u·biq·ui·tous

under the weather

2009-07-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

I've been under the weather this past week. It started with symptoms of cold and went straight to flu. I don't think i've had any flu before in my life until last thursday where I felt chills all over my body, slight fever at night, headaches, and before I knew it turned into coughing fits/cold...My voice is completely changed. I called it my sexy voice every time I have cold. I've been taking so many medication that I started counting the hours so that I don't overdose myself. Like the doctor said, "you just need plenty of rest, plenty of liquid, and don't forget to take your medication." Yes sir...I will abide by thy rules. maybe I should infect my pigs and rats with my cold virus and see if they can catch it? That sounds like a good idea :)

Me, Myself, and I

2009-06-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

That I’m crazy. Its often very simple like that.

Some people say that I’m true.
Some people call me quiet.
Some people know I’m a friend.
Some people realize who I am.

Yet no one knows, as my life is often changing.
They witness, as my reality zips on by.
Everything changing at the drop of a dime.
I wonder, is living life my only crime?

No one would know. It is often lost in the past.

No one would know
The simple thoughts I shared with them
No one would know
The moment I stood behind them, without ever being there
No one would know
The feeling I had when I looked them in the eye
No one would know
if I was just dreaming, losing myself in believing

Yet they see me, wandering through life and asking questions
They ponder my actions, as much as I wonder about my own
Every step, leading to another, a question upon itself
and I find myself being the only one who reached the answer

So I ask, if not for myself, would I still ask for you?

I simply accept life,
one step at a time
I move forward
taking a breath
and viewing the world again
from a vantage no one shares

and I care
to look back,
to reach out
and hope
that I’ll find someone
just like you

This is an old poem from my old entry. Sometimes I think that I have a communication issue. I want to say A but my brain is redirecting me to a different route B. That's why it's best to think and analyze the situation first before you open your mouth.

I've been having this nagging itchy throat and sluggish body this past few days. It's on the borderline of having a cold or not. I started taking tylenol cold and vit c just to get rid of pre-cold symptoms . Hopefully I can shake this cough-to-be out of my body.

Chasing Pavement

2009-06-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

I've made up my mind,
No need to think it over,
If i'm wrong I am right,
No need to look no further,
This ain't lust, I know this is love

But if i tell the world,
I'll never say enough,
Cause it was not said to you,
And that's exactly what i need to do if I'd end up with you

Should i give up or should i just keep chasing pavements?
Even if it leads nowhere,
Or would it be a waste even If i knew my place
Should i leave it there?
Should i give up or should i just keep chasing pavements?
Even if it leads nowhere

I build myself up and fly around in circles,
Wait then as my heart drops and my back begins to tingle
finally could this be it?

so should I in the end give up instead of keep chasing pavements?

Snow patrol is coming back to seattle

2009-06-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

Woohoo... they are coming back to seattle again!!! oct 14th to be exact 8 pm at the paramount. Definitely going even if I have to skip my class :) well i will still go to class the first 1 hour and then off to see them!!! excited, super excited! I asked my "deranged" friend to go with me and he agreed to go with me. I hope I haven't scared him away yet with my crazy ideas :)

turn left turn right

2009-06-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

What do I want with my life? I'm approaching the big 3 in couple more years and I feel that I haven't accomplished a lot of things. According to X and Y (based on their conversations to me), I'm kinda a failure in their eyes. All of their friends' kids have either already married or found themselves a nice and successful future spouses to be. While me? single (and couldn't find a boyfriend that they like), jobless and just keep draining their money for my study. I should just say "fuck you all" and "leave me alone" but I couldn't. I'm trying my best and I wish they would pat me on my back and say "good job" once a while. Sighhhh.....

So back to the question: I'm hoping I can land myself a good job after I'm done with my MBA. Something that relates to the degree and pays well :) I might have to expand my search nationwide and even worldwide. I'm not sure if I"m ready to move away from US but we'll see where the wind drops me off. Outside from career, I want to find myself a good boyfriend :) someone who can listen to my "complaints and nags" and will love me forever and ever :) (that sounds like a fairy tale)

anyway, school started today and so many readings to read! i'm already behind my readings and it's not even 1 week yet :p It's going to be a busy summer. I think I'm signing myself up for more than what I can handle

11 months

2009-06-15T00:30:00.000-07:00

so, it's been almost a year since i've updated my blog. So many things happened: I was doing my MBA while working full time and then I lost my job and decided to become a full time student. I've completed my 1st year of school. i'm glad that Spring quarter has ended, the most stressful quarter that I've had so far. lots of projects, lots of homeworks, lots of group meetings, lots of tears being shed, lots of sleepless nights. the whole ups and downs of life. I'm trying to step out of my turtle shell and be more proactive than what I'm used to be. i hope it will turn out well in the end. I have 1 more year left and I will face a reality again. how is the job market going to look like? where will I go?

In terms of love life, I suck at it. It's hard to let go of something that might be bad for me once I'm attached to it:

it's a choice to stay or wake up from this dream
you have blood on your hands and i'm feeling faint
and honey you can't decide.
Am I a drug that you don't wanna give up?
you poured blood in my heart and i can't get enough
i'm drowning and you can't decide.

it's not about geography, or happenstance
you need to fly, and take a chance
you don't need to soar to emptiness
float on high and forever dance alone

i'm not gonna live for you, or die for you
or do anything anymore for you
because you leave me here on the other side

not gonna live for you, or die for you
or do anything...
not gonna shed one more tear for you

at least not 'till sunday afternoon

It's official

2008-07-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

"June 20, 2008

Dear Ms. Z:

Congratulations! You have been admitted to the University of Washington Evening MBA Program at the Michael G. Foster School of Business for Autumn 2008. We invite you to join our community of faculty, staff, students and alumni, and become a part of one of the most prestigious academic programs in the Northwest. At the University of Washington , a highly selective admissions process and a smaller program size permit us to select students who excel in many dimensions. This insures that you are among a small, talented group of peers. Our Admissions Committee believes you will make a significant contribution to the entering class. "

Yeah...I'm counting down my free days before I commit myself to 3 years of papers, assignments, exams, and group projects (and also lack of sleep probably :-p ). It was a nerve breaking experience to get here. All the essays and paperworks that had to be submitted. Once that passed, I got the honor to be invited to the evaluation day (roughly 4 hours of e-day). You got the chance to meet other candidates and had to present yourself (3 min presentation) in front of 3 judges and a class of 15 people. After the presentation, we had to discuss a topic given by the judges. I was nervous during the presentation and discussion. Up to this point in my life, I'm still not used to give my opinions freely during group discussion (I'm blaming it on Indo's education system). But after that, the last part of the e-day was actually fun. The class was split into 2 groups and we had to discuss how to survive in the desert. Overall it's was quite fun and challenging.

I'm looking forward to go back to school (right now... but probably going to change my mind later when I'm already in the middle of things) but it's definitely going to be a challenge with both work and school. Have to enjoy summer before school starts.

K-Drama

2008-05-26T21:21:00.001-07:00

I haven't updated my blog for ages. I don't really have anything going on but just not in the mood to write. My sister has been nagging me to watch couple korean dramas and because going out is expensive right now(gas and other costs), in the end i decided to stay at home and surf the web. I've been following "Dancing with the Stars" every Monday and Tuesday (thanks to youtube) and even voted for my favorite pair (kristi and mark). House M.D and Grey's Anatomy are on my lists also (too bad have to wait until the next season which will start around september). But apart from those shows, I'm now addicted to korean drama, especially historical drama. The first one that I watched was "The Legend or The Story of the First king's Four Gods". It was awesome! Made me fall for Bae Yong Jun (from Winter Sonata and hotelier). 24 episodes were nothing. I want more! Next is Jumong (The book of Three Han). I'm watching ep 7 right now out of 81. So far the story line is good. Really keep me wondering what will happen next. So this is going to be my new entertainment at this moment.

once

2008-03-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

i guess once is not enough. i want more out of them. so they did produce an album called the swell season. glen hansard and marketa irglova once again reunited to make this album and now they are on a tour to promote it. I found out a bit too late and the tickets were already sold out for their performance in seattle. i searched craigslist, ebay and found out how ridiculous the prices that those brokers offered!!! original price probably around $50 and they are selling it for more than $150 a piece. i wish they had a law against those brokers... preventing them from buying tickets in large number and if they are not from the area, they won't be able to purchase tickets.

leona lewis

2008-03-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

I just found out about leona lewis couple days ago. One of her songs, bleeding love, really caught my attention. Apparently she won the x factor (UK version of american idol). She has great voice, almost a mix of alicia keys and mariah carey. she can hold high notes pretty good but all of her song selections was typical ballad/slow music. here is bleeding love (for some reason they disabled the embedding function): http://youtube.com/watch?v=sF84pIhP5UM&feature=user

here's one of her live performances on x factor :

she can sing live pretty good. we'll see how she's doing couple years from now.

*someone left a comment and gave me this link to her renditions of run by snow patrol:

feeling guilty....

2008-02-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

ok....i admit that it's been a while since i've updated this blog. at first, i was busy with school applications. yep i'm going back to get my master degree in business administration (MBA). it was tough to select the schools but not as tough as preparing the applications: had to study for GMAT, had to write essays (special thank you to someone that helped me with all the essays), had to ask my manager and my former supervisor for recommendation letters (thank goodness i was still keeping in touch with tyler), and had to prepare all the supporting documents. i'm applying for 3 out of state b-schools and 1 in Seattle (Seattle U) just because if I didn't get into any of the top schools, I will still pursue MBA from Seattle U and I can still work while getting my degree (part time school). I'm crossing my fingers to hear from those schools any time soon. *I've been accepted to Seattle U for Spring 2008... so hopefully i'll hear something back from the other schools whether I'm accepted or not before SU starts.

School applications was the main reason but other than that, i admit i'm kinda lazy to do anything these days. my apartment is the perfect example for my laziness. living room is a mess (papers and pet stuff everywhere), kitchen is definitely needing some hard core cleaning. bedroom and bathroom are the 2 places that look slightly in good condition. yeah.. i think i'm going to start cleaning my kitchen first pretty soon.

the movie from Ang Lee that i've been really curious to see. an espionage love story/ thriller set in WWII-era Shanghai. It was a really good movie. The story line was well made, the acting was great, good visualization and i'm loving it. a must see movie. kinda surprised me with the explicit content. Usually asian movies tend to be really hush hush about sex scene but this one is almost to the point of pornographic actually. an artistic and well made one though.

I have 2 new family members, remy and samy. it's really hard to take a good picture of rats just because they move around so much. i don't really know what prompted me to adopted rats. i think House M.D. is one of the reason (just because he had rat as a pet). the other reason is that i can't resist them every time i go to pet store to get food for my pigs. I adopted remy first but the next day i decided to get him his cagemate, samy. both of them are really cute and smart. i let them running around my shoulder (for some reason they like to hide under my hair and if i'm wearing any sweater with hood, they will jump into the hood and just stay there).

*i'm listening to disney's old songs right now... makes me want to watch all the classic disney again: beauty and the beast, little mermaid, aladdin, lion king, tarzan, etc

life so far....

2008-01-19T11:37:00.001-08:00

So January is almost ended. It doesn't feel like new year...This past few months had been really busy for me and will be for couple months ahead. Went to Las Vegas and San Francisco last December. It was pretty fun actually. We stayed at The Venetian and Wynn Hotel. Gambled on the last day, playing roulette. I won $90 that day. not bad for a beginner. The food was good but expensive. Nothing new in San Francisco. I met my cousin for the first time since...uhmm 3-4 years ago? I got to drive around downtown SF for a bit. If you think Seattle is bad, wait till you get to SF. Drivers stop in the middle of the road, changing lanes without giving a signal, and people just walk like they own the road. But the food is really good. Can't really find a good chinese restaurants in seattle. There's couple but not as much as in SF.

I bought a new notebook last week. HP Pavilion dv6000. Good features inside and pretty light. Just trying to get use to windows vista. As of last week, I've been in charge of 2 lines. I got my old line back because they let Luke go. So me and Lori will work together to keep both lines up and running. I did my first reviews last week. It was scary but good experience overall.

30 for $30 deal

2007-11-15T20:09:00.000-08:00

They have a "Dine around Seattle" event again this whole month and instead of 25 restaurants and $25 for 3-course dinners, they added 5 more places and increased the price to $30. It's really a good deal to try new places that you won't really try on a normal day. Last time I tried Brasa in Belltown and Eva Restaurant in Green Lake. I also tried Nell's Restaurant (for Veronica's b'day) and they are pretty good.
This time around I was planning to try Barking Frog and Etta's. Barking Frog was canceled due to bad traffic today. The weather was horrible and accidents all over the highways so we had to make last minute decision on where to eat. So we called in Etta's to make a reservation and we got a place for 2. Lucky. The food was delicious. My tablemate started off with an ice-cold wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce generously dressed with a creamy, chive-spiked Rogue River blue cheese dressing. I enjoyed the steamed Penn cove mussels with chorizo, potatoes and sweet onion. I went for the Etta’s fabled Rub with Love Salmon and cornbread pudding while my tablemate went for perfectly grilled tuna, just rare at the center, which was served with mashed sweet potatoes and black lentils. Really good!! Come dessert, I had to have the classic coconut cream pie, a towering slice of over-the-top coconut goodness and he had a Washington Apple Sorbet Terrine. Yummmy...The service was reliable and efficient and our server was friendly without being intrusive. Overall, I think both of us were really satisfied with what we had.
So for next week, I'm already browsing the website to find the next restaurant and I think we are going to try Veil Restaurant. The menu looks good and the review also pretty helpful. We'll see how it goes next week.

high maintenance bitch?

2007-09-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

couple days ago, i had my nails done after a long day at work. i think it's nice to pamper yourself once in a while. so this morning, one of my guy coworker came to me and asked if i had my nails done. i said yes and asked him why. he and his friend think that girls that have their nails done are high maintenance girls. apparently his ex girlfriend was like that.

so i'm curious right now. it's true that when I stepped inside the nail salon close to my apt, most of the women there were pretty much like trophy wives or from well-off family. you can tell from what they wear and how they carry themselves. but then again, queen anne is quite a ritzy area. i bet if the nail salon is located in aurora or poor neighborhood, it's going to be a different story.

i can't really say that having your nails done mean that you are a one high maintenance girl. for me, it's just a fun things to do to pamper and make myself prettier. i haven't even thought about the subject until my coworker said that to me.

introducing dian widjaja, graphic designer

2007-09-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've always liked my sister's work of arts since i was a little girl. so when she decided to become a graphic designer, her decision seemto be a good decision. after all the hard work that she put during 4 years of college, i can say that i really like and enjoy her works.

