Wine? Vinegar? Are food product labels also going along with the trend of tabloid headlines combining Hollywood couple’s names?

So instead of grabbing the chips while settling down for a night in front of the tube, you could just snack on the bag of crispy mini crabs:

Her exclamation seems cheerful enough; don’t know why she’s so down if it’s “GOOD GOOD EAT”:

It’s a party all right. That octopus looks like it’s gettin’ DOWN:

Oh no, Oh Yes!

And lastly, just a comparison of our bachelor guy friend’s shopping habits compared to us bachelorette girls’. Well, wasabi peas count as vegetables, right? :)

H-Mart is always a fun adventure. :)

Apparently my buddy over at Liquid Egg Product returned from the Chinese supermarket with some finds of his own. :)

The first time we had this event, it was such a huge hit, we went ahead and did it again.

I got to meet the chef who is the mastermind behind the [in]famous Kollab-ROLL-ation:

He even showed me how to throw up a “K” sign with my hands (for KOLLABORATION):

I bought one of our limited-edition shirts for him - really, he deserved it for all his hard work; didn't expect him to thank me with this all-original creation, totally off the menu, and VERY pretty:

 

 

But I’m a vegetarian, so I saved it for my roommate who lets me drag her out to my Kollaboration functions:

This here picture is of 3 Dulles High School AND University of Texas at Austin alumni, coincidentally posed in order of height … can you put us in order of oldest to youngest? :)

‘Twas a fun night. Thanks to all those who came out to support Kollaboration Houston tonight at Fish Sushi!

Gotta love baby Jonathan’s beautiful, twinkling eyes as he climbs all over his daddy. :)

I usually don’t like to give up creative control (read: I’m anal about my videos) but I was curious and hit the Flip equivalent of Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button today. Well, not too bad, if I do say so myself.

Well, it’s new to me anyway. And I’ve seen a lot.

Generally, I think I’m pretty good at detecting phishing e-mails thanks to their poor spelling, or hovering my mouse over the links without clicking and previewing the URLs. Well, I was up late last night, and got an e-mail from an acquaintance with whom I correspond a few times a year:

===============

From: Shiou-Bih Yang
Sent: Fri 3/12/2010 2:32 AM
To: Shiou-Bih Yang
Subject: Please help soon.‏

I am in hurry writing you this message and i hope you get it on time, sorry I didn't inform you about my trip in Malaysia for a Program called "Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education. The program is taking place in three major countries in Asia, which are Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. It has been a very sad and bad moment for me here, the present condition that i found myself is very hard for me to explain. I am really stranded here in Malaysia because I misplaced my little bag on my way to the hotel where my money, cell phone which i have all my contacts and other valuable things were kept. Presently I have limited access to internet, I will like you to assist me urgently with a soft loan of $3,100 USD to sort-out my hotel bills and to get myself back home. I have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively, I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with, I'll Refund the money back to you as soon as i get home without any delay. So please use the details below to send the money to me through Western Union money transfer or money gram because that is the only way i could be able to get it fast and leave. These are the details below.....

Name: Shiou Bih Yang
Address: 22A Taman Yew Mengkung, Bander Melaka, Malaysia

After you have send the money, email to me the western union money transfer control number or you can attach and forward to me the western union money transfer receipt so that i can pick up the money fast and leave.

Thanks and get back to me soon.

Shiou-Bih

===============

For me, it was hard to discern if this e-mail was real or not. Sister Shiou-Bih is a very kind, selfless, giving person, and is a member of Tzu-Chi, an international relief organization that is usually helping out on the front line of disasters. So for her to be in Asia on a moment’s notice helping out would not be out of character. The grammar in this e-mail is not perfect, but Sister Shiou-Bih’s native tongue is Chinese / Taiwanese, and so that was also not out of the ordinary.

Having just had my Hotmail hacked a week or so ago, I replied to the e-mail, thinking that would help me better decide if this was a real emergency or not.

===============

Subject: RE: Please help soon.
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:36:50 -0600

Sister Shiou-Bih,

Are you in danger, and did you write this yourself?

- Caroline Chen

===============

I was more than a little surprised (and even more concerned!) when I got a reply this morning:

===============

From: Shiou-Bih Yang
Sent: Fri 3/12/2010 3:11 AM
To: Caroline Chen
Subject: RE: Please help soon.

Dear Dr. Chen,

Thank you so much for getting back to me, i sent the email to you because am in a very big problem now and i need your urgent help, please kindly look for any western union money transfer office around you and send the money to me so that i can leave as soon as possible, do not worry i will pay you back your money as soon as i get home without any delay.

Thanks and get back to me soon with the transfer details so that i can get the money fast and leave.

Shiou-Bih

===============

At this point I’m freaking out a little bit. She has always very politely addressed me as “Dr. Chen”. It is a personalized reply.

I give up. I call her directly. She picks up. She is not in Asia, she is not in trouble, she is fine. She tells me that she got phone calls last night around 3am from friends / family from Taiwan asking if she was okay because of these e-mails. I advise her to change her password; she has already tried. The password no longer works, and since she set up the security questions 10 years ago, she cannot remember the answers to them. Some @$$wipe is pretending to be her and unfortunately (in this case) Sister Shiou-Bih surrounds herself with like-minded kind and selfless people, probably mostly over the age of 40, who I believe are mostly more susceptible to this sort of thing.

Snopes.com (the site where I usually go to if I want to see if something is a hoax) did not have this exact hoax listed on their site, but they do a good job of breaking down this type of hoax. Googling the program name “Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education” brings up some sites that talk about this exact hoax.

Friends, beware of any e-mails asking for the wiring of money!

Doing a low-budget photobooth (read: didn’t feel like spending any money at all) turned out better than I expected. :) My favorite of all the ones today:

Keep it classy, ladies. Just the way I like it. ;)

The move has consisted of several parts:

1. Packing – man, so not fun (thanks Lous for helping)

2. Moving Phase 1 – 1st group of friends (thanks Eddy and the Cheng clan – both the Texan and Brazilian branches!!)

3. Moving Phase 2 – 2nd group of friends armed with big truck for the heavy stuff (thank you to all my muscle-y friends!!)

4. Cleaning the Old Apt – man, SO not fun (thanks Eddy for bringing the cleaning gear and getting down and dirty in there with me!!)

5. Unpacking – still cleaning the old apt, so haven’t gotten around to this part yet. The new apartment looks like a hurricane hit it … which I guess it did … the Caroline Move-In Hurricane …

How the heck did I accumulate so much STUFF?!

Here are some of my muscle-y friends in action. Will and Donnie are carrying the heaviest item of furniture that I own (and that thing is EMPTY, btw!), while Chris provides a buffer should Donnie fall back, and Vicki um, provides a buffer for if Chris falls back? :)

My friends even brought refreshments, helped me re-assemble my bed, and change out my incandescent bulbs to fluorescents. Plus my new roommate has started organizing the kitchen. I have a lot to go, but the move has been going way more smoothly than I imagined. Thanks friends!!!!!

I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT MOVING INTO MY NEW PLACE!! :)

Apparently, in Japanese culture, it is actually POLITE to slurp your noodles loudly to show appreciation for the delicious food served to you. In stark contrast, we Westerners frown upon such loud noises while eating and are trained to do just the opposite – eat silently. It’s been funny watching Hiroko instinctively slurp all noodles placed in front of her. So we decided to try and copy her.

Who did the best job? You decide!! :)

I just couldn’t resist!

Happy birthday, Hiroko!! Thank you(?) for making my cheeks and stomach hurt from laughing too hard and too much!!

Friend is moving away from Houston [pout!]. Just helping get the word out about stuff she’s selling. All furniture is less than a year old and practically new.

Couch = $200 (bought it for $400; it is a futon that bends two ways) [ update: SOLD ]

Sharp flatscreen 32" TV = $400 OBO [ update: CLAIMED ]
TV Stand/coffee table = $15 [ update: CLAIMED ... by moi :P ]

Table and chairs (4) set = $60 OBO [ update: SOLD ]

1994 Honda Civic EX, sporty red 2-door coupe, 150k miles, in good condition! = $1500 OBO [ update: SOLD ]

Bissell Powerforce bagless Vacuum Cleaner = $20 [ update: SOLD ]

Most comfortable Queen size mattress set EVAR (mattress + boxspring): $100 [ update: SOLD ]

Friend is also giving away lots of household items...plates, silverware, pans, mugs, etc. E-mail / call for details. [ update: CLAIMED ]

Thanks guys! – C :) [ update: YAY! :) ]

My evening opened up unexpectedly last night, and so I headed over to the willyouBhere Hepatitis B awareness event and concert at the University of Houston. I was hoping to meet David Choi so I could thank him personally for giving me permission to use his cover of "Over The Rainbow" in my skydiving video; however, I would have had to body surf over / push and shove through the throng of screaming girls that mobbed him after the event. Yeah, didn’t happen. I DID however get to briefly shake hands with Paul Dateh and snapped a quick pic with him before security kicked us out (props to Nancy for the quick trigger finger):

Um, I look way too happy in this photo, and all I can say is ... that boy's silky smooth voice made me melt in my seat and utter obscenities that hopefully were not recorded by digital camera video recorders surrounding us.

All in all, a great night of entertainment. Also enjoyed watching singers Jessica Sanchez (her voice sounds way older than a 14-yr-old!), Michelle Martinez, along with Youtube comedians / personalities KevJumba, HappySlip, and dance crew Kaba Modern.

Just wanted to end this post with my skydiving video, if you haven't seen it already. One of the greatest [short] experiences of my life. Thanks again David Choi!

I am SO PSYCHED! I present to you a picture of my first ever original artwork, and of a pink orange at that, by the talented and generous J to the M-a.

That evening, JMa called me and said she had "something" she wanted to drop off. I was feeling less than awesome so I asked if she could possibly pick up some orange juice for me. She sounded a little taken aback, and I thought that perhaps I'd asked for one favor too many ... but her surprise was instead due to my being seemingly in sync with the surprise she had in store for me.

I like it I like it I like it!!! And thank you David for the hanging supplies, and for LEP for helping me hang it up!! I like, feel so grown up now. :)

It just so happened that our table at Cafe 101 consisted of 2 girls, and 2 guys - BOTH sporting unique hats. How rare is that?!

 
Sheng listens as Kirk tells us how he feels about health care

The last time I'd spoken to Sheng was over five years ago, and I remember asking him what he was doing, and he replied, "I'm a [ insert job name ], but I'm going to be a comedian." And that he did. "Hats off" to him! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

He's coming to do a charity comedy show in Houston Tuesday, September 22nd at 7:30p. Pre-sale tix are $20, with 2-item minimum purchase at Laff Stop. Proceeds help survivors of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan that wiped out entire villages with mudslides. If you've not heard of Tzu-Chi, they're a very active group and famous for being on the frontlines in time of disaster; they don't just collect money and sit on the sides. They are in there getting down and dirty and getting stuff done.

Hope to see you folks there!

BEST: getting a phone call from Japan and hearing Moe-chan speak English to me. Thank you, Moe-chan. You TOTALLY made my day!

This was especially nice after waking up at 7:00am in a cold sweat from having my first nightmare in a very long time and not being able to go back to sleep.

Little Moe (pronounced "Mo-eh") had been practicing hard all week so she could say a few sentences to me in English.

Apparently the stress from reciting those lines in English got her body really tense:

Here she just looks a little nauseous having to tolerate my awful attempts at Japanese conversation:

Finally, when saying goodbye and an oh-so-sweet "I love you!" she finally relaxes a tiny bit - but still has a death grip on the phone with both hands:

Thanks to Hiroko for the action shots. :)

==========

WORST: Having to deal with apartment's new management ... again and again.

Me: Hi, I don't know why I got a notice for not having paid my rent. I have it automatically set to deduct from my checking account every month.

Apartment's New Management (ANM): With the new management, we don't have that anymore, and don't know if we will ever have that. If you bring in a money order in today, we'll waive the late fees.

Me: OK, can I have the exact total of rent plus utilities?

ANM: No, we don't know the exact amount. They're still figuring it out. [ cue my rolling of eyes ] Your best bet would be to pay what you paid last month. If you end up paying a little more, that amount will be credited towards your next statement.

Me: And what if I end up short a few bucks? Would that just be tacked onto the next statement?

ANM: Well ... then we would bill you for that amount and you'd have to come in and pay that, again via money order. So, we advise you to maybe pay a couple bucks more so that doesn't happen.

To say that they are concerned only for their bottom line seems something like an understatement. Is that the norm? Or only because I live in this particular apartment complex?

Also, I can't get straightforward answers to inquiries, like: "Have you added freon to my A/C yet?" and, "There are big gaping holes in my weather stripping, you do realize that all my A/C is just going out through those holes?" So far, I've "only" had to call them 4 times and talk to them in person about it once, only to get answers like, "Well, you should test it by turning the dial to 70F so we know if they did it or not," and "Don't you have a foundation problem? The weather stripping will NEVER be perfect."

Well, I'll keep thinking about the BEST wake up call ever and Moe's adorable voice and it'll be all good. :)

For our last day in New Orleans, we went on a tour of Laura Plantation. Mrs. Jang was right when they said they had a lot of very interesting stories on the tour. We also visited neighboring Oak Alley Plantation, which was more picturesque and great for photos. That evening, Leon, their son, who my brother and I have been friends with for a long time also, drove all the way out from Baton Rouge to join us for dinner. He invited us to visit the LSU campus on our way home, and we thought, why not?

We missed you, Howard! [ see all photos ]

Leon was kind enough to be our personal tour guide around LSU. We'd been there a looooooooong time ago for a table tennis tournament, but definitely did not tour the campus in detail like we did that day. Leon also told me that visitors to LSU were supposed to engage in a ritualistic activity before leaving LSU ... so of course I went ahead and did it (I asked my dad to join me, but he declined):

Yeah ... I pretty much regretted doing that. My body really ain't what it used to be. I was nauseous pretty much for the rest of the day. Ugh!

Thanks to the Jang family for hosting us in Louisiana. Come visit us soon! :D

I know what you're thinking. I've probably just jumped the gun, jumped to conclusions, didn't really give them a chance. Well, this is my story of what happened on the evening of Saturday, August 8th, and you can derive your own conclusions.

After having a major blast at Alice's wedding, a bunch of us still were not sated and headed out for post-wedding clubbing. Friends brought friends, and we ended up with a group of 12 people, 11 Asian (9 dudettes, 2 dudes), and 1 Caucasian (yay for Tree Frog for being the token white guy!). An initial group of 4 ladies had gotten there first, and were turned away from the door after a brief dialogue:

Bouncer: Are you with the private party?
4 Ladies: No ...
Bouncer: Sorry, if you're not with the private party, we can't let you in, there are too many people.

While waiting for us, they observed that non-Asian people were being let in just by showing their IDs and without the same questioning.

We arrived, and we were turned away with the same dialogue. Still in disbelief, we decided to test the system. We asked token white guy Tree Frog to try getting in. And sure enough, they let him in without even asking him if he was with the "private party".

So, we butted heads with them some. While doing so, people came and went, and after some time, Tree Frog asked, "Look, if it really is a numbers issue, I've seen about 10 people leave, and we have about 10 people in our party. What's up with that?" No answer. Management was talked to, and they kept mute as we spoke of their unfairness. Another group of partygoers, a mix of whites, Hispanics, and Asians, was also turned away while we were giving the manager of piece of our minds. One of the ladies in the initial group was surprised because she'd just been to Blue Label the night before at an all-Asian party. After a while though, we just weren't that direly in need of giving them our money anyway, so off we went.

And while my remaining clubbing days are numbered, I won't be tapping Blue Label Lounge for business if I have a choice.

Aside from that, I was glad we were able to have a post-wedding hurrah for Alice and Chun. I was definitely buzzing very well. :) [ to the pictures! ]

* I suppose one remaining possibility is that if there actually WAS a private party going on there, that it was hosted by someone who had a thing against Asians.

Highlight of my weekend: we made ice cream from scratch (save milking cows and harvesting eggs from chickens)! But first, my favorite shot of the weekend:

Yes, Sammy the pomeranian got a "lion cut" for the first time. This dog is incredibly cute, and is still incredibly cute, but his new haircut made me laugh out loud. And then for some reason watching him poo just made me crack up uncontrollably. Sorry Sammy! :)

After a lot of hard work in the blazing heat (mostly thanks to Uncle Charlie and Jason!), we finally got our ice cream. It was SOOOOO good!!!!

[ see the rest of the pictures! ]

Oh, and let's not forget the video clips. This is the first of the short series of videos that we took, from the Round Top parade, from ice cream making, and from playing with sparklers at night. By putting your mouse over the video you can click on the thumbnail on the right to go to the next video.

Congratulations, Violeta and Karthik!

So, instead of the regular ol' rehearsal dinner, we were instead asked to come out for a dance rehearsal. For what? A surprise short dance routine that interrupted their first dance:

(link)

My date to the wedding was pretty cool. He accompanied me the whole day (I'm talkin' 15 hrs here) and he even slow danced with me in the middle of the room while there was a mass exodus going on behind us.

