Hello again

Wow. How long has it been since I’ve been here?

I came across this old blog again yesterday and had a blast going down memory lane. I also checked my stats page and was shocked to see that my blog had a steady flow of visitors every day–mostly to visit one particular post I had written back in college – “Minimal Responses”. To all you communication majors out there who chanced upon that entry because it’s the third from the top when you google “minimal responses” — thank you for reading and SO sorry that you wasted your five minutes reading my rant, haha!

So I guess to kick start the blog again, I should probably start with some life updates — what’s happened since my last post?

Well…I married my long time boyfriend (just celebrated our 10 year anniversary last year), I left my consulting job to work in-house at a very prestigious University, and I had a baby. Needless to say, life is just a tad bit different these days. I often find myself at the end of the day exhausted, sleepy, and not really wanting to do a whole lot (but honestly, this doesn’t sound much different from before, HAHA!).

So why am I writing here again? Because I want to. This blog is filled with SO many memories and SO much randomness, I hope to be able to continue to document my thoughts and my current events as much as possible so in the decades to come, I can continue to return here from time to time to take trips down memory lane.

So here’s the first of hopefully many more blog posts to come. 🙂

A New Meaning to Toilet Humor

So H was shipped off to Houston last week and won’t be back till tomorrow night. At first, we thought it’d be like a normal business trip–didn’t realize that this time he’d be working like 16-18 hour shifts. Throw in the time difference between Texas and New York and he was basically unreachable for the past week.

After being unreachable for the first few days, he finally called me today.

H: It’s raining here today, but I think you’ll like it here, it’s warm.

C: It’s not raining here, but it’s cold… 😦

*Flush*

C:…Was that the bathroom?

H: Yeah, I had to pee, so I thought I’d call you while I went on my bathroom break.

C:…

H: Okay, going back to work–bye!

I guess it’s sweet that he thinks to call me to say hi whenever he can. haha

Is it 2012 already?!

Woah. Less than 10 posts before was my Resolutions post! Where has all the time flown!

This year has been quite eventful:

• Started working full time as a compensation consultant
• Walked for graduation!
• 4 years ❤ (4.5 coming up…but I guess .5 years aren’t really worth getting excited over anymore hahahah)
• Went to Key West, FL and Cozumel, Mexico (kinda…)
• STARTED DRIVING! (ZOMG! I KNOW! GET OFF THE ROAD PEOPLE!!!)
• Started my career as a grad school student!
• Attempted dragon boating…and failed
• joined my group’s softball team

However, as with last year, I wanted to do a recap of my year and my expectations for the coming year.

1) Relaunch my online shop

I DID IT! I relaunched it, but as with last time, it was a complete dud…so I ended up throwing out/donating most of the things that I had hoped to be able to sell. I needed to clean out my room a bit to rid myself of all the clutter.

2) Study for the GMATS & take them hopefully before work begins

Well, I didn’t take them before work started, but I took them anyway…so I guess that counts!

3) apply for Grad school at Baruch (part time)

And so….the death of my nonexistent social life…

4) Read Harry Potter and the Half-blooded Prince & Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I KNOW I KNOW! 😦 I really need to get on this!

5) Crochet a hat…and scarf…and mittens

Yeah….my hopes to learn how to crochet completely went down the drain…

6) lose five pounds

I think I did the exact opposite. Work has made me gain 5 pounds instead. However, since my parents left to go to China, I’ve lost a few pounds cause I haven’t been able to eat anything good 😦

7) Save at least 10% of my annual salary

I honestly have no idea where all of my money goes…

8)  Rent out the studio condo

Too bad this doesn’t help alleviate my “i-don’t-know-where-all-my-money-goes” problem…

9) Finish reading DaVinci’s code

I don’t even know where my book went…

10) Read Super Freakonomics

I started it! I’m up to chapter 4! …or 5…

 

OKAY! So for 2012, my resolutions are:

