blur

a long time ago reep said he didn't understand 'breaks'; why not just break up he wondered? and yet even tho officially we're not on a break, we are. he's not talking to me. and i'm leaving him alone (because i respect his privacy, not because i'm immature and am 'punishing' him or something silly). don't kno how long this is going to last. till or past new years even? let's hope not. (altho i think it just might) it's strange being in an argument when you don't kno why you are arguing or even wat you're fighting about (our last fight [see last post] was resolved, i think anyway). i suppose i should take consolation in that i kno who i'm fighting wit. but believe me when i say that it's no real help. not knowing wat you should be upset about makes it hard to kno wat to be happy about. and the constant confusion causes you to wonder exactly where the line is and wat you would do if it were crossed. i hate fighting online. it solicits no sympathy. and the hollow words that you type are somehow lost in the online clutter and all that remains is the cloud of anger obscuring the 'please stop, i'm begging you' when you've never begged before. wat's left is the seeming command of 'stop stop stop' when really you crying uncle.

ps. when your sig other tells you that being selfish if your hangup, not his and that you should be selfish, you wonder if this has been his policy all along...

pps. it's funny that in your pursuit of breaking boundaries you've also managed to burn so many bridges.

'a perfect moment here and gone' / 'i never meant to do wrong to you: you're my starfish'

reepal

fuck you.

3 of 5

this week rents went to escondido for their timeshare. i joined them for the weekend then came back yesterday afternoon. the plan was to hang out wit my girlfriends but chang cancelled (she went on family vacation wit her rents. wtf.) then tsai cancelled cause she said that chang cancelled so she was gonna take her mom to the airport. then angel said that she was gonna come late because the annies weren't coming at all. do these people realize that i cancelled my plans, holiday plans that i've had for months, because they all decided that the 26th was best for them? and then they cancel? i'm so pissed. cause your plans are so much more important than mine? because i need to rearrange my life for you so you can shit all over me? gee thanks. seriously tho, thank god for ting. and angel, late as she was, did come and did spend the night. so yay to the three of us.

postsecret

new postsecret.

crime

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A 6-foot, 2-inch tall, 250-pound robber was not content to rob just a mother's purse -- he grabbed her toddler's purse too. Karley Felschow won't be 2 until Dec. 29, but she's been robbed at gunpoint by a robber who wanted the tiny pink "Disney Princess" purse the little girl was clutching. Lorenzo Brewer, 23, was arrested after a security guard chased him -- just after he allegedly pressed a hand-gun in the chest of 25-year-old Patricia Felschow and took her purse -- and her daughter's purse -- in front of her apartment house. "I was really surprised when he took Karley's purse, too. Who takes a little pink purse from a 1-year-old girl?" the mother asked. Although the two purses were recovered, the $315 Christmas money that Patricia Felschow had earned working overtime was missing.

NORTON SHORES, Mich. - A Michigan man was arrested for shoe theft after he allegedly trespassed at a school and athletic shoes were found in his car that were way too big for him. Police in Norton Shores believe that Roger Weil wanted the shoes for "sexual gratification," the Muskegon Chronicle reported. Jose Gutierrez, a security guard at Mona Shores High School, found Weil in a hallway this week. Gutierrez thought he looked like a man caught by a security camera in November on the day a pair of shoes and $20 disappeared from the school. Gutierrez called police and with the responding officer escorted Weil to his car, where they found a pair of size 14 shoes. Weil has a long history of arrests and convictions for larceny, including previous thefts of shoes from schools.

LONDON - An asylum-seeking British postal worker has been convicted of masterminding a $35 million checkbook theft and fraud operation in London. Prosecutors said Dido Mayue-Belezika, who was born in the Democratic Republic of  Congo, intercepted and stole every checkbook he came across at a sorting office in a scam involving more than 220 accomplices around the country over a three-year period, The Times of London reported. Officially, he earned $430 a week and concealed his lifestyle of luxury cars, designer clothes and lavish foreign holidays by wearing modest clothes at work and driving a secondhand Fiat. But, his bank account always had a $70,000 balance and he carried a wallet stuffed with large bills. Police staged a series of raids across the country in April and took 36 people into custody.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An Alaska grandmother has turned detective as she hunts two men who stole her purse. Fifty-five-year-old Rosie Szymanski was unloading her shopping bags in the parking lot of an Anchorage Costco Monday afternoon when someone shoved her, stole her purse and ran to a waiting car. The Anchorage Daily News reports Szymanski took off after him and identified the thief and the getaway driver as white males in their early 20s. She said they drove a maroon Jeep. "They are lucky I didn't have my .45 automatic," she said. "I would have blasted them." So far Szymanski has tracked the suspects to a number of shops, restaurants and gas stations where the pair used her credit cards before she could cancel them.

quotes

from Kathleen Cambor's In Sunlight, In a Beautiful Garden: A Novel.

