The Missing Piece

Log start: 8:30pm November 27th 2008; Thanksgiving

Just finished the family dinner :D
I'm so full that i can't move... yum... foooood

But one of the things that was missing from the dinner table was the environment, this year it was only my immediate family and my aunt from my mothers side celebrating around the dinner table.

I remember a few years back when i was in my junior year of high school that my whole fathers side of the family would come to my house to enjoy thanksgiving, ooohhh fun times. non-stop arguing between my dad and uncle, my grandma would sit there smiling and slowly chewing food. my mom and two aunts would then talk about my cousin and our achievements around the dinner table stopping once in a while to ease down the argument between my dad and my uncle.
The argument between my dad and uncle isn't something new, they naturally find things to argue about, but that's family, right? :D

Everyone and their combined effort would make everything feel so warm, just like how thanksgiving should feel.

I really do miss that feeling. A lot of my cousins went their seperate ways after getting into college and my 2nd eldest cousin married.

I do miss those days where we used to play chinese poker afterwards while betting pennies and then having a mountain of fruits and dessert afterwards that used to come non-stop out of the fridge...

But this wasn't just limited to thanksgiving, we would do this all of the time during any major holiday season that involved food. And for chinese people, it always involved food :)

I know i didn't have this thought last year because... i don't know why but this year it's just different. I just miss that feeling and hopefully i can do something in the future to get everyone back together.
Maybe in 10 years i can pull out the old phonebook. pull some family-relation cards and get everyone to come together for a nice dinner again.

Tonight was a good night but i know it could of been better.


Every thanksgiving i always think about my grandpa which is up there watching over us. I know he's smiling watching us :)


From the bloated desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer, don't ever lose contact with your family, family is something that will be there through thick and thin, remember your loved ones and cherish every moment you have with your family. Happy Thanksgiving~~

To define a vacation

Log start: 2:51pm November 27th 2008; Thanksgiving

How would you define a vacation? Most people that i meet sit at home, watch tv, play some games, eat some food... but to a college student, that's everyday life!! haha so what would i do that i would consider a vacation?


SLEEP MORE AND EAT MORE! YEAH!!!! I know, it's a stupid way of defining it but that's all there is to it!

What can be more relaxing than eating and sleeping and kicking back on the couch to watch some ASIAN DRAMAS!? YEAH!!! WOOOOOOO


more sleep, more food, no work to worry about... ahhh...

I know there's supposed to be a deeper meaning to Thanksgiving but in this day and time in America, especially in New York, the fastest moving capital of the world. It just doesn't exist anymore im sorry to say :\

Might head out to Starbucks later to grab myself some tasty coffee


From the desk of someone who can't stop eating at the moment,

HakoneDayDreamer, it's not that i forgot the definition, i just don't think it applies today anymore...


Happy Thanksgiving to all my family & friends out there! Today is your day to pig out and gain a few pounds! You can shop it all off on Black Friday tommorow so eat eat eaaaaaaattttttt@@

Original Drink Recipe: Jaiyun aka. Wendy

Log start: 12:43pm November 26th 2008


I named this drink after the girl who first tried it and said "oh my God this is good!"
So i decided to take a sip of my new creation to see if it was really that awesome, and behold :o

it's a really fruity strawberry drink but don't let the fruity strawberry part fool you; this drink has 3 shots in it :D


So to make this drink, in a shaker you add some
1) ice
2) 1 shot of Tequila
3) 1 shot of Rum
4) 1 shot of Triple Sec
5) half a packet of strawberry Crystal Light

shake shake shake shake shake

In a Highball glass with ice, strain the drink into the ice and then top it off with Sprite

and there you go :D


if you make it right and the end result is in a Highball glass, when you hold it up to the light it should have a Sakura-ish pink color which should be a big hit with the ladies ;)

this recipe is still in tuning though because last night i used a whole packet of crystal light and it had a bit of the aftertaste in it so next time i'll try the half packet, enjoy!


From the 19y/o Brian to the future Brian,

HakoneDayDreamer, Brian's first original recipe is amazing :D

"Ain't No Stressin"

Log start: 2:50pm November 25th 2008

So, im done with classes today! One more day of class to go until one of Stony Brook's only breaks begin... One of the things that i've thought about this week goes back to the time where i posted about how time goes so fast.

The title of this blog isn't of my quotes but if i was a little more gangsterish, i think i would say it more. Ain't no stressin.... Why stress yourself, i ask to my self-concious all the time. Is it because you procrastinate a lot and won't get your work done?
See, there are many types of procrastinators, i don't know each type but i can tell you mine. My type of procrastination actually stimulates my mind patterns so i actually produce better work under stress! "Aiya, Brian you're so stupid!"

