Dude

What happened to my life?

Toys for Tots

We grew up poor.

We went from 3 kids living in the suburbs of Wisconsin to 7 kids in the projects of MA.
For some reason - I remember having Christmas trees during the holidays in Wisconsin.
In MA - none. I was never really sad over it. I was pretty oblivious to the fact that people were out shopping for gifts for everyone in their family. That everyone was "suppose to" not only receive a present, but little stocking stuffers and give gifts as well. In the poor-dung days during the Christmas season my mom would sign up for some charity and some random white dude with his kid would come around our house and give us presents for Christmas! I think this only happened two or three times and for the life of me I cannot remember what the toys were... but the important thing was how excited and happy i felt when this random dude would come with toys. Of course back then all I cared was about the toys and not where it came from or why it came, but years later i finally realized and appreciated this whole toys for tots thing.

So kids, yes, Christmas may be all commercialized and what not - but do you know how much happiness a shiny toy can bring to a kid?!

When I grew up and finally started making the mula - i found toys for tots through my work place and donated toys every year.

Well - this year, my company did NOT have a big box for TFT!! I was shocked, i was saddened, i was mad...
Okay so i looked up my company and they DID do TFT but just not at my location. Anyway, i googled all this TFT stuff and all the places that were participating were already finished!

I'm going to call a few places tomorrow that are on the toysfortots.org website and hopefully they are still participating. If not, i'm going to be reaaaaaaal sad this year.

So people please, donate to a organization that participates in spreading some holiday cheer. Look how well i grew up because of it!


.... it's really hard to blog and sc at the same time.

Oh Christmas Tree!

...oH Christmas Tree!!



how many presents do you have for meeeeeeee????

social netbooking

I'm thinking about joining Facebook.

Should i!?

How else would i keep track of my 5 friends??

Fa la la la LA la.....

Wow, I miss blogging.

Haven't had the chance to sit alone to type out my thoughts lately. I've actually been busy with after work activities. I've seen a musical, went to the zoo and saw squirrels, had home cooked meals again, been drinking more *yay*, and finally been getting a regular dose of SC.

So - did I ever tell you about the time I got stuck in an elevator for about 2 minutes? I don't know why, but i thought about this event when i was stepping out of the office elevator on my way into work.

So we're at D's apartment downtown right? And i remember someone carrying a laundry basket. And for some reason, the guys think its funny and fun to jump up and down in the elevator as it's going up.

boingy boingy boingy.

The elevator stops.

Ummm...

We pry open the elevator door to find that we're stuck half way between floors.

Laundry basket goes up and out first. Everyone else follows.

We had to take the stairs the rest of the way.

The guys still thought it was funny and fun.

So - will you guys be decking the halls with balls of jolly this year?

la la la la...

edit: wait... balls of jolly?! wtf?!

Pats vs Colts

HA-HA!
bitches

pumpkman

Day 3 at Home

Errands?!
ăăah... vietnamese markets.

2 in a row!

Go me!

Don't you hate it when you have to work extra hard before a vacation to take a vacation? Not only that, you know that once you come back you'll have work up the yin yang and probably work all the hours back that you took off. I want to move to Europe where EVERYBODY gets a month off for vacation. Thata be nice.

Anyway- does anyone know of an Asian-genre radio station? It'd be cool if I could drive home and hear random Vietnamese songs. It wouldn't be so bad singing along to Utada Hikaru when you're stuck in traffic. What did you say? Turn on my ipod? Put in a CD? Well, i have this weird thing where i actually like hearing the radio dj talk about nonsense, give me random information about a song/artist and give me the chance to win cool prizes... though i have yet to call a radio station... that's on my to-do-b4-i-die list. I wonder how much it costs to start a radio station? What if it was via internet, would it be cheaper? OOoO if i started my own radio station, i could play APC in between some Faye Wong and Andy Lau- how bad ass would that be? My radio name would be delilahkilledmydream. Too long?
You can call me dkmd for short.

Awesomely bad is a great adjective

I really wish I could blog at work. My mind spews out random thoughts when i'm trying to back information into a fake number that someone wants. I had a .4323 second thought of going back to Xanga because it has yet to be blocked at work, but then I was like nahh... not worth it. I'm not going to go back and forth on blogs depending on my work environment. I'm going to TRY to take some time in between me getting home from work and laying in bed to blog.

So... some random/not so random things going on:

I've picked up this awesomely bad habit where I wear my flip flops from my condo to the car, drive with them on, and switch to my heels once I get to work. I picked it up when I was driving a stick shift doing the whole stop and go thing for an hour for 2 hours a day. Needless to say, my feet were not happy in those heels. Anyway, now that winter is around the corner, my feet aren't happy with the nippy 5 minutes worth of cold it feels as my car is heating up. I need to find an alternative. Sneakers may be too much, i have to wear socks... take the socks off and put on my heels. Closed toe slippers may be too slippery on the bottom.... what else is there?? Hmm...

Speaking of awesomely bad habit, i don't know if this is a habit or a trait, but i am one lazy emmer effer. Sure, there are some instances where I get spurts of energy and i'll just want to clean or i don't mind doing stuff after i eat... but most of the time, damn, i just want to sit around and be amused. And by be amused i mean, where I sit around, not have to do anything and be amused. That's how lazy I am... since no one wants to amuse someone who doesn't talk back, i get bored and agitated real easily. I know, i could play one of the games i have, chat, watch t.v... but me? Lazy. Rather sleep the time away then find something to amuse myself with. It's a vicious depressing psychotic cycle. At least I've realized it. Step 2. Do something about it.

I have learned and followed football more than I ever had in my whole life this season. I know about my hometown team the Patriots, that's fine and dandy- But stuff like #1 losing to #13 in college football, all the big upsets? Colts 5-0? Packers 5-1? Redskins has never beaten the Packers? Patriots kicked the Cowboys' ass and Owens is a big penis? I know players' names now?!? WTF?!! How the hell was I able to retain this knowledge??? Two months ago, i didn't even understand what the heck 1st and 3rd meant.

SERIOUSLY. New hobby besides following football needed.

My BF calls me a fake fanatic. I kind of like it.

