Magic in Charity: Every $10 made at Siamese Pixie Store, #2, #3, #4, and
geek stuff PLUS whatever I made with Adsense is sent to Thai Red Cross, my mom's favorite charity. As of June 1, we are at $2.56 toward the next $10 and so far have donated $30.
Starbucks decaf soy caramel macchiatto. I ordered a tall but they gave me a grande.
Starbucks chocolate croissant I never got to finish. We had birthday party today in the office so I was saving room for cake.
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Lunch
Brown jasmine rice with 2 sticks of barbecue “beef” skewers and 4 cherry tomatoes. The skewers look like poop, seriously like a log of poop. It did have very meaty texture, though, and less soy tasting. Unlike the marinaded “chicken” I had a while back.
A mini red velvet cupcake…more like a shot of cake and frosting…from Big Man Bakes at the office birthday party I threw and a very thin slice of pineapple rum cake the Big Boss brought back from the Caribbean.
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Dinner
Red Robin queso and chips…and a couple of fries. I swear that bowl is bottomless. I had my fill and it didn’t look like I made a dent! That was washed down with a strawberry lemonade.
A side of guilt.
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LOST snacks
A glass of Jacob’s Creek shiraz. Very appropriate, I know.
Coconut truffle from the box of XT Patisserie treats Nhien sent me for Christmas. Again, very appropriate.
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Satisfaction Level: Very satisfied albeit the GUILT!! Seriously. I had a choice to get a Gardenburger or a soup and salad but noooooo. I got queso. AND fries!! Not to mention all of the products with eggs in them that I completely ignore and dove in headfirst like the cakes. Meatless in the worst way today, folks.
Thoughts: Um. Yeah. I totally suck at being a vegetarian. The guilt alone will kill be before anything else.
Special Thanks: For those who’ve witnessed/read about my ordeal last night, please give thanks to the handy guide I used to battle the problem.
Drinking Buddy of the Year: Brandon, actually. Surprise! The mister doesn’t usually party down, but he has taken up a beer here and there this past year, a stressful one for his work. So we had gone out for a beer together more than the year before. Cheers to you, honey bunny!
Bar of the Year: Hennessey’s Tavern and Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach. These two places never fail to deliver cold pints and some great eats. They’re our go-to places when we want to run away from the daily life for a little while.
Sorry to disappoint y’all with the lack of Downtown LA’s bar feature this time around. I haven’t partied in town much at all. Climate change around the office will affect your happy hour weather, I tell ya.
Newcomer Award: Twitter Gang. I have grown to love folks I met at Tweet Ups especially @dananner, @anaperiodista, @fstop23, @davidmoyle, @sendchocolate, @joncruz, @vbesack, and the disappearing @phraktyl. We went shooting pictures. We played Rock Band. We got drunk. We had overall great times on and off line. Great year to make new friends!
High Point of the Year: Watch Thrill the World Los Angeles became the awesome success. From mere 100 last year grown into the thousands. It still blows my mind.
Low Point of the Year: The Christmas Flu and USC Football Rebuilding Year. Yep. Suckage.
Best Holiday: Halloween…again. I mean, prancing through Pine Street as Zombie Princess Leia, rocked that stage with my awesome crew of zombies? Best. Halloween. EVER!
Song of 2009: Glee soundtracks. I mean, I can barely pin it down to just ONE song! Almost everything from Glee I totally dig. I’m especially partial to Somebody to Love, Don’t Rain on My Parade, Defying Gravity (the duet), No Air, Sweet Caroline (Can I get a hell-yeah from Team Puck?), and this one I can’t stop singing. Lea Michele. What a revelation!
Movie of 2009: Avatar. I’m sorry, Star Trek and District 9! You came sooo close!
Surprise Movie of 2009: Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story – Rod Faifa Ma Ha Na Tuh – รถไฟฟ้า..มาหานะเธอ. I’m soooo in love.
Restaurant of the Year: Bottega Louie. Great food and ambiance. Totally a favorite place to run away from work to for a long lunch. Okay it’s a little loud, but what an awesome place to be! Affordable awesomeness.
Book of the Year: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Seriously. Go read that.
TV Show of the Year: Glee. Duh.
*
2009 Goals Tally: 6 out of 10…kind of.
1. FAIL – Explore Kung-fu. HAH! I did not.
2. FAIL – Drink more water. Did okay for a couple of months before waking up to pee in the middle of the night got old.
3. FAIL -More guitar/piano/singing – at least twice a week. I did try for once a month, but that didn’t happen since my office got so messy I can’t even get to the piano.