Here's her website/portfolio : http://dianwidjaja.com/

beauty is nothing without brains

2007-08-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

take a look at these 2 commercials. they are so funny!!

The first one is a QA with a contestant from South Carolina for Miss Teen USA 2007

The second one is a TV commercial for Mercedes-Benz

now i'm wondering where "dumb blonds" jokes are coming from... go figure! speaking of the first video, i can't even understand what she's trying to say. it's a really simple question but it took her all around the world to answer it and she still didn't get it right.

hmmpphh

2007-08-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

found out today from ticketmaster that they are refunding my money for amy winehouse's tickets that i bought couple months ago. apparently she canceled her north american tours. sucks. i was crossing my fingers that she can make it for this september. i guess not. hopefully she will reschedule it again. sigh. maybe i should just go to bumbershoot instead. the shins, panic at the disco, gym class heroes are playing on sat, sept 1st. i'm not really into sean paul nor joss stone but curious about kings of leon and black rebel motorcycle. saturday with the shins and friends or sunday with those 2 rock bands? can't really decide right now. anyone else wanna go to bumbershoot?

busy weeks

2007-08-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

it's been a long week. so glad that weekend is here. getting involved with setting up the new line was interesting, fun and stressful. stressful in a way that i still had to manage my own line while also deeply involved with the new line. there were times when i had to do time studies on the processes and instead of leaving me alone with the studies, everyone wanted a piece of me at the same time. i was so ready to pull my hair out and started thinking of kicking someone. but anyway now that the line is somewhat ready, it's not as bad as the first time. still bad, still stressful but somewhat more manageable just because i have someone helping me with the time studies, and someone else to slowly take my place in the old line. hopefully he can learn things pretty quick.

so, after thinking of not reading the last harry potter, i decided to change my mind and bought the last one (might as well). it's not a bad decision. the last one was so much better in storyline and action than the previous 2 books. i really enjoy the deathly hallows. there's an article about what happened next to harry and his friends after the final book in CNN.com. here's the article . i wish she put that information somewhere inside the book.

it's been a long day. going to brush my teeth and sleep.

random stuff

2007-07-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

So, I have to admit that i really like to peek through my windows to see my neighbor's apartment. you see, when i moved to my apartment, whomever occupied that next building unit really did a good job in decorating his/her place. it has a wooden floor. for some reason the whole wooden floor thing kind of struck me as a romantic, warm, and inviting place to live. i just can't take my eyes of the apartment. then couple weeks ago, they moved out and i could see the inside (living room, bedroom, and kitchen) well enough through the blinds. at that time, i had couple instances where i was tempted to go to that apartment and pose as an interested future tenant just to see what it looks like from inside. too bad i didn't do it. i think in less than 2 weeks, one couple moved into that unit. well i'm not sure if it's a couple or not but whomever live there put red (red wine-ish) color drapes in the bedroom. interesting thing for a guy to put them in his room isn't it? so based on that, i'm thinking that there might be a girl living there also (i saw both of them drinking beer in their bedroom one day). anyway, i haven't peeked around as much as i used to. they probably think that i'm a stalker or peeping tom or something bad like that.

apart from that, i got a virus in my friendster! i saw my sister's profile and told her that someone hijacked her profile because her profile was really messed up (male, 31, single. from UK. also her hobbies, and all that things were erased and they put something in "about me" section). when i opened her profile, i guess that's when the virus or whatever copied itself to mine because couple minutes later when i checked mine, mine was also messed up. exactly the same as my sister (male 31 single, from uk and all that crap). i've changed it back and run antivirus, spyware, trojan remover from my computer twice. i'm still not sure how bad the effect can be. is it just some pranks? or someone maliciously put worms or virus in friendster. i don't know. have any of you friendster users had that before?

i'm such a procrastinator. i have this project from work that i'm doing it right now at home but so lazy to finish it. instead blogging seems to be appropriate at this moment. how bad i am.

concerts

2007-06-30T11:44:00.001-07:00

My long awaited tickets have finally arrived yesterday. one for Michael Buble and the other one is for Amy Winehouse. I was browsing ticketmaster.com and found out that he is coming to Seattle (aug 28 and 29). at that time, i was interested to see his show but still thinking about it. by the time i made up my mind, both shows were sold out but i noticed that he added 1 extra day. so i made up my mind and bought the ticket. the 1st concert that I'm going to see it by myself. at the same time, when i was searching for MB, i found out that Amy Winehouse is going to give her first US tour and seattle is one of the cities. I like her voice and decided to just go for it. Can't wait for both of them.

the confectional

2007-06-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Confess your love for cheesecake. I have to say that I don't really like cheesecake that much. But today, when we were walking around pike place market, Sunny mentioned that there's one good cheesecake store around pike place. We found the place and they looked so good. Lots of selection of Cheesecake Truffles and Cheesecakes. After drooling at them, I decided to try one that caught my eyes: Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake. they had a small sign of "everyone's favorite" and it was fabulous! not a bad choice for first timer. Anissa got triple berry one and it was also a good one.
They even had cheesecake with cayenne pepper on it. I wonder what's the taste going to be. a spicy cheesecake.

The price is a bit too high for a small cake i think. I'm not sure how much 1 slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory cost but i think it might be around the same price for a bigger slice than this one. As you can see from the price list, one cheesecake costs $3.50. But I have to confess that it's worth the price. I just found a dessert place close to my place and definitely going to try more of them.

funny quote from the owner:
"Forgive me chocolate for I have sinned. I have not yet had my daily confection."

paris, je t'aime

2007-06-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

In Paris, Je T'aime, celebrated directors from all around the world (Coen brothers, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven, Alexander Paynes and many others) have come together to portray Paris in a way never before imagined.

Paris, Je T'aime is a collection of short love stories in Paris' neighborhoods (each director telling the stories of an unusual encounter in one of the city's neighborhoods). I watched this couple weeks ago in Uptown AMC cinema and I really enjoy watching it. It's a sweet movie worth to see.

*I miss Paris......

neurotic mom

2007-06-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

Couple weeks ago i found a wound/scab around piggy's nose. i thought frappy must bit him so i didn't pay too much attention to it. until a week later when i found out that it's not getting any better and no hair around his right side nose. after searching the net for vets around my place, i found couple places but the problem is they only deal with cats and dogs. no exotic pets. damn. i still can't believe that guinea pig is an exotic animal. anyway, i called one place in greenlake area and they referred me to one vet in greenwood that deal with small animals. tried to call but it was weekend and i got their voice mail. from there, i found out about emerald city emergency animal hospital in wallingford. so i gave them a call and brought piggy in. the doctor didn't say much about what's wrong with him since she's not a specialist in exotic animals but she suspect of ringworm or mites infection. from that place, i got referred to this bird and exotic clinic in aurora. i called them up and set up appointment. what the 1st doctor suspected was true. piggy got ringworm. it's nothing major. just need to give him ointment around his infected nose. no big deal.

a week later, i noticed he wasn't feeling well. he sat inside his house and didn't eat that much and he started to lose weight. i separated him with frappy and put him in a box in my room so i can keep an eye on him. i took him last tuesday to the doctor again. in a week after i brought him to doctor, he lost around 10% of his body weight. not a good sign. the verdict wasn't good also. he got pneumonia. i was so afraid he won't make it to the doctor. so he's now under antibiotic and for 3 days, i had to make him soft food for him to eat. it wasn't fun. luckily he didn't have any energy left to fight me. so putting the syringe inside his mouth was not that bad. it was messy for the 1st time. but after a while i kind of getting the hang of it.

he's still under antibiotic but i stop giving him the soft food since he's starting to eat his pellets and hays and carrots more on his own. but i'm still paying really close attention to him and any tiny changes make me nervous. as long as he's eating a bit and drinking water, i'm happy. even the shape and size of his poops were really important. for these couple few days, i've been looking at them and making sure that he still poops every now and then. i think when i have kids on my own...i can say that i'll probably be one of those neurotic mother.

the series of unfortunate events

2007-06-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

I think i can be a part of Lemony Snicket's book. Last Sunday it was raining pretty hard in the morning. As I was walking down the hill to go to church, my right leg apparently has a mind of her own. It slipped! Tried to catch my balance but to no avail. So i fell down. hard. I hit and scrapped my right kneecap. I thought for a moment it was going to be ok but as I looked down, blood was pouring out. Luckily i had a tissue paper with me that day. Tried to dry it out but it's just keep coming. In the end I had to go home. Can't really sit inside the church with bloody leg can you? Thank goodness it was memorial day weekend so I got monday off to relax my right leg. kneecap was swollen and painful but it's not as bad as Tuesday. getting in and out of car was a challenge but never knew that it was going to be that bad. walking was painful. sitting down was painful. even getting up from a chair was also painful. Couldn't really bend my knee. stairs was my enemy. by 9 am i was so thinking of going home and just resting my knee. i was limping and one of my coworker asked me what happened. So i told him and he offered me painkillers which I took instantly. I might have taken too much because by mid-day, I felt good. leg didn't bother me at all and i can walk like normal. Basically this week has been associated with pain. it's getting better now. can almost walk normally and not as swollen as before. but this is going to be another week before the bruise is completely gone and the wound is fully dry and turns into a big scab.

on another note...i just cut my finger today when I tried to trim some papers. later on i got another paper cut. What an accident prone I am.....one thing after another.

it was a great night

2007-05-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks for coming to my place last night. It was really fun. I know my piggies will charm you all but didn't expect you guys to gush over "bad boy" frappy. hmmm maybe all of you kinda like the bad boy image in real life......or maybe it's just the "bad hair day" look that he has. Anyhow if you guys have time (vero and caroline) to upload all the pictures, share them with me :)

flickr account

2007-05-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

Just created a flickr account for my pictures. Used to have snapfish to store pics but after a while you have to buy prints from them or they will close your account. So i'm starting new with flickr. I haven't had the chance to play around with it yet, but I just posted pictures from yesterday mariners vs yankees game. it's a boring game. yankees slaughtered mariners 7-2. mariners played really bad yesterday. as usual... that's nothing new (no wonder ichiro is going to leave seattle. he looked bored during the game) :p same thing with sonics and seahawks...they suck. anyway.. apart from the boring game, i walked around safeco field. pretty nice views up there.

So took couple pictures from the game yesterday and also took couple pictures with pigs as my models. the girls were just sitting quietly inside the bowl not like piggie. but overall i still like piggie....i think he can act in front of the camera :) i'll take frappy's next time.. he's such a pain to catch. here's the link to my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/niff3r/

tagged!

2007-05-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by lola to write my 7 habits or facts. Basically the rules are:
• start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
• people who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
• then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names
• don't forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog

My 7 things:

- I must have my small black pouch filled with lip balm, lipsticks, lip gloss, and small mirror inside my bag all the time. I feel naked if i don't apply my lip balm and lipstick after I eat (ohh and checking my teeth with my small mirror after I eat. Don't want any unwanted veggies/meat stuck in between *grosss*).

- I check my email while brushing my teeth in the morning. While at work, I have 1 tab open for my yahoo email and second tab for news website (cnn.com, or msnbc.com or seattletimes.com). When I come home, I sit in front of my computer and browse for new anime torrents and check my yahoo mail again.

- I must have my cellphone with me all the time. It bugs me if I forget to bring mine. I'll keep thinking what happen if something bad happen and I can't contact anyone.

- I have to sleep with a blanket eventhough it's summer and hot outside. It's just not right without a blankie to cover me up.

- I hate parallel parking. even hate it more if there's a car behind me waiting to pass. I'll pass that parking spot to find other spot.

- I hate waiting for people who are late for their own appointment. If you make appointment at certain time, be sure to show up at that time or move it to later time if you can't make it. It annoys me most of the time.

- I'm shy. I'm usually very quiet around new people.

Well that's about it. I can't really think of anything else right now. If someone wants to play along, leave me a comment and i'll check your website/blog :) I have 3 people that I will tag: anissa, veronica, and citra. Feel free to play along guys... :-)

some thoughts

2007-05-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit disappointed with the 2 hour special of grey's anatomy. For some reason, I found the whole story with addison's adventure in LA was.....boring! There's no depth and intrigue to her part. it's just plain and nothing special. well maybe I'm expecting more out of this 2 hour episodes. They are going to make a spin-off "private practice" for addison. Right now, after watching that, I don't think I'm going to follow the spin-off. not until they write a better script for the new series. prejudice. probably i'm one of those GA fans that can't accept the spin-off, thinking that GA will always be better. I can't wait for next thursday ep. going to be back with the main casts and story. can't believe that season 3 is almost over. 2 more episodes to go. curious to see how they will end this season.

Anyway, moved in to my new place today. i hate packing and unpacking. it feels like i don't have much stuff but for some reason the whole process (of packing and unpacking) feels like eternity. i'm tired and sleepy.... going to bed soon. getting those piggies inside was fun by the way. we had to cover them with stuff (bedsheet, furniture, etc). I think the whole process might be a bit traumatic for them. i found piggy turned into a fluffy fur ball...(that's what happen when he's afraid of something, like loud noise). very cute....i might just scare him once in a while hehehehehe....

moving in and out

2007-04-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

It's moving time again. sorry niss for all this hassle. I feel kinda bad. i hate moving out and i know i'm not the only one. kind of getting used to it but still hate the whole processes. by the way niss, you should take a look at the newer house... from the sounds of it, the first one seems old and crappy...let me know how the second one goes...

this is totally irrelevant to my posting but i saw one of my girl piggies is kissing the other girl!!! oh god.. now i have 1 lesbian and 1 gay pigs. i've seen piggy making a mating sound to frappy and hardly to believe that sweet pea also making that noise today to moccha! my mistake for letting piggy running around and met those girls.

anyhow, i found an apartment in upper queen anne. it's an old building but the owner takes good care of it and still preserving the inside ornaments/woods really well. really nice 1 bedroom. smaller bedroom than my current one but the living area is pretty good in size. kitchen is small but cute in a way and the most important thing: bathroom is clean and in good condition. the apartmen itself is located in the main street (queen anne ave N). really close to stores, restaurants, bars and only 3 blocks away from kerry park. so in a nice sunny day, i could take a walk around the neighborhood. parking is going to be a challenge. but who knows it's not going to be that hard.

i still hate to pack up my stuff...i want a maid to help me . oh need to hide piggies when i move in.

winning a battle, losing the war

2007-04-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

I thought finding an apartment would be a fun and easy but no. it's such a pain in the ass to find one around Auburn. Went to auburn yesterday to look for one and either they don't have a 1 bedroom or the neighborhood/management is bad. There's 1 apt that I almost signed the lease around green river community college. We went back again to drop the application but on our way to the manager, there's one lady who told us not to do it. Apparently her daughter is staying in one of the unit and she has so many problems and the management just doesn't seem to care. Ok... so we backed out of it. Decided to drive around more. Couple good places but they just don't have a 1 bed available at the moment. then we decided to try Kent. the first place looked ok. so we stopped and took a tour around the apt complex. overall the apt looks good so i signed the application and gave deposit. I was happy... but i was browsing the apartment ratings at night and found out more about that place. Crap....it turned out to be pretty bad. only 18% recommend that place... uhhh that's not a good sign, especially after i read all the reviews. Called my bank and put a stop to the check. I just have to call them in the morning and let them know that i'm not going to take that unit.

so now... back to square one again...don't feel like looking around that area anymore... might as well just stay around seattle.. at least I know the neighborhoods. The only thing that I can't stand is the commute. well let me rephrase that.. i don't mind the commute YET..the fact that I have to fill my gas tank every 4-5 days is starting to kill me. But i think i need to find place closer to my work soon before I-5 N is closed (2-3 lanes) around august for 3 weeks. just imagine the traffic back home...it's going to be a nightmare.

works and weekends

2007-04-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

i passed 2 stinky and stressful weeks! from my old-5 minutes working and 15 min playing-days to a slave-in-training. my boss told me she has a laptop plus set up the email for me couple days ago but until this day, i haven't seen any of those stuff yet and everyone was like "oh let me send you email for the details...." and i can only say "sorry.. haven't gotten computer nor email yet"... and the other thing is i never sit down with my boss to talk about work expectation and what she wants me to do for the production floor. this whole 2 weeks, probably less than 15 minutes worth of talking. only on the first day she gave me a training list on what the whole goal/training to look like and basically introduced me to the supervisor for training. but...on the second day.. supervisor was sick for 2 days.. and my boss was just like "here you go... from this day on you'll be the next team leader"...

