May be I’m compensating for not remembering people’s names by naming inanimate objects in my possession instead.

I’m not particularly good at naming things but I go for it anyway.  My mom’s BFF Aunty Sida is brilliant with names.  For example, she named her vacation house in the mountains of Khao Yai in Thailand “Chuen Chom Poo,” which means “joyously gazing at the mountains.” But when you hear the name pronounced, it could also mean “joyous pink,” Aunty Sida’s favorite color.  Her dogs are named Gaeng Som and Tomm Sapp, both are names for spicy soups.  Even her daughters dogs’ names were in a matching pair, Kati and Kala, coconut milk for the yellow lab and coconut shell for the chocolate lab, and coconut theme because they live on Koh Samui!

I don’t have such talent, I must say.  My candy apple red Kitchenaid mixer is Betsy. *shrug*

Yes, I named my mixer.  Although I wasn’t quite attached enough to the food processor or any other gadget to name them.

Anyway. Let’s back up a little bit.

I think I start to really name things after I named my first car, a forest green sporty Acura Integra.  I named it Tequila because it was just the name I could think of at the time.  And it didn’t really fit the car.  That was when I learned that the object I’m trying to name will reveal itself the name it wants to be called.

The next car, my royal blue clunker of a Toyota Corolla, came along after Tequila was stolen and I was dumped by my boyfriend.  I wanted a heroic name for this knight in blue armor, and then I thought, hmm”¦that color reminded me of this:

I got in the car and started calling it Merlin.  It felt natural.  And there he was.

And of course, the Hyundai Sonata Robin Hood has his own story.

But yes, I now name many things.  Even things that didn’t need names.

My work computer was/is the most powerful in the office, naturally I named it Sully like the most bad ass monsters of Monsters Inc.  This netbook I’m typing on is Momo after the flying lemur in Avatar: The Last Bender, because it’s small and it goes everywhere with you.

My guitar is Dusty…obvious reason. My piano is a Kimball but I don’t want to call her Kimmy so she’s Ginger for her reddish tone.

Brandon also picks up my naming hobby.  His Hyundai Santa Fe is Puma–apparently for the sound it makes.  (I originally named his car Buster because Brandon kept hitting his elbows/knees/hands etc. on the car.  But he didn’t like that name. Oh well.)  Our server is Moya for the ship in Farscape, and our home server is Beast, again, obvious reason.  He also named my USC garden gnome Theodor…”because that’s a gnome-ish name.”

There was a spider who started making his web right above our door and he was there for a few days.  We decided to name him Fred.  So now ALL spiders are referred to as “Fred”.

I even named a piglet in my dream.  And he’s not even real!

One thing we haven’t been able to name, though, is our air rifle.  Brandon wants to call her Vera, like Jayne’s gun in Firefly.  It doesn’t fit.  I keep holding her and try to feel for a name when we take her out shooting, but she remains an enigma.

Alas. The first cold of 2011. The game changer.

I made New Year’s Eve dinner of 40 clove garlic chicken to feed James and Aurora and her sister Lee.  I took pictures of everything as it would be my first post for HmmFoodGood for 2011 according to Goal #5.  We sipped some wine and hung out until 11:30 before Brandon and I shambled home before the drunks got back out on the road.  We kissed at midnight and promptly crawled into bed.  So, no. I wasn’t out at a raging party.

The next morning, we were summoned back for Aurora’s famous crepe breakfast.  We came home to a few hours of television followed by a nap.

You know it was never good when you woke yourself up choking on your own phlegm.

What the f…?

Where the heck does THIS come from?  I was not even close to sick these past few days.  No signs of it. No scratchy throat. No itchy inner ears. Nada!

Here I was, stuffy, phlegmy and overall miserable after the nap.  And it went downhill from there.

Sunday was all coughs and fever so I wasn’t going to play the piano.  There went Goal #2.

