sandstone peak - redux

made the trek up sandstone peak on sunday to gorgeous weather and even better company. arrived at 3pm and made the leisurely 6-mile jaunt in about 4 hours, taking the time to appreciate split rock, inspiration point (yay for gummi life savers) and finally the peak at 3,111 feet.



what was also funny is we kept running into the same couple who were struggling like the dickens, so every time we bumped into them their shirts were a bit more soaked, faces a bit more red, etc. they were great sports about it and we both had fun pushing each other to the top. we all took photos, happily signed the register documenting our experience and hurtled downwards in anticipation for some much-needed grub...

front flip - white lotus

went to open gym tonight at white lotus kung fu studio in northridge, where they have a dedicated section strictly for parkour. there's a big trampoline, makeshift scaffolding, bouncy floors and all kinds of mats and cushions to play around on. also ran into king david, one of the headliners of MTV's ultimate parkour challenge and a founding member of the lost boys family.

and, i successfully executed a front flip, albeit from a raised mat. i don't have the stones to try it from a level surface just yet, but in due time...

the ball street journal - new college basketball venture!

so my friend kyle and i are starting a new online venture set in the world of basketball, where we track the ascent of rising hoop stars on their way to college and the NBA. it's something we've had a strong passion for all our lives, so now is the time it manifested itself in a productive way. based out of southern california, we have access to a lot of games, teams and talent which showcase the best of the best, so we're excited to be bringing our expertise to the rabid fan bases all across the country. it will undoubtedly be a work in progress at the outset, but hopefully we'll gain our footing quickly and be able to provide a unique and comprehensive take on the world of college basketball. without further ado...

http://theballstreetjournalonline.blogspot.com/

japanese tea ceremony

this saturday i had the chance to take part in an authentic tea ceremony - courtesy of my friend heidi - who invited me to be her official guest. now i thought that meant i could hide out in the back and observe the goings-on from afar, but lo and behold, they called me up to participate in actually receiving the tea.



it's actually quite fascinating to see this cherished japanese ceremony up close. to ensure that the guest's cup of tea is the best they will ever receive, there are customs for everything - everything from how one enters the tea room, which step you take when entering/leaving, how to sit, how to hold, raise and rotate the cup (chawan), etc. and that's just for the guest! let's just say i was mesmerized watching her prepare my cup with such discipline and precision. because i typically avoid caffeine, i requested 'weak' tea instead of strong, which caused an uproar in class as i instantly became the laughingstock. the sensei even cried out "wimp!" in disdain...

film review - 'splice'

verdict: 9/10 (but not in the way you think)

some of you may be wondering why in the world i would pay money to see this, but let's just say i was pleasantly roped into seeing this genetic freak show... and was thrilled that i did. words literally can't describe what's up on screen, but comedy or not, this was the funniest movie i've seen in years, '40-year old virgin' included.

i'm not sure what adrien brody and sarah polley's agents were thinking when they first read this script, but i'm taking bets that 'OMG i have to get my client on this!' wasn't the first thing out of their mouth. i really think there's something to this oscar curse, as brody goes from 'the pianist' to this, cuba gooding, jr. from 'jerry maguire' to 'snow dogs,' halle berry from 'monster's ball' to 'die another day,' etc.

regardless, the set up is this: scientists and partners clive (brody) & elsa (polley) create a new organism for the good of science, but when they tempt fate by fusing it w/elsa's DNA, the resulting daughter/thing-a-ma-jig unleashes a series of unimaginable consequences.


and when i say unimaginable consequences, i mean it coming back from the dead to have sex w/clive, have sex w/elsa, kill clive and then impregnate elsa. if you're not sold by now, what can i say, you're no fun...

pangos all-american camp 2010

this past weekend had kyle and i dropping in on the 8th annual pangos all-american camp, which is a national showcase for high school basketball stars and those sleepers looking to break out against elite competition. to give you an example of the talent they bring in, the last 4 MOPs (most outstanding players) at pangos have been harrison barnes (#1 ranked player in the class of 2010 and UNC signee), john wall (soon-to-be #1 draft pick by the wizards), brandon jennings (dropped 55 as a rookie for the bucks this past year) and james harden (prior lottery pick by the OKC thunder).