FUCK! that's what you call training program?? so basically i have to figure things by myself...nice.
well at least they haven't kicked me out yet so i guess i'm doing ok right now. 1st week was uncomfy as i was trying to get to know the people better and i have no idea what's the deal with that line... by the end of the 1st week i think i got it... i think...

on another matter... my family just got bigger. got 3 more members that are joining me and piggy. sweetpea, mocha, and frapp (short of frappuccino). 2 female and 2 male. the girls are quiet. but the guys.... are not. when i introduced him to sweetpea... that's a totally wrong move....he just wanted to totally take her right there at that time... such a horny piggy! even right now with a male pig, he still making that mating noise and sniffing frapp's butt! make me thinking that he's a gay piggy... but they were saying that's normal when you introduce new pig to current one. So we'll see in couple more days how they will behave towards each other.

ps. i wanted to get piggy a friend so we bought a female piggy because we thought piggy was female. apparently he's not a female :) that's why i have to separate piggy and sweetpea...and i don't want to return her. she's such a darling girl! so either switch sweetpea with a male piggy or just get another playmates for both of them, i chose the latter...that's how I got mocha and frapp to join our family. if i'm not lazy.. i'll take pics of them and post them here...

oh..weekends at last!!! thank goodness we don't have to work this saturday....

WEBoggle

2007-03-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks for msnbc.com for getting me addicted to WEBoggle a neat online version of Boggle. I used to play this game for my english class during junior high but never knew that they have an online version for it. You may have to wait a few seconds for a new round to begin, but you are playing against other real people in real time, and can see how your score compares at the end of the round. just don't be stressed out comparing your low score with some of those incredibly high scores (kind of make me thinking that those guys don't have anything else to do besides playing Boggle). Well i guess if you practice enough, you're bound to improve.

shorthand press

2007-03-09T08:43:00.001-08:00

"Say more with less" is the mantra of Seattle-based Shorthand Press. The cards are elegant, concise and simple. Inspired by a dictionary of shorthand (a system of substituting symbols for words, for those of you younger than 30). Symbols that stand for words such as "hubbub," "love" and "wonder" grace the postcards and greeting cards - as well as T-shirts, notebooks, and holiday cards, and soon, journals. You can buy or browse these lovely cards online at their website.

cute overload

2007-03-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

couple more cute and cuddly pictures from mr piggie...i just want to poke his nose everytime i see him and oohhh those pink feet...never have enough of him. don't be fooled... he can run really fast (while making a squeeking noise at the same time) and twisting and jumping in the air at the same time :) really cute.

my starbucks shirt

2007-02-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

Project Runway meets Starbucks. Mychael Knight, a finalist from Project Runway, designed the customized T-shirts. The T-shirts feature a Starbucks cup on which customers can "write" their order, like, a "Grande 2-shots Vanilla Lowfat Café Latte." A very limited number of shirts will be free of charge while quantities last. A Starbucks spokesman revealed that the total number of the t-shirts is about 10,000 and how many starbucks customers out there? Go figure. Well if you are interested but not lucky enough (psst I checked today around 8:30 am PST and the shirts alloted for the day were already sold out eventhough the website said that the shirts are available each day beginning at 10 am PST!!), you can go to mystarbuckstshirt.com
and play around with the website and create your own wallpapers or icons with your fave drinks.

oohhh i can't wait till thursday!!!

2007-02-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

Ho humm....for this couple few days, i've been dying to find out more about grey's anatomy (especially meredith). i've browsed youtube, and my fave grey's fan site for any news ahead on the upcoming episode "some kind of miracle". Luckily, i stumbled upon one website (greysanatomynews.com) that somewhat help me figuring out what will happen next:

Meredith Grey’s fight for life will send the whole hospital into a frenzy
There will be two deaths: one will stick, one will not
Who will die: Meredith’s mom
Who will live: Meredith
Callie has a big secret
Denny will appear in more than one episode
Addison is going to have a steamy night, but it’s not with our choice of guys
McSteamy and Izzie. Yep, that’s right!
Someone will have a bun in the oven! Who?!

well i hope what they are saying about mer is true (hey the whole show is based on her :p if she's dead then what's the point anymore....). mcsteamy and izzy??? that's going to be interesting.. gosh.. he's such a playboy...

i guess alex and his jane doe will have a serious thing going on ("You already figured out that that was Elizabeth Reaser playing the pregnant woman with the crushed face that Alex saved. In the coming weeks and months (Reaser's on board for at least nine eps), Alex's attachment to her will intensify. And if you thought Reaser's character had it rough last week, just wait. Another tragedy is about to befall poor Jane Doe.").

callie has a secret... don't tell me she's pregnant!!! ahhhhh i can't wait till this upcoming thursday... i'm really really dying to know the conclusion of this 3 mini series....

bowling for soup vs fergie? bowling for soup of course!

2007-02-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

LOL. Much much better version than fergie's :D really funny. they are able to turn this song into alternative version :) enjoy

piggy piggy

2007-02-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

We got a new roomie in the house :) a guinea pig named piggy. i tried to call him oreo at first but didn't work out. i tried to use couple different names like squeekie, buble, piggy. but in the end i still like piggy better. it fits him :p he eats a lot and almost non stop. probably that also because I pamper him with hays and other treats. yeah.. i'll definitely have to restrain myself from overfeeding him :p from time to time, you can catch him making weird noises... sometimes when you pet him, you can hear him purrng/chirping. other time he'll squeek around without any reason. he's really a cute guy with a big nose and three quarter black butt. almost look like a baby panda.

wishful thinking?

2007-02-04T00:54:00.000-08:00

Well ok... it's not a surprise that jakarta got a "gift" again this year. floods. well you see, Jakarta is regularly struck with floods, though not on the scale as in recent days. Dozens of slum areas near rivers are washed out each year. so far only 9 people were killed and 200,000 people homeless and as far as i'm writing right now, it's still raining and showed no sign of abating.

"Incessant rain over Jakarta and hills to its south from Thursday triggered the city's worst floods in recent memory, highlighting the country's infrastructure problems as it tries to attract badly needed foreign investment."
~ well well well.. this isn't new. we all know that jakarta or even the whole country needs to be changed. i think government needs to start looking into this problem. we are regularly struck with floods but they don't give a damn about it. what's so hard about making rules/laws to start a good urban planning for the whole city? well they might say "ohh.. we need funds to do it" and they might get some funds from other countries or companies or whatever. but...with all those corrupted people handling the project, we will definitely see the money going into their own pockets instead to the right place. Sooooo... back to square one again.

"Authorities hand out (building permits) even though they clearly violate environmental impact studies," The Jakarta Post newspaper quoted him as saying. Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who was criticized when massive floods struck the city five years ago, blamed widespread deforestation in Puncak, saying it had destroyed water catchment areas."
~ corruption in playing. with the right amount of money and the right person to bribe, everything is easy in jakarta. if a company wants to build a new housing or apartment complex or any other business stuff, eventhough they know that they clearly violate rules/laws but with money everything is going to be as planned. Puncak isn't like it used to be. I used to love that area. It was a beautiful place. but people started to build houses, hotels, villas to attract city people and that destroyed everything.

well those government people for every problems that they have, they like to put the blame on someone or something instead of trying to find the root cause and solve it. i think they just like to talk without any action to prove it. I'm just tired with all those bullshit. well what do you think.... i think we should just nuke the whole country with missiles or even atomic bomb to clean the whole place and start new again. hmm maybe it's too flashy... how about genocide? just exterminate those stupid, corrupted people (government and civilians) and don't forget criminals. that sounds good to me. i guess i'm not 100% proud to be indonesian. (hmm weird sentences but it's 2 am in the morning. my brain can't digest stuff anymore so i guess that's an excuse :p). anyhow i'm off to bed.

got secret?

2007-01-31T10:34:00.000-08:00

Got any secret that you want to share but too shy/embarrassed to say it? Try PostSecret.com. It started as a public art project for Frank Warren. He started his website of postcard-submitted, artistic, sometimes enigmatic personal admittances, after he went through a period of personal travails. The voices presented on PostSecret can be troubling, tender, hilarious or heartbreaking. Some of the art and graphics may have taken "less than 10 seconds," says Warren. "Others take hours of time and effort."

Warren finds that PostSecret affects different people in different ways. People who have had more fortunate lives may look at some of the submissions and "feel a sense of shock and sometimes repulsion," he says. "That's good -- it shows those folks there's another side [of things]." And for people who are coping with difficulty, he adds, "It allows a sense of solidarity. When I see humility, guilt ... I feel a connection. Maybe my own burdens are lighter."

The project started with 3,000 self-addressed postcards Warren handed out to strangers, asking them to mail back a secret, anonymously. He received about 100 and thought he was done. But "the idea spread in a viral way," he says, and with postcards continuing to trickle in, he started posting several every Sunday on the Web site.PostSecret has now received more than 100,000 cards, up to 200 a day, which have toured the country in exhibitions and appeared in two other books: "PostSecret" and "My Secret."

(taken from cnn.com. To read the whole article, you can visit here)

my six weird facts

2007-01-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

I was reading lola's blog and found out about her 6 weird facts about herself. it's kinda funny that we share something in common: don't like dolls and clowns (i think i watched too many scary movies involving dolls and clowns -> chucky is one of the example) and like to check out other people's bedrooms (i like to see how people arrange their own bedroom) :) But well.. those 2 aren't going to be in my weird facts....

1. i like to see bloody and gory scenes (most involve human bodies).
2. i have a fantasy of touching/squeezing real and alive human brain and heart (wish i could see a real human brain and it's still attached to the skull of course. not the one that's already being preserved).
3. i love spoilers: movies and books
4. i like to read magazines, newspapers from the last page and work my way to the front page. this also happens for novels. i will read till the middle part and then jump to the last chapter to see the ending and continue reading again if the ending is good.
5. i love to sleep in total darkness. will definitely try to block lights from outside window + door, and electronic stuff inside my room.
6. i like to check other girls out ~ especially their butts and other assets.

hmmm i bet i still have other weird facts somewhere... but for now this will do :) anyway, have a great weekend.

in case of emergency

2007-01-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

I was browsing abc.com and they had the preview for the newly comedy tv series "in case of emergency". after watching the clip, i downloaded the first episode and watched it last night. I have to say I like this new show. it's really funny and they have couple good actors in it. david arquette is in the show and also kelly hu! surprise to find her in tv shows (remember X2 and scorpion king?). well the other person that i didn't expect was greg germann. he used to play in ally mcbeal as richard fish, the weird bos. This is the synopsis taken from the website:
"Jason (David Arquette), Harry (Jonathan Silverman), Sherman (Greg Germann) and Kelly (Kelly Hu) are old friends from high school who find themselves at that stage where they realize that their lives didn't turn out exactly the way they'd planned. Unhappily divorced greeting card writer Harry goes for a relaxing "massage" only to discover his scantily clad "therapist" is Kelly, their high school valedictorian, who's had her own fall from grace. Diet Guru Sherman returns home to discover his wife has left him and taken everything he owns; devastated by the loss, he hijacks a bakery truck and binges on all its contents. Faced with imprisonment for his role in a corporate scandal, financial whiz Jason botches his suicide attempt only to shoot himself in the foot -- literally. Over the course of one crazy evening, a series of calamities reunites this hapless brood at Los Angeles Westside Hospital, where they all find themselves under the care of a reluctant Dr. Joanna (Lori Loughlin). This band of misfits must now start their lives over with the new realization that they've only got each other, In Case of Emergency."
if you haven't seen it, you should try to watch it. I'm curious to see the next episodes and how well the stories will develop.

new year or just another day?

2007-01-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

For some reason I dont feel this new year as really a NEW year....seems like another day. come and go without any meaning. lots of people make new year resolutions such as exercise more or have a healthy lifestyle. but for this year i dont really have any resolutions to make.. well i kinda decided to be more positive towards my life. start to stop worrying about small stuff. what's the point of worrying about your life 5 years from now and forget that you have today to worry about. sometimes i tend to do that. thinking way ahead of me and start worrying what if x happens or y happens and doubts slowly creeping their way into my head.
Live each day as if it were your last day on earth. I read that quote just a little while ago. I've spent, seemingly every day of my life living for tomorrow. Planning for the future. Part of the future that I planned for long ago is now here and it's nothing like what I've planned. I was too worried about tomorrow that sometimes i missed the fun that life can bring. What if there's no tomorrow? we aren't guaranteed a tomorrow, not ever. tomorrow may never come, and then i will have wasted my today.
well anyway...i'm just hoping that everything will turn out to be okay for this year.

british invasion

2006-11-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

Again, it all started with grey's anatomy. I checked couple artists from their soundtracks and found what I like. So I downloaded couple albums from bands like Snow Patrol, The Dears, Jem, Rufus and martha Wainwright, Joe purdy, KT Tunstall, Damien Rice to every single songs featured from season 1 to season 2. while downloading songs, i noticed that most of the bands are british/irish. so i guess i'm in the mood for those mellow songs at the moment. Here is the video of "set the fire to the third bar" from Snow Patrol and Martha wainwright. one of my fave songs ("it's fan-bloody-tastic!")

also different videos from jem , a Welsh songstress. it's called "they"

and an unplugged version of "flying high", featuring in grey's anatomy season 2 ep 20-band aid covers the bullet hole. She sounds just as wonderful (if not better) live as she does on her CD! It's exactly the same as on her album. what a great performance and voice.

well this isn't my first time posting stuff about music from grey's and not going to be my last i think :) there's so many good music from that series :p

9 crimes + new day

2006-11-27T21:47:00.000-08:00

I found it!!! one of the ending song from the last episode of Grey's anatomy. It's called 9 crimes by Damien Rice. Such an amazing live performance. Beautiful song and awesome voice (the same band that sang "the blowers daughter" from Closer).

