LES-MIGNONS

China Part... Last Part! =D

2009-09-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hellooo... *echoes* where did everybody go? I have been a little busy with school so haven't gotten a chance to blog.. ok well more lazy than busy. But I finally forced myself to finish blogging about my semi-adventures in China, should finish what you started right? You guys, post something so I know you're still alive yeah? =D

This was in the same park as the picture of the statues playing chess from my last post. The poor horse.. it looks so tired. =(

Same park, people can ride a helicopter that takes off and lands in the lake. I didn't go on it but it did look kind of fun.

Went to this place afterwards or another day, the days are just starting to blend together now! =P Anyways this is an amusement park, lots of pretty flowers and they have some roller coaster type rides but not a lot. It's still pretty big though, we sat on these little carts that drove us around the park. Yeah we're a lazy bunch hehe.

Hehe, I saw another amusing English sentence on the sign in front of the park. It says "...when you march into the amusement park, you seem to enter "DisneyLand" and you can enjoy the IRRITATION and happiness to the utmost!" I really shouldn't poke fun of them because they're trying their best and I make plenty of ridiculous errors in Chinese, but a little comic relief now and then is good.

Singaporean Garden, very nice Sphinx fountain. =)

Ferris wheel and random rides

I was all the way across the lake when I saw and took this picture so I didn't see the details of how this thing worked. But people probably just try to walk/cling cross without falling into the water. I just realized that I didn't get to try any of these games here, how sad.. =P

Haha this was pretty entertaining to watch. It's better if you click the picture, you can see it more clearly. It's basically a water gun fight with umbrellas on a boat. =P Doesn't that seem fun?? The poor boat in the front left don't even have any shields, heh.

Now it's time to go home.. we left from the Beijing airport and these people were very enthusiastic about us leaving. JK, we were the first flight for something, I'm not quite sure. Maybe J, you can read what that says on the banner.

And to end, here is a picture of a nice lump of pollution in Beijing. =P

I don't think I'll be going anywhere for a while so I'll just have to make my life interesting at home. Wo xiang ni men! ^^

China Part 3!

2009-08-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! I have more pictures to show. =) Are you guys wondering how many more posts you have to see of China? =P Don't worry, after this one, there should only be one more part. After that, I have no more stories to tell because nothing too interesting is going on with my life.. haha as I wrote that last sentence, a huge spider just appeared on the wall in front of me. Yeah, normally in the apartment, I help you guys kill the spiders but this one was really big and its limbs were really thick.. good thing my brother is here, hehe.

As we were walking along the beach, we saw people modeling clothes! They're wearing matching clothes, aren't they cute?

And then we saw people shooting a scene. That lady wearing red and reading the script is a mainland actress I think. I don't know who she is though. Also, we found out that they were shooting a scene for a movie/drama called "Wrong Love".. or something similar, I might be translating it wrong.

Here was the whole scene. I was afraid they would yell at me so I didn't take that many pictures. =P But basically the scene was supposed to be the car with the flower on top driving by and then another actress walking past on the street holding a baby. The car would stop and then a man comes out and the lady holding the baby turns around. The lady in red was inside the car with the male actor. I think they were supposed to be on their way to getting married. You can't really see her in this picture but the lady holding the baby is behind the girl wearing blue. It was funny because the first shot they did, the poor baby was crying hysterically and kept yelling mommy. They had to reshoot the scene but the baby was still crying.. or maybe that was part of the scene...

Sunset and light rays =)

Tsingtao Beer haha

Qingdao Beer Street. We had dinner on this street and yeah people really go crazy with the drinking. The table next to us got really drunk, good thing no one threw up.. or at least not when we were eating.

We climbed up Mt. Taishan or we actually we rode a gondola lift up to the top but there was still a lot of uphill climbs, like these stairs. Jan steps are nothing compared to these right? =P

Top of the mountain

On top there were stores and restaurants that are complete tourist traps. We fell for it though. =/

5-star hotel in Shandong, China. This place was awesome, free fruit delivered to your room and free computer and internet access in the room! Funny though, on their keycard holder, they spelled hotel wrong. =P

Outside view from hotel room

Night life, it doesn't look like it in this picture but there were a lot of people here. On the bottom is the entrance to the mall and a McDonald's is right next to it.

mMm yummy desserts =) If I remember correctly, that's mochi and some taro thing.

This was at a park. The sculptures are playing chess with one another. =)

That's all for now! Read my captions that I spent so long writing, don't just look at the pictures! =P J/K my pictures aren't that interesting so maybe the story behind them will make it better.
Have a good week! ^^

XiaoYe and Perseids Meteor Shower

2009-08-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

So after I came home from swimming at around 8:30ish, a high school friend and I were planning on going out for dinner..except my mom had already made dinner for me so we scrapped the dinner and decided to go Meteor Shower watching. The meteors were going to appear to be shooting from the constellation Perseus. I was craving food still at 10pm so my dad decided he would take us out to eat Xiao1ye4 or basically eating at night or nate-light snack. We know this Chinese restaurant in a court of Chinese restaurants in Milpitas that open late till about 2-3am. Last summer my family used to always go to this one called China Palace Restaurant.

They always give out complimentary Boba. I think that's why I like that place, but the food is really good too, though very oily...it's Chinese food, it's going to be oily.

After getting some grub, we were off to find a place to watch the Meteor Shower. We went to this one park, but after a couple minutes my dad said it was too dangerous to stay there...so we headed back home and went to the San Antonio Park a park with lots of trails. It was closed, but there were many people outside in a turnaround watching the stars as well. The meteors shot by so quickly, faint white streaks shooting fractions of a second. We stayed there for about a half hour. I spotted about 8 or 9 meteors. My mom said it was already 1am...but it couldn't have been, it turns out it was actually 12:03 when I checked the my cell...our car clock is still ahead by an hour.(-_-) Wah, my dad says I have to swim for 3 hours tomorrow because I at the xiaoye... double(-_-)

China Part 2!

