101 for New Year's Eve. Video's worth a thousand words. :)



More pictures at Flickr because I'm too lazy to type the same comments for the third time. :P

Hope everyone has a great 2008! ^^

Last night we (my sister and I) went clubbing with an old high school friend, Jon. Clubbing in Taiwan's fun, well, clubbing in general is fun if you have the right amount of alcohol, good music, and good company. :P But yesterday's was especially interesting due to a couple of first's ...

1. The clubs we go to normally play hip hop and trance music (in two separate rooms). I definitely always head to the hip hop because I can't stand trance, and hip hop is just easier to dance to (shake your butt! move your hips! sway from side to side!). Anyway, you never hear any rock, or as I call it, white people music (hah. hope that's not racist :P), which is my favorite kind of music, so it's always sad. The last time I heard white people music at a club was when we were at Rain in Vegas. They played some old school rock and that was awesome!!! Anyway, so last night the DJ actually played three Linkin Park songs, which were surprisingly good to dance to (well, the kind of dancing that is jumping up and down, headbanging, and screaming the lyrics at the top of your lungs). There were also a couple of other white people music songs, but I can't remember them anymore. Linkin Park made the biggest impression. That was cool; hopefully they'll play more of those kinds of songs in clubs from now on. :P

2. We were all dancing along when we got a surprise visit ... from the po-po (police lah). My first ever random check up by the police at clubs - I think they were checking for underage people and illegal substances? No idea. It's kind of hard to judge if a person is underage by the way they dress, though, considering how all the girls had tons of make up on and most were wearing skanky clothes. :P They didn't check my ID and I didn't see anybody else get their IDs checked, but we kinda stayed in the locker area for the most part, so maybe that's not where the underage/illegal substance using people hide. Eh. Anyway, there were like, a couple of police officers - I'd say ten? Maybe more. One good thing that came out of this random check up is they gave us free beer! WOOOT! Haha. :P Anyway, took a picture of the police when we were upstairs at our table.

3. I love to dance! Especially when I'm not entirely sober. And I dance kinda crazily when not sober and don't feel self-conscious when not sober. :P Anyway. The point is that I was dancing crazily on one of those podium thingies they have at the club and this random chick starts dancing with me. I'm like, hmm, ok. Why not. And then I leave because of the police visit. And then we go back afterwards and I'm back up on the podium dancing and the girl comes back! She's like, remember me? I was like, sure. Ok. And then she stuffed her business card in my shirt. Mmmyah. I was like, what? Okaaaay now. Run away. Fast. So I go and hide behind Jon. :P Anyway, so I check out her card later that night and apparently she's one of the people at an entertainment management company. Yah. And one of the things they manage is show girls. HAH. Does that mean she thought I'd make a good show girl? Did she not see my fat jiggling while dancing? HAHA. I just thought it was funny and interesting. I don't get hit on by guys at clubs, I just get business cards of chicks from management companies in my shirt. Interesting.

Anyway, so those were the firsts that occurred last night in relation to my clubbing experience. Good times! Other than that, got to meet some of Jon's sister's grad school friends from Nevada. One of the guys, Johnny, was super funny and a super crazy dancer. Never seen a guy so HIGH when it came to dancing at a club. But yah, met some people I'd heard a lot about, so that was interesting. :P Finally get to put faces to names. Also got to see some NEHS class of '07 kids. Yes, I said '07. They are four years younger than me. Aih. And one of them is attending UCLA right now, as a freshmen. Makes me feel SO OLD. :(

But yah, it was an interesting night - probably one of the latest I've been out in Taiwan. Normally we head back home at 2 or 3. Didn't get home till like 4 last night. Crazy.

Ah, I love clubbing. I just want to dance!!! *waves arms crazily*

... till the new year! Till 2008! Crazy. Five years ago I was still a senior in high school, finishing up and sending out my apps for college. Five years later, I'm back in Taiwan but working instead of studying. Crazy how five years can change so much, yet so little at the same time.

Speaking of the new year, I think it's time for some new year's resolutions because I have nothing else to do. :P So, in no particular order (except the order they come to mind), my resolutions for 2008:

1. Stop cussing so much - I think I've come to cuss a bit too much; I blame it on UCLA and all the cussing that happened during my time there. Once in a while it's ok, but I think I'm bordering on excessive, especially when I'm playing computer/video games.

