Fun on a Saturday afternoon

Hi all!

Finally completed my long-awaited wish to record a duet cover with my great friend and singer Qiyan (username: miffyan). She has a beautiful voice and wonderful songs on her youtube channel so you're welcome to subscribe to her channel!



Music makes me feel happy, this is one of my happiest Saturday afternoons in a long time, such fun!

scary dreams influenced by waking thoughts

Saturday night I watched a parody of the popular korean drama DOTS (descendents of the sun for those who have no idea), and it's hilarious! I also talked to my friend about a mutual friend who's getting married (let's call her A), and I also thought about the orlando shooting because it's gay pride weekend. I read a story about how one of the victims ran to the bathroom and was trapped there, scared while texting his mum. Eventually, the shooter came in and killed them all.

All these waking thoughts I had right before I went to bed definitely influenced my dreams the next morning, and here's my account of the dream. Believe it or not, I do have pretty wild dreams that sound just like a teenage drama lol...

I dreamt about a guy who was super hot and tall and looked like he's a Korean star (duh) but it turned out he was a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. My friend A was in the dream as a pregnant woman (guess it's the next logical step after her marriage), and she's carrying out a mission as part of my team. Unfortunately on the way there, she went into labor in the cab and they rushed her to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctor was so useless and told her it only takes an hour. He then made her lie on the gurney for an hour, then discharged her. The baby wasn't delivered yet lol...

In the meantime, the rest of the team (me included) went to a house and accidentally scattered lots of stuff under the bed. When I crawled through the mess under the bed, I found all kinds of incriminating evidence and we realized that the bad guy was actually bad.

Fast forward, we rushed to the school and ended up in the school bathrooms. For some unknown reason we were all unarmed, probably because we didn't expect the bad guy to be armed. In the bathrooms, we saw blood splatter round the corner with a ringing gunshot, and quickly pressed ourselves against the wall. It was too late.

The bad guy walked round the corner and as he saw us, he shot around 5-8 times near us but missed deliberately. I was so scared I was shaking and I closed my eyes, certain I'd be dead if I looked at him. Then he stopped and when I opened my eyes, he was staring at me. His eyes were wild and he was smiling maniacally with a look that said you guys are doomed, but he gave me a special look, like you've got to understand...I felt so disappointed because I was in love with him, and finding out he's such a bad guy made me feel so dumb and anguished. What were we thinking, coming here unarmed to confront him? We probably thought he's still got good in him.

While he got distracted by the rest asking him why, I bolted for the door. I was certain he wouldn't kill me, he loved me too...right? Maybe he would shoot my leg but not to kill....

The moment I opened the door, I had a flash of uncertainty but I shook off any hesitation and ran for my life. I ran to the PE storeroom and locked the door. A friend/ally was in the room and I explained the situation to her. She was horrified and agreed to help, though she's like "You locked us in! How are we going to get out and help!!!"

I said there, pointing to the back of the storeroom. It's covered in blinds but once you open them it leads to the gym. We jumped down the ledge into the gym, and went round back to the bathrooms. The dream skipped a few more frames and we both ended up in schoolgirl uniforms going up stairs, and I'm no longer seeing this from first person perspective. It's back to 3rd person and I'm looking down on a girl who's supposed to be "me" but really looks like a redhead white girl.

The hot bad guy saw the white girl who is "me" at the top of the stairs, and smiled happily. He said, "I knew you'd come back!" kind of thing, and she/me pretended to be on his side but would later try kill him.

At this point, the dream skipped to the end, which looked like the end of a play. It was a dark room with a black backdrop (must be influenced by the Sleep No More play lol), and the she/me girl was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, with the friend/ally standing behind her. The friend was holding the white girl's hair up and started snipping horizontally with a pair of metal scissors, all the while looking straight at the "camera"/audience while saying her lines. Something poetic about revenge is sweet and he never saw it coming, and I assumed that meant the guy was dead and the mission succeeded!

However, the bad guy appeared at that moment and smiled at the audience, as if to say hey I'm not dead! It turned out that maybe the white girl was dead instead because her hair was getting cut off (as a symbolic analogy to her head getting cut off). So the mission failed after all and he must have found out the girl betrayed him and killed her off...

Anyhow I woke up at this point, feeling absolutely anguished and pained because it hurt to be betrayed by someone you love, it's tormenting to have to kill someone you love, and it's even more painful for him to show no mercy towards you and try to kill you. It felt awful, and it was so terrifying having a gun pointed at me and shooting at me in the bathroom scene! My brain could still feel the pain as though the bullets were tearing through my flesh (even though they all missed thanks to my brain's self-preservation and desire to keep the dream "me" alive). I was wincing and shaking so hard with fear and my heart was pounding so fast, it definitely felt all too real.