2009-08-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

In China part 2, I'm going to write about some of my travels in northern China. If I remember correctly, we flew from Huadu -> QingDao -> Jinan -> Taishan -> Shenyang -> Beijing's airport -> Huadu. We didn't fly everywhere, some places we drove there but I don't really remember which places we drove to. Anyways, the weather in Qingdao and Jinan was really nice! It wasn't humid at all, it was almost like Ca weather. The other cities were pretty hot though =/ and people did not speak cantonese at all so good thing I didn't really need to talk to anyone. Although, I think just by listening and trying to understand, my mandarin improved slightly.
Oh and yes Qingdao is home to the famous TsingTao beer, as you will see in my pictures (next time).

Here's a view outside our hotel, soo pretty right? =D This actually wasn't our hotel room, it's a really super high class expensive room with a wonderful view of Qingdao. Our room was a few floors below this one where we couldn't see past the huge wall of that building. It's a bit of a long story to explain how we got to see this room so I won't go into it, hehe.

It's LeeHom! Wahaha water! =P J, didn't you see a lot of these in Beijing?

Ok this place was at a water pump factory. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside where the employees were working so I took a picture of them eating, haha. Well, I did take a picture of the security room with all the screens that show what the security cameras pick up but shhh, I didn't read the sign until I took the picture. =P We got a tour around this place and got to see their engineers build parts of a water pump. It's really interesting how they train their employees. They showed a video of the training and it's seriously like bootcamp where they learn how to march and everything. But instead of training them for war, they're being disciplined to provide excellent customer service and to be excellent engineers etc. They're all in uniforms and they walk in a single file line to come to work and leave work, it's crazy! And they have motivational quotes in large signs everywhere. Some of them were really corny so it was kind of funny.

Then we went to the beach. Their beach has merry-go-rounds and water bumper cars!

and a gym!

It started raining so we went to sea world.

Polar bears! My pictures here aren't too great because of the lighting and because bears/fish/animals just move too fast for my camera. I took a lot of pictures but they were mostly blurry. There were all kinds of underwater creatures here, sharks, dolphins, turtles, etc.

Penguins! That was nice of them to pose for me.

Hehe, apparently these eskimos are really hot =P These people just basically sit around, chat and pretend to live in this cabin and pose for people who want to take pictures. I think randomly, one of the guys would do a handstand or something.

Swimming with the fishes! Or he was just cleaning the glass but still that's pretty cool, well except it might be hard cleaning the shark tank.

Little girl feeding dolphins =)

We saw a dolphin show! It was my first time ever and I really enjoyed it, even though the emcee spoke in mandarin so I couldn't really understand him. I have videos of the show but maybe I'll post it some other day. Dolphins are super playful! Before the show started, a girl trainer was trying to ride on the dolphin but then she kept falling off and the dolphin kept spraying water at her, so cute! I think dolphins have become one of my favorite animals now. =D

Stay tuned for next week's post on China part 3! =P
This week I have finals and projects due but nothing really new is going on with me. Oh and I told you guys I got a mac right? I'm really liking it, especially after my pc caught a virus somehow, but I'm still getting used to some functions. There are so many shortcut keys I need to learn...

Hong Kong!

2009-07-31T19:27:00.001-07:00

I like the new layout! =) So here are my pictures from hong kong, I actually didn't take that many. We were only here for 2 days and we didn't know anyone so we kind of just walked around the mall connected to our hotel (it was really big!) and walked around the streets in the extreme heat. We were going to go on a tour but then they didn't seem that interesting and they only had mandarin or english tours, so that would mean either I wouldn't understand what was going on or my parents wouldn't. It was fun though, we randomly stumbled upon different stores, restaurants and tourist spots.

It's sai yeung choi street (type of vegetable)! I thought it was cute. And they had a "sai sam" (washing clothes) street but I didn't take a picture of that.

Food in Hong Kong is pretty good. These veggies were yummie. =)

Here's a pier and a tourist spot we randomly walked to. It was actually a pretty far walk from our hotel but good exercise! My mom pointed out that the shorter building in front looks like a turtle. There's the head and the claws if you can see it.

A lot of people here! Where they're standing, I think it's called the Avenue of the Stars.

It's Bruce Lee. =P

Jackie Cheung's (the singer) handprint and signature! There were a whole bunch of famous stars and their handprints all along this path. I saw Jackie Chan's too but when I thought to actually take a picture, we were already way past it.. =/

We had a vegan meal! This looks and tastes like barbecued pork but it's not meat! And if I remember correctly, I think the other dish is potato leaves. It tasted pretty good but it's really expensive.

Double decker bus! We didn't ride one, we just rode in taxis a lot. It seems like the taxi drivers here are more talkative than those in China. Maybe it's because in China they have to concentrate on not running someone over or crashing into other cars. =P And one taxi driver told us that it's hard being a driver now because of the swine flu, not as many tourists.

Here's the mall that was connected to our hotel, it had american brands also. You can see at the very bottom they were displaying a lot of Transformers things. And they have one super long elevator that goes up several floors.

Random street in HK. They seem to have a lot of banks here.

Until next week! I have a lot of homework to do this weekend. =(

Layout change

2009-07-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hey girls! Good to see that everyone's posting and this blog isn't dead. I changed the layout for a more summery look, what do you think?