Wedding by Violeta + Karthik
Makeup by Jen Ma
Hair by Andrea Schutter
Dress by David's Bridal
Pleasant Companionship by Tree Frog
Attitude by me. :)

... a total stranger takes a picture of you without your knowledge almost 10 years ago and then posts it on a website with other weird photos that are made fun of.

I'd never heard of AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com until Henry pointed it out to me (um, thanks?!). HAHahhahah oh man. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this on the website. Not exactly work safe (depends on your industry, I guess), so beware when you click through the photo to the site.

So I guess I should explain what is going on here. :) Old Calgary buds Reema and Winnie were showing me around San Francisco - had to be between 1999 and 2002, while I was an acupuncture student in Cali - and took me to the Palace of Fine Arts. So we were walking around taking pictures and there, on the green, was this dude posing for a professional photographer. Before my friends could stop me, I ran over and asked if I could have a pic with this guy, thinking that this was too hilarious! I still have the original pic where me and this dude are facing the camera; it's a bit strange to know that someone secretly took a pic of us from the side, and has hoarded it until now!

I remember asking him why he was taking pics there; I can't for the life of me remember his answer. I believe he said his name was "Blaire"; I never remembered to look for him on the internet after that.

Not that this REALLY explains anything except for my penchant for wanting to take pictures of everything I encounter. Be sure to read the caption and the comments underneath; so funny! Man. Yep. The Internet "big-time". Thanks(?!?!) AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com!

There was massive raining last night. This morning, friends' status updates indicated that many were staying home from work / school due to flooding. I opened my door, looked outside, and everything looked fine to me. I saw some people in the parking lot with car trouble, and some shaking out their car mats. I thought to myself, "Wow. They must've left their windows open last night. That sucks!" Then I got to my car and saw this behind the driver's seat:

D'oh! And my windows were not accidentally left open last night!!

Driving to work, all the water sloshed forward. Yippee. At least my car still works.

Eddy has offered to go with me to find a carwash with a wetvac. My first time using a wetvac, hooray!

Whoa ... who are these hardcore fans of iHaTePiNk.com who were spotted in California last weekend ... ?

Yup, I cut my hair short right before I went. That 10" will be off to Locks of Love shortly. I'd been wanting to chop it off for some time now, and I finally had enough hair! :D If you can't tell, I'm the one in the light pink shirt, and with the bluetooth headset in my ear (D'oh! Forgot it was even in there!!). :P To my left is my lovely cousin Min; she and hubby Peter (and adorable son Connor) were so kind to have us at their beautiful home for the weekend. The shirts were her idea, a random gift she totally surprised me with one day in the mail.

Thanks to Tree Frog for doing a fabulous job of sifting thru the tons of pics and coming up with a summary of our brief time in California. [ see the photos! ]

Being at a kiddie birthday party usually makes me almost want to have my own kid. Until one of 'em poops in a diaper or gets fussy and starts bawling. THEN I leave the premises feelin' pretty good that I get to leave it. Will I ever be a parent? Time will only tell. SHOULD I be a parent? Er, I think most people would resoundingly vote no. :)

Slices of the day:

 
 

Me with the birthday girls and their lovely mum 'n dad. I'm making a face - as usual - but this time very much unintentional. But no one will believe that. :)

[ more photos ] (beware of cuteness overload!!)

Finally got to see Iris perform live for the first time. I'd been wanting to, had only heard about her wonderful voice, but my schedule never permitted 'til now.

One of the songs off her new album:

Iris likes to jam with her shoes off:

Iris hamming it up with an interviewer afterwards:

[ more pics ] [ more sounds of Iris ]

Was glad to catch up with Iris briefly, and saw a buncha people I hadn't seen in a long while!

So through some gratuitous connections I got to watch Gladys Knight perform at the Rodeo Friday night, from the PRESS BOX!! Well, technically it was Gladys Knight and Beyonce's little sister. I didn't know her name until I got there, man have I been totally out of the loop with the popular music these days (old fogey alert!).

We did have to watch some of the pre-performance rodeo. I recall going a year or two ago and not liking the feeling of man asserting himself over animal using violent (and what I deem to be unfair) means as if to prove superiority, nor did I like the encouragement of little kids to do the same. I remember it feeling like a very testosterone-driven event that simply used animals for sport. I felt the same way this time.

Anyway! Solange and Gladys were really fun to watch! Here's Gladys in her heyday singing my two favorite songs of the night:

It's so fun to watch those Pips get their dance on. :D

And a more recent performance by Gladys. This is pretty much what she looked like at the Rodeo. What a darling woman, so self-assured and so in love with her craft. I totally understand why she is the "Empress of Soul". Her performance brought tears to my eyes (old fogey alert the second!!). I hope I can be as self-assured at her age when I get there!

Thanks for all the birthday well-wishes!! I hope all is well for everyone in this new year!

As if to alert me to my +1 status, my body protested at 9pm to go to bed. It's now 4 am, and I am strangely wide awake, and awfully sentimental.

I think I've become more aware in my "adulthood" of patterns engrained in me that I don't necessarily like, but are undeniably part of my being. I suppose I could just say "that's just how I am", but I refuse to just BE that way.

To all of my friends: each and every one of you inspires me to be a better person. And that is the best birthday present I could have.

My homeboy EnVaDoR has been up to no good as usual with his modding antics. His latest: getting noted on lifehacker (with a mention on gizmodo) for his DIY iPhone Paper Clip Stand!

 

A search turns up a whole lotta hits where he gets mentioned, but true 6334dom is appearing on lh and gizmodo, right? :) From one geek to another, here's to you Dean: the King o' Geeks!

[ his original post ]

How's this for a Saturday morning cartoon-ish blog post title? :)

Inspiration struck only the day before Eda and Yusuke's Hallowe'en party when I heard that oddly endearing song "Anyone Else But You". I was instantly reminded how friends, one by one, near and far, insisted that I needed to watch this movie called Juno that apparently starred me. And Tree Frog was said to have co-starred, even though he really looks NOTHING like Bleeker other than sharing skin color and sometimes possessing a similar clueless look.

And so I present to you the slightly dyslexic but adequately presentable Juno and Bleeker, the Hallowe'en 2008 Edition! :)

   

Cuteness, grossness, and chillness were all present at this lovely party. Thanks to our wonderful host and hostess for letting us destroy their home with stinky tofu and pumpkin innards!

Also, special thanks to the Tree Frog for driving down from Austin to be my date for the party. Even if your shorts weren't short enough. :)

[ all pics from the party ]

Elaine and I survived the Dallas Muddy Buddy 6-mi run/bike! (Well, to be very clear, *I* merely survived it - Elaine's in really good shape so I'm sure this was not too bad for her.) To commemorate this accomplishment, I've put together a slideshow to cheesy music, as I am often prone to doing. Enjoy!

Muddy Buddy 2008 from Caroline Chen on Vimeo.

My personal goals were to seriously 1) complete without dying, and 2) to not stop. I had to walk the bike a few times over rough / steep terrain, but otherwise, I did it! WE did it! :)

Thanks to those who came out to share our "last meal", to those who trained the last 3 months with my Royal Slowness, and for all the well-wishes!

============================

Training equipment / tools:
- Champion running shoes, 4+ years old, were thrown out after the race
- Hella-old Walmart special mountain bike (Elaine's nice bike was used for the race)
- MapMyRun.com, a great way to track your workouts and provide motivation for the days you just don't want to run
- fear of dying on the day of the race

There have been a few adventures with the Tree Frog in the last little bit. A midnight hurricane curfew ever-so-slightly cramped our style for Huong's and Wendy's birthday celebrations, both being pretty soon after Hurricane Ike blew through. Carol's birthday was a nice girls-only brunch at Backstreet Cafe, a nice midtown eatery where the whole table got carded when we ordered pitchers of sangria, hahahah. I am now super determined to learn to make French toast. It was SOO good!

We tried to get off our lazy butts and go for walks around the neighborhood, some of which ended up at Target and the local Shoe Carnival. I was in a silly picture-taking mood, and Tree Frog was enabling me, so there we were! We also had a weekend where he accompanied me to David's Bridal to try on some bridesmaids dresses for a friend's wedding next year.

We also arranged a nice little "date night" at Houston's. We both put some effort into getting slightly dressed up and headed out. The booths there were quite cozy, and the music not too loud, just the way I like it - I hate yelling over the music just to chat with someone sitting right next to me. After dinner we headed to the Raven Grill for his favorite dessert. (Thank you Google for helping me find this place: "peanut butter chocolate pie houston tx"!)

This would all be complete gluttony except that I'd been training hard for the Muddy Buddy run/bike event in Dallas. Tree Frog had been good enough to accompany me on workouts in Houston and had arranged for a big band of friends to run together when I visited Austin (which ensued in gluttony also, hahaha). Was the training good enough??? Stay tuned for the next installment ...

Wei invited us over for a little BBQ. Oscar graciously prepared tons of food. Everyone brought a little something and before long we were totally stuffed.

The night ended on a perfect note with Carlos' soon-to-be world-famous rum cake, paired with some Costa Rican coffee. MMMMMmmmmm. (I was stuffed but there's always room for dessert, haha!)

  

And no set of pics would be complete without pics of the doggies!

     

[ see all photos ]

How do you pronounce these words:

"shone", "contribute", "distribute", and "terrain"?

If you can, write out the emphasized syllable in CAPS and write it out as closely to other words as possible, ie. i say Canuck = kahNUK.

These are the only ones I can think of that people have laughed at me about. If you have pointed out my supposedly weird pronunciation of other words, please feel free to point them out. :)

I'm such a sucker for puppies. Especially cute ones. (Hmm, don't think I've ever met a puppy I didn't think was cute ... )

 

Yup. A bona fide cutie. (Hahah, yes, both Vicki and Bella and cuties ... )

*Love* it when I get these mouth-open-wide shots. :) [ check out ze album ]

I got to hang with Clover, the sassy pug, as Elaine calls her.

[ the complete photoshoot ]

Molly came for a visit today. This is how she felt about being out in the sub-100°F weather:

Summer is just gettin' started here in Houston. Yippee.

Jumpin' off swings,

Jumpin' off planes,

And jumpin' on bridges.

My legs sure were sore that weekend. :)

Peep the skydive pics, and the skydive vid, remixed by yours truly, and lemme know what you think. :)

Eda, Yusuke, Violeta and I (and little Sophie too!) went to check out Fotofest 2008 for one day, hoping to catch photography during the Cultural Revolution in China. Instead, it was a lecture on the history of Chinese photography in general, so we started meandering about the museum, and revisited the light tunnel, where I was almost exactly one year ago with Chi-Wei:

"Gimme!"

It was my first time meeting Sophie. Very cool. :)

Last weekend, Tree Frog invited us up to his family's ranch house in a little town between Houston and Austin. For a city girl like me, I was a bit apprehensive since I mean, c'mon, how do you live with ZERO internet?! :)

Well, I am proud to say that not only did I survive without internet, but I even had offline, real-life fun! :) The crisp air was refreshing. We were surrounded by green grass, blue sky, and clear water. The puppies that came along seemed to enjoy the large expanse of roamable land. I learned to ride a 4-wheeler with manual shift (I can't drive a manual car to save my life). I rode a tractor lawn mower. We ate Tree Frog's mom's freshly homemade brownies. We rode in the back of a pickup truck. We jumped around on bales of hay. We slept in tents with only thin layers of sleeping bag separating our bodies from the ground (and then there was the tent that had not one, but two Aerobeds? Heehee!). I'd forgotten what it felt like to not HAVE to be anywhere, and to kinda just do ... nothing in particular, except focus on chillin'. :)

 

Thanks to those who came out (especially those that battled severe disorientation in the dark to come join us)! Enjoy the pics. Lots of epic memories in this one. :)

Tree Frog's rendering was on the front page of the Austin American-Statesman's Business section (that pic in the middle beside the Dell story):

[ view larger ]  [ view full-size (5MB) ]

These scans were pieced together (not entirely perfectly, but good enough) using Photoshop's Photomerge tool. I tried my tried-and-true Canon Photostitch, but it wasn't able to line up the text very well.

Chef Hugh was on the front page of the Chinese Community News for his recent non-cooking developments. He's the handsome dude with the pretty girl on the rightmost:

 

Congratulations to the newlyweds. :)

My 15 seconds.

Chef Hugh stays busy with the introduction of son #2, P-Jo, XO's youngest brother from the same litter. He seemed a bit depressed as he was probably coping with having just gotten his tummy stitched up.

Papa Hugh showing P-Jo's stitches.

 
In addition to the unique coloration of his face, his paws exhibit a little half-and-half action as well.

Look at those wrinkly little legs! Aww!

[ more pics ]

These two pups are gonna be getting a lotta love from Auntie Caroline. :)

With that face ...

With that snore ...

With that wrinkly little body ... ?

I need to get over there with my dSLR to capture the puppy madness properly. :) [ more pics! ]

... More like, "Wonderful Weekend". That's just the song I'm humming in my head at the moment while writing this here post.

Man, what a weekend! Played cards, ate at two restaurants I'd never been to before, got a deep tissue massage (by a man with strong hands and an exotic accent to boot, heh heh heh), watched Booty Call for the first time (LOVED IT), and shot fun pics at the "Seven Wonders" in the Houston theater district.

My legs are sore from running back and forth to set the timer on the camera and jumping as high as I could for multiple mid-air photo attempts. :)

[ more photos ]

The Anti-Valentine's gathering was a hit for the most part.

You know, I think I've only had ONE Valentine's Day date ever. As in, an actual outing ON February 14th. Here's how it went down:

It was a fine day back in the stone ages, er, I mean, college. A handsome younger lad that had started hanging out with our group of friends, I'll call him "J", had asked me out for Valentine's Day dinner. At 8:00am (!!!) he showed up at my dorm room door, with a stack of envelopes, and a single rose. Each envelope was labelled "9:00am", "10:00am", "11:00am", and so forth, for the whole day up until midnight. I was instructed to open them on the hour, each hour. Not wanting to ruin any surprises for myself, I did exactly as told. Romantic idea, no?

Well, 'twas not to be. The notes contained in the envelopes started off cute, slightly sweet, as would be fitting for our level of acquaintance. But then they started to become extremely random in nature: the one that still sticks in my head to this day is the note that read:

"Don't pick your nose too much,
it will cause nosebleeds."

This is a re-enactment of the accompanying illustration. I exaggerate not.

Dinner was lovely, with normal conversation. Only upon finishing did I realize that ALL OF OUR MUTUAL GUY FRIENDS, the losers (yeah PH, AL, JW, I'm talkin' to you guys), had been sitting there, a few tables over, spying on us the entire evening. Uh, I guess it was a good thing I hadn't felt the strong urge to jump J's bones in public? Any semblance of a date ended there as the whole gang headed to Einstein's and played video games. Which WAS pretty fun.

Anyway, fast forward to last night:

Thanks go out to Jon for picking a place with NO vegetarian choices except for bread, coleslaw, and french fries. :) Light flirting with the waiter had him asking me to come back Sunday where he would toast the bread in a special way, just for me ...

More light flirting again at Starbucks; I asked for the opposite of the fat free "skinny latte", and the cashier came up with the fattiest combination possible, labelling it as "Special Drank". Hee hee!

A happy group of Anti-Valentine-ians, camping outside Starbucks singing various Christmas carols and cartoon theme songs together. We definitely could have been mistaken for a bunch of drunks. :)

The themes of the party were "Things Caroline Has Never Done Before", "What's Age Got to Do With It", and "Are You Comfortable Being Around Hordes of Hot Men For Extended Periods of Time?!". A very tame dinner and movie were thrown in there for good measure. :)

And for those who missed watching the movie Juno with me, you also missed this surprise birthday message that came on right after the movie ON THE BIG SCREEN:

This birthday weekend has been full of laughter, tears, and more laughter. There were tears of joy, tears of gratitude, and tears of WAIT A MINUTE WHAT THE HECK IS *THAT* DOING ON THE SCREEN OMGOMGOMG!!!! Hahahahah.

Thankyouthankyouthankyou for all the birthday wishes, my dear friends. It means a lot that so many of you guys came out for lil' ol' me. I got a great start into the supposedly dreaded three-ohs. I am such a lucky girl. I ♥ you guys! *snif!*

That first post of 2008 was pretty drab. Thought I'd toss in the first pics of 2008. Here we are on a rooftop in downtown Austin:

A friend told me about high-dynamic range imaging (I haven't done any reading on it yet), but here are my preliminary experiments:

Ringin' in 2008 with both new and old (circa 1989!) friends in an amazing way.

