Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Happy Holidays

Hey guys, blogging from NYC :)
Just wanted to throw in a quick note
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! For those travelling, be safe.
I will post more photos when I get back to good ol COMO. So far my at my trip I've managed to:

  • Ate Czech, Thai, Malaysian, Chinese and Greek food
  • Attended Greek Xmas party
  • Watched movie "Night at the Museum"; blaaah....wait for the DVD
  • Shopped till I drop; Diesel jeans ON SALE! H&M underwear frenzy
  • Dropped passport off to be renewed. Terribly inefficient!

More to come soon!!! Oh no my vacation's half over, I don't it to end...

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Projects I'm currently working on...

Books:


Books I'm currently reading

Not sure how or why but I got into reading two different Biographies right now. I'm almost done with The Confession by James McGreevey and just started listening to My Life audiobook by Bill Clinton. I wanted to read about Governer McGreevey because so far he's the highest government official to be outed and I wanted to read about President Clinton because he is definitely the best Commander-In-Chief since I've lived in this country. There are many parallels in these two books, both men were incredibly driven and motivated. They knew exactly what they wanted and exactly how to achieve their goals. I also understand that they are both politicians, so I take most of the "politics" in these books with a grain of salt. It's just a great read to motivate oneself to wanting to achieve bigger and greater things.

The book I just completed before I started with the two biographies above was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I learned about this book through Dave who read it because of Wes. It's an interesting book, quite philosophical and symbolic. There's a surprise ending to the end of the book. After the author is done telling you the story, he lists a bunch of questions (to be asked at a book club, I presume) but the questions are very interesting. It's a pretty light read, I would suggest it to anyone who just wants to curl up in a couch, drinking a cup of hot cocoa, and read during these winter months. I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

I have not been so good at documenting all the books I've read. I hope to mention, even if briefly, the books I've read on my blog to somehow remind me of the material I've come across. There have been countless books that I've read that I have very little recollection of. One example would be The Green Mile which I hope to re-read because from what I can remember, it was a great book.

***NEW MATERIAL ADDED 12/11/06***

So this is another book I read earlier this year, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is another really good book that I definitely recommend. Here's the excerpt from the book's cover:

"By the time she turned thirty, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern, educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want - a husband, a house in the country, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love and the complete eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be." "To recover from all of this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, left her loved ones behind and undertook a year-long journey around the world, all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the chronicle of that year. Gilbert's aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature, set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Italy, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, where, with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise Texan, she embarked on four months of austere spiritual exploration. Finally, in Indonesia, she sought her ultimate goal: balance - namely, how to somehow build a life of equilibrium between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. Looking for these answers on the island of Bali, she became the pupil of an elderly, ninth-generation medicine man and also fell in love in the very best way - unexpectedly." "A memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment. It is also about the adventures that can transpire when a woman stops trying to live in imitation of society's ideals. This is a story certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change."--BOOK JACKET

I think it was very appropriate that I read this book at this point of my life as I am too almost turning the frightful age of thirty and share very similar discontent for life in general with the Author. Sounds harsh when I say discontent, I guess the better word is I feel like there's more I can achieve but have yet to do so. Anyway this book in a way has motivated me to want to learn new skills (languages, musical instrument etc) and much, much more. I give it 4/5 stars. Go read it and let me know what you think.

***END OF NEW MATERIAL***

Music:

I also checked out a bunch of beginner music books from the library. I think that for me to be more "complete" as a person, I need to be able to read music. I would really like to be able to read some music and be able to play basic piano which I've also checked books out for. I'm thinking about investing in a little eletronic keyboard but we'll just have to see how long my current interest will last me. Deep down inside, I've always wanted to be able to play a musical instrument. It's one of those things that I keep putting away and say I'll do it someday. Well hopefully I am serious enough to follow through with it this time as it definitely will not be easy and takes a very long commitment. Would love to hear of any advise you have for me in comment section...

