Dawn and Mormons, musings on older guys, movie / band reviews, plans, A-1 steak sauce recipe

To find out what the hardware is on a PC,
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Hardware (?)> Device Manager> Look under "CD/DVDs"> official name will be listed there

Decided to catch up on blogs after I ate and before I showered. This should still leave me plenty of time to do stuff before I go to the beach. Dawn has commentary and pictures up from her trip to Yunnan, and mentions (in a comment to Jen's blog) that she has a boyfriend. Heh, that should be interesting. She also has this rant about the Mormon people on her trip always asking for boiled water, but at least she's back home now. It'll be good to see her tomorrow, for sure! :) (I wish I had a cranberry Slurpee from 7-11... maybe later!)

Jen has a layout change... she mentions phone numbers, customers who are fairly older than she is (with kids!), being daring, and not having regret over things undone. Dave has a membership in Zip.com and so has a lot of movie reviews, plus a YouTube video of the opening scene in Eat Drink Man Woman. He also had a chance to drive a Mazda 3, and wanted to get off early due to the perfect sunny weather outside... I think he did! Now I wish I had a boyfriend... I've had my experience with LDRs / hookup situations, and never again unless I absolutely have to! :P (I wonder if I should say something to a certain somebody... I probably won't since I'm a big chicken, and constantly make up worst-case scenarios in my head!)

Spoz has a bunch of weekender photos, including a pile of trash off Rundle St. (?!) Says this past weekend should have killed him, but it didn't: good, then! He also had a photo of junk food all over the place.. interesting stuff, to be sure. (on Sunday, I showed Steph / Jon / Dallas the CD destruction post that he made a while back... good times, haha) Steph's annoyed that her RCMP application's been put on hold for another year because the soonest she can go for laser eye surgery ($3300?!) is in late September. But at least she'll have clear vision for the rest of her life... she also has a bunch of things she wants to do, like courses at BCIT / hockey camp / a second part-time job or tutoring to finance the surgery and spending money at the RCMP Depot ($5000-8000) / witnessing to her co-workers / getting into killer shape and running a marathon by age 25. Eh, we'll see what time holds for her, I guess...

Hey, Jon just showed up on MSN... 4:30-ish should be fine! I'm eating seaweed like it's going out of style, too... apparently, we're picking up Dallas as well. I don't think he knows Ben (like at all), but any excuse to go to the beach and hang out these days is a good one!

Great... now my bathroom fan doesn't work. Good thing I have enough time to write up a note and slip it under the assistant manager's door... I hope it gets heard that way, although you can never tell with Amacon. :P

Here's an original / secret recipe for A-1 steak sauce:

Over 300 Secret Recipes:

Recipes from Burger King, McDonalds, Chilis, Baskin Robins, Long John Silver, Nabisco, KFC, Jack in the Box, Starbucks, Outback, and much much more!


A-1 Sauce

Recipe By: Gloria Pitzer
Serving Size: 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories: Copycat Condiments

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

1/2 C Dark Molasses
2 Green onions -- chop
3 Tbsp Coarse salt (kosher)
3 Tbsp Dry mustard
1 Tsp Paprika
1/4 Tsp Cayenne
1 Clove garlic -- crush or
1 Tsp Garlic powder
1 Anchovy fillet; chop -- or
1 tbsp Anchovy paste
6 tbsp Fresh tamarind -- or
1 tbsp Tamarind extract
1 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Fenugreek
1/2 tsp Powdered ginger
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 tsp Powdered cloves
1/2 tsp Cardamom seeds
3 drops Tabasco
6 oz Rhine wine
2 oz Rose wine
1 pt White vinegar
1 tbsp Kitchen Bouquet
1 tbsp Postum Powder

Put all spices (except last 6 ingredients) through blender till they are a fine powder. Place over low heat with half the vinegar and simmer for 1 hour; adding the rest of the vinegar a little at a time as mixture is reduced in bulk. Stir in tabasco, wines, and the kitchen bouquet. Cook 3 min to dissolve. Remove from heat. Pour into crock pot or Tupperware container (2qt). Let stand covered for 1 week. Then strain through cheesecloth six times. Bottle and cap tightly. Keep refrigerated indefinitely. Freeze to keep for years.

Dream featuring the Simpsons and food / Jamming with Christine / Recital memories

I had an interesting dream which featured my parents inviting us younger folk (me, Vania, Megan, etc.) to a dinner in what looked like Justin's huge basement. There was BBQ duck, jellyfish, chicken, and all sorts of Chinese food available. But first, we younger folk had to do certain things before we went to the house. For some reason, this involved seeing a SIMPSONS episode where Homer went back in time to when he was a child. He received a letter from his future self which said that he had to complete certain tasks to ensure his happiness in the future. His grandfather put him to work on a bobbin machine, and scolded him roundly when he fell asleep and missed two cents in the tray. Then he somehow managed to get the right answer of "Clara" when he was on (not a typo!) a mural featuring a giant squid and a black ink cloud, and his teacher was interrogating him about Children of Bodom. o_O

After that, we met Alan and at least four other people we knew on the way to dinner. They were jumping rope in a parking lot and having fun playing marbles. We talked to them for a bit before going to Justin's. There was a pastor guy there who looked almost exactly like Hunter / Andrew / Kazuya (big curly black hair and chains), who we had to thank for his contribution to the dinner right then as he was leaving early. So we called out: "Thank you, Wayland B.!" in chorus. (as opposed to Megan's brother, Wayland C., who wasn't there) Then my sister and Vania asked what I'd like to eat since they were going to serve food to me. Somehow, my dad and Auntie Christina / Susanna disliked that idea... but there was nothing they could do about it since they'd just come downstairs to have corporate prayer with us and grab their food before going back upstairs to eat!

