Wrong turn

Go here

http://trytorememberthis.wordpress.com/

New Blog

I made a new blog. I feel like making a second blog (in my case, I guess this is my third public blog) is something people think about for several days before deciding to take the plunge. It's like moving. Is it really worth uprooting yourself and starting completely anew? Couldn't I just remodel the current blog and keep the base intact?

I kind of just created one in a flash. I was actually going to make a second blogspot, but when I was faced with having to choose a new theme, I realized that there are no other themes I like on blogger and I don't have the patience or the skill to create my own. So I decided to use wordpress. Wordpress is really confusing so for now, the site will look very bare since I don't know how to add side modules. I also don't save any interesting pictures that could make nice background images. All I have in my laptop are pictures of pretty celebrities, clothes that I want to buy one day, and kitchens.

For the past few weeks I just haven't had any incentive to blog. I'll write a bit, delete it, write again, delete it, and then give up. My life just isn't that interesting. I wonder if I can blame part of this on twitter - I don't feel like people gain anything from reading all these paragraphs, and when I submit a post, it's like I purport to have something interesting to say, when I'm not saying anything at all. But when I use twitter, it's assumed that whatever I say is useless, so there's no pressure to be entertaining or interesting or even grammatically correct.

But I made a new blog anyway, because now I have a THEME! The theme is life lessons (yes I know that is not a theme). The idea is kind of based on a list I keep in my food diary, titled: THINGS I HAVE REGRETTED. I have only ever made one entry on the list, and it's "eating an entire Gypsys calzone for dinner." The idea was that I would write down all the things I regretted doing food-wise, so I wouldn't repeat my mistakes. That never really happened. I still eat entire calzones for dinner. I guess for the blog, I hope I can read it over one day and think "how silly I used to do that!" instead of "guess not much has changed."

Anyway, the address I wanted "littlelifelessons.wordpress.com" was already taken. Wasted on a one-post author. meltang.wordpress.com seemed really redundant. So my new blog is http://trytorememberthis.wordpress.com

Enjoy!

It's like summer again

Since when did ABC Family become my favorite network with the best shows? I REALLY like 10 Things I Hate About You. It is surprisingly hilarious at times and I think it transitioned from movie to tv quite well. I just started watching Make It or Break It which is a drama about teen gymnasts and it is REALLY good. The opening credits are the worst thing I have ever seen, but the actors are pretty good, the plot is very consistent and I love shows where they have drama between the young actors and the adults.

New roster of shows:

Mad Men (AMC)
Daily Show (Comedy Central)
Top Chef (Bravo)

and eventually returning

Friday Night Lights (NBC)
Chuck (NBC)
30 Rock (NBC)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Better Off Ted (ABC)

It's the second day of school, but I've watched five episodes of Make It Or Break It. Welllllll I can study tomorrow...

Shit I'm a senior

HAHA I just walked past Jon to see what he was doing. He now sits where I used to sit last year in the living room. He was watching Gossip Girl while playing a game of Solitaire AND a game of Restaurant City. Awesome. It's good to know that when I die, I will have had some influence on my friends...

First day of school, uneventful as always. I had forgotten how many white people go to this school. I also forgot how many PEOPLE go to this school - I feel like the campus is packed to the brim. Makes me never want to deviate from my set route to Haas. Every few days before school starts, I think to myself "THIS SEMESTER I'm going to become friends with a lot of people in my class!" And then I get to class and it's full of little Asian fobby cliques that I do not want to break into. I picked the wrong major to make friends in. I should have done ... media studies ... or sociology ...

I really like my apartment now. Since I leave my door open and open the window, the hallway is filled with light, which is really nice. The kitchen is clean too, thanks to Paulo and Jon. And Paulo moved the living furniture so now it's not a big empty room like it used to be, or the cramped claustrophobic room that it was before that. I like my apartment so much that I'd kind of enjoy living here, even after I graduate.

Now I know why people who have singles never go back to sharing rooms. It's sooooo luxurious. It's kind of hilarious to go out to eat with my aptmates and when we get back, they go to the living room and I go to my room. I feel like we live in completely different apartments. Maybe it's because my apartment is large. My walls are really bare. I don't know what posters I would buy that would represent me. I wouldn't want posters of TV shows, because tv shows come and go. There aren't any bands I really want to stare at every day. I asked Paulo and he said "you should get a poster of a stalk of celery" which I thought would be hilariously appropriate. I just have to find one now ...

Goals I had for the summer:

1. Learn Excel: complete fail, I never made it past the first chapter of Excel for Dummies.

2. Exercise daily: in three months I didn't exercise 21 days ... seven days because it was either July 4th or Vegas weekend. I keep track of what I do on a google calendar, and from June - August I have spent my life:

• Swimming 2040 laps in Spieker pool, which is equivalent to 17 hours of being in my own thoughts without any music
• Going up and down the elliptical for 9 hours, staring at either the wall or MTVU
  
• Running 71 miles total around the same brown track field at Edwards Stadium
• Dripping with sweat for an hour 7 times while doing Core Blast

3. Read: I actually got a lot done by having a job. I'd get into work earlier than my supervisor, so I could read NY Times and I was more up to date on current events than ever. I also took books to read on the F and the Bart, otherwise I would never set aside time to read. Sadly, the book I liked the most was Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited a Public Trust. I also read through the last two Harry Potters really quickly last week. Now I actually understand all that Elder Wand business that I sort of gleaned over the first time.

4. Eat healthy: Egh, I didn't follow my "eat only half of whatever you order in a restaurant" rule, but I finally gave up cereals and started eating oatmeal, which is good. I ate a ton of fruit, but I think I should start eating more vegetables because fruit has a lot of sugar. Also, winter is coming soon, and all my favorite fruits will no longer be sold :(

5. Explore SF: It was bummer to be in SF almost every day, but not have the money to go shopping or eat at new restaurants :( At least I got to eat at the Farmer's Market in the Metreon, which is pretty fun. And I now know the route from Powell to Transbay Terminal VERY well.

6. Eat out less: I set $100/month as a goal without having any basis for the number. Even after I made this goal, I somehow spend more each month. $170 in June, $190 in July, $180 in August. Although if I take out what I spent on food in Vegas, it's only $101.24 in August ... which looks a lot better. Jesus, that just made me realize that half of my eating out money was spent in three days.

Come visit me in my clean apartment!

Oh nooooo my last summer break is almost over. No more three months with nothing to do. Please make time stop!

Top Chef

I'm about five seasons late, but I just watched the season premiere of Top Chef 6. Now my stomach is super hungry. I really shouldn't be watching any more reality tv, but I feel like I'm watching so little tv nowadays, I need to pick up some new shows. I watched an episode of Project Runway yesterday, but I wasn't AAAAmazed by it.

To compare, Padma >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Heidi Klum. HAHA I think it's because you watch her eat every episode. I have immediate respect for people who are super fit but will stuff their face with something like "bacon donuts with chocolate beer sauce" without hesitation.

Also, the contestants are more interesting on Top Chef. I'm sure most people would say that someone who knows how to cook well is really appealing. When I imagine the chefs' private lives, I think about how lucky the people who date them are. I always thought it would be pretty bomb to date someone who is in culinary school, so they would come home and just whip stuff up to eat. And I would help them hone their culinary skills by consuming it.

Another day in summer part 3

This trailer makes me feel like my life is moving too fast and I don't have enough time in the day to do all the things I want to do.

But once it's over, I return to my routine of sitting in my room, trying to think of things to look at online, and reading Harry Potter between naps and eating little snacks I find in the house. The highpoint of my day is around 9:30 when it's finally cool enough for me to go running. I can usually take one day of pure relaxation before my body starts to freak out and tries to set goals to accomplish.

This is the second time I've read the final book of the Harry Potter series and I am amazed by how I remember absolutely nothing. In all honesty, the only thing I remember from the book is that it ends happily and the names of their children are kind of lame. I haven't even had a single trigger of "OH! This is going to happen." Kind of sad how quickly we forget things.

I think normally, I'd be itching to get back to Berkeley, but as of right now I prefer this current state of in-betweenness. I don't look forward to the coming semester, which will only bring me closer to one of my greatest fears, unemployment (which slightly trails behind loneliness and sustaining an injury that leaves me incapable of exercising).

The internet at home is really shoddy and it makes me really angry.

