Fast Track Prototype

WTF Weekend: That Was So Last Halloween and Buttonwillow Santa Barbara

The biosuits I was picking up for our costumes were used. Kinda scary. On one hand, I highly doubt they would sell anything that is still contaminated, but the thought that this suit was once possibly exposed to killer chemicals and infectious diseases did cross my mind. If I grow an extra pair of testicles, I’ll let you know. Hell, I’ll put it on Youtube.

We were the Anti-Swine Flu Team, complete with biosuits, goggles and vials of Swine Flu Vaccine aka 100 proof vodka with syringes to apply the “shots.” It was totally a hit – when we weren’t “OMG GHOSTBUSTERS” or “LOLBEASTIEBOYS.”

Emosweater and I decided to hit up Vegas on Sunday for a turnaround and catch up with the others. When we hit state line we grabbed a sixer and downed three beers a piece before we hit the strip so by the time we got to the hotel room we were nice and saucy. Kids don’t try this at home, or anywhere else for that matter.

Lavo was cool, despite the fact that I spent most of my time outside when I finally did go in and join the group groove, I had a blast, up until Fez showed up. Now I don’t know if he was spinning or just hanging out with the DJ but he kept getting on the mic every fuckin 20 seconds to say something. Dude, stop interrupting the song, just let the music play, you’re fuckin annoying. Guess he wasn’t doing much acting on that 70’s show after all.

We hit up Drais afterward, greased the cigar girl a few bucks for free passes for the ladies, got a gander at Optimus Prime and that giant fuzzy Cheshire Cat Looking guy from Where the Wild Things Are in a costume brawl when Michael Jackson showed up and kicked their asses. Then it was a parade of gay men and dancing moonrakers, when Emosweater and I decided it was time to go home or die driving there in a losing battle to slumber.

* * *

This passed weekend Emosweater and I decided it would be fun to catch up with Sketch after his Santa Barbara Half Marathon. It’s got that coastal town feeling to it, like San Deigo, which is something we should have kept in mind when we stopped at Buttonwillow to eat at Carl’s and realized we were way off course. Two and a half hours to be exact. 5 North, straight shot, I didn’t question it. In my mind it sounded right, but we probably would have ended up a few miles outside of San Jose before we realized if we didn’t stop to eat. Without sounding too existential it really was more about the journey and getting outside of LA city limits for a change of pace, which we succeeded in doing, but the downside to it was, well, Santa Barbara just felt like Orange County or San Diego. Granted we were probably setting ourselves up for the local easy stop or the tourist trap setting on Main Street – I mean that would be like us directing folks to Old Town Pasadena or 3rd Street Promenade. These are the places you hang out at when you’re not 21, from out of town or just point all the non-cool people to when you need to send them to some generic place to do stuff.

The highlight of the evening, or the downfall depending on who you talk to, was when Emosweater was totally violated by some drunk guy, so much that I totally panicked for a few seconds. My instinct was to grab his hand and drag him out of there or step in between the two to break up space, but it was Emosweater and not some girl and it was a guy that was hitting on him and it was – it was so strange. Either I was frightened by it, or caught in some eerie fascination of what was unfolding. Then at Madison’s, some chola threw some shit at the bartender right next to us and things almost went gansta. I guess the excitement really fired up this random drunk guy, who went on a freak-everyone-at-the-bar-air-humping-spree. Of course Emosweater was the first to be accosted. It was so his night.

The drive home initially was rough, we went through three or four cycles of getting drunk and sobering up that day – with drinking starting at 4 pm, which is really taxing on the body we discovered, but after a few shakes of Monster and doing the ABC’s of name that boob, we made it home.

My favorite: Dirigibles and chesticles. How I never heard of chesticles I’ll never understand. Pure genius.

Tags: half marathons, Halloween, Holiday, Santa Barbara, WTF Weekend

AYCJ: Boston – Day 3

Going to play a little catch up here, since I’m way behind on the All You Can Jet recaps. Boston Day 3 happened on September 25. The trip was split among my cousin Rich, and my friend Stephanie, so the last night there occurred in the Beacon Hill. Daytime festivities were exploring the neighborhood, checking out the sights of the Charles River, local restaurants, and the farmers market.

Now for the nightlife. Just like any of the other places I’ve been to, the bars we bunched up in sections. Everyone seemed to be dressed to impress, and I noticed a lot of party buses bringing people to the bars. The drawback? Almost all the places had a cover! Even just a basic bar had cover! What the!

