Well, there goes the one-blog-post-a-day thing! I kind of felt like that was a bit spammy, though So I guess I should change that to a one-blog-post-a-week thing, instead!

Much has happened since my last update:

• I completed my vegetarianism, without too much difficulty toward the end. I even continued editing myself, out of habit. Heck, I still don’t feel like I really need to eat meat (much to the chagrin of my friends), but I’ll do what I do!
• I went to Las Vegas during the last weekend of February to celebrate a friend’s birthday!
• I played a lot of board games the weekend before that!
• I started preparing a (new) character for D&D 4E with my friends!
• I finished school today! Turned in my final project and had my portfolio critiqued by my peers!

And I ate a little too well, throughout it all. Easing back into eating meat has been an interesting experience; it started out very strangely (I couldn’t believe I was eating meat! It seemed wrong!), and then I got used to it, again. But the fact that I got used to it tells me that it’s something that I could easily negate in my diet. But, I did rather miss bacon + sushi (Long parenthetical aside ahead: So I’ve been having some moral issue with sushi, especially in light of the recent whale meat incident with that restaurant in Santa Monica. It’s not so much the idea of not knowing whether or not a restaurant I’m currently patronizing is serving whale meat, though, so much as it is the simple fact that fishing contributes so much environmental damage. Restaurants definitely don’t have to disclose where their fish come from, and the supposedly very best Japanese restaurants have their fish imported specifically from Tsukiji Fish Market in Japan, once a week or more–an incredible amount of carbon footprint to cover. Where is the comfort in eating sushi when you know that not only is the fishing methods for it harmful for the ocean and its ecosystems, but also the fact that many of the beloved sushi meats have trace levels of mercury that could be unhealthy if consumed frequently? I guess it’s all in the end product: how damn good sushi is! I haven’t really fully developed my feelings/stance toward the subject, but for now, I suppose I will be eating such things in moderation. By moderation, I mean once or twice a month )

Anyway, more updates will come, as I am (a little bit) freer to do so this week

On Superbowl Sunday, my roommate , her friend, Justin and I wanted to go somewhere to watch the Superbowl, especially since her friend was out of town. After doing a bit of research (we are, after all, still LA newbies), we decided to visit Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. It has since become one of my favorite places to go to in LA (even though Santa Monica is not technically in LA, but that’s a minor detail )

Pictures abundant, along with details, underneath the cut

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… is a red velvet cupcake and a cup of Vietnamese coffee for breakfast!

One of my greatest joys in life is a perfectly brewed cup of Joe–the excitement I feel when I take the first sip, at a new place, where I have no preconceived notions of it will taste or what I should expect. Sometimes, I am sorely disappointed after that first sip, and other times, I am indifferent. And fortunately, sometimes, I am quite simply happy. I’m not a coffee connoisseur by any means–I definitely don’t know enough to be one–but I think I can at least appreciate the flavor and aroma of coffee. I can tell when a cuppa has personality, and when it falls quite flat, like a bad cliché. With that said, a friend and I decided to get coffee after a rainy brunch, one day, and decided to stop by Intelligentsia Coffeebar on Abbot Kinney in Venice.

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I have a professed love for Nijiya. I prefer it over Mitsuwa, if only because it seems like a much smaller operation and is run by friendlier, tighter-knit group of employees. I have only been to the Sawtelle (Los Angeles) and Mountain View locations, but I have been pleased with both (and!! The Sawtelle location closes at midnight. Perfect for late-night snack runs!). Although Mitsuwa has better “deli” food (a.k.a. Food Courts), it sometimes feel too supermarket-y, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I delight in finding the most random things and trying out new snacks and food whenever I make a Nijiya run. The Mountain View location is right by my work, so it’s definitely not an inconvenience, and if anything, it’s a nice break from my (albeit very colorful) cubicle.

On one of these Nijiya runs, I was hurriedly going through the aisles to find something, and my eyes met this:

Instant pasta?! At 307 calories a serving? I’m down!

Review of the product, complete with pictures, underneath the cut

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