Not your ordinary sneaker.

"You don't just take iPod nano on your run. You let it take you. Music is your motivation. But what if you want to go further? Thanks to a unique partnership between NIKE and Apple, your iPod nano becomes your coach. Your personal trainer. Your favorite workout companion. Introducing Nike + iPod." Says Nike and Apple.

They are collaborating their technology to "tune your run. " It sounds bit crazy, I agree with you deeply but hey. They did it. Only thing is that you need to buy iPod nano, if you don't have one, and Nike+ shoes which has a built-in pocket under the insole for iPod sensor. I suppose you can do a shoe hack and make that hole under the insole. Also, you will need the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, which is basically a sensor that uses an accelerometer to measure your movement when you run and transfers this to the receiver on your iPoddie. Get it? Confused? See for yourself. It's quite interesting.

Nike also offers sport music which can sync to your steps when your running. I wonder what kind of music that is...Nike+ has many different color sneaker to choose from. Also you can checkout the progress of your running, how many miles you ran in what time. Just plug your nano to your Mac and it will give you a chart of how you did. Pretty geeky? Yes it is. You can listen to the sport music at nike+.

You will be missed...

In memory of my iPoddie,
thanks for 3 years of good music.

Death of my iPod, I was afraid of that. Soon after my cellarphone died, it crossed my mind. I knew there was a battery failure issue with 2nd generation iPod, but it was working fine until this day. It suddenly stopped and I knew my iPod passed away. I will miss you. Greatly. - j.

Sunny Sunday at Sunnyside Queens

"I'm On It."
Their trucks are everywhere today. We went out to count how many are parked around our neighborhood. Let's see. There is one infront of our apartment, about 7 on the Queens Blvd. and so on. Working overtime, thanks ConEd. Louis asked the hard working ConEd man who was sleeping inside of the truck, he was summoned from the Bronx. Welcome to the Sunnyside, we salute you. Thanks again for coming. - j.

* "On It." is Con Edison's trademark. If you ever see a ConEd truck, you will know what I mean.

Desperately yours,

7/23/06 Sunday 1:28pm
Finally after cellphone start working, Louis's sister, Mary called. She brought us, very unfortunate news from ConEd. The power shall be restored sometime next week...And ConEd deeply apologize for it. Which meant they don't know when the power is coming back on. This is the longest blackout ever for us.

I just turned on radio now, which was under the bed for longtime. It's hard to get a signal, but without internet this is only way out. Let's see BLACKOUT senior party? Did I hear that right? I see, minds well have fun with what you got. Great positive way of dealing with power crisis like this one. Taking desperate majors? Create your own survival kit 2006 for this desperate power crisis.

We are in trouble too! Running out of clothing to wear is not really funny. Our Laundromat is down. It's been almost 4, 5 days without power now. Louis is trying to revive my cellphone. He just went to T-mobile store near by our neighborhood. I don't think, it will come back to life. My poor cellphone. - j.

Who killed my cellarphone?

Who killed my cellarphone?
I, said the isolated scattered storm.
With my acid water above NYC,
I soaked and killed your cellarphone.

Who'll try to fix it?
I, said Louis,
With my toolbox and crumsy hands,
I will try to fix your cellarphone.

Who'll recover all the lost numbers?
I, said myself.
With my e-mail and scattered address books,
I will try to collect my lost numbers.

My old cellphone will be the replacement for this poor flip phone.
Good bye and farewell my phone. Rest in peace, you did well. - j.

DUCHAMP, my man!

dododo daDADA,
that's all i want to say to you.

After the storm died down, we left for the MOMA, located 53rd street and 5th avenue. It's not that far from Apple store. It is all new, nicely renovated with new look and bigger exhibition space. The current special exhibit is DADA. What's so great about going to MOMA on Friday after 4pm? It's FREE! It is few of the things that are free in new york city. Admission is $20 per person, so why not drop by on Friday after 4pm?

