Walking Tall in Pratunam

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Yesterday I made the mistake of waking up at 6:30AM. I decided to go for a 30-minute walk while Noot was still sleeping. That turned into a 90-minute walk after I got lost. I just wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and got distracted by too many things. Ha!

After I got back, Noot and I had breakfast. Then we went to look for her dress, which turned into three more hours of walking. My feet were so dead. We didn’t end up finding anything she liked, which was a bummer, but she walked away with flip-flops, some nice slacks, a cute skirt, and a button-down for all of $20 USD.

Pratunam is a pretty neat area. It’s a garment district of sorts, with a few large malls and tons of outdoor markets. The amount of outdoor clothing stands is really overwhelming. There are lots of places for both farangs and Thais.

I discovered my new favorite soda: Melon Sherbet Mirinda! It’s frickin’ awesome.

Chatting, Lounging, Munching in NRT

Heaven

“I’ve been waiting for so long,

For something to arrive.”

So I’m finally picking up Noot! It’s not really setting in yet. It just feels like I’ve been waiting for a long time for her visa to clear, delay after delay. Right now I feel excited to see her, but it doesn’t feel real, that she’s coming back with me and all.

I feel grateful to so many people that have helped me make it to this point — Rannie, Kit, Ted, Kenny, Zoe, Andy, and Tony. I’m sure there are lots more I’m forgetting.

I Miss My GBS

So I downloaded and installed Firefox 3. It’s a great product and I want to support the open-source effort. It’s certainly snappier than the previous version — the javascript performance is noticable right away — but there’s one major disappointment: no Google Browser Sync. The company is no longer supporting the product. GBS was, by far, my favorite Firefox add-on. It’s nice that it backed up my bookmarks, passwords, cookies, etc., but the one feature I loved was that it saved open tabs. So whenever I closed Firefox it would save all the tabs I had open. Next time I started the program, it launched the tabs I had open. I always start off with the same four tabs (two email accounts, boxing forums, and Pokemon forums). Having to manually type them in is a real drag and I sorely miss GBS. Hopefully a suitable replacement comes along soon.

This is the first time I’ve ever been pissed at Google.

Hulk Smash!!!

Kenny and I caught The Incredible Hulk. As I expected, it wasn’t nearly as good as Iron Man. Ed Norton and the director were lobbying for another 30 minutes. To me, the movie definitely needed it. There’s barely any story or character development. In the comics, Banner is a pretty tragic figure, but in the movie, the audience isn’t given enough time to grow attached to him. The plot is just too thin and the focus is all on the action, in a typical summer-blockbuster way. I understand why Marvel wanted the footage cut, but I would have enjoyed the movie more if it had more meat.

Also, Liv Tyler — as amazingly gorgeous as she is — is totally unbelievable as a scientist. It was almost as bad as Denise Richards being a nuclear physicist in that Bond movie.

On the plus side, I like how Marvel is progressing towards an Avengers movie. It’s about time all these superhero movies were made in a cohesive way. It also helps support the upcoming Thor and Captain America movies. Cap should do okay, but Thor needs some help…which is ironic since he’s an Asgardian god.

Go Yankees!!!

My darling daughter took me to the Yankee game. It was a gorgeous night for baseball and the Yankees won! That’s pretty much perfect right there. Wang pitched really well (first time I’ve seen him pitch live), Cabrera hit a homer, and Mo closed out the game. It kind of weirds me out that I’ve been watching Rivera pitch for more than a decade. He’s still a great closer, but he’s getting old. Any day now it’ll just leave him. Anyway, it was a lovely night. I rarely go out anymore, so this was an excellent change of pace.

My Barong Adventure

Today was my big fat barong adventure. I took the bus to the BART and met Kenny in El Cerrito. We headed up to Vallejo to a Filipino strip mall. Since we were there, we ate at Max’s — I figured we might as well keep the Filipino theme going. I was quickly reminded that Max’s is pretty mediocre. There wasn’t anything wrong with it…it’s just kind of meh.

After lunch we checked out Barong & Formal. As expected, the prices were higher than the online stores I saw. Jusi barongs started at $110 and pina barongs started at $270. There was a $20 charge for custom orders. The lady at the store said it was a $10 charge to rush the order. She claimed that barongs took three months to make, but she’d make sure to rush the order for me for the additional fee. This felt a bit scam-ish since the online stores said five to six weeks was the usual turnaround time. I mainly went to check out the difference between ramie, jusi, and pina fabrics. The high(er) price and the possible $10 scam convinced me not to buy from her.

After Kenny dropped me off at BART (big, big thanks to Kenny for helping me!), I decided to use MS Live Search on my phone to look for a Men’s Warehouse to get measurements done. Luckily, there was one on Market, right by the Montgomery BART station. The salesmen were kind of pushy and chintzy, so I quickly left. Using (the surprisingly useful and effective) MS Live Search again, I found a tailor across the street. This was much better…

Sustainable Fashion

I try to eat organic foods when they are affordable (fruits, veggies, coffee, tea, and meat) so that I can help out the planet in a small way. Some time in the last year — I don’t recall exactly when — I bought these organic t-shirts from American Apparel. They’re comfy and neat — definitely among my favorite t-shirts in the current rotation. Today I was surprised to learn that sustainable clothing is growing rapidly and is expected to be a three-billion dollar industry by the end of this year.

It’s nice to see some well-known companies getting into the act (yes I know they’re still profiting, but it’s good for consumers to have these options). Recently, I purchased some Teva Estios, which are made from recycled canvas and rubber. At the time they were $15. Now they’re sold out, so hopefully some bargain hunters will be turned onto green clothing. I was surprised to see Affliction offering two shirts made from bamboo blends. Affliction is super trendy right now, especially to boxing and MMA fans. I hope a major boxer or MMA fighter starts a bamboo line with Affliction just to get the messaging out to a broader audience. Anyway, it’s pretty cool that companies like Teva and Affliction are offering green/sustainable clothing.

Holy Shirt

I have to find a barong for obvious purposes. I haven’t worn one of these in years, but it’s important to my family and me that I wear one for my wedding. There used to be a shop in Daly City that sold them, but it closed. There’s one in Vallejo…but it’s in Vallejo. So it looks like I’m just going to have get new measurements and trust some online vendors. I found two that I kind of like so far — this one and this one.

Anyway, let me know if you have an opinion on either one of those barongs. The first one isn’t very traditional, but I like that it blends Filipino and Chinese culture. The second one is more tradition, except for the Mandarin collar.

Hmmmm, I wonder if I could get one tailored in Thailand for cheap. Maybe I should go to Vallejo to see what it costs at a b&m shop. I’m getting a barong-induced headache.

Edit: I found the site for the shop in Vallejo. They should be able to make me one that’s close to what I want. Some of the barongs on their site are a bit terrifying.