Project 360 day 43

So I was at my dermatologist the other day. While I was waiting for the doctor, I picked up this food magazine which had a story on a Sushi chef from Seattle that only uses sustainable fish. After reading about the plights of the bluefin tuna, I think I have decided that I am not going to eat anymore of it. ( this is a hard decision to make because Daitoro is sooo delicious!). Along with the article was a easy recipe provided by this chef. We made this dish tonight for dinner. It was quite tasty.

project 360 day 42

This was taken at I Love Sushi. It is party for Ninja's old roommate who went to Australia and came back to visit. Everyone ordered 3 rolls each . This is the fullest table I have ever seen.

Project 365 day 41

After my latest snowboarding adventure, I noticed that my gloves are actually coming apart at the seams of my fingers. I am amazed that my hand stayed dry the entire time. Those pair of REI gloves have served me well over the years. They see snow about once a year for 4 years. It is time to retire. So tonight, I went to REI and got these Dakine Catalina ones. They are definitely an upgrade, with leather palms and Gore-Tex lining. Lets hope I get to use them at least one more time this year.

Project 365 day 40

This is the last of my sake posts for a while as I ran out of my backlog hehe. This is Ninja's newest acquisition: Ura. It is usually really expensive but this one was on sale for 50% off. This is also a Junmai Jinjou so it is the same as our old favorite Kikusui. Tastewise, this one is much more "tasty" in that it makes much more sensation on your tongue than the Kikusui, however it doesn't go down as smooth as the Kikusui. Actually it rather burns a little haha. But it sure does make a party on your tongue :)

project 365 day 39

This is Kasumi Tsuru Kimoto Extra dry. I'd say this is slightly less smooth than the Kurosawa from last post. Other than that, there is not much I can say about it. haha.

project 365 day 38

The next in line for my Sake theme. This is Kurosawa, a Junmai Kimoto. It was recommended to us by the Japanese grocery store wine guy. Apparently it has the reputation of being very dependable and very "pure" taste. If you want to know what a normal sake SHOULD taste like, then this is it. This is only Junmai Kimoto not Jummai Jinjou so it is lower grade than the Kikusui I posted before. However, it is still very smooth and light. Ninja says it has a full body, whatever that means. I can say it was pretty good though.

project 365 day 37

Snowboarding at Steven's Pass today. As the Veggies know, I am usually the skier. However, the friends I went with this time all snowboarded and there were some beginners as well so I figure it is as a good time as any to give it a shot. I actually found it easier than skiing especially after I learned how to leaf down the hill. It is much easier to slow down or stop on snowboards, less chance of tumbling down the hill in a heap. I had alot of fun.

project 365 day 36

Continuation of the Sake theme. Hmm as I am writing this, I realized I probably should have tried a different setting for the pictures rather than just doing it in the exactly spot. Will think about it some more next time. This is Kikusui, a Junmai Ginjo as opposed to the sweet Nigori in the last post. Junmai Ginjo is more of a traditional sake type. It is clear high grade rice wine. This particular brand is actually extremely good. Very light and smooth and with just a hint of alcohol taste. This is Ninja's favorite so far. Since my judgment of whether a drink is good is how much I can not taste the alcohol. I'd say this is my favorite as well haha. It does come with a big pricetag. This is about 13 bucks while the Sayuri was only 6 bucks haha. Both bottles are small sample size bottles.

project 365 day 35

Velius inspired me with his themed pics. I am starting a Sake theme. Ninja is a big fan of sake and have been going through the local Japanese grocery store's sake section. I would try a sip now and then just to see what the difference is. This one is the first one we tried. A Sayuri Nigori, it is a very sweet cloudy sake. There are rice at the bottom and when you shake it, you can see it swirls in the liquid. I think the good thing about it is that it is pretty sweet, although not very 'smooth'. Good thing for dessert I suppose.

project 365 day 34

Today was a super cold day, completely blowing away any wishful thinking of a mild rest of the winter. It was cold and wet, in other words back to normal. Just before the sunset however, there was a brief patch of clearness and you can see the surrounding mountains. You'd think being in Seattle, I'd get used to seeing them but for most of othe year they are shrouded in cloudiness that I still gasp everytime I get a clear view of the magnificence.