Monday was all fever as the massive stuffy nose/head replaced the cough. My hair needed a wash but I wasn’t about to work out.  There went Goal #7.  I did, however, not watch TV and instead read my book.  So, score for Goal #1 and #4…although a lot of TV was watched during the time I was couch-bound.

Tuesday was milder version of Monday.  Since I could use anything to make me feel/get better, I asked Brandon to bring me chicken soup and therefore brushed off Meatless Tuesday and Goal #10 to keep it up.

Wednesday I dragged my butt to work.  I figured I could use all the sleep I can get so I opted to nap in the morning instead of working on the blog.  There went Goal #8.  I also left my lunch at home so I had to go out which, as you will find out soon, led me to break Goal #10 again.  Date night also didn’t happened as I was half alive.  So tacos and TV was it.  I didn’t quite break #Goal 6 though, more like shifted it.

Thursday, having felt much better than the past few days, Brandon and I redid date night and went out to silence my cravings for Hooters wings once and for all.

Friday started with a nap on the bus and all the intentions to eat my leftover, but then my boss and I took our new colleague to lunch for her birthday.  So I did buy 2 lunches in a week and therefore broke Goal #10 BUT I did order a Cobb salad so that made up for sticking with Goal #3.

Yeah, pretty much I’m doing the year over starting tonight.

That means, I have to fit an active activity into the day tomorrow before I wash my hair.  I wonder if the long walk from one end of the parking lot to the farmers market will count…

It wasn’t what I expected. Like I said, twitter went bonkers just as I tried to write my composed message. It figures, doesn’t it?

So, the original 10,000th post was, instead, 10,001st. (And yes, I meant 10,001ST, not 10,001th…)

I know it’s not just me who have forsaken their blogs, the gateway online medium.  As you can tell, I haven’t come by here much any more.  Google Search has proven it. Not that I would dare hope to hold off Gary Vaynerchuk forever for the top spot of search for “oakmonster”.  (And for the record, his is two words for an oaky wine. Mine is one for, well, me, and I’ve been around a while too.)

For some, they keep it up so well despite their daily lives. I could never blog like Rude Cactus. Daily. Without fail. Seriously, dude got a day job AND 2 kids. Where did you find the time, man?  Others are doing it as almost a profession. And some, blogging *is* their profession.

For others, they’ve moved on altogether.  Gnarly Kitty, for example, has made her name right here on the internet as the Thai “it” girl of blogs, but has since moved on to twitter and tumblr only.

But me? I’m still keeping this space despite it all.  Call me sentimental. But some days, all you really want is an evening in front of your computer with a glass of wine.

And here I am thinking, god, only a month from NaNoWriMo. How am I going to fucking make THAT happen if I can’t even keep up the fucking blog that makes me!  What was *I* snorting when I put that on my 2010 goals!?!?!  However, I do have an idea for a memoir…

How do y’all do it, making time for your blog? Want to share some thoughts? And if you’ve done NaNoWrimo, what planet are you from, pray tell?

Two girls fighting over one guy, it’s always some trashy cat fight.  But when two boys fight over one girl, it’s romantic.

Interesting, right?

Well, obviously the whole Twilight thing with vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob fighting over Bella. Girls and their mothers swoon.  (As you know I’m Team Jacob for a few reasons and more reasons). But a wealth of triangles in the show I’ve watched recently has brought the whole thing to my attention.

Over on the other vampire spectrum, I’ve just finished True Blood Season 2 on DVD.  Sookie and Bill are obviously committed to each other, but that doesn’t stop Eric from making his moves on her…including moves to get rid of Bill altogether. (Note: I’m watching True Blood on DVD so I’ve just finished Season 2 now and switched to Team Eric. Don’t tell me anything!)

Over in the land of Castle, Kate Beckett and Richard Castle obviously have the hots for each other but nobody made the move. At some point she started seeing the other guy. So, yep. 2 boys fighting over her there for a few episodes.  Frankly, I’d have Nathan Fillion and Michael Trucco fight over me any day.