"He wished she knew how many sacrifices he had made. And even though he felt petty and unworthy when the thought occurred to him, he wished she could be grateful." (126)

"'I would have preferred raised stones as markers... I imagined something upright, tall, with chiseled angels rising from it. I wanted a carved elaborate script to spell their names, a poem or a prayer carved into marble. I wanted a building built. A mausoleum... I wanted something as magnificent as grief." (213)

(italics added)

wicked

NEW YORK - A family erected a bloody Santa Claus display outside a New York home that has scared children and riled neighbors, The New York Post reported Tuesday. The display features a Santa with a bloody beard wielding a knife in one hand and a severed doll's head -- blood gushing from its eyes -- in the other. Beheaded Barbie dolls also decorate a bare tree. Non-practicing Jews Joel Krupnik and wife Mildred Castellanos said their scary Santa display protests the commercialization of Christmas. "Christmas has religious origins. It's in the Bible," Krupnik told the newspaper. "Santa is not in the Bible. He's not a religious symbol. Santa Claus has become a piece of Americana." 

who's afraid of the big bad witch, big bad witch, big bad witch?... well, i'm sure jennifer aniston in when that witch is angelina jolie. at least according to Madame Tussaud (wax museum).

anyway, enough making fun of anglina when lookie here at the nice christmas card she and brad will be sending out in 2018!

winner!

it's tuesday already and i've not done much since! well, except for bowling wit reep and sunday night and beat him every game! muhahahaha! :) in his defence tho, he had a ball that was too heavy (and he told me to go ahead and try the 15lb ball when i couldn't find anything lighter! i did eventually find and use an 8lb ball). but more importantly ::drumroll:: i've taken bowling lessons before! lol. sometime when i was a kid. like. 10 years or more ago. wit angel and maybe derek? anyway, reep did quite poorly his first game and then added like 23 points a game for the next two. for a second there i thought he was gonna beat me in our third and final game (he got a spare then a strike in 10th round) but then i got a strike then a spare (also in the 10th)! so i beat him by 10 or so points. :) whew! getting close there! i dunno. there isn't much i do better than reep when it comes to games and such so i get really happy when i beat him at anything. altho seriously wit the rate he improves by even the next time we play he'll win me! blah! i should go take lessons from jon on the sly... lol..

living it up

my godma is starting a new job in la sometime next week and will be taking the metro to work. so yesterday my mom and i went wit her to check out the metro lines and did a 'test run' to make sure she knew where to go and such. as we were getting off the first line to transfer to another my mom tells some guy sitting next to the door (altho she actually announces this to the whole cab) 'this is our first time on the train!' uh... thanks mom. let's try to be more conspicuous shall we? anyway. so we finally ended up at the civic center and wound up going to the cathedral of our lady of the angels and to the walt disney concert hall. both very nice. pictures later. then we went to china town for eats. yum!

at night i went to phil's house for his er... holiday party. we had a white elephant gift exhange which went over all and played taboo and wario (or something. i wanna say warioware?) and in all. a good saturday. :)

sharks!

Sharks lived more than 400 million years ago - 200 million years before dinosaurs existed.  

Shark skin is covered with small teeth-like denticles which can tear human skin on contact. It was once used as sandpaper by coastal wood-workers.  

In a single year, a shark goes through more than 20,000 knife-like teeth.  

Unlike other fish, sharks lack air bladders and consequently have to keep moving to avoid sinking and drowning.  

To a shark, a swimmer in a black wetsuit looks a lot like a seal or sea lion.  

The Great White shark has no natural enemies and it never gets sick.  

Three times as many people are killed by lightning as are killed by sharks.  

Sharks have three eyelids on each eye to protect against the thrashing of its prey.  

Some types of sharks can smell one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.

swiffer this!

was just thinking earlier today that i wish all the dust in my house was gone so i wouldn't have to clean as much. then i saw these dust houses. so cute! it's pretty amazing the stuff you can make from normal everyday crap if you just opened your mind and thought about it.

news

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - It's bad enough that a woman mistook a block of cheese for cocaine and tried to hire a hit man to kill four men and steal it. It's even worse that the man she hired was actually an undercover policeman. The 18-year-old aspiring model was in the men's house recently when she spotted the white, crumbly cheese and thought it was cocaine.The undercover officer she "hired" provided her with some non-functioning handguns, purchased ammunition for her, and went with her to the home under police surveillance. The residents of the home allowed police to search it - where they found only the cheese. The woman has been charged with four counts of attempted murder and four more of soliciting a murder.  

LONDON - A train engineer in England has been fired for taking a photograph of himself naked while working and sending it to a colleague over his cell phone. The unidentified man was running a train at 125 mph between London and Sheffield when the picture was taken, Sky News  said. "The driver has now been dismissed," said a Midland Main Line spokeswoman. "Safety is, and always will be, our main priority." Meanwhile, The Sun reported it wasn't an isolated incident. The newspaper said a number of drivers have reportedly taken up the hobby of stripping down before passing other trains, and encouraging fellow engineers to look at them as they speed past one another. 

DETROIT - A now-unemployed Detroit-area police officer has been charged with assault and battery for allegedly discharging a Taser weapon at his patrol partner. Ronald Dupuis was charged with a misdemeanor by Wayne County prosecutors Wednesday relating to an incident in a police cruiser Nov. 3, the Detroit Free Press reported. A police report said Dupuis, 32, and partner Prema Graham began arguing after Dupuis demanded she stop the patrol car at a convenience store so he could purchase a soft drink. Graham wanted to get back to the police station and drove past the store, triggering an argument. Prosecutors said Dupuis then discharged his Taser, an electric stun gun, at Graham's leg. She was not seriously injured.  

