Exploding Fury

Off to Tumblr

2011-08-18T15:52:00.000-04:00

I'm loving Tumblr! It's awesome to be able to post up random thoughts as it comes to mind on Tumblr since they have an app for my phone. =D

So from now on, most of my posts will be on Tumblr. I don't plan to close this blog just yet, but there will be fewer posts here from now on. The plan would be to keep this for posts that require more editing on a proper computer. Most of my photos are available on FB anyway so I don't see a need to repost them here.

Here's the link to my Tumblr blog.

There's also a link that you can click on the side panel so that you can navigate there easily once this post is replaced by other posts =)

Ye Olde Faire

2011-08-10T16:33:00.001-04:00

A few things I wanted to say.

Yes, I haven't been updating my blog. Yes, it's because I've been too lazy. Also, what happened in Vegas should stay in Vegas so although I was planning to post pics from our trip, then I decided not to. On here anyway. =)

Number two. I'm thinking about moving my blog out of blogger. Or at least, leave this as an open space for when I want to write long long posts, and have another blog where I post little short quips, pictures, and videos.

As I ponder over this, you're welcome to stare at my photos from the Renaissance Faire that I went to last week.

Ye Olde Knights of the Roundtable

Ye Olde Pirate Hat. Yarr.

Ye Powerful Elixir from the bellies of fire-breathing dragons

Ye Pirate Shoulder Cat. Yarr.

Ye Robin Hood wannabe.

Let me know what you guys think! Should I move my blog? Leave it here? Or do I get so little readership that it doesn't really matter?

Leaving Hearts in San Francisco

2011-06-03T02:09:00.000-04:00

I lurrvvvv San Francisco! A charming city to visit although their traffic leaves something to be desired.

To save on costs, we decided to take a roadtrip down there (it wasn't economical to fly eight + 2 dogs). But I think the next time we do a roadtrip, let's skip anything longer than 10 hrs, shall we? =)

Ok, cue the photos! ^_^

Day 1
We headed out on Thursday evening and drove through the night and into the morning. As we neared San Francisco, the scenery around us looked almost surreal:

The hills looked like a flat painting

Nevertheless, we had some breakfast/lunch and set out to the pier to enjoy some much needed sunshine.

At Pier 39

Alcatraz and the girls

My dinner consisted of crab claw and... the rest of the crab =)

A pano of Pier 39

Inside Ghirardelli. That guy is making my ice-cream! ^_^

This is how you lepak (hang out) while enjoying Ghirardelli ice-cream hehe

Day 2
The weather wasn't that nice to us that day, but we headed out to Napa Valley anyway. The traffic to cross the Golden Gate Bridge was HORRIBLE, and although we didn't accomplish everything in our agenda, we were at least lucky to catch some sunshine towards the end of the day.

At Signorello winery

Made it to the Golden Gate Bridge at the Golden Hour =)

Some clubbing was done later that night, photos of which are on my phone, and I'm too lazy to download them so there.

Day 3
This time, the skies were blue. So we decided to hit Napa Valley again before heading off to Monterey for the rest of the day.

At the entrance into Domaine Carneros

Enjoying the view and sunshine

That was the view I was enjoying. Nice, leh?

The shores of Monterey

Panoramic view of the area

Ian's creative juices kicked in

The Lonely Cypress along the 17-Mile Drive. The place was PACKED with tourists and we were lucky to get a parking spot after a 30-min jam

We drove back the next day. And man was that a LONG drive. The weather wasn't very nice either to say the least.

BUT!! I definitely enjoyed this short getaway with the gang. Lots of random nonsense resulted in non-stop laughter throughout the trip.

Oh, and I tried out my Super 8 video recording app on my phone for the trip. A little blurry, but it has that nostalgic touch to it.

...I really need to invest in better video recording/editing hardware & software DX

Now, what shall we plan to do for Fourth of July? =D

My Rapture Weekend

2011-05-24T21:11:00.000-04:00

Yes, unfortunately, God does not deem me worthy of being selected to be whisked away to heaven this past weekend. So I'm still here to grace you with my awesome presence =)

We did, however, manage to appreciate some nature while contemplating our existence ^_^

"Hiking" through a park in flip-flops are always fun

Posing by the beach after some treacherous flip-flops hiking downhill

The tide was out; crabby here was not so lucky

A mini-canyon by the beach

Tried out Photosynth for a panoramic view of the beach

Yes, I'm missing some shots of the sky, hence the black, blank spaces. Plus, the exposure seems to differ from picture to picture. Will keep experimenting to make better panos next time.

On the hike back

The two of us... still trekking back

A super smooth trunk of a tree!

Now, although I did not experience rapture myself, my goody-two-shoes alter ego did:

PSA for the Less Computer Literate (who use Facebook)

2011-05-04T17:32:00.002-04:00

Ok, for the past year or so, I've seen A LOT of people get scammed into clicking links on Facebook they shouldn't even get A MILE close to. And it gets annoying when that link that they click on auto-spams ALL of their friends with the same link. And worst case would be if they get hit by a virus or get their identity stolen.

So here's my Public Service Announcement for all you people who are on Facebook, or trolling the internetz, regardless if you think you can tell the difference between a scam or not. I'm annoyed and I'm sure you are too (albeit a tad amused cuz now I can tell the n00bs from the lot).

1. Look at the address
No ".com"? Don't click.

This is by far the most important thing you have to do above all else.

Take a look at the above post and the address the link is coming from.

Look at it!

Does it say ".com"? No. Instead, it's some fishy "clickily.ws" address. Wtf is ".ws"?? Hell if I know. If you see ANY link that ends with ANYTHING other than a ".com", you sure as hell better be cautious. Even if it's a shortened URL link like "bit.ly" or "goo.gl".

2. If it's a video, look at the icon, or for a time length
So you saw that someone posted a video of a father walking into the daughter stripping in front of the webcam. Now, before you even click on it, there are two checks to make, depending on where the video is from.

If it's from YouTube, it's gonna show "youtube.com" on the link and there's a video/film icon at the bottom:

If it's a video that someone uploaded onto Facebook, then it will show you the time length of the video:

Another popular video website is Vimeo, so a "vimeo.com" address is fine too.

DO NOT CLICK on any other links, no matter how tempting it may be.

So let's take this recent scam as an example:

First off, check website. Hmm... "on.fb.me"? Sounds weird. Don't click.

Now, it says it's a video. But there's no play button, no time length, and it definitely is not from Youtube or Vimeo either. Don't click.

Comprende? Good. Now stop spamming me.

What? No sponsorship??

2011-04-13T14:59:00.000-04:00

Grrr. It's been almost a year since I've graduated and still no job. Granted, I'm looking for something based in a specific location and this particular location does not match up well with my background experiences. Furthermore, those that do match are not willing to sponsor.

So where does that leave me?

Should I go back to school to learn something that is in high demand here? Or continue searching? Is it me? Did I go for my MBA too soon? How can I get more experience if no one wants to hire me to give me that experience??

Should I just do my own thing and build up some valuable skill (which I'm sorta working on)? Should I even bother?

GAH! *pulls hair*

Joke's On You!

2011-04-01T19:15:00.001-04:00

And so the April Fool jokes ensues in the online world.

This year, Google outdid itself again!

What did they do?

Introducing... Gmail Motion!
- Now you can type out your emails using your body language! Now I can email AND exercise at the same time!! ^_^

YouTube celebrates it's 100th anniversary by showing you it's top five most viral videos in 1911: (click here to view in YouTube)

If you need to know what these are parodies of, shame on you! But here are the five memes they are referring to.

And... have you Googled "Helvetica" today? =)

Last year, Starbucks introduced new sizes. This year, they're introducing their mobile pouring service ^_^

And WoW decided to introduce Crabby, the Dungeon Helper... a take on that paperclip MS Office helper from back then. Lol.

K, I'm too lazy to list them all so you can check out other April Fool's jokes on Lifehacker.

On another note, a quick update on my diet. It's been almost two months now, and I've lost about 6 lbs since then =) I've done practically no exercise, and I haven't starved myself either. Yay! ^_^ I'm calling this the lazy-man diet.

Oh, and good luck to the guy who decided to take on the P90X! (I know a girl who did it and lasted up til the final week... so if you can't last through the whole thing, you've got no BALLS!)

PSA for Single Guys

2011-03-01T14:27:00.003-05:00

So I have a bunch of guy friends who are single. And I've learned a couple of things that are in their mindset from conversations I've had with them about dating and girls.

Today, I've decided to give you guys a few tips on how to get that girl.

First off, here are some MAN Tutorials to impress her:

Rick's Man Tutorials: Good Hygiene

Rick's Man Tutorials: Good Cooking

If you've given up on women, well, here are some reasons why you shouldn't:

Rick's Man Tutorials: Five Perks of Having a Girlfriend

To watch the above vids on YouTube, here's the playlist.

For the nice guys out there, the videos below illustrates your problem very well (it's a little long and a little slow, but you have to bear with it - trust me! There's a lesson at the end of this!):

Note: If you prefer watching all three vids on YouTube, here's the playlist.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Enjoy and good luck! ^_^

This is a Public Service Announcement brought to you by EBOF and WongFu Productions.

The Diet

2011-02-23T18:55:00.001-05:00

So as you may have read on my previous post, I'm on a diet.

And it seems to be working. Or so I think.

Week 1:
Me: -1.4 lbs
Ian: -3.8 lbs

Tomorrow will be the weigh in for Week 2. Hopefully I'll see more loss. Cuz I've been *kinda* exercising too. I'm also trying out this workout that only lasts maybe 10 mins twice a week, but is meant to give my abs definition... perhaps I'll take some progression pics to see if there is a difference. Hehe.

No other photos (been lazy, and been doing things that are just not quite ready to be announced here yet =P)

So here's a stop-motion video and a collection of why Technology Ruins Romance:

That song from Fantasia...

Technology Ruins Romance: The Airport

Technology Ruins Romance: Destiny

Technology Ruins Romance: War Torn

Technology Ruins Romance: The Letters

Enjoy!

What I've Been Humming Under My Breath

2011-02-15T13:47:00.000-05:00

...for the past few days =)

After we got our friends The Beatles: Rock Band two Christmas' ago, I've been hooked on to their music (not all of them, though). And this particular song has been playing in my head lately. Maybe cuz it's been gloomy? Maybe cuz I can't wait for spring to FINALLY be here already!

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

On another note, I've started on a new diet. Called the Slow-Carb Diet. What's awesome about this diet is that I get a cheat day! =D

...what's not so good is that I just saw this video yesterday, and my cheat day is not til this Saturday! T_T

The Superbowl Commercial Countdown!

2011-02-07T21:48:00.004-05:00

YES! It's that time of the year again.

And here are my favs, in some sorta order. =)

6. Best Buy and the speed of technological advancement

5. What you wish you could do when you accidentally hit "Reply All"

(here's another Bridgestone commercial on Karma)

4. Coca-Cola is one more step closer to creating world peace

3. If only house-sitting was this easy

2. Now THIS is what an ~~action movie~~ car commercial should be like. Or should it?

1. Who can resist a mini Darth Vader?? (I think it was also voted as best commercial for this year)

Here are a few other commercials worth noting:

The grossest commercial I saw this past weekend

One of the more touching ones.

A different take on the Volkswagon Beetle =)

For a full playlist of all the commercials, including all of the movie trailers for movies premiering this summer (think Transformers, Captain America, Fast & Furious 5), go here.

If you prefer browsing from first quarter to the last quarter (for when you only missed a couple), go here.

Be vewy, vewy quiet... I'm hunting wabbits

2011-02-03T16:59:00.001-05:00

With the advent of mobile internet, everything that goes on over on the other side of the world, or even two hours north goes noticed - on Facebook. Pictures of food, the preparation for the new year, baking cookies, playing with fireworks, meeting friends and family... an hour-by-hour account - all can be seen everytime I log into FB.

Even the Petronas commercial is not spared:

Watching this makes me miss home. But at least this doesn't beat being stranded in the midwest after a terrific blizzard and celebrating alone. And this weekend, we'll REALLY be celebrating... with friends and their families =)

I want my jiu hu char and kuih kapit NOW dammit! DX

Have a Healthy, Wealthy and Prosperous Chinese New Year y'alls!! ^_^

And now we know...

2011-01-14T19:46:00.001-05:00

...that behind every Asian prodigy...

...is an Asian mother.