2. Figure out what I want to do - This one's hard. Don't know if I'll actually be able to figure it out, but it'd be nice. Need to know what I want to do with my life! And maybe have a plan for at least the next 5 to 10 years.

3. Learn to drive - This shouldn't be too hard, I just need to get off my lazy ass and find a driving school.

4. Visit Belgium - I'm getting a little bit wanderlusty (as Picker puts it) and I want to go to a new country. The best one is probably Belgium because that's where my parents are at, so free lodging! and fooding! so it's all good. Just need to either quit my job or get some time off. Boo.

5. Lose weight - The same one every year. :P Never get it done. Too hard! Boo!



Mmmm, lets see if I can get any of this done. 加油! (Jia yo aka add oil!)

I feel like the title's grammar is a bit off; today implies the present, so I should be using the present version of the to be verb, yet I'm using the past-tense version. I feel like today's already over even though there's still two more hours till the end of "today." I guess "today" is a pretty subjective word - my today and the standard definition of today (as in this present day, not this present time) are two different things. And if you take it to mean this present time, then that's even more subjective. My view of the present time could end tomorrow, while my friend's view could end in 10 years. So then, when tomorrow comes, do I use the present or past tense when referring to "today"? However, I'm talking about Christmas, so I guess I'm not really referring to the today of present times. Ahhh, I'm not making any sense.

It's just that it doesn't really feel like Christmas. This Christmas is the first one in the past four years that I didn't 1) spend with my parents, 2) have the day off, and 3) have to worry about winter vacation ending soon. That's because I spent Christmas Eve and Day at the office, working (where my freaking pc crashed again so I had to redo everything because I'm stupid and don't save every 5 minutes), so I don't have to worry about the end of vacation since I don't have one. I guess it shouldn't really matter that much because we don't really celebrate Christmas. I think it's just the thought that everyone else is either on vacation or getting the day off that gets to me and makes me a tad bitter. Which totally defeats the purpose of Christmas - isn't it supposed to be a joyous, happy- and gift-filled holiday?

And besides, I had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with my sister and her college friends (where are my friends? ... I have none in this city.). It was a dinner filled with laughter and good food, but sometimes, even with all that merriment surrounding you, you can't help but feel a bit lonely.

Things are different now. I kinda wish I could return to the good old days, be it high school, college, or even earlier. However, alas, we cannot turn back the hands of time, and all we can do is live in our todays toward our tomorrows, whatever, whenever that may be.

So we come to the point of the entry (I really didn't mean to sound all depressing and self-pitying; I'm just tired and I actually had to do a little homework for work. Boo!):

Merry belated Christmas! Hope everyone is well and had a much better Christmas than me. :)

Picture from Wretch/Cwwany.

However, to get rid of the pain, I stuck these muscle relaxant or painkiller thingies on my neck for two nights in a row, and now I'm having an allergic reaction to them. !@#$$#@#!@# ... breaking out in hives and swelling and itchiness. Woe, I can't catch a break. So now I am itchy and sometimes the stabbing pain will return, so I itch and I ache. Why? Why me? :( Is it a sign for me to stop using the computer so much? But my life is my computer! How ... sad. BAH. This sucks.

Anyway, I bought The Game by Neil Strauss about his time spent with the different master pickup artists and his eventual becoming of a mPUA. Ok ok, I don't know why I bought it, but when I saw it I was like, COOL! I want to find out what the guys are learning to help them pickup girls when they could never do it before. And I have to admit, it's pretty interesting. If you don't think about how degrading it is to the women they're picking up and just read it for the story and the characters involved, it's pretty good. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and now if I ever run into a guy who's doing magic tricks or asking for advice about which cologne is better or just wearing really ridiculously flashy clothes I'll know that he's either read the book or actually went to one of the many seminars there apparently was for learning how to pickup girls.

