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Thursday, June 28, 2007

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Houston, we have a problem...

Eh, actually Houston doesn't have any problems, I just thought it would be a cool title for this blog entry.

I went to Houston for the weekend and it went something like this: went to LAX (notice the signature building is under structural renovation)...

Hopped on a Continental flight ...

Arrived in Houston...

Where they have a lot of this...

And because of picture above, land is very cheap. Let's play price is right, guess how much this is (btw, it's brand new)?

US$250K!!!! SOOOOOOO cheap! My jaw almost dropped when I saw the price. The real estate agent promptly remarked -- you are from California, right? Anyhow, to summarize the rest of my activities in Houston -- food, food, food, and more food.... oh yeah, and more food, sorry too busy eating to take pics.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Joyce

I was cleaning out my apartment tonight and came upon my copy of James Joyce's Dubliners. It's probably one of my favorite books. (FYI, my least least favorite is Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.) Anyhow, here is the last passage from "The Dead", the last short story from Dubliners. The language is so beautiful -- it's genius, when I first read it, I was positively in ecstasy and I knew there was no way in hell I was ever going to write like Joyce, no matter how hard I try.

-- A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Attack of the Bunny

BF, the Bunny, took a particular interest in my jeans, and tried to attack me...

As revenge, I took a rather unflattering pic of BF's heinie.

Silly English names, continued...

Here is a Hong Konger's English name - Sneeze Lam. Why?

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Bunny Report

I am bunny sitting this week. It's so much responsibility. Although I am told I can stop by once every other day, I've decided to stop by and check on Bunny at least once a day -- lest something happens to the Bunny. I could tell that Bunny was a bit lonely today. It was really happy when I petted it and let it out and play. But when I let him out, I have to keep an eye on him because it likes to munch on the carpet and that's no good. Bad Bunny! Anyhoo, here is a pic for its mommy and daddy. Say cheese!

Friday, June 8, 2007

The pluses and minuses of bangs...

I recently got bangs. There are definitely pluses to having bangs -- I look more stylish and it conveniently blocked a pimple on my forehead. But there are also some minuses -- mainly I look more Asian, more specifically, straight from Japan or China Asian, and that brings in mind an encounter I had with a "deaf mute" in front of the Bellagio in Vegas last week.

The Bellagio has a neat water fountain show. I was standing in front of it waiting for the next show to start. And there was this late 40ish midwesterner looking guy. He wanted me to take a picture of him and his wife. But he didn't say anything, he simply handed his digital camera (which was the size of a brick, probably circa year 2000 with a 0.5 megapixel resolution), and pointed at the camera, the lens, the shutter and then himself. So I thought he was a deaf mute and couldn't speak. I was very glad to be of help to people with disabilities. So instead of being like -- haha, your camera is soooo old, I said - 1, 2, 3, Cheese!, and took several good pictures. Well, after I handed the camera back, he started talking to his wife. It turned out he wasn't deaf mute after all -- he didn't speak to me because he thought I was fresh off the boat from Japan or China and didn't speak English! I was soooo mad. Well, I wanted to be diplomatic so I told my grievances in Chinese to my friend. But my problem is, sometimes without me knowing, my Chinese slips back into English. So with him still next to me, I loudly exclaimed: I should've just taken a picture of his big fat ass!

Monday, June 4, 2007

Vegas Baby!

I was in Vegas with T and S this weekend. It was a fun trip - let's see, I lost 80 bucks, ran into Elvis at the MGM Grande, saw Caesar and entourage at the Forum Shops (I was slightly tempted to do an re-enactment of the Ides of March), saw "O", the Cirque du Soleil show, ripped on some guy who thought I was an FOB tourist and whom I thought was a deaf mute (more on this later), stuffed ourselves silly at the Bellagio Buffet, and the trip ended on a high note with T winning a whopping 3 bucks at the penny slot machine! Here are some pics, enjoy!

Multiple choice question: what is this circular thingy?

a) the last picture taken before S, T and Cat were sucked into an UFO (tho they were promptly spit out after they informed the aliens that they were lawyers)
b) a picture of the Las Vegas Galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
c) A starry night in Vegas, since Vegas is so light pollution free, even the Milky Way was clearly visible
d) the ceiling of the "O" theater in the Bellagio!

We also did a quicky world tour.
New York

Paris Skyline

Paris Skyline at night

We strolled through the streets of Paris...

...and stopped by Le Village Buffet

Shops at the Forum - hmm, didn't know the Romans were shopaholics.

Gucci - an ancient brand founded during Roman times. Rumor has it, Caesar would only wear Gucci robes.

Lobby at the Bellagio, very beautiful stain glass fixtures

Water show at the Bellagio

And THE Buffet! The lamb chops were delicious, I had five of them.

More food,

Several more rounds, then dessert,

More Dessert,

Aftermath.

Little Duckie cooling in the shade outside of the Mirage -- hmm, maybe the duckie was just a Mirage from my imagination.

Waiting for flight back to LA - slot machines at the airport - they really want you to leave your money in Vegas.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Thanks Mom!

Whenever I go home, my mom would pack yummy foods for me as emergency food reserves :-) So today, after I got home, I took out a box from the fridge and warmed it up. It's so wonderful to be able to eat home made food after a hectic day at work. Yummy. Thanks Mom!