Also introducing kate havnevik, one of my new fave singer. Her song "Grace" from season 2 grey's anatomy really got me into listening to her other songs. Actually couple of her songs were featured in grey's anatomy (unlike me + nowhere warm - season 2, so-lo + kaleidoscope - season 3). I've been itching to get my hand on her new album but it's so hard to find one. amazon sells it for $27!! (i guess they have to import it from UK). well hopefully her album will come to North America. Back to one of the ending songs from last episode of grey's anatomy: it's called "new day" by kate havnevik. this is what i can find from youtube... sorry for the bad quality.

from a whisper to a scream

2006-11-27T20:11:00.000-08:00

In some ways, betrayal is inevitable.
When our bodies betray us, surgery is often the key to recovery.
When we betray each other, the path to recovery is less clear.
We do whatever it takes to rebuild the trust that was lost.
And then there are some wounds, some betrayals... that are so deep, so profound that there is no way to repair what was lost.
And when that happens, there's nothing left to do but wait.

fall/winter + thanksgiving

2006-11-26T17:38:00.000-08:00

First it was autumn. Nice and cold days. Didn't expect to be this freezing around November. It seems winter has come early. I went out today to post office and looked what I've found! Snow. Snow in Fall? Well from the forecast, it's going to snow until Tuesday and that means i need to bundle up... i hate freezing cold weather. This is what the forecast says "Tuesday, day in seattle: very cold with clouds and sun, 0 C highest and -5C lowest" . Well in between that.. it's thanksgiving holidays in here. Had 4 days off. Time to relax and off course shopping. Went to the premium outlets on Thursday midnight, and that was going to be my first and last one. the lines were super long (both outside and inside). so in the end didn't buy stuff on that day. I went to northgate mall with anissa the next day and got something for my mom, a christmas gift. Saturday afternoon... went out again to downtown to look around and got a perfect b'day/christmas gift for my sis. A pair of flats that she's been dying to get. Nice and comfy shoes... thinking of trying it out first for a month hahahaha but then again i realize what if she has to return it? sigh.. oh well.. not a good plan i guess :) After that, went to look for something for my lil sis and my dad.. i did manage to get something for him. just hoping he can memorize how to use it and really use it. haven't found something for my lil sis yet. i'll just let dian to get stuff for her and we can split the costs :) Oh.. i went to university village on thanksgiving day (nov 23). QFC was the only store that opened. Uvill looks so deserted and empty. I took couple pictures using my phone.

negative energy

2006-11-13T20:11:00.000-08:00

mellow songs + depressive/pessimistic conversations = melancholy/despondency/depression attack or in short word: anxiety attack! sigh... why is everything has to be in negative moods for this couple few days? so many worries, so many unanswered questions, so many what if. I wish i had a river to skate away on and just forget everything and quit this crazy scene. I wish i had a river so long i would teach my feet to fly. Damn it... i hate this anxiousness. not only i have to worry about my own personal problems, but also worry about certain matters that just got dropped into my lap. making things a bit more complicated....i'm starting to think maybe i need those anti-depressant medication (well rest assured that i am not that kind of person to depend on drugs to solve problems :-p drugs will just make things even worse i think).

oh how nice it is to forget everything. i wish i could get a brain transplant ( i want mcdreamy to operate hehehehe) and start everything new again (wishful thinking). but then again.. i bet in 5 years from now, i'll have a different point of view and when i look back at what have happened, i'll be able to laugh it off and say how silly i was.

how to safe a life

2006-11-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Can't resist to post this lyric - The Fray "How to Safe a Life" (someone was saying that he decided not to kill himself after listening to this song :-p). Currently loving this song. Heard it from Gray's Anatomy. It was ok at first but for some reason after listening to it over and over, i'm starting to like it more and more. well... i bet this will be overplayed soon enough on the radio. not only kiss 106.1, but star 101.5 and mix 92.5 are also playing this song at the moment. the same thing goes for "Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol. overplayed. Speaking of overplayed music, Danity Kane's showstopper is consider as one. I don't mind their music but i think they aren't that great - mediocre. they don't put their energy into the song and seriously, i don't think they have talents at all. their voices are so so, nothing special whatsoever. they are just using their sex appeal to sell their song. p diddy needs to pick better singers/vocalists in the future.

-------------------------------------------------------
The Fray - How to Safe a Life

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it’s just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you’ve told him all along
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you’ve followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he’ll say he’s just not the same
And you’ll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

some people...

2006-11-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

That I’m crazy. Its often very simple like that.

Some people say that I’m true.
Some people call me quiet.
Some people know I’m a friend.
Some people realize who I am.

Yet no one knows, as my life is often changing.
They witness, as my reality zips on by.
Everything changing at the drop of a dime.
I wonder, is living life my only crime?

No one would know. It is often lost in the past.

So I ask, if not for myself, would I still ask for you?

I simply accept life,
one step at a time
I move forward
taking a breath
and viewing the world again
from a vantage no one shares

and I care
to look back,
to reach out
and hope
that I’ll find someone
just like you

love and coffee

2006-10-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

Love is like a cup of freshly brewed coffee on a cold September morning -- sweet, addictive, hot enough to scald your tongue, warm enough to keep you drinking it anyway, and potent enough to leave a tingling feeling throughout your body and a bitter aftertaste in your mouth long after the last drop is gone...

designer flash drives

2006-10-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

My sister told me about these cute flash drives from mimoco a while ago and I haven't bothered to check mimoco's website until today. They are so adorable! Almost got me thinking about buying one :) but too bad they are a bit pricey...Well for now, i'll just look around.

what i've been up to lately

2006-09-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

went to snow patrol concert on sept 20, 2006. it's really been a while since i went to any music concerts. it was a nice concert. the opening band, surprisingly, was better than what i expected. Augustana, an indie rock band from illinois (i think... they didn't say where the exact place they came from...they made their first record in Atlanta, Georgia). one of their song, Boston, has been on my winamp player for this past few days. nice vocal, nice songs. i think both bands have a similar kind of music...melancholy rock.

other than that...i haven't been doing much. lazying around before school starts (by the way, school already started few weeks ago). ohh almost forgot to mention about the new season of grey's anatomy (s3). the long awaited show (well not that long as i've been watching season 1 and 2 like crazy just before the third season started. made it in time though). the third season started off a bit slow but the second episode turned out to be unexpected and interesting. McSteamy is back again and will stay for this season! found the show by accident and luckily i watched it just in time before they took it off from youtube.

One more tv series that got my attention: "Heroes". i watched the first and second episodes and so far it's pretty good. here's the summary of heroes (taken from www.tv.com):
"Heroes is a serial saga about people all over the world discovering that they have superpowers and trying to deal with how this change affects their lives. The relatable superheroes include Peter Petrelli, a 30-year-old male nurse who believes can fly, Diego Medina, a 28-year-old junkie who has the ability to paint images of the future when he is high, Niki Sanders, a 33-year-old Las Vegas showgirl who can do incredible things with mirrors, Hiro Makamura, a 24-year-old Japanese comic-book geek who literally makes time stand still, D.L. Hawkins, a 31-year-old inmate who can transport himself through walls, Matt Parkman, a beat cop who can hears other people's thoughts, and Claire Bennet, 17-year-old cheerleader who defies death at every turn. Not only are they discovering what having superpowers means to them but also the larger picture of where their superpowers come from. Eventually their superpowers draw them together when they try to evade the series' antagonist who wants to harness their super-DNA for himself. Their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world."

well other than that, i'm not really doing anything else...hmm my room is messy (again and will always be....). anyone wants to volunteer cleaning up my room hehehehehhe??

grey's anatomy

2006-09-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Just finished watching Grey's Anatomy: Season 2. Can't wait for the third season to come :-) So far it's pretty good...really like the stories, and the characters. oh and i also love the songs! I downloaded every songs from season 1 and season 2 plus the OST 1 and 2 :-p talk about being maniac.....or addicted.... :-p

for the moment.. can't have enough of the ending (S2). The last 2 songs: grace and chasing cars are really perfect for the last scenes.

I'm on my knees
only memories
are left for me to hold

Dont know how
but Ill get by
Slowly pull myself together

Theres no escape
So keep me safe
This feels so unreal

Nothing comes easily
Fill this empty space
Nothing is like it seems
Turn my grief to grace

I feel the cold
Loneliness unfold
Like from another world

Come what may
I wont fade away
But I know I might change

Nothing comes easily
Fill this empty space
Nothing is like it was
Turn my grief to grace

Nothing comes easily
Where do I begin?
Nothing can bring me peace
Ive lost everything
I just want to feel your embrace

feeling annoyed....

2006-09-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

blarrghh....i've been fairly annoyed with my coworker for these couple days. well not that much but maybe when i'm working, i tend to do everything at my pace and hate it when someone interrupt mine or even worse slow me down. well this lady that i'm working with... she's nice and friendly but she hasn't worked for a while (a while = a looooong period of time). She doesn't know anything about word or excel....well thank goodness she knows how to type! ditambah lagi...it takes her longer to digest some information down (well maybe her age got something to do with it) and sometimes when i explain stuff to her, she keeps asking the same questions that i've answered....that really frustrate me....ignorance is bliss but maybe in this line of work, it's not...if you know that you are lacking in certain area, why not try to improve it?

second thing....."jam karet"-nya orang indonesia (promise to meet at certain time but fail to show up in timely manner...aka being tardy). this happened to me couple days ago where my friend told us that she was going to pick us up in 10 minutes but 10 minutes went by and it was almost 1 hour before she showed up. by that time, it was already a bit too late as i had to work in the morning. well that's not the first experience...it also happened to me during indonesian mass last month. it stated in the email that the mass was going to start at 1 pm...but it was not. it started 20 minutes after 1. yeah... that sucks. that's why...whenever there's time involved (with indonesian), i always take it with a grain of salt.

caesarean birth triples maternal death risk

2006-09-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

"LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A Caesarean delivery more than triples a woman's risk of dying in childbirth compared to a vaginal birth, according to a new study from France.
The risk is still quite small, but many developed countries have seen a dramatic rise in the number of Caesareans performed each year as more women elect to avoid a vaginal delivery.
Researchers, led by Catherine Deneux-Tharaux of the Maternite Hopital Tenon in Paris, looked at 65 maternal deaths recorded in the French National Perinatal Survey from 1996 to 2000.
All of the deaths followed births of a single child and were not due to conditions existing prior to delivery. The women had also not been hospitalized during pregnancy.
The researchers found that the risk of death -- from blood clots, infection or complications from anesthesia -- was 3.6 times higher for women who had Caesareans.
The risk of death after childbirth was increased whether or not the Caesarean was performed before the onset of labor or during labor.
The study was published in the September issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Although rates of maternal death in most developed countries are relatively low -- U.S. women have a 1 in 3,500 chance of pregnancy-related death -- the incidence of maternal mortality has not significantly decreased in the last two decades, according to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists."

- taken from CNN.com

the prayer

2006-08-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know

Let this be our prayer
As we go our way
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your Grace
To a place where we'll be safe

The light that you give us
I pray we'll find your light
Will stay in our hearts
And hold it in our hearts
Reminding us
When stars go out each night
That in my prayer
You are an everlasting star
Let this be our prayer
There's so much faith
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace

Give us faith so we'll be safe
We dream of a world with no more violence
A world of justice and hope
Grasp your neighbors hand
As a symbol of peace and brotherhood

The strength that you give us
We ask that life be kind
Is the wish
And watch us from above
That everyone may find love
We hope each soul will find
In and around himself
Another soul to love

Let this be our prayer
Just like every child

Needs to find a place,
Guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we'll be safe

And the faith that
You've lit inside us
I feel will save us

addicted to technology

2006-08-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

couple days ago i went out to do some grocery shopping....cuma pergi ke safeway di 85th st., which is not very far from my apartment. paling2 15 min drive from my place. pas di tangga safeway, i was thinking about my cellphone and checked inside my bag. crap... i just realized i forgot my cellphone!! at first i thought i left it in the car but after squeezing my brain, trying to remember, i had a feeling that i left it inside my bedroom. since i couldn't do anything about it and hoping that no one called me (for some reasons, everytime i forgot my phone, it ended up with several missed calls from "no number" --> parents or sister yelling at me to return my mom's phone call), i went downstairs. well well well..... i couldn't stop thinking about my damn phone!!!! i practically just grabbed whatever i needed and went straight to the cashier. the first thing i did when i got home was run to my bedroom and checked my phone.....phewww it was there -_-; dang it!!!! how can a cell phone affect you that much????
well not only cellphone but also internet....i don't think i can live without internet connection...it's definitely going to drive me nuts (well maybe for couple months before my brains start accepting the evil truth that there's no internet connection... :p). anyway... technologies are made to help human, right? but i kinda feel that we are being enslaved by them.....are we? as long i have my computer, internet connection and my cell phone, i am happy. so i guess.... i am addicted to technology.