random

ah. tis nice to see that people read my site. or... tis nice to kno who the people are! (referencing angie's comment on the last post) anyway. job hunting. not going so well. other than that things are good. saw king kong last night wit reepal. not the best movie ever but quite possibly the saddest! peope are starting to come back from away, which is nice. someone got home yesterday (the 14th) but i forget who. either chang or angel. yup. goes to show just how much i love my friends! anyway. best thing about break? time to read. :)

lyrics

gavin degraw - just friends

I saw you there last night
Standing in the dark
You were acting so in love
With your hand upon his heart
But you were just friends
At least that's what you said
Now I know better from his fingers in your hair
I'll forgive you for what you've done
If you say that I'm the one
I've had other options too
But all I want is you
Girl, your body fits me like a glove
And you showered me with words of love
While you were just friends
At least that's what you said
Now I know better from his fingers in your hair
I'll forgive you for what you've done
If you say that I'm the one
It's not my style to lay it on the line
But you don't leave me with a choice this time
Why weren't you true
You know I, I trusted you
When you were just friends
At least that's what you said
Now I know better from his fingers in your hair
I'll forgive you for what you've done
If you say that I'm the one
You were just friends
Now I know better from his fingers in your hair
I'll forgive you for what you've done
If you say that I'm the one
I'll forgive you for what you've done
If you say that I'm the one
I'll forgive you for what you've done
If you say that I'm the one
I'll forgive you

could you?

updrops

strange shapes some of the updroplets make in liquid sculpture.

nicknames

Johann Sebastian Bach - In his lifetime, the great composer's music was considered so boring and out of date that even his own family called him "The Old Wig."  

Claudette Colbert - The Oscar-winning actress worried so much about the way she looked during filming that her cameraman dubbed her "The Fretting Frog."  

Christopher Columbus - Historians call him a great explorer, but his own crew wasn't so kind. When his quest for riches led him to insect-infested tropical islands instead of gold and silver, they christened him "The Admiral of the Mosquitoes."  

Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson - The heroes of Western legends and prime-time TV shows were apparently as interested in other pursuits as they were in law and order. On various ccasions they owned saloons, gambling establishments, and even a brothel or two. In their home, Dodge City, Kansas, they were known as "The Fighting Pimps."  

Billy Graham - In his early days, the famous crusading evangelist was known as "The Preaching Windmill" because of "his exuberant arm flailing."  

Leo Tolstoy - The author of War and Peace is considered one of the greatest novelists in history. But people who knew him as a child - even his own family and close friends - called the troubled youth "Crybaby Leo."  

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - The famous French painter suffered through childhood accidents that gave him the appearance of a dwarf - but not in every way. When he lived in a brothel, the prostitutes, amused by the contrast in size between "his large male member" and the rest of his body, dubbed him "the Teapot."  

[From The Dictionary of Historic Nicknames by Carl Sifakis.]  

hunting

so i'm home again. came back friday for a bit and went to san fran for the weekend. came back late last night. (will probably post pictures after i get back to school and at snapshots). today i went to the mall and such picking up job applications. dunno how well this is gonna go tho. the places that would hire me are already done hiring. and places that wouldn't hire me anyway are still looking. who wouldn't hire me? the limited, lens crafters, victoria secrets... i got asked several times today if i was older than 18 years. uh yeah, i'm 22. but like seriously. i don't dress stylishly or even in the 'norm'. i hardly ever wear jeans. i'm always in pants. trousers maybe even. wide leg always. and i like to dress in dark muted colors. right, exactly the type to be working at like hollister. ...eesh. wouldn't mind working at victoria's secret. could get some nice bras and undies in the deal. but have you looked at the ladies working there? busty and made-up. ladies there wear a ton of making. i don't even own concealer. bah. i really do need a job tho... imma drop off my applications romrow at the mall then head over to bp mall to pick up some more. hopefully i'll get a job. i am SO low on funds... if anyone knows anyone who's hiring for the season let me kno okay? or. if you see some store hiring, pick me up an application. thanks. :)

garden

because i'm now at home i won't be updating much wit pictures, but give it a month and i'll be back wit pictures again. so for now it'll mainly be quotes and links of things (but not 'funny' links like in my musings. more... beautiful or thought provoking stuff.)

frozen garden. really quite amazing. reminds me of the girls from the city of gold and lead book, how they were chosen as the most beautiful and then preserved in that 'gallery'. altho this is in no way as creepy.

women

In 1920, 57% of Hollywood movies billed the female star above the leading man. In 1990, only 18% had the leading lady given top billing.

Canada declared national beauty contests canceled as of 1992, claiming they were degrading to women.

A healthy man who is good physical shape has about 12 to 15 percent body fat. A woman in good shape has between 15 to 18 percent. The models used in most of the advertising for abdominal machines, on the other hand, have less than 10 percent body fat.  

smile!

in the spirit of christmas i post this crazyness. it's freakin incredible the effort some go thru wit their christmas lights. oh, and don't forget to turn up your volume. (thanks thy!) now can you imagine if you were the neighbor across the street? you would go nuts wit all the damn lights and music! so perhaps you'd rather look at this? jack black (lol, open this! just one picture) for his new movie. and perfectly sized for your desktop i might add. ah, now you can't get enough of the funny pictures? well here are some of figure skaters looking not too graceful. :)

stickers!

(eesh, every time i gotta recap!) so after teaching a few of us went on a seperate trip to the city of chengdu in the sichuan province in china, home of really spicy chinese food. while we were there we visted people's park (like every city in china has a people's park) and took those sticker pictures that were really popular years ago over here? anyway, perfectly it was a sheet of 16 so each of chose our four backgrounds. here are mine!