project 365 day 33

On Monday, all of a sudden, our resident Lara Croft was replaced with this bad boy.

project 365 day 32

Ninja made this giant piece of steak on Sunday. It was so delicious and only took 12 minutes to make. American food sometimes really is quite simple! I wish I know how to make some, rather than the time consuming Chinese variety.

project 365 day 28

I suffer from a serious case of Out of Picture Idea-itis. It doesn't help that basically everyday I just go between two places. For the make up day, I took a picture of Ninja's most expensive bottle of booze. Apparently it was like $200. Don't know why people drink this stuff haha. I think I am going to do pics of booze for all future makeup day. Ninja has quite a collection to tie me over =p

project 365 day 31

Today, I went on my first hike of the year: Talapus Lake. This is rather early to start the hiking season but this winter has been unseasonably warm (sorry Eastcoasters). The organizers figure the snow will not be stopping us. This is rather an easy hike, about 4.4 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1200ft. It is really just a warm up. The first half of the hike was relatively easy and dry. Then we got to the second half, where the trail was covered with 1 feet of compacted snow which is basically ice. That was not bad going up, but coming down was really tricky. I fell once. The trail ended at Talapus Lake which is surrounded by mountain peaks and completely frozen over. It was really lovely and a gorgeous day for the hike.

project 365 day 30

Spring is in the air.. This is the traffic circle outside one of our buildings

project 365 day 29

After contemplating it for months, I finally bought a laptop today. This is a Sony Vaio 13" , from now on it is going to be my precioussss..

specs:

Now as usual, it came with a bunch of crap and I will spend the next couple of days cleaning up my precioussss..

p.s. I gotta make up day 28 again sigh

gasp! not project 365

This video is really cool!

project 365 day 27

A little forest is growing on the windowsill at work. Kirason has been taking care of most of these. She has done a great job. The second from the right has been growing so much, she already had to split it 2 times.

Project 365 day 26

Speaks for itself..

Project 365 day 25

I decided to call certain someone "Ninja" since he is too lazy to come up with a name and he is all stealthy so there now I can refer to him haha. I had dinner with Ninja on Sunday. He went and bought these American style Kobe Beef from our resident Japanese grocery store. It is crazy marbled and very very tendered. You barely have to cook them! yum!

Project 365 day 24

I have a big backlog of pictures again, for some reason i never remember to go post them -_-

M's birthday was this last Friday so on Saturday, for celebration, we went to the performance of "Butterfly Lover"(梁祝）by the Beijing Dance Academy on their world tour. The show itself was fantastic. The first half was made up of several short dances, encompassing both traditional and modern dance forms. The traditional dance are basically court dances from thousands of years ago. There were several modern dance that was quite interesting, one is this weird interpretive dance set to Chinese Rap except all the dancers were wearing Beijing Opera costumes. Very weird. The second half was the full 25 minute set of the Dance Drama "Butterfly Lover" which is basically Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet. It was amazing! The dancers were so exquisite and the music was so moving. I think it was the best dance I have ever seen!

I actually felt sorry for the dance troupe because the theatre was barely 1/3 full and they were pretty bad at organizing. For example, they didn't do much of advertising at all for tickets, unlike that Sheng Yun dance troupe that had posters everywhere!. Then at the theatre, they didn't have the program until the show almost started and they didn't have any sort of introductions. I feel like their talent was not being appreciated because most people here didn't even know they came! What a loss!

project 365 day 23

Also from Kirason's desk, these are Nohohons! I have one at home too, but Kirason has like 10 haha. They are little bobbleheads that runs on light. soo cute !

