Let the Games Begin!
tomorrow commences my seven day trek thru hell, in otherw ords... studio final review production week. i have written down the itenrary which i hope to follow to the letter because then it allows me to finish by 6 PM on sunday night (monday review)... and it allows for no all-nighters. could it be possible? i have been so lackadaisical this latter half of the semester that i haven't developed much to develop more... so in many ways, there's really not that much work to do... or so i hope.
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how was the weekend? fairly enjoyable i guess. i got the chance to be lazy, roll around in bed refusing to get off, roll around in somebody else's bed, thinking when can i get up (wink!), and then rolling a ball around a squash court, and at the same time beating my loquacious presumptous friend's ass! nice!
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it's gonna be a wild week. i feel refreshed having spoken to my folks and did the whole good son thing for a few minutes. i look forward to planning their 3-4 days of fun here in boston, for graduation. when will it come!? ahhhhh!!!!
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let the games begin!
Skippin Class
yes... senioritis is not much better. i am oevrtly skipping class right now eventhough i could go without any difficulty. sigh....i just don't feel like sitting in class. i would rather sit down and type my blog as you can see.... well, maybe this is a concilliatory kind of thing, making myself believe that if i don't go to class, i should at least do something semi productive you know. actually it will probably be more productive than going to class you know... haha. anyways.... so what is there to blog about hmmmm?
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well last i left you i think it was earlier this week and i was talking about my interesting weekend full of studio reviews and drunken moments and even a little action... oh my! haha. ok, well this week has been pretty routine i have to say... i've worked a lot actually, in terms of my part time administrative assistant job that is... almost a real part time job, at 15 hours. well, it's only 5 more hours than i usually work, but hey... i'm a busy guy. many of my days have been of this schedule though... wake, work part time job, go to studio/class, work on studio project till late. especially tuesday and wednesday nights i went home fairly late and got a good amount done... although i sort of brushed off my desk crit on thursday. i dunno, i think i am making good progress or decent progress in general and i'm not as frantic as i was becoming last week...so i think its good. i have only two other classes other than studio. real estate on wednesday was ok, a semi waste of time, but not too bad. actually pulled off an ok presentation just off the bat...oh wait.... actually on monday night i worked late as well... finishing stuff for that class. yeah this whole week so far has seen some late bed times.... 2:30ish on monday, 3:00 ish on tuesday, 4:30 ish on wednesday (bc i got caught up chatting online to random people haha), and then hmmm... 2:00ish on thursday... not because of work, just about the time i got messing around with email online and also i had outreach work that night). hmmmm.... and of course i am skipping my mother class today. haha.
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speaking of outreach, so i went to embassy thursday night. god... they really were KIDS there. the crowd was soooo young...it really made me feel sort of out of place.... i even kind of got the feeling i was at a weird junior high roller skating party.... haha. i dunno, i didn't do much "outreach".... it was too loud and i didn't like these kids anyways. although my outreach buddies were fun conversation. i think i like club cafe more... even as a hangout place in general. although if you went to embassy, you really would need to dance dance dance. :) but in general, i think it was just that it made me feel old old old. heehee.
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ok, what else. god...i sort of really had a boring week? well, next week will really be boring though since it will be production week for studio. monotonous schedules of work, eat, sleep, work, oh yeah... my two classes.... and more work. booo. great to look forward to. damn... i can't wait to finish this shit.
Senioritis and the World's Best Cure for It
alas...i got my test results back and oh my god, i got a bad case of senioritis. so bad i think its putting me into the blues. i was speaking to my coworker the other day about how i have been feeling sort of down and out for a few days, but not really knowing why. she suggested that maybe it was just a reflex from this "senior-itis" i have been having. it makes kind of sense, in the way that because senioritis gives makes you feel basically... unenthused about anything, or simply antsy to get outta here... without doing the necessary thing you use to do without question, it probably has an effect on your "general" outlook on life. when i get depressed, one of the most common manifestation is a sense of "listlessness" or lack of direction in "life". so manybe senioritis has gotten me so down about being in school and having to put up all this silly shit that it has stretched into a general outlook on life, if but only subconsciously. i mean, i think i would rather do anything BUT school work... give me more travelling interviews, haha. well, maybe not. the exhaustion from last week's unending air time probably set up these past few blue days.
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but i am getting better and speaking of jobs, i believe i had already written a blog entry about my fast offer 2 hours after my interview, but also since then two more offers have come in. a kind of disappointing money wise offer from my dallas potential (so disappointing i can't even bring myself to seriously consider it)... and then a fairly healthy offer from the houston firm i traveled down to interview with. so i am still waiting for philly to get back to me to see if they even want me and also for the other houston firm, which seemed to be a great "professional" experience, is going to offer, although i've gotten a note that a proposal letter is being drafter. hopefully it will be at least considerable to my other houston offer... but i guess that is where negotiation is gonna happen. you know, ultimately i just want to be able to feel like the past two years of work AND the past two years of school have been "worth" something... meaning higher pay or better position (usually synonomous of course!)
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other than that though, the week has been sort of listless. a few nights i tried to bring myself to work on studio but i am having major impediments to it for some reason. i dunno... again senioritis...i just don't want to be here... but i am begginning to get freaked about my lack of work. i eventually had a saturday pin-up that suprisingly didn't go as bad as i thought it would... my professor basically saying that i am going definitely in the right direction, it's just that i simply needed to produce work that was more defined and worked out and bigger... clearer... chunkier... ok, not that. heehee. anyways, for that shit i basically worked some on thursday during studio, some friday night for a bit, and then saturday morning for a bit. but its true, i really need to do some work though. i dunno, i almost feel like i got to cock myself with more and more tension and anxiety so i can just go on a work frenzy! but you know... we only have two weeks left untile the final review! AHHHH! but then again, my whole architectural life has been about pulling out an idea at the last minute for some odd reason... more studios than not, i had no discernible final form till like a week into the project.
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all in all this has been an easy semester. i have a final project left, a group real estate project that i know personally i am gonna half ass anyways and let other people pick up the slack. sigh! and then a paper at the end of the semester, a week after final review on housing policy... a short 3 minutes presentation about it before... blah blah blah. haha... so excited about school can't you see!
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i think i am doing ok pyschologically at the moment, i think part of it has been the fun fun weekend i have had. at first it didn't seem like it would be that fun, when i found out saturday would be the pin-up. friday night was a serious effort to fight off procrastination... especially after playing some squash, having dinner, coming back and thinking... i'm going home to sleep a little. so i did, and came back to studio at around 11:00 pm.. and worked till maybe 1 or 2. haha, and then i well.. was naughty, and met up with a guy i had talked to before who made a booty call, for lack of a more refined word. nice guy, was visiting for the HBS admitted students weekend. anyways, it was nice to get off, go to bed, and sleep well. haha. unfortunately the next morning i awoke around 8-9 and still felt knackered. but i had to drag myself to studio, finish some plans and sections, but of course... senioritis hit again and i went to have a leisurely lunch. coming back in time to do more section b4 being bumped up in the pin up schedule... but that was ok. i realized another drawing wasn't gonna change much... and in general it went ok.