Here is some art by some family friends. Done by a 10 year old (tiger and sketch) and a 7 year old, not bad right?? What do you think Christine? haha

Went to Korean bbq with some friends...

One the way to Korean bbq!

I thought it was funny. It was taken randomly at some liquor store.

Some friends

Summer in socal is hot hot hot! I bet it's nice and cool up there in nor cal.. It's so hot where I am.. I think its cooler at UCLA though cause I visited recently to help Phil move stuff out and it was a lot cooler.. don't you miss UCLA?

Salsa Dancing and Pizza Problems

2009-07-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

So I've been going swimming everyday for about and hour and a half to two hours everyday because my parents want me to lose some flab. I really don't think it's working because I only lost three pounds within the first 5 days I got home basically because of diet change and nothing after that. So, my high school friend and her roommate were thinking of going Salsa Dancing. This was the 23rd at 7pm She called me over to practice some basic steps by watching a Youtube video. I felt like not wanting to do it just being lazy even though I still wanted to practice...if that makes any sense. We all headed over to the dance studio in Japan Town in San Jose for a two-hour class. We were the first ones there. There ended up being a lot of high school kids and some middle-aged men and women. I think I had a positive experience although I felt like I was catching on pretty slowly although one guy told me I was pretty good for my first time. Emily and Elsa had some trouble too. Emily and Elsa thought the high schoolers in general were a lot nicer...maybe because they were learning just like us?
At 9 we went to BJs to get dinner. We shared a medium Barbeque Chicken Pizza. Elsa's boyfriend joined in as well. Elsa thought that the dough was not really that well baked and then Emily thought so too after she had said that. I was having problems seeing that, I thought the taste of the dough was just fine. We all thought the dough looked cooked. In the end, the manager let us have a free pizza for the next time we go to BJs...man, I'd feel bad telling the waiter/cooks that the food is not done well, they could mess with your food.

Final Fantasy Distant Worlds Concert!!

2009-07-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so bad with updating...just been so lazy. Anyways, On the 18th my parents drove my high school friend and I to San Francisco to hang out for an afternoon before the Final Fantasy Concert, the Distant Worlds concert. So basically we window shopped around Union Square for a while from 3:30pm to 6:30. Then my dad and mom picked us up again to go to the concert. A lot of people were dressed up. I saw this one girl with a really pretty red dress...sorry I didn't take pictures..and another girl with a nice pale green blue dress with a really nice skirt. Man, I wish I had taken pictures of all these. Dang...yeah, people were in suits and stuff well at least a lot of people were wearing black. Some people were also carrying Chocobo stuffed animals. I saw another person with a Moogle hat that she probably made.
Here's a Chocobo stuffed animal...umm, normally it doesn't have the cape, but you get the idea, it's a bird that you can ride on to get around the worlds

Here's a Moogle-they're usually like mail carriers or some type of managment.

Right when we got in I headed straight for the crowd where the Symphony store was at...there were tons of people crowded around Distant Worlds merchandise. I ended up buying the three things that were being sold. A program (I didn't know what was inside until afterwards but basically it talks about each game and it's notable facts for the time and pictures--the program was made of really nice material and the pages inside were really glossy. ) I got a Distant Worlds T-shirt and the cd with the newly arranged versions of the songs being played. Although I think they switch up the songs being played at different venues.

We were sitting on the second Tier (on the top). I took a picture of the stage...only then they told me not to take pictures inside the Symphony hall. You can see the screen with Distant Worlds on it...kinda...sorry bad photograph

They started off the concert by playing the Victory theme from the final fantasy--the really short little...duh duh duh duh duh duh da duh. That was nice. especially because it was a little surprise because it definitely wasn't on the Playbill.
They played a lot of songs from Final Fantasy VIII which I haven't played...darn it. Basically they had clips from the games playing while the music played. Part of me wondered if it took away from the experience of just listening to the music. I thought they were going to play "One-Winged Angel" the final boss battle theme song from FFVII but it wasn't on the Playbill. It's basically one of my favorite songs by Nobuo Uematsu. But after they finished Arnie Roth the conductor said that had something special surprise for us and so they did play "One-Winged Angel" Woot!

OMG and Nobuo Uematsu himself was there too. He came out at the end and lots of people started taking pictures. He mimed conducting the orchestra, just in general his body language was really excited (because obviously he can't speak Engrish). I decided I had to take a picture of him even though we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. He's the one in the white. Arnie Roth, the conductor is on the left.

This was outside the hall where there was a nice view of this dome building.

I had a great time.Though I'll update this for now, there's so much more to update about...

China Part1!