I woke up soon afterwards, and phoned my brother to see what was up. He and Christine Magee (no, not the Sleep Country Canada person :P) are jamming at the townhouse (they're not where she lives!), and will MSN me later when they're ready to leave. Steph gets home at around 4: she wasn't originally going to go, but she is now. Hope she brings her digicam today, too! (pictures!) I remember the last time I saw Christine: it was at that recital in April 2004 right after Awana... her first bubble tea experience involved Jon stuffing a bunch of pearls into his mouth! We were all wanting to know what the score of the Canucks-Calgary hockey game was: we were scared to turn on the radio after the recital, but Jon verified our win with Ty (who's apparently now on a special diet) after hearing all these car horns outside Pho 99! (we were there with Jeremy having something to eat) Ah, good times... I remember being home afterwards at like 1:30 AM trying to type up an entry before sleeping, and then Stephen got online. *sigh* I ignored him for a bit (as I do to anyone while working hardcore), then chatted for like 5 minutes. Guess I'll see what happens later, but I do need to take a shower and eat pepper crab noodles! (they rock!)

Septuplets, weird phone lines, Eric H.'s phone, loitering, Corey, recipes, technology, tarot cards

I wonder what it would be like having septuplets. No, I don't really intend to have 'em myself. But sometimes I wonder...

My phone lines were being weird tonight because the one by the computer worked until I punched in the wrong digits of what I thought was my brother's number. (one sib's cell phone number starts with 604, and the other with 778... darn confusing sometimes! :P) Then it refused to work for 20 minutes... I'd pick up the phone and get dead silence. While I was trying to get Eric H. on the phone later from the other room to tell him to just pick me up on the way to Riverport (Jon doesn't know what he's doing or what time he might conceivably get there as a result), it decided to work again since I could hear a voice (that wasn't the radio) from that phone. Weird. o_O

Eric H. got on MSN earlier to say that Nathan was on board with hanging out on Monday night. To make life easier for everyone, he proposed meeting at Riverport at 7:30 to eat and then see what happens. Thank goodness (if we do movies) I still have one free movie coupon, courtesy Ivan and Karen. I then called Jon to see if that was fine with him: it was. I could hear everyone in the background loitering at the church as usual, even though the cleaning crew (Eric T., Stanley, and their parents) had already arrived fifteen minutes prior to my call! (so at about 10:50-ish) Citrus was also doing / saying something funny, heh. After that, I got back to find that Eric H. had signed off... getting him on the phone didn't work because the fax machine was on, and no one answered the cell phone after six rings. Oh well, maybe I'll catch him before Monday!

Windows Media Player refuses to work for me tonight: it doesn't recognize any discs I put in. The regular CD player doesn't work since it currently has no batteries in it. (I need to look at the manual again...) I could do Winamp, but that's reserved for Corey's DVD... don't ask, I'm weird. Corey has nothing for me on that one, unfortunately. =/ (stupid technology...)

Speaking of Corey, I bugged him about sending that torrent of 300 original recipes (ingredients and all) to me. After telling me that I suck because I'm not a member of I Love Torrents (and thus can't access the torrents), he finally sent them. Good thing I have Adobe Acrobat now so I can read the files, I guess? (he was bugging me about downloading that the other night so I could read PDF files, sparked by my telling him that I couldn't read PDF transit files Eric M. tried linking me to last week) Maybe I'll post 'em here, and maybe not... knowing me, I will.

Corey also said that Jane sent him clothes, and was trying to get him to play dressup... he was not impressed when I said that it was cute, heh. Boys. :P (he also had this to say about Eric H.'s MSN name - only in the conversation because I had to show him that he did indeed sign off and it wasn't anything to do with the fax line - "Good grief. Who the hell would talk to that person with a long ass stupid "name" like that? It takes 30 seconds just to find the message at the end of all that sh*t.")


No, I don't believe in tarot or anything like that. Just thought it was interesting...

I Am

Which tarot card are you?

Manifestation through will. Imagination, concentration, action. Spirit and Matter united.
A young man raises a doubly terminated wand in his right hand. The wand is held vertically, a tool for the unification of heaven and earth. His left index finger grounds this duality into creation, drawing from the original chaos to bring into being the flowers of creation. His aura is shown as the horizontal figure eight, symbol of eternity... while about his waist is wrapped the serpen-cinture, the serpent devouring its own tail, another symbol of eternity. In front of him are the creator's / magician's tools: wands, cups, swords, and pentacles... symbolizing fire, water, air, and earth.

