Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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7-Eleven #1 in Subic’s Manga Vacca barangay
I got curious about the “Manga Vacca” name, but when I looked it up, I got “Barangay Mangan-Vaca,” with a hyphen (see here, for example).
Store #3 in Calapandayan
Some of these photos are horizontally flipped.
An unexplained uptick in soju sales for 7-Elevens yesterday
Is soju really that popular among PI women? What about Japanese shochu?
This place needs to up its game to achieve 7-Eleven heights.
Interesting to see “5-Fifteen.” In Korea, the number “25” often signifies how hard people are working: not just 24 hours a day, but 25 hours a day (think of the Beatles singing “eight days a week”). A popular convenience store here is, as you know, GS25.
A 7-Eleven sighting just ahead!
I assume all of this was mapped out in advance. Was it all road, or were there moments on the trail when you had to cross over mountains?
Net loss: 8.4 pounds
Congrats! But remember that the first 10 pounds of any diet (lifestyle change) are almost always just water. Now, you’ve got to keep the weight down and start losing actual fat.
We can’t find anything keto locally, but Swan has had success ordering online
That’s great, but be careful with ready-to-eat products labeled “keto.” A lot of them have carbs in hidden places. Keto overlaps with the “primal” diet, which basically calls for eating as much unprocessed food as possible. The closer the food is to coming out of the ground or off the hoof, the better. Seasoning should be minimal—salt and pepper. The keto side of things would be to minimize carbs. Most fruits are super carby; stick with berries, which are generally high in fiber and have a relatively low glycemic index (20-ish). No dried fruit (or only a sprinkling, as on a salad)—dried fruits are “carb bombs” because, being dried, they have concentrated amounts of carbs per unit volume.
As your other commenter suggested (and as I’ve commented before), minimize your insulin spikes by drinking beer and eating less frequently. Every time you eat, every time you drink beer (or soda, or whatever), you’re spiking your blood sugar, which spikes your insulin. Think about doing intermittent fasting, maybe a 16-8 window: 16 hours of fasting, 2 meals in an 8-hour window. Beer only with meals if you absolutely must have your beer. No breakfast, then lunch at noonish and dinner at 6-ish. That’s not unreasonable, is it? No dessert later on, or if you do have dessert, have it along with dinner and make sure it’s keto. (Pecan pie should be a once-a-month cheat-day indulgence.)
Insulin is a good hormone in that it lowers your blood sugar, but it’s a bad hormone in that it promotes fat storage. This is why weight loss is tied to minimizing your insulin spikes.
Since you’re pretty good at staying below your calorie budget, adjust your budget to 1800 calories max, and let that be your new standard. I’m not suggesting you starve yourself; if anything, feel free to stuff yourself on foods with a low calorie density (leafy salads, etc., not carby veggies like taters, carrots, etc.).
A reminder that I’ve written about the two major and seemingly conflicting theories of dieting: CICO and CIM. See here. Continued good luck!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/November/2024 @ 7:01 pm
I’m hopeful that he learned from his first-term mistakes and that he appoints competent and loyal team members.
As I recently wrote:
FINAL NOTE: the lesson I take from Trump’s having scooped up the likes of JD, RFK, Tulsi, Vivek, Elon, and others is that he has indeed learned his lesson about poor staffing picks. This time around, he will not be surrounded by ass-kissing yes-men but by people of intelligence who will put the country first and might risk having a falling-out with him. It will be up to this inner circle to keep everyone else honest, including The Donald himself. And I didn’t fail to notice how many of this new crew are former Democrats… just like Trump himself.
Through the streets of Marian Hills. Oddly enough, there are no hills in this village.
No hills in the Hills? I’m reminded of the sad commentary that, in America, we often pave over all the trees, then we name our streets after them.
Our attempt to do a valley walk was stymied by a newly constructed fence.
This seems to happen rather often. Do you feel your options are narrowing down, or are you able to find equally fun alternative routes? I guess this means you can’t trust maps much, what with obstacles constantly being thrown in your way, but the constant changes to your routes at least offer some excitement.
I wasn’t feeling like getting wet feet.
Why not? You rarely walk more than 10K, and as you’ve claimed, you never get blisters from wet feet. So what’s the problem? Grit in the shoes? Squishy sounds? Something else?
