Best Month of the Year :)

It was long awaited. And so the taste of it was especially flavorful, and lingered around longer, when it finally revealed itself. Half an hour late it was, but his entrance was grand nonetheless. I must say, though, perhaps it's the sitting, or perhaps the sound system of the arena just wasn't good enough, the whole live performance felt quite distant - as opposed to what I'd expected when I go for a concert, which is the intensity, the heat, the realness of the performance, the liveliness of the music breathed out from the performer. Not that I don't feel any of those, it just wasn't enough to quench the thirst after months long of anticipation. It could be because of the audience too, so cold they were, or you could say they were really behaving themselves. Maybe I was comparing it to the one concert I've been to in Malaysia 2 yrs ago, and it just seemed much better in so many ways. Or perhaps my expectations were a tad bit too high, hence the disappointment.

Anyway. In all, it was still good. I still enjoyed the music very very much, despite having to see him from the screen. :) Oh btw, it's Leehom I'm talking about. His concert in Vegas on Dec 22. Another one I went to was the one in Galen Center at USC, LA. Three years ago, I heard Jay Chou can't really perform live. This year I witnessed it myself. Three years from now if he were still as crappy as this year, I'd seriously throw rotten eggs at him. Yes he writes good music, but oh for god's sake if you really claim yourself as an entertainer or performer, at least try to perfect your singing before you appear on stage! Apart from his sucky singing, and his even worse backup singers whose singing was even more atrocious, the sound system was really tops. Dancers were sizzling hot too, and they dance really well. Didn't like the lightings though, they kept shining the bright light into the audience, making it hard for us to look at the stage. I felt it was a tactic to distract us from his bad singing. geeez. But if you ask if I'd still go to his concert in a few years' time, I would. Just to see if there's any improvement. And also I quite like his music. The recorded ones on CD I mean. :P

Then on Christmas day. (Oh did I tell you the first song Leehom sang when he came on stage was 'Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas'? Absolutely captivating, I almost melted.:P) Kanlun and I went to a family friend's house for steamboat. Food was good, company wasn't too bad either. Something out of the ordinary happened though. When we were having our dinner before we left, the gas of our mini-stove ran out, so they replaced new gas - except they didn't put it correctly and the gas leaked out. Gosh the whole thing caught fire and it almost burned my face!! Phew, luckily I moved away fast! Kanlun's sweater was ruined though, in the process of them trying to put out the fire.

After that it was staying at home reading and just chillin'.. I like it this way. :) Oh yeah I did the detox program tooo. :)

A Rainy Night, A Snail's Life (or rather the end of it)

Snwarbbiezein
Pomona - Jacque Snwarbbiezein, died December 19, 2007 Friday in an accident.

Born August 4, 2007 in a small garden patch at the back of Building 120, Uni Village, Pomona, he grew up wondering what his purpose of life was whilst working out in his own patch of soil. Unmarried, he lived with his cousin Shabby and brother Chuma, helping each other out whenever any of them were in trouble. He doesn't work for a living; Chuma and Shabby are both healthy strong snails because they get their nutrition from fresh green leaves, but Jacque only looked for fallen green leaves because he thought eating the ones still attached to the tree was cruel. As a matter of fact, he was skinny all his life and could only move at one sixth of Chuma's speed. Apart from being widely known for his righteousness, he's also known for his solid belief that even a tiny snail like himself deserves some sort of humanity and care. Ironic how the way he was killed totally crashed him together with his belief - for he was stepped to death by a gigantic human of 140 pounds on that rainy night. Jacque was among the 20 deaths that was killed, all crushed by the humans who was highly suspected to not even have noticed their deaths in the first place.

Surviving are his cousin, Shabby; brother, Chuma, and fiancee, Martha who weeped so hard for his short-lived life. So long, Jacque. May your soul rest well.

Another Year Older

Started out by writing a bunch of stuff, narrating what I did on my birthday so that in the future when I look back at least I have a record of what I did on my 23rd birthday.