I have been watching alot of Olympics these last couple of days. The women's figure skating long program was incredibly good. I am glad Kim Yu Na won. She skated a perfect program under so much pressure. What an athlete! Everyone else brought their A game too!

and Good luck to the Chinese women's curling team who is competing right now haha, I hope they win the Bronze!

project 365 day 22

Was super busy this week so slightly behind. These next two are both what are on Kirason's desk.

project 365 day 21

Alright, so like I totally cheated for today's picture but this is too good to pass up. I have been watching lots and lots of curling as apparently NBC only deems this sport worthy to be broadcasted live (shake fist at evil NBC!). I am completely confused as to the rules for the longest time, finally someone found this nice diagram for me. What a crazy sport!! but Go China!!!

project 365 day 19

I figure this is approriate for makeup day. This is the same flower as the one I started out project 365 with. A perfect symbol of the passage of time:)

Project 365 day 20

oops, I missed day 19 again. gonna have to make that up. This is my coworker's bookshelf. It is full of Nyankos, which are basically cats that um. believe they are food.. @.@

project 365 day 18

First sign of spring! This weekend gave us two gorgeous warm days. We actually had a littel stroll outside and sat outside for some lunch. Along the way, I saw this lonely tree in an abandoned parking lot. It is so beautiful and I hope it indicates of good things to come :)

Project 365 day 17

What is better than sliced bread? inflatable toast!!

Project 365 day 16

A foggy morning today. As I was leaving the house, basked in sunshine, I noticed this thick band of fog down below the mountain. Then I drove through it, and then it was sunny again :)

project 365 day 15

Aha! and everyone thought I was on crack when I was trying to describe this mythical beer to them! This is Lhasa beer, brewed with the purest water from the Himalayas. How does it taste? According to a certain taste testers, it tasted "strange' which i think is euphemism for it taste like crap. Although he also said after 2 it wasn't so bad ;)

project 365 day 14

M just came back from a nice weekend in Houston. She bought me these pair of furry boots so I can wear them at home :D

project 365 day 13

Went to the birthday dinner of the friend who was leaving. His girlfriend made this fabulous cake. The dinner was held at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar. It is a relatively new establishment in the new preppy downtown Bellevue. Food was quite good and atmosphere was excellent.

Project 365 Day 12

Happy Chinese New Years and Happy Valentine's day everybody :D. This was my Valentine's dinner :D. Steak, Shrimp, Spinach and Yam. It was incredibly delicious :D

project 365 day 11

Yesterday was a friend's going away party. He is leaving MS and going back to his home in Australia to start a new career. He had a get together at this bar/lounge called Kurrent . It was pretty decent place in Capital Hill. Got nice music and very spacious private room. I haven't been out at a bar in a long time. The music is just as loud, but at least the air is clean :)

project 365 day 10

Insights is this personality test/team training group, kind of similar to Myers Briggs test. I did their simple questionaire and this is what my color came up in the order of the most like me to least like me. I think it makes sense :)

Project 365 day 9

Someone brought some Sake to my place but neglected to bring any sake cups, so we were forced to improvise...

project 365 Day 8

During New Years, one of my friend brought me this beautiful Orchid as a party gift. M has been taking diligent care of it and it is still blooming beautifully!

Project 365 day 7

Nerdiness: see how many books you recognize on this very nerdy bookshelf hehe.

project 365 day 6

gosh... I am already lapsing. I have to fudge day 6th's pic a little. Saving this post for later

update: This is a pic I took a couple of days earlier that I didn't end up using. Very interesting cloud formation among the mountains surrounding our neighborhood.

Project 365 day 5

Wing battle at Snoopy's Superbowl party (go Saints!). I was not involved in anyway except eating and judging. The wing flavors from left to right is : Spicy tossed, Mexican, traditional bbq and Caribbean. Spicy Tossed won the vote!

Project 365 day 4

Went to Yoga for the first time today. 10:30 in the morning at David Barton's gym. It is very fancy, check out the main entrance! Yoga was pretty fun and actually pretty tiring., I am not used to do so much stretching. I rather enjoyed it!

Project 365 Day 3

no no, I haven't forgotten! but it is sooo hard to remember to come post them! -_-!!