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after that i did some research on provincetown lodging because robert and i are planning another weekend bash there at the end of the school year. it will be nice to see him one last time, if it is so that i am moving back to houston (which most likely it seems honestly). and after that guess what... booty call again. guess the previous night's guy saw something he liked. hey, not to sound harsh... but you know... this guy was starting to get a little icky sticky. i dunno, must have been a newbie in the sense that he seemed a little too "eager" to "plan" our lives together. haha, oh well... now that i have become an asshole, i'll say it... you and our... are just this, what we are doing now... not anymore... so stop thinking about it. hmmm... i gasped while i wrote that.... deep down i'm still a softy.
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then after those exercises i met up with chris and a co-worker of his at a boston she-she bar and ira also came with. it was a nice time and the two strong drinks i had hit the spot well. the crowd was fun and the music tolerable... unfortuantely, later in the evening we got kicked out of "reserved" table and stood around a little weirdly waiting for our last drinks (which were never ordered) and our cards (which we waited for quite a while for). i mean, it was busy, but it was kind of lackadaisical service. anyways, ahhh.... back to harvard square and an ice cream drumstick later (had a sweet tooth attack i dunno).... found myself at home...ready to snooze. what a full day that was!
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and today promises to be no less.... i have done laundry, cleaned house, dropped off dry cleaning, called through the list of potential ptown lodging, will have meetings, do more studio, and go see a movie. yowza!
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i gots to get my act together about school soon though...if but for only the next 2 weeks. then i am scot free! yowza.
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Demons Within
last night i was feeling kind of weird... not really down and out... just hmmm... downcasted. not sure why. but instead of wallowing, i decided to do some therapuetic artwork. so i started taking self potraits for fun and for one my hand was really shaky or i had to turn my hand or something and out came i cool...pyschedelic image. very scary... but i guess the process let the demons out. enjoy this interesting portfolio of self potraits.
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Now That's What I Call Service!
i had a "first" today in terms on my job interviewing experiences... the fastest "turnaround" between an interview and an actual job offer, numbers included and everything... literally less than 2 hours! haha... now that's what i call service eh? i wish all my job interviews were that quick to respond. heehee. so how was it? well, it was goddamn early is what it was... 8:30 AM. haha, had a little experience of boston commuting traffic... why does the red line slow down in the morning... you'd think it'd try to speed up to carry more passengers... but no... it slows down. i mean... physically slows down... not the frequency of arrivals... although i guess they are related in some way. anyways, this firm was located in downtown boston and walking there i had again one of those sweet urban moments enjoying all the hustle and bustle of "city life". ahhh. and then i had the interview which actually went off pretty much without a hitch. since i did the intense traveling schedule last week, the whole "presenting" myself i have sort of down pat... its not even fun anymore... haha. i sort of just do my dance and show and they seem to eat it up. the guy i spoke with was nice enough, but i guess one interesting and unique thing he did (not necessarily good or bad) was express the point that this architecture firm was indeed a business operation and that coming to work for this firm would involve learning not only "design" but also the nooks and crannies of making things financially feasible. i mean, everyone sort of plays lip service to that notion but this guy really wanted to hit it home it seems.... not exactly sure what to make of it i have to say.
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anyways, the interview itself went allright... and as i already alluded to by saying i got an offer, i guess it went pretty well, at least in terms of "selling" myself. hmm... it was almost too easy in a way i guess. but why am i not jumping for joy. hmm.... honestly in my opinion... they have a whacked sense of what is an appropriate salary. shortest way i guess to put it is that i was offered more in houston than they offered for me... to live in boston... one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in! hmmm...i know its probably just a few thousand difference... but when it comes to standards of living and cost of living... it makes a huge difference probably. if i took that salary i would be pretty much living like a grad student again... which isn't that bad, but i dunno... and i being unrealistic?
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anyways, yes... it is nice to have an offer to "fall back on". but honestly, the pay is a little dismal. again, never the perfect union. the first offer was a very respectable bid for houston but my impression of the firm was mediocre. oh by the way, my impression of this firm was a little above mediocre... but i definitely felt the siren call of "coporate".. having attuned myself to that from two years at hillier. and now the second firm, slightly better practice... crummy "initial" pay. but that "initial"... who the hell knows how long that is "suppose" to be.
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hmmm, i wonder what and when... and if... my other offers pan through.... both the remaining houston players have told me that a offer letter is in the works as we speak.... and the dallas and philly firms... well honestly... i dunno about them... up in the air.... but hmmm, they would be nice for some comparison i guess. yes... this boston firm was definitely "too easy"... and my gut feeling about it? well honestly, nothing to really complain about except for the pay... which isn't "that" bad... but definitely that side of "medium".... almost a sense of "comfort" in the "type" of stuff they do. but then again... nothing of "pizazz" i saw in other places.... surprisingly the houston firms.
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again....interesting waters lay unchartered ahead.
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on other fronts... can i mention just for the record... how bad of "senior-itis" i have. it is absolutely torture to get myself to "design" these days... eventhough i know i am going to fuck myself if i don't get my act together. also my other two classes... i finally started picking up the ball (slightly) to write my final housing paper.... and well, real estate is always an adventure of group dynamics, so we'll see how that actually works. but yes... in general, i couldn't even give a fuck. i'd rather play squash... which i am getting sort of good at... in a very amatuerish kind of way.
Beaux Arts Bacchanalian
aih aih aih. i got completely trashed last night...it was fun. haha. once in a while its always good to late the demons out of you. what gives? well, last night was the annual GSD Beaux Arts Ball, this year reincarnated as a "Victorian Del' Arte Ball"... or whatever the fuck that means. So of course, i came up with fucking hot costume inspired by the whimsy of the victorian age... a psuedo willy wonka jockey pastiche in pink and white. very nice. unfortunately, the party participants didn't come as creatively dressed, it feeling like a strange mix between job interview socializer and an actual private school prom. oh well... as long as there was that open bad period. which i completely took advantage of. and low and behold the fun evening. i think in the span of two hours, i had at least 8 servings of very strong jack and cokes. arriving at 8:00, i was easily on my way to getting sloshed by 8:30 and by the time i "had" to leave at 11:00, i was very much inebriated, finding it difficult to walk in a straight line (also one of the heels on my shoes had decided to pop off). long story made short... i haven't been THAT drunk in a very long time! my head was killing me last night trying to get to bed, at a fairly early 12:00 actually.. ans this morning, it required 2 servings of tynelol to confront the hangover headache. and unfortunately, the exertions of last evening have left me in a completely anti-working mood... although i heavily suspect that the party is just a convenient excuse covering up my plain laziness at studio these days. oh well... we'll work tomorrow... as long as i get something by tuesday, that's all that matters.