The strap on my backpack broke[,] so I had to carry it on one shoulder.
Equipment malfunctions suck. Will you repair the strap or get a new backpack? Will you buy that brand again, knowing what you now know?
By my reckoning, the vast majority of expats who still care about politics in the USA are Trump supporters.
Here in Korea, a huge fraction of expats are woke lefties. Sad.
His reasoning? Trump is a Nazi. Yep, he drank the lefty Kool-Aid and lost the ability to think for himself.
A lot of these people listen to and naively trust the mainstream media.
My Fitbit says I burned 4144 calories
I should get a Fitbit. Yours is very generous. I burn over 4000 calories after walking over 36,000 steps on an all-day trek.
The last time I heard Dennis sing. I’ve been unable to reach him for months now, and frankly, I fear for the worst.
If you can’t contact him from a distance, it may be time to fly out there and find him.
It happens twice a year (on seven November and July 7th. See how that works?).
Let’s see…
seven November = 11/7 by US dating (7/11 in the UK)
July 7 = 7/7I can see that one event is in July (7th month), and the other event is in November (11th month), so there’s your “7-Eleven.” But the date doesn’t need to be the 7th at all; it could be any time during the month! If the dates were, say, 7/5 and 11/18, it would still be July/November, i.e., 7/11. So I kind of get it, but not completely. Someone help me out.
Anyway, enjoy the event. This is a different style of walk. I’ve heard of temple walks, cathedral/church walks, and even venerable-tree walks (in the British Isles, kind of Druidic), but 7-Eleven walks, with convenience stores as waypoints, are utterly alien to me. Good luck. Let us know, please, how urban/smooth or how hilly/rough the walk turns out to be. Or do you already know thanks to maps with contour lines?
Happy walking.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/November/2024 @ 7:40 pm
As usual, my homeless friend, Mama, was waiting for me at the highway intersection.
I’m confused. You used to refuse to capitalize her name/label, always writing it as “mama.” So out of respect for that, whenever I commented about her, I wrote “mama” as well. But “Mama” is how it is now?
Not sure what “drug cleared” means, but it ain’t drug free from what I’ve seen.
The police eagerly await your eye-witness testimony, I’m sure.
John’s place, featuring [a second-floor] restaurant and [a third-floor, open-air] bar.
Looks smaller from that angle. I thought it was much bigger.
Happy celebrating.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/November/2024 @ 7:42 pm
We did intersect with the official trail near the end of our hike. The Hares speak German, but I interpreted this as “beer near”
Looks to say, “Be Nearer.”
Easter Mountain as seen from the farm road
Nice shot.
I’m not sure skipping meals is the way ahead for me, but eating less overall and walking more should work. It’s early yet, but so far, so good.
I’ll be curious to see the weight after a week, and after a month, a few beer-belly shots from different angles so we commenters can all judge you cruelly.
Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ’till it’s gone…
What are you implying now that you’re with Swan?
It’s nice to look back on your life and have an occasional smile amongst the tears.
What tears? It’s been only missteps, not mishaps.
Why have a dog if you are going to confine it on a three-foot leash or lock it in a cage so small it can’t turn around?
A lot of Koreans also have no idea how to treat dogs. Many do much the same thing with their pets.
Looks to have been a good walk.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/November/2024 @ 5:58 pm
What’s the difference between a misstep and a mishap?
Good luck with the Hash and with counting the beers.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/November/2024 @ 4:19 pm
Kev, oh, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s fun to tell Grammarly to fuck off. I’m getting better at that. Besides, I already paid for a year’s subscription.
I love the rationalization. As much as I rationalize, you’ve got my ass beat by a mile.
Well, we’ve talked about dependence on the machine and on faux “authorities.” And you’d written that “Thanks, yeah, thinking for myself sounds like a better option,” which I took to mean you’d actually be thinking for yourself from now on. Was I wrong? Or are you saying you will now consult Grammarly just to tell it to fuck off? To me, it seems you plan to keep relying on it instead of doing the work you should’ve done years ago in learning the rules of language. I’m certainly not looking for error-free prose, especially since I’m not perfect myself, but a diminution of the same errors, over and over and over, might be nice. Are we too deep into the “old dog/new tricks” phase of life?