A simple one today, my friend Kirason saw this really cute animal in QFC, she is going to buy it for her friend's birthday. :D

project 365 day 2

whew.. this project almost was dead in the water by the second day haha. I remembered to take a picture but totally forgot to post it. So here it is a little late. This is taken at Boiling Pot, a individual hotpot only place here in Bellevue. They just opened and have relatively good business but I do wonder what they would do when summer rolls around? Just sell drinks?

project 365 day1

ok, so Velius has convinced me to do this. I feel like this will be a good way to keep up my blog and really do a project for a whole year. So here it is day one, in keeping with the Sweetness theme this week, this is my dead moogle giving me a rose :) ok. so the rose is free from the downstairs flower shop =P

weapons of small destruction

I went to a shooting range yesterday with some friends because it was ladies night at Wade Shooting Range. This is the first time I have ever been to one and it was a very interesting experience. The paperwork was actually extremely easy, you just fill out a form with your address and what nots and give them a driver license to keep for the gun. There were 2 guys and 4 girls in our group and the guys knew what they were doing. So they picked the guns. The guys, being extremely enthusiastic, picked a Glock 45, a Springfield 1911 and a Beretta 22LR (for us girls ). Then we had to pick out our targets. The guys very sensibly picked some round targets with points on them while we picked Osama Bin Laden because we thought it was hilarious.

After we picked the guns, we put on the earmuffs and safety glasses and went in. NOw I was already warned about how loud it was going to be, but I was still totally surprised at the noise guns generated. For the first 10 minutes, everytime a gun went off, I literally jumped. It was actually really scary. I don't think the earmuffs were very sufficient either cause my ears are still ringing right now. First, I Tried the Beretta 22LR, the guys picked this one because it has the least recoil, it is practically an air gun and it felt like it too. It was very light and I can mostly hit where I want to hit. When you are shooting that gun, it doesnt' quite impress on you the power a handgun possess.

But when I switched to the Glock 45 it was a totally different story. The glock 45 is a much heavier gun. I think it is a popular police weapon. The recoil was soo bad that I can't fire more than 3 shots before my hand start hurting. and I absolutely had no aim because everytime I fire, my hand shoots upwards toward the ceiling and I have no idea where the bullet went lol. FOrtunately I didn't seem to hit anything inappropriate. When I was firing, the bang was so loud that earmuffs was virtually useless. I don't understand how people do it without earmuffs on the outside. There is so much power in this gun that it really really made me feel that this is indeed something that can tear through flesh and kill a person. It was awe inspiring.


I then tried the Springfield 1911, this is a really old gun. It looked like something out of the movies. My friend said that it was old and reliable. It is kind of in between the 22 and the Glock in term of recoil. Actually I think I liked this one the best, it still felt really powerful but not so much that it feels out of control. When I was shooting, I had this urge to just empty the clip really quickly because it felt so good. I refrained tho because I can't quite trust my arm to hold me through all the recoils lol.


All in all, it was quite an experience handling weapons of small destruction. Throughout the entire time I had kind of an unpleasant feeling knowing that any of these guns are build for one purpose and that is to kill another person and to do it so easily, just gently squeeze the trigger and it is done. It kind of makes me want to hide. Not sure I will go back again.

AI top 10

Motown this week, seems to be alot of overdone themes..

1. Matt= I really liked Matt's performance, I thought it had alot of soul and passion. Very good singing too

2. Kris Allen = cute boy but really, voice is just not quite there.. he tried to make it up by being all flirty and cute on stage, but really, just compare it to Matt, and his song seems lifeless..

3. Scott = poor scott, he sounded really unsure like he doesn't know what he is doing. The first part of this song is too hurried and fast when it should have been tender and wistful, and when he got to the fast part, it then was too slow and he didn't have a beat. I am guessing maybe motown just isn't his thing. I can see his inability to smile and connect with the audience is really going to be a problem. Not everybody can groove like Ray Charles...

4. Megan = omg, my ears are bleeding... I know she is trying to imitate the style of "rehab" girl but her voice is so shaky and crackling... and she doens't have a beat either lol.. you gotta have some soul sistah!

5. ANoop: lovely, beautiful, fantastic singing... I Love it! he actually reminds me of a less dorky Clay. He was so natural singing this song, like he really meant it..

6. Michael : meh meh... did i mention i have this hate for people that tap their microphones to keep a beat? How the heck did he gets on the top 12? I haven't see his prefinal performances but I am not impressed.. He can barely finish his phrases in one breath.