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i had a blast and i got to know my pod mate sooyung very well. i have realized that of late, when i drink, i'm an amazingly fun person... very charismatic and friendly. not that i am not to begin with when sober, but at least when i am drunk, i'm just that more open about talking to almost anyone! which i guess is a good think, as long as i am not an angry drunk. i like to think that happiness pervades my life. i also know i get particularly horny as well haha... so typical. sooyung had to listen to all my various diatribes and stories about my gay adventures if she wanted to or not... but she really didn't say anything to stop me and on some points seemed very interesting. maybe today i'll need to tell her to disregard anything i said last night. haha... such incriminating evidence! i remember distinctly detailing her about some of my silly gsd crushes and also about that guy i had found out on CL and now secretly know that he uses the service to hook up... not like you don't! haha. anyways... please... this blog is enough damnation already if we're really looking for things like that. last night on the bad there was also one of those somewhat ticklish moments where someone makes an almost non-chalant comment comming from a standpoint of simply knowing you're gay and not framing it as some sort of novel thing. after someone sort of breaks the ice in the regard i get so much more relaxed. "coming out" in general is uncomfortable because it makes you the center of attention, good or bad, but still... it's nice when people take the burden off of you. i mean, its like... i don;t care that much about it, i think other people shouldn't either. the flip side for that person though, is that i simply become a flaming queen to them afterwards... haha!
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anyways, the party was very fun and i had a blast, with or without the alcohol i would like to think. although i can't really tell because i was seriously drunk for the far majority of my time at the party. heehee. .
Love Connection...Not!
well, this post will be about my "date" last night with this guy i just met last week. the funny story about how we re-connected was in a previous blog. anyways, from the title of the blog, you get the general gist of how things went. oh well, it was somewhat a surprise though i have to say, but in the end, if you thought about it, i think it made sense pretty much. so i don't mind it that i was well... dumped... but only by technicality as he was just simply faster to the email than i was... haha. breakup by email... what a feau pax! heehee.
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anyways, our evening was suppose to be a "video night". ok, don't get your head in the gutter because honestly if nothing happened but some leaning our heads together, that would have been fine. but anyways, so i met up with him at christina's ice cream store (cute) after we had dinner w/ our own respective friends and we walked back to my place. funny how early signs in the evening make sense in the whole run of things, things like your short conversation about "architecture"... that you know seems to be boring him (point loss there boys... to date me fyi, you must at least pretend to be interested in things i call my profession... i'm nice enough to show that myself, i expect no less). anyways, we get back to my place and i set up the dvd, have a bottle of wine (a lovely australian shiraz... since sam and i had that shiraz in philly, i've been a fan!) and start the movie... vanity fair. which i love i have to say and i thought he would as well... being a film studies person. it's such a delicious ... artistic... film. but i dunno... something was just off... he seemed bored and was yawning and blah. it got kind of annoying and it was only common courtesy keeping me from suggesting that maybe he should just go home then. i dunno, was it emotional distance (which i know is this young 23 year old's problem) or was he just not into me and the sitiuation. so i asked him what he wanted to do if not watch the video.
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cuddle on your bed? ha... ok...i can handle that. but aren't you the one who said it takes a long time for your to jump in the sack with someone? please... no one just "cuddles" in bed! it's like a fat kid in a cake shop... browsing. anyways... so we get into bed and yes it was cuddling for a while first off... which is perfectly fine with me. and honestly it was sort of nice at first but i dunno... it became apparent that there was i dunno... some degree of... blase-ness to it. and i don't think it was a lack of skill... if that's what you call it... it was a more of a lack of... passion. i mean, i have been with boys who didn't know what the fuck they were doing but at least they were eager beavers at it and were willing to do whatever. hmmm... this boy just seemed... well, disinterested. and of course that either means they aren't into you... which is bad, or they have issues to deal with... which is even worse, or they simply are like "this" in bed... which is the worst! Any way you shake it, it sucks for you to be in that situation.
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point of discussion. usually... would you not say... my gay friends, or even my straight ones, that if you do something to someone, like say kissing the neck, that its sort of a subtle sign for them to understand that you also enjoy such action? lost on this guy. another point of discussion. if you're giving a guy a great blowjob, wouldn't you at least expect i dunno... some moaning, at least a little. or maybe i just suck at sucking dick?? well, if i do, the 3 million guys i've blown (exxagerration here ok!) certainly have been good liars. ok, this boy was so fucking quiet it got annoying. i mean, you don't have to be a moaning banshee like me (haha...exxageration again ok) but i dunno... some acknowledgement that you are actually having sex as opposed to english teatime? definite points lost on these things boys... take note. i mean, don't get me wrong, i don't have to have reciprocation (meaning he didn't offer blowing me in return... handjob yes, which was bad anyways... but to his defense, i tend to be very particular about that) but he just didn't seem into it... and here i was trying my hardest... and it just didn't seem to be registering. ok... boys, giving pleasure is just as fun as receiving pleasure... but either one doesn't count unless both parties are "there". if i wanted to suck on an inanimate thing like a banana...i'll go to the grocery store... a living man is suppose to register observable signs of enjoyment ok?!
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haha, i must be coming off pissed. i'm not really..i think its because i am also listening to Madonna's "Hung Up" song while typing this. but i just think its a shame... that this guy is so early on his sexual curve... but in a not promising way. it's like having sex with a plank... not fun... completely unresponsive. at least with younger guys, like i said... there is energy, which being an aries, i totally like. strangely enough he's an aries... so, in the words of my trusty gay astrology book, we should have been at it like gangbusters. sigh, oh well, i guess i should have known... even the first make out session... hmmm... didn't partiucarly leave me feeling giddy. its also a damn shame too... because well... this guy was fucking hung. seriously, if he ever gets over his hangups or whatever, he's gonna make someone really happy. talk about thick! and i thought i was... this boy blows it out of the water (oh wait...i forgot he doesn't blow anything... haha)... and very respectable length. sigh... such a waste!