Grammarly, being stupid AI, isn’t going to catch every sin—maybe not even half. I can’t stop you from using it, but I’d really recommend taking the arduous, hilly walk of the good writer—a non-physical version of your My Bitch trail. Make the language your bitch and wield it like a weapon.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/November/2024 @ 9:59 pm
Grammarly suggested I change “beach”
Get off Grammarly. That way lies only sadness.
Well, the Subic Hash took that as a challenge to be the first; this coming Thursday (11/7), we shall march!
I don’t know whether to be excited or to dread the idea of what sounds like a mostly urban walk. Then again, if you have to go over mountains to the next village to connect the dots, I guess that could be fun. Are 7-Elevens in the PI any good? They vary in quality in Korea.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/November/2024 @ 7:39 pm
Good luck as you embark on the path to better health.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/November/2024 @ 6:43 pm
Congrats on restarting the fitness program. I’m in no position to condemn you for falling off the wagon, so I’ll just encourage you to keep with it. It’s not a “diet” or “program”—it’s a lifestyle, i.e., how you live from here on in. (I’m talking to myself as much as I’m talking to you right now.)
My style is to order a gin shot in a tall [glass and] a can of soda water on the side.
Given that problem with the waitress you’d had some years back, maybe you should take along a drawing of what you’re asking for so she’ll understand you.
I just need to do a better job pacing myself so as to avoid getting floored.
Please be more realistic in your self-assessment of self-control, too.
I installed a calorie tracker app on my phone to help me manage the food intake.
Seeing numbers can really help. Unless you’re in one of those “I don’t know, and I don’t care” moods.
A boiled egg and some apple and orange slices for breakfast. Swan served a banana too, but I rejected that high-calorie option. For lunch[,] I had a salad and a burger patty.
There’s the calories, and there’s the carbs. These two concerns overlap. Your calorie budget looks a little high, though, at over 2300 daily. Maybe shoot for 1900 or 2000. That’s a difference of 3-4 slices of American cheese. You’ll feel the pinch, but if you keep your mind occupied, you’ll also get used to it. I wouldn’t expect you to go full keto (5% carbs daily, or about 20 grams if you go by grams), but if you stick to “low carb,” you ought to be okay. Occupy yourself with more porn. Branch out and watch the kinky, fucked-up stuff.
By keto standards, a boiled egg is good, but fruits contain fructose, so stick with berries, which are high in fiber. Nuts are good; alas, the best nuts for you are my least favorite: Brazil nuts and walnuts. Cashews and pistachios, which I love, are considered barely okay but fairly high-carb. Your lunch looks a lot better: salad and a burger patty (no bread) = very keto as long as you’re avoiding sugary sauces like ketchup and BBQ. Start making your own sauces or have your caretakers make them. They’re not that hard to make, and I’ve got recipes for those, too. You might need some special ingredients, though. That’s probably the most annoying aspect of going keto or low-carb. A keto sauce needing no special ingredients might be sriracha plus mayo.
Hey, it was Halloween[;] of course I went a little wild!
From here on in, allow yourself 1-2 cheat days per month. That’s US Thanksgiving and Christmas, plus maybe two other days. Eat keto-ish whenever you can; I’ve got a chocolate-chip-cookie recipe for that. On a cheat day, you can make that recipe but use real chocolate chips (pref. dark chocolate—less sugar). Also, use Truvia brown sugar, which is partly real brown sugar. The cookies will still be much lower carb, but they’ll still taste awesome. They’re made with almond flour, which has 1/3 the carbs of regular wheat flour. Much better for you. Just don’t go overboard eating them.
So, my expenses exceeded my income by 5000 pesos. I can and will fix that going forward.
But you knew or suspected this already, yes?
I dressed up as the bag of garbage Biden says I am[,] and Swan went as my trashy girl.
My freshman year in college, a friend named Ann dressed up as a bag of leaves carrying around its own rake. Her stockinged legs were sticking out of the bottom of the trash bag, and the whole thing was pretty funny. Some cunt on M Street tried to light her on fire, though. That wasn’t so funny. Luckily, the crazy bitch failed.
A procession passed by on the highway serving as a reminder that Halloween is technically a religious holiday.
As close to fusion as one gets, I guess. Well, in Mexico, they celebrate El Dia de los Muertos on November 1 and 2. They use the singular in Spanish even though it’s at least two calendar days. What do they do in the PI for November 1? All Saints Day? Day of the Dead (from the Spanish occupation, I’d imagine)?