MmM...

2 more weeks until I get to go home.

I hope once i reach my mom's house, there's some weird vegetarian dish with cold rice sitting out on the table for me to eat so i can complain about it.

Good times.

In the Zone

I know I haven't blogged lately,

Can you blame me?

Football started.
House is on.

and my employer took my access away from me.

so no, you cannot blame me.


by the way, House and Cartoons together? how unbelievablyfreakingcute!

http://www.watchinghouse.com/

Top 10 Reasons Why I Blog

1. Obviously, I'm an expert at talking to myself. I don't think anyone really understands the magnitude of how much I actually talk to myself. There is a slight chance that I'm crazy. Sure, people have thoughts running through their head all the time, I get that. Me? I have full blown conversations with myself. I ask questions, answer them and ask back another question. I tell myself jokes, bad remarks that I giggle to... in my head, yes, i giggle to myself in my head. How the hell is it possible? i don't know... does blogging make me talk to myself less? absolutely not... but it makes my conversations "real" and known... that's what I'd like to think anyway.

2. I love talking about nothing important and hate talking about anything that is. Car accident, car gone and injured body? No details on that. A random one liner email from my dad? Loveee discussing that. Everything is so serious now a days, this blog is not.

3. Blogging takes way less energy than actual "talking". I know, I probably have to go to therapy because I dislike talking. Which would be a complete waste of money because i dislike talking.. do you think there will ever be therapy typing sessions? Actually, I dislike explaining... it's very emotionally draining to explain. That's why on a blog I can say, damn today sucked like a bitch and not have to say why. Sure, I could get asked why, but I don't have to answer.

4. My blog reminds me of myself. Do you ever forget who you are? What your personality is like? I do... i don't know how, but I do. My blog reminds me of who I am. Scattered, nonchalant, witty, and not modest. keke

5. I am in love with my online personality. What? Aren't you?

6. I've been an online addict since I was 14 and a half years old and I don't know how to stop. AOL chat days are gone, AIM chat days are gone; forum chat days are gone.... i have no one else to talk to about random stuff! Except....... for myself.

7. Me. Me. Me.

8. A really good way to try to remember how to spell and write correctly. I am emphasizing on the word try.

9. Pure amusement. I don't do this for anyone else but me. Blogging isn't for me to remember my days by, I rarely discuss what I do on a day to day basis or anything else way too personal in my life... what i write, i find amusing.

10. Someday, I want to be rich off of blogger. Blogger make me rich!


...I'm half kidding, but really, where else can i be like:

"Bill Belichick makes me question my loyalty." Discuss.

and get a 2 page answer from Maz?

ZOMG

I know I'm late with this (t.v. is still broken) but...

BRITNEY!!!
HOW
COULD
YOU
DO
THIS
TO
ME
?
?!
!?!??!?

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1568788&vid=174394

I had faith in your crazy psychotic self. You turned me onto POP! You started this! How could you?
Gahwd.... one of the worse.relationships.ever.

p.s. kanye get over yourself.

Golf

I think I've found my sport.

My mom has always been very protective of me. Being a girl, I "shouldn't run around so much" or "play with balls". You know, typical stuff like that... so... I didn't. Well, not that we had balls to play with anyway... but I just never got into sporty stuff, even in school. I sucked in gym class and assumed I was just naturally nonathletic because I was a small asian girl. Good excuse huh?

4th Grade was when i actually started disliking sports. One day at recess when I was NOT playing any sports... I was just walking actually, i got hit in the face with a football. Yes, it hurt, yes I cried. Yes I now had a fear of any flying balls coming towards me.

So that's why I think Golf is my sport. There's no running involved. No outs, no chasing, no catching, no flying balls towards me, no team to bother with, no coach yelling at you, no ugly uniforms and i heard there could be drinking involved.

So over the weekend i got really into trying to hit that damn golf ball. I've played before, but of course i naturally sucked at it. (Swung and miss and hurt my hand.) Well, with some concentration... I think I'm getting the hang of it.... and i actually like it... I'll also actually be getting my own customized clubs soon to fit my damn height.

But seriously, i never knew how hard it was to pivot your wrist.

Oh yeah, does anyone know where I can get Pochacco or Hello Kitty golf club holder thingies?

Thanks.

animed.hanh

Part 2.



Doesn't that look like i just colored it in with crayons??
I need to learn how to shadow/highlight. Any tips?
I might have to redraw it since the line came out kind of thick... i actually think it looks better smaller.

see.

and then even better...

The WW of Disney

I'm not much of a t.v. watcher. I saw commercials about High School Musical here and there...but really had no idea what it was all about. Until I went over a friend's house... a friend who has 3 kids and Disney is on almost always.

They did the dance moves to HSM. Cute.

Then Maz (who btw, is wayy older than I am) updates his gchat message to: HSM 2 <3
HSM!? A little old no!?

I believe they target a pre-teen audience. Yes, i'm pretty sure I saw that in the news.

So, finally, I was like whatever- Maz loves corny stuff as well as gangsta stuff... i kind of knew that about him. Shouldn't be a big surprise.

So my boss comes into my office the other day... sits down next to me and says,

"So I saw HSM2 over the weekend......."

Me: "uhhhhhhhhhh......"

edit: wth is wrong with blogger!

animed.hanh

Part 1.

Dude, I really suck at drawing legs.

I hope I finish this project...

On Getting Old(er)

I am feeling my age.

I can't do stupid/spontaneous things where I won't care about the outcome anymore. For example... sky diving... i remember when i was a young one i was all damn i want to do that (once i can afford it) yayyayay jump off a plane yay! Now... i'm like...ehhh no thanks, don't want to risk my life... rather spend the $ on normal things like on food or apparently a 500$ vacuum.

I can't go all out clubbing anymore in fear of someone taking a freaking picture of me and it being posted on myspace. Who started the whole camera in the club phase anyway? Do you know how retarded that is? I mean everyone is dancing and drunk and you all want to get together and pose for a freaking picture. Do you know what a bright ass flash does to a drunk person?! Yeesh...
Plus all the drunk fat people bumping into me...ehh.. no tolerence for that anymore, i just want to hit them. and all the dirty sweaty icky people in the dark....damn how was clubbing ever fun...