There were a select few that seemed to be the hotspots, so we checked out one called The Greatest Bar. Was it the greatest? Well, probably not the greatest ever, but compared to others on the block, it was alive and poppin. It was four stories high, $10 cover, first 3 floors access. The fourth floor had a different cover, because a band was playing. Music was the usual Top 40 mashups by some DJ, and as the night progressed, the dancefloor and vibe was really fun. Thumbs up to the Boston nightlife, slightly biased because Boston in general is a college town, so you know things can get crazy.

Tags: AYCJ, travel

AYCJ: Boston – Day 1 & 2

First day of Boston was Wednesday, September 23. For the most part, the day started in the afternoon after taking a flight from D.C around noon. I waited at a Starbucks finishing up some freelance work while my cousin was on a cycling session with his friends. When we met up, we caught up on what’s been going on with our lives. It’s been a few years since I last saw him, and it was probably only the fourth time we’ve hung out. We walked around his neighborhood, conveniently centered around major shops, reminding me of an Old Town Pasadena, and walking distance to the subway. Being a marathon runner, he took me to the official Boston Marathon Finish Line, painted on the streets. The rest of the night continued with dinner with his girlfriend, then worked on more projects back at the apartment.

Day two was a little more exciting as we headed to the Sam Adams Brewery just 3 train stops away. The facility isn’t the main brewery, but just a research and development branch, so it was a lot smaller than expected. The best part? It’s FREE. There’s a suggested $2 donation per person, but even that is worth it. We were greeted by our cute guide and was given a Sam Adams beer label as our ticket in. People from all over the U.S. came to check out the brewery – a couple from Michigan made this part of their honeymoon excursion, and this other guy from who knows where looked like it was his third or fourth time in the day (you can keep going back if you want) taking the tour. The first part was learning about the different ingredients making up the different Sam Adams beer, the second was a quick tour of the machinery, then the third was our favorite – the beer tasting! They gave us an 8oz glass, branded with Sam Adams, for the tasting. We tried several glasses of Boston Lager, the seasonal Octoberfest, and their Brown Ale. She talked about their limited run 22% alcohol beer, Utopia, which is about $120 a pop. It comes in a gold colored bottle, and it smelled like maple syrup.

After the brewery, we had some beer munchies and were ready for some food. We went to Legal Sea Foods where I tried some New England Clam Chowder (very very tasty!), some oysters (kinda small for the price), and a delicious shrimp pasta. It was in a mall, so I was hesitant to go, thinking it would be like a Panda Express of seafood, but I was surprised at how good it was. It’s a well known restaurant for Bostonians, and I’m sure there are more genuine places, but it’ll do for now – we had beer munchies, remember?

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Tags: AYCJ, Boston, travel

Adventure Tuesdays: Extended Flights Edition

We realize it’s Wednesday, but Adventure Tuesday typically ends on Wednesday morning. Sometimes spontaneous and random things happen on Tuesday night. There’s also a good chance that nothing happens. So last night?

Things have been more of an inner adventure. I found myself discovering a missing piece to a puzzle that I’ve been trying to put together lately. Not literally a puzzle, but, you’d think that you were prepared for something, only to find out you weren’t prepared at all. So it’s a good thing I discovered this missing piece, or I’d be farther behind than I thought.

Imagine my surprise, waking up this morning to an email sent at 2:56 am from Sketch that he’s staying an extra day in Vegas. He’s supposed to be flying back tonight, but he said he booked another flight back to Vegas after being in San Francisco to stay another night with a super hot DJ friend of his so he can indulge in more free table service, pool parties with bikini clad go go dancers, music, mayhem, lights, camera and mother fuckin action.

My eyes are barely open, I’m reading this email with one eye open – I guess reading with both eyes is just too much to ask for in the wee morning hours – and I’m thinking to myself, this mother fucker! Anger? No not at all, just total and complete peanut butter and jealousy.

I don’t get jealous. Ask my ex-girlwhatevers, I don’t get jealous. But Mr. Sketch, to thee I say, I am fuckin stomp my feet and whine like a little school girl jealous.

Tags: Adventure Tuesdays, AYCJ, Vegas

AYCJ: Washington D.C. – Day 2

Tuesday September 22 was almost the halfway point of the #AYCJ adventure. 15 days in to be exact, of 31 days. The day’s goal was to tackle as much of the touristy landmarks of DC as much as I could. The subway system in DC was so easy, mainly because everything was marked clearly, digital readings of when the train is coming, and a lot of walking and waiting spaces. My friend whom I was staying with suggested I go to Good Stuff Eatery (detailed review reserved for a later post), but it was one of the better burgers I’ve had so far on the east coast. It’s pretty much a tasty burger on a pandesal bread. I’d go back to it. It really was good stuff.

