Most recent entries

A New Twist for Pride and Prejudice Lovers

Word of the Day

Aging Before My Time

Winter Fashion Exchange 2009

Happy 1st Birthday, Josh!

A New Twist for Pride and Prejudice Lovers

Friday, February 13, 2009

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

That is the first line of a new novel to come out in June of 2009 called, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” That’s right. ZOMBIES.

Sometimes fact is just stranger than fiction. According to the co-author (the other co-author being Jane Austen), Seth Grahame-Smith, stated: “I hated her when I was forced to read Austen in school, but when I started rereading I realised she was a brutal, but very funny, satirist. I can only aspire to be as mean-spirited as she could be.” I guess he decided to make that brutal satire a little more literal.

The best part is that the five Bennet sisters are zombie slayers and Mr. Darcy is a ninja expert. They rove the countryside fighting zombies and falling in love. 80% of the text is Austen’s original work, and the other 20% is...well, zombified.

You can read a review at The Cornell Daily Sun’s site or hear a little about it on NPR’s hilarious game show, “Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me” that aired on Feb. 7.

Doesn’t this cover make you wanna go out and pre-order this book?

Word of the Day

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Ever have a random word pop into your head and then decide to take up residence for awhile?

Every so often, I’ll get words that do just that. Pop. Into my head, that is. They don’t even have to be words I know. They’ll just bubble up from my subconscious and float to the surface of my conscious mind. They’ll just come out of no where. I’ll end up just repeating the word over and over again in my head for at least a day. Sometime they last longer.

One time it was a phrase in Cantonese. I had no idea what I was saying, but it kept going round and round. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any Cantonese speakers that day, and by the next day, I could barely remember the phrase. Honestly I don’t think I could have pronounced it correctly anyway. I definitely tried, and boy did I get some crazy looks!

Today’s word (well, actually the word for the past three days) is Weimaraner. I couldn’t even spell it. I thought it was wiemereiner. Guess I was wrong. It turns out to be this silver-gray hunting dog that I’ve seen in this one photographer’s work. That took me on a search through all kinds of random stuff, but ended in finding that photographer’s website. His name is William Wegman.

There I found the cutest picture of a weimaraner puppy EVER!

Take those flights of fancy and follow up on things that pop into your head. You never know what you’ll find or never realize how much you already know. Oooh the depths of our cognition! (Doesn’t that send chills up your spine?)

Aging Before My Time

Monday, February 09, 2009

My life has become like the Curious Case of Benjamin Button...except in reverse! Wait...isn’t that just normal aging?

Well, it’s not normal aging. I’m only 31 but this past week has really thrown me under the bus. I knew I had hit a bad point when the medication I was receiving was the same as those prescribed to my 85-year-old fake patient I used to use to train an electronic medical record system.

It all began with allergies. Then it was followed by your average case of ear congestion. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear for 4 days. On the fourth day, I was walking through the parking lot into the office and suddenly my right ankle gave out on me, and I slammed into one of the adjacent cars. Thinking I was just clumsy, sleepy, hungry or not caffeinated enough, I moved on. But by the time I had taken care of those needs, it became overwhelming apparent that the world was spinning around me.

At first I walked slowly. Then I called the advice nurse and also separately emailed two doctors. All reported back to me at different time: GO SEE A DOCTOR TODAY! After a quick trip to Urgent Care, some allergy meds and a bottle of meclizine for the vertigo later, I was driving home. Yes, driving. Oh well. I was pretty much over the dizziness by then…

So now I carry around a baggy full of meds. All I need now is one of those “days of the week” pill carriers, and I’d be complete. Oh and did I mention my ulnar neuropathy is coming back again? Curses! This is what I get for ignoring the needs of my body for a year and a half!

And didn’t I just say I wouldn’t get sick again in ‘09? Dream big. Fall gently. And preferably not into parked cars.

Winter Fashion Exchange 2009

Monday, January 26, 2009

When the economy is tough and you want some new clothes host a Fashion Exchange!

Yesterday a group of 9 women met for an unprecedented exchange of clothing. A parallel group of men (some attached to the women that came) met up for a day of physical activity and skull smashing. After a large brunch of prosage (that’s right! Worthington Foods baby!), home fries, eggs, and chocolate chip waffles with fresh berries and cream, the men headed out to the park to play football and the women began to unpack their wares.

