The Killing Moon, originally uploaded by 4L4N M4K.

Our first restaurant experience in Aruba was at La Trattoria El Faro Blanco next to the California Lighthouse (pictured above). Located on an elevated hill on the northern most tip of Aruba, this Italian restaurant is famous for its wide and expansive views of basically all of Aruba. The main outdoor seating is situated on the western side, offering unobstructed views of the lovely Aruba sunset - This linked image was shot from the outdoor terrace of the restaurant.

While the sunsets are indeed spectacular - with beautiful colors and big lofty clouds that cover the sky, I do have to comment that the overall views and the whole California Lighthouse experience were rather underwhelming. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that Aruba really isn't that beautiful - the overall terrain of Aruba is like Mars (sans the vegetation) - its a bunch of rocks and dirt with a couple of cacti thrown in.

The highlight of my meal was my entrée - a grilled veal chop. I say this for two reasons: 1) because it really was very good and 2) because the starter sucked.

Our starter was a mixed seafood and vegetable dish with an olive oil and lemon juice marinade (Frutti Di Mare Alla Luciana). While it wasn't disgusting, it really was not very good. The octopus and squid were fishy - likely canned - and the sauce overall was pretty bland and lacked the crisp freshness that I expected. The fried zucchini slices that were in this dish were oil soaked and soggy - it was like eating mini sponges of oil that oozed grease when you bit into them - no, I am not trying to be funny...that is how they were. There were also some mushrooms that were clearly taken out of a can. I was expecting something light and fresh tasting - sort of like a ceviche mixed with some lightly marinated fresh vegetables - I was wrong.

All this negative was redeemed though. My veal chop arrived. The chop was well prepared, tender and cooked to just the right temperature - medium rare. Ever since our wedding, I've been on a major veal chop kick - don't ask why; because I have no idea why - perhaps it is because of its mild taste, soft texture and nice amount of fattiness makes for a nice juicy cut of meat that tastes really amazing to me these days. The overall preparation was simple - nicely grilled with a tasty mushroom jus without any excess pizzaz that masked the delicate flavor of the chop.

Liz had the pasta primavera. A unique version of this I must say. Rather than being light like many primaveras, this sauce looked heavy and rich. I can't speak to the taste of it as I didn't try it.

Frommer's gives this restaurant no stars. Either this means that they thought it stunk or they are just indifferent. I'll just give them kudos for a nicely prepared veal chop and the funny cat that came to sit by our table.

Overall, our dinner was a pretty-good experience. Notwithstanding that, I must mention that the experience in total was over-rated as this restaurant is highly lauded by visitors and locals alike. While the sunsets are nice, they tend to color your thought and make you believe that the food at this restaurant is better than it really is.

The other major positive about this restaurant was their normal portion sizes. Unlike the rest of Aruba, La Trattoria El Faro Blanco serves normal human portion sizes and not the Hungry Man, fat American sized meals.

While this review seems negative, I should qualify it by stating that we went out for dinner at three different restaurants and none really stood head and shoulders above any of the others. The reality is that Aruba really is not a haven for foodies. Of the places we visited (La Trattoria El Faro Blanco, Madame Julianne, and El Gaucho), they were all pretty average. Don't expect anything really "fine" here.

Oh, and for those that care, this restaurant was a $10 cab ride from the high rise hotels area.

WHAT WE ATE

Starter:
- Frutti Di Mare Alla Luciana (Marinated Seafood and Vegetables)

Main:
- Me: Lombata Di Vitello Alla Piemontese (Grilled Veal Chop) - cooked medium rare - exactly as ordered (I will start to mention this for meats as too often I have had restaurants make my medium rare into a medium well)
- Liz: Linguine Primavera (Linguini With Mixed Vegetables in a Tomato Sauce)

I just discovered an awesome new feature today on JAJAH, an awesome VOIP service that I use to make international calls. They added local telephone number mapping to your international numbers so you no longer have to initiate your calls via your computer - sort of like a local number alias for your international numbers. What this all means is that unlike Skype or the other VOIP services out there, you can call your international numbers straight from any of your JAJAH registered telephones.

As of today, all my international numbers that I would call via JAJAH and initiate through their website, I have now programed into my mobile so that I can call directly via my mobile. Bye-Bye to calling through their website...and Bye-Bye to waiting for Skype to add something similar.

This my friends is a killer feature!

Is the service free - NO, it's not, but for the convenience I think the 3.3 cents to China seems pretty worth it. The one downside though is that they start putting you on the clock once the phone starts ringing and not after the call is actually connected.

I went out to dinner last night at Bar Stuzzichini with Sarah and Liz.

The food was generally good. My pasta - Orecchiette e Cavolfiore was a nice and different take on a typical pasta dish. Gone was the typical tomato based sauce with some meat added in and in was a light feeling yet rich tasting sauce with Cauliflower. Cauliflower = awesomeness (said in the voice of Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson).

I've got to say though, that I was generally underwhelmed by our appetizers. I think we just ordered totally wrong though because the couple at the table right next to us got the tapas style appetizers too, but their spread was WAY better. They got this big plate of prosciutto and a giant bowl of clams in addition to the fried risotto balls that we also ordered. Us - we got a small plate with one teeny octopus tentacle, three little rolled eggplant pieces, and four pieces of grilled zucchini that just wasn't that satisfying.