"I'm a slave for you. I cannot hold it; I cannot control it. I'm a slave for you. I won't deny it; I'm not trying to hide it."

million dollar baby

2006-08-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

Saw this last night without knowing what to expect. I hadn't read the reviews for it, only knew that they won oscars and couple other awards. Eastwood definitely has made his best movie. Swank carries the film and is at her absolute best. Swank is Maggie just like Foxx is Ray. The last 45 minutes are some of the most powerful film-making I can remember. It's sad but at the same time it's a good ending. Flawlessly written, acted and directed. Million Dollar Baby is a masterpiece. You may cry through this film, you may cheer. Whatever the case, you will love it.

very funny ads

2006-08-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

I really like these ads....really funny :D
- Top Charoen Optical
- Shizuoka Broadcasting
- Jamochas Fresh Food Cafe
oh...what happen if you have a dad like this one?? LOL.....

for more of funny ads, check this link

Honda Accord commercial

2006-08-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

an interesting commercial from Honda :-)

manusia itu emang aneh

2006-08-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

pertama kali tulis dalam bahasa indo...biasalah lagi bengong trus otak mulai deh berkeliaran ke tempat2 yg tidak diinginkan...well ini yg gue lagi pikirin...waktu masih sama x gue, 99% gue habiskan sama dia, weekends and sometimes weekdays. kalo weekdays paling ketemu abis kerja trus makan malem bareng, hang out for a bit and then gue pulang. on the other hand, weekends pasti gue abiskan ditempat dia. ga kerjaain apa2 sih.. paling waktu itu kita berdua lagi tergila2 sama game jadinya hampir pasti maen game and stay di rumah.... yah.. awal2nya sih ok but after a while gue mulai ngerasa bosen...kadang2 mau pergi keluar tapi rada males kalo disuruh pergi sendirian dan lagi gue tau dia ga suka shopping/jalan2 (what's wrong with men and shopping??). i have to admit di pertengahan hubungan... gue dah mulai ngerasa bosen and ga begitu exciting...rasanya tiap weekends gue mau spent sendirian aja... but ga pernah gue sampaikan perasaan gue ke dia... (that's my fault... :-( lack of communication i guess, ditambah lagi gue orangnya suka nyimpan everything for myself... jadinya apa yg gue ucapkan keluar belom tentu mencerminkan apa yg gue rasakan dihati). well can't do anything about that anymore :p sudah menjadi history....
while at this moment, kebetulan gue lagi deket ama 1 org...well bisa dibilang dia itu part-time bf lah... so many things yg buat dia jadi pt bf:
- tempat tinggal dia yg bisa dibilang jauh abis dari tempat gue... 1 jam-an driving (+/- macet)
- kerjaan dia yg bikin hubungan kita absolutely no-no...(yah bisa dibilang hubungan antara guru and murid.. kalo ketauan...ditanggung sendiri resikonya).
- trus dia itu juga super sibuk baik itu ada hubungan ama kantor ato ama hobinya ato diminta tolong ama temennya
well gue emang ketemu ama dia tiap hari di tempat kerja.. but we can't do anything during that time...jadi paling2 ketemu either sabtu or minggu buat hang out for a moment (well i know he's trying hard)... sigh...terus terang sekarang gue ngerasa bosen abis hahahahahah... aneh tapi nyata... dulu gue pengen banget bisa spent time sendirian ehhhh gitu dikasih kesempatan... malah maunya yg lain... :-(
kesimpulan gue.... manusia itu emang aneh...dikasih a minta b, dikasih b malah minta a....jadi maunya apa ya?? hmmm entah kenapa gue tiba2 lagi pengen clubbing nih... hehehehe.. udah lama bgt ga keluar2...

just a small note: tadi gue barusan pergi ke pacific place... trus gue sempetin ke Barnes&Noble.. lagi browsing buku2 sci-fi/ fantasy eh tiba2 ada 1 orang cowo muncul disebelah gue and start talking about book covers, and why i like fantasy books, and other stuff...guenya yg lagi baca enak2 terpaksa harus ngeladenin itu orang deh... dari aksennya gue tebak orang eropa.. after gue liat tampangnya emang ternyata org eropa..
him: "why do certain books have different covers?.. just like this one.. (showing me a book and comparing to others)"
me: "uhhh.. maybe it's from different publishers or some of them are old edition?"
him: "..... well you know that you can't judge book by its cover but sometimes we look for nice cover rather than an ugly one..."
me: nodding
him: "why do you like to read fantasy?"
me: " i like the story and it's fun to read"
him: "true.. it makes you feel powerful and strong...i like to read about ancient egyptian books...there's one book that's really nice.. " and he start babbling about that books and author....while i'm still trying to read my book...
him: "do you like art?" ehhhh... what's the relation between art and fantasy???
me: "well i know about some general stuff...define what kind of art are you talking about?" -->art = drawing.. that's what i have in mind
him: "oh.. i like comedy.. improv and acting... that's part of art itself"
me: " ahh i see.. i like music myself..."
him: "why music?"
me: "why not? i play piano so that's why i like it..."
him: "i can see that... " (kesannya dia tau kalo gue bisa main piano...liat dari mana coba??)
him: "where do you come from?"
me: "from indonesia... and where do you come from?"
him: "romania"
me: "oh.. so you are from eastern europe"
him: "impressive... you know your geography.. you have to know not many americans know about it. i do admit that i don't know much about america and all the states. I just went to utah and...(somewhere else...i forgot what other state he went besides utah). how about you? have you ever been there?"
me: "uhh not really.. i've only been to california" well that's half true...he doesn't need to know about it.
him: "why do you like west coast?"
me: "i like the weather i guess... not as cold as east coast"
him: "yeah me too... i also like the weather"
me: laughing......put my book back into the shelf....i have a feeling that the more i stay there the more chance that he will probably ask me out to have a drink or something
me: "ok.. i have to go now..."
him: "oh.. what's your name by the way?"
me: "jennifer"
him: "i'm chris... nice talking to you.." while extending his hand...
me: "nice meeting you ... bye" gladly walk away and at the same time feeling a bit annoyed that i can't read my book in peace... blahhh

uggghh.. is he trying to hit on me??? well he's not that bad looking but not that good looking either ...definitely not my type... he's short (well a bit taller than me) and the way he dresses himself...wearing such an ugly bright colored tshirt... *shudder* you are out of my list boy!!! go and find some other chicks!!!

did you know?

2006-08-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

From Anissa...

Highlight the ones you've done...

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain (not really a mountain, more like a steep hill :p)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day (Indonesian accent?)
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer (uhh…I have 4 J)
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country (danced with my ballroom dancing instructor, does that count?)
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight (not D&D but WoW / Guild Wars more than 6 hours straight)
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo (henna tattoo?)
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - goats & fish
137. Skipped all your school reunions (I don’t think we’ve ever had any)
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head (when I was a baby)
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone's life

headache vs PMS

2006-08-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

Migraine headache and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) often occur in women at the same time as their menstrual cycle. Now researchers believe that migraine headache might actually make PMS symptoms worse.

Vincent Martin, MD, professor in the internal medicine department at the University of Cincinnati, led a study that found PMS symptoms were more severe when patients were experiencing migraine headaches. The research appears in the January 2006 issue of the journal Headache.

“We believe the pain of migraine headache worsens the perception of common PMS symptoms such as bloating, abdominal cramping, anxiety, irritability and depression. In a way, it is like a ‘double whammy,’” Dr. Martin says.

The researchers followed 21 menstruating women with migraine headache and asked them to record the severity of migraine and PMS symptoms in a daily diary for three months. They found that PMS symptoms were more severe when patients were experiencing migraine headaches. This association occurred not just around the menstrual period, but throughout all phases of the menstrual cycle.

The researchers then gave each woman a medication that turned off the actions of the ovaries—inducing “artificial menopause.” Even when hormonal fluctuations were eliminated, the women still suffered worsened PMS symptoms when experiencing migraine headache.

“PMS symptoms are highly dependant on cyclic hormonal fluctuations encountered during the menstrual cycle,” says Dr. Martin. “Therefore, the fact that the association remained even after an “artificial menopause” was induced would suggest that migraine headaches were more likely to worsen PMS symptoms than vice versa.”

Migraine headaches that are triggered by hormonal changes at the time of menstruation have been called “menstrual migraine.”

“Both migraine headache and PMS have negative effects on the quality of life of countless women,” says Dr. Martin. “Up to 70 percent of women with menstrual migraine suffer from PMS. Our study demonstrates that migraine and PMS symptoms may not occur independently, but may influence one another.”

Dr. Martin says it’s important to contact your health-care provider if you suffer from migraine headache or severe PMS symptoms, as they may be signs of a more serious problem, but adds there are some things you can do on your own to alleviate the symptoms of migraine headache.

Get plenty of sleep—at least eight hours—to prevent migraine and reduce symptoms of PMS
Minimize stress through exercise and relaxation techniques
Avoid prolonged fasting, which can trigger migraine—especially around menstruation
Avoid or reduce consumption of caffeine, which can also cause migraine

-Taken from http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=3516

ahhhhh no wonder... i had a bad migraine headache today and later on i also found out that i just got my period. What a nice combination eh? So that's why I've been having those mood swings for couple weeks...anxiety, irritability, frustration, depression (not really a good week for me -_-). I can't really say if it's a blessing or not... i don't really like PMS (sometimes it can hit me pretty hard)... but at least I know my period is coming...Being a woman is hard, don't you think so?

new music: Corinne Bailey Rae

2006-07-31T21:05:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled upon and downloaded the new self-titled album by Corinne Bailey Rae and am loving the laid-back soulful sound of her voice. If you like jazzy, soulful vocals, you should check it out. Just found out that the track "Like a Star" was featured on Grey's Anatomy (don't ask me when and where as I'm not following that series :-p). Hmmm makes me wondering.... maybe I should check that show just because they have pretty good songs (that's the same reason I'm watching 6 feet under right now :-p....well we'll see).

memorable and fun quotes from 6 feet under

2006-07-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Tracy Montrose Blair: Why do people have to die?
Nate: To make life important. None of us know how long we've got. Which is why we have to make each day matter.

Ruth: David, are you bringing a special friend to dinner?
David: Why are my friends always special?
Ruth: Okay, then, is the man your having sex with coming to dinner?

Officer Keith Charles: Most guys I meet, they kinda just want me to be one thing.
Claire: What? Like, big black sex cop?

David: I have to get control of myself.
Claire: No, David, if you were any more controlled, you'd be a sculpture. You know what? Last night I had a humiliating homosexual experience of my own.
David: Seriously? What happened?
Claire: Not much. I never even went down on her.
David: You can stop there.

Claire: Great. So I get nothing.
Ruth: You get an education, something not all people are privileged to.
Claire: Well, what if I don't want to go to college?
Reader of the Will: College is a necessity in life not only to excel in learning, but to survive. Claire: Spare me the tough-love rationalization, just bottom-line it, please.
Reader of the Will: If you choose not to go to college, the money will be available to you when you're 25.
Claire: It's like blackmail from beyond the grave.

Claire: I know stealing a foot is weird. But, hello, living in a house where a foot is available to be stolen is weird.

Brenda: You know what I find interesting? If you lose a spouse, you're called a widow, or a widower. If you're a child and you lose your parents, then you're an orphan. But what's the word to describe a parent who loses a child? I guess that's just too fucking awful to even have a name.

David: You can't ever really know a person and if you think you can, you're living in a dream world.

Ruth: [to Claire who's feeling sad for her break-up from Russell] I guess we all want to be loved. It's hard to say no to that, no matter who it's coming from.

Olivier Castro-Staal: [to Claire on her new-found love with Russell] If you get lonely, have sex. But if you think you meet someone who really wants something from you? You're doomed.

Officer Keith Charles: [talking to David about marriage] You're in my will, I'm in yours. We basically are married, even if the law refuses to recognize it. But then again, I refuse to recognize most of the Bush Administration. I guess it all evens out.

Claire: I wish I was gay.
David: Ohh, no.
Claire: Well, then I wouldn't have to deal with unfamiliar sex organs!
David: They're all unfamiliar unless they're yours.

True human fulfillment found only in love

2006-07-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist, states that “true self esteem and a true sense of identity can be found only in the reflected appraisal of those whom we have loved”.

The experience of love is what makes life meaningful, for love implies a commitment and dedication to another. Giving the gift of oneself in love leaves one with a deep and lasting satisfaction of having done something good with one’s life.

Love does not promise instant gratification, only lasting fulfillment.
Satisfaction and fulfillment are the by-products of genuine love.
‘Good times’ should not be confused with a ‘good life’.
The endless pursuit of ‘good times’ can only end in a sense of emptiness and disappointment.

“Many a life may be regarded – and experienced by the subject – as good, yet may comprise a relatively scant measure of what is commonly called fun and enjoyment.

“Few would deny that a fair share of the goodness of life befell to such persons as Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pope John XXIII, and Martin Luther King. “Hardly anyone, however, would say that these persons’ lives were marked by lots of fun.
“Such contamination of the notion of the good life with that of a good time obscures and distorts the issue.” (On being human: Marian Kinget)

The tension between self-fulfillment directly sought and self-fulfillment as a by-product of loving, is seen by John Powell SJ, author of Unconditional love, as the greatest crisis facing our society today.

The ‘Gestalt Prayer’ of Fritz Perls reflects the first view: “I do my thing, and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations. And you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I; If by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful. If not, it can’t be helped.” These words express very forcibly the human need for independence and self-expression, but at the same time they ignore the fact that we are interrelated and interdependent social beings. It ignores one of the deepest truths of human existence: for a person to be is to-be-with others.

The supplement: ‘Beyond Perls’ by Walter Tubbs, a psychologist speaks for itself. It redresses the imbalance in the thought of Perls, giving a fuller view of the human condition. True human fulfillment is found only in relationships of love: “The truth begins with two”.

“If I just do my thing and you do yours, we stand in danger of losing each other, and ourselves. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations; but I am in this world to confirm you as a unique human being. And to be confirmed by you. We are fully ourselves only in relation to each other; The I detached from a thou disintegrates. I do not find you by chance; I find you by an active life of reaching out. Rather than letting things happen to me passively, I can act intentionally to make them happen. I must begin with myself, true; But I must not end with myself; The truth begins with two.”

- taken from somewhere. Interesting article :-)

you could be happy

2006-07-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

You could be happy and I won't know. But you weren't happy the day I watched you go and all the things that I wished I had not said are played on lips 'till it's madness in my head. Is it too late to remind you how we were? But not our last days of silence, screaming, blur ... Most of what I remember makes me sure that I should have stopped you from walking out the door.

You could be happy, I hope you are. You made me happier than I'd been by far. Somehow everything I own smells of you and for the tiniest moment it's all not true. Do the things that you always wanted to without me there to hold you back, don't think, just do. More than anything I want to see you go, take a glorious bite out of the whole world.