7. Lil: OMG!!! can she REALLY not have found another song? thsi is like the perennial idol diva song... and they always use the exact same flaming background.. -_-!! and I am telling you, Lil is not even close ot the best performance of this (if there is even such a thing). She is practically off-key for the whole song.. For better performance, please see the other 10 versions of this song...

Jennifer Hudson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_vBK1AJWxY
Vonzell Solomon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qBDlzZr8VE&feature=related
Group song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XJeslCwAuA (go clay! go clay!)

8. Adam: @_@, crazy slick hair man... ok i have to admit, this dude is pretty talented.. it was beautiful... I wouldn't be surprised if he won..

9. Danny; Oh danny, danny is adorable! he even dressed appropriately this week. He had alot of energy, stage presence, and some cute sexiness. He is what Michael wishes to be haha.

10. Allison: Ok, this performance is pretty fierce. I liked her attitude alot. Wish she could have mumbled a little less.. oh ye of cursed red hair, i think putting her last guaranteed she is not gonna be in last place.

so far I think the best singers are Adam, ANoop, Danny and Matt.

bottom 3 prediction:
Michael - for sure, I think he is doomed to be eliminated
Lil ROund= omg.. no more heatwave please
I cna't quite decide between Megan and Scott for the third one... they both got crap from the judges. Lets say Megan, cause she really sucked...

lovely dinner

Last night a bunch of us went to Zoe's for the Seattle 30/30 dining festival where you go to participating restaurant and get a three course meal for 30 dollars. Zoe is located in downtown Seattle in the Beltown area. The place is really contemporary and sparse with high ceilings and abstract art on the walls. It is relatively large for a Beltown restaurant, containing probably 20 tables as well as a bar area for drinks. The service was really nice, friendly, attentive but not pushy. The 4 of us all ordered different dishes so we can try everything on the menu. We started by ordering one of the famous appetizers that was not on the set menu. The veal sweetbread, which as the waiter explained, is neither sweet nor bread. This is the first time I even heard of this so I was very eager to try it. It was well made and very tasty. The texture is actually indescribable, it felt like a cross between very soft cheese and chewy rubber. now I can say I have tried sweetbread!

I started with a rather boring lettuce salad. I chose it because the other two choices are potatoe soup and the Ricotta Gnudi (cheese!!). But I tried one of the Gnudis and it was really delicious,. it tasted like a semi sweet cheesecake. Gnudi are basically cream puffs but filled with cheese instead of cream. I think I could have handled it. But then, it is always good to eat veggies first. The entree I picked is the pork loins because it was recommended as the house special. The pork was cooked medium and accompanied by polenta and pieces of cooked apple. It was pretty good because the skin was well salted and savory. But I think my favorite dish is definitely the beef short rib. It was amazingly soft and tender and the meat just melts in your mouth. I am definitely getting that next time! For dessert, I got the pineapple upside down cake. I know, it is shocking that I didn't went for the brownie sundae considering my love affair with chocolate. But variety is the key here. The upside down cake turned to be warm and sweet. I don't understand why it is named so since the pineapple was on top and I couldn't tell the up side from the downside. But it sure was tasty. The brownie sundae was definitely a favorite as well. I even had the courage to try some of the cheese plate. The cheese is actually really good considering it is, after all, cheese. If you eat it with crackers and apricot marmalade you can almost pretend it is not there. I enjoyed it but definitely not one of my favorite :)

To see pictures of aforementioned dishes, see my facebook :)

AI result

bottom 3: Michael, Allison and Alexis,
Eliminated: Alexis

Man, I almost got it right, I think I overestimated Alexis' hotness. Man I need a male judge on this to be more accurate haha.

AI is back!

ok, I have been grossly negligent on this blog. The last one was from when I started Japanese class and 8 weeks later..this week I finished Japanese I and I can safely say "where is the bathroom now" :) I thought this would be the perfect place to start posting again. I missed last week's because I totally forgot but I still got 11 weeks to go :)

So I was even more absentminded than usual and I completely missed the pre finalist shows so these opinions are made in a vacuum haha.

Michael: He is a great performer, great stage presence. I can't quite tell whether he can really sing or not.

