-->

The Corporate Robot

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

For whatever reason, today I decided to re-read my own blog from the beginning. Wow - what lessons for life I learned!

It’s funny to hear your (slightly) younger self talking and carrying on about the woes and wonders of the world around. Of course it was very nostalgic, and I miss the witty digital reparte in which my commenters partook. It was its own little community, hatched on pages of random musings and silly pictures.

I found myself hearing my own voice again for the first time. I sounded unfamiliar because I was so excited and interested in things happening around me! I was *looking* for interesting and extraordinary things. I thought things and situations were funny/beautiful/tragic/awe-inspiring and loved sharing them! Granted, this zest and “zeal” for life (Crichert, that’s for you!) could be because of my age (25 instead of 32) and the fact that I was living in NYC, which is undoubtedly an interesting city.

Still, there was something so optimistic and excited about the way I used to think and write. So what happened between now and then? I pondered and pondered and then it came to me. Back then I didn’t work - I went to school. I spent every moment of my day just being me because I didn’t have to be anyone else. Now I work for a big company and work in an environment that typifies corporate culture. When I first started, I was 27 and everyone thought I had just graduated from undergrad. No doctor wanted to be taught by someone who looked 21! I had to do something to make people take me seriously!

I dressed older (and by that I mean frumpier). I started wearing more makeup. I referenced movies and music from before my era. I started talking in more corporate tones with less emotion and less slang. Basically I’d do anything to make people believe I was older than they thought. Mind you, no one *made* me do this or even mentioned that I should. It was definitely my choice. However, after 4.5 years of working in that environment, I have more practice “sounding corporate” than I have at sounding like myself. 8 hours a day of acting and talking like a corporate robot is enough to make you forget what your “normal” voice sounds like. And once you forget your normal voice, you start to believe that you ARE the robot personae that you put on just for work.

Some part of me now believes that I am a little stuffy, that my primary skill is working with spreadsheets and Word documents, that maybe I’m not as gregarious as I once thought I was, that life really isn’t that interesting and must just be endured until the next time I can get a vacation. But none of that is true. It’s me beginning to believe the lie that I myself put in place. I don’t want to believe any of it any more.

So here I am, rediscovering how fun/funny I used to be and realizing that I still AM fun and funny! (and yes, I AM tooting my own horn, thank you very much!) It’s time to make a new choice to again find the interest in life and to capture the best parts of who I used to be. I have learned a lot over the past couple years, and so now I would like to blend the best of both of my experiences into a new and whole person--neither fully young and silly nor corporate and stodgy--but rather a mature person who embraces life and enjoys being herself in any situation and knows that being honest and appropriate will always be the winning combination in work and life.

This year-long jouney of rediscovery has so far been a truly interesting adventure!

On a Roll

Friday, June 18, 2010

This week has been pretty awesome with forecasts of more awesomeness rolling in for the weekend!

Seriously, this week has been pretty great and it’s about to get greater! It started last night with a HUGE Laker win in that nail-biting contest against the Celtic. Towards the end of the game I started getting light-headed because I had stopped breathing! And by the way, did anyone else notice #44 on the Celtics last night? I’ve never seen him in my life! I thought he was the team mascot that accidentally got suited up.

Today, my team was taken out to lunch at work because of a job really well done on a certain project. When I got back, I got 2 separate emails saying what an awesome job I had done on 2 different projects! My head was swelling up so much I couldn’t fit through the door.

This weekend is looking pretty awesome too. We have plans to go to a dinner party at a friends place and then an Erykah Badu and Lupe Fiasco concert on Sunday. Woohooo! I super excited!

And follow that all up with a Laker parade on Monday?

What at great weekend! Hope you all enjoy yours too!

Oxymoron

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Reunion Week

Friday, May 07, 2010

Every week needs a little pick-me-up. For me, I had a couple mini-reunions with friends I don’t get to hang out with that often! 

Mini-Reunion #1
Last weekend, Jeremy and Erica were down from Oakland. They are such cool friends! They were attending a wedding down in Orange County, and we were up in LA. We decided to meet halfway--which was weird because neither of us knew what existed in the middle of those two places.

I threw out some suggestions. “How about Compton?” Met with silence. “Uh...how about Hawaiian Gardens...Is that even a real place? I’ve never heard of it before?” Needless to say, finding a place to meet up was a challenge. We finally decided to go to Cypress/Cerritos area. We found a cute little cafe called Cafe Hiro that had really great food. It was good catching up again!

Mini-Reunion #2
This past Tuesday, I got to see my old roommates from back in the day when we all lived together in a big ol’ cozy house in Grand Terrace with the drug dealers across the street. The Bachelorettes (though half of us aren’t bachelorettes any more) are all amazing women who are doing cool things with their lives. It’s always so much fun to hear about what everyone is up to, new perspectives, and new goals. AND of course, we talk about relationships. We are, ahem, after all women.

And at the end, like any good friend group that consists of four women, we dutifully made plans to watch Sex and the City 2 (even though quite honestly, I’m *still* confused about what’s going on because I’ve never watched the series).

If only every week gave us the chance to see friends who are far away! 

A fine day for sailing

Monday, April 19, 2010

April2010

Experiment 2: Strengths Finder 2.0

I actually had a first experiment but for whatever reason I couldn’t seem to get on it to post about it! Maybe i’ll just have to go out of order. 

Part of the self journey is to discover what it is that I’m actually good at. I started by asking people who knew me. As I was in the middle of doing this (which, by the way, was a very revealing process but that is a story for another post), my friend Christina pointed out that this may not be the most reliable method of seeing one’s strengths truly. She noted that most people see their own strengths in you. For example, if I am good at analytical thinking, then I will notice when you are good at analytical thinking. I may never have even noticed your other strength enough to say, “you know, you’re really good at having a worldview of connectedness.”

So the suggestion was that I should take the Gallup survey from Strengths Finder 2.0. I really like the philosophy that people should focus on their strengths instead of focusing on compensating for their weaknesses. I particularly have struggled to move away from the “well-rounded” approach and really building up what I’m good at instead. Anyway, what Strengths Finder does is take your answers to their survey, analyze them and outputs a list of your 5 greatest strengths. Once you know your strengths, then there are a ton of books on “strengths-based” leadership, working, etc.

So here is what I found my strengths are (according to Gallup):

1. [Primary] Input
People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often
they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

2. Strategic
People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed.
Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

3. Ideation
People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are
able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

4. Communication
People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put
their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

5. Achiever
People who are especially talented in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and
work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.

What does this all mean?
As far as I can tell, these strengths are the way I cope with problem. The order is important. So when faced with a new problem/issue/challenge, I first gather all the information I can (Input) and then map out a plan to get whatever I want done (Strategic). I try to make sure that all concepts are sound and that the things that can be connected are properly integrated (Ideation). Once a plan is settled on, then I make sure the idea is communicated to the proper people (Communication) so that it gets done. I then do the daily grind work that makes sure that the project gets done (Achiever).

Pretty cool when I can see my process articulated in this way. I’m still interested in seeing what that means as I move forward into bigger and better things.

What about you?
Have you ever taken this test? What were your strengths?

Embarking on a Year-long Journey

Monday, March 15, 2010

This year, I have undertaken the mission of discovering myself for the purpose of figuring out where I am going. 

I want to do something or be something. I’m compelled to do something with my life that doesn’t include sitting in a cubicle, working as a cog in a giant machine of a corporation. Don’t get me wrong - there’s nothing wrong with putting in your time for a company that’s worthwhile, but somehow, that just doesn’t fit me. So here I go on my journey.

The premise is simple really: just take time to learn who I am, what things I like and what I am good at. It may, in fact, sound too simple. The odd thing is that I’m one of those people who simply doesn’t take time to figure out my strengths. I am well aware of weaknesses and things I struggle with what I can do to remediate these issues, but when it comes down to it, knowing that isn’t going to propel me in one direction or another.

This year, the way I am going to explore is to:

• Talk to people who know me and can give some insight into what you think I might excel at in the world
• Try things that are new and interesting to me, things that challenge me and bring out a sense of adventure within me
• Read and research new ideas and innovations
• Listen to people who have forged their own path and are the wiser for it

I’m really excited about this! This will definitely be an adventure.

If you are one of those people who knows me and want to give input, please contact me! I’d LOVE to hear from you!

Stay tuned for more adventures in my journey of self-exploration.

"Happy Birthday, Mr. President"

Monday, February 15, 2010

What better way to say, “Happy birthday, Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Washington,” or “I love you” than with a Seasonal Tree?

Yes, I actually went through with it. With the help of my fearless (but skeptical) roommate, the tree was decorated and festivities held. It was a great backdrop for our Super Bowl party! The only thing I would have liked more would have been a top hat instead of a star on top. OR we could have made it more ethnically diverse. After all, it IS Black History Month!

Anyway, here’s a pic for all those curious about the tree!

(And yes, this IS very hand made and crafty, and *not* in a good way!)

O Tannenbaum

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

“Isn’t it a little late to be writing about your Christmas tree, Kat? I mean, it’s already January 12!”

Sure, it’s late, but this tree is special. This tree is more than an ordinary fake tree to me. No, it doesn’t have fiber optic colors or smell of real pine needles. It’s the fake tree that I grew up with. Yup. That means this tree has been through hell and high water. It survived through moves, children yanking on its faux branches, dogs try to piddle on its trunk, year after year of decorations ranging from the hideous to the sublime, and then being boxed up every year in a really big ‘ol TV box. 

Isn’t it beeaaauutiful?

Now as it rounds the corner on its 35th or 36th Christmas, I am stuck with a dilemma: What the heck do I DO with this thing? I have no room to store it. It has been at my parents’ place for the last couple years, but they have been on a seek and destroy mission to clean up their place. I’m afraid if I send it back there, it may never come back. On the other hand, I don’t have any storage space that will even let the box through the door!

Today my friend Clint gave me a brilliant idea. Why not make it, instead of keeping it as just a Christmas tree, why not keep it up all year long and make it a HOLIDAY TREE? I could have it dressed for Valentine’s Day in no time! Red and pink hearts, some confetti, throw some chocolates on it and it’s voila! It’s done! Then comes St. Patty’s day in March, Easter in April, and maybe Cinco de Mayo for May. I think there’s a stretch between July and October that could be a little awkward, but who’s planning anyway?

The plus is that it could be a conversation piece for anyone who comes by to visit. Never worry about having an awkward starter conversation about the weather when you’re at my place! Not only can it spawn conversation, it can spawn events! We could have decoration-making parties and monthly “seasonal” dinners with a built in center piece!

Maybe I can start a trend. “Holiday Tree fad sweeps the nation. Michael’s craft store basks in auspicious windfall.” I think it’s a great idea.

Sooooo...who wants to come over and help me decorate for Valentine’s day?

Preparation H: How we barely know thee

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Perhaps I’m a bit behind the times, but I only recently heard about how Preparation H can be used for things other than swollen hemorrhoidal tissue!

I found out when my co-worker told me (and I’m not sure *how* this came up in conversation), “Preparation H can be used to reduce the bags under your eyes!” I was amazed! I mean, it makes sense. It stands to reason that other places on ones body can have engorged and inflamed tissues (and yes, I am using the word “engorged” just to gross you out!). It therefore also stand to reason that a cream meant to reduce swelling in one area might also work in another area.

I got curious and looked this up. Preparation H has phenylephrine HCL in it, which constricts blood vessels and reduces swelling. In the US, apparently, the didn’t like the idea of people using it in non-hemorrhoidal ways, so the reportedly reformulated it so it only works on your bum. I’m not even sure how they would target just butt tissue, but oh well. I guess I’ll believe them. But the Canadians seem to be OK with the unsanctioned use of the cream and have left the formula untouched and unchanged (OH Canada! eh!).

SO if you’re able to get ahold of some of this magical stuff you can use it for some of the following purposes:

1. Reduce appearance of bags under eyes.

2. Reduce facial wrinkles and lines.

3. Increase definition of muscles by dehydrating the skin, thus making it pull taut over muscles and creating the appearance of more definition. Often used by dancers and body builders.

4. Decrease the appearance of loose skin and cellulite.

5. Reduce bleeding and promote healing for new tattoos.

DISCLAIMER: I have never tried any of these things! I don’t have a tube of the US produced stuff, much less the Canadian version! However, the official Canadian Prep H site seems to stand behind at least a couple of the things listed above. Check out the official site’s beauty tips here and you can come to your own conclusions!

By the way, has anyone ever tried this before?

Let's Call It Like It Is

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

winter 2009

Sorry, I ain't your Bubba

Today I got an awkward mis-text.

Have you ever gotten one of those text messages where it was almost too embarrassing to tell the person texting that they had the wrong person? While this may not have really been all that embarrassing, it WAS very tempting to mess with the sender.

This is what it said:

“hey its chelsie i got my phone taken away from chiteroff so yay.....but ill send u the messge after skoo i do really lov u bubba i dont want to loose u ur my eevrythin”

Oh chelsie, bubba don’t want to “loose” u neither. And yes he is thin. eevry thin.

I’m probably a better person for having only sent a text back saying, “I think you have the wrong number!” but I am infinitely a less funny person than I could have been. Drat! Goodness wins the day again! lol

Watch Dennis' Doritos Commercial!

Friday, November 06, 2009

The more you watch, the more hits it gets, the more likely you’ll see it at the Superbowl 2010!

Tell all your friends to watch this!

Prayer Style for the Attention Deficient

Monday, October 26, 2009

I don’t know about you, but prayer has always been something that is very difficult for me.

I think it has to do with my inability to actually focus if there’s ANYTHING else around within a mile radius that might emit a sound, interesting visual or odd smell. Yup, pretty much anything disrupts my concentration on trying to communicate with the divine. I think mostly it has to do with a sort of aimless wandering approach that I’ve “developed” over time. I’ve tried various prayer formulas, like the ACTS formula.

For those of you not familiar with the ACTS formula, it’s an acronym that helps guide your prayers by topic. Here’s the breakdown:

A - Adoration
C - Confession
T - Thanksgiving
S - Supplications

This was great for awhile. And then it turned very generic. I’m not sure why, but all my prayers ended up sounding the same. It was very frustrating. I guess if you think about talking to a friend, you never use such a formula. You just talk about what’s on your heart. Needless to say, ACTS fell by the wayside.

Recently at my church we had a series called, “Praying the Psalms.” That was pretty great actually! We would read through a Psalm and then literally pray it by ourselves, as if we were the author, sometimes rewriting the sentiments in our own words. While it wasn’t something I could do on a regular basis, it gave me a clue into my own needs for successful prayer time. I apparently needed time set aside for a very focused task. I guess I pray like I work.

So I’ve come up with the formula that is working for me for now. I have made up a short series to pray over: in this case, the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. Every day, I pray about one characteristic, whether it’s kindness, gentleness or faithfulness. Sometimes I have to repeat them if they didn’t sink in or if I had a particularly trying to applying it for that day. I have to admit, I think I took 3 days each on Patience and Faithfulness. Those ones were hard. But that also pushed to me look up those things in the Bible (another thing I’m not particularly prone to) in order to see where those things come from and what they actually mean.

Somehow the idea of keeping thing short and focused allow me to actually DO this. It’s been good so far and I’m looking forward to figuring out what my next series is going to be. I just wanted to share in case this helps any of you!

Those Zombies...they're so HOT right now!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Zombies. Have you noticed them a lot in the media too?

Every undead has their day. The vampires have been frolicking insistently and annoyingly through media for the past season. But move over bacon! Here comes something better! That’s right...ZOMBIES.

Zombies have been steadily making their presence known in the media with movies like Shawn of the dead and books like The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.

Zombies often appear in video games. It’s the only guiltless violent game I can play. I mean, come on! They’re already dead! I’m just putting them out of their misery! My favorite is Typing of the Dead.

Then there’s Zombieland the movie, which comes out tomorrow. Looks hilarious.

And finally we’re back at the book where I left you oh so many months ago--Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I’m actually reading it now. It’s pretty entertaining. Who knew that going to a ball could be just as normal as slashing zombies in half? I have to say that the character development is the part that throws me off. I’m so used to the way the girls are normally portrayed. It’s hard to accept the idea that all five sisters are trained killers who have learned Western defense/weaponry and studied with a Shaolin master and now live by the warrior code. It evokes more of Batman Begins than Pride and Prejudice (the non-undead version). For example, Mary almost guts Mr. Collins for suggesting that the girls cooked a lovely dinner--something she took great offense to as she is a warrior and would never be caught doing such unwarrior-like activity.

I’m only part of the way through, but it should a fun read. It’s nice to be reading for enjoyment again! I’ve been through an intellectual drought and this seems to be a nice habit to reinstate. (Though it may be argued that the book above does nothing to help my intellectual drought situation!) It started by finishing off the Harry Potter series, moving on to Malcolm Gladwell’s books Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers, and then recently finishing Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

So what o fearless reader (if there are indeed any of you left) are YOU reading these days?

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?)

Akemashite Omedetou! (Happy New Year!)

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Are you ready for 2009? I’m not sure I am, but I guess that doesn’t stop it from being here.

Yes, i’m in my second day back to work, and I thought that maybe i’d get to slowly eeeaaaaaasse my way into working again. I took 1.5 weeks off and that was AMAZING. Needless to say, I forgot all about work. I’m surprised i still remembered where i sat when i came back. Sadly, that luxury of warming up into work was not afforded me.

I’m already on a project that looks to be somewhat as painful as the one i was working on for 4 months of last year. My stress pimples are already quivering, ready to pop out of my face! ew. (sorry for the visual) Oh well, at least it’s helping me start off with high productivity!

How was your holiday season? I’ve noticed that since I once lived in New York, i have become much more particular about saying, “Happy Holiday” instead of “Merry Christmas” so as not to offend anyone. Then there was the odd hybrid of “Happy Christmakwanzakah!” which never really never rolled off the tongue as easily as I’d have liked. Anyway, so how was it? Mine was great. I didn’t travel anywhere farther than Loma Linda. Family was in town. I got to spend a lot time with Dennis. Lots of friends were in town. It was pretty awesome!

Well here’s wishing you a wonderful 2009! Expect to see my annual photobook posted in the next few days! (or weeks...or months… lol)

Tony Romeo: Creative Director, Pastor and now a Comic

Thursday, November 06, 2008

I always thought my pastor from Advent Hope, New York was funny from the pulpit, but I guess he really IS funny in a general sense!

On September 23 and October 28, Tony performed at the COMIX Comedy Club on 353 West 14th Street. I wasn’t able to be there since I’m a whole coast away, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can see it anyways! I just thought I’d get the word out and share some good stuff.

ROCK THE VOTE!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Be part of history and go vote!

Did you do it yet? Did you vote? Man, I dragged my butt out of bed at 6:30 am to make it to the polls before work. THAT was painful. No one can say that I never sacrificed for my country. I got there at 7:00 am and there was already a line out the door. Lucky (for me) some people were in the wrong location, so the line shrank a bit. Sucked to be them.

Really though it only took me 45 minutes to get through line and vote. I felt so...so...CIVIC! Like a good citizen! It’s a totally new feeling for me. 