I’ve started watching SyFy’s Haven. FBI Agent Audrey came to town and immediately got two hottest boys in town wrapped around her fingers. Her partner Nathan and the bad boy Duke already had some bad blood going but now they fight over her too.  While Nathan quietly goes about admiring Audrey, Duke makes his intentions very clear.  In this fight, Eric Balfour’s Duke wins by a landslide.

Then, of course, Jane Austen’s novels.  Well, not really a triangle but there’s always a girl and a flashy handsome boy who have seemingly fallen in love but there’s always another guy in the wing waiting to come in to be with her after the flashy bastard breaks her heart.  A guy who would lay his life on the line for her even if she doesn’t love him…yet.

And looking back even more: Sleepless in Seattle has an engaged Annie falling for Sam, Love Actually has Mark quietly in love with just married Juliet, Battlestar Galatica has everyone nice and tangled but most importantly Kara/Sam/Lee, and, of course, Pretty in Pink Ducky watches Andy goes off with Blane in the end.

What is it that make these girls so special that boys would move the earth for them?

Well, I guess being pretty to start with doesn’t hurt anybody.  I’m sure hot chicks have that dilemma all the time.  A pretty girl walks in the room and at least 5 guys are already interested. How many after that would really go the distance?  I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s a good start.

Many of us don’t have to worry about that.  Heck, many of us already have trouble landing A man. LOL.

But what is it with the love triangle that intrigued us girls so much?  Is it because we all wanted to be desired?  If you can make one guy falls in love with you, then more power to you if you can have two?  One must be an incredible person and more than likely gorgeous to be worthy of the love of two men, so we all want to be like that?

Hell. I don’t know.  I for one don’t understand the logic, but that doesn’t stop me from swooning over these stories.

Hey, I’m a girl too, the last time I checked.

Is there a point to this post? I don’t know. I guess I’m just fascinated with this whole girl-based love triangle deal and didn’t quite realized we’re surrounded by it in fiction.

Does this happen in real life? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such story.

But I guess that’s what make it even more fascinating to us all.

We don’t hate kids.  And we make great auntie and uncle.  We just like to play with them and hand them off to the parents at the end of the day.

We adore Brandon’s two nieces age 8 and 11.  We can hardly wait to hang out with Aurora and James’ 2-year-old Dresden and baby Chloe.  Olaina and Justin’s Ella is still too little to play with but we didn’t mind hanging out with her too.

I’m quite sure the fact that they are relations–or practically relations, our tolerance and patience for them are a lot higher than for that of complete strangers’ kids.

However, we don’t offer to baby sit the kids on our own.  Well, Brandon is okay with taking Dresden to the park for an hour or two, and Little D and I get along swell playing inside the house.  But overall, we never want to be left alone with the young ones for more than a few hours at a time before our patience run out and our heads explode.

We chose to be child-free for a reason.  And our friends know it.

Yet, it’s a constant question we have to dodge here and back in Thailand.  My dad especially.  I haven’t the heart to tell him, so my answer is usually, “I don’t have the money.”  My mom’s friends know I didn’t want kids.  Actually, and quite surprisingly, they were supportive of that choice.

I started to realize I didn’t even want kids back in college.  I still remembered the first time my ex-boyfriend mentioned our future children.  That freaked the fuck out of me out but I played along.  Hahaha. Yeah, sure, honey, a boy and a girl, right? Wonderful.  But in my head, Holy shit he already talks about KIDS?! God I can’t have kids?! I don’t want any kids!!

You can’t imagine the relief when Brandon brought up early on when we started dating that he didn’t want kids.

So far, our choice to be child-free has never been a problem in our social life because we can still hang with our friends who have kids.

We had Aurora and the kids over for dinner often.  And we were perfectly okay with going to the movies with Brandon’s nieces when we were in New Mexico.

On those certain days we weren’t up for kids, we politely decline the invitation for their company.  Most friends understand.  Some don’t.

We are child-free BY CHOICE. And that choice includes choosing to not be around a child when we don’t feel like it.  Because if we want to be with a child all the time, we would’ve chosen to have one.