Ice cream

Normally I would have stolen a picture of an ice cream scoop from the internet. One that looked like someone had fussed over the camera for a good minute before finally taking a satisfactory picture of the inanimate object. But everything on tastespotting looked good, I can't really think of other food sites to comb through, and none of the pictured flavors were actually flavors that I like. So I figured the ice cream truck would do.

If I think about it, the after effects of ice cream are not pleasant at all. It's usually very delicious to eat at the moment, but about ten minutes after it, I have cottonmouth, I want to eat something else to take out the creamy flavor it left behind, and my face feels like its pores are clogged. Every time I feel myself being tempted by ice cream, I try to remember that feeling.

Still, I have an insane sweet tooth. And there's a reason why Ici is probably the top three phone numbers I call. (Chrystal and I once laughed over how we only call because it tells you the daily flavors over an automated message - otherwise it would be far too embarrassing to call as often as we do).

FAVORITE FLAVORS (subject to change):

1) Mass marketed and found everywhere
Breyer's Coffee ice cream. I like coffee flavors, but I don't like coffee. Breyer's is better than Dreyer's - it's easier to scoop and I think they may use less cream, which gives it a lighter feeling. It's almost a little foamy if you let it melt a bit, in a good way. I'm always in danger of eating more than I want, especially because I start thinking "well I don't want this tub taking up space in my freezer! Best just to finish it"

2) Ici, bcause it deserves its own category
It once used to be chamomile or something tea like. Tea flavors are so delightful - they always REALLY taste like tea! But then I tried a sample just for kicks ... and it turned out to be the MOST AMAZING FLAVOR. Basil ice cream, guys. It is the winner. You wouldn't expect it, but it is crazy good.

3) Sit at home and mope
I won't admit to how many pint-sized Haagen Dazs ice creams I consumed in a single night during my years with a mealplan (enough that I no longer have to google-check how to spell Haagen Dazs). I'd just sit there, watch something I had downloaded on DC++, and suddenly find that I had passed the halfway point of the pint, so I'd finish it. I still don't understand why Chrystal laughed so hard when she opened my freezer and saw that I had left a spoon on top of a half-eaten pint of ice cream. If no one else uses my fridge and no one else will eat my ice cream, there's nothing wrong with keeping the utensil conveniently next to the food item! And the cold will keep bacteria from growing.

Anyway, favorite flavor. I ate Maeda-En's lychee sorbet a lot, because it felt healthier and it was crazy cheap at Unit 3. But if I never ate it again, I wouldn't mind. I actually really liked Haagen Dazs Mint Chip flavor. It was white instead of green. I wish the chocolate chips weren't so chunky, because it takes away from the mint ice cream, but I think the chips help limit my eating frenzy.

I'm trying to look for reviews of the Wynn Buffet to figure out what foods they serve, so I can plan ahead of time what I want to get. That way, I don't go crazy and overeat. People say their desserts are not very good (they probably just mean, not good for a $40+ buffet) which bodes well for me. I think I can generally limit myself pretty well on food food, but desserts are a different matter because I can't distinguish between when I'm funneling food into my regular stomach versus my dessert stomach.

My mom is feeding me too much but thank goodness she goes to work next week, otherwise I'd continue eating the same amounts for lunch. At least when she is gone, I can go back to my fruit eating without her nagging me all the time.

Eyeballs

Every time I go back home, I always
1) Go to Victoria's Secret to pick up one free panties. They always send my mom a card for a free VS panty, and if someone would review their market research better, they'd realize that we never buy anything and I've accumulated nearly two weeks worth of free underwear, which is like $75
2) Go to the dentist, after which we go to a C grade Chinese restaurant that serves really good dse ma da bing (sound it out phonetically - I don't know ping ying). It is sad that our family traditions consist of Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, Christmas dinner with ham, and dentist appointments with dse ma da bing and lamb.
3) Go to the optometrist, which is the time my mom sits in fear of finding out that my eye sight has dropped another 100 degrees.

I heavily dislike my optometrist. He graduated from Berkeley, and if I had lived on his floor, I'm pretty sure I would have made fun of him with Chrystal. He seems arrogant and always in a rush to get patients out. If your parent says "hey try out this new optometrist, Jim Chen in Arcadia" you tell them "no!"

I lost my right hard contact on Thursday while walking the streets of SF. I stared at the ground very intently for two minutes before I gave up and continued walking to the bus terminal. Still freaking missed the bus, by a minute. I was too proud to get on my hands and knees and feel around for my contact. Thankfully, insurance covers a new pair. My old ones were about three years old. I think when I first put in my new contacts, I'm going to think "OMG why are things so CLEAR?!"

He also did a check up of my eye and said my retina is thinning. Basically if I get in a car accident or get hit in the head really hard, there is a chance that a hole will appear in my retina. There's no pre-treatment, because anything they do would most likely just cause more holes to appear. But if a hole does appear, then they can fix it with lasers. He said I probably shouldn't ever get laser eye surgery because my retina is so thin :( I feel like I was told that I can't get pregnant. This was my future! I'm still holding out for the day when I can just buy new eyeballs and stick them in my head, Minority Report style.

The reason I eat so much at home is because there are so many little snacks. Little snacks that I would not allow in my own apartment. For lunch I ate some grapes and cherries, a warm soup, green bean soup, and a piece of black sesame bread. Later I ate red bean ice cream (oh god soooooo good) and another chinese rice krispy. Damn you chinese rice krispies! I was going to give you up, but I come home and there are like 16 waiting for me. That's two per day ...

It is really humid in Arcadia. But it is deathly hot in Vegas. I know I am not at all prepared for Vegas weather. In my head, I'm like "hot in Vegas? I'm sure it's kind of the same as Berkeley at 2pm." There is about a 20 degree difference that my head can't wrap itself around.

Untitled

God. I wrote a blog about my day, deleted that. Wrote a blog about how I don't blog very much anymore, deleted that too. I'm going to do another blog about my day and just let it be.

Tomorrow is my last day at my summer internship. They actually gave me a check today, which was a nice surprise because it's advertised as an unpaid internship. My supervisor told me that they usually give interns a little stipend at the end, just as a surprise bonus. It's like ice cream on top of a very delicious bostom cream pie. (I know the saying is 'icing' but there is already frosting on a boston cream pie). I bet the money is going to get blown away within a few hours in Vegas.

!!! I just realized maybe I should buy something delicious to eat for the office tomorrow. Umm... shoot I don't know! One person is diabetic so I can't really bring in a fruit tart. HAHA I just thought about bringing a Cheeseboard pizza to work, but I would get so many hungry stares when I'm on the bus... I'll keep thinking about this.

Oh god, I could have slept at 10:15. And probably woken up at 5. Going to sleep now.

mmm sesame cakes

I tried to find pictures of what I'm talking about, but I can only find tiny ones that would probably just confuse you more. This is my latest guilty eating pleasure:

I call them Chinese Rice Krispies in my food journal. I've gone from eating one a day to three a day. To be more exact, I used to only eat one a day when I was at home in Arcadia. Then I started buying them in bulk at the Richmond 99 Ranch, and now my love for them is uncontrollable. I think if I just make a trip to Trader Joe's and buy some more White Bean and Basil Hummus, I wouldn't even want these anymore. But until then, these are the most accessible and delicious food I have in my kitchen.

I keep writing stuff, deleting, writing something new, deleting that too. It is wasting a lot of my precious time. I need to study! I spend a lot of time making a to do list when I'm at work. Then when I get back home, I don't do anything but go through ohnotheydidn't and try to think of shows/movies to watch. I need to start making strict agendas again.

Well, one thing to cross off my to do list: I made a new imeem playlist that consists of my favorite songs from my favorite bands. After looking through it, I realize how mellow most of my music is. It would probably make a good study playlist, if you didn't fear falling asleep. I think if you just play the embedded playlist, they give mostly 30 second clips, so you have to go here to listen to the full versions.

Favorites of Favorites

I need to make an exercise schedule, an eating schedule, a cleaning/move out of room schedule, a study schedule, and a fun schedule. You may ask me, "but Mel, aren't those ALL under fun schedule?" and I would say "why yes, quite right."

OH GOSH! I just read on onnotheydidn't that a Bon Iver song is probably going to be in New Moon, the sequel to Twilight. Which means I should probably go to his concert this year ... before he becomes popular and prices rise. But, Oakland or LA? I do not know.

Random videos

I am listening to this song right now:



Apparently I like a lot of folk music. Every time I look an artist up on last.fm, I find that they are tagged with "folk." Not sure what constitutes as folk. I would have assumed some sort of banjo is present in the song, but as far as I know, all of my music is banjoless.

