The Farewell-UPDATED

The wireless here is working in theory, like NATO. However no one seems to know the password and connecting it directly by cable doesn't seem to do the trick either. I've also just realised that the bung CD drive on my laptop got forgotten in the final rush, and that it remains..bung. Where are my geeks when I need them!!!

If I was in SF, where top-quality uber-geeks grow on trees, I'd make dinner or bake something and somehow my IT woes would be fixed by evening's end. Anyhoo, that's a big long-winded excuse for no pix today cos I still haven't figured out how to transfer them from my laptop to this PC.

In lieu of those, I decided to bust out the Paint app on this PC and totally impress you with my mad drawing skillz.

So,..
the wonderful Yen organised a gaggle of our friends to go to all-you-can-eat-and-drink shabu shabu and sake in Japantown. They weren't stingy neither. As soon as a platter of meat disappeared into the pot, another would miraculously appear in its place. Same went with the sake and the Sapporo beer. It was as close to the Hogwart's Great Dining Hall experience I've ever had.

Accurate rendition of our table

It was pissing down like a mofo outside, but inside it was steamy goodness all round and we were just one of many raucous groups of young Asians badly handling our alcohol. Also I got a big scrapbook of all the trips we went on and everything *sniff* good times..

Then, we were off to Fillmore Karaoke for some awesome 80s hits. Unfortunately we didn't realise they don't serve drinks in there. How does one do karaoke without alcohol??? The mind boggles.

So the wonderful Yen and Yee stepped in and smuggled the sake in our car into the room, where we promptly refilled our "water" bottles.

Amazingly accurate rendition of our karaoke suite

What my in-depth illustration lacks is our particularly rousing renditions of Air Supplies' "I'm all out of Love" and the time where I broke it down for Vanilla Ice's seminal piece of genius "Ice, Ice Baby". As I said, mad. skillz.

Then finally came time for us to turn off the George Michael. Not because we had no love for him, only cos we now had no voice left. And I did my farewell speechy thing. Which I totally was planning on not crying through.

Accurate rendition of farewell speechy thing

Oh well, it was a good plan anyway.

UPDATE: Strikingly real as my illustrations are, you don't really need them, but the boring ol' pix are here.

Skiing at Squaw

I have seen snow exactly twice in my life. The first at 5 in Italy, where I got right back on the bus after declaring it too cold, and the second in Niigata, Japan a couple years back. Neither time was more than a day-trip allowing a brief, tantalising glimpse.

SQUAW: Come for the quite derogatory name, stay for the awesome slopes

So, I was really stoked to hear that the heavy rain in SF had translated to some of the best snows the Tahoe-region has seen in years and happy to join a big group of our friends going. Lake Tahoe is a few hours drive from SF, and nearby is the Squaw Valley, which once hosted a Winter Olympics.

Hope the cable-car holds up: with Yee, Karen, Yen, Carmello and Deanna

First, the snow gear. I had no idea it would be so complicated. Basically, eliminate natural fibers from your person on the slopes, and you will keep dry and warm (enough). Managed to skip the goggles, and just used my big new sunnies instead. I had the fleece headbandy thing, a hat and my hood working with my turtleneck, but I think next time I'll go for a balaclava. Looking like a bank-robber is much preferable to skiing in freezing wind. Did I mention I'm a total cold-weather wuss?

Then, the car gear. If driving your own car, one needs to stop at the snow line and get out some chains to wrap the tires. Looks like your Honda is into bondage after they're on.

We avoided salacious associations with the Mazda by hiring a bag-ass SUV. With that privileged air that being high up in an SUV gives you, we arrived at a 'cabin' a short distance from Squaw. By cabin I mean a cabin-style 2-storey, 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom heaven.

A cabin-shaped pile of snow really

Our friend Jason rented it from a colleague and we couldn't have asked for better. Fully-equipped fancy kitchen, big bathrooms and fireplace. Woo! I think that 'cabin' style is mandatory in those parts, cos everyone built that way. But, you can tell the owners really committed to it inside when you see the impressive array of moose-bear-dear motifs they've assembled. From the antler chandelier down to the bear-printed coasters, they're keeping an entire industry alive I reckon.

I should have gotten a picture of those.. that would have been really funny.. but you see, mostly I was busy doing this:

Wheeeee!!

Go here for the rest of the pix.

Housekeeping

There's a lot of shit to catch up on account of I had a ski trip, packing up, farewell, and arrival in KL in the last 2 weeks. Ack!

Thousands of miles have been traversed, but here in my parent's place the distance seems even vaster. Yes, I know that's not a proper word. The ride here was a bumpy one, and I don't just mean on the plane!

Have met up with the wonderful Jo who is also in company with the parental units, and we've both agreed we feel about 15 again (even though she already has some gorgeous baby units to boss around). There has been door-slamming for her, and I am just about ready to enter the sullen/sighing/rolling-eyes olympics.

Anyway, let me hark back to another time, a whole two weeks ago.....back when I could still leave dishes in the sink as I pleased...

