Honey Bee

To My Hot Hot G

2009-02-17T23:38:00.001-08:00

Thank You for such a sweet sweet Valentine's.
Thank you for Mr. Heart who will keep me sleeping tight every night.
Thank you for the 11 lovely roses + a chocolate one ^.^
Thank you for the Canon digital camera.
Thank you for the heartfelt wordings and the pop-up Valentine's card.
~~~Kiss Kiss~~~

***The camera goes perfectly with the gift I gave you. We will use it to capture all of our memorable moments and continue filling more pages in the scrapbook!***

25 Random Things

2009-02-12T23:36:00.000-08:00

It's been forever since my last post ... I guess I had utilize my blogging time on Facebook these days. Here's my tag on the 25 Random things on FB:

Rules:
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I had received this tag from a number of people but I had been ignoring them until 5 mins ago that I read someone's Random things and decided to write my own.
2. I played piano since I was 4. I hated it but since I didn't want to disappoint my parents so I had been taking piano lessons and doing the Royal School of Music exams for over 10 years (until I came to the US and it's a perfect excuse to stop).
3. I inherit most of the facial features from my father.
4. I had asked my childhood nanny to use blankets to set up a tent for me on my bed so I could go "camping."
5. I didn't experience real camping until June of last year.
6. I don't like egg noodles.
7. I love Broadway musicals and the last one I just watched was WICKED.
8. I have a passion in art. I am very thankful for my parents who had put me through drawing lessons when I was young.
9. I wanted to be an interior designer, but somehow I ended up having a career in life science.
10. I was in private swimming lesson during a few of my childhood summer breaks because my parents wanted me to learn swimming so I wouldn't be drown like my grandfather who had never returned after going swimming on a beach.
11. I can only swim in swimming pools but I am scared of the ocean.
12. I have a fear of dental visits. My heart beats very fast every time when I lay on the chair at the dental office.
13. I have haircuts every 2 months.
14. The most respectful persons in my life (so far) are my grandmother and my previous boss. Their existence has changed my perspective of life. They will both be missed.
15. I always woke up with a X'mas gift in my stocking on Christmas Day until I went to college.
16. My younger brother and I had set up alarm clocks to try catching "Santa Claus" on Christmas eve but failed every year. Until now, my dad still doesn't admit he was the Santa Claus.
17. I had taken French for 5 years but I have forgotten most of it.
18. I love being in a lively city with lots of people and shops and restaurants (i.e. HK).
19. My first trip on a plane was going to the Disneyland in Japan.
20. My favorite color is burgundy.
21. I am scared of birds. Any kind of bird-like creatures. When a bird gets close (or even seeing a picture of a bird that shows its characteristics), I can feel a spine-tingling chill arises from the bottom of my feet and formation of goosebumps will follow.
22. Chocolate is my favorite flavor of icecream choice.
23. I dream almost every night, but I don't recall what the dreams are for the most times.
24. For the 5 accidents I had gotten into, I was hit by pickup trucks. None of it was my fault but pickup trucks don't seem to like me too much V_V.
25. McDonald's is still my favorite fast food restaurant out of all.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! ^3^

Happy 2009

2009-01-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

It's the New Year and here's what had happened in Disney ... Hahaha ^.^ (in my dream) ...

Good start of the year so far ... New year, new resolution. Nice!

Happy Holidays

2008-12-29T18:18:00.000-08:00

Ho Ho Ho ... Happy Holidays!

Recap of this month:

1. Same as the previous years, I had participated in the Family Giving Tree toy donation for the holiday season. I had purchased a Thomas train set for the 5 year old boy and a bottle of perfume for a 12 year old girl.

2. Company holiday parties ... Eat Eat Eat ^.^

3. Surprise Vegas trip from Hot Hot G!! It's a tiring but fun trip.
Thank you ^3^ ...

This will most likely be the last post of 2008. Everyone Happy 2009!!!

Thanksgiving of 2008

2008-12-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

What a tiring Thanksgiving holidays. We had done some crazy lining ups at the store at 3am on black Friday. Too old for these kinda stuff but we were able to get one item in a decent deal, so our time and effort weren't totally wasted. Here are what we had on Thanksgiving Day at a friend's place. I made the fruit salad and the Korean noodles (Jap Chae). I put in a lot of effort in making the fruit salad ... haha ... everyone said it's a Frog. What do you think it is?

Hot Hot G, let's add oil together. I'm looking forward to seeing "our dream" comes true ^.^

Weight Challenge (START)

2008-11-18T23:45:00.001-08:00

The holiday season is around the corner. Other than the joy and happiness shared with friends and familes, it's also a time to enjoy a lot of good food and drinks. Because of this reason, every year, my company would have a "Weight Challenge" program organized by the Fitness Center. The purpose of the program is for us to watch our weight and maintain fitted during the times from Thanksgiving, Christmas, to New Year. We have to form a team of 4 people and all 4 of us would step on a big scale together to record our total body weight. Then, after all the holiday celebrations, a collective body weight will again be recorded in early January. For the team which loses the most collective weight, each member on the team can obtain a 75 dollar gift certificate.

I was asked to be on a team. I agreed to join, but I didn't promise I would lose any weight ... haha ... Today is the day of obtaining the total body weight, so all 4 of us decided to pig out during lunch time and drink as much water as possible before we get on the scale. Some people decided to wear more clothes, change to a pair of heavier shoes ... And, our total body weight is 625.5 lbs. Let's see what the number will be in January.

My goal is to lose 2 lbs on myself ... haha ...

Go MetaboLights (our team name)!!!

Next Mr. President

2008-11-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

Go Go Obama ... our next leader of the country ...

Win the polls with flying colors ~~ Yeah Yeah Yeah ~~

Updated: Well, I'm just disappointed that Prop. 8 was passed. People shouldn't be so stubborn sticking to the traditional "definition of marriage." I think we're talking more about civil rights ... about the equality of life style each person deserves ...

<小酒窩> Little Dimple Cantonese Version

2008-11-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

Cantonese version of <小酒窩> ... I still like the Mandarin version better.

Hot Hot G, I miss your 小酒窩 ^3^

Pre-Halloween

2008-10-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

I just had my first pumpkin carving experience! I know it's a child type of activity but I had never celebrated Halloween in Hong Kong when I was young, so I had never carved any pumpkin. Here's my pumpkin ... Next time, I'll remember to save the lid @_@

Hot Hot G's secret recipe clam chowder -- Best of the Best, of course!!! Hahaha ... I wish I had taken some back home so I can eat it for dinner now. Nicely done, Hot Hot G!!!

And pizza too ... Pumpkin shape Jack-O-Lantern pizza has become a Santa Claus after additional mozzerella cheese and mushroom and sausage! Yummy Yummy ^^

My stay in San Diego

2008-10-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm in San Diego!!! Actually, this is already my 4th night here ...

The hotel was such a nightmare. Here I'm, at the Country and Town Resort Hotel. What a nice name ... a "resort hotel." I didn't do any research on hotels prior to my reservation as the conference was taken place at the hotel and it made a whole lot of sense to reserve my room at the same place. Once I checked into my room ... I was like ... Gosh, is this where I have to stay, by myself, in the next 5 nights? Here's a description of the room:

The design of the room was old -- The carpet, the comforters, the curtains, the chairs were all dark blue in color.
There's no air circulation in the bathroom, so I needed to leave the door open during shower.
The TV was one of the smallest you could imagine ... 15 or the max 17 inch.
Internet connection was charged 10 dollars per day, and the signal was weak and unstable.
Light bulbs did not work well. One of the lamps went on and off.
Statics in the alarm clock. Whenever the cell phone rang or was placed nearby, it made this scary static noises.
Half of the wall behind the TV was a mirror.
A huge drawing of a little girl, in a 1920's dress, dark blue in color, was hung on the other half of the wall behind the TV.
Food at the restaurants in this hotel was ridiculously expensive! One egg costs 5 dollars on the breakfast menu. I believe you could get 2 cases of eggs at Costco with this price.

So, here's my choice. There were two beds in my room. Which one should I picked to sleep on? The one facing the little girl's picture or the one facing the mirror? I chose the one facing the mirror.

I guess seeing myself was better than seeing the little girl every morning when I woke up. No matter which direction I went, the girl's eyes seemed to follow. Well, I wasn't the unlucky one that got placed in such a room because all my coworkers' rooms were oriented the exact same way and with the exact same picture of the girl hanging on the wall. This drawing of the little girl had become one of the hottest topics we discussed during our social hangouts after the conference. Haha, one of my coworkers had hung a towel over it since the first night she arrived.

I'm usually pretty okay to be in the hotel by myself, but this one has scared me off quite a bit. I had a hard time falling asleep the first night. My last stay in San Diego was phenomenal, in terms of hotel experience. I stayed at the Omni Hotel in downtown SD last time and it was the nicest one I had ever stayed for my life! Here's the blog I wrote during my stay.

Last night for me in this hotel. I can't wait to get out. Don't get fooled by the view. It's just a snapshot outside the balcony of my room.

<小酒窩> Little Dimple

2008-10-01T23:15:00.001-07:00

For my Hot Hot G ... I know U will like this MTV ... >3<

Benny and the Red Bird

2008-09-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

Don't you like these little figures? I think they're very cute and pretty, though I have no intention in starting a collection of them. Haha ... but my brother did. He had already set up a collection cabinet in the house. Honestly, I really don't think any of these worth the money each of it costs. For me, I get to enjoy looking at them without a cost out of my pocket ... though he won't let me touch any of them >.< |||

Spanish Feast

2008-09-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

Spanish feast in SF ... The tapas are small, but all of them are quite yummy.

From left to right: Croquette, Crab cakes, Shrimps, Potato with squid, Calamari, Escargots

Woo --aa--la ... of course, my favorite has to be this seafood paella!

Touma Dunny or AC

2008-08-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

It's steaming hot today ... over 100 degree.

When the house was built, my mom wanted to save a few thousand dollars and decided not to wire it with AC because it is situated next to the shore so it is quite windy most of the days. For all these years, we didn't really feel a need of having air conditioning. There might be a day or two in the year that the area was stroke by a heatwave, but it's still tolerable with an electrical fan. Thanks to global warming that my house seems to get warmer and warmer during some of the days in the summer. It, indeed, has gotten a little unbearable ... especially in the rooms upstairs. The rooms have trapped the heat during the day time and it takes forever to cool down. By the time they're cooled, it's already sunrise again. So earlier today, my brother and I were talking about buying a portable air conditioner.

He did a quick search on the internet and realized that it's a bit pricey. The cost for an average one is over 300. He was joking that he should have exchanged his newly acquired 20 inch limited edition Touma Dunny figure for an AC. Heck Yeah, I totally agree. This thing costs 300 and it's really doing nothing but sitting at the end of the hallway outside his room. Not only this one, he had purchased an extra one and it's still sitting inside the box by the entry area.

How would you pick?

AC or Touma Dunny ?

Happy Birthday to my Brother

2008-08-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my little brother!!! Happy Happy Birthday To U ...

This year on his birthday, I had gotten my little brother a kidsrobot Touma Dunny Tee and the next season DirectTV NBA pass. Hope you like it and all the very BEST to come!

Company Picnic

2008-08-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have been lazy doing updates here ... Hopefully Honey Bee hasn't lost most of her visitors. Let's see what has happened to me lately that is worth noting ... Uhmm ...

I guess the company picnic took place earlier this month was definitely one. Since this was the first time I attended the company picnic after joining this company, I had no idea what to expect. When people talk about picnic, I thought of hot dogs, burgers, BBQ ... or the most, live music. Woah-la, when I saw it, I wouldn't believe what my eyes had seen. It's more like a carnival than a picnic. It's amazed how everything just took place in one of the company parking lots.