DADA exhibit is not really big, located on the 6th floor.
But good size, I would say. Man Ray, Duchamp, many familiar DADAISM artist. Very intriguing and somewhat inspiring. Yes, we encountered the urinal(which he signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt", and titled "Fountain") and the bicycle wheel on the stool. Unfortunately no photograph was allowed inside. There is a piece I liked by Duchamp. It's called TRAP, which is just a wooden coat hanger on the ground. In the description, he said that he cannot help kicking it on the ground and never had a chance to nail it on the wall. Hahaha. So who is Duchamp? He is the guy who added goatee and moustache to the famous Mona Lisa. According to his quote, "It is necessary to arrive at selecting an object with the idea of not being impressed by this object on the basis of enjoyment of any order, However, it is difficult to select an object that absolutely does not interest you, not only on the day on which you select it, and which does not have any chance of becoming attractive or beautiful and which is neither pleasant to look at nor particularly ugly." - Marcel Duchamp

MOMA was not so busy, but many tourist, students, art critics on site. Also photography exhibition was quite impressive as well, although the air conditioning kept my wet clothing on the edge, I thought I am going to freeze. - j.

Why does it always rain on me?

FRIDAY. Thunder! Oh thunder storm!
scattered rain...Our electricity in living room was on from 10am to 12pm, what a short life span. After than we were back to minimum of power as usual. Kitchen was on, fridge is still working great. After the storm died down, we decided to visit the Apple Store, and MOMA. We took the bus, it took forever, the major traffic jam.

After getting off the bus, rain storm attacked us on 60th street and 2nd avenue, we ran. But against the windy rain and impossible to jump over puddles, we were soaked. New Apple Store, open 24/7, located on 59th and 5th avenue. People are trying to get inside. As fast as possible to avoid this tropical storm. Oh, hail CUBE! When I see this store! Anyhow, my shoes, socks, bag, pants...All wet. It also killed my cellphone. My bagpack was complete disaster. Even through their famous spiral clear staircase was being wiped endlessly, Louis fell down the stairway of Apple Store. It's very slippery, so watch out, when it rains.

Seriously, my effort to take icey cold shower was completely wasted and I have to take another one again today. City shower is like an acid rain, even with my umbrella, I was defeated. - j.

THE SILENCE IS BROKEN...

Another day, another night.
No light, no electricity in our bedroom, bathroom, partially living room. No fan, no AC, it's hot as hell, you are in total darkness...What do you do to make you chilled?

For that, we decided to play an old game I bought couple years ago for pre-owned $8.99. Which I haven't even beaten. It's called, "SILENT HILL 2". Pretty scary game to play in the dark, the 3-D sound system is extremely creepy and realistic. The storyline is pretty disturbing as well, places filled with disfigured mannequin shaped monsters, your only light source is a flashlight. Abandoned and isolated town of Silent Hill and you are all alone. Perfect game to play during humid summer days, it will be sure to chill you down quicker then ice cream. Here in the dark realm of SILENT HILL, you will go through places like grave yard, mental hospitals, apartment buildings, and old hotel. What is basement of basement? It's somewhere you will never want to visit...The whole scene is covered with mist and darkness, and you need to find clues and go forward, opening the door and discovering what is inside to find out what really happened. It's like reading a horror book, but you are inside of it.

I think the game was made in 2001, graphics are not bad at all. Imperfect graphic also make the game more scary. It reminded me Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining (1980)" , A Masterpiece Of Modern Horror according to IMDb. I cannot play this game alone for sure, it's too scary even during daytime. - j.

Oh light...!

No power, meaning no refrigeration, equal endless spoiled food. Grocery stores are throwing away many spoiled milk and other food. All in the black trash bag after another. Cheese, ham, all the food you can think of. Also their freezer section was empty, what a waste. Inside of the store was so dark, running the store with couple power generators.

All that good milk being wasted. Heavy cream, 2% Milk, 1% Milk, vitamin D Milk and so on. Death of Milk is evenly established among those milk crates. How sad. How wasteful. How helpless they are.
It's really too bad. What can you do really through, nothing. Just nothing and wait for the power to come back on.

There are certain things in life that you have no control over. So just accept it and let it go. - j.