Actually, I can't even get drunk anymore. Well... I can, off of one drink. Thanks to no more HH.... thanks to not having friends... I digress.. so yeah, one drink. and it's not even a funny happy drunk, it's like, oh shit i'm tired i need to go home and sleep right now drunk. why!? why?! is it because of my tolerance?! is it because my 27 yr old brain can't handle the dizziness? Forget the meaning of life, what is the meaning of growing older??

Now... since I can't drink and dance for fun... I should be doing older more sophisticated activities right? Sipping latte at a cafe somewhere... playing golf/tennis... uh... um... what other sophisticated activities are there? damn don't tell me having kids is the ultimate sophisticated activity!?

See... so i'm stuck, I don't know what i should be doing for "fun" anymore (besides watch anime, and no, i will never ever grow out of that.)

Advice people... advice.

^_^v

Access!

I looooooooove the new girls who just started here. They showed me how i can get access my gmail at work.

Yes. This was very blog worthy (and worthy of my love as well).

Summer

It's summer... you're like duh- it's been summer for about 2 months now.
Well to me, it hasn't felt like summer. There are several reasons...

Back in the day when I was living with my parents, they didn't believe in air conditioning. Well, they did, but for like 2 rooms. That's it. The entire house would be hotter than outside, except for the basement, it was a bit cool down there... so I always felt the "heat" of summer when it was summer. I would be sweating my ass off in my own house...eating hot Pho. Damn it's good to be Vietnamese.

We'd have occasional summer cookouts, where my mom would try to grill everything possible, fish, cucumbers, tofu, whatever. It even got the the point where they built a gas stove outside where they can make the hot pho out in the hot weather, heh. I had a decent size backyard... green grass, a garden, some cheapo hammock from Vietnam where I would fall asleep on after work and then wake up with a start from being afraid of being bit by bugs.

Oh my god... i haven't gotten bit by a mosquito yet this summer! DUDE! That has got to be the most bizarre thing for me, i use to get eaten alive during the summer by mosquitoes, now..nothing... i don't know if i'm happy or sad... okay i'm happy, but a weird kind of happy... it means that I haven't hung outside in the evening during summer! the best part of summer for me was when the sun was down, there was a cool breeze going through the hot summer night... and i'd be outside with friends, talking shit about someone, while Linni was inside karaoking... heh, that's summer.

Now, i go from a home that's kept at a 71 degree temperature to an office that's kept at a 50 degree temperature... the only time i feel "heat" is when i leave it at 80 degrees in my car... so i can let the blood in my veins warm up from the 8 hours at work.... sigh... so right now, i'm sitting out on my mini balcony... just me, the spider and it's web, some Sapporo and the nice heat. It actually doesn't feel hot to me... it feels normal. So right now, this to me, is the beginning of my summer... I guess I can put on some karaoke and pretend Linni is singing.

I know, this post makes no sense, even more so than my usual posts.. but that's because the heat's affecting my head. goal!!

Rocking in my own world. .....errr living room.

For the BF's birthday I didn't buy him anything. There, I said it, I'm a bad gf. I actually thought about it... but not for very long. I'm just clueless like that. I decided to cook him that BBH recipe THAT HE GAVE ME instead. Which was a lot of work on my end, and it took more preparation than thinking and buying a gift. There, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

Anyway- so the BF decided he wanted to go out and buy something on his own for his birthday... and decided to get Guitar Hero II for the XBOX 360 (which, btw, i got for his bday last year... take away my negative points!) Anyway, this is a game where i can use my fast typing skills on.... if... I was typing with only THREE fingers. Yes, you're suppose to use 4... but I just can't use my pinky... it refuses to work! And then the combo middle and pinky finger? nah-uh, not working. But hey, if you guys ever want to hear me play the easy version of a rock song AND hear me sing along, give me a call! (paypal accepted...through the BF's account) Of course the BF is getting pretty good at it, the only non-rockstar like quality he has when he does is when he uses the "Star Power". Plus what big guy wouldn't look funny with a puny toy guitar? =P

So speaking of birthdays.... mine is coming up! This year, for some reason, I don't really care, I don't want to do anything special, I don't want to shop my ass off (which i normally do), i don't want any pinky st. dolls for my collection, all i want is some home made pho!! If this is cooked by my BF that's an EXTRA BONUS. But any home made pho would make my bday like YUM. Yup, that's all I want. Restaurant pho just isn't doing for me anymore. I guess as you get older you realize what is really important in life? no? I mean I knew food meant a lot to me, but home made food?! sigh...

On rocking at work:
Work has definitely picked up. I'm no longer sitting around twiddling my thumbs... but as you can see, i still have time to blog! Well, no matter how stressed out i get about this job, no matter how busy i am, i still feel bored. I really thought once i knew what i was doing and i had all this responsibility i would start liking it. Well, I don't. Shh... don't tell Flushie, but i'm going to apply for his company, work for the Japanese and have the possibility of going to Japan?! Boooooooonusssssssss. Oh yeah... first I have to figure out what the company's name is.

Damn you for being afraid of i.net stalkers flushie!

(Gross) Product Reviews:

Just a few thoughts that crossed my mind this morning as I was driving 5 MPH down the highway to work.

Neutrogena Lip Moisturizer is probably the best lip moisturizer i've used out there and trust me, i've used them all, from regular old chapstick to name brands like Origins and Aveda. They've all probably made my lips moist for about 3 seconds when i feel like i need to lick them to moisturize them again on my own causing my lips to peel, causing me to pick at them. Gross huh? I mean, I don't want a lip moisturizer where I have to apply every freaking 5 minutes. I want to apply maybe at max 3 times a day. Well, I gotta say, I think Neutrogena might be the one. It leaves a different kind of soft and there's no greasy feeling. There's no mint or cherry though for those of you who are into that kind of stuff (gross).