Maybe one of these days I'll be able to organize my thoughts better about the book and write a decent entry about it. But for now, I'm still like, whoa, that's pretty awesome. :P

I have super big crush on this guy, Eric (林健輝). Haha. :P He was on the Taiwanese equivalent of American Idol as a challenger, and he was so good and cute. ^^ Anyway, the video below is him singing "My Way" by Frank Sinatra, and I think it was one of his best performances on the show. Didn't get to see his performance tonight yet, though. Have to wait till replay tomorrow or someone posts it on Youtube. Anywho, fast forward to 20 seconds to hear him sing! :)



<3

If, for some odd reason like me, there's no video showing up there, click on the big white space, which should take you to the youtube site where the video's at. :( iono why it won't show up. Suckah! (Maybe it's just me. heh)

Yes, Picker, I kinda stole the title from your Comfort entry. :P It has inspired me to write a follow-up of my thoughts on your insightful post. :)

(Except my sister just yelled at me for giving her random stuff on Neopets, so I've kinda lost my train of thought. Hmm. Speaking of Neopets, is it weird that I'm still playing it when I'm in my 20's already? Oh man, I can't believe I just said in my 20's ... That makes me feel so old. I feel like I'm still be 15 and in middle school (more like I wish). Where has the time gone to?! T~T)

Anyway, I digress. Being in your comfort zone for an extended period of time isn't the best because it doesn't promote growth, or change, or motivation for the above. You grow stagnant (is that an oxymoron?) in your knowledge, ambitions, thoughts, and just live life pretty much in a routine manner. Wake up, work, eat, watch tv, sleep, repeat. Out of your comfort zone, you strive to find a place where you belong and be comfortable in the world; and during that struggle you grow in wisdom, experience, and mental age (yay maturity!). You learn new things, meet new people, understand yourself a little bit better, and become a better person (yay optimism!).

Having said that, comfort zones are still a good thing to have once in a while.Aand right about now, I wouldn't mind finding my own, even if it only lasts for a couple of weeks. Actually, that's probably the ideal length for a comfort zone so that I can still work towards something that I want instead of staying in a job because it's "comfortable" and not because it's helping me work towards whatever goal I have. Anyway, all this stress from work (afraid of messing up, making a fool of myself, not knowing anything that's going on, etc.) and stress about the future (WHAT DO I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE?!?!?!!) is probably making my cortisol levels soar. And then my immune system is probably all suppressed (that word took me forever to spell, and I ended up having to look it up in the dictionary to get the correct spelling - is this the beginning of the end of my English skills?! nooooo!) and I'll probably get sick and AHHH. More stress. Sigh.

I think this shoulder/neck/headache's also stemming from stress. Being tense all the time probably affects your muscles in some negative way, especially when I'm tense and sitting in the same position constantly. But so yah, besides a complaint about my ailments, what I'm really trying to say is that even though comfort zones shouldn't be dwelled upon for a long period of time, once in a while, it's not a bad thing, especially for the health. I need to find my comfort zone or just settle into a healthy routine soon or I feel like my health is going to go further downhill ... and no one wants bad health.

Hello, comfort zone! Where for art thou? Come to meeeee.


Image from Despair.com. Love it.

The tendon/ligament (for once! a word I know how to say in Chinese but not in English) in my neck is frickin swollen, and it hurts. Like. A lot. Like, it's not a constant pain, but I get these sharp, shooting pains every two seconds. Sigh. It hurts. :( I don't know how to make it go away, especially considering how I have to sit in front of the computer for at least two more days. Speaking of which, I probably shouldn't be sitting in front of my computer right now, but there's nothing else I can do that doesn't cause the same pain anyway.

I can't draw because I have to bend my neck down since I don't have a desk (although I did attempt to draw some, but the pain kinda distracted me). I can't read because of the same reason. I can't watch tv because the sofa is perpendicular to the TV so I'd have to turn my head to see it. SIGH. I guess I could go to bed, but that means I need to go shower, but I don't want to because that means I have to wash my hair which will probably involve more neck pain. WAAAAAH.

Why is it swollen? I have no idea except that the muscles in my shoulder are super sore as well. AHHHHHHHH. This sucks. SUCKS. I'm not even old yet and I have all these health problems. SIGH.

Yes, this is a self-pitying, whining-filled entry. I think it's about time for another one anyway.

Three things to be noted:

1. I got my first real paycheck on Friday; real as in being paid for a full-time-(9-6)-with-benefits-and-no-jeans-allowed job.

2. My family (including the extended relatives) has this tradition where whenever we get our first real paycheck, we treat them to food. One of my previous entries was about treating my relatives to fooding because of this tradition, but that was technically before I got my real paycheck.

3. I owe my cousin and her boyfriend and my sister big time for taking care of me while I adapted to this semi-new environment and totally-new, non-student lifestyle. Taking care of me in the sense of making sure I am well-fed (fattie) and treating me many a-times before.