Silent Night, Holy what?

Blackout NY 2006
Are you serious?
Our power went down 3 days ago. Our lights started to dim, and sudden death of our cube...what could this be?
A bad omen?
Leaving us with no electricity what so ever. When we found out, our fridge is in danger...We were at state of emergency. How beautiful? No. It really isn't. Signals are out. Our entire block is totally out. We prayed that at least the kitchen, the fridge will come back on, since we did grocery shopping.

No AC, no fan, no light, no internet...Candle night dinner? No kidding. We are roasting in the apartment. Outside, where people are chilling like 4th July with their Cooler box, chairs, and their car stereo music, it was such an odd site to see. Family setting on the sidewalk, ConEd trucks pass by, never stopping sirens. It felt like the Halloween night, people are either bored by having fun. Dark buildings one after another, this is what it's like when all the lights go off. You can see stars. I dug up my old radio and plugged it in.

Then I found out that ConEd and Mayer doesn't know when it will be up and running with power. Astoria is suffering for 4 days without any power, people are angry like a mob. You will be when the heatwave comes, and free ice which is provided by ConEd is half melted on your way home. Subway is not running as much as usual to save energy. Our phone service is down as well, my phone died yesterday. Louis is trying to recreate candle now from wax. He is afraid of darkness, who isn't? It felt like we were back in time where candle was the only light source. We sure had a candle light dinner. -j.

Here Comes Johnny,

Aye, Captain! Captain Jack Sparrow. We just saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at our local theater. $4 dollar Tuesday all movies, every week. Nice, no? The movie was quite long, total of 150 minutes, many people stood up in the middle of the movie to take the bathroom breaks. I wanted to see this movie ever since it opened on July 7. Finally I watched it. This movie comes after Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearlwhich was released in July 9, 2003(Nominated for 5 Oscars, if you care to know.) Very fun movie to watch, CG is very nicely done. I believe they are already filming Pirates of the Caribbean 3, so I'm excited and hoping that it will not end up like the MATRIX.

Today is so humid and hot. According to my unreliable weather cast, it's 97 degrees, and feels like 100 degrees. It's a boiler room here. I'm almost well-done. Louis is trying to make salsa right now. Weather like this, I have no urge to eat at all. Going to movie theater was nice, free AC with great entertainment. Even Linus is on the wood floor with his legs spread a part, being a cat during summer must be tough. - j.

Toadstool, or Gourmet Mushroom?

Yikes! I'm not so fond of those fungus. I'm allergic to it, and also it visually disturbs me. Unlike Louis, I am not a mushroom lover. We found this mushroom around our neighborhood, under the front yard of some kind of office place. It was pretty huge, about 6 inches wide. Is it eatable? According to Louis, the answer is NO. "If you break the head of the mushroom and it bruises black, it's poisonous." Said Louis.

I'm not sure what kind of mushroom this is. It looks pretty scary to me. Louis broke a piece off of it and it turned black...It's probably poisonous. So Louis had decided to grow his own oyster mushroom. He bought 2 buckets and went around coffee shop to get a used coffee grind, and also oyster mushrooms which was about to go bad from grocery store. He buried the mushroom in the freshly ground coffee which is placed in the bucket. Now you just wait and water it everyday until it turns white...Well I will let you know if this mushroom colony is successful. - j.

MTA, the source of Evil.

Unbelievable thing happened to us on our way home from IKEA. 42nd street MTA station, as we swipe our MetroCard to get inside of the subway. City's famous NYPD undercover police officer(dressed like a deli guy) stopped us.

Why? I wish I could tell you.
Louis used the gate door entrance,(because he was carrying a huge plant with a pot which we purchased from IKEA) and asked if he is handicapped. Is that really a necessary question to ask? He is carrying a 26 lb. pot with 4 feet tall plant inside of it(please look at the photograph on the right.) It's heavy. Well, wait a minute, that big gate doorway is not only for handicapped people, also for people with suitcases, bikes, and other items, that make it hard for anyone to go through. We placed the card into the slot, and it said "Go Through", so he went through the door. And I used the same card, which is not unlimited(weekly card can be only used every 15 minutes), had $18 credit on it through the turnstile. He asked us, where we're from, how long have we lived ins NY, another undercover officer shows up and he asked us to show him ID and the MetroCard. Of course who will say no to a police officer, we handed them over. They checked it out and it was obvious that card was used.