Another product is Yaz. Everyone's favorite topic to read about - Birth Control Pills... it's suppose to reduce your PMS and your period. Well, now that I've been on it for a full 3 months now I've gotta say... PMS is still there, but not a few days like it use to be, maybe more like 1 where I think the world is a shitty place and everything makes me cry. But the actual period?? 2 DAYS!? Could it be?? A little on the expensive side, but I guess it's worth it, so instead of 4 days of crying and 5 days of bleeding, it's been reduced dramatically. Who wants to be a girl again??

In other non-disgusting news, my best friend has started a blog (finally!)... so if you'd like to hear about what normal girls like to talk about you should definitely check her out and show your support. Plus, who doesn't love a girl who knows her sports? Right Flushie?! Now go read her my 3 readers!


...up up and awayyyyy

The - crapimisshavingsomeonecookforme(mom!) & Happy Birthday MMT(heart) Bun Rieu recipe:

So I decided to make some home cooking for myself and the bf. I was going between Bun Bo Hue (my favorite Vietnamese soup) to Bun Rieu (one of his favorites) and decided to go the Bun Rieu route since it was for his birthday. Bun Rieu, I believe, originated from Northern Vietnam (where all the best soups come from). It is a seafood/tomato based broth with a whole lot of bang of flavor. My version is easy to make because well... i suck at cooking and my bf knows it.. so this is pretty much a fool-proof way of make Bun Rieu.

I had to think about this a week in advance believe it or not. Cooking is a HUGE deal to me since I don't do it a lot...and when i do it's usually rice & eggs & Ramen. I surfed the internet for any different bun rieu ideas and not surprisingly there weren't a lot of different variations out there. Matter of fact, i believe i only found 2 recipes... but lots of pictures of people who were eating bun rieu. (bastards!)

So to start off here's what you need to buy:
Damage: 1 hour/60 dollars/having to deal with some mean Asian people at the Asian store
Tomatoes (lots, I bought 8 but used 5, so buy 6)
Eggs
Green Onion
Onion
Cilantro
Bean Sprouts
Vermicelli
Chicken Stock (4 cans)
Minced Crab & Prawn meat w/ spices (6 cans)
Shrimp paste (the purple stinky kind. "mam tom" in vietnamese)
Spare Ribs (2 packages)
pre fried tofu
Garlic
Shrimp (a lot)

Prework:
Boil your spareribs for 1-2 hours. The length depends on how tender you like your meat. Cook it for at least 1 hour... I think i cooked mine for about 2:30 hours (i forgot about it) the meat was so tender it fell off the bones. Set aside.
The soup base:
Damage: crying from onions/smelly kitchen. Seriously. Smelly Kitchen. Open your windows, turn on your fans, and feel sorry for your neighbors.

Cut two big tomatoes into wedges. Cut 1 whole onion and smash about 10 cloves of garlic. Heat your pot, once your pot is hot enough, throw in oil and then garlic. Saute your onions until they are clear and then your tomatoes until they are soft.
Throw in two cans of minced prawn and crab stuff. (One can each)
At this point, i got lazy and forgot to take a lot of pictures =(. Pour in 4 big cans of chicken stock and bring it up to a boil, then lower the heat to bring down to a simmer. Cut up the rest of your tomatoes and let the join the party.
Prep every thing else. That is- peel all your shrimp. You may want to taste your broth at this point... if it's not flavorful enough for you, put in squirts of fish sauce for your liking . or if it is too flavorful, add in water.
You can also put your spare ribs into your soup at this time (just the meat not the water!)
Shrimp balls: Normally you mix shrimp with minced pork, but i totally forgot the mince pork so i made strictly shrimp balls.
Place garlic into a food processor. Process.
Place shrimp into same food processor. Process until well blended and mush.
Add salt, pepper, and sugar. How much? i don't know, guesstimate it... it doesn't matter too too much since the shrimp balls will be mixed in with your soup anyway.
Once this is done, take a bowl of oil, dip your fingers in it and grab shrimp and drop them into the pot. Shrimp cooks easily, and they'll start rising to the top.

I'm kind of mad that I didn't take a picture of this part. It's an important interesting part that I've specifically learned from my bf...but because I was just watching and spacing out i forgot to take pictures! The part i'm talking about is the eggs:

If you like eggs you can add as much as you want. We only had about 7 eggs left in the house so that's how many we used. Crack the eggs and seperate the yolk from the whites. Blend all the whites w/ a highspeed blender until you get a foamy froth like texture. Open one more can of shrimp/can meat and fold in with the eggs. Pour the mixture slowly over your broth. You will see that it won't sink in. Cover up in a low-medium heat for the eggs to cook into a yummy goodness.
The prefried tofu can be added later.

Oops- at some point, you want to cook your vermicelli! Pour your hot broth over some cooked vermicelli add some sriracha hot sauce and you got yourself some mommy did not cook this for me bun rieu!
(feeds 6-8 people)

So for bun rieu the result was:
6 hours of intense labor (1/2 kidding)
backache
feet pain
loads and loads of dish washing
smelly house
happy boyfriend
Enough bun rieu to eat for 5 days straight!


In the middle of all this i also made white cake with greentea creamcheese frosting. It didn't come out the way that i wanted so i won't waste time posting how i made that. It was good, but i couldn't get the green tea taste that i wanted. Why the hell is it so hard to find Matcha green tea powder around here?!

....damn i suck at cooking/recipe instructions. There goes my cook book dream.

oh well! Enjoy!

Jinx! (You owe me a Coke)

Remember that line? Who and how the hell did that get made up? Anyway, I think I continually jinx myself... every time I type in my blog that I need to update my blog more, I freaking don't. I do the exact opposite of that, I blog even less! How will I ever have a lucrative blog career if I keep this up??

There's these lyrics in my head today that I can't seem to get out. It goes: "Happiness... is not a fish that you can catch. Imagination can't resist the laziness..." Why is this song in my head? This morning while i was emailing my friend CC away and not working, I was talking to her about how I sit on the couch or in bed every day after work, think about all the things I could be doing or should be doing and then that's it... I just think about it, I don't do it. And then I complain about how my life is so uneventful and boring and lonesome. So that song popped into my head. I always thought I'd be a good radio dj where I can play a great song when someone called in with their problems. I'm also really good at talking to myself and making very long conversations about nothing all day long. When I'm with other people? Not so much. I think I would probably scare some people with the random thoughts that constantly run through my head. Too bad radio djs don't make that much and it takes a long while to be nationally or locally good enough to get paid well. Also too bad that I have a cartooney kid voice that would probably even annoy the shit out of me.