I'm sorry...really sorry for what I've done. Wish I could turn back time but I could not. Wish I wasn't a coward but I am. Should I start letting you go... slowly? A part of me not wanting to let you go. Want to hold to that last thread that bind us together. Confusion is what I have now. Smiling face with bleeding heart inside. I'm sinking...sinking into this dark pit. No light to guide me out. How long will I stay in these two worlds?

chasing cars

2006-07-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

spanky in the house

2006-07-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

We have a guest living in our apartment for 5 days. It's not a normal guest. It's Spanky!! ok.. maybe you are wondering who the hell is Spanky. Spanky is a hamster.. almost look the same as the one in the picture and let me tell you he is really really cute and super soft.. just like a stuffed animal :-) (that's what my roommate keep telling me... heheheheheh), So why he's with me for 5 days? Apparently his master is going out of town for wedding until next tuesday and instead of letting Spanky staying in the office alone, I asked him to lend me his pet. goshh.... he's so adorable... i fell in love with Spanky when i first met him. But let me tell you.. there's always a thought of squeezing him everytime i pick him up (that made Ryan a bit nervous to lend me Spanky.. lol ^_^ but he has to see how anissa handle Spanky :p). Sorry nis... but I'm still amazed on how you react when you play with Spanky...both of you are so cute :-D makes me feel sad to return Spanky to his master again. hmmm maybe i should just get you a hamster... (lol.. that's just a thought) or we can even just kidnap Spanky and tell Ryan that his hamster ran away :D Well.. Spanky is still going to be in our place until tuesday morning. So until next tuesday, we still have time to *torture* him :-D

not meant to be

2006-07-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

I went to school just now, thinking about doing my homeworks. I checked the time on the website...okay.. it's supposed to be open. So i drove there and it turned out they posted a new summer schedule: Saturday is closed!!! ....grrrrr.. dang it!!! basically i wasted my time by driving back and forth to school and the damn computer lab is not even open... man.. they need to update the website.

yeah well.. so i guess no homeworks on saturday :-)

summer is here

2006-06-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Summer is definitely here! These past 2 days had been really hot, reaching over 90 degress. Definitely the sign that summer is coming... hopefully this phase will change. Mid 80 is probably going to be the best weather instead of high 90.

Last Sunday night, I couldn't even sleep at all.. well maybe i did sleep for a bit but it felt like I was just closing my eyes but my mind was still running around, wide awake. I opened up my two windows... turned on fan (eventhough I turned it off because the noise was kind off a bit annoying), my room is still freakin hot.... like an oven.. I tossed my blanket to the floor, practically sleeping with my shorts and tshirt... but still couldn't fall asleep... Well...that lack of sleep kinda affected me during work :p I felt that my feet didn't touch the floor when i walked.... lol...i was flying..... hahahahah (i wish :-p). Anyway, I learned my lesson.. so I turned the fan on high, left it running the whole night, opened up my two windows and slept only with tshirt and undies ( :-D). I slept like a baby. Really nice....I wish it wasn't this hot... but better hot than freezing cold...

excited?

2006-06-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

While munching some carrots and tomatoes, my mind start wandering and thinking what I am going to do for the next few days. In 2 more weeks, I'll be taking a 3 months "vacation" from work and I'll be going back to school to study project management. The program itself is for a year, so during those 3 months gap, i'll be taking summer course first. Why am I doing that? Blame it on the visa... I'm still waiting for my new working visa to come out (it will come out probably few days before oct 1) and my current OPT/working student visa will be expired on June 28th and in oder to be able to stay here legally, I have to keep maintaining my F-1 student status (which is by going back to school again) or going home. Hmmmm the second option is kind of tempting.. but I told the lawyer that I was planning to take classes during those 3 months before he applied the visa for me. So if i'm going home, that means he has to contact the INS and make some arrangement so that my new visa can be sent to the US embassy in Jakarta. I don't really know if it will work or not since it's already in the process....so that leaves me the first option.

Truthfully trying to find a school + program that I want was really a pain in the ass.... At first I was interested with one school but it turns out that they have a new curriculum and that changed the whole matter. After browing around, in the end I was able to find one and everything is already (so far) under control. Going back to school......not really sure if i'm excited for it or not... hahahahah i'm more excited that I don't have to wake up early in the morning anymore as I'm taking night classes....But still, there's a part where i can't really wait to start school again...So I just have to wait and see how it goes during the first week of class. Hopefully it won't be that bad as I'm taking easy classes this summer.

Counting down to my last day at work, and to my first day back at school again.

what I'm listening to: Anggun + Transporter 2 OST

2006-05-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

I don't really know when did I start to take interest with Anggun. I know that I used to listen to her songs such as "snow on the sahara" and "still reminds me" from her previous album. After that period, I kind of forget about her until recently. I was trying to find something to do and ended up browsing the net for her and found out that she has new album "luminescence" and "open heart". One of her song "Saviour" was also a soundtract for Transporter 2 (yeah... imagine my surprise when I found out about it.... instantly, I downloaded her albums and also Transporter2 OST). It turns out that her 2 new albums are pretty good. I've been playing them non stop ever since and even Transporter 2 OST is a good album to listen to when I go to gym. Below is the video clip of "Saviour" or "Cesse la Pluie" (French version). Just a fact... this video is banned in Indonesia (just because of what she wears in that clip......doh... *rolling my eyes.... ). Enjoy yourself :)

movie vs book

2006-05-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

I think I'm expecting too much on this movie. I thought the movie would be as good as the book (which in this case not true at all). I'm a big fans of the book, so much that I've reread the book for couple times. So when I knew that they are going to make the movie out of it, and two of my fave actors - Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou - were playing in the movie, I was so excited. But after seeing it, as what the critics were saying, it turned out to be a disappointment. In my opinion, the film was slow (some said that it was a bit too rushed) and they changed some of the story (like the opening scene, and also the ending where they told sophie that her grandpa wasn't her real grandpa...and she didn't even meet her younger brother...). The other thing that bugs me down was that there wasn't enough chemistry between tom and audrey. They played good but not enough. Tom Hanks doesn't really act as good as what he's capable of. He seems too confused in this movie. Surprisingly, Ian McKellen plays really well as Sir Leigh Tobings. The witty conversations, the remarks that he made, those history on Da Vinci stuff and the charm as the bad/good guy. Thumbs up for that. Audrey on the other hand wasn't that bad but there are times where her french accent got in the way of the conversation, making it a bit hard to understand (I'm not complaining about this as me myself am not a English native speaker and I do admit I have accent and sometimes it was hard for people to understand what I was trying to say). I think maybe because I've watched "Amelie" so many times that I kind off expected her to be more that playful :p

Anyway, overall I think it was ok. Not that great. This is the second time where I expect too much from movies adapted from novel. My first (maybe not first but so far that I can remember) was Memoirs of a Geisha. It was one of my fave novel but the movie was such a disappointment. It was just a beautiful but an empty movie, one that you can forget easily just like Da Vinci Code. You just watched it for entertainment and forget about it the next day until you rewatch it again. This whole movie and novel thing makes me wondering was it hard to adapt a novel into a movie? I know there are so many things in the book that you can't even put it inside the movie and so many stuff to consider. I know the notebook wasn't a bad movie and so is pride and prejudice (for me) and I believe there're movies - based on novel - out there that are pretty good. But the Memoirs and Da Vinci.....maybe because i've read the novels and they are such a good one that I put a lot of hope into the movies. sigh... so sad....

Interestingly enough, comic books adaptation were not totally bad. Take X-men and V for Vendetta. They are both adapted from comics and I think they are pretty good (well not guarantee that comic book adaptation can be a good one... like the early batman series or even fantastic 4). Well.. so i guess just because it's from a popular book/comic, don't expect a good movie will come out of it.

reconciliation

2006-05-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

So in the end, after all those piercing and stabbing, I finally made peace with him. It's really nice to know that someone isn't holding any more grudge towards you. I felt peace and even though that chapter of my life has already been closed, there was still some tiny gap that need a proper closure. I did that and now I can fully close it. Everything will be alright now.

an evening reminiscent of old and happy times

2006-04-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

I know it's a bit too late but better be late then never :) Anyway, I have to admit i'm such a procrastinator. I have so many pictures in my digital camera that I haven't uploaded them yet to my computer until few days ago. Couple of them were taken at UW's quad under the cherry blossoms. I really love UW during this time of the year. The cherry blossoms bloomed so beautifully. I think it was still in the first few days of spring, so it was pretty cold out there.

Here are some of the pictures that I took. The first picture is me with the twin buildings as my background. The one that is seen in here is the School of Art. The other one that's not seen is the School of Music. It was a really nice day when we went out there. The second picture on the right is still in the same location but different end.

This picture on the left was taken from the middle of the quad. The quad itself is a rectangle (i think so if i'm not mistaken). The road shown in here will lead to HUB (Husky Union Building aka Student Union Building). Speaking of HUB, i kind of missed that place even though the food there were so-so and expensive. There's a bookstore in there that I spent my break time (sometimes) browsing around for books, and any other small stuff. Not a bad place.... ahhh I missed UW's bagel and strawberry cream cheese and also their bluberry muffin :) I used to eat that alot during classes just to keep me awake :) Oh not to forget Italian soda :) Nice stuff there....(why am I talking about food :p).

what i wish for at this moment...

2006-04-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

1. Vacations. a week worth of vacations would be awesome right now....no need to worry about work, getting up early, driving to work. can sleep in until noon :p i'm such a lazy person :)

2. A piano. just because I watched a piano concert few weeks ago, the urge to play one is a bit overpowering right now. I've been checking some websites for renting one, even I checked craigslist.com (be careful in spelling that website... once i wrote "craiglist.com" instead of "craigslist.com", it turned out to be a porn site... imagine my surprise hehehehe). So far i'm still thinking about the space constraint since i don't have enough space in my room and any other constraints. I'll wait for now.

3. A trip to San Francisco. I wish I had a long easter weekend but too bad none whatsoever. But.... we will get one in May for memorial day weekend. I'm thinking about a trip down to SF to visit my sister. It's kind of expensive though so maybe not. (how i wish that money isn't a big issue :D sigh that's why we have to work and save money...)

4. Go home and sleep/relax. yeah right.....i wish i could do this right now at this moment heheheheh.... *rolling my eyes oh well.... 6 more hours to go.

5. and any other stuff that i can't think of right now....

forgetting the past

2006-04-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

So, in the end, I decided to try to say hi to my ex again. I just want to see how his reaction is towards me and from the reply; I can see that he’s still mad/angry/pissed with me. I already put my cards on the table and whether he accepted it or not, it’s up to him to decide. Oh well… at least I tried and I’m kind of glad that I did it just because I’m a bit curious how his feelings are toward me after we ended our winter/spring fling. To tell you the truth, I should’ve listened to my inner voice back then. There’s a certain part of my heart/brain that told me that we weren’t compatible enough to make it last. I should’ve stayed away from him/not going any further with the relationship. But the choices were already being made and I had to stick with my decisions even though it was a bad one. At least I hope that I can learn from my mistake and not making it again the second time.

Here’s what I wrote to him:
“hello ....how are you doing these days? Even though we already broke up, and i know it's not easy to become friends again like we used to be, I just want to say hi to you. Have a great day.”

Nothing personal in the message, just saying hi to him and whether there’s any small possibility of becoming friends again or not.

Well judging from his reply to me, I guess not:
“I know it probably took some courage to send me a message, so I will at least reply to this message. I am sorry to say this, but I don't think I can be friends with you like we used to be. There are just too many things that happened in the past for me to forget.Move on and enjoy your life, and please don't contact me again.”

Interesting isn’t it… I have to say that the reply isn’t really “soft”, it’s pretty straightforward and to the point that it’s quite mean and inconsiderate. I guess break up can change people. If you know him, you probably won’t know that he can utter such words to others. He is honest that’s for sure…or crude? I don’t know and I don’t really care either. Another words that he wrote also saying that he still can’t forget what happened in the past that made him very disappointed and pissing him off, and that holds him back from maintaining any sort of relationship with me again, be it friend or more. Apparently he wants to forget about the past and probably in his opinion, by not contacting me is the fastest way to forget. I do agree with him on looking forward but on trying to forget about the past and not looking back? I don’t think I agree wholeheartedly with that. There will be a time where you have to pause and take a look back before you make choices/decisions. We definitely don’t want to repeat our own mistakes again, right? And the only way to do it may require us to step back and take a look at what we’ve done in the past.

just a thought

2006-04-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Just a thought that came to me when i was working (daydreaming? :p) ...
if you broke up with someone and then he/she decided to delete all your contact numbers, emails, friendsters, and any other stuff to forget about you, in couple months/years later should you say "hi" to him/her again just as friend? Well ok.... i broke up with my ex almost a year ago and when we did, he decided to erase everything about me like email address, friendster, msn messenger (that's so far that i know. I am not sure whether he deleted pictures and all that personal stuff... maybe he did). So my question is that... should I send him an invitation for friendster again or drop him email and just say hi to him again or should I just move on and close that part of my life? what happens if we met again somewhere someday? should I ignore him or just say hi and bye? Well... i don't know :) The thought of that already cross my mind couple times but so far no action ever taken yet..... just wait and see.

ok lunch time :D gotta go and eat..

another test

2006-04-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Animated Inventor

Interesting test. Some of them are quite true but I think there's some other parts that aren't. Well for you people that know me, feel free to give me any comments on my result. hmmmm just for precautioni, here's the link if that thing doesn't pop up.

what I have seen (and heard) so far...

2006-03-29T18:05:00.000-08:00

This is one of the best movie I've ever seen for this year. The film was written by the brothers responsible for the Matrix movies, Larry and Andy Wachowski, and is based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore. Below is the summary of the movie...for those who haven't watched this movie, I suggest to skip this part or if you don't care that much, then proceed.

"The opening scene offers a quick lesson in English history. London in the 17th century is re-created to show infamous saboteur Guy Fawkes foiled in his attempt to blow up Parliament, an act for which he is hanged in front of a mob of thousands. They're almost certainly computer generated, but the special effects aren't obvious. The film is almost old-fashioned in relying on solid storytelling instead of trickery to engage the audience.

Flash forward, way forward, to London in 2020 or so. A totalitarian regime has taken control, terrorizing citizens and routinely lying to them via a government-controlled TV station. It's unclear whether the news readers are telling the truth when they dryly report that the former United States is in a state of chaos brought on by a civil war.

The British people's self-appointed savior (Hugo Weaving) goes only by the letter V. But we know what that stands for. Sure enough, he's hell-bent on bringing down the government by carrying out Fawkes' failed mission. Keep the mental image of Weaving as the "The Matrix's" ubiquitous Mr. Smith, because he's little more than a disembodied voice, albeit one with majestic resonance perfect for intoning the long-forgotten principles of democracy. V is never seen without an eerie Fawkes mask covering his entire face -- the heavy lines of the eyebrows and mustache form semicircles around squinty eyes, with the mouth glued shut. To hear his words coming from some other place takes some getting used to.

Natalie Portman gives her strongest performance yet as Evey, an orphan who slowly comes to understand the truth behind the deaths of her family. Even after Evey's hair is shaved off by torturers, Portman keeps you focused on her words and actions instead of her bald head.

V rescues her from government henchmen. Her deep brown eyes first reflect gratitude, then horror when the terrorist brings her to his safe house and plots to keep her locked up there. Parallels to "The Phantom of the Opera'' are obvious when V plays his jukebox for her ("Cry Me a River,'' of all songs) and invites her for a spin around the floor.

Light moments like their slow dancing or V fencing alongside "The Count of Monte Cristo'' ("the one with Robert Donat,'' he tells Evey, distinguishing it from inferior remakes) come as a relief after relentless gloom and doom. Gruesome torture scenes seem intended to evoke both World War II concentration camps and Iraq. Persecution of gay people, described in long letters written on toilet paper by a lesbian who's been incarcerated, are another reminder of the Nazis, as is England's Hitler-like chancellor (a terrifyingly believable John Hurt). Times do change -- most of "Vendetta'' was shot in Germany to save money.

