Hippity hop to the shopping...shop

Well, we're off tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. Flight leaves at 9.45 am, so we have to be there at 6.45 am, ye gods. I looked up the plane we're flying on, and apparently all seats (including "Hospitality class" i.e. the class formerly known as "Economy" but more aptly described as "Humanity in a tin can") will have individual screens for movies and such. Excellent.

Yesterday was SoleDrive's CD release party for The Orange EP. Tons of fruit sliced up and two army-sized platters full of pineapple and sausages shipped over to the Japanese Cultural Centre. I got pineapple juice dripped on me though (boo). A good turnout; I got my CD signed by everyone, including my brother (ha ha).

Today was last minute packing, followed by dinner at, ironically, the all-you-can-eat "Japanese" food restaurant. It's run by Chinese people, hence the quotation marks. But then again, all the Japanese restaurants I've been to aren't owned by Japanese people (except one). And I say "ironically" because in about a week and a half, we'll be eating nothing but Japanese food until we go home. Are we all on the same page now? Good. Jiggy schnitzel, onwards! ("Buh." "That isn't even a word!" "Jinga." "Good night, Homer.")

It's currently a balmy 19 degrees Celsius in Hong Kong and -15 Celsius in Toronto. To top it off, southern Ontario just got blasted with a good old fashioned winter storm. Snow, freezing rain, the works (the car turned into an ice cube). I'm not looking forward to the flight (15 hours, at least it's direct) but I can't wait to touch down. Here's our itinerary: Dec. 25th to Jan. 3rd (Hong Kong) - Consumerism (and a wedding), Jan. 3rd to Dec. 9th (Tokyo) - Culture (and yet more Consumerism).

All in temperatures above 0 Celsius. Mmmm....

2004 Year in review

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
Went to the Brew Pub, a homecoming kegger and took the RTS. Very university-cliche.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Ha, I didn't make any. I never remember them when I do make resolutions, so I prolly won't.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Jen's mummy.

5. What countries did you visit?
Canada. Soon to include Hong Kong, China.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
A better head-state, plan for future after graduation, the ability to cook.

7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
December 10, last exam. I have a bad memory for dates.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Ate entire spaghetti meal without splattering self. Kept number of classes skipped to an astonishingly low count of 6. Able to reconcile conscience with not going to fellowship (this makes me a "bad person").

9. What was your biggest failure?
Skipped 6 classes.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Allergies and such, but nothing major.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
New monitor :)

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The guinea pig is much less afraid of us now.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Someone who has been treating others very poorly. Also my dad.

14. Where did most of your money go?
*shakes fist at the money-grubbing bastards at Queen's*
*nods towards slumlord Bri-Bri*

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving into new apartment, going to HK and Japan this Christmas.

16. What songs will always remind you of 2004?
The Cranberries - "Twenty-one"
Paloalto - "Breathe In"
Girls - "Death in Vegas"
Maroon 5 - "She Will Be Loved"

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner (not enough snacking)
c) richer or poorer? Poorer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Reading. Have not read nearly enough books this year compared to the last.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Watching TV. But the evil box can be so bewitchingly tempting.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Attending cousin's wedding, meeting up with legions of relatives and shopping in HK.

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
Not really.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Scrubs

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I've lost respect for some people but that's about it.

26. What was the best book you read?
New ones? I don't remember. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Nighttime? Certainly not Knocked Up by Airhead-Canadian-"Journalist". Old ones: Herriot books.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Soundtracks for Garden State, Lost in Translation and Bleach.

28. What did you want and get?
A bathrobe.

29. What did you want and not get?
Interesting courses in school.

30. What were your favorite films of this year?
The Incredibles, Master & Commander (2003?), and others that I can't remember.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
See birthday post. I got rid of a lot of clothes, acquired a lot of new clothes, ate nachos and cake, and was a lazy arse.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If my profs were not all immeasureably exasperating (except for my stats prof, who is the nicest, most grandpa-ish prof ever).

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
Umm. Dark jeans of leggyness, more grown-up shirts (less sweatshirts). Fuzzy everything.

34. What kept you sane?
My housemates and freshly brewed tea. Also the crossword puzzle.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Colin Farrell. I know he's a dirty boy-slut but he's remarkably cute.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election; first time I voted.

37. Who did you miss?
My highschool buddies.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I stuck with my boring old people this year. They're all great. Well, there's always the confused Danish (Netherland...ian?) student who, upon learning I was in CompSci, informed me that at home, the ratio of males to females was about 10 to one and that it's much more even over here.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:
People are often (but not always) bastard-coated bastards with bastard fillings. I wonder sometimes if I should take this as the null hypothesis.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

"Taking off in circles
Wondering if it's worth it
You're innocent and ignored
But this main line system
Has a glitch in it
It's ignorance has been shown
When you realize it's paid for
Wondering where the story's gone
It's how do you feel
It's how do you feel suffocated
Breathe in
Breathe in
Breathe in
Look what's all around you"

Paloalto - "Breathe In". Confusing but inspiring.

The House that Food Forgot

...is where I live. When I got home on Thursday (long process, see below), there was half a loaf of bread (which I have since eaten), and a frozen lasagna (ditto) that were available. Now the fridge contains yummy Chinese almond dessert, which I must refrain from eating as it is for the whole family and not just me, and peanut butter. Oh, and eggs. The situation is of +6 direness and full of stomach-rumbling.

So, Thursday. Took the Kingston bus to the bus station, then the coach from Kingston to Scarborough Town Centre, then took the RTS to the Bloor-Danforth line, then the subway to Sheppard, and then walked to my grandmother's apartment. I didn't realize how heavy my bag was until Friday morning, when I woke up with sore shoulder, arm and neck. I thought maybe I had rolled into the wall with extreme force in the middle of a REM cycle or something. Hey, it could happen. Last week I tripped on my doorstop, stubbed my toe and then smacked my forehead into the doorframe.

I'm still feeling iffy about the security of our apartment over the winter break. Wnd informed me last night that the lock to the outer door (that enters into our apartment "building") was wrenched out of the door on Friday night. Dammit. I'm being horribly pessimistic about it; already prepping myself for a potential break-in by telling myself that my computer isn't that important. Pfft.

Katie and my Stinky Brother got me the extended ROTK DVD for my birthday (Whee!), so Stinky Brother is now merely pungent. Oh, and he got his grad pictures developed this week. The general consensus is that he should have shaved more carefully. And also that he looks like a meathead, albeit a smiling one. Ke ke ke.

Six more days until HK!

Twenty-one

So it's been a most satisfactory birthday.

Friday (10th) was my second, and last, exam (STAT 263). CISC 322 was painful; I'm not going to think about that one. Studied my ass off for statistics; however, it turned out the exam was pretty straightforward. This, in spite of the fact that the material covered was the ENTIRE textbook. Arrived home, thoroughly rained on but triumphant, and watched the first four episodes of Scrubs season one. Excellent.

