The "Pier"-fect conclusion to my spring break 2011

Jukebox: Samantha James- Rise (oldie but goodie :D)


My trusty camera and I venture out to sea.

Celebrated my 23 with good friends at the Redondo Beach Pier, CA.

I was running low on time while making the cards so got my dad to help me complete some remaining cards. He ended up telling me he would stick more stickers on female cards. What a sexist! just kidding :)

And those seals are real! On second thought, "Pier"fect isn't very catchy at all.

Replacing my Dell 1440 Keyboard ahem..

I CAN TYPE NOW!!!! I feel soo freeeee!!! I can type whatever the heck I want without being cheated out of my Q W E R T Y U I O P's LOL. And it was pretty speedy too.

When I ordered my keyboard, I assumed it would come with instructions. Behold, on the zealous day when I finally received the box, it occured to me that the only paper the box held was the receipt. what fail.

And so begins a frantic search for specific instructions online... yelding zero (for my specific lappy). Luckily all dell lappies are somewhat similar so I was able to wing it.  Although, I guess a picture journey of keyboard removal would be useful for those (newbs like me!!!) who also have a Dell Inspiron 1440. So whether you stumbled here by google search or not, here you go. Your route to a new keyboard in 9 easy peasy steps.

1. Admire your nice new keyboard..... and it's dust-free-ness.

2. Unplug lappy. flip flip flip. pop out the battery and cherish how light your laptop is without the darn battery. ahh... if only.

3. Dig out your flat headed screw driver.. take a deep breath and gently fit lift the plastic casing above your keyboard. For the Dell 1440, the whole flap (including the curved top) is actually one whole piece.

4. If you hear a click. something didn't break. lol.  you probably just loosened the backing. There are two notches on each side and one in the middle. Once you loosen the two on each side, loosen the middle one and lift from the middle. Make sure you are gentle!

5. Success! Unscrew the two screws below using a philips screwdriver.

6. Slide up keyboard, but watch out there is still a ribbon cable attached.

7. Release the ribbon cable by lifting up the flat wide latch as shown. At this time you may want to flip your faulty old keyboard over to view the accumulated dust, fluff and crumbs bountiful enough to feed a family of rats -___-

8. Time to clean! We girls don't need tech cleaning kits! Whip out your $42  Mac 187 or other quality makeup brushes. clean, dry, ones that don't shed hair. and start dusting away!!!

  Just kidding. I used a mini vacuum, and a microfiber cloth. conveniently found in your eyeglasses case ;)

9. After your lappy is dust free, install in the new keyboard in the opposite manner of how you removed it. (ribbon in, snap latch, slide keyboard in, screw in the screws. put in battery, and turn it on very briefly just to double check if the new keyboard works. if it does, snap the top covering back on) and yay.

10. Give yourself a pat on your back.  Feel techy for 10 minutes until you realize this is the basics of basics (my own realization as well) but nevertheless... YAY. You just saved yourself labor cost!

Hope this was helpful and not downright annoying :/

Anyway, after being shocked at the remnants in my keyboard, I have vowed to keep my laptop covered as much as I can. Here is my current cheap-o asian keyboard covering method. =) <3 cellophane wrap! 

It's only on the top... so hopefully won't obstruct ventilation

That's it for today!

Once you start it's hard to stop. Once you stop it's hard to start.

what am I referring to?

exercising and blogging.

activities in opposing realms of the physical spectrum but  fueled by a similar mindset.

Luckily, even after 2 failed attempts at buying my keyboard... third time's a charm. My keyboard order didn't get canceled and is set to arrive today. YAHOOO!

artsy fartsy pictures cuz my keyboard is still failing me.

i'm trying to be ghetto cool.

..... not

IM conversations are otherwise quite  painful. Luckily, a friend of mine has a keen sense for word deduction.

me:  thnk shs ttyy

bth a tty

my kybad SCKKSSSSS

word pro:  its ok

i'm just imagining that i'm talking to a deaf person

u know how deaf people talk

me:  lllll

word pro:  like helen keller

apoiuweuypyuawifiuovuixyz

me:  dnt kn hwth rt lagh  cy

word pro:  you dnot know how to laugh or cry?

what?

me:  LLLll Ysssss

Ok typing this sentence  took me 5 min with my onscreen  keyboard. I sure hope my keyboard  delivery  arrives  soon or else my index  (mouse clicking) finger is bound  to have an epileptic  seizure  soon -__-

The fine line between emotions

Take a look at this picture.