   

i got two hello kitties! haha! the third is cause of my dragon boat team name: yo mama's party cow (no kidding!). and the moon one? i dunno. thought it was pretty i guess. lol. btw? i love that shot of emily in the last one. (she's the one looking at the screen)

shanghai sunset

shanghai. awesome place. and i've absolutely no shortage of pictures. so here're some of the sunset in shanghai.

       

first thru third pictures taken from people's square, where the museum, grand theatre and such are located. don't really kno wat the buildings in the pictures are tho... in the first picture, the main building is this beautiful silvery building. the top of it has these waves so the refelction of light is spectacular. behind that, which you can see, altho not well, is this gold building. and together, during the day, it's an awesome sight. silver and gold against this great blue sky. some of the bluest skies i saw in china were in shanghai. in picture two the building to the left, wit the curved 'hande' coming off it, is the museum i think? and picture four is just some random street i thought looked cool in the darkening sunset.

conspiracy

dennis rodman (basketball player, remember?) has always been a little strange. but lately he's gotten even weirder. publicity stunt anyone? well watever it is, it doesn't seem to be working. or that dress, hair, or makeup... guy really should just stick to buzz cuts and chapstick. speaking of which... reepal has long since been telling me that he gets hooked onto chapstick. i guess it works so well that when he doesn't use it his lips go to hell? and appt it's true. lips (and people) can develope an addiction to lipbalm. i think i might have a bit of a problem myself. but have no fear, there's a wonder 12 step program outlined for you. and so while you're busily applying your next coat of chapstick, go watch this weird bunny vs crow video.

wat?!

someone asked me today just how long it's been that i've been wit reep. i said finished four years, just started our fifth. then thought about it. and no, we actually just finished our fifth and are starting our 6th. can you believe that!? oh my god! like... i mean... sh*t! i'm f*cking speechless. i just cannot believe it. i... sheesh. okay. i'm not like: 'aw man i've wasted so much time wit him!' or even like 'aw, we've been so long together, we're so cute!' no. it's basically just utter shock. it's funnier cause it's me. homegirl who like, was (is, really) a commitment phobe. i dunno... appt i don't kno myself very well? was telling reep the other day that i'm not the nurturing type. he said that i am, but i just don't like to admit it. or that i'm more nurturing than i think i am. or something like that. but anyway, five complete years. that's longer than felicity was on. nealy as long as sex in the city! incredible.

'when memories fade, we've got each other' 'and it feels like we could last forever and i’m not doing this alone' / 'i won’t do this without you so take heart, cause you know that you have mine' / 'i hold it all when i hold you' / 'i just need you in my life, so promise me again'

rewind

was going thru my old posts from trips/travels and came across this:

 

7.10 3 doors down – be like that  jesus… so reep gave saeho danny’s sn. and he ims him. danny asks who he is. and he says 'a friend of stephanie' ... ... WTF! jesus... i mean... do watever the fuck it is your  immaturity wants to do. but don't get me involved. jesus. course. reep didn't expect saeho to say anithing like that. he got pretty pissed too. or... i don't think pissed, really. he was laughing. felt like punching him. jesus. suggested that i block danny on my buddy list. told him i couldn't, as i didn't have his sn. reep couldn't give it to me either. said some shit about how i give him my password then he come on and block him. ...so then wouldn't i be able to check after that? 'so don't look' ...

 

dude, can you believe that shit? oh my god. if this happened today i'd have a lot more to say than just '...' fuck man. can you believe he wouldn't give me the sn of my exfriend? i mean, who the hell are you to deny me information that is more relevant to me than it is to you? and you can give your friend his sn who then goes to harrasses him but you won't give it to me? the hell is this?! my god we were stupider back then. well, i'm different now of course. i'd not take this ish. i'll have to ask reep tho if he'd act the same way. damn! he'd better not say he would!

great wall

going to beijing and not visiting the great wall would be like going to the mall and not buying anything. uh, wat? lol. anyway. so our tour guide dropped us off at some place where you can go 8 towers one way and 3 towers the other way. i wanted to do as many as i could so i immediately split off from the group. i only did 7 one way but then i doubled back and did two more. it was pretty cool. most people only do the long way but going the other way was nice because the views are actually really different. the towers are built different as well. thing that surprised me the most about the great wall? how damn steep some of it is! eesh!

        

picture one: first leg. looking up the long way. picture two: window looking out. picture three: window at short way looking back towards long side. picture four: shadowy me at a tower looking down into stairwell. at nearly every tower you can step outside the wall. and at most of the towers there is a little souvenir stand. you can also take a picture wit a camel or horse. and, if you wish, you may dress up in some 'traditional' chinese outfit and pose. and yes, it really is as hokey as it seems. :) i lost that hat somewhere btw. :( i got it in taiwan the last time i went. it said ucla on it. lol.

stupido!

stupid happens. but sometimes the rest of us get lucky and the stupids get weeded out. by themselves! smart people participate in self-preservation. stupids do ..er... themselves. yes. ..anyway. rapper shoots self dead. good job guy. and right before getting a record deal, imagine that! and here's a whole slew of stupid plane accidents (do actually see them thru to the end. 3rd from last is strange as hell). and for those of you really wanting to join the ranks of stupid, go to ebay and buy a porn company.