Gosh my brain is too hyperactive!! It's making me live through scary moments and experiences in dreamworld!!

inspired by music :D

I'm getting unsolicited compliments on my singing, thank you all! It's really making my day :D

I really enjoy making music and singing, so here's a rendition of A-Lin's Wo Hen Mang (direct translation: "I'm Very Busy"). It's a super emo song and if you recall, I posted that song earlier this year. I thought it was very good to describe my feelings post-breakup and telling everyone around me how busy I am when I'm actually just trying to forget...

Life is no longer like that now so no worries haha! I'm busy because I'm legitly busy and being very productive, but I clearly liked it so much I made a cover of the song. Please enjoy!

First trip to Japan

I’ve finally found some time to blog about my first trip to Japan…I’ve been wanting to go since I was 13, so this is really a dream come true. I ended up doing everything I wanted to do – and more! Definitely did all the activities that a quintessential Japanese teen would have done, so I’m super happy! The only problem was that I didn’t have enough time/luggage space to do shopping properly, so I definitely have to return and shop all I want xD

Here are some of my thoughts on what I did/see/observe in Japan:

Japanese Fashion / Culture

• Black and white suits everywhere on weekdays!! Mostly because they are office workers and Japan has such a homogeneous culture that it is frowned upon to stand out in the corporate world…so everyone wears that same black and white suit combination. At first I was quite sad that I couldn’t see more of Japanese fashion, but if you wait till the weekends/go to the cool places like Harajuku…:D definitely love the fashion on the weekends and how they differ when you visit different parts of Japan!
• P.S. Guys look really good in those suits, though I wish they would spice up the colors so it’s more colorful (e.g. blue shirt, purple, pink, etc) haha
• This is odd, but in Ikebukuro we saw people (mostly guys) lining up before the arcade opens…we never quite figured out why they went so early in the morning, even on weekdays to wait for the arcades to open! There was also a line of all females at a different arcade, not sure why…?
• This is somewhat a repeat from my previous post, but elaborating on it further - One thing I noticed was how oxymoronic Japanese people are. They are actually pretty rude / impolite in ignoring people and just keeping to their own devices (literally), while their language and culture forces them to be super polite. They may bow to you and say all these polite honorifics, but their body language and expressions clearly show they don’t like you very much (especially if you are a foreigner and stand out). They aren’t a very friendly bunch after all, and I could feel the hostility…

Japanese technology and efficiency

• I love Japanese technology!! We had kaiten sushi (conveyer belt sushi), and it was completely automated! We can pick sushi off the belt or order through the tablet, food would appear on an automated cart on a separate belt and stopped at our table, and at the end the waiter just needed to wave this device over all our plates to note how much everything cost (different plates cost different amounts haha)
• Another thing I noticed was how all the bread items I bought had their packages completely vacuum packed, which means there is a constant bubble of air that surrounded the bread, which means it was impossible for me to squash my bread (which is usually a constant problem for me, since I like to leave bread in my bag which unfortunately leads to squashed bread…)
• At Osaka Castle, one entire floor had around 12 – 16 boxes that had 3D video projections on a 2D set to narrate the story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s life. It looked amazing and I have no idea how they did it (other than using projectors/screens/mirrors), but it’s such a creative way of using technology to portray stories in a lifelike manner. Other museums should definitely make use of this idea
• Bidet toilets everywhere!! Enough said ;)

Friends old and new in Japan

• I caught up with my classmate from kindergarten (yes, I’ve known him since we were 5!!!) and he brought us around Tokyo, definitely nice to have someone more local who knows his way around/knows Japanese! We got to meet his parents for dinner and had such a great meal that locals usually have. He also introduced us to a new friend who is a kabuki actor, so we learnt a lot about kabuki and how you have to be born into the family to become a kabuki actor...
• Met up with 3 other friends - my college classmate who is now working in Japan, a Singaporean friend who is now studying in Japan, and another Singaporean friend who just so happened to be travelling in Japan at the same time we were! That’s why it’s a good thing to post where you are on facebook so people can say Hey! We’re there too, let’s meet up! J I haven’t seen these friends in anywhere between 4 to 7 years, so it’s definitely great to catch up with all of them haha

