First Inaugural Old (Stelly) Oakland Bar Hop Challenge

April 17, 2010

Last Saturday, Brent planned and organized an Old Oakland bar hop challenge to take place after UFC112 with our regular fight-watcher friends.

What was the occasion?

Well, the boys just like to drink. But more importantly for ME (heh!), I officially declared a week before to Brent and Norvelle that I was intent on building my tolerance back up. Yes. That’s right. After about three years of not being to handle more than half of a “girly” mixed drink, I wanna get back in on the action! Only some of my friends knew me during the very short time period in college where I actually could hold my own. So, when I passed out on Norvelle’s couch after having 3/4 of a Blue Moon two weeks ago, I don’t blame J for not believing that I ever at any point could take more than 5 shots. I’m a-comin’ back, baby!! (Slowly. Granny pace please.) On that note, thanks for slipping in “Ol Stelly” into the bar hop event name, Brent! This is QUITE the occasion for me!

I can’t recap the bar hop night without mentioning what a whack night the UFC fight was. FIRST of all, Comcast’s server was down or some crap and we couldn’t even watch the first hour of the Pay-per-view event that we already ordered!! (We started to watch MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT SQUID to keep ourselves entertained–10 minutes well-spent, imo thx.) Then… how the eff did the Lightweight belt get passed from BJ Penn to Frankie Edgar?? “50-45!?” is what the guys kept saying. And I won’t even get into the Silva fight. It was the weirdest fight ever for the guys, and it was a great way to deal with it by… bar hopping!

Who attended?

Ben, Sam, Janelle, Eric, Eugenia, J, Greg, Norvelle, Calvin, Brent, and lil ‘Ol Stelly!

What’s the challenge?

5 bars. Have one drink at each stop. You get bonus points for each additional drink you have at one location. That is, at one location, first drink is one point; second drink is two additional points; third drink is three additional points, etc. Person with the most points at the end of the night wins (or loses, depending on how bad it gets)!

Who made it through the hop?

Haaaaaaahhhhh! You will seeeee!!

First Stop: Penelope

http://www.yelp.com/biz/penelope-oakland
Clay St., between 11th and 12th St. (base of the Ask.com building!)

Small bar, which the 11 of us kinda took over. Man and I slip up to the bar and asked our new friend (I looked up his name! It’s Tung!) what we should drink: “Hi. Look, I drink girly drinks. What should I get?” He recommended this suuupppperrr delicious mixed drink that I TOTALLY forgot the name of!

“What’s the occasion,” Tung asks.
“Oh, we’re bar hopping!”
And he said we could have $3 tequila shots for all! (I skipped.) Hurrah!

Hello, from Penelope!

What better way to track our drink/point counts than to mark it on our heads with a pen? The awesome bartender at Penelope even donated a Sharpie to us!

That’s right. Sharpie marks to the head. Were we drunk at this point? Absolutely not. That’s just how we roll.

02-tallymarks

Second Stop: The Trappist!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-trappist-oakland

Oh, our beloved local jewel that everyone knows about now! No Oakland pub night is fulfilled without going to this Oakland favorite! I have to admit, I don’t even really like beer too much anymore, but Trappists’ beers are alwwaayyss very yummy and so different.

Luckily, we got two tables in the back of the bar! Winner! I join the guys up at the front bar and I admit honestly to the bartender, “Hi! I like girly drinks. What do you recommend?” I got the Oud Beersel Framboise, a sour beer that basically tasted like grape/grapefruit juice! Winnnneerrrr! Might as well rack up the points with something good right? I had two! AND I stayed awake!

I think the fun with the sharpie started happening here.. uhohs. We definitely played, bra straps got undone, there were “boats and hoes,” and some of us even joined the PEN FIFTEEN CLUB!!! ZOMG!

03-trappist

Point count at the end of this venue?
Ben: 6
Norvelle: 9?!
Brent: 6
Me: 4

(No clear forehead indications from these ppl — I’m making these up to make my point-count look awesome:)
Eugenia: 2?
Janelle: 1? 2?
Eric: PEN15
J: 2?
Calvin: BOATS N HOES – 3? 4?
Greg: 2? 3?