[insert flashback music]

La La La

Yen had a work conference in Long Beach, which is south of LA, so I tagged along for the free hotel toiletries. Woo!

I had high hopes for LB. It's apparently often used for a lot of shooting (like for the O.C.) to stand in for other parts of the world, because it's close enough to LA but in a cheaper zone to film. Maybe I was there in the off-season but on first glance: meh. Great Art Deco architecture, but everything downtown was a bit too pretty. Gentrified out of all character.

So I braved the more ghetto-looking streets to find something less bland. One of the cute finds was the accurately monikered secondhand bookshop, Bertrand Smith's Acres and Acres of Books.

Ol Bert wasn't foolin'

With one gigantic room each for fiction and non-fiction it's a veritable time-swamp in there. I nearly didn't even go to Nordstrom's Rack because of it! (nearly is good as not right?)

Best bookshelf ever

With the maze of shelves and the musty smell, looking for a book isn't so much a bibliographical search as an archaeological expedition. So. awesome.

Two other things I didn't know about LB:
1) It's home to the second largest Cambodian population outside Cambodia.
2) It's also home to Ferris Bueller's house (so rad!)

Then came the trip to LA proper. It went like this, but less fun-looking.

On our first proper day in LA, I was eager to see some of this beach culture everyone keeps talking about, so of we went to Santa Monica. It took bloody ages to get there of course and parking is a nightmare. And there's a lot of panhandlers. Even more so I think than SF. Why did we come here again?? Oh yeah, we saw the skate-boarding dog of Youtube fame being filmed by a Japanese crew at Venice Beach. Excite!

Now I know no one reads this, y'all only wait for the food pix, so here ya go.

Heart-attack-in-a-bun from Pink's the legendary hotdog stand:

Fantastic pub-style Korean food from a restaurant with entirely Korean signs and menu. I love that I have no idea what we ate! it was goood.

Then, some culture at the Getty Center. It's a massive white structure atop a hill that's more akin to a fortress from the front, but inside has lovely home decorating ideas for me:

I wish!

Things we didn't get to:
• Hollywood sign
• the Chinese Theatre
• Sidewalk of fame
• any kind of star (being the weekend of the Sundance Festival everyone was in Utah) :(
• a Bitten(Sarah Jessica Parker's real cheap line of cute clothes) store that wasn't ravaged already. I am STILL bitter about this one :p

Cleaning Machine

Knackered! The Slave Driver (aka big sister) decided to get her money's worth before I leave by getting some spring cleaning in today. Chinese New Year is a big thing for our fam, so all home turf has to be given a top-to-toe before Feb 7 this year. Any cleaning on new year's day will mean you'll be mired in muck for the rest of the year. wtf! Xmas prep involves picking trees, putting up decorations and, if you're lucky, lavish amounts of baking. What kind of holiday practices did the Chinese come up with? Cleaning-related ones!! Seriously.

Well, the way we do it here is wake up with the first rays of noon. Watch the food channel for awhile. This is mandatory. Then, from under the covers on the couch, Slave Driver says "Ready to start?"

So ensues a good couple hours of getting our hot soapy water on. Then, someone will get hungry (not saying who. hint: not me). When the snacks come out, the TV comes on, and somehow we're making more progress on our Netflix DVDs of cheesy movies than the kitchen clean-out.

Cheesy movie comes to an end sooner than later thankfully and we get the rest of the job done in time for dinner. Finally benefiting from living in an apartment the size of 3 international postage stamps put together!

Suck it, Monster!!

Damn straight

Dear Monster,

You may have noticed I disabled my account on your site. That's because I have new plans now, for my career and my life. Fulfilling, inspired, outrageous plans. Plans that I didn't get from you. The only opportunities you provide people is a lengthy one-way trip to Sucksville, with free tickets to Spamapalooza.

Your contribution to my jobsearch thus far has been a relentless barrage of "updates"which were consistently the most pathetic, anaemic collection of outdated, unrelated, unappealing positions. For the last time, I DON'T want to do PR for the Navy. The US armed forces is going to need much more than a professional lipstick applier anyway, to remedy what ails them.

That position was on there for at least 6 months. Which begs the question, has anyone EVER got a job from your site?? I am wont to think your business plan goes more like this:
Revenue from ads for grad schools and selling contacts to spam companies-90%
Revenue from employers-10%

So, good riddance from my Inbox, Monster updates, I am off to a better life, free from the humiliation of being part of your ginormous UNsuccess stats. Don't let the application hit you on the ass when it closes!

Best Regards,
customer #567890163228

P.S. I know you don't care, but I disabled my portfolio blog too. Hah!

Adios '07

Finally got to pop my bottle of Dom at a friend's place tonight. We counted down to the delayed telecast of the traditional Times Square festivities. A first! Which is a good way to start the year.

Not to get all feng-shui on you, but I have a good feeling about 2008. It'll be an exciting time. I've got lots to share, but I don't want to jinx it, so watch this space!