Fun Activities

•  Did the fun teenage activities I’ve always wanted to do – we took Puri Kura (photobooth pictures i.e. neoprints), played arcade games (DDR, Jubeat and Mai Mai anyone?) and went for Japanese karaoke! Did you know, you can get free curlers at the Puri Kura booth area so you can style your hair and look pretty for the photo? There are even rentals of maid costumes and other costumes for the Puri Kura! I got to practice my Japanese everywhere, so that was quite fun too J
• We went to Tokyo DisneySea, which was wayyy better than I expected. It’s a great place for couples/dating (gosh everywhere in Japan is great for dating lol), and the food was cheap and delicious compared to all the other theme parks I’ve been to!! I was especially impressed with their service – I accidentally dropped my gyoza bun on the ground as I was unwrapping it, because it was too hot. I was brushing off the dirt and going to eat it anyway, but one of the staff saw it and immediately came over and offered to switch for a new gyoza bun for me. She even came back with a box so I wouldn’t drop it because it was too hot! Definitely made my day there…
• I didn’t plan to do a kimono rental, but it turned out to be so much fun and totally worth it! I would never have done it if not for my friend’s enthusiasm, haha so I’ll have to thank her for my pretty kimono photos and the great experience of feeling “Japanese”
• Went to Nara and played with deer…they are definitely too aggressive and used to getting food whenever they wanted. They smell though, and peed/pooped EVERYWHERE.
• Schoolchildren were everywhere too! I think it’s the season for their school fieldtrips, so they went to different touristy places like Disneysea/Disneyland, Nara, Kyoto, Osaka for their trips. So lucky…I wish I got to travel to touristy places as part of school L
• We went for a traditional Japanese hotspring experience! Went to Minoo Onsen, where most of the people were elderly Japanese and the serving staff didn’t know how to speak English, so that’s how we know we were really at a traditional place that locals frequent. There was karaoke, funfair games, delicious food and massage/spa services, almost like a theme park but just for onsen. There were multiple onsen tubs with varying temperatures of hot spring pools, and an outdoor pool as well as a room temperature pool (that’s absolutely freezing coming from the hot pools) + a sauna! They provided all the needed products like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, makeup remover, facewash and collagen peeling gel for free! We discovered the power of collagen peeling gel hahaha (thank you obasan for telling us to give it a try!), and all those products were for sale outside the onsen, so it’s a great way to advertise and get people to buy these products if they liked it

Clubbing in Japan

• We went clubbing in Osaka, and learnt a lot about the clubbing culture in Japan. Turns out there are laws that restrict how late the clubs open until (at least in Kyoto and Osaka), so a lot of the clubs open at 7 or 8pm and close at 1am or 2am! This is perfect for those who want to catch the last train home/who have work the next day haha
• We also learnt that guys in Japan approach girls by grabbing their hands – they don’t do grinding the way Americans do, and they don’t do the shyly approach and chitchat method that Singaporeans use. They do a modest hand grabbing and if you don’t pull away, they start to dance with you / touch your waist and back. It’s quite interesting to see the differences between cultures, and to see that Japanese guys are really quite bold despite their usual conservativeness
• All of them asked for my Line, and I was like – we don’t use Line! (in Japanese). Because of that experience, we downloaded Line just to see what it’s all about, and now I know why it’s so popular in Asia. Again this is a repeat from my previous post, but i just have to say this again - the stickers are so much fun, and they have more features than whatsapp/wechat/fb messenger do! Amazing app hahaha
• On a sidenote, I also discovered the emoji keyboard that comes with the Japanese keyboard… (*^o^*)

Themed cafes

• Japan has a thing for themed cafes/izakayas. I had a great time going to a butler café, maid café, as well as a haunted café (part of the Lockup chain). They were definitely the best experiences I’ve had and totally worth my time and $$ hahaha
•  Other cafes include animal cafes and a ninja-themed café, Alice in Wonderland café, etc. We weren’t so interested in those, but definitely an option for others visiting Japan in the future

Food

• We took an okonomiyaki class where we learnt not just how to make okonomiyaki from scratch, but also how to make dashi stock and miso soup from scratch, how to make onigiri (both normal and grilled), as well as pickled cucumbers. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever made, and it easily tops my list as one of the best memories I had of Japan :D In that class, we learnt that there were two types of okonomiyaki – Kansai style and Hiroshima style. Kansai style is the typical okonomiyaki that we know of, whereas Hiroshima style is more like a pancake where they pile all the ingredients on top of the batter instead of having the ingredients mixed into the batter. If I ever to go Hiroshima, I’ll definitely give it a try haha. We also noticed that food in the Kansai area tends to be saltier and more saucy/flavorful, I guess people in the region just likes to have stronger flavor in their food…
• At the class, we also found out about the cooking instructor’s lifestyle. She and her husband loves to travel, so they are now running guesthouses in Kyoto while teaching cooking and renting bicycles/motorbikes, and travelling during down periods in the tourism season. It’s quite interesting how they achieved their dreams of traveling while working – guess it’s always easier to do that if you run your own business
• We also went to Kobe just to have Kobe beef for dinner – it was the most expensive meal we had in Japan, but then again it was totally worth it. We were only going to be in Kobe once in our lifetimes (maybe not), but we went straight for the most expensive grade A5 Kobe beef with the highest level of marbling 10-12, and took the set meal. It was also at a top 10 restaurant in Kobe haha, and we got to watch the chef prepare and cook all the food on the teppan right in front of us! We also got to observe Japanese business etiquette at the same time, as we were seated next to a bunch of Japanese/Korean business people. Turns out the most junior person pays for the meal if it’s company expense, and the most senior person pays if it’s personal expense. Super interesting hahaha
• Tried all kinds of Japanese food, including mentaiko tsukemen, sushi/sashimi, delicious burnt shoyu ramen, onigiri, traditional kaiseki, etc. All oishii!

