An Evening Out

It's an evening out with BaBa Lee at the Brazilian steakhouse. Good times, good times.

Christmas Delight

If you've been following my trials and tribulations of late then you'll know that I've been resurrecting my 1st generation PSP. I even tracked down the memory stick and everything to get it back up and running.

And then, and then...

A surprise from Mr. Lee on Christmas Day -- the new PS Vita AND the latest Lumines game!

It's such a beautiful piece of gaming -- SO much lighter than my PSP dinosaur and I have to say that the touch typing on this thing is better than with the iPad.

Ok and now the downside -- but if you've ever had any Sony gaming device then you'll know what I'm about to gripe about -- the proprietary memory!

Ughhhh! Ok, I understand that they're trying to ward off piracy and to also make extra -- EXTRA --moola so you'd expect that with the purchase of the PS Vita that they'd throw you a bone and include a dinky 4GB card to get you started. Right? But, no. There were no bones to be thrown.

And so I've only been able to update the software and stare at it because I can't do jack squat without the memory card -- I can't even play Lumines or surf the inna-net. What the pho?!

So, yesterday, I figured that I'd stop by Target after work to pick up a card, but they had none in stock -- neither did Best Buy or Gamestop. Again, what the pho?! This is a reason why I hardly ever shop at brick-and-mortar stores...they never have things I need in stock.

When I got back home, I did what I should've done in the first place -- order from Amazon w/ Prime and with 20% off.

Expected arrival is this Saturday. The wait is killing me.

PS. I pronounce Lumines as LU-MEENS. Apparently, it's the incorrect way. Oh well.

A Lee Holiday

Here's another blast from the comic past :)

Hope you all have a merry merry Xmas and a happy new year!

New Fave Band: The Floating Heads

electro // pop // rock // by jessica sun lee + leo white

It was cold. I was hunkered down for a night of figure sketching when I got the call:

"Let's check out some bands over at the Radio!" Mr. Lee said.
"Uhhh...but I'm all settled and warm right now..." I whined.
"Come on -- it'll be fun!" Mr. Lee continued.
"Ughhh...ok, ok. Fine, fine. Let's do this," I relented.

It was freaking ass cold outside, but I'm so glad that I decided not to succumb to lame-ness by staying in. I did get several good sketches in so all was not lost on that front.

Three bands played that night and The Floating Heads were my fave by far.

The lead singer/guitarist Jessica Sun Lee was cute, funny, and I loved her voice. Definitely reminded me a bit of Sneaker Pimps and Ladyhawke.

Note: Not counting Jessica, Mr. Lee and I were the only other Asians in the house....as usual :P

Winter Day Family Meal

MaMa Chan and BaBa Chan cooked up a storm: steamed chicken, steamed fish, steamed eggs, roast pork, rice noodles, veggies stir-fry, and (not shown) watercress soup.

Winter Day Family Meal, a photo by littolillian on Flickr.

I had no idea that yesterday was one of the biggest and most important holidays for the Chinese peoples. But, it was. And, poop on me for being late to dinner because the family was waiting. D'oh.

According to Wikipedia:

The Dōngzhì Festival or Winter Solstice Festival (Chinese: 冬至; pinyin: Dōngzhì; literally "the Arrival of Winter") is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians during the Dongzhi solar term (winter solstice) on or around December 22 when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest. It occurs on Friday, December 21, 2012. 

The origins of this festival can be traced back to the yin and yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in. The philosophical significance of this is symbolized by the I Ching hexagram fù (復, "Returning").

According to my mom and aunt, it's a bigger deal than Lunar New Year.

Now I know.

Old Sweater, New Sweater

Here's a blast from the comic past. It's quite apropro, no?

I still have no idea what to get for the man. Of course, like every year, I wait until the weekend before Christmas to do my shopping because I generally hate shopping unless it's Hello Kitty-related.

Anyhow, new comic will be back on Monday -- Christmas Eve! :)

End O' December Reading List

Can you believe that I still haven't gotten to these treasures yet? Oiy, what am I doing?!