Language:

I have also always wanted to be able to communicate in more languages. The two that I've been trying to learn, half-heartedly, are Spanish and Mandarin. Today I found a very interesting site that provides lessons in these and many others. This website belongs to the Foreign Service Institute, FSI. I've tried out Unit 1 of Spanish and it looks promising so if time permits, I think I'll continue with the lessons. They are quite effective and best of all, this site is completely FREE!


Sunday, December 03, 2006

Snowed In

Woke up as usual on Friday morning and noticed I received a text from Justin.
"Are you going to work?"
I replied
"I dunno but I'm going to try"
He calls a second later and tells me to go look out my window. I crawled out of bed and looked out my window and I went "OH MY GOD!!!" There's no way anybody is going to work. I turned on the TV and looks like Columbia's been buried in 18" of snow!

Unbelievable!

Called my boss to confirm and work is indeed called off! Wooohoooo!!! I NEVER get snow days but I guess the snow was just too severe. Both I-70 (that's right Interstate 70!) and HWY 63 were shut down. Later heard that the Governor of Missouri declared state of emergency. This is the most snow Columbia has seen since 1995!


L: The front of my house completely buried R: My backyard again buried in 18", with the Sun just about to rise.

Spent most of the morning just watching the news and catching up on the TV shows I've missed. I was also amused to see my opposite neighbour, apparently very determined to go somewhere, try for almost an hour to move their little Camry. They pushed, they shoved, they accelerated back and forth and after an hour, they were still stuck on the same spot. At that moment, I realized I'm not going anywhere for the day.


L: Piled all the snow to one side measuring almost 3' R: I'm very proud of my shovelled driveway :)

After lunch, I went across the street and borrowed a shovel from my neighbour. Hooked up my MP3 player, made a hot cup of tea and spent the next 2 hours shovelling snow from my driveway. It was kind of fun but tiring as hell heck and my back was a little sore the next day. True enough I stayed home the entire day, I guess taking the advise of just about every newsperson on TV and radio who was going "If you do not absolutely need to be outside, do not go out!". Later that evening, Joe who was back from Michigan (he must have brought the weather with him) came over and we got to hang out.


L: Car handled pretty well in the snow & ice R: Walked around downtown and MU after lunch.

The next day, we attempted braving the roads. This is the first time I'm driving in the snow in my BMW, seems to handle the roads very well with the 4 wheel drive. Some of the roads were plowed but the city still seemed to be in disaster mode. We had lunch at Chinese Wok, very surprised businesses were open but the owner told me they were open on Friday too! Such dedication. After lunch we just walked around downtown and MU campus, it was very pretty to see everything covered in pure white snow. After the walk, we went to Walmart and there were so many people, one would think it's the last day of Walmart's operation of worst still, war time. Each of the check out counters had a line so long it stretched all the way back to the clothing department. I guess snow days=good business :)

Reminder: Notice my little chat tool to the right, do leave a short note ;)

P/S: What do you think of the pictures taken with my cell phone W810? Seem to produce pretty good pictures.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Turkey at The Lou

So I drove in to St Louis on Wed after work and got in at around 9:30pm. Drove directly to James' because Dave was already downtown and wanted to meet up and go out that night. Hung out with James which was fun and later went to Culpeppers to grab something light to eat, we split a veggie burger :P After eating Dave was already at the Loading Zone so we walked over and met up with the rest of the crew. It was PACKED! Apparently the night before Thanksgiving is the most popular night to be out. Never knew that :) We went to Novaks after LZ and danced and had a really good time.


Family singing Xmas carols and playing musical instruments, hmm very very interesting...;)

The next day, barely getting much sleep I had to jump out of bed and into the shower. We had to be at church. Dave's Mom, Sherry, was the church organist and Dave was playing the trumpet. It was interesting and they played rather well. After church, we went over to Dave's Aunt Karen's house for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was good and the family was welcoming. We ate and drank so much we passed out in the guest room. It was a good time, it just got a little strange when everyone hung out in the family room playing musical instruments and singing christmas carols. We didn't do much after we left Aunt Karen's, we were supposed to go watch a movie but Dave was feeling cheap so we ended up at Emily's house watching a really stupid movie, Equilibrium starring Christian Bale and Taye Diggs.