Not the table ... but me!  Looks like I'm in pain right?
Maybe something bit me from under the table... now look at this shot taken a millisecond later.

a blatant mid-laugh shot.

Comparing between both pictures, I can't really tell the expressional difference between individual facial featuresYet, the emotions portrayed as a whole differ immensely between one picture versus the another. (at least for me)

Many decisions made in life are like this.... eliciting a mixture of many emotions.

Elation, uncertainty, nervousness and anticipation.

I guess this best describes how I am feeling right now because I just sealed the envelope that will determine the next 1.5-2 years of my life.

After narrowing my decisions down to 3 school and juggling pros and cons for about two months with family,  friends and my magic 8 ball....I've made my decision. Bye UCLA! Bye Emory! Ahh this is it!!

I'm excited because everything about the program I am looking for in terms of career and future preparation.  Ironically, I'm also reuniting with a home I haven't seen in two decades.... still the obvious distance scares me as well.

Hopefully over a decade of socal sunshine hasn't spoiled me too much with weather endurance.  Perhaps, I shall kiss my tan bye bye and come back pale too ;) (in a good way)

Woooooo!

Noms 4 Ur i's

Jukebox: Your Biggest Mistake - Ellie Goulding

cousin comes to visit = foooodd galore!

Salivating yet?

Lack of words due to the fact that a row on my laptop keyboard has decided to go on strike. I have to tediously mouse-click my onscreen keyboard to input any of the following letters: q w e r t y u i o p -___-

qwerty.... you I obviously DON'T prefer. Why must 3 out of the 6 most common letters be on the first row?!

Hopefully I'll figure out what's wrong with my computer soon!

Getting your R's and E's straight

Pasted via chat:


me: hahaha so u know what's weird?
today I called my health insurance, and the person asked me if i wanted to complete a survey.
so i said sure
and he was like, "what race and ethnicity are u"
and i'm like "im taiwanese"
and he's like "umm thai?"

T: -_-

me: I'm like "noo. taiWANESE" and after several futile attempts, I had to spell it out letter by letter.

T: END OF SURVEY FOR YOUR MR

me: LOL seriously, then he's like, "ohh ok, thanks. so what's ur ethnicity?"
im like... "wait no, my race is asian"
my ethnicity is taiwanese american
he's like "but, you said your race is taiwanese?"

-______________- WOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW

T: -__________________________- WOW

me: YEAH.

T: u might as well just started saying chingchong

me: LOLLLLLLL
i cannot stop laughing
AHHAAGAGAGAGA

Dance to this Salsa

Jukebox: Friday? haha nahhh. Bit Funk - Love Scientific


Fridays are fun fun fun fun... not just because the Rebecca Black song says so ;)  It's also fun because there are usually delectable homemade treats in the teacher's lounge to celebrate the onset of the weekend.  Last week, one of the staff members made homemade salsa. It was beyond bomb. After inquiring about her recipe, I went ahead (with the help of my mother) to make our own rendition of this healthy bold salsa... perfect for chip dipping or on topping white/brown rice.

Disclaimer: I was never much of an "exquisite" cook. I generally make meals that are thrown together spontaneously with just my favorite ingredients.  Therefore, please excuse the recipe informality :P

Ingredients:

• Corn
• Whole tomatoes
• Onions
• Cilantro
• Black Eyed Beans.... (I almost wrote peas lol)
• Lemon
• Green Chili
• Vinaigrette Sauce!!!!

Easy Peasy Obvious Steps:

Dice the tomatoes, onions, cilantro and green chili. Drain the beans first with water (if they are canned so there's no icky paste). Toss everything in a big bowl. Squeeze lemon over the whole batch, mix in the Vinaigrette Sauce as you mix everything equally.

Serve immediately :D

I'm not much of a measuring-cup girl. Therefore, the geener measuring method will have to suffice. Basically it goes like this: put more of what you like to eat in the mixing batch. Put only a small amount of the ingredients that you don't like as much.  