Anyhow, there are only 5 or so days left in the year...1 or 2 if you believe the Mayan end-of-the-world prediction. So with what little time that's left either way, I'm hoping that I can power through these:

• A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Black Blizzard by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Level Up by Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham
• Animal Crackers by  Gene Luen Yang
• Emitown by Emi Lenox

What's the rush? The fact that there are a couple Derek Kirk Kim books I want to get at :)

So, here's to getting lost and inspired, especially with the nutshit craziness of the holidays -- I mean, I <3 Christmas, but I also hate it at the same time. I mean, Christmas would be perfect if it were exactly like Thanksgiving, but still with the mistletoe, tree, Christmas movie specials, and music...oh, and snow.

*sigh*

If only I ruled the world.

Happy Birthday BaBa Chan!

It was BaBa Chan's birthday over the weekend so I took him out for some Brazilian BBQ. And yes, he is the major inspiration behind BaBa Lee in the comics.

His birthday present? A new TV so he can watch the Celtics and Patriots.

Usually, I take him out to catch a Celtics basketball game, but he didn't want it this year.

"I can't see the game," he said even though we sit pretty dang close to the court. I guess he's not as into the half-time entertainment, crap food, and other shenanigans as I am. Boo.

I also drew him a little comic with some messages in Chinese with much help from Google Translate and what little Chinese I retained from my college course. I think he appreciated it.

Anyhow, happy birthday to BaBa Chan! :)

On Love: Wanting More...

Boys.

Anyhow, pick it up in this week's issue of the Sampan Newspaper in and around Boston :)

PSP Resurrection

This is the first version of the PSP and even tho it's SO tempting to replace it with the PSP Vita, I shall hold off considering that the only game I love to play is Lumines -- even tho there's Electronic Symphony...gahhh!

Anyhow, aside from the games themselves, this now-heavy/clunky 1st generation PSP is still near and dear to my heart considering that my bro and I went to the Best Buy at midnight to wait until the doors opened up at 8AM so that we could be the first to get our grubby hands on it.

Lame? Most definitely.

So now, because it's been so long since I last played, I have to wait for the 16GB memory stick I just ordered to arrive since the old 32MB one is too dang small -- so small that I can't even install the software update.

Anyhow, if I disappear for a bit, you'll know why. It'll be because of this most amazing game ever:

FYI, we were first and second in line. AND I had to jet to my art class right afterward.

Good times, good times.

Official Member of the Offensive Receipt Club

This incident took place over the summer and I shared it with my friends, but I thought I'd bring it back and post it properly here.

Place of Offense: The Hen House (Boston, MA)
Date of Offense: Aug 18, 2012

I wish I'd noticed the details while my Chicken/Waffle Mate and I were at the restaurant, but it wasn't until a few days later when I dug it out of my pocket and looked more closely at it that I did a double-take.

"Is that..?! No...oh shiyat, no they didn't -- oh yes, they did."

What annoyed me the most were three things:

1. My Chicken/Waffle Mate and I were the only Asian patrons in a restaurant with only three other diners. This was around midnight. So, ID-ing us was not at all necessary. We weren't that hard to miss. 
2. You'd hope that fellow people of color would know better. But, obviously not.
3. The chicken and waffle sucked.

But this is indeed proof of official membership into the Offensive Receipt Club.

I'm totally in.

Phone Life

I like using my phone -- except to talk. 'Cuz guess who's the only person to ever call me? Guess! :P

Lucky Peach Magazine, Issue 5: Chinatown

It was a fun-filled weekend and I acquired a LOT of new material to work with. You hang out with a bunch of guys and you're bound to get "inspired." With that being said, the usual comic slated for today will be arriving tomorrow instead.

BUT, I do have an amazing find to share with you all -- Lucky Peach magazine!

I tell you that it was fate that brought this magazine to me. Thanks to the Yume Wo Katare ramen line, Mr. Lee and I were given the chance to noodle around Porter Square Books, an indie bookshop I'd never visited before (what?!). I spotted the Chinatown cover and started leafing through the sucker. So, basically...

Lucky Peach is a quarterly journal of food and writing. Each issue focuses on a single theme, and explores that theme through essays, art, photography, and recipes.

This particular issue was all about Chinese food.