Second stop, The Capitol Building. I only had time to just walk by and take pictures though. I was amazed by the size of the building, did the “oooh-ahhh” thing and continued to surrounding buildings and the Capitol Reflecting Pool.

Not too far away was the National Mall. No it’s not a shopping mall, but it’s a national park of Washington, DC. Around the Mall were several museums, all for FREE. Yess! I stopped by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which housed some modern art works. I’m more of a modern art enthusiast rather than the classics so given the limited time I had I only went there for the art. Also, I can’t get enough of dinosaurs, so the Smithsonian was next. Despite the grumpy old security guard at the door, there were dinosaur bones, fossils, Hope Diamond, moon rocks, planets, cloned animals, and all that science goodness.

Final stop of the day was the Lincoln Memorial. It was a trainride and a mile walk away, but it was worth it. It was like a 3-in-1. I was able to see the Lincoln Memorial (which I thought was smaller than I imagined, but the building that housed it was huge), see a great view of the Washington Memorial with the reflection pool, and stand on the exact spot where MLK did the “I Have a Dream” speech. The steps infront of the memorial was a popular spot to just sit and enjoy the view. Looking back, damn that was a lot of walking!

Shortly after, I met up with one of my friends whom I went to Elementary school with. She lived in NY, but was in DC for work. We had dinner, and caught up on life, because the last time I saw her was over 12 years ago! I tell you, the power of reconnecting on Facebook is amazing. She just responded to my “DC” status message, and synced from there. The rest of the night was rather uneventful because I had to finish some design work before the morning, so once again, it can’t be all fun and games. To recap the whole DC trip though, I had a blast catching up with my old marathon teammate, who was so hospitable being the host & guide for this city, meet new friends, catch up with an old friend, got to see different neighborhoods, saw all the landmarks I wanted to see, and had a peek of the nightlife in different places. It’s a great place to find running routes, and was very easy to get around. Although DC is a beautiful & clean city, the environment of the city was too business/political for me. “Not my scene.”

Tags: AYCJ, DC, travel

AYCJ: Washington D.C. – Day 1

The difference between Bolt Bus and the Chinatown Eastern/Todays bus I took to D.C. was night and day. Not only was the Chinatown bus more expensive, the chairs were not comfortable, no power outlets, no Internet, and they made me walk to a shady run down leased office to have my confirmation page printed (instead of just showing my e-mail, like Bolt Bus accepted) and charge me an extra $1 for just having them press “Print” and use 1 cheap piece of paper! I had no choice because Bolt Bus doesn’t do Philly to D.C.. that sucks! I was just glad I got to D.C. in one piece!

On Monday, September 21, I met up with an old Team in Training friend who recently moved to D.C. because of work, and he let me stay on his couch during my trip. When I arrived, he was at work, so I dropped them off at his office so I can explore the city on my own. I didn’t really have a major agenda (when did I ever for any of the cities?) for Washington, D.C. except to check out all the landmarks and monuments. Not too far away, about a mile, was The White House. It was a lot smaller than what I had pictured in my head, but I had a sense of American pride just seeing it in person. It was well guarded with Secret Service police vehicles on all sides, but you had the usual waves of tourists with the photo peace signs, awkward family vacation poses, and romantic prom poses. On the back side of the White House, you’ll find more people gathering along the gate, but you’ll also find a view of the Washington Monument just past a large lawn area called The Ellipse that is home to the National Christmas Tree.

When my friend got out of work, we headed to the U Street area of D.C for some dinner and drinks. I learned that there really is no “D.C.” staple food, and the culture of the city changes with every administration change. People don’t really hang out in the downtown area, but everyone just goes outward to the other neighborhoods, the U Street being one of them. It was a fairly clean neighborhood, with new restaurants resembling those of the new downtown L.A. spots. The bars were inside what looked to be old houses, with each floor being a separate hang out area. Went to several with small rooftops, but my favorite bar was “Marvin“. No, not because of the name – it was actually pretty poppin that night. The bar is actually dedicated to and named after Marvin Gaye. Music reminded me of what I’d hear at The Do-Over, with classic 90’s hip-hop, funk, and soul. Crowd was mixed with your hip-hop heads to the business types still in their button ups looking like they came from work then happy hour. It had a really fun vibe, with several bar areas with a variety of good of beers on tap, a dancefloor, and a large rooftop patio. Just outside of Marvin, on its wall (pictured here) was Shepard Fairey’s first location where he put up the famous Obama poster. It was being covered by a beam of a new building, but luckily I was able to catch a bit of it. I prefer the special urban landmarks that locals only talk about, or very non-tourist versus the obvious tourist ones, so this was a major plus in my book!