This was definitely an unforgettable experience. I’ll be back again Japan, and next time I’ll be prepared with luggage space to go shopping hahaha ;)

Observations in Japan

This is so true - a good reminder to self when I delve into a relationship in the future: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/why-you-will-marry-the-wrong-person.html?_r=0

I'm travelling in Japan right now and there are so many interesting things of note!

For one, everyone here uses Line, so I created one just to see how it's like. It's amazing, and has more fun features than any of the other social messenging apps (whatsapp, wechat, facebook messenger, etc)! and it automatically finds emoticons when you type in keywords (try toilet) xD

Also, cute bear and rabbit stickers! Enough said.

Another thing I noticed is that despite how polite everyone is, it's clear they are not friendly and keep to themselves. Japanese people don't smile, and they are kind of rude to foreigners really, except their language and culture forces them to be super uber polite. It's such an oxymoron. Don't be fooled by their language to think they like you lol.

Third thing, Japanese guys in the club are more aggressive than those in Singapore, but less so than those in the US. They do very interesting things when they're trying to hit on you xD

Happiness - Photos speak a thousand words

i've been keeping really busy...so many fun stuffs and travel going on in my life in the past month! where do i begin?

maybe just a series of photos will speak for themselves:

 My presentation at EMC World in  Las Vegas last week :D + the cool light-up tetris building blocks that I won at one of the conference booths :) I was the fastest to build the structure that was randomly selected on the screen, and winners get fun lightup toys to decorate their rooms with!

Putting up my first poster ever, and it's the beautiful Jung Eunji. I'll have matching posters with my bestie xD

 Checked out the Exploratorium in SF! We collectively recreated the Gateway Arch at St Louis, totally cool

 Drinking delicious japanese cocktails in Denver. just had to take a photo of the pretty colors...

View from the plane as I was touching down in Seattle for the weekend! Beautiful summer weather in Seattle, definitely a rare find...

Pikachu / Pokeball (on the back) tesla coil in the making - super adorable! You get one guess on where I was xD

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On a side note, just found out that I have 13.3% body fat...how can it be when i'm so lazy all day and don't work out?? guess there's benefits to being young and having high metabolism hahaha

 

another cover song :)

Under the encouragement of my friends, I am inspired to record more songs haha, so here you go! It's one of my all-time favorite songs :)

Also learning another guitar song, but going to spend more time revising my Japanese instead for the next two weeks. Need to prepare for my upcoming trip to Japan :D



on a side note, i did some volunteering today for the elderly, i quite liked it. i'm probably going to do more volunteering with the elderly in the future :D

a guitar cover by all of me for all of you

finally, it's finally done. A guitar cover of All of Me, by yours truly :)

Please pardon the poor sound quality and bad playing/singing, I've been traveling so much that I haven't had much time to practice it nor make it more polished. Everytime I come back I have to re-learn and re-build my calluses, which is why a lot of the playing is quite horrible. I finally got it to a manageable sounding level, so here you go! Enjoy :)

On a side note, I'm also seriously considering buying a second guitar to leave at the hotel I travel to. It would be a lot easier to practice and build up my calluses, but also I get to sing and strum the guitar as loud as I want to without fear of embarrassment/disturbing my housemates hahaha.

Probably will do that in two weeks :)

busy consultant life

Wow I've been truly living the high life as a consultant...I flew to Las Vegas last weekend to an Inter-MBA mixer event where there was small group dinners, networking pre-game mixer, VIP entry and bottle service with tables at 2 night clubs, and entry at a day club ( pool party!).

Really memorable, I made a lot of good connections, found out how MBA students really can drink and party, and lots of firsts on this trip. First time at a day club, first time in a jacuzzi hot tub with a bunch of people I barely know (including hot guys), first time clubbing with people you kind of know but don't, first going around and introducing myself to about 50 people per night in a club, first time losing my voice from all the shouting over the music in the club...definitely went out of my comfort zone and had a great time!

