holiday monday, i had a really great new year's weekend. here's how it went down:

thursday:
i took time off of work to help devy take care of final moving arrangements. her super shuttle to the airport was over an hour late, but thankfully she made it ok and had an uneventful flight home. it was really sad to see her go, but my sadness is outweighed by her sheer happiness of the thought of going back to california. i'll miss her a lot, but i'm glad she's much happier now.

i was a bit sad at work, but in the evening my spirits were lifted when i had dinner with my friend and former co-worker suzanne. her mother joan made a wonderful lamb dinner for us, after coctails with the whole family (grandma ruth, jay, josh, danielle and alexander, plus our friend paul). it was really really nice to be in their company, and we had a great time. after dinner josh put alexander to bed, i lost all my cheerios in texas hold'em but dominated the boggle scene. i'll try to root out some pictures of alexander for everyone, he is absolutely the cutest, most adorable baby boy i know!

friday:
worked for a few hours and had demarco's pizza for dinner. it was recommended to me by tien, who originally heard of it on sliceny. anyways, it was good. i think this could be my favorite pizza in the city so far. no, it is my favorite pizza in the city. try it. i certainly want to try it again.

saturday:
i started watching full metal alchemist, which i got a few weeks ago but never started. for lunch gerlad and i picked up cheese at murray's, and lobster bisque at the lobster place. i was excited to try it, but the bisque was a little too pureed and had an aftertaste that i couldn't put my finger on. nonetheless, still pretty good. after watching sky high (corny but enjoyable, with bruce campbell, lynda carter and some kids in the hall playing supporting roles) we went grocery shopping at chelsea market for our new year's halibut dinner with janet.

for the actual countdown, tien invited us to a house party thrown by mark, one of eric tam's good friend who i met at his wedding. the place was unbelievable, and it was one of the most festive parties i've been to in a long time. thanks again mark!

sunday:
still no internet at home, so i checked my email at the apple store. they've got a really comfortable auditorium to sit in, and the classes are pretty cool. too bad yesterday it was the digital photography/iphoto class i've seen three times already. for lunch i met with gerald and janet at pho nha trang in chinatown. pretty good pho but i think the best i've had is still in westminster.

after lunch i felt like something sweet, so gerald led us to the chocolat michel cluizel inside the abc carpet and home store. we all got to sample a few chocolates, and gerald and i both left with our own assortments of delicious treats. afterwards, we tried to catch match point, but because the next three showings were sold out we ended up watching munich instead. all of us thought it was so-so, and definitely a little too long.

for dinner, gerald and i had burgers from blue 9, which were the best burgers i've had so far in nyc (only because i can't specifically recall the burgers at shake shack, which were tasty as well). from blue 9, we walked to bua for drinks with monica and her friends from out of town. i had a great time trying to convince one of her friends to move to new york, but i'm not sure if she bought it.

overall, this was a great weekend to kick off the new year. i got to spent a lot of time with friends - some i see all the time, some i hadn't seen for a while, and some i just met. good pizza, good burgers, good friends, good times.