I see one site says this about 11/1 in the PI:
“In the Philippines, this holiday has three names: Araw Ng Mga Patay (Day of the Dead), Todos Los Santos (All Saints Day), or Undas.”
Well, good luck with whatever your plan of attack (lifestyle change) ends up being. Remember you’re not who you were 10 or 20 years ago, so blundering along alcoholically is going to bite you in the ass as long as you insist on not seriously cutting down in that area. Whatever magical genes have protected your heart rate and blood-sugar level thus far won’t last forever.
Seriously cutting down the drinking, dropping 90% of your bar habit—your budget will thank you if you do these things. I don’t expect you will, but imagine how much more of the country will open up to you once you have the free time! The only other ingredients you’d need would be curiosity and the itch to explore.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/November/2024 @ 6:40 pm
Here’s a link to the keto-pancake recipe. If Swan makes these, she should probably pour out an experimental 1/4 cup of batter first (the sacrificial first pancake), just to understand size and texture. If you like your pancakes bigger, she can probably do 1/3-cup scoops of batter. Personally, though, I started life as a big-pancake guy, but when I started cooking them for myself, I began to realize that the cooking process is easier to control when the pancakes are smaller. For me, the suggested 1/4 cup of batter per pancake is best.
Suggested non-sugar sweetener: Bocha Sweet. If it’s like here in Korea, Bocha sweet will be shipped in from overseas, and it’s expensive, but since you have no trouble feeling spendy on frivolous things, money ought to be no object when it comes to your health.
Bocha Sweet gets its name from the kabocha squash, a green, pumpkin-like squash with orange flesh. It’s called 단호박/dan-hobak in Korea (“sweet squash”), and I use it when making pumpkin pie. Real pumpkins do exist in Korea; I’ve seen and photographed them on my walks, and you can buy them in Seoul, but kabocha is easier to find. Anyway, kabocha has apparently long been known by the Japanese to be a “healthier” squash because of its non-sugary sweet elements. Even though Bocha Sweet has that spearmint “cooling” effect on the tongue (like erythritol), it’s fine when you mix it with other ingredients, like in a pancake batter.
If you can’t find Bocha Sweet and the PI has its own non-sugar sweeteners, stick to those, as long as it’s a sweetener that can tolerate cooking. Some can’t; they denature into bad-for-you chemical sludge. Read up on your sweeteners.
I hope you like the recipe. I really don’t think it’s bad at all.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 01/November/2024 @ 4:55 pm
Swan made me breakfast. This is my last morning of being a bad boy. Promise!
Buy some bleached almond flour and have some keto pancakes! They’re not quite as good as regular, but I’d say they’re about 80% as good. Butter can still be used, but for syrup, you can either use a sugar-free or low-carb brand, or you can blitz up some berries, sweeten them with artificial sweetener, and use those on top of your pancakes.
Almond flour lacks a lot of the properties that make wheat flour so awesome (e.g., gluten for internal structure), but it’s got a third of the carbs of wheat flour, making it a much healthier alternative. Anyway, if you’re interested, I can email you my favorite keto-pancake recipe. Except for the almond flour, I bet you already have all the other ingredients. Rise and structure come mostly from the eggs in the recipe. Say the word.
The dogs were mostly friendly
It’s rare to find dogs off the leash and loose in South Korea, but this does happen on occasion. I’m paranoid about loose, strange dogs.
The riverside became impassable, so we did a little trespassing. The residents were nice about it, though.
It’s a shame there aren’t more pre-made, manicured, landscaped trails (which can still be hilly, of course!). But I guess the uncharted nature of a lot of these walks can lead to a feeling of pioneering.
It was a little eerie seeing this written in the dirt in the middle of nowhere.
At least it didn’t say, “McCrarey, turn back now.”
We saw some cute chicks during our walk
I assume you’re punning badly again, but to be clear, them’s ducklingz.
And for you Easter Mountain fans
That’s certainly a new picture. Intellesting.
Those of you who voted “yes” got it right.
The attraction of alcohol is undeniable.
…and headed home with some food from Sit-n-Bowl.