They were going to charge us $60 fine for using the gate door, because we didn't swipe the card on regular turnstile then, go through the gate door. So how come there is no sign that said, this card slot is only for the handicapped? They told us, "we'll let you go this time." Seriously, I think NYPD is the most rude and obnoxious police force ever, why the attitude? I'm not asking for a nice police officer, just be logical and cool. Sometimes I think they ask that way to press more charge on you. We believe that there is conspiracy behind the MTA & the Blue Wall. Officers must get a commission out of every fine they get out of MTA. MTA trains don't even function right most of the time, only thing they do is rise the subway fair.

What makes me sad is, MTA & NYPD sucks, and there is nothing I can do about it. Oh god, save us. Save us from this evil corporation called MTA. Also NYPD needs some kind of anger management class, I think. I always seems end up meeting the most angry and frustrated ones. Anyhow, you guys definitely ruined my weekend. Thanks, a lot.

See you in IKEA.

Take the free shuttle bus from Port Authority 42nd street to IKEA, the paradise to all those who seek stylish furniture and great Swedish food for great price. Adventure of IKEA starts from 10am, if you are an early bird. For us, we start from getting into the bus at 12pm. After 40 minutes of comfortable ACADEMY bus ride, you are there, IKEA where you dreamed of(haha).

We head right to the cafeteria, to eat the famous Swedish meatballs with Lingonberry sauce. Their lingonberry juice is also famous and very tasty. I think last bus to take you can take to get to IKEA is 2pm, last bus you need to get on from IKEA is 6pm. My advice is get there early and leave early, you can spend the rest the day for movies or other.

It's time to go home.

It's very humid today, muggy and I have a headache. Even without the sun, it's still hot. According to the unreliable weather cast, scattered T-storm is coming tomorrow. Well, we'll wait and see.

Astoria park is a bit far from the train station, we took N train to Astoria Blvd stop. Walking toward the trees, 7 blocks is the Astoria park. Watch out for the black fly though, I got bit and it hurts like nothing else. Astoria park is really pretty. Right by the river, you can buy some ice cream while you are at it. So many family and older folks sitting around, enjoying the public pool which is pretty impressive size. Sunset is especially beautiful.

It's a beautiful day.

HIYA! ７月１０日。晴れ、涼しくていい天気です。
公園に行ってミントンでもしたい気分になります。ジメジメした時期が終わってよかった，でも油断するとまた蒸し暑くなりそうな嫌な予感がするのでちょっと不安です。

昨日はジャッキーチェンの「酔拳」を見ました。８０年代物なのにカンフーは凄い，凄まじく迫力があると驚きました。しかもジャッキーが若い，若すぎます。DVDのクォリティーも悪くないし，台詞が画面とあってないと事か，効果音が多少違ったような気がしたのは軽くスルーするとして。あんな風に蹴りを入れてみたいとか，でも「酔拳」のカンフーはブレイクダンスのようなスタイルで。酔っているようで，実は酔ってないみたいな。『相手を油断させて，楽しく敵を攻撃しよう！』というメッセージが伝わってきたのですが多分気のせいだよね，気のせいでしょう。悪は滅びるのです。（意味不明）

次は「ヤングマスター」を見ようかな。ちなみにその前の日に見たのが「Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon」, 切なくてかなり涼みました。でもジャッキーの映画はコメディが多いので好きです。安心して鑑賞できます。カンフーとかバトルものが今，私の中ではフィーバーしているので（笑）。

Are you ready for Lychee Paradise?

I'M SO READY. A can of lychee, and some slashed ice can make you a Lychee Paradise. You can buy the can of lychee at your local asian grocery store. :) Yes, I know, it is so asian, so asian it hurts. But this is a great drink if you are trying to cool off this summer. Please if you like lychee, try it at home!