2009-07-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hello girls! Here is part 1 of my China trip. I spent a little over 2 weeks in China so I have a ton of pictures. This part is in Huadu, China which is in GuangDong (near the bottom of China). This is where my dad grew up and my mom grew up about 10 mins away from here. But yeah we stayed in Huadu for most of our trip. It's a small city with lots of people and scary drivers, hot & humid weather with spurts of intense rain. Seriously, it would suddenly just rain violently for a couple minutes and then stop. I thought that only happened in movies and I always thought it was ridiculously fake when the actors had to run for cover and then after their talk, the rain would magically stop. Well, this proved me wrong, although I know they use hoses to imitate the effect of rain. =P
Anyways, I was glad that people here didn't just speak mandarin or else I would be mute everywhere I went. =P Even though my cantonese is not as good as I had hoped, I still got a lot of practice. And I was surprised that a lot of the people that work in stores, hotels, restaurants etc are in the age range of late teens to probably early 30s.
Heh, kind of a tangent but I want to tell the story of my hair cutting experience. On the first day we arrived to Huadu from Japan, my mom wanted to cut her hair because in a lot of the salons in China, they massage your head also as they're washing your hair, and plus it's pretty cheap. So then our whole family went to this salon that my Uncle recommended. The employees were separated into hair washers, amateur hair cutters and professional hair cutters. They were all guys except for one female hair washer. The guy that washed my hair was younger than me, which is a little weird because that's never happened before although maybe it's because I'm getting older. =P And he was introducing different shampoos or something and after his explanation, I didn't even realize that he was giving me an option to choose. I replied "Oh ok that's good." and he's like "..Which one do you want?" Me: o_O oops I wasn't really paying attention to what he said.. "uh it doesn't matter." Of course he gave me the more expensive one. And he asked me which hair stylist I prefer and I said "the cheapest one." =P He also asked me if my head itched in a way I've never heard before so again I felt a little dumb. He was kind of making of me but it's ok though, I learned a new word. ;)
My hair stylist though was pretty friendly. He was the same age as me and he's attending some hair styling school. We talked about games and I think he plays counterstrike, he said he plays "CS", so I assumed that's counterstrike. He doesn't understand english so he didn't understand the word "counterstrike." Also, funny thing is that my dad got his hair cut by him right before me, and the thing about my dad is that he likes to exaggerate and make up stories. So he told the hair stylist that we're from Guangzhou and we own a business, blahblah and we're on a little trip to Huadu. When the guy asked me where I was from, I didn't know what my dad had said and I don't lie, so I told him I was from America. Not only me, but my whole family is from there and I was born there and a whole bunch of other stuff that completely contradicted what my dad had said. Haha he gave me a pretty funny stare, which I didn't know why until later. I think my mom lied too but she said it's because they try to rip you off if they know you're from America. Other than that, I enjoyed talking to him because it's interesting seeing how different their life is from ours.
Wow that was a long account but it was kind of the only lengthy experience I had talking with natives there. Onto pictures!

Here's the view outside my aunt's apartment where we stayed a couple days. Not that pretty right?

We stumbled upon a pretty good restaurant, or at least I thought so. That tea cup is not tea but it's "sai yeung choi" soup. And this is the first of many restaurant experiences with smokers all around me. I can't escape them, inside or out. I'm pretty sure I inhaled a lot of second hand smoke throughout my 2 weeks in China.. =/

My mom's old village and house! No one lives in the house anymore but people still live in the neighborhood and some still recognize her. People come to clean up the house once in a while.

Here's a picture of my mom's room. My mom, aunts and uncles had to sleep on wood growing up.

Hardly any single houses in China, they're mostly apartments.

It's Northern Chinese-style food! We didn't realize how big the portion was when we ordered it but this is spicy fish. There were a lot of other spicy dishes here and a lot of "bao."

City hall of Huadu. It's actually pretty nice looking. And I still can't take really clear night pictures.

Here is my dad's old neighborhood and house. I think more people live here than at my mom's neighborhood, and people here still grow crops and raise chickens.

Bedroom

Kitchen

Random dog. No, we did not eat it. =P

That's all for now, next post will be about my travels in northern China or HongKong. I don't know, we'll see. =P

Japan!

2009-07-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hello! I am back from my adventure.. well I have been for a couple weeks now but now I finally stopped being lazy and decided to post pictures from my trip. =) Hope you girls are doing well!

Look it's Tetris! =) International flights are pretty cool, there are a lot of movies and games to watch and play. It kept me entertained for a while.

We get 2 different meals on the 11 hour plane ride. This is teriyaki chicken, it was pretty good for airplane food. The mango pudding was really good. =D It felt like I was pulling an all nighter, the only difference was that instead of studying, I was playing. =P

Here's our hotel, I think it was 4 or 5 star. The lobby looks nice but the rooms were kind of old..

Our first meal in Japan at the hotel.. udon! I wasn't even really hungry though, I should've been sleeping at that time but instead I forced myself to eat because well it's udon from Japan!

There was sashimi and vegetables as well.

The next day, we visited a temple. Actually, we visited a lot of temples.

Beer/wine I think. And you'll see a lot of groups of kids wearing the same colored hat in my pictures. That's probably how they keep track of kids going on field trips.

This is Japan! The guy looks like a policeman or a security guard.

I just thought the highway looked interesting. =P I didn't take a picture of what we did here but basically the stores here only sell seafood-related items.

Then we went to a marketplace with a long strip of stores and restaurants.

Soba house.

Soba and unagi! mMmm.. I don't know why the picture is like that.. I thought I rotated it already, oh well.

This place sold these fish-shaped crunchy waffle-looking desserts that had different types of filling inside. The green tea one was pretty good. We finished it before I remembered to take a picture of it, haha.

There were a lot of these carriers around, at least in this area.

We visited a castle! It's supposedly really old but of course they renovated it and the inside had a lot of levels displaying art, weapons, armor etc. We couldn't take pictures inside.

There are a LOT of vending machines randomly placed around the city that only sells drinks.

This is one of the hotels we stayed it (not the same one as above). While we were out, they moved the tables and chairs and "made" our bed. We each had our own sheets but we slept on the floor next to each other.

Because of the time change, during the first few days we woke up really early. Luckily the sun also rises really early so I was able to watch the sun rise. =)

We went up to a really hot spring where they boiled eggs. Yup, they used the water from the mountain to boil the eggs. It turns the egg black.

Again, I don't know why my picture is rotated. But I thought this sign was funny. The egg is smoking flavor. =P And at the bottom it says "In this liquid, there is the white sediment. It is caused by the fact that an ingredient of egg yolk exuded. Quality does not have any problem. Please eat at pease." No I did not make a typo, hehe.