The chancellor appears on a large screen barking out orders to his underlings to stop V after he blows up the Old Bailey to the accompaniment of the "1812 Overture." Not one to miss an opportunity to show off, V sets off fireworks around the incinerated building as if it were the Fourth of July. A chunk of the budget must have gone into impressively convincing scenes of British landmarks exploding.

To the credit of everyone involved with this movie, it's about a lot more than explosions. Provocative thoughts are what rise up from the ashes." ~~Ruthe Stein

This is one of the movie that makes you think while you watch it. I have to say that the movie has some political message in it that will make you question the amount of involvement of government has in our lives. It also shows how hunger for control and power will put people's lives in jeopardy. The acting is really good and the depth of the story will keep you intrigued because the situations of the story is almost the same as the situations of today's world problems. Overall, I love this movie and I wouldn't mind watching it again.

Sakura - Con 2006

Well, the picture is saying "Sakura-con 2007".. ooppss my bad... but basically it's the same stuff....So, what's Sakura-Con? Sakura-Con is the premier Pacific Northwest Anime Convention devoted to East Asian Culture, with a particular focus on Japanese animation (anime), Japanese Comics (manga), and video gaming. Sakura-Con is the gathering place of thousands of fans who get together to have fun sharing their love for anime. I'm not really enthusiast to go there this year but someone wanted my companion... so what can i say... (i mean i do love manga and anime... so why not?). Anyway... the 2 main reasons for me to go there... first... cosplay... I can't wait to see how people dress up to be like his/her favourite anime/game/manga characters. Let me tell you... I appreciate art...a GOOD one....there were some people out there that I have to give thumps up for their artistic choice of clothing...but most of them are not even close to that level...here are two websites that I found while searching about Sakura con : first website and second one Well, I'll let you be the judge of the cosplay then... :) My second reason is to check some goodies/items....they have so many interesting things inside there but too bad...some of them were pretty pricey....So yeah... I spent my saturday morning by going to University of Washington's quad to see their cherry blossoms... oh my.. they are so pretty... I took couple pictures there (i'll post some in another day) and after that, I went to the sakura con and spent my whole afternoon there. Conclusion... I don't think i want to go there again next year... waste of money i think... not really that worth it....

Here come the best part.... Yesterday, I went to see Russion National Orchestra at Benaroya Hall. They were playing Rachmaninov piano concerto 3 in D minor Op. 30, Rachmaninov's Vocalise op. 34 no. 14, Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3 in G major, Op. 55, and theme from sleeping beauty as the extra piece. Words can't describe it... It was amazing and superb. The performance was really good. The guest pianist is also really well in playing the piano concerto eventhough the simple tune proves a potent catalyst for astonishingly difficult pianistic gymnastics thoroughout the entire movement. I got to know and love Rachmaninov 3 from movie "the Shine" After watching that movie, I was falling head over heels with that piece and seeing it in live last night really makes me appreciate the beauty of classical music and also the genius minds behind those pieces. Exuberant, larger than life, this febrile music uses further transformations of the concerto's opening theme in demonstrating Rachmaninov's predilection for variation technique. The driving rhythmic intensity of the finale is twice interrupted, once by a deft and delectable scherzando and again by a sad lento, before notching up to vivace, then vivacissimo, and ultimately presto. It was really a night to be remembered.

"you've bewitched me, body and soul"

2006-03-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

Oh my.....I was quite surprised with this version of Pride and Prejudice. It's been a while since I watched movie that can really melt my heart...and I have to say that Pride is one of the movie that does the magic. When i watched it, I felt that I was like a butter that's slowly melting away... both of them are so charming that you can't take your eyes of them... especially Mr. Darcy...Before watching this, I watched Pride and Prejudice with Collin Firth in it. I can't really say which one is the best as I like both version. One that I can say for sure is that they show more emotion in the newer version. The scene where Darcy was proposing to Elizabeth is one of the best scene in the movie and also when they were dancing earlier in the movie and it seemed that there were the only two people existed in the room, and also not to forget the scene when they were walking early in the morning (see picture above)... and conveying their true feeling to each other... ahhhhh... thinking of that makes my heart flutter again :P... i've already watched it twice but I don't really mind watching it again... I even went to bookstore today and got the literature. Can't really wait to read it... while thinking about Mr Darcy....

this and that

2006-03-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

wow... can't believe it's been a while since my last blog. Anyhow... I watched Pride and Prejudice (BBC mini series with Colin Firth in it) last weekend and I have to admit that I really enjoy watching it, especially watching Colin Firth. He's so expressive in this film and so charming. I can't say anything yet about the newer Pride and Prejudice as I haven't seen it yet. But if all goes well, I might see it this weekend... we'll see...

On another matter, so far working in the new place has been busy and confusing. Still having difficulty on how to start the project and don't know where it ends. So far I've been diving straight to the water without knowing what's inside the water.....just trying to poke around and see where it takes me... speaking of work... i have to get ready in couple more minutes.....it's kind of nice to start a bit late today... but because of that... I have to stay late... :( oh well.... sigh... can't believe it's monday again... oh how i wish it's weekend already XD heheheheheh.... 5 more days to go including today...

bored

2006-02-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

My goodness....this is the first time where I am actually found out that I don't have anything to do. I've completed all the things, well almost....except that i still have to go to the night shift to finish everything up. So technically, I don't have works to do during the day shift :p My supervisor has gone to Detroit on some family matter and couple days ago I was told to start working on the other company starting next week. Well, the company that I'm working right now bought another small company in November 2005. It is a small company. There are only 52 people working there. So right now, the main company wants to make better the other company by hopefully implementing all the lean principles and supply chain management kind of stuff. That's where I come in :) The VP of operations told me to help them with the labor standards a.k.a time studies. So, I'll be working under different supervisor and also working with another industrial engineer there. I'm actually looking forward for this new change eventhough I'm not looking forward to drive there :( With all the rush hours and traffics.....hopefully I can make it there (nervous.....a bit nervous...).

Ok..back to the main story...yeah....having nothing to do really really sucks. Consider this is my weekend (I won't be coming on Friday because i've been working 10 hr/day for this last 3 days and also today)....and I still have to spend 2.5 or 3 more hours sitting here and do nothing before I go home. Sigh...I wanna go home now..... x_x It's amazing how I have been sitting here for 6 hours doing nothing....completely bored. I think I'll probably take a walk or something or if I can't stand it anymore, I'll just go home :) we'll see.....

Amélie

2006-02-15T14:13:00.000-08:00

"I had two heart attacks, an abortion, did crack... while I was pregnant. Other than that, I'm fine. — to her father, who is not paying attention" - Amélie

I was watching this movie last night and I have to say that I still enjoy it as much as when I saw it for the first time. I've been watching Amélie more than once but the movie is just so unique and enjoyable that I fall in love again with the character and the story. Below is the sypnosis of the movie. For those who haven't watched it, beware! Otherwise, go on and continue reading it.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

"Amélie is the story of a girl who grows up isolated from other children. Her mother dies when she is young. Her father, a doctor, never hugs her. He only touches her for her monthly checkup, and this rare thrill causes her heart to race. As a result, her father believes she has a heart condition and keeps her away from other children while she grows up. Left to amuse herself, she develops an unusually active imagination.

Amélie grows up and becomes a waitress in a small Monmartre cafe run by a former circus performer. By age 22, life for Amélie is simple. She enjoys small pleasures like cracking crème brûlées with a teaspoon, going for walks in the Paris sunshine observing people, skipping stones across St. Martin's canal, trying to guess how many people in the world are having an orgasm at one moment ("Fifteen!", as she tells the camera), and letting her imagination roam free. One day, behind a loose bathroom tile she finds an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades past. She resolves to track down the now-grownup man who put it there and return it to him. If she finds him and it makes him glad, she will devote her life to goodness; if not, too bad.

After a bit of detective work she tracks him down and places the box in a phone booth. When he passes by, she rings the number to lure him into the booth. He opens the box and has an epiphany as long-forgotten childhood memories come flooding back. She trails him to a nearby bar and observes him but does not reveal herself. When she sees the positive effect she had on him, she resolves from that moment on to do good in the life of other people, including her father, her co-workers, the concierge of her building, and Lucien, the boy who works for the abusive owner of the neighborhood vegetable stand. But while she is looking after others, no one seems to be looking after Amélie, and internally, she recognizes that this unrequited devotion to the other people in her life is going to lead to her eventual death from despair.

She befriends a recluse painter in her building, who teaches her to do things for her own happiness as well as others'. She repairs relationships, and even starts one of her own with the mysterious man who collects the discarded photographs of strangers. She eventually gains his love by the most delightfully roundabout methods imaginable, involving something almost like a treasure hunt and a constant teasing promise to reveal her identity to him if he continues following her, and still manages to give peace of mind and happiness to her neighbors."

So, if by any chance you haven't watched it, I suggest you should go out and rent this movie...

for bugs lovers out there

2006-02-15T13:27:00.000-08:00

I was reading Anderson Cooper's 360 and found out an interesting entry about wasps enlisted in war on terror. A Georgia research scientist figured out a way to train wasps to identify the smell of vanilla and chocolate. Because of that, the U.S. Department of Defense spotted an opportunity and asked him to train wasps to detect nerve gas and explosives like TNT too. And he's actually done it.

"The scientist, Dr. Joe Lewis, trains the wasps by getting them to associate food with the odor they're supposed to detect, almost like giving a dog a treat after he does something well. Wasps have a keen sense of smell and can detect chemicals at very minute levels."

Interesting isn't it? It turns out that we can use bugs for that purpose. So maybe in the future, instead of seeing dogs to inspect luggages or items, we might see the TSA working with a handful of wasps to detect killer substances in the airport. But still the thought of going to the airport full of bugs....i have to say i hate bugs...and eventhough they are helpful and have some advantages over dogs, to be surrounded by them will definetely make my skin crawl. i'm not looking forward for that...the airport security itself is already unpleasant enough without wasps buzzing around. What happen if the wasps start running out of control and start attacking people? As we know, the lifespan of wasp is only 3 weeks. so does that mean that every 3 weeks, they have to find a new set of wasps and train them? It's not that efficient, isn't it?

curious george

2006-02-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

"The adventures of Curious George, the inquisitive little guy with an insatiable taste for adventure. George's spunky and fun-loving nature endears him to new friends, but also lands him in a series of (mis-)adventures. "

Yesterday, I went out and watched this movie. I have to say that don't expect something big from it as it's intended more for children (family) more than adults....I mean I'm not saying that you won't enjoy it if you are an adult, it's funny, cute and fun to watch, and also you don't have to think much when watching this movie. I haven't seen the Pink Panther (steve martin) yet. I am not even sure if I want to watch this movie....i know it's currently in number 1 spot in box office but the thought of steve martin doesn't really interest me at all... I think i'll just wait until the next big movies are out....I know for sure that I am waiting for the Da Vinci Code. Can't wait for that.....and also pirates of the caribbean2 for sure....and x3. heheheheheh too bad they are out around may (spring). Anyhow....back to curious george, check out the OST if you like jack johnson (is that how you spell his last name? :p).

loucee...

2006-02-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

I was browing through lola-news and I stumbled upon this blog by loucee. I have to agree with laura....loucee's stories are very enjoyable to read, entertaining and encouraging. Keep it up loucee....

ps. pic taken from laura's blog...by the way....lola how are you doing? it's been a while yah....i hope you are doing ok in sydney :)

Bon anniversaire!

2006-02-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

Bon anniversaire, Gelukkige Verjaarsdag, Shēng rì kuaì lè, Hauoli la hanau, Buon compleanno, Otanjoubi omedetou, Saeng il Chuk ha hae, Boenos Anos, Gratulerer med dagen, Selamat Ulang Tahun, Happy Birthday!

yep...today is my birthday. I'm definetely getting older and....wiser? lol..i think i'm still far away from getting wiser. It's still in the process heheheeh....anyway....boy, oh boy, life sure passes you by so fast without you even realizing it. The next thing you know....boom, you'll hit 30. Yeah I know....it's still 7 more years ahead but as I said before, time moves fast....and you won't really notice it until it hits you and then you start wondering about your life, what you have accomplished till that point in your life. For me, it's all seems so blurry. I don't remember that well what happened when I was still a baby. All I know is that I grew up, we moved to our new home when I was around 6 years old. I also had a younger sister at that time. We went to States for vacation when I was around 10. I can't really remember all, but I know we went to disneyland, vegas, san francisco and hawaii...it was a fun one....After that it's all so straight forward, went to school....and just like that....didn't do anything wow at that time...just school, school stuff, and more school stuff, and some private lessons outside school. Nothing grand at all. Then after high school, I went to Seattle to continue my school. I got accepted into UW with 2 other friends of mine (interestingly enough...three of us were from the same high school and same class but we didn't know that we applied to UW until later). At first, I thought 4 years were going to be long but when I hit my senior year and graduation day kept getting closer and closer, I was thinking "wow....time flew by so fast... Can't believe that it's been 4 years ago when I arrived here and I can still clearly picture myself during freshman year. It all seems like yesterday for me and now I have to step into a new part of my life, the real world." I didn't say that I didn't life in real world but it's just that when you were still in college, your focus was to study hard and get good grades in hopes that you can get a good job when you graduate. But after you graduate, you are faced with new things. Some expectation to be met, some responsibilities that you have to take and all other things.