I LOVEEE this song and if I found a downloadable version, I would just listen to this all day. I like all the cuts and I love anything that Kiersten Holine does. I wonder if she knows the guy she collaborated with or if they are just youtube buddies. It would be very cool if they had just done this without ever meeting in person.



But this is THE CUTEST THING EVERRRRR. Just like a commenter said, I think the cutest thing is that his sister stares at him the whole time.



If your heart is not warmed, you are emotionless!

Oh gosh, summer is almost over. August is almost here. I wrote a draft of a cover letter while on the bus today. I'll type it up after I go to Ici. I need to study for accounting. I am one point away from getting an A- in the class.

Bon Iver is playing at the Wiltern in LA on 9/25! Is this a sign that I should go home for my birthday?

I'm in Vancouver, trick

I can't even write that much right now because I have a midterm TOMORROW at 8am and it is already 11:47pm and I am moderately fucked. So something short. I won't even promise to write a lengthier post, because I don't know if I would. So here it goes. (Editing comment: this turned out not be short at all ... fuck ... but it's a good one!)

Vancouver is a freaking awesome place to visit for a weekend. I feel like we did a good majority of every great tourist attraction, and I only spent $160 total for three days.

These are the important things you need to know about Vancouver, if you ever decide to visit:

1) Stay in downtown Vancouver, preferably Burrard street because it is right smack in the middle of everything
2) The island is tiny, despite what you would assume from the map
3) Even though the island is tiny and the GPS claims you can reach your destination in eight minutes, you should expect to arrive and park in forty.
4) Groceries are very expensive, at least in downtown Vancouver
5) British Columbia owns all the alcohol in Canada, so you can only buy them from BC Liquor Stores. This means alcohol is effing expensive to buy, and drinks from clubs are pretty diluted


Oh gosh, I was going to blog only until midnight but by the time I finished making this graphic, it was 11:57.

So those were the major destinations, minus a suspension bridge we went to in North Vancouver.

A) Our hotel, the Century Plaza Hotel, which was a $240 stay for BOTH nights. Divided by seven people, this was great pricing. Thanks to Christina for searching for hotels for so long! It came with a complete kitchen, which was great for us because we ate in more than most people do on vacations

B) Granville Island, our actual first destination in Canada. We never got to actually explore Granville Island, but went to a place called Go Fish Food Emporium which was really highly rated restaurant-shack on Yelp. I don't think Canadians use Yelp as much, because there were not many restaurants listed. I had a crazy good char grilled albacore tuna sandwich, which came with "sweet chili ponzu glaze, tomato ‘Snake Bite Salsa' and wasabi mayo." I'm glad I didn't let all the spicy things scare me off, because it was insanely juicy and not at all spicy.

C) Gastown, which was a historical shopping destination. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but we had a random experience of walking through the back alleys of Canada right along the train tracks and the steam clock was fun in its own way.


D) Stanley Park, which we had the good fortune of going to TWICE. On Saturday morning, we rented roller blades and went around for two hours. We later found out that we had gone the wrong way and had actually gone from point D all the way to Burrard St. I am really happy we got misdirected though, because we still rollerbladed along really nice paths we can now say we have traveled through 1/4 of downtown Vancouver by roller blading!


Then today, Sunday, we went back again (the employees recognized us, HAHA) and biked the entire green portion of Stanley Park. It was the most insane bike ride ever - HEART!!! Every view was gorgeous, weather was nice, and we were EXERCISING while having fun! First time I rode on a bike with gears for an extended time, and I really liked it. But I probably wouldn't like it as much when I'm riding along streets instead of along a bike path around the Canadian seawall


E) English Bay, which we went to on Saturday night for a huge fireworks show on the beach, which is like an annual event in Canada. It was a thirty-ish minute show of fireworks, and we watched S. Africa night. The Celebration of Light is a fireworks competition, this year between China, S. Africa, UK, and Canada. The fireworks show was only enhanced because a FREAK thunderstorm started around 7pm that day. We had been told to go early, since the event is watched by 1.4 MILLION people. So we picked up food from Safeway to picnic while we waited two hours for the show to start, WHILE it was raining, but we were treated to an incredible sunset. Found a nice pine tree to protect us while eating, hiding from the rain, and later having girl talk.


Around 9:45, walked onto the beach and watched. The show had a twenty minute warning firework go off, which infuriated Kristen for teasing us. The fireworks were crazy, but even crazier was the lightning. I don't have videos or pictures, but at one point, there was horizontal lightning going across the sky like this


And after the event, everyone walked on the streets of Vancouver. MASS exodus of people! I love love love walking on closed-off streets with giant crowds. :)

Other fun things we did:
1) I ate DELICIIIIOUUSSS and CHEAAPPPP sushi as my last meal. I'm very happy we got that take out. I freaking got a HUGE piece of toro for only $1.75 and a huge tuna nigiri for $1.35. Also a "Vancouver Dream" roll, I forgot what is in it. It was super fresh mmm makes me never want sushi in America again, because THERE IS SO MUCH BETTER OUT THERE!

Only $13.70!

2) Fly a kite at the borderline between US and Canada


Yes, that is me in the black

3) Walked across a suspension bridge hanging between a really nice, pristine looking mountain area that had a very tall waterfall ... I can't describe it and my camera doesn't capture it well but it may have been one of the coolest naturey things I've seen.

The story of how we got here is even better. To make a long story short, we got lost and ended up picking up a random person we found in an isolated university. His name was Rick, he looked kind of crazy, but we had him sit in Mark's car next to Leneve anyway.

4) Japadog, which is like a Top Dog but JAPAN-style! They had japanese sauces and stuff like dried seaweed sprinkled on top with japanese mayo


5) Continuously sing "I'm in Vancouver, bitccchhh" to each other because it came on the radio while we were driving around and yes they DID change it to Vancouver. We decided that cities like Albuquerque would miss out on being able to fit their city name into the song

6) Celebrate Leneve's birthday Saturday around 11:50 by baking a blueberry pie, lighting sparklers, and setting off the fire alarm in our hotel room. I was filming, but panicked when the alarm went off, so I accidentally deleted the BEST VIDEO EVER. The video was: Leneve standing in front of the TV after she comes out of her shower and watching I Am Sam, video pans over to fifteen feet away where all six of us are very suspiciously huddled together whispering, then suddenly someone starts singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" and we all chime in, while Christina lights up sparklers and tries to hand them to people to hold. I get a shot of Kristen who waves her hands at Christina and silently expresses a very clear "FUCK NO I'M NOT HOLDING THAT" while we're all still singing, and before the song is over, the fire alarm goes off and everyone continues to sing while Kristen doesn't miss a beat and jumps up to fan a towel around the fire alarm. Again, BEST. VIDEO. EVER.

Oh god, I have to pee and study.

It need not be said, but I HEART YOU GUYS! I was very against going home. I thought it was such a happy experience to have all my friends fly in and meet at one place. But it is just as depressing when we all fly off into different directions at the end of the trip.

Seattle!

Now I can appropriately title this blogpost Seattle because we actually went to Seattle yesterday. Twice! The thought of driving to Seattle seems like a far adventure to me, but it's really the equivalent of driving to Costco. I did not know that homeless people WEREN'T intrinsic to every major city. We were walking around Seattle at 1:30am and there weren't ANY suspicious looking people!

We went to Pike Place Market which was one of the best outdoors markets I've ever gone to. But I don't know if it was significantly greater than other outdoor markets, or if I was just with a better group. Traveling with excom is very nice - we look at things at approximately the same amount of time and multiple people take pictures. We ate really good smoked salmon samples that an Asian fish guy gave us. I point out that he is Asian, because the way he got us to sample his foods was by yelling "HEY, MY ASIAN SISTERS!" Well, I'm glad I stood out as an Asian, because that salmon was damn good.

Lunch was piroshky which was SOOOO good. I got two though, one sweet one savory. I shouldn't have gotten the sweet because it was way too sweet. Savory was so delicious - cheese, egg, and spinach. I should have gotten the pear tart at Le Panier. I hate regretting food choices :( The piroshky place, appropriately named Piroshky, had been featured on Anthony Bordain's No Reservations, as the newspaper clipping in the window told us.