Third Stop: Pacific Coast Brewing Company

http://www.yelp.com/biz/pacific-coast-brewing-company-oakland

04-pacific-coast

Okay, first of all, why didn’t we come here earlier so we could get some effin’ FRIES before the kitchen closed?! And second, ERIC! Why did you get us all beers?!?!

Is it safe to say that these beers messed. us. up? I drank maybe a quarter and I didn’t want no mo. We sat there and cradled our beers, whining about how we wanted food (taco truck, Nation’s, Sun Hong Kong, chicken and waffles, anything that came to mind), sang our renditions of Lin Yu Chun’s I Will Always Love You. I’m not really sure what happened to the rest of my beer but I definitely didn’t want it anymore.

People that finished their beers at this point?
Greg
Calvin
J
Eugenia (Brent says Eugenia took the rest of his beer before he could finish it–did she finish Norvelle’s too?)

Monster.

Fourth Stop: Levende East

Fourth Stop: Liege

http://www.yelp.com/biz/liege-spirits-lounge-oakland

Why even try at this point? Wait, did I accidentally tell someone that I wanted a drink? Fuck. Screw it, can we just play in the photo booth in the back instead??

06-liege1

07-liege2

08-liege3

09-liege4

At this point, we were all pretty plastered with the exception of the DDs. We probably walked in there SOOO loud–I mean we’re ALREADY loud as is when we’re sober–with no reservations? Teehee! ^_^; Anyway, the guys got drinks, someone got a Sex-on-the-Beach for me that I didn’t remember asking for and had no intention of even tasting. (Sorry whoever bought that! <3)

No mas! No mas!

Did anyone even drink anything here? Greg did… well… he had like three drinks here… more of this to come. I think Calvin finished his drink here? I don’t anyone else was able to finish their stuff or even had anything here.

But yes… that photo booth! Sooo fun! Thank you to the good man that found out how to retrieve our pics from the hidden slot in the machine!

I think we were all at our wits end at this point. On to FOOD!!

Wrapping Up the Night at Sun Hong Kong (New Gold Medal)

Man, we were SO hungry when we got here. I mean… we WERE right? All I know is the waiter came over and I automatically started ordering:

- Beef chow fun
- Yeurng Jow Fried Rice
- Singaporean Vermicelli Noodles
- Fish/Chicken Jook (SUPER HUGE ORDER–my bad guys! ^_^;;)
- Wonton mein
- The crispy fried noodle dish that someone else said
- And Eric added in the Hoi-nan chicken dish

11-grubbin

So we’re all happy la-la-la, eating all our delicious foods and then we notice that Greg’s been in the bathroom for a bit. DUN DUN DUNNNNN Greg had a drink at every venue we went to for the bar hop but *Zoolander-esque David Bowie slap down* DIS-qualified! Very close win!! So.. who actually had a drink at every place? Calvin?? I think so?!??

How did we finish all that food? I mean, when I started eating, I realized I couldn’t really eat much at all. I probably had one sip of the wonton mein soup and like a spoon of the gigantic jook (later to endearingly be named “upside-down jook”), and maybe like two noodles. Ahh well…

In conclusion, I’m very happy to say that we ALL had a SUPER GREAT time at our first Old (Stelly) Bar Hop Challenge! Annnndddd I actually had THREE drinks in one night! In less than a couple of hours! :D I willllll come back! Thanks to Janelle and Greg for all these photos!

Want to see the rest of our ridiculous photos with tallymarks (and other such things) on our heads? Lots more pics here »

Love you all! <3

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2009

Oh so many things to be thankful for.

First off, I have an incredible family. In the last year, I’ve definitely become more appreciative of how my parents have raised me and my brothers. We’re not an easy bunch to raise, but I’m proud to say that they really did raise us well. From the simple gestures of knowing tea pouring etiquette (always pour tea for your elders first and yourself last) to the complex dynamics of being organized, leading a team, and knowing HOW to learn. I’m incredibly grateful for my loving family and everything we’ve been through to get us where we are now.

