San Diego - August 2002

8/27/2002 - Last night, James and Sooyun came over as we had planned to head over to Sushi Itto on University for dinner. When we arrived, we realized that the half-price special only ran from 7:00 until 9:00, so we decided to head elsewhere. Sooyun said he knew about some Thai restaurant down the road, and James seemed excited by this, so I went along as we headed to Bai Yook Thai Cuisine.

We arrived and ordered Spring Rolls, which were extremely tasty. Sooyun ordered noodles with shrimp, I had chicKarl curry, and James had some sort of pork dish with noodles. We also split an order of the spicy fried rice.

Nearly the whole time that we were eating, I found myself longing for Bronx Pizza and thinking that not only could I have enjoyed my food a lot more, but I could have also saved a lot of money. The food was not good. I don't usually say that because I'm a pig and I will put about just anything in my mouth. When I was younger, I even put goat feces in my mouth and my parents have the pictures to prove it. Why my parents decided to take pictures of me eating goat feces instead of trying to remove the goat feces from my hand is another story.

Anyway, the food was gross and I felt ill for a few hours afterwards. My curry tasted like someone had poured milk, sugar, cayenne pepper, and Drano into a small bowl and mixed it up. The noodles and shrimp has something in it that tasted like dirt, and I kept wishing that the noodles and pork would magically transform into spaghetti and meatballs.

The only other time I had an eating experience this bad (other than the goat incident), was at an Ethiopian cuisine in DC. The waitress had a hair-lip, the owner/cook had ear hair that poofed out about 3 inches, and there was a midget running around in the kitchen. Oh yeah - the food was awful to boot.

Call me uncultured and close-minded, but next time I feel adventurous, I am just going to put a tamale on my burger.

8/17/2002 - Thursday night, I headed out to meet some friends downtown for dinner at Sadaf. I had already eaten there the previous weeKarld when Lisa had come to visit me and can say without any glimmer of a doubt that Sadaf offers the best Persian cuisine in San Diego. The fact that there are only two restaurants in San Diego that offer Persian cuisine shouldn't detract anything from this statement - the food there is excellent, especially the Lubia Polo.

Afterwards, I headed off to the Red Circle with a friend of mine for after-dinner drinks. I had been to the Red Circle once before and had enjoyed myself there. It isn't too crowded, they offer a great selection of drinks, and the bartender sometimes forgets to ring up drinks that you have ordered. There are two bars in the main room, and a small dance floor in an adjoining room where the DJ plays every mindless rap song you can think of. The general decor of the place is a bit gaudy for my tastes, and it attracts a crowd of middle-aged Goombas that I could do without, but it's not bad for a few drinks.

Last night, I headed off to Nunu's, which can only be described as a pair of trusty old shoes. Finding a straight bar in Hillcrest is like seeing Saskwatch, so when you find one you like, you cling on. Nunu's is the size of my bedroom, but it has a completely cozy and friendly feel. Unlike most dive bars, it doesn't smell like cheap beer and farts, but like most dive bars, you can walk in with a twenty and walk out nicely buzzed. It has an outdoor patio for smokers and the interior is surrounded by plush circular booths. Nunu's is located at 3537 Fifth Avenue in Hillcrest.

August 2 - Oh and another thing.....Update your damn website. Millions of people look to the internet for entertainment each day... at least six of those people look to the Weihouse for part of that daily dose of entertainment. - James Blair

Personally, I would be amazed to know that six people looked at my website on a daily basis. Now, I know Jamie looks at it, but that's because his face is the first thing you see when he opens the website and he likes that. I know Karl looks at it, but I have this sneaking suspicion that the only reason he is looking at it is because he wants to make sure that I'm not doing anything clever that he should be doing on his website. I don't think my family really looks at it, well my Mom does sometimes because I always get e-mails that say "Jiyan, I can't open up Miguk." So anyway, six people is pretty impressive to me.

I think part of the reason I've not (look at that - damnit Jamie! I never used to write thing like 'I've not" until I went to London) been updating my site as frequently is first, because I've been out of town, and second, because I've been focusing on trying to draw out this new site.

Yesterday, I went to "Comic-Con," at the San Diego convention center and tried to do some networking for VGXtreme. There was a lot of scantily clad women there for some reason. Actually, the whole placed was laced with an underlying sexuality. Actually, it wasn't really underlying, it was kind of in your face. Have you ever looked in a comic book lately? The women all have surgically enhanced breasts and not an ounce of fat on their bodies. Also, they were skimpy outfits that make them look naked basically. I can only imagine the kind of havoc that these images must be wreaking to hormonally charged adolescent males. Anyway, we are going to shoot some interviews this afternoon (the first real shoot in about three months) and I'm looking forward to it. On a side note, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, who I had a crush on from age 14-now was there yesterday but I missed her because I had to come home and work. Oh well, maybe another day Elvira.

August 1 - I just got back from Boston last night after attending my companies' annual meeting. I arrived on Saturday evening and we spent all day Sunday eating lobsters and crabs at the company president's house on the lake. His brother owns a yacht, which has a full-time crew. The reason I mention this is because the crew is composed of New Zealanders and they made something called a "Hungi" at the picnic. They dug a pit which was about 3' deep and probably around 4' in diameter, and filled it with wood which later burned down into coals. Earlier that day, they had welded two iron beams to a metal cannister and once the coals had simmered down a bit, they placed the contraption on top of the fire pit. They had wrapped several pounds of meat in cheesecloth, and they placed the meat, along with a copious amount of corn and potatos, inside of the metal canister. After four hours, the food was ready for consumption. The method facilitated a delicious transfer of odors and tastes between the various foodstuff that was contained within the canister.
The meetings themselves were amazing in that I managed to keep my focus for eight hours straight. The two and a half day meetings were full of debate and analysis, and they even included an open-forum on ethics. I gave a twenty-minute presentation on internet security, a monitoring system that I had helped to standardize, and several emerging on-line trends.

In my spare time, I managed to go running and kayaking. In the evenings, we sat out on the deck with cigars and a glass of wine and discussed family life. I kept getting inundated with advice not to marry until I was about thirty years old, which I already agree with 100%. I also got to really know the other people in my company on a more personal level and it made me a lot more enthusiastic about the work that I am doing.

Anyway, I'm back. On the plane, I more or less drew up how I want my new site to look, so it won't be long until it is up and running.