After reading Rose's music list entry, I wanted to tell everyone about my first gift of 2008. I was the lucky recipient of a great mix CD that introduced me to a lot of stuff I hadn't heard before. This is definitely a CD I can listen to start to finish and have on repeat for a LONG time. Bonus: an included track listing with song and artist names and even track lengths! Thanks so much, T! :)

1. The Way I Am - Ingrid Michaelson
2. 1234 - Feist
3. Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches
4. Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston
5. Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
6. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
7. They Can't Take That Away From Me - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
8. Dancing in the Moonlight - Studio Group
9. First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
10. Lullaby - Dixie Chicks
11. Upside Down - Jack Johnson
12. In My Life - The Beatles
13. First Time - Lifehouse
14. Young Folks - Peter Bjorn and John
15. Into the Ocean - Blue October
16. Thunder - Boys Like Girls
17. Hero-Heroine - Boys Like Girls
18. Say It Ain't So - Weezer
19. Disparate Thoughts - Matt Harding
20. World Spins Madly On - The Weepies
21. Gotta Have You - The Weepies

Considering my increasing distaste for what's on the radio these days (proportional to my old geezerness?), I'm glad I have friends who can expose me to new stuff.

Funny tidbit: someone had JUST told me about "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson a few weeks ago, I totally fell in love with it, and now T has it as song #1 on a mix CD for me. The universe sure knows how to freak me out (in a good way).

What's good on your playlist these days?

[ me on the phone with my DSL provider, regarding repeated dropped signals for long periods of time ]

Me: Yeah, so my internet's actually working NOW, but for example, last night I couldn't connect yet AGAIN, even after the technician came by and supposedly fixed the problem.
Nasal-voiced DSL Guy: Well, I'm looking at our connectivity reports last night ma'am, and there was a shortage last night.
Me (tired of them giving me the runaround): Shortage? What kind of shortage? Like, a power shortage? Shortage to what?
NVDG: Well, it could be a power shortage, or a variety of other calamities.
Me: Did you just say "calamities"? What sort of "calamities"?
NVDG: Well, you know, like ice storms.
Me (thinking to self - what a tard!): Ice storms?! You DO realize I live in Houston, Texas, right?!
NVDG: Well, not necessarily, I didn't mean ice storms, um ... [ starts laughing nervously ]

[ chatting online with friend who'd had a terrible day ]

Me (4:20:05 PM): but now i know
Me (4:20:10 PM): and knowing is half the battle
Me (4:20:19 PM): "GI JOEEEEE AMERICAN HEROOOO"
Friend Who'd Had Terrible Day (4:20:22 PM): GI HAHHHHHHH
Me (4:20:27 PM): hahahahahah
Me (4:20:33 PM): were we on the same wavelength there? 
FWHTD (4:20:36 PM): omg.. maniacal laughter caro
FWHTD (4:20:49 PM): i have just had a day, that felt good
Me (4:20:57 PM): kekekekekekkee

[ Online chat with friend who had an um, interesting link to share. Click thru at your own risk! ]

Friend With Interesting Link to Share (3:32:15 PM): if you need to blow four minutes for something really stupid (or just read the title): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-asA8s0c4A
Me (3:49:56 PM): i'm at work, and i've clicked thru
Me (3:50:03 PM): and i'm glad that i had the volume turned WAY DOWN LOW
FWILtS (3:50:11 PM): oooh
FWILtS (3:50:13 PM): sorry
Me (3:50:18 PM): i can't hear wha't s going on and i'm not sure that i want to hahaha
Me (3:50:26 PM): hahaha no
Me (3:50:30 PM): tis ok
FWILtS (3:50:30 PM): don't bother
Me (3:50:50 PM): i'm going to close the window now, as the queens or kings are engaged in a 69 position
Me (3:51:00 PM): and in slow mo
FWILtS (3:51:04 PM): right
FWILtS (3:51:33 PM): well, i gotta make sure to do nsfw next time, so that's completely my bad

Comic relief has been much appreciated during this high-stress week. Thanks to Chef Hugh and the gang for some super-appreciated social as well as culinary pleasantries:

That's right, Korean BBQ at home, foo! (I am SO going to buy that attachment for the gas burner)

With Chef Hugh's homemade soft tofu dessert with real ginger syrup.

I got a good start to the holiday season this weekend. As usual, click through for the complete set of pics and the hopefully witty comments.

Delicious-looking hotpot! I did not partake, but enjoyed a most excellent vegetarian pasta dish.

Decorating trees in the middle of the night on the side of 360. :)

In addition to making lots of new friends, I met up with Masako, whom I hadn't seen for at least five years!

Austin downtown on Congress at sunset, festively decorated for the holiday season.

Highlights:

Donnie threatening to bring a bottle of "Mount Gay Rum" and following through, proving that there really is such a product. :)

Discarding the rules of "Would You Rather" for reading and discussing and laughing at the questions freestyle.

Impromptu "garbage pail punch".

And last but not least: DOGGIES!!!!

Click through for all the canine chaos, complete with commentary. :)

Today I learned that ...

- my people were NUTS between 1966 and 1976. We were f@#%ing inhuman. WTF?!!?! [ courtesy of International Education Week speaker and professor of English composition at North Harris College, Dr. Wei Li ]

- Qatar is a country that shares a border with Saudi Arabia. The American diplomat to Qatar, Chase Untermeyer, joked that working as the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, an unpaid position, helped prepare him for working as an ambassador in the middle east, since the fussing and feuding is about the same in intensity. :P

- you can pay for a specialty Texas license plate that says "God Bless America", "God Bless Texas", "The Lone Star State", and "FIGHT TERRORISM" (complete with a graphic representation of the twin towers doubling as the 11 in "9-11-01" enclosed in a pentagon shape) (I can't believe that last one is classified as a "Souvenir" plate ...)

- if a Toyota Corolla hits a wooden pallet on the highway even after slowing to 65 mph, it will FLY over it and have such an impact that any and all unsecured change in the car will scatter all over the floor

- the Sam Houston Tollway Emergency line (713.222.7328) is pretty responsive and will also handle reporting of road hazards

- I can have fun doing karaoke sober too. :)

Dude, I totally forgot to get my trusty tambourine in the picture.

Saw D again after at LEAST eight years. He looks the same!! Here he is in his natural work setting:

Did he wear pink just to spite me?

Sorry D, my pong form was not as heroic as it once was. I have become weak!!

It was so good to see him. I am pleasantly surprised by the intro and re-intro of Dulles Vikings into my life as of late.

So J.Ma and I headed out to Austin for a brief jaunt.

Note to self: never change drivers at Columbus because that is where you are supposed to get on the 71 from I-10. I is moran. Well, on the upside we discovered the cities(?) of "Swiss Alp" (yes, just one "alp") and "Schulenberg"(sp?).

Highlights (click through for the full set o' pics):

Me jumping for joy because we went to the WRONG PLACE for the Maker Faire!

Finally finding the Maker Faire, we found a van decorated entirely with ... cameras! Oh, and these convex mirrors.

We went to watch the Master Pancake Theater. The Rocky Horror Picture Show was showing at the same time. I got a pic with the best-dressed couple!

What is UP with all the pinkness! Notice that the number of ladies' port-o-potties WAY outnumbers the men's.

I met cute doggies ...

... and Ashley's kid for the first time. He let me hug him! Aww!

Just got around to uploading pics of J's bite-sized chihuahua, Oreo.

She always looks kinda freaked out. Here's Oreo hangin' out in her homemade bed.

When her owner isn't around, she sometimes starts to get testy.

She has a love-hate relationship with Andy. Here, it's love, I think. :)

Hey friends! I have a friend (who makes cool clothing and other stuff all by hand) participating in this fair up in Austin, so I thought I'd spread the word.

[ Maker Faire Website ]

[ Hoang's online shop "hodgepodge design" with photos of her work ]

[ her handmade baby booties are super popular, get 'em while they're hot ]

Some real live shots of her work ... at play (thanks to our lovely model c):

 

Dang Wendy, your fingers be scary, yo. :)

Where do I even begin.

2 flat tires within half an hour (not mine, but I can now confidently say I can swap a flat with a spare all by myself) (Thanks Eddy, thanks Brian!).

Lunch @ M's. Got to see Happy. :) [ see all 12 pics ]

Happy Hour where some people got uh, a little too happy. :)

Saw Mamma Mia - I laughed, cried, then laughed again. I'm not even a "musicals" person.

Got sealed into two parking lots within 12 hours.

Forging new friendships, strengthening present ones.

Sincerely happy for people doing what they need to be doing.

Japanese food and karaoke for J's bday - good times. [ see the full set o' pics ]

Digital camera was misplaced when I most needed it. (Recovered safely, thank goodness. But nearly went insane.)

Hung out with cousin's fiancee's cousins and their cousins. And the coolest grandma that ever lived.

Bumped into Claire (as I seem to do once a year) and re-met King (found out he's soon to be remotely related to me).

Movie night. And oh, the wisdom of mothers. Profoundly and soundly blown away and humbled.

"A real fighter doesn't need to fight."

Don't be a playa-hata, now ...

 

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAA. Karen rocks so hard.

I can now tell time and by a cool pink display too:

I have reason to believe this gift card (feelin' da love!) is an intentional mockery of iHaTePiNk, knowing the bestower of the gift's humorous personality:

And ... blatant iHaTePiNk love, even from a hospital bed:

Congratulations to Bill & Cindy for tying the knot and plunging forward into their futures together.

Grand party, it was. Though I think near the end of it I was too busy testing the capabilities of my liver to remember much. 'Twas a good time. Thanks to Masa Sushi for serving up a special plate for the vegetarians, and for serving up the drinks, and for uh, tolerating me.

And of course, our live performance, raw and unedited. My fellow comrades in rap rocked da houz for sure.

Note to self for "next time": no drinking prior to live performances that require mad Chinese tongue-twisting skillzZz.

One on purpose, and one by accident.

Father and son strike a pose. This lil' guy is gettin' un-little by the minute! :)

BFFs since high school breakfasting @ Classic Bakery.

Bumped into Crystal and Albert at Spicy China, a new joint that just opened up. My mom is getting really good at taking pictures with no flash, even with a slow shutter speed ... and her composition is pretty good too! :) 

... and other meetups. :)

A visits from Chicago with THE CUTEST KIDS EVARRRRRRRRR!!!

We couldn't help but crack up after the kids made a huge mess making an ice cream / pepper / salt concoction and then diluted it with water - when the bowl was already full. I think we couldn't stop laughing when A said, "Um, I think it's time for us to leave and pretend it wasn't us?" :)

Checkin' out June's arsenal of makeup.

Eyelash power.

After makeup fun with Carrie.

Tofu Village, yes, again. :)

Our sweet sweet hosts cutting up some sweet sweet mango for us.

I was (am!) determined to see everyone I wanna see. And I ended up picking up a bonus!!

Wei and Oscar at Tofu Village. They give you the Asian yogurt drink with your cheque rather than fortune cookies. WAY better! Especially after a very spicy tofu soup. :P

While hanging with mah boiz, bumped into TOTAL blast from the past: Scott Ryan, USATT referee!! He couldn't remember me at first, and who could blame him, after over 13 years. His first question to me: "Was I a nice person?" My answer was an immediate "yes!" And then I thought about it: that really is what matters, when people go their separate ways, isn't it? That's all you take with you, the impression of if they were nice or not. I always remember Scott as being like a very kind uncle that I want to bear hug whenever I see him, he's such a sweet man.

Me 'n mah boiz, Eddie and Sam, shooting the breeze back at their hotel after dinner.

Apologies to Cindy for the violation of the cuteness of her stuffed bears when we went over to her place the other night.

Hahah okay fine, I'm not THAT sorry. :) Click through for the more "risqué" pics. Disclaimer: by clicking through, you certify that you are over 18. May not be work safe ...

Oh, and I just had to pose with Crystal's cool new camera. It's PINK!

Day ZERO of travelling was already challenging. Flight from Houston to Los Angeles was delayed for 3 hours, causing us to miss our flight to Taiwan and wait at LAX for 7.5 hours.

And what a great 7.5 hours it turned out to be. Min and Peter brought Connor up to see us, and Lily Jr. came out bringing REAL MCDEAL Chinese food. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

I'm currently hanging out with Grandpa and relatives here. The dynamics are interesting, as we have my very young cousins all the way up to my grandpa who is 90 this year.

There are computers for every member of my uncle's family right down to the youngest:

We went shopping because although I brought my DSLR, I managed to forget ALL my memory cards (me = moron). We also browsed the 10 Yuan store ($10 NT = $0.33 USD).

Oh, and I was singing karaoke as soon as we got back to my grandpa's. My 2nd uncle and aunt are serious about their karaoke - it's an external HD enclosure built for just this purpose that they carry around with them everywhere. OMG OMG OMG, hahahah!

When I started my day, I had ten things on my to-do list. By the end of the day, I had proudly finished these first ten things, but ... in the process of finalizing things, another ten items have been added, to be finished within the next 7.5 hours. Whee.

I'm glad I had time to grab lunch with Esther. It was so good to see her. She laughed as she tried to navigate through my to-do list: "It's a jungle!" Compared to her careful handwriting and organized note-taking, yes, my wayward chickenscratch is indeed something to wade through. At least it's organized to me. :)

See you in oh, 31 hours or so. :)

Merhaba everyone!
my apologies for not getting in touch sooner...man this place is crazy! i tried writing an email earlýer but ýt was erased and ý was gettýng frustrated wýth thýs freakýn turkýsh keyboard. 

I'm confused by how there are intermittent "i"s throughout the e-mail, though they have mostly been replaced by "ý"s (I would imagine because of the keyboard layout).

I tried looking up the Turkish keyboard layout and couldn't really find much - there's this on the Microsoft website - must use IE to view - looked at both the Turkish F and Turkish Q layouts. Still confused as to why the "ý"s kept showing up.

The rest of the e-mail is funny to read, just because it's like going through someone's poorly typed message and your eyes are coping with the massive bludgeoning of the language. (You know it's hard to read something that has tiepose evvry uther werd or was typed in l337-ShOrThAnD-TeEn-ChAt-SpEakzZz? Sorta like that.)

Love ya, E. :)

2 projects this time. One full-on slideshow, and one mini slideshow in karaoke "MV" style (in Taiwan, they call music videos "MVs"). (Well, they didn't ask for it, but I thought it would be SO cool to do it that way. Besides, both the bride and groom and karaoke fanatics.)

Here are a few excerpts from the wedding slideshow:

Splash screen for the karaoke MV:

Snippet of the karaoke MV:

The groom's mods to the lyrics were actually pretty sweet. The original song is called "Man Slave". If you watch the original MV, it looks as though Nokia perhaps played a big part in financing the video. Ah, blatant product placement. [ original MV @ YouTube ]

Some stats regarding the slideshow and beyond

Programs used: Adobe Premiere 6.5, Windows Movie Maker, Sonic MyDVD 4.5 (authoring)

Songs used:
1. Bride's section: 一起開始的旅程 (Our Journey Together) by S.H.E [ YouTube ]
2. Groom's section: custom mix of Good Times by Chic and Rapper's Delight by Sugarhill Gang [ mp3 download ] (they have the same bassline - never noticed / knew until I watched this)
3. Friends' section: Everything by Michael Bublé [ YouTube ]
4. Couple's section: When God Made You by Newsong [ sing along @ YouTube ]

Karaoke-making tutorial was provided here. I used Premiere 6.5 but only used Premiere's native titler, as mine did not seem to come with TitleDeko. It's simple enough but tedious. I wonder how the professional [English] karaoke bars get their karaoke songs ... ?

Challenges: working with Chinese input in Premiere and MyDVD; understanding the meaning of the Chinese song for the bride's section to better match photos with lyrics; audio editing / mixing right within Premiere to make songs shorter / longer.

All-nighters pulled: one

Warm Fuzzies:

The videographer complimented me, asked me for a copy to include in his final wedding video, and said that I'd saved the couple around $1000, since that's how much he charges for a slideshow like this one! Wow. Yay! 

It seemed to be a crowd-pleaser, and the parents of the bride thanked me profusely.

Thanks to the bride and groom for trusting my judgement. They never saw the final product until their big day! :)

Bridesmaids coordination: Thanks to a post at echeng.com, I decided to try Basecamp. It was probably a little too technodweeby at first, but everyone adapted quickly. I thought the to-do lists were really helpful, I liked the centralized messaging with e-mail notifications and personalized avatars beside comments, and the whiteboards were great brainstorming centers. After the wedding, I added the bride so she could see everything that went on behind the scenes for her wedding and for her bacheloretty party. :)

Number of pictures I took at the wedding: ZERO. Now THAT'S a new record!!!!!

Have you had a moment in your life where every single time you think back to it, you just can't help but bust out laughing? Here's one of mine:

Instead of explaining what's going on here, I thought I'd open up the comments for possible captions. Keep it clean, please! (I didn't have to mention that, did I?)

Carrie's back, and so I went over to say hey. Hugh ended up cooking *me* dinner ... not sure how THAT works, but hey, *I* ain't complainin'!

Chef Hugh's AWESOMELY refreshing veggie pasta, including veggies from my parents' garden, tofu, and fresh parsley and black pepper ...

The bro has left the mom and myself back at the studio while he's taken the dad out posing as his "intern" for a half hour or so, and wasn't able to take all of us. Thought I'd take the opportunity to post a few pics from the past few days:

I broke Crystal's camera and left Howard and Crystal to fix it. :P

Oh, they're back... I think we're about to head out... check the gallery for more pics!

