.: archives :.
 
 
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

It's Innerspark's two year anniversary and rather than getting her boyfriend the usual techie gift that most guys like and that she always gets him on special occasions, she opted to give him something memorable. So she had this photomosaic made from over 200 pictures of their pictures together, with the final big image being a picture that they took at a recent party. How amazing is that? And to think, she was worried that he wouldn't like it. Are you freaking kidding me? What kind of guy wouldn't be floored and left speechless by such a gift? I'm officially jealous! Some guys definitely have all the luck don't they?

I was talking with Hombre today and he recounted about his day off yesterday and how he met this girl while shopping at Old Navy. She was one of the workers there and she ended talking to him for like twenty minutes. Before he left, she even gave him a friends and family discount card which she made sure to write her name on. Now is it me or was that girl totally up in his grill? The guy's so dense I tell you. How often do you find a girl, whom you find cute by the way, and she just flats out gives you her information? Dang guy didn't even get her number or e-mail or anything. Pity. On a good note, I asked him what that girl he sent the flowers to last week thought of them. His words, which were directly hers: that's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. Good! I'm glad I managed to convince him to go that route rather than the gift certificate! Now if only I could convince him to go back to Old Navy and continue his conversation with that girl.

Playa was complaining to me today that he's no longer able to save three thousand per month. That makes me sick. Did you know that half of the workers in this country don't have one thousand saved in their savings account, and a whopping ninety percent don't have ten thousand in their savings, and yet he's here complaining that he can't save three a month? I'm stressing out here, and he has the nerve to complain like that to me? Sickening.

I saw a trailer for P. S. I Love You. That's a book that I've had on my to-read list for quite some time, but just haven't gotten around to picking up yet. I know what the premise is about, and I have to admit, I could totally see myself doing the same thing if I ever I knew I had to say goodbye to my love. I really have to wonder though if I still have the strength and resolve to love so like that. I mean up until now, I've gone into every potential relationship with everything I have. I've worn my heart on my sleeve and lowered all my defenses. And in the end, all I've managed to do is get my heart severely scarred. How do I approach it now? Do I even believe in such innocent and powerful love anymore? Magical and fairy tale, or mere fiction?

Maybe I'm cynical and maybe I'm bitter, but after watching Heroes last night, I pointed out to Hombre that every single main character that's a guy who's died has died as a direct result of his girl and her selfish actions. It's because of the fact that the guy cares so much and that he wants to protect her that ultimately puts him in harm's way. And unfortunately, she doesn't appreciate him until he's gone. Three instances already this season alone. Quite sad and tragic isn't it?
Monday, November 26, 2007

Thanksgiving came and went, and I hope all you out there had a pleasant holiday weekend. This was the fourth year that I've deep fried a turkey and it's gotten to the point where my family is totally expecting it and looking forward to it. Talk about pressure! When it was all ready and I was placing it on the table, my little cousin was standing there, eyeing it and literally drooling. "I've been waiting for this all day" she said, a happy glimmer in her eye! Haha, nice to know I can make her day.

Before eating, the family gathered in the living room in a huge circle, holding hands, and a few of us gave thanks for those things in our lives that are most dear. Money and success mean nothing without those loved ones to share it all with after all.

Then it was chow time. I stood there doing the honors, carving pieces for everyone as they moved through the buffet line. Once again, the turkey disappeared before you know it. Of course I had my usual drumstick saved on the side. It is tradition after all.

As everyone was eating, I went around snapping pictures. Here's one of nieces sitting by herself eating a piece of cheesecake that was bigger than her hand. It was quite adorable!

I made sure to let everyone know that Christmas this year is going to be held at my house, much to the enjoyment of my younger cousins. I hope I know what I got myself into! Haha. That only leaves me a little under a month to finish my project in time to show everyone. More pressure. I don't know why I do it.

I slept in on Friday, partly because I didn't get to sleep until really late that night, but also because I didn't feel the need to go shopping. To be honest, I have pretty much everything I want. Well, everything affordable at least. There's still the HDTV, the reference quality sound system, the consoles, the furniture, the aquarium, and the endless upgrades to the house, but all of that is in due time. At least until I have the proper funds. And I really need to save for this huge trip next year, especially after the property tax wiped me out.