Some ups and downs during 22 years of my life and I don't know how my life will turn out. But in this new chapter of my life, I hope that I can be wise enough to choose my own path and be happy with that. Granted there will be some rocky roads and intersections ahead of me....but I hope that God gives me the strength to overcome all the rocks and help me choose the right paths. Life has been good, is good and will always be good. So in this happy day, I want to wish a Happy Birthday to myself....All the best for me and may all my wishes come true :)

Bamboo Shade

2006-02-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Bamboo Shade
I was checking the next blog button and stumbled upon this unique blog. I haven't read everything in there yet but just by reading couple entries, I decided to blog this site. I like the writing style. It's simple yet powerful in conveying what the writer is thinking. A must read blog :)

can't have enough of ...(pt.1)

2006-01-31T13:15:00.000-08:00

RAISINS! Ever since I ate them couple years ago, it's been my companion during my school days (it's one of my fave besides blueberry bagel+strawberry cream cheese, blueberry muffin, and trail mix energy bar). Recently, I just bought a pack of raisins and brought it to work. It's really good...and I just can't get enough of them :) So what are raisins? Raisins are dried grapes and can be eaten raw or used in cooking and baking. Raisins are very sweet due to the high concentration of their sugars, and if they are stored for a long period the sugar crystallises inside the fruit. This makes the fruit gritty, but does not affect the usability. In the United States, the term 'raisin' refers to any form of dried grape. California raisins – both the sun-dried dark naturals and the goldens – are made by drying Thompson Seedless grapes; dark naturals are sun dried, while goldens are treated with sulphur then flame dried. Another variety of seedless grape, the Black Corinth, is also sun dried to produce Zante currants, mini raisins that are much darker in colour and have a tart, tangy flavour. Derived from the same word used in the French language. In French, raisin means "grape"; a raisin is called a raisin sec, which means "dry grape".
In a 1/4 cup serving of California raisins (40 grams), there is usually quite a bit of sugar (28-32 grams), contributing to around 110-140 calories. Also, a serving of raisins usually has 2 grams of fiber, as well as a very small amounts of protein (often 1 gram), sodium (usually around 10 milligrams), calcium, and iron. Raisins are high in potassium, with 310 milligrams (about 9% of the daily value).
Dentists and Dental hygienists have long recommended not eating raisins as it was believed that the combination of sugars and stickiness in them would promote tooth decay and gum disease. However, research indicates that the stickiness of a food is not an indicator of its effects on oral health. Additionally, raisins have been found to contain several chemical compounds that may assist in fighting oral bacteria. In a laboratory, extracts from raisins were found to slow the growth of Streptococcus mutans, the main bacteria behind tooth decay. Five chemicals in raisins — oleanolic acid, oleanolic aldehyde, betulin, betulinic acid, and 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural — seem to be responsible for slowing the bacteria. In addition, oleanic acid prevents S. mutans from sticking to tooth enamel. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raisin) So......after all the information, it turns out that eating raisins is good for you :) maybe as long you don't overdo it. Everything that's too much isn't good for your body, right?

ok...so far that's it for now. I'm going to continue part 2 another time another post. I know what I want to talk about but it's too bloody long. Have to think a way to sum everything up hehehehehe :)

energy + motivation

2006-01-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

Motivation. This is what I need right now but how do you motivate yourself? Is it by thinking positive thing or just keep saying to yourself that you can do it over and over? Do days of the week also count? I read somewhere that people got a lot of energy to work usually on either tuesday or wednesday. Thursday, it's going down and by Friday, usually people just want to go home early. I noticed that trends in here, especially on friday. Most floor people usually add couple more hours to their work schedule so that they can go home early on Friday. The same thing goes for me I guess. I don't know what happen to me today but I feel like I just want to go home early today and rest. So tired and sleepy. I almost called-in sick this morning....woke up at 5:30 am and then decided to go back to sleep until 7:00 am. If my roommate didn't leave her room, I would still be sleeping. The tempation was so great today of not going to work but my heart/conscience told me to work instead of sleeping in :p blah.....So got to work on time and did my job but the problem was that my mind was wandering somewhere else.....which is my bed....and when it did that....suddenly I felt tired, my body felt heavy.... yeah.....it's a signal that I need to get enough sleep.

Is there any connection between energy and motivation? I think there is. If you don't get enough sleep you won't have enough energy to do your job and because you don't have enough energy, your body feel tired and when your body feel tired, you don't feel like you want to do anything which results in lack of motivation to do your job. Can I assume like that? I don't know...but it does make sense to me. The only thing that I can do right now is trying to motivate myself back to work again....by listening to music (that sometimes help) or keep saying to myself over and over again that I need to get my act together and work! 1 and 15 more minutes doesn't seem so bad @_@

blaarrgghhh.......

exciting...

2006-01-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

After such a long time of not having a car, in the end my parents gave in and decided that it's time for me to get one. It's not that hard to choose what kind of car I should get as Honda Civic was already my first choice and also my parents. So I browsed around for it and I have to say i like the new design of the new civic (as you can see from the pictures). I like the coupe version but after looking and staring at both pictures and in real life, I decided to get the 4-doors silver sedan.

Couple days ago, me and my friend got the chance of test-driving the car for the first time :) It was amazing.....really smooth and easy to drive around. Very nice indeed. But I'm kind of feeling a bit nervous on driving it. This is my first time of really driving a car and owning one. After a while of not driving car, I'm afraid my driving skills become rusty (a while in here means more than 1 year). All i need right now is practice, lots of practice...as we all know that practice makes better, right? Not to forget, there's always a first time for everyone :p

Anyway, this Saturday, me and my other friend are going to the dealer and get the car. Thanks to her, I got a better deal than in any dealer out there (**bow, hug, kisses, applaud to Dea**). She's a really sweet and nice gal.

Here are the side view and the back view (a bit sideway) of the car.

Not bad at all, right? They surely change the design and more of it for this 2006 civic.

a goodbye letter for a ghost

2006-01-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

Dear You,

Thank you for all the things that you've showed me. It was all beautiful and nice at first. But after getting to know you more and more, I am grateful that you are now a person in the past, a ghost, a shadow. I'm tired of being what you want me to be. Feeling so faithless lost under the surface and I don't know what you're expecting of me, you put me under the pressure of walking in your shoes. It seems that every step that I take is another mistake to you. I've become so numb I can't feel you there. I've become so tired so much more aware. All I want to do is be more like me and be less like you. Can't you see that you're smothering me, holding too tightly afraid to lose control? Cause everything that you thought I would be has fallen apart right in front of you. And I know, I may end up failing too but I know you were just like me with someone disappointed in you. I'm just too damn tired of being what you want me to be. You accused me of something that I didn't do and not even had my mind on that. I was hurt and sick of you. I hope you can find someone that can stand all your whims, selfishness, and your jealousy.

Truthfully I'm still checking on how you are doing these days. But it seems that you are doing great out there by yourself. Still trying to find the better someone. So I am happy for you....I used to hate you for what you've done to me. If that's what you still think until now, what can i say....be that way. You have your own reason to say that. What I want to say right now is that I forgive you. I know we can't be friends anymore and I am sad to lose one of my good friend. If i knew this would happen, I'd prefer us just being a friend.

So from now on, just be a ghost, a shadow, a past. I don't regret my decision to let you go. Even if we meet again somewhere, I won't say sorry. I don't do something wrong that you've accused me for.

Good Bye.

the pain of waking up at 4 am

2006-01-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

It's been 4 days since I have to work at 5:30 am...yeah 5:30 am! since I don't drive, most of the time I take bus or get a ride with my roommate. For this couple days, as I need to time those people on the assembly line, I have to be there before they start (6 am). So, I checked on the website for my bus schedule and I found out that the earliest bus leaves at 4:56 am and the next one is 5:23 am. Since I don't want to take the chance of being late, I take the earliest one....Let me tell you....getting up at 4 am is really a pain in the #$%. There're couple days when I feel like I want to call in sick and just continue with my deep slumber....but so far, I'm still waking up at 4:05 am. Not bad for a night owl like me...yeah....I used to be a night owl....won't go to bed before 12 am. That was during my school year though.....so sad....My ex-roommate when she knew I have to sleep around 9:30-10 pm, she was laughing and teasing me about my old habit. Oh well....we have to change if the situation calls for it :)

After 4 days, it's not really that bad. The hardest time is around 7-9 am before break because during that time, I've counted myself almost falling asleep while taking the data. The nicest part about working early is that I can go home early :) Usually I go home around 2:15 pm and get home around 3:30 pm....which is really nice. But I don't think I want to wake up this early again...no thanks...4 times are enough for me... Oh for people living in seattle area, this website is pretty useful. I check that website for information regarding what bus to take and also the bus schedule. 3 more hours to go before i go home.....blah still a long time to go :(

beauty, death and immortality

2006-01-16T12:25:00.000-08:00

I've been watching 2 movies, amadeus and before sunrise, during this weekend and the thought of immortality just popped out of my mind when i watched both of them. In amadeus, it's sad to see how Salieri trying so hard to outdo Mozart. During his last few years, he asked a priest whether the priest was familiar with certain tunes that he composed. Sadly, the priest didn't know any of his tunes but when Salieri played one piece of music, the priest suddenly smiled and hummed to the tunes. The priest asked whether that was composed by Salieri but too bad, it wasn't. It was composed by Mozart. Salieri trying so hard to make his music became famous and be played for many generations to come. But no. His music died after a few years. No one played what he wrote anymore...slowly fading away into nothing. On the other hand, the music prodigy, even after his young death (he was only 35 years old when he died), his music become so popular and people respect him for his works. Mozart is immortal. Even after 3 centuries later, you can still hear people play his works.

We know that human can't live forever. It's finite. We will all die and turn into dust. But who aren't afraid of death? I think everyone does, well maybe there's some who is not afraid. If we turn on TV or read magazines, we can fine so many ads for beauty products that promote anti-wrinkle, anti-aging stuff. Turn your old skins into young again. Believe it or not, so many people fall for it. Well what can we say...we all want to look young again. It's not only beauty products. Nowadays, plastic surgeries also become so famous thanks to TV (again)shows like the swan or extreme makeover. If you dont' like your face, you can always operate some parts to make it beautiful, like nose job, eye job, or lip job to name a few. For me, I'm happy with what I have. Off course sometime i wish i had an oval face instead of a square one, a higher nose instead of my small one, a perfect eyebrows instead of my messy one, and so on..... Granted i can always do some nose job or eye job but thinking about all the knives and needles that will pierce my body, it makes my skin crawl. what's the use of make ups then? Beauty comes with pain. Yes... it's so true. But when we are old, let's say 60-70 years old, we won't have all that anymore. Think about it...are you still going to do plastic surgery to lift up your saggy skins when you are that old? You won't be bringing your beauty to the grave, will you? yeah let's say you do all the operations to make you beautiful but then you died the next day and burried with your beautiful self but after a few months, only your bones will remain. Where's beauty then? It's all eaten by worms and other animals. I believe beauty should come from inside. If you are beautiful from the outside but your inner self is rotten, you are going to be marked bad from others and people will soon stay away from you.

On the other hand, take a look at all the dead composers, artists, activists. Eventhough they were all dead but until now, we are still appreciating their works. Isn't it interesting how their works weren't appreciated when they were still alive? Mozart: his famous operas Don Giovanni and the marriage of Figarro were only played 5 and 9 times total in vienna compare to now....hmmm talking about classical music, it makes me think about pop music nowadays. There's no doubt that classical music will still be played for a long time. It has withstand so many centuries and it won't died out that easily. I think that all the dead composers and artists are all immortal. Not their bodies but their works. Pop music is different. What we consider now as hits and new, in couple years to come they will be consider as old songs in new generations dictionary and eventually it will fade away into extinction. So many examples: ant & dec, the moffats, backstreet boys (soon), n-sync (soon), even green day will be lost forever. A new generation will soon take over them. It's kind of like shedding skins. the old skins will die and replace by newer skins.

just a thought...i wrote immortality only based on dead composers, artists but what about the famous criminals? eventhough it''s been a long time ago, but people can still remember what they did. Can we still call the criminals immortal just because of their reputation and what they did?

yeah...anyhow...all i wrote was kind of abstract...nothing really related to one another except maybe for beauty and death. hmm or maybe there's some other thing? well i'm not going to think about that now.

wow....

2006-01-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

You Have a Phlegmatic Temperament

Mild mannered and laid back, you take life at a slow pace.
You are very consistent - both in emotions and actions.
You tend to absorb set backs easily. You are cool and collected.

It is difficult to offend you. You can remain composed and unemotional.
You are a great friend and lover. You don't demand much of others.
While you are quiet, you have a subtle wit that your friends know well.

At your worst, you are lazy and unwilling to work at anything.
You often get stuck in a rut, without aspirations or dreams.
You can get too dependent on others, setting yourself up for abandonment.

What Temperment Are You?

LOL.. this is kinda describe my self :D I kinda like this website. It has pretty fun stuff in there... jeezz 1.5 more hr before i start my timing again.....

Coincidence?

2006-01-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

Your Birthdate: February 7

You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy.And though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you.Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights.You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice!
Your strength: Your self sufficiency
Your weakness: You despise authority
Your power color: Maroon
Your power symbol: Hammer
Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

I was just updating my profile and wrote the section that I hate most....the about me section....After i wrote all what I know about myself (not all but the one that i notice most), I did a quiz on what your birth date means. Interestingly enough, it matches my profile...Coincidence? I don't know....I mean how many people in this world has the same birth date as me? Does that mean that we all share the same characteristic? that's scary isn't it? and i'm wondering how can people find out about the meaning of every birth date? do they do a research on that? or do they make it based on stars and other numerology stuff that i don't really understand? hmm this is just interesting....

it's new year!!!

2006-01-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

welcome to the year of dog....why the year of dog? it's because this year according to chinese calendar is the y ear of dog. Speaking of chinese calendar, Jan 29, 2006 is the chinese new year!! I have decided that starting from now, I'm going to be a pig instead of dog.... my mom also told me before that I'm more into a pig zodiac than dog....because couple days after i was born, it was the changing of year from dog to pig.... i dont really know what my parents will give us for this chinese new year hehehehe.....

by the way...this is also already 2006! Can't believe that.....time sure moves so fast...the next thing you know you've graduated from school, have to find job, and get more responsibilities as you are becoming more adult than you use to be. Granted 18 years old is already considered adult in many countries but emotionally you might not be a one...I've noticed how high school students in States act differently than college students...They are all tall and look so mature, wearing makeups, latest fashion, but it's just the way they talk and move indicate that they are actually not. Maybe age and real life experience also count. I have to say that when i came to States, I was awkward, nervous, timid (i still do in some situation), fashion wreck, almost nerd/geek :) (some of my friends still have our pictures back in freshman year...and they told me that i looked so different than my current self), and i feel that i was still acting childish (i'm not saying that i dont act that right now...but i hope it's getting less and less). After 4 years and more, i realized that i do change....all the experiences that i've gained in here and at home sure help me develop myself. So many ups and downs happened in my life and there are things that i regret but I feel blessed...God sure help me in a way. Life hasn't been easy on me for this couple months but this will make it more interesting, right? I mean if you have the same life, without anything happen...just the same old routine, I don't think you will grow. it will be a plain boring life.

anyway....2005 hasn't been an easy year....the first half was ok...but the second half was like a living nightmare....a hell...I feel like i've been bounced around like a ball, not knowing where to go. I won't really go into too much detail in here...but maybe someday i'll write about it. I intend this blog just for my work blog....something that keep me awake and kill time....I'm not saying that what i'm doing is boring (it does sometimes but it's still fun) but there are times when you've done all the things that you need to do and there's not much left....I guess i'm not a person who can sit idle not doing anything like this past few days.....i was soo sleepy and bored. luckily i still have my mp3 + ipod to keep me company....and also the internet :).

I hope that this year 2006 will bring me all the best and luck for myself and also to my family.