SO! I decided to treat them, on Friday night, to good food, and I decided on French food. I wanted to go to another French restaurant that I'd tried out senior year in high school and enjoyed, but for some reason, four of its six stores had closed down, and the two remaining were either too expensive or too far. After some searching online, we settled on L'Appetit in the East side of Taipei. The price seemed decent, and the reviews seemed good, so we thought we'd give it a shot. Why not!

Not the best French food I've ever had, but then again, I guess you just can't really compare French food in Taipei to French food in France, even if the chef is French. Working with different available ingredients always makes for different tastes, and I'm sure there's a certain challenge to making authentic French food when you're not exactly in France. Anyway, it was good, enjoyable, and very filling. The service was really good, though. The waiter spent like 10 minutes introducing us to the various wines they carried and in the end had to actually pick one for us since we couldn't decide. Thank God for good service! (Especially when you get charged for that service). Anyway, here are some (by some I mean lots of) pictures ....

L'Appetit's sign.

A shot of the interior that doesn't quite do it justice. I missed out on a couple of areas, but the general atmosphere was pretty cozy and nice. There weren't too many people there when we first arrived, probably because we went a bit early. More people started arriving when we were mid-way through our meal.

Yummy pickled olives. That's all I can say. SO GOOD.

Bottle of red, thanks to my sister. From the southwest of France and pretty decent. Yay for good choice made by Mr. Waiter.

First up, soup! Vegetable soup, to be more exact, made of seven (or was it eight ...) different veggies, but it predominantly tasted like carrots.

Les escargots, anybody? Oh-so-yum! Who knew snails could taste so good?

Another yum appetizer - potato gratin. The name they gave it was much more sophisticated and better sounding, but too long for me to remember. >.< Anyway, potatoes, cheese, and bacon. Can't go wrong with that combination. Yum!

The third appetizer - camambert (sp?) cheese and some other stuffs. The cheese was the best part :P

Main course for my sister and me was steak, which was decent, but the steak was kinda chewy (not in a good way). Meh.

Should've gotten the ribs - that was tasty. (Oh man, Fergie's gotten to me; I spelled tasty t-a-s-t-e-y before realizing my mistake. T~T)

And then there was the fish, which was pretty good, too; but meh, not a big fan of fish.

The dessert! Number one - some sort of chocolate cake, which I enjoyed. Thoroughly.

Number two - some kind of roll, which was ok.

Number three - not sure what exactly this was, but it was yum!

Number four - the best one!!! creme brulee .... so good. SO GOOD. ahhhh, too bad so small and the four of us had to share it ... haha. :P

Anyway, the participants of our French cuisine night:

The sister (aka Cathy)

The cousin and boyfriend (aka Karen and Ryan)

Et moi! (and Ryan who looks like a sketchy doode here).

I think I need to start taking more and better pictures of humans and stop focusing as much on food. One can see where my priorities lie. :P

T'was a good and filling dinner; good thing we went walking afterwards to digest. Mmmm, I love French food.

I recently started drawing my usual designs on different mediums instead of my normal paper; thought I'd share. :)


First one - fabric paint and Chinese ink on canvas. Fabric paint was supposed to be for me to paint on fabric, but I had no available fabric, so I used it for the canvas. Paintbrushes are ridiculously hard to control, that's why I ended up using Chinese ink - that brush was way easier to use and thinner too.


My desk at home is actually an ironing board, so I used a piece of cardboard to put my computer on so that my mbp doesn't end up overheating. Anyway, decided to draw on that cardboard, et voila!


It's a ... bottle! I used to draw on bottles a lot back in high school during class (heehee). The designs were way different from now, but that's where this inspiration came from. I wish I'd kept some of those bottles instead of throwing them away every time I finished. Ah well, I've learned my lesson.


Another bottle, but this time it's a glass one. I think I like glass bottles better, not sure why, but it's easier to draw on. Anyway, learned from drawing on the plastic bottle that drawing all the way around makes it kind of too busy and messy, so ended up just drawing on one side. There's actually a little boy on the back (right pic), but the reflection from the camera flash covered him up. :(


Finally found me some fabric for my fabric paint. Got a white hat that someone didn't mind being ruined. It turned out better than I expected when I first started. Paint brush was hard to wield, as I knew from before, but the fabric made it even harder, so there are still some bits of white. Luckily, I had the smart/stupid idea of using a toothpick to do the smaller, more detailed lines. Aih, it took forever, but I'm pretty happy w/ the end result. Still trying to decide whether to just leave as is or actually fill up the bill with the designs. I've been told to leave as is, so I just might.