I know, i tell myself that all the time.

There's a Cantonese saying that is one of my favorite of all time.
The direct translation goes like "Once the bridge enters the port, it will go straight by itself"

it means that you don't need to be a worry wort all of the time, sometimes you just need to relax and go with the flow. Although that quote doesn't guarantee that you hit a few bumps before going straight, and that happens sometimes too. But if you are still alive after those bumps, you're going to be ok. If you sink before that, buy a new boat and rethink your life. LOL.

Although that doesn't mean that you should go into a test without studying... doesn't work that way. You need some general information like... where the port is located, which direction your ship is traveling and etc. If you go into a test blind, you'll just fail. So i still study a bit to get ready xD

Sometimes you just need to relax, go take a nap and watch a few dramas.

Everything will be okay!


From the overly optimistic desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer, it must of been the chicken i just ate at Jasmine... -___-"

Ready to eat!

Log start: 9:02pm November 24th 2008

One of the only few disadvantages of dorming away from home is food. A lot of the people here at Stony Brook would agree with me when i say "there's nothing like a home cooked meal." Eating this junk on campus gets old after.... your fall term of your freshman year, then everything seems to repeat itself everywhere you go.

I'm currently at the point where i can remember all the menu items everywhere... and everywhere is equally as bad. I really envy all of my friends who lived at home for their college life... just a little bit. Living at home is a bad way to spend your college life; it marks the end of your freedom until you graduate and is forced to work in a small cubicle behind a dell computer.

FOOD FOOD FOOD, oh how i long to go back this week for thanksgiving. I can drive to flushing and eat eat eatttttt aiya, i'm going to be a fatter pig. i feel like i can go up and down flushing the four days that i'll be home and just eat everything :D

I just had my share of chicken + broccoli @ the union today, the closest thing on this campus to chinese food would be either at the union or jasmine where there are actually old chinese guys cooking! although they are pretty limited because they have to cook a certain way, but the style... it's almost there and it makes me want to eat at home even more!

And campus food is only so good for so long... at first the freshman are probably like "YEAH! I CAN EAT JUNK FOOD ALL DAY LONG! TAKE THAT!" Well kids, you're going to have some health issues when you graduate... your arteries can only take so much when you eat burgers, fries, chicken wings and pizza everyday...

I hunger for good food... this is probably the first time in my life that i'm craving quality over quantity. i mean, i do have certain criteria for food but what i need now is EXTRA AWESOMEY GOODNESS OMG I WANT TO EAT IT NOW quality.

my saliva glands are overactive everytime i think about home/flushing food.

From the procrastinating desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer, Clare Sun, share some of your girl scout cookies. Please :(

College + ice = idiots

Log start: 5:40pm November 24th 2008

I don't know what's so facinating about ice that college students can look at it for about 10 minutes and come up with a retarded comment like "yep, it's frozen"

Oh really? i always thought that frozen was implied when you say the word "ice." There's a pond in front of my building and it's semi-frozen right now. Today i saw (who i believe to be freshmans) people who were so facinated that on the way to class they would pick up a small piece of rock to throw into the pond.
Like we all didn't do that as kids already... I think that if you're in college and you still throw rocks into a pond of ice ON YOUR WAY TO CLASS, is too idiotic.

2am, ok, you're drunk. that's a good excuse to do stupid things like lets say... run across the pond half naked like i saw last year during finals week. But to be completely sober and do stupid shit to ice that you probably know the result to, what the hell are you thinking?

College, huh? I'm sure your parents are proud at you. There's a certain point in time where you mature up and "do the right thing" (insert Russel Peters accent here) and can't be childish anymore. College is the time, after your first month you should of had enough of normal society to toughen up and be a man/woman.

I just don't get it...


From the sleepyhead desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer, if they run across the pond again, i'll take a metal garbage can and throw it below their feets so they fall into the pond. yes, im evil. i'm only evil to stupid people.

Remember......your homework.....

Log start: 2:07 am November 24th 2008

Always remember when your homework is due... keep a notebook or something in your backpack and write your homework in it!
I just remember my HIS 220 paper-ish HW is due in about.... 13 hours and about 12 of those hours are reservered for sleep and class.... *sigh*

And guess where im deducting those hours from... CLASS OF COURSE...NOT. I have to take those hours to do homework from my sleeping hours... What's more important than sleeping hours on a sunday night? when fix your weekend sleeping schedule to tackle the new week? Aiya!!!