We were planning this elaborate shopping schedule for Black Friday but decided to sleep in instead ;) We left the house at around 11 and got to Bestbuy and still managed to get most of what I was looking for. A 2GB memory stick for my cell phone for $40, MI:III $7.99 and My Bestfriend's Wedding for $2.99! Even at 11:30pm, Bestbuy was full of people and the lines were absolutely crazy. But it was kind of fun joining in with the all that craziness. John G came over to hang, we walked down to the Mississipi river and then went to have dinner at Maggiano's. That night we went out again to Freddie's, Novaks and JJ's. Met tall Chris, counselor Mark and Irish Barra for the first time, cool people.


Friday night having fun at Novaks and acting a fool

Saturday we didn't really do much in the morning. James dropped by on his way back from visitting his folks and we hung out a little. Dave went to hang with Em and I followed James and had dinner with Jerod, Ryan, Jason and James at Outback. After that we met up with the rest of the crew at LZ. Met Phd Craig. Was tired from the last two nights of partying but Jerod and James kept buying me shots and as I got more drunk the night got more fun :P After LZ, we went to Freddie's and then on to the Complex. It was one crazy crazy night and I had a lot of fun. Two people that were crazy flirting with me, Bill and Doug. We stayed at the Complex till closing and then went to Ryan's. We ate some trail mix and passed out for couple of hours. We then drove back to James and passed out there.


Completely passed out at Ryan's after partying at LZ, Freddie's and Complex.

The next morning, we went to Metropolitan Community Church. It was an interesting seeing so much family attending service. It's just good to see that there are services like this available in bigger cities. After church we had brunch at this really cool Mexican restaurant sitting outside in light sweaters! The weather all throughout Thanksgiving was absolutely marvelous. Went back to Dave's packed and left for Columbia. The traffic coming home was just horrible but made it back safely after a completely crazy, fun-filled Thanksgiving in StL.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Happy Turkey Day!

I know, I know...I've been really bad this month with keeping up with new posts. What can I say? I've been busy. I had an old friend, Joel, from Arizona visit and he stayed with me for a full week. He had to defend his thesis while I had the honour to spend a whole week entertaining him, fun! He didn't have a car so guess who had to chauffer him around town? It's all good though, not sure when I'll ever get to see him again. Then this past weekend, H2 came back to visit. It was just a weekend trip so I didn't get to see much of her but it was still good to see that she's doing well.

Also I've installed a little chat/scribble box on the right column, be sure to go check it out and leave me a note!


So tomorrow will be Thanksgiving! And it will be 33 days away from Christmas and 39 days before the year ends. Amazing. I will be spending this year's Thanksgiving with Dave's family in St Louis. It'll be my first Thanksgiving with them. The past four years I've celebrated Thanksgiving in KC but since H2 is no longer around I thought I'd make a little change to my yearly routine. But I will definitely miss the homemade turkey with a Malaysian twist, eating so much we can't move and then going out for a late night movie only to fall asleep in the theater, putting up the Xmas tree the next day with Tze and last but not least enjoying the very good Turkey leftover curry noodles. Ahhh....the memories :)

Anyway Happy Thanksgiving y'all and definitely eat till you drop!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Mid-term Elections 2006

Finally the elections are over! Hopefully we'll see less of those cheesy "...and I approve this message" ads. I have a feeling that we're not that lucky though, we'll probably be bombarded with the next Presidential ads soon.