Really wish I had more time though, would have wanted to do a road trip to grand canyon, antelope canyon, death valley, bryce canyon etc...maybe thanksgiving trip?

I realise that in the past 3-4 months my workload has almost tripled, and while I'm working more hours (more like busy consultant hours now hahaha, head in 8am and leave at 10pm, go back to hotel and work some more...) I am feeling more productive! Super satisfying to be adding value to the project and feel valued by my coworkers. At least I still don't -quite- have to work weekends, unless I want to (which I did on Sunday, always good to get some emails cleared out...)

Can't wait to hand off some of the work to the new resources we are hiring though, so I get more time to do my own things. I've been trying to work on the All of Me guitar song, but since I'm always traveling I don't have my guitar with me :(

Also, I have a list of books and shows I want to watch, and I hardly progressed on any of them...though I finally finished reading all 5 Game of Thrones books (it totally felt like a marathon), and Norwegian Wood! I also wish I had more time to read up for work - I'm trying to read white papers and learn more about converged infrastructure, cloud technology and LAN best practices. The technology progresses at such a fast rate that if I don't read up, I'm lagging behind!

Ahh and good news! I've just been invited to speak at a large national conference in Vegas early May (yes I'm headed back to Vegas again haha) with my boss! I'm super excited: this is a highlight of my budding career, I'm getting my name out there not just with potential clients but also within my company, it's my first time at a work conference, and I'm getting invited to funky posh work parties in vegas! Now I'll get to see how middle aged white guys "party" while at work...

Seriously. Every time I head to Vegas it's for a different reason.
- My first time was to go shopping, try all the good buffets (I ate SOOO much, 4 buffets in 4 days...), check out casinos (broke even at blackjack and lost $20 at the roulette table) and helicopter to grand canyon.
- Second time was to watch a JJ Lin concert + go clubbing (checked out 4 different clubs in 4 nights...) and visit a strip club for the first time.
- Third time was with my family, so watched shows - Cirque du Soleil and David Copperfield, walked around like tourists and visited old Vegas (Fremont Street!) where my dad reminisced about how it used to be like 20 years ago.
- Fourth time was last weekend for an inter-MBA mixer event, more for networking and connections while watching everyone else drink and party haha. I mean if I'm drunk, how am I going to give out my business cards right??

Ok so this fifth time I will be there for work, a professional conference event where I'm presenting at 2 sessions! Really glad that I'm experiencing so many different aspects of Vegas, I really do enjoy the fact that there's always something different it offers!

Relationships last based on choices

This is a good read, and so true. Every successful relationship is based on choices, not feelings.
http://www.chevonnecheng.com/stories/relationships-dont-last-based-on-feelings-but-choices/

On a side note, I'm super happy for my friend who just received a marriage proposal from her boyfriend! I've been invited to be her bridesmaid at her wedding next year so I'm super stoked about being a bridesmaid for the first time (YES FINALLY IT'S BEEN MY LIFELONG DREAM OMG!) and also attending my first friend's wedding (as opposed to weddings of relatives/cousins etc).

Sigh it just means we're growing older...

little tidbits of my life

hmm it's been a while since i last posted. I guess I've become really busy these days and don't really need to blog so much anymore. this is good news - it means my life has become a little bit more meaningful and i stop needing to think about the past :)

i've been pretty busy with work these days - we have multiple procurements to push through, i feel like i'm doing 3 people's work, but i still have my work-life balance. it just means i have less time to relax and chill at work. i feel very productive these days :D

also made a lot of new friends last weekend at the birthday parties in Cupertino/Sunnyvale, really excited to hang out with them in the future! i now have more south bay friends :) got to see planes landing really close up as the birthday party was super close to the airport (the planes were the size of 3 large trees from the apartment!). i also got to sing karaoke, play mini golf in the city, try good food and dessert places out, so overall a great weekend!

last week i did a really memorable dash to the airport/plane...my original flight was at 5.30pm, but i moved it to 7pm so i could get more work done onsite at the client's before heading home. at 5pm as we were preparing to leave, i noticed that my 7pm flight got delayed 2 hours, so i said, "why not try for the earlier 6pm flight? at worst i'll just end up back on my delayed 7pm flight!".

at this time it started to snow around 4+pm, so probably why flights were getting delayed. my boss - to his credit - drove me at a reasonably fast speed to the airport and we got there at 5.30pm. he dropped me off, i -again very luckily- had tsa pre-check for that flight! so i breezed through security in 5 min, and i got to my gate at 5.45pm, with 5 min to spare before the gate closes!

at that point i had to check my carry on bag, but i still made the flight, which was awesome! we sat out on the de-icing pad for 45min waiting our turn to get de-iced, and then taking the time to spray the de-icing fluid a few times over the plane. we also had to wait for 5 planes ahead of us to take off, and we finally took off an hour late.