Then I deleted everything. Thinking to self, is it so important what one does on one's birthday? If we're lucky and get to live till a ripe age of 80 or 90, does it even matter anymore what we did on our 14th or 26th or 57th birthday? If nothing goes wrong, there'll be so many more birthdays to come and I wonder if anyone's gonna keep track of what one did for each and every one of his/her birthday. But then again... knowing myself, being borderline obsessive-compulsive, likes to have things very organized, and rather meticulous, I know that if I had wanted, I would easily have kept a journal for my birthdays. :) I'd even have a list of who wished me for my birthday in chronological order, who sent me b'day cards, text'ed me, friendster-msged me, facebook'ed me, msn-msged me, or verbally wished me. And if I were free enough I'd keep all the msges and sms'es too. Okay at this point I'm pretty sure you'd think I'm some weirdo eh. Yeah so I am wacky that way. so what. :)

But. Doing all that would be kinda narcissistic. And I'm not. Plus it's a waste of time. So I won't do it. Funny how different people view birthdays differently. Some freak out for getting one year closer to death. Some don't give a flying monkey bout it, some believe that it's the time of the year where you have the one opportunity to be as selfish and demanding as possible. Some believe it's an excuse to splurge on things they desire. What I believe - okay this is gonna sound quite cheesy - is that it's the time of the year to thank my mom again, be very thankful of her for bringing me into this world not without going through some tremendous labor pain. And also, I believe it's a day to be happy. Doesn't matter how or what we do (as long as it's legal =P), it's a day we ought to be sincerely in cloud nine. :) I think we all deserve it, no?!

This year I didn't make any birthday wish. The one I made every single year for the past 7 years never really come true anyway, but then again maybe it's impossible to hope that it'd completely come true. This year for some reasons I wanted to be surrounded by snow and sipping a cuppa hot cocoa whilst enjoying the beauty of it. But it didn't happen. This year I have comparatively less friends celebrating with me. But I'm thankful I have these people who stuck around and tried their very best to make me very happy, grateful they're around. And that I didn't have to sit at home and stare into the computer typing a birthday entry, made me happy. :) no snow, but i saw some man-made snowman, had dinner with some close friends, then went to the beach took a ferry across the water to an island, had my hot choc. What more can I ask for, eh? :)

Thank you, my friends. I love you guys. Including those who couldn't be physically around. All the phone calls, sms'es etc. I appreciate them, really.

And so, as of today, I am 23 years and 2 days old. :) a very happy birthday indeed.

Knott's, Crepes & Godiva choc cake

As Disneyland was named after the creator Walt Disney, Knott's Berry Farm was named after Walter Knott. Such imagination they have. -.- Next time if I'm opening a business, remind me NOT to name it after my name. But that's besides the point. Roy and I went to Knott's Berry Farm - no it's not a farm farm, its an amusement park with roller coaster rides and a lot more - on Sunday. And boy was it fun! Oh yeahhhh so much fun it was, we got lost twice and what would've been half an hour's journey to our destination turned out to be 3 hours! How much more fun can one ask for eh?! :) Nonetheless it was an adventure! Definitely a fun-filled and interesting day, if not for the little Californian freeway venture and the lil cat-scratching moment during lunch, it'd definitely be for Roy's company. :) Thank you Roy, for inviting me.

Came back home, took a shower and we (Aaron, Kanlun, Roy, Chean and I) went to Diamond Plaza for some peanut butter-and-Nutella with ice-cream crepes. It was hella good, and I have my extra layer of love handles to prove it. When the clock strucked twelve, I was with them at WinCo shopping for groceries. Fred called :) and Poy too. Got back home, and Nick came over with a slice of heavenly Godiva Chocolate cake from Cheesecake Factory. Omg it's so good I had to dig in. Roy made me chug down a bottle of strawberry flavored beer, made me so full I couldn't have any more cake. Which ain't a bad thing cuz I get to keep it for the next day. :) That was my birthday. Quite simple yet filled with joy. Love you guys!

-to be continued-

Le Samedi

Yesterday (Saturday Dec 15): went for an interview at Queen of the Valley Hospital. It's for the Clinical Care Extender (CCE) program, a completely volunteering program that gives the participant hands-on training in patient care, and it's a year-long commitment. Really hope I'd get it, it'd be so exciting, and challenging of course.