Even if this week is a 3 day week thanks to thanksgiving (lol, i just thanked a thank...?) I cannot slack off now!
My already low HIS 220 grade needs this paper to improve!!! amagawd.... i'll probably need like 4 tea bags in my tea tommorow >.<

So the moral of the story is... always remember when your homeworks are due... if you remember them less than 24 hours before they're do, you're anally screwed :\ (and guys usually don't enjoy that, not assuming that females enjoy that of course)

The only thing that is making my homework experience a little better right now is listening to the cute Fiona Sit sing xD


From the sleepless desk of Brian,

HakoneDayDreamer, im sooooooooooooo sleepy :(

A Taste of Retirement

Log start: 1:35am November 23rd 2008

I love the weekends here at the dorms. Music, dramas, video games, drinks, sleep, and chatting. I think if i were to retire at the age of like 55 or something i would be doing this with my buddies all the time.

Here, if you don't have any tests the next week, you can just do anything until your heart is content. Last night, i slept at 8am lol... why? we were all talking about life, sharing experiences. it was fun. This is what being carefree is about, when you retire you'll have nothing to worry about. My sons and daughters will worry about the family while i sit there doing some backseat driving and doing my own thing.
Granted that i believe that doing this everyday would lower my IQ after awhile but this is what it's about!

The only exception were 2 of my suitemates that we didn't know ruin the mood every damn time. "Guys, it's 4am, can you keep it down? i come out everyweek. the people who don't live here shouldn't be here anyway, it's 4 o'clock." One of them said that, and i lost all respect for him already... i still respect the other one but this is going too far.

Kicking our company out for what? We weren't that loud and we were celebrating Alex's birthday. God damn it. I don't usually curse at someone or hold grudges but this is going a little too far. We can't make a little noise when it's someone's b-day and you get to play music that's so loud and have so much bass that you disturb the whole 3 floors on a single wing?

It's complete bullshit and i hope they're able to find better people to live with next year, because we've given them a lot of face by not going up to him and punching him in the face. He actually kicked Ivan out of the dorm, i can't believe he did that. We shouldn't be taking this shit from him.

But this isn't supposed to be me ranting >.>
It's supposed to be about the joys of what i think is supposed to be retirement! It's nice and i like being carefree. Making my own schedule, doing what i want. It's so awesome xD

I don't want to be age 55 though, i'll get there later on but for now... i'll be a carefree college student on weekends having a good time with my friends. (Hopefully without any interruption next time *sigh*)

From the somewhat thirsty,

HakoneDayDreamer, the weekend is almost over :(

Shirley Yeung vs Linda Chung

Log start: 7:59pm November 22nd 2008

I think it's pretty hard to choose. They're both cute and they both have their own style which stands out.... so here are pictures on both :D


I can't choose which one is better... so i'll choose both! LOL


Shirley Yeung:

Linda Chung:

College Life - Freshman Dorming Survival

Log start: 1:40am November 20th 2008

So the topic came up when we were talking about our first month in college and i wondered to myself; How did i ever survive?

I remember i had such a hard time adjusting when i first moved in. Everything was different, a stranger was sleeping a few feet away from me, we had a mini student gov't structure that wasn't really ruled by any sort of administration at all. Well, there are higher ups which control things like classes and all but ultimately, the student creates the environment. There are only 3 cop cars that patrol Stony Brook, that's about 6 cops to about 50,000 Undergrads and 10,000-15,000 Graduates. So how do you survive now that you're at this level of society? Well, it all starts in your dorm.

Like i mentioned in an earlier post, your lifestyle determines who you are, so why not start there? One of the worse things that i did when i moved in was that i brought too many things with me. Useless things that you don't need but you want to be prepared if you ever come across it.
For me, i brought too much food. Instant noodles, bags of rice, salted duck eggs, etc; asian stuff. You really don't need to bring 2 weeks worth of food with you when you start dorming at college. Any person with a decent meal plan can probably last the whole semester on that meal plan unless you eat a lot or if you're like my friend Alex which has a black hole in his stomach and everything that goes down his throat just disappears into space. Assuming that not everyone is like my friend Alex, a Silver Meal Plan at Stony Brook can last a normal healthy male, and if you're female a bronze plan will do. (Sorry, but females really don't eat as much as males, there are some exceptions of course.)

On the silver plan here, i have calculated that you are able to spend 20 dollars of your meal plan a day and end up with a perfect 0 at the end of finals week. If you eat smart, you'll be able to do 20 dollars everyday. A burger, fries, and medium drink at the Union is less than 5 dollars. that takes care of lunch. a meatball hero for dinner with drink and a small bag of chips is less than 6 dollars. that's 11 dollars! if you eat breakfest, a bagel and a medium coffee is about 3 dollars (or if you get tea, the whole breakfest is 2 dollars!). Oh man, 14 dollars! Assuming that you don't go by that schedule everyday, you can fluctuate between different kind of foods. So maybe a box of instant noodles and some instant breakfest can handle your meals on campus.