Running across a bridge @ Toledo's Botanical Gardens: Mom's shoe got stuck, but what was hilarious was how she stopped and said, "Caroline, I know you want to take a picture of this!"

North of Detroit, Michigan, at the tip of Lake Huron.

Crossing over into Windsor, Ontario: Imitating Rose's imitation of inanimate objects.

On a hill @ Lake Erie: That's meeeeeeeeeeeee!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh (with random kid with afro)

Crunch-time at the studio before the newscast.

Howard demonstrates proper mic-holding technique to Dad before taking him out as his "intern" to some pre-game interviews. Yes, that is a stuffed beaver he's using as a mock microphone.

This was my second funeral ever, the first being about 13 years ago. I've had people in my life pass away, but I was unable to attend those funerals. I have yet to lose someone very close to me, and I know my day will come, and I know that no amount of mental preparation nor experience by proxy can really prepare me for it ... these are just some thoughts regurgitated out into digital format, since I've been thinking a lot about various things since attending the funeral.

The Logical Write-Up

They say people only get together for weddings and funerals, so I started to draw some parallels between the two. Both are considered once-in-a-lifetime events that friends and family try to attend if they can. Both require some advance arrangement in terms of finding a location, planning the number of guests who will attend, figuring out who will be making speeches. Money / gifts are exchanged, though in the Chinese tradition, money is given in red envelopes for happy events (ie. weddings) while white envelopes are used for unfortunate events (ie. funerals). Both can have receptions, and thus be social events.

Both are celebrations in a way - weddings obviously celebrate the love and happiness of two people and their futures together, while funerals could be described as a celebration of the life of the deceased and wishing them well in their next destination. People cry at both.

(I feel like I've just written a segment for Wikipedia. And I know it looks like I have no feelings and could possibly be a heartless robot in human form. Please read on.)

The Emotional Write-Up

We arrived at the funeral site an hour early. Our friends, the children of the deceased, were already there getting ready for everything. We said hello, hugged, and asked if we could help with anything. They said they had things under control, and introduced us to a few relatives. I just didn't know what to do. It just felt wrong for me to socialize in such a setting, and I just had to leave the area, so we went walking around the funeral grounds until it was time to start. I felt like if I had stayed there, I would have started crying, the emotional tension was so thick, with everyone either already crying or on the verge of doing so.

I was pretty determined to not cry. It is, after all, one of the Buddhist things to do, as a show of compassion and understanding for the deceased, detaching from our relatively selfish need to have them stay here with us, so their spirit can find their way to the next stop on their journey. And then there's the logical side of it; if one person starts bawling, then there's a sort of domino effect and then it just kinda gets out of control.

Walking around the funeral area was a bit better, but I got a bit depressed reading the tombstones. Doing some math, we found children buried alongside their parents. Young men who had been killed in war. Poems penned by lovers left behind. The saddest part was seeing a little baby's area of the burial grounds. I'm glad I had company; we talked about the inevitability of birth, aging, illness, and death, and reflected on our own impermanence.

But no amount of psyching-up or logical discussion could prevent me from tearing up when our friends had to go up and basically give a toast (another wedding parallel) to their father's life and legacy. To regale the audience with stories of the fond, fond memories. It hit me hard. Their dad is about my dad's age. Would I be able to stand up and speak with such poise if it were me in their position? Would I be able to recall minutiae that I did not think significant until death tore that loved one away, making every little detail suddenly significant because those memories would be all I had left? Would grudges fall away? And why do I still have stupid grudges when life is too short to begin with and we don't ever have time to tell each other we love one another? Am I waiting until death separates us to forgive the past? If so, why?!

I was asked to help with photography so that the relatives overseas who could not attend could see the proceedings. I was relieved that I could help in some physical way, yet this was a challenge to me as well. Normally (say, at a wedding), I would be up in yo' face, snapping away, shooting away relentlessly in search of a few good shots. That day, I felt inhibited (unfathomable, I know). Suddenly it felt wrong to be up and about when everyone was trying to be quiet and still. The only thing that slapped me back to reality was the reason for the photography: the relatives.

(Now it looks like I've got multiple personality disorder. Sigh.)

We were invited to a lunch after the funeral ceremonies, and I was afraid to laugh until there was some sign that laughing would be okay from our friends. (Incidentally, that sign came in the form of, "[Insert name of new friend], this is Caroline. You know that rap video I sent you? This is her." New Friend: "I THOUGHT you looked familiar somehow!!" How can you NOT break out into a smile with THAT kind of introduction?!)

And so I'm left with this: to this day, I am still unsure as to how to help when a friend has lost someone. Should I make them laugh? Try to cheer them up? Try to have them open up and talk about the one they have lost? Avoid the topic? I feel like I already have a penchant for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, so I feel extra hesitant in such situations to open my mouth at all.

The only thing I know is this: T, C, and S, you have always been an example that I've wanted to follow in how you interact with and treat your family, always sticking together, through thick and thin; and then always being utterly selfless and considerate towards not just your family members, but to everyone around you. You are one of the strongest examples I've encountered that makes me strive to be a better daughter and sister. This period of time isn't going to be easy, and I hope you'll reach out for support if you need an extra ear / hand / shoulder ...

I would rather eat rocks than buy anything at Best Buy.

I've developed a cough. No cold symptoms, just a cough.

I forget that most mothers don't work on Mother's Day, which is why I can still run around and get her real present ready today (she has no idea).

Just got back from a one-day trip to Dallas for a funeral. It's hard not to cry when your friends (children of the deceased) are crying while recounting the happy memories.

Reformatting my computer solved a bunch of little problems I'd tolerated for the last 3 years, including:
- external volume mute button: if I unmuted the laptop, then hit the increase volume button (also external), it'd mute again. So I'd have to hit "unmute" AGAIN, before I could use the increase volume button.
- I tried out this notebook utility that came with my computer called "battery calibration". Now, it actually gives me at least a few minutes after warning me before shutting down when the power is low. Before, it would go, "Better plug in now" and then shut down immediately.
- scrolling with the touchpad is much more consistent, whereas before it would just stop working sometimes. Strangely I'd read that you have to install a generic Synaptics driver to get hardware scrolling working in Firefox.
- the built-in wireless had been starting to crap out, so I'd bought an external wireless adapter. After reformatting, the built-in works fine.

Will add to the list as I find them. Good grief, should've done this sooner.

Off to finish off our gift to my mom!

It's good to see extended family (we didn't get to see all of them, but I am grateful for the ones we could see). Four generations present here:

Proud grandparents:

First ever in-car diaper change (and fastest too!):

Wii sillyness!

*yawn* Off to the bride's house to get my makeup and hair done:

Video of me giving the groom a hard time (a Chinese custom):

My fave catch of the day:

Wedding paparazzi. The ringbearer (above) and the flower girl were excessively cute:

The newlyweds and me (like the color of my dress? hehe):

Beware the fake eyelashes that almost touch my eyebrows:

More little peoples!

This is after John and Jenna's little Dereck drooled all over my jeans trying to ... uh, fit my leg in his mouth, I guess? HAhaha.

Spontaneous detour to check out Manhattan Beach right off the plane:

Video of me being silly at the beach:

Online Videos by Veoh.com
(@ youtube, if you can't see the veoh player)

Seeing my former landlords, who are like a second set of parents to me:

Meeting my nephew (son of my cousin, what do you call them?), who is affixing himself to dad's arm here:

Exhausted, but in a good way. Lights out for me!

My webhost, EnVaDoR, has once again made the limelight for his l337 "modding" skillz. I say "modding" because well, it's more like carpentry and/or engineering and/or design. He has truly succeeded in not only thinking outside the box, but also outside your humdrum regular computer case. :)

The initial photo of a computer that comes up is also EnVaDoR's, the Dashboard PC. Scroll down to "Mods from Envador" and watch the cool little slideshow of his "work" plus his telephone interview with Intel, which provides insight into Dean's personality. At 4:30 into the slideshow, he says some things that truly inspire me. Thanks, Dean!

So without further ado: [ Intel® Core™ Processor Challenge PC Design >> Share Your PC Story ]

Update: I just checked out the finalists and ... we are not amongst them. Darn. Ah well, 'twas a good run. I gotta admit though, most of the ones that made it into the finals are really good. At least I wasn't beaten by crappy entries! Anyway, at the end of the day - I am hugely grateful for all da love, so thanks, guys!!

------------

Voting for the competition has closed, and according to the rules, the top 13 most voted videos get into the finals, and Vanilla Ice picks the top 3 from these 13 finalists. So far, I have gotten NO word at all as to whether or not I have made the finals. [ update: supposedly the finalists have been announced, but I can't access the site! ]

Who'da thunk I'd learn so much from submitting a silly little video? And would have so much fun. And would end up being totally overwhelmed by the amount of support from all of you. Words cannot express how I feel right now ... amazement really is the closest approximation to it.

Much gratitude to those who voted. I know it was a pain, especially for those who didn't have a YouTube account already. The following are some the obstacles people went through just to vote for me:

• After watching the video, then going to the signup screen, those less familiar with the internet often got stuck here, what with the confirmation e-mail and all.
• After signing up successfully, people had to figure out how to navigate back to the voting page, since YouTube did not take people directly back there.
• And if you *did* find your way back to the voting page, there was a banner on the right that contained the exact same icons as those used in voting, thus looking like you could actually click on it to vote! In actuality, it was just a toggle to go to another random video contest entry. (I wrote about this to the sponsors, and they actually removed click-ability on the banner in a couple days.)

My most unlikely fan? My dad. I thought he'd immediately banish me from our family tree for being a time-wasting, camera-whoring daughter. Instead, he liked the video and song (despite not understanding a single word), used sharp observation skills to distill out key improvements that could be made, and quickly offered to translate my instructions into Chinese and e-mail them off to friends and relatives on the other side of the world. My dad! Giving me tips on how to make my rap video better!!!

What was really touching was how my relatives in Taiwan were trying to vote for me as well. My 60-something-year-old uncle wrote me for clarification. I mean, a 60+ guy daring to surf the internet outside of his comfort zone is already a huge feat; for him to take all that time to figure out all the steps to sign up so he can vote on a video for his crazy niece in America? Priceless.

Getting feedback about the video was awesome. Friends as well as total strangers wrote e-mails / left kind comments. It sure was great hearing from some people I hadn't heard from in YEARS all of a sudden drop me a message saying, "Hey, I voted for ya! And I got all my co-workers to vote for you!!"

And then the promotion by others. That was super-duper-awesome too. Again, both friends and total strangers started to pimp me out in various ways. Mass e-mails to friends, blogs ...

Thanks for all the love, folks. My patients are gonna feel this overflowing of love for sure. :)

And now that I'm just playing the waiting game on this whole video thing, I need to hurry up and uh, "TurboTax It!" ... or something like that.

================

Miscellaneous Facts About The Making Of:

• the song took 7 [major] revisions to get to its final incarnation.
• the video took 3 [major] revisions.
• additional filming was squeezed in 2 days prior to the deadline.
• the deadline for uploads ended 24 hours early due to a technical problem that was finally fixed 12 hours later; I nearly had a heart attack when I couldn't upload! (Homie A now knows the sound of my voice when I am about to cry in the middle of the night)
• the pr0nstar tank top was a self-designed iron-on that was made for a friend's bachelorette party
• Adobe Premiere 6.5 was used for the video; Sonic Foundry Acid 2.0 was used for the audio.
• the chorus was done by me, repeating myself 6 times at different pitches, so it sounds like a bunch of people saying it at once.
• the red room was at A & C's home. Yes, they really do have a room that is all painted red.
• Seconds after running into the center of a certain stadium, honking from the upper levels began, accompanied by yelling: "GET OFF THE FIELD!!! GET OFF THE FIELD!!!" The individual who helped me film this segment (who shall remain unnamed for protection of their dignity) was understandably greatly embarrassed by my sudden unannounced maneuver.
• all video and audio editing was done on my dying 3-year-old, hp pavilion ze5375us laptop (Intel P4 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB HD, 7.5 lbs)
• total time spent: 3+ weeks. No, I did not allow it to interfere with my day job. :)
• a student of mine in China asked me what the song meant. You know, it was pretty darned hard to translate it into semi-normal English!! :)

In the tunnel connecting the two buildings of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

After that last one where I stepped off the beaten path and into the warp zone, I got yelled at by security. Just can't take me anywhere! :)

We checked out the Masterpieces of French Painting 1800-1920 exhibit (the only American venue for this exhibit). I didn't think I would be cultured enough to enjoy it, but I really got into it. :) They have some of the images online, but there were many, many more there on display, and the accompanying audio gave a little more in-depth information about some of the paintings, such as how Van Gogh painted Cypresses whilst staying at a mental institute, and that he'd tried to commit suicide by eating his own paint, and thus was not allowed to paint for awhile. My fave was Joan of Arc, striking a deep chord of sadness within me. My least faves: some Modigliani pieces near the end of the exhibit (closer to the 1920s period) where the women looked distorted, one of them to the point of looking like she had a goiter growing on her neck ... ahem yes, anyways! Overall, it blew my mind to see the paintings up close and see the individual brush strokes of color that when viewed from afar came together as a coherent, realistic image. Man, if only I'd seen an exhibit like this during my art history class. I would have enjoyed that class a WHOLE lot more!

Oh, then I made Chi-Wei pose under this sign:

My friend Will did an AIDS walk with the Lot 8 For Life team (Chloe Dao's boutique, winner of Project Runway 2) and is getting close to reaching his personal fundraising goal. Drop a few cents in his bucket here.

And hey, they borrowed my name. :)

Update: just $40 more and Will will reach his goal! Will Will have the willpower to will ... hahaha ok I'll stop. Hi Will! :)

Update: Just $15 mo' dollaz to reach Will's goal! We kan doo eeeeet!!!

Update: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!! :)

I got a spam e-mail from a spoof americangreetings.com address saying that I'd gotten an e-card. Spam sure has sunken to new depths. I mean sure, spam the hell out of me trying to make an extra buck selling various meds or "through-the-roof" stock, but don't toy with people's emotions, man! Here I was thinkin', "*I* have an admirer?!?!?!? COOL!!!! OHHHHhhhhh ... wait a minute ... it's just a spammer ... fine ... delete ... back to whatever I was doing ... "

Slightly related to V-day, here are pics from the NAAAP Date Auction. Some of those auctionees were really workin' it!

Donnie visited Houston and a bunch of us nerd-herd Dulles Vikings reconnected with him. (I don't think I'm offending anyone because we were pretty consumed with comparing notes and grades, hahah.) I'm pretty impressed with how the nerd-herd turned out - everyone's doin' their thang, and you probably could never guess they were once an uber-nerd. Some of us (ahem) are still nerds ... just can't shake my roots :) [ Donnie discovers drunken karaoke ] [ portraits just cuz ] I have fond memories of riding the school bus to school every day for three years with Donnie and Joe Lee (well, I hated the school bus cuz everyone made fun of me, but that's a story for another day). Those guys are a couple of the smartest dudes I know. It was fun recounting old times. Donnie was able to call out a few stories about me that I had absolutely no recollection of. Hahah, good times.

And I just discovered this guy on YouTube (though he already seems to be a YouTube icon, and for good reason) - David Choi and his original Valentine song. [ link to song on YouTube in case it doesn't show up correctly ] [ David Choi Music on MySpace - I don't usually link to MySpaces but I suppose I'll make an exception here ]

Speaking of YouTube, does anyone feel like after the Google acquisition, they've censored a lot more stuff? Or am I just not in the know? I was doing YouTube "research" on singer Jesse McCartney the other day (yes, my boy band fetish is showing) and a ton of interviews had been removed due to violation.

... has come to me recently by way of Thi, Shilpi, and Amit. Thank you guys. Where there was an intangible, unexplainable void is now a ray of hope that is shining in and filling me, which sounds cliché but ... it truly is hard to put into words what I feel right now.

Some sobering news, which is not often found on a site with as whimsical a name as ihatepink.com ...

I'd just finished hanging out with my "twin sister" April, and then we parted ways, and this is an e-mail I got from her later on:

"I have some bad news to tell you though.  You know, on the 26th, after we left you [...] and we as a huge family went out to get dinner at Ocean Palace.  Well, when we were done, Mom went to go get the car because grandparents were cold and she didn't want them to walk to the car and she got robbed at gunpoint.  Thank God, she is okay.  Just a few very minor scrapes that should heal just fine.  He did however, steal her entire purse.  So David and I spent all of today driving mom to the DMV, banks, everything, to put passcodes and cancel accounts.  Man, it was so scary.  Apparently when he told Mom to give him her purse she actually said NO.  At gunpoint.  i have to just fall to my knees and pray and bless God for protecting her.

"Anyway, so I'm telling my girlfriends to be careful. Carry some mace dude."

For those of you who know April's mom, you will be able to envision her standing up to the robber and saying no. Despite how horrifying it must have been and how much trouble she has to go through now, I can't help but smile; undoubtedly, she's got spunk.