Picture of the eggs, I personally think it tastes just like a regular egg. Tourist trap? =/

We rode a boat across the lake. Around this area, my camera ran out of batteries so I didn't take pictures of the ride across or the lunch afterwards. =(

Night view of Tokyo. =)

When we visited another temple, we got to see part of a traditional Japanese wedding! We only saw them walk around the temple but it's still interesting seeing the way they're dressed. The poor guy behind the bride and groom has to carry a big umbrella for them.

The buildings on this street had anime pictures on them. We didn't get off here so I'm not exactly sure what they sell here. Anime-related things?

Hehe, thirsty pigeon! There's a water pump right here and cracks on the floor so you know, when birds get thirsty.. =P

Place near a temple that sold a lot of random souvenir/items.

This mall was pretty big and pretty. It's designed like a street with street signs and everything. The ceiling is pretty. =) If you've ever been to Las Vegas, I think there's a mall similar to this one, if I remember correctly.

The taxis here are interesting... The side mirrors aren't on the side.. they're on the front of the car like antennas. And the taxi drivers look like they're dressed nicely.

This was in a cookie store. Cookie monster =P so cute!

This kid is super cute. She was walking on her own in front of her mom and suddenly she turned around and started walking back the other way so her mom had to go and catch her, haha.

This street is only for pedestrians, no cars allowed. There are even seats in the middle of the street for people to sit. Look at how many people there are!

Ok I'm done recounting my Japan trip. That was long, hehe. So I probably won't be posting my trip to China for a while. =P

Hapi Meal (plagarism from GR)

2009-05-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

I was reading Giant Robot today and came upon this article...a mom who makes really cute bento lunches for her kids. It takes her about a half an hour to make them. I wish I surfed on flickr and blogs more often or more in general, wish I discovered her earlier...haha, but its cute. I want to do these for my kids when I have them. You guys too?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuteobento/

Ukiyo-e Japanese Prints

2009-05-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

I don't really surf the net that much...

Some art that I find interesting ^_^

These are called Ukiyo-e (浮世絵 ?), "pictures of the floating world". It is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.

night scene ^_^

another night one

summer afternoon...

I love the ornate building in this one and how it blends

ppl, not sure what's going on, make up a story about them...

Man, all these are so delicately made...gah

Two posts in a row! woot! A DOG POST

2009-05-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

My other possible future dogs

"treats!?" golden retriever

"ahh the sun is bright!" mixed breed, it looks like there's some golden retriever in this cutie.

"i am le tired." mini pinscher

"huh? did i just here you say treats?" samoyed

"sigh." mixed beagle

"wutchu lookin' at?" korean jindo

"baroo?" japanese spitz. aw, it's so cute, doesn't it look just like a polar bear!

Also, this site satisfies my daily fix for puppies.

LA Tigers

2009-05-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Found this eclectic shop of tigers...

LA TIGERS

P.S. We need more posts from people other than me ;)

Lenka - The show

2009-05-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

I love this song and I can't stop listening to it...

Escala

2009-05-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

I was just browsing youtube and found this band from Britain's got talent and they are indeed really talented!

5 Essential Swine Flu Survival Tips from Yahoo

2009-04-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

1. Wash your hands.

How you do it is important:

- Use warm or hot water if you can.

- Lather up and rub not just your fingers and palms but also under the fingernails, around the wrists and between the fingers for as long as it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice.

- Rinse well.

2. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.

"The way you spread influenza is with droplets that come out of your mouth or nose," said Dr. George T. DiFerdinando Jr., a physician, epidemiologist and professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health. He recommends the classic shoulder or crook-of-the elbow sneeze.

more...

I like Coffee flavored stuff...

2009-04-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

But I don't really like coffee itself that much, it's just too bitter..Like I'll pick out coffee ice cream when I want icecream, and PewPew, have you tried my coffee soymilk yet. I don't think you have. I'm saving the last bit for you. Maybe I should just be like my dad and start going to Noah's bagels and getting a cup...time to wake up early. okay, I want to show you some great animations. Love, love, love these ones. A couple of them are from Calarts students (definitely one of the most renowned art schools, known for accepting really talented peeps. Tim Burton, Brad Bird, and John Lasseter went there.)
Another one is a foreign film..and boy is that one funny. Here ya go. Amazing talent:

Branching out

2009-04-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I made a new blog, hopefully I can turn it into a photo log. Don't worry I'm not abandoning this one.

http://jahloo.wordpress.com

Also, everyone must watch this

that is all.

Final Fantasy Distant Worlds Concert

2009-03-23T22:35:00.001-07:00

Wah, there's going to be a Final Fantasy Concert on July 18th in San Francisco. I am so going. I hope you guys will join me, it will be so much more fun if you do.
Nobuo Uematsu is such an awesome composer...wah, memories have so much final fantasy music in it.

I know you guys like this song--

Eery but cool show

2009-03-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I've been watching this anime on youtube called "Higurashi no Naku no Koro ni" or "When the Higurashi( a type of Cicada) Cry" It's pretty interesting...and even if it's a little bit on the bloody side, it has a really good plot and the characters are endearing.

It involves the mystery surrounding consecutive deaths that have happened in a village. There seem to be alternative endings..but as the story progresses (or rather repeats), you are given more and more information that makes you say "aha, that makes sense"

I don't think you should not watch it because there's too much death--death is apart of life.....it's a horror mystery..with a lot of laughs too.

just keep watching...please...