Awoke at 9 AM, paralysed by post-exam period exhaustion and promtply fell asleep again after deciding it wasn't worth it to bodyslam Bento/Wnd/Biku (temporary housemate) to foil their planned birthday ambush (of which I was informed the night before). About an hour later, was cruelly woken up by the previously mentioned wenches, who burst into my room, shouting "Happy Birthday!" and launching themselves at my inert form. Birthday ambush accomplished, argh.

But I have the bestest housemates EVAR. They got me a fuzzy blue bathrobe. It is huge beyond belief. It is fuzzy beyond imagination. It is blue. It is fantastic. I lurv it (thanks guys!).

In return, I had promised to tell the tale of the pie on my blog.

The Life of Pie, by Kobuta

Once upon a time, in the Oven of the Kitchen of the House that Crack Built, a pie was baked. This pie was delicious and filled with cinnamonny apples of the Fuji variety. The Fuji apples were ridiculously enormous and dangerous for human consumption (stomach size issues), hence their transformation into a pie. Upon the top of this tart was carved the face of a cat. This cat was named Crusty Face (or Crusty for short).

Crusty was an ornery cat-pie. Although he was made of dough and full of les pommes and la sucre, he refused to acknowledge his pie-ly qualities and the possibility that he might one day be cut up and devoured by hungry hu-mans.

"I'm a cat, dagnabbit. None of this pastry business!" Crusty would say. "I scoff at hunger! I sneer at apples! I am CAT. Raar." Raar indeed, my flaky friend.

Sadly, Crusty Face the cat-faced apple pie met his end soon afterwards, when a Bento nonchalantly cut him into wedges and distributed his scrumptious slices to her friends. Thus, the heroicly naive cat-pie was reduced to a few crumbs on a rapidly cooling pie pan. But his legacy lives on, in our hearts, our minds and our stomachs. Long live Crusty Face apple-pie-cat.

THE END

Anyway, the day continued with the Clothing Swap '04: Rampant Depantsification. A bunch of girls, a bunch of clothes and a lot of stripping. Basically, everyone brings clothes that they don't want anymore, and everyone else tries them on and carries them away if they like them. I had aimed towards getting (i)a skirt for HK wedding, (ii)pants full of pantsly goodness and (iii)things that are not red or blue, because I have too much of these colours in my closet.

Succeeded on (ii), failed miserably on (i) and (iii). But I ended up with a pair of jeans, two dark blue sweaters, a red zip-up hoody of tinyness, a bunch of tank tops, and RED PANTS. Fantastic. We picked over the leftovers before packing them into bags for Goodwill, so I ended up with a lot more stuff than I had originally wanted. Including a black Le Chateau skirt of shortness and black yoga/capri pants that radiate Peter-Pan-goes-ninja. Fun was had, food was eaten (Mmm...coffeecake and nachos). Much depantsification.

Of course, since I got up at 10, and the swap went from 1 to 6ish, I didn't really eat a proper meal. Except for breakfast, which was yum: scrambled eggs and toast from Bento-neesan, coffee from Biku-neesan and entertainment from Wnd-obachan. I think we all crashed on sugar and appetites were all ruined.

Watched another four episodes of Scrubs while eating grilled cheese sandwiches. Biku, Wnd and I went for bubbletea at TokenBBTLounge of fobness. Talked of cabbages and kings and the density of mooncake.

Came home to a toolbar full of orange MSN messages saying Happy Birthday (aww), watched The Incredibles and now here I am, updating my blog at 2 AM with the longest post ever. Goodnight! Phew!

*Whirr whirr whirr POK!*


Return to Sender is 'hi-larious'. So read.

Feeling very sheepish; even though it's been a busy month, I've certainly had time to write a blog, but I just couldn't get around to it. Of course, it didn't help that everytime I tried to login, I got an "unexpected error" from Blogger. Hence, virtual radio silence for almost all of November.

It's been a fairly uneventful month. Assignment, assignment, essay, assignment, test, assignment, etc. Almost at the end of the term! They told us in first year that each year of university would fly by faster than the last and damned if they weren't right. It's a little unsettling to think that I only have three more semesters of school after this. Even more terrifying is the thought that I'm turning twenty-one in twelve days. Egads! Wnd and Bento assure me that it's quite painless and to join the club.

Shameless promotion: Ming's band just finished recording their new CD, so lots of stuff to be added to the website. Unfortunately, now that I've added everything, I want to redesign it. It'll have to wait until after exams and...

...Hong Kong! And Tokyo! In preparation for the orgy of consumerism that I know is approaching, I've been trying not to buy anything frivolous (except coffee) for the last little while. This is both a good and a bad idea: good because that means I'm saving up for the trip, but bad because the shock of arriving in Hong Kong (a city where it seems that 85% of the buildings are malls and the prices are 70% lower than in Toronto) will probably short-circuit my brain and I will become an automaton that forks over cash for items I have no use for.

Thus, I will return to Canada so overwhelmed by the amount of shopping I have done that I will not allow myself to buy so much as an orange for eight weeks. This is unfortunate as I have four new courses next semester that will probably require two $150 textbooks each. So no oranges for an additional two months. I will get scurvy and my housemates will scold me and I won't be able to participate in BEWIC Sports Days or go to class because I have scurvy, all because of this trip.

But I digress. ("...Dental plan! Lisa needs braces! Dental plan!...") It's been a good month: good weather, good food (mmm crockpot), good times. I promise to update this blog more regularly. Berate me if I don't.

Dreaming of Congee

Mmmm....craving a good hot bowl of congee right now.

It's getting nippy outside, so we turned on the heat. I'm all toasty. Sort of.

Lessee, what's happened lately? I got soaked walking back from campus on Saturday after two assignment meetings at Stauffer. When did CompSci suddenly become such a social major? I thought we were supposed to squat in front of our computers, growing paler and paler everyday until we had evolved into UV intolerant codemonkeys.

'Twas The Dude's birthday party on Saturday. We made him another chocolate brick with a "Super Builder" one dollar toy on top because we couldn't find another Bob the Builder candle.

I re-read Harry Potter Book 5. Ickle Harry is angry a lot of the time in this one. I had forgotten that. Finished it feeling depressed...am I the only one who found Dumbledore's Big Explanation very unsatisfying? Also read Volume 2 of the Cartoon History of the Universe (Springtime in China to the Fall of Rome).

"Breathe In" by Paloalto is my new favourite song. It's used in Hellboy movie (when HB is all beat to hell and he swipes a six-pack from some Hallowe'en revellers to relax a bit and to woo his lady friend at the mental institution.) The plot is a horrible mish-mash of the various comic storylines, but damn the music is good.

And lastly, a certain brother of mine failed to make contact with his sister last week when he was in town for his fiancee's birthday. So...

       Happy Birthday Katie! :)

And,

       Ming, your ass is mine! >:|

Actually some stuff did happen.

• I just found out that my friend Ashley was in a serious bike accident yesterday after class. She's in the hospital right now and seems to be recovering well, so will visit tomorrow providing I don't get lost in the hospital.


• Andrew, Friend of Bento, swapped West Wing box sets with his mom and lent us Season Two. He became our new favourite person until...