4. PARTIAL SUCCESS -Read more books – One book a month at least. Actually did 10 out of 12. Not too bad!
Water for Elephants, Sarah Gruen – Love it.
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, Lynne Truss – Learned all sorts of new things.
Watchmen, Alan Moore – The movie ending makes a hell of a lot more sense than the book I tell ya.
Turn Coat: The Dresden Files Book 11, Jim Butcher – Always love Jim. This is no exception.
Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert – Definitely love the Eat/Pray part. I could do without the Bali experience.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith – Best. Book. EVER!
Bad Things, Michael Marshall – I’m still scratching my head at that one. Whuh…?
The Foodie Handbook, Pim Techamuanvivit – Totally enjoyable and awesome. She takes gorgeous pictures.
Heat Wave, “Richard Castle” – Totally a fun read for us Castle fans.
5. FAIL – Add yoga to the routine – at least once a week. Not so much. However, I ended up losing 6 lbs. from September through November with the Thriller work out and stress diet. Haven’t gotten any of it back…yet.
6. SUCCESS – Take a language class. Buongiorno!
7. PARTIAL SUCCESS – Cook one new recipe a month. I went with a few new ones in a month and then go without cooking for weeks. But we did try new recipes.
8. SUCCESS – Fix them teeth. 5 more months!!!
9. SUCCESS – Fix them eyes. Well, I *did* decide on not getting LASIK done after extensive reserach and serious discussion with my optometrist. There’s a 50/50 chance I would come out normal or my dry eyes are going to get more severe to a level that’ll become problematic. I’ll stick with the glasses with that kind of odds, thanks.
10. SUCCESS – Keep up with whatever is working well. Still a latte a week here.
Dances with Wolves in space, James Cameron even admitted that in his interviews. And Avatar was exactly that.
And I love every moment of it.
Sure. The story is predictable. And a little sappy. And had been told many times before.
But it was told with a completely different visual representation. A seamless integration of digital animation and live action. For the first time, the CG characters don’t look like they were fresh out of a botox clinic. Their big yellow eyes say something. Their blue faces had nuances that the entire train full of Polar Express or (from what I saw in the trailer) A Christmas Carol didn’t have.
I mean, I *love* Sam Worthington going in. But who knew I would also fall for his big blue avatar too! I mean, the Na’Vi were ALIVE. It’s so totally awesome!
Some critics have issues with the movie’s mix of live action and computer animation. They said it felt like they were watching someone else playing video game for 2 hours.
Maybe because I am also used to the game graphics, and many of us are, we didn’t have the problem with the blending of digital and live action.
Also, surely, those critics do not play video games. I mean, seriously, gamers (and game spectators like myself) wish our video games look as good the as Avatar all the way through, not only just during the cut scenes.
Can you imagine how great Mass Effect, Halo, or even Final Fantasy would have been with Avatar level of facial movements and overall animation? But I digress.
Most importantly, Avatar is one of the movies in a very long time that I got lost in. I was willing to overlook all sorts of discrepancies and cheesiness so I can stay on that planet with them. Get lost in the adventure. Fall in love along side Jake and Neytiri. And root for the home team.
Okay, fine. I did crack up when Neytiri told Jake that “You have a strong heart”. But I guess nobody else got the Terminator accidental reference.
But the rest was pure escape. I would see this over and over again, the way I do with Dances with Wolves.
For almost 3 hours, I was running around Pandora. And I don’t care about anything else.
I did get my $10 worth. That is a LOT to say about movies these days.
Is it Oscar Best Picture worthy? Nah, I don’t think so. But did it steal my heart? Yes, it did.
Will Avatar make a pop culture impact like Titanic or Star Wars? I don’t know. The “I see you” thing is going to make it, I’m sure of that. But the rest, I don’t know. Will people take up learning Na’Vi (which, by the way, according to Professor Paul Frommer, a USC professor (Go! Trojans!) is being developed further)? I definitely see blue, scantily clad bodies showing up at Comic Con though.
Finally, don’t get me started on a waste of Leona Lewis’ voice on that theme song. My heart cannot go on with that gimmick. Sorry.
Oh, and final note here for Sam Worthington.
Dear Sam,
Please show some teeth when you smile at movie premieres. You smile a plenty in the movie and light up the screen with your cute dimples and lovely teeth.
But all the pictures I managed to find from your premieres, you only grinned…and smirked. I don’t know if you were going for the Russell Crowe tough guy look, or you were trying to keep that piece of gum you were chewing in check. But I must say that just doesn’t work for you quite as well. Trust me, we are not going to complain if you break our hearts a little more by flashing us your full smile. We’d actually enjoy that. Very much.