In the last year, Brent and I moved in together and I 100% consider him as one of my closest family members. I’m SO lucky to have such a supportive, understanding, positive, and loving partner that seriously makes me smile EVERY day! I absolutely love our relationship, and how we have friends come over to our place every weekend! Brent makes the most delicious foods in the world–I’m the luckiest person in the world! And most importantly, he’s down to play the New Super Mario Bros Wii game with me for 5+ hours straight! :DDD

My friends! So many have come and gone through my stages of life and the ones that are always there are … well.. always there! My Oakland crew is the best. Yeah, so some of us are totally grannies and sleep at 10 and wake at 7, and we still do the same things we did 6 years ago (when we can actually stay up that late), but that’s what I love best! We’ve grown a lot but who are we trying to kid? The core of our hearts are truly just a bunch of 5 year olds running around. I <3 it! You guys keep me grounded, always make me laugh, and constantly remind me about how it’s 100% okay to remain kiddish and youthful. It’s the best way to be. :)

I’m SO thankful for having a job right now where I get to do things I LOVE! I’ve been having so much fun designing sites, print items, logos, and more! I’m loving the opportunity to flourish my creativity and putting it to good use. I know I’m incredibly lucky to have this opportunity (especially to commute 10 mins away)! Not many people these days can have both a job and have it be something they actually love to do. Thanks so much, Emily, for bringing me on the team! I also have an incredible team that I work with, and I’ve definitely made great friends in them. But… surprise surprise? I’m totally the boy in the team–I talk to my coworkers’ bfs about videogames regularly. hahah

Finally, thanks to everyone for your love and friendship! Hope y’all have a great weekend! <3

Oh… and…. I’m thankful for… the interwebz~~<3 :O!

September 2009 LOST Party Recap!

September 30, 2009

Alright let’s get straight to business.
I just hosted a LOST-themed party the weekend before September 22nd to commemorate the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, and people came with AMAZING enthusiasm! (Brent and I had a post-party discussion about why it is Embarkers have such great spirit? It can only be explained by our main principle of WORK HARD, PLAY HARD. And maybe because we know we’d all go all in for parties?)

How to Make a Dharma “Namaste New Recruits” Banner
How to Make Oceanic Air Invitations (Boarding Passes and Ticket Jackets)
LOST Party Recap!
Resources
More LOST Party Pics on Picasa

Pre-Party Prep: Dharma “Namaste New Recruits” Banner

Modeled off of this infamous Season 5 banner (SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING: don’t look if you’re not done with Season 5), it only seemed appropriate for me to make one for the party!

This was a 100% DIY poster I made. If you’d like to make one too, this is what I did:

Buy a roll of poster paper from any art store. I used 24in x 25yd roll of Canson bond layout paper. It was a little thin for my preference, but definitely did the job! (~$14)
Banner is 2 ft x 13 ft
Center points of Dharma symbols are about 15 inches from the edges of the poster paper, and halfway down from the top of the paper (at 12in mark)
Dharma circle centers have a 6½in – 6¾in diameter
(I used the top of my rice-jar cover, which worked out PERFECTLY, apparently!!)
From the rim of the circle diameter border, measure out the symbol’s thick-lines that make the surrounding Dharma border lines. Not really sure what to call the lines–image below should make the most sense:
- Space between circle and innermost “thick-line”: 1 inch
- Thickness of each “inner thick-line:” 0.75 inches
- Space between each “inner thick-line:” 0.5 inches
- Space between outmost Dharma symbol border and “inner thick-line:” 1.25 inches
- Thickness of outmost Dharma symbol border: 1 inch
Dharma circle center is at the very bottom. Measure 1 inch up to begin the "inner thick-line" borders that surround the Dharma circle center
Repeat measurement for all other sides of the circle

NOTICE the style of the inner thick-lines change throughout every side of the Dharma symbol!
Trick to measuring the diagonal sets of lines: the center of the set should be at a 45 degree angle from the horizontal line that runs thru the center of the symbol. (Estella used MATH for this?! Let alone a PROTRACTOR?! GASP!!!)
To duplicate the Dharma sign again: you can use some tracing paper + transfer/carbon paper instead of re-measuring another symbol. You can also use this to recreate a few other Dharma signs around the party ;D

Measuring the banner text:

Center of the WHOLE poster is at 6.5ft
Lettering has 3.5 inch margin from top and bottom edges of poster paper
Font-weight (width of each letter’s stroke) is 1 inch thick
Kerning (space between each letter) is about 2 inches. Exceptions: less kerning around round letters (o, c, e) and more for stick-ish letters (i, l)
Leading/line-spacing (space between the row “Namaste” and the row “New Recruits”) is 3 inches
Letter height: 7 inches
Letter width of each letter is about 6 inches. Exceptions: M and W are bigger, measuring 7 inches.