I think you can figure out what's my favorite place to buy groceries :P And yes those lemons were bought there as well.

'we we we so excited' ... tadah! enjoy!

A moment in time: Internet Lingo Dictionary Needed

mom: Recently I've been seeing a lot of X. D.'s online.

geener: exx dee's....?

mom: yeah X.D.'s. I wonder what it stands for.

*2 seconds*

geener: Ohh it's a like a smily sideways face except the person laughing so widely that their eyes are squinted.

* mother tilts head to left for about 10 seconds *

mom: .....oh.

Food Fun Friends and "F"otography

Jukebox: Lights- The Listening


After weeks of my monotonous work sleep cycle, I had finally two lucky opportunities to hang out!

Cafe Hiro in Cypress CA was our latest destination, smack in the middle of each of our triangular commute. This asian fusion luncheon was set at 12PM, and we all arrived around 12:30. This is how alike we are in practices :)

Welcome to our technology oriented era....

70% of the lunch, I made conversation with their cellphones not faces...... JKJK :)

Extensive menu of decently priced dishes!

delicious soup. As T & M says: a mixture of miso and curry.

Delicious BBQ Steak Salad. A Bold infusion of flavors. 

Playing with the fisheye function. Unfortunately amplifying crappy complexion.

Frozen treats for dessert. Italian ice + vanilla soft serve!

PS.  HAPPY 38 (SAN BA) DAY!!!!

The sky must be falling!

Jukebox: Pocketful of Sunshine-Natasha Bedingfield


why? Gas is $3.89 a gallon. Not premium either >=O

Navigating my golden box-on-wheels has become a tremendously pricey task.

Times recently featured an article on biodiesel made from cow fat used to power the Amtrak.  Could they do this for regular automobiles?! Come on engineers of America!!!

On second, thought... this would be beefy business huh?  haha.. uh... ok not funny -__-

However aside from gas prices, today was a triumphant driving day for the following reasons.
I...

1.  decided to slow down three seconds before a police car pulled out of an alley.
2. was stuck behind two slow sedans and a pickup truck (offwhite with a ladder in the back.. those are always the slooowwest) for less then three seconds when they all decided to change lanes simultaneously. I felt like Bruce in the Bruce Almighty's,  Traffic Jam Scene @ 0:29
3. only had to honk six times today.
4. encountered green lights all the way to work.
5. had un-overlapping commercial breaks on KIIS vs. AMP.
6. listened to Britney Spears interview on KIIS this morning.
7. loll joking about #3 ... and maybe #6 ?!?! :X

In related news.... after many years of living in my hometown, I have somehow disinterred the approximate locations and times of where police and pseudo police cars (with tinted windows and no officer inside) hide. I don't want to jinx myself, but generally, I'm accurate 87.38% of the time. I'd gladly map it out like that hilarious Youtube comedian who mapped out the Astroblasters ride at Disneyland, however... I'm pretty sure this is semi-shady business.

Nevertheless... it's a nice knowledge to keep in handy. Especially like today, when I woke up at 7:50 and work begins at 8 :X

(I'm generally a hopeless chicken when it comes to speeding.)

Kettle Me Happy

Jukebox: Annie Waits - Ben Folds


You know those moments when you realize "OH CRAP I'M LATE!", but thankfully whatever you have to do doesn't require much prep beforehand such as:

rushing a package to a post office before it closes,
returning a book to a library on the day it's due,
picking up your sibling from school.....

And in these moments when attire or facade doesn't take precedence.. you take ONLY what you need.

rewind to last night when I suddenly realized I had to pick up my sister.

I grabbed my necessities in a whim and trudged my way to the garage when I heard my mom exclaim behind me."why are you bringing that?"

to my own surprise, I realized that aside from my keys and wallets dangling from my right,

I had conveniently grabbed this in my left hand... arm...

Half Eaten... large sized kettle corn for the WIN :)

goes to show what's a "necessity" in my life.... -__-

On the topic of food... this is my most current discovery/obsession.

Oh Taiwanese Styled Taro Slushi ... where have you been the past two decades of my life?

Taro flavored slushi intermixed with boba, pudding, jellies, small tapiocas.

Believe it or not, I had this for the first time exactly one week ago. Yum.