1) Lose 5 pounds

2) Save at least 10% of my annual salary

3) Clean out my room (i.e., throw out old  and irrelevant notes, clothes i’ll never wear again, random crap i don’t need…)

4) re-format my desktop (i’ve been meaning to do it…for ages…but I have too much to back up so I’ve been reluctant to)

5) Finish watching Sunshine Happiness, Drunken to Love You, and all those other taiwanese dramas i’ve begun but haven’t had time to finish…

6) Pass my accounting course with at least an A- (yeah, my standards have gone down..HAHA)

7) Figure out how CPA prep and exam reimbursements work

8) Record more songs! I’ve missed singing…

9) Manage my time better so I have more time to do my own stuff!

10) Go on a vacation! I think I deserve one!

11) Cook/bake more!

就是看透了

人家说猪朋狗友就是那些只会出来跟你吃的喝的， 那， 那些连吃和喝都不会出来的又算什么呢？难道他们就是连猪连狗都不如？

There was a time during these past few years when I have gotten so depressed and worked up over things that shouldn’t matter to me–after all, if it really was so important and really was so worth it, then it wouldn’t just disappear so easily. During that time, my mom told me something that was similar to what was written up above. I don’t often agree with most of the things that she says–especially as of lately since she’s been doing nothing but getting on my nerves about financial matters. However, there was something that she said back then that really helped me get over everything.

“In life, there are many people who come and go. However, not everyone who comes into your life will stay, but the ones who do, are the ones who you should be cherishing.” (at this point, she nudged-nudged-winked-winked me and added “family”)

and she’s right. If I gave it my 100% and it wasn’t enough, then why fuss over it?

It’s great to know that ten words can answer so many things.

Ambiguity: An Interpretative Independent Short Film

For my final project for Advanced Film Editing, I wrote, casted, edited, produced, filmed, and directed a ten minute short film on my own. The film is basically my own interpretation of the song, Ai Mei (AKA Ambiguity) by Rainie Yang. The voice overs in the film were just the lyrics of the songs translated and moved around. The film was writtern/story boarded and filmed within the span of three days, and one day was spent location scouting. I was trying to go for a sad and almost sappy feel with soft tones and images.

Hope you all enjoy 🙂

Part One:

 

Part Two:

Adventure Time in Key West & Cozumel with Carnival

This past month I took a one week long vacation with my family & Henry. We went on a cruise to Key West, Fl and Cozumel, Mexico. Our choice of cruise line was Carnival. We departed on 1/10 at 6 am to get to JFK to catch our 8:30 am flight to Miami. After arriving at Miami, we hailed a taxi to take up to the port to get onboard.

However, as much as I hoped it would’ve been a funfilled vacation, it wasn’t—in fact, it was rather disappointing because of the décor, the service, the weather, and my immune system.

1.  Décor

One word: Tacky. Compared to the Royal Caribbean cruise ship I went on two years ago, Carnival’s ship looked super tacky. In addition, the dining room was so dim and dark that it just felt somewhat uncomfortable to sit in. The main lobby was this ugly teal color mixed with gold which just didn’t look good—it didn’t look as grand. In addition, the facilities sounded GREAT on paper, but in person, it was just okay. I LIKED that there were two whirlpools on the ship because the Royal Caribbean only had one, which made it annoying cause it was always filled with a lot of old people…so I didn’t want to go cram myself in as well. In addition, the pool was a lot larger, but FRIGGIN COLD—the water was FREEZING COLD and salty as heck—but I expected it to be salty. The water slides—which captivated me the MOST, was disappointing. No where on the website did they say that the water slides were ONLY for KIDS—NO WHERE! However, when I got there, they told me it was only for kids. Then the guy looked me down and smirked and said, “But you can go on too.” Look, I know I’m short -_-;;.  The mini golf court was indeed incredibly mini. I didn’t get to use it, so I won’t comment too much on it. The fitness center however, was a LOT more welcoming than the one on the Royal Caribbean—I enjoyed it quite a bit…aside from the immense nudity experienced in the sauna & steam room…