Les-Mignons

2009-03-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

Hey, so I've been meaning to ask you guys but I keep forgetting so I'll just make a post about it. Do you guys really know what les mignons mean? I didn't so I looked it up a long time ago and according to wikipedia, "The mignons were frivolous and fashionable young men, to whom public malignity attributed heterodox sexuality". Eh?! It's kind of funny... but not really. =P
Or does les mignons have another meaning to it that I'm not aware of?

Miracle Mineral Supplement

2009-02-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

It's about an hour long. But there's this guy who has developed a supplement (MMS) that can cure cancer. Pretty cool

Lets be good friends

2009-02-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

I'm really sorry I haven't been able to listen clearly to what any of you have been really saying. I'm to preoccupied with my thoughts or I don't listen very carefully anymore. I'm too preoccupied with my thoughts so I can't care about what you guys are doing anymore. I wish I could. I'm trying, but nowadays I just don't really care anymore. I wish I did.

Some thing to watch:

9

2009-01-24T18:37:00.000-08:00

Some of the animation students were watching this in class the other day. It's been in the works for a while ( I guess because of story problems) and well I guess it's finally a movie now

7 year old with amazing skills

2009-01-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

WoW... Hopefully some day I will be able to reach the level of erhu playing skills of a 7 yr old =P

Evil Replicating Viruses

2009-01-19T14:31:00.000-08:00

I'm sick with a cold. =( But it's pretty good considering how I used to get a cold at least once a quarter. Now I guess since I've caught most of the cold viruses in this area, my body has developed immunity to them. Apparently, there are ~250 different cold viruses, so assuming that I've had at least 100(??) throughout my lifetime, that means I'm 150 colds away from complete immunity, yay!... =P Unless new mutant versions of these viruses are born then we'll never escape the attack of the evil replicating viruses!
But fortunately, we live in an age of drugs (umm.. I mean over-the-counter drugs). One thing I've found out today was that Claritin-D (an antihistamine), normally used for allergy sufferers with runny nose, sneezing etc. works well for cold symptoms. I don't usually take medicine for a cold because I feel like it doesn't really relieve my symptoms that much (from previous experience), but Claritin D works pretty well. After I took it, my nose cleared up in 10 minutes and my nose isn't that runny anymore! I was just thinking about how amazing this was so I had to blog about it, haha. Although, I think it only works if your symptoms aren't extremely severe. Also, it's supposed to be non-drowsy and maybe it's psychological but I knocked out and had to take a 15 minute nap. :) Now I feel pretty good.

Oh and steer clear of peanut butter products! There's a salmonella outbreak in certain products with peanut butter. They say that store bought peanut butter is fine but cookies, crackers etc made with peanut butter could be contaminated. Plus, I've been eating my peanut butter that I bought not too long ago and I'm fine, so feel free to take some if you suddenly crave peanut butter. =D

Coraline

2009-01-11T02:40:00.000-08:00

I bet Draconic would like this :) It looks so cool!!

The Plains are Alive

2009-01-05T16:13:00.000-08:00

I'm tired of getting all discouraged when I see other people's art and they are so much more talented than me...so I drew something from scratch in Photoshop Elements last night. I don't like my style, but I'm happier with this piece than with anything I've been drawing lately..

Not Exactly Productive

2009-01-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

So I finished watching this one Taiwanese Drama---I like it better than "It Started With a Kiss" It's called "Devil Beside You" Watch!! I started watching "Why Why Love" with some of the same actors as "Devil Beside You", but I think I'm having a hard time stomaching the cutesy/plot overload...

So in the past week, I went to Santana Row (it's this strip of road where there's brand name stores and expensive restaurants. There were Christmas lights on all the trees, but I didn't take very good pics--they're all blurry. We went to The Cheesecake factory to eat dinner---mmm, for desert my friend and I shared a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cheesecake. In the next couple of days we saw two movies--"The Reader" and "Frost Nixon". I think I was a bit bored during Frost Nixon...but I guess it was still intriguing.

On New Year's Eve, my mom and dad drove my high school friend and I to San Francisco Union Square...sorry I don't have pics, I hadn't charged my battery. There were soo many people shopping. can't wait to see you all back in LA!

Nightwish

2008-12-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

Wow, Nightwish has got to be my favorite new discovered band (even though they've been playing long before I knew) and this guy made a vid to go with one of their songs....epic win. Such emotion ^^

Cwismas

2008-12-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

Too long since I've blogged...time for a post--so I've done a few things while back home for winter break...

One was: going ice skating with a highschool friend and her sisters--it was fun because they didn't really know how to skate ^_^ We went to Elephant Bar afterwards to eat...these sweet potato fries were awesome.

So I've taken up a routine all winter break...dad makes me go to the YMCA to swim/run every afternoon. Sometimes whether or not it's afterward or just cause we're out, we go to this Chinese bakery. Dad got me this humungo sesame ball with red bean inside ^_^ Taste good, yum yum.

Another day, another high school friend and I were bored, so we went to Whole Foods and each got a box of food...we also got a cake to split. New York Cheesecake ^^.

Yesterday I went to my friend's house (the same high school friend) and we played her brothers Wii Super Smash Brothers Brawl and baked sugar cookies with cinnamon in them...so they turned out kind've like Snickerdoodles. Sorry, I forgot to bring my camera...

More Mexico Pics and update..

2008-12-22T15:34:00.000-08:00

I have some more pics of Mexico!! How are you girls doing? I'm having a not-so-fun time eating soft things everyday because I took out my wisdom teeth out a couple days ago.. ouch! Yeah, that wasn't fun, but I'm healing and I've advanced from porridge to pasta, so yay.

E: So is it snowing a lot in Montana? When are you going to Canada? I heard it's snowing like crazy there.

