Top Ten List of Things On My Mind

Think of this as a kind of state of my mental state address. Here's a list of the top ten things drifting through my transom, ranked by time spent thinking and talking about them. I added one more so that it goes to 11.

1. "Game of Thrones" (book & show)

2. Transformers Masterpiece line

3. A Game of Thrones board game

4. Filipino food

5. Porn

6. "Dark Knight Rises"

7. Hating exercise

8. "Adventure Time"

9. "The Legend of Korra"

10. "Regular Show"

11. "Scrubs" (The TV show. I haven't thought about scrubs the clothes for years.)

Radio Presets

I think you can learn a lot about a person by the radio presets s/he has programmed in her/his car. First of all, s/he is the type of person that owns a car. And if s/he is listening to the radio instead of her/his own MP3 playlist, s/he is probably not that crazy into music. Or perhaps s/he is old school. Or just old. So here are my radio presets. Read into them what you will. But if you guess that I'm black, Latino, or college-aged, you'd be wrong.

1. 89.3 KPCC (NPR)

2. 88.9 KXLU

3. 101.1 KRTH (K-EARTH)

4. 107.1 KSSE (Super Estrella)

5. 93.1 KCBS (Jack FM)

6. 95.5 KLOS (Southern California's Best Rock)

7. 96.3 KXOL (Latino)

8. 105.9 KPWR (Power)

9. 93.5 KDAY

10. 102.7 KIIS

11. 98.7 KYSR (This used to be Star, I have no idea what it is now)

12. 106.7 KROQ

Celebrity Sightings - Dani Pudi

So how do I explain this? I saw, but kind of didn't see Dani Pudi of NBC's "Community." My brother and I were on the way to Channel 101 (which, if you haven't been to, you should), and whilst preparing to park, I saw someone who looked like a brown Jamie Lee Curtis from behind. I would say Dani Pudi has a unique head shape and coloration. I pointed him out to my brother who corroborated my suspicions. We figured that he was going to attend Channel 101, which would make sense considering that one of the founding members is Dan Harmon, creator "Community," one of the other founding members is Rob Schraab, who directed an episode of "Community" (the excellent "Law & Order" parody episode "Basic Lupine Urology") and many people from Channel 101 have made appearances on "Community."

But when we got there, he never showed up. What gives? My brother and I were sure that it was him. After we got out, we even snooped around the area, checking out a nearby restaurant to see if that's where he was. Alas, we couldn't find him, and neither of us are on Twitter or are willing to sign up for Twitter so that we can @danipudi "where u at?". Oh well, it was still cool, cool, cool.

Dressed Like the Douche in a Movie

The other day I went to see a movie, and while I was watching it, I thought to myself, "what would happen if I you went to see a movie, and by chance I you dressed exactly like one of the characters in it." And what if this character also happened to be a big douche and wasn't exactly the best dressed or nicest looking guy?

I'm just speculating here, it wasn't like this actually happened ... to me. Or anyone else I know. Besides I'm probably better looking, right? I don't know about the dressed part, but wouldn't that be awkward? For that person, I mean.

Fatvision

Hey! Peeps! Do you have this problem? My mom has fatvision, among her many other ailments. That's when you see everything as needing to be fatter, or bigger, than it should be. Like if something, or someone, is a tad bit thin, then it's too thin to her. Or let's say if a portion of food is just right, she thinks it should be bigger.

She does this with salting pasta, where the directions usually call for a tablespoon of salt for every 3-4 quarts, but then she pours in about a quarter cup. That could also be connected to one of her other ailments though, saltizing.

Greek-Style Pasta

I made this dish a while back, like, over a year back, but I forgot to post it. It just goes to show I do a lot of things with pasta.

This meal was inspired by antipasti salad (which I know is Italian but, hey, I added feta so it's Greek now). It's pretty much spaghetti aglio e olio (again Italian, for garlic and olive oil) and tossed with dry salami, olives, pepperoncini, red pepper, and feta cheese (Greek). Because of the salty, sharp flavors involved, it's kind of refreshing and makes your taste buds explode with flavor.