• Biku came to visit! Yay! She came with Trinity boots, Angel season one and a Spooka. SPOOKA! It's a ghost that lights up when you tap it's head! Eeee!


• Finished the horrendously ambiguous Assignment 1 for CISC 322 with Team Squinty (seriously, that is our group name).


• I totally kicked the Word Jumble's ass this week.


• A lymph node in my left ear decided this was a good week to become infected and ooze grossness out of my ear-piercing hole.


• SpaceShipOne successfully completed it's first test flight. Tarpon is one step closer!


• Went to the Cat Centre (Cataraqui Centre...not a centre for felines) today with Marge, Mike and Wnd. Got a "Boys are smelly" notebook for $5 (good) and a Dog of Glee bag for $3 (excellent). We dragged poor, shopping-embattled Mike all over that damn mall.


• Autumn has arrived. It is be-yoooo-tiful outside.

A Month In Which Nothing Happened



I spend a lot of time reading blogs, in which their owners report heartbreak, heartache, melodramatic shenagins and wondrous goings-on. I, on the other hand, have nothing to report. No news is good news, I suppose, but sometimes I wish I didn't lead such a terribly boring life.

This doesn't mean that I find a life full of tears and swooning and cursing of boys/girls/cats-that-litter-on-your-assignment appealing. (I've heard enough of that kind of thing in high school, from Rosedale girls bemoaning their alcohol-induced mistakes to friends who made mistakes while in perfect control of their mental and bodily functions.)

No, I sometimes wish that I actually did...stuff. That I was involved in something worthwhile or at least interesting. Jungle exploration, for example. Or perhaps the Kaleidescope program. But, being intolerant of mosquitoes and horrible with children (who don't respect so much as outwit this twenty-year-old), I haven't been able to find anything I can actually make a meaningful contribution to.

(I can't even prevent myself from ending a sentence with a preposition. Dammit.)

The funny thing is, it's not really bothering me as much as it used to. Well, it kind of sucks to feel like I have no aim or goal in life, but I am still in uni. Although some people my age seem to have their entire lives planned out (whereas I still don't know the contents in my fridge), I know God has something planned out for me (and yea, the Lord doth make His most Holy and Divine appearance in this blog. Huzzah!) and that my gift for eating cake batter and devouring books will be of use to Him somehow.

Whoa, I am Metalluna!

Internet up and running as of last Tuesday. I am back on good terms with Bell Canada again.

The year is off to a good start, in that my classes are interesting and my profs are not exasperating (so far). I worry sometimes that my major can often bore me out of my mind, but it doesn't seem to be the case this year. *knock on wood*

I've decided I need to start worrying less. Since moving in, I've been stressed about course selection, getting internet set up, the disturbing mustiness of my carpet, the disturbing holes in the wall underneath my window, etc. None of these situations (except for the internet set-up) have benefited from this frantic brow-furrowing and teeth-gnashing. So hopefully this school year will see a relaxed Pig with +5 mellowness.

And now, a paragraph on why I love the West Wing: "First we got a history of the fjords, then we got a quiz on the fjords. Do you have any idea how much I'd like to dress you up in lederhosen and drop-kick you into a fjord?!" "You IDIOT! I'm Joey Lucas!" "Sir, I need you to buckle down: it wasn't a nightmare, you really are the President." "I watched Ms Julia Child." "History of the yam in Latin." "Sam's getting his ass kicked by a girl! CJ, get the popcorn." "Sir, I need you to pardon a turkey."

Damn you Bell

Back in Kingston, moned into nice new apartment with high ceilings and a stinky fridge. The fridge turned off because the circuit blew about a week ago but we weren't here for about two weeks. Hence, poor Bento had to clean out the fridge while my parents and I went to Loblaws and bought more food.

Trying to order Bell Sympatico (High Speed for a while...until the discount ends) but the bloody computer won't let me order online. Dammit! I'm hoping the order didn't go through and bungle up my credit card info. Will have to order over the phone to a human being instead of punching in my information on a cold, unfeeling beast of a PC.

But, yeah. Am alive and well at school. BLARGH!

Edit: DAMMIT! Realized webpage does not display properly on bloody IE 6. Damned if I'm going to go back and recode my entire site according to IE standards. Too lazy. And it seems to work for everyone else (I use Mozilla, the best thing since the breadbox) so blah. Please leave a comment if it looks wonky to you.

Non Sequitur has moved!

DigitalRice is back up and running! Thanks to them, my blog has now been moved to http://kobuta.digitalrice.com. Archives may be out a while until I figure out how to save them there (always a problem for me). Ciao!

Shiny New Template

Spent today at church in the morning, then having a gloriously leisurely lunch with ah-poh (i.e. we both skipped sunday school and got home at 2pm instead of 4pm), watched Canada win our first gold and taught myself CSS. Sort of. If this site looks okay then I succeeded. Yay for me!

Happy Birthday Honest Ed!

He's 90. That's pretty old.

No big news in my life. I'm sure you've noticed by now that summer is lull-season here at non sequiter. Funny that the time of the year when I have the least to do, I fail to remember to fill my time by blogging. And then, the middle of fall term is when I fall into a blogging-frenzy, with as many as five useless, uninformative posts a day.

So...the little that has happened, I suppose I should write about, since (as Bento pointed out) my blog is her primary method of finding out what is happening in my life over the summer.

• Hong Kong '04 is officially on, in conjunction with Japan '05. I am obscenely and obsessively excited. It's the first time we'll be going as a family (plus one-- Ming's bandmate is coming with) in about 9 years. Cousin's wedding on the 27th, so we (Brother, Bandmate and I) are leaving on Christmas Eve morn (parents coming half a day later) and will be in HK over until the New Year has farted itself into existence. Brap. And then the same we will be swimming over to Japan, where Bandmate will have loads of fun keeping us siblings out of trouble and the yakuza, as he speaks Japanese and we completely don't ("Umm...Yakitori? Akihabara? Pantsu?" *SLAP*). It works out well; we'll keep the Triad at bay in the good old Fragrant Harbour.

• Work is okay. I've been filling in for one of the admins for the past two weeks while she was herding cattle in Calgary. Lots of filing, photocopying as usual, and hounding errant employees to meet their deadlines. The office also moved last Friday...down one floor. Moving your home is tough. Moving your office is like splitting the Red Sea while processing new insurance applications to boost the office's production report for the week. And damn costly. Looking at some of the invoices for new equipment nearly gave me a coronary: the phone and internet systems alone probably cost more than my entire university education and living costs while at university. Despite the half dozen movers employed for the day, somehow I managed to collect five colourful bruises on each leg (no skirts for a while). Not to mention a map of papercuts on each hand (see, moving filing cabinets with the files still in them damages the runners, so every file needs to be taken out, filed in bins, moved along with the cabinets and then put back into the cabinets in the same order). Ouch.