shoe tree

you gotta check out the shoe tree. awesome pictures. i need to go visit sometime.

ya really

"Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is." (Barbara Bush - Former US First Lady)  

"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships." (Sharon Stone)  

"I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 percent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves." (Jerry Garcia - Grateful Dead)  

"Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house." (Rod Stewart)  

"On the one hand, we'll never experience childbirth. On the other hand, we can open all our own jars." (Bruce Willis - On the difference between men and women)  

"There are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane: Either you have diarrhea, or you're anxious to meet people who do." (Henry Kissinger - former US Secretary of State)  

"My girlfriend always laughs during sex no matter what she's reading." (Steve Jobs - Founder: Apple Computers)  

"My cousin just died. He was only 19. He got stung by a bee - the natural enemy of a tightrope walker." (Dan Rather - News anchorman)  

"I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with 'Guess' on it. I said, 'Thyroid problem?'" (Arnold Schwarzenegger)  

"Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for Black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps." (Tiger Woods)  

"Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself." (Roseanne)  

"In the last couple of weeks I have seen the ads for the Wonder Bra. Is that really a problem in this country? Men not paying enough attention to women's breasts?" (Hugh Grant)  

"There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?" (Dustin Hoffman)  

"There's very little advice in men's magazines, because men think, I know what I'm doing. Just show me somebody naked." (Jerry Seinfield)

o really?

felicity huffman names her penis. which strangely enough, isn't the funniest thing about the article. the writer calls her 'sexy' and 'stunning'. oh really? (ya really! stupid owls!!) and so i kno this is really really terrible, but these two guys make fun of the cutest dogs and i just found it hilarious! and for a little more stupid humor, watch this pepsi commercial. they say we also had this on tv for a while but i really don't remember it.

picture ...perfect?

went here and made this (that ugly thing below). lol... i didn't kno wat to draw so i tried to do that other picture reep and i took at the oc fair earlier this summer. needless to say, it doesn't really look like wat it's supposed to look like. reepal especially came out looking really really strange. lol... i tried fixing it but i think just made it worse. lol... well anyway. i tried.

                       

aww man... putting the next together just hows really how bad it is. lol... i guess...i sorta look okay? well... recognizable at least... at the very least... reepal... well... he just looks strange.. lol... anyway, you go try your own. better yet. save that picture of reep and me and try your hand at it. i guarantee it'll be better than mine. :)

smarties

check out leonardo da vinci's 10 best ideas. pretty incredible stuff really. and mirror writing? it's actually not that hard to do. in hs a friend and i wrote a couple notes back and forth that way. cursive, of course, is a bit harder. but wat would he say about a.l.i.c.e.? because she appt doesn't kno who he is. (no seriously, you gotta to try out this link. it's this this ai chatbot thing? anyway, you can have conversations wit it. i talked to her for like half an hour the other night about the strangest things. including big black d*ck. lol...) and now to lose a few brain cells... go watch this short video.

masks (shanghai museum cont.)

the last fallery i visted at the shanghai museum was the chinese minority nationalities' art gallery. unfortunately i ran out time so i wasn't able to take nearly as many pictures as i wanted. but it was mainly displays of the traditional dress of the chinese minorities. all the clothing was incredible. and some were so elaborate. and the way they set up the exhibit was awesome too. anyway. on one wall they had a whole thing of masks, and here are a few of the stranger / funnier ones.

           

huh?

why is it that guys take so long to poo? takes them like half an hour! man... i sometimes read in the bathroom but it's only because i like to read, not because otherwise imma get all bored and maybe fall asleep from staring at the door for an hour or two. sheesh homies, if it always takes that long, go drink some prune juice.

'i'm a line in your tasteless joke'
'i’m not worried cause its 5 minutes till your glory' / 'don't worry cause it's not broken; it's just swollen' / 'its much cooler in slow motion'

randoms

beating a dead horse? woman run over by 10 different cars on the freeway. and now for something pretty: paper cut-out art. really really incredible. it's only too bad the captions aren't in english. and just for fun. a pussy cat touching it's own er... :) a little gross, but still strangely entertaining.

threadless

so! threadless is having their annual $10 christmas sale. and reepal and i finally decided to spring for a couple shirts. he got goldie. and i got summer (so pretty!) and bleeding heart. i've wanted this one pretty much since i've seen it. i even requested a reprint. actually, i really wanted the red version but they only reprinted it in black. bleh. everyone has this shirt! and it's so cliche in black! eh, watever. i'll jump off the bandwagon when i see fit. and guess wat? reep got them for me for christmas! yay! hehe. me loves! and he said he was gonna get me flowers in the attic but they didn't have my size anymore. :( so wat am i to get him for christmas then? he says he needs some winter work clothes. so we're gonna go shopping and i'll buy him something. so really, it's sorta like a double christmas present for me cause i get to go shopping. hehe!

                       

and yeah, bleeding heart shirt twice, but i couldn't decide which picture i liked better. and yeah. i kno. i'm so emo. but notice, i am smiling. altho, inside ::sniff::

shanghai museum

after my tour i spent a few days 'alone' in shanghai. i met up wit my parents' friend who arranged a place for me to stay. i hung out wit her a bit too, but she had work so i had a lot of alone time. :) anyway, my first day alone i spent at the shanghai museum. i went because i thought i should go. but wasn't prepared to really enjoy it. surprise surprise! i've been to a bunch of museums in the past. all somewat enjoyable if a little boring. but this time i really took my time and had... well, not fun, but fun, you kno? i guess it's because it was different from the stuff i normally see, all that european (western, really) art. and this stuff, it was so new to me. it was awesome. seriously.