Also I don't think it'd go very well if I played "Superman" by Eminem everytime someone called in about a breakup.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, being too lazy to do something. Well this weekend i'm going to try really really hard to do some stuff... and that stuff will be cooking/baking! Just on Saturday though. Sunday is laundry and sleep day.

As Mr. Doctor would say, "baby steps my friend... baby steps"

You ever realize how much crap you have to go through to cook!? You have to get into your car, fight traffic, go to 2 different stores because all the asian stores can't store everything you freaking need, prep, cook for 5 hours, clean, clean and clean again. Good lord do dishes stack up easily, wtf?! and then you eat for like 10 minutes and BAM! You're done. It's like 10 hours of prep time for 10 minutes of food. WTF?!

Yeah but I'm going to do it.... I'll post pictures, don't worry!

My BF

...said I should blog about this, so here it goes:

Ever been in a car accident where your chest is bruised/in pain from your body jerking against the seat belt?

Ever had hiccups while you still had this sort of chest pain?

WORST. FEELING. IN. THE. WORLD.

Each hiccup feels like the bones in your chest are about to explode.

How do you stop yourself from hiccuping?

Crying from the pain of course.

What Analysts analyze on their free time:

I've calculated and "analyzed" that if i keep at the rate on which i'm paying my CC bills i will be completely CC debt free by May of 2009.

....MAY OF 2009!!!!!

That's less than 2 years away. Not bad, but not good either. I've really tried to lower my spending habits, i.e. no more expensive clothes, make-up for no reason....uh that's all i can think of right now. One thing I have not been able to stop doing is NOT eating out. Damn why do I have to be such a good cook in just four things?! Those four things include rice and ramen noodles.

But the more i think about it the more i'm excited about what I can do in 2 years... because truthfully after those bills are paid off i'm going to have madddddddd $$ in the b@nk $0n.

I miss travelling so much, but i know that in 2 years i'll be able to go on, not one, but a lot of awesome trips... AND not have to worry about CC debt.

People always say, "debt" will always be there, yeah sure, but CC debt definitely does not have to be there ALL the time. I can definitely live without that sort of stress thank-you-very-much. So I think taking a trip now while this huge thing is hanging over my head is soooOOo not worth it.

In the mean time I've ransacked my brain for "new" things that I can do and won't have to spend loads of $ on. Here's my list:

1. Get better at SC (of course...somehow, some way, i will!)
2. Start learning how to play the guitar. I have the guitar, i have the resources, what the hell is stopping me?!
3. Find more Anime to watch. Any suggestions?
4. KARAOKE! LA! LA! LA! Yeah, this is $ but one disc can last me months. (Takes me awhile to memorize those dayum Vietnamese lyrics)
5. Once i got some really great basic guitar stuff down, start singing (my own words)- Rock star in my own house here i come!
6. Learn how to cook more?! Maybe...
7. Uh hello all these free Museums in D.C. I must check out.
9. DC Zoo
10. Must.Take.More.Pictures
11. BLOG!!
12. Oh yeah, and read.read.read.

Anyone have a list of what they want to do or do more of?

DUAL!!!!!!!

I just got my dual monitors set up. Now I'm efficient as ever.

Somebody stop me before my keyboard/mouse/brain breaks!!

...damn I have no other excitement in my life. -_-

Getting into the groove....

IIILibras
/Channel Cao

gO!

Dear Diary,

My first game back on SC was awful. I got SCV rushed and couldn't even save my sorry ass. Not only that I can't get my old SN back! Ugh, some days, things just don't go your way. I didn't win any other games either... the 5 vs Zum's n00b coworker doesn't count.

How do people end their conversations with their diary?? Iono.

MySpace takes over the world...

Look!!!!!
Even my one-eyed-freak-on-a-leash is on myspace!!!!!!
(Ignore wannabe dog on the right)

Plates

As I was sitting in my usual 5pm traffic jam going 1 to 2 mph i looked around to amuse myself. I noticed that people in VA tend to specialize their plates. Well, maybe its the ratio of all the damn cars around here, but whatever- the point is, i saw a plate that said:

I1I1I1I1I

I was like COOOOOOOOOOOL, reminds me of the aol days, when those punkasses had those type of sns.

AND THEN i was like, man... i gotta go to the dreaded DMV very soon to get my license/car crap switched over... maybe i should join the masses and make my own personalized plates as well. Too bad dyshanhics.com wouldn't fit.
How about O0O0O0O0
or BBGOTBK
or GLHFDD
or STFU
or MONKEY
or FREE99
or 126WPM
or EATING
or ALTTAB
or 8P

I wish we could use underscores instead of dashes, i'd definitely go for O_0
What would you use if you wanted to spend a retard amount on specialized plates?

Oh Green Apple Mentos - Where have you been all my working life?









Seriously?! I've always loved mentos but never in my life have i seen or tried one of these until today.
Speaking of candy, when i started working at the age of 10, my whole salary went to candy, i mean what else would a 10 year old asian girl buy in the ghettos? speaking of working, i worked numerous under the table jobs growing up... i don't know how i did it. Does the average american have any awareness on what goes on with these damn products they buy?

By the way, Crabtree & Evelyn soaps and shit? Illegal factory. Underpaid workers. Hours and hours of standing and cardboard papercuts. I would never buy their product, especially at the price they sell it at?? Psh.....

and now i leave you with another Excel tip: +
that's right, +

Happy OMFGICAN'TBELIEVEIT'S June all!!!!

Random Update:

It's been awhile... lots happened.
KUNGO got married!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH#(*$#*((@#*( !!! =]
Did a lot of reading about SC2
Moved from a cube to an office (with windows!)
Learned crazy Excel stuff at work. Like: =IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,LABEL,1,FALSE))0,1)
Became addicted to French food. (Escargo yumyum!)
Did some shopping
Did some eating
Did some drinking
Did some visiting of a GM at the best Thai Restaurant in NO. VA (Now This is Good Stuff.)