Yes. YES. YES!!!
No. Not so much.
Please don’t pull a Posh. Your mouth is too pretty not smile.
Oh hell yes.2,300 or so on paper but it felt/looked like 6,000 out there in the plaza! Brandon shot over 700 pictures and I had another 200. (What a trooper he is, braving the Blue Line and all!)
Worldwide, last counted, 23,000 people.
What a moment. What an adventure!
You can’t see me in this clip though they did close up on me for the “Coming up next” before this section.
Life is slowly getting back to normal. I have to lead my little Long Beach team to perform on Halloween at Halloween on Pine and that’s it for Thriller for a while.
When our beloved excuse themselves to disappear into their video games, we call that being a [insert game name here] Widow. For example, I was an World of Warcraft Widow, an EverQuest widow, and most recently a Fallen Earth and Fall Out Widow.
Now, the table is being turned around. I’m making a widower out of Brandon for the next few months.
As in, a Italian Class Widower…
Nora and I are taking Italian lessons together in Irvine on Saturday mornings, starting this weekend on through January.
A USC Football Widower…
If you’ve read my blog long enough, you’d know that Brandon is not allowed to watch any USC game. Not that he would to begin with, the boy’s no sports fan. But anytime he actually sat down to watch, even a few minutes, it all went to hell. It was entirely my fault to have him and his friend sat down to eat dinner and watch the USC-Texas game a few years ago.
A Thrill the World Widower…
It wasn’t supposed to be as big of an event this year with Thrill the World. But then Michael Jackson died. So now we’re in 120% go for this year’s event. I’m still leading the PR/Publicity campaign. And now also a dance instructor. Oh crap, I have to freshen up!
A Big Gala Widower…
Oh yes. The giant work event. A lot of pressure to raise money in this economy. A lot is at stake for the people we serve and for, well, the wellbeing of our non-profit.
And finally, A Thanksgiving Widower…
I’m heading home to Thailand for Thanksgiving for a quick week.
On top of all of this, I have 3 blogs of mine, a Tweet Up social life, and, oh yeah, the monthly cooking challenge.
Thank GOD we are putting long camping trips on hold until spring. With my Italian classes, we couldn’t go far. And with my crazy schedule, I won’t have time to train. I guess the timing works out.
However, the Mister has scheduled us some together time of date nights, our monthly massages at Massage Evny, and game nights. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 just came in the mail. /rubs hands together…heeheeheehee…
Am I nuts do be doing all this stuff? Perhaps.
But am I having fun with all the madness? Oh fuck yeah.
This will be one of those years I’ll never forget.
Drupal Camp LA weekend was AWESOME. I hung out with Annette and Nick from Twitter and Matt from my dot com days. Meanwhile I met new people and made some new friends and found some new people to follow on Twitter. And yes, I learned a TON about Drupal and got myself signed up with both LA and OC Drupal Groups.
I can hardly wait to get going with my first site. Well, I kinda did…but not really. LOL. Need a full geeky weekend, I tell ya.
UCI Engineering quad is an awesome venue for what we had (despite the distance from refreshments and the mystery of hidden bathrooms). Free wifi everywhere was perfect. We didn’t even mind that the best lecture hall they had–every seat equipped with power source, great stadium seating, big ol’ screen–was actually inside a freezer. Well, mild onset of hypothermia might messed with our memories a little.
Oh, a case of nostalgia came free.
We had lunch in the Pippin cafeteria along with their students. We hauled our stuff from classroom to classroom, our brains exploding along the way. Annette and I sat together in a few session and we broke out into giggles here and there, writing “notes” to each other via twitter AND actual note paper.
It was like going to college all over again.
There was even an on campus party afterward. LOL. (We didn’t make it there, but a lot of people did.)
That got me thinking about how far I have come since college.
Obviously, I’ve gotten a lot geekier than when Frenchy taught me HTML back in 1996. I am married, living a good life. Sure, I’m not the high level executive rolling in money, but I love what I do.
Frenchy himself has become an Ubergeek, a swing dancer, and a husband and dad. Other college friends have become a lawyer, a nurse, and a mom. One did achieve his goal of getting out of California and doing fine up in Portland. Another is about to get married for the second time to a fantastic girl.
Today, my little humble food blog, HmmFoodGood, got noticed by some OC folks and nominated for “You’ve Just Been Spotted” award for food/cooking blog at Just-Spotted.com. Hop on over to either place and vote for HmmFoodGood, won’t you? We just don’t want to crawl in last, is all.