Anyway I live in a "hot" state this election year, along with Montana and Virginia, that has gained attention from the national press. Missouri's Claire McCaskill (D) was going up against Jim Talent (R) and I must say this is definitely a good year for Democrats. I got a little worried before bed as Talent was leading but KC and StL's votes were not counted and those two cities pretty much carried McCaskill to her victory. Some of the bills that passed in Missouri were
  • The Stem Cell research and
  • Increase of minimum wage
  • Tobacco tax was unfortunately shot down. I personally think they should tax the heck out of those things as it a) doesn't affect me and b) would probably encourage people to smoke less

This has been a great week for politics. I am overall happy with the results as that would be what I would have voted if I was allowed to. I'm also glad that the Democrats have taken control of both the House and the Senate! Another great news is that the first woman, Nancy Pelosi, will be Speaker of the House. This position is 3rd in line of Presidency so you can see that it's no small feat. To top it off, Nancy is an extreme liberal from San Francisco! So hopefully she'll bring better cause for gay rights. And one final victory (I should not celebrate on other people's misfortunes but this is one exception) is Rumsfeld resigned as Defense Secretary! He'll be replaced with ex CIA chief, Bob Gates. What I think really happened is that Bush had to do something as it was obvious the American people were dissatisfied with what was happening so Rumsfeld was a pawn in this game of approval ratings.

Anyway, enough about politics. What's been going on with me? Hmmm let's see, Dave came in to Columbia last Thursday for an interview. We went out to Soco Thursday night, nothing too eventful there. Now Friday was a little bizarre. I guess the stars and moons were aligned to create the perfect bitchfest. All three of us were major bitches but we soon realized it and dropped the attitude. We just stayed in and chilled at Justin's. I had Papa Murphy's pizza for the first time and watched two old and bizarre movies; Shine and Mummy Dearest. They were quite strange! Justin insisted we watch Mummy Dearest, apparently that and Steel Magnolia are like a rite of passage for gay men. I had never seen either up until recently and didn't think they were that great. Anyway Mummy Dearest was about the life of Joan Crawford. We all loved it when she'd yell "I'M DAMN MAD!!!" so now that's a phrase we'll be using among us ;)

So the next day, Dave planned on driving back to StL. I made a last minute decision to ride back with him and ride back with Carrie since she was already there. That night I met Jen and Grant Alter for the first time and James, Carrie, Brad, Dave and I had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was fun. We met up with Wes and we all went to Freddy's and I met up with Dwan. Later went to JJ's. Had a very interesting night overall*, I had dim sum with Dwan the next morning. I was so tired and sore* I pretty much slept all the way back while riding with Carrie. And that wraps up my weekend...
Side note: I finally got Halloween pictures from John G so I'll be posting that soon. They're GREAT!!

Monday, October 30, 2006

My Birthday Pics

Well as promised here are the pictures from my 29th Birthday. Next assignment's to upload pictures from Halloween where Justin and me were cowboys from Brokeback ;)


Birthday dinner at Murry's. Total suprise from James!

Goofing around before our food arrived.

Ice Cream cake TIME!!! Mmmm YUMMY :P
I didn't want to cut into such a pretty cake. But it eating beats looking ;)

Mandatory group pic after dinner

After dinner, we rocked it out at Soco

End of the night. Finally got to bed at 3am!

If you want to put a story to these pictures, read my post for that night.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Homecoming 2006


Dinner at Sophias. From Left: Dave, John, Carrie, Me, Scott, Jana and James

So this past weekend was totally a riot. James had his annual Homecoming ritual with his friends Scott, Carrie and Jana. Dave on the other hand, didn't really have any plans, so I managed to convince him to come along for the ride. They all got into Columbia on Friday right after I got off work and dropped Dave at my place. We later met up for dinner at Sophias. After din din, the group kinda split. Dave, John G and me went to Justin's and pretty much did nothing (well I consider pigging out on ice cream nothing) while the other group ended up at the Penguin bar having a jolly good time.