T: "Ma, are you proud and/or happy to be my mum?"
T's Mum: "Yes, dear! I am! And I hope that in all of my future lives, I can continue to be your mum."
Me (to myself): "Aww snif!"
T: "Awww. But but but ... what if I end up being a dog?"
T's Mum: "Then I hope that I can be your doggy mum."
T: "Awwwww. But but but ... what if I end up being a pine tree?"
T's Mum: "Then I hope that I can be a pine tree first, years ahead of you, so I can drop the pine cone that will become you and have you grow up right next to me, under my branches, so I can shade and protect you."
Me (and I'm sure I was not alone): "*AWWW SNIF!!!!!!*"

T, 2 months ago, holding strong despite her body's protests.

T, 2 days ago, with her rightfully proud and loving mum, as she tells us of the above dialogue between them.

Welcome back, T.

Me (in English): Girl, I'm feeling weak. Can I get a warm drink somewhere?
Alex (also in English): Sure, um, hmm, they'll have 'em at a 7-11. But, I don't know where they are around here ...
Me (in Chinese to some random people): Excuse me, do you know if there's a 7-11 around here somewhere? (The key part of the blooper here is that I said "7-11" in Chinese as well, like pronouncing the individual numbers, "qi1 shi2 yi1")
Random people (in Chinese): What?
Me (louder, trying to pronounce more clearly, in Chinese): Is there a 7-11 around here? A 7-11? (How are they not understanding such simple Chinese?! My Chinese isn't THAT bad!!)
Random people (with totally confused looks on their faces): Hunh?
Alex (intervening): Oh, she means a Seven-Eleven (pronouncing 7-11 in English).
Random people: OHHHHHHH there's one right over there.

=====

Alex: They call them just Seven-Elevens here, or people even just call them "Seven"s. For example, "Where's the Seven?"
Me (stunned): OK. I feel stupid. There I was almost shouting "7-11" at them in Chinese like they were retards.

[ Chinese website (cuter) ] [ N. American website ]

=====

Onto my mission for today - I want to get my stuff all moved over to my uncle's place, somewhat slightly closer to the "action". My goal is to get there without fainting. Feeling much better though. Onwards with my strict Super Supau diet!

This weekend I became intimately acquainted with a Wahl's grooming device, along with attachments #1 and #2.

Before.


After.


You can't really tell the quality of the haircut here, but I'm told that Chef Hugh has not yet felt it necessary to wear a paper bag over his head nor hide away from society entirely.

s: What did you use here to protect your camera's LCD screen?
me: Oh, it's just a WriteRight for PDAs that I sliced up and put on there. I'm pretty rough with my cameras.
s: I can see that. (pointing) I mean, you've even got food on your camera!
me: (!!!) I do?!?! OMG hahah I'm so embarrassed! (runs off to wipe noodles off camera)

As s said, rule #1: try not to use your camera as a plate.

I only ventured out to a coin-operated car wash the other day for the first time in my whole entire life, as Thi wanted to wash her car and we ended up doing my car in the process too.

Dude, I haven't laughed that hard in a while! And I probably shouldn't have massaged in the blue conditioner by hand - that stuff is hard to wash off! While seeing patients later, I was hoping no one wouldn't notice the bluish tinge to my hands ...

Some of you may know that I am currently temporarily "the boss of" a cute little ball of fur named Happy (again, also starring in my Really Important News parts one and two). Well, I've been trying to play the good dogsitter and taking Happy out to do stuff other than just taking him on his pee and poo walks. These extra outings get him really excited and extra happy, which makes for cute pictures. :) So last weekend, I crashed Hugh's place with Happy to watch the UT vs. OSU football game there (man, the Longhorns were disappointing!). Then, I called Hugh and Carrie up to go for a walk at Arthur Storey Park, and tired little Happy out there.

Well, today's adventure was to get the kid a bath. (I call him a kid, but he's really kind of an old man - he's 8 years old, which is 56 in human years.) That boy done stank up my car, gettin' all sweaty and excited and droolin' all over the place. So I headed over the nearest PetsMart to git'im a bath.

I'd never done this before so I called ahead of time to inquire. Turns out you need an appointment, AND it takes THREE HOURS! Wow. Well, I was in for a little surprise when I went to pick him up about 6 hours later (other than him smelling so lovely from his raspberry oatmeal shampoo ... I kid you not) - I guess he'd held his little bladder the whole time in his kennel there, so when we exited the grooming area, the old man couldn't hold it any longer, lifted his leg on a select bin, and promptly proceeded to TAKE A LEAK RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORE. Passersby commiserated: "My dog did the exact same thing," and "Dogs will be dogs". Luckily, Happy is a little dog with a little bladder, which means cleanup was not too terribly bad. Notice the guilty look on his face. Hahaha. Pets sure have it better than humans sometimes ... I mean dang, if *I'd* peed in the middle of a store, I'd have gotten my arse whooped to next Tuesday by one or both of my parental units! And a few employees would probably jump in too!

[ on to pictures of cuteness, food, and pee! ]

note: The pics link won't work as of 2:10a - smugmug has decided to do some maintenance. They won't be up 'n runnin' until 4am. Yargh! Imma goin' to bed. Will put the link on in da mornin'. G'nite!

I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, but I did find my favorites of the night, featuring not the bride nor groom, but the groom's adorable nephew.Note: No children were harmed in the taking of these photos. No, we did not feed him beer!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised how crazy things got, since this weekend was all about the wedding of our favorite party-throwers, Carol and Alan.

QUIZ: Two of the following statements are false. Which are they?

1. One of the girls who came to the bachelorette party got so drunk she eventually had to go the hospital and get an IV drip.
2. A 4-month-old shihtzu puppy attended the bachelorette party and peed on my carpet.
3. The big red 15-passenger van we rented for the bachelorette party garnered 2 instances of sleazy guys rolling down their windows and indecently propositioning us at red lights.
4. I was a designated driver for the bachelorette party.
5. There were unclaimed articles of clothing left behind at my apartment from the bachelorette party.
6. What with the open bar at the wedding, Alan got totally wasted.
7. We got kicked out of 3 different places in the hotel after the wedding because we were being so loud.
8. I got carded at the open bar.
9. The bride couldn't find her undergarments after the wedding, so I lent her mine.
10. I got over 1000 pictures documenting the whole weekend's events.

Click through to see the answers and some pictures!

My favorite photo from the weekend (stolen from the sexy V). We had to flirt with the Crome bouncer more than I would've liked, but hey, he was kinda cute in a Russell Crowe-ish kinda way, so it wasn't SO bad. :P

I haven't been clubbing in forever. My hair and makeup and clothes and shoes (basically, my extreme makeover) was courtesy of V. That was fun! Thanks girl!

Eddy was nice enough to have a bunch of us over at his pad for his world-famous green onion pancakes this weekend. I got to show off my hot 'n sour soup. :) Good food, good company, good times!

My camera started getting passed around the room and somehow we started on this "sexy" photo shoot spree. All the silly pictures here. DON'T ask. Hahahahah.

Boo! I'm alive! :)

Last post, I was gearing up for "IT". "IT" meant my friend Wanda's wedding up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I survived:
- photo duties
- wedding slideshow duties
- toast duty

I had fun, in a masochistic kind of way. :) By the end of the night, the camera was getting SO heavy, so I put it down (gasp!) and strutted my stuff on the dance floor, in my bare feet. I haven't strutted my stuff in AGES. It felt good. :)

Post-wedding, you could say I got digital burnout. I needed to process the pics, but didn't feel like it. Well, I have to, so I'll be getting around to it sooner or later. I'll post up something real later, but here are a few of my favorite shots that day:

having the maid of honour* and close friends pose with the groom

jumping for joy

groom getting a head start on some butt gropage while dancing

*Hey, the wedding was in Canada, eh?

... with my ring that I had left at Selena's for like EVER. Thanks Selena for safeguarding it for so long! (Darn the clarity of the digital camera, showing off each and every finger hair ... )

Selena brought me my ring when we met up for Crystal's birthday dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It turned out to be a girls' night out, though it was never intentionally arranged; 'twas simply coincidental that all boyfriends / fiances / husbands decided not to attend. Which is fine. We usually can manage to have fun without them. :)

Photos here!

Congratulations, Ashley and John, on little baby Bennett!

No epidural, no C-section, no nuthin'. She just pushed that sucker right out. Mmm. No wonder people say that giving birth can be the most painful experience of your life.

Can't wait. [ rolling eyes here ] Not that it's happening anytime soon. Should probably find a suitable mate first. :)

The sound of rain lulls me to sleep. The sound of a downpour makes me ultra lethargic.

The timing of the rain: when I have to get up (bad), and when I am supposed to go to sleep (good).

A "downpour" of another type:

Pics from hangin' with Turbo! (Oh, and his lovely owners of course, haha!)

The month of June 2006 in pics! Man, I was a little busybody last month. Musicals, baby showers, black belt tests, scams, Mom's birthday, and going to my first seafood and oyster bar. Cute doggies inside as well! Oh, AND includes pics from when a certain "spa" got busted! [ cough cough ]

And, the nutsness has just begun: As one of his proud non-Desi aunties, I would like to welcome little baby Nathan to planet Earth, weighing in at at a healthy 6lbs 13oz, 20in tall. How Annie and Jerry could have produced something that cute is beyond me. Hahah j/k guys. Congratulations.


Also, today I saw my mom and dad have a mini-spat in front of me for the first time in a while. I wondered if I fought like them, and have decided that my fighting style is the worst of both worlds. Yuck.

And now that I have inundated ye with this deluge of pictures and random info, I shall bid you goodnight. :)

Somehow having become an honorary member of Annie's family, I headed over to help host another party at their digs, this time for an older crowd. It was almost funny how for some time, the aunties totally ignored me and my non-brown skin and chattered away in one of the many Indian languages. :) Fun was had, and I got to take home enough leftovers to feed me for a week. Score one for the bachelorette!

Post-party hangout pictures with lots of silly posing going on here. Ooh, and I'm in a lot of the pictures (which means that yes, I let someone else touch my camera)! Woohoo!

Quote of the day: "I want a camera like this for my birthday!" - Stella, referring to my Digital Rebel XT, which is so much fun! :)

Last weekend I headed out to watch Nancy's black belt test as soon as I got done with my patients. Unfortunately I missed everything except the last kick! Luckily her brother Dave got it all on video, so I got to watch Nancy's entire test later. Still got to take a bunch o' pics though. :)

Man, what an inspiration. Sweet, skinny lil' Nancy kicks some major arse, man. Her four years of dedication and hard work all showed through at this test. I got to meet her sensei Rick, who sacrificed a lot to teach Nancy, and I'm sure he knew it was worth it. Nancy, you rock. You are truly a testament to reaching your goals if you just put your mind to it.

Yup. It's happening. My friends are starting to have kids.

Annie's sister Stella and I have been plotting Annie's baby shower for the last month and a half, and basically what happened was I did the slideshow and emcee duties, and Stella did everything else. Considering the work load, I got off way easy. :)


If you look carefully, you'll find me in this lil' snippet. :) (WMV, 47secs, 3MB)

Some Factoids

Total DVD Running Time: about 4.25 minutes; the shortest yet
Total Hours Spent: 2-3 wks, in my spare time
Number of Major Revisions: One, while trying to re-organize the story layout. And then millions of minor tweaks to get it juuuuuuuust right.
Number of Pics I Personally Took that Made it In: 5 (woohoo!)
Programs Used:

• Adobe Premiere 6.5 (I finally forced myself to learn how to use the native title tool)
  
• Sonic MyDVD (for authoring to DVD and making a pretty animated menu screen)

Song Used (linked to Amazon, where they have the song clip):

• Love Of My Life - Jim Brickman feat. Michael W. Smith

Ah yes, fresh air that only a non-Houston location could offer. Pics to come ...

But first, pics from my trip up to Austin from a couple weeks back where Annie, Jerry, and I went to see Wei 'n Oscar's new abode!

My observant readers may notice that I've invested in SmugMug, a new picture host, which should allow me to share pics more efficiently! Also, if you sign up for hosting with them thru this here link or enter coupon code K6kiJKNRnnN7A, you get $5 off - and give me a lil' cut too. Sweet!

My friends say hilarious things from time to time. Some tidbits of conversations past:

"Y'all are contaminated."
- Iris, on why she'd rather not date doctors

"All the good girls are taken."
- Annie, totally forgetting I was present, causing everyone at the table to be silent, and after half a minute feeling extremely embarrassed about accidentally insulting me

"They're white black shows."
- Selena, on how few/no black people watch The Cosby Show nor The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

"Can I borrow your camera for a few days?"
- acquaintance, asking the impossible favor of me to let my baby out of my sight

"___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___."
- Sam, on the most offensive thing you can possibly say in the English language, said quietly, and with everyone at the table agreeing unanimously

One last unquotable, not from a friend:

"I don't know, but it's not pork."
- waitress at Chinese Cafe (Nan2 Bei3 He2) on Bellaire, in response to me asking what the meat-looking substance in my vegetarian Ma Po Tofu was. They were rude and wouldn't give me a straight answer. I'm never going back there again.

It used to intimidate me to cook for Chef Hugh, but he has surprisingly spoken well of the home-cooked meals I've served up.

My latest. [And off to imagination land we go!]

----------------


Asian-Italian Rotini                                                                                           $15.95
Garden rotini with a dash of sesame oil with a spicy stir-fry of fresh shiitake mushrooms, tomatoes, and dried tofu; topped with shreds of golden-fried strips of egg*, asiago cheese*, fresh organically-grown basil, and freshly ground black pepper.

Korean Insamju                                                                                                    $5 / glass
Ginseng rice wine.

Hot and Sour Soup                                                                                        $3.50
The traditional Chinese favorite with a nontraditional twist, giving it a more toasted flavor.

Oreo Cheesecake                                                                                                  $4.50
Complete with crunchy Oreo crust.

Vietnamese French Coffee                                                                                   $2.50
A strong-bodied flavor tempered with a hint of amaretto.

*if you are vegan, we can substitute these for vegan options.

Mild Medium Hot

----------------

[/back from imagination land]

I appreciate Hugh for helping me clear out my fridge, which is of course the only reason why he got to eat for free. :)

The month o' March in pics: Photo shoot contortion, late-night ice cream and hanging out, meeting new people, the wedding I helped cover (almost forgot these pics), food, cute doggies, dead fish, fast bikes ... you know, the usual randomness. Oh, and look for the little filmstrip-things on the thumbnails for short video clips. :)

Yes, I finally made the wedding slideshow into something about which I can proudly say, "Yep, I made that." It only took oh, over a month since acquiring images from the couple. And most of the good work was done 48 hours before the deadline, after input from a totally non-geek friend. I already had misgivings about the flow of the slideshow (after watching it billions of times I still didn't like it that much - bad sign), but the input really made me think hard about the makings of a good slideshow. So instead of using all of Adobe Premiere's awesome cool effects, I kept it simple. Simple zooms and pans. Nothing fancy. Nothing to detract from the subject matter. The important part was to highlight the stars of the show, the bride and groom, not my technical prowess at Premiere. I lost track of that while working on it. I'm really glad I got back to basics before it was too late! Now I can watch the slideshow a billion times and still like it. That's a good sign. :)

I was also a "photographer" at the wedding. I was too nervous and didn't do too well. Lotsa duds. :( Pics that I'm actually proud of:

Normal group pic

After prompting everyone to go "AHH" :)

This is how Saturday went:

8:00am: Wake up, go to hair salon to take pictures of bride getting hair done
10:00am: Go back to bride's home, take pics of her getting makeup done
12:00pm: Head out to church
12:20pm: Realize that traffic sucks ass, call bride to warn her not to go same route, try to turn around and get where I need to be ... all while working on the slideshow in the car because I'm going 10 mph (yes and this is from the girl who refuses to talk on a cell phone while driving unless I have a hands-free headset! BAD Caroline!)
1:15pm: Finally get to the church, start getting pics and vids of bride and groom getting ready (bride beat me there despite leaving 30 mins after I did)
2:00pm - 2:45pm: Ceremony. c takes short vids from an aisle seat while I shoot stills from the back.
3:00pm - 3:30pm: I go and take group pics after handing off memory card 1 to c so he can start scanning thru it for slideshow candidates.
3:30pm - 5:00pm: c feeds pics and video into laptop; work on slideshow at church
5:00pm - 6:30pm: With c driving my car to the reception, I work on the slideshow in the car. a follows us in her car and experiences a flat tire; a stranger almost immediately helps her get the tire replaced (way faster than AAA or Honda Total Care!); we get back on the road within 15 mins. All this time I keep working while a takes over behind my wheel. I get the slideshow finished in Premiere before I run out of battery life (which sucks on my laptop).
6:30pm - 7:15pm: Export last file out of Premiere, author with Sonic MyDVD, burn.
7:15pm: Showtime!
7:29pm: Last frames of the slideshow play, which includes a shot of the couple's kiss. Some kid loudly proclaims, "Ewwwwww!"
7:30pm: Appreciative applause. Many compliments. I don't know who else, but I saw the groom's father dab at his eyes. I am the woman and c is the man. And we definitely couldn't have done it without a. 3 people seems to be about right for the number of people helping out with putting same-day footage into a slideshow, at least 1 of which needs to be familiar with whatever program you are using. :)

After the slideshow played, despite a 2-second hiccup where frames were dropped (didn't have time to preview and check for it before burning), I was so friggin' happy about it I wanted to like chest-bump someone. But um ... I've never done that before and I'm sure I would've just fallen all over myself in an uncoordinated mess. Plus, I'm a girl, and it's not wise to chest-bump males, especially if they're taken. And no girl in their right mind would chest-bump another girl. That's just gotta be really uncomfortable. So no chest-bump, but there was a high-five. :)

Being the nerd that I am, I have gone back to fix the dropped frames and tweak a few other things that I would have done differently had I had more time to really think about what I was doing. Minor tweaks. Overall, I am still super-satisfied with the product that we were able to churn out on a time crunch!! :))))

I was remarking to a how that if I'd had a boyfriend during the last 2 months, they would have surely split with me by now, being sick of me needing to spend gobs of time on the slideshow and just be sick of the "S" word in general. I think my friends have already had enough as it is. Sorry, guys! You'll all just have to see our kick-azz slideshow and then I think I may finally be able to get it out of my system. :)

The week in summary: Friday, my cell phone was stolen. Saturday, got a new SIM card activated and was back in business with my backup phone. Went to Crome to go clubbing (welcome back, Chris! I had fun but discovered later that other friends had been unfairly snubbed at the door, BOOOOO) and then to Mai's for late-night grub. Recovered from Saturday on Sunday. Monday: did my friends 'n family treatment sessions, and was granted a gourmet meal for me and a friend by Chef Hugh. Tuesday: met a friend's new dog.