Breakdown of measurements of letters and spacing
NOTE: You may notice that the kerning/letter-spacing is different for the top “NAMASTE” line. That was my bad. ^_^ I prefer using the 2inch kerning as I did for the bottom row of text. :)
Then, hire a minion to paint it all in for you:

<3! Thanks for all your help, Janelle! :D

The result?

Pre-Party Prep: Oceanic Air Invitations

The Boarding Passes

As mentioned in my previous post, Jon Griffith’s site was extremely awesome in posting a boarding pass mock-up for printing! I made a few tweaks to match the Oceanic dates/times, but it served to be a GREAT starting point! Here are some notes for the boarding passes:

Griffith’s original boarding pass printed out (for me?) as a 11 x 4.6 inch boarding pass, which is way too big, compared to actual boarding passes. To print smaller, changed the size of the boarding pass images to 500 x 208 pixels (6.94 x 2.89 in). (Actually, the size I altered mine to is slightly too small, for those that care!)
Print them out on 65lb. (or heavier) cardstock paper. You can copy/paste multiple boarding pass images onto one 8.5 x 11in canvas in Photoshop so you can print three at a time.
Use a corner rounder to punch out the corners of the boarding passes! :D You can get a round corner punch at Michael’s or any other craft store.
Round-cornered OA815 boarding passes!

Oceanic Airlines Ticket Jacket

Gotta go all the way, right? (Guys? … Guys?????)

I spent some time studying this image of Claire’s Oceanic ticket, staring at the ticket jacket in the background.

But then I stumbled upon Catchpenny’s LOST party photos, where one of their friends (a graphic designer) had created their own Oceanic ticket jackets! AH-HAH! This is TOTALLY doable! So I got to workin’!

Not much time left before the party, I threw together a few of the Oceanic logos, and trial-errored with a few print outs. Here’s what I came up with:

DOWNLOAD the Oceanic Air Ticket Jacket (PDF). Feel free to use! Please link back to this post--thx! :)

Folding the Oceanic Ticket Jacket
Here’s how the Oceanic ticket jacket looks. I’ll walkthru how to fold, cut, and paste the way I did it!

The Ticket Jacket is a trifold of a standard 8.5x11in paper. Flap A has the small Oceanic logo at the bottom center. Flap B has the large words of "Oceanic Airlines." And Flap C is the plain blue, inner envelope flap of the jacket.

Position the paper in front of you so that the underside/white side of the paper is facing up, and so that the white underside of Flap A (with tiny Oceanic logo) is on your right side.
From the left side of the paper (which is the white underside of Flap C), measure 3.25 inches towards the center of the paper. This is where you will fold Flap C over, towards the center. This will create the inner envelope of the jacket! :)
Take the right side of the paper (Flap A) and fold it over, towards the center and over the previously-folded Flap C. Tah-dah! Half way there! :D
Open up the envelope and cut between the top Flap C and B borders so you can stylize the inner jacket fold however you’d like~ I cut 3 inches from the top, and just did a diagonal cut. Then, I just rounded off that diagonal cut corner with scissors.
Next, glue the bottoms of Flap C and B together. This will create the envelope for your ticket jacket! :)
Tah-dah! Oceanic 815 boarding pass ticket holder! :D Happy crashing!

Puh-puh-puh-PARTY TIME!

Much to my surprise, everyone went ALL. OUT. for the party! It made me sooo happy and proud!