I hope you’ve gone or are in line or are going some time today. DO IT! The time is now! GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!

Go Barack! You can DO IT!

(...and now to take lots of beta-blockers to stem the nervousness in my stomach!)

Gettin' Political

Monday, October 20, 2008

I think this is the first time in my life it’s been worth it to get political!

I’m registered to vote, and I’m actually gonna head over to the polling places instead of doing a lazy absentee ballot cuz who KNOWS what kind of shenanigans they’ll try to pull this year!

It’s the last day to register. Have you registered yet? Gonna vote? Huh? huh? huH? I feel slightly like a rabid squirrel with all this frenetic energy around the election. Someone is even going around the office today asking people if they’re registered. He’s got a ton of registration slips with him too. Go dood! Way to get people involved!

Did you all see this weekend’s Saturday Night Live? I have to admit that I haven’t seen SNL in YEARS. But they’re really milking this campaign for everything it’s worth. Amy Polar did a great job taking over for Palin in this rap she did for weekend update. You HAVE to check it out!

In the meantime, Go Rock the Vote!

Debt Be Gone!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I *think* I finished paying off one of my student loans!

I put the “I *think*” in there because it all depends on my new surrogate bank not failing. So assuming that the financial world doesn’t completely collapse by Monday, I’ll have finished off one piece of major debt! And it was the private loan with a variable interest rate too! Though honestly, with the Fed cutting interest rates to nothing, I think my variable interest rate ended up being better than my fixed interest rate on my other loan.

Wow - I looked at what I just wrote and realize that a couple years ago, if I had read that, I would have had no idea who or what it was talking about. Truly, there’s nothing like economic crisis and the financial world going down the toilet to act as a quick tutorial on loans and savings! Woohoo! Truly, a silver lining to this ugly cloud! LOL

So now I have freed up some capital to put into....a mutual fund? My 401K? Buy stocks? Government bonds? Or how about some property? Oh shoot. I might as well just stick it under my mattress or maybe use it as toilet paper. 

CONFIRMATION: My new promotion *IS* killing me!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Well, it’s not completely the job’s fault, but I was definitely down for the count for 5 days.

I feel like such a weakling, but I guess lots of stress can lower your immune system. Whatever the reason, last Wednesday night I was having dinner at a friends place and was feeling perfectly fine. At the end of the night, I felt achy and developed a headache. In about an hour I had a high fever and was sweating and having chills all at the same time.

I pretty much spent the next 3 days in that condition, with the same headache refusing to go away. It kept me awake at night. During those night hours, random weird things would go through my head, for example, the name of my friend Duane’s favorite band, Automatic Music Explosion. It just kept repeating on loop with no respite. I seriously thought I was going crazy. The other night I got some strange combination of Project Runway, Harry Potter and The Redskins victory song. Totally bizarre.

By Saturday morning, it was pretty clear it was not going to get better on its own any time soon. Off to the hospital I went! During my 5 second office visit, I was prescribed some antibiotics and prescription strength Motrin. yay! Afterwards the doc asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Part of me wanted to yell, “YOU’RE THE DOCTOR! YOU TELL ME!” Geez. What did she expect me to say? “Please give me a sampler pack of all your schedule II meds please! Thanks!” Despite the weird interaction with the doctor, I’m thankful I got my meds and got out of there.

I think I quite literally spent 70% of 4 days in bed. Today, I’m back at work, and feeling a little not altogether here. Oh well. At least I’m still a contributing member of society. I contribute my sickness to the office! Enjoy everyone!   

I think my "promotion" is killing me

Thursday, October 02, 2008

A couple weeks ago, I got a promotion, but not in the usual way of things.

No, rather I got it because the person who was leading the design team got very tired of politics and other things and decided to step down. Upon doing so, he said, “good luck--you’re gonna need it.” And by this he meant, “you’re probably going to take this job, and it’s going to be difficult. Get ready.”

So when my bosses approached me about taking the position, I really had to think long and hard about whether or not I’d do it or not. You see, there is no extra pay involved. Just more work. More responsibility. More stress. So I guess it’s not technically a promotion, it’s a “promotion.” (It’s amazing what quote marks can do for the nuance of speech!)

So here I am, 3 weeks in, and I’m about to have a nervous breakdown. Mind you, there are other things in going on, but really it’s been a bit of stress. I’ve had a couple almost-breakdowns, most people have been asking why I looked so frazzled, and why are my eyes so puffy?

On the upside, the promotion has got me on an interesting project where I have a lot of input, so that’s great. I also get a lot of great visibility AND I get to be in the design world again! Yay! I must say, I’ve missed being creative in a visual manner for the past couple of years. So there are good things with the stress, and more responsibility means more experience, so I’m all for it.

All in all, I think it’s a good thing if I can just make it past this hazing period! Gentle reader, if you are the praying sort, PLEASE throw up a prayer for me! 

The Weekend that Redeemed Everything

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Suffice it to say, things have gone really well this weekend.

For those of you who know me, you know that the last couple of months have been pretty trying in one respect. This weekend, God moved and made all things well. My heart is bursting with thanks and joy. I can’t write much more about it in this public forum, but to all of you who have been praying for me and mine, THANK YOU! Our prayers have begun to be answered!

So *that's* why I wake up late!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Dabbling in Hair Again

Monday, September 08, 2008

Doesn’t that sound like I’ve coated myself with glue and rolled around in a pile of hair? No? Oh good.

Actually, it means that I’ve been messing with peoples heads again. Yes, as opposed to those oh-so-poor and somewhat tacky college years, my shearing skills have mostly been in hiding. But recently, due more to the need to embarrass my friend, I’ve delved back into the world of hair styling.

Poor Leslie was my guinea pig this time. He kept telling me how long his hair *actually* was compared to how short it appeared. “Well then!” I thought to myself, “there’s only one thing to do, and that is to see exactly how long it can get!” So he very willingly agreed to be my subject. So used the blow dryer to fro it out. Here are some of the resulting pics:

And then we got bored and decided to do something completely different! Yes, my friends! Welcome the Fro-hawk!

Ah yes, all in a days work. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Leslie and I are taking suggestions now as to what to do next. What color do you want to see it? I’m thinking we need to turn it into spikes with red tips. Add gold chains? “I pity the fool that doesn’t wear gold chains with his fro-hawk!” hahaha

Something You Say to Make Everyone Feel Awkward

Edward Tufte makes me heart analytical design

Friday, August 22, 2008

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to a conference held by Edward Tufte, expert in informational graphics and information design.

I have seen books by Tufte, but never quite got what they were about. They are full of beautiful graphics, but I never stopped to read them. Not until my friend at work told me more about him and the stuff he does.

So I went to the seminar all revved up. The room was packed with almost 400 people! And while most people, I’m sure, were sent by their companies and seemed mildly bored, but I begged and pleaded to be allowed to attend. It was totally worth the groveling.

On one end, you could see how big a difference good design could make. Tons of complex data could be displayed in an easy to read and even enjoyable format! Bad design makes your eyes want to cross because its just information overload. It’s hard to describe without an example. I’ll take one example from his latest book, Beautiful Evidence. I’ll try to do it justice:

Below is a lithograph by Charles Joseph Minard depicting the losses in men, their movements, and the temperature of Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign.

Here is my slightly annotated version so you can see what these things mean. The yellow box indicates the zoomed image below.

You can visually see how the army gets thinner and thinner as they march toward Moscow. They started with 422,000 men. By the time they reach Moscow, they are down to 100,000. The black line shows their retreat. The cold of winter takes its toll and the troops keep dying. At one point, half the army is lost when they break through the ice on one of the rivers.

Here you see the comparison of how many started and how many survived the Russia Campaign.

422,000 men down to 10,000. That is incredible. And incredibly clear with this informational graphic.

Call me a nerd, but this kind of stuff really excites me! Lots of information isn’t to blame for overload. It’s bad design that’s to blame! For every situation, there must be a solution, not just any solution, but an AMAZINGLY clear and simple to read solution.

I know what to aim for now. I guess I’ll add that to the already mile high pile of “life callings”!

My apologies: I am alive still

Monday, August 18, 2008

I think this is the longest blog-break I’ve taken in awhile. SORRY!

Things have just gotten a bit hectic. I’m taking on more projects than I can really handle, am preoccupied with my human relations (wow that sounds like a cyborg talking!), and have the inability to say “no” to hanging out with friends. This all makes for a whirlwind of activity that has kept me from you, my adoring blaudience. You like that? I just made it up. Blog + audience = blaudience. You think people will pick that up? Yeah...probably not…

I have to say that I have been so blessed with the tons of people that have been a huge support out here. The peeps I hang with are hyper-social and fun to hang out with. I was just remembering back to less than a year ago when I had almost no friends locally for almost 2 years. I think I died a little inside. But things are different now!

Everything in the works is building towards something great in the future that I can be proud of, from the relationships that I’m building to the jobs I take, to the projects I invest myself in. I guess I’m feeling pretty good right about now. A far cry from my last post.

Once again, I apologize for my absence, but trust me: great things are in the works.

Spiritual Warfare: Hard Words to Say

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Sometimes a warrior’s words are her only weapons and her only salve.

Respect, love, honesty and tact have always been in a precarious balancing act in my life. This week in particular, that balance has been challenged more than ever. There are things that must be said because they are just and right. But there are words that must not be said because you love and respect that person.

And sometimes I end up saying nothing at all.

It has been a hard two weeks. For two weeks, I have been pummeled in this spiritual warfare that is taking place all around us. I don’t know how feel about that concept, but I believe that there are forces of good and evil battling for our souls. As a Christian and a follower of Jesus, I know where my strength and salvation come from. But I also know about attacks and why they come. And now I’m under attack.

I wish I had the right words to for every type of attack that came my way. The enemy is really clever, and it always shows up in ways you would never quite expect. The only way I can recognize them is that they always point toward the same message: You’re worthless, you’re not a good person, you’re a failure, you might as well give up. Sometimes I don’t even have an answer to these accusations. All I can do is cry.

But I know where my help comes from. He will give me the words and the strength to keep fighting. He will shield me and protect me. He will keep his warrior alive.

Lakers vs. Celtics Game 4 = CHICANERY!

Friday, June 13, 2008

I can’t BELIEVE that Laker’s let go such a huge lead to lose Game 4! Grrrrrrrrr!

This is my chance to use my new favorite word: chicanery. According to Merriam Webster, chicanery is “deception by artful subterfuge or sophistry.” Cool! How often do you get the word subterfuge to describe your actions?

Anyway, I think that there was some trickery involved for the Celtics to magically make up a 24 point lead. I didn’t even get to see most of the game but I did catch the end, right when they were tied at 75. And then they LOST IT.

It was such a heartbreaking moment when they lost. It’s over. Coming back from a 3-game loss is almost unheard of, except ironically in Boston with the Red Sox. It’s like having someone break up with you. Well, not really, but it IS kinda disappointing.

I guess I’ll hang on and still watch the rest of the series, but I’m already bracing myself for the worst.

Blast that chicanery!

GO LAKERS!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

It’s been awhile since I’ve been into basketball, but with the Lakers in the finals, how could I ignore my team any longer?

Last night LA came back from 2 sucky games in Boston with bad calls all over the place and some difficulty adjusting to Boston’s defense. But last night, they took it all the way! W00t! I haven’t felt the basketball bug in forever, and it’s kind of nice to be back in it.

I was even more amazed when i realized that there are enough white guys on the team to have an all white team on the floor. Shocking! hahaha

I’ve also noted Paul Pierce’s vague resemblance to an Angler Fish.

There there’s Kobe, who has rat-like features, Fisher who looks like a bulldog,...I’m trying to put animals to other players. Rondo reminds me of some kind of weird elf. I suppose this isn’t very kind of me, but it’s hard not to make some connections…

All comparisons aside, all i can say is “GO LAKERS!”

This won't hold up in a court of law

Saturday, June 07, 2008

My New Theme Song: Little Superhero Girl

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

This song is by Corrinne May and I’ve adopted it as my theme song. 

I’ve been following Corrinne May, a Singaporian-born singer/songwriter in LA, for about 4 years now. Reuben introduced me to her. But I was not a very consistent fan. About 2 months ago, I went to hear her play at a venue that was really close to me. I had no excuse not to go!

She had one song that I just really loved called, “Little Superhero Girl.”

L I T T L E S U P E R H E R O G I R L
written by Corrinne May Ying Foo
Copyright 2003, Corrmay Gourmet Music (ASCAP)

I feel like a little girl
Trying to conquer the whole wide world
Everybody wants a piece of me
And I just don’t know where to turn
I’ve got work piled up to my head
All I want to do is jump into bed
And wash away my troubles
with lemonade
Play hide and seek
with the boy next door
Take a trip to Singapore and
Imagine how I’ll make the world
a better place

All I need is a good disguise
One where nobody can recognise
That I’m feeling so small
All I need is a secret weapon
I’ve gotta have faith
Zapping monsters into outer space
I’m gonna be a Superhero

Na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-
Yeah

If I were a little girl
Trying to clean up the whole wide world
I’d kick the bad boys back to school
Teach them fighting’s just not cool
I’d give every kid a teddy bear
Turn starving people into millionaires
Break glass ceilings with dynamite
sprinkle a little sugar and spice
Turn the bullies that terrorize
Into pink poodles that bark,
but don’t bite

All I need is a good disguise
One where nobody can recognise
That I’m feeling so small
All I need is a secret weapon
I’ve gotta have faith
Zapping monsters into outer space
I’m gonna be a Superhero

Na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na-na-na-
Yeah

Little Superhero Girl
Little Superhero Girl
Save me
Little Superhero Girl
Little Superhero Girl
Save me from myself

I feel like a little girl
Trying to conquer the whole wide world

You can hear it on her website, CorrinneMay.com and follow the directions below:

She’s playing a concert at my church (Hollywood SDA Church) this Thursday, May 29 @ 7:30 pm, so please come and hear her! It’s a free concert!

Pics of my New York Vacation!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I finally uploaded them yesterday. 

I took a ton of pics. Luckily you won’t have to see ALL of them. Just the few I uploaded. I’ve broken the albums up into days so you can follow my wonderful journey through time!

Day 1: Church, the Met, Central Park

Day 2: Brooklyn with So-Young and Ian

(Note that day 3 is myseriously missing!)

Day 4: Aneta’s graduation party

Day 5: Central Park and the Upper West Side

Day 6: The Cloisters with Aneta

Day 7: The MOMA

Day 8: Church, kids and karaoke

Okay, now back to work for me! Enjoy the photogs!

Why is vacation always so short?

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Really, this makes me believe in the Theory of Relativity.

Ok, well that’s actually a lie, since i’m not sure exactly what the Theory of Relativity *actually* states. But what I’m trying to say is vacation went by WAY too quickly! It was so nice and relaxing and it was so great seeing everyone...I’m so sad it’s all over now. I’m having one last brunch and them I’m heading out on the 4:30 pm flight today.

In vacation mode, I totally forget everything about where I was at work and what I was doing with everything else. I suppose that’s the good thing about being able to live in the moment. On the other hand, unaswered emails, voicemails and facebook messages are piling up. I’m scared to get back to normal life when I actually have to start answering some of those! hahahah (And if you called/texted/emailed during this time period, I’m SO sorry...I’ll get back to you soon!)

Jannine and Nathan have been great as we have hung out and ran about the city all week. Oh, and they housed me. ;) Here’s a shout out for you. YOU GUYS ROCK!

The time has come to leave. Farewell New York! I shall miss you and your inhabitants! 

NYC: Everything Changes/Nothing Changes

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

This is a quick post while on vacation in NYC, as I go running around the city in a haze of nostalgia.

I’ve pretty much done nothing touristy. I’ve just been wandering about, visiting my old haunts. It’s been great! It’s been a real effort trying to get myself to relax. I spent one day pretty much just reading, and that was some effort! While Harry Potter is a truly addictive series, it was hard to sit and read because I kept thinking, “I should really be doing all kinds of ‘New-York-ish’ kinds of things!” Really, what I needed (and still need) is some thinking space where I’m not focused on work or extra projects. Phew! So it’s been great.

It’s funny, about this city, I kept looking for my old favorite restaurants and hangouts and found that a lot of them have moved or closed! Even Washington Square Park is totally uprooted right now because they’re renovating it or something. The Vegan Dosas guy who has his cart by the park wasn’t their either. The restaurant, RICE, moved, and even my bank had some emergency that required 4 emergency vehicles screaming in just as I was about to withdraw some cash. In the end, I still had Bruno Bakery. Phew! One can always count on their high-calorie, oh-so-yummy treats! Even their normally bad service was missing! I was amazed!

The Upper West Side, unlike NYU’s neighborhood, has not changed at all. It was all so familiar. So stable. So...boring. Hahaha just kidding. I also got to run through the park to take some photographs. The new header is from Central Park. I do miss that place!

I’ve gotten to see a lot of friends like Ian and So-Young, Jan (my professor), and all the church peeps from Advent Hope. I’ll post pics next time. That’s all for now. So far it’s been great! And really relaxing! Ah, could you ask for anything more?

Spring2008 b

A Photog-full Weekend

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

On Friday last week, I got a new lens for my Nikon D-80!

Ever since I met Ben Ho at work, it’s been a dark spiral downward into the world of super-consumerism of photographic equipment. What i really mean, is suddenly i *need* all kinds of stuff I never needed before. It’s amazing!

One of these purchases that I needed and had no idea how much I needed was my new lens: a Nikkor AF 50 mm f1.8. I never knew what I was missing until I met you, o beautious lens!

So promptly spent the entire weekend photography anything that would move. I took about 6 gigs of photos. W00t! Here are the links to the photogs that I shot:

Worship at Hollywood SDA Church
People up on stage, people in the pews, and people chowing down! I LOVE potluck!

“Kodomo no Hi” - Boys’ Day
I went to Irvine to celebrate Boys’ Day with my little nephew Joshua and his new friend Brandon. And by new, i mean brand spanking new! He was just born!

Saturday Night: Shootin’ the Breeze
After returning from Irvine, a couple of us got together just to talk, have rootbeer floats, and half-heartedly play card games. Most of these shots are actually by Kimi. I was too busy eating ice cream. Yum!

Kimi’s Photoshoot: Part A
Sunday was an all day photoshoot for Kimi. I’ve only been able to upload the first part, which were the outdoor shots. The theme was “The Neighborhood Artist.” (I’m not sure if Kimi even knew that since I just made that up on the spot! haha). The second part is a studio shoot. Thanks to Rommel, he brought all KINDS of lighting equipment! Most of them I don’t even know what they’re called! A beauty dish, a reflector, an umbrella, a snoot, backdrop, etc. My apartment could barely hold it all! I haven’t finished post-production editing on those yet, so stay tuned for more of those. You can see some of Rommel’ shots here.

Phew! What a fun weekend! I can’t wait til i get more equipment! Oh noes! I’m hooked!

Ah, motherhood...?