 

2. Service

Horrible. Just simply horrible. Well, fine, the waiter who served us was super nice, as was our room attendant, but there were some horrible ones. I understand that when on a cruise, they like to encourage all passengers to get to know one another, especially since seating is often limited. I travelled in a party of 6, so we weren’t a small group. For lunch one day, we decided that we wanted to go to the fancy restaurant to see what they had to serve there. When we got there, the dining room was basically empty except for a few parties. However, they decided to seat my party of 6 (50% of which didn’t even speak English) with this one, poor Hispanic lady who didn’t speak English either. It wasn’t like they didn’t have seats—they had plenty of LARGE tables that were just sitting there, but they just decided to cram two of us onto a table of four with that lady who took up two seats, and then MOVE two additional two seaters next to the table so that ALL of us would fit. Now, wouldn’t it have been easier to just place us at a larger table? Especially since neither parties could even communicate with one another? My parents started complaining to me in Chinese,  and the waitress who seated us clearly saw that we weren’t satisfied, but she had the audacity to cross her arms, tap her foot and then ask us in an annoyed voice, “Is something wrong?!” Besides that, service during lunch is just incredibly unorganized. My parents and my aunt had to wait a good twenty minutes after my brother, my boyfriend, and I finished our desserts before they even got their own desserts—and they only managed to get their dessert because we kept bugging them to get it for us. The waiters just don’t have good communication with one another during lunch. In addition, they’re very stubborn—they REFUSE to pay attention to ANY guests OUTSIDE of their zone, even if they see us waving our hands furiously, they just ignore it. It really pissed me off how badly organized and how badly trained some of the staff members were.

Another annoying thing with carnival is that they LOVE taking pictures of their guests—at ANY given opportunity. Everytime I turned around, there was a staff member there with a camera asking to take my picture. After they take it, they’d develop it for us to see and would charge us $20 for them. We didn’t even get to pick what size we wanted either. This is a HUGE problem—it’s not eco-friendly, and it’s friggin annoying. I have my own camera—I don’t really need you to come up to me every five minutes to take a picture of me.

One last thing that I wasn’t satisfied with in regards to Carnival was the lack of support when it came to getting to a new port. There weren’t really any support or material to tell us what each port had or even a map to better navigate around the ports with. In addition, the amount of time allotted at each location wasn’t too long, so it limited all travelers with regards to where we could go.  As a result, Key West wasn’t fun because it seemed like all there was to do there was to go bar hopping…which you can’t really do when you’re with your family and your parents are conservative. When it came to Mexico, our ONE shore excursion was cancelled due to the weather, so we stayed on board instead of venturing out because of the weather and our lack of plans.

3. Weather

We chose a horrible year to go to Mexico. It hailed. Yes, it HAILED in MEXICO. Florida was beautiful. Mexico was rainy, cold, went, WINDY, and icy. That’s basically all I have to say about weather.

4.  My immune system

I always thought I had a pretty decent immune system, but I was proven wrong. I got motion sickness all four days of the cruise—though I’m pretty sure it’s because the ship was pretty tiny (only 70,000 in tonnage) so it rocked like crazy—esp when combined with this weather. On top of motion sickness, on the third day, I came down with a fever—yes, a fever! Then my fever went away and I was left with a cold and a throat infection which then morphed into an ear infection as well on my plane ride home.

So yeah, that was my trip in a nutshell. In conclusion, I really hope to revisit Mexico and Keywest…just probably not with my whole family—probably just with my boyfriend or with a few friends and I will NEVER embark on a cruise with Carnival ever again.

