Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in ihatepink_com's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Saturday, January 9th, 2010
12:08 pm	The Art of Slurping Noodles Apparently, in Japanese culture, it is actually POLITE to slurp your noodles loudly to show appreciation for the delicious food served to you. In stark contrast, we Westerners frown upon such loud noises while eating and are trained to do just the opposite – eat silently. It’s been funny watching Hiroko instinctively slurp all noodles placed in front of her. So we decided to try and copy her. Who did the best job? You decide!! :) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
12:54 pm	Fun with Magic Candles I just couldn’t resist! Happy birthday, Hiroko!! Thank you(?) for making my cheeks and stomach hurt from laughing too hard and too much!! (Comment on this)
Friday, December 4th, 2009
4:39 pm	Let It Snow! Snow in Houston?!?! Like, real snow?!?! OK, well, it's the most real snow that we've probably ever had.   Here's a little festive cheer for ya - watch the volume on those speakers: I think my favorite Christmas carol is "Let It Snow". I just love the idea of snuggling up in front of a fireplace while it's all stormy outside. :) (Comment on this)
Monday, November 16th, 2009
1:28 am	4 Cell Friend is moving away from Houston [pout!]. Just helping get the word out about stuff she’s selling. All furniture is less than a year old and practically new. Couch = $200 (bought it for $400; it is a futon that bends two ways) Sharp flatscreen 32" TV = $400 OBO TV Stand/coffee table = $15 Table and chairs (4) set = $60 OBO 1994 Honda Civic EX, sporty red 2-door coupe, 150k miles, in good condition! = $1500 OBO Bissell Powerforce bagless Vacuum Cleaner = $20 Most comfortable Queen size mattress set EVAR (mattress + boxspring): $100 Friend is also giving away lots of household items...plates, silverware, pans, mugs, etc. E-mail / call for details. Thanks guys! – C :) (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
3:29 pm	Receiving Faxes via E-mail for Free I had been using a physical fax machine, but with the increased amount of electronic insurance billing I’ve been doing, insurance companies have been faxing me like crazy. This is great for helping my patients save money! However, it was way annoying that fact that they chose the weirdest times to send me stuff (3:00 am! what!!?!). I started looking for a fax number that would receive and route to e-mail. And because I’m cheap, preferably free. :) And so! That narrowed down my search greatly. I’ve been using K7.net coupled with a gmail account (big, fat, and also free) for a few months now and it’s been great. K7’s basic website did not inspire immediate faith in the service, but it’s been really smooth for me. Here’s a brief review: Pros: free (funded by ads), can choose to set it to Fax Only mode or can use the Fax + Voicemail mode (voicemails show up as .wav files in your e-mail), reduces paper waste, NO MORE FAX RINGING OFF THE HOOK AT 3:00AM!! Cons: can’t choose a number in your area code (by default you get 206 for Seattle, WA, so perhaps people in Seattle would consider this a “pro”) … but that hardly matters to most, especially to the insurance companies who are sending stuff to all sorts of area codes. If you set it to Fax + Voicemail mode, sometimes the faxes are interpreted as voicemails with that intermittent beep. The “catch”? Gotta use it at least once every 30 days, or else it’ll be deactivated. It’s an automated system too – I know, because I got deactivated. I sheepishly wrote into customer service and they graciously gave me my fax number back as a one-time courtesy. The trick? Set it to Fax + Voicemail mode, call in every 2 weeks and leave yourself a voicemail, and you’re golden. Thanks K7 for letting me sleep through the night! If you’ve tried K7 or any other free fax receiving service, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments. Potentially confusing: “K7.net” and “www.K7.net” go to different pages. The one with the “www” prefix goes directly to the fax-to-e-mail service I have described here. (Comment on this)
12:53 am	Today was a Bad Car Day Some people have bad hair days (I’ve been having a lot of those too, I hate this not-short-not-long length I’m at), but today was a bad car day. First thing in the morning: I go to work. Park. I’m one of the few cars there in the lot. Later on I go out to run errands and I see this car KISSING my car. I’ve seen this car before, and it is always parked badly, but today when I saw this … I mean, seriously, what the … !?!?!?! Mine is the Toyota, on the right. View from the top. @#$% ... Well, I start to pull away, when the car’s owner opens the door to his car. Most of you know I hate confrontation, but I jumped out and pipsqueak lil’ me was like, “Excuse me, is that your car? Because um, you were parked all the way up to my car so it was touching my license plate [ bang on license plate for effect ] … do you mind not parking so close next time?!” He nodded, not saying a word … I was like, “Great he’s gonna come beat me up now …” but instead he looked more confused than anything. Just great. He didn’t understand English. >_< OK, so