So Friday night was Hombre's 30th birthday party. We all met at Playa's house and ate and just relaxed. I picked up a Coldstone cake which was absolutely delicious and I also gave Hombre a gift card to use on his electronic purchases. Afterwards, everyone just gathered around in the living room playing Wii. At first we played Wii Sports, but by the end of the night, we had everyone singing karaoke songs on Boogie, which was pretty funny. The range in talent ranged from pretty good to a horribly monotone rap =)

Playa mentioned to me that he ran into Thu and that she had lost weight and was looking pretty fine. I told him he was a dork! I always said she looked good, quite possibly one of the prettiest girls I know, and he was the one who always thought she was FP. Beauty is so subjective, and no more so than with that guy.

After finding out Hombre got a TV for his birthday, Playa also asked me why I don't go ahead and buy my 70" TV. I told him that I can't afford it yet. His response was "just use your credit card and credit it." I called him a dork again. What the heck? If I credit five grand, I still owe five grand! It's not like it just disappears! I swear, that guy lives in his own little dream world and doesn't realize how the rest of us live.

All and all, it was a fun party even though Hombre didn't get drunk like we all hoped he would. Shame. Drunk Hombre is so much fun, especially when he starts hitting on everyone. Before the night ended he reminded everyone that I'm next to turn 30. Blah, I don't want a party. I think I need to go into hibernating in February. Or better yet, maybe I'll take a weekend getaway that weekend so no one can find me =)

I spent Saturday just doing housework and watching football. I found myself in the position of rooting for UCLA, just so that Oregon would lose and USC would have a shot at an unprecedented sixth straight Pac-10 championship and Rose Bowl berth. My aunt laughed at me, and compared me to joke where a fat lady who, when she found out she couldn't be granted a thin figure, wished for her friends to be fat. You just want everyone to lose so USC can move up. Haha, so true. My cousin who was here asked me why I like USC so much. Ah, there's a long story waiting to happen.

On Sunday, I had lunch with Z and Big Dogg before going to my parents to pick them up for Corteo. Kai boy was at their place and boy that kid is getting really cute. Time sure flies, he's four months already. Z, Big Dogg, and I all realized we're getting older because as we were removing people from our Christmas list due to being too old, we found new additions in the baby end. The list actually grew!

Corteo was pretty cool. Not my favorite out of all the ones I've seen, but still good. We had almost front row seats and had a great view of everything. My sister and my parents enjoyed everything, which was the whole point in the first place.

So today was back at work. Throughout the day, Vi kept sending me text messages, thinking I was her other friend. I kept telling her that she had the wrong Vu, but it didn't hit her until almost night. "Aw shit, haha". Her reaction was priceless. And the best thing that happened to me today? I got an e-mail from Linda, which means I didn't lose touch with her. I thought she had disappeared when I tried e-mailing her a Thanksgiving greeting and it got rejected, but luckily I had her school address still and she responded. Looks like she only cancelled her main address. Now that I think about it, I really need to get her AIM or phone number or something in case this happens again.

Four more weeks. I can't wait until the winter break. Hmm, I really need to start my shopping now don't I?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
I dreamt of Thuy last night. Funny how the more things change the more they really stay the same.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
I had a dream about my dad last night. Well, it wasn't actually him, but in my dream, I came across a bunch of old pictures of me when I was a baby. These were black and white pictures, and I swear I couldn't have been older than 6 month, but there was my dad as well, smiling away at the camera. A younger version of himself, but it was him. Kind of strange, don't you think? I wonder if there's any significance.
Monday, November 19, 2007
I've been pretty tired with work lately. And besides regular work, I've been doing a couple of side projects on during my nights. One's for a communications startup, and the other is for a medical imaging company. Both up and coming, so no money yet, but I'm hoping they pay off into something soon. God knows I can use the extra income, especially with all my bills and the upcoming slew of holiday gifts.

I was talking to Hombre today on IM and he asked me out of the blue what's a good gift that you can send through e-mail. I was intrigued and so I prodded a little further, and it turns out that this girl he's known for a while has recently broke up with her boyfriend and was extremely distraught. So it was his intention of sending her a gift certificate through e-mail to try and bring a smile to her face. I don't know if it's just me, but I told him not to do that, because it was tacky. It basically spoke hey, you're sad so here's some money. Go buy something and feel better. I told him that if he really wanted to make her smile, she should just put the effort and find out her address and then send some flowers or something like that.

Was that correct of me? I mean am I being overly stereotypical there in thinking that girl would appreciate impromptu flowers to brighten up her day? For all I know, she really would prefer the gift certificate. Anyway, I told him that was my opinion, and left it up to him to decide. I think he's still pondering it at the moment.