And I got real up close and personal with greatness on Wednesday: I got invited to a Project Runway Finale viewing party downtown and just so happened to be standing in front of Chloe and her boyfriend, so I got a chance to chat with her a bit. (OK, keep in mind that I don't watch TV, so I only got barely acquainted with the the show earlier that day via website.) Obligatory "I saw / chatted with / shared breathing space with Chloe" pic here! Thanks Will for the hookup!

Perspective, perspective, it's really all about perspective.

There are so many things I should be thankful for, rather than whining about my sorry self.

I have patients who believe in my abilities to treat them.

It was just my cell phone that was stolen, not my laptop nor cameras nor wallet, plus no one was physically or emotionally traumatized by the incident.

I have friends and fam who I love and who love me and stuff. (Somehow the grammar doesn't sound quite right here ... oh well)

These listed in no particular order.

The week in pictures.

Hung out with Eddy and co. tonight. Discovered the amazing world of RAW shooting tonight as well. Not that it helps the blurry pics. But it is so awesome. The excitement has made me post pics in record time. Oh man.

This is the first fried green onion pancake party where Eddy has actually run out of green onions from his pot of scallions he grows on his balcony. And this is the first fried green onion pancake party where I have totally neglected to take ANY pictures of his famous green onion pancakes. Derrr. But there are other yummies to behold ...

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Miscellaneous February photos: my new digs, hangin' out at Silverture's second open house, trying to check out the Basquiat at the Museum of Fine Arts with Anita and failing miserably, and the usual miscellaneous retardedness.

V-day Eve I invaded Chef Hugh's space and forced him into an impromptu grocery trip ending in food, wine, bitching, coffee, Olympics on TV, and various snacks. V-day I invited Eddy over after working late and forced him to eat some very mediocre noodles in egg drop corn soup. He was polite and said it was good. And so I "celebrated" V-day by pestering my guy friends, after of course ascertaining that the affected individuals were not otherwise occupied.

----------

Real-life quotes:
Me: Are you doing anything for Valentine's Day?
Lady: Oh please, I've been married for 30 years. And I hate flowers.

----------

Same Lady: I was asked if I had to do it all over again, if I would marry the same man. I said, 'Oh yeah, in a heartbeat'. Sadly, some of my friends can't say the same thing.

Hey people! Looking for a sweet date in Sugar Land Friday night? Come with me to check out my girl Venita's silver jewelry open house. She writes:

---------------------------
Roses are red
Violets are blue
A gift of silver
Says your love is true!

Venita, Varsha, & Vijay Bhuchar cordially invite you to an open house to showcase Silverture's Valentine collection of exquisite silver and gemstone jewelry, silver handicrafts, and fine gifts.

Please join us on:
Friday, February 10 from 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm
and
Saturday, February 11 from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Enjoy hors d'oeuvres while you visit and shop for your Valentine. Hope to see you then!
---------------------------

I will attest that the hors d'oeuvres are really good (plus she had mimosas last time too!) so if you were on the fence about going, that should be that extra enticement to swing you my way. :)

I'll be headed there Friday evening. If you wanna come with, hit me up. If you wanna go and want details, hit me up. You know da numba / e-mail.

I've moved into my new apartment! Nothing ultra-posh, but I love it! [ Hugh bringing me late-night tea and chocolate bars ]

I'm really a simple girl. I don't need much to be happy. All I need are my laptop, my camera, a high-speed internet connection, and all related cables to attach the above components to one another. :) (Does total value of components trump the number of components and thus make me high-maintenance? Hmmm ... )

So, in pursuit of a high-speed internet connection (I'm currently on dial-up right now - gasp!) I went to Best Buy to take advantage of the DSL promotion there. The sign-up system was getting hairy on me, so I had to call on one of the Best Buy monkeys to help me out. (I say this with frustration but with some degree of endearment, as I myself was once a Best Buy monkey.)

So, not expecting too much, I hailed one of them down.

He was kinda cute. He was efficient. He actually admitted when he didn't know stuff. He knew what he was talking about when he did open his mouth. He was super patient, waiting around to make sure that I completed my order smoothly for most of the process. He went back to check for the availability of a DSL modem for me - twice - not wanting me to go home empty-handed and thus wasting my time, and finally dug the elusive thing out from somewhere for me.

Did I mention he was cute?

He walked me and my DSL modem up to the front and he checked me out himself. He asked to see my driver's license to verify my credit card info (but was there more to that? hehe). Ensuing dialogue:

Me: Thank you so much for being so patient with this whole thing.
Cute Best Buy Boy: Sure, not a problem! Um, I don't mean to be nosy, but do you know David Chen?
Me: I have an uncle named David Chen ... there's probably a billion David Chens out there, eh?
CBBB: Oh OK, never mind, it's just that there's a David Chen at my school.
Me: (Thinking, "School? Does he mean university, or ... ??" while he patiently explains all the rebate forms to me.) Well, I don't mean to be nosy, but you look really young, yet you seem to know what you're doing around here.
CBBB: Oh, I just turned 18, but I've worked here for a while now.
Me: OK. Well thanks so much, [insert name of CBBB here according to name tag].

Damn. I was exchanging flirtatious banter with an 18-year-old. YARGH!

Damn he was cute though.

I have forgotten how slow a 28.8 modem is. So I trust you all shall forgive me for not posting pictures right now. Hahahah.

I'm in Dallas now, hangin' with April 'n David 'n their cutie-pie beagles, aka their children.

Got to spend some time with Sam yesterday by Whiterock Lake, and he moved me almost to tears with his beautiful poetry-like discourse expressing his incredible, unconditional, all-encompassing love for his wife. I truly aim to be able to love like that one day. He gives me hope.

[yawn] So it's like half past noon on X'mas day for me, and I am awoken from my beauty slumber with a call from the bro:

"Yo! Merry Christmas! It's really loud in here, so I just wanted to tell you to turn on Channel 13 cuz I'm at the ___ (couldn't hear who) vs Detroit basketball game, and if you look closely I'm the dude in the grey shirt and khaki pants under the net that Detroit is attacking, with a camera on my right shoulder! Check it out!"

But first, my holiday hangouts so far:

Went on a Friendster date with long-lost friend Anita who braved her headaches so we could hang out and hit on teenage boys in the astrology section of the bookstore

Got together with Esther and Jean so Esther could get her fill of real Chinese food and boba

Pigged out on awesome vegetarian hotpot with the fam

Drove around with the fam checkin' out other people's amazing X'mas light displays [ panorama 1 (above) ] [ panorama 2, ocean theme ] [ closeup of Santa waterskiing ] (Canon Photostitch is so cool!)

Leisurely took pics of our autumn scenery (winter for Texas) before heading to clinic and getting stood up by patient (aiyaa)

Went clubbing for the first time on X'mas Eve, with comrades Hugh, Eddy, Anita, and Anita's homies Vivek, Ashoke(sp?), and Raj: [ me 'n cute bouncer ] [ I look retarded when I dance ] [ leaving Club Mantra ] [ At House of Pies, with our Santa ]

And ... just got back checkin' the TV. I called the bro up: "Hey, uh, I can't see you." "I'm the only Asian dude on the floor!" I squinted more closely and still couldn't tell. Perhaps this is where the high definition would come in handy. Oh well. And so I missed my bro's fifteen minutes of fame.

More merrymaking to come!

Happy holidays to all.

It rained HARD today, with scary thunder and lightning to boot. Eddy and I got thoroughly soaked after making a mad 4-second dash to the car after brunch, having to brave bad traffic and make my car swim through rivers made my commute to work 3 times longer than usual, 2 patients either cancelled or just didn't show up ...

Just kind of a gloomy, Eeyore-ish day.

Finally, pics are up from my epic 28-mi (45-km) bicycle ride with Mahesh, Ivonne, and Cynthia. The event was aptly named the Tour De Doughnut, as Krispy Kreme was one of the sponsors, and for every doughnut eaten, 5 minutes was credited towards your race time.

I finished the race, and wasn't last place! Just 7th from last! 16th from last if you count my doughnut credits! Yay!! ~does the Caroline dance~ [ results ]

This was definitely a big personal accomplishment for me, and it reminded me how much I loved just pedalling around. It inspired me to ride my bike to work ... once ... but then it got cold and it's scary to ride home at night, so I haven't done it since.

A few days ago, Violeta came over to shoot some footage for a short film on acupuncture she was doing as an extra credit assignment for a class. Viet and Eddy came along as needle fodder and as ghetto lighting assistants. I was offered a raincheck on more of Viet's specialty martinis as remuneration. Hey, will do acupuncture for free drinks! (Drinking and acupuncture not done simultaneously, of course!) [ taking close-up pics with special lighting ] [ goofing around ]

Oh yes, and I just got a new haircut. Most people think it's absolutely fab, but I think it's just so-so. Hmm. I'll get used to it in time, I'm sure.

Had the privilege of watching the St. Lawrence String Quartet with Todd Palmer perform at Rice University's Stude Concert Hall.

I snickered before the 3rd piece about something in the program:
"Huh huh, Carol, look, it says 'Todd Palmer, Clarinets'. That's gotta be a typo, right? I mean, what's he gonna do, play TWO clarinets?"

I was so wrong. It wasn't a typo. And he played FIVE clarinets! It was amazing. Wish I had a picture ...

We did get to go backstage and mingle briefly with the members of SLSQ and Todd Palmer. I knew I could count on Geoff to help me out with a good goofy pic. (L-R in both pics: Lesley Roberston, viola; me; Chris Costanza, cello; Geoff Nutall, violin; Todd Palmer, clarinetS [front]; Barry Shiffman, violin; Carol, violin )

Big shoutout to Eric for the classical music hookup - yet again!

Had dinner with a friend whom I hadn't seen in awhile and caught up on life.

Before we parted ways, she said that I wasn't myself anymore, that I wasn't laughing as much as before, that it was as if I was growing up.

Trust me, if this is what growing up is about, if I didn't have to, I wouldn't.

Today's a day where I finally feel like crying.

Damn my melodramatic journal posts.

Shaun of ChinatownConnection.com came in today and I got my first ever media interview about acupuncture. Well, hmm, make that my first ever media interview, period.

Ick. I need to seriously cut my hair. Or at least brush it in the mornings ...

Today I went to the rock gym and accomplished one particular route facing both forward and backward! Hee hee. The pic doesn't really show how cool the route was; it basically consists of 2 walls coming together at 90 degrees, and you can shimmy up it.

Food was had afterwards at Taqueria Cancun. I put a quarter into the jukebox and picked out a random song by the band who wore the funniest-looking outfits on the cover of their CD. The best part though, was sitting by the beach and gazing at the sunburnt couple walking along it, hand in hand.

Too bad we stopped to eat at Taqueria Cancun though, cuz just down the street was "The Real Mexican Food". Hahahahaha.

Saw something weird on my driver's side mirror today as I was pulling away from work. Hahahaha. It made me get out of my car and inspect all around to see if there existed other evidence of Boy "tampering".

And so - I've been procrastinating on washing my car, but now I don't want to wash it because there is a Boy who is using the dirt on my car to show me affection. Hum.

Well, I HOPE it's Boy! Better not be some random stalky patient!

With help from Boy, I just experienced such a huge personal victory that I have no words to describe it. Happiness is not the word; it's something more like relief. Vaguely put, a dark secret that I finally aired had a truly unexpected positive outcome, rather than eliciting the backlash that I had so deathly feared.

I almost cried. I didn't know it would mean this much to me.

My whirlwind tour of SoCal went something like this:

Thursday, Nov. 10:
3:30p - arrive at LAX
5:30p - finally pick up rental car after waiting for 2 hrs (Rent Rite is cheap but argh, it was frustrating)
6:30p - dinner with friend (Rowland Heights)
8:30p - meeting up with friends at friend's home (Anaheim)
1:00a - getting back to cousin's place to sleep (Aliso Viejo)

Friday, Nov. 11th:
8a - meet in Buena Park to run errands with bride-to-be
12p - casual lunch with bride-to-be's parents and relatives
2p - run errands for bride-to-be (Buena Park)
3p - meet up with friend for coffee (Garden Grove)
6:30p - spontaneous dinner with friend and his wife since they happened to be in the area
8:30p - salsa dance lesson at Cal State LA and free dancing (LA?)
11p - out for snacks and food with friends (San Gabriel)
2a - get to friend's house to sleep after missing the exit several times (Rowland Heights)

Saturday, Nov. 12th:
10:30a - breakfast with friend and his wife (Fullerton)
1:45p - meet in Buena Park to carpool to wedding reception location to help set up
3p - start help setting up at restaurant (San Gabriel)
5:40p - get dressed for wedding reception
6p - wedding reception begin
11p - clean-up; head back to Buena Park
1a - back at friend's place to sleep (Rowland Heights)

Sunday, Nov. 13th:
9a - breakfast with friends (Irvine)
1p - 9p - hang out with cousin's in-laws, witness her brother-in-law's daughter learn to ride a bike without training wheels for the very first time (Burbank?)
11p - 2a - hang out with cousins (Aliso Viejo)

Monday, Nov. 14th:
SLEEP IN UNTIL 10:00AM (MUCH NEEDED)
10:20a - breakfast at home with cousins while practicing Chinese together
11:20a - meet Mr. Syndromes for the first time and have boba (Laguna Hills, Irvine)
2:20p - check out friend's new apartment (Laguna Hills)
2:50p - leave for LAX
3:50p - majorly stressing in traffic on the 405 freeway
4:15p - return rental car; got one day free after talking with manager about pickup frustration
4:25p - shuttle arrives
4:35p - arrive at airport
4:40p - arrive at gate, all sweaty and gross
4:55p - depart LA

Next time I will leave earlier. Yes I know, I stressed myself out for no reason. Thank goodness it all worked out.

I really felt like I got a lot done during this trip. I got to see and spend time with loved ones (and meet some new people too!). Thanks to everyone who set aside time to hang out with me and/or provide accommodations! Feelin' da love ...

Oh, the pictures. Tons 'n tons of pictures. Ahhhhh ...

Dude, I did it! I finished a 28-mile bike ride participating in the Tour De Doughnut!

I only ate 4 doughnuts. I think that's probably the upper limit at which they still taste good.

Ow, my arse.

I feel so popular. I have 101 friends on my Friendster now. I will admit, one of them I do not know but added when she added me because I was just starting out on Friendster and wallowing in the throes of Friendsterlessness, and one of them is a dog. But I'm friends with the dog. Fo' sho'.

It's pretty interesting to see who knows who, I have to admit. Sometimes I'll just sift around and click away and be amazed at how small the world is. And revel in my false sense of popularity. Hey, leave me alone, I was never one of the popular kids! At least I can be semi-cyber-popular! Well, one thing I will give Friendster credit for, and that is reconnecting me with friends I've lost touch with (and regrettably, there are many, due to my laziness). Friendster has been neat in that if I find someone, I guess I can let them know that although I haven't been good at keeping in touch, I have never forgotten them.

Of course it gets tricky when so many people my age are getting hitched and I can't add them cuz I don't know their new last name.

I know you want to join and add me. JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME JOIN AND ADD ME

Chatting with Sam, a long time friend, for the first time in a very long time:

corona13 (11/1/2005 4:00:41 PM): did i um, tell you about the rap song i wrote?
lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:00:53 PM): no!
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:00:59 PM): it's nothing epic, but it's hilarious, in my opinion

...

lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:05:25 PM): i like it.
lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:05:36 PM): the song is cool..
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:05:40 PM): HAHAHAHAHHA yay thanks!
lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:05:48 PM): the caroline has rhythm. cool!