even though my flight landed an hour late, it was still WAYY better than catching the 7pm delayed flight. it was only taking off when i reached SF lol.

that night was also st patrick's day, so my roommate dragged me out and we went to Castro Street. It's my first time at Castro and going to gay bars, and we went to two! it was really enjoyable as there were a lot of eye candy to look at, the music was good (throwback 90's), it was st patrick's day with a fun atmosphere, and no guys would come up and grind you! so awesome to dance undisturbed haha. it's a little odd though, sometime i wish those cute guys were actually interested in me, and not just looking for other guys :/

In general those guys are pretty attention-seeking - dressing to impress, dancing exaggeratedly, looking drop-dead gorgeous...overall a fun experience!

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yesterday i got to ride in a mustang convertible with the top down!! my boss had the choice of renting a truck or a convertible , and he made the most "logical" choice of the convertible haha. it was definitely a pleasant surprise, especially since it was super nice and warm yesterday! also, my boss clearly didn't realise it was going to snow today...

today it snowed 24 inches instead of the expected 4 inches! i was actually completely unprepared, i didn't check the weather forecast over the weekend (dumb me - too busy and too complacent to check the weather...) so i was very underdressed for the snow. i was wearing my work heels, light coat. i didn't have my hood/cap, gloves, scarves, nor my winter boots!

in the middle of the blizzard, we drove to the element and got stuck trying to crest a hill, so we reversed our way down and went a different way. we then got into a huge traffic jam at an intersection where all the cars were headed the same way, and there was a bottleneck getting out in the blizzard. there were cars abandoned along the sides of the roads as people got stuck in the snow...

there was this guy from the opposite direction who almost hit our car trying to cut in front of us to turn into a building on our right. he was sliding and skidding, but after 4 wide turns, he managed to make it without hitting us. i guess he knew what he was doing haha. i'm really amazed and shocked at the same time >.>

so it took us 1h 20min to get to the client site instead of the usual 15min, definitely not too much fun in the snow. fortunately it was a day where it wasn't too busy, and i didn't miss any huge meeting. and amazingly, my boss drove the mustang convertible, rear wheel drive fine in the snow! he's really experienced with snow driving lol - he's from boston, and he told me that in the 60s there were no all-wheel drives or front-wheel drives, so you had to know how to drive with rear wheel drive!

 Can't decide if I want to sing "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..." or "snow, snow, go away..."

 Kind of fun being snowed in/iced in at work (but with a strong confidence in the snow letting up and we can actually go back to the hotel)

The aftermath - quite a few cars abandoned along the roads as their drivers got stuck and took off by foot in the blizzard. at least the uber surges never exceeded 5x pricing haha

It was so beautiful being the only cars driving along the snow plowed roads, with these snow-covered trees. Two words: Winter Wonderland.

Weather Schizophrenia in Colorado

It was so weird today - I landed in Denver, Colorado and it was nice and sunny, then it started raining, and turned cold and these huge snow flakes started splattering the windshield! So it became a snowstorm in a matter of minutes, and the snow flakes were more than 1" around! Largest snowflakes I've ever seen in my life!!!

Then the snow storm stopped after an hour and it's back to sunny again...so weird. And all the while, it was 7 degrees Celsius. Goes to show how Denver can have really schizophrenic weather lol.

My housemate introduced to me this song by A-lin called 我很忙 that I really feel for, especially at this point in my life. A lot of the mv and song lyrics perfectly described how I felt one or two months ago, and now I'm moving on. It's getting a lot easier and better everyday, finding myself and being happy again. I really want to learn this song, can sing in ktv next time!

On a side note, I'm in the midst of learning how to play All of Me by John Legend on the guitar, maybe if I do it well enough I'll make a recording and put it up ;)

On museums and volunteering

Today I went to the Cal Academy of Sciences for the first time...now I understand why admission tickets are 34 bucks! It's really high quality compared to many science museums I've been to - you get to access a planetarium (with two shows running), a live rainforest enclosure, an aquarium, a natural history museum, live African penguins, a swamp with an alligator, a living green roof and various changing exhibits.

The current exhibits are on colors of life and seismic earthquake, so it was quite interesting to see how the museum designers (or whatever you call them) design each exhibit so it can capture your attention best. For example, they had these huge guitar strings that are colored, and when you play different strings they play different notes and show animals that use corresponding colors in various ways - camouflage, attract prey, deter predators, etc. It's really interactive as the screen is blank unless you strum the colors you are interested in (invoking touch, sight and hearing), and pictures of the animals using those colors appear with small snippets of description, one at a time, and they disappear pretty soon so you have to strum again if you want to read more. Really good for kids (and me) who have short attention span haha.