While I was helping him look at bouquets online, I was reminded of the time I sent Thuy flowers for no reason, just to say hi and to let her know that I was thinking of her as she was away on the east coast. You know, I realize that I never even found out if she received them or not. If not, what happened? And if she did, did she like them and what did she do with them? We never talked about it much. Hmm. Oh well.

Wow, that was almost two years ago. Time sure is fleeting isn't it? She and I, we seemed so close back then.

Thursday, November 15, 2007
Man I really hate UCI. You know what happened? After a long day at work today, I leave to find a parking ticket on my car dash. How stupid are these guys? I mean I'm paying close to $70 a month for the privilege of working there, you think the least they could do is examine more carefully the fact that I have a permanently glued parking sticker attached to my window! No wonder they don't bother hiring security to patrol the lots and prevent break-ins. The guys that they hire to work the parking lots are idiots who are so antsy to give out tickets that can't even correctly identify a permit if it stared them in the face. So now I have to waste my time tomorrow and show them that they're imbeciles and get my ticket rescinded. What a waste of time. Thank god it's Friday.

Hmm, wonder what I should do tomorrow night. I feel like hitting Disney for some reason. I think all this talk about it lately has me yurning to go.

You know, I've been meaning to write this down before I forgot. Hombre and I were talking about his DD situation and I came up with a new term. She's so stupid in the fact that she knows that he likes her, and on her part, she likes him too. But she's so worried about her past and her drama and so she's running scared, afraid to let her guard down. Whatever the case, she's passing up a great opportunity, one that might never come again in life, despite the fact that she likes him in return too. We now officially call that the Dodo, in honor of her. Gee, doesn't that sound so familiar? How many other dodo's are there out there? Hahah.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Whoa, really pretty girls huh? See the one on the left? She was my pick. Great hair, a radiant smile, what a beautiful dress too. I love blue ao dai's. (White ones too). I can't believe she didn't win! Robbed. Rigged. Whatever. Anyway this was taken by M as we watched the Miss Vietnam USA Pageant at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas this past weekend. To be honest, we were both feeling quite weak as a result of the same food poisoning prior to leaving, but since we already had our tickets booked and our reservations set, we went ahead and made the trip anyway. And knowing how we like to relax, it was bound to be a slow paced weekend anyway, which is always cool. In the end, things worked out pretty well actually. Definitely a memorable trip!

You know, although I enjoyed watching the show, I really do need to bag on the audience a bit. I mean these people were just plain rude. I hate to dogg my own race, but I've seen this at so many loud mouthed Asian gatherings that it's just shameful.

There was this one lady who was extremely obnoxious when she found out her seats weren't available and that she had been given different seats. She was all screaming to the usher, "we pay extra for those seats!" Come on lady, who the heck do you think you're kidding? I saw your seat section. Those were the cheapest seats in the house, the lowest price possible, and they upgraded your seat because the event didn't sell out. Why the fuss? If I were the usher, I would have just put her in the back corner where her original seats were. In the end, she demanded even better seats! Get real. Last I saw of her, she was moving her family into a better section where she clearly didn't belong, just sitting down because evidently it was now first come first serve for her.

I laugh at how she was all dressed up in her finest gear too, as if that was somehow supposed to impress everyone. Lady, your tone and your actions speak much louder to me about your character than any outfit could. No class at all.

Then there was the constant fact that no one could remain in their seat for longer than 10 minutes at a time. Up and down, up and down. The hall seemed like it was packed with ants. People seemed more interested in going and getting drinks and frolicking in the lobby than the actual show itself. Even M said that it seemed like there was a huge party out there. What happened to showing respect to the performers and singers? Isn't that what intermission is for? I think I've seen kindergarten kids stay more focused than some of these people.

But that was all nothing compared to what the audience did to some of the contestants. I actually heard gasps and ugh's when some of the girls were introduced! Completely uncalled for and quite sad and it made me feel really bad. I'd hate to think what some of those girls must be feeling, or their families and loved ones that have to hear such comments. There was this guy next to us that didn't hesitate to voice his opinions aloud to the entire row. It's fine to voice your opinions and all, but I didn't know whether to find his insults hilarious or insulting.

Oh well, you can't change the world and you can't change the way people are. Who am I to judge right? I'm far from perfect too. At the end of the day, you just have to live by your own code of conduct and what you feel is right.