Friday, April 25, 2008

Photoshoot: Marci

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

This was the most recent photoshoot from this past week. A little impromptu, but still good results!

Marci has been my friend for a very long time. This weekend I finally got a chance to photograph her. Using my normal “ghetto studio” tricks, we managed to get some very nice shots. In some of them, I think she almost looks like Jodi Foster. She has really soulful hazel eyes that just grab your attention.

Here are some of the shots from that day:

I really like this photo even tho it’s a little blurry and the lighting is weird. Mostly because her smile is so natural. Too bad it’s not in focus.

Josh the Poo Bazooka Gets a Cleanin' from Auntie Kat

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Would you believe that before today, I’ve NEVER changed a diaper before?

Yeah. Pretty amazing. I’ve managed to escape cleaning baby bottoms for 30 years. But now, with the advent of Josh, my time has come. My number was called. There was no escaping.

Luckily, it wasn’t what people keep calling a “blow out.” Doesn’t that just sound like tire trouble on the freeway? I think it was Dan who described one such blow out where it managed to escape the diaper and explode out all the way up the child’s back and into her hair.

...Like I said, I’m lucky Josh didn’t have a blow out. I think that would have stopped any future “bazooka cleaning” excursions.

Anyway, it wasn’t nearly as horrifying as expected. I’m not saying it wasn’t traumatic seeing stuff that looked vaguely like curried cottage cheese all up in the diaper, but there were thankfully many layers of “stuff” in between it and me: diaper, wipes, another diaper, latex gloves, goggles for eye protection (in case of said blow out), smock, rubber apron, those yellow full-body protection suits + helmets they had in the movie Outbreak… Yeah, I was ready!

So now I’ve officially wiped a baby’s bottom.

And boy do I feel accomplished.

Now why did people want me to do this so badly again?

Kick. Push. Coast.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

I just bought a skateboard. I’m not sure why. I just wanted to. 

The only problem is that i have no idea how to ride. Yeah, that’s right. NO IDEA. Anyone want to teach me? I’d love for someone to help me *not* crack my skull open. I don’t want to do anything fancy; just to ride and not fall off. No crazy aerials or anything.

Then Lennox sent me a link to Lupe Fiaso’s song, “Kick Push.” Just thought I’d share:

Lupe Fiasco: Kick Push

And please, somebody teach me how to coast!

One of the Job Options They Never Mention in School

Friday, April 04, 2008

My cow-orker, Larry, told me about a job called “Chick Sexing.”

I know what you’re going to say! “What kind of dirty thing is she writing about?” But I say NAY my friend! It is nothing dirty at all in that manner in which you think it is dirty!

According to wikipedia, Chick Sexing or Chicken Sexing “is the method of distinguishing the sex of chicken hatchlings, usually by a trained person called a chick sexer or chicken sexer."

So if you have children who really want to broaden their career opportunities, tell them about this new job I’ve found! And when you ask little Timmy, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” you’ll be prouder than punch when he says, “I want to be a CHICKEN SEXER!”

Care to Search Through?

Thursday, April 03, 2008

I’ve finally done it! I’ve added a Search feature to kathykhoo.com!

I don’t know why it took me so long to add a search on this site. I mean, doesn’t *everyone* want to be able to search my personal history?

...Actually I do know why I didn’t add it. I had no idea how to do it, even through really, in retrospect, it was right in front of my face.

But THERE! to your right, BEHOLD the new search function! Go ahead, try it! The Google one works well enough but the search results are somewhat inconsistent. The Advanced Search is a sure fire way of finding what you want. It’s strange really having enough content on a personal blog to warrant a search.

It’s funny because I really do use this blog as a sort of diary. Sometimes I don’t remember things until I read them again on my blog! So I suppose the search function is really only for me. Oh well. I’m sure you’ll find a use for it some way or another.

NOW when will get to updating MORE of kathykhoo.com?

The New Mantra

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Finally a different look at sakura

Friday, March 28, 2008

Spring2008 a

I loves the funny funny transvestite

I know Eddie Izzard is a well known comedian, but I just found him recently. And he’s HILARIOUS!

My friend Sean passed me this link to Eddie Izzard’s “Dress to Kill” on audio so you can listen to it from your cubicle at work. Ah, bless you people who work for the entertainment of us who work in Cube City. This has definitely helped pass the time as I wilf about at work. I mean, while I work REALLY REALLY hard at work.

I just thought I’d share this link with all of you because I enjoy it so much. There are more movies available for a listen, but I think stand-up comedy really works best for this kind of mind-occupation during work. Random “bang! bang!”, dialog that centers around action, and random sound-effects don’t really make for that enjoyable of a listen. Then again, if you’re REALLY bored, that just might do the trick…

"She shoots...She SCORES!"

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I played basketball last night. NO, not just shooting around, I mean I PLAYED!

You have no idea how exhilarating it was to actually be playing a pick up game in a park near my place! I think it’s been about 2 years since I played at all. I wasn’t good, but I was good enough to be happy about how the game turned out. So I’m a little clumsier than I wish, but at least I stayed on my feet AND I scored a couple points.

The people we were playing with were very cool - 3 random groups coming together. Jay came out to visit, Susan is on Spring break, and so we wandered from park to park until we found a free court. 3 other guys were also there, and then a couple showed up and we had a little 4 on 4 action!

AND, thanks to Jay, I have my shot back! What a great night! And then we topped it off by walking to a Thai fusion restaurant. I love my pedestrian neighborhood!

Just thought I’d share my joy with you, world wide web!

Questions and the Conversation

Friday, March 14, 2008

It’s all about asking the right questions.

Recently I have had several conversations that made me wish that someone would ask me the questions that would allow me to tell them what I’m really all about. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman, and I need to talk, but there is something very special about being able to express who you are, not just what you think or what you did. I want to believe that someone takes interest in who I am, and is curious enough to probe and find out.

As I was pondering this wish to be drawn out by insightful questions, someone point out, “You keep wishing that people would ask you the right kinds of questions to draw you out. Don’t you think God feels that way sometimes about us?”

It was an odd concept. I had never thought of it that way before. God wants ME to draw HIM out? I thought of our past conversations: true enough, I don’t think I ever asked anything beyond, “What do you want from me?” Not exactly the warm cuddly question that makes someone want to expose their true heart to you. I had never asked God, “what makes you happy? What do you think about this particular issue? Is this something you might like?” It’s even more than what kind of questions but the *intent* behind them. I don’t think I was that interested in knowing what God thought before. I just wanted to know so I could do it, do the “right thing,” and get on with my life. “Yeah yeah, just tell me the rules so i can follow them begrudgingly.”

I’ve decided I don’t want that kind of relationship with God anymore. Maybe I’m making God too human, but I will try to talk with God as I would a human - trying to find out what makes Him laugh, what makes Him happy, sad, angry.  It’s a new approach for me. And if I don’t know the right questions to ask, I think I’ll ask Him, “what questions should I ask so I can draw you out and get to know you better?”

It’s definitely a question worth asking.

Project Runways Season 4 Finale

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

I’m so excited! Tomorrow is the Finale night for Project Runway Season 4!!

I’m not entirely sure why I love this show so much. Maybe because, even though it’s a reality show, it’s not about the fights and cattiness that happens in the house where they all reside. It really IS about design and creativity. I don’t think any other show really captures that as well.

There’s also something very familiar about the critiques. Something about working and being in design definitely gears you towards that breakdown of what makes things work and what doesn’t.

So tomorrow night at 10 pm is the final showdown on the runway at Fashion Week. Be there or be out of fashion! lol

Go watch it! It’s on Bravo and it’s totally FIERCE (to quote Christian, one of the finalists).

Gogogogogogogogogogogogogo!

Mixed Up Analogy

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Question for You of the Web World

Do you know anything about online groups and emailing lists?

I’m trying to find an online group application that keeps track of several emailing lists.

I want one main list, and then several sub-lists that the user can sign up for.

Here’s a hypothetical example:

There is a group of people who really like basketball. They start a group online (like Yahoo! groups or Google groups) as a way of sharing their passion for the sport. The admin of that group wants to email the whole group about an upcoming tournament.

The admin then wants to email all the Point Guards *only* and tell them information about a Point Guard practice happening next week. The admin also wants to email all the Centers to tell them about their own practice that will happen this week.

When a new basketball player joins the group, she wants to sign up for the main emailing list as well as the Point Guard list. She adds herself to both groups.

Is there a web app out there that does this? I’m not even sure where to look. So I’m asking YOU! (yeah, YOU!)

LACMA's BCAM Opening

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I know it looks like just a jumble of letters, but it was really an exciting event!

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has just recently opened up it’s new wing, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM). And thanks to my cow-orker Jeffrey, I got a chance to go to the members-only Opening Night Gala. Woooooooooh!

What an exciting event! I wasn’t even sure what to expect. Or what to wear! I kept thinking, “Is this one of those events where people wear evening gowns?” Thank goodness I didn’t. But who knew what or who I’d see? And now that I’m looking around at all the other websites that covered the event, I should have been looking for celebrities! Silly me didn’t even notice them at all though. I actually went and looked at the exhibits themselves. We even almost missed the catered food and free drinks and the jazz trio in the reception tent. It was very cool - it had a lighted runway and psychedelic light patterns moving across cubes overhanging each table.

Here are some pics:

Urban Light installation in the front of the BCAM entrance

The view of the back stairwell into the museum.

I even got a refresher course on contemporary art, as Jeffrey is very knowledgeable about such things. It really made the art more relevant to have someone there with whom I could discuss each piece. Honestly, I don’t *get* a lot of contemporary art, and it’s intriguing to listen to someone explain why a piece was relevant or conversely why an artist might be considered a “charlatan” or why the artist is “genius.” (Or at least considered so by those who decide what is Art [with a capital A!] and what it kitsch.)

Check out the BCAM when you get a chance! The Serra pieces are awesome to wander through and I’m sure you’ll love the Kruger elevator. Not so sure about the 3 basketballs floating in water, but hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? So go behold!

New Year's Can Now Officially Be Celebrated!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Because my 2007 Photobook is FINALLY finished!

The tradition of creating a photobook featuring the photography from the previous year started as an idea to replace Christmas cards, because I’m horrible about that. But as procrastination would have it, I ended up not getting it out until New Years. That was fine and good, because New Years is definitely worth celebrating. And then last year, it didn’t make it out until the end of January. And this year just tops off how late I’ve gotten with this. Mid-February. Not just February. MID-February. *sigh*

Oh well, it’s done and now I can feel like I’m starting a brand new year! I mean, the lunar new year wasn’t so long ago, so I’m really only a couple weeks late, right...?

You’re welcome to download this *highly anticipated* photobook by clicking the image below:

Enjoy!

Happy VD!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Ah Valentine’s Day, the day of Obligatory Love!

Usually on this day, I greet people by saying, “Happy VD!” As you might guess, there is a bit of ire against this holiday. Whether you’re with someone special or not, this day has always irked me because it just becomes a big pissing contest between women, and men get caught up in the aftermath.

Woman 1: “What did *your* boyfriend do for you?”

Woman 2: “Oh he took me to Paris and bought me a new wardrobe and finished it off with a fabulous diamond ring!”

Woman 1: “Oh.”

Later, she yells at her boyfriend for the thoughtful gift he made her because it wasn’t made out of diamonds and wasn’t delivered to her in Paris.

I dunno, it just seems that the whole thing is so obligatory. So...NOT about love. And yet, you have to participate. No matter what. Because if you don’t participate because you’re taking a stance against the commercialism, well, you still kind of suck because someone is gonna end up getting hurt in that scenario, and it just might be you and your lower jaw after she hits you with a solid uppercut!

Wow, I think this is actually turning into a rant!

Anyway, I just wanted to inform all those who have adopted the “Happy VD” greeting that we are horribly horribly outdated! For some reason, I thought venereal disease was a specific kind of sexually transmitted disease, like herpes or something. But NO. I was an umbrella term used in the same was that STD is currently used! Thanks to my health educator friend, Cary, I’m now in the know!

But what the heck is a venereal anyway? Apparently the word “venereal” has something to do with love and specifically sexual love. Who knew? My best guess was that it had something to do with another “v” word that was located somewhere in the nether regions…

The bottom line is, if we wish to continue using this greeting, we’ll have to update it to “Happy STD!” which, while it may still be applicable on Valentine’s Day, does not have nearly the same impact or word-play fun as “Happy VD!”

You know what? I don’t care if I’m outdated! I think I’ll stick with VD. Won’t you?

Rambo and Theology, Together at Last

Monday, February 11, 2008

What You're Worth

Thursday, February 07, 2008

If someone were to ask my what my biggest struggle in life is, I’d have to say it’s the issue of self-worth.

Self-worth is so essential and yet most of us, if not all of us, seem to struggle with it on some level. Some of us struggle more than others. And sometimes it’s only about very specific things. Most of the weird negative social behaviors stem from lack of self-worth and people searching for some kind of validation.

Recently I was struggling with this issue again. It always turns up when I don’t even notice it. It sneaks into my language (ex. always apologizing for things that don’t need to be apologized for), my self-deprecating humor and even my actions (ex. not taking the “nice chair” because someone else should get the better chair). My friend Lennox, ever the observant caller-outer of such things, did just that. He called me out.

“Why do you feel like you’re not worth it?” he asked.

It’s funny--sometimes you think you have everyone fooled. That no one can see that you don’t fully like yourself. Or like yourself at all. But it comes out. People can feel it, even those who are not particularly observant. And when someone calls you out, you end up feeling a little bit like you were caught with your drawers down. But he didn’t just ask the question. He told me a story about his own epiphany about self-worth. And it’s based in real estate.

What is a house worth? If we add up the materials that it’s made of, that’s one thing. Concrete, wood, nails, wiring, piping, insulating, etc. But that’s not the *worth* of the house. A house is worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for it. For example, if I wanted to have a 2 bedroom house in Montana or Nebraska, let’s say it goes for 120K. BUT if you move that same house, made of exactly the same building materials, to Beverly Hills or Manhattan, suddenly the price skyrockets to a couple million! How does that happen? It’s because someone thinks it’s worth it to pay that much to live in Manhattan.

So what does that have to do with me? Or is the analogy way too obvious already?

Am I worth something because of what I’m made of? Or how good I am at this or that? Or is worth given by how much someone is willing to pay for me? Jesus paid his whole life for me. And if Jesus paid for me with His life, then I must be worth a LOT. I know I’ve heard that a lot before, but I don’t think it ever made it from my brain to my heart. I think I get it now. I’m worth it to Him.

So it’s time for me to *believe* that value and move on, stop trying to haggle down the price for me. It’s something I want so much to believe. So this is the beginning of new things. And hey, it’s Chinese New Year! Gong hay fat choy! And happy new beginnings!

Thanks Lennox.

No Longer a Virgin to the Polls

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Yes, I know what it sounds like, but what I *mean* is that I voted in the presidential primaries IN PERSON today!

So what’s the big deal about voting in person, you ask? For some reason, there has always been just enough of a barrier that I haven’t gone in person to vote. Or some unpredicted event prevented me. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve voted absentee a lot, but that’s not quite the same. And you don’t get the happy sticker saying, “I Voted!”

I have a seriously bad track record for things going South with my attempts to vote, really. There are times I’ve registered and called to confirm where I supposed to vote, but find that I’m mysteriously *not* registered. I’ve gotten the absentee ballot too late to return in time. I’ve *thought* I registered and hadn’t. And on top of all that, I’ve been privy to living with a raving Republican who made me loathe politics with all my might.

Honestly, I just never felt like I knew enough about anything to really make an informed decision. So it’s pretty nuts that TODAY is the first time vote at a polling booth and do the whole paper ballot thing and punch out holes and tell the world who I want to vote for! (but all in secret of course) All thanks to NPR! I’ve been listening to 89.3 KPCC and their election coverage for about 8 months now, and I seriously feel more informed than I EVER have in my life! (My ignorance of current events up to this point is only ironic because I was once a history major in college and professed my interest in current event and the workings of the world.)

Voting was strangely exhilarating! I’ve done my civic duty! I’m an involved citizen! Feel free to pat me on the back if you see me today! ;)

Teh lolcats iz helps me thru mai day

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The monotony of working and working and working one a 120-page Word doc has finally gotten to me!

My friend at work showed me his mini-escape during the day: icanhascheezburger.com.

This site has been around a while. I’m just new to it. But not new to lolcats! Here’s a visual example:

moar funny pictures

What are lolcats you say? Why I’m glad you asked! Wikipedia tells all! According to Wikipedia and all you Wiki-writers, Lolcats are “images combining photographs of animals, most frequently cats, with a subjectively humorous and idiosyncratic caption in broken English referred to as Kitty Pidgin, Kitteh, or lolspeak.”

There’s a huge history behind it and hundreds, no THOUSANDS of spin-offs. But actually, I don’t really care where it came from. All I care is that I can take a short break from staring blankly at the same page of curricula that I’ve been working on for 8 hours and get a cheap laugh.

Teh Animuhls they iz funny.

Winter2008 a

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

You Are Not Alone - and We Feel FINE!

I discovered this website at the Singapore Design Festival.

I think it is one of the most interesting sites I’ve seen in a long time. And I guess it kind of has been around for awhile! Developed by Jonathan Harris and Sepandar Kamvar, it’s a visual representations of all the people who write “I feel...” on their blogs. It matches picture and tells you where they are and when they wrote it.

It’s FASCINATING.

Seriously, I started looking at it and 2 hours later it was 1 in the morning and I had to sleep. It’s perfect for wilfing. Not only that, you can either look for different feelings willy-nilly, OR you can categorize them by location, feeling, sex, etc. Very cool.

www.wefeelfine.org

The best part is that it’s REAL stuff. I mean, it’s great when people make prototypes of stuff and show what *could* be done, but this project actually does it. In real time. It’s awesome.

Go check out how people are feeling! 

"American Idol" for Writers - help my co-worker Sheila!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Sheila, a writer on my team, has written a sci-fi novel and needs YOUR help to get it published!

Amazon and Penguin are having a contest that invited anyone and everyone to submit their written works. Sheila wrote a sci-fi novel for young adults called, Humanics: Reality Bytes.  She made the first cut and it’s now down from 5000 to 1000. W00t! Made it past first cuts!

Now she needs YOU to read the first couple chapters and give it a solid review so that it gets the attention of Amazon and Penguin. Based on your reviews, the 1000 will be chopped down to 100. And from that group, the top 3 books will get published. What a cool way to be discovered, don’t you think?

Here’s the link to her book: Sheila Reading’s Book--Humanics: Reality Bytes

You have until Feb. 19! Gogogogogogogo! Read! Review! DO IT NOW! (I’m such a hypocrite cuz I haven’t done it either.) You have to be an Amazon member, but I think that’s the only catch. For more info, go to Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award site.

Retro? Or OLD?

Bunlette OUT of the Oven! Welcome Joshua Kotaro!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Yasuyo just gave birth to a boy! I have a new nephew! 