I need to fly FASTER

2011-01-10T18:13:00.005-05:00

...cuz Expert Riding just isn't cutting it. I can't wait til I hit 68 to learn the next riding level =D

Speaking of WoW, it's so cool to sometimes meet someone who's completely new to the game and questing with them. It's like seeing game imitate life, or vice versa.

Having hit the level cap once already, I was very nonchalant everytime I see some other lvl 85 kill a lower level NPC in one hit when I'm leveling my alt. Sometimes, I get annoyed because I need to kill that damn NPC to complete my quest and some idiot level 85 kills it because it was in the way of his archaeological find. And I have to sit and wait for it to respawn.

This warlock, whom I was questing with for a few hours, was in awe.

*Level 85 hunter crits and kills a level 68 elite*
Lock: Wow, did you see that??
Me: ??
Lock: He was level 85! He killed it so quickly!!

I could just hear the awe in the chat. And it reminds me of when I thought it was so cool everytime I hear that someone is working on their MBA, or their PhD. Now that I have my MBA, I can hear the awe from other people when I tell them I have an MBA. But when I tell them I'm jobless, they have the awwww look in their eyes. It's like me telling some other lvl 85 that I'm not geared for raids. Or something.

Now that the new year is here, I don't know if it's a good time to look for work anyway. New budgets mean HR might try to stretch that budget out for as long as they can and minimize hiring for the first half of the year. So mum, get your products to me ASAP so that I can startup my own business!! =D

Oh, Happy New Year, by the way! No resolutions for me, since I think it's pointless to only have resolutions every start of a new year. I'm just gonna have work-in-progress resolutions where I create them throughout the year as I see fit. Maybe I should try out the 4-Hour Body Diet one of these days.

And more videos before I go!! Personally, I find these three vids very amusing. Just cuz I'm evil like that. Make sure you watch them in order so that you'll get some of the running jokes!

Enjoy~

asdfmovie 1

asdfmovie 2

asdfmovie 3

Rockin' Around the Xmas Tree

2010-12-20T16:39:00.006-05:00

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner! And a week later, the NEW YEAR!! *gasp*

And yours truly is still jobless. Although, I've come up with a business proposition which I'll need to talk to certain people to see if they are up for it =D Will keep you posted! ^_^

ANYWAYYY... we set up another Xmas tree this year! And since it's so late into the season, we did not get to chop our own tree. Picked it from, like, 3 other trees that were left over for the season lol. It's smaller than last year's, but we just needed one to decorate with and to put presents underneath of.

But then again, some presents could not fit under the tree...

Once that was done, we headed to the Bellevue shopping center area to watch their yearly Snowflake Lane. Basically it's live toy soldiers on drums and cymbals playing while fake snow fall from the roof. Packed like crazy, and the drummers sure were hyper, dancing away like nobody's business. Entertaining, but I wouldn't go again, not with the crowd it draws...

One of the performers, all happy and gay

Foam falling out of the sky to simulate snow. Amusing

Then off to dinner at Din Tai Fung, with minimal wait thanks to Cat! ^_^

Headed home to enjoy a 30 year old port with yummy cheesecake

And that was my weekend. Short, lazy, and tasty.

Cooking with the Sorceror's Apprentice

2010-12-01T16:27:00.006-05:00

The feasting season has begun.

On a whim, I decided that I was gonna make curry puff if we can find all the ingredients I need to make them. We so happened to go to a grocery store that happened to have the last packet of chicken curry left. Which worked out, since we can easily get everything else =)

One thing I completely forgot though: A Rolling Pin

But no worries, cuz our friends happened to have a looooonnngg glass jar that happened to work purrrfectly as a rolling pin substitute ^_^

Voila! Perfect curry puffs!

I cooked the curry, made the dough (by hand!), rolled, stuffed and crimped them while my TeDDy BeaR fried them ^_^

And all without looking at a recipe! (Because I forgot to bring it =P)

Not bad eh? =D My ~~crimping~~ fluting technique has improved since the first time I made them so I'm pretty happy about it =D

The boys couldn't stop eating them so by the end of the evening we only had seven pieces per family to bring home. My household has two left. I suspect there are none left at the other households lol.

Speaking of yummy food, my baby made me some super yummy pan-seared ahi tuna for dinner just the other day!

Delish pan-seared ahi tuna with miso marinade =D

It was huge and oh-so-gooood!

...am I making you drool yet? =D

Good. Cuz I'm gonna go off on another topic. Non-food related.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I came across a certain youtuber known as mysteryguitarman a while back and have been fascinated with his work since then. He's a musician and his video techniques involve stop-motion music. Music that he creates using weird instruments based on other artists' music or stop-motion videos he makes incorporated with said music.

Check out one of his work, which is one of my favs:

And while I'm at it, here's another video that a friend showed me which really amused me as a musician =)

Perky Pug

2010-11-18T18:49:00.005-05:00

Ok, I know I tweeted this already, but I just can't help it!

I have a new pet! ^_^

And the best part is, I don't have to feed it, bathe it or clean up after it =D

Unfortunately, I can't beat it up either =(

Wanna see it? =D

My very own Perky Pug!

Got it because the WoW Dev team are too free and sent it in WoW-mail along with this amusing letter:

Dear very patient individual,

We'd like to recognize your tenacity in running dungeons with people you probably haven't met before.
Hopefully you even showed some rookies the ropes in your pick-up groups.

In short, we heard you like pugs. So here's a pug for your pug, so you can pug while you pug. Or something.

Hugs,
Your friends on the WoW Dev Team.

And it's the cutest pug ever!! Check out what it does:

Fast forward to about two-thirds of the way to see the more interesting stuff it does (i.e. scooting). Lol. Just like a REAL DOG! ...minus the feeding and pooping. And the ability to torture =)

Mor Chikkin?

2010-11-12T20:25:00.005-05:00

My first attempt at a chicken pie was gobbled down in three meals.

...I guess that's a good start, right? Although, I think I'll use some other type of pastry compared to my "big & flaky" croissant dough. It was too salty and tasted weird with the well-seasoned chicken filling. Hmm...

Oh well.

Pictures!!

Prepped veggies for the filling

And the all-important chikkin... seasoned with generous doses of herbs, salt, pepper and marinade =)

Cooking the filling

And in the oven it goes!

Voila!! The end result! ^_^

Not bad eh? =)

...but I think I won't be making this again in the near future. Eating chicken pie for three meals in a row is not the best idea lol.

A Not-Very-Scary Halloween

2010-11-02T17:22:00.005-04:00

There was an all weekend party at one of our fav clubbing spot. A costume party. And since we all have costumes, we went =)

All dressed up ^_^

Our first Halloween together means we've gotta dress up as a couple. Hence...

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big ~~Bad~~ Docile Wolf =D

Even the pets were dressed up for about twenty minutes while we were getting ready

It's hard trying to get Snow-eie to sit still and take her picture

The girls

The guys

The next day was the ACTUAL Halloween. And kids from the neighborhood came by to trick-or-treat. And of course, they need to be greeted by someone in costume too, right? ...this is where me and my trusty sidekick came in...

Super-Wolf and Tigger to the rescue!!! ...and handing out treats!! XD

Fun Pre-Halloween & Bday Mashup

2010-10-27T17:15:00.011-04:00

Albeit the rainy weather, we managed to have some fun around the city, and a little more =)

The weekend kicked off with a Korean BBQ dinner with friends who came to visit, and a surprise birthday cake later that night. No pictures of the cake (as I wasn't expecting it, duh) but I can tell you that it was a super delicious strawberry ice-cream cake from Coldstone =D (yums!!)

...and then we pretty much drank the rest of the night away:

The bottles of drinks we tried

Next day was spent...

..lining up for lunch at a very popular Cuban sandwich hole-in-the-wall,

...and picking up my TeDDy BeaR's bday present for me! ^_^

So... who wants to FaceTime? =D

Later that evening, we picked out a couple of pumpkins and had a fun fun time carving them out (not as much fun trying to scrape the insides out though lol).

MY pumpkin =)

The finished product

The three completed Jack o'Lanterns... fantastic job everyone! =D

Oh, can't forget Kelly's yummy baked pumpking seeds!

We brought our friends around Pike Place on Sunday, and the skies were kind enough to let up long enough for us to chow down on some chowder out on the alley. It started to pour again as we were finishing up =P

We walked around the market and before we left, guess what one of our guests bought?

A bouquet of flowers for each of the three girls! Thank you! ^_^

It's now sitting in our living room in a glass-cum-vase (we don't have a vase...)

Anyways, that night, we went to a fancy schmancy restaurant that actually had a bday wish printed on the menu!

Pretty fancy, eh? =D

Side info: Every year, Seattle would have this event called "Restaurant Week", which gives customers the opportunity to dine at high-class or up-and-coming restaurants for a reasonable price that comes with a three-course meal.

The food was delicious, and I even got to have a canoli for dessert! (Missing Mike's canolis over in Boston =/)

A great end to a rainy but fun weekend ^_^

Thank you all and thank you to those who ~~spammed~~ wished me Happy Bday on FB and dawdled over here to read my blog =P

Die, Fishies, DIE!!

2010-10-07T17:30:00.009-04:00

Salmon Days was last weekend. It was basically when wild salmon venture back to the streams and lakes they hatched from to lay their eggs, and get laid to rest.

It is also this huge festival that is held in Issaquah every year, where there are loads of people, food, and little shops selling all sorts of stuff.

Like this one, that sells... well, Hats.

Or if you prefer something from WoW... then this mechanostrider is just for you =)

Something more medieval? How about a dragon? =D

Some people come dressed up as fish too...

We came across a candle shop that carves their candles -->

The lady dips plain white candles in layers of colored hot wax and cools it with a dip in some cold water

And while it's still warm, she carves and twists out really cool designs on the candles =D

Some of her work. Isn't it so cool?? I was tempted to buy one =P

In between all the window shopping and eating, we actually did head out to the rivers and salmon hatchery to watch fish die.

Hey, I'm not driving an hour to an event called Salmon Days without watching some fishes die ok!

This shows the hatching process of salmons (inside the hatchery)

A grown salmon trying to jump up against the rushing water

The dying fishies - after they lay their eggs, they basically stop eating and their bodies start decaying from the inside out before they finally die

It was quite a sight to see live salmon... I knew they were huge, but damn, they were bigger than I expected them to be!

Just look at how big this one is!! O_O

Now on a completely different note, we saw something superbly small and cute that freaked the heck out of on of my girlfriends this past weekend =P

WARNING: This is not for the faint of heart. And when I mean faint, I mean really, REALLY faint.

Like squirmy faint.

So anyway, care to guess what it was? =D =D

...

it's...

...

A wittle froggy!!!!!! XD

It was only half the length of my thumb, and it was sticking to the front door of our friends' house. She freaked out, so Ian had to man up and use his bare hands to capture it and release it into the garden. Lol.

So there goes my weekend =P Not much of an adventure, but an adventure nonetheless.

Now who's up for OktoberFest? =D

California Gurls

2010-09-30T14:47:00.007-04:00

I was humming that song all the way there and all the way back. From Los Angeles =)

It's been a while since I last went there and since I had already visited all those regular touristy spots (i.e. Chinese Mann Theater, Star Walk of Fame, Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills), I figured I was gonna hit up the food and the places I never got to visit the last time I was there.

Xiao Long Bao - def. Steamed buns containing meat and soup. Also known as Soup Dumplings.

Oh so gooooood!

With Seattle having such a rich Asian culture, it unfortunately did not have a restaurant that sells xiao long bao. And after being here for over two years, it's about time I got a taste of it again =)

...Perhaps we ordered a little too much (we had at least 10 of those trays, which contain 10 dumplings each)

The satisfied customers ^_^

Next day, after a good dimsum ~~breakfast~~ lunch, we headed over to a shop that sells shaved ice. My host/chauffeur was raving about it all morning so even though I was stuffed, I figured I would give it a try.

Boy, was he right. The BEST shaved ice I've ever had!!

We spent the day at The Getty Villa, a villa modeled after an ancient Villa dei Papiri that was discovered in Herculaneum (now somewhere in southern Italy).

The front "lawn" and pool, surrounded by numerous Greek/Roman statues

The courtyard

Skylights and the detail of the statues and ceilings made the place look and feel very Roman-esque

J. Paul Getty's vision was to create an actual Roman villa to allow visitors to experience how it was like living during the Roman era. He even had a herb garden planned out to show that these Romans lived off their own gardens, using these herbs in their cooking.

A visit to UCLA...

Spent the evening in Santa Monica Third St. Promenade

Saw someone painting one of the store window decor

And that was my trip to LA =) Although the first two days were spent at a career fair, which was tiring but I had a couple of good leads, I had a blast in the toasty dry weather and some great company ^_^

Didn't like the traffic much though.