Allison: She is doomed already because of her red hair. There is a curse on it haha, I think the last 3 red haired girl got eliminited before they get into top 10. I thought the performance was just ok. I guess maybe country really isn't her thing.

Kris Allen: He looks like one of those famous movie stars. So definitely got the cute factor. Voice is kind of weak I think, the song was really boring too. I guess we will have to see if the teenage girl vote comes through. Oh yeah, and his twitchy leg was really annoying me.

LIl Rounds: her name reminds me of Indiana Jones movies. Kung says she is the one that has alot of press right now. I am actually surprised that there is only one diva in this year's bunch. Her voice is rather weak compared to all the previous divas of the past and her performance was a little pitchy.

Adam: this is the emo guy that Kung was telling me about. I am not sure what to make of him. He is certainly unique in this competition and creepy emo is definitely hot right now (think Twilight). But I feel like he should be in like punk/heavy metal idol or something. AI is almost too mainstream for him. I guess it will depend on whether the mainstream audience want him or not.

Scott: wow, I didn't know he is blind. THat is pretty cool for him to make it. I still wasn't impressed with the vocals though. very pitchy! If he had the voices of Andrea Bocelli, I am voting for him hands down.

ALexis: that girl sure is pretty. She kind of remind me of Reba Macintyre. voice is weak though. This is a beef I have most pretty girl singers these days, none of them have any breathing support.

Danny: This dude has his act together. He looks pretty chic too. The song was a little weak in certain places but he sounded pretty good.

Anoop: woot! Indian guy from Duke, I am going to be totally biased and vote for him haha. Anyway, he sounded really good. Very beautiful voice and good control. Can't wait to see more of him. Also it wouldn't hurt to get a slightly more cooler haircut. Image does count alot in voting.

edit: apparently he is from UNC, not Duke, now he must die!

Megan: Man, the judges totally gave her a pass today. It doesn't matter how she did, they weren't gonna say anything bad. There were other idol contestants who were sick before, and I don't remember them making a big deal about it. They must really want to keep her. She does look very pretty, will have to hear her nonsick voice next week.

Matt: Wow, singer/pianist who has a very commercial voice. He already sound like the people on the radio. I don't know if he is likeable enough tho. I remember last season, some very good guy singers got cut cause they were not edgy.

I think Kung was right, none of the people stands out this round yet. But it is still early. Going with that hot girls don't get eliminated and weird people wills tay around too. Here are my bottom 3 prediction:

Allison: oh ye of red hair
Michael: it sucks to be first.
Danny: there are so many guys they are crowding the field. some gotta go...

Fun filled weekend

I had a very fun weekend. It all started with first day of Japanese class on Saturday morning. It starts at 9 am which is a great challenge for me. But I am proud to say I made it before the bell! My good friend Kirason is taking the class with me which make this even more fun. We learned how to say greeting and introduce each other in class and most of the Hiragana alphabet. Our teacher had this system of teaching Hiragana that included a picture that represents the character, and a silly story that goes with it. For example, "Ku is the bill of the coocoo" along with the accompanying coocoo bird picture. Se is for "saying I love you sitting on your boyfriend's lap". OF course my favorite is "Ta is for looking like the letter T a" -_-!! There is also a guy in our class whose name is just "wolf"(seriously, no last name). We were all highly impressed and everybody remembered his name during introduction activity haha.

After the highly entertaining Japanese class, I ran to Karaoke with the new friends I made at backstage of Chinese New Year show last weekend. That was also very fun. We sang lots and lots of really old songs.

After singing my throat hoarse, it is time for Video Game Live!. It is the first time they came to Seattle in 3 years. I learned at the concert that 3 years ago at Seattle was their very first stop on the tour. I was there for it and I didn't even know! I was a part of history! :D The show started off with this hilarious music video.



They then made wonderful music, including a special appearance by the Video Game Pianist who was absolutely brilliant. I wish I had his hands :O

The show also played Metal Gear Solid (complete with terrorists with exclaimation mark and a box), Halo, the Nintendo suites and many many other fan favorites. I really loved being there because you are surrounded by people that shares in the same knowledge as you so it feels kind alike a secret club meeting hehe.