Bookmarks and souvenir stuff / new glasses / digicam plans

Mmm, these organic cherries are good! :D

This afternoon, I went out to buy bookmarks and Vancouver reminders for Benny and Nina. I found one bookmark about friendship, which will be for Benny: the only thing is that the bead with it has a heart! (I try to avoid hearts / flowers / girly things on stuff for GUYS, unless they're little babies or pretty good friends who won't take it the wrong way... they're not girly men! :P) Oh well... I found one blue one that has some stars and stuff on it, and another one that says "Shh! I'm trying to read!" for Nina. Then I went to Hallmark Cards: they had a Vancouver-related souvenir booklet at the right price, so I bought that along with three Vancouver postcards. I was looking for the Vancouver-related bookmarks that they used to have: at 80 cents each, they were cheap! (they had ten different kinds: a few each for Vancouver / Victoria / BC / Whistler-Blackcomb) Darn, I wish I knew they weren't there anymore... at least I'd bought some for myself and friends (Farrah, Erin, David S., holiday_wishes people maybe) in the past! When I got home later, I scrounged up a couple that didn't look used so I could give them to Ben. All I can say is that he better appreciate it, heh.

From there, it was off to Vancouver to find the Factory Outlet glasses place. My sister's directions were fine enough, but I thought the place was closed (at 4!) when I got there because I was trying to open the wrong door. When I finally clued in and read the sign near the door stating that the entrance was on the next street (after vowing some inappropriate things in my head), I got my new blue glasses and a case / cleaning cloth to go with them. They feel much better and lighter on my face than the OLD ones did, and even the brown ones too! Then I went back to Chapters, and waited a long time for a seemingly non-existent 496 (stops right by my place) until I finally decided to just bite the bullet and take a crowded B-Line to transfer to my usual bus home. (everyone seemed to be out today!)

Once I got home, I transferred the presents into gift bags (no grocery bags for transportation this time! :P) and called both my sibs, who were at church. There's a chance Jon is driving to the beach thing tomorrow, but I'll call him tomorrow to figure that out.. apparently, his buddy WAS at church, but wasn't then. Hope he finds the person soon, haha. I told Steph to bring her digicam to church on Sunday: I want a picture with Ben before he leaves, and it'll be good for baptism purposes too! (Mike and Anthony come to mind, heh) Now Corey's trying to convince me that free scraps of paper torn off from something are better than even 80-cent bookmarks since they're FREE and don't get in the way like a bookmark would. In turn, I'm trying to convince him that VCR is an abbreviation for Vancouver... it is in the hockey stats! ;)

Your Gang Smells! Name a facial feature Name a cartoon dog Name a song Your gang is called: Midgets on Motorcycles Your weapon of choice is: Fake Gold Chains Your gang's catchphrase is: Man, it's cold out here. This Fun Quiz created by Dixie at BlogQuiz.Net

Aquarius Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Your Gang Pick a song Pick a transportation mode Pick a body part Your Gang is Called Angels With Enlarged Wings Your Weapon of Choice is Glass Shards This Fun Quiz created by Dixie at BlogQuiz.Net

Virgo Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Hey, subconscious! Elmo doesn't SMOKE! / Uncomfortable questions

Note: LJ Movie of Your Life blogquiz, by Alissa.

That's right... here's another dream post. My subconscious is weird, I tell ya! :P

This one started out on a dark rainy night: my friends and I were all travelling somewhere in silver cars. Suddenly, Emily and Mike had to stop for a while so that she could light up a cigarette. (WTH!) After that, the scene changed to a breezy summer day, where a bunch of us were just chilling at someone's beach house with wooden doors. Eric M. was sunbathing topless, and I was with some other people just enjoying the sun... with clothes on! :P

Then my mom showed up and informed us all that Auntie Christine had gone crazy over her son Brian's wedding, and that we should all run before Christine came to make us crazy. So I ran to get Eric to tell him what was going on. Once everyone had grabbed everything we could and locked up securely, we were off. We stopped at the mall, where it advertised that they'd be open till midnight... but the tradeoff was that it would open at 5 PM. The dream ended when we were halfway across the world in an exotic resort, safe from Christine!

No idea what inspired THAT one: I haven't been thinking hardcore about Eric / Emily / Mike lately (except in context of baptisms and birthdays), but I *do* know that Brian Chan is getting married soonish. (and that the mall will soon be open till 7 on Monday / Tuesday / Saturday starting next Monday) Haven't been thinking of smokers that much, either... although going to Jen's is going to be interesting. ;) (in a GOOD way!)

At least this is better than Corey's 3 AM (his time, so 2 AM here) suggestions: "Dream about threesomes and KFC original recipe chicken... or threesomes! Maybe fivesomes. You and four girls with big boobs! :P No, no... you and THREE girls with big boobs. And the Giver!" Uh yeah, I don't THINK so! Although I *do* need to ask him about that torrent of original recipes... maybe tonight! Although there WAS this one time I dreamed about the Giver, but that was because he was going on about it for like an hour before I went to bed... I chewed him out for it the next night, no worries!


Here's an "uncomfortable questions" survey on relationships, from Kaitlin via Myspace bulletin:

Longest relationship: If you count the EMOTIONAL thing I had a few years ago, then thirteen months. If you don't, and just count Stephen.. then eleven.

Shortest relationship: Eh, if you count that "thing" I had in 2005 as one.. then a month.

