Centrino SSD (Part 1)

Transcend 64 GB SSD
SSD (solid state drives) have been dropping in price, but not the PATA/IDE models for older computers. There was a Transcend model a few months ago on New Egg for $195. I thought that was an OK price and waited for it to go down as one of their daily specials. Instead, it got sold out. I put myself on the email alert, knowing I should've pulled the trigger on the purchase. I got the alert just last week and bought it right away.

Sager NP3750
My old laptop from 2003 is a 1.4 Ghz Centrino maxxed out at 1 GB RAM (shared memory architecture w/ 32 MB allocated to VRAM). It was the first widescreen laptop (yes... before Sony or Apple) and also first glossy screen released. Let me start by saying that I only spent this money for my own curiosity and knowledge and don't recommend this upgrade at all. Even if an SSD double my laptop speed, it's not worth $195 for a measly 64 GB. I could've gone with a 500 GB for under $100. But any computer or car enthusiast can vouch for the fact that we spend tons of money for slightest performance upgrade.

Stats
Cold Boot (powering on from the off state up to the logon screen)
1 minute 12 seconds

Windows Start (logon until all startup items have loaded)
1 minute 8 seconds

Photoshop CS (Photoshop startup & plugin load)
20 seconds

Macy's Cellar Bar & Grill

Location: 151 West 34th St., New York, NY 10001
Cuisine: American
Hours: SUN (12pm-6:30pm); MON-SAT (12pm-8:30pm)
Phone: (212) 868-3001
Website: www.patinagroup.com
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

We had a small SCAD CSA (Chinese Student Association) reunion today because Cathy was visiting from her new home in China. It was exactly a year from her last visit. It was also the first time since we were in Savannah, that everyone was able to meet at the same time... me, Lewis & Ning. Usually when Cathy comes, Lewis & I are able to meet with her at the same time.

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Cathy was staying in the Penn Station area, so she showed us a food court are in Macy's basement that none of is locals really knew about. I've only gone into Macy's a handful of times because it's always overcrowded and a hassle to walk around in. The Cellar Bar & Grill is a great find though. It's a nice, comfortable place with good generic American food. It wasn't that crowded, so we ate comfortably without rush.

The food was nothing exciting, but tasted great. Service was pretty good. Lewis' diet is always a challenge, but the waiter was very helpful in getting him the right ingredients. I thought the prices were a bit high, but at least the portions were large. $20/person is a bit on the high side considering none of us ordered drinks and Ella Nio's order was a kid's meal.

Eastern Conference Cousins

This post is a table of contents for Memorial Weekend. As usual, all posts were back-dated to the original dates of occurrence:

- Tea Box Cafe
- MoMA
- Family Dinner
- Cascabel Taqueria

Cascabel Taqueria

Location: 1542 2nd Ave., New York, NY 10028
Cuisine: Mexican
Hours: SUN-THU (11:30am-12:00am); FRI-SAT (11:30am-1:00am)
Phone: (212) 717-7800
Website: www.nyctacos.com
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

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Greg wasn't able to make it on Saturday, but made plans with Jen for today. I was also free, so I met up with them on the Upper East after church. I hadn't seen Greg in just as long a time as Jen. The last time was at Jeremy & Frida's Wedding. Greg had his car there, so he drove us along 2nd Ave. We stopped at a random spot to look for a restaurant on foot. From a distance, I recognized Totonno's, a pretty good pizza place. I had it before in the Lower East. When we headed there to look at the menu, the restaurant next door, Cascabel Taqueria caught our attention. It was a nice day and they had an open space with semi-outdoor seating.

Family Dinner

After lunch, I took Jen & Zhen to MoMA on my Wiley company membership. We didn't have time for the whole museum, so we concentrated on Picasso and some of the installations. We spent about 2 hours there and then Jen & Zhen went to Times Sq. to get Broadway show tickets. I headed back to the apartment to pick up some clothes before heading off to the family dinner in Flushing.

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Cindy & Wil went to and air show in Long Island during the day, so they couldn't meet us for lunch. But most of us were able to meet up for dinner as well. We were all looking forward to playing with the kids.

Tea Box Cafe

Location: 693 5th Ave., New York, NY
Cuisine: Japanese
Hours: MON-SAT (11:45am-5:30pm)
Phone: (800) 753-2038
Website: www.takashimaya-ny.com/cafe.php
Prices: $20/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 6
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

Today was the day I was able to get most of the cousins together for Jen's weekend visit. She had plans to go to MoMA for the afternoon, so I searched for restaurants near there. Tea Box Cafe looked interesting because it was Japanese, but had many items I had never seen before. It was almost like American stlye foods (sandwiches and salads), but with Japanese ingredients. I headed out a little early to look for backups in case it ended up being too crowded or not the right setting for a comfortable sit-in meal. When I got there, I couldn't find the place right away. I didn't write down the address, thinking it would look obvious with just the 5th Ave. & 54th St. intersection. A Japanese cafe should stand out on 5th Ave. After passing the intersection twice, I checked the address on my cellphone and walked into a building lobby. Then I went to the other entrance next to it, which was a furniture store called Takashimaya and they had a sign for Tea Box Cafe on the lower level.