I’ve never bowled while seated. Ham sandwich looks a bit meager. Make a faux Cubano at home and fill it to your heart’s content.
I’ll be curious to see whether there are any Christmas/Halloween “fusion” attempts in your area, given how early the Christmas season starts.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/October/2024 @ 5:29 pm
Munching on those sweet, tender loins
I see now it is a low-priced EV from China. Good luck with that!
I’m sure we can expect nothing but good quality and great value. Nice racket: attack Filipino ships while having Filipinos buy shitty Chinese products!
We had ours medium-rare.
Someone needs to tell Donald Trump to stop it with the well-done steaks.
Our dinnertime view from John’s
Great sky. And is that your very own Cracker Barrel?
Next up was the rarely visited Red Stars.
Sounds communist.
Our waitress remembered me from the Blue Butterfly days and welcomed me back by pointing to my belly and asking when the baby was due.
You keep putting up those pics of a thinner you from a few years back, and even your readers are bound to notice something! Check out this vid on whether metabolically healthy obesity is possible. She’s an expert I’m subscribed to. Her advice is usually measured and sane.
The front of my newly discovered Hash shirt. The name on the sleeve is how Jay knew it was mine.
You’ve shown that design on the blog before. I recognize the guru and the dick. No homo.
Total for October 29: 21,470 pesos
I guess this more than nullifies the savings from the other day. Almost ten times the expense!
Damn, she must really suck!
Maybe BJ is bujitsu.
So—did you stay or go?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/October/2024 @ 8:02 pm
2750 pesos! It’s a red-letter day!
It somehow never occurred to me that you’d be delivering sweets while Hashing. I somehow thought you did the sweets thing only on non-Hash days. From now on, I shall endeavor to read more closely.
Congrats on tackling the hills. Much respect for soldiering on. Sometimes, the pain is a voice of caution; sometimes, it’s a voice of laziness. It takes wisdom to know which is which. A lot of aches and pains can simply be walked off.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/October/2024 @ 5:37 pm
re: clickbaity video
Roving eye still looking for young, firm titties, eh? Christ, you’re almost 70! You’re going to die with a huge boner jutting up to the sky like some perverse flagpole, aren’t you? Maybe some young chickadee will give your corpse a ritual fuck before you get buried… one last bit of joyful necrophilia before the dirt nap.
Yeah, that titties problem is only getting worse with AI in the mix. Assume all tittified thumbnail images are AI-generated clickbait. This Corridor Crew video goes into AI scams and how to detect them. Expect everything to be misleading from here on in, and understand that the notion of false advertising has been around since long before AI. Caution, or what we nerds in religious-studies grad school called “the hermeneutic of suspicion,” is the first and last order of the day. That said, despite my caution, I get suckered, too.
Spaghetti looks good. I’d eat that even with all the minced onions.
Upon registration, I was presented with a new Hash shirt and a bottle opener necklace
I love the Hash name “Dickincider.” That’s how you do a pun! The shirt’s imagery is great, too. Good design.
Loading up!
I get the feeling that a lot of women see the Hash as a chance to wear tight clothing—both the women who look good that way and the women who don’t (but don’t know it or don’t care). That’s what ultimately cooled me off to topless beaches in Nice, France: everyone goes topless, not just the young, sexy ladies. Lots of ankle-boobage à la plage. And of course, European men all wear those fucking Speedos.
I’m blessed that wet shoes don’t cause my feet to blister.
Walk 10K more like that and get back to me.
These aren’t anything like the famous Banaue rice terraces a commenter recommended I see, but they were the best I’ve witnessed.
Looks gorgeous. And about ready to harvest.
One thing La Union does that I hadn’t seen before is having “sweepers” on the trail.
Will your kennel be incorporating this idea? Sounds good.
I wouldn’t have the balls to do that if I were as unsteady on my feet as he was.
We have people like that on the paths here in Korea—old polio holdovers, the very old, people who are crippled for this or that reason… I silently applaud them all for getting out there.
I do tend to stand out in a crowd, don’t I?
It’s that loud-and-proud beer gut. The orange shirt helps, Garfield.
I managed to avoid getting doused. I’ll take my water frozen, thank you very much!
I’m sure we can arrange to have buckets of ice chunks thrown at you.