The theme of this year was "pirate." There were unlimited food, snacks, candies, cookies, ice-creams, etc. Once I stepped into the picnic area, I already felt the excitement of being in a carnival. I couldn't help but to check out what other activities were available. There were face and tattoo paintings, balloon twisters, inflatable jumpers and slides, scientific magic show, craft centers, carnival games, palm tree climbing and bumper cars!!!

The piggy bank was a product I made from the craft center.

Go Go China

2008-08-09T00:43:00.001-07:00

I spent the last 3 hours sitting in front of the TV watching the Olympics opening ceremony on NBC. Ever since the show started, I couldn't move my butt away from the TV. Such an amazing and spectacular event!!! Creatively done. Nicely directed. Perfectly organized. I couldn't imagine how great it could be if I was watching it live in BJ. It's definitely the best opening ceremony in history.

I tried to post some videos from YouTube but they're all removed by a "third party" due to copyright. I could only find one with a slide show. I believe clips are available on nbc.com. The performances prior to the national parade were fantastic and the lighting of torch at the end was creatively done. Each one came as a surprise. I'm very very impress. Go Beijing! Go China!

GOoooooD TRiP

2008-08-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

Don't be so silly as this bear bear. If you see one of them, remember to run as quickly as possible or pretend to be a bush ^.^ ... Catch some fish, enjoy the beef stew and ice-cream. Take some pictures to show me.

Be safe ... have fun ... and I will be missing U ^3^ ...

AIDS Walk 2008

2008-07-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's a cold morning. I managed to wake up and participate in the AIDS Walk at Golden Gate Park last Sunday. It's a good 6 mile walk, though my left leg was a bit sore, and I finished it in 2.5 hours. There were plenty of munchies during the whole way and that included chips, banana, power bars, frozen bars, and Gatorade. Overall, it's a wonderful experience and I think I'll do it again next year!

Xmas Party 08

2008-07-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

It’s a little too early to write about this …

I haven't been with this company for a full calendar year yet. I heard that last year was the first year the company decided to hold individual Christmas parties among departments. For mine, it’s a luncheon on a weekday in the Carnelian Room on top of Bank of America in downtown. No doubt about it … The view was fantastic; yet food was disappointing. It’s a very rush lunch to include the commute time. It didn't provide enough time for employees to mingle and chill and catch up with each other. And the only thing we got from the company was a bag of assorted candies. With the overall experience, I wouldn’t give it a very high rating.

Early this year, I received an email requesting everyone to vote for the type of Christmas party we would have this year. The options were as follow:
1. Dinner with employees + guests on a weekend night but only hors d’oeuvres will be served.
2. Dinner with employees only on a weekday night.
3. Luncheon on a weekday.
4. … which I forgot …
I decided to give up my vote because none of the option was too attractive.

Today, I got another email announcing the final decision for the Xmas party this year for my department. SO DISAPPOINTING … It’s option 3 and it will be held in the exact same place as last year @*#$#*& ...

So some of my coworkers said they thought the department had inadvertently sent out the same email as last year; some of them said the Carnelian Room must have offered 50% off for a 2nd time reservation; and some said that we should just go on a strike and not show for the event.

I mean, I don’t hate option 3 too much, but come on, give it a little more effort and find a new restaurant for this new year.

Feeling Lazy ...

2008-07-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

I am feeling so lazy lately. Maybe I should blame it all to the heat wave. We’re already half way through the summer. I originally thought that it’s a perfect time to slack off during the summer because most people would be taking summer time off and things should be slow. Yet things just happen in the exact opposite way. Because of more people taking time off, workload for each person becomes heavier due to the need of covering others’ responsibilities …

It’s like a never-ending cycle. Well, I guess work is supposed to be like this. I’m not sure why I’m complaining. I should feel blessed to be employed when the world-wide population is suffering from this recession.

Holidays are never enough. It is not too much of an entertainment when I find myself stuck here at work once again. I know, there’s always a next holiday to look forward. In the meantime, I need some motivation to put me back on track. OH boy, it must be the heat again.

Happy Birthday

2008-07-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday To my Dear Daddy, Happy Birthday to YOU !!! ^.^

Wishing you happiness, longevity, uncountable fortune, and all the very BEST to come!

Love U Always.

One of those moments ...

2008-06-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

I know, I know ... It's been quite sometime since I last updated.

I had been kinda busy with a lot of family activities in the past few weeks. I agree that I do treasure very much of the time shared with my folks. I love them a whole lot. Yet at the same time, I do find them a little annoyed when they're around. In a way, I understand that kids are always "kids" in parents' eyes. So beforehand, I had told myself to have extra tolerance in some of their daily annoying reminders such as "Go to bed early" and "Drink more water," etc.

After spending a couple of weeks with them, I probably have gotten a bit used to having them in the house. I do find the house has become a lot quieter everyday when I return home from work. Sigh, this surely is not something new that I am experiencing. This is just a post-feeling that strikes me almost every visit of my parents. Well, it's just one of those moments that I will get over soon ...

It's Too Early ...

2008-06-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

It’s only 5:30am and I’m here at work. I was here since 5am and tried to fall asleep again but I wasn’t able to because it’s freaking cold in my office. So I decided to come up here and update Honey Bee. To rationalize this, I seriously don’t think my brain is functioning fully yet at this moment to avoid mistakes made at work. More likely, I don’t think I should put in an additional 4 hours of work knowing that I will have a meeting to attend later in the afternoon that I can’t escape early.

Very sleepy now … ZZzzzZZzz … but I am looking forward for the weekend. I haven’t camped once in my life so I’m actually quite excited to explore how it would be like sleeping in a tent and hanging out in nature for 2 days. While on the other hand, I do feel a little anxious as I am not sure what to expect ... but I had already prepared myself in doing some internet searches.

I always have all the different scenarios that could happen to me in the wild. Such as:

After all, I am still pretty excited ... ^.^ Yeah Yeah Yeah ~

I Miss You

2008-06-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

^3^ Hot Hot G

Interview someone

2008-06-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

It has been half a year since I firstly started my job at this position. When I think back of how I have gotten myself into the company, I still sweat it. To make it sounds nicer, it’s a good and valuable experience, but I certainly do not want to go through the same process again (or at least in the near future). I haven’t changed too many jobs since I graduated but I had gone through interviews with 7-8 different companies in the past. The interview processes in GS are one of the toughest ones. Ever since I was on board and every time when we saw other candidates having luncheon interviews in the cafeteria, my coworkers would joke with me saying that when the next position opened in our group, it would be my chance to tolerate the next candidate. Finally, my chance is coming soon …

But I gave up this idea after seeing the CV of the candidate awhile ago. Dude, seems like this person is way more qualified than me with a 3.7 GPA and a bunch of awards and scholorships … Maybe I should just play nice … First time I get to interview someone, but doesn't seem it's going to be as fun as what I initially imagined.

"X"

2008-05-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

Dealing with parents can be quite killingly amazing sometimes.

I inherit a lot of features from my father. This is one thing most people point out when they see my family pictures – Woah, you really look like your dad! I take it as a compliment. I’m proud to be looking like my father … except one thing. I don’t want to explicitly point out what it is and I will use a symbol “X” to represent it here, but you should be smart enough to figure what this thing is after finish reading this.

X’s on my dad’s legs are relatively denser and longer than the general Chinese population. I’m not sure if it’s the testosterone or he always claims it’s a consequence of being an active soccer player when he was young. Unfortunately, I inherit this part of the gene from him as well. Ever since high school, when I was old enough to care more about my appearance, I had started getting rid of the X. The story actually began when I had joked with my dad one time and I blamed on his gene. He then started to make a tremendous effort to get me all the commercially available “get-rid-of-X” items – And that include X-removal cream, gel, aerosol, wax, roll-on foams, chemical depilatory, and “get-rid-of-X” electronic items. Basically, you name it, I have tried it. I always feel embarrassed for my father to go to a women sanitary section to pick up all these items. And most of the times, as talkative as he can be, he would openly discuss with the sales girls that he’s getting it for his daughter. The bottom line is, I have never asked him to do so and I do not want him to waste money to get me these fancy stuffs because I like to go by the very simple and traditional way to get rid of X. Well, if you know my father, he never listens and he likes to do things on his own way ... and he is very forgetful as well. Awhile back, he had gotten me an electronic X-remover, but I think I had only used it a few times and I went back to use the traditional kind. I guess he has completely forgotten about it and yesterday, in a very exciting tone, he told me he purchased a newly released electronic X-remover for me, which just came out in Japan a week ago.

Sigh, such a waste of money … but I think by the time he gives it to me, I still have to act all excited about it.

My Work

2008-05-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

I have spent almost the entire day doing data analyses and my brain is all clogged up that I think I need to take a break to update my blog. I do enjoy analytical type of work a great deal. I like the process from seeing a bunch of random components, examining and comparing them, and then arranging them into patterns to observe the trend for a conclusion. The only thing that I dislike, or hate, doing is anything that involves mechanisms of pathways. My head aches when I see chemical structures. Laboratory work is a little too technical sometimes, but it’s a good training and it provides a good break to get away from my desk. I know I still have a long way to learn and a lot to pick up in order to fully settle my feet in this new field.

But I know I can and I will. When there is a road, there is always a way.

Robot Robot

2008-05-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why we need to reinforce gender roles in children toys? I mean, I can understand certain professions, such as fire-fighters, truck drivers, police officers, are more male dominated because men are in general stronger and more aggressive than women. Whereas women are more suitable for professions which require more detail oriented and organizational skills such as nurses and secretaries. But, why toys? Why do trucks and toy cars always have to associate with boys whereas dolls and princesses have to go with girls?

I have always had a more boyish personality. I had not owned one Barbie in my life. I didn't particularly enjoy wearing dresses unless I was in an occasion that I had to. Now when I think back, I wonder if there were any moments in the past that my parents had worried about my sexual preference ... haha ... but they still made the decision to send me to an all girl school.

I wouldn't say I grew up playing with only boy's toys, but I tended to enjoy playing with unisex toys more, such as board games, LEGO and electronic stuff -- robots in particular. Since I have a younger brother, so we did have a huge collections of different types of robots throughout our childhood years. I didn't enjoy watching the Japanese animations of robots fighting against each other that much but I did enjoy playing with robots because I think they all looked cool and each one of them had a unique design and personality.

I'm all grown up now and I have become more feminine in many other ways, but I still like robots. That's why some movies such as Toy Story, Transformers, and the lately released Iron Man, are one of my favorite ones. If I am not using the LG Chocolate phone now and that I know it's not a very practical phone, I would have bought this one -- A crossover of LG and Paramount Picture and Marvel Studios -- The LG Iron Man Phone.

A Night

2008-05-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