Portland and a Fun Fair!

2010-09-20T18:25:00.005-04:00

It almost seems like I'm a very outdoors-ey person from all the hiking I've been doing huh? At least I'm getting calories burned from all of it while taking super awesome photos =)

Labor Day Weekend was spent in Portland, OR, and what a busy weekend it was! We arrived on Saturday afternoon, headed off for dinner, and some drinking. Sunday was spent hiking through the Silver Falls State Park, and a lavish dinner in a wine cellar. Then Monday was left to explore the city before the drive back in the evening.

And here are some photos!! ^_^

Dinner at Saburo's

This restaurant is very popular due to its bang for the buck (just look at the size of the sushi!!) but they don't take reservations and the restaurant itself is not very big.

Hence, we had to line up. The restaurant opens at 4:30PM, we arrived at about 3:45PM. There was already a queue, albeit a short one (we were the 4th/5th group to be seated). By the time 4:30 rolled around, the line had stretched and curved around the corner. It was well worth the wait! The fish were fresh and the servings were huge! Yums!

An easy hike around seven waterfalls

Char Koay Teow on the grill for lunch the next day =D

Lining up for some Voodoo Donuts... they were sooo sweeeett!!

Fantastic weekend, thanks to Kelly's uncle and aunt for hosting us at their wonderful home ^_^

So the weekend before last, by coincidence, we happen to obtain free tix to the Puyallup Rodeo, which was held within the Puyallup Fairgrounds. So off we went!

Burgers made of veggies..

They just had a contest for everything!

And the bull riding competition was super cool!

Another fun-filled weekend eventhough the weather took a turn for the worse after that lol.

It was a cold and foggy day...

2010-09-02T13:07:00.004-04:00

And it's about time I posted up pictures of our Mt. Rainier trip from two weekends ago =)

The perfect day to head up to Mt. Rainier was substituted with a super foggy and windy day one week later. Pfffttt. All we could think of all the way up and all the way down were the martinis and fresh oysters that awaited us once we got home lol. Oh and not to forget the yummy onigiris and inaris that we made for our second hiking attempt hehe.

This was about how foggy it was on our way up. A little worse on some points

We were lucky tho, cuz the skies cleared a few times... and just fast enough for us to whip out our cameras and snap away =P

When the clouds cleared...

A little piece of heaven from glacier runoffs

On our way down, it cleared again ^_^

Super fun trip, but super cold too. I had to whip out my raincoat when we got to the top cuz it was so windy.

Note to self: Do not eat lunch at the top of the mountain when it's foggy, cold, and windy

This weekend will be another hike... down in Portland... somewhere... All I know is we get to see lots of waterfalls ^_^ *excited*

Till next time!

Good Food and a Failed Hike

2010-08-18T15:19:00.006-04:00

Figured I would post up some pics of my past few weekends since I haven't been updating lately.

We headed out to a really good restaurant the weekend before. There were six of us, and out of everything on the menu, the three girls ordered the lamb rack and the boys ordered the kobe steak. Lol.

The lamb

The kobe steak

It was so good that everyone took a picture of their food

Or at least, the girls did lol

Then this past weekend, our attempt to hike up Mt. Rainier failed miserably after a looonnngg drive only to discover that the road leading up the mountain was closed due to a collision that occured within the hour of us reaching there. Good thing we didn't stick around because the traffic didn't clear up until FOUR hours later.

So we headed to another hiking trail: Rattlesnake Ridge

A creepy abandoned trail

About an hour later, we were up at the top ^_^

The open area at the top. You have to jump over the hole to get to the other side

Lunch up top included yummy Onigiri and Inari stuffed with unagi and spam

And we gained back all the calories we lost via a pitstop at Triple XXX for root beer. Sighh...

So this weekend, we are going to attempt another hike up Mt. Rainier. And if weather permits, we will work our arm muscles the next day with a kayaking trip ^_^

Justin - We'll be taking one of the tougher hiking trails at Mt. Rainier... remember the one we took last year? And how slow we were walking? And stopping to take pics? This one is gonna take us 4 hours roundtrip at a normal walking pace. DIE! Lol.

Fun in the Sun

2010-07-29T14:09:00.007-04:00

Last week Ian had to go onsite for his work. So I tagged along ^_^

The place we were headed? Sequim, WA.

That entire area east of the mountains is known as the Sunshine Belt. If you remember from your geography class years ago, this is a prime example of a rainshadow: when a place is nestled between two mountain ranges, it does not get much rain... or clouds for that matter.

Driving up there was a different story though.

It was just foggy most of the way up...

Of course, there are some downsides to this little town. It's way far from Seattle (you have to go down, then around the Puget Sound to get there... or you can take a ferry...). It's also pretty close to where the vampires roam. I was told that Edward had gone on a date with Bella once to Port Angeles, which we stopped by before heading home. Luckily, it was nice and sunny, so it would be pretty obvious if a vampire showed up. =)

Photos!!

Ian hard at work watching ppl dig monitoring wells

While I got lost in the marshland.

You see those tall stalks behind me? I think they're called cat tails... or something... it was so cool to actually come across it cuz I don't think I've ever seen such taaallll ones before =D

Sequim received this park area as a gift from her sister city: Shiso, Hyogo, Japan.

We had dinner by the marina and came out just as dusk set in =)

Sequim is also known as the Lavender Capital of North America

Alien vs. Bender: One of my fav sand sculptures at the "Legends of Sci-Fi" sand sculpting competition at Port Angeles =D

This was at the back of one of the sculptures... very cool. ^_^

We brought back a wittle lavender plant to grow... Justin, any advice?

The Hunt for the Black Pearl

2010-07-18T02:13:00.006-04:00

...Yarrr.

Shiver me timbers thar' be booty abound!

We headed west toward Pacific Beach today. To see the Pacific Ocean. It was a very different experience compared to other beach outings I've been to. Chilly, cloudy, and foggy. Very mysterious. But it was really cool as it almost felt like I was gonna see Captain Jack Sparrow come running out from the fog. Or maybe I'll see tentacles come out and grab me like in The Mist. O_O

Nevertheless, it was so nice to smell the fresh sea air after so long ^_^

Enjoy the photos~~

The Ocean. As far as the eye can see.

Cool designs made by the tide

You can just barely make out the shadow of a person out yonder. So coooool...

The Fourth of July Weekend Zion Adventure

2010-07-12T18:53:00.012-04:00

Mission: To hike up Angel's Landing in Zion National Park, Utah.
Troops: 8 humans, 2 dogs
Duration: 4 days, 4 nights to reach Zion and back
Equipment: 2 SUVs, 2 DSLRs, 5 compact cameras, lots of cup noodles, paus, apples, sour plums, trailmix, gatorade and water. And 2 iPods loaded up with lots of music for the drive there and back. Oh, and the ShUz.

We were off by 8PM and drove through the sunset in eastern Washington

And kept driving as the sun rose while we neared the Utah border in Idaho

Quick stop at Salt Lake City to take pictures of the church grounds

*heart*

Drove through Dixie National Forest and Bryce Canyon National Park before checking into our hotel for the night

Rock/sand formations at Dixie

An arch for cars to pass through at Dixie

The view at Rainbow Point, 9115 ft above sea level at Bryce Canyon

Another view of Bryce Canyon

Woke up bright and (sorta) early to start our ascent to Angel's Landing ^_^

Steep red cliffs all the way up

A quick pause for some photos on the way...

At Scout's Lookout before the dangerous climbing part

Hmm... perhaps I should turn back about now...

At the (almost) top!

We skipped the last 1/2 mile or so because... well, it was scary. And I don't really wanna plunge 1,200 ft to my death should I miss my footing.

This was how high up we were!

We took a break at Scout's Lookout for lunch and then went to another less scary hiking trail. It was called the Emerald Pools and there was supposed to be a waterfall in which we were supposed to pass through. But since it was the middle of summer, water was scarce and it just wasn't as interesting of a view.

Stayed the night at the hotel before we spent the next 24 hours driving back home.

On the way...

Cue Twilight Zone music~

We actually had 3G signal at one stretch of the highway in the middle of the desert - all sand, no buildings in sight, with some occasional cattle roaming about. We think it might've been because we drove right by Area 51.

You see that white dirt road on the left in the distance? That road leads to Area 51. If you pass one of its remote triggers around its parameter, Bruce Willis will be dispatched on a black hawk helicopter to take you down.

And so that ends my 4th of July road trip. Loads of fun, some huffing and puffing, and Ian's expression at the top was just priceless! Loved it!

Missed the Cyclists but met some Cowgirls!

2010-07-01T12:59:00.003-04:00

So the weekend we were supposed to head over to Fremont was kinda topsy-turvy. I blame it on the inconsistent weather and bad forecast. It was supposed to rain on the day of the parade, but it turned out to be just cloudy all day, with lotsa sun towards the evening. And the day that was supposed to be just cloudy and NOT rainy.... well, it rained.

End result: We skipped the parade thinking it would rain, and washed the car in the rain.

But, we did check out a couple of new bars that weekend =) Cowgirls Inc., in particular, is the favorite among the guys. Well, because they have girls dancing on the bars just like in Coyote Ugly.

And they were hot too.

We had some shots...

And found out why the dancing crowd was not so happening

At the end of the night, we went home, and Ian caught a humongous mosquito for me lol

Big, eh?

This Fourth of July Weekend, the gang had decided to head southeast to Utah for a hiking trip. I'm not an outdoorsy kinda person, but this is definitely gonna be exciting ^_^ I was hoping that we'll get to do the whole camping/hiking she-bang, but we didn't have enough gear to actually camp. So we'll be staying at a motel which works fine.

We're leaving today and will drive all night long, hopefully arriving there tomorrow morning. I'll post up pictures from my trip when I get back! *excited*

Nothing to talk about, nothing to post

2010-06-17T18:27:00.005-04:00

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything... mainly because, well, nothing much is happening over here other than my job hunting. No interviews lined up yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

So... yeah...

But trust me, you'll hear something if something happens... like this weekend, when we hopefully get to check out the summer solstice parade at Fremont... nyeh he he he he...

Project RoadTrip - The Wrap-Up

2010-05-27T01:37:00.007-04:00

So throughout the journey, I was taking note of interesting town names that we came across as we drove through nine states. Unfortunately, my parents are not the best at taking fast-moving objects, so I only managed to get one other picture of weird town names:

Others that we past:

Aladdin, and Anaconda Opportunity (I'm not sure if these are two separate towns or it's just one town lol)

We've been mighty busy since we hit Seattle, as you can prolly tell if you were following my tweets =P

Mum and Dad have now seen two of Frank Gehry's works:

Outside EMP|SFM at Seattle Center

We went on the Seattle Underground Tour:

The skylights that had turned purple after so many years due to the manganese in the glass

Ate yummy seafood and desserts around the city:

Getting ready to chowdown a pot of random seafood at the Crab Pot

Super delish green tea tiramisu at the Wasabi Bistro (went there twice!!)

Went to watch a movie in IMAX 3D and came across a giant's lair:

Dad: "Quick! Take a picture before the giant comes back!!"

I had a WONDERFUL time with mum and dad. They were only here for two weeks, but it was definitely a fully packed two weeks of fun, stress, excitement, amusement, enjoyment, and more fun =)

Thanks Dad for sponsoring the trip, food, and shopping sprees; and thank you mum for keeping me amused with all your witty remarks lol.

I hope we took enough photos to satisfy mum and keep dad shaking his head; and ate enough good food for dad to talk about it 3094843487 more times until it drives mum up the wall ;-)

Love you lots and lots!! *hugzz*

Project RoadTrip - Day 4

2010-05-22T00:34:00.006-04:00

Distance to destination: 313 miles
Current location: Coeur d'Alene, ID

Nothing too cool to post, other than some random pictures lol. Kinda excited cuz we'll reach Seattle tomorrow! \(^o^)/

But first, here are some things I discovered during today's trip:

1. My dad eats his toast with A LOT of butter. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.

2. Those damn bisons are like ninjas. They appear out of no where in the dark and you cannot predict what they will do next.

3. The peeps up in the mountains found a way to keep snow off their trashcans.

4. Not absolutely. POSITIVELY.

5. Coeur d'Alene might just have their own font. The entire town seems to use this same exact font everytime they write "Coeur d'Alene".