Looks to have been a great time. Walk on!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 28/October/2024 @ 4:54 pm
Here’s hoping your own home is undamaged and has power.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/October/2024 @ 4:16 pm
The higher alcohol content and the urge to drink my money’s worth created the drunken result you’d expect.
While I’m always happy about and admiring of your frankness about these things, I notice you seem unable to connect the dots to create a more accurate self-image. You seem to think of yourself as in control, but this kind of incident happens once every several posts. When I have time, I ought to make it a project to go back just through your 2024 posts to see how often you’ve (a) referred to being drunk or (b) have published a photo of you either looking alcoholically goofy or being flat on the ground. And the docs really don’t pick up on any of this? I’m starting to think your docs are merely telling you what you want to hear. Either that, or you might not be relating the full story of whatever it is they are telling you. I fully expect to see another post, a few weeks down the line, about how you went overboard yet again. I’d say there’s something vaguely suicidal about all of this, but having read your blog for years, I’m pretty sure you’re not suicidal. Subject to extreme emotional swings on occasion, yes. Stubborn the way old men are stubborn in their habits and vices, yes. But not suicidal.
Well… I hope it was a good Hash. Food looked good.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/October/2024 @ 9:56 pm
Swan is a good cook!
And yet, you somehow don’t look happy.
Good luck weathering the storm!
Nobody’s thought to make domed houses that survive wind and storms, plus collection moats to take in all the water, purify it, and have a near-infinite water supply? No? So just like Florida, then.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/October/2024 @ 7:02 pm
Reekay says “bias confirmation,” but I’m pretty sure he means “confirmation bias.”
Yes, it’s good when two people are on the same page. How often are you both on different pages?
What exactly is the charm in bar hopping? What’s wrong with having one favorite bar?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/October/2024 @ 11:41 pm
Looks to have been a big, enjoyable event. Congrats to the Subic Bay chapter on keeping it real for over three decades. Long may you walk or run!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/October/2024 @ 6:58 pm
Was Swan walking around and distributing candy to kids before she met you? She seems to have caught the walking bug and is now a Hasher. That seems to be all thanks to your influence, so hey, if it’s a Groundhog Day life, it’s a good one to have on repeat.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/October/2024 @ 7:09 pm
I can no longer access your site with my VPN on. I have to let down my guard to see your blog, which is problematic. Any way to whitelist VPNers like me?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/October/2024 @ 10:16 pm
Ah, yes: the Carl Spackler “Caddyshack” incident.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/October/2024 @ 8:12 am
The Mope menu looks good!
Swan doesn’t swim, so what was she doing in that swimming pool the other day? I thought she was swimming. I guess I misread.
She’s also a “strangers with candy” kind of person, I see.
It was nice, but a little on the warm side
Pretty much every non-rainy day in the PI.
I’ll never understand how non-swimmers come to live on islands and peninsulas… and never learn to swim. A bit like living in a non-English-speaking country and never learning the local language. Bad investment.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/October/2024 @ 7:29 pm
I’d never make a 29K walk if it were mostly mountainous.
Is it pronounced “mōp” or “mō-pey”?
It was nice meeting the American owner
And as usual, “owner” really means “co-owner”?
No Zero in stock, so I’d been drinking the higher-alcohol San Mig Lights all night.
This happens way more frequently than you admit.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/October/2024 @ 10:03 pm
Ugh:
and should be pretty aggressively friend
fried, dammit. Some proofreader.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/October/2024 @ 6:30 pm
We ended our trek at the Jewel Cafe with some [take-out]
Now, isn’t that interesting: if this is from the same Google Maps imagery I saw yesterday, “Barretto” is now spelled with two “t”s in this image. We love Asian inconsistency! Too bad I can’t scroll rightward to see whether that’s “Barretto High School” or “Barreto High School.”
I went with the sweet and sour pork. It was okay.
Looks pretty soggy. There’s an art to keeping the breading crisp when you slather on the sauce. First, the breading should have a lot of cornstarch in it and should be pretty aggressively friend until it has a deep color. Korean tangsuyuk is basically sweet-and-sour pork, and a lot of restaurants, instead of improving their technique, have learned simply to serve the sauce on the side to preserve the crunch from kitchen to table. That one place I praised, the one in Daegu (here [scroll way down to the end] and here [crunchy and good, but not quite as crunchy as last time]), has mastered the art of keeping the breading crunchy despite the sauce. Despite that slightly disappointing second visit, I’d go back there again, but I’d specifically request that they make the dish super-crunchy as they’d done last year.