We spent a good amount of time there. Then we drove off to Olympic Sculpture Garden, which turned out to be way cooler than I thought. I had imagined boring people-like statues, but it was modern. Also went to Microsoft's headquarters, which was very interesting. Helped myself to a cup of hot chocolate. Then dinner at Santorini's Greek Grill which was SO GOOD - it was featured on Seattle's cheap eats. So we had Russian and Greek. I love this multiculturism. We then went to Dragonfish, a restaurant/bar in a hotel in downtown Seattle where we had INSANELY cheap drinks. $2.95 for some pretty sizeable cocktails.

We are leaving for Vancouver now!

Washington!

I keep wanting to say that I am in Seattle, but I'm actually in Redmond, Washington, the headquarters of Microsoft. I ate way too many cherries for dinner and a handful of MSG-filled shrimp flavored chips, but I'm glad day 1 of vacation did not end in excessive gluttony. Wait, why am I talking about food?

The trip to Oakland airport was stressful but I ended up having a good ten minutes of downtime. Air Bart on the weekdays is the best because there are very few people riding it, so it's like you have a personal shuttle. Flew to Seattle - really weird to fly north instead of south from the airport. For the additonal 30 minutes of flying, you get refills on drinks AND Wheat Thins! How luxurious. My flight arrived just ten minutes before Andria and Christina's and we met up with each other in the airport. SO CUTE! I love it. We hugged in the middle of the walkway and all. I love doing friend things in otherwise mundane places.

George is our host and is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He is an RCSA scholar from UC Davis, and I assume that the people in excom met him through one of our inter-UC events. So those things are worth something after all! He is letting us stay in his swanky apartment, paid for and furnished by Microsoft. He also gets free car rentals, so he kindly rented a car and we'll be able to drive his car tomorrow. Which is probably the craziest nicest thing a host could ever do.

Tomorrow we are going to Seattle, eating with Andria's friend, exploring, then the Microsoft Visitor Center. George has a employee discount, and he said we could buy things like Microsoft Office for 10% of its retail price. Damnit, I bought Microsoft Office a month ago. He bought his Xbox for $40. I need to make more friends in higher places. I am going to buy a mouse and a laptop carrycase. And I think we're going to eat crab tomorrow at The Crab Pot and explore a popular Seattle marketplace, where I will probably eat fish. THEN Canada! Which I will research in the morning - I'm certain I will be the first to wake up.

Kristen also arrives tomorrow. I love this awesome logistical vacation, people flying in from everywhere and getting together, and I love the idea that after not seeing each other for about two months, we meet up with each other in a completely different state and travel together for a weekend. I want to do this every year with my friends! But I do not know of any more George-like people in America.

SLEEEPPYYYY. Hopefully tomorrow I will have amazing Seattle pictures

Deletion

Sorry, deleted the last post. Not because I was embarrassed by anything, but I feel like it was a very inane post. Maybe if something more bloggable were going on my life, I would have more to say. But there isn't. I don't like making xanga-like entries about what I did over the weekend, because they don't interest anyone except for the people who were also at the event. And my job doesn't have particularly life-changing or thought-provoking moments so there's nothing to say about that either.

I'm surprised I like the songs by She & Him so much. It's the band that is one part Zooey Deschanel and one part M. Ward.



I want to watch episode 2x5 of Mad Men, but I know I should be studying. But I'm too tired to study, so I ended up just staring at this webpage and zoning out.

Curry smells are coming out of my pores because I went to eat House of Curries with Chrystal. mmm HOC ... so close to me yet I so rarely eat there. It is Chrystal's bday tomorrow and we were talking about what she plans to do. Unluckily for her, tomorrow is a Tuesday and only a small group of her friends are around. Talking about what she wants to do made me think about what I want to do. I figure it is early enough so that I can say what I want to do, without making it seem like "HEY HINT HINT THIS IS WHAT I WANT."

I haven't figured out if it would make more sense to do two parties (one in Berkeley one in Arcadia), one party (combined weekend trip), or three parties (one for Berkeley friends 21+ and one for Berkeley friends 21- and one in Arcadia). I am actually leaning towards just eating tons of food for a week with different groups and not having a party. I guess going off of that idea, I'd have

- go out to a more loungey place where I can drink alcohol with my Berkeley 21+ friends and get the most trashed there
- eat somewhere delicious but cheap with my Berkeley 20- floormate friends because several of them are studying abroad anyway
- eat somewhere with TMV/Berkeley friends
- eat an Ici bombe with Chrystal
- eat a 99 Ranch fruit tart
- eat an Andronico's fruit tart (is this too much fruit tart? But I don't know which one I like more ... they're so different)

Looking at that, I realize that my plan to eliminate my sweet tooth through abstention is an impossible task.

If I were dating someone, I would eat at Roy's with them. But even if I started dating someone today, it would only be a two-month relationship, which seems a bit short for a $80 meal.

I don't know if I would go home. I probably would have if we weren't going to Vegas in the summer, but now it seems like going to Vegas before I turn 21 waters down the importance of turning 21 in that group. That's what I get for turning 21 so late in the year.

I would rather not drink at my own party, because I don't want to pass out and miss out on my own birthday. But ... 21st birthday ... seems like an impossible request.



I love this. There are also interviews with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson but Daniel's is the most entertaining by far.

Also a topic that came up in conversation today with Chrystal: all the closeted gays in Hollywood! People we think are FOR SURE gay, but no one ever says it:

1) Zac Efron
2) Daniel Radcliffe
3) Bradley Cooper

I don't understand how some celebrities can't stop the tabloids from finding out their secrets, whereas some other secrets about the biggest celebrities are so contained. We figured that Disney and Warner Brothers just holds tremendous power over Hollywood that it only uses for its greatest money making stars. And Bradley Cooper is hard to spot, unless you watch his interviews under the assumption that he is gay, then it is much clearer.

There is no good ending to this entry. Just, good night

Where are all these posts coming from?

Anytime I write something like "I don't think I'll blog again for a while," I end up blogging every day straight for a week.

I REALLY love work this week. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to accumulate everything. Hopefully something fun will happen tomorrow too. I half hate being on my period because I don't exercise as much and I look bloated. But at the same time, I have so much freedom to just EAT and hang out with people! It's amazing. But that is also how I got so fat in the first place - eating and hanging out.

If I could be trapped in a particular room for the rest of my life, THIS IS THE ROOM.



I love the dynamic of this group. It could only have been bettered if Tina Fey were included. I watched other interviews with other Emmy nominees and they are not nearly as interesting. Is it just me, or are all the actor interviews incredibly boring and unappealing? Or there is always SOMEONE in the group that makes the entire interview insufferable (Denis Leary for drama, Jeremy Piven and Brad Garrett for comedy). The drama actresses were not as entertaining to watch, but I feel like they command respect. When I watch the comedy actresses interview, I think, "wow they are really crucial to making that show hilarious" but when I watch the comedy actors, I think "wow good thing they have hilarious writers because the actors are about as interesting as my pot of oatmeal."

I've posted the other comedy actresses interviews for your convenience, and mine. I'm sure I'll be rewatching them again tonight.



I want to be like Christina Applegate when I grow up. Look way hotter in my late 30s than my 20s. (and then later, pull a Jennifer Aniston and look way hotter in my 40s than my 30s. And so and and so on until I'm Betty White)



It took me a while to figure out what they said, but it was "Morgue Magazine."

Welcome Home!

Laura and Soo Jin have returned from Europe! My life is complete again...

Just kidding, I don't even know when I will see them.

I really don't like my facebook profile picture but I have no other pictures of myself that I like. I wish there were a high school mel in my life, who would take pictures of me so I could have a great selection to choose from. I tried looking for pictures from high school, but that just resulted in my realizing how THIN I used to be! It's so sad that I thought I was so fat in high school, when I'm so much fatter now. LOOK! CHEEKBONES!



:( I think over the course of three years, I really did get the freshmen fifteen. I need to lose that and more. The 20s 20. I'll be twenty pounds lighter than what I used to be in my teens. If that makes me unhealthy, then so be it.

Bonk

I wish I were reading a book that didn't have the words vagina, penis, clitoris, and orgasm in every sentence. I'm reading a book called "Bonk," which is kind of a science-y book that looks at how people have studied sex. The author is really hilarious and there are footnotes on every other page which are just an excuse for her to make funny side comments. But I only read for fun on the bart to and from work, and now I'm too paranoid that some stranger is going to glance at what I'm reading and think I'm some weird pervert. Which defeats one of the author's points, that there's nothing embarrassing about it. Still, I feel weird reading it in public, then I feel embarrassed to be embarrassed by it.