They also have exhibits where you can dance the courtship dance, and crank a wheel in order to hear different bird calls. Really interactive and they are so smart in their design!

It's also the first time i watch a planetarium show that has nothing to do with astronomy - it's about earth's habitat and how all organisms are connected to each other, to the weather, and how men are connected to them too (impact of ship traffic and airplanes). I really like that they include the human aspect of it and on human intervention to preserve ecosystems. It's more useful than I expected!

Also, it was the first time I volunteered at the homeless shelter today, and I felt quite humbled there. I got to talk to this old lady who lives at the shelter now because she has no living relatives left. Not all the homeless are mentally ill, and it's quite interesting to hear their stories. I really struggle with my belief that there shouldn't be homeless people, and that they should be empowered to do something so they don't have to be homeless and living off donors and taxpayer's money. That's why I chose to volunteer with the homeless today, and learn what it's all about.

I don't think I can accept the way America works, where the homeless is a given part of society. But I can seek to understand how these people came to be homeless, and help them where I can with my time and energy.

I'll be volunteering with intellectually disabled children next week for special olympics, and I think I'll enjoy it more. Somehow working with kids and the elderly usually makes me happier than working with the homeless (understandably, since kids have little worries and elderly have seen it all so they put things in perspective haha). I'm going to try various volunteering gigs out and see which one I feel most passionate about :)

On a side note, someone gave me a catcall today at the grocery store parking lot. Oddly, I'm kindof happy about that ;)

Chinese manual translation and mum's taste

Yesterday someone from the client asked me for a favor - to do some chinese translation for his son. Apparently his son bought a stepper motor to build a milling machine for metalworking, but this was shipped from China and came with Chinese instructions. So they both have no idea how to put the motor together. They tried to OCR the manual and use google translate on it, but the very first line ended up being something about 37 puppets...where puppets do not exist in the instructions!!

Since I'm one of the few he knows who speaks and understands mandarin, I took on the task and am now faced with reading and translating a language I haven't read or written in 8 years...hopefully it's not too tall an order for me. It's also all technical instructions and would make for very manual translation (haha get the pun?)...but no worries.  I'm using google translate to help me translate some words more accurately :)

For those who are interested, this is the manual! I'm happy to outsource a part of it if someone else wants to brush up their mandarin too haha, but it's my personal challenge to see how far my Chinese has deteriorated and how well I can still read and write...

On a side note, i received yet another admiring compliment on my beige coat! I personally love it too, I've never seen any coat like it. It's beige white so stands out from the sea of black and grey coats, it's got this beautiful design with popup circles on it, it's super lightweight while keeping you warm! I bring it on and off planes easily, it acts as a cushion and works well with layers, yet it's super warm and is somewhat waterproof against light rain and snow!

I've already had more than 12 people compliment me on my coat in the past year (almost all female, only two males actually commented - interesting topic for another day), and this lady in line behind me at the airport today asked me where I bought it from. Unfortunately my mum was the one who bought it for me from one of those small shops that goes to hk and buys unique clothes in small batches (hence it's unlikely someone else wears the same clothes as me!)...so I really can't say where other people can buy the coat. It's probably also pretty pricey knowing my mum's tastes, but I'm really happy. If it's up to me, I'd just buy something off the shelf like at Calvin Klein or Forever 21 or Ann Taylor, so I'm so glad I have my mum around to buy clothes for me.

Thank you mummy, please keep buying beautiful new clothes for me!

Here's how the coat looks like! :D

Overall a very happy day. Cheers!

Flight madness - Today I said NO WAY!

So today my brother sent me this article at the same time my coworker sent it out to the firm, that's quite funny haha -  http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-madness-of-airline-elite-status

When I read it I was like no way I would spend money for miles!! I would never do that, I'd always use miles instead for free stuff, unless there's more benefit to be gained by spending (which isn't that often). But I realised one day, maybe, what if? I might become GS-MAD too, so I decided to blog here to remind myself of today, the day I once said no way!

People change all the time, so how could I say I would never do that? No one, least of all me, can predict what I would become in the future...

元宵节快乐!

Its the 15th of the first month of the lunar calendar, thus marking the end of a Chinese New Year. It's a time for reunion, and eastern Valentine's Day.

So we made tangyuans on Saturday, and while I've made my fair share of kosong tangyuans with my mum back home, I've never made any with fillings before! Turns out it's a lot more complicated and difficult to make with the fillings (ever had dough stuck to your skin and just falling apart WITH filling spilling out through cracks...and you try hard to patch it just to have more dough sticking to your skin??)