It's always a nice surprise when you get to run into some old friends whom you lost touch with for many many years. Lately, I was lucky enough to run into an old friend. Since she's moving across the country in a few weeks, before her move, she decided to make her last whoopies in CA and I was invited to this party last night. Most of you know that I am not an alcoholic fan and except some champagne or red wine that I had drunk during wedding or holiday parties, I think the last time I really had a blast in alcohol was a number of years ago -- it was a hilarious experience that I didn't want to publicize it here. Last night was a memorable one. I got pretty knocked out but right enough to put me to a sweet night sleep. Didn't wake up until a few minutes ago. Time to get some studying done.

Good Luck for the move.

Weight Loss

2008-05-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

I am never a person who can eat without watching my diets. I always blame this to my father because I think there is a "fat gene" runs in his family. Weight concern is always something I try to look out for myself because I believe that appearance always comes first in today's society.

A few days ago, one of my coworkers asked me how could I attempt to maintain a slim body and what was the magic way to lose weights. I haven't weighed myself for awhile. I guess the very last time I stepped onto a scale was two months ago when I was sick and the nurse put me on a digital scale and the reading was 110.5 lbs. I was pretty satisfied with this number and as long as I did not let myself to over eat, it shouldn't be difficult at all to maintain it. You may not believe how much I weighed during this time of last year. I weighed 128 lbs and I believe that was the highest I had ever reached in my life. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling at all, but I just couldn't help when I saw all the attractive food in Hong Kong.

Earlier today, I was changing into a pair of jeans, which I had not worn for a few months. It was exceptionally lose that I didn't think I could wear it anymore. I then proceeded to the scale and weighed myself. It read 104 lbs -- I think this was how much I weighed when I firstly landed in the US 15 years ago and I don't think I have ever gone back to this number.

It's a nice thing to keep track on your weights once awhile so you know where you stand. It's not that I don't want to share my magic way of losing weight. There's really no magic way because there is always a different diet plan or method of losing weight for each individual and for all these years, I have already found a way that works for me. Mostly, it is based on the three main categories listed in the diagram below but one may weigh a little heavier than the other depends on what type of an eater you are. It's more like a trial and error type of thing that you need to find yourself a plan that fits you the best.

It's really not my intention to lose that 6 pounds in the past two months ... Somehow it just happens ^.^

足本版承諾MV

2008-05-23T22:32:00.001-07:00

5 million people have to be rehoused and the pandas having been rescued have to be evacuated the area. It's all very sad. I guess we should feel blessed to be alive and be able to live pleasantly out here. Show your support by donating $ or tents and sleeping bags for the victims who have suffered in this earthquake.

AIDS Walk 2008

2008-05-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

This year AIDS walk in San Francisco will take place on July 20th. The funds raised will be used towards services for AIDS patients in the bay. Being the pioneer in HIV therapeutic research, Gilead Sciences is one of the principal sponsors for this event.

I have already signed up today. Join the team if you want to make a difference for the AIDS community. Click here:
AIDS Walk 2008 in San Francisco

Happy Birthday SuperStar

2008-05-12T00:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to SuperStar!
Wish you Happy Happy Happy all the time ^.^

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

I didn't do anything fancy for Mother's Day this year. All I did was to send my mom a card and give her a buzz on Mother's day. On this special day of the year, I want to tell her how lucky I feel to have her as my mother, though I don't think she reads this blog. I still want to tell her ... Mom, I love U !!!

Yahoo Mail vs. GMail

2008-05-06T00:10:00.001-07:00

Just from reading this blog, all of you should notice that I'm a Google fan. Almost ever since Google search engine launches, I have ditched Yahoo and switched entirely to Google. So far, my experience with Google is excellent without one little complaint. Every application of Google that I use, to include Gmail, Google Talk, Picasa, eBlogger and iGoogle browser are very user friendly. One thing I really love about Google is that their staff are very encouraging on feedbacks from users and constantly making improvements for better applications. For instance, they have just started a new feature in eBlogger that we can now schedule the time we would like our posts to get published. This can be very helpful if one is on vacation or one cannot get access onto the internet for a few days ... or for other reasons. This feature is minor, but it can become quite handy when it applies (**Ding Ding** at least it comes right on time for me).

Google is the BEST!

McDull - 咁咁咁

2008-05-04T11:32:00.001-07:00

The second McDull's movie --《麥兜菠蘿油王子》theme song "咁咁咁" -- 2007 Award winning 最佳原創電影音樂 @ 第二十四届香港電影金像獎.

Enjoy.

My Favorite Designer

2008-05-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

Philippe Starck

Ever since my short stay at a service apartment in Hong Kong last year, I fell in love with Philippe Starck's design. From his name, you should be able to notice that he's a French designer, and probably the best known one in the New Design style. The service apartment I stayed was the first boutique hotel which Philippe Starck designs in Asia. His design ranges from interior to furniture to consumer goods (such as toothbrush or TV remote control). I love his designs because they're simple but unique ... In particular, I love his bathroom design the most.

Here's a few of his collection:

Happy Birthday To MOM

2008-04-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

Since I wasn't able to celebrate birthday with my mom personally this year, I had ordered some orchids from a Hong Kong local floral shop and had it delivered to my parent's place prior to her birthday. Instead of a bouquet of flowers, I guess orchids should last longer and it's a more suitable gift for my mother. Mom, Happy Birthday!

The Powershot SD 1100 IS

2008-04-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year I haven't had my own camera. If you still remember, my old Canon ran out of order last year and I haven't found a replacement yet. Not that I haven't been looking, just none of the Canon products in the past year have moved my heart ...

Until I found this one -- The Powershot SD 1100 IS -- Same series as my old one.

I'm debating between these 2 colors - the Bohemian Brown or Pink Melody. I'm leaning a little more for the Bohemian Brown ...

The Cycle of Poo

2008-04-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

I think it's a parody of Lion King ...
Watch 'til the end. So Funny.

Moth Myth

2008-04-14T00:11:00.000-07:00

For the past 4-5 nights, there had been a tiny moth flying around my room. Actually, the first time I saw it was in the bathroom while I was about to take a shower. It then followed me into my room and had stayed here. It's not like I left my bedroom door closed. Indeed, I had it left opened mostly during the day and only had it closed at night.

Ever since the passing of my grandmother, I had never killed a moth or a moth-like insect. I am not a very superstitious person, but when it comes to myths and if there's no harm or extra effort to follow them, I usually would choose to believe in them.

I'm not sure where this myth is originated but I have heard that a moth can be an embodiment of soul, usually a beloved someone, who comes back for a visit. If it is killed, the soul of the spirit would disappear or force to leave. Since the death of my grandmother, every time when I see a moth, I always tend to think it's She who has come back for a visit.

Something is very strange though. It's been 10 years since my grandmother's passing, and maybe this is only the 3rd time I have seen a moth in my house. For all these times, the moth doesn't only stay for a day. It usually would stay for a few days and it would always fly and stay around at the same spot. It's like this time, the moth would fly around my room but it just won't fly out the door even I have it opened widely.

Believe or not to believe ... I choose to believe. To me, it is just a nice feeling to believe that grandma has never forgotten about me and is still coming back to check on me.

Traffic Statistics of Honey Bee

2008-04-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Here is the traffic history for Honey Bee in the past 30 days (March 11 to April 10). The y-axis is the number of visits per day. On April 3rd, there were a total of 235 visits. I am impressed. I went back to check what was the post that could possibly attract that many visitors and this is the one.

Too cute not to come for a visit. O.o ~ Juz a laugh ~

This Month's Visits By Day:

Here is a record of location tracking for the past year:
Honey Bee wants to thank you for the clicks.

iPc Designs

2008-04-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of my drawings again. Drawing is probably the only thing I enjoy doing when I have nothing else better to do at home. Of course, it also depends on my mood if it's strong enough to drive me to pick up a pen and start making sketches. Some people say "pencil does the thinking," but it doesn't work for me all the time. At most times, I draw because I have an image in my head and I enjoy the process of putting it onto paper. Most of the images created in my head are usually pretty random. For instance, I can see something as simple as a piece of leaf and somehow the image of a chair would come up into my head (see picture below). Well, keep in mind that being an interior designer has always been my dream profession.

That, I need to thank my parents who had sent me to drawing lessons for a few years when I was young. A few nights ago, I had made some sketches of my family.
Below are two pictures of my design. Don't laugh. I know they don't look too professional. And don't ask me if they're practical, but I tend to like unique furniture with simple design. If there will be a day I can have my own brand, it will be called "iPc." But if you are looking for fancy furniture, you have to look somewhere else.

Just if you can't figure out. The one on the right is a chair with a design of a musical eighth note.

Small World

2008-04-06T02:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you really have no idea how small this world can be or how everyone may possibly be connected. Today, I met someone who went to the same primary school SHCS as I did. She's probably the little girl whom used to jump the rope or play hide and seek and we had cross-passed each other many times in school. Sometimes It's amazing how things may happen. We didn't get to know each other until 20 years later in another country. I'm not sure if it's because I've grown older, I actually find it pretty exciting to get to meet someone who had once shared a similar growing up experience and especially this doesn't happen often in a foreign country.

Congratulations to M & S. Happy ever after.

BW 50

2008-04-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

BusinessWeek has lately released the best 50 performers for 2008 based on rate of return, growth, and the level of impact on the US economy in 2007. Apple is ranked # 6, Starbucks # 16, Amazon # 23, and Google # 34. Guess where we stand ... Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!!!!!

Here's the link if the picture below is too small.

Just Like Yesterday

2008-04-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

It's already a hassle to upload so many pictures and when eBlogger doesn't have a very systematic way to organize and arrange pictures, it is even more difficult. I tried to do a minor manipulation earlier and re-publish this post, everything got deleted. So I decided to use my childhood picture collection from my online album as the file sizes are smaller and so it's supposingly easier to be uploaded. Here they are. Some of them have already been posted and some are new. The arrangment isn't perfect as the pictures just won't move when I dragged them to the place of desire. Oh well, how they're displayed is not the main point for this post anyways. So Enjoy.

The Macbook Air

2008-03-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

YoYo ... Check this out!
Another thing that catches my eyes and grabs my heart. Such a delicate design. How can I resist.
Something I will bring back home soon ...

Crazy Thoughts #1

2008-03-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Once out of the blue, normally before I fell asleep, I would have some crazy thoughts ...

Last night, I thought about the guests whom might possibly be present in my funeral when I die one day. I'm sure in one of these occasions, everyone who has learned the news would attend, no matter how much we hate each other before my death. Most likely, these people are just afraid that my spirit would haunt them if they don't make an effort to show their condolence. True, if I would be granted this super power in my after-death life, I bet you I would most likely enjoy haunting them and then laughing at them. I'm evil, I know (^J^) ...

So, the number of guests or the type of guests present in my funeral really doesn't matter at all. What matters is who actually would shed a tear to see my passing. Sigh, but some of these people are also the ones I do not want to see them upset and hope to see them continue to carry on a happy life because I love them too much to see them suffer.