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2010 just ended two days ago. In retrospect, 2010 was a year that was filled with many things. To sum everything up, here’s a brief timeline:

January 2010:

– Went to Puerto Rico

– Started my first semester of senior year

– Started working on my two semester long honors project

February2010:

– applied for an internship at one of the big four accounting firms in the US

– successfully managed to pull together a chinatown trip for my school in celebration of CNY–40 people attended

March 2010:

– scored two phone interviews and 1 office visit with PWC

April 2010:

– Passed the interviews and office visit and officially extended an offer to intern at the Philly office of PWC

May 2010:

– Got 4 A’s and 1 A- for the semester

– completed my first semester of honors research

– found an apartment to sublet for the summer

June 2010:

– moved to Philly for the summer

-Started working at PWC

– turned 21 (and no, i did not get wasted)

– saw SHE & Gary Chaw in concert

– went to the casinos with just Henry & won $60 (not a lot, but we didn’t take any money out either -_-)

– 3 years ❤

July 2010:

– went to longwood gardens & virginia beach (had one of the best crab cakes i’ve ever had)

– drove on the highway for the first time (and almost drove into a ditch)

August 2010:

– extended an fulltime offer to work at PWC upon graduation and successfully transferred my offer to the NYC office to be closer to home

– became a home owner–purchased a studio condo in the heart of Philly

– finished compiling the data needed for my honors project

– bought my first pair of designer glasses

– met and interviewed an executive producer from MTV for my honors project

September 2010:

– Began my last semester at college

October 2010:

– purchased cruise tickets for a trip in 2011

November 2010:

– Successfully finished my first collaborative film & began my independent film project for class

– Saw Hins Cheung & Kate Tsui in concert

– baked my first ever pecan pie and banana pumpkin pie (AND IT DIDN’T BURN~!!!!!)

December 2010:

– Went to Poconos with Henry’s family for christmas

– completely wrote, filmed, edited, and produced a 10 minute film on my own

– finally completed my 2 semester honors project & passed

– graduated from college with honors with a BA in both business and economics and media and communications studies with a concentration in Accounting.

 

Phew. That took a lot for me to remember what had happened, hahah.

SO, what does this mean for 2011? I mean, heck, i’m a college graduate now! I’ll be starting work full time officially on February 15. I have many goals for this year that I hope to be able to reach, and they are as listed:

1) Relaunch my online shop

2) Study for the GMATS & take them hopefully before work begins

3) apply for Grad school at Baruch (part time)

4) Read Harry Potter and the Half-blooded Prince & Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

5) Crochet a hat…and scarf…and mittens

6) lose five pounds

7) Save at least 10% of my annual salary

8) Rent out the studio condo

9) Finish reading DaVinci’s code

10) Read Super Freakonomics

I hope that by 2012, my list of new years resolutions will include graduating from grad school/starting grad school and then eventually studying and taking the CPA exam. I really hope to be able to pass at least two parts by 2014.

However, before we get to 2012, some events to look forward to for the year are:

1) Cruise to mexico!

2) Starting work on V-day

3) Graduation ceremony in May (mine and Henry’s)

4) apps time

5) 4 Years ❤

6) turning 22…jeez…

Shop-a-holic?

I’ve been doing a lot of shopping lately–like a LOT. I think it’s cause I’ve been stressed out about school, so i turn to shopping as a way to breathe. This is NOT healthy. I’m starting to deplete my life savings (well…maybe not my LIFE savings, but my savings). I’ve never been so financially unstable before–do you know how scary it is to NOT know how much i actually have in my account? I blame the stupid condo my parents forced me into buying -_-;;.

In the span of three weeks, i bought three dresses–that’s an average of one dress per week. And why? Because they were on sale and looked pretty and I could wear it to work. That last one has been my excuse to buy more expensive things recently. My mom told me I’m not allowed to buy anything unless it was work related. So I buy anything i can get my hands on that I could wear for work. Damn it. Well, at least i know for sure I won’t be lacking any summer-y, fallish, autumn-esque clothing when I actually begin working.

what exactly has been fueling my spendings? Hautelook and the fact that I’m only ten minutes away from an outlet. I can’t resist a good bargain, especially if they’re for dresses. Dresses are my weak spots–that and skirts, but dresses in particular because I don’t have to worry about WHAT to match it with. This saved me during the summer when I would wake up late and have to rush to get ready. However, I only had one dress that i could wear for work, so that was slightly inconvenient. I love dresses! They’re girly, hassleless, and quick ways to look nice without trying too hard.