It's got some seriously awesome articles and isn't your typical food periodical -- it's fun and isn't overly focused on recipes, entertaining, gadget reviews and/or how-to do something food-related. It's more about the places, back-stories, and people behind the food. Those are the parts that interest me the most. Plus, I already know that I'm a shiyat cook -- I generally just roast vegetables, make scrambled eggs, and re-heat things. That is my repertoire. 

My favorite articles so far from the issue?

• photo compilation of how chow mein looks around the world. Like, Mozambique serves chow mein? Really? Really. I love stuff like this. When Mr. Lee and I were in the Bahamas a few years back, we wanted to see what Bahamian Chinese fast food was like. FYI it sucked.
• behind-the-scenes look into the Asian produce world -- from the farmers to how it gets into the supermarkets and then sold.
• a rant on walnut prawns -- which, by the way, I <3 eating as filthy and as disgusting it may be prepared.

I can't wait to read about other food in upcoming issues. At $12 a pop, it is a bit steep, but considering that I don't subscribe to anything else, I'll afford meself this small luxury.

Check it out if you can -- it's published by McSweeney’s, a publishing company based in San Francisco, CA.

PS. Does anyone else hate themselves after eating at Yume Wo Katare? I like my pork fat but jeezus kriste.

PF Chang...really?

This is no joke.

After my lion dance shenanigans in Chinatown the other week, a group of tourists actually asked me that. Granted, there is a PF Chang's a few blocks away -- which I don't understand -- but if you're in Chinatown and you want some Chinese food that's really good and won't bust your wallet, then you should really go no further I would think.

But, hey, to each their own.

The Only Batgirl I Care About...Cassandra Cain!

"I don't kill. But I don't lose, either."

In the world of superhero comics, it's rare that there be any major character that sorta, kinda looks like me -- that I know of anyway. Usually, the super hero ladies are blonde, super boobed-out, and prefer to fight in a bikini top and G-string. Which is perfectly fine, but it's not something I can quite identify with.

Hence, my comic book tastes gravitating toward Sunday comics (i.e., Fox Trot, Get Fuzzy, The Boondocks) and autobiographical graphic novels (i.e., Optic Nerve, Persepolis).

Anyhow, during a trip to the comic book shop awhile back where I was waiting for my Comic Book Amigo to finish going through the latest Walking Dead issues, I -- for some reason...perhaps out of boredom -- started flipping through an issue of Red Robin. And what greeted me in the opening spread was the above image featuring a kickass lady with short, dark hair -- like me, like me! And, get this -- she had clothes on to boot!

I did a quick search on my phone and found out the following info about her:

Cassandra Cain is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe, one of several who has served as Batgirl, a character in the Batman comic book franchise. Cassandra's backstory presents her as the daughter of assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva (Sandra Wu-San)...Cassandra was the first Batgirl to star in her own ongoing Batgirl comic book series; a Eurasian character who was replaced as Batgirl by Stephanie Brown in a 2009 storyline. She returned in late 2010, where she was now shown working as an anonymous agent of Batman in Hong Kong before adopting the new moniker of Black Bat. Read More >

I still remember that jail cell/lasso scene.

She's Asian AND she's...Batgirl!

I mean, the only other female superhero I ever identified with growing up was Wonder Woman.

For one, it was because of the Lynda Carter TV series I'd catch after school, but the underlying factor was that she had long black hair...like me (at the time).

As a little girl, that meant a lot. Even though Wonder Woman is not Asian, through my 8-year-old eyes, she looked enough like me that she became an honorary ass-kicking, Asian super heroine.

So it's nice to discover many many years later that there exists a fearless comic book hero who I don't have to misappropriate as Asian because she really is one.

As an adult, it still means a lot.

(PS: Dear DC Comics, please bring back Cassandra Cain whether as Batgirl again or as Black Bat. Do it!)

Freeze Frame: KDrama Time

The other week, I pretty much zonked out on this KDrama called 49 Days. I put it on pause and...perfection.

At the Dinner Table

Powerball Dreams

Happy Thanksgiving!

Go Vote!

Old School

Payback

Become a fan on Facebook!

Good Intentions

Ladies, we have good intentions, but if there's one mistake I've made over and over again is 'trimming' my bangs. It's never just a 'trim.' It always ends up as a WTF-did-I-just-do-to-my-hair fiasco.

Jeremy Lin! Jeremy Lin!

Happy New Year