At 8:30 am, Joshua found himself in a whole new world (cue Disney’s Aladdin music). He is 7 lb. 7 oz. and 19” long. Or tall. Or whatever. I’m still not used to all this baby stuff. But he’s here and he’s cute! Thank goodness he’s cute! I mean, who wants to be the aunt that can’t muster up enough enthusiasm to lie about an ugly baby?  LOL I know some of you are gasping in horror as you read that. But I’m not going to be that liar saying, “Oooh, you’re sooooo cuuuute!” when he really looks like an old man. But like I said, Joshua needs no such faking. He actually IS cute!

He’s even got wavy hair! I wonder if it’ll stick. Both Yasuyo and Kenny are pretty tired, as they didn’t sleep much of the night. But aside from that, all seems well! All systems are go! Yasuyo’s mom is here to help and my parents are close at hand too, so support is all around. They’re heading home tomorrow. They don’t give you much time in the hospital do they?

The funny part was watching the hospital staff using the Electronic Medical Record system that I teach. I kept looking over their shoulders as they typed. “Oh, they’re doing *that* in the Doc Flowsheets...Interesting.” Or “I can’t believe they remembered that part from class!” I got to see the EMR in action!

AND I got to hold a baby. For those of you who don’t know me, you must know that I have not a single maternal bone in my body, and have thus managed to avoid holding/babysitting/being in the general vicinity of babies. But this one is different! I’m breaking myself in and this one has no choice but to be the guinea pig for my experimentation. I mean, Love,...yes, guinea pig for my love.  And corruption! So I held him.

Ah, how innocently the corruption begins! 

More pics of Joshua can be found here at my Picasa album.

We Put the “Pro” in Procrastination

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Who knew that this quip would set the tone for the rest of my life?

I have a lot of bad habits, like chewing my fingernails and sitting cross-legged no matter where I am (including restaurants, work, and church pews). Some bad habits, however, were definitely cultivated. I think my time at La Sierra University, and specifically at South Hall, really developed my ability to procrastinate and procrastinate well. In fact, I think it’s set me up to be a procrastinator for life.

At work now, I have to deal with deadlines again. Before, as a trainer, all I really had to do was show, “perform,” and clean up. Now, I have to read, process what I read, develop, and write and then send it out for multiple reviews where it is almost certain that your document will return in a mangled form, barely recognizable as the document you first submitted for review. I had my first hard deadline yesterday. W00t! PROCRASTINATION! My job is to re-write an already existing curriculum, BUT I spent so much time reading the stuff that already existed, that I ran out of time! In the end, I had 3 days to re-write the 100-page document.

I ended up working a little on the weekend and then staying up until 1:30 am the night before it was due. The morning after that was *not* pretty! It even began with a bad omen. I was exiting my parking lot, but it’s difficult to see oncoming cars, so I slowly peeked my car out into the street. There was a car about 6 car-lengths away heading my way and honking and honking. I couldn’t even tell what he was honking at. I rolled back a little in case my car was making him nervous even though he had plenty of room to pass. As he rolled slowly past my car, the old Russian man leaned out of his window screaming angrily at me, “STOOOOOOOOOOOOPEEEEEEEED! STOOOOOOOOOOOOPEEEEEEED!” while his wife looked on in wonder.

Hmmmmmm...not a good beginning for the day.

Despite the rocky start, I hammered out my document and finished by 1 pm. PHEW! YES! I’M DONE!

...and then I had a talk with my manager afterwards where he said, “Congrats! Good work! Now let me give you about 7 more other deadlines coming up in very close succession!” This is gonna be my life for the next 2 months.

T___T

I think I’m gonna cry. 

Holiday Talk

Monday, December 24, 2007

I love my family, and the type of conversations we have is one of the many reasons why!

Case in point, last night, my mom, dad and I were sitting around the dinner table, just chatting. I had just gotten back from visiting with Les and Laura, and we were just shootin’ the breeze over a cup of tea. For some odd reason (and by odd reason, i mean my black hole of a stomach), I was still hungry after having dinner. So I grabbed one of my mom’s high fiber granola bars.

Mom: I don’t like those. You had them before, right? Don’t you get really GASSY?

Me: Maybe I do...I guess everyone around me will just have to suffer.

Dad: Mphrrrphggh (spitting up tea, laughing)

How can you not love a family like that? We laughed for a good 5 minutes straight.

And since this is the season for families and love, joy and such, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours, and may your holidays and holiday talk be bright and fun!

My (Delinquent) Report on My Trip to Singapore

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Oh I have been TERRIBLE and not written a post since I got back!

And there’s so much to write about! I got to do and see so many things!

But as soon as I got home, I had to hit the ground running at work. Phew!

The best I can do is offer up my most humble apologies and put up a link to my web album so you can look through all 247 photos that I took. That’s right TWO-HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN pics. (And that’s down from the 892 pics I took over the entire trip. Apparently I’m a bad photographer and had to cull out many of the other ones.)

Singapore Sling: The Island Experience After 20 years of Absence

Enjoy!

Singaporian Update

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

It’s the end of day 2 here in Singapore, and I’m already bursting at the seams!

It’s Wednesday night here, at the end of a rainy sticky day. It was POURING cats and dogs. Or maybe it was raining rambutan and durian. That sounds more like it. So far, it’s been interesting seeing my aunties, uncles and cousins again. I haven’t seen some of them for over 20 years. Wow. That’s a long time. I expect to see more relatives soon.

The first day was beautiful - blue skies and summer hot weather with a bit of humidity. The most beautiful thing about it was going to the hocker centers and getting local food. YUM! I love the food here! And it’s beginning to show on my belly. Oh boy. For that first lunch we got everything under the sum. My dad and I ate until our stomachs hurt. And boy did we sweat! Nothing like hot soup with lots of chilli on a hot day! My dad had a downpour from his forehead! It took us a good bit of time to get cooled off. I think my uncle and aunties were really amused by our intolerance for the assault of 3 types of heat at once - weather, temperature hot food, and spice!

We wandered many malls and ended up at my cousin Lynn and her husband Ron’s place. I got to meet my nephew and niece for the first time in person! Wow! How weird is that? Sometimes we get so used to just seeing photographs that we kind of forget that we haven’t actually interacted with him or her. The funniest part was that the first born, Mark, is still getting used to the arrival of his new sister. So while there’s already some sibling rivalry going on, one should not fear for Eve. She apparently can take care of herself. At some point, Mark made a move that looked like he was about to pester her, and she lunged for him but missed. Instead she ended up fiercely gnawing away at the carpet. I think Mark got lucky that he didn’t lose a finger in that battle!

Today, the torrential rain kept us inside the mega-malls all day. Except the part where I asked to go to a shop that sold goods made by local designers. Little did I know that it was way up a hill in the heart of Chinatown and with no cover from the rain. And us with no umbrellas. Oh boy. So by the time we got there, the entire party of 5 was drenched and more than a little miserable. Talk about pressure to buy something! lol I definitely got 2 of something just for good measure - had to make it feel like it was worth the uphill watery trek!

We also went to the performing arts center - a large building with a spikey exterior so that it reminds you of a durian fruit. I wonder if that was the inspiration. I kept taking photographs of the interior, and kept getting stopped by Kumar, the security guard. I’d take pictures of something and he’d come over and say, “You can’t take pictures of that thing because blah blah blah. But you can take pictures of the exterior,” and he’d point to the thing in question. So I would go there and take pictures of what he had pointed to. Then he would come up to me again and say, “You can’t take pictures of that...” and start all over again. This happened 3 times. By that time, I told him, “You know, you could just say that I can’t take pictures of *anything.* I would have understood that.” He blamed our miscommunication on the fact that he was Indian. Fascinating. So just the mere fact that he’s Indian and we are not lend itself to broken communication? Go figure! Who knew it worked that way? Oh well, at least he was very nice about it every time he told me to stop.

And now we’re back and Lynn and Ron’s place. And once again, I am packed to the gils with food. I’m seriously going to return home weighing 5 kg more! At dinner, Ron was mentioning that there is a species of frog that will gorge itself when the bugs are out in force, so much so that it’ll actually BURST from overeating. I mean, physically explode. Ugh. That’s sort of how I feel at the moment. I really need to walk some more. Uuurg. Why is food here so good?!?

Tomorrow, I’m off to Indonesia. Well, a small resort island of Indonesia. Hopefully it won’t be raining this hard then! Wish us luck! Pray for good weather! And that’s it for now! This is Kat signing off--over and out!

Leaving on a jet plane

Saturday, December 01, 2007

I’m going to Singapore tomorrow, and I just can’t seem to pack my bags!

I know that I’m a procrastinator, but this is ridiculous. I’ve got one night to pack, and all I can do it sit here and blog instead of shoving things into a bag. Really, this is just sad because I’m really excited to go!

Oh well, just thought I’d put something up. I’ve got stuff to blog about, but for some reason, I’ve had a hard time posting. I’ll update soon!

And now, back to packing!

My Birthday Photo Scavenger Hunt: In Search of the Big Three-Oh

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Turning 30 is...interesting. Turning 30 with all your friends around being silly is AWESOME.

The best part was that my party was ON my ACTUAL birthday! So Saturday afternoon had us all in West Hollywood, ready to take a bunch of bizarre pictures. For those of you who are not familiar with the rules, it goes something like this:

1. YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO TURN IN 10 PICTURES PER TEAM!
Exception: the series options in “Actions” category in which that series will count as 1 picture

2. EACH PICTURE MUST HAVE 2 OR MORE ITEMS IN IT!
The idea is that you’re trying to cram as many items into 10 pictures as possible. (The series option in the “Actions” category is the only exception)

3. SCORING: Each object in the picture earns 1 point unless marked otherwise.
a.Multiples of objects earn 1 extra point each.
b. 1 extra point is awarded per stranger that is intentionally involved in your pictures (random passersby do not count).
c. You will not receive points for the same item in multiple pictures

4. Time limit: 1.5 hours from the time the hunt starts

With those rules in mind, we set out of the apartment and took WeHo by storm. It was amazing how many people really wanted to be involved in our pictures! Here are a few:

I love the fact that we forced 4 random people to crowd into a bathroom at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Notice that the one in the back does *not* look happy!

The best part was finding a shopping cart to take pics of shopping cart race, but having no one to race. At that moment, the guy with the long beard in the back rolled up. Perfect! We raced. We lost. lol

Nothing makes a birthday complete like a gold bikini!

This was their version of “crowding a public bathroom stall"--it was definitely creative!

The best part was their series shot of “Transforming like an Autobot.”

"Autobots! TRANSFORM!

*sounds of tranforming*

"Tadah! I’m a car!"

You can check out the entire album at my Picasa Web Album

After all the running around, we had Okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese pancake. The 3 grill that we had going kept shorting out the circuits! So we ended up cooking and eating in candle light. How romantic! lol

And the best part is, our neighbor called the police on us twice that night! While I’ll admit we were very loud with almost 26 people in apartment all haggling over point, but that was at 6 pm! The first time one sheriff came at 9 pm, there were 9 of us left, cleaning up and barely talking. There was no music or anything. He apologized, “someone called and we have to come check it out.”

After that we had a small game of Taboo - it wasn’t even loud! Then more people left and then there were 5 of us. That’s when the 2 other sheriffs showed up. It was hilarious! They looked so confused! “It seems your neighbors sleep really early,” they said. Can you imagine cops busting 5 people for being disruptive and rowdy? We were cleaning again and sitting on the floor and using our laptops. Wow. That’s ROWDY. hahaha

It all made for a great birthday with great stories. Thanks everyone for being a part of it and making this birthday the best!

The Apartment is *OFFICIALLY* warmed!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The move completed, we had our first big event: our Apartment Warming Party!

It was great to have a deadline to have everything cleaned and put away. If we didn’t, I’m sure that my stuff would still be in boxes...cuz I’m *that* person who would get used to living out of boxes until it felt totally normal. Susan and I have made a real effort to make this new apartment a home instead of just another living space. Thinking back, the last place that I could have really called a home was the great house in Grand Terrace, the Bachelorette Pad. Since then, it’s been a move from one transitional space to the next. Even the last apartment, though I lived there for more than a year and a half, had nothing on the walls and felt more like a blank box than a home.

So the night before the Apartment Warming Party, Suz and I put together a huge collage of photographs that we’ve both taken. Things that we thought were compositionally interesting or colorful or something. We really had no idea *what* we were gonna come up with, but in the end, we pieced it together. At 3 o’clock in the morning. I’m sure the fumes from the spray mount was part of the creative process… You can see it in the background of this pic:

We were both completely tired when people started coming over, but it was totally worth it! And it was so much fun to have so many people over. The highlight was when we had a huge circle of CatchPhrase going on. It really felt like home!

Thanks to everyone to came and brought stuff (especially the box of 45 rolls of toilet paper) and ate haystacks (aka “taco salad")! It was a blast! It was such a great beginning for a new home. I can’t wait til the next big event: my birthday photo scavenger hunt! Stay tuned for pictures from that event!

The Second Advent of My Refrigerator

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Sometimes the second coming is better than the first!

Now that you’ve all heard me complain and complain about management company, I’ve got one more story to toss on the pile.

So despite everyone’s input that we didn’t have a legal leg to stand on when it came to not getting keys, Susan and I took drastic action. We got apartment keys, but we didn’t have keys to the garage or washer/dryer room. I once got locked out at 9:30 pm and couldn’t get to my car to pick up Susan from school. So we decided to withhold rent. If they consider “starting the lease” to be from the time they hand over the keys, I argue that we had not officially begun our lease agreement. Especially since we weren’t getting access to all the facilities described in the contract.

Anyway, we paid rent and withheld 1/3 of the rent for the time that we did not have access. I was a little nervous, because I wasn’t sure if that was actually legal. I’m still not sure. We didn’t hear anything from the property manager. Then again, this is nothing new. I’ve called that man at least a dozen times, and he has yet to pick up his phone. So last week on Thursday, I come home from work...and notice that something seems different…

I take a look around to try to put my finger on what that difference is...and discover that THE REFRIGERATOR IS MISSING! Now you have to understand that the leasing company told us that we could have that fridge, but that they would personally throw it out because it was too disgusting to use. When you’re poor, however, you can’t really be all that picky. So we kept it. It really wasn’t ours. And so at that moment, I immediately thought that they had taken the fridge back as an act of retaliation!

All our food was in the sink or on the counter. The multiple dairy products growing ripe in the afternoon sun. The ice cream was in a sad state of affairs. I freaked out.

I called around frantically, trying to get someone on the phone. I was trying to formulate my argument why what they did was wrong. “You didn’t get my permission to enter the premises...” and “You had no right to take something as an act of retaliation...” Finally, I got the maintenance manager on the phone.

“Um did someone come and take my refrigerator?” I asked, trying to hold myself together so I wouldn’t scream at them.

“Oh, are you in apartment #4? Oh that was a mistake,” came the reply.

“...A mistake?”

“Yeah, it was supposed to be the fridge from apartment 7.”

At this point, I was relieved and fully in disbelief. Could they really be that retarded? Did they not notice that it was still in use?

So I asked haltingly, “so...can we get the fridge back...?”

“Uh, can we give it back tomorrow?”

“I’ve got lots of food that’s already spoiled and still spoiling. I need it back tonight.”

Thankfully, they agreed without too much of a struggle. I have never been so happy to see that nasty old thing again. You really do appreciate it the second time it comes around, because you’ve had enough time to realize how good you had it while it was there, even if it was old and worn. I was so happy that I didn’t even ask why there was dirt and tree leaves in the freezer.

As they shoved it back into place, the maintenance manager said, “Good thing you called. It was going to be thrown away tonight!”

...

I have only one word for this: RETARDED

WeHo Halloween Carnaval: An Introduction to West Hollywood

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Having just moved into the neighborhood, I had a great opportunity to see what the community was like in this huge block party event!

Monica, Rommel and I ventured out into the streets to catch a glimpse of the crazy revelry of which I have heard many a tale. Getting there was the first adventure. We successfully rode public transit in LA! We got on a bus and made it to the Carnaval with no problem whatsoever! In fact, we had to document the momentous occasion. Ya gotta love the rainbow upholstery. Rommel took a bunch of pics that night - in fact, all the ones below are by him!

We got there a little early so we wandered the streets. But as the night wore on, the streets became packed with one amazing costume after another. Some were amazingly elaborate and made me wonder how much money they spent on their costumes. Or even more impressive, how much *time* it took to put them together.

This Robotech Valkyrie must have taken awhile to put together.

Snowy demon costumes were all the rage!

Shrek and Fiona look almost TOO real...

More impressive than the amazing costumes, though, were the amount of strange and hyper people all around. Halloween is that holiday where you can be your alter ego self, be a caricature of yourself with all your characteristics exaggerated, or just be plain bizarre. Or you could be cheap like me and just get a dress and wings. Oh and the heels. Those things killed by the end of the night! Some used their costumes to fully express themselves, like the guys who were wandering around in a thong and a mesh body suit. Or the guy who body painted himself and wore...nothing (except shoes of course. Gotta protect the feet!).

There were lots of other great costumes like…

Drag Queens...

Drag Queens...

And more Drag Queens!

I have to say, I feel like I know more about my neighborhood than ever now! Maybe more than I want to know--like knowing the guy that lives 2 houses down can probably strut better in heels than I ever will be able. It’s a great place with vibrant people. It’s gonna be fun! 

Settling In

Monday, October 29, 2007

I finally turned in my keys to the Burbank apartment and my new life in WeHo officially starts TODAY!

I’ve got to admit, it was kind of strange finally leaving the old place. It was so CLEAN! hahaha It had never been that clean while I occupied it! It was with a kind of sentimentality that I turned in my keys and left the building for the last time. A chapter in my life has closed.

On the other hand, a new and exciting chapter is just starting! Thanks to my bro & Yasuyo, my parents, and especially Tony and Rommel who were definitely the muscle of the group, we got everything moved to WeHo last Sunday with very little hassle. The apartment here in WeHo, despite the boxes and clutter, immediately felt like home in a way that Burbank never did.  It’s such a relief to live in a place that feels like you fit into. The neighborhood is walkable and friendly. There are tons of conveniences close at hand and there are always throngs of people wandering the streets. Already I’ve walked to dinner 3 times and walked to other nearby stores. It’s about as close to New York as I’ll ever get in LA!

The only thorn in my side is the management company, and even they have *finally* given us the last key that they owe us (after 2 weeks of paying rent) and have put in a screen door, so hopefully I’ll never have to deal with them again!

There are so many changes happening all at once, I’m not sure what to do with myself! New place, new job, new cow-orkers, new church, new friends, and new hope. It’s exciting and unsettling all at once. Thinking about it, all I can say is it’s going to be a good year. And if I keep repeating that enough times, it’ll really become true. Pray for me everyone! I’m going to need your help to make this year ROCK!

PHOTOSHOOT: Connie

Monday, October 22, 2007

These photoshoots are becoming a real hobby!

This photoshoot was for Connie, my cow-orker--a fellow trainer! But it was even MORE involved with people from work! Rommel, who did my photoshoot, also got some practice shooting, as well as Monica who was our creative director for the day. It’s amazing to see how many people are into photography once your start doing things! :D

...and I’ve obviously been watching too much of America’s Next Top Model.