6. My mom is good at taking my poser shots. Maybe cuz she's a poser too lol.

Now that I have 3G, I'll prolly be tweeting more so this might be the last post until we move to a hotel some time next week. If I have time, I'll try to put something up tomorrow or Sunday =)

Ta~~

Project RoadTrip - Day 3

2010-05-21T02:10:00.006-04:00

Distance to destination: 743 miles
Current location: Yellowstone West Entrance, MT

I'm super tired so I'll keep this short. And I have one thing to say:

Thank Goodness We Made It Out Of YELLOWSTONE!!

We entered Yellowstone National Park at about 6PM... and did not make it out til almost 11PM. We were stuck behind TWO herds of bisons for over an hour. OMG. I'm not going back in there again. Damn bisons.

Ok, pictures...

Mt. Rushmore!! w00t w00t!! XD

Deadwood, SD - the final resting place of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane

Mum's messy messy hot dog during lunch

Dad was going on and on and on about how this area looks like Rambo Land.

Big Horn mountains were created by the grinding and pushing of the earth's plates causing this unusual crease on the cross-section of the earth here. Cool eh? =D

We drove through snow fields up in the mountains and mum, being mum, jumped in planning to take a picture of her touching the snow. Unbeknownst to her, the snow was soft (and melting) so both her feet sank right into the snow and she jumped back out in a hurry. Lol.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't jump right into melting snow before testing it first.

2. Yellowstone National Park is damn huge.

3. Don't enter Yellowstone right before sunset unless you want to get stuck behind a herd of bisons coming out and miss going to Old Faithful in the process.

4. Don't expect that there will be ANY lodging in Yellowstone (other than campgrounds) eventhough it's damn huge.

5. When you see a sign that says "beware of crossing bisons" and it comes with flashing lights, they sure as hell meant it. So don't speed and get ready to brake.

6. I think my dad is stressed out.

Alright, time for me to shower and sleeeeeep...

Project RoadTrip - Day 2

2010-05-19T23:02:00.008-04:00

Distance to destination: 1299 miles
Current location: Mt. Rushmore, SD

It was raining and misty by the time we reached Mt. Rushmore, so I'm hoping that it will clear up overnight so that we can actually SEE Mt. Rushmore tomorrow morning before we take off to our next destination =)

What can I conclude about South Dakota after driving for about seven hours in this state?

1. No one really stays in South Dakota - they are either around only in the summer for those Mt. Rushmore tourists, or they are ghost towns...

...rabbits are a completely different story, apparently

2. It costs $15 to look at some bad lands

3. There are actually some really breathtaking and wind chilling scenery around these parts - after looking at them, I can't remember how the WoW Badlands looked like... hmm...

4. You can kinda hike in flip flops - just don't hike in flip flops when it's super windy and super cold lest you want your toes to freeze over

5. That time zone between Pacific and Central is called Mountain time. Makes sense since we are about 4,331 feet above sea level right now.

6. AT&T needs to step up on their 3G coverage in touristy spots so that smartphone users can actually TWEET or update their FB with photos! Come on! Mt. Rushmore?? Not even Edge coverage???! Seriously?!

That's it for today. Pls cross your fingers that it's a good day tomorrow when we head up to Mt Rushmore again for another peek! X|

Project RoadTrip - Day 1

2010-05-18T22:12:00.009-04:00

Distance to destination: 1752 miles
Current location: Fairmont, MN

So what have I discovered?

1. I have a damn lot of stuff - even after packing and shipping off about 17 boxes and dropping off clothes twice at Ian's place.

2. My parents have impressive packing skillz - we managed to fit everything that we wanted to fit into my car... except for one drawer. And still have enough room to see the rear view mirror:

Packed full full with just enough room for mom to sit in the back seat lol

3. Wisconsin Dells is a resort town... with loads of water parks and one road that has bars, restaurants and touristy shops. And they only open on the weekends wtf. So we went to this restaurant called Famous Dave's for lunch and left within the hour or so lol

Dad's super happy with our whiskey wings and "80 Proof" ribs (both have whiskey in it)

4. My dad IS MacGyver. So turns out there was a piece of metal that was rattling at the bottom of my car (how in the world did the mechanic miss that??) and my dad used twisty ties to hold it together until we got to MN. Then...

He busts out his (my) screwdriver and got a pipe connector thingy from Walmart

And went to work...

That's the metal piece that came off, and my dad's mad macgyver-ing skillz.

Lastly, since I'm travelling cross-country, let's see how many weird town names I come across. Here's one for today:

The sky was definitely blue when we passed the exit... the grass was still green tho

tata for now! ^_^

Project RoadTrip

2010-05-17T00:10:00.005-04:00

Graduation was good and over, and now begins my next journey. My parents came over to attend my second commencement here at Purdue and since they've already explored the Midwest, it's time to do something a little more adventurous.

It is time... for a roadtrip!! XD

Of all the years I've been here, I have to admit that I've never actually been on a roadtrip although it has been much talked about among people and seen in movies like this and this.

Thanks to my awesome parents and loverly boyfriend, we managed to get most of my stuff packed up with the last few boxes getting shipped out Monday, allowing us to take off early Tuesday =)

Our trip will cover nine states and hopefully span five days such that we will arrive on Saturday and Sunday night.

Total distance: 2389 miles
Days: -1 (we haven't started yet!)
Current Location: West Lafayette, IN
End Location: Redmond, WA

I will try to tweet as we travel so that all of you will know where in the ~~world~~ States is Jayme on Twitter or Facebook ^_^

We shall see how good AT&T's 3G coverage is and if what they say in those commercials are true lol.

I'll also update my blog whenever I can... provided the random motels we check into have free internet lol.

In the meantime, here's the performance from CultureFest which I was telling you about in the last post ^_^

Til next time! Ta~!!

The Coffee Dance

2010-04-27T00:24:00.006-04:00

This Friday is THE CultureFest.

And to get some competition going, a bunch of us Asian girls decided to give them Indians a run for their money and perform a dance. Since they have guys, which allows them to woo the audience with flips and tricks, our mission is to drown them with cuteness and make their noses bleed with sexiness.

We've been practising for the past week and will be practising some more this whole week before the big performance. I just came back from one, in fact. Let's see how it goes *fingers crossed*

Moving on, or should I say back in time, my consulting project team flew to Minneapolis to give a final presentation to our client.

Some pictures to wrap up that trip:

Found the store at the airport and HAD to take a picture with it. What to do, they don't have a store in Indiana.

Ate Somalian food for the first time. Tasted like Indian food =P

By about 3AM that night, everyone was sick of practising and was as tired as that morning when we took the Thermo exam after a sleepless night of studying.

Hee~~ me is Visitor #13 ^_^

Apron-ed up for that coffee cupping session =D

For those who don't know, "cupping" is basically a method to taste coffee. To do this, you need a spoon. The cup is for your spit. You want to only cup plain black coffee (no flavorings, no sugar, no cream!).

To do this, scoop up a spoon of coffee, and purse your lips as though you are going to slurp something. As you are bringing the spoon of coffee to your mouth, inhale deeply through your mouth so that a spray of coffee covers the inside of your mouth when that spoon touches your lips.

This lets you taste the coffee - you can tell if there is a fruity flavor, or a more earthy flavor in the coffee. You can also look for a lingering taste after the coffee is gone, and taste the acidity of the coffee. A stale coffee has an acidic feel to it and may not have a nice good aftertaste. So once you are done tasting the coffee, you can spit it into the cup, or just drink it. The testers usually spit it back into the cup since they taste-test the coffee all day.

Enjoying a mini-sized cuppa Joe before we headed out to the airport and back to Purdue

I had a great time with the team, and I'm glad that our client loved our recommendations and the effort we had put into it =)

Ok, now I have to get back to Financial Statement Analysis.......

...but... *sniff sniff* ...I should probably take a shower first...

I have WhaT?!??

2010-04-06T21:11:00.005-04:00

In just one week, what I initially thought was a sprained chest muscle became a "walking pneumonia", a fractured rib, then back to "Oh, no, it's probably just a sprained muscle" and a super minor pneumonia.

The docs at PUSH need to be more certain before diagnosing their patients.

I've been put on Vicodin, which made me extremely nauseous, and I have to take an antibiotic that will make me photosensitive and cause kidney failure if I don't drink enough water. O_O So... how much water is enough? And does thie mean that I need to avoid direct sunlight in case I get blisters all over my body? ...it's making me paranoid now. I drank so much water for the past few days that it's making me feel sick >_<

I got switched out of Vicodin to some other painkiller, which apparently is also an opioid... wikipedia tells me that I can have withdrawal syndrome from it as it can cause physical dependence... I stopped taking it this morning and I've been feeling nauseous and dizzy all day. Maybe I just haven't been eating enough cuz I've been burping.

The chest pain came back so I just took some a few minutes ago. We'll see if I feel better tomorrow =)

April Fool's!!

2010-04-01T10:38:00.005-04:00

Happy April Fool's day everyone!! I wonder what are the headlines for today?

Google officially changed their name to Topeka.

YouTube, with all the hype about having HD vids, has launched a new type of viewing option - TEXTp.

For those who love coffee, good news for you! Starbucks now offer Plenta (128 fl oz) and Micra (2 fl oz) cup sizes!!

And don't even try going to College Humor today =P

Finally, for those WoW fans, boy does Blizzard have some awesome new features and items to make your gaming more pleasurable!
- The WoW EPEE Number!
- Now you can smell and taste the air of WoW!!

Have a good one! ^_^

Semana Hispánica

2010-03-31T18:39:00.006-04:00

Esta semana es semana hispánica. Teníamos muchas actividades incluyendo el desayuno internacional y un partido en el final de la semana. Hoy, gané un premio para cantar una canción en español.

...Babelfish doesn't do forward and backward translations very well. Meaning whatever that it spits out in Spanish will not be translated correctly when you try to translate it back to English. Regardless, if you are too lazy to translate the above, here's the gist of it:

This week is Hispanic Culture week and they had a bunch of activities here. I won a prize cuz I sang a song in Spanish (Feliz Navidad, if you were wondering what song I can sing in Spanish lol). So...

¡Aquí están los cuadros! (Here are the pictures!)

The small hamper of ffooooddd iteemmmzz... XD

*violently tears the plastic to shreds*

I got alll these fooood (and a small bottle of "water") and........

...a lemonade card? O_o?

No, really. It was at the bottom of the package. I thought maybe it's a coupon that will get me a free supply of lemonade the next time I go to social hour. Oh, wait... I already get that during social hour anyway. =P

Okay, moving on!! ...a few things to highlight from the package ^_^

It's a ring! With the colors of the Mexican national flag!!

The bright colors got me curious so I opened it and ate it. I had a suspicion that it was made of something that I don't like... and I was right.

Sweetened coconut flakes!! Yucks! >_<

The Latino version of that Hostess cream cake thingie lol

Corn cooookiess!!! (Do you think it will taste like corn?)

That's all I wanted to say today. I just got excited that I actually won something and wanted to share the joy lol.

It's for the Children!!

2010-03-29T16:14:00.007-04:00

The Charity Ball was held this past weekend. Yes, folks, you can now breathe a sigh of relief since I will no longer be spamming your FB News Feed with marketing campaigns.

It was a huge success (although I wonder how much of it was due to my spam status announcements?). The venue the organizers picked out was excellent, even though it did get rather hot when everyone started dancing. Or perhaps it was the alcohol? Hmm...

Anyways, here are a couple of photos from the event!!

The beautiful ladies of Krannert~

The Disney gang

I got auctioned off for a dance... guess who won the bid? Lol

Headed to a friend's place after... to master the art of...
...DRUNKEN KUNGFU MASTER!! XD

I had a great time! *hic hic*

***********************************************************************************

On another note, I'm only taking two classes this module. I'm almost done!! *excited* But one of them will probably require more work on my part, especially since it's a finance/accounting course. It's been a very interesting course thus far, as I am actually learning how to detect creative accounting (i.e. how to tell if another Enron/WorldCom episode is gonna unfold just by looking at their financial statements). How cool is that?? =D =D

Alrighty, I'd better get back to my assigned readings...

Sleepless in Seattle

2010-03-25T18:25:00.008-04:00

Never really watched the whole movie, but here are the photos I promised!! ^_^

Crazy about the Space Needle!!

Trip out to Boeing for an exclusive VIP tour ^_^

"Thank you, thank you. It's a pleasure to be pitching for the Mariners today." ^_^

The founding fathers and mothers of Microsoft. ...and then there's Jayme. =P

JUMP!! (heading out to the San Juan Islands)

This is a true candid shot... but can you tell the difference from the fake?? =D =D

Cuz THIS is a fake candid photo... teehee ^_^

Trying out a hat I eventually bought as a souvenir

Super poser by Friday Harbor in San Juan Islands

The daffodils are in bloom!! =D

And so are the cherry blossoms ^_^

My fav photo of all *muaks*

And that's a quick recap of my spring break, in no particular order.

