I just finished reading the short story and I have to say it's very interesting. It's funny and ironic and it gives you a different perspective on how you look at life. Anyways, I really enjoyed and it's also a very easy read.
But I wonder how they adapted this story into the movie because it is a *very short* story. And examining from the movie's character list, I guess the movie is going to be completely different from the original story since the short story's character names are not in the move list. Or maybe the movie uses different names? Who knows? But I still look forward to this Christmas movie! It's Brad Pitt afterall.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Grand Cayman meets Gustav
I'll have to say this is probably by far the worst vacation I've ever had in my life. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.
Sat - the day of arrival
It was a hot sunny day and things seem to be going fine. We had a pretty good lunch overlooking the beach and after a bit of delay, we each received our keys to our hotel rooms and settled in our rooms. We then took a taxi to Georgetown and was planning to do some light shopping, only to realize that all shops close promptly at 5 in the afternoon everyday and do no open at all on Sunday. I was a bit upset but I figured it's only the first day, so I still have plenty of time to shop. After a day of long flight, we were all very tired so we had dinner and went to bed.
Sun - the beach day
Since no shops open on Sunday at Georgetown, we decided to spend the day at the beach. We were fully prepared with our protective sunscreen, beach towels, goggles and snorkeling gear and were ready to have some fun. Well, we did had "some" fun, maybe 20-30 minutes of it and it started to rain! It was only sprinkling at the beginning, but soon it was pouring. It was raining so hard that all the beach towels were soaking wet. I don't remember much about the rest of the day, it just suck.
Mon - Georgetown....nothing like the Georgetown in DC
In the morning, Addy & I went down to the beach and wanted to relax and get some tan but of course, it had to be cloudy. So, we gave up after spending about 30-45 minutes and decided to go change and begin the shopping day. We were all pretty excited about this because we read in many reviews raving about Georgetown shopping.
First of all, there were hardly anyone in the street, it doesn't feel like a tourist attraction place. Second, there weren't any stores there. I only remembered a couple clothing and jewelry stores, an ice cream parlor and a few restaurants. It was hot, boring and frustrating. It's by far the worst shopping experience I've ever had in all of my vacations. I found more things to buy while I was staying at a secluded ski resort up in the snowy mountains than this place.
Since everyone had such a great time shopping. We all decided to head back to the hotel and lay at the beach. We actually had a great time the rest of the late afternoon to evening. We had so much fun swimming and snorkeling at the beach and by nightfall, we moved to the jacuzzi and pool area to relax. We took so many pictures while we were snorkeling, and the fishes were so beautiful and colorful.
Tue - off to the Turtle Farm
We left early in the morning because we wanted to skip the crowd, but again, there were hardly anyone there. It felt like we had a private tour at the Turtle Farm. I guess the highlight of the Turtle Farm was that we could actually pick up the turtles and pet them and play with them. The snorkeling area was like a swamp, the walking trails look like someone's backyard who had forgotten to mow the lawn. The bird garden and the pool/waterfall were both mediocre. I guess it's exciting that I could see the fishes on the other side thru the glass from underneath the pool. Hmmm, but I could actually swim with the fishy in Hawaii, Key West and Mexico!
After the Turtle Farm, we visited "Hell" at Grand Cayman...I have nothing to say about this. Really, unless you have absolutely nothing else to do in Cayman, please don't waste your time!
Tue late afternoon - Lobster dinner
We went to a pretty nice restaurant and had a great dinner. Ming Ming and Sze ordered all-you-can-eat lobsters and the rest of us just ordered normal dinner set. But I really want to try the lobster, so I kept stealing the lobster from Ming Ming's plates. And I was so afraid that the waiter would see me, so I was carefully spying on the waiter, left and right, right and left and waited for that perfect moment and off I switched my fork with Ming Ming's and the lobster go into my mouth. It was delicious! :)
Tue evening - Decision 2008
We all settled back into our hotel rooms and planned to do some night swimming at the pool, only to find out that the nightmare had started already. The hotel management had left a memo at each guest room notifying that all hotel guests should arrange for the earliest flight and evacuate out of Grand Cayman as soon as possible due to the Gustav hurricane.
!?$()*&%^_)#*$%_()#$%($%&@#%$!????!#*(&$%
Above was my reaction.
It was pretty painful but after we gathered as a group and discuss all the pros and cons, we all decided to leave the island and book the next morning flight.
We did stick to our original plan and did some night swimming at the pool. But I think that's when Ming Ming caught his fever and eventually turned into bronchitis.