I wanted to share these pics with you! You can see the full album here!

***

***

***

***

***

GIVE ME MY FREAKIN' KEYS!!!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Susan and I just signed a lease for a new apt, for which we were supposed to get the keys today. 

As you might guess, since this is categorized under “The Rants,” we did not *exactly* get keys as promised. Susan went out of her way, despite having not slept for a great many days, to drive down to the rental company’s main office in Inglewood. That is NOT close. After waiting for a long time, they gave her the keys.

We decided to meet at the apartment tonight at 7 pm so we can begin the sterilization process. As you may or may not know, I’m paranoid of other peoples’ cooties. I’m fine with my own cooties, but your cooties are disgusting. We met at the apartment, which is also not particularly close to either school or work or home only to find that THE KEYS DID NOT WORK. Some genius gave us the wrong ones!

Now if we were leisurely people, this might not be such a bad thing. But we’re two overbooked, overstressed, overly type-A personalities. This did not go over well. We tried to call the 24 hour maintenance to open the place. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone. We called the leasing agent. “We can’t send anyone over to open the apartment. And no, we can’t give you keys that work. Silly girls. What were you thinking?” At which point we considered breaking down the door. You figure it’s their mistake, they should fix it!

What I would really like them to do is meet us at the apartment with the keys so they can PROVE to us that the keys work. They keep saying, “No, you have to come pick them up from us in the land far far away through trials and traffic tribulations.” Funny, they had a way of sending someone to show off the apartment. How hard could it be to meet us there to give us keys?

Is there no recourse for action? I’m just a little upset. Ok, *really* upset. I wasted 1.5 hours of my busy night just driving there and back and trying not to yell at the guy for not having this all in working order on the day of our “move in.” Thank goodness we didn’t actually have a truck with all of our stuff in it ready to be moved in! I immediately began plotting an escape from our already-signed lease. Surely there must be a legal loophole! Of course, I have absolutely no knowledge of law, so that was a very short thought cycle.

All I can say is if this is the way it’s going to be throughout our tenure at the new apartment, I’m going to have a conniption. Any of you legal people out there know what I might do in the case that they’re really not cooperating and continue to follow this course of negligence? Help!

I’m gonna calm down. Have some nice hot tea. Already had a full own turkey dinner to soothe my soul. I guess we can hope and pray that tomorrow is a better day. 

Meeting The CHIN

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Reuben, Susan and I got to go to a taping of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, AND we were in the front row!

Thanks to Reuben who has been in the TV/Movie industry for some time and knows people who know people, we got the VIP treatment. We had 3 seats front and center! I was actually a little shy about being so close to the comedians. Anyone who has ever been to a comedy show knows that the closer you are to the front, the closer you are to becoming comedic material. It’s already happened once before at the laugh factory and today was no different, but luckily not during the *actual* show. I was merely picked on by the comedian who warmed up the audience.

The guests tonight were Chef Gordon Ramsay from the show Hell’s Kitchen, Kate Flannery who plays Meredith in the TV show The Office, and the musician Vanessa Carlton. It was a good time--surprisingly more fun than I had suspected it would be!

If you get a chance, watch it! WATCH IT NOW! It’s my moment of fame! LOL just kidding.

"And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT"

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

I gotta spread the word that I’m moving to a new position within my job!

For the past 1.25 years, I’ve been working as a trainer. I teach doctors and nurses how to do their jobs and actually do the billing right so they can get paid. Being a trainer, sometimes it feels very different from being a teacher. Teaching someone how to use a computer with a user-unfriendly application is not always the bed of roses that it may seem to be! Sometimes being a trainer means:

1. Training Pavlov’s Dog--It seems sometimes that my only job is to put the electric shocks in the right place so people do the correct action - not because it makes sense but because they’ll get shocked if they do otherwise. And sometimes, there’s a reward at the end...but most times not.

2. Training Lions--I would put “taming lions” but really if you have to make them do tricks, it’s more than just taming! Sometimes I feel like I’m in a ring of angry and scared captive creatures who would just as soon have me for lunch than learn anything from me.

3. Training Wheels--Ah, this is a nice image instead of the 2 scary ones above. I get to be the support (or in teacher speak, the Scaffolding) that people need to be able to learn the system. I support their learning up until the point that they can do it on their own.

So that’s what it’s been, and after over a year, you can stick a fork in me! I’m done! So now I’m moving on to the position of Instructional Designer. W00t! Something that *actually* relates to my degree! It’s not quite the focus I was hoping for, but they promised that things were eventually moving to e-learning and simulations to make training more accessible to all hospital staff. So, starting October 18, I’m working at the regional center and starting a brand new adventure.

HI-HO! I’m ready to go! Wish me luck and away we go!

Multiplicity: my own photo shoot!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Thanks to Rommel, I have a photoshoot of my very own!

I’ll show you more pics of that later, but I just want to show you the final render of one of the shots. It’s me. Lots and lots of me. More than you’d ever want to handle! lol

Click if you want to see a larger image that you can zoom

There were still some kinks, like the two MEs having an argument looks more like one of the MEs is about to get a roundhouse to the face, and one of the MEs looks like she has a Abe Lincoln style beard, but aside from that, it turned out very interesting.

Thanks Rommel!

Subject Matter: Marisa

Friday, September 28, 2007

With an expensive D-SLR in hand, you’d think I’d be taking pics of EVERYTHING, right? Wrong.

I’ve actually been quite the slacker. I’ve hardly taken any pics at all. Well, that’s not entirely true, but I definitely have not been getting out there to find new and interesting subjects. I do have some things that encourage me to get out there and shoot. My friend Rommel is my photographic partner in crime, and so far we’ve done one photoshoot of Long Beach at night. I’ll post a couple of those in the near future. Starting now, I’m more dedicated to exploring photography more actively.

In my hunt for new subject matter, I found my cousin Marisa. She’s 12 and at that age where watching America’s Next Top Model gets you thinking about whether or not you’re “model quality.” (Btw, “at that age” pretty much means 0 to 99--EVERY woman wants to be considered beautiful enough to be a model!) So I did her makeup and took some shots of her. It was kind of spur of the moment so we didn’t have too much by way of props, but I think they came out well.

What do you think?

***

***

***

***

***

***

Fall 2007a

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Breaking the Silence

I’m still alive!

It’s been many moons since I’ve last written. A lot of things have happened between that time and now. Lots of things that are too personal to blog about. (Sorry voyeuristic world wide web!) As much as I’d love to spill my guts, there is a time and a place for things, and airing these thing in such a public forum just didn’t seem very respectful. If you’re curious, go ahead and email me. I’ll fill you in.

By now I’ve probably lost all my readership, but just in case the one or two of you are still out there, this post is for you: I’m still alive.

Alive and definitely kicking.

Kicking and screaming.

...

You get the idea.

Anyway, it’s time for brand new beginnings. And so my blog must begin anew as well! So with that, I will start up with a famous quote:

"HELLO WORLD"

By Special Request: The Bee Costume

Sunday, July 08, 2007

After the passing of an individual, it is customary to have a wake. 

This wake is perhaps a little less dignified that one might wish it to be, but it is the time to remember all the good times, be it serious or otherwise. And so for Toby, I’ve posted these pics as Laura requested of Toby in his bee costume.  It took me a good long time to find these pics because they were actually on my parents camera.

I found the costume out in Hong Kong when i traveled there with Shelia. Toby was a little less than thrilled at my gift and that i (a) had not only found the most embarrassing costume for him EVER, but that (b) we then pulled out a camera and proceeded to take pictures. So now, i will embarrass him for one last time by posting these pictures so that all the world can see.

I hope you all enjoyed this little peak into Toby’s secret life as a bee. 

In Loving Memory

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Toby Tylernole II - November 1992 to June 20, 2007

Projectile Vomiting = A Weekend to Remember

Thursday, June 07, 2007

That’s right, you read the title, so you’ve been warned of the content of this post! 

I totally blame it on 2 weekends ago when Suz and I went to the Bay Area and had lots and lots of fast food in under 5 hours. For the rest of the weekend, my stomach was cramping, begging me not to put any more food into my gullet. BUT being the trooper that i am, i managed to push through and eat all the food i needed to eat.

This Saturday, it all came to a head. It started with a headache that led to some stomach cramps and nausea. I really thought i could hold it together through the dry heaving. And then it became not so dry heaving. To take care of the headache, Slim and I had stopped by the drug store to get some Advil and water. I waited in the car while Slim got the goods. I took the medication down and swallowed...and then it all came up again. 

I opened the door and hurled! EEEEWWWW! The security guard came up and asked, “Are you ok?” I gurgled back, “I think i’m fine, but i’m so embarrassed. Can i clean this up?” No, no, don’t worry about it, she said. And then she continued to stand there and stare at me and the puddle in the parking lot (ooo! Lots of aliteration!) while Slim ran into the store again to get soda to calm my stomach. And still she stared on. Uncomfortable!

After resting it out a bit (she’s still staring), we took off (waved goodbye). I just wanted to get home. We were *almost* there! ALMOST! We were in the middle of crossing 6 lanes on the freeway when (dum dum dum!) IT CAME BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! I had time to roll down the window as Slim drove to the shoulder of the off ramp. That’s when all hell broke loose. I puked out the window with abandon. Mind you, the car was still moving. My barf fanned out in a beautiful arc and splattered all over the side of the car, covering it in an ectoplamic goo. AND of course, when i had opened the window, the vacuum had suctioned out my hair, thus involving it in the collateral damage. We had finally rolled to a stop, but the sight of the aftermath made me get sick all over again.

Thank goodness Slim was there. After we got home, i crawled into the shower to wash out the residue while he went out and washed off my car. I then slumped into bed while he went to get food and water for me. I am SO grateful for him. Of course, i passed out for 13 hours straight, and didn’t get to spend quality time with him while he was down visiting, but i’m still so thankful that he was here to take care of me.

And the bottom line is “It sucks to be sick"--and the other bottom line is, “But if you’re going to be sick, it’s wonderful to have someone who loves you take care of you.”

Ghost Riding = Strange Dancing + Cars

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Call me totally out of the loop, but i just found out what “Ghost Riding” is. 

So apparently, Ghost Riding is a dance form the evolved somewhere Oakland, CA. Basically, you let your car coast slowly with the doors open and you dance along beside it, on top of it, or behind it. It’s all very fascinating. I’m not sure how/why this art form was created, but it’s definitely...special.

As more and more of my friends are moving out to Oakland, SF and the Bay Area, I thought this would be pertinent information, in case they should want to join in the “Ghost Riding” festivities. So Jeremy, Erica, Slim, Susan, Merv, Joel and Heather, Courtney and Daryl--this one’s for you!

I have to admit, while it’s described above, it’s hard to imagine unless you actually see it. So i’ve included this video of two guys ghost riding his volvo. That’s right, his VOLVO--not a very hot car to ghost ride next to, but oh well, the video is a spoof anyway. So please enjoy.

This vid and dance sequences were produced as a protest to the Oakland A’s moving to Fremont

Congrats to Kenny & Yasuyo on their Bunlet in the Oven!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

If my title is too obtuse for you, it means that they are PREGNANT!

That’s right, i said it: PREGNANT. As in having a miniature person enter their lives. As in having a baby carriage and diapers. As in saving every last penny to afford those Nike Air Jordans one day. Or the Prada. Just kidding, i mean saving for college instead.

So Congratulations Kenny & Yasuyo! May you be responsible, loving and fun parents! Role models and good citizens! Good luck!

Yeah, that picture is more like it. ;)

Summer 2007 b

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Puzzling: I'm hooked on Puzzle Quest

I can’t put this Nintendo DS game DOWN!

Slim got the game for me this weekend, claiming that all his cow-orkers and their wives/girlfriends were totally addicted to this game. It’s very much like Bejeweled, a game i play casually every now and again. You basically switch jewels on a grid to form patterns of 3+ in a row. Those jewels disappear and more fall from the heavens, and you repeat the same pattern search over and over again. It’s quite mindless and entertaining.

The difference between Bejeweled and Puzzle Quest is that there is a story and you have to “fight” enemies. And by fight, i mean you play a game of jewels with them. Penny-Arcade explained it best in this comic:

The game play changes depending on who you are “fighting,” so that keeps the same ol’ pattern search game from getting too boring. Add in there a couple spells and abilities and conquering other nations, and you got a complete game! I’ve stayed up until 3 am already playing this and i only got it yesterday. It’s times like now that i wish i didn’t have that obsessive tendency…

So i thought i’d share my addiction with you! Here is a free demo, but only if you’re on a PC. Sorry Mac users!

Puzzle Quest Game Demo

Pastor Elizabeth Talbot ROCKS!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

I’ve been very lucky to find a pastor here in LA who is such a great preacher and teacher.

When i first moved out to LA, i wandered from church to church, trying to find a place where i could find build a community and be spiritually fed. After church hopping a bunch, i realized that i simply didn’t have the energy to be involved with a community in LA and try to keep up a community back at my home church, Loma Linda Japanese Church. So i began to search just for a place where i could be spiritually fed.

I was lucky enough to find Alhambra Seventh-Day Adventist Church where Pastor Elizabeth Talbot preaches with a lot of passion and fervor. Maybe it’s just because of where i am in my walk with God or where i am in life, but her words really speak to me. Not only does she speak the Word of God, but she speaks it in plain and simple language. She shares in a way that you know that what she’s saying isn’t just words to her, but something she has experienced herself. So when she says to me, “I’ve had a hard time in life, but I know that God loves me and has a plan for me,” i believe her. Not only that, but she teaches you how to study the Bible for yourself, giving you different methods and how to apply them on your own.

I want to share her with you. Luckily, her sermons are webcasted from the Sermon section of the Alhambra SDA Church website. 

One of the ones I particularly connected with was a recent sermon on stress. I’ve been experience more stress than i know what to do with recently, so this really hit home. Here it is:

In the Eye of the Storm - Pt 2 (aka “Jesus Under Pressure")

I hope you guys enjoy!

The Spray Stuff is Really Bad for You

Monday, May 14, 2007

Adventures in Eating in LA

Sunday, May 13, 2007

I’ve been exploring the fine eats in LA, and i would like to share my findings with YOU!

I’m so glad that Nathan and Jannine (from now on referred to as N8+J9) came out to visit. The forced Susan, Slim and me to scoure the LA area in search of food worthy of comparison with New York cuisine. We found a great brunch place called The Kitchen in Silver Lake.

From the outside, it looks like a dive. But you walk in, and it’s cute, airy and nice. The food was delicious! I especially liked my Onion Frittata. Mmmmmm.

Jannine just has a way of making her food look soooo yummy - always makes me want to have what she ordered instead of what i ordered. Darn it! I wish i had that power!

Suz went for it that morning - yummy creamy smothery eggs. Sweeeeeeet.

Then we took a walk down the street to Pazzo Gelato. They hand make their gelato and have really interesting flavors! I had European Vanilla with Lemon. Or something like that. There was raspberry with dark chocolate chips, a wonderful orange sorbet and a lot more.

We fully enjoyed our dessert - and the hours embarrassing stories and scandalous secrets!

If you’re in the Silver Lake neighborhood, DO go check these places out. They’re totally worth it!

Cutting Michael Kors Some Slack

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

...but let me tell you, it’s not easy.

I recently went to the Micheal Kors store at the Grove to check out his Spring collection. I’m a big fan of The Show Project Runway, a show all about fashion design and being innovative and original. Michael Kors is one of the esteemed judges on the show and often gives insightful feedback. After hearing what he has to say about fashion, i was curious how that perspective came out in the clothing that he designed.

His clothing is beautiful, but that’s not the point of this blog. No, the point is to rag on narcissictic people as Kirstin so aptly admonished me to do. After all, she’s right - there is no lack of such people in LA. In any case, I picked up a catalogue so i could get a better sense of the collection as a whole. On the back of the booklet was a letter from Michael Kors himself. This was his downfall.

One one side, there is a picture of him in the cockpit of a Leer Jet, adorned with aviator sunglasses to boot. On the other page, he writes conversationally to you, the buyer, and talks about his line. It’s all in caps, which (a) bothers me because it’s hard to read, and (b) is the source of this ridiculous statement because you *know* things look different when they’re capped! Here’s the paragraph that got me:

“ONE THING THAT I’VE LEARNED OVER THE COURSE OF MY CAREER IS THAT WOMEN WANT TO MIX IT UP...THAT’S WHY IN THIS CATALOG, YOU’LL FIND THE FULL RANGE OF OUR COLLECTIONS--MICHAEL KORS, KORS MICHAEL KORS, AND MICHAEL MICHAEL KORS - ALLOWING YOU TO DECIDE JUST HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO INDULGE.”

He totally lost me when he started going off on versions of his own name. The caps made it really hard to understand that there is a line named KORS by Michael Kors. It makes a little more sense, but it’s still pretty lame. I thought he was saying you could mix and match HIM! “I’m feeling like i want some Kors, a little bit of Michael, and maybe a little more Kors.” Obviously I am a bit dense, but just as obviously, this was a bit retarded in his part as well.

So Michael, i love you and all, but this was lame. And *only* because you’re on my favoritest TV show in the world (next to Top Model) will i cut you some slack. Thank you lucky stars because it won’t come as easily next time. --shakes admonishing finger at Mr. Kors, or is it Michael Michael Kors?--

Raising the Dead

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Slim just sent me this link to an interesting article about our current methods of resuscitation.

It totally turns the idea of CPR and resuscitation on its head! We my have been wrong this entire time!

Newsweek Article About Changing Theories of Resuscitation

As it turns out, we may be killing people by using CPR after the initial 5-15 minutes without oxygen to the brain and heart.

Who knew we could be so wrong about the things we took for granted as fact? Scary. But glad we’re learning. Maybe more people will live. :D

Was it *that* funny?

Friday, May 04, 2007

Summer 2007 a

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Mocchi vs. Marisa - FIGHT!

I was hangin’ out with my cousins this weekend, and we got a little creative.

Here’s one of the many vids we shot. Justin is in the Mocchi costume, and Marisa is just being her monster-wrestling self. See what happens when plushy characters and boredom clash!

Brought to you by Monster Rancher Death Match 2007. 

CUTE!! AAAAAAAAH~! SOOOOOO CUUUUUTE~!

Friday, April 27, 2007

I think i’ve been “cuted” to death. 

I was introduced by Steph to the site CuteOverload.com. Just as the name implies, it’s full of stuff that’s SO CUTE. There’s so much cuteness happening, that it almost makes you feel a little nauseated. Or at the very least, a little woozy.

That being said, one of this weeks posts is the ultimate cute. Even i have to give it props for being so freakin’ cute. So come, be nauseated with me as we gaze upon the cuteness.

To top it off, their names are Meatball and Butterbean. Oy. That’s crazy cute.

...

Ok, that’s enough cute for today. Back to being realistic (or if you prefer, bitter and cynical). Phew! --dives back into pool of bitter reality--

Collecting Parents

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

In addition to my own excellent parents, I have discovered that I have a knack for collecting parents wherever I go.

