Last thursday night I had some wierd ass craving for kim chi fried rice. I was on some random pregnant lady feening type shit smh. I don’t even like kim chi, but for some reason I like it in fried rice. We hit up guppy house, and I ate what you see before you. This shit is a master piece, and worth talking about imo.

That plate below was a rendition of the smile I had on my face after eating my kim chi fried rice.

This past Saturday, Tammy threw me a birthday dinner. I never really gave a shit about my birthday. Its been this way for the last 27.93 years of my life. I’ve always been awkward as fuck, and having any celebration in my honor was something I was never down for. I usually just spend my birthdays with my girl, and 2 little brothers, and Im perfectly happy. I don’t really even care about getting a cake. Even when Im invited to other peoples birthdays parties I feel awkward. There is something about birthdays that I don’t really enjoy…I don’t know how to explain it. Normal people see it as a joyous day, hence the title “happy” birthday, but that shit depresses the fuck out of me. I guess deep down inside I’m really insanely afraid of death, and the death of others. Since it’s 2012 and some crazy shit may go down in December, where we all may be destroyed or enslaved by aliens, a god, or a mixture of both, I said what the heck… If death may be come that soon, might as well celebrate something, knock on wood. I let Tammy put together a dinner. She seemed so excited about it and I did it partially to make her happy. Im lucky as fuck to have a girl that loves me as much as she does. I told her to keep it small and simple. I didn’t want that shit hyped up, so she only invited family, or those that I usually spend my birthday with, doing the nothing which I enjoy immensely on my birthdays. We had dinner at my favorite japanese spot, mainly because of the service. They could be serving rocks, and I would still come here and eat. The dinner was good, and what I expected was gonna happened, happened. My other family members that weren’t invited to my birthday got butt hurt, from the power of social media smh. Grown ass people catching hurt feelings. Like I said, Tammy only invited those who I’m usually around with during my past birthdays, or those that I chill with every other weekend to just to catch a buzz, regular shit. This party was meant to be just a regular day, doing what I do every other weekend. The only difference was that it was in a restaurant rather than my apt, or in a garage. Just because a person wasn’t there, doesn’t mean that the person isn’t considered my family or a friend. I know who my family and friends are, and this dinner wasn’t meant to be a display of any of that. There were alot of people that weren’t at my dinner, that I consider close families and friends. If I was gonna have a legit party, everyone would of been invited, but I didn’t. I guess my mind works in ways different from others, and I value things in a different manner.

There weren’t many photos since my goal of getting drunk was successful. We killed like 5-6 pitchers of sapparo, and a bottle of hennessy XO. I don’t even remember how the food tasted that night, since everything tasted the same after a while. I do know that we ordered a shit load of food. The final bill was more than 6 bills, and thats not counting the bottle of XO. Tammy took care of the bill and didn’t let anyone pay. I told her before planning this that if were having this dinner, no one should be paying but us. Im not gonna have people come out for me, and have to pay. If someone invited me out for dinner, of course I would let them pay. But if we’re inviting someone out, that bill is on us regardless of the situation.

After getting a cake and having a birthday song sung to me like 3 times in english and japanese, I opened up the presents I got from my aunt Abby and Tammy. I honestly liked everything I got. One thing that stood out from the rest though was this hammer. I opened this shit and it made me laugh. Not because I’m a supreme fanboy or a carpenter. I haven’t owned anything supreme in like over 11 years. What got me was how ridiculous and pointless this gift was. That is why I love it. Tammy knows me better than I know myself, she knows that I like things that make no sense, do things just for shits and giggles, and buy things just cause it makes me laugh. This hammer was just that. Who the fuck needs a $80 hammer? This thing is funny as fuck. It just serves as a reminder of capitalism. I had a good time, and am happy Tammy planned it for me, cause I wouldn’t of ever done it for myself.

After we left the restaurant, it was back to the regular.

The next morning, I wasn’t hung over one bit. I didn’t even cry at all lol. I usually get wasted and start crying for some reason, near my birthdays, smh. If I knew that I would of been cool, I would of went on a bike ride. There was some huge biking event in LA that morning, but I didn’t bother going cause I thought I would be too hung over. I basically spent that day just chilling, and tammy and I got sam woo. Tomorrow will be my actually birthday, and I already feel the usual melancholy coming.

This shit did cheer me up though. I finally found someone selling my first dj mixer. This was the first mixer that I ever owned. My mom bought me this mixer as part of a turntable package from the old Music factory NY website back in 2000. I remember the whole setup being around $350 shipped. 2 lineartech belt drive turntables, this gemini pmx 120, cheap ass cartridges, and 2 free records. That setup skipped like a mother fucker, but I somehow learned how to do basic scratches and beat juggling on it. When I saw this mixer on ebay in decent shape and price, I had to bid. I won it at $21 bucks. Ill probably try putting a innofader in it, and hold on to it for my future kid or something.