Wed - vacation cut short
Really, there's nothing more to write about this vacation. We packed, left early in the morning, got scam by the taxi driver, waited in line for hours in a no air-conditioning airport, boarded and landed planes a couple of times and eventually got back to Washington, D.C. airport.
Sat - the day of arrival
It was a hot sunny day and things seem to be going fine. We had a pretty good lunch overlooking the beach and after a bit of delay, we each received our keys to our hotel rooms and settled in our rooms. We then took a taxi to Georgetown and was planning to do some light shopping, only to realize that all shops close promptly at 5 in the afternoon everyday and do no open at all on Sunday. I was a bit upset but I figured it's only the first day, so I still have plenty of time to shop. After a day of long flight, we were all very tired so we had dinner and went to bed.
Sun - the beach day
Since no shops open on Sunday at Georgetown, we decided to spend the day at the beach. We were fully prepared with our protective sunscreen, beach towels, goggles and snorkeling gear and were ready to have some fun. Well, we did had "some" fun, maybe 20-30 minutes of it and it started to rain! It was only sprinkling at the beginning, but soon it was pouring. It was raining so hard that all the beach towels were soaking wet. I don't remember much about the rest of the day, it just suck.
Mon - Georgetown....nothing like the Georgetown in DC
In the morning, Addy & I went down to the beach and wanted to relax and get some tan but of course, it had to be cloudy. So, we gave up after spending about 30-45 minutes and decided to go change and begin the shopping day. We were all pretty excited about this because we read in many reviews raving about Georgetown shopping.
First of all, there were hardly anyone in the street, it doesn't feel like a tourist attraction place. Second, there weren't any stores there. I only remembered a couple clothing and jewelry stores, an ice cream parlor and a few restaurants. It was hot, boring and frustrating. It's by far the worst shopping experience I've ever had in all of my vacations. I found more things to buy while I was staying at a secluded ski resort up in the snowy mountains than this place.
Since everyone had such a great time shopping. We all decided to head back to the hotel and lay at the beach. We actually had a great time the rest of the late afternoon to evening. We had so much fun swimming and snorkeling at the beach and by nightfall, we moved to the jacuzzi and pool area to relax. We took so many pictures while we were snorkeling, and the fishes were so beautiful and colorful.
Tue - off to the Turtle Farm
We left early in the morning because we wanted to skip the crowd, but again, there were hardly anyone there. It felt like we had a private tour at the Turtle Farm. I guess the highlight of the Turtle Farm was that we could actually pick up the turtles and pet them and play with them. The snorkeling area was like a swamp, the walking trails look like someone's backyard who had forgotten to mow the lawn. The bird garden and the pool/waterfall were both mediocre. I guess it's exciting that I could see the fishes on the other side thru the glass from underneath the pool. Hmmm, but I could actually swim with the fishy in Hawaii, Key West and Mexico!
After the Turtle Farm, we visited "Hell" at Grand Cayman...I have nothing to say about this. Really, unless you have absolutely nothing else to do in Cayman, please don't waste your time!
Tue late afternoon - Lobster dinner
We went to a pretty nice restaurant and had a great dinner. Ming Ming and Sze ordered all-you-can-eat lobsters and the rest of us just ordered normal dinner set. But I really want to try the lobster, so I kept stealing the lobster from Ming Ming's plates. And I was so afraid that the waiter would see me, so I was carefully spying on the waiter, left and right, right and left and waited for that perfect moment and off I switched my fork with Ming Ming's and the lobster go into my mouth. It was delicious! :)
Tue evening - Decision 2008
We all settled back into our hotel rooms and planned to do some night swimming at the pool, only to find out that the nightmare had started already. The hotel management had left a memo at each guest room notifying that all hotel guests should arrange for the earliest flight and evacuate out of Grand Cayman as soon as possible due to the Gustav hurricane.
!?$()*&%^_)#*$%_()#$%($%&@#%$!????!#*(&$%
Above was my reaction.
It was pretty painful but after we gathered as a group and discuss all the pros and cons, we all decided to leave the island and book the next morning flight.
We did stick to our original plan and did some night swimming at the pool. But I think that's when Ming Ming caught his fever and eventually turned into bronchitis.
Wed - vacation cut short
Really, there's nothing more to write about this vacation. We packed, left early in the morning, got scam by the taxi driver, waited in line for hours in a no air-conditioning airport, boarded and landed planes a couple of times and eventually got back to Washington, D.C. airport.