How many people have you broken up with? One.

How many times have you truly been in love? Once?

How many boyfriends / girlfriends have told you that they love U? U? None of them have mentioned how they feel about U. (hahaha, great answer there!)

Have you ever thought that you were going to marry the person you were with? No.

Have you ever loved someone so much that it hurt? Yes.

Have you ever made a boyfriend or girlfriend cry? Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever cried over a boyfriend or girlfriend? Yes.

Are you happier being single or in relationships? I'd say in relationships, but then I really don't have that much real-world experience to have an accurate basis of comparison. Just that I'm too old to be single in this town, heh. But never fear... I won't go out and do all those crazy things that Corey wants me to do... heh.

Have you ever cheated on a boyfriend or girlfriend? Not physically, but maybe a touch emotionally. It's hard to keep up the same level of feeling for someone all the time, but suffice it to say that I didn't feel as I should have toward that person, and did toward someone else. =/

Have you ever been cheated on? Not to my knowledge.

What is the important PART of being in a relationship? Communication and trust. (yeah, so that's two... shush :P)

What is the worst part of being in a relationship? When they eventually grow really distant and ask you to change things about yourself that you can't / won't.

Worst relationship? No comment... maybe John. (2008 edit: STUPID KOREY!)

Do you talk to any of your exes? No.

If you could go back in time and change things, WOULD you? Not really, no.

-What is your ideal boyfriend or girlfriend? Caring / compassionate, Christian, trustworthy, reasonably communicative, funny, etc. (these aren't in any sort of order... or maybe I'm too picky! :P)

Do you believe that you are a good boyfriend or girlfriend? Of course!

Have you dated people who were not good to you? No comment. :P

Have you been in an abusive relationship? Emotionally, yes. Physically, no. (2008 edit: YES. STUPID KOREY!)

Name your most memorable ex if you have had one. Eh, I've only really had the one (or two if you count the EMOTIONAL thing), so... yeah. Can't answer this.

Have you dated someone older then you? By... four months? haha.

Younger? Not really.

Have you ever cried yourself to sleep over a boyfriend or girlfriend? Maybe. :P

Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? No, not everyone. Look at how swiftly I rejected Stephen when he wanted to get back together with me...

Believe in love at first sight? No.

Ever dated two people at once? No, can't say that I have.

Ever been given a promise ring? No.

Ever been given an engagement ring? No.

Do you want to get married? Maybe I will someday... not looking likely, though!

Do you have something to say to any of your exes? Yes, but if only we were talking so I *could* say it. Of course, what I have to say isn't nice... yeah, I'll just leave it at that.

Ever stolen someone's boyfriend or girlfriend? No, I don't think I have.

Ever liked someone else's boyfriend or girlfriend? Yeah... bad hamsterette!

Do you believe in true love? Maybe if I had it, I would. :P

Does heartbreak really feel as bad as it sounds? Worse.

Laptops, potluck details, a cool signature that sounds like a curse, glasses, and being girly

Laptop arm dealies.
More information.

[20:56:22] Corey: I want a free laptop
[21:00:31] Flami: ROIMU time!: it's all spam... do not give in to the spam!
[21:02:34] Corey: I want a laptop for every room :P semi-mounted to stands with bendable arm things so I can put it wherever I want without it falling or whatever (for doing stuff while laying down or sitting without using the floor or table space near a couch or something :P
[21:03:59] Flami: are those things even a possibility right now?
[21:04:36] Corey: I don't see why not
[21:05:01] Corey: it'd have a pretty limited range, of course.. near wherever the arm is mounted :P
[21:05:44] Corey: you know those flexible metal things? I don't know how to describe it.. the reading lights on my lamps are on those.. they bend pretty much whichever way you put them
[21:06:37] Corey: get a flat piece that you can attach the laptop to somehow.. maybe even just some Velcro or something... have it on an arm like that.... only problem might be weight. maybe having two of those arm things would work
[21:06:57] Corey: I could probably get some of that stuff from Home Depot or something... throw something together and see if it works
[21:07:56] Corey: I wouldn't want it to be permanently mounted, though... if it's a laptop, it'd be nice to easily take it off and go wherever with it
[21:13:10] Corey: I end up reading comics or watching movies on mine before I go to bed, while I'm lying down... It'd be nice if I had a way to basically suspend it in midair wherever I need it tilted whichever way I want :P
[21:16:42] Flami: yeah, those flexible metal things are cool... that would be really useful, but suspending it in midair?
[21:37:31] Corey: well... it wouldn't be in midair, obviously... it'd be on that arm :P positioned where I want it in front of me, angled to the side (if I'm lying down) or whatever :P
[21:44:56] Flami: ROIMU time!: yeah, that would be cool... why am I thinking of things suspended in midair?

Jen emailed us details of the potluck: "Potluck will be served at around 7 PM. Please expect to arrive around 6:30 PM. As far as food is concerned, we still need one vegetable dish, one appetizer, and one (non-alcoholic) beverage. Those who are still undecided, please email me what you decide by Saturday; that way, we will not have 'doubles.' So far, there are twelve people attending." Twelve?! Let's see... from this email, I count Jen / her mom / Dawn / Vania / me and my siblings / Eric M. / Nathan / Dylan / Vivian. That's 11, unless the 12th is Karen... guess I'll find out later! I'm like my sister: we don't RSVP and then back out of it since we're COMMITTED! :P

I like this signature I saw at a message board: May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day, and may their arms be too short to scratch!