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The food turned out to be as interesting as advertised, but I felt the portions were too small for the price paid. The chicken sandwich I had felt like half a sandwich. The service seemed OK. We had no issues on our table. The food was served quickly and we weren't rushed despite the line at the entrance. I did hear another table complain that their order was too slow though.

The environment was a bit plain, but clean. I think part of the reason for the emptiness is because Takashimaya is closing down and likely taking Tea Box Cafe with it. It's too bad I didn't find out about this place earlier. It's a nice little hidden place to take out of town guests.

No. 1 East Restaurant

Location: 41-27 Main St., Flushing, NY 11355
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 460-8686
Prices: about $13/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 6

Frequency: Common

Mitch, Elvira and family came for a visit today since we haven't seen them in a while... since 2008! Sometimes it's hard to believe so much time has passed because of Facebook updates. We headed over to No. 1 East Restaurant, which is actually the former People's and People that used to be on Prince St. Their lease ran out, so they moved a while back. I'm sure they're happy with the much more trafficked Main St. location.

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Everything is basically the same as the old place except the name of the restaurant got weirder. The food and service are still great. Prices are about the same and the environment is still simple, but clean.

Queens Health Emporium

Location: 15901 Horace Harding Expressway, Flushing, NY 11365
Cuisine: Chinese, Organic
Phone: (718) 358-6500
Website: www.queenshealthemporium.com
Prices: $11/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 4

Frequency: Unique

Queens Health Emporium is actually a supermarket, but they have a built-in food stand and juice bar with limited seating. I went in just to compare prices with what I'm used to in Manhattan and Hoboken now that I'm experienced with organic shopping. For the grocery store itself, the prices are a lot higher for most products. It's surprising that Manhattan beats Queens with prices in the organic category, but I guess there aren't many groceries like this in Flushing. I picked up some apples and Amy's Burritos.

While I was there, I decided to check out the food stand. I've shopped here before, but never ordered food. So I thought I'd give it a shot. They basically have rice dishes where you choose 2-3 veggies along with it and some sandwich choices. I went for something simple... a vegan turkey sandwich. It really didn't look like anything special, but it was full of taste as they stuffed it with lemongrass and carrots. I'm not a big fan of carrots in sandwiches, but the combination they did somehow worked well together.

The service is pretty fast there. You basically place your order. Then you pay at the cashier with the rest of your groceries and then go back to the kitchen where the food is already done. The only negative is they don't seem to have everything on their menu every day. My first choice was actually an "unturkey" burger.

Prices are OK for organic foods. The rice dishes range from $6-7. Sandwiches are $5-6. Juices are about $4.

I didn't give the environment a high rating because it's a weird place to sit down and eat. It's a counter in the middle of a supermarket, so people will be walking around you and there isn't a lot of space.

Bradley's Baptism

Bradley's Baptism was a whole day event. It was scheduled for 1pm, so we already started preparing by shifting our meals in the morning. We had an early breakfast and then a little bit more around 11am. We then headed out around 12pm to arrive just before 1pm.

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The schedule was about the same as it was for Wesley's 3 years ago. The Baptism was at The Church of Edward the Confessor, in Cindy & Wil's neighborhood. It was a short mass with just the gospel and then the priest performed baptism for 3 babies. Things seemed to go by quickly. We were up first, followed by the other 2 families. Bradley didn't make a sound as water was poured over his head 3 times... a lot of water! Then his head was heavily greased. The 2nd kid was the same. The 3rd broke the streak and cried a little.

After the ceremony, we had a late lunch at The Orient, also de ja vu from Wesley's Baptism. It was small banquet style meal with all of the usual dishes. Then we spent the rest of the day at Cindy & Wil's place.

Chicken Charlie

Location: 592a N.S. Amoranto St., Quezon City, Philippines
Cuisine: Filipino, Korean
Hours: SUN-FRI (11am-8:30pm)
Phone: 742 3333

Food: 10

When Ifore was here in October, he studied the Korean fried chicken technique so he could start up his own restaurant in the Philippines. Charlie Chicken (named after his dad, my uncle), opened about 2 weeks ago. Since I'm not over there, I can't give a full review, but I can safely say that the food is a 10 because I've had the chicken the Ifore made while he was in training in NY. He's using the Korean style of frying, but the other dishes in the restaurant are based on Filipino tastes.

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