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My last post left off around last thursday… At the office that day, 40 oz thursdays came back. There was drinking already going on mid day, and some how we ended up buying like 6 40′s. I drank mine, and had to head out early cause me and Tammy had to catch the Boyz 2 men concert. It got pretty rowdy in the office. Before I left, I remember that part of the carpet in the office was some how lit on fire due to a burning ping pong ball.

Had to head home quick and pick up Tammy. Downing that 40 oz 10 mins before leaving actually helped the drive home quicker, as fucked up as that sounds. While driving home, I saw my bro’s on the road. That shit was random as fuck. Turns out they were heading to my office to drop off a early bday gift. They flagged me down on the road then followed me back to my crib. Got out and they handed me some dicers. It was a nice surprise. I ended up convincing them to roll along to the boyz 2 men concert. So we all got in my car and headed down to the fair. That shit ended up being a bust. The tickets were already sold out before we were able to get ours. I tried looking for scalpers but there weren’t any. I was ready to drop 3 bills on 4 tickets if they were available. We just ended up getting some grub, walking around then heading home.

Tested out the dicers later that night. Made life easier since I was too lazy to set me cue points and effects on serato. This shit does it all for you with ease. Just plug and play.

Going forward to Saturday, I went down to china town with Tammy, her bro, and his girl. They were looking for decorative shit for their new house. Tammy and I are down in that area so much that they asked us to roll with them. Chinatown is honestly changing fast. You got the feeling a couple years back that hipsters were taking over, and now you realize that it has happened. The classic shops in original chinatown is now hipster territory. Sure there are the art galleries, and the artist that live above, but now it’s more. They closed down OG mom and pop shops and opened up random unexplainable shit. Even saw some young white couple running a chinese knick knack store that is usually owned by old chinese couples. They were competing with a chinese man across the way, that probably owned his store for 50 or so years. I’m sure that the chinese man doesn’t know about, nor has a twitter/facebook/instagram of his own to promote his store, unlike that young white couple. It is evolution, but that shit is still sad to see.

old vs new

We got dinner at Manna that night. Ended up eating alot, and drinking even more. The meat that day was pretty decent as we got the better combination of meats.

The waiter we had was cool as fuck. We started off with meats he suggested, and ordered a big ass 1 liter hite. That ended up turning into another bottle of hite, and a soju. No one was able to hang with the shots, so I offered one to the waiter. After downing like 2 shots of soju with him, he came back 5 mins later with a fresh liter of hite, and another bottle of soju. He said it was on him! Free shit is the best, but now we had to finish all that shit. Koreans are like the Chinese, both cultures drink, and we both like to challenge each others manliness. Honestly he put down those 2 bottles to see how much we really could drink, hoping that we would bitch out. I took one for the team, and took on this challenge. Ended up finishing every drop. Had like 2 more shot with the waiter, just so we could finish all that shit. Overall it was a good meal. I ended up tipping dude like 30-35 percent or some shit, for the free liquor and taking shots. lol

What’s scary about soju is that it doesn’t taste like anything. I’ve had bad experiences with it in the past. That night wasn’t that bad though. I still remember enough to write this blog, so I consider it a victory against soju. Afterwards I think we tried to hit up the karaoke spot downstairs, but then ended up going to the movies and watching Dred. I was already pretty out of it by then. I didn’t even know they remade judge dredd so I thought I was in some time warp or some shit and we were gonna watch Sylvester Stalloin’s original judge dredd. Many parts of that movie were cheesy as fuck, so I was laughing, naturally. I would not want to a movie under the influence of alcohol again. I just  fell asleep on and off, and probably pissed off most the people in there off when I was awake.

Next morning I got pho with tammy and my bros. haven’t ate pho in quite a while, so we hit up vein houng for quantity. The pho was just decent that day. meaning that if I was eating pho regularly like before, it would of really tasted shitty.

That night I modded my mixer. I put jumpers into the xs 8 to get a extra 6 decibels in the output. Basically opened it up and added the jumpers. I had to go through my old mixer boxes in the closet to get the manual and jumpers. Ended up taking out my xs 4 and plugging it in for a while just to test it out. It’s still in mint condition after all these years.

xs 4 next to the xs 8.

The xs 4 is basically a ecler hak 300. Remember getting this thing for dirt cheap back then.

I also took out my 07. I will get this thing fixed and working again one day…

That Monday, we had a scratch session at our store. I snapped only one photo in the beginning, before it got crowded.