Note: For those who are wondering... thankfully, we sold quite a bit of tickets for the Charity Ball, so it's on, but from what I heard, we still need to sell a bunch more to break even. If you would like to donate, please send a check to MVP... or tell me and perhaps we can arrange something ^_^

Ramblings of the Pissed

2010-03-24T00:30:00.002-04:00

I'm just damn annoyed and really have to write something about this.

Yes, the economy is bad, I KNOW that. But are you telling me that you can't even spare a little bit for some good? Not even for charity? And it's not like you're not getting anything back from it. It's called the CHARITY BALL for a reason. Dress up, look pretty, and tuck in to some good food and entertainment. There are gonna be silent and live auctions. The most amusing thing is they are auctioning off ladies and gents for first dances... which is pretty awesome if you ask me.

YOU GET ALL OF THAT FOR $25!!

Plus, it goes to the children's home in Lafayette (can't remember the exact name).

And because of YOU STINGY SCROOGES, we might actually NOT have a Charity Ball this year! This is the 15th year anniversary for goodness sake!

The people in Haiti are receiving aid, the people in Chile are too (I think) and you can't even donate to the CHILDREN OF LAFAYETTE???

POO ON YOU!!!

Vanished: The Movie

2010-03-13T19:31:00.004-05:00

So the movie has finally been uploaded on YouTube.

Enjoy!!

Just finished off with my school trip in Seattle so I'll post up some of my fav pics next week ^_^ Got a bunch up on my FB already, so head on over to check them out if you can't wait til then k!

Other things that I'm up to is making a movie for my friends' wedding. I'm hoping to get it done this coming week and have it good to go by next weekend in case I need additional clips. I'm excited!! =D

The Move: Phase I

2010-03-04T01:39:00.002-05:00

El Spring Break

Next phase (anticipated): End of Mod 4

Stick around!

Cute drunkeness!

2010-03-03T11:45:00.007-05:00

One of my friends had a baby a little over a week ago. It was really exciting cuz we knew when they were going to the hospital and when I didn't hear anything from the father-to-be after a previous text message saying that they were going to induce labor by night time if nothing happens, I knew something went down. I just didn't know when it was over lol.

Elena was born the next day, in the evening; after what sounded like a 12-hour process.

Barely a week old!

She looks so tiny in my arms!!

Congrats to the lucky parents! ^o^

And now for the second half of the post title.

The Asian Business Club hosted a Japanese Etiquette and Sake Tasting event at one of the local Japanese restaurants this past Friday. We had some good food, and definitely some pretty good sake... all the way from Japan!

Ginjo, Honjozo and Junmai Ginjo

Half of the group who attended the event

I learned some pretty interesting things about Sake, and a few other things about Japanese etiquette as well. Overall a very fun event!

That same night, there were two (maybe three) other parties going down. The Wine Club had a social and guess what wine I brought to the party?

Pacific Rim wine! Lol

...but nobody opened up my bottle cuz there were too many bottles that night!

Theennnn... we headed to ANOTHER house party. This was where crazy stuff started going down. I won't divulge the details, but let's just say some people drank wayyy too much (no, not me) and it was amusing to watch them.

I'm done with my exams; now all I have to do is wait for my results while I enjoy the beautiful warmer weather in Seattle ^_^

This, of course, does not happen until Friday. I'm gonna have to pack and start spring cleaning my apartment before I leave so that I can get a better estimate on how many boxes to ship to Seattle after I graduate. Ugh... moving sucks. But then again, I get to be with my TeDDy BeaR... FINALLY! XD

Can't wait hunny! Muaks!!!

8 weeks in hyperdrive

2010-02-25T23:30:00.009-05:00

Next week is finals week. Wow, this module has really just flown by!!

Okay, so I've been too lazy to post up superbowl commercials. And since someone else has already posted some mighty fine ones, you can watch his top picks here.

Moving on, I only managed to sleep for about 3 hours last night so I am TIRED. But I figured I really need to update my dear readers on why the module has passed by so quickly for me.

In pictures.

I made another movie. This time, it is in conjunction with the Asian Culture Week and a kickoff to the CNY celebrations. Unfortunately, the movie is not up on YouTube yet, but you can always check it out on my FB..... if you are my friend =) Otherwise, hang on a little while longer! I'm working on getting it up and running ^_^

Valentine's Surprise

Gave Ian a surprise visit for Valentine's weekend, thanks to a couple willing to join in on the fun =)

*muakz*

CNY Reunion dinner ^_^

Chicago getaway

Went up to Chicago for some overnight eating and clubbing fun ^_^

Clubbing @ Sound Bar

Exploring downtown

Crossing the bridge

Almost Alumni... just a leetle bit more to go

Krannert MBAs get to celebrate our almost graduation through an event called the "Almost Alumni" event. We get to dress up in biz professional, eat some light refreshments, do a survey, and take tons of pictures!

Listening to lots of speeches

Getting ready to pose for the class picture lol

The Purdue Boilermaker Special! Woo woo!!

Alright, nite nite all!

The CNY Snowstorm

2010-02-06T01:55:00.006-05:00

While some people may be complaining about the hot and nasty weather that is ever-present as CNY approaches in Malaysia, I'm here freezing my butt off as Mr. Winter hits us with (hopefully) a final snowstorm of the season.

Snow has been falling continuously since this morning... It's almost 2AM and it's still snowing.

Winter Wonderland? Only if you're indoors!

Bare bushes covered in a light coating of snow by midday

The same bare bushes when I came back just 20 minutes ago... at least 2 inches thicker

Even the stair railings were white, sparkly and fluffy!

*hugz n kisses* ^_^

Superbowl is coming up this Sunday so I'll plan on posting up my favorite commercials... as always =D

And in case I get too busy, Happy Happy Chinese New Year from this part of the freezing world!! ^_^

Busy Busy Sushi Busy

2010-01-25T01:04:00.004-05:00

I apologize for the lack of posts...

Been relatively busy since school started. Although I'm only registered for three classes, I also added on a consulting project and will be making another movie for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebration.

I've also been busy catching up with friends... and eating, among others lol.

A few pictures to keep you drooling while I'm away... ^_^

Heart-shaped nigiri! XD

Got a little carried away...

Nom nom time!

I'll post up more pictures as and when I have the time. In the meantime, just follow me on twitter since I try to update at least once a day so that you'll know that I'm still alive and kicking (this means YOU, mum.)

Xmas Well Spent on Food and Love

2009-12-30T17:19:00.006-05:00

I think that's a pretty good summary of what I was up to over the Christmas weekend. Went up to Seattle and surrounded ourselves with delicious food and wonderful company =)

Let's allow the photos to do the talking ^_^

On the way up to Seattle, we were able to make out Mt. Rainier

Looks absolutely beautiful covered in snow =)

A live Christmas tree... complete with presents!! ^_^

We had hotpot (steamboat) for dinner, and spent the rest of the time counting down to midnight to open presents. And what better way than to mix up some tasty drinks with relatively high alcohol content! Lol...

Layered B-52: Made by my TeDDy BeaR =)

Sooo manee bottles!!! O_O

A few shots and some cocktails later...

The couples got all lovey dovey <3

Uh... some took it to the next level =P

And throughout the five-day weekend, we just ate and ate and cooked and ate some more!

Lunch at a French restaurant... poached eggs with bacon + mushroom + onion gravy... yum!

Chili crab for dinner!!

And fried rice made by my super-skilled baby before we went back home =D

Apparently we'll have more food to come for the New Year celebration! Hokkien Mee, Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai... and goodness knows what else!!

I can't wait!! ^_^

*air liur meleleh*

Wishing all a very Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T15:24:00.005-05:00

So we saw a really modern Santa while out to lunch yesterday...

Ho ho ho, Merry Xmas! Vrroom vroom!!

Just wanted to make a short post to wish everyone a Super Christmas and a Fantabulous New Year! =)

P/S: Since you were gonna do the same thing to Dad, here's an early "Happy Birthday" from me to you, mum! =P

Oh, and happy belated birthday to my cousin back in Penang! (see, I didn't forget!)

H-O-L-I-D-A-Y-!!

2009-12-18T20:39:00.006-05:00

Yes, people, I am on my winter break now!

Seattle has been significantly warmer than the midwest, albeit the rain. But I ain't complaining! Just stay above the 40's and i'll be as happy as a clam ^_^

I'm waiting on my TeDDy BeaR while he takes a quick shower so that we can head up to Seattle and enjoy happy hour at Ruth's Chris.

Their Ahi Tuna is especially yummy...

Now I just need to decide what I should order for my drink... hmm...

It's working now!!

2009-12-03T22:53:00.003-05:00

Woohoo!!

Enjoyyy....

The First Thanksgiving Movie - Krannert Style

The First Thanksgiving - Krannert Style

2009-11-20T15:06:00.005-05:00

In a whirlwind of three weeks, I came up with a storyline, put together a cast, and a slew of talented individuals to produce a movie for Krannert's American Culture Week for the Krannert Graduate Students Association.

The teaser poster for the movie

I was super busy, meeting up with everyone, sourcing for props and costumes, and scheduling filming sessions (which I was able to squeeze into just an hour or two a day over just one weekend). I was very happy with how it all came together (albeit all the rush), and we had an extremely good turnout for the premier (or should I say the Finale for the Culture Week) as well =)

Some of the things I learned from this experience:

1. Next time, give yourself a longer lead time when you want to produce a movie
2. Networking is DAMN important (I found out who to go to for costume design, photoshopping a poster and editing the movie - all from talking to people)
3. Maybe I should have put a climax at the end instead of an anti-climax?
4. I HAVE to learn how to use Final Cut Pro... it's Ah-May-Zeeeengg!!
5. Word-of-mouth can be very dangerous - especially if it consists of very high expectations

Ok, ok, I know you guys are DYING to watch it, so here ya go!! ^_^

The First Thanksgiving - Krannert Style

Comments welcome!

Edit: The video has been disabled because we need to make sure we are not violating any copyright laws. Check back soon!

Happie Halloween!

2009-10-31T12:21:00.005-04:00

Just a short post to wish everyone a very happy halloween!

More pictures from the Halloween Party I attended can be seen here.

Enjoy!

Speaking of Halloween, I went to watch Paranormal Activity at midnight last night.

It was a freaking scary movie! Excellent way of depicting the paranormal, and definitely one of the most scariest US original movies I have seen. Ever. Most US horror movies are really just plain gross, and I tend to get more freaked out by Asian horror movies. This is something different.

The entire movie is filmed as though it is a home movie, hence, shaky cameras, etc. The movie to watch if you wanna scare yourself shitless.

Note to self:
Do not dress up as a character from an Asian horror movie and watch a horror movie within a span of 3 days unless you want to get nightmares and get paranoid as you turn off the lights at night.

New Orleans Part II

2009-10-15T12:04:00.012-04:00

Finals are ovaaahhh!! XD

The nice thing about this mod is that I was taking an insane amount of classes but only had to sit for two finals ^_^

Anyways, as promised, here are more pictures of New Orleans =D

I've been playing around on photoshop and trying out different things so you get to see the fruits of my work too!

Food
I'm telling you right now that it's all gonna be seafood since staying in a landlocked area for the past year or so has given me seafood cravings.

Seafood platter @ Mulates

Seafood gumbo at Mulates (best one I've tried so far!)

FRESH Louisiana oysters (yumm!!) @ Felix's

Mah Crawfish Po'Boy sandwich ^_^ (@ Felix's)

Mmmm... deepfried softshell crab

Jumbo scallop with Portabella Mushrooms @ Mr. B's (so sweeeeet...)

Mr B's BBQ Shrimp... sooooo gooood (I'm getting hungry thinking about it)

And let's not forget Cafe du Monde's beignets...

Sights and Sounds
My trigger happy fingers went wild as we roamed the streets of the French Quarter. ..or more like I kept coming up with different poses every ten feet we walked.

Walking down Bourbon St.

Some artistic poses. I threw in my photoshopping skils as well lol

Camhoring

I was going for the "waiting for someone in the evening" look here

A voodoo shop!!
I wanted to go in, but nobody wanted to go in with me =(

*cue scary music...*

By the Cathedral

The menu at Cafe du Monde. How many beignets would you like, sir?