AND

Last but definitely Lease :

Sorry about the crappy pics and video, but you get the point.

My life for Aiur...

Channel Cao will ressurect.

The new LP album sounds like motherfuckinggayarsesissyfiedemoindiecrap POP!!!!
Damn you RICK RUBIN!!!!!!!

The sad part is that a lot of the music actually starts out semi-good so I have hope when I begin a new track and then within 45 seconds it just crushes me and I wonder if I should re-name them LP'Sync myself.

OH. And the lyrics? Come on... what are you in 7th grade?? I hear better rhyme schemes on Chinese melody love songs sung by Vietnamese people.

Other than that, the album is GREAT!!!!!!

as a coaster...

Googlewhore

Hello, my name is Hanh, and i am a Google whore.
It actually just started recently, i mean I've always had a gmail account... last year i signed up for blogger, now i have: gchat; igoogle; greader; gcalendar; gnotebook; gdocuments; sms notifications sent to my cellphone from gcalendar; a new gmail acct; and I'm looking into Orkut looks like a gayspace type deal but without all the 8 year olds?! We'll see... i mean does anyone else use all these products as much as i do?!

I actually miss the whole internet interaction thingy... meet strangers online, see them at the same place everyday to chat... actually get to know them and become friends with them... i mean, do people still do that now a days in chat rooms? or is it all about the hooking up? the whole a/s/l/pic? thing just totally killed it. Now I'm thinking about hooking up the internet to my wii so i can play against other ppl and meet them that way... or starcraft again, but in sc, people only want to talk to you if you're good... and i'm not....hmmm what else is out there now a days??

In other news, we finally got a full size length mirror so now i can check out my awsomeness all at once without having to climb ontop of the toilet.

---
E: dudeeee i totally forgot about Kphooey's birthday, i'm sorry dude! happy birthday and rock on!! (oh young 1)

Blog Under Construction Part 1

Flushie is right... if I'm going to make my own banner, i might as well draw my own picture and use my own design, that would really define dyshanhics!! ...So with the help from a free tutor here is my first sketch of something i think i might want to use:

um... i think i'll try drawing it again next time sitting up and with an actual mouse.

....to be continued!!!!!!!!

yawn blog /yawn

I've been going through iStockphoto.com for the past 2 hours trying to find a good photo for a new banner for this boring looking blog of mine. What kind of picture says, "dyshanhics"? So far out of 648 pictures.... none.

Help? What type of picture/character do you see this blog as?

------------

E: had to share this. Found it while pic browsing -

whywhatwhowherehuhhuhhuhhuh?!?

I tried to watch House last night at a friend's house. A friend who has 3 kids who wanted me to watch the show in their bedroom. NOT A GOOD IDEA. All I got were 10000000000 questions thrown at me, "why is he sick?, what are they doing?, why is he sick?, who's that?, why is he sick?, they don't know why he's sick yet?, why is his face white?, what's Cancer?, what's Leukemia?, how do you get cancer? what's a bone marrow transplant?, NEEDLE! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!, and finally, is he going to die?!"
Like WHOA! Stupidly, I tired to actually explain some of the stuff, and of course i didn't catch the ending because i was too busy answering their questions, so i said YES they both LIVED!!!!!!

So that's it... ONLY CARTOONS FOR MY KIDS!!

Anyway, I came up with this fabulous idea from my dream last night. Lasagna topped with mac&cheese.

YUM! Who wants to come over and try to make it for me?!

Doing the bills: completely and utterly depressing.

Because I'm a Girl (part 2)...

I L O V E custom design stuff, I love the option of making something my own way. I hate that I'm not artistic enough to do it myself. I love finding websites that do them for you.

Someone stop me before I actually buy one!!!
(Custom Designed by HTT (me)):

1154 Lill Studio

Now I wish I was visiting home... just for a few hours to make one of these.

MOMMY!!!!!!

The visit went well, kind-of. The weather totally sucked, so we didn't get to go into D.C. at all, just a lot of shopping and eating. Anyway throughout these 5 days, I've realized a couple things about my mom:

1. She's crazy. Like absolute. Before she use to be like a regular mom and say things like, eat your vegetables, and then it became to eat your vegetables- they're healthy for you, to crazy things like eat cabbage and greenbeans but not squash because this and that is good for your hair to grow out and lets you sleep better, but this makes your muscles weak. Where the hell does she get this info from?!

2. She's a trash talker. She was kicking all of our asses in wii bowling. and she was all like... Psh. Why would i want to play a second game? I already won! and was all high and mighty. Must be all the cereal you ate mom!
(i love how i talk to my mom on this and there will be no way in heaven or hell that she'll ever find my blog and even if she did, would never read it, and even if she tried, wouldn't understand it)

3. She's a cleaning fanatic. I admit, what mom isn't right? Especially an Asian mom, but seriously, me and MMT cleaned the house the night before they landed, and she still managed to try to clean the house as soon as she stepped into the condo!! and STILL called me messy.

4. She's crazy.

5. Every 5 minutes she gives me "advice" on what to eat, when to sleep, how to clean, what to eat, what to eat, what to eat (oh my god i just realized she didn't say anything to me about my weight!!!), what to eat, that i should go to a buddhist retreat so i can learn to be stress free, what to eat, buddhist retreat, and how to clean.

6. She's crazy.
7. She's crazy.
8. She's crazy.
9. She's crazy.

10. She's very good at driving me crazy.

Balance

Because summer is coming and I want to look H O T in a bathingsuit/bikini/swimwear I've been watching what I eat and hitting the gym (semi-regularly). I usually pack lunch and eat until I'm satisfied, not full, and in that way I'm not in a food coma in my cube from 2-4pm. Anywhoo... no lunch packed today, didn't feel like a salad, so I decided to go for the double cheeseburger from MC'Ds w/ fries (of course) and to balance it all out, drank water.

Realization: Water does not go very well with fast food, actually it tastes like crap and doesn't really wash down all the fast food taste.
Damn, I'm dying for a Coke right now.