One thing I've decided - I need to get me a real desk with a desk lamp so I don't end up with a dead shoulder (it's on its way to being dead) and pained neck and blind eyes.

... for allergies. O.M.G. I hate allergies. They're going to be the death of me one of these days. I just want to chop off my nose, not that it'll do anything, but still. Yes, if you can't tell, I'm suffering from a bout of allergy attack right now at work, and I really, really want to bang my head against something in hopes of relieving this stuffiness in the head and nose. Ah!!! Frustrated. I already took my Claritin, but I feel like the reditabs just don't work as well, but that's all I have right now, and I just want allergies to be gone! Someone should name an allergy medicine, allergy-b-gone. Hah. I think I'd totally buy it, especially if it works. Claritin-D definitely works better, but I'm out and I have to wait another two weeks before I can get more from my cousin returning from the States. I sound like an ad for Claritin.

But you know what's the stupidest thing? I don't even know what set off this bout of allergies. There are no cats or dogs in this damn building, and the dust isn't any different from any of the other days I've been here, neither has my amount of sleep varied that much. So what is causing this attack?! I have no frickin clue and that's just frustrating.

And another reason I want this allerginess gone is because I want a cat so badly. They're so cute and recently wherever I go, I've been seeing tons of cats and I want to pet them, but I can't really because of my allergies. And I just love cats and I want one, but I can't because of this stupid allergies!!!! Ahhhhh. I also want dogs, and there are hypoallergenic ones, but I don't want those, I want huskies and german shephards and golden retrievers; not malteses (like terror dog) or poodles. Speaking of huskies (there's a reason why I posted a picture of cute huskies puppies), we saw a cute (adolescent) one last night while walking in the park and it was so furry and puffy and big and cute and awwwww, I just wanted to hug it and kiss and smush it. But alas, all I could do was pat it on the head .... I think I'm not as allergic to dog fur because it's not as thin and gets-everywhere-like-your-nose as cat fur. But cat fur's so much softer and nicer to touch and makes you want to snuggle it ... Aih. I am cursed. Cursed with this allergy when I'm such an animal lover, especially of furry mammals.

Does this entry seem disconnected and rambling and long and not correctly grammatically structured? Does that sentence even make sense? Does any of my sentences flow and connect and make sense? Am I using too many ands and not enough commas? Ah, whatever. I can't breathe, but snot is running down my nose at the same time, which sucks because since I can't breathe, I can't sniff it back in (ew), so I have to blow my nose like every 10 seconds or sniffle really, really loudly ... and my eyes are itchy and watery and getting smaller by the minute and I just want to sleep (TMI? Probably.). So I'm not in the best of shape while attempting to get my work done. And that's why I'm typing up this random, rambling post; better than staring at tiny little numbers that all blur together. BLAH!

(I like how when I google for Husky pictures I get football players ... haaaah; picture from here.)

Wait, is it even possible to find a cure for allergies? Is anyone even attempting to find a cure? Not the Asian kind where you eat garlic pills or drink nasty-ass herbal concoctions to change the chi of your body or whatever, but like, scientifically-backed-permanent cures that'll allow me to snuggle and huggle with doggies and kitties? Aih. Life continues to suck.


[Update] Immunotherapy!! ... Dude! How come I've never heard of that till now? "Immunotherapy works best for allergies to pollen, mold, cat dander, insect stings and dust mites." That's everything I'm allergic to! How come all the allergy doctors I've gone to have never mentioned this treatment before? Does it not exist in Taiwan? I wonder what it's called in Chinese ... Hmmm, looks like it's time to make an appointment with an allergy specialist ....

from xkcd.com ... click image for larger image.

I love reading Postsecret because it's just interesting to see what some people consider their secrets. And I know I shouldn't judge the secrets, but sometimes it's hard not to think "whoa. what's wrong with this person .. " Guess that's why they mailed their secret to postsecret instead of telling anyone. :\ I always feel bad whenever I think/feel that. Hmm. Anyway, here's one from this week that I can totally relate to:



My sister and I were singing all the Christmas carols we could remember on our way home today. I think people who heard us either thought we were really stupid or way too into Christmas. Heh. The holiday's still a whiles away, but it's in less than a month! But it's not like we celebrate it ... Just singing Christmas carols always brings back old memories and brings a warm, fuzzy feeling to my heart. <3