Would I go back again? YES, but only to redo my appetizer order to try to reduce my cost basis from my dinner last night. You know, to average out my sucky ordering from last night with some better ordering like the table next to us. And I'd probably switch up my entrée just for kicks.

WHAT WE ATE
Starters:
- Zucchine alla Scapece (Grilled Zucchini)
- Polpo (Grilled Marinated Octopus)
- Arancini (Fried Risotto cooked in a Chicken Broth reduction)
- Involtini (Eggplant stuffed with Ricotta)
- Carciofi (Fried Artichoke)

Main:
- Me: Orecchiette e Cavolfiore (Ear shaped pasta in a Cauliflower sauce with Breadcrumbs)
- Liz: Gnocchi all’Amatriciana (Potato dumplings in a light tomato and meat sauce)
- Sarah: Parmigiana di Melanzane (Eggplant with Tomato and Peccorino)

I just got a new external hard drive and the thing screams sweetness all over. I finally broke down and decided to spring for this tiny portable drive. It is a 250 gig Western Digital Passport and is so nice and small. The best part about it - no power brick!

While I have a larger external Western Digital My Book, I was finding that due to its large form factor and big power brick, I was not bringing it back and forth from my home and office to back up my data.

Right now, in order to have redundancy and overall general safety with my data, I back up my important data both at the office and at home. This not only protects my data against a hard drive failure - since I am backing up on 3 drives, but since my data is being backed up in two locations, I am also protecting my data against fire, water damage, hardware theft, etc.

Unfortunately, just the other day, I had a hard drive fail. This drive was not one of my primary drives and was more of a general back up drive for various older data. Since this was a rarely used drive, I never did have a full back up of its data...AND, since it was a rarely used drive and I have not looked at it in months, I don't even remember what was on it and what I lost...THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO BACK STUFF UP. I was dumb.

At this point, I am testing out a new back up procedure to see how it works out. I've decided to use the new SyncToy 2.0 from the Microsoft PowerToys series to do my data synchronization. I previously used the 1.0 version, but found it a bit limiting since it wasn't smart enough to realize that when you use an external back up device the drive letters do not always stay the same and hence, your folder pairs don't stay together and your backup routine becomes a chore. As we all know, if your backup routine is hard, you simple are not going to do it!

The main data that I back up is all my photographs. Currently I have about 80 gigs worth of photos - RAW files, original JPGs, edited Photoshop files, etc. I've organized my data by year and then I have sub-folders within those year folders to organize by date/event. I've set up each year's folder as separate folder pairs within SyncToys initially just to get a clean sync of all my data and then later on, I'll set it up to just sync the whole drives.

My brother Brian just started a new blog where he discusses his travels. He just got back from an awesome trip to Brazil where he did all sorts of fun things and took pictures of horses taking big pisses. Go check out his blog: traveltheworldwithme.blogspot.com.

Over the next few weeks he'll be posting up a nice day by day log of his recent Brazil trip as well as details about his other recent trips to Dominican Republic, Italy, etc.

This coming March we are going to China together to spend some time in the Xinjiang province. Specifically, we are going to check out one of the world's oldest and largest markets in Kashgar. This is going to be a really awesome trip and I'll be sure to take tons of pictures.

People have asked me about the URL for this blog - What is 1215AM? To put it quite simply, 12.15 is my birthday and it also is the time of the day that when most people are sleeping, I am still awake. So in a sense, it has dual significance.

Sometimes I am working, sending emails to China, customers, etc...and sometimes I am just browsing the Net or editing my photographs.

One of the tough things about the line of work that I am in (really, the fashion industry is not nearly as glamorous as people think it is), is that I am communicating with people literally ALL the time. Each night before going to bed, I always check and respond to emails as our factories in China are hitting their mid-day stride and if I were to wait, a day goes wasted. I also need to catch our suppliers in Italy as they will be arriving into their offices shortly and we all know the Europeans - give them a reason to be late or to dilly-dally, and they will. Not a knock against the Europeans, but that is just the way they are. They aren't like the Americans where we live and die by our jobs. Perhaps this is the better way; I don't know. Unfortunately I do not know any different.

In the future, I hope to post a lot more on this blog and write about my work, and of course as the title of this blog says - The Things I Like.

Lighthouse, originally uploaded by 4L4N M4K.

I went out to East Hampton again this past weekend. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly this weekend so we didn't make it out to the beach. I really wish I did though since when I was in the elevator this evening I noticed how different I look now that I am tan - in a good way. All I know is that I tend to lose my tan coloration relatively rapidly, so I need to make it a point to bake a bit more before the summer is over. Hopefully the weather is nice during the Labor Day weekend since we'll be heading out to East Hampton again.

While we didn't go to the beach, we did actually go out to Montauk. When I was a kid we used to go to Montauk all the time...Really fun times - beach, seafood, and relaxation. I kept on talking about the cat and the black lab in Montauk that I used to play with while I was a kid. I remembered all the fun times playing with that stripped cat at Gosman's Dock!