• I'm working backwards in time here. Okay, a flurry of social activity (well, a flurry for me) before the move. I was supposed to see The Producers, however, it's run ended early and I had to get my ticket refunded at the theater. Well, met up with Wnd, her pals Roberta and Kenny and my pal Gen (ate at Indian buffet, wandered the Eaton Centre, wiffled through a hip-hop festival, and got home at midnight. Excellent). Went to Arisu's (i.e. Alice) "Je vais travailler au dinson" get-together a few weeks ago. She and five other people went to Turkey for a month on a "cultural exchange" (see: missions trip) Lots of food, pictures and Queen's people that I didn't know in attendance. The next Saturday, went to SNA for the first time in about three years. I would classify this as "social" because there were about five hundred other people there. Anyway, gave Alice a ride home and she foisted half a cake and a bag of chips on me (leftover from Dindon party). Later, went over to casa de Alex for a movie night (well, got there late, so just one movie) . Watched Hellboy ("He likes cats") and drove home with lights on high-beam without noticing. Oops. And then finally went out for dinner and bbtea with Mindy. So yes, a social flurry. Soft-serve, of course. It was okay.

• Russel Smith is still incredibly poncy. w00t! All-you-can-eat-Japanese restaurants are the best thing since sliced bread. OMG TEH FOOD!
  

• Been watching some new anime (as in, still airing in Japan) via the miracle of BitTorrent and the legions of fansubbers. Recommended: Samurai Champloo and Sensei no Ojikan. Also, I continue to plug YKK. Read it! It will make you happy, DAMMIT! ...I am geek! Hear me go narf! NARF!

• Oh, and Return To Sender is very good.
  

"There's something 'bout blue"



what's your cowboy bebop theme song?


You're a Spirograph!! You're pretty tripped out,
even though you've been known to be a bit
boring at times. You manage to serve your
purpose in life while expending hardly any
effort (and are probably stoned to the gills
all the while).


What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Real post coming soon.

BenQ is my baby

After mourning the passing of my old CRT monitor for about a week, my dad went impulse shopping and brought home a shiny new BenQ FP737s for yours truly, on the grounds that he was in the store anyway, and this way, he wouldn't have to make a second trip. Right then. I'm assuming I will be paying him back for this, but he did offer to pay for half of it...twice. Logically, this should add up to one free monitor. At any rate, the Pig is extremely pleased with the newest addition to her collection of ShinyThings. Tomato (CPU) welcomes Baby Ben to the family. Wah!

However, I've just discovered that I'm worth approximately $1,979,858.00, so if I sell my body to science, I'll have plenty of moolah to pay my dad back. How much are you worth? (Ganked from The Alex)

Ventured downtown with the J/Gen's and Tiff and saw Shrek 2 for the second time, this time at the Rainbow Theater downtown. Terrific lines: "No, you great stupid pastry!", "Boss...let's shave him.", "You still look like an ass to me."

Remember folks... VOTE HAMSTER!

Laid off

Ha ha, not really. Instead of working May and June, I'm working May and July. If I had planned anything at all for July and August, I would be royally screwed, but as it is, I didn't so this change in my work schedule seems more like a vacation. Also a good chance for my fingers to recover from receiving half a dozen papercuts a day. Very nice.

Some resolutions for this month of Nothingness:

• mooch around for no more than half an hour at a time
• use the treadmill and work out at least three times a week (....pfft bwahahaha!)
• read my "Bibble" for half an hour a day (corruption of the word of God courtesy of Bento)
• read no more than one volume of manga a day (Mou! Hidoi desu)
• pratice parking at least four times a week (*CRASH! SCRAPE!* 'Twarn't me, I swear)
• eat lunch with my grandma twice a week (congee here I come)

Nothing else planned for the month except a visit to Kingston and eating a fridge full of ice cream. So if you get bored, send word via the "harsh jingle-jangle of the two-way talk machine".

Oh, and also Harry Potter! June 4th! Honeydukes! Weasleys! Firebolt! Exclamation point!

Ooo random.

1. Copy this into your lj:
      <*font color="yourusername">
      <*b>yourusername<*/b><*/font>
2. Delete the asterixes
3. Post it and look at your colour!

kobuta
hoyan
liane

(And now for something completely different)

If you're looking for a good laugh, watch any singing program or concert on Fairchild TV (Chinese channel here in Canada). I just saw a guy writh with a flame-shaped guitar, pretending to be lost in the throes of his musical passion for 3 minutes before I had to turn off the TV because it was just so funny and bad. Unbelieveably bad. The guy had his hair spiked into a terrible mohawk and this garish metal mask over the bottom half of his face (picture a surgical mask with a mechanical spider grafted to it). The guitar was fugly, his hair was fugly, the mask was fugly, the stage was overly red and smoky. He finally finishes his gut-wrenching "solo" (consisted of one note and extensive use of the whammy bar), posed dramatically, tore off his bad-ass mask and started to sing...Canto-pop. Like, a fluffy love song a-la-Jay-Chou. It was amusing in a very sad way.

(And now for something completely different)

Thunderstorms are COOL.

(And now for something completely different)

My brother's computer is infected with the Sasser virus. Guess who was recruited to get rid of it?

(And now for something completely different)

Scarbrough Town Center! Next Saturday from 12 to 4 PM! Children's Safety Fair! Parking lot next to the Krispy Kreme store! I was forced to volunteer for it because my office didn't have enough people, so everybody come. Free food! Marketing materials! Possibly pens! Kraft Korner! Alliteration!

Simmering

...with what? Not really anger. Bitterness maybe. But I'm definitely bordering on ireful. To quote T, I'm in a "meh" mood. I've been "meh" for a long time now, ever since school ended. My last post described feeling useless and lonely, but this one is all about being pissed off.

People have been pissing me off left, right and center. I shouldn't be so testy, but once you're in that kind of mood, you almost want people to annoy you so you can feel you're justified in being angry.

It doesn't help that the streets of Toronto have suddenly been filled with angry, spastic, impatient drivers who would rather you getting your skull crushed by oncoming traffic than miss their left turn. Bloody bastards. I hope you and your precious paintjobs get keyed.

Went to all-you-can-eat Japanese food today for lunch with family (Yang's Sushi Bar, HWY 7 and Woodbine). Normally I would have been ecstatic, but today I just couldn't enjoy it. What a waste. Instead of happily stuffing my face with ramen, I felt like face faulting onto the table, preferably with a loud THUD and several times over.

Oh, and my monitor decided that life wasn't worth living and quietly slipped off to The Great Void. The spark of life has left it's body. Literally. The little green light just died out like Arnie's in Terminator 2. So now I need to buy a new monitor. LCDs are damn expensive.

So to vent my wrath on something, I turn to this blog, and to you, faithful reader, to express my frustation with life. Ready? Here it comes:

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!



Whew. Much better. Ha, blink and you miss it, eh? ("Wow, Charlotte said fuck.") I don't often use horrible, indelicate, child-corrupting curse words like that. But sometimes you need to let it out.

Oh eww.

Blogger has gone...bubbly. Methinks the new Blogger interface is not to my liking. Bleh. I'm sure it took ages and hours of finger-cramping coding to create it, but it seems...overly simple now. Bubbly.