We respect parents.  We do.  I mean, we can barely stand up to Dresden’s rambunctiousness for a few hours and Aurora has to do this all day with Chloe clinging on to her?  Holy crap!  And then there are friends and single parents who also work full time on top of being a mom/dad.  I mean, seriously.  How do you guys manage all of that?

Props. Mad props to you, parents.

We respect also your choice to have children. And we thank you for bringing your wonderful kids into this world and even share them with us sometimes.

We hope that you respect our choice to not have children–or not be with one when we don’t want to–as well.

First of, in this blog, soccer will be called by its proper name of football.  Thank you.

You know, I’m not an all-the-time football fan.  But every time the Olympics and the World Cup come around, I’m all into it all over again.

It’s a family tradition that I just can’t shake.

Having grown up with 2 older brothers, it’s not difficult to get roped into the spirit of all of the teams.  Frankly, I remember watching enough games but I still don’t know who’s who.  All I know is that since Sunday’s color is red in Thai tradition, my oldest brother claimed it Liverpool Day and we, including our cousins, were thereby demanded to wear red.

My dad, mom, and oldest brother were all educated in England. Naturally, as a household–except for mom who didn’t do sports–we always root for the English.  My oldest brother’s team of choice after that is Germany for its well known precision.  My older brother was all about Brazil. And then it’s everyone’s next favorite team, Italy.  And these are the four teams I root for consistently every 4 years.

With all of that football love in my household, however I personally never own a football jersey.  My mom wouldn’t let me have one because “girls don’t wear football jerseys”.  I couldn’t even get the hand-me-down from my brothers!  My brothers would wear matching jerseys when we went out for Sunday supper.  Say, if it was French food we’re going for that evening, the boys would put on France jerseys and Italy for Italian food.  This, obviously, illicit a lot of smiles.  Not to be left out, I would try to dress myself to match the jerseys as well.  I distinctly remember one outfit of white with accents of blue and red for the French jersey.  Hey, I tried!

So, recently, I just bought myself an Italian jersey, albeit cheap and cheesy from Target and my Italian coworker’s snickering at it.  One childhood depravity fulfilled. Woohoo!

This year, I have 2 coworkers who are even more into the World Cup as I am, the Italian and the Armenian.  I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere of “An Italian, an Armenian, and a Thai walk into a bar…” And that’s what we’ve been doing 4 out of 5 days last week, running into Casey’s in Downtown LA at lunch to watch the game with a VERY enthusiastic crowd.

They’re my surrogate football brothers. And I love them for it.

Back in 2006, there was just me in the office with the occasional glances from other coworkers.  But it wasn’t like this year.

Looking back further into my June/July 2006 posts to see what all I’ve said about the World Cup then, instead, I found my posts about my mom’s stroke.  It was hard to read.  There I was, mixing the tragedy of mom’s stroke with the World Cup and other daily life nonsense.  I didn’t know then the horrible effect the stroke would have on my mom. She was in such great spirit.  I also didn’t know then that the stroke would be what would eventually take her from us. Otherwise I wouldn’t have made such light of everything.

Funny how in hindsight you find all these odds and ends.

So, today, in celebration of my family and a little piece of memory of my mother, I’m going to go out there and enjoy my World Cup fever as I have been doing all week.  With the distance between myself and my family nowadays, there are a few things that keep us together.  World Cup watching being one of them.

Timothy Olyphant (Justified) : Michael Weatherly (NCIS) : Chris Pine (Star Trek…okay not TV, but movie based on TV show). They could play brothers. Hot, HOT band of brothers with awesome hair.

Ideas worth spreading = Spirit of TED.

TED conference is where the brightest minds came together to share their ideas.  I’ve heard of the event last year for the first time, and have been wanting to attend ever since.

And I finally got to do it this past week at TEDxUSC, an independently organized event hosted by USC.