        

picture one and two: the museum had an amazing bronze collection. the first picture is of a (wine?) vessel. it's in the shape of an ox. it's so cute! the second is a vase (if you look closely, you can see my reflection on the left. picture three is of this dude in the pottery gallery. some god or warrior guy? he crushes demons (altho it's so funny because it looks like he's just stepping on some ugly kid). picture four is of the inside of the museum. main hall i suppose. it was beautifully done. one side was stairs the other was escalaters. the last picture is of the outside (duh) of the museum. great contrasts between the curves and the edges. everything was just gorgeous. more museum pictures romrow.

mishmash

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Talk about irony - a New Hampshire man named Ronald MacDonald has been charged with stealing cash from the safe at a Wendy's restaurant where he works. The store manager called Manchester police early Monday when he discovered two men taking cash from the office safe. He detained MacDonald, 22, and Steven Lemay, 20, until police arrived, the Manchester Union-Leader reported. The booking affidavit said MacDonald told the store manager that while Lemay acted as a look-out, he used his driver's license to pick the lock to the office. After repeated requests, MacDonald returned the $133 that had been taken.

for music lovers out there: can you name the 72 bands represented in this picture? (no absolute answer key, sorry)

and for anyone who hates wat's 'trendy' right now. how can you take such perfectly normal clothing and make it look like crap? throw on a million layers! ...

ermei shan cont.

and these were the lovely people who went wit me on the trip!

        

one: emily. my roommate in xian. she was a bit older than the rest of us. manchester i think? england anyway. two: vic and matthew. vic is at oxford but she's from scotland. matthew was the youngest of all the volunteers; he turned 17 in china! and he's from eastbourne, which is by the sea! (inside joke, sorry) third is of them in the bus (order: matthew, vic, emily). and lastly is a reflection of me.

ermei shan

talking about china always makes me happy. :) anyway, so on our trip to chengdu we went to ermei shan. we got there sunday early afternoon and spent the night there. the next day we (having joined a tour group) took a bus up the mountain. we ended up having ridden a train thing, a lift thing (a real kind, not the british kind), a bus (obviously), and a rickshaw thing (twas not that comfortable! but so fun!). we also hiked a lil.

        

one: temple. two: another temple (on second highest peak if i remember correctly). three: prayer locks on chain (gray thing is post). four: statue that looked vaguely hindu. five: view when walking down mountain.

i didn't get any pictures of this.. but we also saw some monkeys that day. lol. the tour guide lady was talking about them and saying that they were dangerous and such. i was translating to emily, vic and matthew and thinking that i must not be understanding her chinese. but lo and behold, it was monkeys. i didn't get any pictures for fear that they would grab my camera. but anyway. we ended up watching a monkey couple have sex. yup. twas gross. grossest thing was after the lady monkey had run off. the dude monkey grabbed his er... cock (lol, animal humor) and proceeded to uh... wipe off some white stuff (his or hers i don't kno) and eat it. yes. lol...

vengence!

i kno wat reepal was in a past life! herring! how did i figure this out? because they fart a lot. and so does reepal! hahaha! and thank god i don't have a serious food allergy or reepal might just try to kill me wit a kiss of death! (i was just kidding about the farting reepal! i promise! i loves you tons! forgive me!!)

quotes

jules verne - paris in the twentieth century

"'Like all the evils of this world, it is women who have cause this irreparable misfortune; therefore address your reproaches to our mother Eve and to her stupid husband' all our pain or suffering proceeds from them, and when we have a stomachache, it is because Adam has eaten raw apples.'" (152)

"'Love her like a madman, if you like, but marry her like a wise man...'" (187)

taking the step

long time couple charlize theron and stuart townsend have finally set their wedding date: when it becomes legal for gays and lesbians to marry in america. ..i kno wat you're thinking. isn't charlize a woman and stuart a man? yes, you are correct. so isn't it already legal for them to marry? yes, it is. but they're taking a stance, people, and they're protesting the unfairness of not allowing same sex marriages, so until they get the right, this couple will not celebrate their legal union. well, it makes sense to me...

article

mm mm good!

you kno wat i'm thankful this thanksgiving? friends. damn good friends. tsai and i went out saturday night to finally get our turkey fix for the holidays. we went to denny's where strangely enough they have a traditional thanksgiving turkey dish on the menu normally. but since it was the second dinner for both tsai and i we split an order. the turkey wasn't too good and the stuffing i wanted to spit out but it was a great second dinner. and yeah, i'm holding up my can of cranberry sauce, which i brought along just in case they wouldn't give us any extra. and yes, i brought along a can opener. and i also brought ::drumroll:: my new camera! (i'd link you but i think it's pretty cool how works and i want it to be a surprise! so i'll just let you see it in person) it's awesome! i got it at fry's that afternoon wit my dad. i got a printer too! (hp psc1410. so happy i got a flatbed scanner, yay!) it's even better that both were sorta impulse purchases but both were cheap and have good reviews and such. and, strangely, my mom approved of both so i get to keep them. :) anyway, thanks to everyone for making this one of the best thanksgivings ever! :)