I went running my errands, and it started pouring. I switched on my trusty wipers. This AWFUL SCREEE-SCREEECH sound emitted from the wipers with each swipe. What the … I pulled over and took a look. The rubber blade of my passenger’s side wiper had come clean off, and the metal from the arm was scraping against my windshield!! OMG. I tried to prop my wiper up off the glass (lookin’ mega-ridiculous) so I could at least still use the good driver-side wiper and not hear that awful SCREEEEEECHING noise, but when the wiper came smashing back down into its resting position, I saw an O’Reilly’s Auto Parts right there in front of me. Edgar very kindly came out in the rain, took a look, unclipped my damaged wiper, and pointed me to some really good wipers that were on sale, and helped me install it too. :) Hopefully the scratches from that stupid wiper won’t be permanent … And I’d just like to say I am grateful it was just a bad car day, not a horrible car day. :) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
3:24 pm	willyouBhere.com Hepatitis B Awareness Event My evening opened up unexpectedly last night, and so I headed over to the willyouBhere Hepatitis B awareness event and concert at the University of Houston. I was hoping to meet David Choi so I could thank him personally for giving me permission to use his cover of "Over The Rainbow" in my skydiving video; however, I would have had to body surf over / push and shove through the throng of screaming girls that mobbed him after the event. Yeah, didn’t happen. I DID however get to briefly shake hands with Paul Dateh and snapped a quick pic with him before security kicked us out (props to Nancy for the quick trigger finger): Um, I look way too happy in this photo, and all I can say is ... that boy's silky smooth voice made me melt in my seat and utter obscenities that hopefully were not recorded by digital camera video recorders surrounding us. All in all, a great night of entertainment. Also enjoyed watching singers Jessica Sanchez (her voice sounds way older than a 14-yr-old!), Michelle Martinez, along with Youtube comedians / personalities KevJumba, HappySlip, and dance crew Kaba Modern. Just wanted to end this post with my skydiving video, if you haven't seen it already. One of the greatest [short] experiences of my life. Thanks again David Choi! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 12th, 2009
1:57 am	The Gourmet-est Sandwich I've Ever Made I’ve always just eaten to fulfill my nutritional needs, but for some reason, seeing this video made me obsessed with making this sandwich (linked by foodie friend Steve Q!). It's a video of Chef Michael at Max's Wine Dive here in Houston showing how to make their fried egg sandwich with chili bacon. I’ve never been, but Steve says it’s his favorite sandwich these days. I think I was drooling while watching this video. I must have watched it at least twice! So last night, while hungry and grocery shopping, I tried to buy the ingredients to the best of my memory. And then I attempted to make it. Forgot a few things, swapped beans for bacon (yeah, I know, totally different, but ... a protein's a protein, right?), but all in all ... I still managed to end up making a REALLY good sandwich! I know Chef Hugh would be so proud! :D (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
5:30 pm	thepinkoranges - original artwork I am SO PSYCHED! I present to you a picture of my first ever original artwork, and of a pink orange at that, by the talented and generous J to the M-a. That evening, JMa called me and said she had "something" she wanted to drop off. I was feeling less than awesome so I asked if she could possibly pick up some orange juice for me. She sounded a little taken aback, and I thought that perhaps I'd asked for one favor too many ... but her surprise was instead due to my being seemingly in sync with the surprise she had in store for me. I like it I like it I like it!!! And thank you David for the hanging supplies, and for LEP for helping me hang it up!! I like, feel so grown up now. :) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
4:55 pm	Involuntarily Getting in Touch with My Feminine Side OMG OMG OMG. So I was getting in my car to drive to work today. I had parked under a tree last night, and saw some bird poop on my car. I'd just washed my car Monday, so I was a bit pissed, but whatever. But when I got in my car to leave for work, I realized with sheer, pure and utter horror that ... THERE WAS A F###ING DEAD BIRD ON MY WINDSHIELD. "OMG OMG OMG that is GRODY," I thought. I had to go to work right then, I didn't have time to deal with it right that moment ... I thought, "I'll just drive to work and the bird will just fall off I guess. I am so so so sorry Mr. Bird!" So off I drove. Whereupon I realized with sheer, pure and utter horror that ... THE F###ING DEAD BIRD WAS STUCK IN MY WINDSHIELD WIPERS. OMG OMG OMG that is DISGUSTING, I thought. And as I drove, I realized just how stuck it was. It was so stuck that not only was it not falling off, but ... the leg of the bird would swing back and forth, as if WAVING to me. OMG OMG OMG GROSS!! Got to work (almost crying at this awful sight the whole way, I couldn't help it ... oh and I forgot to mention, there were BLOODY GUTS smeared on my windshield but I couldn't use my wipers!!) and stepped out to briefly survey what the HECK was going on. And to my sheer, pure and utter horror, I saw that ... IT WAS A HEADLESS BIRD STUCK IN MY WINDSHIELD WIPERS. AND ITS BLOODY DECAPITATED BEAK WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE BESIDE IT!