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anyways, after he left, i knew for sure this boy didn't deserve anymore consideration, but being a softy, i always have a hard time of telling people that it isn't working. good thing he did it for me. the next morning, i came into studio to an email... basically saying he wasn't feeling it either and that he thinks he just forgot the original reason why he ditched in me the first time months ago (which i had no email correspondence of that is). sigh... should i be feeling ditched though? not really... i mean, honestly it would have been just boring if it went on. we obviously weren't into each other on a romantic level... at least a real, sustainable romantic level. you know, not to get all astrologic on you again, but it probably is typical of aries-aries matches. the front end is always fun and it seems like you could fall in love right on the spot. but after a few dates, its like... hmmm, you aren't as cool as i thought you were. funny thing is though, you'd expect from such a a fire-fire pairing for the sex to be good, or if bad, at least bad in that hot sloppy way. hmmm, not happening here though. sigh, but not really.
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oh well...so where does that leave me now? hmmmm. for a week i entertained the delightful image of being able to show a man to my folks at graduation. to be able to come off as a "full" person. i guess i am still in that mindset that there is "a" need for someone else to complete me. hmmm... romantic indeed. at least though the past month or two have been kind of dramatic in a way. a crush that turned out to be less than expected but still amuses me in our strange relationship... a sagittarean-aries mix (hot sex... unstable pairing... yep yep), an online prospect that fizzled out before it started but was cute nonetheless until i realized that the guy was just dragging me along (since i never replied to his last email, he didn't either... only confirming the fact that he was playing anyways... he knew his gig was up)... a libra-aries mix (could work, but aries usually get tired of libra's inherently dishonest practices... yep yep), and finally a weird twist of fate that only reconfirmed something already written already in history... an aries-aries concoction (animal lust, distinct almost overbearing similarity.... no... not really... the boy has a while to mature).
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i should set my eyes out for a leo, gemini, or acquarius... other fire/air sign compatibles. know of any? ahhhh... oh well, i guess this year might just end up being one by my own. all for the better i guess, seeing that the rest of a new life stands before me. and like this guy who fell through said in his respectably sincere (honesty is ultimately a plus in my book...no matter how it is brought upon you), he's still got a lot to learn about what makes him tick and dating in general. at least i can appreciate his honesty at things, and i have to be in the same boat with him as well... i'm learning. onward to the next lesson.
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Too Much of a Good Thing
yes... like candy, too much of it can just make you sick. what am i talking about? hmmm... the allure of being "jet-set", i.e. having the ability to fly around all week to fabulous, or not so fabulous cities, wearing a schnazzy suit and rocking tie, pretending to be "grown-up". heehee. yes, the downside is then you start realizing that its hard actually doing any productive work on an airplane, the coach accommodations day in day out do get unbearably cramped, and you can't ever decently really sleep, your legs get sore with minimal circulation, you get set behind by delays and cancellations, and you eat lots of crap food that seems like it should be pretty good, then you realize... this is a fucking airport, how good could it get?? yes, not all it is cut out to be..
to put this in context, after coming back from philly on monday evening, i recuperated till tuesday afternoon and then flew to houston, spent a quick evening with my cousin chit chatting like old times, and then had an interview wednesday morning, that actually went really well. this was actually a second interview with this firm and with this one there was a definite commitment or shall i say recommitment to hiring me, and the statement that an offer letter was in the works. that's good! and surprisingly i got a better opinion of this firm this time around... i dunno, i think it won't be obvious where i land up. i mean, some places have the benefit of a great city, a great chance for a social life, a great potential for professional advancement, a great pay... i dunno... there isn't a "dream" job though... unfortuanately. it's sort of the flip side of "choices" i guess... speaking from someone who has in most of the major decisions in his life in terms of education and professional experience, has only had one real viable offer... this is the first time i might be able to entertain multiple viable offers, appealing in their own way. what to do! haha... i dunno even why i am saying that as i have just written a formal rejection letter to the one real physical offer (numbers included) that i had... an dnow technically... i have no job offers to entertain. haha.. ironic if all the other ones i am pursuing don't pan out... just my luck. i would even blink i'd think. knock on wood!
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anyways, almost immediately after my interview was over i hopped on a taxi to go to the airport to fly back to boston, finally getting back at about 9 ish. it's funny, the next day i woke up at 4 am for a 6 am flight to dallas... which i was far more closer being in houston to... i know. but apparently united won't let you fly only half of your itenarary, and where as i had enough money for a short one way trip from houston to dallas, i don't think i could have forked over a trip from dallas back home to boston, if i ditched the original ticket... SUCKS! anyways, i got back and then did email and tried to get to bed as soon as possible. i think it was really my thursday trip that made me feel like a "flying professional". partially because i woke up, put on a suit, slung my messenger bag over, no other luggage, took a taxi to the airport, got on the plane, and flew to dallas, for a short 3 hour stay, and then flew back... getting back around midnight because of a delay in route. yes, felt very adult... in a mixed way as i suggested before. how did the interview itself go? good... yes, again... i am getting the feeling that making a choice between these jobs won't be obvious.
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what is the shake out as far as i know now... minus actual offers of employment? well... assuming everyone actually wants me (i hope at least someone wants me)... the strongest points for each place... are well... philly is a rocking town... i think i would really love "living" there. and having friends there and being close to NYC is a major plus... not much need for overt legwork in forming that all important social life. houston... professional development, the firms in houston (both of them i am entertaining) really feel like places i can grow professionally. dallas... similar to houston but not as obvious of a growth potential. and actually i am technically interviewing with a lagging firm here in boston, but i think they missed the boat really. nyc? i had ideas once but again, i think "i" missed the boat on that one.
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today was my one full day in cambridge this week. ahhhh... yes, being able to just be stationary. haha. it was fun in a strange way rediscovering old habits... like working out and playing squash... going to felipes... and going out with my new boy. heehee. tonight we're going to "watch videos"... haha... actually i think that is exactly what we are going to do. funny enough, we had a "talk" that basically amounted to us agreeing that this "thing" should be as low stress as possible... and him also saying that it takes a "long time" for him to get to know someone... and in the same light... to jump in the sack with. and you know what's funny? i didn't really mind in a weird way. haha, there definitely have been moments in my life where if a guy really told me that, i would have been.... see ya! but i dunno, i like this guy just in terms of hanging out, and like i said, i'm in search of "romance" nowadays... not necessarily sex. sex is usually easy, but not always satisfying, or if so... somewhat complicated. i was chatting with that guy i had a crush on previously and totally... i think out of habit... flirting with him again, and then i dunno... i realized how tired i was from flying the whole day... and the flirtation immediately evaporated. haha... he even said it was somewhat cold for me to tease like that... leave him hanging. maybe it was also a sly tactic... having figured out that he responds better to the "hard to catch" tactic. haha... i still have a mind to get him into bed at least one more time before the end of the semester... and since it seems i'm not getting ass by this other guy i am dating... hmm....