The reason for lack of photos is Hennessy… Honestly I don’t even know how we ended up killing 2 bottles, and a few cases of beer. There wasn’t even supposed to be alcohol at this scratch session. It was actually weird without liquor, so liquor is what we got.

bottle 1

bottle 2

Moving on…to tuesday night’s dinner. they may hate homosexuals, but they make decent chicken.

Later that night I worked on my xs 8 some more. Basically it had a issue with the innofader. The fader wouldn’t work right away when powered up, and had to load for about 1-2 mins. I hit up elliot over at innofader, and he let me know how to fix it. I took the xs8 apart again and rewired the power for the fader to work externally. I broke out the multimeter, and found the right cables, spliced them to the harness, then heat shrunk them. I was originally on the way to electrocution from choosing the wrong wires, but luckily I was compulsive enough to send out another email to elliot, and he showed me the right ones. The fader works perfect now!

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I made this shit while/after drink a 40oz. Shit sounds as low fi and ghetto as my drink. If your speakers can’t project under 60 hz , you cant hear 1/8 of this beat.

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I ordered a Audio Innovate Innofader last week for my Tascam xs-8. It was supposed to be delivered Monday, but it was being held for pickup. I picked the fader up on tuesday at the post office. The fader on my xs-8 was still good, but I wanted to try this innofader. This shit is said to be the best fader out, shitting on Rane’s, pro x fade, and its said to be better than the Ecler eternal fader. My xs-8 is basically a Ecler Hak-320, so putting this shit in would make my mixer a monster. Warm sound quality of Ecler design, with the flexibilty and quality of the innofader. This shit is built to last, no more replacing faders. I remember fucking around with faders back in the day doing credit card mods, electric tape mods, radio shack contact cleaner, olive oil as lube, all to make the cut nice…

When I looked at the package, I got a bit worried. It wasn’t just plug and play. It needed to be adjusted, insulated, and so on.

That night I wanted to go straight home after work to install this fader, but me and Tammy ended up getting yakatori and shin sen gumi. I’ve known about this place for ages. We always eat at shin sen gumi’s other ramen location, and we also eat at daikokuya in the same plaza as this place. This spot was gooood. Should of tried it sooner. Anything poked with a stick and grilled, is ok in my book.

They have happy hour on weekdays so we went crazy with the ordering. $1.50 yakatori is bananas. I would rather eat this shit 1,000,000 times over spanish tapas.

Had almost everything they offered. Chicken gizzards, chicken wings,pork belly, quail egg, livers, soft shelled crab, japanese meat balls, and so on. I made it a point to snap a photo of the best tasting items to put up on here.

Bacon wrapped quail eggs.

These sausages were legit.

Honestly no matter how good the food was, it didn’t make me full. So I ended up ordering some other shit. Grilled kimchi pork, and some japanese braised pork.

Order some shochu and calpico cocktail just cause it sounded wierd. This shit was fucken good. The waiter came by our table to tell us in broken english that shochu cocktails were the prefered drink of japanese gods, or thats what I heard. After him explaining it more, turns out he was saying ‘guys’ and not ‘gods’. It would of been more interesting if he really meant gods.

Afterwards came home and tried putting in the innofader. It was actually easier than it looked. I would of had it installed in 15 mins if shit didn’t fuck up. They gave some shitty as plastic mounting screws with the fader. Since the instructions said to use their screws, i did. One screw snapped its head on me while tightening. So I spent almost a half hour trying to remove that broken screw, and then remounting with the og tascam screws. I had to take apart the whole fucken fader, and remove the internals to get to the broken screw.I finally got it done and reassembled everything, tested it out, then went to sleep. I was fed up at this point.

Earlier tonight I fucked with it some more and actually lubed and calibrated everything. The cut is nice and feels nice. I’ve owned alot of mixers in my lifetime, and the feel of this fader tops all.

It looks nice with the innofader knob, and the fit is clean. Just needed to stack 2 spacers to get height right.

Had to get out super seal and super duck breaks to break this shit in. Spent a couple hours scratching, and cutting. Scratched straight into the A.M. I only stopped scratching to put up this post before I sleep. I still gotta adjust the tension some more to get it perfect.