I should be reading my financial statement analysis textbook anyway. I'm so behind, ugh. I don't get pension plans at all. If I listed everything I don't understand about this class, it would look remarkably similar to the table of contents.

I wanted to make Yogurtland my #3 banned food, but that seems kind of pointless since I never loved frozen yogurt anyway, and if I did have a sweet craving, Yogurtland induces far less guilt than a serving of Yogurt Park or a scoop of Ici. Before Yogurtland ever came to Berkeley, I could easily say no to it, which is very rare for me to do in a group setting. But somehow, I've lost my resistance.

Things I eat, but if I thought about it carefully, I don't like them at all:
- donuts, they always leave my mouth feeling disgustingly oily
- cake, cookies, because they are never very satisfying and they leave me feeling like I have sugar face, which is what I call the sensation of eating too much sugar and feeling bloated and oily
- In N Out, only in the sense that I always feel really unhealthy afterwards and the taste isn't enough to compensate
- chocolate, seeing as how my mouth often erupts with canker sores after, I can't figure out why I continue to eat little bits of chocolate when they're put in front of me

Sleep time! God, I wasted so much of my time today, it makes me sick.

I don't care much for titles

I'm going to throw all the thoughts I ever have in the summer into a blog post, because I'm never really in the mood to blog anymore. I think it's due to lack of time, but I'm procrastinating right now, even though I know very well that I shouldn't be.

In classic American/meltang fashion, I've spoken to five international students in my class, and I only remember two of their names (the more American sounding ones) ... one is Simon Alexander (or was it Alexander Simon?), and the other one is Marcus. Alexander Simon is seriously like ... the equivalent of Brad Pitt in his younger days. He doesn't actually LOOK like Brad Pitt, he just has equivalent looks. There is also a Blake Lively look-somewhat-a-like who always sits between fobby Asian girls, but never next to the European transfer students, which I think is interesting. How unfortunate that I am taking summer classes this year. Had it been a year ago, I would have met many more Europeans. Damn you economy! You've worsened my life, yet again.

Once every few months I think to myself "I wonder if there are any new videos on TV is the Answer" and there are. There will be maybe five new videos, totaling ten minutes of viewing time. But I invariably spend an hour and a half rewatching videos I've seen before, then I'll continue to rewatch them AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN. They never get old! You come back with a few more months of life experience, and they all have new meaning!

This one talks about the sociopaths in Florida. Hilarious because at work all I ever hear about is how CRAZY people are in Florida.

I love my work because I am right in Powell so I know immediately when there is a sale going on. But the downside is that I am not making any money to buy things with, so knowing that there are sales only makes me feel like I'm missing out. I didn't realize Chinatown was so close to the Financial District - had I known, I probably would have gone to buy egg tarts and fruit during my lunch break. I feel like I squandered those few precious weeks when I worked 8 hours a day. Now, it looks kind of bad to come in at 1:00 and take breaks, so I just work straight until 5:00. Then, I'm so intent on going home in time for Core Blast or getting ready to swim that I don't have time to do anything in SF. I know that in a few years I'm going to really regret not taking advantage of working in Powell.

Other reasons I love work: Delicious free food, I get to listen to music, everyone is super nice, people drop the F-bomb everywhere. I finally met the person who hired me today (she normally lives in Oregon but is down for the week) and since I had already finished my last project, I happened to introduce myself while eating an apple, listening to music and writing a personal e-mail. Lovely first impression, I'm sure.

It is hot in Berkeley AGH I realized my wardrobe is really crappy today when I could only pick out a grey tshirt and a jacket to wear in 85 degree weather. Death. It suddenly feels much hotter in my apartment. I blame my apartmentmate's box of takeout bbq. I bet it's the heat of the meat, warming up this confined space. Yet another thing to put on my "things I won't miss about my apartmentmate" list. It joins "chews loudly," "fails to clean up after himself," "leaves food in fridge for weeks," and "dates annoying girl." Only two more weeks - how exciting, although he doesn't seem to be packing.

Oh gosh, she plays piano?! I wish someone would envy me for my talents. Unfortunately, I have none.


I never get tired of reading articles like these, which come out every week. Always saying the same things ... people did not expect to be in a recession! But they are now! How are they coping?! Story never changes, just the names. Yet I continue to read it. Kind of like how I couldn't stop myself from watching The Hills, even knowing that nothing particularly novel would happen.

I should have been studying but it's now 11:30. It's interesting that after this summer, I now think waking up at 7:00 is really late, and my idea of "OH NOOO WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?!" eating is when I eat a packet of oatmeal too many or TWO slices, not one, of peanut butter bread. Ideally, these would be my daily meals:

After gymming breakfast: oatmeal with a little brown sugar
After class snack: mangoes
Work time snack: two small apples or one big apple
After work snack: anything light
After gymming dinner: watermelon

But I constantly treat myself to prepackaged packets of oatmeal or a chinese rice krispy. The oatmeal packets aka packets of sugar are almost gone though - I'll be so pleased when they are. But then I will need another food to satisfy my random sugar cravings. Wouldn't it be amazing if I could eat a piece of dried fruit and think "god, this is so good! This totally satisfied my craving for sweets." That's what I aspire to be.

While swimming today, I randomly remembered my dream of graduating early and learning how to surf and living near the beach for a few months. That image seems so long ago - I haven't really thought about it in months. It's been so long that when I try to envision it now, I feel like I'm in someone else's mind. There's basically no chance of me realizing that dream anymore, which seems like a sad thing to say but I have no emotions about it because I have so many other priorities going on.

I wonder what I am going to eat after the summer is over and watermelon, mangoes, and peaches aren't in season anymore. What are winter fruits? At least I will always have apples.

I'm going to end this blog entry now, only because I want to check my email but to do that I'll have to log out of blogger. So, hope that was enough.

Better Off Ted ... again

I could post more but I shouldn't

I know, another entry

I keep having ideas of random little bits I want to blog about, but when I sit down to blog I don't remember them or I don't feel like blogging anymore. Umm...

Oh yeah. WTF. Berkeley raised student fees by 10% because they're under budget. But then I walk to class and Haas is giving itself an UNNECESSARY paint job?! WTF. Ok, fine, Haas money is primarily from donations. But it's still pretty annoying. That money could be used for so many more things. Like, more free beer and Top Dog for Haas students.

I want to have a body flush and just eat vegetables for a week. I feel like there is all this processed sugar sitting in my body. Gross.

I wish I were capable of not obsessing about the past. I never used to until college. I'm in one of my "let's revisit the past and scrutinize everything that I could have done differently" modes. It is annoying because I remember at the time I was like "ok, I feel like I am doing everything I can do, so I know I'm not going to regret anything." I think I'm just bored with life - I have no drama so I like to create it in my head.

Sleep time! I'm rereading The Time Traveller's Wife. I feel like I will only ever read non-fiction for the rest of my life, except when I feel like reading fiction, I'd just cycle between this book, Life of Pi, and Where The Heart Is. And the Harry Potters.

Better Off Ted

I remember watching the pilot of Better Off Ted and falling asleep because I was super tired. Then I never watched it again. Well, I'm happy some people out there did, because I'm watching episodes on hulu (FINALLY, ABC joins Hulu - the ABC online player is so shitty) and it's pretty hilarious. Yay! It's renewed for a new season!



I also watched the tv version of 10 Things I hate About You that premiered last night. It was supposed to be good. I watched and it was so SO BAD! It's the first ABC Family show that I've seen - maybe I need to lower my standards. But I will continue watching, because I really like Lindsay Shaw. It's weird because the dad from the movie version is also the dad in the TV version. And he doesn't look any different

Summer School Friends

My summer school started today. I finally looked at my financial statement analysis textbook and it looks like a lot of words and not very many numbers. I think it may be possible for me to get through the course without actually reading the chapters.

The class is 68 students. I wanted to make new Haas friends this summer, but looking around the room, I'm not so sure it will happen. Out of the 68 students, there were exactly three white girls and two white guys (all exchange students who speak German). There were two Indian guys, and everyone else was Asian. Out of the Asians girls, I'd say that three of them were not fobby Asian girls. I didn't count how many non-fobby Asian boys there were, but I don't think there are that many, nor do I usually befriend Asian business boys anyway. I talked to one of the German girls today ... so that leaves me with two more friends to make. HAHA just kidding. Open mind!