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dating and job interviewing seem somehow strangely similar after saying that.
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i am looking forward to tomorrow. tomorrow night that is. it will be GSD's "Beaux Arts Ball"... which this year they've decided to thematically render as a "Victorian del'Arte Ball". cute! so is my outfit. i made a tophat today that is so fucking gay. i will be going as a classy pink and white willy wonka... ha... fucking great! will show pics, so stay tuned for that.
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Interviews and Discussions
today i felt like a grown-up in some ways. today was my interview with a philadelphia firm. overall, i think it went well but i was most surprised about how "drawn out" it felt. over the course of the entire afternoon, i met with maybe 10 or so people, some of them very "interview-esque", some of them simply asked to talk to me in order to give me a fuller idea of what it might be like to work at the firm and to live in philadelphia. actually i have to say i appreciated the breadth of the visit but it did leave me slightly cross-eyed though. in general, of what i could gathered i met with representatives from both the "urban design" practice and the "architecture" practice...as interview interviews. then i met with a fellow younf professional.. actually, two of them, one which gave me a short walking tour of philly, the other whom just talked about her own experiences in the office, and finally the HR person talked to me to try to sell me the benefits of the firm. and of course, i got an office tour right after i had to hurry to get a ride back to airport. i was planning on taking the $5 train but just my luck in was running late so, to avoid really being late for my flight, i just took the $25 taxi to the airport and got there 20 minutes later... plenty of time to do a little shopping at the airport mall.
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i felt grown up i have to say, dressed in my suit, pulling my little carry-on...which broke, and flying around on "business". it was very cute. and of course, the day spent talking to other professionals trying to prove my professionalism also helped it. but i guess what topped off the feeling of adultness was that from work, i came home to a little bit of what i might look forward as a complete life in the future. that guy i went out with last week offered to pick me up from the airport and take me for a short little tour of some interesting spots he knew of in boston. so yes, i came home to a man... haha. sweet. actually i have to give it to the boy, he took me to some fairly novel places in the city. first off was the huge mary statue in east boston, lodged in this bablylonia looking tower... very surreal... and also a great view of the city. then was the revere beach and this little carry out called kelly's roast beef. it was nice seeing the ocean, and interesting having that sort of beachy coney-island food. then finally he drove me into somerville to check out the surreal "round house"... and old delapidated house in just a regular neighborhood that literally is...well... round. it looks like a squat turret, three stories tall and... circular. very creepy as the windows are boarded up and the doors visbly pad-locked... obviously closed up and abandoned. just kind of totally creepy.
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it was a lot of fun. we also had a small "talk" about where we thought this "thing" could or would go. i think we both came to the conclusion that we would try to be as "low-stress" about it as possible and just play it along, but keeping in mind i guess in a way, not to jump in too deep, but also to not let that stop you in some ways. does that make any sense? i dunno, we'll see. i do know that it's fun at the moment, and the making out in the car is so... haha... high school. although i certainly didn't do anything like that in high school. but i guess that's what you get when you are going out with a 23 year old. ha. we'll see what goes forward.
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he is quite full of little nuances though that i find amusing. i am not sure if i'm into him or not though... and i think that may be the "pre-destining" spin i am putting on it, but i dunno, maybe i can open myself to something more... even if it most likely will dematerialize in the future. he does make me laugh and think in a small way... and he's sweet and sincere, so far. and i feel laid back with him, not trying per se to achieve anything. we'll see.
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eventhough making out in the car was high school, the day overall felt very adult. after a needed sleep in my own bed, i woke up this morning and packed some odds and ends for my trip to houston... a trip for an interview to a firm i'm not really interested in but simply am using the opportunity for a free flight in order to ship some "stuff" home. and now, after struggling with some real estate spread sheets that are totally over my head...it feels, i need to move on get to the airport for some more adultish flying around the country.
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it's gonna be a fun week kids.
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The City of Brotherly Love
i'm here in philadelphia this morning waiting to go to my job interview i have in this city today. if i hadn't mentioned before, this coming week i am flying to three cities for three different interviews, all paid for by most gracious potential employers. i was speaking with a professor the other day saying, that despite sounding sophmoric, i still get a kick out of getting all this free air travel. he said it wasn't really sophmoric, it was just that i was early in my experiences and i will soon realizes that getting paid to fly around to do thing in different places really isn't all that great! ha. but no matter, i am flying my first leg of interviews this weekend, spending the weekend here in philly with sam and seeing friends, and then leaving today after my interview. the following few days will be very hectic, as i fly tomorrow to houston for a wednesday interview, fly back to boston on wednesday afor a flight thursday morning to dallas, followed by a flight back that afternoon... yes, i know... why didn't i just fly from houston to dallas.... didn't think of that! anyways, fly fly fly, kiss ass kiss ass kiss ass.
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but first some fun in philly. friday before my trip was spent in a most listless way i have to say. after running some errands in the morning i came back to studio expecting a crit by my studio professor. unfortunately, and fortunately i guess, the gsd open house was happening so he was required to make some presentation on studio stuff. blah blah, it was the typical. but then i had to go to housing policy class which today proved to be somewhat interesting as opposed to the usual sleeper. and then after class, i met with my studio professor for like 10 minutes and he told me i should draw more. which is all true, and i am saying this in the sense that sometimes i wonder why i even feel i should get a crit when i know i haven't done enough work to really get anywhere. well, i guess its because i know that next week i won't be here so i'm sort of just like, ehhh... we'll work next week i guess. anyways, somehow the day just sort of bled together after that, there was like a famous lecturer coming and i sat around for that, which turned out to be not all that great. there was also beer and dogs which strangely enough i stayed for because i wanted to get two tickets for the "beaux arts ball"...i.e. our prom. yes, two tickets meaning i am going to bring a date, or try to. i think for the remaining time i am in boston i am going to try to just live out whatever i wanted to truly live out while i was here in boston but just never "got around to" you know. the evening closed fairly non chalantly with chinese food, messing aound the internet, getting ready for my trip to philly.