Up at the crack of dawn and freezing our behinds off, damn such team players

The next day we woke up bright and early for the Homecoming parade. We got downtown at around 8:30am and downtown was already packed with all kinds of people. I was really feeling the team spirit being all decked out in a Mizzou tshirt and sweatshirt eventhough I didn't go to school here, such mockery! ;) We saw majority of the floats go by and later had lunch at Shakespeares. Mother nature was definitely not kind, the weather was absolutely marvelous on Friday and Sunday but on Saturday (the day of the games) it was cold, cloudy and it rained all freaking day! Thank god I wasn't standing in the stadium getting drenched.


L: Before the game at Shakespeares pizza R: After the game keeping warm at Heidelberg

Justin, Dave and me just hung out at the Heidelberg while the rest stood in the rain watching the game where umbrellas and alcohol were NOT allowed, BOO! I guess it was all worth it since Mizzou won =) After the game they came and joined us the Berg and just hung out for a little more. Everyone was getting tired and cranky as it has been a long, long day; especially since we had to be up so early AND had to endure the cold, the rain and the wet clothes.


L: Before hitting Tonic R: The club was packed and we danced nonstop

So we went home took a nap, woke up all refreshed and was as good as new. We were ready to party all over again. Met up at Carrie's, started drinking, and continued on at Tonic where it was packed. All the businesses downtown were busy with people from the game, totally crazy. We had a good time at Tonic, Scott got us all a Yeagermeister shot and that really messed me up. I got quite buzzed and acted a fool all night long ;)


L: We were all drunk R: Rocking out to Carrie's little speakers, LOL

After the bar we went home to Carrie's and the party definitely continued. We had more to drink and totally rocked out to the tiny speakers. Some of us ended up in some compromising pictures and Jana got a good lap dance from James and me. LOL. People get silly when they drink...


L: Brad, James and Scott at Flat Branch R: One last group pic at Carrie's before James and gang left for the Lou

The next day we met up for lunch at the Flat Branch. The weekend was winding down and you could tell from our faces that we had a blast of a weekend but having to go back to work was going to suck big time. I had definitely not expected a weekend like this. It was fun but I was definitely hurting the next day.

Monday, October 16, 2006

My birthday

Here are some pictures, some you've seen, some you've not. I will post my birthday pictures soon. Enjoy :)



So last week turned out great. I didn't have much expectations, all I really wanted was just a quiet dinner with a few close friends. On Thursday night we all met up at Murry's for dinner. The initial plan was for Dave, Justin, myself, Steph, KK, John G and Chadd to meet up but as I was sitting there waiting for everyone to show up, I got the biggest surprise EVER! James walked up to me and as I saw him, my mind didn't register. My first thoughts went like this:

Thought #1: "Who is this?!?"
Thought #2: ""Wait a minute, this can't be James, he's in StLouis! And he's gotta work tomorrow!!"
Thought #3: "Oh wow, James so happened to be in Murry's in Columbia for whatever reason, I wonder why is he in town?! What coincidence!"
Thought #4: I finally realized he was there for my Birthday and jumped up and down in surprise!!! =D

So dinner went great; loved the company, loved the conversations and loved the food. I had a great time. I feel so loved with all the calls, text messages, emails, myspace comments etc etc! (THANKS everyone!) After dinner, the party continued at Soco. I had a great time there as well, people were buying me drinks and shots and I got really drunk and flirtatious. Quite different from my usual self. Danced all night long and finally went to bed at 3am! I had to wake up at 7am for work the next morning...ugh...it wasn't pleasant!

Friday, I HAD to take a nap after work. We (Dave, James, Carrie, Jerod, KK) all later went to dinner at the Olive Garden. After dinner we went to my birthday party that Dave's been planning all week to be hosted at Don's house (and ex Sorority house mind you, so it was really cool!). It had a really slow start but towards the end tons of people showed up, some I don't even know! Don gave me my present and let's just say I felt weird for the rest of the night ;) hehehehe!

I can honestly say that this is definitely one memorable birthday. I will remember this for a long, long time if not for the rest of my life. Not only is it my last year being in the twenties, I had a big blow out party! It was amazing. I truly appreciate how blessed I am in my current situation. Sure there are a few dips here and there but I'm generally very glad of what I have.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Birthdays galore...