I was going to either delete all my one-use tags or append them to pre-existing entries. But then I figured that would take way too long. :P

I'll have to pick up my glasses myself at the factory outlet tomorrow... good thing I have a free day so I can go to the mall / bank later if needed! (or Milestones to see if they still have that special on, haha) According to my sister, "It's exactly at 7th and Ash. Take the 98 to Broadway, then the 99 to Cambie. Walk to 7th (towards downtown) and head west (left) one block. OR Walk to the Cactus Club (on Broadway and Ash) and walk to 7th from there." I hope I don't get TOO lost, heh.


Here's a "being girly" meme from Tracey:

I don't think I'm a stereotypical girly female, but let's see here... 22 out of 95 here. Nope, I won't get mistaken for one of those anytime soon. Haha.

[] My fingernails / toenails are almost always done.
[] During the summer, the only shoes I wear are flip-flops.
[] My favorite toys as a child were Barbies.
[x] My favorite colour is pink or purple. (purple, yes... NOT PINK! although I say this while wearing my pink "AVEC LES COMPLIMENTS DE VICTOIRE" shirt, haha...)
[] I did gymnastics.
[] I love skirts.
[] Hollister is one of my favorite places to shop.
[] Tight jeans are the only jeans I'll wear.
[x] I love chocolate.
[] I've never had a real job.
[] My hair is almost always straightened.
[] I have at least 8 Myspace pictures.
[x] I usually go shopping once a week. (maybe once every week and a half on average)
[] I love to hang out at the mall with friends.
[] I have a real diamond ring or diamond necklace or earrings.
[] I've gone to a tanning salon.
[x] I've gone to the beach to tan / read.
[] I have at least 10 pairs of shoes.
[] I watch either the O.C. or Laguna Beach. (Gross!)
[] I change my icon weekly.
[] I wear a shower cap.
[] I don't shop at Hot Topic.
[] My cell phone might as well become a part of me.
[] I wear mascara everyday.
[x] I've been or am on a diet.
[] Bathing suits are adorable.
[] I don't know the difference between a sheep and a goat. (That's a scary question... there are non-kid types like that out in the world?!)
[] Big sunglasses are hot.
[] I have gotten my nails done before.
[] MTV is one of my favorite channels.
[] All I want to do at sleepovers is talk about boys!
[] I love to have girls do my hair.
[] I give and receive hugs from all my friends. (At times, but not constantly!)
[x] I hate bugs.
[] Carnivals are so fun!
[] Summer is THE best season.
[] My swimsuit has 2 pieces.
[x] I'm waiting for my knight in shining armor.
[x] Musicians are so hot.
[] You write me a poem and tell me I'm beautiful, and I'm all yours.
[x] I am self-conscious.
[] I cry often.
[] My car smells like vanilla or cherry.
[x] My dishes get washed more than once a week.
[x] I don't do sports.
[x] I HATE to run.
[] I squeal when I am surprised or angry.
[x] I eat dried fruit as a snack. (Sometimes... I need to get into that again!)
[] I love romance novels. (Not really, no!)
[] Drew Barrymore is so cute.
[] I dance a lot.
[] I usually spend an hour or over to get ready to leave my house. (Sometimes, depending on how much notice I have and what else I'm doing at the time!)
[] I only have like 5 billion hair products.
[] I love to get dressed up. (No way!)
[] Every part of my outfit needs to match.
[] I talk on the phone at least once a day to my friends. (No, but that would be a "yes" if IM was included)
[] I would love to have a photo shoot.
[] I apply lip stuff 50 times a day.
[] I wish I were a model.
[] I wish I could meet Paris Hilton. (The only reason I wish I could meet her would be to tell her how much of a skank she is, heh...)
[] I have been something that was semi. (What the heck does this mean?)
[] I own Uggs. (The only "ug" I have around is my brother, and I don't own him! Ew!)
[] Hip-Hop is the best music.
[] I pop my collar.
[] I like to be the center of attention.
[] Guys with Mohawks are crazy.
[] Horses are beautiful.
[x] I'd rather not pay attention in school. (Depends on what the class is about.)
[] Cats are adorable.
[] I write my own music.
[x] I would love to visit Hawaii.
[] Valentine's Day is so cute! (Ew, yuck!)
[] White is better than black.
[] I wouldn't be caught dead in all black.
[x] My closet is CHOCK FULL of clothes.
[] Hate the grunge look.
[x] I love to read magazines. (But they don't replace books in MY world!)
[] I love to gossip.
[] I had Lisa Frank folders / posters / notebooks as a kid.
[] I love Celine Dion. (Ew, no way!)
[] My bubble baths are 1-2 hours long.
[] My wedding only needs a groom because it's already planned.
[] My friends and I are in a strict group. We mostly only hang out with each other. (I don't think we're THAT clique-y...)
[x] I like little kids.
[] Diet drinks are the best.
[] I'm all about being vegetarian.
[] I refuse to eat at McDonalds. (While I don't REFUSE to eat there, I don't eat there as a normal thing every day or so either!)
[x] I check my Myspace everyday. (Gotta keep up with the bulletins...)
[x] I love life! (Eh, it's all right...)
[] I have a lot of jewelery!
[x] My screen name(s) have x's in them. (Only because I made the name up myself in Grade 9 without thought of "OMG, this is SO totally girly! Yay!")
[] Either one of my Myspace names has / had <3's or in them. (That makes me want to puke.)
[] I would never want to be the opposite sex. (maybe during a certain time of the month, but not ordinarily...)
[x] It's not what he / she said... it's the way he / she said it.
[] I have more than 3 pillows on my bed.