C: What are you up to? Are you drawings a lots? Let us know! :]

Okay, I miss you guys and the warm apartment. But I guess not having class is fun too :]

The beach right next to a hotel in Rosarito.

The guy wearing the tshirt with the guitar was hired by the tourguide to entertain us on the bus. When I came back from eating at Rosa Mar, I saw him dueling with some locals :P

I thought this looked cool. People there are very musical!

Crazy twisted soda bottles.. I wonder if the process alters the soda inside... that's why I didn't buy one :P

A very pretty dog roaming free... I'm not sure if it's a stray, but I didn't see anyone as an owner around.

A road

My lunch: Fish and Lobster with rice, beans, chips, tortilla, and salsa. The fish was pretty good but the "lobster" wasn't too great.

When they took us to the hotel near the beach to look around, I was so bored I started taking pics of the christmas tree near the entrance.

Boo! Happy holidays!

What People (should) Eat When It's Freezing

2008-12-21T23:28:00.000-08:00

I finally resized and uploaded some pictures. Nothing too new with me though. There's not much to do besides take pictures of snow and food =D But the weather here is warming up a little bit (it's a few degrees above 0), yay!

Snow is pretty to look at but isn't very fun to walk in sometimes.

I wonder if the horse is cold?

Look! You can see the other side of town from here. =P
The best food in Montana! (advertisement) haha ;)
Egg drop soup

PuPu Platter (don't ask about the name, I really don't know), egg rolls and sweet & sour sauce

Crab rangoons (fried wontons with cream cheese filling)

Spicy crispy shrimp

Shrimp lomein

Szechuan beef
Lemon chicken
Cashew chicken
Chicken fried rice

Hungry? Which dish would you like to try? ^^ I'm going to take more but these were just what people ordered in one day. So you guys might be seeing more food in future blogs, hehe.

Back from the Border

2008-12-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, here are some pics I took while in Mexico. The trip was overall really boring and my mother agreed. We just went around and stopped at random site seeing places for 30-40 mins to take pics and got back on the bus. But overall, at least I know I won't be going to Mexico anytime soon again :)

Rosa Mar was the restaurant where we ate lobster and fish. The fish was yummy, lobster was okay.

We passed by Jesus.

Went to this place where they filmed Titanic

The sky looks weird, it was cloudy.

Crossing the border

The border

The panels at a Duty-free store right before crossing the border

The only things I brought.

I Believe I Can Fly

2008-12-15T14:10:00.001-08:00

I made it safely! Here are just a couple pics for now.

Guess where I am? =D

Civilization! (i.e. Colorado)

I don't have any pics of Montana yet. What happened was when I got to Denver, I was supposed to transfer to another plane but it got canceled because there was a BLIZZARD in the whole state of MT.. so I couldn't fly until around 5 something later that night. And during the flight to MT, it was kind of scary because the captain said the visibility was less than 1 mile.. The scariest part was the landing, I was just thinking "God, if I die, I'm ready to see you, just make it pain free." =P God didn't want me to die yet so I'm still here.
The most shocking thing is the weather. The captain said that it was -11degrees F in MT! Yes, that's a negative 11. I was like O__O *blink*... *blink* "but... how do people live??" So after the plane landed, since our plane is a pretty small plane, we didn't get one of those ramps that leads straight into the airport, but we actually have to get off the plane into the cold and run into the airport. I was outside for less than a minute but I could feel my legs freezing up and I was breathing out so much smoke, it was obstructing my view.
When we got back into our town, the weather wasn't any better. Well, it's my 3rd day here and it's still around -20degrees F. So yeah, there's my story so far. I'll take more pics some day (most likely by standing inside) because I don't think my camera works in negative degrees weather.
Norcal weather did not prepare me for this. =P I miss California!!

So heartwarming

2008-12-15T12:02:00.000-08:00

full story

Yummy fragrances and beans

2008-12-07T16:39:00.001-08:00

Smell like dirt! for only $20! what a great deal! http://www.demeterfragrance.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=853

or perhaps try to eat some dirt flavored jelly beans... this flavor guide is hard to see, couldn't find a better image. But dirt is the dark brown one in the middle... yum yum!

This is kind of interesting too.

Oh Lovely Day(s)

2008-11-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving + the surroundings days:

Lonely Crow

Lonely Cloud

(Somewhat) Lonely Chihuahua + Pomeranian Hybrid

It took me forever to get this picture. She wouldn't stop moving/look at the camera.

I don't know what's with all the loneliness in my pictures. =P Honestly, I had a pretty good Thanksgiving with family and friends. Originally, I just wanted to show the ever-changing sky here but then threw in the picture of the dog because she's so adorable. =) Hope y'all had a good break!

Messages in Water

2008-11-25T21:36:00.000-08:00

So this guy called Masaru Emoto conducted some experiments where he put distilled water in tubes and put negative or positive words to the different tubes. He froze the tubes. The next day they took microscopic photographs of the water and found that the water was not very pleasant to look at when the water was labeled with things like "you fool", or "Adolph Hitler" and did not form crystals. But when the water was labeled with positive words like "Thank You" and "Hope", the water formed beautiful ice crystals. If thoughts and words can do that to water, and since you are made mostly of water, think of how your own thoughts can effect you!

52 PROVEN STRESS REDUCERS

2008-11-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

Write your thoughts and feelings down on paper. It can help you clarify and give you a renewed perspective.

Procrastination is stressful. Whatever you want to do tomorrow, do today; whatever you want to do today, do it now.

Learn to live one day at a time.

Eliminate (or restrict) the amount of caffeine in your diet.

Do a favor for someone every day.