I went to Core Blast today after three days of ZERO exercise and ridiculous eating. I could not do shit. If anything, Core Blast just made me feel worse about myself! Usually, I mouth "WHAT THE FUCK" to Paulo for one particularly hard exercise. But today, every exercise elicited a "FUCK NO" or a "who does he think we are?!" At least I sweated, but I know I'm not going to feel sore at all tomorrow. Ugh, I'm so disappointed in myself. I better be able to run 3.5mi straight tomorrow, or I'm going to have NO MERCY on my body for the next week.

Bing!

Everytime I see some advertisement for Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, a scene from Mean Girls pops in my head. The one where Regina George sharply says "Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen." That is what I think of Bing. Why does Microsoft even bother trying to make a competitive search engine? Who searches anything on msn.com?! I may leave msn.com as my homepage out of laziness and some enjoyment over having stupid articles greet me whenever I open my browser, but I would never actually use msn.com to take me somewhere else. Dumb.

I am super full. Yesterday I ate a crapload of sushi. I don't even know how many sushi roll and nigiri equivalents I ate. We ate at a sushi buffet in Newport Beach. I felt like I was in an episode of Laguna Beach. Seared salmon was incredible. I like Alvin's quote: "this dinner is either going to make us smarter or dumber."

I freaking ordered a textbook on amazon.com and stupidly sent it to my home address. I even paid more for express shipping! Of course, it has not come, and the post office is not going to be making deliveries today or tomorrow. I will be starting school without my textbook... boo

I could have sworn my summer school was MWF and Tuesday 8:00-11:00, but I checked it again and it's only MWF 8-10:30. Budget cuts? Or my own stupidity? In any case, I'm happy because I think I can more or less stick to my exercise schedule. Which is really the main contributor to my happiness about this summer. HAHA

BBQ now! It's deathly hot in Arcadia. I always wake up super early before it gets hot and I'm in SF before the sun really starts to shine in Berkeley. The only time I ever feel uncomfortably warm is the walk back from the bus stop to my apartment, and every day I'm like "UGH why is it so damn hot all of a sudden?!" Then I sit in my apartment and an hour later the sun goes down and I go swimming and it's cold again.

"Things to do in Vancouver"

I'm trying to make a suggestion list of things to do in Vancouver. Considering that I'm going with so many people who love to plan things, I feel pretty confident that no one is depending on me to plan, which is nice. But I figure I should see what there is to do so I can get my two cents in. (why is the saying "two cents?" Maybe my ideas are worth a dollar.) Ideally, when I type "things to do in vancouver," I would get people's blogs, where they post things like "I went to ____ for the first time and I can't believe I've never gone!" I want things that resident Canadians would really enjoy. Instead, I will only get commercialized listings. I hate when there is a list of things to do, and half of them are artsy/cultural things. I'm not 60. Also, just because I'm 20 doesn't mean my only other option is clubbing.

I never trust these "top things to do" lists that are publicized by travel companies. For instance, Fisherman's Wharf would be a top thing to do in SF, except Fisherman's Wharf is totally lame. And all tourists go to Alcatraz Island, but I've met tons of people who live in NorCal and have never been. Similarly, I have very rarely ever gone into downtown LA, and I only go into Hollywood when I have to accompany visiting relatives. Who decides that a place is a "tourist attraction" anyway? Did locals REALLY go there once upon a time, or is it all marketing?

HAHA I just looked up top things to do in Berkeley just to test it out. Someone suggested a gourmet ghetto walk, starting with "Gregoire's -> Cheeseboard -> Love At First Bite" HAHA THAT WAS THE EXACT order that 1:00-4:00 of the 12 hour food marathon was. I guess they didn't qualify the shack of Brazil Cafe as "gourmet eating"

You know what would be awesome is a trip advisor where you can select some characteristics that you have. For instance, I enjoy eating at small, unknown restaurants. Check. I enjoy walking through clean, new-looking commercial areas. Check. I enjoy looking at crafts. No check. Then it aggregates this and gives you a result. And my result would be: walk down North Berkeley, Shattuck Ave. Do not walk down Telegraph. Stop at Gregoire's for lunch. Also, possibly visit College Ave. And I'd be totally satisfied with these results.

Other grand ideas I have come up with, and if only I had the capital or the technical know-how to get these running, I would never even need a job!

1) A new office-wide email program that trumps Outlook. I HATE outlook. Intensely. Clearly, the only reason companies continue to use Outlook is because it comes preinstalled, and because it's been in use for so long that it would take a tremendous amount of resources to switch over. But omg, every time I use Outlook, I feel like I'm back in 1998. I didn't really get why Equilar used it at first, but I was kind of whatever since I didn't get too many e-mails. Then I go to my job now, where people send emails left and right, and I'm like OH GOD WHYYYYY. There are SO many inefficiencies. And the layout is hideous. I was complaining about it to Laura/Soo Jin and was like "I hope I never have to use Outlook in the future" and they were like "uh... every company uses Outlook." UGH! Gmail should create a program specifically for office use.

That was actually the only idea I had that could be considered a profitable venture. The other idea I had was a food blog that gave Chinese recipes ... in English. I can never find people who will teach me how to make Chinese dishes. All I ever read are dessert recipes (no thank you! I'm on a diet, as delicious as everything looks) and things that look like they'd be served in an upscale restaurant. I just want to make things that have a max of three ingredients. Maybe one being water. Flavor is not required.

I guess instead of making a suggestions list, I ended up blogging. Whoops. I really, really want something sweet. Strange, because I don't think it's time for my period cravings yet. I think they are just hunger cravings. NO COOKIE. I feel fatter than I did last week. I ate too many carbs :( I will never be thin.

I realized a couple hours ago that I "know" a lot of Canadians. For some reason, a ton of tv recappers/people who write the tv blogs I read are Canadians. Unfortunately, I don't bother making online friends, so I can't ask any of them "what can I do in Vancouver?!" I should have networked earlier in life.

Spoiled

I'm so ecstatic. I love it when plans just fall on my lap. I read my email, and there's a freaking trip set out: People going, check. Rides, check. Housing, check. THANKS CHRISTINA. All I had to do today was pick out my flight times and everything was done! Seattle/Vancouver in July with excom. I LOVE YOU GUYS! Why are things so easy to plan with this group?

*insert picture of excom, one of the many I have, except I have to go to botanical gardens now* HAHA My mom would be so jealous

Felicity

I keep trying to write about Felicity, which I just recently got re-obsessed about, but I never like what I say. Maybe there is nothing particularly intelligent for me to say about it, other than, it's SUCH A GOOD SHOW! At least the first season is - I don't remember anything from the later seasons. I love it when I rewatch a show from childhood, and I remember scenes right before they happen. They're like hidden memories.

I wish they still made tv shows like old WB dramas. People were a little fatter then. Well, not the main stars, but at least the supporting characters and extras were more normal sized. And maybe they hadn't perfected back lighting and they certainly didn't have HD cameras back then, but I like the feel of old television. It's less bright and more realistic. I think that the ability to capture film so vividly has influenced script writing. Everything is just so much more exaggerated now. Like, I can't imagine that Ugly Betty or Gossip Girl would have succeeded as much if they hadn't been able to show how sparkling the sets were.

I wonder what I would eat if there were no Gypsys. Any time I am given a choice of where to eat in Berkeley, I find myself chowing down on a chicken pesto calzone. I tell myself that after senior year, I will rarely have the chance to eat the calzone, so every time I go, it's like a treat. Going out to eat in Berkeley is really just deciding between calzone and House of Curries' palak paneer.

This week went by surprisingly fast. I really liked having a room to myself for the first few weeks of summer. But now that Paulo has moved in, I feel like I'm living with a friend again, so I don't feel like I have to go out as often to stay happy. In fact, I barely have any time for myself - I haven't learned as much Excel as I wanted to, and I just want to sit and watch Felicity all day. Freaking summer school hasn't even started yet and my days are already packed. I don't know how I should alter my schedule after school starts.

I really like this Gym Twice a day routine I have going on. But summer school starts at 8am, and if I were to go running, I'd have to wake up at 6:00. I don't think the track is even open that early, so that is already out. Ugh! I really like running on Edwards track! People are rarely ever there and when it's not sunny, it is a nice place to run. I will figure out my summer schedule part 2 later - now is Felicity!


Gosh, Javier is so hilarious. I was like ... eight when I watched this show and I doubt I had really seen any gay characters on tv. So he was probably one of the first gay male characters I have ever seen. What a cutie

Would you like a birthday sign with that?