In a small world, Amy G told me about her friend who were going to TED who turned out to know @FStop23.  As a matter of fact, dude was the one who told @Fstop23 about the conference, who then reminded me to apply for the invitation. I, then, in turn, told my friend Janetta about it.  The next thing we knew, our little posse worked out a great deal.  @Fstop23′s gang, having a more flexible schedule than the rest of us, secured our seats in Bovard Auditorium.  (5th row from the stage, better than my CEO’s seat, no less.  Not too shabby there, gang!)  I showed up with lunch for one of the gang and snacks in hand.

We’re talking innovation here, so I baked Pim’s The Morning After Banana Bread in muffin form. Ah, the glorious blend of bananas, espresso, and Jameson!  Not only I got to feed my little crew, I offered some to the people sitting nearby and some random students as well.

See? Ideas AND muffins worth sharing!

Anyways. TEDxUSC’s format was mostly live speakers with a few videos of  TED presentations, USC student films, and musical performances.

My mind was blown.

So much energy in the place. And so positive!  Bovard auditorium has never felt so large AND small all at the same time.  I mean, there’s so much more out there to know and to discover that you feel so tiny, but yet all the spirit of discoveries and innovation makes you feel larger in life, like you too can do ANYTHING.

Like Woodstock for the brainiacs.

Peace. And free ideas. Rock on, man.

I’m not going to recap everything from the event because they’ll post all of that up on TED website soon.  However, these are the ones that made an impact on me.

Daniel Seddiqui : “50 jobs in 50 states” in 50 weeks: “You make your own destiny,” he said.  Word.

Then we were in space with Dr. Nicholas Patrick, NASA astronaut. How your perception of everything changed when you’re in space. Like the value of letting go and holding on. One of the most intriguing things he said: You can see the [environmental] policies from space.  How the policies are affecting the earth.  We can’t see it down here but they can see it from up there.

And while in space, we explored a little further with Paul Frommer, the creator of the Na’vi language for Avatar. Instead of discussing the language, he instead introduced us to how to use Na’vi in romantic situations. Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?

The video of Temple Grandin’s presentation at earlier TED conference was very fascinating.  “She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids,” says the description.  Ms. Grandin herself said that the world needs all kinds of minds.   And the mentors are essentials in bringing in more great minds.  Funny how in WIRED magazine a few months ago, Thokil Sonne advocates for the same thing for the 12 shocking ideas that could change the world.

Michael Yap, CEO at the Media Development Authority of Singapore, talked about new media in sharing experience. The whole putting another billion people online is one thing.  But then he showed a video of a “Food Lab” which has sensors in your ladle and in your pot, which transmits to the other pot and ladle so you can learn to cook, knowing exactly how much force you need to stir a pot at what temperature.  I’m not alone in thinking that it was a little creepy of a way to learn to cook.

Food should be something personal.  Look at all the processed foods out of the factories, they’re nothing like a home cooked or even restaurant meal.  Human element is needed to make food good.  Oh yeah, I’m off on a foodie tangent there for a bit.  But see? Wouldn’t have stopped to think about how I or we learn to cook and what food really means until Michael showed us that.

Then there’s a sit-down chat wiht Jeb Corliss, the Human Bird.  Dude puts on a flying squirrel suit and jumps off planes.  He said it’s not because he has no fear but that he harnesses the power of his fear into training and meticulous planning of every tiny little steps to ensure that everything goes right. If you do that enough, you have nothing to fear.  While I can understand what he’s saying, I still think dude’s fucking nuts. And awesome.

And of course, Al Seckel.  At this point, we’ve been in the auditorium for 4 hours now. And then Al came in and fucked with all of our brains with his sensory and visual illusions.  It started with all these crazy visual stuff then it was also audio.  You know, Stairways to Heaven going backward on its own was mumbo jumbo but when you look at the “hidden lyrics” while you listen, suddenly you hear every word that wasn’t there.  But all of that comes down to how your perception was formed (by the age of 8 thereabouts) and what we think we believe in.  Total trip.

