It was so nice hanging out with Susy back in Astoria. 

Catching up over lunch on a beautiful day was great.

Aspire.

Last night, I had a large amount of pasta and carbs for dinner. And while I'm not certain it was from eating so much of it in a long time, damn, I sure had such a nice, deep sleep.

"One lonely star,
You don't know who you are."

From the song Take A Bow by Madonna.

"I try,
I try,
I try, 
You know I try."

From the song I Try by Talib Kweli ft Mary J. Blige.

"You'll always be my sisters---always."

Said by the character Dorothy in the sitcom, The Golden Girls. Season 7, Series Finale.

Walking in NYC makes me feel sane.

Ponder.

I just want to live a quiet and simple life.

Focus.

...

Optimistic but realistic.

Hot yoga by Union Sqare and then a cup of cold apple cider at the park's green market.

It's a beautiful Friday afternoon.

I believe.

"African hunting dogs---they're one of the world's most efficient predators....their secret, is teamwork."

From the television program Planet Earth: Extreme Predators on BBC America.

Welcome.

Mmm, cheese...

NYC is truly the best.

나 몰아 ㅎㅎㅎ.

It's such a beautiful Tuesday here in NYC.

Enjoy your day.

I decided to stay in today at my friend Judy's place in Brooklyn.

It's funny because she actually also lives on Biggie's old block, and Lil' Kim was just on the street to film something.

Ahhh, Lil' (mother effin') Kim!!!

:)

"Triumph is nothing if it doesn't come from tragedy."

From the song Supreme by Angel Haze.

Discretion.

I'm proud to be from Flushing, Queens. 

Going back today after a while was nice, and I was able to see some of the changes that have happened since my last visit, and even my childhood. 

But one good thing that hasn't changed since the last time I had been there are the prices of the Peking duck buns at this one place. Can you believe these delicious miracles are still only $1 each?

I'm really happy for you.

A quality moment can be made at any time.

Even at 30 years old, I've never owned a suit in my life.

The weather today was so perfect. There was a cool breeze in the shade and it felt good to be in the sun. 

At one point I had to get from the Upper East Side to the Upper West Side, so I decided to walk through Central Park. From there, I helped my friend Grace bring her new statue purchases back to her apartment in Fort Greene. 

It was nice to finally meet her and Adrian's new dog Izzy as well---welcome to the family! 

Having access to NY1 is every New Yorker's God-given right!

Sometimes, panicking about life at 2 in the morning is okay...

Picking up the pieces to everything once again feels daunting, but really exciting at the same time.

I will never give up.

Courage.

"Do you always fold a New York slice in all its oily glory? Is a whole lobster best relished in this order: legs, claw then succulent tail? Do you eat Oreos middle first? Or dunked in milk?

Far from being mere quirks of personality, rituals like these may actually enhance how much people savor what they eat or drink, new research shows. Flavor is intensified. The meal is enjoyed more. It may be one reason why birthday cake is savored more than the stumbled-upon 4 p.m. brownie, because of the singing and candle blowing that precedes it.

The researchers found that even simple rituals, which they defined as 'a series of behaviors that are seemingly irrelevant to the act that follows,' like scraping wooden chopsticks together or tapping a soda can before pulling the tab, raised participants' interest in what they subsequently ate or drank. And rituals appeared capable of enhancing the enjoyment not just of treats like chocolate or lemonade bit even baby carrots."

From the August 9, 2012 New York Times article, Rituals Make Our Food More Flavorful, by Catherine Saint Louis.

Intelligence is sexy.

Virtue.

Sometimes, greasy NYC Chinese takeout just really hits the spot.

My sister and brother-in-law have returned from their business trip, so I'm finally back in the city for good.

It was another great weekend here, and spending the entire day of Sunday with a picnic at Prospect Park again was such a nice way to end it. 

Tears represent life.

Racism = Ignorance.

Homophobia = Ignorance.

Xenophobia = Ignorance.

For anyone still living with these mindsets in 2013, I pity your miserable life.

Was the Internet created for insomniacs?

Dream big, because it pushes you to work harder.

Nothing is impossible.