I went to Li-Ting's after work today. For dinner, we decided to get a fruit tart from 99 Ranch. Fruit tarts are usually meant for celebrations, but it was just a Friday for us. The cashier asked "do you need a birthday sign with that?" and we looked at each other and said no a little ashamedly. Then the cashier started to wrap it with ribbon and I was thinking "oh gosh, just another obstacle between me and my fruit tart."

When we first got to Sheng Kee Bakery there was this CRAZY crowd of asian moms at the bread place. The bread is sold for real cheap right before it closes, so they just wait there, for their moment to strike. I didn't know how much they really cost, and I think I've been eating too much bread lately so I opted not to. The person in front of me got about 12 breads for $7.50 though - that is pretty dang cheap! But I would complain so much on my twitter if I ate 12 chinese breads.

I've never been happier to get my period. I was really worried about how guilty I would feel about going out and not exercising twice a day over the weekend - but now I have my period which means I wouldn't have been swimming anyway. Good timing, body!

Bucket List #1: Karaoke on Stage

Ok, so I don't really have a bucket list. I guess you could kind of count the thing to your right as a bucket list ... but some of them are out of my control. So I don't think it's a real bucket list. Instead, I will tell you about things that I have done that I feel like are on other people's bucket list.

I write this blog while having a hammering headache and a nauseous stomach. TODAY! I went karaoking with Anu and Kristen in SF. AWESOME. Here's what went down:

I went to work. Got off around 5:00. Walked to union square, supposedly to meet up with Kristen. Instead, Anu decides she will pick up Kristen WHILE testing out her new gps in sf. BAD IDEA.

The GPS claims it will be a 10 minute drive. I knew immediately that was a lie. It would take ten minutes for a car to go four blocks in SF. I could have walked to Kristen faster than Anu drove to Kristen (but I stopped at BOA). No worries! They were trying to loop around to get me, OTHER BAD IDEA. SF rush hour traffic is already crap. There were also a whole bunch of accidents, which made things MUCH WORSE. I ended up coordinating with Kristen to figure out where they were stuck in traffic, then ran down the street and just jumped into their car. Which is always something I REALLY like to do (no sarcasm, I really like doing it).

Car ride was crazy. So much food consumption. Ate an entire tupperware of pasta that Anu had made - later realized this was a TERRIBLE idea. Gosh, it sounds like this whole day was full of bad ideas, when it really wasn't. I haven't even gotten to my bucket list portion of the day yet.

LONG STORY SHORT (because I want to sleep) - we went to a bar and had happy hour. Kristen paid for my drinks (AW!) and forced me to drink beer on top of the extremely strong cocktail that I had. I didn't get carded! Another score. I feel like I drink more in public as a 20 year old then some people do as a 21 year old. Thanks to all my older friends! Then we left, drove to a karaoke bar. One of those places that is a stage. EFFING FUN! Kristen and I sang DON'T STOPPPP BELIEVINGGGG (is there any other song?!) Anu sang ... OH NOS I forgot. Ended the night with singing Wannabe; then walked back to the car singing Smashmouth's All-Star and then driving down Bay Bridge singing to the radio. I passed out multiple points in the night

In the end, we got home around 10:30. AMAZING. I love this "work in the day play in the city at night" feeling. I felt like I had been out for an hour, but it was like FIVE hours! Even though I felt EXTREMELY terrible from my alcohol. WORTH IT! This summer is bomb. I only wish I were working a paid job as an audit intern. But my job is pretty bomb right now too.

SUPER long entry! Why must I ramble. OK SLEEP! I feel like in my drunken state I may pick a fight with my stupid apartmentmate.

Transfer: complete!

I finished transferring my music! Only a few hiccups along the way where I would sit at my computer and wonder what was the most logical thing to do.

1. Songs that "feature" an artist. Which is essentially every popular song now. I don't know who to attribute a song to - like, is Rihanna the main artist or is Sean Paul the main artist? Who is featuring who? I generally figure the first voice I hear is the main artist, but this seems unfair to anyone who collaborates with Jay-Z. Jay-Z is always the first to be heard, but I don't think he contributes anything significant.

2. Is Hannah Montana Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus? Previously, I refused to acknowledge this split personality and just labeled everything Miley Cyrus. But now I realize that there is a difference in a Hannah Montana song and a Miley Cyrus song. So I reseparated them

3. Complete albums? If I like a majority of the songs on an album, I like to have all the songs because then I'll label track numbers and album title. But then I don't know if I should keep songs that I hate. For instance, should I download Matt Pond Pa - Crickets, since it's the only song missing from the five albums I have of his? Even if it is literally just CRICKETS CHIRPING for a good two minutes?! WHY do artists like to put stupid shit on their cds? Like when there's just noise for thirty seconds before the song finally starts. Unnecessary!

So I guess that's one goal I can cross off my summer to do list. Next: Read my "Excel 2007 for dummies" book

This is my new favorite song and I will probably play it until the end of summer.

Set Me Free - The Lovemakers

I just read the following FML (which I haven't read in so long)
Today, it was my 18th birthday. I got one thing: a fancy electric toothbrush from my little sister. I would say I'm happy to have something rather than nothing, except, for as long as the toothbrush works, there will be a Hannah Montana concert going on in my mouth. FML

Sadly, my first thought was actually: "where can I get this toothbrush?!" Here. But they only sell Pump Up the Party and Best of Both Worlds. If they had had Rock Star or See You Again, or Nobody's Perfect, I would have done it. Actually, for SURE I would have done Nobody's Perfect, because I really did use that as my wake up morning song last semester. (proof)

99 ranch dim sum

This summer is kind of like last summer in that I plan out my weekends far in advance to ensure that I'm not sitting at home being lonely and depressed. The only difference is that last summer I HATED the weekdays, and this summer I kind of like them! This weekend I went to another Dine About in SF, this time to Cafe Andree. I was a little less willing to pay for such an expensive meal this time, but I figured ... actually I never justified the price in my head but it's too late now. HA

The dessert: sadly I forgot the name, but inside that cake was an inner chocolate cake with chocolate syrup inside; the ice cream is plum

I went to Li-Ting's afterwards to stay for the weekend and do a ton of shopping the next day. God I love that house. Amazing views, quiet neighborhood with large chain commercial establishments. Every time we drive to her house, I always say "TRADER JOE'S! DSW!" We ended up watching Mean Girls and The Sweetest Thing on TBS. I had heard that The Sweetest Thing is a pretty crappy and wtf movie, which I definitely thought at some parts, but there were also other parts where I'd be like "mmm ... not a TERRIBLE movie." I ended up falling asleep and missing the end of the movie. I woke up and saw Li-Ting giving me a "WTF JUST HAPPENED" look. HAHA It was funnier because at the midpoint of the movie, I had said "this is such a bad movie but I just want to know what happens in the end."

Slept in Tiffany's bed which was very comfortable. There is an Ikea mirror in her room and I seriously believe Ikea mirrors make me look thinner than other mirrors. Trickery!

We had breakfast the next morning at 99 ranch. OMGGG SO GOOD! This 99 ranch and the richmond one both have areas that serve dim sum. I kept saying things like "THIS IS AMAZING" and "OMG! THIS IS SO GREAT" SOOO much better than actual dim sum (except that it's essentially a fast food buffet). You can get 3 items for $2.20. So you can get all you favorites (buns and sweets for me), and you don't have to eat crap that someone at the table wants and no one else wants. Also, there's no awkward "we have four people but there are only three pieces" moments. Great quality (because who can really be that picky at dim sum?) for a very low price!

That's all. I'm so tired of transferring my music, but I've only gotten to the M's.

*songs left to transfer: 1,947*

Time obsessed

I noticed that there are tons of clocks in urban areas. Probably because everyone is concerned about whether they're going to make the next bus or train. But I also noticed that they are all usually off! The analog ones at least. How ridiculous. The clock we should all go by is the Bart's clock, because that is the all-mighty timekeeper.

Oh god, I'm so glad I had the foresight to move my red bean bread to the kitchen. I'm too lazy to get up and eat some, even though I am very hungry. I need to sleep soon so this hunger doesn't continue to plague me. Now I understand why I did not buy bread at 99 Ranch. The Richmond 99 Ranch bakery is complete shit! My red bean bread has barely any red bean. It's just bread! RAH. Shing Kee Bakery forever. Out of all my diet food rules, the only one I haven't been able to do is "take home half of anything you buy outside." I am very opposed to taking leftovers that are wrapped in aluminum foil, because I have to go through so much effort to microwave (and I hate eating cold foods that are meant to be warm). Unfortunately, most of the largest food items are wrapped in aluminum foil. Chicken bakes ... burritos ...