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i got into philly and was dreadfully cold and wet. not the greatest type of weather i have to say. but i saw sam and it was good to see him. he's always been such a sweety. anyways, we hung out for a little bit at his place and just kind of talked and were lazy. took a nap, i got the chance to call robert and dish a little bit with him. one funny story, is that apparently he was recently at a webb reunion in nyc and had met some of our old classmates there. he was recounting this one story about a particular classmate whom we both knew, and i think was friendly enough definitely. she was a rambunctous girl and apparently still so is. so anyways, she's already smashed from the open bar service they had, and she comes up to robert and some more friends and was like, hello...have you heard that alex song is finally out! and that he is utterly FABULOUS! FABULOUS! haha, i had to laugh when i heard this, partly out of blushing out of the psuedo compliment but also partly how uncomfortable the situation might have been. robert was recounting the same reaction to me saying, that it was very odd, having a good friend talked so... blatantly... amongst virtual strangers. anyways, i hope he changed that subject wuick and fast. i mean, it certianly is not really to do with anything with being "out" or not... i mean, i post online my orientation... and for god's sake i write this blog (that no one reads!) but still, there's something like "talking behind your back" in that situation. good of robert to step in and put an end to that.
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anyway, so after some lazying around we finally got off our asses and went to go see ice age 2... an animated flick... which was enjoyable enough i have to say. afterwards we went hunting for food and found this quaint little italian place with hokey decorations and drunk frat boys...drinking box franzia wine! ewww. haha, anyways, dinner was delightful and i got exposed to the BYO concept of philly... bringing your own wine and having it corked for you. we tasted a delightful vintage of "Fat Bastard" shiraz.... yum. i like wine. heehee. it was nice being slightly buzzed bfor egoing to this psuedo club we went to later to see sam and some of his friends that he had made. at first i thought the evening was gonan be lamo because you know, new people meeting each other tend toc lam up... but hey, with a few drinks (i later found out i spent like $70... so at least 8-9 drinks)...one can be quite the social butterfly. not really butterfly however, since honestly i did spent most of the night speaking with one of sam's friends... which he has an interesting history to speak of. but since that is not my story, i won't recount it here. anyways, the chap i thought was great conversation, either that or he was simply nice enough to bare this drunken fool's blabber. i had a good time. and sam's other friends were in general very nice as well. we ended the evening by having a threesome (yeah... you wish!) late night diner snack afterwards and with me making even more of a fool of myself. ha! well...whatever, its not like i will most likely end up in this city anyways.. and that is spoken in a sense that any city i am looking at right now doesn't have an automatic leg up by much really... at the moment. ahhhh... by the time we got home i was distinctly smashed... and the rest of the evening, well... some predictable things happened.
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the next day started around 3 PM. haha, talk about hangover. but i guessd good enough... since we had just enough time to have some great dim sum lunch and then go over and see the REALLY cool exhibit that sam took me to. it was called body worlds and in essence it was "plastinized" cadivers...i.e real human people... plasticized more or less... in very different poses of dissection. VERY fascinating. kind of gruesome at first but after the novelty wore off you were seriously just interested in general. i think maybe the two most fascinating and gruesome things in my opinion were the fetal deformities.... weird siamese two headed babies and also weird no headed babies... the skull cap not forming and therefore no brain forming... fucking weird. the other weird exhibit was also the "slices" of humans comparing an extremely obese person... like 500 pounds versus a "regular" person...very fascinating in the sense that the fat that surrounded the bodies was this sort of beigy yellow color and seriously...plastinized, looked kind of like marble or some sort of translucent stone in that way. it was so interesting... and in that sliced shape... it totally made me think of material for kitchen countertops or something like that... whic is heavily dsitrubing! haha. i have to say though that even the whole event soon wore off and near the end, i had noticed this extremely cute guy... and i went from observing the dead bodies to observing the delicious live ones, thinking what poses they could be in...haha. still very much the adolescent at times i have to say.
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after the exhibit we met up with justin who i haven't seen since well.. last time i visited sam, which was at the begginning of the school year. anyways, his new "boy toy" is very cute by the way. unsurprisingly asian, but quite cute and well built. i'd definitely do him, except he has a weird accent that sometimes makes him unintelligible....ha. anyways, it was good to see justin again as he is always a sweety i think... a little frazzled sweety, but sweety nonetheless. and he looks good, he doesn't seem to have aged a day since we met the first time...god... almost 3-4 years ago?? i find it funny... and i guess a sign of maturation, that i actually keep in contact with men that i have slepted with simply for the fact of friendship and that i actually enjoyed their company. it almost seems to reconfirm the stereotype that in the gay social structure...sex is fairly informal exchange that is quite fluid in relationship to other social interactions. writing that made me just think of my previous "crush" who now having slepted with him... and almost getting over the fact that he doesn't know what he wants... well, i think i just might able to be just friends with him. although it is my "goal" to get him into bed at least one more time before the year wraps up. haha!
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and then the rest of the evening was pretty routine. last minute emails and ironing my shirt, getting ready for my dazzling self promotion the next day. heehee. ahhh... it was a grand time i had here in philly... and actually in general, i think i would love living here in philly. it definitely has the plus of being a great place for a young gay urban man to live. i'm more or less sure i'll be able to afford center city living and yes, there seems to be definitely a great gay culture that unlike boston, isn't so blatantly racist and white-centric. i mean, even new york, with all its attitude, is less like that than boston is.. although i think its simply a matter of having a lot more people, therefore broader spectrums of taste. boston is probaly just too small to be diverse. but philly, seems to have really pulled off a good society of queers... at least that i can see. who knows, the lived experience could be very much different. so yes... it might be a good place to get a job although it would be a great disappointment i know to the folks. i mean the only thing that precludes me from automatically considering texas is the fact that i don't really "socially" know it. but i wonder if that's a problem. i mean, i guess i know "of it" having spent a few summers of lust in houston but still, being a "social" gay man... which i want to be... not excatly sure how one goes about that yet. but i guess the cache is that there is then a challenge... one that you can escape even by say moving to new york or philly, but i guess is slightly mitigated by the fact that you already have gay friends in those cities, themselves struggling to define their gay social circles. we'll see.... it's not long though before i have to make a choice. ahhhh.
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Twists of Fate
so i have a very interesting story to recount that occured on my birthday. a story about that in life, you often don't get what you expect, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. the significance of happening on my birthday also has some strange sign-like significance to me as well i have to admit. anyways, i have to say that in sort, this story is a tale of two boys. one i had a encountered through online processes a few weeks ago and have been meaning to get together with since then. the guy seemed very cool and in the chat paremeter we had a lot of connection and yes, he was disastrously cute as well. anyways, ever since we virtually met i have been wanting to meet in actuality. for various reasons which i have really to fully understand, a lot of the proposed meeting we had never carried through and some of them he eventually emailed his inability to meet maybe only a few hours before or actually a few hours after we were suppose to meet. yet in the one or two days space of time before, it would be almost impossible to get a reply from him. so, i was thinking that since part of the ability to meet was also my own schedule, being out of the country for over a week or what not, that i would give him another chance to make it up, and to make a fun birthday for myself. so my birthday was thursday, and the last time we conversed was the sunday before. wednesday i hadn't heard from him yet about our potential rendevouz and so i emailed him asking kindly if that he couldn't make it to just let me know. anyways, as you might have surmised, the hours clicked away on my birthday and soon the time we were suppose to meet came past and still no sign, no email, no call. i waited out for a few more hours unfortunately, unable to accept the fact that this guy was just if not an asshole, than a lameass. eventually i came to the conclusion that he wasn;t going to show up YET again, and i gave up. i only have a certain amount of patience, and although great in situations like this, it certainly is not infinite. the third time standing me up pretty much does it and it was a double whammy being on "my" day. funny enough, the next day he emailed me a short excuse saying he really wanted to see me but had misplaced my phone number.... lame lame lame. did not even deserve a reply. hopefully this guy will be out of my life and in the future i might be able to push that patience number down to two.