Dedicated to Justin =P

Walking on the railroad tracks

More poser shots lol

A pretty cool building we saw as we were walking back to the hotel

The fountain of FIRE!!!

Ok, I think that's enough New Orleans to keep everyone happy =)

I'll be heading off to Seattle this weekend for the break. AAANnnnnddd, I'll be visiting this german town called Leavenworth for Oktoberfest, so hopefully I'll have some pictures when I get back! ^_^

Happy fall break!!

Finals Week

2009-10-10T08:54:00.008-04:00

I can't believe the Mod is almost over!! O_O

And that the weather is friggin' cold! For early October!! We even have a freeze warning today! >_<

Anyway, as the post title suggests, I'll be busy studying for finals and then I'll be heading to Seattle for break so there is a high possibility that you will not hear from me for a while...

Here are a couple of photos to keep you company... from my New Orleans trip. I have loads of pics so I'll prolly split them up =)

If you DO see an update within the next week, it most likely means that I'm procrastinating =P

First look at New Orleans: a statue at the airport

Outside Cafe du Monde

Daytime at Bourbon St.

Constant parties = Vandalism

Nighttime on Bourbon St.

I'll be back for more!! ^_^

Flooble diesssss

2009-09-17T21:01:00.010-04:00

I've been intently watching the sudden disappearance of my chatbox over the past week or so and have come to the conclusion that the flooble chatterbox is officially dead.

Hence, I now introduce to you... mah C-Box!! ^_^

It's cleaner, it's fresher, and it blends well with my blogskin! =D The only downside is that anyone who uses firefox cannot post anything on there lol.

Nothing particularly awesome has been happening, hence, the sudden lack of posts. However, I will be heading down south to New Orleans next week for a conference! (Shhh... don't tell my brother cuz I think he's dying to go there)

Will definitely try to wander the streets (esp the French Quarter) and take some pictures despite my busy schedule. Today onwards to the next week is gonna be complete madness for me since I have to finish up all my assignments by Tuesday, help host a tailgate on Saturday, study, sit for an exam, pack, perform sufficient research on companies prior to my departure, and organize a BBQ immediately after my return!

So, my dear parents, please do not expect any calls from me anytime soon ok?

In the mean time, please do enjoy a few episodes of...

DR TRAN!!

Fanmail: Episode 1

Fanmail: Episode 2

It's not midnight yet!

2009-09-08T23:51:00.006-04:00

In the US anyway.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dad!! ^_^

You know what I realized? I don't seem to have enough nice pictures of just me and you. Not a single one. (Ok, other than the one up there which I came across after hunting for one for the last 10 minutes...)

The next time I come back (or when you get over here), we are taking at least 100 photos of just me and you. That way, I can be sure that I'll have one for every birthday and father's day post =)

Hope you had a good one! (And thanks for calling!)

Love you, Dad!!

Handbags and a Wedding

2009-09-06T19:38:00.004-04:00

Who wants to be my bridesmaids if I decide to do this at my wedding??

No, really. I'm serious!! Lol.

That's freaking awesome.

Anyways, I've added a new link on my Friends' Blogs sidebar. For all you Coach lovers out there in Malaysia - I have a friend who buys and sells original Coach merchandise for premium outlet prices so head on over there if you wanna treat yourselves to some stylish bags (or perhaps the guy is looking to get something nice for the girl?)

Enjoy...

BlizzCon Day 2

2009-09-05T13:11:00.020-04:00

Started off the second day with some serious questing. This map was given to us by the questgiver and we have to complete the quest in a certain amount of time.

It was a fishing quest where we had to collect lures from five NPCs lol

After turning in the quest, we get to try our luck to get some epic stuff... but all we managed to get was a couple of posters, a comic book and a keychain lol.

And so our endless wandering continues..!

"I deserve the Frostmourne... !"

A priest!!

Handcarved gnome warlock in T6 gear XD

I met the Mistress of Pain (and a bloodelf)!! Awesome costume =D Wish I could make something that keng chao... I'll definitely join the costume contest lol

Diablo's infamous cow level... Moooo...

I am... LICH QUEEN...

A buncha cosplayers hired to promote Nvidia's 3D Vision. Effing awesome. If I ever get enough money, I'm so getting one of those and immerse myself in WoW lol.

Night elves!! From Darnassus!! ...Like, seriously!

"Omg wtf is taking them so long?? I just need one more person to summon the rest!"

*Bubble hearth*

Got to watch TAFKAL80ETC (Formerly Level 10 Tauren Chieftain) and Ozzy Osbourne perform for the closing ceremony! ^_^

Haha, sorry, no pics of Ozzy cuz by the time he performed, my 2GB camera ran outta space so I used Ian's camera instead lol.

Awesome convention!! XD

BlizzCon Day 1

2009-08-29T12:51:00.020-04:00

I'm just gonna jump right into the pictures cuz there are soooo many of them XD

Me camwhoring in the back seat on the way to the convention center

You always need a pic of the huge BlizzCon sign XD

Ran into a Pandaren while we walked to the back of the line. And it was a damn long line, I tell you.

More cosplayers while we were standing in line to get in

We went through the front doors, but the main doors weren't open yet. So we got to stare at the Lich King for about 15 mins.

And we're in!!

That's the main hall. Where the opening and closing ceremony were held, along with the sound-alike and costume contest. We pretty much sat there for the first two hours cuz we had to save good seats for the opening. (w00t! Instant Fear for warlocks ftw!!)

We only started exploring the vast convention center after the opening. Damn the place was huge. We headed over to the Starcraft section around lunchtime to watch the preliminary tournament.

I was amazed at their clicking skills O_O

While wandering around, guess who I came across?

Illidan!! With glowing green eyes!!!!

And Kerrigan!

She looks damn cool eventhough I've never played SC before lol.

Okok, I know you guys want to see cosplayers (or perhaps sexy ladies in costume?). So here's how the fans do it:

Hm... a night elf druid?

Busty blood elf and succubus - one of the first decent cosplayers I saw that day (but definitely could not compare with the first place winner in the costume contest)

A Taurennnnn!!! (cue Peanut Butter Jelly Time music)

Look! It's High Inquisitor Whitemane!
Hmm... she looks a lot shorter in person.

Winner of the costume contest: Diablo's Mistress of Pain

And this is how Blizzard does it:

They actually went to Silvermoon City and paid a couple of gold for the blood elves to show up for the day.

Day 2 will have more cosplay pics so stick around! ^_^

BlizzCon Day 0

2009-08-27T08:34:00.013-04:00

BlizzCon was freaking awesome!!

...at least, for the avid gamer =P I was shocked to notice how BIG it was: 26,000 attendees! That's like the size of a decent university flocking to Anaheim for the weekend!

I will be posting up my photos in parts just cuz there's so many things to talk about lol.

We landed the day before.

Ian & I at the airport (he's calling the hotel to confirm the check-in time)

John Wayne statue at John Wayne airport

After checking in, we headed over to the convention center to register and get our goody bag. Now mind you, this was the day BEFORE BlizzCon.

And THIS was the line to get the passes........outside (and it stretches from one end of the convention center all the way to the other end and curved around)

This is the line... INSIDE.

You see the horde of people at the other end? That's not just one line... Oh noooo... that line took up about half of the whole space. So the empty space you see is about how many people there are already in queue.

So after prolly 3 hours of waiting...

I gotz mah Goodie Bagzz!! \(^o^)/

It dropped a Legendary item!

Hmm... I wonder what's in this box here?

Epic Marine!!

Posing with his gun lol

This particular marine design was custom made for BlizzCon attendees only but they do have other designs available for purchase.

That's it for today (I have to go to class). But keep on checking back for more updates on BlizzCon! I'll be posting up pics of cosplayers and more!! ^_^

Sleepless in Seattle?

2009-08-15T15:55:00.028-04:00

Yesterday, maybe. But while my bro was here, I was sooo tired by the end of our excursions that I probably slept like a log.

He was here for four and a half days and we did quite a bit of driving and walking during that short stay.

Cue the photos!!

Mt. Rainier
A dormant volcano, but nonetheless, absolutely stunning and breathtaking scenery.

Halfway there

We stopped to marvel at the glacier water rushing down from the mountains

The Lich King (at least that was the impression I got when I looked through the photos)

Like, seriously! Compare with this:

Similar, right? I'll just have to make it a little bit more dark and ominous...

Moving on!!

And we reached our destination!! (Mt. Rainier in the background)

We hiked through the evergreens... (here's where Twilight fans might go "Oooooo..."

Another shot of Rainier

"AHHh!! Falling tree!"

Another view of the melting glacier. Eventhough we were pretty far away, we could hear the rushing waters down below. Scaryyy....

Perfect place for a picnic, eh?

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring food and drinks... Picnic FAIL!!

Lost in Seattle
And that is partially true too, especially since I'm not familiar with Seattle roads. We definitely took a few wrong turns but reached our destination eventually lol.

One of the world's most germiest tourist attraction: The Gum Wall

It all started with a couple of ppl thinking that it would be funny to stick chewed gum on this wall, and other ppl just kept doing it and never stopped! Some artistic ppl even uhh... drew stuff with their used gum too.

And guess what we stumbled upon as we gazed at the wall?

This!! Do you see it? Do you see it!? Lol

Beeg Alien Scum coming to get me!

The Science Fiction Museum... for the nerds and geeks out there (they even have Gundam models lol)

My THIRD visit to the Experience Music Project... at least the tix were cheap this time hehe

We had fish & chips by the port and fed the seagulls

The Seattle Public Library

... very interesting building design concept, I must say. I told Jus it looks like the EMP, except this architect had a RULER.

More pictures inside the library (my bro's last "must-visit" places before he left the next day):

The Red Room

Me reading a newspaper featuring the building I was in

The bro and I

What Else Did We Do?
Well, we cooked dinner. I did not get a chance to take pictures of all our dinners, but here's the sushi dinner:

Rolled up maki before it was cut

Dinner! Yummm...

I'm heading back to school after this. Not sure if I'm gonna like this coming Mod cuz I'm taking 5498513 courses so if you don't hear from me, just follow my tweets... I'm bound to update those more often lol.

All that said, although I'm not too happy to be away from my baby again, but I'm sooo looking forward to next weekend =) Some ppl already know about this, but I'm gonna keep this hush hush for now keke. Pictures will be coming! ...perhaps sometime after I've killed myself for the course overload.

They're HERE!!

2009-08-12T14:09:00.014-04:00

BlizzCon stuffff!!!

Mini - one of your t-shirts!

You officially owe me money now cuz I have your stuff! Total is $35.98 plus tax & shipping keke. No interest for the first 12 months lol.

Oh oh! Guess what else we bought??

Two pets that come out from an egg!

Murky's egg

*Right click*

Out pops it's wittle head out of a baggie!

Meet Murky & Lurky the baby murlocs!! They be best friends ^_^

They like to pose for the camera too lol

Ok... that's it for today's post. I was just super-psyched cuz I didn't expect to receive the package til a few days later hehe.

Lolz

2009-08-12T02:28:00.005-04:00

What happens when a passionate girlfriend does not realize the boyfriend is on vacation?

This...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Summer in the Midwest

2009-08-11T16:23:00.019-04:00

So like I said, my bro came to visit me for a month and I've never been so busy having fun with him (and Ian) ever!

Pictures, as promised from back when lol.

Fourth of July weekend
Both him and Ian touched down just before the weekend and we went just about everywhere in Chicago... by foot.

Under the Cloud Gate

"Ok, on the count of three, we're breaking in..."

Me and my man... staring off into the Chicago skyline

Buckingham fountain @ Grant Park

One of my fav night photos ^_^

Random Chicago weekends
There's always something to do on the weekends when my bro was here.

Baha'i Temple up in Evanston (because zueig decided that he wanted to test his memory as to how to get there without making 3 u-turns - and he did it successfully too XD)

We did the architectural boat tour - very interesting and insightful

We discovered an intriguing painting at the Art Institute...

And went around taking pictures of random sculptures in the city

Right before leaving Chicago for good, we stopped by the Robie House. A very forward thinking design considering the era in which it was built (early 1900's)

Exploring Michigan
Drove over to Michigan to visit our cousin one weekend. A very short visit, but sure was fun! (I passed out in the evening cuz I was soooo tired!)

Blueberry picking with my cousin and his kids. They are sooo adorable!!

Warren Dunes...

Feel the sand between your toes!!

My jumping shot

By Lake Michigan. I can't imagine how those crazy Americans can swim in the freaking cold water!