My parents are flying in tonight, coincidentally the same time Mr. Man T's parents are coming into town. I might start drinking right at 5 to live through it.

Oh shit, i just realized Mr. Man T's... okay writing that is just way too ridiculously long, from now on, my bf is known as, "bf" or MMT, MMT sounds cool... oooppps, realized MMT's new boss freaking works at AOL, I'm going to have to persuade him to bring back scrambler... oh and V. 3.0 if possible.

Antisocial Bloom (D.C.)

I don't know what type of flowers these are...
But they are dayum pretty

even in the dark
away from the crowds...
sort of.Cherry Blossoms
I tried to do
phim truong moves
but the flying blossoms

kept getting in my eyes!!

We went during the night to avoid big crowds but there were still a lot of people there. We're going to try to go during the day time to take more pictures, hopefully the flowers are still up and hasn't all welted in this 40 degree weather!

April Fools

Is "Having a Dream Job" all a myth? Should I let go of that notion?! Can it ever stay over 60 degrees during the freaking spring?! When will I be able to eat solid food again??

This is depressing... please leave me links I can read/check on daily.

GOOoOo Matsuzaka.

And to leave you something that isn't freaking gloomy:

TORTURE



I have to wait every other week for this damn show to come out in youtube!! ahhhhhhh. I like that warning sign. very appropriate.

For your I don't want to work at work moments:
http://www.becomeanmm.com/

Guess who's getting this for FREE99???

(Damn that picture came out bigger than expected)

((Flushie, expect a call from me in a few months))

Moshi! Moshi!!??

And the Reason is You.....

This is definitely not my first blog. I started blogging back in 2002. Back when I was just a little college drop out that needed some money to pay for the education i never finished. (If that made any sense) I somehow landed an accounting position which evolved into me having a crazy Assistant Controller title. Anyway, on days that didn't have enough work to keep me busy 8 hours a day i had to keep myself amused. Was chatting on AiM enough? No. Was playing Literati against MKW enough? No. So somehow I found Xanga and started blogging. I started off slow... just like this blog, I'd forget about it now and then and was updating only about once a month. Then- i got better at my job and did things faster... so i had more free time, so i blogged even more. Eventually i was spilling my heart out on that shit, i talked about everything, i came an expert on talking (typing) to myself. But one day I realized I wasn't talking to myself, (uh hello public blog, hello everyone in the world who has access to the internet) One of my friends, Phanus, was like... oh yeah Hanh what's the name of your site again? And I'm like what?? how the hell did you know about that... anyway, ever since that i was more cautious about what i typed on there... it was never the same again. Still I continued to blog almost daily about less personal stuff, but still stuff that went on in my life... it got so bad, it bothered me when i got too busy at work and couldn't blog. When something funny or cool or sad or anything happened, i thought hey i could blog about this! I thought about blog topics in the shower (but somehow forgot them by the time i got in front of the computer) Man, my blog was like my best friend who didn't give me any good advice that i was going to ignore anyway.

Eventually I switched jobs, got cubemates that i didn't want to blog in front of, and the ultimate horror happened, my job blocked xanga!!!! Seriously, i was semi-dramatically devestated. Blogging and reading other blogs took up a lot of my work day (don't worry i definitely got all my work done!)

What the hell was i talking about? Oh yeah, so anyway, in the end, no more xanga, though i have freaking access to it again, hello blogspot, hello blog during my 9-5... will i be able to pick up the addiction again?? I hope so.. i think typing to myself keeps my conversational skills in tact.

ha!ha! okay the first 6 hours of work i had nothing to do, when it's almost time to go home and i'm ready to blog again? I'm swamped-time to work!

have a good weekend errrbody!

(dayum, i just noticed all my pics were dead, i forgot i totally cancelled my old isp account)

On the look out for FOOD:

It is true, I've led a sad life. There are a lot of foods I didn't get to eat until I was working and semi out of college. In my family, there was no such thing as eating out at restaurants- not with 7 kids. Even when my older brother and sister had a job they never took me out to eat!! WHAT!! So when I made enough money I pretty much spent it all on food... what can I say, food is my first love.

Even with money I didn't get to experience a lot of food since I came from a small city. I did find all the local yumyums and finally realized small mom and pop restaurants had way better food than the big chains. There are two types of food that I think about now and then and actually feel a little sad that I didn't have a chance to eat it when i was younger.

One is SUSHI... man, I can still hardly afford sushi dinners... now a days I see h.s. kids all up in those restaurants and I think wth!??? Yeah, I'm pretty bitter that I came from big poor family.

The second food is girl scout cookies... people always always talked about girl scout cookies, i never got to taste them until i started a real full time job!! I didn't even know what those stupid boxes looked like... i never had a girl scout come knocking on my door selling those suckers. Anyway, come the job and a mother is selling it for her daughter- i figured they HAD to be good, everyone talked about them, and2.50 a box?? MAD CHEAP!! So i bought 5 boxes...and ate them all... and then learned that that drug only came around like once a year. So the next year i stocked up and bought 10 boxes!!!!!!! Man, thinking back... i can remember how happy and pudgy i was... mmm...

After that first job, no one sold girl scout cookies to me (again)...which was weird, because, we moved to a better neighborhood... and we all know girl scouts come from the better neighborhoods!! Anyway... i didn't think about them damn cookies again until this year. When i heard people in the office talking about it, and telling each other that their boxes came in. Man I was sad... I was SO SAD. Ask Mr Man T. I talked about it... which caused him to steal a half eaten box from his job, but whatever! I was so happy when i saw that box...but still sad that i couldn't buy all the different flavors and knew i had to savor that box so i ate like 3... and put the box away.

Come last weekend when we had to go to Walmart for some diet stuff and Hallelujah!!! Girl scouts selling girl scout cookies outside the freaking store (i don't know how they landed that location). So the little hyperactive girls were like, WANNA BUY SOME GIRL SCOUT COOOOKIES?!?! ::SMILESMILESMILE:: and i'm like YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

and now here i am trying to eat girl scout cookies and type in my blog about my love for them.

i think my keyboard is broken, honey what did you do to it?!?!!!

oh yeah, so the point of this post is that if anyone knows of any food that you think i may have not tried or eaten yet, please please please let me know so i can leave this darkness behind me forever.