That wraped up my 2008 summer! Well, at least China had a great Summer Olympics.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Google Chrome
I downloaded last night and gave it a quick try. I have to say I'm liking it so far. It's much faster than most browsers I've used (IE, Maxthon, Firefox, Opera). And it maximizes the browsing space b/c it's virtually clusterless. However, I read in a few blogs that it has memory leak issue, but I personally haven't seen that problem yet. I really like the "Find in page" feature b/c it highlights the location of the found keyword on the scroll bar.
One of the disadvantages is that Chrome doesn't support ActiveX. Since I use LogMeIn.com regularly, I'll have to use another browsers for that. Also, it's missing features such as mouse gestures, tabbing customization and plug-ins. And some sites such as http://hk.music.yahoo.com/ just doesn't load at all in Chrome. But all-in-all, I like it.
One of the disadvantages is that Chrome doesn't support ActiveX. Since I use LogMeIn.com regularly, I'll have to use another browsers for that. Also, it's missing features such as mouse gestures, tabbing customization and plug-ins. And some sites such as http://hk.music.yahoo.com/ just doesn't load at all in Chrome. But all-in-all, I like it.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Finally....my beach vacation!!!!
In just three more days, I'll be laying at the beach in Grand Cayman. I can't wait!!! My last vacation was my ski trip to Whistler at the beginning of the year....it's too long ago!!! But too bad Moby bubu can't come with us, I'll miss my bubu a lot. Next year, I'll be sure to bring my bubu to the beach so she gets to play with sand and bark at the ocean. :D
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
4th of July @ NY
So it's been some time since my last post. A lot has happened but was too lazy to update this. I was in NY again, during the 4th of July weekend, I had so much fun...well, so much too eat. We decided to stay 3 days/2 nights this time so that we could try some new restaurants w/o having to sacrifice returning to some good old places to eat. Hahaha....it's always about food.
I bought a Tokidoki for Hello Kitty mirror at the Sanrio store....cost me a small fortune! But absolutely beautiful!!!
I bought a Tokidoki for Hello Kitty mirror at the Sanrio store....cost me a small fortune! But absolutely beautiful!!!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Hello Masterpiece
I was reading Hello Kitty Hell and learned about another Hello Kitty exhibition! It's Hello Masterpiece by Leslie Holt, the exhibit is held from May 10 - June 21, 2008 in Missouri. You could download the color catalog or listen to the audio tour online. Amazing!!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Melting Pot Dinner
I had such a great time last night, I went to the Melting Pot for dinner with my friends. I love fondue so much that I subscribed to its newsletter and I'm glad I did. Melting Pot was running a 2-day special menu which include Ming & my favorite Maryland Crab Cheese Fondue in celebration of Melting Pot's anniversary.
Our waitress was very friendly and even look a bit like Drew Berrymore. She told us about the half-price special on wine under $50, so I couldn't resist and ordered a bottle for the table. And aside from ordering the special menu, we also added three order of lobster tails!!!! Because we had four pots, we decided to have a different chocolate fondue for each pot, Cookies-n-cream, White Chocolate, Yin Yan, and the special White Chocolate Apple Pie.
First Course - Maryland Crab Cheese Fondue
Succulent crabmeat blended with your choice of swiss or sharp cheddar cheeses and old bay seasoning.
Second Course - Strawberry Almond Spinach Salad topped with a Basil Infused White Balsamic Vinaigrette.
Third Course - Entrée with 3 oz. Center Cut Filet, Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers, Teriyaki Marinated Sirloin, Boneless and Skinless Breast of Chicken and White Tiger Shrimp Fourth Course Fourth Course - White Chocolate Apple Pie Fondue
Our waitress was very friendly and even look a bit like Drew Berrymore. She told us about the half-price special on wine under $50, so I couldn't resist and ordered a bottle for the table. And aside from ordering the special menu, we also added three order of lobster tails!!!! Because we had four pots, we decided to have a different chocolate fondue for each pot, Cookies-n-cream, White Chocolate, Yin Yan, and the special White Chocolate Apple Pie.
First Course - Maryland Crab Cheese Fondue
Succulent crabmeat blended with your choice of swiss or sharp cheddar cheeses and old bay seasoning.
Second Course - Strawberry Almond Spinach Salad topped with a Basil Infused White Balsamic Vinaigrette.
Third Course - Entrée with 3 oz. Center Cut Filet, Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers, Teriyaki Marinated Sirloin, Boneless and Skinless Breast of Chicken and White Tiger Shrimp Fourth Course Fourth Course - White Chocolate Apple Pie Fondue
Monday, May 26, 2008
Memorial Weekend in NY/NJ & HELLO KITTY!!!