I have my real mom and dad here in Cali. Hi! -(waves at mom and dad)- Then i have the Numatas in Yokohama, Japan. I have Angelo’s parents out in Maryland, Kirstin’s mom Anna Mae, Jon, Yvette, Gordon, Gary, Ken et al. from Japanese Church (even if they’re not old enough to be my parents). I’m lucky to have so much love in my life.

Well, i have a new addition to the family! At work, there is Jim. We used to be on the same team, teaching at the same hospital. But he got moved about, shifted, pulled here and there, and so I barely see him anymore. But in so many ways, he is like another dad to me. He’s always joking with me, calling me “kid,” giving me relationship advice and generally watching over me. He’s a military man, which makes it even more fun. He took to calling me “Khooter” during our tenure at Panorama City. The name, honestly, sounds pretty icky - just onomatopoeically, it sounds gross. BUT because it’s Jim’s name for me, I know that it’s a term of endearment and i will accept it graciously. (But i better not catch anyone else calling me that!)

So this post is dedicated to Jim, my new dad! I miss you and wish we could still work together!

Pilates and Ice Cream

Sunday, April 22, 2007

There is nothing quite as satisfying as destroying all your calorie-burning efforts in one fell swoop.

I woke up today with the intent to do absolutely nothing. I mean, really, NOTHING. And then i remembered the 2 steaks i ate yesterday and thougt the better of it. I’m not a big beef eater, so yesterday almost did me in. I can almost feel my arteries hardening as we speak and perhaps a prion of “mad cow disease” floating around in me somewhere. Needless to say, i suddenly felt the urge to be active...but only in concept.

The idea of actually going outside and running or going to the gym really did nothing for me. It’s cold and gray outside. It’s even spitting/drizzling a little. Ick. So no going outside today. I refuse.

That’s when i happened upon my roommate’s Pilates DVD. Ah ha! Easy! Inside! Embarassing, yes but no one is home this weekend! And surely this is far *less* embarassing than the Kickboxing with Kathy Smith DVD I tried last week. 

So i popped in the DVD and took to it. For a 25 minute workout, it took me forever to finish it! Phone calls kept interupting me. But then the workout itself seemed pretty, well, lame. It did each exercise about 4 times and then moved on. They spent most of the time just explaining the move and about 2 seconds actually doing it. Go figure. So by the end of the DVD, i had come to the conclusion that I am very unlimber and also barely broke a sweat, mostly cuz i was spending time trying to figure out what the heck they were doing.

SO i rewared myself for getting through the *very* difficult exercise and ate 2 scoops of ice cream. YUM! And considering i probably burned no more than 25 calories doing the Pilates DVD, i would say that I am at a net loss of -300 calories (-25 for DVD +325 for ice cream).

I think i’ll try pilates/ice cream workout again tomorrow. It was very gratifying. 

Things would be so much better if...

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The Unmovable Rock vs. The Mundane Grind

I am in a pickle - i can’t decide what Spiritual Season i am going through.

When i say “Spiritual Season,” I am referring to the idea of spirituality in terms of harvesting cycles.

1. Preparation
2. Sowing
3. Waiting
4. Harvesting

I am trying to figure out if i am simply in the “Waiting” season or am I wasting time not taking action? I am in an uncomfortable place where i don’t know if i’m being lazy or just patiently waiting. Both are torturous in one respect or another. Let me explain.

I have always thought that in order to follow the will of God in one’s life, one has to take action. Guidence comes along the way. A good analogy is that of a rock - a rock that is just sitting there is very hard to give direction, while a rock that is already rolling somewhere is much easier to nudge this way and that and to guide in a certain direction. So am i an unmovable rock right now?

Conversely, it could be that i am merely in the “waiting” season where i must learn patience. It’s like Joseph when he was in Egypt in prison after being falsely accused of raping Potiphar’s wife. He hung around, probably in chains for YEARS. Well, he did get to be in charge of the other prisoners, so i suppose that is one perk. But really, that was not fun at all and probably didn’t *feel* like he was doing God’s work at the time. Is that where I am now? Am i just waiting? Faithfully grinding away at a task that seems to have no real significance?

All i can think is that i need to spring into action.

ACTION. That’s the word of the year.

Accepting my place among the geeks and nerds

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Usually when i bring up Star Wars things, it’s with a sense of Star Wars geeks as “other,” and not associating myself with them.

After years and years, i must finally come to grips with my place among this elite group. Last Sunday, i dragged Suz and Slim with me to the California Science Center’s Star Wars Exhibit. I felt the calling of my bretheren. In preparation for the large crowds that the Official Science Center site warns about, we made plans to be there as soon as it opened at 10 am. Plus, the fact that it was Easter also really helped clear out the place. It was us, the hard core Star Wars fans and the Jewish people (or some combination thereof).

Our plan worked and there was no line at all. Phew! Better than the reported 2.5 hours that the lines was supposed to take! They even try to haggle with you and say, “if you watch an IMAX movie you get in faster!” Hmmm, fast or free? Which one is more important? I know what *my* answer was. ;)

The exhibit was mostly tons and tons of models and videos about the inspiration for these vehicles and structures. Costumes and weaponry were also on display. There was the snow beast from The Empire Strikes back called the WAMPA - Suz felt a strange closeness to that creature. Hmmm.... There were even fun little interactive stations where they let you play around with hovering lego cars using magnets and another area let you build a little R2 unit. The movie/presentation was a little iffy, but it was fine as long as you didn’t spend 2 hours waiting for it.

Here’s one of the models close up. (Or was i really in space taking photographs of Luke? You decide!)

If you get a chance and you’re a confirmed Star Wars geek (or even on the fence) go check it out! It was a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. 

Happy Monday (aka Road Rage in LA)

Monday, April 09, 2007

Ah, i love mondays. And when i say that, i hope you can hear the sarcasm dripping from my maw. 

As i entered the freeway to wend my way to work on my 45 minute daily commute, i met with a rude wake up call. I merged into the 2nd lane, making sure i paid due diligence and looked over my shoulder before i made a move. Before i was even halfway into the lane, i heard someone honking wildly at me. I swirved partially back into the 1st lane, trying to avoid what i thought for sure would be a collision. When i looked back again, the car wasn’t even close behind me! In indignation, i moved *back* into the 2nd lane in front of him.

...and then of course, i continued to drive in 4th gear at about 55 miles per hour. Just to make him remember that this wasn’t the fast lane. 

...And i boxed him in so he couldn’t get past me on either side.

So he finally got out and zoomed over to the fast lane with me right on his tail. I chased him. He tapped on his breaks to let me know that he realized i was following him. I juked but kept on his tail. At this point, the guy did something weird. He looked into his rear view mirror and made eye contact with me (though i couldn’t see him clearly at all), and then he did this coy finger-wiggly wave at me, as if he were flirting with me. His wave was reminiscent of icky Mr. Collins in the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice. Ew.

But I stayed strong. I didn’t flinch. Didn’t even register the icky wave on my face. And i continued to ride his tail up to 90 mph. (Parents, don’t worry, i’m exaggerating and it was actually 65 mph! hehehe) Finally, he exited, and i continued on my stoic way to work.

...I did feel a little guilty because i was listening to a sermon about following God’s will in your life. 

Are you *sure* you want to advertise that?

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Me and KIDS?!?

Monday, April 02, 2007

For those of you who know me, taking care of kids has never been a part of my past.

While others started babysitting at 12 years of age, I was fortunate enough to be the youngest of all the kids in my generation. I was probably spoiled rotton. That’s right, I said it! Spoiled like a 4 week old cabbage that you meant to make into soup 3.5 weeks ago and forgot at the bottom of the fresh produce drawer in your fridge and you only found it because something stank really badly and the baking soda couldn’t handle it any more. Ew. Perhaps too graphic, but you get the idea. I haven’t had to babysit ever.

So this weekend, my cousin Johnny asked me to take care of his kids for the weekend. I bravely agreed.

Although I had my reservations, things went really well! We did all kinds of cool stuff. I got to watch kid TV all weekend and even be a bad influence and take them to an arcade and kept them up late at night. (Johnny, if you’re reading this, it’s just an exaggeration for the blog - really!) It was fun to really get to know Justin and Marissa better. It’s funny because before, oh, January, i was pretty much non-existent in their lives. And now, i see them every other week. Weird how life brings you close to people that you’ve lived near for a long time.

Here are some pics of the weekend with captions.

This is Marissa in an artsy shot of her taking pics. Here’s a non-shaky pic of Marissa with Johnny.

This is Justin. We went to a skate park. This is him being cool. He’s going to be a stud when he grows up. ;)

Justin close up

THESE ARE THE ARTSY SHOTS

At the park, there was a hockey rink - i caught these kids practicing outside the rink. I thought the kid with the big hair was so cute.

For being so young, he seems so contemplative...or very focused on catching one of the turtles in the pond.

Marissa took this shot - I think it’s a great action shot. It was her first time using an SLR camera. She’s going to be an awesome photographer.

We happened to catch this cute couple walking through the park on a lazy weekend afternoon. I hope me and my husband are that cute when we’re that age.

At the end of the weekend, i think i can truly say that I’m not scared of kids anymore. Maybe i’ll even consider getting some of my own some day. Where do you buy them again...? lol

A Much Needed Break from Monotony

Friday, March 30, 2007

I guess it’s better than a long break from not sleeping (which is what Suz has been experiencing recently).

Suz is celebrating being done with finals and is running wild during her spring break. Last weekend, we took a trip up to the Bay area to visit. For her, it was her first time to visit that other part of Cali. For me, it was a good opportunity to visit Slim. So we packed up our car and drove north, somewhat oblique to the setting sun.

We did a lot of touristing and then did some local-type things too. Actually, it’s about 2 in the morning, and i really want to describe it to you, but i want to be coherent, so i’m just going to post pics for now, and give you stories in the following post. So please enjoy pics from my newly cleaned and repaired D-SLR!

Hanging out at the picturesque structures next to the exploratorium. What IS that thing called anyway? Can’t remember. Oh well, they’re very photogenic.

Slim looking Majestic - (i definitely have a thing for the “up the nose” shots).

I feel like Samson pushing down the support columns to finish of the Philistines...if only my arms weren’t so short!

No trip to SF is complete without a trip to Ghirardelli for CHOCOLATE! Yuuuuum!

We OF COURSE had to stop by the bridge. Golden? HA! More like RUSTY!

We went back to the grounds fo the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park for more cool pics.

Red brings out the Kung-Fu in me.

Sakura were still in bloom up there! Why am i so fascinated by this little flower? I could take pictures of them forever.

We checked out the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building - here is a very enthusisiastic farmer pushing his artichokes on us.

The rotisserie was good. This woman was really enthusiastic about the lamb. Foodies abound at such places.

We hung at Merv’s place on sat. night and played Mafia...with only SIX people. Those were the most intense games ever!

Ange (or if you prefer Stephen) and Shawna insisted that this be the pic of them that i post. Well guys, this one’s for YOU!

New Hair Cut 2007

Monday, March 26, 2007

My hair is getting more and more high maintenance!

Almost a year ago, i was in need of a hair cut. I have never had a regular hair dresser or “hair designer” as i like to call them. I mean, you’re talking about the person who used to cut her own hair using scissors and a mirror! Then moving to New York brought about the painfully expensive transformation (granted I was totally suckered...) that looked great but hurt far too much to ever repeat. So this time i wisely asked my friends for recommendations.

Jenno suggested the person that she’s been going to for years. Her name is Akiko at Toni & Guy in Newport. I think she did a great job! I thought i’d share my moment of triumph to have an adult haircut that has interesting shape and layers and even has BANGS. OMG i haven’t had bangs since high school.

What do you think? Did Akiko do a good job?

Shouldn't this be the other way around?

Taking you suggestions

Friday, March 16, 2007

Remember that post where i asked you guys to suggest what to write about?

It took forever and a day, but I’m finally using the idea that Laura had about taking pics and using them as a writing prompt. Why did it take so long? Because winter and getting out of work at a normal hour mean that by the time i got home, it was already dark. So now, thanks to the early arrival of Daylight Saving Time, I can now snap away on my camera and write happy little tidbits about ...well, anything i guess.

Today i took pictures at the library across the street from my apartment. It’s beautiful outside today! A balmy 75 degrees with blue skies and not a cloud in the sky! It’s nice to have some time for sun exposure because working in an office all week, and mostly in the endless night of the hospital basement, can really kill your spirit.

You know what else is a happy-go-lucky mood killer? Neurosurgeons. They just not happy people. And often, they have a sense of entitlement that rivals Pharaoh, Xerxes, Alexander,...you know, guys who thought they were dieties. So i taught a class where we asked him if it was alright if we called him by his first name for the purpose of class only. As a reply, he berated my co-worker and questioned her intelligence for asking such a “dumb” question. Woo, *that* was a fun class to teach! Can’t wait to see this guy next week!

With that in mind, i really was looking for some serenity - some peace above the storm of the blathering idiocy that seems to always find a way into my week. This photograph is of the fountain in front of the library, I found it very soothing.

The other picture is of the trees blooming in the front pathway. They’re very pretty, but i think i’m allergic to them. Oh well. It’s worth it. It reminds me that things can always start up again and be new. It’s time to make some changes in my life, stop being so lazy, depressed, or just plain bored. It’s spring time!

On the way back home, this terrier was out to kill me. Too bad I didn’t take him too seriously. I’m sure if he read this post, he’d be crying on the inside. Oh well. Here’s a pic of his owner holding him back as he ferociously tries to attack me. He’s basically hanging from his neck. How cute!

I hope your week was better than mine, and that you’re getting the spring time itch to do something new for yourself! 

Too dumb to be a model?!?

Monday, March 05, 2007

Reality shows open my mind to whole new epiphanies that i would have never contemplated otherwise.

I’ve been watching America’s Next Top Model - mostly for the art and photography aspect, but also because there’s nothing like watching Tyra wield selfish/crazy/immature 20-year-olds as tools for ratings. Last week was the first episode for cycle 8. I caught only the last part, but it was definitely enough to bring me to this conclusion:

You CAN be to stupid to model! WOW!

The main offender was a girl named Kathleen from Brooklyn. She is so cute! And sooo stupid. OMG. It makes her kind of cute and innocent like a kid, but still, it was too much. The first assignment was a photo shoot revolving around “political issues,” and i put that in quotations for a reason. One of the issues was “pro-meat"--does that even count as a political issue? So Kathleen’s issue that she had to portray was “Anti-Fur"--a relatively straight forward assignment. But as she began to pose and interact with Nigel, the photographer, it became painfully evident that she had no idea what being “Anti-fur” meant.

When asked what she thought about the issue, she said something to the effect of, “I don’t think you should kill animals for their fur. BUT...if they happen to already be dead, it’s ok to take their skins.” Tyra asked, “How would the animals just *end up* dead?” Kathleen’s answer went something like this: “Because in the wild, they fight and kill each other!”

Here’s the pic that resulted from the photo shoot. She is still very beautiful despite her lack of other qualities.

You can watch the critique and the exchange between Kathleen and Tyra that i mentioned above in this YouTube clip. The action starts at minute 6:05

Sadly, Kathleen was cut - Tyra was just afraid that she wouldn’t get it. Kathleen’s response? “I know, riiiiiight?”

And so we bid a sad farewell to our friend Kathleen who was very cute and too dumb to be even a model. Cry cry.

Yet Another Photo Shoot

Sunday, March 04, 2007

For Christmas, i promised Suz i would take photos of her. Well, it’s March now…

I finally did the photo shoot! W00t! So i’m a bit of a procrastinator. At least it’s not already summer. I’m within the 6-month window. I thought I’d share the pics with y’all. I think i’m getting better at this photography thing! It was lots easier to do the shoot this time than the other times i’ve done it. I definitely still need more practice, so if you happen to want your photos taken, let me know!

"THE SUZ” HEADSHOTS

I had to start with a normal pic of Suz. Did i mention i also did her makeup?

When i first started shooting, she was very annoyed - “Get away you paparazzi hounds!” she screamed.

As a practiced paparazzo, I caught her in the wild in her natural state. Lol. (Just kidding.)

Doesn’t she look so National Geographic in this one?

The lighting in this one takes place right before the sun goes down and everything has great ligthing; it’s called “The Golden Hour."

Man, that scarf comes in handy!

Ta-dah! Suz in all her glory!

Just another reason why i miss New York

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

New York is just one of those places where something strange is always happening. 

I got this link from Merv, who makes a daily habit of posting interesting tidbits. Here’s a link to a vid that made me miss being there. It takes place in Union Square and is probably crawling with NYU students. I could have been among the number! Or at least been one of the people taking pics of it. Here’s the link:

Massive Pillow Fight in NY

I’m telling you, if i was still there, my camera would be used every day!

First Time in Tahoe

This past weekend, I went up to Tahoe for the first time! Here are the pics.

It’s late, and i don’t have that much time to write, so i thought i’d at least post the pics from the trip. That’s better than nothing, right?

So here they are:

"No children, Frosty won’t be coming back again this year."

There will be no funny people in the future

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

I think natural selection will take them out of the running. 

I know that Japanese comedy usually is very physical, but sometimes you just hurt for them. I’ve seen everything from guys getting kicked in the butt by a Thai boxer, to getting darts shot at their butts, to having guys rub their bare butts in other guys faces. Lots of butts. It’s all very disturbing. And yet, still very funny.

This vid is no exception. Seriously, with comedy like this, these guys will never be able to pass on their genes to the next generation, and assuming that both nature and nuture have something to do with the formation of funny people, we will just run out of funny people in the future (at least in Japan). So sad.

Enjoy the video. But not *to* much.

Jelly Jelly on the Wall

Monday, February 19, 2007

Winter2007 c

A Flashy Entrance

The weekend summary begins with this morning’s eye-popping appearance at work.

I know you’ve read about my other falls in the past, but i’ve got another one! W00t! Another to add to the archive. There were far fewer witnesses, so my pride still remains remotely intact, but what the heck, i thought i’d share it with the world anyway!

It was raining for a lot of today, so it was already extra slippery to begin with. Once again, i was wearing high-heeled shoes, and then there was the tile floor that’s just plain slippery by nature. Even in flats, i slip out. Go figure. I can fall in anything. So i was stepping carefully on the linoleum, small baby steps that would guarantee that I would not wind up on my butt.

I made it all the way to the hallway outside my “office” (in quotes because i’m actually a wandering nomad within the hospital, waiting to pounce on any open desk in sight). Just then, my managers round the corner. I waved my hand accompanied by a cheery “good morning!” At that instant, i must have taken a wrong step because the next thing i knew, i was on the floor with my legs all twisted up, my ankle turned in and my knee planted into the ground. Ouch!