Thanks.

The definition of "lucky":

I've always talked about how good of a cook Mr. Man T is... if i didn't love this man and wasn't able to make him my bf, I'd hire him to be my "personal chef" hint! hint!
Below is a very very small display of what I've been blessed with over the last 3 months. I wish I took more pictures, i wish i took pictures with an actual camera rather than my shitty cam.phone, i wish i could blog about each and every meal. i wish i could eat all of this over again without gaining 1 pound. Those who've had a taste of his cooking cannot deny...

This is one talented person.

99% of these pictures are from home (my home!) cooked meals.
Going from Top Left to Bottom Right:
Ramen;primedryagedsteakdinnerwithlobstermedleysweetwhitecornbroccolinicreminimushrooms; steakdinneragain;
steaktip&steakfries;crabcake;asparaguswintersoup;
asparaguswintersoupagain;wine;tetfruit;
hotpot;teasmokedducksaladwithrasberryorangevinagrette;blackberry jalapeno crustedrackoflamb;
lamb&pasta;lamb&pastaagain;wine;
banhcuon;duck;duck;
frencheggsinapastrypuffmyabsolutelyfavoritebreakfastever;
shabushabuhotpotwithcraband4differentmeats;bunbohue

you
seriously
can
not
beat
that
.

Rollout!!

Damn I can't believe I only posted once this month. Anyway, it's my third week into work and all is swell. In fact, it's doing so well, I'm training someone tomorrow. I don't know how someone who's only been in the field for 3 weeks train, but I guess I'm doing it!

I don't think I've complained enough about the traffic around here, have I? Well let me give you some details:
On a really really good day (i.e., Holiday), it takes me approximately 30 minutes to get to work. Not bad eh? On a normal good day, it'll take me 45 minutes. On an AVERAGE day, about an hour. On a crap day, one hour and fifteen freaking fuckity fuck minutes. I'm telling you, that extra fifteen minutes really gets to me. It took my coworker 2 hours to get to work! I think I would start crying if it took me 2 hours to get to work when it is suppose to take me 30 minutes.

I really thought I've accepted the traffic here... I know, there are a lot of people, a lot of cars, cops are out to get you, I get it, I get it... I actually have not had road rage yet. I actually get that more when Mr. Man T is driving and I'm on the passenger side.

Anyway, VA drivers, you cannot blame all of the traffic on the speed limit (55mph, btw, VA highway are for wimps, haha- that should be their new logo, instead of VA is for lovers, it should be, VA is for wimpy drivers!) You cannot blame it on cops who pull you over for going over by only 5 mph. By the way, I have yet to be pulled over, knockonwood. Instead, I've noticed you VA drivers lack the "street knowledge" of driving, so... if there are any VA readers out there, please obtain this info and pass it along to your loved ones so we can all get to work a little faster and the world will be a better place.

55MPH means to go AT LEAST 55MPH, NOT SLOWER.
Left lane FAST LANE, right lane SLOW LANE. That equals RIGHT LANE=55MPH
If you're driving on the left lane and someone on the right lane is passing you? That's a clue to get out of the left lane.
If you are not exiting stay the hell out of the right lane when an exit is coming up.
When you are exiting the highway, there is no reason for you to be braking unless the exit ramp is a curve. ABSOLUTELY NO REASON.
You do not need to leave a space the size of a football field in between you and the car in front of you.
If and when you do get into an accident, exchange information, move on. You do NOT have to wait for the freaking cops, because in the mean time, your blocking traffic to dwindle down to 2 lanes and therefore, the cops aren't going to get to you within the next hour.
I know you're lost, i can't blame you, 45% of the streets name here has the name "Fair" in it. Come on Fairfax, get over yourself, even if you ARE lost, try pulling over or speed the hell up, because you going 2 mph makes me want to ram your ass.
Speaking of 2MPH, did you know you could make turns as you're going over 2MPH. Seriously, the gas pedal is your friend.
Your yield sign means that YOU YIELD FOR ME.

Ugh.

Hey did everyone have a good Valentine's day? Presidents Day? Fat Tuesday? Chinese New Year? And any other holidays/celebrations I may have missed?!?

GMail Dad

I still remember the day my pops was all like, take my credit card and go buy your little sisters a computer and if it is cheap buy me one too. I was like uHHh ookay, thinking the last time he used my laptop was to look at other Vietnamese girls in those dating websites where he would show my mom the girls' pictures. Crazy! So I got him a desktop and set up a gmail account for him so he can be cool. I also set one up for my mom, but she seems to not like checking it for some reason.

Anyway, I have a crap load of siblings, 6 to be exact, 2 older, 4 younger. My dad, seriously, only talks to me. My mom seems to love everyone else equally, but my dad doesn't really say hi to anyone when he sees them, except for his grandchildren, but I don't blame him, they are cute as hell. In any case, moving to VA has now made me the one who lives the furthest. I also have the VA area code, so my parents can't call me from the home phone (no long distance carrier) unless they have a calling card. Plus, my dad got pissed at Verizon Wireless and cancelled his cellphone... so I get emails from my dad now.

These emails don't really tell me how he's doing or he doesn't ask me how I'm doing or anything... these emails are about things that he can definitely ask his other children but for some reason just chooses not to. Even the ones that live with him!!
He also writes them in half Vietnamese half English. I don't know where he got the idea that I know how to read Vietnamese from. Must be all the Karaoking...

The first email I got from him he wanted me to tell him what to do with a letter he got from the state and proceeded to copy down what the letter said. I really wonder how long it took him to type that. Anyway, I had to respond back to him (in Vietnamese) and then ask him, why the heck didn't he just ask one of the twins?? and reminded him that they too speak English.

The second email I got from him, he had in the subject line, "your mom cry". Way to go on getting someone's attention.

The third email, told me to call my brothers and sisters that were back in my home town and who has a local number to join him and my mom for her birthday celebration. I'm like what the? What??

So I just forwarded the email.

Either he really hates his other kids or he thinks I'm some sort of Administrative Assistant for him.