We closed with the behind-the-scene of OK Go’s Rube Goldberg music video with Adam Sadowsky of Syyn Labs himself with a video intro from the band. (Tricked me. For a second I thought OK Go was REALLY behind the curtains!  Boo on you, Adam!)

Like that wasn’t enough. There was an interactive reception afterward with “toys” you can play with like interactive physical therapy game that needs you to move to accomplish the task–a gentler Wii, if you will–and then there’s this laser thing that traces your image and projects it onto a wall (look at Janetta below playing with her laser shadow), and some models showing off wearable arts by Psycho Girlfriend like a dress made out of plastic tubings or pool foam “noodles”.

Now, at the reception.

<rant>

Us paid customers to TEDxUSC got red badges and no wrist band.  I’m assuming that they too assumed we were all of age.  Students in attendance were carded and given wristbands if they are over 21.

It is a blessing and a curse of looking like a college student even though I graduated from that very same college 10 years ago.  The bartender wouldn’t serve me. because I had no wristband.  I told him we red badgers didn’t get one so here’s my ID.  He refused to check my ID and brushed me completely aside.

Look, motherfucker, if I was an underage trying to get a drink, would I BEG you to check my ID!?  I PAID to be here at this event and have been in the fucking auditorium for 6 fucking hours. AND YOU WON’T SERVE ME MY MOTHER FUCKING WINE?!?!

Yep. I almost went Woodstock 1999 on his ass.

I found another bartender who listened to my situation, kindly looked at my red badge, and checked my ID.  Wine was served with a smile AND an apology for inconvenience.

The kicker?  I went back to the motherfucker who refused service earlier with my empty plastic cup of red wine and asked for a refill. “Of course, miss.  Here you go.”  Not event asking for that godforsaken wristband he couldn’t live without a half hour ago.  Whatever.

</rant>

Despite the ID incident, the event was great.  Our little gang had a great time.

I ran into someone I know during the break.  I asked how he was liking the event.  He said that he didn’t understand why the program should be interrupted by music and student films.  And he thought not all speakers were worthy because they weren’t all innovation that are practical.  What’s with that human bird guy or that autistic lady?  A kid with looping electric violin?  Really?  For business executives like him, he said, he felt like he was cheated out of his precious time to spent 2 out of the 6 hours with what he considered nonsense instead of finding out more about cutting edge innovation.

My friend Janetta just looked at him and said, “You’re not at the right conference then.  That’s not what TED is about.”

He just blinked at her.

Down with the Man, man.

But those we pull no punches on the most are Brandon’s circle of friends.  The boys have known each other since high school and once we’re welcomed to the family, you’re also fair game for endless teasing and good natured banters.

For example, we were over at James and Aurora’s for pizza on Friday night.  Just so you know, James has always been the token Jew of the gang while I’m the token Asian.  Well, then again, you could be token anything in this group. A token redhead. A token happa.  A token Marine. A token Superman (Justin is a Marine veteran amputee AND an ER doctor in residency AND his wife is pregnant. So there, Superman!)  So that’s always fun.

But anyways. On with the show.

Bob was going over what was in the pizza order James placed that he had picked up.  One was mushrooms and olives and the other was pepperoni and sausage. Brandon pointed at the meat fest.

Brandon: I voted for that one.

Me: Hey, how come I didn’t get to vote?

James: Because you’re a woman.

Me: [Single finger salute]

James: AND you’re a minority.

So we grabbed our pizzas and settled down for dinner.  James had asked for some crushed red pepper flakes.  Aurora had set it on the table in front of me so while he was busy conversing, I started peeling the stubborn “freshness seal” off this new bottle.  The fucker just didn’t want to come off.  James, getting antsy for his turn at the pepper flakes, looked over.

James:  Oakley, can I help you with that?

Oakley: No!  I started this war and I’m going end it, goddamn it!

James: Oh, but how many LIVES do you have to ruin to win this atrocious war!?

Oakley: Just the Jews.

Payback is pretty sweet.

Tabatha from Tabatha’s Salon Takeover :: A Na’vi

I mean…really.