While in Montauk we had the pleasure of going to Gosman's for a quick snack at the Topsiders Cafe. I never really noticed this place when I was younger - maybe it didn't exist. When I was a kid we'd always go to the lower level where the big benches and picnic tables were. I'm so glad that we went here for our afternoon snack after visiting the harbor and the lighthouse. I had a nice big plate of steamers as my snack; and boy were they good - super sweet and the perfect size - not too small so that there was no meat and not too large that the body was overwhelming. So perfect.

After our awesome snack we went back to the house and had dinner...HAHAHA...As you can see, I love eating. I ate so much that night! After the steamers I had 4 ribs and 3 drumsticks! Huzzah!

Summer Out of the City, originally uploaded by 4L4N M4K.

Wow, has it been this long?!?

Living in New York City there are a lot of things that you miss. Sunsets at the beach, the sound of the ocean, salty water crashing into your face, and the relaxation of the pace of Long Island.

When I was a kid we used to go out to the Hamptons for day trips. These days, now that I no longer live out on Long Island, those day trips are no more. My last time in the Hamptons was for Super Saturday - a designer clothing fund raiser that raised money for ovarian cancer research - a few years ago.

This weekend I traveled out to the eastern edge of East Hampton. I left the City at about 8PM and eventually made my way out to the house. Unfortunately I have a habit of inventing my own ways of getting to the places I need to go and sometimes that isn't the smartest thing. This was one of those cases and I ended up too far north and had to stumble my way back down south before I had gone too far east to do so. Luckily the guys at the gas station were helpful and pointed me in the right direction.

After hauling some ass to make up for lost time I made it onto the dark roads of East Hampton and was able to find my way to the house.

DAY 1

The next morning I kayaked for the first time - SO much fun! Those things are so much faster than the canoes that we rented during our trip last year to Whistler, British Columbia. After a leisurely ride out to this little island and scaring away the local birds with my silly duck calls I paddled back to the house and got ready to go to the beach - Oh how I miss the beach.

The beach was awesome - perfect water and tons of fun waves. I slapped on the SPF 15 and tanned for the second time this summer. I got a bit golden - like I was dipped in some light soy sauce - I'm like a "see yaw gai" now, by the way.

After a few hours of tanning and boogie boarding we left to go pick up our dinner. On the menu tonight were lobster, clams, mussels, and some veggies. We went to the most weird and obscure of seafood places to get our stuff - the place sounded like they sold more pool supplies and water filtration systems rather than seafood. Whoever thought of this name must have been aching to not have any customers - the place was called Multi Aquaculture Systems - WTF, who names a seafood market that?!? Even more weird were these gigantic dogs in cages hanging out by the fish pools. I wasn't really sure if they were breeding fish or fighting dogs!

Once we got in we inquired about the price of the clams and the lady said they were $5.50 a "douzen"...Huh, $5.50 a thousand? Yes, $5.50 a "douzen"...Hahaha...she meant "dozen". Of course I was the only one that understood...Otherwise that would have been one SlickDeal! Awesome dinner - we grilled up the clams and steamed our lobsters to perfection. I had the big momma lobster and it had a ton of bright red roe in it - so much so that I unfortunately couldn't even eat all of it.

After dinner we headed out to Scoop Du Jour for some yummies. I had my fave - strawberry ice cream - yes, I know I am boring with ice cream. After the ice cream we headed back to the house and went to bed.

DAY 2

We slept in this morning and missed the early morning kayaking but rushed to get out of the house to head to the beach before all the parking was filled up.

Once again the water was perfect - this time a bit less of a current and smaller waves but a touch more undertow. Unfortunately this day at the beach I managed to sink my vintage Ray Ban Aviators - so sad - mostly because of the sentimental value as those glasses were my dads. So dumb of me. I am usually so careful but this time a biggie wave hit me on the back and swept my Ray Bans away when I turned my head for a brief moment.

After another nice afternoon tanning and getting even more golden, we headed back for a quick dinner before I headed back out to the City.

Driving back was OK as I didn't hit much traffic. I actually managed to follow the directions for most of the way through the short cut - but I'm still not certain the road names are right. Luckily the car in front of me was from Port Washington (where I grew up) and I was able to follow him most of the way. I finally got onto Route 27 anticipating a quick drive to the LIE...Yeah, fat chance. I hit a major jam shortly before the exit for Route 104...Once again the explorer in me set out to find a new way...and I new way was found...I got onto the LIE and it was smooth sailing from there...After about 2 hours and 45 minutes I was back in Manhattan and so concluded my Hamptons weekend.

This coming weekend I'll be out there again. Hopefully by then I'll have a new pair of Ray Bans and some nicely pre-tanned skin ready for some additional color. Huzzah.

Geisha-a-go-go, originally uploaded by 4L4N M4K.

I was lucky enough to capture this unpainted nape during our recent stay in Kyoto. Taken during the days leading up to the Gion Matsuri, many Japanese girls dresses as maiko and geishas during these days.

Camera: Canon SD800IS | ISO: 1600