           

baby proofing

CHINA - Instead of struggling to stick on a condom in the heat of the moment, the Chinese will soon be pulling out their liquid condom-in-a-can. The country's first liquid condom recently went on sale after being approved by the health and drugs administration. Named the Nanometer-silver Cryptomorphic Condom (NCC), it is made for females rather than males. The manufacturer claims the antiseptic foam spray forms a physical membrane inside the vagina to protect from infection and pregnancy, and also provides a lubricating effect.

article and picture!

turkey?

aww man. wat's the best tactile thing about thanksgiving? turkey! and cranberry sauce. duh. but thing year all i got was hotpot. that's right. chinese hotpot. and no, we didn't put turkey in. not even chicken or goose or duck or any other kind of bird. beef. that's it. and i love beef, so me complaining about getting beef over turkey is kind of a big deal. romrow or maybe late tonight? imma go to like boston market, or dennys if need be, and get me my thanksgiving turkey fix. yum...

after i die...

Ms. Eleanor Ritchey, the unmarried granddaughter of the founder of Quaker State Oil, died in 1968 with an estate worth around $12 million. According to Scott Bieber in Trusts and Estates magazine: "Under her will, she left over 1,700 pairs of shoes and 1,200 boxes of stationery to the Salvation Army. The rest of the estate went to the dogs." Real dogs, he means - a pack of 150 strays that Ritchey had adopted as pets.  
  
When American patriot Patrick Henry died, everything he owned was left to his wife - as long as she never married again. If she did, he forfeited the whole thing. "It would make me unhappy," he explained, "to feel I have worked all my life only to support another man's wife!" She remarried anyway.  

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, tried to leave his birthday. He willed it to a good friend who'd complained that since she was born on Christmas, she never got to have a real birthday celebration.  

An attorney in France left $10,000 to "a local madhouse." The gentleman declared that "it was simply an act of  restitution to his clients."  

An Australian named Francis R. Lord left one shilling to his wife "for tram fare so she can go somewhere and drown herself." The inheritance was never claimed.

Sandra West, a wealthy 37-year-old Beverly Hills socialite, left most of her $3 million estate to her brother - provided he made sure she was buried "in my lace nightgown and my Ferrari, with the seat slanted comfortably." That's how she was buried. The Ferrari was surrounded with concrete so no one would be tempted to dig it up and drive away.  

A woman in Cherokee County, North Carolina left her entire estate to God. The court instructed the county sheriff to find the beneficiary. A few days later, the sheriff returned and submitted his report: "After due and diligent search, God  
cannot be found in this county."  

Edgar Bergen, famed ventriloquist, left $10,000 to the Actor's Fund of America - so they could take care of his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, and put him in a show once a year. They went along with it.

uh huh..

***The Keys to Your Heart***

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.
     but i don't like horses...

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.
     stylish and alluring huh? i don't think i've ever thought to myself 'oh man... why didn't reepal say i was stylish today?'

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic. 
     i can definitely put up wit ruthless and cold-blooded. but sarcastic? no way!

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. 
     wait, i won't cheat on someone because i care about.. society? oh that makes sense.

You think of marriage something you've always wanted... though you haven't really thought about it. 
     aw man, this is the worst one yet. while yes marriage isn't something i've really thought about it. it definitely isn't something i've always wanted!

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.
     me? do anything for love? you gotta be kidding me...

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

turkeys!

Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining.

 

Turkeys heads change colors when they become excited.

 

Turkeys can see movement almost a hundred yards away.

 

Gobbling turkeys can be heard a mile away on a quiet day.

 

Turkeys don't really have ears like ours, but they have very good hearing.

 

Turkeys have heart attacks. The United States Air Force was doing test runs and breaking the sound barrier. Nearby turkeys dropped dead from heart attacks.

 

Wild turkeys spend the night in trees. They especially like oak trees.  

 

In England, 200 years ago, turkeys were walked to market in herds. They wore booties to protect their feet.

 

Turkeys have a long, red, fleshy area called a snood that grows from the forehead over the bill.

 

Thomas Jefferson thought the concept of Thanksgiving was "the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard."

 

Contrary to popular belief, Native Americans did not eat cranberries. They did, however, find them extremely useful for dying fabric and decorating pottery.

 

The first meal eaten on the moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was roasted turkey and all the trimmings.

 

Columbus thought that the land he discovered was connected to India, where peacocks are found in considerable number. And he believed turkeys were a type of peacock (they're actually a type of pheasant). So he named them tuka, which is "peacock" in the Tamil language of India.

 

In the last twenty years, Americans' love of turkey has soared, with per capita consumption up from 8.3 pounds in 1975 to 18.5 pounds in 1995.

 

Ben Franklin, in a letter to his daughter, proposed the turkey as the official United States  bird.

 

The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.

 

Wild turkeyscan fly for short distances up to 55 miles per hour.

 

Tom turkeys have beards. This is black, hairlike feathers on their breast. Hens sometimes have beards, too.

leshan

so on our trip to chengdu we went to leshan and then ermeishan. these pictures are from leshan, home of the largest stone carved buddha in the world. we took a ferry to see it properly but ultimately a game of rock.paper.scissors decided that we would not climb it.