Tags: AYCJ, bars, Marvin, Obama, Shepard Fairey, Washington DC

AYCJ: Philadelphia – Day 2 & 3

Does the building in the back look familiar? Well, it should be – it’s the Philadelphia Art Museum, where Rocky Balboa ran up the steps!

3 hours of sleep, bar hopping the night before, and what did I do? The ING Philadelphia Distance Run (Half Marathon) on September 21. That was the main reason why I came to Philadelphia, and it was highly recommended by some friends who had run it in the past. I must say, it’s nearly a perfect half marathon! It’s definitely now my favorite half marathon, better than Disneyland Half because the weather was just perfect (around 65ish with a breeze), scenery was amazing almost through the whole event, very shady from all the trees and highrises, and for some odd reason, there seemed to be quite a lot of downhill, but not much uphill. The course started and finished around where Rocky did his triumphant steps training of the Philadelphia Art Museum, going through Center City, and making its way through the park and river and back. This was the last year of the title, “ING Philadelphia Distance Run”, because next year it will be an official Rock N Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon. I can imagine more bands (which it lacked this year), and possibly more crowd support, as if it didn’t already. My only complaint was the amount of water stops and volunteers were a bit lacking, but luckily I had my water belt to help me out. I eventually finished at 2:34, according to my watch, which is my Personal Record (PR) for a half marathon! I wasn’t even gunning for it, so it was a surprise!

The night before, I decided to watch a Philadelphia Eagles vs New Orleans Saints game at Liberty Field, because I noticed I actually had time in between the end of the event and the start of the game. Why not, right? I finished a half marathon in the morning, what’s a better way to celebrate? I totally forgot that Donovan McNabb got injured the night before, so the rookie QB Cobb started. Oh great, versus Saints’ Drew Brees, this was a fun one to watch (for the non-Eagles fan, which I was). I secretly rooted for the Saints, as Brees was one of my favorite players. Final score? Eagles 22, Saints 48. A massacre for sure! Them Eagles fans really love their team, almost everyone stayed until the end, even though they were losing by more than half. I sat near some chatterboxes who swears they know all the plays and think their decisions are much better than the coaches, but overall, the energy of the fans, the excitement of the plays, made the whole experience so memorable.

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Tags: AYCJ, Eagles, Events, football, half marathons, NFL, Philadelphia, Saints, travel

AYCJ: Philadelphia – Day 1

American 50k Ultramarathon record-holder Josh Cox and Elite Racing representative at the ING Direct Cafe

From New York to Philly, September 19, I took the Bolt Bus. It’s not your usual charter bus though. The seats were more comfortable than I’ve ever been on, plus it has Wi-Fi on board! That in itself was well worth the $13, 2 hour, bus ride. Little did I know, that was the start of my serendipitous day in Philadelphia. I’ve never been to Philadelphia, PA and my only plan was to run the ING Philadelphia Distance Run (Half Marathon) the next day.

I arrived at the Philly bus stop, which was about a mile away from my hotel. A few days prior, on a whim, I decided to go to the Radission Plaza – Warwick Hotel vs the official ING Philadelphia Distance Run official hotel because it had free internet, plus it was a little cheaper. It seemed pretty close to the start/finish line of the event so I went for it. When I finally got to my hotel, I realized that it was in the middle of a very busy and active area full of shops, bars, and restaurants! I had no idea!

I also checked Twitter and found out 50k Ultramarathon record-holder Josh Cox was hosting a “Tweet & Greet” at some ING Direct Cafe, that ended up not even a block away from my hotel. I won a $25 P.F. Chang Gift Card for being one of the first ten people to show up. Score! Honestly, I did not know how much of a big deal he was until I attended his event. He’s the first elite runner I’ve met in person, and he’s one super friendly guy. He was especially happy that I found out about the event through Twitter, and he remembers having some conversations with me about the Half Marathon. He hosted a 3 mile run around the blocks of Philly as a preview to the event, then came back for a Q&A. I was familiar with most of his answers because of Team in Training, but one thing that was interesting was in terms of running form and stance. One good way to know if your feet is hitting the ground correctly is to try running barefoot. When barefoot, without all the shoe padding, you’ll notice that you should not strike on your heel. If you do, all that impact with domino back up to your shin or other areas of your leg. At the end, he held a raffle, and I ended up winning a nice pair of Oakley running glasses, a box of Gu, and an event T-shirt! Another score! After the event, I rushed to the convention center to the Health & Fitness Expo to grab my race number and did a quick tour of what they offered.