Just call us the dessert family. :)

Gotta submit this before the Blogger outage at 4! I just checked my email, and I found postdated spam from the years 2007 to 2020. At least it's not backdated spam covering the years 2002 to 2005... o_O

Hey, my new glasses are ready to be picked up, too! Sweet! :D

Eric sent the fellowship an announcement regarding the Thursday prayer meeting being cancelled tonight: it's to encourage people to go to Saturday's prayer retreat instead. Well, I just hope nobody shows up at church to find it empty! Dylan sent us an Evite about eating dinner next Friday: "Why spend time figuring out what to eat before Fellowship? We'll be having Church's chicken and healthy stuff.. come join us!" I dunno about you, but Church's Fried Chicken (which I haven't had in a long time) doesn't exactly fall under my definition of "healthy stuff." I know he was probably saying that the healthy stuff will be there as an alternative to the fried chicken, but it's fun to snark. :D

Steph sent an email about the skating / Greek food outing yesterday... she never checks that particular email account because it's really old, except for maybe twice a month. She said the same thing to Jen's email about what sort of food we're bringing to the potluck on Sunday... Jen's inviting Dawn and Vania, too! (it'll be good to see Dawn after a year!) According to her mom's calculations, anything is good so long as they have variety. Steph and Jon are bringing mango pudding, and I'm bringing some black forest cake I saw at the store today... just call us the dessert family! :)

I'm all prepared for the next few weeks otherwise: meatloaf, Nottingham loaf, Gobfather ice cream, Chocolate Fudge Brownie frozen yogurt (first time buying this stuff!), chicken with wine sauce, organic bananas / cherries / salad, and other such things. Too bad they didn't have the Uncle John's All-Purpose Bathroom Reader #13, but I did pick up two copies of the Fast-Acting Long-Lasting Bathroom Reader #18 for both Benny and Nina! That's the same one that I sent Corey in March for his birthday, in fact... I forgot the bookmarks for those, but I'll pick them up tomorrow while picking up Vancouver reminders at the mall for Benny. I also picked up the Ivory lavender body wash (makes me think of Jamie Fraser and Black Jack Randall of the Outlander series) and Softsoap's pink pure cashmere body wash.

The whole food shopping excursion cost $181 and change, but some of it was stuff I don't normally get: cards for baby Ian and Emily Lam ($4.69), the books (about $50), body wash ($13), ice cream / frozen yogurt ($12), and cake ($11) could all be included in that. Those organic cherries ($6) and bananas ($1.35) were a good price for what they were, too. Must remember that Stouffer's Bistro bowls are now offering a coupon to save $1 on a purchase of 2: that expires March 31, 2007. I spilled some raspberry yogurt (discounted $2.01) on my shirt, so it looks like I'll be doing laundry when I'm not defending typos and craziness to my sister over email. :P

Dream: Buying $6000 worth of things at Hallmark, rude white people, freaking out Timothy grads

I had another odd dream last night: I was at Hallmark Cards buying up a bunch of cards, stickers, books, and other things over a succession of days. Eventually, Randal (who was the clerk) expressed surprise and said my credit card wouldn't go through. Apparently, I'd rung up over $6000 worth of purchases over the last three days! o_O (while I don't doubt I've spent that much on those things over the course of my LIFE, I wouldn't do it over three days!)

After that, I dreamed that I went to church where I witnessed these three rude large white people (one with red hair) trying to park along the side of the road. While that normally would have been fine (we get huge trucks all the time), they were trying to squish their large SUV (with trailer) in a space not even Eric's Parisienne would fit... and that's a figurative huge blue boat! Maybe one average-sized car would fit... perhaps a slightly bigger car... but NOT a huge SUV trailer! Little Rosanna's dad was trying to pass them in his own car (which was kinda like Phil's Westfalia in the dream), and had rolled down his window to try to reason with them. Then he saw me, and asked me to get my dad... as the church administrator, he might be able to do something. So I found my dad in a group of people, just chatting... he refused to do anything since he was on vacation! Then my mom wanted to know what was going on inside: when I told her that it was a grad ceremony for the teens (plus our own program), she refused to believe me and tried telling me that it was really something else. Uh... sure, Mom and Dad... o_O

Then I went inside the church, which was decorated because a bunch of the Timothy kids were graduating and having a ceremony to recognize that. The teens (Margaret and Hien, neither of whom is old enough for high school graduation / Sylver, who isn't a teen anymore, but was one here / Emily L. / Julie S. / others) were dressed in black and white and had silver tinsel round their necks. I went to the church kitchen, where our Fellowship was preparing for our own program. My brother came in and asked what the heck was going on outside, so I told him. After some time, our program was ready. We were going to sing out of the OLD Spirit of Praise songbooks that we used to have when we were kids... for some reason, I freaked Eric out when I sat next to him. Then we noticed that Jeremy's hair and beard were dyed greenish-yellow... seems he wanted to freak out the graduating kids, which he succeeded in doing when Chris / Joey / Ivan came downstairs to look for something! I woke up when the phone rang, likely with a telemarketer on the other end... I hate having to leave the phone on since the likelihood of these calls is increased! Oh well, maybe the Factory Outlet glasses place will call soon... then I can turn it off!