I am feeling decidely disgruntled. For several reasons: first, after mulling it over for a while, I've come to the conclusion that I am wholly and utterly useless. Really, I don't do anything. At least anything that matters. For two weeks, I've been going to work to file papers, make coffee, keep the inbox from raging out of control and photocopying forms in quadruplicate. Before that, a year of studying computer science, doing assignments that I wasn't really interested in, lazing around and doing nothing. Everyone around me seems to have some purpose or some goal. But no, no, not me. I just meander about doing a whole lot of nothing. I'm even useless in Chinese. I am yut gow fan. How pathetic. And it just sounds that much more brutal in Chinese. Mo liu!. Ouch. Dun juu!. Ooo. Someone hand me a band-aid.

Secondly, I'm feeling kind of lonesome. I'm working full-time, and pretty much everyone else I know is either doing the same or away at school. Is hard to coordinate a time to see each other. And my housemates from last year (essentially my family in Kingston), who I was used to seeing everyday, are all scattered all over the place: Lyd and the Poon in Kingston, Nem in B.C. and Marge way off in the hinterlands of northern Markham (well, she's just hard to get a hold of...not really that far). Am lonely. *sniff* Mom and Stinky Brother are off on conferences in the States. And there's only so much companionship you can derive from a guinea pig. Typical conversation with the Pig:

Me: Hey Pig.
Pig: *freezes*
Me: I said, Hey Pig!
Pig: *thinking* Must remain completely motionless.
Me: Piggy...Piggyyyyyyy!
Pig: No wait. Waaaaait. This means food! WHEEEET! WHEEEEEEEET!
Me: No, no food. You're grossly overweight, Pig.
Pig: WHEEET! WHEEEEEET!!
Me: *poking* Fei juu! FEI JUU!! JUU-JIE!!!
Pig: WHEEET! WHEEEEEET!!
Me: JUU-JIE SEUNG SIK YEH-AH! Well, too bad PIGGY!
Pig: WHEEET! WHEEEEEET!!
Me: Yeah, well, sucks to your asmar, Piggy. Hear that! ASMAR!
Pig: WHEEET! WHEEEEEET!! etc.

Is this my quarter-life crisis? If it is, you'd think I'd have had it when I turned twenty and left my teen years behind forever. Nope nope nope.

Spastic Template

Changed template again. Found out how to upload stuff onto my Queen's account. Expect more changes. Whee! Thinking of getting rid of the Chatterbox thingie. Is kind of useless. Hmm... Also updating brother's band's website again, so bear with me if load of HTML mistakes are made. My eyes will be hurting.

Jiggy-whack

Wnd: *bursts into room* Hey yo, what's up with the whack?
Me: I don't know. What is up with the whack?

Wnd: *arrives home*
Me: *shoutingvery clearly* What up with the jiggy-whack?!
Wnd: *LOL* (yes, LOL)

We are so yellow.

So what is up with the jiggy-whack? Exams are over and done with. I don't think I'm entirely happy with the marks I got. Went back to Toronto for the weekend (P-Mall with Ah-Poh, bought food, watched A&E) and then back to Kingston to move. Five trips with the van stuffed full of crap, moved from 10 AM until 7 PM. I can safely say that we (Wnd, Bento, Bento's Young Gentleman Caller and I) were pooped. Poor Bento...stressed out by moving process and ensuing squiffyness from previous tenants (long story).

So, I'm back in Toronto. Two blissful days of doing nothing and having the house to myself. Went to Fairview with the Poon, bought new skivvies (I can't help but mention them again. They're pretty. La Senza is grrreat), watched 13 Going On 30 (cheesy, predictable fluff).

Monday: Adventures of The Pig in the Office...The Sequel.

You Are Here

Spiffy video: Sam Bisbee "You Are Here". Also a very catchy song. I don't think they really need any extra publicity (having been linked from Kottke.org already, but I think it deserves it. Excrutiatingly well done stop motion photography. That's a lot of photos.

Other stuff discovered during my procrasination sessions:

• Japan Window: check out the galleries
• Barrett's Privateers: I have to memorize this for my English exam. Don't ask.
• Kingston Weather: for when the forecast at the Environment Canada doesn't suit my fancy.
• Spank the Monkey!: a work of genius.

Ganked from Allalan

I want everyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more no less. Ask me anything you want and i'll try to be as honest as I can be. Then I want you to go to your journal, copy and paste this message allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything. ANYONE can ask me stuff...just use your username or anonymous, whatever you want. Post in comments.

Also...

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the whole sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

"I step through snow as thin as script,
Watch white stars spin dizzy as drunks, and yearn
To sleep beneath a patchwork quilt of rum"

"Sink your teeth into the ass of life!"

A battlecry for the exam season. Three of four exams done (I did okay on them...all CISC exams so I know I'll at least be able to stay in my major). English is the only one remaining. From now until Wednesday, must devote all time and energy and conscious thought to post-modernism and confusing novels of the contemporary Canadian type. Let's all hope that Kobuta's head doesn't explode!

With that in mind, I went shopping today with Nem and Wnd. Yes shopping. A necessity, I swear. Really. (I think manufacturers try to compensate for the discomfort of wearing a bra by making them as pretty as possible: flowers, sequins, embroidery, you name it. Frigging expensive though.)

"It was clear...except for stuff."

Studying for exams, first one on Wednesday. So of course I'm procrastinating even better than I did before. The material isn't too hard (two of the three CISC exams are openbook), but like the title of this post says...I need some clarification. Well, lots.

Trying to get my grubby hands on a copy of The Tick (animated series from, like, ten years ago). Typical Tick moments:

Tick: We need a battle-cry.
Arthur: A what?
Tick: You know, a cool thing we say before entering battle.
Arthur: Oh, you mean 'Not in the face! Not in the face!'?
Tick: Hmmm, lacks force, chum. What we need is something like....'Spoon!'
Arthur: Huh?
Tick: Spoon!
Arthur: I don't get it.
Tick: SPOON!
Arthur: Whatever, I'm just the sidekick.


Tick: You know, I've heard that the smarter you are the wrinklier your brain; and your guys brains must be the wrinkliest! Oh, sure, ordinary Joes like me and Arthur here, maybe our brains are a little on the smooth side, but you don't have to be a genius to know that Evil is Bad! And Good...isn't!


Tick: Roofpig! Most unexpected!


Tick: Isn't sanity really just a one trick pony, anyway? I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking! But when you're good and crazy…ooh hoo hoo hoo…the sky's the limit!


Tick: Ok, buddy, I'm taking off the kid gloves and putting on the VERY MAD gloves!


Tick: OK, here are the ABC's of being a superhero. A is for Action. B and C are for Battlecry.

Buu buuuu...

Home since Friday. Not much to say; fricking cold outside (minus 18 does not a spring day make), no food at home (resorted to eating udon for lunch because there was nothing else to make...why bother leaving Kingston?), cousin came to visit, dad's computer being ridiculously slow and aggravating as usual (I miss my Tomato), and that's about it.