IF I have a choice, I want to die alone, at a place where no one knows ...

OKAY, So, what is the take home message here??
~~ Be nice to me now or watch out of being haunted one day ~~

Tissue Donor

2008-03-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

I was asked to personally renew my driver's license at the DMV this year so that I could get a new picture taken and get my vision test done. While I was there, I started to fill out the renewal form and there's one section that asked if you would prefer to be a tissue/organ donor after death.

I remember when I firstly registered for my driver's license at the age of 16, my mom asked me to leave that section empty. I asked her why as I wanted to be one. My mom has been a nurse at the operation room in a hospital for almost 20 years and being a health profession herself, I thought she should know better about the importance of restoring someone's life through organ donation. My mom told me that she had witnessed various scenes of doctors from different departments rushed to the cadavers to remove the organs they wanted. Sometimes they needed to cut open the ribcage or other supporting structures to get to where the organs were located. In order to fill up the collapsed ventral area (as the body would eventually be picked up by the family members), the hospital staff would just stuff "anything" (such as wooden sticks and cotton swabs) into the body and sewed it up. My mom described those scenes as "pathetic" and that's the reason why she didn't want to be a tissue donor. At the age of 16, I listened to her and I never had that little pink sticker at the back of my driver's license.

So many years have passed, I now fully understand why my mom would come up with that reasoning. My last job required dealing with fresh human tissues (and I had worked with human liver and lung many times). Basically, the tissue designated for research purpose are normally rejects or failures from transplantation. I would get calls from the government tissue distributors late at night or anytime during the day to ask if I was interested in accepting them. They usually would give me a brief medical history of the donors and see if the tissue condition was appropriate for our research. After working with these human tissue and seeing how I would "jiggle" it to accomplish my tasks, I honestly do not want my own tissue to end up at a laboratory one day. Some very small chunks that got submerged in buffers would be hard to scoop them out as solid waste, so I normally just pour some bleach into the buffers (to disinfect any possible contaminants) and pour the whole thing down the sink. I felt bad to see some human tissue getting drained away, but that's what happened.

Then, before I handed in my renewal form for my driver's license, I asked one of the DMV staff if it's possible to classify myself as a tissue/organ donor only for transplantation but not for research purpose. Unfortunately, it's not possible.

I hesitated for a little while, but I decided to become a tissue donor anyways. I just have to hope that my organs are still functioning well enough for transplantation when I die one day, so they won't end up in a laboratory or getting stuck inside a drainage pipe ... V.v

It Will Be a 335xi

2008-03-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

I have owned two cars (so far) in my life and they're both VWs. I firstly fell in love with VWs because I felt it's unique, it's different than most of the Japanese cars. I had a black 98 Jetta Wolfsburg limited sport edition and it has a dual color interior. Mine was a contrast of dark and light gray. I couldn't enjoy my ride more. My 2nd car is also a VW and it's a silver 02 Passat with a black interior.

For certain aspects of life, I do not like satisfying for less. I do not mind the wait until I find something that I like or totally catch my eyes. Once I locate it, I usually won't care much about the cost and I will get it and normally keep it for a very long time until it fails in operation. That's the main reason why I do not always carry something with the latest style because I don't think the latest one is the better one. I had to get rid of my Jetta because it's declared total lost after a car accident. For the Passat, it's not the ideal car in my mind at the time of purchase as I was limited by a budget offered by my parents. Now, I'm more financially independent, and I can have the freedom to get any car I desire as long as I can afford it.

My 3rd car will be ...

The latest model of 335xi BMW sedan has totally caught my eyes when it was firstly released. I couldn't get my eyes off it. My next car will be this one. The question is when will I be able to get it. I still love my Passat very much so I can't abandon him yet at this moment. The 335xi will be my next sweetheart and I am thinking about bringing him home in 2 years.

For the time being, I guess I should get one of these to satisfy my desire and remind myself to save up enough $ for my future 335xi!!!

Life Talk

2008-03-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

How many elements in this pie chart matter to you?

Every now and then, unpleasant as it is to think about, life does not always follow the time line we plan and expect. After witnessing an unexpected death of someone I love and respect a few years ago, I always have this one thought in my mind:

When I get old and look back to my entire life, I want to feel that I have lived a meaningful life filled with personal fulfillment and happiness, so that I can die with a smile on my face.

Meaningful - I am not aiming to do something that will dramatically change the world, but I do want to participate in something that will have a positive impact to the world. I'm still not sure exactly how I can do more and do better, at least, I choose my job with this thought in mind. Though I may not have an extremely strong passion in scientific research, I do fully support the meaningness behind it and I'm very grateful to be able to contribute my effort in enhancing human health.

Happiness - Everyone defines happiness differently, so there is no real definition of it. I'm not going to disclose my happiness meter here. All I can say is, mine is relatively simple, which doesn't involve anything fancy or materialistic. I don't mind failing, but I do mind regrets. I believe we should have an urge to strive for our own happiness rather than waiting for it to come into our lives.

I don't like seeing some people who keep complaining about their lives and not think of a way to make it better. No Try; No Gain. You only live once.

Mac vs. PC

2008-03-17T21:01:00.001-07:00

So I have been debating if I should replace my laptop with a MAC book and I think this video clip has given me some good insights ...

Musical Toilet

2008-03-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

Don't you want one of these toilets? I definitely DO!!! Not only that it can wash and dry your butt after you finish your business, it also allows you to play music so that you can turn up the volume to cover any possible "rude" noises you may make during your time spent on the toilet. And, it is always maintained at a certain temperature so you always feel nice and warm when sitting on it. So COOL ~~ Can't wait to get one of these for myself! I think I will never want to leave my toilet ... ^.^

The Duckees

2008-03-12T23:36:00.001-07:00

Dead virus bodies

2008-03-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

If you are one of the Honey Bee's frequent visitors, you should remember that this is the first season I have gotten myself a flu shot. I trust my immune system but I decided to get it because I enjoyed going with the crowds and I couldn't resist better as it's free.

But dude, this is also one of the years I find myself getting sick more often. What's the flu vaccine doing in my body?! I did read on the news earlier that there's only a 40% chance that we would get ourselves exposed to a matching virus, which means, there's 60% chance that we would get sick if our immune systems are not strong enough to fight antigens. Though I have no clue in how vaccine companies tend to predict the type of flu virus for each season, these people should do a better job to at least elevate the target hit above 50% ... or what's the point to give the shot?!

A few days ago, I found myself waking up with a mild sore throat. It persisted for about two days, my lymphoid started to hurt. Yesterday morning, I woke up with some flu-like symptoms, such as headache, body ache, sore throat, and swollen lymphoid on my neck. I felt the weakness, but it wasn't as bad that I couldn't get myself into work. I made it through the day. Before bed, I dosed myself with some Tylenols.

I woke up this morning feeling better. Most of the symptoms have disappeared except the swollen lymphoid. My energy is back.

I blame these all to the poorly designed flu vaccine. Luckily, I didn’t pay a dime out of my pocket. As far as I understand, flu vaccine is an injection of killed-virus, which will trigger an immune response (to make antibodies) if we expose ourselves to the exact same type of virus. I should have trusted my own T cells better to fight off the virus than to have these dead virus bodies living in my blood stream without doing a thing to protect me.

Pictures to share

2008-03-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

Someone at work was talking about Mardi Gras today and so I went back to my office, signed on my online photo album and showed a few of my coworkers some of the pictures I had taken over there. Since I can't really think of anything to write, I may as well just share some of these pictures with you.

A Cute Gift Wrap

2008-03-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

Here's the cutest gift wrap I have ever received. It's a surprise when I firstly opened it. Then it cracked me up. It's now sitting in my room and I couldn't help but flip-opened it before I left this morning. And, I closed it with a smile on my face. I think I will "unwrap" my gift every morning from now on as it cheers me up before I start my day, but I am also afraid the battery will run out when I do this too often ...

Anyways, Thanks very much ... of course, I like what carries inside as well.
... And it is an ever special gift for me ^.^

The last weekend was an ordinary weekend without doing anything too special, but it was one of my happiest ones =).

A Possible Scenario

2008-02-28T01:45:00.000-08:00

My father has always been paranoid about a probable devastating earthquake hitting the bay (though he is safe by living on the other half of the world). Every now and then, he would ask me to stock up food and water so we would be able to stay alive in case of an earthquake strike. Not that I do not understand the potential consequences a natural disaster can possibly bring, but all the consumable items have an expiration date. Am I supposed to waste my money and restock everything once awhile?

Here are a few points to back up my perception:
In case of an earthquake …
1. If I manage to run outside the house safely, I’m sure I can somehow find myself food and water (from my neighbors, grocery stores or the Red Cross who should come for the rescue).

2. If my house collapses and I end up getting buried under the debris, what’s the chance for me to land myself next to the food/water supply, which I stocked up earlier for this to happen??

I draw a conclusion that stocking consumable supplies is not necessary. Or worst comes to worst, I have 3 toilet bowls in the house, which should sustain an enough amount of “fresh” water for a short while. Maybe a more appropriate approach is to keep all my toilets clean!!!!!!

I think ALL I need to mind is where my passport is. Honestly, if something like this happens, I will run as quickly as possible to the airport and fly back to HKG!

The 08' Nest

2008-02-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

From the courtesy of a friend in BJ:

I saw the 08 Olympian stadium when I visited the city in May of last year, but I was too slow to grab my camera from my bag as I was on the freeway. These are snapshots I had lately asked a friend, who's doing a freelance job around the site, to take for me. Thanks Very Much.

Local Stars

2008-02-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

I was browsing my picture collection earlier and here're a few pictures that worth sharing. I had run into a number of local celebrities in HKG ... such as:

Sean Lau
Amy Kwok
Kenny Kwan
Shawn Yu
Nicolas Tse
Kevin Cheng
Mandy Chiang
Paco Wong
Linda Chung (see below)
Moses Chan (see below)

Most of the time, I didn't have my camera with me so I wasn't able to capture some shots to share here. If I know how to transfer pictures from my phone to my computer, I would definitely take more pictures but I just didn't know how to upload pictures from my cell phone ~.~

A Super Star

2008-02-19T00:16:00.000-08:00

Andy Lau -- The most successful Canton-pop singer, movie actor, and producer in Hong Kong. I was never a fan of him, indeed, I rarely listened to his songs in the past. However, my impression of him had changed since I had attended a few of the annual award ceremonies while I was in HKG the past years. Seeing Andy on stage, I was very much attracted by the way he presented himself, inspired by his attitude and dedication to the entertainment business, and touched by his sincerity to the audience/fans. He's truly a Super Star. If you haven't gotten a chance to listen to his latest CDs for his Wonderful World Concert, you should do so. Highly recommend it.

YUMMY Food

2008-02-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

Few of the best dishes I had and very much enjoyed in my life ...

Good presentation, nice atmosphere, friendly service, surprisingly wonderful and good tasty food ...

Fantastic dinner --Two Thumbs UP ^.^

SIGH

2008-02-13T21:12:00.000-08:00