we'll have a more detailed write-up in a soon-to-be-unveiled basketball site that we're planning to launch (the ball street journal, details to follow), but the pangos camp had more of an all-star game type feel than the more structured AAU teams at the previous weekend's nike EYBL. still, some of the elite players in the country were competing for MOP honors (6'10" quincy miller, 7'0" isaiah austin, 6'3" quddus bello) as well as a plethora of rising and local stars...

nike EYBL - session #3

day 1 of the nike EYBL kicked off saturday (may 28) with games starting at 9:30am at the hangar athletic xchange in hawthorne, CA. i've never been to, nor heard of the HAX before, but it's basically a converted airplane hangar and a fantastic venue for basketball.



i'll have a link to a more extensive writeup of all 3 days, including box scores and player capsules of the top 100 in a few days time. in addition to the high schoolers, i got the chance to see and talk to future #1 overall draft pick john wall, UNC's ed davis, UCLA's own tyus edney, memphis' elliot williams, KU's xavier henry, and incoming cal recruit gary franklin, jr. amongst others...

Nike Elite Youth Basketball League

this weekend kyle and i are going to be attending nike's EYBL session #3, which is a league consisting of the top AAU basketball teams in the country in a final push to qualify for nike's annual peach jam next month in n. augusta, SC. to put it into context, the top 5 high school ballers (as ranked by maxpreps) in the class of 2011 will be playing this weekend, including F michael gilchrist (ranked #1), PF james mcadoo (#2, son of the NBA's bob mcadoo), PG austin rivers (#3, son of the celtics' coach doc rivers), G bradley beal (#4) and PF rakeem christmas (#5, teammate of gilchrist).

http://inside.nikebasketball.com/news/eliteyouth/eybl-session-3/

eats - paulette (macarons)

headed to a friend's birthday later, and instead of bringing over the usual cupcakes or whatnot, i was inspired to find something else. remembering a tasty treat i wolfed down in siem reap, today's revelation was the macaron - the festive parisian almond cookie characterized by its smooth, dome top and ganache filling.

my search lasted all of 12 seconds - the overwhelming favorite in los angeles appeared to be paulette in beverly hills, so i jumped in my ride and made a beeline over. it's a cute and appropriately white shop, to better enhance the kaleidoscope of colors and flavors. today they had 14 selections to choose from - 12 everyday classics and 2 of seasonal variety (raspberry & passionfruit). all are made fresh by hand, so you really can't go wrong in choosing.

since my primary purpose was gift-giving, i picked up a box of 24 - which came in at a hefty $36 - along with 3 individuals (milk chocolate hazelnut, salted caramel, and violet cassis) for myself. once you bite into these delectable treats, all remnants of the price fade away and instead one focuses on the incredible texture of these macarons. the outer cookie is both crispy and chewy, and the filling is amazingly firm yet gooey and bursting with flavor. the delicate balance is quite simply, striking.



i'm kicking myself now for only picking up 3, but maybe everybody will be too full after dinner and i'll be able to sample the other 9, haha. one can always dream, no?

paulette
9466 charleville blvd.
beverly hills, CA 90212
www.paulettemacarons.com

warrior dash - the results are in

amazingly, i placed #551 out of 5361 warriors-for-the-day on saturday (landing 40th in my age group) and #935 out of nearly 8000 for the weekend in total.

not too shabby - being the first race i've ever entered and that i've never ran or even trained for distance - but i still feel like i left a minute or two up on the board. nevertheless, i'm glad that i finished, for one, and that cold beer was awaiting my arrival at the finish line. i mean, first things first...

warrior dash 2010 - socal

just got back from a fantastic day courtesy of warrior dash - a hellish 3.08 mile race combined with 12 'obstacles from hell.' my training partner vim and i decided to sign up a few months back on a whim, since neither of us had heard of it or knew much about it. all i knew was that it was a race, it had obstacles (perfect w/my parkour background!), and it had beer. sold.




we arrived in lake elsinore (about 80 miles SE of los angeles) a shade early of our 1:30pm start time to scope out the festivities and to get in a 3/4 mile jog to get warmed up. since we didn't want to get trapped, we got in line around 1:05pm so that we could stay near the front of the pack. the race started with about a one-mile sprint before coming upon the first obstacle - a increasingly high stack of hay bales that you had to scale and then jump down from.

believe it or not, 11 more obstacles were to follow, with such names as 'junker jump' (climbing over strewn wreckage), 'tunnels of terror' (scampering thru black tunnels), 'cargo climb' (making your way up/down cargo nets), 'breathless bog' (trudging thru waist-deep water and over huge logs), 'warrior roast' (jumping over fire) and 'muddy mayhem' (scrambling under barbed wire thru a ginormous mud pit).