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I had to ask my co-worker if he could help me remove the poor bird (and beak, and bloody guts) from my windshield and wipers. Turns out it was like HALF A BIRD (I DUNNO WHERE THE REST OF IT WENT!!). WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!?1?1!! GRODY TO THE MAX YO!!!!!! I was so grossed out I couldn't even take pictures like I usually would, OMG!!!! Yes I know, I'm such a girl!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! @_@ (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
5:54 pm	Men in Hats It just so happened that our table at Cafe 101 consisted of 2 girls, and 2 guys - BOTH sporting unique hats. How rare is that?!   Sheng listens as Kirk tells us how he feels about health care The last time I'd spoken to Sheng was over five years ago, and I remember asking him what he was doing, and he replied, "I'm a [ insert job name ], but I'm going to be a comedian." And that he did. "Hats off" to him! (Sorry, couldn't resist.) He's coming to do a charity comedy show in Houston Tuesday, September 22nd at 7:30p. Pre-sale tix are $20, with 2-item minimum purchase at Laff Stop. Proceeds help survivors of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan that wiped out entire villages with mudslides. If you've not heard of Tzu-Chi, they're a very active group and famous for being on the frontlines in time of disaster; they don't just collect money and sit on the sides. They are in there getting down and dirty and getting stuff done. Hope to see you folks there! (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
6:27 pm	Best and Worst Wake Up Calls BEST: getting a phone call from Japan and hearing Moe-chan speak English to me. Thank you, Moe-chan. You TOTALLY made my day! This was especially nice after waking up at 7:00am in a cold sweat from having my first nightmare in a very long time and not being able to go back to sleep. Little Moe (pronounced "Mo-eh") had been practicing hard all week so she could say a few sentences to me in English. Apparently the stress from reciting those lines in English got her body really tense: Here she just looks a little nauseous having to tolerate my awful attempts at Japanese conversation: Finally, when saying goodbye and an oh-so-sweet "I love you!" she finally relaxes a tiny bit - but still has a death grip on the phone with both hands: Thanks to Hiroko for the action shots. :) ========== WORST: Having to deal with apartment's new management ... again and again. Me: Hi, I don't know why I got a notice for not having paid my rent. I have it automatically set to deduct from my checking account every month. Apartment's New Management (ANM): With the new management, we don't have that anymore, and don't know if we will ever have that. If you bring in a money order in today, we'll waive the late fees. Me: OK, can I have the exact total of rent plus utilities? ANM: No, we don't know the exact amount. They're still figuring it out. [ cue my rolling of eyes ] Your best bet would be to pay what you paid last month. If you end up paying a little more, that amount will be credited towards your next statement. Me: And what if I end up short a few bucks? Would that just be tacked onto the next statement? ANM: Well ... then we would bill you for that amount and you'd have to come in and pay that, again via money order. So, we advise you to maybe pay a couple bucks more so that doesn't happen. To say that they are concerned only for their bottom line seems something like an understatement. Is that the norm? Or only because I live in this particular apartment complex? Also, I can't get straightforward answers to inquiries, like: "Have you added freon to my A/C yet?" and, "There are big gaping holes in my weather stripping, you do realize that all my A/C is just going out through those holes?" So far, I've "only" had to call them 4 times and talk to them in person about it once, only to get answers like, "Well, you should test it by turning the dial to 70F so we know if they did it or not," and "Don't you have a foundation problem? The weather stripping will NEVER be perfect." Well, I'll keep thinking about the BEST wake up call ever and Moe's adorable voice and it'll be all good. :) (Comment on this)
Monday, August 31st, 2009
2:09 am	The Blingest Rims I've Ever Seen Had me speechless. So you can't really tell what the rims look like from afar ...   So here they are in all their up-close-and-personal glory. Aiyaaa. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