My bro and I

And that's all for the Midwestern adventures. Northwestern adventures will be in another post so keep a look out!

Blog Upgrade!

2009-08-07T16:53:00.005-04:00

Ok, so I FINALLY sat down and upgraded my blog template. Was trying to work out some of the kinks but Youtube's widescreen just can't fit in this new template so I might have to jiggle around the coding a little bit more to make it fit.

One new thing I've added: the EBOF Tracker

A way for EBOF victims to track the predator and avoid running into it... or for my family to see what I'm up to when I'm too lazy to post =) Hope you guys like it! Comments welcome ^_^

I'm also looking to change my blog header but I don't have any brilliant ideas as yet. I still want to push forward with a reddish theme for the header, so maybe I'll use it as some sorta border or try to blend the header with the background red. If you guys have any fantastic ideas, I'd love to hear them! I like the Exploding Fury blog title, but my posts seem rather tame lately... maybe it's time to think of some other name? Hm...

Note: Feel free to feed my fishies all the way at the bottom... Need them fattened up by Thanksgiving =)

Coming to a laptop near you...

2009-08-05T12:56:00.008-04:00

Ok, pictures are coming soon! I'm sorting out the 5618975120000 pictures that my bro took so it will be up shortly lol.

In the meantime.... GUESS WHAT I FOUND ON YOUTUBE!!

It's.........

...

...

...

...

...

DR. TRAN!!

And here's one of the new episodes!!

Enjoy...

Shopping much?

2009-07-22T23:51:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post for the parents.

So we got you most of your stuff.

That's your favorite son exhausted from hours at the premium outlets

I apologize for my disappearance but I promise to put up more photos once I'm done with my internship - this is my final week!! XD

Bz bz weekends

2009-06-20T18:22:00.023-04:00

Anybody who touches down at O'hare will have the best first hand Chicago experience of all....... Chicago traffic.

That's what Kathy went through with me heading into Chicago after I picked her up from the airport. Hey, at least we experienced it together lol.

So as promised, here are some pictures from her visit! ^_^

Waiting for the train to get into downtown

Official name: Cloud Gate
Nickname: the Bean
What I call it: the Blob

A close up shot of the Cloud Gate

Ehh... an open auditorium in Millennium Park - where we went to watch Kathy's fav gospel singer perform lol

At the concert... a view of the city from the crowded open auditorium

Pweettie flowers...

Kathy's first Ben&Jerry's ice-cream!

We rode on the ferris wheel too! But it was sooo cold that day!

A view of the city from John Hancock tower

We met up with my fellow classmates over in Wrigley field ^_^

Exploring downtown Chicago...

...and who can come to Chicago and not eat their famous Deep Dish Pizza??

But seriously guys, no more deep dish pizza if anybody else visits ok?? I've had it up to my neck with deep dish pizzas because when anyone comes to visit, they want to try it.

...ok, I'll take my bro... but that's the last person! No one else!!

***********************************************

I went to Seattle last weekend. The shortest trip I've ever spent there, but worth every second of it! ^_^

Main reason? To surprise my TeDDy BeaR and give him a great big welcome back to the US lol. I tell you, we were busy all weekend loh! Sooo many things to do - we went to a BBQ party on Saturday, then went to get him some necessities (i.e. vacuum cleaner and clothes steamer cuz he's too lazy to use an iron lol). Finally, we went to watch a movie =)

Illustrations...

The crowd at the BBQ

Enjoying some ice cream

hmm... must've gotten into some argument there

We watched Up in 3D... and we were given those stylish 3D glasses which I just hadddd to take a picture of lol

And guess what?? =D =D =D

I gotz presents from my TeDDy BeaR!! XD Guess guess what he gave me?? =D

...

...

...

...

...

ok lah, I kenot tahan anymore... I'll just tell you lol

it's...

...

A Roxy bikini!!

I LOVE it!! Fits really well... I just have to work on my butt so that the bottom actually fits nicely lol

...

...

AND AND!!

He got me something else!

A Gucci handbag!! =D =D

It came inside this cute little box too!

Thank you baby!! Love ya lots! *MuakS*

The start of the summer weekends

2009-05-31T12:06:00.016-04:00

Pictures!! ^_^

Mini's Graduation
Mini graduated two weekends ago and although I was not able to stay there very long, I managed to get some pics taken with him in his penguin outfit =D

A picture with his presents (courtesy of me and JJ)

Poser pic

Navy Pier & Giordano's
A group of us hung out in downtown Chicago last weekend, which consisted of some drinking, some shopping, and lots of waiting. For those who don't know, in Chicago, Giordano's is a restaurant... NOT a brand of apparel. This place is where you can get authentic Chicago deep dish pizza =)

Waiting for our pizzas after we got seated at Giordano's

The pizza... with LOTS of Cheese...

Anna and I with her pizza... yummyyy...

Note to self: Never EVER go to Giordano's on a long holiday weekend (our total wait was TWO hours!!)

Farewell Dell, Hello Toshiba!
I bought a new computer. This was decided when I went raiding on WoW last weekend and could barely move around due to humongous lag. And my desktop has been winking at me everytime I open a new window. I think that was a sign...

And on Friday, my new lappie arrived!! \(^o^)/

The box it came in

And inside the big box, is another box!!

It comes with touch controls!! Is that cool or what??

The full view

If you look really closely, you'll notice that the lappie has cool looking speakers!! I love it!! XD

Chicago Mayfest
This weekend was the annual Chicago Mayfest.

Two words: Bratwurst and Beer.

I went with a couple of friends who came down for a day. We thought we'd check it out since it sounds pretty interesting.

OMG So many people!!!

I gotz mah German Bier ^_^

The crowd's still going at 9PM... eventhough they stop selling alcohol at 9:30

We came across a couple of people who were pretty into the festival too =)

Next weekend, my good friend from my early days in high school will be coming to visit me. I can't wait! More pictures to come! ^_^

City Life

2009-05-28T23:34:00.006-04:00

So I've been working for almost two weeks now. What do I think of it so far? ...pretty good, I guess. I'm still trying to work out what I need to do to make sure my projects go smoothly and get completed by the end of the 10-week internship =)

On another note, living in the city is definitely more fun than staying 10 mins away from work. Granted, it takes me 45 mins to get to work without the infamous Chicago traffic, and about 1 1/2 hours to get back home, but so far it's been worth it.

...

Even if I have to wake up at Five in the Morning.

Even if I have to sit through insane traffic.

Even if I have to drive +/- 5 blocks around the apartment to snag a free parking spot.

...

Things I get to do from being IN the city:

- take a bus to Michigan Ave

- grocery shopping is just around the corner

- Coldstone is about 2 blocks away!

- dance classes!!

- clubing in the weekends!

...

Anyways, I was talking to my bro the other day and he was asking me about some buildings with unique architecture in the city. So while I was sitting in the Chicago jam, I started looking around and saw this funky building:

Some modern building in Chicago

Jus, care to enlighten me on what building that is?

...

So working with a retailer is pretty awesome, as I came to find out. Employee discounts and sample stores ftw!!

Oh, and they have an awesome cafeteria and you can actually sit outside to watch pweettie swans swim across a lake ^_^

Maybe I shoulda waited for a nice sunny day to have lunch outside...

I'm a little distracted from watching TV so pls excuse me if I don't make sense...

Espresso Cookies + Star Trek = Super Adrenaline Rush!

2009-05-09T13:52:00.005-04:00

Finals are finally over!! w00t! Oh Summer Break!! How I was looking forward to you! My internship starts in a week and I've already received my assignment: Logistics & Supply Chain optimization. It seems somewhat challenging, but I'm looking forward to a change of pace from engineering.

Anyways, I tried out a new cookie recipe last night:

Espresso Cookies

Looks cool, right? I had to roll the dough in confectioner's sugar before I baked them, which made it quite messy to eat... unless you're Bob & Mini, who just popped the entire cookie in their mouth and couldn't talk for the next minute. It's a very chewy cookie, and has a distinct coffee flavor to it (hence, Espresso cookies). I thought it came out really nicely eventhough I had to alter the recipe a little. I guess the sugar makes it look like you're "drinking" coffee because it kinda represents the "foam" from the milk or whip cream... does that makes sense to anyone or is it just me?

So after baking and having a couple of cookies, the three of us headed out to catch the latest movie:

Star Trek

Excellent movie, eventhough I'm not a fan of the TV series =) The plot was good, and graphics were fantastic! The cast played their parts well, although I can't help but giggle when Cho (Harold from Harold & Kumar) appeared on screen. Apparently the rest of the theater go-ers shared my amusement too.

I was told that the movie does not follow any storyline from the old series or movies, but from what little I can recall, I thought none of the old movies had a continuation plot either.

At one point in the movie, Spock did this:

"Live long and prosper"

And suddenly, I had a flashback: my Dad used to give me the same split finger sign when I was young!! ...lol. I guess my Dad's a fan.

Dad - if you read this, you HAVE to watch the movie! Take mom on a date and watch it with her ^_^

kk... I'm gonna stop here for now. Got some other things to do... like sleep =P

Cravings for Home-Cooking

2009-04-30T19:33:00.005-04:00

I've been eating pasta and other non-Asian food for a while now and recently I've been having cravings for home-cooked food. And when I say home-cooked food, I mean the food that I eat whenever I'm back home... in M'sia.

A couple of days ago, I couldn't take it anymore and seeing that I just bought a bag of chinese mushrooms, some minced pork and a bag of beehoon, I made myself some Char Bee Hoon.

For THREE meals!! ^_^

It was sooooo goooooooood. *drool*

Doesn't really taste like my aunt's, but it not only satisfied my craving, now I want MORE home-cooked food!!

Note: Finals are next week, so I'll be concentrating on my studies for the rest of the week. Wish me luck!!

Withdrawal symptoms?

2009-04-20T22:34:00.003-04:00

Suffering from Ian withdrawal symptoms

Ya, like, seriously. How can you even get withdrawal symptoms from talking on the phone too much??

Bleh...

Anyways, make sure you enjoy yourself (& the food), my prince!! (Lol... jk jk)

Fantastic Performance!

2009-04-06T19:33:00.004-04:00

...and you wonder where these people are on Thursdays at the Cactus...

Note: This was the finale to Krannert's MBA Culture Fest, an event hosted by the Krannert Graduate Students Association for the public and have displays, food, performances and fashion shows put together by those in the Masters Programs. More photos and videos to come! (hopefully... once everyone sends me their photos keke)

sigh... Spring Break

2009-03-19T16:47:00.010-04:00

A time to sleep late, catch up on some readings, strive to get better at WoW, ...and updating my blog.

I've been super lazy to update it but I did promise pictures, so here goes =)

Cirque du Soleil: Saltimbanco

The stage

Half of the group that I went with (Mini got a little hungry at half time hence, the food)

An excellent show indeed. I still like KA, and I'm dying to watch O over at the Bellagio in LV, but I guess that will have to wait until I have income rolling in.

Jason Mraz live at Purdue!

My ticket ^_^

Outside Elliott Hall of Music - while waiting in line to get in

And the big man himself... well, little from where I was standing

He had an opening act and it took over 30 mins (maybe closer to an hour) after the opening act finished up before he finally appeared. One of my classmates actually brought a case to read for class while waiting for Jason Mraz to appear. Considering how long the wait was, I should've brought something too!

Wonderful performance though - he changed guitars for every single song!! And he got the audience involved when his three musicians with the wind instruments appeared up on the balcony halfway through the performance! Very cool =D

Charity Ball

All the pretty ladies dressed to impress ^_^

More beautiful ladies =D

The Management Volunteer Program (MVP) holds a Charity Ball once a year to raise funds for the local community. There were silent auctions and live auctions (consisting of auctioning off our fellow students for a first dance too! ...no I wasn't on the auction) and everybody had to dress up for the event =)

Lots of fun, but my feet definitely started hurting at the end of the night from walking on my heels for too long >_<"

Short Post

2009-02-26T23:56:00.004-05:00

Sorry, no posts for the next week or so since my Finals (gasp!) are next week.

I just wanted to direct your eyes to my sidebar cuz I've added a new link: Krannert Bloggers

This is a site set up for prospective Krannert MBA/MSIA/MSHRM/MSF students so that they may get a feel of an MBA student's life... uncensored.

I was recruited by the administrator (one of my classmates) cuz she got wind of me being a blogger =P

The plan is to try to post consistently so that students - old or new - can visit to keep up to date with the Krannert going-ons and what you should anticipate if you do end up coming here for your MBA.