My managers rushed over saying, “Oh my goodness! Are you ok? Do you need to go the hospital?” That was funny because we were already IN the hospital. The sad part is that this is such a normal occurance that i hand’t even thought of it as anything more than another embarassing event. After laughing it off and making sure that my ankle wasn’t really jacked up, one of my managers said, “Wow! You’re a clutz!” and chuckled a little. I’m surprised she hadn’t noticed it until now! lol

Luckily, that wasn’t any relfection on how the weekend went! I’ll go backwards in time since I started with this morning, when i had “a case of the Mondays.”

Yesterday, i got to hang out with my cousin Johnny and his daughter Marissa. We went to see the Skin+Bones exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art - a show about how architecture and fashion design influence each other. Afterwards we roamed around the Disney Music Hall and then went shopping on Melrose. Fun!

Johnny and Marissa in front of the Walt Disney Music Hall

Saturday night, I was at Kimi’s housewarming party. It had a great turnout! Lots of peeps showed up and had fun and had food!

Suz, me, Pierre, Kimi and Rita in the new kitchen

And before that, my dad took us on a tour of his garden. He is the master of his domain! He shared his lemon grass with Suz, who obviously became a bit too attached to it.

"Mmmmmmmm....soooooo goooooood...."

"I caught a lemon THIS BIG!"

Seriously, the fruits from my dad’s garden are SO delicious! I’m trying to make you all jealous! Too bad i didn’t inherit his green thumb. Instead, i have the black thumb of doom.

And that’s the weekend update! Hope you all enjoyed yours!

Aren't you a bit young?

Thursday, February 01, 2007

At long last! Pics from my trip to Japan!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

It’s only taken me almost a month, but here they are!

This is pretty much gonna be a picture only entry. I hope you enjoy!

I caught a great sunset on my layover in Narita Airport

Yokkaichi is the sister city of Long Beach, CA - a city noted for it’s refineries and industry. Since i was there during new year’s, there were decorations strung up even on the yard gates.

Shrine in the middle of the town - unknown name, unknown location - it’s simply cool looking.

I love the way public transit is a way of life here - i wish Cali had a few more trains that went a few more places.

Okonomiyaki is one of my favorite foods! It’s a savory pancake-like food that’s chock full o’ goodness!

Suffice it to say, Jean, my mom and I all stuffed ourselves silly with Okonomiyaki - and for Jean, it was her first time eating it! Her sign language speaks for itself - “I love you okonomiyaki!” Mine says, “Victory, sucka! I finished all of you!"

My mom and I took a bullet train in to Tokyo, and on the way, we got a really clear view of Mt. Fuji!

When we got to Tokyo, we hung out and had lunch with my mom’s classmates from high school and college. And i didn’t even get to ask them about stories from my mom’s hidden past! D’oh!

The lunch they treated us to was a traditional Japanese style that came in a stacked box with mini compartments with just a *little* bit of each thing. It was so preeeeeetty.

Eating and eating and MORE EATING! That’s all i did this vacation. And i am so happy because of it!  ^__^

I haven’t seen my cousin, Tsutomu, in years! The last time I saw him, he was just recently married. And now he’s got such a beautiful family! His kids are sooooo cute! This is the first time i got to meet them.

The oldest child is Akari-chan, the big sis of the family who loves to play a card game called, “Babanuki."

Mo-kun is the middle child who is very gentle and seems to have an attachment to the plastic elephant seen in this picture.

Nagomu-chan is assertive and certainly knows what he wants! And that’s sweets and snacks! And a tissue for his nose - it was running away with him!

For three days, i stayed with Daryl and Yuko, who not only pulled out a futon for me but also fed me! WOW!

This is the ONE time i was allowed to help Yuko with the dishes. She’s such a good, kind host that she never let me touch the dishes except when i threatened to get violent.

Walking on the streets of Kichijoji was such a pleasant experience! That day, everyone was out in the brisk air, enjoying a day of good weather before the impending storm the next day.

One of my “must-visit” places was a ramen shop called Nantsutte (don’t worry, i can’t pronounce it either). I saw it featured on Dotchi Cooking Show and i HAD to go. The innovating chef used to be a motorcycle gang member, so the decor is very reminiscent of that sort of rough neck attitude. This sign says, Standing Peeing Prohibited.

The water kettles at Nantsutte are classic - sadly, they only remind me of Ranma 1/2, an anime that i watched back in the day.

We all hung out at the Numatas house in Yokohama. It had been so long since I’d seen my adopted family! Here we are, in all our “normal” glory. Nao could almost be an ING advertisement!

Once again all we did was (you guessed it!) EAT! Numata-san prepared so much food for us! We could barely walk as we left!

The Numatas have such a cozy living room - warm colors and warm company.

For my last proper meal in Japan, Daryl made us KIMCHI PIZZA! W00t! Doesn’t it just *sound* disgusting? But stangely, it was AWESOME. Yum. I will never forget the kindness shown to me through that pickled napa cabbage!

Right before I left, Mutsumi met up with me at the airport. It was so sweet of her to go out of her way to see me off. She even brought really great pudding from Yokohama. Yum! Thanks Mutchan!

There are more pics from the Hawaii leg of the trip, but i think that’s enough pics for now. I hope you enjoy!

Slacking Off At Work

Friday, January 26, 2007

I should be working right now…

So i’m here in the General Surgery Outpatient Clinic right now. We just went live using the electronic medical record (EMR) system, so i’m on the floor supporting. But you know what? Nothing is really happening. I had no idea how many non-compliant patients there are that simpy don’t show up for appointments! Crazy. I mean, aren’t you getting a surgery done? Or didn’t you just have one done and need to get stuff removed? “Oh, i don’t mind that drainage tube. I kind of like it actually!”

So instead of helping people SAVE LIVES (or just remove a cyst or two), i’m sitting here using a COW (computer on wheels) to post. Nothing is going wrong. Everything is slow and methodical. There are a couple bumps but nothing irrepairable. It’s almost...boring. I even spent about an hour just shooting the breeze with this one doc whose last appointment got cancelled.

So the Rant is that i have no rant. How sad is that? The person who has an entire section dedicated to ranting, and i haven’t posted in a rant in months! What’s wrong with me? Have i lost my edge? Maybe there’s just too much to rant about and so it all becomes “normal” and therefore no longer worthy of mention. Hmmmm… Do i need more angry people in my life? Do i need more drama? No. Got enough of both of those. I think i need to live in New York again. Now *those* were some classic rants. Cockroaches, homeless people harrassing you for money and sexual predators making advances on the street. Ah for the good ol’ days again!

Anyway, i should thank my lucky stars that things have been going well enough that i don’t have anything specific to rant about. Except maybe traffic. Traffic sucks. Oh yeah, and my cow-orker/father-figure Jim is leaving to go to a different team. I’m sad! I don’t want him to go, but what can i do? So that’s worthy of a rant or two.

Sigh. Ok, well that’s all. I just wanted to keep you all in the loop.

Will you respect me less if i told you i love JT?

Friday, January 19, 2007

I used to hate Justin Timberlake - well, maybe not hate, but i was NOT into him and his pop music.

I never liked N’sync. I never thought Justin was “oh-so-cute” and i thought those little girls who bought those boy band posters were pathetic. And now look at me - how the mighty have fallen. I...i went to a Justin Timberlake concert on Wednesday night!

It was just a favor! A friend got stuck with tickets at the last minute, so i relieved him of his burden. So Jay and I headed to Staples Center to see what happens at concerts with major pop stars. I’d never been to that kind of concert. Mostly i’ve been to concerts of people that i know but not that well. I pretty much learn the music right before i get to the concert. I’ve been to rock concerts like Aerosmith, Kid Rock (can’t believe i’m admitting that), Dave Matthews Band, Van Halen, and Dream Theater. I’ve been to jazz concerts, like Diana Krall, Jon Pizzarelli, and Harry Connick, Jr. Been to the Live 8 and seen tons of artists all in one place. But i’ve never been to a concert where the music itself wasn’t the focus. Usually the musicians will jump around the stage and rile up the crowd, but dance routines and coordinated movement has never been part of my concert-going experience.

This time, i knew the music (they only play it 24/7 on all the radio stations). And it was so much more than the normal jumping around, screaming to get people hyped. With JT, the choreography was so much of the show! And the stage, lighting and projection setup was awesome. I can’t even begin to imagine how much planning, practicing and $$ it takes to put on a show like that. Then again, the whole stadium was completely sold out plus about 500+ people on the court itself, each paying an excess of $50 each - that probably makes up for the expenses. I gotta say that I loved the dancing. They were all so together and in sync (n’sync?). Everything worked together well, from the shape of the stage to the lighting and effect.

Having been to the Staples Center only to watch basketball before, i wasn’t prepared for the kind of noise that a different kind of audience could make in that arena. I’m used to tons of yelling and screaming, but when the audience is primarily female, it changes things. The screams were so shrill that it made your head throb, very much like how i imagine a banshee’s scream might affect me. Yeek. There was no doubt that the ladies love JT.

I also never knew that Justin plays so many instruments. He played keyboard and guitar and maybe even drums during the concert. Somehow, that makes me feel like he’s actually a real musician. I mean, I just don’t *really* believe that pop stars and icons, people who are sold for their looks and maybe their voice (i.e. Mrs. Ex-Federline) can play instruments. I was pleasantly surprised. AND he has great stage presence and is an excellent performer/entertainer.

So there you have it. All that girly stuff that i never did as a kid, like going to pop concerts and screaming over a cute guy that can dance, is catching up. Just watch, i’m going to put a big poster of JT up on my wall in my apartment and become president of his official fan club. LOL.

...You know i’m kidding right?

Do check out his album though. It’s pretty good.

A Very Merry (and very LATE) Christmakwanzakah and Happy New Year!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Better late than never, right? So here’s my gift to all of you!

I *finally* finished the photobook for 2006, and it’s ready for you to download! While writing the captions for this book, i realized how much has happened this past year. There were a lot of ups and downs, but more good than bad happened, that’s for sure. I’m just happy to have friends and family to be able to share this with!

Click here to begin downloading the photobook, “Blink - The Moments Between."

This is the second year that I’ve done a digital photobook, so if you would like to see last year’s book, New York - Memories of the Seasons, you can also download that here.

Both of these files are PDF files that can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download it by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Traveler Returns Home

Thursday, January 11, 2007

I just got back from Japan and Hawaii - and it’s SO HARD to be at work! 

The last time i posted, i was in Yokkaichi and was heading to Daryl and Yuko’s place in Tokyo. It was so nice to see them! Their apartment is so CUTE! And they’re a really cute couple too.   They’re such great hosts. I got to see my cousin Tsutomu and his family too. Their three kids are SO CUTE! I wish that i could live closer and get to know them, but distance and language are pretty big barriers. 

I even got to see the Numatas in Yokohama. They’re my *other* family that adopted me while i was out there for my student missionary tour of duty. Numata-san fed us SO MUCH! Round after round of entres, fruit, dessert, etc. She is such a good cook! We all caught up and talked endlessly. But seriously, my entire trip can be summed up in, “We ate a LOT.”

In fact, one thing that i absolutely HAD to do was go to this ramen shop called Nantsutte (or something like that). I saw it on this show called “Dotchi Cooking Show” where these 3 ramen chefs competed for the title of Best Ramen Cook Ever (well that’s *my* translation). They showed every aspect of making the noodles. It looked SOOOOO GOOOOD!  So we made a stop in Kawasaki to eat yummy noodles. I even took a video of me eating these noodles. Am i a nut? Oh well, i’ll own that.

After having a chill and relaxing weekend, it was off to the airport again. I was going to meet my mom at Narita airport, but then she called me with bad news. Her flight from Nagoya to Narita Airport was cancelled due to a blizzard that was passing through. I felt so bad for her. She had to find her own transportation dragging my huge piece of luggage in addition to her own! She went from bus to train to bullet train to bus to airport. But we finally made it to the airport! We even got to see Mustumi, who came to meet us there just to say hi and bye as we took off for Hawaii. Phew!

Hawaii was BEAUTIFUL! Be sure that pics will follow. It was such a nice but strange transition to go from layers and layers of clothing to jumping into a swim suit to go swimming! 80+ degree and sitting on the beach: you can’t get much better than that. FINALLY! I get to go to the beach in Hawaii! For those of you who don’t know my rant, I went to Hawaii when i was 16 but was not allowed to go anywhere by myself and my parents aren’t beach people. So i never touched the beach the entire week that i was there. Boooo. I made up for it this time by spending the entire first day on the sand and in the water.

There i realized that to everyone else, i just look like a Japanese tourist. Maybe it was the gigantic camera at my hip. Maybe it’s because i was fresh off the plane from Japan. Hmmm...For whatever reason, I was offered menus in Japanese, picked up on by random icky guys who are used to preying upon helpless foreigners, and approached by old Japanese women making small talk in Japanese. Fascinating.

After two days, we headed back home again. We were greeted at LAX by...commuter traffic.  So now i’m back at work again, trying to get over jetlag and get back in the swing of things. It’s hard to adjust, but I’m so happy to have been out for a bit!

Emasculating

あけましておめでとうございます！

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! (for those who can’t read the title) Happy New Year Everyone! 

It’s the year of the PIG, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a great year. Something in my bones (can i say that now cuz i’m getting old?) tells me that there will be a lot of good things that happen this year. Plus pigs are cute - can they really bring bad things?

I’m in Japan right now. Yokkaichi, to be exact. It’s sort of, but not exactly, in the middle of nowhere. Literally, there’s nothing more than houses, convenience stores and refineries/smoke stacks here. It’s sister city is Long Beach, if that gives you an idea. Well, Long Beach minus Snoop Dogg. But i’m here in a school with 9 fun and happy Physical Therapists/Occupational Therapists who need to finish one last class for their degree. I’m Kathy “Tech Support” Khoo - reporting for duty, SIR!

I arrived here at 10:30 pm on Dec. 31. Instead of staying awake, i promptly passed out. I was soooo tired! So i actually missed new year’s. It’s sort of anithetical to last year’s new year in Times Square, New York, but that’s ok - it’s good to chill out every now and then. I just feel bad for the PTs and OTs. If you think New Year is big in the US, you should see in Japan. This is the biggest holiday of the year. And they’re spending it in class with moi. Don’t you feel bad for them? I know I do.

I’ll be leaving Yokkaichi to go to Tokyo to see Daryl and Yuko. I’m excited! W00t! I haven’t been back for so long! And i feel TOTALLY retarded in terms of speaking Japanese! Oh well, back to being that “slightly slow girl who is very lost all the time.”

Anyway, I hope you all are having a great new year! I’ll be putting up a photobook soon, so stay tuned for the link!

Charlie Brown sang it best

Monday, December 18, 2006

Being Broke Ain't *That* Bad

I don’t have money for presents, so instead of giving gifts, i’m *making* gifts.

But they’re not the crafty sort with markers, paper, glue and the like. And it’s just not very me. This year we’re taking photographs! I figure i bought a camera (which is part of the reason i don’t have money for presents) and I have friends/family who like to be in photographs. It seems like a natural solution. So it’s not ME making presents for YOU, it’s US making good memories together as OUR present.

Of course, there is the small problem of not being that great at using the camera.    I’m quite embarassed that I still don’t know how to use it well. It’s going to be a long journey. I’m experimenting with light and for some reason, i can’t seem to get my camera (or the photographer?) to do well in low-light environments. All my pics turn out blurry. Booooo. In any case, at least *some* came out ok.

So my first group of guinea pigs was the bachelorettes of GT. It’s been so long since we’ve taken pics together because we haven’t been in the same place for a while. We had so much fun taking these photos that even if they didn’t turn out, i think it still would have been ok. Thanks to Chris, who was our photographer, lighting expert, backdrop hanger, and general handy-guy, we have pics of all four of us at the same time instead of in groups of 3 or 2. Thanks Chris!

Here is a sample of some of the pics we took:

The Bachelorettes of GT, together again! Wanna see what we looked like in 2003? Click HERE!

It’s a good thing Kimi happened to have 4 decorative fans just lying around the house...

We took a pic just like this when we first moved in to the house on Preston Street. Either we’re very unoriginal, or we like to harken back to our past lives together. Click HERE to see the old pic.

Big Mouth Contest: Who’s winning? (And is it really winning if you win?)

Shelia

Rita

Kimi

Me!

All i gotta say is that i have good lookin’ friends! Thanks guys for the present of spending time together having fun!

Working Kills Blogs

Friday, December 15, 2006

After reviewing my site archive, I realized that…

Ever since January when i moved back, i really haven’t had much to write about. Part of it was that I was at home with my dad for several months, taking care of him (which wasnt exactly a barrel of laughs). But then i started working. And while there was lots going on there, it’s wasn’t stuff that I felt was blog-worthy. I mean, how much can one write about office politics without boring even yourself? And outside of work, i honestly don’t do that much. Sigh.

My life has become boring. Or, more precisely, more boring and with less time to write and be creative so even my small observations and anecdotes don’t make it to the blog.

A friend at work asked me to start writing about trends of my generation. Things like my view on my generation and materialism, the hyper-awareness about environmental issues, the do-gooder mentality, etc. I may just take him up on his offer. I told him to give me topics, and i’ll write. Now i’m extending that offer to YOU!

What do you want me to write about? I won’t make any claims to being academic or researched or that my post will be anything other than my personal opinion, but at least it might be an interesting discussion starter. What do you say? Will you join in a conversation with me?

Why does success feel like pain?

Thursday, December 14, 2006

I’m doing well at work, according to a review from my managers, but i’m not sure that it’s exactly a reward.

I’ve been debating for awhile on what to be at work: do i want to be a tier 1 employee? One that the managers go to when they’re in a bind? The one they call on when there’s a task that needs to be done and done right? The one that is trusted and publicly called out as being the “good one?”

Well, on one hand, the over-achiever in me says, “of course!” On the other hand, we have to take into consideration the reward for being the tier 1 trainer. In our team, tier 1 refers to those who are the favorites, who are considered superior to the others and who happen to get along well personally with those in higher positions. Tier 2 means that you’re doing your job fine and that’s about it. Tier 3 means you show up because HR says you’re an employee, and the managers have to accept that fact.

So what’s the reward for being tier 1? The reward is, ironically, more work. And our 2-year contract says in concrete that there’s no room for advancement. We can’t look for other jobs within the organization and there are no promotions or salary increases. That’s what makes me pause. So i want to do better so i can get more work? Hmmmmm...In addition to that, I’ve taken on a lot of freelance work this year. And they’ve been all over the board - video editing and DVD production, photoshoots, and wedding invitations.

So here i am now. In the past half year, i’ve been coasting at the top of tier 2, willingly staying there to avoid getting further into this than i was ready for. But now i’ve somehow bumped up to perhaps the bottom of tier 1. And i’m feeling it. It’s not even that i’m teaching so many classes. It’s just more than i’m used to and they’re all in the MORNING! I’ve been waking up at 5:30 am to get ready, commute, prep for class and then teach for 4 hours straight. If you know me, you know that i am NOT a morning person. I’m like an ugly bear when someone wakes me up anytime before 8 am. GRRRRRRRRR! You gotta pray for my students!

