Just reached msp safely. Going to spend time with JD and Charles. Woot!

Sorry for the lack of posting. The Taiwan earthquake on Boxing Day destroyed all internet access to Japan, Korea, and HK. It still hasn't been restored. Seems sorta silly since all of these places are major business hubs that require internet. Haven't been able to blog (going through withdrawal) until now (and this is only because I'm in the US again).

Waiting on a new computer. Next time I write it'll be from my new room!

I Know It's Good to Be Alive

Met up with the new CMU grad (aka Justin) and I.Luk today for lunch. Sorry no pics today. :( I did have yummy Japanese roast duck pizza though. It was good. Feels like such a short time ago that we were all there in Langham for the summer.

My fam barbequed outside today. Nice and relaxing when it's only family.

Taiwan experienced a 6.5 earthquake tonight. We felt tremors in Hong Kong about twenty minutes later.

Packing is going well. Yay! I am getting a bit sick though. :(

Stocking up on zhun ju lai tsa (bubble tea) though! Cramming as much good HK food in as I can before I leave.

Currently listening to: Everytime it Rains - Charlotte Martin

He Has Arrived

Merry Christmas!

Rejoice rejoice! How exciting to celebrate Jesus' birthday!

This post will be shorter, since I'm sure everyone is enjoying today to the fullest.

But...God works in unexpected ways. Guess who came to church (tiff, the pic was taken at Cvntion Ctr) with me today?
My dad, of all people. Amazing, is all I can say. Thanks for the prayers!

I leave you with a cool little fruit. My mommy informs me that its English name is rambutan.

Currently listening to: More than Life - Hillsong

And Angels Sing

O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! How exciting. The world awaited with baited breath for the appearance of Jesus - a fulfillment of the prophesy, an answer after 400 years of silence.

Went to church today alone. No luck in terms of the family. Sighs. It is hard sitting alone in a service that is filled with families and couples. At least my dad is requesting to hear (traditional) Christmas songs. God's working slowly in their hearts, no doubt.

(view from church)

K-love is playing Christmas songs all day today and tomorrow, so if you need your fix, check it out! :)

Currently listening to: O Holy Night (one of my favorites)

In Anticipation

Christmas weekend already! My family went out for a Christmas lunch (yum cmas pudding, or at least the HK version of it). Speaking of which, I am going to try to get them to come with me to church. Not hopeful, but we shall see.

To answer Miss Cannon's question, I think it will be Ron. But it will probably be Harry.

My brother lost my cd. Has anyone seen it? :(

(yay for Jason! boo for his shirt)

Speaking of Lifehouse, if you are a fan, check out one person's interpretation of each song from a Christian point of view.

Currently listening to: O Holy Night - Selah

Goh-duong

Less than a week left in HK. I know the days will whip past. A week from now at this time I should be landing in MN.

Do you think that our hearts get callouses? The ones on your feet help to pad against chaffing. I wonder if they would be a good thing if they existed (figuratively).

New MTR (aka subway, for you non-HK peeps) sign. Heh heh.

Harry Potter #7 now has a title! If you want to figure it out by yourself, go here (hint: click on the eraser). If you're less adventurous or if the puzzle isn't working (my case), go here for the news story.

Today is goh-duong ("winter festival", I guess you can translate it as) so the family all met up with my mom's side of the family for dinner. And because EVERYBODY in Hong Kong was doing the same thing, the streets were packed. I snapped a few pictures but I don't think it does the real thing justice.

(Mong Kok, Sai Yee Street)

That's HK for you.

Pics of the family.

(picture removed)
Also, meet school requirement #5.

Yeah, it looks the same, but it's actually a film SLR (as opposed to the digital SLR (my Canon 400D)).

Nude pumps are in this winter! Or at least I've been noticing and appreciating them more now. Such a weird idea (and I don't think I would ever buy a pair), but they look spiffy on some people.

Currently listening to: Goodbye - Spice Girls (yeah, seriously)

Hair With a Mind of Its Own

Since I cut my hair shorter yesterday that also meant for wild bedhead hair this morning.

J.K. Rowling just released that she is having a hard time finishing HP7 and she's having strange dreams with Harry in them. Tough with so much weighing on her shoulders.

If you haven't seen it yet, the new Apple Goodwill ad. Nothing too special, but similar style.