          

picture one is of the great buddha and the stair leading up to him. picture two is of the great buddha himself. picture three is of the buddha and a 'mini' guy. picture four is of the mountainsides. in the second er... protrusion? you can see the stairs leading up to the carvings.

play list

love songs for reep

 

1. 112 - you are the only one (interlude)

2. boyz II men - the color of love

3. babyface - when can i see you again

4. tamia - so into you

5. joe & n' sync - i believe in you

6. 112 - all my love

7. monica - for you i will

8. 98° - still

9. k-ci & jojo - tell me it's real

10. mariah carey - whenever you call

11. babyface - every time i close my eyes

12. 98° - i do (cherish you)

13. 112 - stay with me

14. monica - angel of mine

15. babyface - seven seas

16. westlife - more than words

17. 112 - someone to hold

 

from step

(under)/(stand)

oh dear... i was looking for a song that reep had sent me and i came across some files that just... years ago, three years ago reep and i broke up. it was a serious breakup. we were apart for three months, altho we saw each other often and for a while basically acted as tho we had never broken up. anyway, so at the time i was making him a cd (the whole deal: music, cover art, liner notes...). and i had basically just finished it when i went over to his place and proceeded to break up wit him. i don't remember why really. but he gave me back the cd and also his ring. i can't say which hurt more... the cd i had worked really really hard on. i mean... shit. i spent hours on that thing. perfecting it really. songs, order of songs. cover art. liner notes took forever and a day. ...last minute tho i added in a picture of us. a photo. and i dunno why but i guess i knew we were gonna break up so i just added it in witout really like decorating the space around it. i just rushed that last bit after so much planning... reep gave it back witout having listened to it. i understood. the ring too. i went to taiwan the summer before and bought us rings. i had another set too. i bought the first set and engraved it. and then decided i didn't much like it so i got another and engraved that. and then went back for another engraving. i came home and we wore our rings from the second set. i guess i told my mom about it. she probably noticed i was wearing a new ring, it was pretty shiny. she told my dad and he took it away. which at the time i was so angry about because to me it was just a ring, you kno? a symbol of our love, to be cheesy. but nothing more. to my rents i guess it was like promise ring of sorts. it wasn't. but i got out my ring from the first set and wore that instead. but we broke up and he gave it back. i understood. and basically even after we got back together he ever wore the ring again. and he's not ever listened to the cd either. strangely, even years later, when i get reminded of that cd or our rings, it never fails to pause me for a second. but anyway. i understood. and i still do understand.

chengdu

the last week of my teaching assignment we got off. so a few of us decided to go take a trip. to make a long story short, we went somewhere we weren't planning on going and got hella lucky and everything just sorta worked out. anyway, chengdu is where we ended up. our trip was about four days. we arrived by overnight train. we then left and spent two days out of the city at some mountains and such, i'll post those pictures later. our last day we went back to town and hung out there until our plane ride back to xian.

              

picture one is of the three of them round 5.30am at the train station. picture two and three are of the green ram temple. the oldest and largest taoist temple in the area. and the last picture is of matthew and vic on a row boat in some lake in people's park (emily didn't come row wit us). this side trip was easily one of my favorite times in china.

smooth moves

mmm google video. i'm sorta really into it right now. also i can't sign onto aol anymore (i can get onto aol.com tho) so i can't access my favorite places and get to articles and stuff. so hopefully most of you have a faster internet connection. tonight i present, in decreasing order of goodness, a really funny mastercard commercial. and then this weird 'stunt ninja' thing. it's starts better and gets worse, fast. but it's still pretty funny. esp the part on the gymnastics floor and the people in the back don't even look at him cause they kno they can do better. have, however, always liked this song so watch it for only that. and lastly this strange concert / dance thing... gotta love the way they move. dance on emo kids, dance on...

m word

marriage. by the age of 35, about 74% of people have done it. by 65, 95%. so basically, we're all pretty much gonna get married (i already kno five older adults who aren't married altho yes i do kno more than 100 people so god only knows how many of you, dear readers, aren't gonna marry). i'm already expecting to. now, don't get me wrong. i'm not one of those who has been planning her 'big day' ever since i can remember. i don't kno where i want it, how i want it, and i damn well don't kno when it's gonna be. but come on, let's just look at the stats. anyway, i bring this up becuase i kno that some of my friends who have been in serious relationships have actually talked seriously about marrige. reep and i haven't. and we've been together the longest. i asked him why this is. he said it's because he wonders wat's the point really when i'm not even wanting to get married eventually. and yeah, i'm not wanting to get married, i'm not planning on it, but i am expecting it. you kno? so i guess this is a bit discouraging to reep? not in the sense that 'oh no, stephanie doesn't want to get married and i do!' nono. but i guess me only expecting to but not wanting to makes talking about marriage seem like a waste of time. and really? us being in our early 20s (dating five years is no real indication of marriage i think altho it does put on the pressure!) and not at all wanting to marry so early does make the whole discussion a bit silly. oh, and another stat. average age for marriage for women is 26, men 27. so cheer up folks, we've about another four or five years to go. here's to the tortoise...

dragon boats

i've been dragon boating near forever. so here's my er... tribute? well sure. first and second pictures from summer palace, beijing. obviously they aren't the kind of boats one rows. but we rode one round the lake, it was pretty cool. much prettier anyway than the kind we normally row. third picture is from shanghai museum. they didn't have a boat just the heads, but again, so much more decorative than the kind we row.