Boy, there are a lot of librans in my life and this includes ME! =D Well I've never really thought about this but if you really think about it, it does make some sense. If you take mid-october and go back nine months, that should bring you to around a time when couples get together and be romantic - that's right, Valentine's Day! So duhhh right? Well it's no wonder so many babies are born around this time of the year. With the new addition of newphew KuanYen who is also a libran, I've so far called Dad (Happy Birthday, Dad!! Enjoy the angpow I gave you), Aunty Irene, Sarthak, Soumaya, Reema and quite a few others whom I cannot remember right now.

I was actually in St Louis this past weekend celebrating Ritz-like-a-cracker's birthday. I rode in with Justin on Friday night after having a hectic dinner with Kenneth and Jeff at Shakespeares. There were also on their way to StL to celebrate their 9th Anniversary! Can you believe that?!? Nineth!! That's amazing. Anyway we went out on Friday hitting some clubs in Soulard and ending up at Novaks. It was fun but I was really tired. The next day we just hung out, ate at my new fav restaurant, Maggiano's, and later that night partied at the Complex which is always fun. Met up with Dwan at Freddy's and convinced him to go to Complex where we danced quite a bit, what can i say, fun fun fun! Drove back Sunday and as usual I had a hard time going to bed that night....I should get some sleeping pills for nights like this.

Anyway this coming weekend's going to be crazy all over again. I'm having dinner with a few close friends on Thursday and then Dave's throwing me a birthday party on Friday and then we're driving to St Louis to party somemore! I know...it's the last year I can say I'm in my twenties! Oh well...it's all good.

My new phone, totally loving it right now. A Sony Ericsson W810i Walkman phone

Oh I have also switched my phone carrier from T-Mobile to Cingular. I have been waiting forever for this phone (Sony Ericsson W810i) to be released, it finally did last week and I didn't waste any time. Shopped around and eventually got it through TMI wireless for FREE after rebates that is! I've been playing with this phone for about a week now. It's no wonder it was voted best cellphone of the year by one of the tech websites. So far been very happy with it, I totally feel like a kid in a candy store! It has very very good UI (user interface) and been playing with it at work uploading videos (go britney!), music, games, apps (world clock & Opera mini) and ringtones! The 2MP camera takes some really good pictures too with an autofocus lense with flash. I know I love Sony Ericssons as this will be my third. I started off with a T68i which I've given to Ean and then a T610 which got stolen out of my gym locker (damn that fool who stole my shit). I don't get too many minutes (went from 600 to 450 mins) but the mobile2mobile calling is definitely nice. I don't have to worry while chatting with people like Dave, Justin etc etc who is all on the Cingular network. I am now on a mission to get as many friends to switch to Cingular...

Monday, October 02, 2006

Various Matters

Wow I just realized that today is the second day of October. I just cannot believe that this is the tenth month of the year, two more left before this year comes to an end. I know it's cliche but it really seems like time goes by a lot faster when one gets older.

Anyway on a separate note, the weather has been extremely WARM. Not like I'm complaining, I will take warm weather over cold anytime. But today's high is 91 degrees which is plenty strange and record breaking for the first week of October. I just saw on the news that the last record was set in the 1800s! This whole topic comes hand in hand with the movie (An Inconvenient Truth) I watched with Jerod on Saturday at the Ragtag theater. I know it's been out for a while but if you have yet to see it, definitely go check it out or better yet go buy the DVD which is going to be released soon. Al Gore gives a very compelling argument towards the effects of greenhouse gases. Somewhere through the movie, I felt like it was a doomsday movie and it freaked me out a little but that was the point. Definitely go see it!