...

lecrivains (11/1/2005 4:20:46 PM): i added your song to my iPod.
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:21:35 PM): HAHAHAHHA YES!!!!!
corona13 (11/1/2005 4:21:42 PM): that is freakin' awesome

---------------

That made me feel good. I mean, Fri and I got added to someone's iPod! Wow.

Congratulations to Sam and his wife on expecting a baby girl in February. He's gonna be the best daddy ever!

I was too tired to go to the Hallowe'en parade, so I just went to a little costume gathering tonight.

It was nice.

I gave a girl a lap dance as an upcoming birthday gift for her - as per her request.

Someone threw up at the end of the night but it wasn't me. Whoa.

I'm now peeling everything off and showering and washing all this gunk out of my hair and getting all the makeup off my face so I can just collapse. Into. Bed.

Yay for an extra hour of sleep.

It has been a trying couple of days. I have reason to believe I left my brain at home before I went to Austin ...

missed IH-35 on the way up to Austin to Wei's place. How the hell did I do that?!

got a parking ticket downtown for being 8 minutes late to my parking meter. My walk-in appeals hearing did not help.

locked myself out of car. Did not know where keys were, if they were in the car, or what.

friend Sharon was telling me she was going to buy a bus ticket to come back to Houston this weekend. I went with her to purchase her round-trip bus ticket. Only 30 seconds after she purchased it did it occur to me that she could easily just ride home with me.

on my way back to Houston, when getting on SH-71, had a TOTAL brainfart and went WEST instead of EAST!!! Wasted 2 hours going the wrong way in bad traffic before realizing what I had done. What. The. Hell.

left my hoodie at Sharon's house after dropping her off and going in briefly to say hi to her parents.

The silver lining:

missed IH-35 on my way up, but turns out I did not stray too far and easily rectified the situation.

found free parking on University Avenue today.

Oscar came home from work just to help me out. Movers passing by spent time trying to help me out. Really felt the love. And while Oscar was helping me out, he got a call saying their offer on their new home was accepted!!

1 minute after checking with the apt leasing office lost 'n found, a couple of ladies found my keys laying around in the grass and turned them in!

the bus ticket purchase is good anytime in the next year.

because we went the wrong way, we got cool pics of bad traffic and weird things in the back of trucks. And had plenty of time to chat.

I'll be able to retrieve my hoodie tomorrow when I go check out my Sharon's dad's sunglasses shop for the first time. And hopefully pick up some cool shades for my tiny noggin.

just felt really loved because so many people took time out to chill with me. I even got "serenaded" by the wonderfully talented and candid Howard (Chi-Wei's bro) - I love it when people play stuff for me (Windows Media Video, 2min 44sec, 5.3Mb).

overall just loved the radiating energy of being around younger people on campus, bonding with kids who are now all grown up, and catching up with Wei.

With Ashley, whom I hadn't talked to in a while:

Me: Hello? Hello?
Ashley: Hello? Hello? Wei?
Me: Hey, can you hear me? It's Caroline!
A: What the hell - Caroline? Hey!
Me: Hahahaha! Nice way to greet me ... [sarcastic tone] nice to hear your voice too, girl friend! Hey, whatcha doin' Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights?
A: Are you coming up to Austin? Do you need a place to stay?
Me: Yup!
A: Well, we have an extra bedroom. I'm not in town right now, but John's home ... I'm in China.
Me: WHOA ... holy crap ... okay then bye! Shoot! It's probably like $3 a minute to talk to you!
A: Well John's home ...
Me: Oh dude don't worry about it, I can stay with other friends, I was just thinkin' that I hadn't seen you in forever.
A: That's cool, I'll call you when I get back and we'll hang out OK?
Me: OK hurry up and hang up bye!

Yeah. I should uh, try to stay in touch a little better. Well, not really ... although our friendship is super low-maintenance (we might talk twice a year), whenever we do get a chance to catch up it's like we never missed a beat.

Although ... if I'd had known she was in China, it would've prevented me from running up her cell phone bill by $3. Sorry, Ash!

Saturday night, Violeta and Viet had a housewarming BBQ at their new digs. Viet got the party started by getting the girls tipsy [ key lime pie margaritas ... mmmMMMM ] and grilling some scrumptious veggies. Then Violeta changed into her Thai shirt (Fri got me mine from Thailand too!) so that we could pose as twins [ back ] [ front ]. Then we busted out the Scrabble set (my first time playing on a Deluxe set!) and watched the Astros play. We learned that "merlon" is a real word. The Astros lost, but it's all good. Apparently they lost tonight too. Mark my words, they'll come back! (The official prediction from someone who doesn't follow sports, hahahaha.)

At the request of my bro (I give him credit for educating me on why I should care about the Astros), I headed out yesterday in search of official Houston Astros NLCS gear. Man, there was a line outside the store just to get in, which became a mob inside the store as soon as stuff was in sight, and by the time I got there they'd run out of adult size shirts. The shirts are ugly, in my opinion. The only thing that made the trip worth it was seeing this adorable little kid whose brother had already managed to score a cap for him. I'll go back next week when all the hoopla has died down.

Tonight Ivonne and I headed over to help Annie with painting their new Montessori school. I wanted to have some music while working, so I brought my CD boombox, which turned out to be welcome entertainment. I have a happy mix CD of early 90s stuff that everyone seemed to like. I think those songs probably elicited a memory or two of a simpler time ... [ me and Ivonne on tape prep ] [ Annie 'n Jerry goofing around ] [ Stella and Ivonne on a well-deserved pizza break ]

Today I learned ...

how to leash-train the doggies. Man, Happy's stubbornness rivals my own.

that Angie is a kick-ass doggie trainer. Oh wait, I already knew that. [ firm words ] [ whoa, she got him to heel! ]

that the Houston Astros were playing.

that the Houston Astros have never gone to the World Series before.

that they need one more game to go to the World Series. I finally began to understand why the 'Stros was such a big deal ... it's always good to have a bro who like, knows sports 'n stuff ...

that there is an Asian dude on the Cardinals team.

that despite cheering for the Astros (and being disappointed in their loss), I want to bear Albert Pujol's children. That guy is sexy. (Looked better on TV, anyway ...)

to play three-quarters of "More Than Words" on the guitar half-decently, with singing!

that standing up to my mom when it comes to touchy issues is exactly what I need to continue doing. I finally did that for the first time today, and ... it felt right.

Last night was the first time I hosted my colleagues. Another first was having kids over, three of them, aged 9 through 11 (cuties, all). Since I was entertaining my colleagues, I wasn't able to keep an eye on their kids at all times. I learned some valuable lessons:

1) Don't ever let kids into the elevator without prior instruction. (Yes, there is an elevator in this house.)
2) The password protection on my computer turned out to be a really good idea.
3) Don't ever leave hot peppers laying around.

At least I had Robots on DVD so they sat somewhat still for like an hour and a half.

I'm sure it didn't help that one of the little boys seems to have a crush on me. According to past experience (as a much older girl with little boys crushing on me), little boys like to show they like you by doing annoying things to get attention. (Perhaps akin to Flying Pear's sock-sniffing kid?)

I was afraid my BBQ'd veggie-kabobs wouldn't be enough, but we ended up having WAY more than enough. On the menu: layered chip dip (courtesy of Boy), stir-fried wide slippery noodles (cooked by colleague's hubby!), tofu in spicy sauce, and carrot cake for dessert. Almost everything was vegetarian (just a portion of slippery noodles was not), and every last bite was delicious. Mm mm good.

Aside from 5 hours of house cleaning and food prep, mingling with my colleagues in a casual environment was pretty enjoyable [group shot]. Of course, it helps that no one got hurt / got permanently stuck in the elevator / had spontaneous burning diarrhea / installed random stuff on my computer ...

I will be better prepared next time kids come over to the house.

Oh, and valuable lesson #4, unrelated to kids:
4) I don't need no can opener to open cans! (Well, I had one, but don't know how to use it.)

(See my 9/29/05 post)

I bought the package of 5 massages, and I only have one more left! Call / e-mail me if you want it! You'd be doing my friend Thi a favor while indulging in 1.5 hours of relaxation for $36!

If there's enough demand, it'd be no problem for me to get another package to satisfy all of our massage-at-a-killer-deal needs. (No, I am not making any money off of this.) So just lemme know, people! Oh, and psst - massage definitely goes good with acupuncture too.

Update: massage package all gone. Thanks, guys!

Still hung up, but refreshingly and delightfully not hung over.

Saturday was Carol's surprise birthday party. With Alan's fake eVite and everyone's fake no's and excuses as to why we couldn't be there, we got her good.

I did not emerge unscathed, however. How does one get carpet burns on their elbows at a party? Let's see here:

First you go to a restaurant and order some uh, special drinks, depending on your gender, or whatever you feel like imbibing:

(No evidence was collected of the incriminating x-rated Britney Spears karaoke lapdance I did on Carol, muahahahaha)

Go back to Alan's place, where more drinks are had, and people are starting to get so drunk they are passing out under pool tables:



And then, suddenly it makes a whole lot of sense to start having a competition to see whose head can fit under the coffee table!



Then people realize I'm laughing the loudest and demand that I give it a try - I decided to see how far I could fit starting legs first. My tailbone arch was my limiting factor. This would be my source of carpet burns ...



Random: Engrish of the night. These wedding invites were made in Taiwan. I think if you say it in the right tone, with the right breathlessness, it could be romantic.

Last night was a blur of drinking and barfing. I think I must continue to get completely wasted once every 2 years to remind me how not fun it is to get completely wasted. And how my alcohol tolerance is slowly waning, probably due to aging, which is not a bad thing.

Very thankful to all my friends who took care of me last night. I called them up today, embarrassed and apologetic and grateful, and each retold bits and pieces from last night, much of which I had no recollection. That is probably the most amusing part of the whole fiasco - the weird things I said or did while totally not in control of my faculties.

I'm gonna stay dry for a good long while.

Wow. Not a single photo from last night. At least not from my camera. I don't remember any other cameras going off after I reached critical saturation - but then again, I don't remember a whole lot to begin with. Hahaha, anyone have pics from last night?

- edit: I was reminded that I'm currently on a get-wasted-once-a-year schedule.

My girl Thi (pronounced "tee"), a physical therapist, has long been generously giving great massages to her friends (me included), but just recently decided to add registered massage therapist (RMT) to her credentials. She needs 50 hours of internship, so hey people, get a feel-good massage AND help my friend out! The skinny:

1 hr massage is $30 (usually $50-60)
1.5 hour is $45 (usually $60-75)

Special package is buy 4 get 1 free [can share with others!]

Says Thi: "i recommend the 1.5hour if you really want total body work, or if your neck or back needs extra time, or if you really like foot rubs "

The school is near Harwin/59. Starting Oct. 1, her schedule:

Wednesdays 10am-5pm
Saturdays 10am-6pm
Sundays 1pm-6pm

Personal testimonial - Thi is excellent. She combines her theoretical and practical expertise in everything she does, with massage being no exception. Friends, let me know if you want in on a package of 1.5 hour massages. If you wanna go solo, shoot me off an e-mail and I'll give you Thi's phone number.

Foot rubs sound GOOOOOOOD. I miss them frequent visits to the foot reflexologists in China, yo ...

Here's the latest (and last) "Really Important News"! (Windows Media Video, 1min 47secs, 6.5MB) Actually all the scary stuff happened last night, and I was too chicken to go outside and do any filming, so you'll have to settle for this lame footage.

The storm has passed, and there was no damage except for my neighborhood's power going out. Thank goodness for us, but too bad for the people who got hit and will get hit by Rita ...

And so ... I am over at Eddy's hanging out and leeching off of his electricity and air conditioning and internet connection. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have had a hot dinner, nor a cool place to hang out, nor been able to refrigerate my food, nor been able to complete my Really Important News, which we all know is uh, really important.

The 24-7 coverage of Hurricane Rita on TV/radio is getting irritating. I've been disillusioned in general with the media since the overhype that came with SARS. Well, since I've decided to stay put, I'll be able to see how much of this is hype and how much is for real. That is, if I am able to "be safe" (aka "not die").

The people who have gotten stranded on the side of the highways because they ran out of gas now need to be ushered to shelters. There are supposed to be tankers of gas coming to their rescue, but so far there has only been 1 tanker who was giving out 10 gallons of gas per vehicle. Highways have opened up converting southbound traffic into northbound, but that doesn't seem to be improving the flow by much.

So at this point, fleeing will not really reduce my chances of getting majorly screwed over.

In the meantime, I'm processing pics I've taken over the last couple of days. I hope my "borrowed" wireless Internet connection lasts me awhile.

It also strangely comforts me that I'm not the only one staying put, which I guess tells me that I am not out of my mind, unless we're all out of our minds. Today Eddy came over to hang out and we just watched some DVDs. I know a couple of people personally who actually turned around and came back (gas shortage and traffic frustration). Thanks to everyone who called / e-mailed to wish me luck and to offer comfort. I'm actually a little scared, but refuse to give in to unproductive hysteria.

Today I was extremely moved because of an act of random kindness that happened to me (again). I went to HEB to procure some food. No bread, so stocked up on tortillas to throw in the freezer. A couple jugs of drinking water to add to my stockpile at home. Cans of corn 'n beans. Bananas. They ran out of shopping carts so I picked up an empty box laying around and lugged all my stuff around in it. As I checked out, the bagger offered to carry my stuff to my car. I declined his kind offer, since they were busy as anything. While stumbling out with my box o' stuff, a man in the passenger's side of a passing car jumped out and spontaneously helped me with my box! I asked him if he was leaving town. Turns out he is part of our "First Response" unit. "Someone's gotta stay," he said with a grin. So here's a pic of Dan and I after getting to my car (parked in the farthest possible spot from the store; I couldn't find any parking anywhere closer). Thank you, Dan, and all of our First Responders, for all that you do for this city and all that you will do in the coming days. And for helping me with my groceries.

But most of all, for providing me a bit more emotional comfort for what is to come.

Pics from my "Housewarming" party (aka Independence party) are up! In this set: plenty of video footage of out-of-tune drunken singing! (As if that's supposed to make you want to look at the pics. Oh well.)

Lily Jr. came to visit me this weekend. I'd had a rough week, so on top of all the support my friends have been giving me, having her come be goofy with me was just what I needed. Thanks, Soopakid! :)

Highlights: chugging boba every day, indulging at Lemongrass Café (had to go give my friend Theo, the manager, as much trouble as possible, hehe), de-romanticking the Waterwall, using the internet connection at the Apple store in the Galleria and not getting kicked out, terrorizing the waiter at The Flying Pig, figuring out Fruit Rollup Tattoos (not really - here's the video! [Windows Media Video, 2min 11secs, 4.2Mb]), and chatting amicably with Eric over lunch about peeing in wetsuits.

Oh, and as promised, the goofy pics of me and my headset are included too. Yargh. I look really ugly with it on. Must reduce use to in-car and when out of sight of other humans.

I'm gonna stay up and do some catching up on pictures. Yay for pictures! I've been so busy with stuff I haven't had time to post as many pictures as I would like.

I've had a good couple of weekends. It all started when Eric informed me his friend Geoff Nuttall would be performing in Houston and that I could go check him out - for free! Geoff was fun to watch, practically flying off his seat during the performance. Afterwards, we got to meet Geoff along with his lovely wife Livia (who described Geoff's performance as a calm one by his standards). [ Pictures! ] Big shoutout to Eric for hooking me up, it was great to watch Geoff perform, and it was very nice to meet Geoff and Livia.

Last Saturday was kinda crazy: in the morning I saw a couple of patients, then headed out to the Chinese Cultural Center since there was a fair going on there with some food, and then we headed out to the dragon boat races downtown. We then headed back to TheBoy's, where I showed him how to make Min's to-die-for sandwiches. (My awesome cousin Min is always teaching me how to make delicious, simple meals.)

That night was a charity date auction, where I was seriously scraped off the bottom of the barrel to be their last-minute, last-resort "photographer". I borrowed a camera I consider better than mine thinking nicer equipment would yield nicer pictures, but lack of familiarity with the camera proved to be a bigger obstacle than I thought. Luckily all my pictures ended up getting reduced to tiny thumbnails, which make them look way better than they do full-size.

The main event of this past weekend has got to be Eddy inviting us all over to his place for his birthday party and another unforgettable night of his world famous homemade cong1 you2 bing3 (fried green onion pancakes). I like how on HIS birthday, WE all get fed. Of course, we chipped in to help make some, but still, Eddy was quite the host, always on his feet making sure we always had cong1 you2 bing3 readily available for consumption. [ More pictures! ]

It's hard to believe I've known Ashley for 16 years. It's even harder to believe she's remained my friend despite how I made fun of her when we first met.

Ashley: Do you remember when we were in middle school, how you critiqued my essays? You wrote 3 columns: 'The Good, The Bad, The Ugly'. 'The Ugly' would always be full, and there'd be like ONE thing under 'The Good', something like, "Spelled your name right."
Me: Hahaha, shoot, really? Dang, sorry girl. I know, I was a punk lil' kid.
Ashley: That's cool. 'Cuz you know what? It's because of your criticism that my English improved. Thanks!