3.08 miles isn't too bad on its own, nor are the 12 obstacles when broken down one-by-one. but combined, it makes for an arduous journey, so i was proud to finish and to place in the upper tier of our wave. when you consider the fact that i've never ran distance in my life, it makes it extra sweet to accomplish something in a short amount of prep time. next stop, half marathon? results haven't been tabulated yet, but i'll post a follow up as soon as i find out...




afterwards, each competitor gets rewarded with a t-shirt, a viking helmet, a sweet medallion commemorating the occasion, and free beer - sponsored by pyramid brewery! my friend hillary actually volunteered to help out today, so she was one of the select few beer wenches on the premises. both vim and i were also able to recycle our crusty shoes to green sneakers, so all in all it was a glorious day. now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to soak myself in hot water in hopes of cleaning up all the mud...

this... is american idol

forgot to mention that my cousin finally landed a full-time job last week (yay line!), so a few of us went out to celebrate with dinner at park's BBQ in k-town followed by karaoke at rosen. it should be mentioned that rosen now has wireless mics, so one can be totally inhibited in owning his or her performance, with no risk of upending a stray sake bomb on the table.

since my fellow boy band member joseph wasn't in the house, i had to save the NKOTB and *nsync performances for another day. but here are some of the select tunes that i was able to belt out for the evening:

the backstreet boys - show me the meaning of being lonely
the killers - mr. brightside
pearl jam - jeremy
the beatles - all you need is love
USA for africa - we are the world (the only performance to garner a perfect score, btw)
justin timberlake - cry me a river
starship - we built the city
bon jovi - livin' on a prayer

parkour at angkor wat

even though it's one of the most revered temples in all the world, i still couldn't help myself...

day 15 - los angeles, CA

reality bites.

our flight arrived at LAX shortly after 7pm, and since i flew thru customs and didn't check in any bags, i was curbside by 7:30pm and in my cousin's car minutes after. since i parked my car at work, it took me a few minutes to get adjusted to sitting in a car again, and driving on the right hand side of the street, at that.

otherwise, re-entry hasn't been difficult, outside of the whole GOING BACK TO WORK thing. i forced myself to sleep on the front half of the 14+ hour flight, so i had no problem falling asleep in my own bed. go figure.

woke up at 7am, did a light morning workout, and made it work on time - early in fact. cold, harsh reality kicked in immediately, as several hundred e-mails stared me in the eye and refused to disappear without incident. however, thoughts of white sand and gorgeously clear turquoise water somehow got me thru the day...

day 14 (cont'd) - ko phi phi, thailand

after i got back from the exhilarating day trip, i roamed around the island and came across a real boxing ring in the middle of a sports bar (not everyday one sees this), along with some locals playing hacky sack with a makeshift ball...



i also kept seeing signs that pointed to a viewpoint, so since it was nearing sunset, i thought hey, i might as well take advantage of this great island to get even more pictures. what they don't tell you is that ever 300km or so, there's another sign that says 300km this way, so it ends up being this cruel exercise straight out of an escher print.

there were human detritus littered all along way, some furiously panting while their shirts were soaked thru, while others were straight up laid out on the side of the road. i was sweating balls, but remained undeterred in my quest up the hill. the one bright spot is that the entire way was quite delicious in smell, as native rose apple trees were in bloom:



still climbing skyward, i finally saw signs of tangible progress. if it weren't for this, i was ready to pack it up and turn around. but the fruits of my labor were not in vain. one can see both sides of phi phi don in one fell swoop: to the left is ton sai bay and to the right is loh dalum bay.



after a few minutes to collect my breath, i scurried down towards land and caught a last few remaining pics before the sun disappeared. on the right is a local fire dancer running thru his routine - without flame...



the phi phi islands are simply a wonderful slice of heaven and quite the majestic beauty of a natural habitat. this is definitely one place i was embarrassed to carry around my digital camera, as it simply can't do the landscape justice despite my best efforts. i can't recommend this place enough, and only wish we had ditched phuket and stayed here the entire four days. but there's always next time, right?