Then, finally on Sunday, it is Chinese New Years! I had some friends over for the traditional dumpling making and tried to watch the Gala show "春晚”，which I say was ok, not too bad, not too good either. :)

This weekend as been wonderful, and of course, I ended up being sick today haha. I guess i had too much fun!

slumdogs can win too!

I went to see Slumdog Millionaire this week with a couple of friends. I have wanted to see it ever since I heard about it a couple of weeks ago. It started with not really much buzz as it is a independent film, I thought it was just some tribute Bollywood movie made by a white guy. I just wanted to see it cause I like Bollywood movies. But then, it won Best picture, Best Soundtrack, Best director AND best screenplay at the GOlden Globes. basically out of nowhere. So I had to go see it even more. and I have to report that it was extremely awesome.

Without giving away spoilers, the movie is about these 2 brothers who grew up in the slums and how their lives changes as they try to survive the undercities of Mumbai and how one of them ultimately ended up at the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire tv show Indian edition. It is really an amazing story and I love how the plot twists just keeps on coming. The story is actually try to follow a Bollywood style except it is much grittier than the usual fast sportscar and glamorous woman fare. It is extremely well filmed with good soundtrack, good cinematography and good acting. I highly recommend everyone to go check it out. Probably will be the only movie at the oscars that is not depressing and hopeless.

American Idol

woohoo!! AI starts again today. Although I probalby won't really pay attention until they get past the city phase. I am looking forward to passing harsh judgement on all the contestants hehe. This willl get me back into blogging again I hope. Although to be honest, remarkably little has happened since Vegas :)

snowed in and karaoke paradise

We finally had a snow storm yesterday after days of forecast warnings that came to naught. Actually it was kind of funny because they keep warning that it will snow in Wednesday so everybody got all prepared, the school closed down, people stayed home etc etc. But it was perfectly clear on Wednesday, and apparently this was the reason.




You see the large amount of green ? That is all snow storm, you see that hole in the middle where we have perfectly clear weather? that is us. thats right. But finally on Thursday, our snow bubble burst and we got the full onslaught. Although, for once, the west side got the bulk of the dump while my house only got the very edge of this Canadian storm front.

So being at home, and couldn't remote into work because the other 30,000 people were also trying to remote into work at the same time. I decided to put my exciting plan for Karaoke Paradise into action.


Now I have like 3 karaoke machines at home of various age. The problem is tho, I don't have songs to go with them, and I don't want to keep changing disks every 3 songs. So it is highly inconvenient. Now I was thinking originally of buying a karaoke machine in China like we did a long time. But after shopping around I realize apparently home karaoke is no longer popular in China. People just go to a karaoke place where they can sing and get food for like 10 yuan or something ridiculous like that. So the selection is seriously lacking. Then i have found out that my friend here has a home karaoke setup using a laptop, Internet connection and a microphone mixer. So I decided to copy that. Now, I couldn't convince myself that I need a $700 laptop so I can sing karaoke so I decided to rebuild my old machine (the one that the hard drive died). it still have everything intact, except it is missing the HD and a CD player for booting. So I took my old DVD drive off my new uber-machine so I can put it back into KP machine. I also have a spare 80gig IDE HD Cloud gave me when I was whining about my HD last time so I figure it is all a go.

The machine assembly was relatively easy, although the master-slave thing gave me so much trouble because I keep switching them around and the DVD won't boot. So after I got that set up. Time to install XP pro. A process I have only done like 5000 times before. The first time it was a success. I installed everything, hooked the machine up dual monitor with a spare monitor (for song selection) and my plasma ( for mtv). Now all i have to do is upgrade to SP2 get the 1000 security updates and download a karaoke program with songs. It all went downhill from there. Right after I upgraded to sp2, the machine wouldn't boot. It says


file is corrupt or missing : system32\config\system.