Tuna Baked Potato

I really like this blog called NeverSeconds about a nine-year-old girls school meals. The blog is pretty famous at this point. One of the days she featured a tuna baked potato as her main course. This blew my mind. And it tickled me. What a great, simple meal! So I set out to make it.

My tuna baked potato might be a wee bit fancier, in that it includes corn and cheese along with the requisite tuna, mayonnaise, and baked potato. It was wicked good! It didn't take very long to prepare, and it was both filling and extremely tasty. I will definitely be making this again.

Big ups to the butter lettuce in the back for keeping it real! And healthy!

Celebrity Sightings - DJ Lance

So my niece really enjoys "Yo Gabba Gabba." I find it pretty entertaining as well. The songs are so catchy.

While attending this month's Channel 101 (which you should go to, too), I spotted a hipster black guy. Now, there aren't a lot of black people who attend Channel 101. In fact, my brother and I probably make up the majority of the minority attendance. So every black person who isn't Demorge Brown kind of stands out. Except that this time the black person was DJ Lance (AKA Lance Robertson) from "Yo Gabba Gabba!" I got pretty excited, but as is my habit I didn't bother him. Since he wasn't dressed up as DJ Lance, he looked a little different. He was dressed all in brown, a far cry from his orange get up. But in his back pocket he had an orange fro pick! Just like DJ Lance would have!

I've been going to Channel 101 for some time now. I wonder if I'll see any more celebrities there?

Natto Buta Kimchi Spaghetti

I thought this would be a good idea ... and it was! Natto (fermented soy beans) is not for everybody, mostly because some people think it stinks to high heaven, plus it's slimy. But I like it, and it's super healthy.

I'm pretty sure that natto buta (buta=pork) kimchi is something that you can get at an izakaya. And I've made natto spaghetti carbonara before, so combining pasta with natto buta kimchi didn't seem too far fetched. It's a tasty and relatively healthy pasta dish that you won't find just anywhere, unless you eat at Chez MidnightHunnyRun.

Binagoongan Baboy

Contrary to popular belief, I am not dead.

Okay, I'm not even going to lie and say I know how to pronounce the name of this dish. I know it as pork bagoong (shrimp sauce), which I can pronounce. I know because that's what the guy at the restaurant called it. I am not Filipino, but I eat a lot of Filipino food. Right now I'm on a relatively unhealthy trend of going to either one of two of my favorite Filipino restaurants once a week.

Anyway, one of the places that I go to serves this, and I really, really like it. Not quite as much as lechon kawali, but almost. I was curious about how it's made, so I looked up recipes and it looked easy enough. And it was. Not quite the same as the restaurant's, but good. The key ingredient is the bagoong.

Celebrity Sightings - Kevin Pollack

I was feeling stressed out, so I decided to take in a movie, "21 Jump Street." Imagine my surprise when I saw Kevin Pollack (Todd Hockney in "The Usual Suspects," among many other movie parts) and his young girlfriend (his words, not mine) at the automated ticket kiosk getting tickets. I didn't know what he was watching, and didn't want to bother him while he was on a date. Imagine my surprise again when I take my seat in the theater, and I'm sitting right next to them. Now this is coincidence as the seating at the Century City AMC is assigned, and I did not know what movie they were planning to watch.

Now at this point I only suspected it was him since he looked a little different out of makeup. But when the trailers started to roll and he let out a burst of a laugh, I knew it was him. He really enjoyed the "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" trailer by the way.

Now he was good in "The Usual Suspects," and I enjoyed his cameo in "Wayne's World 2," and his impressions of William Shatner and Christopher Walken are second to none. But the one thing I wanted to comment to him on? That one TV show where he had sex with a robot played by Heather Parkhurst and got his penis stuck inside her. Yeah, so I guess it was good I didn't bother him on his date?

This marks the second celebrity I've seen at the Century City mall. Another time I saw Keanu Reeves. He was tall, but with his stubble and messy hair, he looked just like a regular dude.