When I got to the computer, I found that Jim had linked me to a Geocities picture site. I also got a message from Eric H., who said that he'd talked to Nathan: since Nate says Monday is okay with him, Eric guesses the party is on, haha. He just wants me to tell Jon to call his cell if 7:30 is okay with him. Eh, I'll pass the message on later... right now, it's time to go grocery shopping. Maybe I'll get some Gobfather ice cream and tortilla con queso soup! But I'll definitely get two Bathroom Readers, for Benny and Nina!

As for why I had the dream, I can only surmise that I've spent too much time thinking about the church grad ceremony slated for Monday the 21st at Flamingo. That, or I've thought too much about getting stuff for Benny to remind him of Vancouver... this would be in addition to the Bathroom Reader. Maybe my subconscious is also finally processing the dude who stopped me, Jon, and Dallas on Sunday evening in the apartment complex to ask if there was any visitor parking! (there is on the side of the parking lot...) Then there was the time recently when Nathan or someone else found one of those old songbooks downstairs, too. Ah well, it's okay... it provides quirkiness! ;)

Wishing Nina one happy early birthday / Annoying autoplay videos / Name meaning

I called Nina earlier tonight to wish her a happy early birthday. She was surprised I remembered, and thought that I was being really nice. Heh, most of my friends aren't really surprised when I remember their birthdays, but it's all good. We're getting together next Wednesday (the 16th) at 4:30 at Metrotown... her son Dylan's dad has him then, so it'll be good. More Bathroom Readers to buy! (I asked her if she read books which weren't necessarily novels, and she said she did... but was busy, of course!)

She originally suggested Saturday or Sunday, but both those dates are out because of Ben's beachy farewell and Jen / her mom's potluck. Wednesday should be fine except for a certain thing... so much for wishing I didn't have any obligations next week! Oh well... I heard her son babbling a lot in the background; apparently, he talks a lot now. That's what I'd expect from a two-year-old, heh.

Oh, and I figured out why my computer's talking to me every time I reload my GJ friends page. (Corey thought the talking was from a porn site, or that my computer was haunted by ghosts... as if! :P) Alyssa (green_carnation) posted a video preview for Little Miss Sunshine in one of her recent entries. Things that autoplay are very annoying, especially when they don't HAVE to do so! At least I left her a comment about it: she says she didn't realize it, and has now put it under a cut... phew!


This is apparently what my name means, although of course it's total BS... thanks to Amy via Myspace bulletin.

L - You live to have fun.
E - Damn good kisser.
S - You have some sexy tricks up your sleeve.
L - You live to have fun.
I - You have a fine ass! (that's what a certain someone said a while ago... but Eric and I could never figure out why he wanted a digicam picture of it when he had three girlfriends already!)
E - Damn good kisser.


A - You like to drink.
B - You like people
C - You're wild and crazy.
D - You have one of the best personalities ever.
F - People adore you.
E - Damn good kisser.
G - You never let people tell you what to do.
H - You have a very good personality and looks.
I - You have a fine ass!
J - Everyone loves you.
K - You are really silly.
L - You live to have fun.
M - Success comes easily to you
N - You are absolutely beautiful.
O - You are one of the best in bed.
P - You are popular with all types of people.
Q - You are a hypocrite.
R - F*cking sexy.
S - You have some sexy tricks up your sleeve.
T - You're loyal to those you love.
U - You really like to chill.
V - You are not judgemental.
W - You are very broad-minded.
X - You never let people tell you what to do.
Y - You're one of the best boyfriends / girlfriends anyone could ask for.
Z - Always ready.

Engrish in charming ancient towns of Beijing, Kyle's book advice, finding things, Ben, sentences

Last night on the way home, I was telling my siblings and Nathan about Eric's email response to my SLB email asking Jon who his friend Myles was. Basically, Eric copied and pasted a lot of information from Wikipedia about Miles Davis to explain who Jon's friend was (that did not help, thanks!)... and then threatened to disinvite me from the SLB night because I used "yo" in an improper context. ("you should put AND in front of it!") Jon said that Jeremy had a shirt which said "and yo" on it, and I said that Jeremy's shirt was the first thing I thought of when I read that! Of course, Jon thought the whole response was hilarious! (that's why we keep Eric around, hahaha!)

Hey, I got a Beijing (Charming Ancient Town - Dali Lijiang) postcard from Dawn! :) Haha, I love the Engrish on this thing!