Spend most of my time studying...the pig. Yep. Lay on my stomach watching the guinea pig eat, sleep and sit while the pile of textbooks I lugged home to study sat quietly on the coffeetable and gathered dust. Oops. Well at least the pig benefited from it (I cleaned her cage and fed her lots). Off to pack. Tra la, tra la, tra la.

"Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid"

I finally get that that title is completely redundant! When this album first came out in 1994, (Collective Soul's first? I think?) I was only 10 and I didn't understand what an "allegation" was.

Funny, though, my brother's friend had the CD so I borrowed it, taped it (yes! An audio-cassette! Wow!) and listened to it non-stop. Slightly illegal, but I was in Grade 4 and had no money (besides, I bought three of their later albums when they came out...and they weren't as good. Meh). I even memorized the song order and lyrics because I listened to it so much. Mostly car trips and such. I remember skipping over "Scream" because it was too angry-sounding. (This from the one who now cranks up "angry music" when she's pissed and needs someone to sympathise with).

Listening to it again made me actually read the title and realize that I didn't even understand the frigging title of this album that I used to listen to so much. Oops. Yeah, so a moment of nostalgia from yours truly. Back to my 223 assignment.

Mmm... Poncy...

Nothing like post-modern, contemporary Canadian literature for a big dose of ponciness, both reading and writing about it. Re-reading In the Skin of a Lion for my essay. I'm happy to report that I have finished the section on Noise (see previous post) and am happily writing about exile as a catharsis after the loss of a loved one (also known as wallowing). My favourite lines:

- I fell in love with a guy named Stump Jones when I was sixteen.
- Stump!
- There was a problem with the name.
- I'll say.

Apologies to all the Stump Joneses out there and all those who like poncy post-modern, contemporary Canadian literature. Contact Mr. Ondaatje with any complaints because I don't give a crap. Have a nice day, guv'na!

HipsterJames, his libido and Toronto!TheGreat

"We have met the enemy, and he is Russ"

I really, really don't like his book. Sorry Mr. Smith, but Toronto is not New York. Suburban life is not a backwater hellhole full of duplexes and backyards and morons (morons thrive wherever they go, suburban and urban areas alike). There's a whole other side of the suburbs that can't be understood if you're convinced that the city is the only place to experience culture, to eat, to meet fascinating people, to furthur your career, or to enjoy life. Argh.

And with the exception of his mother and his landlady, every female character in the book gets the main character all hot and bothered. Geez. If I can't even stand the main character how can I write an essay about the book. Argh again.

And since my last class of the day was cancelled, and I really need to get started on this essay, I skipped my second last class to work at home. But here I am, typing away, completely not working. Argh once, argh twice, argh thrice.

On the plus side, it's the first day since the beginning of "spring" that actually feels like Spring. I can breath again.

My Little Pony, Thundercats, Popples and The Snorks

"Yes! I said the right thing! FINALLY!! ADMIT IT!!!"

Ha ha. Sometimes I think I resemble Angie too much. Any child of the eighties needs to read some As If!. For poops and giggles and nostalgic purposes. Archives aren't completely up yet, so the strips start about halfway through the story. Still full of eighties goodness though.

Ah, the days of scrunchies, GI JOE, and neon striped spandex biking shorts. (And you, you shut up, because you know you had a pair, too.)

I'm really too young to remember much from the Decade of Big Hair (by the end of the 80's I was just barely in elementary school), so my memories are mostly of toys, cartoons and kiddy trends.

Anybody remember those slap-bracelets that were a strip of metal sewn into a piece of fabric? (You know, you straighten it out and slap it onto your wrist and it curls around and forms a bracelet. Yeah, those were banned from my school in Grade 1 because they were "dangerous.") Or reading The Babysitter's Club books back when Claudia's fashion's actually sounded cool? Or sticker collecting, The Smoggies (SUNTOTS!! Eeee!), and My Pet Monster? And last but not least, The Berenstain Bears.

It all seems so cheesy and ridiculous now; I mean, the popularity of neon pink, the frizzled hair, the sheer garishness of 80's society. It'll be funny to see how people decades from now will react to the skanky-chique fashions and tv "dramas" (like the O.C.) of today. Fond amusement? Disgust? Surprise at how little has changed?

A quiz, fitting in with the 80's theme:

discover what candy you are @ quiz me

A Now, A Quotation

To quote Wnd: "My baby don' mess around because he loves me so and this I know 'fo shooooo..... HEEEEEEEEYAAAAA! HEEEYAAAAA!!"

Imagine that in an incredibly loud, shrill voice and you pretty much have life in my house for the last two days. We just serenaded Bento with that and busted her eardrums. Ah, good times. University life.

Engineering "Supa Semi" last night at the Portsmouth Harbour banquet hall. Lots of good music, lots of boozed up people. Was majorly put off from dancing because of the heaving mass of grinding couples oozing around the dance floor. We all sat at a table for most of the night and talked (pushed, poked, harassed, whatever). Stalked the Harry Potter look-alike for a while (lead singer of local band), amusedly watched Wnd be stalked by gimpy little fellow (ha ha), danced a little, was elbowed and nudged by the grinders for a while until got sick of them and sat down again, and then was tired and hungry for the rest of the night.

Yeah, hungry now. Dinnertime.

Longing for Hong Kong

Wow. Reading the latest blog at aiyah.net really reminded me of how much I want to travel:

...mongkok, i don't think there's any other place like it. it pulses with electricity yet at the same time, the overload of information from people, colors, sounds and smells is inconprehensible. you can literally stand there in the middle of the street and not move while the feeling like you've been caught in a time warp as everyone else in super speed motion - like you're fast forwarding a movie. i don't know know why but mongkok always exudes a feeling that it's very real, very much of what i think of hong kong without the pretty packaging that many tv shows show you. it's gritty, it's raw, it's intense.

It's exactly how I felt the last time I was in HK. It's not the shopping (which is fantastically cheap), or the food (which is fantastically good) or seeing relatives (who are...a little quirky). Watch Lost In Translation and you'll sort of understand. Well, minus Bill Murray and the fancy hotel. The scenes where Scarlett Johansson is wandering around Tokyo by herself.

Slight chance that I'll be going back next winter with my family for my cousin's wedding. Here's hoping that all the scheduling works out!

Blog-o-rific

Wow, all of a sudden, lots of friends (both old and new) have popped up on the web and started journals at Livejournal or Blogger. To control this tidal wave of new-found blogs, please to direct attention (sic) to the Pals list of links. More for my own convenience than anything, but wibble. There it is.

In other news, Hell Week is truly living up to its name. Dammit. I was hoping it was a sham and/or dead. Instead, it turns out to be very very real and very much so alive. In the immortal words of Mr. Gibbs: "Curse you for breathing you slack-jawed idiot!"

Success!

I got sick of the garish orange template provided by Blogger so I changed it. I wrote this template a while ago, but changed it to the black and white one (which may someday be revived as well) and then to the tea-themed one. Whee! A headache with all the tables and colours (not to mention finding a host for the image file) but it turned out nice.

Correction: I just remembered the reason why I stopped using this design was because some guy copied my code and tried to pass it off as his own. Unfortunately for him, he tried to change the title image and facked up the table sizes. He also neglected to remove MY web counter from MY code and all the visits to "his" page from the first couple of days were reffered to my Sitemeter account. Grr...