Chicken cordon bleu for Swan. She had one bite of the potatoes and said, “These are from a box.” It is real or nothing for her.
I respect her good taste. Personally, I’d eat such potatoes if they were served to me, but in the back of my mind, I’d be thinking the same thing. Did she eat them or reject them? What would John say if he found out a place had served boxed taters? Food snobs unite!
Styx and Stones may rock my bones, but you can’t breathe without Air Supply
I’ll consider that a shout-out to our previous exchange and thank you for the mention. Glad to see you’re not pissed off by Styx/Air Supply comparisons.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/October/2024 @ 6:28 pm
But yesterday, the hours were full of fun and adventure. Fulfilling indeed!
I couldn’t help but notice that the Google map spells it “Barreto,” with one “t.” Pretty much every reference that is not local spells it that way. Which is funny because you’d think the locals would know best. I’ve seen enough “Barretto” spellings in your blog’s photos to know you’re not insane for suggesting there should be two “t”s… but I do wonder at why non-locals insist on spelling it with only one.
A church steeple is all that remains of one of those villages
Okay, that’s kinda creepy.
It seems the lake is full of clouds
Really nice shot!
A tree I liked
Nice tree. I tried to look it up with Google Lens, but I can’t tell what species it is.
No idea where we are going, but we are heading there anyway
Seems to me that you can’t get too lost as long as you know where the shore is.
So, we stopped in this place for the first time during the drive home.
The term mukbang (official phonetics: meokbang) is a mashup of syllables from the words meokda (to eat) or meokgi (“eating” as a gerund) or meongneun (“eating” as an adjective) and bangsong (broadcast)—so an eating broadcast. Some people find it bizarrely satisfying to watch others on video, Hoovering up a ton of food as part of a show. I guess is this is especially true of skinny little women Hoovering up impossibly huge piles of food. I’ve seen maybe part of one mukbang, and that was enough. Not my thing. Anyway, that’s where the word comes from.
I’d had enough by now, and I pride myself on knowing when to say when.
Snicker. Sure. Whatever. Until the next photo of you on the floor.
Here’s what it cost me:
So hard to get below $100 a day.
I had a roommate who loved the band Styx. I said they sounded like Air Supply, which pissed him off, so I kept saying it.
Enjoy your live music at Treasure Island.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/October/2024 @ 10:35 pm
I’m glad the news from the docs is good, or as good as can be expected.
A side dish of fried chicken
I guess that’s why the picture is on its side.
Enjoy tonight!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/October/2024 @ 7:33 pm
I barely see any knee injuries in that first photo!
It appeared to be a lot steeper than I remembered it, and it was very much overgrown in the tall grasses that dominate the hillsides at this time of year.
For the third time, get a fucking machete!
I’m not as slow as molasses because molasses can’t flow uphill. I do so at a snail’s pace.
And I recall that you beat the snail last time.
There was a time in my life when I got high on grass. These days, the grass is high on me.
Sigh…
Taking a rest before the final push up
How has Scott’s ankle been since that fall? He holding up?
We rarely see snakes on our hikes, and when we do, it is nice to see them dead.
And it looks to have been cleft in two by a _____ . Please buy one.
Stepping carefully on slick steps
Yeah, that would turn me off right there.
Then back on the street
A pretty and colorful picture.
Enchiladas for me. Spicy they were!
Nice, Yoda. Good, they look, but no veggies?
I like Asia, so my alternatives include Cambodia and Vietnam.
You gonna try to survive on English? I guess that means sticking to the expat hangouts. I have a vague sense of how Vietnam has changed since the war, but with Cambodia, I don’t know much at all aside from the old “killing fields” vibe. How much has it changed, and in what direction?
The real reason all those boomers are moving here.
For the white women! Yay!
Good luck with your docs today. May it be nothing but good news.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/October/2024 @ 7:07 pm
«« Back To Stats PageI guess my mode for now is that I can afford to live large and will do so until I no longer can.
If that’s the case, then there’s little point in gathering any more budget data. You’ve already established your priorities and made your command decision.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/October/2024 @ 2:28 pm