No Body Knows

You would not forget this movie if you'd ever watched it. If you haven't yet seen it, please go rent it. It is a Japanese movie about 4 kids who were abandoned by their mother. The kids were so real... the movie so real... as if it wasn't really a movie after all. It was a painful story. Yet the kids gave me hope. I have yet to stop thinking about it.

Merry Christmas

To everyone who stops by this blog.... I wish you all a happy holiday season... a wonderful time with family and friends... and a great new year ahead.

Munchkin

Reading the rules of the game. The best rule by far is the following:

Rules Contradictions or Disputes
When the cards disagree with the rules, follow the cards. Any other disputes should be settled by loud arguments among the players, with the owner of the game having the last word.

Emphasis added.

Sooo lazy

Just woke up... it's 1:30 pm already. No work today. Haven't slept in this late for a while. Suppose to be a warm and sunny day. Wasted half a day in bed already. I am going to the bookstore today to buy "His Dark Materials Trilogy" by Philip Pullman. Should get going soon.

....

Updates:

Went to Orlande Park north of here. So many cars, so many people. I should have known better. 2 days before X'mas. Everyone's out shopping. You know what? Another free meal today. I've been lucky for free food lately. Stopped by an Einstein bagel for late lunch, and the register was temporarily out of service... so free food. I bought the Trilogy by Pullman... and a card game called Munchkin. The box reads

Munchkin
Kill the Monsters, Steal the Treasure, Stab your Buddy

Cool! Stab your buddy... ha ha... Hope it will be fun. Stay tuned for game review.

Untitled

Went to Barnes and Noble after work and got some magazines. I've been falling in love reading the New Yorker. I just can't put it down. I have already subscribed to it. Hope the subscription will start soon.

Anyway, I bought a grande latte and a coffee cake at the Starbucks inside the bookstore. It happened that the coffee cake is a corner piece. Then I remember whenever I went 飲茶 with my family, if we were ordering 馬拉糕, my mom would insist on getting the piece at the corner or at the edge. I still don't quite understand why to this day. Maybe I'll ask my mom next time when I talk to her.

X'mas party tomorrow at work. Half day of work. Yeah!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

PS I wanted to take pictures of my apartment and around town. But my colleague borrowed my digital camera for a trip to his parents'. Maybe I should dug out my film camera instead. Haven't used that in ages.

Birthday luck?

Yeah, today is my birthday. And I am celebrating it with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. I don't realize until today that how lonely it is to spend a birthday without friends and family around. I shouldn't complain too much though because several unexpected things happened today.

First, I got a call from a local newspaper saying that I won a drawing for a $60 i-tune giftcard. Wow.... I have never won any lucky draw... except for those that guaranteed a winner. Anyway, what a surprise. You know... I just bought an ipod nano. A perfect prize!

Second, I went to Applebee's for dinner. Yeah... a chain restaurant. I hate to go to some fancy restaurant all by myself. Plus, there are no fancy restaurants around town. Anyway, I ordered my food and it took forever for the food to come. The food was ok. The steak was overcooked a bit (I ordered medium rare, came medium well) and the skewered shrimps were... arh... a bit raw. I didn't realize the raw shrimps until the restaurant manager came and apologized for the delay. He looked at my shrimps and commented that they were a bit raw and that he wouldn't eat them if he were me. But I had already eaten a whole skewer. He went to the kitchen and brought me another two skewers of shrimps. And he took the whole dinner entree off my check. I ended up only paying for my Miller Lite.

Third, I went to K-mart and did some grocery shopping. Haagen-Daz on sale! YEAH! I got my favorite Rum Raisin and a new flavor, Almond Hazelnut Swirl. Yum... I am now deciding which one to have first. Maybe I'll do the almond hazelnut tonight.

So... I guess I am a lucky guy today. Birthday luck maybe.

Here's a bunny courtesy of 可可:

     _ _
   \`\ /`/
    \ V /
    /. .\
   =\ T /=
    / ^ \ 
 {}/\\ //\
 __\ " " /__
(____/^\____)

Penguins

I watched March of the Penguins last night. The little penguins were so cute.... But I was really touched by the parent penguins who endure the harsh winter and the march, without food, for a single goal--to reproduce and raise their young. The father penguin will often starve for more than 4 months. And the march to the ice edge covers 70+ miles in the dead of winter in Antarctica. Not a one-time march but many times over the course of hatching the eggs and raising the cute little penguins. The single-minded determination amazes me and touches me deeply as well.

On another note, my white chili turned out pretty good... next time I'll add a little less cheese and jalapenos. And maybe replace some chicken broth with milk.

Unpacking kitchen

I finally can't stand eating out all the time. Plus, there're no good resturants in town. I am cleaning my kitchen and unpacking all the cookware, dishes, bowls... I have a lot of kitchen stuff. Really. Mostly inherited from ppl before me, I mean friends who had graduated a long time ago. I am wondering if I have time to make white chili tonight. I hope so... coz I am getting hungry again.

A really really strong coffee

courtesy of Mike, a colleague at work.

Flame Retarded... Made in China

Our office manager at work got a whole bunch of X'mas stuff to decorate our office. Mike found a tag in one of the garlands which read:

FLAME RETARDED
MADE IN CHINA

He trimmed off the "F" and "ED" and handed the tag to me. Now the tag read:

LAME RETARD
MADE IN CHINA

I gave the trimmed tag to Jeff. He couldn't stop laughing. Without me knowing, Jeff drew a big fat red arrow under the words and taped that tag onto my bookself.

I guess I can now proudly proclaim that I am a lame retard made in china.

Stopwatch

Time doesn't stop. It would have been nice if I have a magical stopwatch that can stop time. Email from my friend today in LA. She just gave birth to a six and half pound baby boy. I am happy and excited for her of course. But on the other hand, I feel a bit sad that I am still somehow stuck in life. Well... I mean being single and not married yet, like many of my friends, let alone having babies. But I guess I should be content instead. It's not my timing after all. And there's no such thing as a magical stopwatch.

Movies

I watched two movies over the weekend. Syriana and Chronicles of Narnia. Two very different movies. I didn't like Syriana. Not that the plot was too complex, but each scene seemed too short and lacked the depth it supposed to have. Narnia is a very good children's movie. That said, it wasn't too entertaining for adults. But if you have little brothers and sisters or kids... you should definitely bring them to see this movie. Very good message and good imagination too.

Internet!!!!!!!!

My cable internet is working... running great!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOOO! Thank you, Comcast. I am impressed with their customer service!

Unpacking...

I just moved to Bourbonnais over the weekend. I had help from several of my friends. I was surprised that we were able to move (almost) everything in one trip. I had a LOT of stuff and we only had four people, including me. So... not bad huh?

Anyway, I haven't been posting any new entry lately coz my internet at home is still not working right. Hopefully the problem will be resolved soon. I can't imagine not having internet access at home. But then... we didn't have internet before... how did we survive back then?

I have a lot of unpacking to do, which is an extremely long and painful process. I wonder how long it will take to unpack everything.