We visited Jackson Heights yesterday, and ate at this lovely Indian joint. Their lunch buffet is well worth your time and price for 15 course meal, you should try it sometime. Also we bought couple incense to fight against mosquitoes. Let's see, we bought, citronella, eucalyptus, and nag champa insence. Thanks to Rainne who gave us a very nice incense holder and recommended us the Anti-mosquito device. I'm unable to sleep at night with those blood-suckers, they are very fearful...
Well, this is the KUNG FU KIDS fragrant holder. Isn't it cute? Thanks again Rainne! - j.

Bake a carrot cake.

CARROT JUICE, anyone?
We had 2 full glass of carrot juice this morning. 1 pound of "juiced" carrot = 2 glass... it's pretty filling. That left us with 3 cups of grated carrots. Which means it was time for our first mission: Bake a carrot cake.

I personally am not really fond of carrot cake, but Louis likes it. Anyhow, it's a good deed not to waste food. Meanwhile I made an instant flan with almond extract, I do not deny it. I'm horrible at cooking. Louis loves to cook and bake, but I think you all know already. When it comes donw to food, Louis turns into a Genie, you know that blue thing from Aladdin. Hahaha (please imagine Charle Brown kind of laugher, very dry). Now finally, after 45 minutes of baking, Louis is waiting to place the frosting on the carrot cake.

I didn't know that it takes so long to cool it off a cake. I think he placed the frosting too soon, it melted...but anyway, first mission complete!

I had a bite out of this fresh carrot cake, and it actually tasted good. My last carrot cake couple years ago despaired me, but this cake gave me some hope...thanks Genie. -j.

You say tomato, I say tomahto.

MONSTER cherry tomato growing on my window. It's really tall, seriously very very tall. It's about 5 ft. I think or even taller.

We bought 4 tomato plants from Home Depot about a month ago. 2 of them cherry tomato, and the other 2 are regular tomato plants. One of the plant started to grow taller and taller, almost everyday...it's almost reaching the top.
TOMATO - to·ma·to
a. A widely cultivated South American plant (Lycopersicon esculentum) having edible, fleshy, usually red fruit.
b. The fruit of this plant.

Also, interesting Tomato History: Among the greatest contributions to world civilization made by the early inhabitants of the Americas are plant foods such as the potato and squash. The tomato, whose name comes ultimately from the Nahuatl language spoken by the Aztecs and other groups in Mexico and Central America, was another important contribution. When the Spanish conquered this area, they brought the tomato back to Spain and, borrowing the Nahuatl word tomatl for it, named it tomate, a form shared in French, Portuguese, and early Modern English. Tomate, first recorded in 1604, gave way to tomato, a form created in English either because it was assumed to be Spanish or under the influence of the word potato. As is well known, people at first resisted eating this New World food because its membership in the nightshade family made it seem potentially poisonous, but it is now is an important element of many world cuisines.

By The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Happy 4th July.

PINAPPLE STREET - Sunset, that was where we're at. We went to see the Macy's Firework at Brooklyn Heights. It was beautiful day, even though the weather.com said, it's going to rain...seriously they suck at weather forecast. It's hardly ever right. All the front bench at dock facing the cityscape was taken by local family members.
We were so tired, trying to find a spot to sit and enjoy the fireworks.
Louis bought 2 holding camp chairs from some grocery store couple brocks away. NICE, we really needed that... :)
After waiting for 2 hours, more and more people showed up. I felt claustrophobic. People are closing in, closer, and closer. Then it started...
Firework lasted about 20 minutes, felt like 30 minutes.
Some guy was trying to listen to this "American" music from his cellphone, sounded pretty crappy, why are you wearing your cellphone around your neck? :(
People were getting arrested under the dock for pulling over and parking to see the fireworks at the pier. Happy 4th July FINE and court awaits you!

After it was over, people were still coming to the Dock area to hang out. We ate some desert at dinner and head to the subway, it was a beautiful day as they say.

- j & Lou