All in all its really fun and eye opening, really grateful that we have people who know how to make the filling (peanut and black sesame paste!) from raw materials - roasting, blending, adding butter and sugar - and people who knew how to wrap the dough round the filling without it breaking apart. We also made peanut soup and ginger soup to go with the tangyuans, so they turned out to be our main dinner entree instead of dessert!

Here are some photos of the venture! Overall a great success :)

 The marbled ones were made of peanut filling which was harder to shape, and we ran out of flour so the dough ended up being too wet/sticky >.>

 Delicious tangyuan!!

 Peanut soup courtesy of our great cook :D

 That's how the filling looks!

Both ginger and peanut soup available for tangyuan nom noms!

On a side note, I'm learning the guitar again. I really like strumming and singing along to the guitar :)

I'm relearning some of the old songs I've learnt, and practicing finger style and various strumming patterns. I think those techniques will really help me in my playing, given that I'm a beginner and I always stick to the same few strumming patterns haha. Anyone has any tips on guitar playing, or good resources or websites online for a beginner self learner? All advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Andd after I master a few songs, maybe I'll try my hand at composing!

home away from home at last

after two weeks away from Denver and the Sheraton hotel, coming back felt like coming home.

I step into the hotel and immediately feel at ease and a sense of familiarity. I greet the same few receptionists who know me by sight, and I go through the same motions I have gone through for the past year and a half.

I step into the hotel room, and immediately a sense of happiness and relief washed over me - a feeling of "I'm home, at last!".

This clearly means that I've been travelling so much (maybe too much?), that the hotel is more like home than anywhere else. How true, I have spent more nights in this place than any other location (DC, Sunnyvale, SF, other places I travelled to), and I've moved around so much that I'm like a nomad. I guess the only place I truly can call home (away from home) is this hotel.

What with all the changes in my life, the one thing that hasn't changed in the past 18 months is this. This Sheraton hotel that I can always rely on, that it will continue to exist with or without me. Perhaps that's why I feel such a sense of relief and home here, I will never need to feel rejected or hurt by this place.

This vday...from first love to friends

A friend just forwarded me this article about breaking up on good terms. Seems like staying friends may be the right thing to do? Any thoughts on this would really help, I'm struggling a lot with how to stay friends with an ex, and whether it's even the right thing to do...

http://thoughtcatalog.com/katie-wilhelm/2014/08/what-happens-when-you-break-up-on-good-terms/

And coming across this song today, i thought it's the most apt song to give on Valentine's Day - to my first love.

dreams

i still dream about him eurgh. once in a while i will dream where he is my romantic partner and we do things together or talk about something. today i dreamed he and i were on the same ship, we were in a huge group playing puzzle games and i was going around solving some of them. as usual, he was better than me at it and eventually caught up to me and talked a bit. this scene was probably influenced by the boat party i went for two weekends ago (he was there).

then the dream became a shipwreck, though i found a small boat and moved all the important puzzle pieces there, and he somehow made his way onto my boat.

then the dream became one where he (*italics means it's him, not my dad) and i were escaping with my "dad" in a deep forest (and we're all dressed in chinese olden days gear, think 古装戏). my "dad" (who didn't look like my dad at all, but some old man with a long beard) kept throwing out a rope to kill someone or do something bad, and he kept stopping my "dad" by wrapping the rope around his neck. after three times my "dad" got pissed and just pulled hard and his whole head popped off, and the whole forest turned into a red river of blood.

at that moment i screamed (at least in my head, i hope i didn't scream out loud), it was definitely a nightmare to see someone you love/loved/care about die in front of you, especially when it's unexpected and he was totally killed without malicious intent by my freakin dad!!

i think that was a scene based on the hateful eight lol. better not watch so much violent shows, it's getting to my head and really screwing with my feelings. T.T

i wonder how long it will be before i stop dreaming about him.

back home when...

home sweet home.

i know i'm home when...

- I'm enjoying cold showers (which is completely out of character for me)!

- I'm struggling to stay awake past 12pm (because of the jetlag...), especially after eating!!

- I get to walk >10k steps everyday without even trying to

- I taste Koi -- original milk tea with pearls, no sugar -- and it blows me away with its heavenly taste and texture! it's a joke that I even thought all the great bubble tea places i've tried in the US tasted as good as Koi -- they can't even compare!

- I can speak in singlish and be completely comfortable. :D

- I meet a random stranger at the Takashimaya foodcourt who sat down across from me because it was empty, and she turns out to be my friend's mother (and she was flying to SF tomorrow to help my friend move for her job!)

- I feel sticky and hot all over but cold when I'm sitting in an air-conditioned indoors for more than 30min. every other time the AC is just not cold enough for me.

- I get to throw my clothes in the laundry basket and they return to me clean, ironed and folded. No questions asked. :D