Now, thanks to some form of success at work, I’m sitting here at 11 pm, which is not usually very late for me, but my eyes are burning, i’m sleepy beyond belief and my brain is refusing to function properly. I think I’ve even seen the sun rise a couple times since starting this job. *That* is totally uncalled for.

The result is i’m *still* contemplating being in tier 1. Do i really want it? Can i get out of it if i change my mind? Oh what to do…

I just hope my eyes stop watering and burning soon.

Christmas hates single 20-somethings

Thursday, December 07, 2006

I mean, do i really have to wait until i have kids before christmas means anything again?

It seems that as soon as you turn 20, suddenly (or maybe gradually), parents feel less obligation to do anything for Christmas. The tree goes up later and later in the month of December until finally it just doesn’t go up at all. Decorations are few and far between, unless you count the plethora of Christmas cards received from friends and family as “decorations.” Though my family has been pretty good about not falling prey to this trend, i’ve heard of many a family that has resorted to exchanging gift cards on Christmas day instead of buying actual gifts.

I think part of it stems from the fact that, as you become “adult-ish,” you earn money enough to buy the things you want yourself. The only things you don’t buy are things so superfluous that you never thought about it at all OR things so expensive that your income just can’t handle it.

So this year I’m broke. I’ll have to make do with what i’ve got to either make gifts or do actions instead of giving objects. For example, I’m doing a photoshoot for Kimi (getting some mileage out of the new camera). Despite my financial situation, I still want at least a *little* Christmas spirit in my apartment. Luckily for Susan and me, our apartment is primarily red anyway, so decorating didn’t take all that much effort. The couch, the microwave, the futon on the kotatsu (table with a heater underneath) and even my roomba (bday gift from my parents) are all RED!

So one night, Suz and I took a trip to the grocery store and stumbled upon a garland for $11! It was perfect! Big enough that you recognize its existence but not as expensive as a tree. We even got some garland for it. Yes it was a splurge, but it makes the living room feel so much more homey and warm.

I say if you want Christmas spirit and you’re a single 20-something, you gotta make it happen for yourself. What are all of you doing to make Christmas real for YOU this year? And does anyone have ideas for low-labor-intensity gifts that you can make?

Some girls are crazy

Knowing is ONLY half the Battle

Monday, November 27, 2006

G.I. Joe had it right when they said, “Knowing is half the battle!” but they forgot the other part.

While knowing that something is good vs. bad, or advisable vs. ill-advised seems to be a good thing, it’s the not the end of the process in dealing with life’s issues. There is the part about ACTION that needs to follow the knowledge of right and wrong. Awareness is the beginning part. Action is the end part.

Why am I harping on this? This thought has been percolating through my head for almost a month now. I’m not sure what spawned it, but it’s been pretty persistent. Probaby because i’ve been trying to solve all of my life issues and am frustrated that I can’t seem to follow through with my own plans and solutions. I think it’s mostly because i thought that one would naturally follow the other. “If i KNOW better and am aware, then i will DO the right thing.” In the past, I always wondered why others couldn’t do that. I obviously didn’t see any glaring hypocrisy in my own life yet, was a little blind, if you will. As a result, i was very judgemental (not saying that i’m not *still* judgemental, but at least i’m aware...hahaha).

But really, why IS it so hard to do the “better” or “preferred” thing when you know what that is? Why can’t i keep my mouth shut when i want to get the last word in, even though i know that it will spawn another fight? Why do i lay down a “solution” for someone’s problem and then get upset when they don’t follow through? Why? I think that Paul wondered about this all the time.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” ~ Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)

I guess it’s just part of our nature. If Paul had this issue, i’ve got no delusions of grandeur that i will be able to be better than him. So what are we supposed to do then?

Let me know what you think about this topic. Comment here!

(P.S. Hope you all had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!)

Basking in Central Park

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Fall 2006b

Alan and Esther's Wedding

Monday, November 20, 2006

After about 2 weeks, I was finally able to process the photos from Alan and Esther’s wedding.

Their wedding was beautiful, tasteful, casual, sweet and fun. It’s a great combo of things to get all in one place!

I’ll let the pics mostly talk for themselves though… (You can see all the pics at Camacho.tv’s SmugMug Gallery)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Today i officially must accept the age bracket “late 20s.”

Today was my day. And no, i didn’t take off of work. I didn’t even bring a cake to work with me to share with my cow-orkers. In fact, i stayed right until 5 pm - a feat on a Friday afternoon.

To celebrate, my roommates (Kimi, Shelia, and Rita) came out to have dinner with me at Madre’s, JLo’s restaurant in Pasadena. Susan joined us a little later, and we feasted upon Ropa Vieja, tostones, and other good Cuban foods. Mmmmmmmm. I have good friends. And Slim is coming in tomorrow morning! Yay! This is shaping up to be a good weekend. And i get to have awesome yakiniku with my family tomorrow night.

So now that i’m officially in my late 20s, does my body start deteriorating now? Does my hair turn white? Do i lose my teeth and require dentures? Just kidding. I know it’s not *that* bad (or so i hear). I’m going to continue to act my mental age of 12.

So I guess, happy birthday to me! 

(you have no idea how lame i felt writing that.)

Flying Tonight Anyway

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Even though everyone keeps asking me, “are you sure you still want to go?” I’m heading out to NY anyway.

A triffling cold can’t hold me back! Probably not the best of ideas, but I’ve been looking forward to this trip for half a year.

Peeps in NYC, i’ll do my best not to infect you! I’ll keep my distance!

On my way…

Knocking On Wood Does Nothing

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

“Don’t get sick next week,” says my manager. “Don’t worry, I won’t,” said I. 

I was obviously wrong, because Monday morning, I woke up with a throat so swollen that I couldn’t swallow. This hit me totally out of the blue. The weekend went fine. I was a bit busy, but that’s about it. This week at work is pretty crazy, too. People are sick, mothers have passed away, and many co-workers and suddenly not available. And now i’ve become one of the count. I feel quite irresponsible promising my manager that I wouldn’t get sick when really, there’s nothing I could do one way or the other.

My manager kindly told me to not come in today. So i’ve had the day to rest. Unfortunately, it’s not getting better. Grrrrrr…

So here i am, at home, drinking as much hot water, hot tea + lemon + honey as my bladder can handle, eating chicken soup, and generally resting up. I’ve got tylenol cold and airborne, and all those things that should make me better...but I’m just as sick as I was before.  I’m one day away from flying out to New York on a red-eye flight, and it still hasn’t run its course yet.

Well, pray for me, because i’m heading to New York anyway! And I’m still teaching class tomorrow!

“O Lord, bless this thy medicated cold pill of doom, that with it thou mayst smite thy viral enemies that hath entered my body and wrought havoc upon my immune system, in thy mercy. And upon its smiting, the people will rejoice and feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and large chu...”

D-SLR = hardest choice ever

Thursday, November 02, 2006

How did i decide to get a Nikon D80 instead of the myriad of other DSLRs available on the market?

This was probably one of the most painstaking decisions i’ve ever made in my life. It’s funny - i can will take months and months to deliberate, trying to figure out which camera to buy, but i’ll shell out the equal amount for to rent an apartment and not really think twice about it. Oh well. I guess you never really have to think that hard about putting a roof over your head.

In any case, Nathan asked why i chose the Nikon D80, and i’m fully prepared to answer! It began with lots of reviews. I went to websites like CNET and NewEgg to see what people had said about the camera. It wasn’t very helpful though, because in the end, they probably haven’t used that many cameras. At least, not enough to give a full quantitative/qualitative analysis. So i decided to go to a more comprehensive site: www.dpreview.com.

I was comparing D-SLRs that are roughly in the same category: Canon EOS 400D (otherwise known as the Digital Rebel Xti), Sony DSLR-A100 and the Nikon D80. I pored over the specs of each, trying to learn more about lenses and features. I even considered Fuji cameras because i had heard that their sensors were superior. However, their image processors are not as sophisticated as the other brands.

It took me at least 2 months of research once i got serious about buying a camera. I mostly went of the DPreviews breakdown of the Nikon D80. Resolution wise, the three contenders were quite comparable. The differences broke down to:

1. The Nikon’s image is a bit more color saturated than the Canon’s images, which usually turn out sort of blue-ish.

2. The Nikon handles better in low-light situations than the Canon and Sony

3. Nikon had more unique and interesting features at which they excelled over the other two. This includes features like multiple exposures and having up to 32 of your own pre-sets.

4. I just don’t like Sony: they always run out of batteries quickly and have all sort of proprietary issues such as memory and video formats, etc. Sony just rubs me the wrong way in that sense.

5. Canon’s lens that comes standard really sucks.

So the big hurdle was the price gap between the Digital Rebel and the D80. The D80 is quite a bit more expensive, but it also has a nice lens (18-135mm) which allows me to do wide angle shots as well as telephoto shots. I figured that if i got the Canon, i would spring for a good lens and then it would cost the same as the D80. BUT that would require more research. And by that time, i was getting tired of it all.

But do you know what? All that research was wonderful (and headache inducing), but I still wasn’t sure. In the end, do you know what did it? Going to BestBuy and just picking up the camera and playing with it. I was pretty much sold on the Rebel Xti. And then i picked up the D80.

And it was over. It’s like that proverbial moment when you meet the person you’re supposed to marry. You just know.

I just loved the way the D80 felt. Everything was in the right place, it had a good heft to it. The lens was wonderful right off the bat, and the color was great. The Rebel, on the other hand, had somehow gotten white-balanced incorrectly and everything was showing up dark blue on the display. I tried to reset it but it was not intuitive enough for me to figure it out. In the end, i just got frustrated and went back to playing with the D80.

In the end, I bought it from BestBuy instead of RitzCamera or those other places that have it tax free because those sites don’t have it in stock. BestBuy even agreed to drop the price in an attempt to match the no-tax price of Ritz. So in the end, it was about the same price. :D Sweeeeeeet.

And so that’s my tale of how i came to own a beautious Nikon D80.

Oh to be a kid again

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

They Only Come Out at Night

Monday, October 30, 2006

Halloween is a strange event in any region, but in Vegas, “strange” takes on a whole new meaning!

This weekend, i went to Vegas with Slim, Joe, Kenny + Cat, and Keith + Sue. I’ve never been much for Vegas, so this is only my second time going there for fun (no conferences or work) in my adult life. That being said, i obviously didn’t do much of the planning. That also being said, there wasn’t much planning except to get a hotel room. We had such a chill weekend.

So what do i have to rant about, you ask? Well, I had a bit of rocky beginning just getting on the plane.

RANT 1: TSA
Who doesn’t have a TSA rant? If you do not, then please step forward! I thought I had done everything to keep myself from pain the security line by putting all my liquids into my check-in bag. However, I didn’t realize that lips stuff was considered liquid. Oops. So that was my bad. But even when i got through line and they pulled out the lip balms, they said, “You have to go get a clear plastic bag to put these in.” Why? Now that you’ve identified them, what will putting them in a plastic bag do? I’ll put them in there and pull them out when i need it, thus it will not STAY in said bag. What then is the point of such a recepticle?

But no, the TSA guy ushered me out the exit as i began to protest and told me to go cut in line to get a plastic bag from SouthWest. I was then pointed to the gift store by the SouthWest people. The Gift Store clerk said, “I’ll give you a bag if you buy something.” Out came my $1 to pay for mentos that i didn’t want, thus spending half of all the liquid assets that i had on me at the moment. -____-

Then i had to go all the way through the security line again. Curses upon TSA. By the year 2010, we’ll be walking naked through x-ray machines to make sure we don’t have any explosive suppositories.

RANT 2: CAB
Upon arriving in Vegas, we jumped in to a cab. Instead of taking us to the Westin, he took us to the Hilton. How on earth did he get the idea that we were staying there? But he insisted that he asked twice and that both times we said that we were headed to the Hilton. Kenny called shenanigans on him. Then he got really mad and started yelling that he had been driving for 11 years and that he really had nothing to gain by taking us to the Hilton instead of the Westin. Am i wrong or did he just get twice the amount of money for taking us to some place that was the opposite direction from our hotel? Hmmm...What DID he have to gain? Obviously his argument had some holes in it.

When we tried to find out how much the fare should have been, the driver got all upset and threatened that he would call the Taxi Authority if we refused to pay. By this time, i just wanted to sink out of sight and just not exist. That’s when everyone got really heated. Kenny unleashed: “WE NEVER SAID WE WOULDN’T PAY. JUST STOP TALKING. ALL I WANT IS A PEACEFUL RIDE TO THE WESTIN.” That pretty much quieted everyone down to an awkward silence. Despite our assertions that we would pay, the driver still called the Taxi Authority and told them that we might cause trouble. I just wanted to get out of there. Yeek.

RANT 3: ATMs + no banks
So the other rant has to do with the fact that there are no banks ANYWHERE near the strip and every ATM is going to make you poor just by looking at them. Being the Vegas noob, i had no idea that there was such a high service charge for cash withdrawals. AND of course, stupid me didn’t have any cash at all. Make that, I had $1 going into Vegas. The other dollar i had was spent buying a $1 plastic bag for my liquids to go on board the airplane, remember? It’s a $4 fee and then another $1.95 + 3% of anything you withdraw. How do they get away with that? It’s crazy.

OKAY, ENOUGH RANTING! THE REST OF THE WEEKEND WAS WONDERFUL AND RELAXING!
So that night we went to a nice restaurant, FIX, at the Bellagio.

Me and Slim at FIX

The restaurant had a cool warped and wavy ceiling made of suspended wooden panels. Cool. AND we had Kobe beef chilli cheese fries. Mmmmmmmmm...so worth it.

The next day we got up and wandered around. Mostly we spent time at the new casino, The Wynn. The inside garden is beautiful. It’s very reminiscent of the Bellagio as it’s by the same owner. The same owner who recently put a hole in a 130 million dollar Picasso painting.

The gardens at the Wynn

Cat, Slim and I headed to The Buffet at the Wynn. I can’t remember that last time i ate so much. Well, actually i can: it was 2 weeks ago at the soul food restaurant, Miss Peach. Mmmmmm. But really, i think my stomach expanded to 3x it’s normal size. Phew.

me, slim and cat: it’s a C/Kat Sandwich!

After eating for about 2 hours, we did a bit of wandering. We discovered many interesting things. The pool at the Wynn is cool. There are at least 2 waterfalls within the facility. We also discovered, quite by accident, that they have “european style sunbathing,” which roughly translates into topless sunbathing. Ooops.

We then went to Smith and Wollensky for steaks and other forms of meat. Check out how big Slim’s steak is.

Big enough for you? We actually split this and even then it was a lot of meat!

Finally it was time to get into costume! That’s the reason you go to Vegas during Halloween, right? It’s where freaks come out at night and parade the streets! Here’s our costumed trio pic:

Cat is the penguin with a black angel on one should saying, “eat that fish! it’s tasty!” and a white angel on the other shoulder saying, “No! Fish are friends not food!"

I’ve got to say that there were some really interesting costumes out that night. Tigger, Balou the bear, a gold digger, girl scouts, soccer teams, nurses, Axl Rose, Garden of Eden: Eve, and lots of other weirdos. I was pretty impressed for the most part. Some were just plain lame though. I got to say that the guys in the Tigger/Balou outfits, the nerd outfits and the other “harmless” males were getting a lot more attention from the females than the other guys who came dressed as pimps and boxers.

And then the weekend was pretty much over. We got to eat one last time at the Bellagio Cafe and then took off to the airport where we stayed in line for a good long time. I did manage to get this pic of the boys before we all took off.

Joe, Slim and Kenny--the original Halloween In Vegas Crew

Gravity is not your friend

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Fall 2006a

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

It's a miracle!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

I Got a D-SLR!!!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

I’m so happy! I’ve been wanting a Digital SLR Camera for about 10 years now and i finally got one!

So here are the first fruits of my labor with my D-SLR. I got to take some random shots AND i got to take pics at the LLJC IRON CHEF: Battle of the Ages social. The social took months of planning, but it was totally worth it! I’ll write more about this later. For now, you’ll have to just enjoy the pics!

Suz looking pensive...and a little pissed.

Me with a lot of soft focus (to hide my wrinkles)

Slim playing his DS while I read the camera manual and experiment at Starbucks

Slim’s moving so fast that his hands are a blur!

The first of the Iron Chef pics. This is mochi in the foreground with the chef, Takako, in the background with her son Rayme, interviewing her about her cooking techniques.

Aunty Leh tosses some great winter melon creations!

Baby Maya with her grandpa Mory, looking super cute in her fuzzy hat!

Kimi and Ashley look a lot alike. Don’t you think they could pass for sisters?

The New Era of Clothing

Monday, October 09, 2006

With all this skank in today’s clothing, isn’t it about time we recognized this evolution?

And by recognition, i mean, why don’t we linguistically give clothing of that nature its own moniker, its own title, its own category. Currently, we call things of the genre terms such as “clubbing clothes,” “hoochy clothes” or “skank outfits.” These terms and those like it usually include such articles as sheer tops, bustiers, clear heels and thigh-high boots.

In a stroke genius (well, it was an accident caused by me mumbling), i have coined a new term that embodies the meaning, emotional provocation and connotation that all those previous names and images collectively represent.

It is…

HOETHING
It’s a ho thang

* Note: this hoething line is not to be confused with those of Chinese ancestry and who have the family name, Ho.

Mongolian Aviator

Thursday, October 05, 2006

It's not ok to accost me

Relationship Hemorrhoids

This entry may be a bit graphic, so prepare your minds for my new analogy on relationships!

HEMORRHOIDS: (hem·or·rhoid)
Pronunciation: ‘hem-"roid, ‘he-m&-
Function: noun
Definition: a mass of dilated veins in swollen tissue at the margin of the anus or nearby within the rectum—usually used in plural; called also piles

So what do relationships and hemorrhoids have in common anyway? Ah, you’re about to be sorry you asked. The uncomfortable condition mentioned above happens for several reasons:

1. Genetic predisposition (weak rectal vein walls and/or valves)
2. Excessive time (over 1 minute daily) and straining during bowel movements
3. Chronic bowel straining or pressure due to poor posture or muscle tone

According to health-cares.net, “Constipation, bouts of diarrhea, poor bathroom habits (reading on the toilet or multiple cleaning attempts), pregnancy, and fiber-deprived Western diet can all foster the conditions that cause hemorrhoids.”

Mostly i would like to focus on number 2 - Excessive time on the toilet. Maybe you just found a good article in the New York Times, or maybe you were deep in concentration over other things, but in the end you found yourself dilly dallying for no real reason.

Ah ha! And therein lies the crux of this post!

I’m talking about relationships where two people date for an eternity and *still* have no idea if they want to get married or not. And then there are the others who break up and get back together (repeat x27) and can’t seem to either like each other enough to stay together or hate each other enough to break up. To these couples, i’d like to use the old adage, (and those with sensitive eyes should avert them now) “Sh** or get off the pot.” Another way to put it is, “Fish or cut bait.” Or “Do or do not; there is no try.” These sayings are basically pointing out that there is no in between stage where you can settle in and get comfortable for a long time without some nasty side-effects.

You stick around for a long time