Well the last two weekends have been a slow one for me. I am preparing myself for the next couple of weekends which, I think will be pretty wild. I had dinner with Justin and Steph (Justin made brisket yummm) Saturday night and we just sat around and chatted which was fun. After that, I went to some party and later hung out with Don till pretty late, just BS'ing. The next day was nice and warm so I went out to the farm with Justin and just hiked around and ate wild grapes and picked pears off the tree, it was really relaxing. The whole time we were walking around, this really cute stray aka Jackson (beagle mix) followed us around. I think Justin's adopting him.


My loaner for the day, pretty sweet little X3
Also not forgetting, I had to send my car into BMW for servicing last week. The driver's side window was making a scratchy noise and apparently the power window rotor was going out, thankfully my car was still under warranty so they replaced both the driver and passenger FOC. They also gave me a very sweet loaner car for the day, a brand new 2006 BMW X3 with only 1000 miles on the odometer! The service was pretty good, sending me a postcard post service and a customer satisfaction phone survey after, quite a step up from Honda's service. Anyway I hope all these petty problems will surface while I still have this warranty. Over the weekend, my xenon lights were acting strange so looks like I'll have to send it in again to be checked out. I wonder what I'll get this time?

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Good Bye my little friend

H2 & I: At the airport, all excited, right before our big trip!

I'm not very good at good byes. Don't like it very much, in fact I hate it. And this year has been one of the toughest. This year I've had to deal with more good byes than any other. Click here, see I'm not kidding. I'm usually the one that leaves; i.e. when I left for the US to further my education and leaving F'ville upon graduation. I've never had to deal with people leaving me. Now the shoe's on the other foot and it sucks. I should be happy to know that my friends are moving away to bigger and better things but I'm selfish for wanting them all to myself.


H2 & I: Summer free concert on 9th St 2005 which we did again in 2006 :)

One of my best, best friends in Columbia is leaving today (Thursday 9/28). She is the first person I got to know when I moved to Columbia over four years ago and we instantly connected. After six months of knowing one another she moved in with me. We lived together for a year and eventually she moved out. Not long after that, I too moved out of our cute little apartment on Sears Ct and I bought my first property. We've been through thick and thin. She's the one that would accompany me on my weekend trips to KC or StL, we even made a trip back to Malaysia together. We would have little Malaysian cook outs, go to movies together, explored little restaurants, visited our regulars (china wok & house of CCB) and made impromptu visits to the mall (she was my shopping buddy!). We had very similar taste and would crack each other up for no reason. Approx. two months ago she moved back in with me again to avoid signing a lease and today she's packed up everything and we're saying our goodbyesWe have kept very little secrets from one another; she was a sister, a pal and a confidant. I will definitely miss my little friend.


H2 & I: Up above the beautiful Pinnacles. Those were the days...

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Year of the Babies


Cute lil Baby KuanYen 1 day old

I guess this is indeed the year to have babies. I know so many people that have either given birth or are preggies right now! For me personally, I am blessed with two nephews in this red dog year of 2006. The first nephew this year is Tatsuya (my oldest brother's 2nd child) and the second is Kuan Yen (my 2nd brother's 1st child!). I would just like to congratulate my brothers for their amazing little ones. Kuan Yen came into this world on Sept 24, 2006 at 4:52pm weighing in at 2.48 kg or 5.47 lbs. Makes me feel like a cow since I weighed 8.5 lbs. I'm now an uncle three times over, scary! Here are some pictures of little baby Kuan Yen, enjoy...


So cute all dressed up & tiny baby w/ proud daddy

This is what Yahoo's astrology page says on the Dog year:

"...This kind of planetary environment is at first sight not so easy to live with. It is above all the one that provokes profound calls into question. It incites all natives of the sign to devote themselves to a very critical analysis, not only of themselves but also of their general situation and of their relationships with others. If you know how to profit well by such influxes, then you'll succeed in giving your existence a new and more exalting meaning. This will on the whole be a lucky year -- on condition that you do not undermine it with errors of judgment and vain gossip. You'll have plenty of good ideas and perfectly achievable original projects. Don't disclose your plans; remind yourself that 'the lion while hunting doesn't roar' (Nigritian proverb). Beware of the persons whom you might have let into your secrets, as some of them might profit by them at your expense and you become aware of this only too late..."

