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June 09, 2003
Catching Up
You'd think this blargh thing would be easier to keep up with when you've got all the time in the world and a broadband connection. Let's see, aside from the aforementioned problem with the laptop, which is now the third time I've taken it in for repair in 2003 and the fifth time it's been sent to Apple, what has happened?
Henry came out to visit. While I've said the name like you all should think it's somehow important, I'll admit that I probably haven't given it enough context recently. Henry's one of my inner circle of friends from college. He was married recently (not to me) to Soo Sun, another person who I consider to be in my inner circle, though I'm not sure if she knows it. I should probably do something about that.
Anyway, Henry came out to visit two weeks ago, on a Monday. He and a bunch of folks that I had met in LA were at a Korean Peace conference in Woodstock and stopped for a couple of days in New York on their way home. Ended up wandering around Manhattan in the rain with Henry, Jang Woo (a drummer at the wedding), and his wife Harim (director for the afternoon wedding ceremonies). I discovered the Staten Island Ferry as a good alternative to taking the Liberty Island Ferry if you want to just give the Statue of Liberty a drive by instead of crawling all over the island. I also discovered that there's not a lot you can do in Manhattan when you're trying to avoid walking outdoors.
The evening saw a larger group gathered in Flushing, Queens, for dinner at a Korean restaurant, which I couldn't find again if you asked me. It was a fun gathering with a few more people I knew and a few that I didn't, including one that I wish I could have known better. Most people were pretty tired, though, me for being stupid and not getting enough sleep and them for not getting much sleep at all during their weekend of staying up late and talking. So... half of us passed out during a screening of a bootleg Matrix Reloaded at Yongwoon's place in Far Rockaway.
The next morning, pretty much all of the Los Angelenos left, except for Henry, whose flight wasn't until late afternoon. He and I headed back into Manhattan for what turned into a mini food crawl. We started with dim sum, which wasn't nearly as good as the stuff at Empress Pavilion in LA, and that lead to sushi at Sushi Samba on Seventh Av. in the Village. The latter is a bit of a fusion place, which just says to me, "Not Nobu." We tried the tiradito, which was good, but a little disappointing. I think Henry's wild mushroom miso was a little too salty. Best part of the whole thing was the flash-fried river crabs, of which you can see one in the picture to the right. Time was running short by the time we were done, so we hopped back to Far Rockaway for the trip to the airport.
I find that I like to do the same kinds of things with people who visit that I do when I go to visit people: talk. Most of the time, I couldn't really care less if I saw the sight, as shown in my UK and recent LA trips. I'm really there for the people. It's been too long since Henry and I have had a good long stretch of time to just chat and get past the surface things and really start to dig down. I miss that most from our college days. Being three thousand miles apart, on different time zones, and with busy schedules, a lot has drifted, but I'm glad that when we do get pulled back together, it still feels comfortable. It didn't for awhile, but I think it's back now.
I broke my pencil on the way home after dropping off Henry at the airport. It seems like such a silly thing to say, but that pencil meant something to me. I've had it for about two years, maybe more. It's a heavy little sucker, a grey-barreled Rotring 0.7mm mechanical pencil. I think it's really a drafting pencil, but I used it for notetaking and sketching, when I got the time and inspiration to do so. That pencil went with me everywhere. I've lost it three times. When you lose a writing utensil, that usually means it's gone for good, but miraculously, I've managed to recover it all three times, so I feel some kind of affection for this thing. If you set it free and it comes back, it's meant to be, or something cheesy like that. Besides, it costs $29.50 for a new one; can't remember how much I paid for mine, though.
Anyway, I broke it and I was saddened. I went to Pearl Paints, an art store near Chinatown, on Monday to get a new one, figuring the internal mechanism was so screwed up that there was no way I'd be able to fix it. I know because I tried for a week before conceding to buying a new one. The guy behind the counter was really cool, though, and sent me instead to the manufacturer to get a service mailer. Apparently the pencil had a lifetime warranty. So, instead of playing $29.50 + 8.25% tax for a new pencil, I can get my pencil repaired for the cost of shipping to Wisconsin. Sent it off today. We'll have to see how long it takes to come back.
What else has been happening? I've been playing roughly every two weeks in a tabletop D&D3 campaign that's been working out quite well. My character's a shepherd with delusions of grandeur. My nemesis is the town
The other big RPG type thing that's been going on is an online Shadowrun game where I am on staff. The old code's been deteriorating so there's been an effort over the last six months to move to a new codebase. Recently, a contentious point flared up about whether or not the setting should change from the city that it is currently in, Detroit, to another one. This has led to more debate an arguments than anyone really wants to handle. Things are starting to settle down, though, at least on the short term. Theme files for alternate cities are being drawn up and I imagine the arguing will arise anew when they're posted for discussion.
Are your eyes glazed over yet?
Is "Enter the Matrix" worth trading in three barely used or unused games to get? Am I being silly for looking forward to Top Spin on the Xbox?
Why can't it be easier to get Masamune Shirow stuff on this continent?
For the RP gamers out there, what game system do you think would best suit Ghost in the Shell or a hybrid of Ghost in the Shell with Appleseed?
Edited: Added photograph and a more detailed description of the Sushi Samba experience.
Posted by KinCross at June 9, 2003 05:47 PM