The blue book value of my car is less than 7000 dollars

... BUT ...

I had spent
2500 dollars fixing it 3 months ago
150 dollars last week for routine maintenance and a light bulb
600 again this morning ...

Most of my 600 dollars spent this morning was a rip off, I knew it ... I had a pair of my tires changed at a dealer -- which should cost me the same if I got them done in Costco but I would get 4 brand new tires. Well, I had a flat tire and it was too worn out because I had been driving on a flat tire in the past few days. I was firstly scared by the service representative at the dealer saying that it's too dangerous to drive and my tire would possibly blow up on the road. But then, I couldn't be bothered because I couldn't spare more time to bring my car to another place so I might as well just get everything done in one. **SIGH** **SIGH** **SIGH**

The total amount spent on fixing and repairing is half of the market value of my car. I just wish there will be no major problem in the near future ... V_V ...

A Frog in the Shallow Well

2008-02-11T22:16:00.000-08:00

I, personally, do not like people who are too judgmental, though I admit I could possibly be one in the past. As I grow older, I have learned to be more respectful and appreciated in every aspect of an individual. I wouldn't say I don't judge people at all, but for the ones I don't find too much in common, I would just keep a distance ... in a polite manner.

Stop judging people because they don't go to private schools or don't drive prestigious cars. Some people are just narrow-minded -- like the Frog in the shallow well. I was one before but I attempted to jump out of my well successfully to realize my own insignificance while showing more appreciation to the world and many others. ~ Grow up, dude ~

Ash Wednesday

2008-02-06T22:25:00.000-08:00

I was reminded by a few others at work that today is Ash Wednesday -- 40 days before Easter -- and it's also the first day of Lent. On this special day of worship, the Priest would mark the forehead of each of us with ashes in the shape of a cross. It is a ceremony to symbolize a time for one to confess, to express sorrow for sins and faults, and to renew one's spirit for Easter.

Being a Catholic for almost my entire life time, I am embarrassed to admit that I do not remember this day without the reminder from others. Once I learned, I felt obligated to attend a mass, so a few of us went to a nearby Church after work earlier. Here's the ash of cross on my forehead. If I recall correctly, it only needs to stay on my forehead until sunset and it can then be washed.Let's see ... What should I give up for Lent this year?? ~.~

Nike Vs. Adidas

2008-02-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

Worker Bee #1: Nothing is impossible.
Worker Bee #2: Impossible is Nothing.

I say: It's only a commercial slogan. Don't lie. Life is difficult.

Super Tuesday tomorrow ... Remember to cast your vote ~.~

Random "BS"

2008-01-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Another Day -- I have heard this too many times in my life.

What if ... Tomorrow is just a trace of time?

What if ... Tomorrow is just another Today?

And, what if I have already lost confidence for tomorrow ...

Guys, don't take this blog too seriously. I'm just B-S-ing abouth random thoughts that pop up in my head. I don't even know what I was talking about ... V.V

**Blame it to the gloomy weather if you wish**

An Analogy of Life

2008-01-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

This post is an after-thought after speaking to a good friend.

When everything around you seems to go wrong or just not the way you expect or you're simply unhappy about your current situation, sometimes all you need to do is to ask yourself one question -- What's one thing you want to do now if you are not tied down by all the responsibilities you have? As we all grow older, we tend to load more and more burdens onto our shoulders and gradually we would live our lives around these burdens and lost our true selves. Sometimes, all it takes for us to realize is that these burdens are extra stuffs, which we decide to bring along, and so we actually have the choice to leave them down and walk freely again.

Life is like a train ride -- You get onto a train and you do not ask where the train is heading. All you can (and should) do is to pull out your ipod, play your favorite music, sit back and enjoy the ride and possibly meet the people who get onto the train along the way. As the train goes further, all you see are greens from the window and you have a good sense that this train is probably heading to a countryside. If you are enjoying your ride so far, you know that a quiet rural area is probably a destination for you to have a happy life. However, if you're getting sick of seeing all the trees and woods from the window, you may consider getting off in the next station, walk to the nearby platform and get onto a new train, which heads to a city. Or, you may have even met someone you enjoy spending the rest of your life with on the train, and so you do not care as much of where the train is heading. However, if you think too practically in the very beginning and need to predict all risk assessments on which train and where it heads, you would always find yourself standing at the ticket booth, wondering which train to get on.

Believe it or not, I had been standing at the ticket booth for many years as I tended to make too much judgment and refuse to take risks because I was too feared of falling. Being a relatively practical person, I had made the most difficult choices to drop everything and move back to HKG and from HKG back to my original spot. Yet, if you ask me again today, I am glad I have taken a deep breath, blind folded myself, and gotten onto that train. We all grow from experiences. Without the train ride, we would never be able to learn what we truly want in lives and where our desired destinations are ... simply because experiences are essential minerals for a healthy growth and at the end, they shape who we are.

My Nose

2008-01-24T14:13:00.000-08:00

My nose bleeds fairly easily, especially during the very dry weather. This is not something that gradually develops throughout my life as I had my first nose bleed when I was a little kid. I guess I was just born to have more fragile vessels behind my nose. I had consulted physicians about my problem and they did give me some suggestions to prevent it from happening as often, but if I had to end the problem, I would have to go through a small surgery to seal the vessels, which obviously would not be something I would consider of doing.

If you have to seek for advice to stop a nose bleed or just curious to find out how it feels to have a nose bleed, I am definitely the one you should turn to. I have accumulated so many experiences that you may never imagine. To be honest, some of these experiences were pretty horrified that had freaked me out -- I was panic, my heart beat faster, the bleeding got more serious. There were at least twice that my nose was bleeding so seriously and continuously for more than an hour and I almost got sent to the hospital. One of these times happened at home and the other time happened in a public area. People on the streets were about to call the ambulance and I held them off … well, as most of you know how scary I’m with hospitals ... +_+

Well, nose bleed doesn’t hurt. It’s not painful. However, it can be very annoying as it requires some skills to stop the bleeding and once the blood clogs, the clog would stay somewhere behind the nostrils and the throat. This is the tricky part where you can’t disturb the clog or the bleeding can become very serious that warm blood would just flow down like a waterfall.

Work up your brain and give a little imagination here: Imagine having this semi-coagulated, mucous-like, bloody “thing” hanging in between your nose and your throat – And you can’t remove it or your nose will bleed like hell – so what will happen at the end? Normally I would end up swallowing this bloody mucous clog and I can tell you it is the nastiest feeling to have this washed down your throat to your stomach. Gross, huh? ~_^

I didn’t mean to gross you out by writing this post. I decided to write about nose bleed because I had a minor one this morning when I was brushing up myself. Well, it’s been almost 3 years since I had my last nose bleed *Touch Wood*, so this morning’s bleed is a sign to tell me to watch out for the next few days – to be more gentle when I’m blowing my nose or washing my face – or a serious one may hit me soon.

Marching Nightmare

2008-01-19T02:36:00.000-08:00

I am now CPR certified!

This was the 2nd time I had received CPR training. My first time took place more than 10 years ago when I was a member of the Hong Kong Red Cross Junior group. It was more like an extra curriculum activity in school. In my school, I had a choice to join the Girl Scout or the Red Cross and I picked the Red Cross because I think the Red Cross has the prettiest uniform out of all uniformed groups and it was not as easy to become a member of it. Out of each class of 40 students, only 3 students would be picked to become a Red Cross member. Reading until here, you should be able to tell ... I chose to become a Red Cross member solely based on beauty and pride.

It was then my nightmare began. Not only that I was stuck in school for activities, meetings, and various first aid courses, a day per week and every Saturday after school, I was also forced to participate in the marching training -- a definite military type of training. If one of us failed to obey the drill commands to perform the appropriate step or action, the whole troop would get punished. Or for instance, if we were asked to perform a "MARK TIME" action (marching in place), but we didn’t bring our legs up to a 90 degree angle, we would be asked to "Mark Time" for an hour or more until we heard a "stop" command.

It was harsh, huh? I think it's a total torture. I spent 2 years in the team and when it was about time to enroll from the Junior to the Youth group, I withdrew from it. I knew expectation and dedication could only be higher in the Youth group. Every time when I saw the Youth troop marching in the field at school ... sweeting and getting yelled at ... I couldn't help but laughed and couldn't feel more thankful that I had gotten out of it.

Do not get me wrong, I still strongly support the mission and values of the Red Cross to protect human lives and help others in need. I just don't see how marching -- supposed to be a training of discipline -- fits into the picture of helping others ... V_V

Milk Tea

2008-01-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

I used to be pretty easy going with food, but I realized that after my last HKG stay, I have become pretty picky with it. Maybe I was spoiled by the enormous variety of quality food available to me during the past 2 years …

Hong Kong style ice cold milk tea has always been one of my favorite drinks in restaurants. I believe it is a drink originated from Britain and somehow transformed into a HKG style type of milk tea – which is a little sweeter and stronger. In the HKG older times, hot milk tea was more or less taken as a similar item as coffee. Until recent years, Starbucks have successfully conquered the HKG market and coffee becomes a more common beverage for the population.

The same as many millions of HKG people, a cup of hot milk tea is an essential breakfast item for my parents. In order to have a good start of a day, the quality of a homemade milk tea plays an important role. In the past many years, I had seen my parents searched and tried many different brands of tea leaves. While my mom was never willing to spend too much time in the kitchen in the morning, convenience and efficiency became the key factors in choosing the quality tea. In other words, “tea bags” were the way to go.

After many trial-and-error type of testings, they came to a conclusion that Marks and Spencer tea bags worked the best out of all choices. Ever since then, my home has always been stocked with M&S tea bags. However, to maintain its quality, these tea bags have a very short manufacturing recommended shelf life.

Earlier today, I was craving for some milk tea so I decided to try making myself one with the tea bags available at work. It turned out to be such a disastrous waste. I put a total of 5 tea bags in a cup of hot milk but I felt like I was drinking some hot, but slightly bitter, diluted milk. After a few sips, before anyone noticed it, I decided to pour everything down the sink.

Not to mention that I had made a mess in the microwave while I was heating up some milk (of course I cleaned it up before anyone realized it) ...

Anyone knows where I can find some equally good tasting tea? As far as I know, Marks and Spencer is a British department store and it doesn’t exist here in the bay ... V_V

What-So-Ever ...

2008-01-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I really have no clue how some people behave …

There is this somebody -- whom I had known for more than 10 years and had once taken as a good friend -- used me, cheated me, betrayed me, and lied to me, yet still has the guts to attempt getting back in touch with me today. Actually, this's the 2nd attempt and I did give this somebody a chance last time, but resulted again with another disappointment. I normally have a relatively high tolerance to others and especially to the ones I treasure, but after what had happened, I have absolute no interest to reestablish a friendship or whatsoever. What's been lost has been lost and none of them seems important to me anymore and honestly, it's better off if this somebody can stay away from my life forever. I'm more vulnerable than I may appear, so ...

Fxxk OFF.

So Happy

2008-01-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