So what have I bought recently?

From Express:

I really like the whole faux 2 piece skirts, cause it gives the layered look without having to actually wear all the layers. The lace detailing adds to it cause I’ve been very into lace recently… and it was on sale at the outlets for $17

From 555: a black dress with a cowl neck, called “Cell”, but i can’t find a picture of it. It has this cell-like gathered texture/pattern in the middle of the dress, right in front of the gut area, which hides imperfections well. It was the most expensive of the three–$21.

From My tribe: A beige, faux two piece, bubble dress called “Rose”, but i can’t find a picture of it either. It’s very cute, but shapeless, so now i can finally use the belts I bought! It was only $10.

Album Review: Wang Lee Hom 18 Types of Martial Arts

Okay, this will be the THIRD consecutive post i’ve had about Lee Hom Wang…I swear, this time there will be SOME content, instead of me being a fan girl.

I will be reviewing both his movie, “Love in Disguise” and his new album, “18 Types of Martial Arts.”

First off, the album:

“18 Types of Martial Arts” is a continuation of Lee Hom Wang’s “Chinked out” music, which started with his “Inner Sun and Moon” album. As with usual, his album did not disappoint me at all–I love it. The classical Chinese instrumental elements can be heard clearly in most if not every song. As with his last album, Lee Hom’s love for language manipulation can be seen in this album as well in the song “Du You Love Me”–I believe that this song was mainly made for his movie, cause the main character (played by Wang himself) was named Du Ming Han, and thus the title track for mister Du Ming Han was “Du you love me” because of the play on the first character. In his last album (i learned this from an interview), he had fun with the track “Ai De De Ti” (roughly translated as Loving Grandly/with Mannerisms)–“De Ti” also sounds like “Dirty” pronounced with a slang, which changes the WHOLE meaning of the title to “Loving Dirty-ly”. Clever Wang.

Some notable tracks include “The Things You Don’t Know”, “Bo Ya Jue Xian”, “The Daily Necessities of Life”, and “The 18 types of Martial Arts”, and “Needing Company”. There is a total of 5 music videos out right now, with four of them directed by Mister Wang himself. He had said that he titled this album “18 Types of Martial Arts” because he was trying out a lot of new things in music, so the phrase “18 types of Martial arts”, which I believe is supposed to allude to a diverse set of talents/skills, seemed to fit. For those who didn’t know, Mister Wang was working on the album, producing, writing, composing, directing the music videos, in ADDITION to starring and directing his very first movie–“Love In Disguise.”

Anyway, I digressed. Back to the tracks.

“The Daily Necessities of Life” was composed by Wang but written by Vivian Hsu (yes, the singer) and it’s a very meaningful ballad about a very simple life that the singer wishes to have with his loved one. It might as well have been the chinese theme song to the animated movie, “Up” because it fit so well. It’s a very cute song, the lyrics are very simple–it’s just beautiful.

“Bo Ya Jue Xian” is a collaboration between Ah Xin from MayDay and Mister Wang–second one since “Zai Mei Bian”. It’s proof that they work extremely well together. This song is another theme from the movie Wang directed. Bo Ya and Zi Qi are two mythical beings from ancient China who were both men. Bo Ya was very good at playing the  GuQin, and Zi Qi was his “zhi yin” aka, SOMETHING along the lines of soulmate in the sense that Zi Qi really enjoyed Bo Ya’s music, to the extent that listening to it would give him illusions. Bo Ya was really happy to find someone who appreciated his music so much, so he played all the time. Eventually, Zi Qi died and Bo Ya was devastated, who would he play his music for now? Out of grief, he snaps off the strings of his GuQin and never plays again. This story was one of the theme of the movie and a theme for this song. This song focuses more on how hard it is for someone to find a soulmate or someone who really appreciates and understand you. It’s a very interesting mix and it’s the only song whose music video was NOT directed by mister Wang himself.