Focus on understanding rather than on being under stood, on loving rather than on being loved.

Turn "needs" into preferences. Our basic physical needs translate into food, water, and keeping warm. Everything else is a preference. Don't get attached to preferences.

more....

My future dog: Maltese

2008-11-22T14:46:00.000-08:00

Since I'm allergic to cats, I might be allergic to dogs. I'm not quite sure and haven't really tested it out but I think I'm less allergic to dogs. Anyway, this is my future dog. It's a Maltese and according to wiki, they're hypoallergenic because they don't shed. Also, yorkshire terriers are cute too, but those are HELLA expensive. yes, I said hella even though I'm not from norcal

SoCal Fires

2008-11-16T15:22:00.000-08:00

Fire - LA Times Photography

Some stuff I baked this summer

2008-11-14T00:40:00.000-08:00

French Meringues: Before

After: Burnt but still tasted okay, just a bit ashy :)

Almond Vanilla Biscotti

Too many desserts (The meringues, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting) and cottage cheese. recipes from allrecipes.com

Imaginary Creatures

2008-11-11T23:46:00.000-08:00

Watched this a few days ago and you guys have seen it, but I love these two videos

hmm.. oh yeah, read about this poor seven-legged lamb that was born in New Zealand: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/sevenlegged-lamb-born/2007/08/02/1185648037794.html
Oh yeah, I also found out Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter movies) sings and plays guitar too:

watch Silhouettes in Sunset too. ^_^ That's all folks!

The Peace of God Transcends All Understanding

2008-11-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

There is no sin so large or bad that God's grace can't cover. Draconic, you will get your heart's desire if you continue to pray that which is in accordance with His will.

=)

I don't think you guys have ever seen these pictures before. Penguins and turtles co-existing in... a hotel?! Yup, this was in Hawaii.

More penguins

My pictures aren't as cool as Draconic's, but I thought it was interesting how the cloud on the right looks like a flying shark (use your imagination!). ^__^

Reminder: Travel plans!

Straddling the Fence

2008-11-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm still struggling with my faith, well I wish I could call it my faith because I don't know if my faith really means anything. I want to have a firm foundation in Christ but I'm confused because Christianity says that you can only believe in the God of the Bible to be saved whereas the 11:11 messages will inherently contradict saying that anyone can believe in Christ and be saved. Not saved in the sense that they are redeemed from their sins but saved in that they will go to Heaven. It says that Christ was bestowed onto Earth as He was bestowed on the other planets he watches over and that His death on the cross was as a result of the anger of the people. This made me unsure about God's sovereingty which before hand gave me peace at mind--knowing that He's in control. If God did not mean for Christ to die in order to save people from an eternity from Hell, then what was the real meaning of Christ's death on the cross? I know I should not question His plans, for they are all perfect but I don't know any other answer to that question except in the gospel. Christ died and rose again to pay the penalty for our sins. That His death and resurrection, once and for all would erase all our sins, so that we could have eternal life, if we choose to believe in Him. If however there was no redeeming quality in His death, and that we all are already saved in that everyone has eternal life in Heaven, then we should all still heed Christ's message and take up our cross daily, dieing to ourselves and living a new life in Him--I'm just not really sure how to do that as a nonchristian since I don't know how to associate it apart from the gospel. Still, Christianity is still the closest to the truth, and to me it seems so much more appealing to me than the 11:11. The idea of all your sins erased. I don't know if it sounds selfish because that thought crossed my mind last year. But I guess I'm still just going to apply Biblical truths to my life, though it's quite hard modifying it without the gospel since it only works that way. I've been slipping into the trap of not fearing God and slipping into my sinful ways again. O Father, if my heart needs to be softened, well it always does--then if it needs to be softened to the gospel, please do so.

Musical Genius

2008-11-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

A very talented child.

http://www.myspace.com/jungsungha

Also, today is election day.

A Hallow's Birthday

2008-11-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

So my parents drove down here to visit me and celebrate my birthday. Yay! 21! Wah, I don't tell them I love them enough, but they sure show me that they love me by always going so far. We went to Soup Plantation. It's just like Sweet Tomatoes--salad bar, soup, carbs, dessert and fruit all you can eat. We always go there when my parents come down to visit ^_^. Dad suggested I buy a cake for all of us to eat back at the apartment. Pew Pew, you've still got to try some and help me finish it! You too ET!! Dad picked me up saturday morning and we drove to Santa Barbara. On the way we decided to stop by Pepperdine University. It had some awesome scenery! There was this awesome lake that we could see from where we stood on a hill. It's surface was reflecting this really cool changing landscape of clouds ^_^. In the distance light was shinging through the clouds making a really bright shining area on the ocean. Anyways, that's my two cents for today ^_^

Wannabee Artist

2008-10-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

Little emo dragon signing in here---and I forgot all my coding...eep. I painted something a couple weeks ago...really ugly but mostly inspired by two of my favorite artists. Go check their work out, they're like this generation's Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci:

www.jennadelle.deviantart.com
www.gunnerromantic.deviantart.com

Fudge

2008-10-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Hello, chocolate cake here. =P What does les mignons mean? I thought we were the saw gwa dahns? And are we just doing a white background? Maybe I should've just commented on your post instead of making a new post.. I forgot, this isn't facebook's wall.

Hmm... do I still remember how to do this..
cin >> balance sheets;
cout << zzzZZZZzzz;

Introduction

2008-10-30T01:09:00.000-07:00

Hello world.

endl;

This blog will be maintained by 3 les mignons and hopefully each of us will be able to post at least once a week. Posting content will be entirely random, ranging from art to rants. That is all.

Enjoy.