~~~ Yeah Yeah Yeah ~~~
hohoho ^.^

Being Friendly

2008-01-07T16:58:00.000-08:00

I’m never someone who actively initiates conversations in front of strangers. However when it comes to work, I tend to act the opposite. I learned this after I had made my first serious mistake in my first job. I realized life was so much easier while others were willing to cover up my mistakes and provide an opportunity to correct them before having me to get written up by auditors, filing an explanation, and more importantly, getting my boss involved. Ever since then, I have always made a tremendous effort in socializing and networking with others at work. Believe it or not, I have also tried to participate as often as I can at meetings or luncheons, which I honestly do not very much fond of going.

Being too friendly can cause troubles sometimes …

Best Wishes

2008-01-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

For the past 24 hours, I had received calls from five different friends who are currently living in UK, HKG, and BJ. At first, I thought they called to see if I had survived in the storm ... However, none of them had brought up anything about the storm. I guess it's just a coincidence that they happened to call within the same day. One did not even know the time difference and woke me up in the middle of the night, but that's all OK as I was more than happy to hear her voice.

I am particularly delighted after talking to him -- the one whom I mentioned in my "Make My Day" posting a few days ago. I was at work when he called the other day so I didn't get a chance to talk much. The idea of moving back to HKG had been implanted in both of our minds for a long time. I did it but he just never had the guts to put it into action, though I knew how difficult it's to make this move and for a guy, it could even be tougher. I had spent hours and hours to ask him to follow his heart and when he came visiting in HKG at this time of last year, I had again told him the pros and cons of working in HKG and I thought I could sound more persuasive as everything I said was based on my personal experience, but he still couldn't make up his mind.

I know this is not my life, but I also know that if the urge of doing it is so strong, you just have to do it and not to worry too much about other possible outcomes ... or this urge would follow you for the rest of your life and you would always wonder how life would be if you have made a different turn.

It's until lately that something happened and he wanted to take a break and decided to relocate himself to HKG. I'm just very happy to hear that he finally starts to establish himself in a city he always wants to be in and is also seeking career opportunities. Too bad I ain't around anymore or it could be so much more fun ...

Two years ago, I admitted I moved back to HKG for a personal reason, but at the same time, I had always wanted to be back there since college graduation. Combination of the two reasons overweighted the possible failures I could encounter, so I just resigned, packed and left. Any gains during the HKG stay? Heck yeah, more than what you can possibly imagine. The fun, the joy, the happiness, the excitement, the time shared with loved ones ... Though career-wise, it's a total waste of time. Well, I was able to meet some very nice people through the job and establish friendship with some of the coworkers and my two bosses. I guess this can be considered as a gain as well. Out of all the gains, the most important is that this "urge of living in HKG" has disappeared even though I am back here again. I guess it's more like I tried and I accepted whatever outcome it turned out to be like. Well, it's only been a few months since I am back, though I feel like I'm adapting to a brand new environment again.

So, Best Wishes to the ones who are starting a new life in HKG ...

The Storm

2008-01-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I had last seen a storm. I arrived work today and Woahlaaaa .... there's a blackout!! I couldn't get more excited about it! I went into my office, put down my belongings, and joined the rest of the team in the hallways to discuss what's going on. It's just how excited I used to get in HKG when we found out we didn't have school because of a typhoon strike. We walked around, chilled, and couldn't find too much to do. Until 11-ish, we're dismissed. We're told that it's a PG&E problem and it didn't seem like the power would come back anytime soon.

By that time, the storm had gotten a lot worse than it's in the morning. I decided to offer a ride for a coworker to the BART station or he would have to wait for the shuttle bus. I just felt it's probably not safe to walk to catch a public transit at this weather. Wow ... this trip was one of the most adventurous road trip ever ... There're floods everywhere in SSF and some areas were so seriously flooded that highway patrol was required to direct the traffic. While I was driving through the floods, I felt like I was driving in a river -- muddy river -- with water level reached over the headlights of the car. At the same time, I could speed up a little to splash water to the car nearby (while they're doing the same to me) and I think I had over-done it once that I had inadvertently splashed it to a pedestrian (Very sorry about this =.=|||). Due to accidents, road blocks, tree falls, and floods, it took me almost 2 hours to get back home from the BART station.

I admit I was a little panic driving under such condition. Still, it's a wonderful feeling to get a day off when you're not supposed to ... NICE.

Make My Day

2008-01-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

It's the nicest thing to hear your voice again ... There're too much I wanted to say, but I didn't bother. I know you will shine in the other half of the world, like how you're here before. Party hard while keeping up your hard work.

A New Year

2008-01-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Jan 2 … First day to resume work. A bit difficult to get up in the morning and roll into work, but I managed to get in on time. Other than doing some catch up work, I also spent the morning thinking of my new year’s resolutions. Since there’re other unpredictable factors that might affect fulfilling all of them, I decided to exclude the ones, which are not completely under my control, and only narrow them down to FOUR.

Hopefully, I’m able to keep them in mind throughout the year round as it didn’t really seem to be the case in all my past years.

Will see.

So Close ...

2007-12-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

So close ...
Very tempted;
Almost picked it up again ...

Well, I was able to withhold and withstand ... *I=_=I*

Bad Dreams

2007-12-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

I woke up -- Feeling scary, sadly and strangely.

I forced myself to open my eyes in the middle of a dream ... and ... I realized tears rolling down my cheeks. As far as I can recall, this is probably the third time in my life that I find myself tearing from some horrible dreams. They might not appear to you as anything, but they were all very real, and somewhat dramatic, in my dreams:

1st Dream -- Happened when I was around 7-8 years old. I was being attacked by a tiger in a forest.

2nd Dream -- Happened when I was around 17-18 years old. I was trapped inside a house, which was on fire. I tried very hard and I finally found my way out. Then I was chased down by a shark down the slope (I guess dreams don't have to make sense all the time).

3rd Dream -- Happened last night ...................... Sorry, too fresh to reveal it here at this moment. I didn't let myself to close my eyes and fall back to sleep because I knew the dream would continue if I did. That would just result in more tears.

@#%$# ... see a pattern? These dreams tend to occur every 10 years in my life!

A Productive Day

2007-12-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

These're the tasks I have accomplished today:

Got the smog test done
Ran an errand in the bank
Went to a drug store to get all the daily necessities
Changed all the bed sheets and blanket covers
Washed 3 loads of laundry
Vacuumed and tidied the whole house
Wiped down dust on all furniture surface area in all rooms
Cleaned the kitchen counter and microwave
Cleaned all the bathrooms -- that included wiping down all the sink areas/toilets/bathtubs with bleach and mopped the floor!

Dead tired. I woke up at 9ish this morning and started my first task. It's now 8:30p and my last load of laundry is still in the dryer. This is not the first time I have done the above mentioned household work, indeed it is the first time I have finished doing all of them in one day!