Take note that this is essential information that i have found out as a freshman so you don't have all this random junk in your room.

Next, you don't move your whole room to your dorm ( this is speaking to the guys, because i know you girls like to have stuff... i've seen your rooms... it's messier than a guys room! shame shame)

Take the essentials, boxers, shirts, pants, soap, DEODERANT. Think about what you need in your everyday life and take what you need on your first week there. Chances are, if you forget something, you'll go back home to grab more stuff on the second week.

Everything else that you need you can find on campus. Utensils, grab them from the food court. Cups, buy one of the reuseable mugs that give you a certain % off your drinks.

Because you know you dno't use everything in your room at home, they lay around collecting dust. And when it comes time to move you, you'll be hauling your butt like i did from your room to your car for like 100 trips. And if you go to school further than a decent driving distance, you shouldn't even bring that much stuff. Airplane luggage space cost $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Here is an example of my desk, everything that i need to survive is an armslength away. The only thing that is away from my armslength is my bed, clothing, towels, and toothpaste.

Tea, fiber, TEXTBOOKS, my lovable pet betta fish (fishy), poker chips, vitamins, DEODERANT, chapstick and computer.


This pretty much covers survival needs, if there's anything else that i missed, i'll add it tommorow.

But the lesson is, don't overpack. It makes you look weird because you're hauling so much stuff that you probably won't use. Trust me. there are things that i packed when i went back home that i said to myself. "What the captain jack sparrow (insert naughty word in replace of captain jack sparrow) is this crap?"

You don't need it, and you never will. If you're missing stuff, you can go home the next week to get it or buy it around campus.


From the person who won't make the same mistake twice in dorming,

HakoneDayDreamer, when in doubt, don't bring it.

Bartending frosties!

Log start 11:19pm November 19th 2008

So, bartending frosties sound kind of weird, right? I mean, who needs a bartender to squeeze your frosty out of a machine!

But the name of this blog isn't what today is really about :D

Today we (as in the world) recognize Brian (me) as a bartender! xD yayyyy
i completed my bartending course today @ the Stony Brook University Craft Center and they gave me a certificate stating that i passed the course :D

So i am one step ahead of people in the alcohol mixing world. Hot.

And the frosty part! oooooh man! At my Quad's food court today (Roth Food Court, for those of you who know) i found out about their BUY A LARGE CHOCOLATE FROSTY, GET A SMALL ONE FOR FREE! One of my friends says it's because they have a lot of chocolate, but i can live with that :D

free small frosty for me! yumyumyum

I've thought about a few things in class today, but they escaped my mind before i can record it down here. So i'm going to procrastinate now and hope they come back to me. Because i'm sure that it was interesting


From the chocolate frosty loving desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer, beer + liquor = bad. LOL

Interracial Dating/Marriage

Log start: 10:48pm November 18th 2008

Sorry, this topic was bound to come! The majority of the population at Stony Brook are white people and asian people... so.. what would happen if an asian girl couldn't find an asian guy... or vice versa, a white guy can't seem to find a white girl...

Results can be seen uncommonly throughout this awesome 1000 acre campus of stony brook university :\

Whenever i see interracial dating, i think of... lets say... donkey+horse=mule
a donkey and horse are almost the same species, but they're really different in a lot of aspects. asian people have their own world, white people have their own. these melting pots that we face here in the united states shouldn't even exist! sure exchanging culture with each other is fun stuff, the white people have been stealing from asians for ages! and now to steal females -___-

I know this topic is wrong, i had doubts about recording this down, but i want to know how much of a jackass i could of been when i look back at this 10, 20, 30 years from now. I really don't think interracial should exist! Our skin color, our culture, our language, none of them are similar. Take monkies for example, different types of monkies can mate with each other, but why don't they? because they're all different! it's like a monkey with a red butt mating with a yellow butt monkey... orange butt monkeys would be out of the norm!

Half white half asian babies would be so messed up. "SHUT UP BRIAN, LOOK AT WHATS HER FACE FROM SMALLVILLE"

Right, i would admit that she's cute and all but i wouldn't want to start a family with her. Take that "Yellow Fever" clip by Wong Fu for example. There's a nice little story at the end about a guy's confidence and other things and i think that's all correct!

In this day and time, if asian guys want to get our women back, we need to be assertive! We're not in asia anymore so there must be some competition from bak-guai. I say, bring it on!