I already have two posts up over there so feel free to check them out ^_^

Alright... back to studying...

the Package that Almost never came

2009-02-12T18:51:00.014-05:00

Early last fall, I fell really sick.

My dad, who got pretty concerned, decided that he should send me some leng teh that should help with my cold.

He asked me if I needed anything else since he plans on shipping them off in a package. So I rattled off a bunch of other things he could send me.

Well, all that stuff added together ended up making the package pretty expensive, and Dad decided to send it by sea.

When he told me this, and with my past experience of sending MY stuff by sea, I thought, "Hah, that's gonna take half a year for the stuff to reach here."

...and it almost did.

I finally received it end of last week - that was probably about 4 months after Dad shipped it.

And GUESS WHAT?

I could smell tom yum before I even opened the package!!

Uh oh is right... something definitely spilled in there.

And it had to be the tom yum sauce...

What's left of the oil from the tom yum sauce

...the bubble wrap was totally soaked with chili oil...

...and so was the box (but they all smell soo gooood!!)

Everything that was inside the package after I cleaned up the mess (excluding the tau cheow)

So Dad, are the stuff in the picture everything you sent over? I know customs rifled through the package so I can't be too sure... which reminds me... I thought you were gonna send me leng teh... what happened to that? =P

I'd bet I know why customs went through my stuff!

Someone thought it was a GREAT idea to put the sambal hae bee in packets resembling drug packets.

Hmm... I dunno, Agent Smith. It doesn't smell like any drugs I've ever come across...

And just earlier this week, I got another package from Malaysia *grin*

Layer cake!!

Courtesy of the person who tagged all those who have not gone back to Malaysia to Penang food. On FB.

Just cuz you're bribing us with Layer Cake doesn't mean you're off the hook from getting punched in the face you know! Wakakakaka~~

Anyways, a big Thank You to Dad and the Facebook food tagger for the goodies =)

Now I have to catch up on CSI while enjoying a nice plate of rice drenched in curry...

Eh... Happy Friday the 13th!! And Happy Valentine's Day! Oh, it's gonna be a packed weekend for me:

Fri 13 - headed to Indy to watch Saltimbanco, by Cirque du Soleil
Sat 14 - Team meeting, Rockband night
Mon 16 - Jason Mraz concert @ Purdue XD

So I'll post up pics of these when I get around to it~~!

Chap Goh Meh

2009-02-09T21:34:00.013-05:00

Since it's the last day of Chinese New Year, I thought I'd let you know how I celebrated MY Chinese New Year =)

But of course, I didn't celebrate it on the 1st day. Nor did I celebrate it on the 2nd day. Nooooooo.....

...I celebrated CNY on the 13th day!! (that's this past Saturday, for those who are counting on their fingers right now)

The Malaysian Students' Association held a hotpot party and I thought I'd drop by to meet some new faces and to enjoy good old (as close as you can get) Penang food.

Prawns & beehoon... the balls were gone by the end of the first round T_T

Ok, some irony here. This event was posted up on FB, and in the description, it encouraged all attendees to wear red to make it more festive. I saw red alright.

Plenty of them. But guess who were wearing them?

...the Malays!! I ask you, how can the blardee Chinese be so un-festive?? It's OUR New Year for goodness sake!

I wore pink and tied a red ribbon on my ponytail!

The girls on my table =)

Moving on, here comes more food pics ^_^

My little bowl of goodies came with one nice piece of prawn =D

And someone added a packet of har mee paste into the soup so it actually tasted like hokkien mee. At least I know that mum & dad won't die of hokkien mee withdrawal when they visit haha. (I still have the har mee packets that I'm saving up just for you guys ok!)

"Yee sang" - or as close to one as you can get... no fish but I guess this will do

"Lou ah, lou ah!!"

Left: Bowls of tong yuen; Right: More of where that came from *drool*

Yummmmm.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and don't forget that Singles' Awareness Day is less than a week away! Start looking for someone to hook up with already!

Like a kid again (almost)

2009-02-01T18:45:00.008-05:00

I went to watch a theater performance on Friday. No, no, not a musical or a play... or an opera for that matter.

It was CSI: Live!

I was super excited because I LOVE those CSI shows and I try to catch them whenever I have the time.

Turns out it was an interactive show brought about by Mad Science and well, .........it's for kids. Ages 8 and above. That's what the brochure tells me anyway.

I thought, you know what? The tix are not very expensive, and I'm pretty sure I'll never see something like this anywhere else so why not just check it out?

And I tell you, I sure felt like a kid when I was there. XD

Outside the theater

The stage from where I was sitting

When the actors on stage called out "We need another VOLUNTEER!!", the kiddy crowd went nuts

No, I didn't volunteer myself if that's what you were thinking.

One of the "CSI"'s, HS & me =)

There were two "CSI"s on stage and they are one of the most un-likeliest pair I've ever seen! Hilarious!! The girl takes her job seriously, while the guy is super goofy and gets distracted very often. For those who watch CSI, you know how Horatio puts on/takes off his sunglasses each time he makes an appearance? Well, they kinda made a spoof of that cuz when the goofy CSI introduced himself the first time, he took off his sunglasses and went, "I'm David Hart, CSI". Then, he puts it back on again and goes, "David Hart, CSI". Lol.

Overall a very enjoyable show and worth my twelve bucks! ^_^

This is a couple of days late, but...

2009-01-29T22:32:00.006-05:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

-From one of the colder regions of the earth to one of the hotter regions...

If you think you had it bad, we were hit with continuous snowfall on the second day of CNY all night into the third day. I'm thankful that I have my heater, you guys be thankful that you have your a/c hehe.

A shot of some railings and bushes covered in fresh snow

They plowed the campus sidewalks, but there are still ppl trudging through the snow - evident from the footprints

I haven't seen this much snow since I moved out of IN, so the view each time there is fresh snow fall just entrances me. Of course, it's not always nice to see snow first thing in the morning when you open the front door to go to class. My first instinct is to close the door and go back to sleep. I closed the door, but instead of curling up in bed, I changed into snowboots. And trudged to my class.

It's been somewhat warmer today so guess what happened to the snow? Yeah. Slush. Especially the sidewalks that were not shoveled. This is when snow becomes super ugly. Imagine 7-eleven slushies. Except it's brown. Like, shit brown. ...okay, maybe dirt brown. Whatever it is, it's pretty disgusting.

....but the snow is sooo pretty!!!!! XD

Do the Dance

2009-01-24T10:29:00.004-05:00

The Eyebrow Dance, that is.

Dedicated to the person who can move his eyebrows independantly from the other. You know who you are. This is your next challenge XD Happy CNY, btw =)

I've been swamped with endless assignments and projects ever since classes began. Most people that I've talked to felt like the semester is more relaxed than before. Well, not for me! I'm taking a language class on top of my grad classes and if there's one thing I can advise anybody is to NOT take a Level 2 language class when you haven't taken the Level 1. I'm not gonna say NEVER... I mean, if you think you can handle it (which I'm having some trouble), then by all means go for it. For the gamers, I liken it to running a Heroic instance when you're only decked out in ~~blues~~ greens.

On another note, I am super excited that I got an internship offer =D I'm very impressed by the length of time it took for them to get back to me. My interview was this past Tuesday, and I received an offer letter yesterday! That's like... (counts on fingers)... THREE DAYS!! O_O

That's it for today. I need to get some sleep (woke up at 6am this morning for a tour of Sears @_@). Then it's back to work T_T

I just wanted to post up that video cuz I found it pretty amusing. Jus - if you can do that, I'll buy you ...urm......(looks at bank account) .......a tub of Ben&Jerry's ice-cream =D

OMG WTF?!??

2009-01-15T18:33:00.005-05:00

...

...

...

...

...

And THAT'S why I'm getting my frozen ass outta here when I graduate in 1.5 years.

Snow Queen and...

2008-12-23T13:58:00.007-05:00

...the answer to "GUESS THAT OBJECT"!!

So you've made your guesses and although some went all nerdy while others think they know the answer... yet others who saw the real thing claims it's sooo not what it looks like, I will now reveal to you the object itself ^_^

If you are not ready and still want to guess, then close this tab right now before you read any further!!

...

....

.....

....

...

..

...

....

.....

......

.....

....

...

Do you wanna know what it is? =D

...

Hehe...

...

It's....

............

....................

Absolut Vodka - the Xmas Edition!!

Wakakakakaka~~~!!

Plastic on the outside, glass on the inside ^_^

Sorry lah, it's a little hard to guess unless you actually saw it at Walmart keke. Mini saw it cuz he was with me when I bought it lollol...

~~*****~~

On another note, I have been dubbed "snow queen" yet again. Washington got hit with the craziest snowstorm on the day I was supposed to go there. Flights were cancelled, delayed, and god knows what else. I was supposed to arrive in Seattle on Saturday night, but my flight got cancelled and my rescheduled flight for Sunday was delayed to the point that I did not reach Seattle til at least 2 hours after my scheduled arrival. Roads were left unshoveled, with brown slush everywhere! Yuck.

Of course, if you only observe the view from your knee and above, it is quite spectacular. Snow-laden evergreens surround the area as we drove through the town. Definitely brings a sense of Christmas in the air.

Some pics taken outside dp's residence =P

Icicles hanging from a little bush as the snow slowly melts away during the day

Close-up of some red fruits covered in snow and ice

The view just outside the apartment

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year, everybody! =)

Guess the Object!

2008-12-20T10:27:00.007-05:00

Yes, folks, it's time to play...

GUESS THAT OBJECT!!

dp: remember I said I bought something for you? Well, you can guess what it is with the three pictures I've taken ^_^

So here's picture #1:

Shiny, and curved...

...any guesses yet?

Ok... a clue: You can find it at Walmart.

...

...

...

...

...

What? Still don't know? Okler, I'll give you another photo:

Like I said, sparkly, and curved =)

What do you think? Can guess ar? =P

Ok ok, another clue: It's glass on the inside, and plastic on the outside (at least, it looks like plastic to me!)

...

...and don't cheat by going to Walmart to find it ah!

...

...

...

...

...

...any ideas?

Final photo:

Lol... my artistic photo

If you still can't guess, no worries, you'll be seeing it tonight when I unpack =P

Those who KNOW what it is, please refrain from posting the answer till after 12am PST. Which is also equal to 2AM CT, 3AM EST, and 4PM Malaysia/Singapore.

Finals week

2008-12-14T14:51:00.003-05:00

Sorry, no posts for the next week or so... or at least, until I feel like blogging. Been lazy to edit photos, so I mostly just post them up on FB. Go there if you want to see what I've been up to lah.

Finals week this week and again, I have four finals (Mon thru Thurs) so I'll be pretty busy preparing for the exams. My brain is already fried from trying to figure out how to set up complicated logic constraints for my Quant exam prep. I feel that I'm pretty comfortable with most aspects of the class except for this part.

Last week, the Krannert school had a Holiday Social where we had an hour-long event consisting of stories on Xmas, perspectives on Xmas from different parts of the world, among other performances. I volunteered to form an amateur "choir" group to sing some Xmas carols and I thought everybody had a great time! =)

When we sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", Santa made an appearance! Turns out it was none other than one of our professors!!

Santa and me

That was pretty awesome haha.

Ok, gonna get back to studying now. Gah &%$# logic. I'll move on to Finance >_<"

Jessica (Not Alba!)

2008-12-05T20:44:00.003-05:00

Was surfing around youtube today and I came across this.

Seven years old and she weighs 220 kg!! How could anyone let their child eat and eat to that point??

This was a while ago. Check out her transformation now:

...amazing, right?

Neways, just thought I'd post this =P

I went to a Subaru plant tour today - very cool, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. I'll post up some photos when I was outside the plant and a couple of other pictures when I get around to it. Dead week next week (which apparently doesn't apply to grad students... we still have cases to work on) and then it's the finals!! O_O

Here it goes again

2008-12-02T11:28:00.007-05:00

And I thought this time would be different. I guess I was wrong.

For the three years that I spent in Purdue, it had never once failed to snow over Thanksgiving. It's either on Thanksgiving, on Black Friday, or some time during the weekend.

This time was no different.

I went to Seattle for the break and when I came back on Sunday, it was already snowing. It kept snowing through Monday too.

The view outside my apartment on Monday

Another shot of all that snow

Not much, but enough to get the ground and roofs covered.

That settles it. If anyone wants to see snow, they need to come to the midwest (I'm talking about you, Justin).

It's boring, yes, but snow is plentiful in the winter.

On a side note, I can't wait til winter break comes around. Three more weeks!! w00t!