Uhmm, I guess I have a pretty high potential to be a maid ... it can be an option if I lose my job a day. The only problem is that I'm not sure how long I can survive =,=|||

OH well, I guess household work can be taken the same as studying -- something definitely no one enjoys of doing, yet it just needs to get done. I, obviously, do not find household work an enjoyable thing to do, but when no one else is willing to complete these tasks, I have to take care of them or we all will be living in a mess.

What are the leftover? Still need to iron some clothes and gather some of my coats and pants to drop off for dry clean. But I can't be bothered today as I think I have worked too hard already.

Sitting in my dust-free room, blogging this post ... so proud of myself ^.^

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T00:47:00.000-08:00

~~Merry Xmas~~

Finally ...

2007-12-23T03:52:00.000-08:00

OOoooYEAHooo ... Finally ...

I'm quite exhausted -- physically and emotionally. Though I didn't work too much or too hard during most of the year in HK, I had pushed myself quite hard in the past three months for the interviews and the newly acquired position. Maybe it's my "make up" defense for my foolish acts and fun moments wasted earlier in the year. Being always appeared as a rather laid back person, the tiresome could very well be caused by internal stresses that developed subconsciously. Possibly, I just couldn't find a way to relieve them.

What's wrong?? Ever since what had happened earlier in the year, I consistently find myself being very up-tight, and over self-protected at all times. This may be one major reason that has contributed to my weight loss -- I have successfully lost more than 10 lbs in the past 2 months (which isn't necessary to be a bad thing as I had put on quite a number of pounds while I was in HK).

I don't know why ... Maybe it's a temporary thing that I'm still adjusting to my new life style. To certain extent, I feel including some of my feelings on Honey Bee is my only media to somewhat truly express myself because I am technically writing to nobody. But I miss the real me -- the previous and the original me.

The alcohol earlier had helped me to loosen up quite a bit. I hope I didn't say anything that I shouldn't have said ... Should be fine. I normally just got knocked down in such circumstances. =.=||| Once out of the blue, but oh well, it's really not something I very much enjoy doing.

Not too much looking forward to this break ... More or less, I just need this break.

Extremely tired. Time for bed.

<榕樹>

2007-12-20T13:14:00.000-08:00

2X Years ago ... 榕樹你好我想知道其實你有多高
回校上班也經過這道路
仍未知榕樹的粗糙

城內變遷滿天風雨榕樹已留不住
無疾要終仍趕向你道列
黃葉飄如漫天風雪

尚記得我失戀那天飲醉酒像世間都失去日晝
樹陰中望天邊朗月和星宿
漆黑中顫抖
大雨中我多得你的一對手像傘子擋風雨塵垢
未會懂就可惜我是年紀尚幼
不覺得罕有

尚記得我當天捨不得你走像世間都失去日晝
樹陰中望天邊朗月和星宿
漆黑中顫抖
尚記得最感動仍是她一雙手伴我走一生也未夠
淚眼中望天邊這夜流星掠過
知道她罕有

留在我心永不蒼老婆婆你可聽到

Xmas Time

2007-12-18T13:34:00.000-08:00

There was a holiday party for children at work and I dropped by briefly to check it out. We took the side door because we're a little embarrassed to get in from the main entrance as there were a Ginger man and a Reindeer dressed in a Santa suit welcoming kids with popcorn and cotton candies.

Filled with craft-making activities, video games, musical, and food ... almost better than the one we had. Here's what I made -- a snowman out of a sock and beans -- and it's now sitting on my desk:

It's Christmas time again ...

I haven't worked very hard during most of the year but I think I have behaved well enough ... Uhmm ... Will Santa give me what I want this year ... ^.^

A Thought in the middle of the night

2007-12-16T04:56:00.000-08:00

It's 3:30am and I couldn't fall back to sleep because I had slept too much yesterday -- I didn't feel too well again. It could be some residual symptoms left from the illness which hit me earlier during the week. Since I'm home, I want to stay away from medication and that results in my lack of energy for pretty much anything.

3:30am -- I got on MSN and no one on my list was online.

I couldn't find anything better to do except browsing the web randomly until I clicked into my little cousin's xanga and something caught my eyes. Though my little cousin is only 18, his writing style is fairly unique and his passages are always interesting to read. When I was in HK, he and I had shared some pretty intellectual discussions and as usual, I enjoyed as much teasing him.

I am never someone who believes too much in horoscope or fortune telling readings. While my little cousin and I are both Aquarius, he wrote (or pasted from some websites) a passage about Aquarius, which I think is very interesting and somewhat accurate. He resembled Aquarius as carbonated water:

Carbonated water, which is colorless and tasteless, can make a perfect match with anything from alcohol to juice, to honey, to milk. Yet it's also because of its colorless and tasteless nature, it makes it quite difficult for others to see and understand what exactly is going on inside it.

Aquarius always tend to act cool and unemotional in front of the others but they are actually very friendly and warm to the ones close to them.

Sometimes you really don't know how you're as a person until you read something and rings your bell. I totally agree with the above description of Aquarius -- Well, it may not apply to every Aquarius, but I find it quite true for myself. Carbonated water is a perfect description because I never enjoy attention among a large group of people but I do like others to recognize my existence. I guess the key word here is "tend." I was being described as "stuck up" or "too cool" by at least 5 people in the past and to tell the truth, I was quite unhappy after hearing these words. I admit that sometimes I did try to "pretend" to be cool but I was never "intended" to act cool. Well, but maybe in others' eyes, there's really not a difference between "pretend and intend." V_V ...

However, it's true that once my door is opened, I can be very loving, caring and warm. I have always wanted to explain to these people that I am not like the way they have perceived me, but I just don't know how to convince them so I usually end up not saying a word. Maybe before I complain others of not understanding me, I should reconsider my own attitude towards others.

Almost 5am and I should try to sleep ... Start to count some sheep ZZzzZZZzzzz ....

Toys Search

2007-12-14T01:33:00.000-08:00

This is the 2nd time I have participated in the Family Giving Tree holiday program. I went around a few Christmas trees in the company and here are the wishes of the 2 lucky kids I picked:

A 4 year old boy who wants "anything with the sharks on it."
A 10 year old girl who wants "a jump rope and other outdoor play items."

I guess it's not only a holiday donation on my part because I enjoy very much looking at toys. I probably get as excited as some kids when I walk down each isle in Toys R Us. You just get to admit that some of the toys nowadays are pretty cool and fun to play with.

I did put in quite an amount of effort to get the above gifts. I don't have a habit to give Christmas gifts to random friends. So either I just do not give someone anything, or once I decide to get someone something, I ensure I am delivering something specifically for this person but not some useless junk. It's not that much about the cost of the gift (as I had only spent about 20 dollars on each of it), I guess it's more about the thoughtfulness and how much one cares.

When I picked the wish card, I thought searching something with sharks must be easy, but once you were asked to look for one particular item with sharks on it and as well be suitable for a 4 year old, it's a bit challenging. I mean, I didn't want to get a shark stuff animal or a boring shark toy without much to play around. After visiting a few stores, I was delighted to find this Hot Wheels toy set with a shark park in Toys R Us. I believe the shark would make different noises once the car passes through its mouth. Good enough for a 4 year old to have fun ...

Next, I needed to get a jump rope but Toys R Us didn't carry jump rope during the winter season. Then, I went to the outdoor sport section but most of the stuff were more designed for guys to play with -- such as baseball set, soccer set, water guns, etc. My next destination was Target. I found a jump rope and I was debating if I should get a kid softball set or a badminton set or an outdoor rocket shooting game set. I ended up picking the rocket shooting thing because it's a little more unique and it seemed to be more fun to play with ... (well, at least to me)

Alritie, Mission completed!

One Side Effect

2007-12-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

After being on Tylenol for the past few days, I have decided to drop it this morning as I think I'm feeling a lot better. I won't comment on whether the flu shot is working because I think I might not need to be on any medication if I'm not coming into work. When I'm at work, I just need the medicine to take care some of the symptoms so I can concentrate and get the work done correctly.

I think it's also during this time of the year that I was lastly on serial doses of Tylenol. Here's how it happened -- I felt a bit sick on the day that I would take off for a snowboarding trip, so I was very hesitated to go as I just didn't have the energy for any outdoor activities but I decided I should because if I backed out a few hours before the trip, I would screw up the hotel room arrangement. Well, more likely, I guess I am just someone who likes to keep my words. Smart enough, I had packed some Tylenol, Vitamin C fluids and cough drops with me. Before we took off, I started dosing myself with Tylenol and drinking lots of fluids to hope that my body would take care of itself and woke up freshly the next day for snowboarding. It didn't happen ... I woke up feeling worse. Since everyone was going up to the mountain, I just tagged along. Those 2 days in the mountain had become one of the most unforgettable moments in my life -- While I was dosing myself with Tylenol every 4 hours, I did manage to go down the hills a few times. What came worse was after I got back to the hotel, my body was burning with a fever and I wasn't even able to get up from bed. Well, I pretty much spent the next few days after the trip in bed with a temperature of 102 degree Celsius. And, when everyone else was celebrating for New Year's eve, I was lying in my bed, fighting against the flu. Well, I didn't know how many pills of Tylenol I had swallowed and obviously I hadn't received any flu shot during this time ...

Maybe having flu shots are helpful ... But one advantage in getting sick has to be losing weights -- You would always be surprised of how many pounds you can shed off without much hard work ... (>J<) ...

Stepped on the scale this morning and I'm graceful with the Tylenol "side effects."

The Gray Zone

2007-12-10T01:15:00.000-08:00

In my old world, there just used to be black or white, yes or no, true or false. There was never any overlap region. Numerous people had consistently advise me that I shouldn't take things in such an extreme way because in between black and white, there's something called GRAY; in between yes and no, there's something called MAYBE; and in between true and false, there's something called COMPROMISE. However, I had refused to listen because I believe that's my theory of life and I should just stick with it. Or simply speaking, I was just stubborn as hell.

Until one incident that happened earlier during the year and I had decided to change myself. I had made a mistake that I could hardly forgive myself. To tell the truth, I had absolute no intention to hurt anyone. However, sometimes, things could just get out of control. It was then I started to realize the importance of the gray-ish area -- The compromising zone -- If I was able to step one foot into the gray area, things could very well be different. And at times, it's not the outcome that matters, it's whether how one handles the situation. It seems that I always have to fall before learning a new lesson. I always believe that growing with mistakes is totally acceptable, though I do try to avoid making the same mistake twice.