(Okay... none of that made any sense.... sorry to anyone who had to read all of that)


From the outraged desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer, i consider different races to be different species, but they should still be your friends.... just... not in the sense of reproduction

Tea > Coffee

Log start: 5:36pm November 17th 2008

I just went through my whole monday schedule! Yay! So proud of myself that i didn't cut class :p

So every monday and wednesday, i have a little break between AAS/PHI and HIS and i usually take a nap between that time. Why do i take a nap? :o because if i don't take a nap, i'll fall asleep in HIS. Last week i tried to not take a nap but bring some black coffee to class. A bit more than halfway passed and i dozed off...

Black coffee!!! And i dozed off... that's a lot of caffine!
So this week i tried to take a nap but that failed, i don't know why. So i decided to try 2 bags of lipton tea.

I'm glad to say that it worked :D
Maybe it's just my asian jeans responding better to tea, LOL. But i didnt doze off in class at all! As a matter of fact, i actually think that i've absorbed so much information thanks do the tea that i understood everything that came out of Professor Mimura's mouth :D


And here are some more reasons why i think tea is better than coffee:
1) It tastes better! Coffee is so strong and bitter while tea gives off this natural taste boosting your IMMUNE SYSTEM :D Coffee doesn't boost your immune system. TAKE THAT COFFEE!
2) It's cheaper! a large tea costs me 94cents. a medium black coffee costs me about 1.24!! Aiya, it doesn't take a mathemetician (spell check) or an asian person to figure out a great deal!
3) Tea doesn't blacken your teeth! There are a lot of things that blacken your teeth like smoking (i hate smokers) and.... coffee! But tea... yum yum in the tummy and it doesn't stain! Well, i did let a drop spill on my notes today and that stained, but it doesn't stain more than coffee on a peice of paper. :D


After class, i went to the Union to buy 12 peices of hot wings for dinner. I'm not going to leave my dorm until tommorow when i have class because im going to watch massive amounts of dramas! YEAH LINDA CHUNG! WOOOO~~


From the tea maniac that has more than 100 bags of tea laid down on his desk (yes, i do have 100+ bags of tea on my desk),

HakoneDayDreamer, still mewp136 but this is my blogging name.

Procrastination

Log start: 10:49pm November 16th 2008

One of the worst skills that i picked up since i was a little kid was procrastination. I had a middleschool english teacher named Mr. Singer that would always say "i used to do all my homework when i got back home on a friday so i could do relax during the weekend." Well, a procrastinator would then say "i would do my work before it was due so i can relax beforehand!"

Uhh... My name is Brian, and i'm a procrastinator... sadly...
Procrastination is more of a bad thing than a good thing, sure, you delay your work until later, and when later comes, you decide to delay your work even more! pushing yourself to the ultimate deadline that comes down to a few minutes before class.
Procrastination is not a pretty thing, you WANT to do it, but on the other hand, you can't make yourself start because it's a long and boring process. Eventually it has to be done, but we always leave it until the very last possible moment which could then ruin your lives.

Take studying for an example, a few weeks ago i had my midterm for HIS 220 - Japanese History and Civilization. The class isn't taught by the most interesting professor but i have sort of a passion for history, so it's a nice class to be in. We are assigned to read a lot of pages from books starting from day 1. Me, being a procrastinator, waited until the weekend of the test to hit the books, saying to myself "Yeah guys, i will get an A on this test because i'll study all over the weekend and then it'll be fresh in my mind when it comes test time on monday! sweet beans!"

Result: 55/100 on the test. Class average, a lot higher than a 55.

Up until now, i'm probably procrastinating from doing my Japanese homework (i am behind in japanese too) by writing on my blog which you are currently reading (why are you here? lol)


I guess i'll never learn my lesson on procrastination, i know i want to stop procrastinating... but i can't bring myself to start!

I want to stop it, but i'm procrastinating to stop? uhhhh, sure, lets leave it at that.


From the desk of a person who might get a "C+/B-"(Hopefully) in HIS 220,

HakoneDayDreamer, When will the cycle ever stop!?

Time Flies

Log Start: 7:21pm November 16th 2008

Trying out the Georgia font :o


Everyone knows that time flies when you're having fun. When you play video games or when you hang out with friends, time always seem to disappear into thin air when you're doing interesting things. In highschool, i always though that time moved slowly during class, how boring the teachers were, how their lessons didn't make any sense at all. Then when i went swimming, it felt like i just did my 500yard warm-up when i had to climb out of the pool after a nice workout with the team.

I think that i'm at the point in my life where time just goes faster and faster. It felt like just yesterday when i moved back into my room for the start of my sophomore year of college. Weekdays, especially weekends, just go so fast. This is one of the major differences between highschool and college. Maybe i'm just too old? :(

And if you have to read that paragraph again to get the point, here it is again! Time flies IN CLASS TOO when you're in college... professors keep on talking and talking, you keep on writing and writing, and soon you'll find yourself with about 2 pages of notes and the class just ended. What a productive 80 mins of my life! I traded in 80 minutes for two peices of paper >.>

And during the weekends here, don't even mention them. I though today was a saturday, turns out it's a sunday!!!! *cries*

There IS one exception though, when you're doing homework. Time never flies when you're doing homework... nope... every time i look at the clock, only 1 minute passed and it feels like i'm writing my homework with invisible ink or something. Aiya.