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yet, this time around, life did not apparently leave me out in the cold. in a funny twist of fate, i happened to land another "date" that just sort of happened. and the strangest paremeters let me tell. well, the day before my birthday i was walking back from the gym to studio, after having gotten my ritual of felipe's steak quesadilla and then something from starbuck's, i was walking along the street while the light april rain was drizzling. i noticed a guy turn his head and i immediately had a notion that i knew him from somewhere and it dawned on me pretty quickly that it was a guy that i had dated at the begginning of the school year and that i thought after two dates had decided that i wasn't really all that and decided to never contact or reply to me emails again. anyways, at that time, i remember having a good enough time with this fellow to think that i wanted to continue spending more time with him. there was something subtly interesting in him in the sense that he was a great conversationalist, quite cute, and there i think was attraction on some level. yet even back then, i felt a sort of distance from him, that at first i took as shyness, but then i thought was disinterest, but the second date puzzled me because things weren't clear. no matter the fact, i had intended to proceed and find out with more dates, and i was excited that i had met someone who did not enthrall me immediately (which always leads to something intense but unfruitful) and who did not bore me unbearably... there was say pilot flames waiting for ignition?
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alas the typical dating experience happened and i never heard from him again. ahhh, such is such is what i thought and moved on. however, after i saw him on that drizzly day, and after recogizing him and having that flashback, their was immediate uncomfortability because of course i didn't want him to recognize me and ensue what i knew would be a seriously mutual uncomfortability. call me a coward but i just ducked right by a fast as i could, almost covering myself with the handy umbrella i had with me and trying to get out of the situation as fast as possible... sigh just one of the funny adventures of life i took it. yet when i got back to studio and got around to checking my email i noticed a message from him on my friendster page and i was very very curious what the hell was going on. so in short, he had emailed me that he had seen me on the street, didn't know if i saw him, but that it occurence made him think about what he did and that he felt ad has consistently felt regret about it. emailed him back with a sort of generic letter explaining that i did see him and obviously since i was nder the impression he didn't like me, i didn't feel the need to stop and chat. in further correspondence he told me that he had indeed sent at least an email saying he wasn't interested, as opposed to the "silent treatment" i thought i had got. and he said he even had the email in archive if i wanted proof, although interested, i didn't feel pyscho enough to demand it. anyways, he wanted to know if it was appropriate to ask about having coffee or something... but he was cognizant that his actions might come across as being pyscho and that he would understand if i didn't want to have anything to do with him. i dunno, it felt sincere so i eventually told him that it would be fun to have coffee if nothing else but to pick his brain about his "issues".
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after i realized my originally date wasn't going to show, in kind of just a stab of luck i emailed the guy i saw the day before and had that email back and forth with (and was planning on having coffee with next week) and ask if he was free and if he wanted to go out. i didn't really get a response and it was dinner time... and with a somewhat dejected feeling, but not really because i knew i always had friends to celebrate my birthday with (which many of them were kind enough to have remembered! :-) ), i went out with ira and had a fabulous dinner and conversation with her. it was a delightful time i have to admit! halfway through dinner though i get a call and low and behold, its the guy i emailed earlier. his name is nick, i might as well say. so he says that he just got back from music class (which i later learned is accordion class.... haha!) and that he is free and would love to hang out and get some drinks. so i thought hey why not!
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so i met nick after dinner and we went to this new schnazzy bar called "OM" that just opened relatively recently and it was a really fun experience. i had no intent of getting drunk since i wanted to pick at his brain but i need a few drinks to get loose. in all honestly it was a delightful time. it was sort of like an old acquaintance. i mean technically it was our "third" date and one thing that did amaze me was his ostrich like memory for the details that i had talked about months and months ago. to me, it was all a little bit of a blur, but the boy seemed to have a photographic, or more audiographic recording of what we talked about. it was very neat, and i got to learn more thing about him and yes, it was very fun. eventually i got enough alcohol in me to simply ask him why he did what he did. he had already explained to me that he indeed did send an email saying he "wasn' feeling it"... and that he always does because he hates the silent treatment so at least that, if true (and which i didn't feel the need to really mull over) is commendable. but he also said, that he had a bad habit the past year where he will go out a few times with guys and then what he calls it "panic" and simply cut it off, and he doesn't know why, but he recognizes it and wants to change the habit. and he continued to say that out of all the guys he dated, he's always felt regret about ending ur potential relationship because he finds me attractive...plus!, find me intelligent... double plus, and finds me just in general a very nice alid back, normal kind of guy who can have fun.... very much plus. i dunno, chalk up to maybe having a silver tongue and just wanting me back, but there was a sense of sincerity in his tone, or at least i took as sincereity. he even went as far i simply apologizing, not in a short, i'm sorry way, but explaining that he had meant no harm and apologized if it seemed like he did. i mean, i have to give it to him, it felt real... or maybe i am a softy at heart...or maybe i was half drunk. probably a mix of all.
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anyways, i had a good time and i figured... you know, why not give this another go. i mean, in someway the tables our irnoically turned since i am leaving soon... and well, my intentions for a more serious relationship aren't and can't be more serious. which is kind of a bummer i guess, being that this guy seemed, and always seemed, to have at least potential for it.
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but anyways, i thought the occurence of these events was very ironic. i've always been one to value the uncanny in my life. it was like meeting danny, my ex-ex. the immediate electricity we felt for each other while just momentarily meeting through mutual friends. i mean, it was very good when i look back at it. and again, i think i was too young and immature to realize the full potnetial of that relationship... or honestly at that age... the full potential of any age. and now, with this odd shifting of events, with nick, i'm faced with some sort of strange situation now as well. i just emailed him actually because he asked me what my summer plans were (he sort of understands that my time here is limited as well).... i basically said to him that i'm just up to having as much fun as we can. i mean, i guess i didn't want to really breach the subject till maybe after a few more dates to see if there is anything there that "could" be serious... but i guess this full disclosure of eventualities is as valid as anything else. that way, everyone is clear about how far this could go only... but sigh... what if?