Another instance of serendipity happened when I went back to my hotel to recharge my phone. I happened to remember a friend of a friend, who I recently met at a Team in Training fundraiser, lived in Philadelphia. So I messaged her on Facebook, and we eventually exchanged numbers. It so happened that she was only 2 blocks away from I was! She lived in the outskirts of Philly, and she doesn’t normally hang out where I was, and we thought it was crazy how we were in the same vicinity! She took me to a few bars, all of which I met some of her close friends. The bar life in Philly was alive and poppin, especially on a Saturday night. The first few bars were a good warmup, to a bar called Ladder 15, which seemed to be the “hotspot” of the city. A DJ spun the hip-hop mashups, drinks were relatively cheap, and everyone was in good spirits. I think I hit up about 5 different bars that night, and I almost forgot I had a half marathon to wake up to a few hours later!

Tags: AYCJ, bars, ING, Josh Cox, Ladder 15, nightlife, Philadelphia

AYCJ: New York, Part 1 – Day 1

This recap is for September 18th trip to New York, part 1, because I’m heading back in a few weeks. Tired from the concert the night before I thought I’d knock out immediately, but I ended up watching a movie, The Proposal, because they gave us a free in-flight movie for buggy TVs. I have to admit, I actually enjoyed the film, and was funnier than I thought it would be.

I arrived at the JFK Airport in New York with no problems. I’ve heard many great things about the new Terminal 5, so I was pretty excited to see it. Yes, it’s as amazing as people have hyped it up to be. It’s very Internet friendly with free wi-fi, and many power sources to plug into. I was also told that the executive chefs of each of the restaurants are well known, and you can’t go wrong by eating at any of those places. Design and lighting was also very consistent to the JetBlue theme, and quite futuristic. There were also a few AYCJ’ers scheduled to be there either by stopover, or leaving NY, so we also planned some kind of meetup. There I was greeted by JetBlue’s head of social media, who also is in charge of their Twitter account, and met JetBlue’s Manager of Marketing, NY. I also got to hang out with @sawyouonjetblue, @michelle_pacheco, and @flyered. @flyered, Brendan, is known as the Terminal Man for Wired Magazine. Got some cool #AYCJ swag – T-shirt, stickers, and luggage tags. All convenient for AYCJ jetters to recognize each other. I was surprised JetBlue remembers some of my adventures via Twitter, such as the various music events I’ve been attending, helping someone move in Chicago, and meeting other AYCJers in Portland. We all exchanged stories, and it was especially good to hear Brendan’s adventures inside the airports, since part of his agreement with Wired is that he can’t check into any hotels, he can’t check in any bags, and he has to fly EVERYDAY. Crazy, right?!? Read more about it here. All this fun and I didn’t even step outside of the airport yet.

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Tags: AYCJ, East Village, New York, NY, T5

AYCJ: Portland – Day 3

Day 3 was on September 17. Again, so much to do, so little time. The first day recovering from food poisoning was time lost, so this last day in Portland was spent rushing to make up for it. One last landmark I wanted to check out was Powell’s City of Books. It was about a mile north, so on my way, I took the walk along the river, which seemed to be a popular path for runners and cyclists. A few blocks east of Powell’s was Voodoo Doughnuts. Sure, why not? There were a few more flavors I wanted to taste – Coco Puffs & Chocolate and Capt’n Crunch. Both were sweet, tasty and perfect for the occasion – breakfast! When I finally arrived at Powell’s, known for its large library of used books, I was actually a bit overwhelmed. Just think of the biggest Barne’s & Nobles Bookstore you’ve ever seen, but most of it is used books. Better yet, like a public library. I only had time to check out one floor, and one of its buildings (there were other buildings with other specialties, like technical books).

Overall, this Portland trip was relaxing and musically inspiring at the same time. A lot of time spent resting in the hotel, but I was still able to check out what Portland has to offer. I was lucky to be there on a nice sunny day but also experience the clouds and rain they get most of the time. Waterfalls and trails were a great escape to nature, which I don’t normally get back in Los Angeles, unless I go really out of my way for it. MusicfestNW was a lucky find because I didn’t plan on it, and was exposed to some of the Portland bar & music scene because of it. Downtown layout was easy to navigate, especially with the free MAX public transport around the city if I wanted to take it, but I preferred walking. Now would I move there? Probably not, but it’s a great place for me to come back to that’s for sure.

My AYCJ adventures took a break, as I went back to Los Angeles for the night to check out the Blink-182 reunion, with Weezer and Taking Back Sunday. That will be another post later, but that itself was a fun addition to my month long vacation.

Tags: AYCJ, Oregon, Portland