Currently 7:27pm. It feels like i just woke up and the day has just started, but i have to start my homework soon and my routine monday in about 13 hours.

Back to another episode of Legend of the Demigods (TVB Drama)
Note to future self: You think Linda Chung is cute. Here's a picture! :D

From the desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer, it took me 8 mintues to write all of this and it felt like i just started... *sigh*

Food on the island - Dave's Famous BBQ

Log start: 5:23pm November 16th 2008

So i go to school at Stony Brook - state university of new york, and it's practically in the middle of nowhere. So the places you can get food is really limited and you'll get bored of it... let's say... after a year.
So today we (or I should say "i decided") that we go to a place called Dave's Famous BBQ. Sounds tasty, right? No. As an asian guy, no no no and never will. Before i get into the details, here's a little summary of almost all of the food establishments off campus. Fat white people. I hate to say this because it's a bit offensive and being offensive to people isn't really my style but in every food establishment off of campus, everyone is fat. It's like once you leave the bulemic city of people who always think they're fat so they eat salad, everyone is so carefree with what they eat. Even the salads here have like 1500 calories or something... what the shizzzzzznit?
Back to this place called Daves Famous BBQ, one of the worst environments of any american restaurant. For a place that has won over 300 medals for their BBQ, it's not that bad but after the 2nd or 3rd peice, you've grown sick of it. The setting doesn't even fit! Ribs and BBQ stuff are more of down south thing and what's hung on the walls are caribou antlers, snow shoes, canoes, and this mysterious red box named "Pleasure Chest" LOL.
Two things that conflict, and the food is all the same, BBQ chicken, BBQ ribs, BBQ salads... how much BBQ can you get? i can slap some A1 Steak Sauce on my sushi, put it over the grill for a few seconds and i can sell it off for 5x the already-expensive price of sushi and call it BBQ.
I mean seriously, 27 dollars for a full rack of ribs. And they consider a full rack of ribs to be 12 ribs.... WTF? I can make a round trip back to flushing for the price of 12 dollars of gas (gas is 2.23 at Gulf right now and 2.33 @ Hess) and buy a rack of like 15 at Hong Kong supermarket for like 3 dollars, pick up a bottle of sauce from home (free :D) come back and put it in the oven for about 30 mins and call it 2 meals! so that's like 15 dollars for 2 meals minus all that time i spent getting the things. (not that i want ribs anyway, this is just a hypothetical situation) Sure, their ribs slide off the bone, but i don't want to pay an extra 11 dollars for that, i'll be a barbarian for once and get my hands dirty.

I'm probably not going to go back to Famous Dave's BBQ, unless someone treats me: that would be the only situation i would think of that i would go back.

Everyone who came in to eat were fat...white..people.... *sigh* i felt skinny compared to everyone there >.<

Now there are only a few places we haven't tried in the area, and there are less than 10 that i would go back to eat everyday if i had the choice.

Food on the island; FAILS. I miss chinese cooking at home, i miss asian food in flushing + chinatown. I MISS BUBBLE TEA MADE BY A CHINESE PERSON -___-

I ordered a lunch at famous daves, i ate 1 rib, some mac and cheese, a corn on the cob and i'm full already >.> that leaves about 3 ribs , half a chicken and potato wedges for dinner... i'm sick of BBQ already x_x


Another pointless rant from the desk of,

HakoneDayDreamer: currently feeling wheezy from bad food resting in my stomach, maybe i'll make some nice green tea.

A Taste of The Future...

Log start: 2:42am November 16th 2008


College is like a taste of the future you. Your habits, your lifestyle, your personality all comes out when you're dorming in college. At college, your mom isn't here to tell you to go to bed, or to make sure you get your butt moving in the morning so you don't miss your first class, and there's certainly no home cooked food....

Sure, you say "BUT BRIAN, THERES SO MUCH MORE FREEDOM!" Lets leave this "freedom" concept for another post, in this post, im going to focus on the BAD stuff that will define you in the future! :D

First step into adulthood and i'm looking at myself in the mirror right now... laughing at myself. 2:46am now, im hungry, sleepy, and it's pouring outside.
Hungry? why not eat? Sleepy? why not sleep? Raining? why bother at all???????
Because, HUNGER and SLEEPINESS can be countered by LAZYNESS.... rawr. and this rain just brings an average person down... i know that if i sleep, i'll crash until like 5pm tommorow if i don't set my alarm and if i eat now, i'll gain more fat... as if i can handle anymore! HA!