Lately, I had successfully given myself and others more room by stepping into the gray region and did something which I would absolutely refuse to do in the past. Due to my ego, I admitted I was quite hesitated but I had forced myself to do it because I didn't want to be the one to have regrets in the future. Surprisingly, I am fairly happy to do what I have decided to, though still have a little doubts if the right approach has been taken. I guess it's more of a break through for myself that I haven't taken things as extreme as before and more importantly, I think I have done what I feel I should have done.

I just wish I have opened my ears and listened to the advice from others early enough to not fall before I learn. But when one can't change the past, one can only learn from mistakes and look forward to a better future. Uhmm, so I think I can conclude that I have become a better person than before ... ^.^

Headache, sore throat, body ache ... will my flu shot be kicking in?!

Follow the Trail

2007-12-01T00:02:00.000-08:00

I went to a conference today and one of the presenters began his presentation by quoting a line by Ralph Waldo Emerson --

"Do not go where the path may lead;
Go instead where there's no path and leave a trail."

For some reasons, this line is stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I totally understand how this quotation applies to a biopharmaceutical company when it comes to research for a new drug candidate. Uhmm, but I don't completely see how it can apply to an individual ...

Well, I decide to note it in my blog because I think it's a pretty well written quote, though I don't think I have gotten what it truly means.

Earlier during my shower, I was thinking about it so hard that I inadvertently used my shower gel as a shampoo and a shampoo as a shower gel. *Uhmm* ... didn't notice that until I was done "showering" and I had to re-shower once again with the appropriate cleansing solutions ... Taken me twice as long in the shower. Sometimes, I have to admit that I am quite speechless in my own stupid acts ...

My first Flu Shot

2007-11-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

Today, I had my first flu shot in my life.

Well, flu shot has been something I intended to avoid yearly because I believe I have always been a healthy person and my immune system is strong enough to fight off any diseases. This afternoon, my boss went around and tried to grab everyone to get the shot with him and when he got to my office, he had already successfully recruited a group of people. Well, when I saw the crowd, I thought: Seems kinda fun … so I might as well just tag along and the flu shot is free anyways and can really do no single harm to me ...

So I went. While I was standing in line, I started getting quite nervous ... for whatever reason. All I had in mind was the way the rats were euthanized under my numerous syringe pokes in the past years. Note: Don't ever think I am a person with a cold heart ... I had the same problem as most of you out there with killing living animals, but when it was part of your job responsibilities and after you had done it 100 times, it could become a fairly routine task. Normally, I really didn’t care too much in the size of needle used. Basically, my rule was – which ever came in handy. The ones that got poked with the larger gauge needle were just unlucky but I always thought it’s just a quick poke, how painful could that be. Well, I guess it’s until the moment that I had taken the place of the poor rat, I started to feel what they’re going through.

While I was thinking if I should back out and went back to my office, the nurse called me … but I was too concentrate in thinking of an excuse to chicken out, so I didn’t notice that until a male nurse came all the way from his station to where I was standing in line to invite me to get the shot. I followed him and sat down. After I sat down, I tried to calm myself down as much as I could but these rat-needle-poking scenes just wouldn’t leave from my head.

The nurse asked, “Are you nervous?”
I replied, “Yes, quite.”
He laughed and he tried to talk to me … I know he just wanted to distract my attention.

Then, he rolled up my sleeves and wiped my skin with some cold ethanol swab. I couldn’t bear to look at how it’s done.

Maybe 20 seconds later, he asked, “Does it hurt?”
I said, “NO …”
He laughed and said, “Isn’t it easy? It’s almost done!”

It’s then I looked over my shoulder and realized that he’s already in the process of doing the injection so part of the needle was inside my skin.

I thought, “Amazing … Very skillfully done ...” All of a sudden, I didn't feel as bad of poking those rats in the lab.

Okay, so here’s my first flu shot experience. I assume I’m all protected from the flu viruses this year. To test if this works, I decide I should stay close to sick people and see if this shot is working in my body. If not, I may as well save myself a poke next year …

Help me to FLY

2007-11-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

Anyone knows where I can find more affordable air ticket to fly to Hong Kong during Xmas and New Years? I am able to get a deal of 2200 USD for flying UA.

Email, MSN, or Facebook me. Thanks!

AQUARIUS - Does It In The Water

2007-11-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

Someone sent the following to me through Fun Wall postings on Facebook:
AQUARIUS - Does It In The Water
Trustworthy. Attractive. Great kisser. One of a kind, loves being in long-term relationships. Can be clumsy at times but tries hard. Will take on any project. Proud of themselves in whatever they do. Messy, and unorganized. Procrastinators. Great lovers, when they're not sleeping. Extreme thinkers. Loves their pets usually more then their family. Can be VERY irritating to others when they try to explain or tell a story. Unpredictable. Will exceed your expectations. Not a Fighter, But will Knock your lights out.

I wouldn't comment on whether any of them applies to a typical Aquarius, but I believe no Aquarius would argue that some of the listed descriptions are quite true, such as Trustworthy and Attractive ... hahaha ... but I'm not too sure about Messy and Irritating ... =_=|||

Happy Together

2007-11-25T02:42:00.000-08:00

Big Fat Sheep is missing KingKow and ZZ ...
~~ Kiss Kiss ~~
Always sleeping next to me on my bed ... keeping me WaRm ...
~~Hope to C ya soon~~ >3<

Lesson of the Month

2007-11-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

Collecting mails and opening them one after another have always been listed on my least favorite To-Do list. My mailbox is always filled with advertising notes, pizza coupons, credit card applications, or real estate post cards. Among those, how many of them actually have something to do with me?! Maybe less than one-third. While environmental conservation has always been a topic to discuss during various political forums, why am I still receiving all these useless junks in my mailbox daily?

So when I was digging through my piles of mails earlier, I found a billing statement from my long distance telephone subscriber. OH LALA, I couldn't believe how expensive my last month phone bill was! It's true that I had spent a significant amount of time on the phone with a number of friends from HK in this past month, but they called about half of the time … so I wouldn't expect to see such a humongous amount listed on my phone bill. When I was reading the bill more closely, I realized where it had gone wrong. It's this one particular call I made to the UK , calling the ibook Internet Phone of my friend's. I was charged 1 USD per minute and I was on the phone for 93 minutes solely from this particular call.

I guess charges are different when you're calling a UK mobile #, landline, or the ibook Internet Phone (whatever this is …).

One good, but expensive, lesson to learn … V_V … Oh well, to make up for this, I guess I really should cut back on my regular expenses.

I'm ON FIRE

2007-11-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

I’m on FIRE …

Since a smog check is required before the DMV will renew my registration, I attempted to get it done in the past hour. I thought it shouldn't be too hard to locate a place that offers a smog service, so I decided to just get into my car and drive around and I should see random places where I could get a smog check. And here’s what happened:

1st stop – Shell Gas Station – No longer in business.
2nd stop – Another Shell Gas Station – No longer in business
3rd stop – Chevron Gas Station – Smog guy is out to lunch and won’t come back until 1:30pm.
4th stop – Acro Gas Station – Smog guy won’t come back until Wed.
5th stop – Vallero Gas Station – Smog guy is not in and will be back tomorrow.

What the heck is going on with all the smog people?! Protesting on a strike?! Or getting too excited for the Turkey day?! It’s been almost an hour after I wandered around in my car and I couldn’t land myself in a place where I could simply get a smog check?! I had already put on an additional 10 miles in my car for nothing … so I decided to give up and go back to work …

One of the few times I tried to get things done before the deadline comes too close, but it doesn’t seem to work very well. Oh well, I can’t be bothered ... Things would get done when they need to get done.

An Orange A Day

2007-11-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

My most frequently consumed, but least favorite, fruit is ORANGE. I guess ever since I was able to eat solid food, my mom had started feeding me an orange a day. It's a habit of herself as well because she believes that oranges carry the necessary fibers and vitamin C (etc.) for a healthy body. Until nowadays, my mom would still un-skin an orange, cut it into bite size, put it in a container with a toothpick for me. However, no matter how tasty an orange is, after eating it almost daily for 20+ years, it can become a little tiring.

When I got home tonight, I realized that the fruit basket on the kitchen counter was full of oranges. Then I recalled the email my dad had forwarded me about how fruit was supposed to be consumed with an empty stomach in order to capture the most nutritions. OK, let's give it a try.

I picked up a knife and cut opened one ... oops, it's rotten inside, so I threw this one away.

Then I tried another one and this one looked fine, though not too attractive. I started eating it and it somewhat tasted a little different than what an orange used to taste. Well, but I couldn't care much and I finished the whole thing. Around half an hour later, I started feeling weird so I decided to lay on my bed to watch some TVs.

All of a sudden, I felt something extremely acidic flushed from my stomach to my esophagus, through my throat and to my mouth within a second. I couldn't react fast enough to run to the bathroom, so I swallowed it down @.@ ... Gross!? Then I rushed as quickly as I could to the bathroom and I threw up ... Not too serious, but with this mixture of stomach acid + the original acidity in the orange washing up and down my throat a few times could be quite unpleasant and painful.

What are the lessons to learn here?

Never eat an orange with an empty stomach.
Never consume an orange if it tastes weird.
Never swallow your puke -- especially puke contains oranges.
Never trust what you read from the forwarded email you receive.

Before this could happen again, I decided to throw this full batch of oranges into the trash can.

If you ever think the sour candies are sour, this is 200% worse!

A Whole New World

2007-11-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

If things don't seem to work the way you want or you're just lost of directions, it maybe a good idea to step a step backward, take a break, and when you return, you may find a more beautiful world waiting right in front of you. Most of the time, things around us have never changed. What has changed is our way of perceiving things. Sometimes, it's really a matter of how much you treasure of what you already have. When you lose it, you realize how important or how lucky you're to have it or to be in it.

I should learn to treasure of what I have around me.

A post without a Title

2007-11-06T19:40:00.001-08:00

還記得那一天　在那一天　初次上學堂
從前渡每分鐘　身邊也有　父母在旁
終於天與地　需要獨自往　兩手必需放
但我不想放　邊哭泣邊回望 ..........

然後到這一天　在這一天　走出世界
早告別學堂　人大了我應當　一早慣了　沒有護航
偏偏很幼稚　一有壞狀況　就會想歸去
父母親的堡壘　不管麻煩事幹 ..........

~~ Miss U v. Much ~~