At first it was polite and slow-paced. People were laying out the clothes they had brought. Some showed off their clothing and brought them to specific people on whom they would look best. And then suddenly there was a shift in the mood and the searching became a bit more intense and a little more chaotic. We all gave up trying to organize our piles and just resorted to turning over piles and piles of other people’s clothes. We were running in and out of rooms looking at ourselves in the mirror, asking each others’ opinions, and eventually gave up and ran around in our underwear. At one point, someone picked up a t-shirt, only to hear someone say, “No wait! That’s the shirt I CAME here in!”

I have never felt so much like a girl in my life. I have spent mos of my life as a tomboy, and there are still things that make me cringe, like choosing a mass chaotic exchange of clothing over being in the park running around throwing a football. Oh well. I’d better get over it because I got some AWESOME CLOTHES! In fact, as I sit here in my cube writing this, I’m wearing a completely new outfit comprised of a dress shirt and slacks from one person and a new laptop bag from another person.

Even after more than an hour and a half, we were going over the piles and STILL found stuff that we hadn’t seen before! The clothing exchange took about as long as a complete football game. The men came back right as we had finished. Even the boys picked up some stuff! There were somehow men’s shirts in the mix and a pair of snowboarding gloves. Kids got things too. Gavin went home with an Elmo t-shirt and Zoey and Sophie got a bag of cute t-shirts and a purse.

And the best part is that the rest of the clothes went as donations to Salvation Army and PATH (People Assisting the Homeless). Fashion, food and helping others all in one day! Not bad. So if you’re bored of the clothes in your closet and want to fill those gaps in your wardrobe, host a Fashion Exchange. Seriously, it’s way more fun than you’d expect. 

Happy 1st Birthday, Josh!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

A year ago today, Joshua Koutaro Khoo entered the world!

Seriously those little guys really DO grow up fast! I thought it was just something people got used to saying. “Oh they grow up so fast don’t they!” with tears in their eyes. I have to say congratulations to Kenny and Yasuyo for surviving a WHOLE YEAR of babydom. That appears to be no small feat. I think of that one solitary diaper i once changed, multiply that by 10,000+, add new and odd and more “adult” consistencies, and suddenly, I have no idea how they made it through. Well guys, this one’s for you!

Happy Birthday Josh! I hope and pray for your growth through this new year of life!

The first day he arrived...

...to now where he’s old enough to have a little personality!

NO MORE GETTING SICK IN 2009!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Last year, I was sick WAY too often. This has got to stop!

It’s just the beginning of 2009 and already I’m down for the count. Right now, I’m in the throes of food poisoning. It all started with some lasagna from the restaurant Palermo on Vermont in the Los Feliz neighborhood. While their pizza was delicious, their lasagna was...well, not so good. I kept wondering “wow, blue cheese in lasagna? What an interesting choice!” But no, it wasn’t blue cheese. It was BAD cheese.

From that night til now (roughly 3.5 days later), I have yet to hold down any real food. As you know, I LOVE to eat. This past couple of days has been torture! Thanks to Dennis and my friends from church, I have been sustained with soups and electrolyte-laden drinks. Still, it’s been a pretty miserable weekend.

Today I’m working from home, in close proximity to the bathroom (what? too much info?) and hoping to get better today before my doctors appointment. I love seeing doctors for nothing. I’m sure nothing makes them happier than to have a patient for whom nothing can or should be done. But going through this brought me to an epiphany: I’M NOT HEALTHY!

That’s right. How often was I sick last year? How healthy do I eat? How long has it been since I exercised regularly? Hmmmm can’t remember. I think it was a year after college...and that was a long time ago! I used to exercise to lose weight. And then when I got to a point where I thought I didn’t need to lose weight, I stopped working out. I think the lack of activity has suppressed my immune system and made my little sicknesses last WAY longer than they need to!

(Shaking a righteous fist toward the heavens) SO NO MORE GETTING SICK THIS YEAR! I’M SICK OF BEING SICK! I VOW TO FIGHT YOU, BACTERIA! YOU SHALL NOT BE WELCOME HERE ANYMORE! I SHALL EXERCISE!

(wow is someone gonna hold me to that?)