Bork! Bork! Bork!

So I had this great little post about how I love Mozilla Firefox because it's fast, slick, allows tabbed browsing, blocks unwanted ads and has a really cute logo, but then Blogger killed it. Oh well. The previous run-on sentence can take it's place. Otherwise, not much has happened lately, but next week is Hell Week(TM) Part 2. You know, university would be lot more fun if it weren't for all this homework. It would be a lot easier too if only they didn't insist on this 'midterm' nonsense. So as a break from my studying, I did a whole bunch of tests and other blog-type things. Enjoy.

The Completely Pointless Personality Quiz

My goddamn rock solid ghetto shiznit name is
Tempestuous Teapot, Yo. What's yours?
Powered by Rum and Monkey.


Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Twenty Random Songs from My Playlist:
   1. Coldplay - Yellow
   2. Ashley MacIsaac - Sleepy Maggie
   3. Chantal Kreviazuk - Surrounded
   4. Jamiroquai - Little L
   5. The Tragically Hip - The KillerWhaleTank song
   6. Haibane Renmei - Ethereal Remains
   7. Garbage - Stupid Girl
   8. Better Than Ezra - Good
   9. Foo Fighters - All My Life
   10. Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive
   11. House of Pain - Jump Around
   12. Foo Fighters - Everlong
   13. Ayumi Hamasaki - Endless Sorrow
   14. Tarzan Soundtrack - Son of Man
   15. Matchbox 20 - Long Day
   16. The Oystars - Nanka Shiwase
   17. Sky - Some Kinda Wonderful
   18. Diana Krall - Sunny Side of the Street
   19. Live - All Over You
   20. Tanya Chua - Blue Moon

Tomato is what I taste like. I taste like nothing, except a tomato. I'm sometimes sweet and sometimes tart; sometimes juicy, sometimes crisp. The roles of a tomato are many and varied. I am an exception to all the rules. What Flavour Are You?

find your inner PIE @ stvlive.com
...ha ha. I'm a little tart.

"A ridiculous quantity of notes."

That's just a phrase by Don Ross quoted in an article in the Queen's Journal that I think is really funny, and very accurate. When he plays, he leaves you with a ridiculous quantity of notes.

Anyhoo.

Continuing in the sluggish existance that I've found myself in for most of the winter term so far. However, the weather is getting warmer, the snow is almost all melted, and I've gradually become less lethargic. Wow, this term has been really...depressing; loads of work and cold besides. Thus the lack of updates.

But now that I'm thawing out and experiencing a brief respite from my computing courses, I'm ready to update this thing. Here we go.

Home stuff: Engagement dinner went along fine; tons of people, tons of coats. People very impressed by the devotion of the siblings pressed into service by their oldest brother/sister (respectively). No, really it was neat. Basement all dark and 'cool' (Ho-Ming's "Ten-Forward" theme... Such a geek), way too much food left over.

Pals: Finally got together with the G/Jens and Tiff: dinner at Chopstix downtown (sort of like Zyng, but cheaper and better and yuppier) and then dessert at Milestone's near the Chum building (saw Rick Campanelli inside Much and also Mark Daly leaving in one of those CityTV Jeeps. You know, the Dilbertish-guy with the really deep voice that does the news. And the CityTV movie commercial voiceovers. See, I knew you'd recognize him.

Queensing: Blah blah blah homework blah blah donate money blah blah student centre blah.

"Hoosing": As you should know by know, it is mine and Wnd's ambition (grammar?) to degrade our speech to the point where we can no longer be understood by anyone outside of our immediate household. (Lydia should consider herself lucky that we actually stop in the middle of a conversation to explain new terms to her.) "Hoosing" is one such term. So are "HOOJ", "chudoin", "frickitive" and "muhar". I'll leave it to you to figure them out. This will not help. Sorry.

"Housing": Is what "hoosing" means. We (Lydia, Wnd, and I) have found a new apartment, a nice roomy three-person on Princess, downtown Kingston. We'll be even closer to a Shopper's next year. Muhar. Ten foot ceilings, a HOOJ kitchen, and another Scary Alleyway of Doom(TM).

Multitask Cramming

Unlike the Christmas break, which I spent in a largely antisocial, midnight-blue-bordering-on-depressive, book-wallowing manner, Reading Week (i.e. now) has been pretty busy. I've been cramming for most of the week.

Cramming time with friends and family this week. Weekend spent with family mostly, eating, eating and eating. Ate lunch with my aunt (Ming-yee) and grandma (Ah-poh). Went to TenRen's at MetroSquare with Ming (SCS pal who I haven't seen for ages), consumed a almond/sesame hot milk tea and chatted for two hours. Tomorrow night, maybe dinner with my Queen's "homies" (ha, so yellow) and various Wnd-friends. Friday night, possibly downtown with Tiff and the J/Gen's to eat and watch movie. Saturday, Ho-ming and Katie's giant engagement dinner (Part 2: The Friends) at home: 70 people, 70 pairs of shoes, 70 stomachs to fill and 70 arses to park.

Bring it.

Cramming for school. CISC 235 (Data Structures in Java) midterm and CISC 260 (Parogramming Paradigms...whatever the hell that means) assignment for next Tuesday. Neither of which I've prepared for/finished/started. Also a CISC 223 (Software Specification) assignment due Thursday. I haven't even looked at that one yet. In short, with regards to this section of my life, I am screwed.

Moving on.

Lastly, cramming for...my dental exam. This involves an obscene amount of brushing, flossing, and gargling in preparation for my dental appointment on Friday. Hopefully, with a little more work, I'll pass this one with flying colours. And possibly a new toothbrush and some floss.

Only thing that has stayed the same as Christmas break is that I'm still book-wallowing (all the Little House on the Prairie books) and I've changed hues, from midnight to sky blue.

Lazy post

First, I hate my dad's computer. He has so many crap programs installed that nothing really works. Hence, when I was halfway through this post, the machine crashed on me. Second, the following is my attept at overcoming my chronic laziness I'm experiencing at the moment. Stolen from wnd's site. Enjoy:

Instructions:
1. Copy this whole list into your journal.
2. Bold the things that you have in common with me.
3. Whatever you don't bold, replace with things about you.