With nothing else better to do this Memorial weekend, my friends and I decided to go to NJ/NY. Well...actually, there is a very important reason to visit NY this time. I saw a post from Hello Kitty Hell about a Hello Kitty exhibition by Tom Sachs in NYC. So, the mission of this trip is to see the Hello Kitty statue!!!
The collection is located at Gordon Bunshaft’s Modernist Park Ave tower and it includes one gigantic Hello Kitty, a 10-foot-tall Hello Kitty fountain, a 10-foot-tall Miffy fountain, and a My Melody statue. We took so many pictures, I just couldn't resist!!! And of course, we also went to the Sanrio store in Time Square. Unfortunately I didn't find anything special this time, just a pair of Hello Kitty eggs.
And on our way back to Chinatown, we walked by Garrett Popcorn and the sweet buttery smell is totally irresistable, so we bought some to snack in the car. We also tried a couple new Chinese restaurants in Chinatown this time and had my favorite 車仔麵 (noodle cooked in a cart) and Ming's favorite seafood dinner. As usual, we also visited New Jersey Mitsuwa Marketplace at Edgewater, which was holding a Gourmet Food Fair. They had sweet potato apple pie, dorayaki (red bean paste pancake), kaisen sanshoku bento box (ikura/salmon roe, uni/sea urchin and fish over rice) and many more Japanese specalities!!! There is also the Memorial weekend special, shark fin noodle soup. Writing this makes me hungry!!!
And the last stop of our trip is SHOPPING!!!! We really didn't have that much time left, so we only went to two stores in SoHo, then head on out to the Woodbury Outlets. And according to Ming, he's finally found a store where there are better men's clothes than women's and that's Uniqlo at SoHo.
The collection is located at Gordon Bunshaft’s Modernist Park Ave tower and it includes one gigantic Hello Kitty, a 10-foot-tall Hello Kitty fountain, a 10-foot-tall Miffy fountain, and a My Melody statue. We took so many pictures, I just couldn't resist!!! And of course, we also went to the Sanrio store in Time Square. Unfortunately I didn't find anything special this time, just a pair of Hello Kitty eggs.
And on our way back to Chinatown, we walked by Garrett Popcorn and the sweet buttery smell is totally irresistable, so we bought some to snack in the car. We also tried a couple new Chinese restaurants in Chinatown this time and had my favorite 車仔麵 (noodle cooked in a cart) and Ming's favorite seafood dinner. As usual, we also visited New Jersey Mitsuwa Marketplace at Edgewater, which was holding a Gourmet Food Fair. They had sweet potato apple pie, dorayaki (red bean paste pancake), kaisen sanshoku bento box (ikura/salmon roe, uni/sea urchin and fish over rice) and many more Japanese specalities!!! There is also the Memorial weekend special, shark fin noodle soup. Writing this makes me hungry!!!
And the last stop of our trip is SHOPPING!!!! We really didn't have that much time left, so we only went to two stores in SoHo, then head on out to the Woodbury Outlets. And according to Ming, he's finally found a store where there are better men's clothes than women's and that's Uniqlo at SoHo.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Strut Your Mutt Dog Parade, Bethesda, MD
It was a beatutiful day on Sat and was definitely the perfect weather for the doggies. A lot of people and doggies were already there when we arrived, but it wasn't as crowded as last year. Only one street was blocked off for the booths, compared to two streets of vendors from last year parade. I guess it has something to do with downturn of the economy because there were hardly any dog clothes booths. I was a bit disappointed because of it since I was looking forward to all those cute little puppy outfits. But I still had a great time with Moby and my friends and Moby was wearing her new red dress....super cute as always!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Iron Man Rules!
Finally saw Iron Man yesterday and I was genuinely impressed with the movie. Robert Downey Jr. was awesome and made me believe that if there's a Tony Stark/Iron Man in this world, then he is the man. The CG was realistic and I like the scene when he tried on the arm piece on the 3D panel and the funny 3D trash can. Overall, well-paced, good action sequence, good comedy and a good looking RDJ.
Robert Downey Jr. in Elton John - I Want Love MTV
Robert Downey Jr. in Elton John - I Want Love MTV
Saturday, May 10, 2008
On the hunt for a good Online Backup
So, I've spent the past couple of days searching for a good reliable online backup. I tested out a few of them with hugh free space (Scribd, Adrive, Mediamax-now called thelinkup) only to find out how much I don't like them.