3:23 pm	"N'awlins" and Baton Rouge, Louisiana With the Fam: Days 3 and 4 For our last day in New Orleans, we went on a tour of Laura Plantation. Mrs. Jang was right when they said they had a lot of very interesting stories on the tour. We also visited neighboring Oak Alley Plantation, which was more picturesque and great for photos. That evening, Leon, their son, who my brother and I have been friends with for a long time also, drove all the way out from Baton Rouge to join us for dinner. He invited us to visit the LSU campus on our way home, and we thought, why not? We missed you, Howard! [ see all photos ] Leon was kind enough to be our personal tour guide around LSU. We'd been there a looooooooong time ago for a table tennis tournament, but definitely did not tour the campus in detail like we did that day. Leon also told me that visitors to LSU were supposed to engage in a ritualistic activity before leaving LSU ... so of course I went ahead and did it (I asked my dad to join me, but he declined): Yeah ... I pretty much regretted doing that. My body really ain't what it used to be. I was nauseous pretty much for the rest of the day. Ugh! Thanks to the Jang family for hosting us in Louisiana. Come visit us soon! :D (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
3:03 am	"N'awlins", Louisiana, Days 1 and 2 My parents had been wanting to visit some family friends who live near New Orleans for a while now, and the opportunity arose pretty recently. They asked me to join them (my mom claims that I make it more fun for them, haha), so off we went. Me 'n Mom being silly in front of the Mississippi Day 1 was just driving (~6 hrs / 370mi). That evening, Mr. and Mrs. Jang explained in detail the tours we could go on the next day. My parents entrusted me with planning our itinerary, and so they were basically forced to do what I wanted to do. :) It consisted of a walking tour of the French Quarter (my first choice was actually a bike tour, but ... I think I'll have to do that with other like-minded people, heh), and then a swamp tour. THAT was awesome. :) While headed to Jackson Square for the walking tour, a lady who saw we were blatant tourists told us she was headed that way and kindly walked with us in that direction. She told me a little about herself and how she'd moved from Arizona to New Orleans, and that if we had a chance we should go check out the Garden District. If we wanted to take a horse carriage out there, she highly recommended a man by the name of Marlin Malloy. "That's my ex-husband," she said. "Now I don't recommend him as a husband or a father, but he's a damn good tour guide, and you know he must be good if I'm recommending my ex-husband to you!" We shared a laugh, and parted ways. Never got to see if I could find Mr. Malloy amongst the horse carriage drivers and tell him that his ex-wife had recommended me. :) I have never been interested / good at history, but I actually learned a lot about Louisiana history on all the tours we took. So excuse me if my captions are a little long-winded, I'm excited that I learned a thing or two on this trip. :) See the whole story in ze pictures! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
6:24 pm	Blue Label Lounge: Racist I know what you're thinking. I've probably just jumped the gun, jumped to conclusions, didn't really give them a chance. Well, this is my story of what happened on the evening of Saturday, August 8th, and you can derive your own conclusions. After having a major blast at Alice's wedding, a bunch of us still were not sated and headed out for post-wedding clubbing. Friends brought friends, and we ended up with a group of 12 people, 11 Asian (9 dudettes, 2 dudes), and 1 Caucasian (yay for Tree Frog for being the token white guy!). An initial group of 4 ladies had gotten there first, and were turned away from the door after a brief dialogue: Bouncer: Are you with the private party? 4 Ladies: No ... Bouncer: Sorry, if you're not with the private party, we can't let you in, there are too many people. While waiting for us, they observed that non-Asian people were being let in just by showing their IDs and without the same questioning. We arrived, and we were turned away with the same dialogue. Still in disbelief, we decided to test the system. We asked token white guy Tree Frog to try getting in. And sure enough, they let him in without even asking him if he was with the "private party". So, we butted heads with them some. While doing so, people came and went, and after some time, Tree Frog asked, "Look, if it really is a numbers issue, I've seen about 10 people leave, and we have about 10 people in our party. What's up with that?" No answer. Management was talked to, and they kept mute as we spoke of their unfairness. Another group of partygoers, a mix of whites, Hispanics, and Asians, was also turned away while we were giving the manager of piece of our minds. One of the ladies in the initial group was surprised because she'd just been to Blue Label the night before at an all-Asian party. After a while though, we just weren't that direly in need of giving them our money anyway, so off we went. And while my remaining clubbing days are numbered, I won't be tapping Blue Label Lounge for business if I have a choice. Aside from that, I was glad we were able to have a post-wedding hurrah for Alice and Chun. I was definitely buzzing very well. :) [ to the pictures! ] * I suppose one remaining possibility is that if there actually WAS a private party going on there, that it was hosted by someone who had a thing against Asians. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