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Hennessy and Futura recently had a collab, and bottles were recently released late last month. I didn’t really care much about getting my hands on bottles, since I still have about 9 bottles from the Kaws collab sitting on the shelf still, and the new collab is still regular ass Hennessy, not vsop or xo. The Kaws collab was limited to 420,000 and at the time I thought that was a small amount, so I copped a case the first day it dropped. I got it for less than regular retail, and sold a few bottles for a good price, so my extra bottles on hand are basically free. Turns out 420,000 worldwide isn’t that limited after all. They started popping up at bevmo, and there are certain spots you can still find a few on shelves. Im waiting to see how limited they will be after 70 percent of the bottles in the world are actually consumed. Anyways, I got a tip that some Futura bottles were at this chinese supermarket. So I called Tammy to stop by on her way home from work. She works about 10 mins away from this spot. This spot still had cases of the Kaws collab, and a few Futura bottles hidden. I said fuck it, and asked Tammy to cop 4 bottles for me. Since it’s the second time Hennessy did a collab like this, they improved and changed details. The quantity as mentioned is at 200,000 and the msrp is higher. The Kaws went for regular price everywhere, even at bevmo. These futura bottles have msrp of $43 bucks, and up. This ‘secret’ asian market had it cheaper than bevmo’s price! We ended up coming back and buying 3 more today, Tammy bought 1 of each collab for her bros bday, and I bought 1 Kaws just to drink.

This is what she came home with. All four are numbered around 22,000 of 200,000

I compared Futura’s design to Kaw’s. I like Futura’s vibe better.

I needed some room to store the new liquor, so I cleaned out my liquor shelf. Basically drank the rest of these bottles. They had about a sip left in each bottle. I realized I drink a shit load of cognac…

Also got a couple of these earlier this week. Some Andy Warhol limited campbell soup cans. I heard about these from my co partner Mike. Turns out it was in the news and all over instagram. I don’t have a instagram, and don’t search the news for pointless shit, so didn’t know till that day. I also asked Tammy to stop by after work for these. These were only found at target. They were only .75 cents each, so we got like 22 cans total smh. I checked ebay and the average selling price is $5.00 each can. It’s nothing but win here. The cans may continue to raise in value, or if they don’t, we have soup ready if shit hits the fan. Also got some soup ready to accompany grilled cheese sandwiches.

This weekend was spent mostly eating Asian food. Friday night, had shin sen gumi with Tammy. Saturday, we chilled and caught up with my bros, and we basically ate all the shit our parents use to feed us as kids lol.

Shin sen gumi on Friday

Saturday lunch, some hole in the wall Hainam chicken rice and tomatoe cornish hen rice spot.

Saturday night we were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner and we ended up eating vietnamese/chinese seafood. Me, Tammy, bro/Ken, bro/Vo, and his girl Tiff went to Tang Cang/Newport seafood in San Gabriel. I remember eating at this place almost every year for each of my mom’s bday’s. They changed spots and now with the power of yelp, it’s crowded as fucked and raved upon. This spot is famous for their lobster so that’s what we mainly got.

Sunday, I went with Tammy to her bros birthday dinner. It was Chinese food, appropriate for the vibe of this weekend. I ended the weekend at the Azusa house looking at some childhood pictures they found. Some where good nostalgia, some where SMH.

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Friday was chinese/vietnamese halloween, or that is that I was told from my grandma. Being buddhist, the mahayana hardcore ritual liking kind, we had to do a memorial ceremony. This sounds spooky as fuck if you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Basically its a offering out of respect. Google that shit if you don’t know. All religions have a kind of offering similiar. The best example I can give is it’s sort of like the mexican, de los muertos. Well me and my bros had to do this to pay respect to our mother. So we met up at my apartment. Normally people our age don’t really know what to do. But we learned at a young age you may say. Our grandma basically taught us everything we should know about this, and since my father is not really around for this, or doesn’t really give a fuck, it will be me and my two younger brothers that will continue the tradition. We were joking that if there was a olympic team for strange chinese ceremonies we’d take gold. We would excel in the joss paper burning competition. Bad jokes… Basically, we make this entertaining, and sometimes even catch ourselves having rap cyphers. lol

I left work early Friday so I can pick up things for the memorial. It was 92 degrees, and that meant turning ac full blast, rolling down the windows, and bumping bass heavy music. I never leave work when the sun is still out so I was gonna enjoy this drive. Either that or I was trying to catch a cold.

Valley Blvd. Life. no not really.

While waiting for my to-go order, I waited with the typical vietnamese refreshment. They seriously had no other beer. The man though I wanted to take the beer to go. I had to explain that i just wanted a beer during the wait. Not along with the food I ordered to go. smh People were sitting there eating Pho and shit, I was drinking a beer looking at the wall. Some emo fob shit. lol

After everything was done regarding chinese halloween, we were just chillen bumping music like it was ibiza. Later that night, I started working on my 3am mix. I loaded a usb drive with tracks I wanted to use, and took a drive to audition them. They had to fit the mood, so why not test them on a late night drive.

There were cops everywhere being that it was labor day weekend. I was sober as fuck, so I just drove pass every patrol car not giving a single fuck. A dui test would of just been some exercise that I needed.

Ended the drive around 2:35. Not quite 3am, but close enough.

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