Lose-lose situation. The same thing happens to me during the weekdays, homework? PROCRASTINATE!...... hungry? as if campus food will ever satisfy me :( the closest thing to home cooking is this Chinese place in the Union... the chefs are chinese! :D

It's now 2:50am, i am still pointlessly ranting this night away. Sorry if i'm making you guys read all of this crap but i just thought about how you live your life in your dorms will reflect your future life when you graduate college and get your own place away from home. Unless you live with your parents again... i'd see that happening for a year or two... MAX. Imagine what your girl/boy-friend would say if you're 25 years old and you're still living with your parents. Imagine what sex would be like... "sorry baby, can't do it, my folks are home" FAILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Aside from that, your survival skills should kick into place during your sophomore year (which i am in right now) i noticed that last year my desk would be all messed up, i would bring so much rice and noodles from home that i could live in my room for about two weeks. and this year, didn't bring any rice, just a small box of noodles and im actually using up my meal points! my stuff is all organized now. you learn from your habits but i still see pain in my future...

i hope i do get my lifestyle a complete makeover though, im working on it.

another little tip is to pick up the skill of cleaning, cleaning your room, cleaning your desk, CLEANING YOURSELF, LOLed. (to avoid certain misconceptions about that comment, i DO take AT LEAST 1 shower a day and i DO brush my teeth at least twice a day, Thanks.)

If i were to graduate right now and get my own place somewhere, i don't know how i'd survive without hiring a maid to do all my cleaning >.>


SO YEAH, once you get to college or for those of you who ARE in college right now, remember these wise words. Your lifestyle is very important, they WILL come back and haunt you in the future.

Note to future self: Your music selection SUCKS. Please update your music.


From the CLEAN DESK of:

HakoneDayDreamer, currently about to counter hunger with sleep and countering oversleeping with a nice alarm set for 12pm... then worrying about hunger once again.

Recording my life

Log start: 11:45pm November 15th 2008

One of the main reasons that i am starting this blog is to record my memories. Memories hit you at random times of the day. Ever read Harry Potter? Dumbledore has a pensive thingy that he uses to collect memories that come to him. This is like my pensive, because at random times of the day, i think about life in general ( i don't know why, it just comes to me ) and then i think of a similar event that happened sometime in my 19 yr old life.
As I am writing this right now, i thought to myself a few minutes ago: Why am i doing this? Why am i writing down my memories, my experiences, and my possible in the future my darkest secrets. This is a not-yet disclosed blog meaning that i have not sent the link to anyone yet, but i have a general idea of who i'll let to read this blog first. This person is a good friend and neighbor of mine and i consider her a deep thinker, she thinks about life a lot too and is a talented writer when it comes to that. (This is totally an endorsement) :D

Blogging to me is like writing a diary. depending on what your defintion of a diary is, you can argue against me but this is my personal space.

Why am i writing all of this BS? I don't even know. i just wanted to give my future self (for when i read this when im married and have kids, maybe i can even show my kids LOL) a reference to my younger mind. i don't know how i was thinking when i was in elementary and middle school because i didn't keep a good blog on xanga. i'd imagine myself to be childish because what worries did we ever have when we were young? cooties and girls being the most ugly thing ever because they looked different? well while i still remember (and have) some of my highschool and current college mentality right now, i'll record to the best of my abilities what i'm thinking.

The human mind is a wondering thing.

From the desk of

HakoneDayDreamer (For all of you who still don't know, im Brian, currently 19 years of age)

RAMEN PIZZA!

So i'm staring at Joe's computer when this came up...

RAMEN PIZZA!!!

Apparently it won "Best Ramen Dish" in a cooking contest in Brooklyn... white people says it looks nasty... but i personally like the looks of it! It looks like something that i'll enjoy eating too :D

Recipe can be found on this site::::

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/11/pepperoni-ramen-pizza-recipe.html


This dish was developed by Karol Lu, as part of the second-annual Ramen-Off competition at the Brooklyn Kitchen, where she won the judges' award for most creative ramen dish.