5:59 pm	Thanks, Arachnophilia Googling "free simple html editor" today brought up Arachnophilia in the results. It sounded familiar ... turns out it was the same software that I had used many years ago (probably circa 2000). Even with major updates to the software, the site hadn't changed much; the words "Arachnophilia is CareWare" still remained at the top of the page. I'd forgotten what that meant, guessing it was some variation upon shareware, like postcardware or something. Reading further for clarification, I came across a paragraph that I'd always kept with me, but as usual had forgotten the source: So here is my deal: stop whining for an hour, a day, a week, your choice, and you will have earned your copy of Arachnophilia. Say encouraging words to young people, make them feel welcome on the planet Earth (many do not). Show by example that we don't need all we have in order to be happy and productive. The selective bolding is by me, showing the words that resonated with me so long ago and helped shape who I am by just a little bit. Common sense, for sure, but to actually put it into practice? Not so easy. At the time when I read this, it made me question if I'd ever been made to feel welcome on this planet. A very touchy subject for me, since people have made fun of me since the beginning of time, and then on top of that my whole sense of identity was hurled into a black hole of confusion while living in China. (I've come out of that hole since, yay!) But even so, with careful thinking, the answer was ... yes. To the teachers, mentors, and peers who consciously made and make the effort to make me feel comfortable in a sea of derision, jealousy, insecurity, and negativity, thank you. And I guess that's why it stuck. And then the thought that followed was: well, if people were kind enough to do it for me, then I hope I can be that person to someone else. Yeah, I think I saw that movie Pay it Forward around that time too. So this seems like a lot of strange mush to have written regarding some html editor, but it's really not about the html editor at all. I thank Paul Lutus for his hard work on it of course, but more so for positively influencing my thoughts and actions for the last 10 years ever since I read his words. Oh, and I did download and use Arachnophilia. Perfect fit for my needs today. :) (Comment on this)
Monday, July 6th, 2009
9:59 pm	July 4th: I Scream for Ice Cream! Highlight of my weekend: we made ice cream from scratch (save milking cows and harvesting eggs from chickens)! But first, my favorite shot of the weekend: Yes, Sammy the pomeranian got a "lion cut" for the first time. This dog is incredibly cute, and is still incredibly cute, but his new haircut made me laugh out loud. And then for some reason watching him poo just made me crack up uncontrollably. Sorry Sammy! :) After a lot of hard work in the blazing heat (mostly thanks to Uncle Charlie and Jason!), we finally got our ice cream. It was SOOOOO good!!!! [ see the rest of the pictures! ] Oh, and let's not forget the video clips. This is the first of the short series of videos that we took, from the Round Top parade, from ice cream making, and from playing with sparklers at night. By putting your mouse over the video you can click on the thumbnail on the right to go to the next video. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 1st, 2009
2:29 am	You Should Always Dance at Weddings Congratulations, Violeta and Karthik! So, instead of the regular ol' rehearsal dinner, we were instead asked to come out for a dance rehearsal. For what? A surprise short dance routine that interrupted their first dance: (link) My date to the wedding was pretty cool. He accompanied me the whole day (I'm talkin' 15 hrs here) and he even slow danced with me in the middle of the room while there was a mass exodus going on behind us. Wedding by Violeta + Karthik Makeup by Jen Ma Hair by Andrea Schutter Dress by David's Bridal Pleasant Companionship by Tree Frog Attitude by me. :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
6:10 pm	All Look Same? I've gotten back into table tennis recently, and on top of that I've just met someone who went to college with Whitney Ping, and so I thought I'd bring back this poll from 2001 since I was reminded how I was once mistaken for her. If you do a quick search for her online, you'll learn she's an Olympic table tennis player (I enjoyed this article). For anyone who ever thought I was decently good, let me put this in perspective: I know without a doubt she could whump my rump left-handed and possibly blindfolded. She says she practiced 5 hours a day while training full-time in Sweden; I can barely get through 2 hours playing recreationally without feeling like I'm 70 and have knocked my back out. [ vote ] [ see results ] Personally, I don't think I look like her, even after scanning through more recent pictures. (Today's blog post title was brought to you by the AllLookSame.com. I was forwarded this site a long time ago and never took the test, but the name of the site just stuck in my head.) (1 Comment |Comment on this)