Going back to the time theme of this entry ... I figure I got most of my schedule down. If I want to catch a bus on Bancroft, I leave 3 minutes before arrival. Walking from my work place to the transbay bus station is 11 minutes if I speedwalk, 15 minutes if I walk at a casual pace. It takes me 12 seconds to comfortably cross a SF crosswalk, but if it's at 9 seconds, I can make it to the other side right as the light turns green for opposing traffic. The bus ride home is about 40 minutes and I'm usually asleep for 20 of those minutes. I think the most useful number is knowing how long it takes to cross a crosswalk, because I am too proud to run but I also don't want to be honked at.

My project at work has been google searching a huge list of rich people who are likely to donate to gay causes. It is really interesting. I am a little creeped out by how much information you can get from the internet. Granted, these are rich people who probably have more public information. But I bet someone could find out an uncomfortable amount of information just from this blog. I know from my personal experience that if I'm interested in someone, I can find out A LOT about them - creeper stalker amount. *loud laugh to cover up awkwardness*

I was looking up one person and found an article about him... keep in mind that I work for a legal organization that works on gay rights... Skadden is the name of a law firm

According to a Skadden tradition, the spouses of new male partners receive bouquets of red roses on the day partnerships are announced. (New female partners receive the roses themselves.) When a single man makes partner, flowers are usually sent to his mother. But when new York tax attorney Kirk Wallace's partner, Mark Sexton, got home that April day in 1997, he found a bouquet from Skadden waiting for him, with a card that read "Dear Mark, welcome to the family.

I literally read that paragraph five times before I realized that partner meant LAW FIRM partner, not marriage partner. Then I had to reread it another two times to finally figure out exactly what the paragraph was talking about. MASSIVE CONFUSION! I thought I was picking up on tons of grammatical errors at first. Turns out I was just stupid.

And then I read a pretty interesting interview on a gay Ford executive. My favorite quote in the article is when he says "gay people don't lie; they dissemble." HAHA

I really need suggestions for new music! Not even just artists - if you know of some keywords that I can type into imeem.com, let me know! Keywords like "Laguna Beach," "house music," "lounge music," or "cute love songs." I think next week I'll be emo and listen to something like "sad breakup songs."

YAY the weekend has arrived. This week went by crazy fast. I think I went out too much. I need to spread the fun out! It interferes with my swimming schedule.

Super full yet super empty

I was just in the most amazing house I have ever been in. I don't think I will ever be in a house that nice again. HAHA It wasn't nice as in mansion with gleaming granite countertops and marble floors. It was one of those huge North Berkeley houses that feel incredibly homey the second you walk in. The rooms were perfectly sized to feel lived in, not cramped but not excessive, there were huge windows in every room, the bathroom felt like it was three times the size of mine, and the kitchen was like my dream kitchen. Countertops that were like huge cutting boards, a high table with stools, and even a dishwasher that blended in with the painted walls. There were stacks of books (but not so many that it was overflowing) on tables, all the furniture went well together but they weren't bought as a set. To enter the house, you have to climb an incredible number of stairs but once you reach the front door, you feel like you've just entered your own private kingdom.

The backyard was huge and overrun with weeds - from the back porch it looked like just another Berkeley houseyard gone wild. But once you get down to the ground, it looks less so and you start to feel comfortable even within the huge mess of brush. I wasn't even able to go to the other half of the yard, where it looked like there was a greenhouse and some two story tower looking thing.

GAH every time I hang out with Angelica and Ryan's friends I feel INCREDIBLY stupid and very limited in life experience. I think 80% of their jokes go completely over my head. Most of them are physics majors but they know a crapload about biology and chemistry and many of their jokes stem from knowledge of the natural sciences. It's not even book smart, they know everything about EVERYTHING. They are also amazing story tellers too - whenever they tell a story that I actually understand, I find myself laughing uncontrollably. Also, they are generally pretty fit and I spent a long time today discreetly looking at each person, remarking to myself "GOOD GOD LOOK AT THEIR JAWLINES."

I ate way too much - BECAUSE I HAD NO ONE TO SHARE MY FOOD WITH! I am jealous that Angelica has Ryan because she could just share her hot dog and other foods with him. Everyone who came to the BBQ would bring a six pack of beer - but it would be really nice beer. We must have had at least ten different types of beers by the end of the night. I think it's really cute when you throw a little shindig and your guests bring a little six pack and just nonchalantly put on the table. It makes it seem like they get together all the time and it's just a weekly kickback or something.

I always think to myself, I'm GOING TO STOP BLOGGING SO MUCH! Seriously, how can I talk so much when all I do is go to work? Somehow, I find it possible.

Things I ate today:
- a crazy good salad that had spinach, grapes, some sort of nut, and a dressing that was created by the host. It was made of 2:1 olive oil and balsalmic vinegar, honey, and dijon mustard, sprinkling of salt and pepper
- hamburger. this is where I was impressed: they had set out a dish of condiments that included red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado, and pineapples, all freshly cut
- hot dog, or specifically, a bratwurst
- a chocolate cake made with williams sonoma mix
- smores. a REAL smore with graham cracker, giant marshmallow and chocolate
- corn

God. Why is this summer turning out so well?

To be as cool as Ryan's friends, I'd have to
1) go rock climbing
2) be in school to get my phd OR be Alice Water's personal assistant (GOOD GOD)
3) form my own band
4) GSI for a class
5) do research
6) travel internationally every year
7) drink more
8) Be 27+ in age

Why is MY life so meaningless in comparison? Seriously, each time I meet one of Ryan's friends I'm like "ok, this has to be the end to his parade of talented and sociable geniuses." And then I go to something else and meet five more.

Dumplings!

Today I went grocery shopping with Alvin at 99 Ranch. At work, I also did the most e-mailing I have ever done. This internship has made me read much more news and talk to more friends than I ever would have otherwise. Oftentimes I finish my projects and my supervisor doesn't have anything prepared for me to do, so she tells me to play with the computer. I do so very obligingly. So e-mail me if you want to start an e-mail chain with me!

I optimistically bought a ton of garlic and many vegetables at 99 Ranch. Not quite sure what I will do with all this garlic. Generally I just cook vegetables and I feel like they taste just fine without having to go through the trouble of mincing garlic. We made dumplings (Alvin, Jackie and I) which I thought was really cool. The dumplings ended up taking about 90 minutes to make, but we started eating them once a batch was done, so I was not painfully hungry. I think we may have made about 210 dumpings, all for about $9! We each have a tray of 60ish left to eat at our own leisure, which is awesome (although it increases the chance that I will have rotting vegetables at the end of the week).

I have been trying to gather recipes in my head to determine what ingredients I need to make delicious foods. I need to go through my kitchen and take inventory and throw out shit. I have thrown away so much food ever since I started living in an apartment. I imagine that I'm going to feel REALLY depressed if I'm old, still single, and I constantly throw out food because there is no one for me to eat with.

I wish there were sites with more Chinese food recipes. I am SERIOUSLY going to learn to make delicious foods. Best case scenario: I learn how to cook well and people think I am amazing. Worst case scenario: I die of food poisoning.

I have been steadily transferring music. I just broke into the D's. Sometimes I'm very conflicted about whether I should transfer a song or not. For example, Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On. I don't think I could ever listen to the song in its entirety. I'm not in fifth grade anymore. But at the same time, how can you NOT have that song in your itunes?! What if I have friends over and Titanic works itself into conversation and we want to sing My Heart Will Go On together? Prepare for the unexpected.

*songs left to transfer: 3193* Oh god, I was going to finish up the D's but I just hit David Tao and I have 24 songs and I definitely do not want all 24. I'll do this tomorrow. Damn those random asian music phases, where I just added songs all willy nilly.

Things I should hate but I actually like

1. Songs by Fall Out Boy


2. The smell of chlorine on my skin
... so essentially, I like the smell of public pool on my body

3. Finals
Regular school is too structured and vacations are too unstructured. But finals are just right! You have friends all looking for excuses to not study + your own laziness = guilty fun. I kind of miss it now

4. Asparagus


5. Zac Efron
I know I'm about three years late, but I think it just took me three years to get used to his face. I somehow like him more after more media exposure, I think because I don't hear him talk too much and I don't bother reading his interviews so my impression of him never changes.