And now, I’m checking my schedule for Drupal Camp LA in Irvine this weekend. It looks like my friends Annette and Matt will join me for the geek fest. Any zombies in the area, please come on down to UCI. There’ll be plenty of Drupal Newbie’s brains splattered all over the engineering quad.
My schedule looks like this on Saturday:
9 a.m. – Get Drupal installed at InstallFest
10 a.m. – Intro to Drupal
11 a.m. – Functional Interaction Design
12 p.m. – DrupalChix lunch
1 p.m. – Keynote
2 p.m – I’ll be sitting at the DrupalChix table. I’m a complete and total newbie but they need someone to represent the women in the field, aspired geek like myself included. So, I volunteered, naturally.
3 p.m – DrupalChix panel on how to encourage more women to participate in Drupal.
4 p.m. – Group photo
4:30 p.m. – Theming with Zen
5:30 p.m. – Must have module for your Drupal site.
*KABOOOOOOM!!*
I should have enough brain matter left for two more sessions on Sunday morning plus a couple more hours at the DrupalChix table.
So, if I disappear again after this post, you know why.
I posted a long time ago about the pain of being a Jane of All Trades. The trades I keep collecting have a collective weight that threaten to crush me. Just take a look at the list.
Current Hobbies
Playing piano, guitar (need to do more of that) and singing. Cooking. Photography. Photography of stuff I cooked. Blogging. Tweeting. USC Football fanatic. Pop culture fiend. TV junkie. Movie and entertainment news addict. Supporting the troops with being an Operation Paperback volunteer and gathering funds to do my own Operation Jingle All the Way annually. Thrill the World Los Angeles.
Developing Hobbies
Camping and backpacking. Speaking Italian. Making websites with Drupal.
Ex-Hobbies I wish I had more time to get back to
Making art. (I’m/was pretty good with collages and paper mache.) Scrapbooking aka paste stuff on paper, punch holes, put in binders. I still keep my keepsakes in a basket but haven’t put them in binders in years.
Ex-Developing Hobbies which I would pick up in a heartbeat if I have more time
Sewing. Designing t-shirts. Frisbee golf. Roller skates–this one is abandoned because no one would go with me. Playing video game.
Someday…
Making videos. Computer illustration–I really want to do designs like Threadless people. Writing a memoir. Culinary school?
I asked my dad once when he would retire. He said that he couldn’t possibly do that. What would he do if he doesn’t work? Dad’s hobby is being a news junky. And shopping, but then he shops for clothes he’d wear to work. He has no grand kids to raise (again, hinting at me on that one). So, what would he do with the time?
And then there’s me with all of my hobbies I could barely keep up with.
I mean, if I win a lottery tomorrow, I am all set to retire and explore all of my interests.
Seriously, I love all of my hobbies so much I could be doing them all the time and not bitch about it.
Then again, Brandon did bring up a good point. Say, like cooking. I do like to cook, but would I still like it if it becomes a career? (Hey, P’ House – can you answer me that since you’re a chef?) That was the reason why I’m still working full time and taking cooking classes on the side instead of being in a culinary school.
But now that I have so many interests and hobbies, the worlds are colliding.
For example, Brandon and I want to go camping on the weekend this summer, as in taking a Friday/Monday off to have 2 nights and 3 days excursion. Or at least leave a little early on Friday and get 2 nights in somewhere.
How about this weekend? Nope. Got a tweet up on Friday. Next? Nope. Will be at DrupalCamp LA. After that? Nope. Got a house party on Friday. How about after that? Nope. Actually is double-booked for a barbecue on Saturday. Etc.
And next thing you know, September will be here, and I will start my Italian lessons on Saturday mornings. And of course, USC football. And then Thrill the World. And then the Big Gala I put on at work.
And with all the busy days and weekends, I am not in the kitchen as much as I would like to, nor am I playing the piano twice a week according to my goal.
Cut the television, someone suggest. But how could I? It *is* another hobby of mine which I’m trying to consolidate into a few nights a week and Saturday/Sunday morning routine to maximize time usage.
It was also suggested that I wake up earlier on the weekends to get more hours in the day. The Winston Chruchill’s polyphasic sleep schedule sounds like a plan. Unfortunately, my work would frown upon me napping for 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon. Heh.
See what I mean about being nowhere AND everywhere?
If money grows on trees, that would be nice. But I’d rather have a Time-Turner from Harry Potter books.