Was supposed to meet Nate today for dessert but he couldn't make it in the end. He's off to NY tomorrow to visit his girlfriend and won't be back til after I leave.

Tomorrow is goh-duong (winter solstice thing), so the whole family is getting together for feasting.

Tara Reid is looking very clean cut and nice (surprise surprise) at the premiere of Black Christmas.


In other fashion news, check out this beautiful green dress from J.Crew. I think I just like the forest green color.


Update: Brother's interview went very well. He doesn't have plans to go to Canada yet. :)

Currently listening to: It's Alright - Third Day

Of New Things

Was too pooped yesterday to post. Apologies to the more regular readers. :) To make up for it, this post will be extra long.

Just finished eating mango and my hands smell. Don't you hate that?

Yesterday, during my ever continuing process of gutting out my room (aka packing), I found these great slippers. They don't really fit (you know what big feet I have), but they're still pretty great. I'm relishing them.

By now, I'm sure most of you have seen the latest Person-of-the-Year Time mag issue. Pretty cool, I must admit. However, yesterday when I received the hard copy, I noticed that the computer on the front is unmistakeably a Mac. Interesting, since that target audience makes up such a small population in comparison to the PC-devoted.

Went out today to get odds and ends that I still need (can anyone say clothes hangers?). Also came home with a new haircut. Yay. Seeing as I prob won't get my hair cut in a year (when I come home again), it was much needed.

Miss USA is one lucky girl. I was sorta rooting for the runner up, Tamiko Nash.

My bro has a big college interview today at Fortress Hill (thought of you, Tiff!). I'm rooting for him.

Designer spotlight: Karim Rashid, designer of the martini glass in the Bombay Sapphire ads. Bombay Sapphire has actually recruited many famous designers to try their hand at creating a new glass design.

If you are looking for shoes online, check out Piperlime, launched by Gap Inc.

Check out Family Survival Kit clip on YouTube. Great for getting through family functions. :)

And last, but not least, meet Canon 400D in all its DSLR glory.

Currently listening to: Stealing Kisses - Faith Hill

Monday Monday

Ruining my good eating schedule by chowing down on my mom's oatmeal at 10:45. Terrible. It is so warm and yum though.

Today was filled with craziness (I won't bore you with the details). I was able to get out of the house for dinner with I. Luk.

We went back to Log On, but the egg tart cushion was all sold out. Sadness. :(

Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway getting recognition at the Hollywood Life's 6th Annual Breakthrough of the Year Awards. Woot!

Currently listening to: If You're Not the One - Dicks & Janes (UMich's acappella group) - cover of Daniel Bedingfield

Memories and Tazo

Met Tyler for bfast this morning before church. He was quite sleepy. Nothing like Starbucks to wake you up. I had Tazo tea and let it steep too long. :)

Apparently, the new "in" thing with Lindsay Lohan is the Voss bottle. She has good taste in bottled water packaging.

Promo poster of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie coming out.

Leonardo was my favorite, but I used to wish I had all of them.

Since I am a hardcore LOST fan, had to post this cute picture of Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Harold Perrineau (Michael), and their wives out and about while LOST takes a break. (Source)

Speaking of which, sweet clip of LOST (*spoiler warning*) set to Anggun's Snow on the Sahara.

Currently listening to: Memories - Within Temptation

Saturday, Spidey, and SLRs

Nothing too interesting to post. Did the usual Saturday things (yum cha, grocery shopping, harassing my brother). Also looked for some good digital SLR cameras. So far the Canon 400D looks like a winner.

Check out Tobey Maguire promoting Spiderman 3 on the cover of Premiere (Brit movie mag).

Click here to see the rest of the article with more pictures.


Also, Amy found this fabulous Australian bottle + glass invention for Hardy's Chardonnay. Click here for the full article. Click here to find out about CBS's study on how women (versus men) pick wine.

Currently listening to: Silent Night - Sarah McLachlan

Blast from the Past

Another rainy, cold day. I think I would freeze if I was in Minnesota.

Because I have been packing since the beginning of the month (no joke), I have been rooting out a lot of old things, including a stack of 3.5 floppies. Wow! I remember buying some to bring to C~. I never ended up using them. Anyways, spent the day transferring data (mostly old papers from middle and high school) to a cd so that I can keep them for the rest of eternity (or until cds become out of date). Not too exciting, but I did love stacking them in order of label color. What a dork.