01. I try to keep my desk as clear of stuff as possible
02. I'm wear size 8 shoes.
03. I love to drink water. It tastes like...water.
04. Forks are fun for poking people.
05. I think that vaulting over the couch and ricocheting off the doorframe are perfectly good ways to traverse a room.
06. I'm obsessed with grammar even though mine is less than perfect. Spelling too.
07. I hate when people type in all caps online.
08. I hated Curious George.
09. The exclamation mark is my favourite punctuation!!
10. I like making up words. (Smiggle)
11. I love accents...English and Irish ^_^
12. I can't do physics. Too many letters.
13. Chinglish is a valid dialect and I lurv it. It's in the hup.
14. I love sitting and people-watching.
15. I would like to be ambidextrous.
16. Shopping IS a sport.
17. I hate facial hair on guys. Just... ew. *stubble is okay*
18. I secretly harbour a desire to be a ninja.
19. I love the smell of cologne on guys and not on the slip of paper those sales people hand out.
20. I love interesting socks.
21. SCRUBS is THE best show to watch and quote from.
22. I miss kindergarten.
23. I like holepunching stuff.
24. Sugar should be banned from my diet, but that would be catastrophic.
25. I like to know who's online on MSN. I always check new names that pop up.
26. I also check everyone's avatar periodically.
27. I love butchering the English language and even more amused by those who understand what I'm saying.
28. I'm a weird person. (And damn proud of it)
29. I'm anal-retentive about checking my email, even though nobody emails me and I only get junkmail.
30. I love to go downtown because it's exciting and people watching is MUCH more interesting there.
31. You should NEVER eat what I cook...EVER.
32. I love bum pants.
33. I procrastinate. A LOT. Like now.
34. I love eyes (green eyes are especially special)
35. I like sleep too much.
36. I NEED to have a lot of pillows on my bed. Also my Stitch doll. Shut up, it's cute.
37. Mysterious bruises from walking into desks/chairs/floor/walls don't suprise me anymore.
38. I want to live in Hong Kong/London/other-big-city for a while, just to see what it's like.
39. I like artists who write/compose their own music and can actually sing well LIVE (*cough*actual talent*cough*)
40. I dance badly. Flail flail.
41. I really enjoy thoughtful gifts, even if they cost nothing. Still, I'll like almost anything just because the person took the time to pick it out.
42. The British have such fabulous vocabulary: bloke, snog, wanker, nob ..etc
43. I'm a bad bad person who downloads music rather than buying CDs.
44. I watch What Not To Wear. Guiltily.
45. I enjoy just being by myself sometimes. Well, a lot of the time.
46. Acting like an idiot entertains me/others.
47. I love swings and I miss the playground.
48. Clowns frighten me.
49. I love those moving platform things at the airport.
50. I almost never wear make-up.
51. I wouldn't be able to survive without my chapstick though.
52. I have a pretty decent memory.
53. Time spent crying is time wasted plotting.
54. Apparently, the faces I make are amusing.
55. I'm really easy to get along with. Usually.
56. I don't like approaching people in large groups
57. I can drive, but I hardly ever do so.
58. I could care less about my hair "styles"
59. I like getting emails from my friends (junk mail included), it makes me feel special.
60. I have a love-hate relationship with my hair.
61. I love Colin Farrell even though he's a cad.
62. I don't have a G licence yet...still..
63. I can't stand the word "Oriental".
64. I always smile with my teeth when somebody takes a picture.
65. I try my best to help protect the environment.
66. I get distracted VERY easily. Ooo shiny.
67. I think Totoro is adorable.
68. I wasn't born in Ontario (Saskatchewan woo!)
69. I have no idea what I want to do with my life.
70. I love Winnie the Pooh.
71. I forgive easily. But, the grudges are always echoing in the back of my mind.
72. There are only a handful of friends I confide in.
73. I miss Lego.
74. I own a lot of blue clothing.
75. I feel inadequate a lot of the time, like I don't really belong.
76. I love tops that have long, belled sleeves.
77. I love reading other people's blog/live journal/website.
78. My computer is my baby.
79. Downtown Chinatown scares me a little.
80. I'm disappointed that i never continued with any of the musical intruments i started with: piano, flute, metal pot lid.
81. I love my country
82. I'm always amazed by those who take neat, legible notes during lectures. Frankly, you can't hope to read mine.
83. I have a very broad musical taste.
84. I slouch too much.
85. Narrow minded people make me want to get my giant, heavy Java textbook.
86. I'm incapable of having just one favourite movie.
87. Someday I WILL travel the world.
88. Someday I WILL go on a road trip with my friends.
89. I'm extra-strength crazy and you have all been warned.
90. HK-Style milk tea is a vital part of my diet.
91. I can't stand the sound of fingernails scraping a chalkboard
92. I love taking candid photos. Posed pix are okay too at times.
93. I hate those keeners in the front row.
94. I like scarves and mittens
95. I wish my name had more nickname potential.
96. I'm a lazy ass. I really am.
97. Playing in the snow is something I miss doing, which is odd cuz we get SO much of it here in K-town.
98. I have an agenda book but I never use it.
99. I have something else I should be doing right now - like, sleeping.
100. I really suck at making easy decisions - like, what to eat.

The Power of Footwear

Ah ha ha. Slippers have the power to change the world.

So my jeh ("big sis" - adopted) has been studying non-stop for the past week, so we (housemates and I) have gotten used to seeing her only in the early morning before classes and late at night when she gets back from the library. But yesterday we realized none of us had seen her since the previous day's morning. So we got a little worried and started calling friends to see if she's shown up.

Long story short, it turns out she got back really late the night before and thought that we were all asleep or out. Why? Because my housemate's and my house slippers were sitting by the front door. (See, in our house, leaving your slippers by the door is an indication that you are currently out of the house. It's a good system.)

Thus, M, assuming that Wnd and Bento were asleep and Nem and I were out because of our SS (Slipper Status) thought there was no one at home to inform that she was home. So M goes merrily off to bed and leaves early the next morning, again without seeing anyone, throwing the rest of the household into a dangerous worry spiral culminating in my scolding her both in person and via door-adjacent whiteboard. That's a bad Marge! Bad!

(Oh, and I wasn't out...i traded slippers for awhile so that my normal ones were sitting by the door. Oops)

It lives. WRONK!

Yeah, have been in a funk for a very long time.

Anyhoo, in summary of the past month:

• In Which I Am Sick: Cold, lethargy, I don't know. It sucked muchly, sniffles, headache and all. Thank goodness for 8-hour naps, Chinese throat medicine (minty, yum), and While You Were Out marathons on TLC.



• In Which I Buy A Coat: A pretty coat. Fairweather, hooded woollen peacoat, Markville Mall. Bento says I look distinguished. My brother says I look like Paddington Bear. I'm just glad I don't have to look like a giant red marshmellow everyday anymore.



• In Which I Spend New Year Alone
: Not too bad actually. I was exhausted for pretty much all of the winter break, thanks to staying up late and getting up early most days. Did laundry, watched MuchMusic, went to bed at 12:03 AM. Good times..


• In Which I Visit The Big Apple With Wendles and The Dude: NYC... cold, expensive, but cool. More on this later. Really. All I'll say is Little Italy, "GRO-BAHN", Times Square, unwanted roomies and S'mores, S'mores, S'mores!



• In Which Kingston Takes Beating From Mother Nature: -30 to -40 degrees Celsius everyday for about two weeks, starting on the first day of the new school term. Lovely.



• In Which I Receive a Digital Camera from the Electronics Fairy: so I get a Canon Digital ELPH PowerShot S230 from this sprite, but what happens when I lost all my baby teeth years ago? Nothing. Blurry drunken fairy...



• In Which I Rediscover My Crossword Addiction: might as well, free Toronto Star on campus.