Chean and Roy were nice enough to come with me, they know very well I'm still afraid of driving alone. Bah. Speaking of which, I really really need to get used to driving. Can't always have someone come with me wherever I go, can I. Anyways, so after the interview we went to the nearby West Covina mall for lunch and shopped around a little, before hitting Edwards Cinema a few blocks away. Watched Beowulf with the 3D glasses... that was fun! Golden compass was just an alright movie. The storyline was interesting (at least to me it was), but the climax wasn't powerful enough.Nicole Kidman was hot, and she was an antagonist in that movie. How often do you see her acting as the bad guy in a movie? mmm, not that I can recall of. :)

After the movie, went home to have baked salmon, courtesy of Roy. And throughout the whole time we just couldn't stop annoying Chean with "Are you the man they call Beowulf? Such a strong man you are" line, imitating Jolie as best as we could. Haha it was hilarious seeing her getting annoyed. :P Sorry darling, just had to do it, cuz it's hard to see any emotions from you (think: how you reacted to your portrait AP drew you), so whenever we could we would!! :P

Today - going to Knott's Berry Farm. Looking forward to it, will write more when I get back!

Ouch

So, Sheena left on Sunday. Jessoms left to Scotland too, on Tuesday, to visit her bro and meet up with her mum. Jeanie's gonna leave on Saturday to Canada to visit the cousin. Vinod's leaving on Thursday, which is today (in a couple of hours), to Spain for a vacation. Chean might just leave for a vacation too on Sunday. By next week I'll be left alone in 3P. Alone, in the cold cold winter... and my birthday is the next day after everyone left. bleh.

Anyways. This week I got some important things done, so I'm left with less to worry about. Had to thank Nick very very much for helping me out tremendously. An interview coming up on Saturday morning, for a volunteering program at the hospital, and for that I have to write 3 essays. :( Still working on that.

But last night I had so much fun, haven't had that feel good feeling in such a long time! It was a spontaneous decision for my part, I decided to join Jean, Jo, Vinod and Dhara for snowboarding at Mt. High. At night! uh yes, you heard correctly. My first time snowboarding and I'm doing it at night. Kinda felt like I'm stepping into the virtual video game world and living it, except I couldn't snowboard for shiat and kept falling down. But then again who can snowboard like an expert on their first try. :)

Fell so hard so many times, on my knees, ass, everywhere. At some point I thought my elbow joint hurt so bad it just might be dislocated. But it's all good. :) And I loved it. Maybe it's the sight of snow after such a long time (the last time I saw snow was in New York when I went there in March) that made me so exhilarated. Maybe it's the sport itself. But it doesn't really matter, cuz I'm definitely doing this again! Snowboarding, I mean. :)

ARRgghhH...!

You'd think studying in the library will be more efficient. But NOOOOO! It's noisier that the noisiest wet market you've ever been to! What is wrong with them? If you wanna have study groups or discussions or laugh and stuff, go somewhere else!!!!! !@$$^%^&%^&%*#!

I. can't. stand. it.

*Wishful Thinking* Sighhhhhhhh.

It's December Again!

it's confirmed that whenever i have due dates or some sort of deadly deadlines that i should so work on right now, i'd rather do what i'm doing now - blog. -_- or more like, i'd rather do everything/anything other than what i should do. and i'm pretty sure it's just not me. human nature eh. :P

yay it's december again! wow. last year we went to san fransisco, had so much fun, got to know jing li, found out who joe dimaggio was. :P uhmm. last year this time i was ten pounds lighter, and i probably ran faster (less friction less baggage hah). i could console myself it's cuz of my long hair that contributed to some extra pounds.. but i doubt it. oh well.. what's done's done. times like these i really wish i could go back to malaysia for a month or two just to lose weight and be pampered. i miss being pampered... hmm. mummyyyyy..

*ouch* oh, that's the big R hitting me back to reality. :) but on this cold cloudy day, i tell myself it's okay, it's december and it's my month. the time of the year i look forward to the most. everything magical happens in this month, everything happy, good. :) can't wait. :) and guess what, tonight is the night we're gonna see the opera 'La Boheme' for free, at Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. aint that a fabulous start or what. :) more about the opera in the next posts.. uhh.. after the finals of course. hehe. happy december peeps!