And not forgetting myself here is what it says about people from the year of the Snake

"...It would be a good time to recharge your batteries so as to recover your strength and energy. You might profit by a small financial success (aiyo only small?? why no big??); but if a too-enticing proposal (hmmm I wonder how enticing...) is made to you, gather all necessary documentation before giving your approval. In your life as a couple, (Couple?? yeah right!!) don't show too much independence and personal freedom. The moment will be favorable to highlighting your innovative ideas and to presenting your creative projects..." mmmmmk....

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Goodbye my Honda

Well after being on the market for approx a month, my Honda (just like Lynda's) finally sold. Did not get my asking price of $6500 but I overpriced it anyway. I ended up getting $5500, WAY more than what dealersell your soulships were offering me on trade-ins. It was really sad to see my Honda no longer be in my possession, the car had it's little problems but overall it was a great car that required very little maintenance. I bought this car in Dallas (Toyota of Irving) at 85K miles, drove it up to Missouri and made so many trips on it such as to Dallas, Fayetteville, Minnesota (pics), KC, StL and many other cities in it ending up at 145K miles.


My ad in craiglist, also advertised on the Tribune

I sold it to this kid name Blaise (cute! but young) and his Mom, Dory. The Mom was the nicest, nicest lady with the cutest little dog that went wherever she would go. She drives a similar BMW as mine but a wagon type instead. Her son had apparently bought a Subaru WRX w/out their permission and so they made him return it losing $10K along the way. So as punishment he gets my Honda...wow...that makes me feel great! :) Ahhh, who cares, it's theirs now, they can do whatever they want with it. I delivered the car to her on Monday after my KC trip (they live in a cute little neighbourhood south of Stewart Rd) and that was the last time I saw my Accord :( I will miss this little car...

Monday, September 18, 2006

Kansas City Weekend

This past weekend has been both fun and hectic. Looks like everyone is trying to get their summer travels out of the way before the weather gets too cold. This weekend saw James visit Columbia, Justin to StL and me/H2 to KC. I got to spend some time with James on Friday night. We started at McNally's and worked our way to Heidelberg where we had such a blast. I got quite tipsy towards the end and just didn't hold much back. Our group got to be quite TVMA towards closing time. Thanks to Carrie for driving all of us drunkards home =)


Great time on the roof of the Heidelberg. You can see I'm getting progressively redder as I consume more alcohol.

The next day we drove to KC (first out of town trip in my beemer, ride was amazing!!) and had lunch at the very missed Lucky Wok. After that went back to Tze's for Terri's baby shower and birthday celebrations. It was good seeing familiar faces again. Seeing the kids run around (Andrew & Ian) reminded me of the times at home with family. I felt very grown up talking about life and career while the kids are running around with not one worry on their minds.


Now I'm really drunk (R) & Acting stupid w/ James and KK pouting bcoz he's hungry LOLz (L)

Sunday morning we drove up to the Plaza area and met up with Kenneth & Jeff for brunch. We got a tour of their cute, cute house and met their little dog, Jasper. KK later met up with us and we ate at Eggtc, a new restaurant, not too shabby. We then went to the basement of Hall's (G central) to do a little shopping. While there this hot, hot Ricky Martin look-a-like started staring at me. He was cute and totally ripped and was coming on to me BIG time but I failed to return the flirt and therefore did not end up with any number :(


Teaching godson necessary trade skills (L) & Adults conversing about life, career...i feel so grown up (R)

After that, we drove down to Tharu's bbq and met up with CP+Jim and Rachel+Egwin and a bunch of other people. Showed them my new ride and then drove back to Columbia. Received my first Blockbuster DVD (same concept as Netflix) and watched a few episodes of Nip/tuck season 1 and called it the night. The weekend absolutely flew by...unbelievable!


Off into the sunset w/ not a single worry