Most memorable moments:

Norvelle coming over at 11PM the night before, cutting up labels until 3AM(!!!)
Shultsy came as Dr. Jack! I’ve missed my sugar-parent-husband!! <3
Craig’s MR. CLUCK’S CHICKEN was put together so well! Even matching bowl colors! (Plus Janelle’s waffles to go with the chicken! mmmm!)
The ever-original Christine came as BAD ROBOT! What a GREAT choice, knowing that no one else would come dressed as… that? it? ze??!
An AWESOME Custom LOST Orientation Video by Brent!
Little Walt. (No. You cannot have any of our tampered, generic-looking Dharma soda at our cultish-looking party without your parent’s consent.)
I guess the trivia crossword was kinda hard huh??
Grant as Dr. Artz: “Do you KNOW what happens to nitro glycerin when it’s been sitting in the sun?! You have to be CAREFUL! *whips off scarf*” lololol
Gilbert’s stupid costume-winning streak: “End of Season 3 Jack”
Savina’s uber delicious BOAR stew!
Glow-in-the-dark LOCKDOWN painting–oops… how many ppl did I scare with this? Don’t worry. Me and Norvelle saw something totally creepy before I finished the painting. Not talking about it…. (Forgot to take a pic of it on the back of our bathroom’s sliding door :( Did anyone get a snapshot of this in action?? :D)
Sofa turned First Class seats! Complete with oxygen masks, little vodka bottles, airplane seatbelts, airplane snacks, pillows and blankets! I tried to get airplane seats… couldn’t get em… hahhah (Thanks, dad! hahahah)
The GREAT company of friends, old and new!

Yay! THANKS for such an awesome LOST Party, everyone, and for celebrating with me!! Don’t forget to enroll at LOSTUniversity! Only THREE more months until the last season of LOST. We’re almost there!

Resources

Here are the sites I used and reference to bring all these ideas together! THANKS so much for posting your party pics, ideas, and creations to inspire the success of mine! :D

Oceanic Boarding Passes – http://www.jongriffith.com/boardingpass/
Oceanic Ticket Jacket ideas – http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=lost&w=89714698@N00. These Flickr pics helped me a lot in creating my ticket jackets! Click here to download my ticket jacket PDF (Please link back to this post! ^_^).
The motherload site for ALL your Dharma label needs (no exaggeration) – http://maxpictures.com/weblog/2007/04/10/lost-labels-for-your-dharma-initiative-needs/
Hatch countdown timer for your computer – http://www.cagriaksay.com/?p=19 More can be found here: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Fan-made_countdown_timers
Squidoo.com – Hosting a LOST/DHARMA Party
KungFoodie.com – Love is a Lost Fish Biscuit Cookie (Instructions and Recipe for making Fish Biscuits!)
Neatorama.com - 15 Details to Help You Throw a LOST Party
Dharma fonts: http://www.dafont.com/lost-font.font and http://www.dafont.com/dharma-initiative-logos.fontseafood
JonGriffith.com – How to Throw a LOST TV Show Theme Party
Fun-Theme-Party-Ideas.com – ABC Lost Party Theme
And SUPER special thanks to Brent, Janelle, Jo, Craig, Norvelle, and Damian for all your help with the party! It wouldn’t have been so fun and successful without all of your help! <3

Na.ma.ste!

MORE PARTY PICS ON PICASA – Feel free to comment and “Like” the photos! ^_^

September 22 LOST Party! (Prep)

August 22, 2009

Next month is September, which means one thing: time to celebrate the plane crash date of Flight 815!

Oh, what?
Sept 22 is on a Tuesday!?! Damnit!
Bleh… okay fine, we’ll have it on Sept 19 since it’s the Saturday before the 22nd -_- *mutter mutter mutter*

Anyway, I’m planning a LOST party and I wanted to share my resources and finds with everyone!

Why a LOST party? Well, especially since it’s LOST’s last season in 2010, I’m taking extensive measures to fully take on the LOST experience to the max! I love the show, how it’s educated me on a lot of topics, and how it’s the first tv show to make me THINK on a completely new level.

Last year, Brent and I went on an all-out LOST tour on Oahu, driving around to the various spots where they’ve filmed the show. This year, we’re hosting an all-out LOST-themed party!

Also, I think it’ll be nice to celebrate LOST while we’re patiently waiting for its return in 2010. Gotta keep ourselves busy and entertained!

Continue reading →

Craisin.com

Creative Mumbo-Jumbo by Estella Tse

Category Archives: Events