Hey.

Sometimes, I really miss Bangkok's food scene and just grabbing a refreshing Singha on a hot day.

Here are some photos from Thailand that I never posted.

Ahhh, Thailand.

 

I love words.

"There was a time where I would've quit and clocked out,
You could've stopped me back then, bitch,
But not now."

From the song Supreme by Angel Haze.

There are too many ways for people to communicate nowadays, and it feels like relationships and conversations just become too diluted.

Sometimes when I see something with a great title, I really wish I had thought of it first!

"New York is regarded as a gay-friendly city in a state that has legalized gay marriage, but this Op-Doc video shows that it can still be dangerous for a same-sex couple to walk down the street holding hands.

On May 5, 2013, a young couple was attacked outside Madison Square Garden in broad daylight. Nick Porto and Kevin Atkins were walking hand in hand when a group of several men, clad in Knicks jerseys, called them 'faggots' and pushed them to the ground, beating them to the point of a torn ligament and a broken nose...

They illustrate a sad statistic. According to the New York Police Department, there were already 29 reported antigay hate crimes in New York City by late May, an increase of 70 percent compared with the same period in 2012 (even as hate crimes over all went down nearly 30 percent). The real number may be higher, as many attacks are not reported."

From the August 7, 2013, New York Times article, An Attack on Equality, by Alison Klayman.

This makes me sick to my stomach.

"자기 신발 끝내주는대
자기 돈 좀 많나봐
자기 스타일 진짜 멋있다
백만장자 소년들의 모임."

From the song BBC by Jay-Z.

As a gay man in living in these current times, life feels hopeful...

Where's the emotion behind it?

Without it, there's no foundation.

"It was quiet in Balducci's, with only the sounds of cash registers pinging and a few shoppers chatting as they hunched over coffee and croissants. But Talley's voice, with its Pavarotti-like range and unique timbre, rang out at times like a bugle, the kind once used to command soldiers to charge on the battlefield---though Talley tends to use his instrument to tell women what to wear."

From the article, The Eyeful Power, by Vanessa Grigoriadis in the September issue of Vanity Fair.

It was a beautiful day this past Sunday for a nice picnic at Prospect Park. 

Walking there from my friend's apartment helped me sweat out all that I had imbibed the night before as well. Too bad I wasn't able to stay long because I had to catch a NJ Transit bus from Port Authority to get back to my sister's. 

Ahh, you got to love NYC summers.

"난 나쁜 기집애,
난 나쁜 기집애,
난 나쁜 기집애,
---where all my bad girls at?"

From the song 나쁜 기집애 by CL.

HAHAH.

I just can't live anywhere where there's no energy in the streets.

"Who wants that perfect love story anyway?
Anyway...
Cliche, cliche, cliche, cliche..."

From the song Part II (On The Run) by Jay-Z.

답답해.

Art.

Substance.

"Life is a beautiful struggle,
People search through the rubble for a suitable hustle."

From the song I Try by Talib Kweli.

Today, I think of you, Anne.

Dance.

"The United States will treat the visa applications of same-sex married couples in the same manner as opposite-sex spouses, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday, announcing a policy change set in motion in June, after the Supreme Court struck down a law against same-sex marriage.

The policy change, which will take effect immediately, will apply to American citizens as well as foreign same-sex couples, dependent only on a marriage's having taken place in a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage."

From the August 2, 2013 New York Times article, New U.S. Policy Gives Equal Treatment to Same-Sex Spouses' Visa Applications, by Michael R. Gordon.

Hanging out one-on-one or with a few others > Group settings.

It is so beautiful outside today.

"Beyonce, shaking the epaulets on her shoulders and flipping her hair, was taking power not for herself but for her entire gender."

From the August 1, 2013 New York Times article, Enough Resilience to Fill an Arena, by Jon Pareles.

What a great sentence.

"Sometimes it hurts like hell,
but I walk away with a song and a story to tell,
and this is the life I know."

From the song Life I Know by India Arie.

"And every time your lips meet mine,
Darling, 
Down and down I go,
Round and round I go."

From the song That Old Black Magic by Ella Fitzgerald.