Ashley, my sincerest congratulations. I love you so much. I'm so happy for you that you've found an awesome man to share your life with. Be good to John now, y'hear?

I love how this pic (courtesy of my dad) captures April's multi-talented-ness: she can smile AND kiss at the same time!



And they lived happily ever after.

------------

Here's another of my side-by-side comparisons (if you missed the others, here they are):



19 yrs later, and not much has changed. Our piano teacher (who led us to piano duet victory when we were but wee ones), now 79 years of age (but SO not looking or acting it!), is still the sweetest lady ever; April is still as skinny as a stick, 100% body mass = brain, and has landed herself a most excellent hubby; I, eh, well, I now have a full-looking set of teeth and know how to occasionally act girly. Both of us are definitely as dorky as ever. Dorks 'r us!

I had the extreme pleasure of being a bridesmaid at April's wedding after 19 [torturous! hehe] years of knowing the bride. I love you, girl! This also means though that there were NOT that many pictures taken because I can't possibly expect my dad to be as freakish as I am, although I'm sure I got this trait from SOMEWHERE ... gotta blame it on sumpin' ... gotta blame it on sumpin' ... blame it on da rain, yeah, yeah ...

Henry is a guy who needs to meditate on how to be angry. The boy is incapable of being angry without extreme stimulation, which is a good thing under normal circumstances, but let me explain. He ordered a digital camera online May 23rd. Now, 22 DAYS LATER, still no sign of it despite promises from the online vendor (will get their name so we will all know NOT to shop with them) of overnight shipping (supposed to arrive 2 days ago) and excuses like "it's on backorder - again - but we will be getting them in tomorrow". Alas - I am getting more angry about it than he is. Well, just hope you get it before your friend's wedding, dude! =)

And now, finally, after much nagging, I have pics from Howard's grad in Syracuse up! You owe me, foo! =) Plenty of pics and video footage for you to munch on. =)

 

Me & Mimi & bat, 1999(?)

Mimi & bamboo & I, 2002

We were just lounging outside on the porch in the beautiful weather eating lunch. Hugh and Mimi's 95 lb. golden retriever Moemoe was laying under the table. He suddenly made a move to leave and knocked the neighboring shelf down onto our food! Mama Mimi grabbed the bamboo stick for some doggy-style discipline and ran around the table yelling, "Moemoe Chang!" She swung ... Moemoe ducked behind me ... SMACK! It took me a sec to figure out that the sting on my calf was because she'd whacked me there! HAHAHAHA. Mimi, I know I can always count on you for a spanking

6-02-02 weight: 96 lbs*
6-02-02 percent body fat: 13%*
*This looks pretty depressing - my body fat increased but my weight decreased! Factors that may have influenced the accuracy of these stats are 1) I weighed myself right after I ate, and 2) I was wearing less clothing than the original weighing. Trust me tho, I ate a LOT ... some mornings I woke up feeling FULL =)

Current weight: 96.5 lbs
Current percent body fat: 11.5%
Non stop eating!!!

I'm in Conway, Arkansas! =) Hugh and Mimi put my name on the marquee! Hahahaha. Pics to come. I've been eating nonstop. I have challenged them to put the pounds on me. Tonite is when I'll actually be helping out in the restaurant (Mr. Stirfry). Muahahahahaaaaa ... they'll be sorry they ever let me

EnVaDoR has done it again. Check out his Intel-sponsored computer case-building project. I say "case-building" instead of "case-modding" because he doesn't just slap a plexiglass in the side of his store-bought case. He goes to Home Depot to get his stuff. =) For more of his creations (Toilet PC has got to be my favorite), check 'em out here.

Took Uncle Alan shoe shopping. Sorry asnxsuga for being a copycat, but I found some noodle thong slippers for cheap and I couldn't resist. =) (they look like this but dude, get 'em wayyy cheaper at WalMart, foo'!)

Got sick from the cold, wind and rain up in Syracuse, NY =( Been spoiled by this Cali weather and didn't bring enough coverage. I've been sleeping for over 24 hrs straight and still want more. I hate this. Oog ... almost passed out during shoe shopping ... I'm feeling much better after Henry's treatment but still fatigued ... will return to sleep soon ...

Back from Howard's grad @ Syracuse U. I was inspired to write a mooshy poem because of a pic I took when Anabelle and Howard (friends since freshman yr) were saying goodbye.

More pics soon ... [yawn]

Hmm ... I think the cat missed me ... she is currently passed out on the floor right beside my chair ...



Guess what this is? For those of you who know, don't ruin it for the others. =) It's a little something I discovered over the wknd. Leave me comments with your guesses. If you get it, you will win ... a ... um ... well, you'll just win, OK? =)

Here's another oh-so-immature rumination by me: is it a crime to pop a patient's big bad backne? (pimples on your back.) I had to quash the urge =) Hey, it was so juicy ... the white head thing was showing thru the skin ... it would've exploded like a volcano! =)
Pics from Sacramento are up - and Lily, I know you have some frightening ones of me. Please please send =)

Updates to the hiking / BBQ pics. I was in a more creative writing mood, plus Lily got me some more pics. =)

Wow, a whole wk without updates ... sorry 'bout that, to my few but loyal visitors. =) Well, Monday nite I spontaneously agreed to go to Sacramento via bus to support some sort of bill to increase the # of academic hrs in the acu program to 3000 hrs. There's ppl out there arguing that this will raise the competency of acupuncturists. I don't agree, but I was bribed into going with clinic hrs ... anyhoo, here are my conclusions from the trip (which are pretty unrelated to the whole reason we went):

Sadly, when a group of older-generation Chinese get together in a big gathering, they forget they are in America. Their actions perpetuate the stereotype and ridicule of all Asians. This makes it more & more difficult for Asians to emerge in America, for us to be taken seriously ... I don't feel that it necessarily has to do w/ English language ability, but w/ attitude and respect for American culture. Not that I agree w/ all aspects of American culture, but that's how it is in ANY country - we need to respect that particular country's ways and policies.

It was very sad that the most embarrassing ppl were the Asian MALES. Asian males already have enough stereotype against them as it is - their actions on Tuesday, in the eyes of all onlooking Americans, can only feed those negative stereotypes.
Specific examples of embarrassing behavioUr:

not turning off cell phones: more than 5x

clapping (the committee chair had already stated "no clapping" at the onset of the hearings): 3x

physically obstructing the opposition from speaking: 1x
But anyways, despite all this, Lily and I somehow dragged Hiroko into going, and we had our own fun - pics will be up soon. =)

Here are pics from hiking up at Santa Anita Park and Henry's BBQ! Yo Lily, get me the pics you captured on your camera =) (the girlz both got digital cams as well - copycats! hehe ... but Lily scored the best deal, and Hiroko has the cutest one)

Just got back from Tahoe / San Jose. I'm so tired and sore. Anyhoo, we went to Northstar Resort. Weather was sunny! Conditions were kinda slushy, but that made falling a lot less painful. =) I kinda got some "skillz" this time around, so check out my pics page with action video. =) And here's my first panorama attempt, taken of the San Luis Reservoir on the way home:

(First see my 03/16/02 entry.) I have managed to procure a Marvin Martian WITH K-9 off of eBay. Right after it got here, I shipped it off to Japan. But not without having a little fun first. =)

OK that's it. You know when Yahoo starts pulling the freebies on us, we're in trouble. Today I was informed that as of April 24, 2002, they will pull the free POP3 & Mail Forwarding features. I guess my Eudora is no use no mo'. What is UP with that! $20/yr "special intro rate". Man, next thing you know I bet pplz will be charging per email msg sent. Grrrrrrrrr ... well if anyone knows of an email service with FREE POP3 service, lemme know ... cuz I've been using Eudora since the beginning of my Internet experience and have grown rather attached to it ...

I miss you already hm7863! You'd better have mucho fun in Japung!

Here's another free mp3 for you to munch on (2.13MB). It is a dancy track peppered with sound clips from Vday silliness with friends (photos here). If you missed my first & much more original mp3, here are the lyrics and music. Yes, that is me attempting to rap & sing. I apologize in advance for any speaker, eardrum, and psychological damage =)

Today, our adventure begins because a friend wanted to buy a Marvin Martian plush as a gift. I thought, "Oh, just go to a WB store." Turns out that all WB stores have shut down, leaving only the online store (and even THEY don't have one!). She needs it by Wednesday. We thought, "Oh, someone somewhere should sell them." Now, after calling like 20 different places (Target, Walmart [2], KB Toys [3], Toys R Us [2], Kmart, 5 different malls, several small local toy shops) I'm convinced that these things don't exist anymore in a brick 'n mortar store. What gives! It really isn't supposed to be this hard!!!

The worst job on earth - zoo sperm bank employee. "The elephant is the most tricky because of the size of its thing ... sometimes I have to use both my arms to tug on it." Sucks to be him. But hey, it's better than donating your own sperm to make a living ... er, isn't it? =)

BlogAmp is sooooo cool. Now everyone can see what I'm listening (karaoke-ing) to on WinAmp! (see list at left) If I'm online and listening to music on WinAmp at the same time, it almost instantly updates the list everytime I listen to another song. Thanks to Pooh for helping me get thru the setup (the instructions are in Portuguese or something). And congrats to Pooh on his cool new URL (courtesy of our award-winning-computer-case-making friend EnVaDoR) ... yeah yeah ... who's copying who now? ;)

[Doing the victory dance] BOO-YAH! After freaking out for weeks and losing lots of sleep over this, I just want to tell everyone that I officially kicked arse on today's acupuncture portion of the licensing exam. Must cram for herbs tonite tho ... and I'm definitely officially herbally retarded. Sigh. Thank you Henry, Lily, and Hiroko for sacrificing your Friday night for me to help artificially boost my intelligence!!! (I think I will be remembering some things from last night for a loooong time. =) I owe you guyz BIG TIME ...

The balloon given to me as a joke on Valentine's Day is still half-afloat. That is some powerful helium! =)

Lily and Henry vandalized my car today on my study break. It made me gasp but I love it! Thanks guys! =)
This and this is what Henry does in the library when no one is looking. I don't think I've ever gotten such a clear look at his nostrils before ...

Excerpts from "Graduate Girls Having Fun!!" (Henry's title for the VCD he made of our Valentine's Day activities.)

Friendship is such a powerful thing for healing a wounded soul.

Hiroko apparently gets even sillier when she's sick. =) Caution: you may laugh your pants off! =)

...
11:55p - What do you get when you have unwanted admirers, flowers, condoms, phallic balloons, and a bunch of mischievous twenty-somethings at a family restaurant? =) Thank you Lily, Henry, and Hiroko for making this such a hilariously memorable night. You guys are the best! Oh, and thanks to On for going along with Lily's silly antics =)

Today is the worst day of my life.
Here are the most recent pics from this past wknd.

Went out tonite to a NUDY BAR! Happy birthday Quay(sp?) =) Too bad they didn't allow photography cuz dang, we would've been able to use that footage to blackmail him for the rest of his life! hehehehe. Then went clubbing too. For once I had fun, cuz they actually played a lot of top 40 / hip-hoppish music. The few pics we took will be up soon. =)

Here are the pics from the Breckenridge, CO ski trip! Check it out! For those of you who went and I don't have your email address, drop me an email or sign my guestbook with your email address in there. =) Happy New Year everyone!

It's nice to be home (in TX) and doing nothing. Yeah, I should be studying, but instead, I'm sleeping in til noon, catching up with friends, talking for hours on end with parents ... fair trade, I think. =)
I'm testing out my too-cheap-to-be-true $4 thermals from Academy. So far I'm feeling decently warm ... or is it because I got to see a certain special someone today? =)

We're doing a secret santa at work with like 7 ppl. Mine HAS to be a female ... sorry guys, but i don't think that a guy would put so much thought, effort, and curly ribbon into this secret santa thing. =)

That Pooh didn't get it (see last post) cuz he doesn't know who Craig David is. Doh! Well here's some info, and hopefully listening to clips of "Fill Me In" and "Seven Days" will help jog your memory? =)

 A random result of Photoshop fiddling. Why? Because i was procrastinating from studying =) and of course because I love my hunnee! hehee. btw, "toque" rhymes with "Luke" except starting with a T, for all you non-Canadians! It's a TOQUE, not a BEANIE! Beanie sounds so stupid! There's a whole online forum on "Why Canadians Say 'Toque'" here - I can't believe it. My post is under the author name "Alotta Fagina". =)

2 days ago marked 3 yrs that Pooh has put up with me. Yay! I didn't post up here because I think that Pooh checks my webpage more often than he checks his own, and thus would have gotten wind of what I'd done to his webpage. Thanks to all those who signed his guestbook, he got a big kick out of all of your humorous comments! If you haven't signed yet, do it!
I briefly checked out the Getty's Museum today. It was cool! My favorite piece was "Eternal Feminine" by Paul Cezanne ... cuz the central character in that piece is ME, baby! (except I'd be clothed, thank you very much)
EnVaDoR, my gracious host for this webpage, has outdone himself again with his case-designing antics. Check it out! Crrrrrazy!

My computer is really getting on my nerves. Can't do anything. Trying to download patches and all that ... argh ...
Congratulations to my girl A.S.S. (her real initials, hehe) =) 5 years of struggling against parents and peers and cultural taboos culminating in 1 fairy-tale-like marriage proposal ... all because of this thang called love. Annie, you're my inspiration.

Yesterday I went to, saw, and came back from the holy blissed matrimony of Cece and Mike: congratulations guys. May you be happily in love forever! Here are the pics I took yesterday. The wedding took place at the Monte Carlo Hotel Chapel in Las Vegas. There are some test pics of the visiting dog and our kitty too.
Had to do a Kittycam update: cute pics of her napping! =)

Today is a landmark in web development history - Pooh updated his webpage! (It's been 2 years and 3 months since he last did anything to it.) It's still in development, but the exoskeleton looks ready. =)

Went up to San Francisco 2 wknds ago. My good friends took me to the Palace of Fine Arts ... and look at THIS piece of um, art! (NC-17, hehe) I got my pic taken with him on a dare (yeah Reema, it's all your fault!) We found him posing in front of a photographer wearing exactly what you see here. He introduced himself as "Blaise" and said he wasn't a model but was "doing a show right now". I dunno 'bout you, but next time I see a porn video, I'll be lookin' for his name =)

 Go AhBoGa!!! Yoo kan doo eet! And Garth, you won't be disappointed. =) I'm currently stressing out about finals next wk: wedding shower tomorrow, 8-hr review class Sunday, 10 pg paper due Monday (haven't started yet), 3 finals ... I'm in for a rough week. I'll keep you posted on if I survive...

Ooh ooh ooh just got my Sony Clie PEG-S320 handheld in the mail a couple of days ago. But my darned midterms are keeping me from really playing with the thing. My bf e-mailed me PacMan for the Palm tho (he knows I'm a PacMan freak), so I HAD to at least figure out how to sync PacMan on there. =) Welps, better get back to studying.
NEW! Fresh IHatePink content is now featured on my homeboy's site http://www.AhBoga.com!!! Chekitowwt! Yowza! =)

Another month closer to forever =) I love yoo Poohbear!

Lisa, a good friend from junior high, stopped thru LA for 3 days on her way from Australia to Canada. She just left today. What a whirlwind of a visit. Some highlights: Lisa was hypnotized by a rabbit, and we won free t-shirts for shooting hoops. =) She has vowed to come again to conquer Disneyland. Here are some pics from her travels - sex, alcohol, cross dressers, and of course, cute animals. =)

Just got back from Calgary, Alberta, Canada where I attended Christine's wedding! I had such a blast. Ate a LOT. Details of my adventures to come!
Yo sign my guestbook (link is also at bottom of page)! Thanks to my "twin sister" Piglet for advising me to make the link bigger =)

Happy monthiversary, Poohbear. =)
My cousin took me to Downtown Disney a couple o' days ago. I just wanted to remark that their Disney store (aptly called "World of Disney") really has almost everything conceivable Disney-ized. I stress *almost* though, since I did manage to ask for something that they didn't have. =) Leave it to me! heehee! And somehow, I escaped without buying anything. Amazing. =)

First day o' school. Boy am I pooped. Came home to find out that Richard won a snowboard off of Snowboarder Review! Schweeeeeeeeeeeet!

Calvin's got his first homepage started - welcome to the web! Also, here's my thought of the day: I sure hope "you are what you eat" doesn't hold true. Apparently Bimbo is the name of that cute little bear.

A desktop background I made for my ex-roommate Alan. It was his birthday on Nov. 16th. Happy birthday Alanita! I luv yoo =P~~ This is not an original creation (see what he did to me back in the day), but I wanted to make him smile. Oh btw, this is somewhat X-rated material, so uh, yeah, take all them necessary precautions. =)

Alert reader Piglet (aka my twin sister) has brought to my attention that I spelled "Millennium" wrong. Promptly corrected. I can't stand spelling errors, and I have to say that I totally didn't know the word had 2 n's. =)

Git yer pics here y'all! (i jest had to add that, hehe)