About housing info (as requested by Miss Cannon and Tiff), I started looking even before I decided on Miami for sure. However, although there were many options, it always ended up being either 1) too expensive (we're talking up to $2000/mo) or 2) male renters.
But because it really is a small world, I was able to finally settle with renting from the alum. It was a hard decision, but I think it worked out in the end. Housing search is just a headache.

From the designer J. Mendel's Winter07 Collection.

Happy Friday, everyone! Call into K-love (1-800-900-1300) for a chance to win a trip down to see a Hillsong live recording!

Currently listening to: Klove - I Am - Mark Schultz (who is in the Klove studio live!)

New Home

Despite the rainy, cold (okay, I admit it's 61F/16C...I know what you Minnesotans are thinking) day, my mom and I went out to Sham Shui Po. Traversing through the multiple crowded shops, we emerged three hours later with an external hard drive and a web cam. Woot!


160 Gigs (well, okay, only 149 with the 1000 vs. 1024 conversion) of Firewire and USB 2.0 accessible goodness. I can't wait to fill it up. That's one of my six required materials (for school) down. Sighs...

On happy news, I think I have settled on housing. Thank you, God! Decided on the nice alum dude. I hope that it goes well. It was a crazy and painful two weeks of searching. I hope I never have to go through that again.

Here is some gorgeous photography by famous photog Michael Thompson for W magazine.


Appreciate all the comments. :) I love hearing from you guys.

Currently listening to: Home - Daughtry

Little Brother

Was able to see Tyler today. Yay! I have overall been an irresponsible ga jie ("older sister"). It is much sad that he is leaving on Wednesday but I am glad that I get to see him at all. He was nice enough to come all the way over from Island side to Festival. What a sacrifice. Thanks, sai lo. (Yay for good news!)

Look what we found in Log On. It's a giant dan tat (egg tart) cushion. AMAZING! They also come in mouse wrist rest and cell phone sizes. The yellow part is shiny too. Loves it! (And yes, those are banana cushions in the background. Same concept.)

On my way home on the bus, a little boy and his mom sat next to me. I will admit that he was cute to start off with. But, within the course of the 20 min ride home, I was subsequently 1) kicked, 2) hit, and 3) called a bad name. The age that I will consider having kids has moved to 65, I think. It keeps going up.

Both Naomi and Lynn won't be able to make it to HK this Cmas afterall. Much sadness. :(

Currently listening to: Hero - Enrique Iglesias and Entertaining Angels - Newsboys

HK and Msp

Was up late last night trying to register my brother for the TOEFL. When my dad called the US hotline to see if there were any available spots left in Hong Kong, the lady told him to try going to Chicago or New York.

Wow. Umm...Hong Kong is in Asia. I wonder if she knew that.

Found out that Dan Wilson, who cowrote many of the songs on the Dixie Chicks' new album, including Not Ready to Make Nice (click for vid), is from Minneapolis. Very Cool. Check out his myspace to hear some of his stuff. Very Brit rock.

I must say that, out of all the alcoholic drinks, Heineken gets the awards for the best beer packaging. I love their latest bottle-can product. I've actually liked their pint keg-like can since high school (yeah, I guess the obsession didn't start with comps), but Aki informed me that I couldn't like a can if I didn't like the contents. Oh well...

And going along a similar vein....

For something way cute, go to yahoo.com and mouse over the gingerbread man. I promise you'll like it. :)

Currently listening to: Breathless - Dan Wilson

It's About Time

It's been about two years and I figured a new blog was long overdue. Considering I'll be at MAS, where everyone will be super-connected, I might as well.

And of course the first problem i run into is choosing the template. An hour later of fidgeting and tweaking, I end up using the template design, albeit some minor changes, and am stuck with stupid Arial and Verdana. Yeah, I know the whole sans serif business, but still. They really should give blogspot.com a Pantone chart for Christmas.

On a sidenote, I found I was able to understand the html code for this page. Thank you, classes!

Still no word on housing. It'll all work out in the end though, I know. Currently trying to decide between a MacBook and a MacBook Pro.

Any thoughts?

United Colors of Benetton Ad. Should be for Winter07

Currently listening to: Klove My Savior God - Aaron Shust