Ingredients
4 packages ramen noodles

1 spice packet (I used beef)

Olive oil

4 to 8 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

4 eggs

1/2 cup cream

1 cup ricotta

Pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper

Butter

2 cups shredded Fontina cheese

Pepperoni slices (or your favorite pizza topping)

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In a large pot, boil water, and add ramen noodles for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. In a large pot, heat olive oil and add garlic and red pepper flakes for 1 minute. Remove from heat, and add ramen noodles, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and oregano. Toss, and transfer noodles into a buttered 10.25-inch springform pan. Spread noodles out evenly to create the crust of the pizza.
4. Whisk eggs with cream and spice packet, and pour evenly over the noodles.
5. Place the pan in the oven, and bake for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, season the ricotta with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
6. Remove pan from oven, and spread ricotta evenly over the noodles. Sprinkle the Fontina cheese on top of the ricotta, and return the pan to the oven.
7. Broil for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and just begins to brown.
8. Remove from oven and arrange pepperoni slices.
9. Remove the sides of the springform pan. Cut pizza into wedges and serve.

The "TJ" Syndrome

Log start: 11:49am November 14th, 2008
Currently: Not going to PHI 108 - "Critical and Logical Reasoning" because it's boring.

I'm a lifeguard during the summer (location will not be disclosed, for those of you that know where i work, i salute you) and i had a co-worker named TJ that then became the head lifeguard than left. TJ is an emotionally tough guy, nothing you say could break through his skull, maybe because he was irish and all.. but that's not the point, lol.

One of the things that people say about TJ is that when you carpool with him, he doesn't let you sing to the music. So, i didn't understand why.... until now....

When people try and imitate the voice of "professional" artists, THEY SOUND HORRIBLE (sometimes). American artists have very distinct voices which makes them so popular because they are different from the rest. When people sing along with them (outside of a karaoke, because that's one of the only places where bad singing is acceptable in my books) most of you sound horrible! why do it... why ruin my mood, my life, and possible your life by singing along.. i don't get it... someone tell me!
I do enjoy when people sing along to chinese music though, because all asian voices sound similar :D!!

TJ, i understand you a little better now!

Now, i have grown to hate it when people (this is in reference to people who can't sing the song correctly):
1) sing in my car... because i have no where to run to, i can't mute you, i can only shut off the music, which pisses me off because i need music when i drive >:(
2) sing PARTS of the song but not the FULL song. why start at all... because then you make a fool of yourself because you can't sing the hard parts.
3) sing to a song which i HATE. generally, i give a 3 strike policy for this one, first time i'll tell you that this song sucks, 2nd time i'll change the station because i hate the song, 3rd time i'll just change the station to classical music or turn on my now-retro-chinese music-CD's. if you don't get it by the 3rd time, i'll make sure you won't EVER have the chance. Thanks. Such song like "IN THE AIR AIR AIR" by TI which is horrible, or if someone starts singing to TI + Rihannas "livin' your life" because no one needs the NUMA NUMA part FUCKING REPEATED. It's annoying as it is and the song DOES get better, so don't ruin it for me.


It seems like i'm starting to find a lot of things annoying lately... maybe it's a sign of aging.. although im not that old ( i would hope not ) :(
IM NOT EVEN 21!!! i can't even buy a beer yet.... but college make you feel so old... *sigh*


- From the desk of

HakoneDayDreamer (Brian, for all of you who don't know my new blogging name) :D

Lost memories

Log start: 3:18am Friday November 14th 2008.

I AM STILL OUTRAGED THAT BLOGSPOT DOESN'T OFFER COMIC SANS AS A FONT!

Sophomore year... i'm getting old... my friends were looking at pictures on facebook today so i decided to do the same! i looked at old pictures from highschool, our famous pool-less swim team, and all of the other fun things that happened to all of my old buddies while we were carefree in highschool.
and to be honest, college is a large step from highschool, after a year and a half of being at Stony Brook, i still miss high school a little.... just a little... looking back at all the pictures brings back a lot of memories that i've lost because of the people that i lost in contact with... hopefully we'll meet in the future somewhere and rebuild memories

BUT ASIDE FROM THAT, college is here to build memories too! they're more mature and you need to experiment more, unlike highschool where everything is given to you, college offers... i can't even describe it, LOL.

It's less carefree in college but you need to keep yourself on track or the consequences will be a lot greater... comparing the two, i think i'd prefer high school more. sure, my freedom were limit to teachers who thought "I'M OLDER THAN THESE PEOPLE, THEREFORE I AM SMARTER!" and college is more like, "Don't say anything stupid, or you will forever be stupid in my mind." get it? i hope you do... because i don't even know what im ranting about right now...


Going back to what i was saying about memories of high school and college, it's just not the same feeling, it's a hard thing to adjust for a new graduate of high school when they think "oh, college is no big deal! i'll conquer it before the first month"

SORRY KIDS! (oh man... that made me sound a couple of years older) it's not just the same, cherish your memories of high school (because i know my friends that are still in high school are reading this) be prepared for change and DONT BURN OUT (like i did)


Oh how i wish i could turn back time...

- HakoneDayDreamer (Brian) <---- MY BLOGGING NAME :D