Now this is kind of a serious error. I thought maybe I corrupted the registry when I was installing sp2 cause I really was forcing it down its throat pretty fast. So I tried like 10 more times to install XP using various different options like deleting old partition, quick format, full format. And none of them worked. GRRR!! so my next plan is of course.. whine to Velius. Velius is awesome as he suggested that I wipe down the install disc and try again. Amazingly it worked! This time everything was perfect until I decided it is a good idea to upgrade to sp3! boom, the error is back. After almost tearing my hair out. I have decided the failed HD drive curse of 2008 is still with me and there is only one solution to this problem, a new SATA HD from newegg. When all else fails, throw more money at it =P


oh and this is the mixer I ordered.
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-Stereo-Monitor-Matrix-MON800/dp/B000MJ40D2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1229372329&sr=1-1

So now i have to wait another week or so before continuing my KP saga.

4th place again

I really enjoyed tonight's trivia game despite coming in 4th AGAIN!! We are so close everytime. We had about 8 people there, well 7 + one guy who only wanted to have dinner but we forced him to join haha. He contributed the answer to "Christie Hefner to step down as CEO of this company". Which everybody guessed but he actually knew haha. We had some really good answers coming out of nowhere. Like CloudSix knowing the TV theme to Air Wolf.(??) Tyrtle knew the compound that was used to grow cartilage for joints. We totally rocked the country names with Z in them category, including three countries in Africa that has Z but doesn't start with them. Did great in "current events", not so well in "this day in history" (forgot to study). and Kirason, Tyrtle, and I totally embarrassed the rest of the team by cheering for the theme to Xena The Warrior Princess (WOOT!!)

CL visits Seattle

The weekend went by super fast. I took CL to the airport last night and everything is back to the same old stuff again. I had a really fun weekend with CL. It turned out to be really good weather on all 3 days which is so rare in winter here. CL joked that he brought good weather with him and I am glad. On Friday, M dropped him off at Pikes Place Market while we were at work. Then, we had dinner with Snoopy at Tamarind Tree, this nice Vietnamese restaurant tucked in a corner of chinatown. CL is a vegetarian so it took some thinking trying to find appropriate restaurants but I think I made some good choices thanks to Snoopy's help. Afterwards, we spent some time chatting and I showed him my vacation pictures (Xbox comes in so handy). I haven't talked to CL in 4 years and even then we barely hung out so it was nice to getting to know him again. He didn't seem to change much, but then he says neither did I haha.

On Saturday, Kirason and I took CL to the Space Needle, Kerry Park and EMP. I haven't been up on the Space Needle for a while but I really enjoyed the trip. It was a particularly clear if not sunny day. We could see every detail of Mt. Rainier and the Olympics. Kirason and I also amused ourselves at their new display that shows the panorama view at different times of the day. If you rotate the time dial really fast, you can see the ferries and sail boats come in and out all through the day. It was fascinating. Then at night, we crashed CoreSD's holiday party at McCaw Hall. They showed a special performance of the Nutcracker ballet. Then afterwards, they had a live band going, a piano bar and lots of food and drink. Everybody was dressed up and we got to see lots of friends. I really enjoyed the party.

On Sunday, I decided to try this vegetarian place at U-District called "Veggie Veggie" (so unique i know -_-). I found it on the intertubes. It actually turned out to be really good and they had these soy fish that had the exact texture of fish meat. I wonder how they did that! After lunch my schoolmate Tris came down from Vancouver to meet us. We also met up with Snoopy again so we had a mini reunion. I took them to Alki Beach for the amazing night view and then hotpot for dinner. I am quite proud that everything went off without a hitch since planning really isn't my strong suit at all. Even Snoopy said I did a good job :D.

Not the End

Ok. Velius was saying that the title of my last post is like an ominous omen that signals my abandonment of this blog. So I figure I better come and start posting again. I mean I have to at least keep pace with Snoopy right?

I am looking forward to the weekend because my friend from college CL is coming up to visit. I haven't talked to him since I graduated so I am sure we have alot to catch up on. Of course I also have to plan out his visit but now that I have experience planting the Veggie trip it should be a breeze. I will probably take him to the Space Needle and then Kerry park, Pike place market and pioneer square. On Saturday Night, We are going to go crash the Core OS group's holiday party at McCaw Hall. THey are watching a performance of Nutcracker! How cool is that. Our xbox party is at some club with "macabre entertainment". not interested humph..