“The 18 types of Martial Arts” is the title track. It’s quite catchy and you can hear the chinese influence distinctly in the song. I don’t really have too much to say about it other than that…

“The Things You Don’t Know” is another theme from his movie. This is a very beautiful ballad (jason chen on youtube has done a cover on this song quite well, so check it out if you have time 😀 ). The first few lines are so poetic: “Butterflies have to blink a few times before they can learn to fly, the night sky is filled with stars but only a few will fall” I know, everyone’s first question is “Wth? Butterflies blink?” This concern was addressed in the movie! It’s personification (or SOMETHING along the lines of that) and it’s damn beautiful! haha

“Needing Company” is another ballad of Mister Wang–he believes that ballads are the bread and butter (or should I say, “rice”) of the taiwanese music scene. It’s a very sad one that talks about his loneliness and desire for company as an artist because he is often alone. The music video, though directed by him, is too explicit for me to handle. I couldn’t stand watching him pretend to have sex with a woman. It looked too real for my liking, but the song itself is sad and heart breaking.

There is another notable song off this album called “Mei” aka, “Beautiful” and it’s so friggin catchy. It’s looping in my head right now. However, it sounds very justin bieber like to me, so i’m a little embarrassed to admit that it loops in my mind. The mv is baller–he looks like a total pimp–decked in a fur coat and all too!

Overall, I LOVE this album and I DO plan to PURCHASE it, as soon as I find a hardcopy at the store. 😀

Now…onto the movie:

Love In Disguise:

This is a very cliche love story about a star who falls in love with a very plain girl. The twist to this one is that Crystal plays the Bo Ya equivalent to Lee Hom, who plays the Zi Qi in here. He falls in love with her GuQin playing because her music is able to bring him illusions. As a result, he disguises himself as a country pumpkin and goes to the music school to find her. He is convinced after hearing the story of Bo Ya and ZiQin that they are the 21st century version of the pair (keep in mind both Bo Ya and ZiQi are guys…) and that he solely admires her music and is attracted to her music and not her. Nonetheless, in an effort to help her pursue her crush, he ends up realizing that he likes her. They share a romantic evening together under a tree and the next day, Lee Hom’s manager finds him and kidnaps him back home. Crystal realizes that he was just a star playing with her, a plain jane and is heart broken. However, Lee Hom returns at the end to help her father advertise for the classical music dept at the college to encourage enrollment rates, and as Crystal listens to him sing, she realizes that the roles have switched–She is now Zi Qi and Lee Hom’s singing skills is like Bo Ya’s GuQin skills.  They end up happily ever after!

The acting (on Lee Hom’s part) was only so so–I love Mister Wang Lee Hom, but his acting could use some improvements. The directing–I had some issues on certain scenes and certain things with it. Overall, it’s an alright movie–it’s quite short, only 1.5 hours. It’s definitely one of those movies that Lee Hom fans SHOULD watch, and it’s kinda like an advertisement for his new album since all the songs in the movie are from the album.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5. 0.5 added because of Lee Hom’s hotness.

Lee Hom Wang – 18 Martial Arts (I’m pretty sure I butchered his new album’s title)

SOOO, It’s been a while since I’ve last posted. LOVE IN DISGUISE IS NOW OUT! YOU SHOULD ALL GO WATCH IT.

Lee Hom’s new album is out as well. I’ve only heard it once. I want to wait until I buy his album before i listen to it again. At first glance, none of his songs really stood out to me, but his songs are usually ones that grow on me after i listen to it closely. In the mean time, here are three SUPER SWEET eye candies. WARNING: YOU MIGHT FALL MADLY IN LOVE.

IN ADDITION, Lee Hom is now ON youtube–“OfficialwangLeeHom” Go check it out, yo! 😀