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i've learned no to think of it that way though. this is suppose to be an exciting time of "flux" for me and i probably will meet lots of people in general who seem all that much more interesting... maybe because my subconscious is coming to terms that my experience of my surroundings at the moment is numbered and that i want to get as much "life" in as possible.
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in any case, i'm glad that we had the chance meeting, if only by a funny shift of fate, and i'm glad we are potentially giving this thing another chance. it's a story i am sure to remember and think upon again in the future.
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my boy nick showing my heart where to go.
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Made in Taiwan
so i just got back from my week long sojurn to my place where i was made. on a warm july night, about 3 weeks after getting hitched, an attractive couple did the deed and voila, one lucky spermatozoa and one (well there was only one) egg combined, dna was fused, and "i" began.... made in taiwan. oevrall i have to admit it was a fun trip. i guess i had some reservations about spending my "last" spring break there as oppose to hooking up intermidably say in ibiza or something (yeah right) but in general, visiting family and all that was pretty fun. i have to say though, i'm old enough now to realize i am old. haha. the last time i was in taiwan was about five years ago and the last time before than was another 10 or so years... so every trip has been filled with moments of... "oh my god, you're ummm... different". haha... it was funny to see cousins that i knew maybe 15 years ago getting well...old. something about being a fashinoable gay man keeps the self young i must admit. haha, and seeing "first cousins", that is... breeder cousins who have had children (who are now fucking going to college... my parents had lots of sibling spread across almost decades) it was like... shit... i ain't young either. haha. but yes, all in all it was fun visiting various places on the small island...starting out in my birth place in Chia-Yi and visiting my grandma (probably the last time i will see her since she's epxected to kick the bucket soon... sad, but at least i got to see her one "last" time), going to Kao-Shiung seeing my mother's side of the family who are hell lot cooler and socialble, taking a one day respite at a religious retreat of my folks (it wasn't all that bad...i got a lot of reading done!), and finally spending a few days in Taipei staying with more maternal relatives but seeing a lot of my dad's side (who i must admit are kind of boring... like my dad). and of course, ending the whole shebang with a torturous 25 hour trip back to the states, unfortunately unable to sit next to cute men (although there were some on the flight back i noticed) but being able to read a deliciously thatcherite jane austeny book about gay men... haha.... compensation in a way i guess.
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ok, so since i'm not in a particularly writing mode still suffering from a bit of jet lag... why not a little photo journalism to document the trip and maybe a comment or two?
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this is pretty cool isn't it? it's the ice sheets somewhere between russia and alaska. hmm, those ancient soon to become native americans must have had good shoes to cross all that ice... nike extreme weather trainers?
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i have never been to a pineapple farm, have you? no... my family doesn't own dole. what was funny about this was that it was in a valley where chinese karoke like folk song were being blasted into the air... truly audible in a five mile radius. surreal.
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a trip to one of the coolest little "urban typologies"... these covered market halls. very mideaval with all that fresh meat being slaughtered and butchered next to fresh vegetable next to motorinos spilling tons of carcinogenic ash into the atmosphere.... delightful. also two exotic fruits i had... a "sik-ya" (i dunno the english name)... and "dragonfruit" (i think this is the english name"... aren't they interesting... both were also very interesting tasting as well.
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MEAT! yummmy shit dude. pig's feet...yum. the second pic is of the traditional "hakka" dish made with with basically a section of pig fat with only a little bit of meat, simmered in more pig fat... sounds very soul doesn't it? it's delicious though. by the way... i'm actually "hakka" although you would never know it... well... really half hakka half minaan (but since chinese are patriarchal, i follow my dad's orientation)... these groups are linguistic and cultural subgroups of the chinese... there are about 7 or 8 main ones i think, and the linguistic differences are sometimes enough...in my opinion... to count as separate languages (although they are all housed under the nomer... chinese... which is technically the Beijing "dialect"...or Mandarin ...although i don't think mandarin is a cultural subgroup in the same way hakka, minaan, cantonese, etc... are) anyways..... i'm hakka... so don't you fakka with me. ha.
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some neat images from the religious "retreat" we went too. i love the pomo architectural quality of the first image... fucking corinithian column...painted RED... next to a relief of a buddhist god.... haha! love it! the temple inside was kind of cool too, by the way, my parents brought me here so that i could get an idea of what they might want for the retreat they are planning on building outside of dallas as well. potentially my first work maybe.... hopefully it won't be as... hmmm... multiethnic as this. but who knows... i have been accused of being tacky before.
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cornucopian images from a chinese buffet... in well... almost china. ironic huh?
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Taipei 101... currently the world's tallest skyscraper... and one of the ugliest unfortunately. and you thought pomo in the previous picture of corinthian buddhist was tacky.... the symbolism of this structure will blow you away... they should of just said it was the whim of the architect instead of trying to play off some silly crap about it symbolizing a stack of 8 (an auspicious chinese number) golden nuggets (an old form of money...also symbolic of financial success in chinese lore) looking somewhat like a pagoda esque tower of tacky reflective glass with silly metal corner finials. ahh... the architect.
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on another note... aren't my folks a fucking cute hetero couple? and isn't there faggot son just delightful as well?
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i think we ate one of these dudes half an hour later. sorry about all the food pictures... i mean, i did do a lot of eating... family you know the drill.
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finally...some architecture i can actually appreciate. yes.. it's hardly contemporary but at least it's not that BAD pomo shit we saw before (now mind you, some pomo i think is very good). this was the lin family house and gardens.... kind of like the equivalnet of say the hermitage in nashville... big period house with nice gardens. its the gardens which are really fantastic though.... great mix of formalism and informalism. actually very similar in a smaller scale to say french and italian gardens... more italian actually. kind of reminded me of a mix between say villa d'este and hmmm... hadrian's villa. now... this was also a psuedo architectural visit of "i want that in my religious retreat"... this is something i could oblige in.
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one thing that i both love and hate about asian cities... density. the balde runner/las vegas thing is so delightful i have to say... blantant commercialism spread unto every service, all with a dusting of smog and dust. delicious... for a tome of theory of urbanism maybe. but to "live" in this grime... give me sanitized suburbia. hmmm... maybe not. but it's fun to have the best of both worlds i guess.
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an "eating hall" where there is again this blade runner/lasvegas approach to eating. hmmm, oh so good to eat "street food"....seriously... some good shit to be had. just keep it in moderation... we "bar hopped" about four or five places... and 20 minutes later... i had the shits. oops.
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. what these trips are ultimately all about anyways.... family.
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