Then I went on to read another tons of reviews/blogs on yet another list of online backup services (Mozy, HP Upline, Carbonite, Microsoft Windows LIve Skydrive, IDrive, IBackup, etc), and the conclusion is that I don't really like any of them either.
Finally I came across this blog about, dropbox and it looks so much simpler than the other online backup services. I'm still waiting for the beta invite, hopefully I'll get one soon. For now, I'll continue to rely on my local backup drive.
Then I went on to read another tons of reviews/blogs on yet another list of online backup services (Mozy, HP Upline, Carbonite, Microsoft Windows LIve Skydrive, IDrive, IBackup, etc), and the conclusion is that I don't really like any of them either.
Finally I came across this blog about, dropbox and it looks so much simpler than the other online backup services. I'm still waiting for the beta invite, hopefully I'll get one soon. For now, I'll continue to rely on my local backup drive.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Forbidden Kingdom
The story is based loosely on the Chinese literature Journey to the West (西遊記) but transformed to fit the Western taste. Overall it's a good entertaining movie but I'll have to say my favorite scene in the whole movie is the Jackie Chan vs Jet Li fight scene. I thought it was done beautifully and every punch and kick was well calculated. I'd love to see that again! Otherwise, the story is quite predictable with a few good laughs.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Cheat River White Water Rafting
It's been almost a year since I wrote my blog. And once again, I'm writing about my white water rafting trip. We went this past Sunday and Pak and Calvin decided to join us this year but since they are newbies so we chose Cheat river, a level 3/4 river. This time we have Ming, Rosa, Pak, Calvin and I on board, everyone else is busy. Overall, it was an OK trip because it's definitely slower and the drops are smaller too. I think Pak and Calvin were a bit bored but we had to get them started on a level 3/4 first. But next time, we can go back to level 5 rivers. But according to the guide, there aren't that many good level 5 in this area, so we'll see.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
SF & Whistler Ski Trip, Vancouver
We are back on earth and we had a wonderful vacation, it was nice to visit KK and his friends. There were too many good restaurants in San Francisco and we only had three days to taste them all. Trust me, we tried our best and you'd know if you have traveled with us to Toronto before! As you can see from the photos, the weather was only so-so there but KK kept saying that it's not normal and that we must have brought the rain with us to San Francisco. We went to dim sum twice because it was too good, even better Toronto and also had Japanese for a couple of meals. And of course, we did some typical see tourist attractions such as the Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf on San Francisco Bay, and Alcatraz "The Rock". Too bad we only looked at the Golden Gate Bridge from afar but we didn't have any more time to fit in any other activities.
After that, we flew to Canada for our ski adventure. And we must have brought the snow with us to Whistler, but then who cares if it snows 24/7, it is so beautiful there. Lucky I only had a 2 GB memory card with us, otherwise, I'd have taken too many pictures. We skied four days straight and still had covered only about 60% of the trails. There will still be plenty of trails to explore the next time when we return. The highest peek we visited was 6,900ft. It was awesome up there and we almost burnt out all of our energy to get down the mountain and we were walking like old people. On the first day, I fell pretty hard once while I was adjusting to powder snow and Teresa said I flipped over 180 degrees. In fact, one of my skis hit my head but I was lucky that I have my helmet on. Teresa fell a couple of times face-down on the third day because she was going down slope a bit too fast and lost control a bit. We had such a great time out there and would love to go back for the 2010 Olympics. That's it for this time, stay tune for our next adventure and I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!
To obtain more photos from our trip, please visit:
SF Pictures
Whistler Pictures
Videos
After that, we flew to Canada for our ski adventure. And we must have brought the snow with us to Whistler, but then who cares if it snows 24/7, it is so beautiful there. Lucky I only had a 2 GB memory card with us, otherwise, I'd have taken too many pictures. We skied four days straight and still had covered only about 60% of the trails. There will still be plenty of trails to explore the next time when we return. The highest peek we visited was 6,900ft. It was awesome up there and we almost burnt out all of our energy to get down the mountain and we were walking like old people. On the first day, I fell pretty hard once while I was adjusting to powder snow and Teresa said I flipped over 180 degrees. In fact, one of my skis hit my head but I was lucky that I have my helmet on. Teresa fell a couple of times face-down on the third day because she was going down slope a bit too fast and lost control a bit. We had such a great time out there and would love to go back for the 2010 Olympics. That's it for this time, stay tune for our next adventure and I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!
To obtain more photos from our trip, please visit:
SF Pictures
Whistler Pictures
Videos
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