Cherry Blossoms Inebriate Visitors

Thousands of cherry blossoms and green willows are planted in such streets as Fuxing, Bo'ai, Yeyu, and Yu're Street to form a city zone of dense willows and fresh flowers. Once in March, the spring breeze awakes the cherry blossoms. The pearlescent cherry blossoms with big flowers, bright colors, small petals, and dense flowers are so beautiful like a piece of red, frozen, and gleaming cloud. The scenery in the lanes like rosy clouds, together with flying birds and butterflies and bustling visitors, may be called "countless flowers among flowing clouds and mists; a splendid pavement for visitors." The fully blooming cherry blossoms connect the ancient town and visitors. Groups and couples of jostling and bustling visitors rush to appreciate flowers in the streets. Visitors flood to flower seas while flowers fly to crowd of people.

Heh, that provides nice imagery! Dawn says she hopes the card finds me well and enjoying Vancouver summer weather. As of that writing, she just came back to Hong Kong after a trip back into China... only this time to the southern province of Yunnan where there are a lot of rural villages. These are really old towns that still retain a lot of the life / architecture of a bygone era, where the most of China's ethnic minority groups live. She also wishes me all the best and her friendship love, and says she'll see me in 604 soon. That sounds good!

Reminder to self: Get Heart Seizure by Bill Fitzhugh, since Kyle recommeded it to me a while ago. That'll have to wait till I want to get another book, since my book list has to be even! (yeah, I'm OCDL! :P)

I finally found my photo album, so I put photos in it. Then I finally found Eric's birthday card: I forgot that I put it in a bag with the whoopee cushion I plan to give him for his birthday. (nice inside joke, haha!) Now my computer's talking to me again... at first, I thought it was just the ads. Then I figured out that it only happens to me when I reload my GJ friends page... very bizarre since it's never been that way before. o_O (and no, there are no other ads like that on the other tabs I have open! :P)

When I got the emails from Danielle and Christon yesterday about the thing for Benny, I was confused when they mentioned the prayer retreat. I was like "... prayer retreat? WHAT prayer retreat?!" haha. Then I clued in a while later.. the WEEKEND thing which I'm not going to. I swear, I forget about things that don't affect me. Very bad, I know!

Speaking of that thing, I have to get my sister or someone else to snap a picture of me with him. Then I have to get them to give it to me later on... that'll be good, heh. Darn... I should have bought a bubble tea from either the Yuen-Yuen Café or L&G bubble Tea House yesterday! I was so close to them! Argh. Oh well, at least I saved my money!

Now, a meme to round things off. This reminds me of a survey question I did once, haha.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your journal along with these instructions. (When I first read this, I was rather confused as to how you'd post your journal's sentences without a referring entry! For the other ditzy people among us, it means to find the fifth sentence and then post sentences 6-9 on page 123 of the book.)
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.

Book: Ghosts: True Encounters with The World Beyond
Sentences: "I should think that President Kennedy is in the latter group - that is to say, a free spirit capable of continuing an interest in the world left behind. Why this is so, I will show in the next pages. The R. Lumber Company is a prosperous firm specializing in the manufacture and wholesale of lumber. It is located in Georgia, and the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard R., are respected citizens in their community. It was in April of 1970 that Mrs. R. contacted me."

Tagging whoever wants to do it. :)

Surprising Fidela and Jackie / More hanging out... I think I'll survive...

Ooh, Chris (dingo727) and Jamie (jaebird) got their birthday cards: Very good... I'm glad they seemed to like 'em. :) (she says it was super-sweet and she liked the stickers... he thanked me in a comment and hugged me!)

After my last entry (which I have now edited), I went to Chapters to spend some time there. (I thought of going to the dollar store, but decided not to) In addition to reading a book about the Andrea Yates case (she's the one who drowned her five kids in the bathtub in 2001), I saw my brother there. He said he was going to meet Phyllis soon so that they could practice something before he went to the dinner. The dinner surprise went well, with Megan and Cindy pretending that they'd just gotten to the restaurant: Fidela and Jackie were suitably surprised! Vanessa brought her boyfriend Pat, so they and Steph talked about a lot of inside jokes and how parents thought that you knew someone very well just because you happened to go to Gr. 2 with them. *rolleyes*

Pat, Cindy, and Fidela agreed that Aug. 18 was a great birthday... hahaha! A bunch of them had had ice cream and played basketball with a bunch of people (including Ivan, who had looked totally bored at Dairy Queen) yesterday... sounds good except for the multiple mosquito bites! (Steph had a fair number, and they all swelled!) Steph remembered the time that I'd told a five-year-old Cordia: "If you want tuna fish, I'll GIVE YOU TUNA FISH!" (ah, memories of the Firs and Joshua Fellowship camp!) Yes, I remember when they used to be into Britney Spears and dance around all the time too! Ugh, haha. Steph drank two glasses of freckled lemonade and two glasses of water in 15 minutes tops, leading Pat to ask if she were really thirsty / dehydrated. Not that SHE knew of... o_O

I talked to almost everyone at the dinner, even if it was just for a bit: we haven't seen Bryant in a while, but won't bring Adela up! Said hi to his cousin Justin, who I hope isn't mad at me for cancelling on him last week... talked to his brother Clement and his cousins (siblings) Megan and Wayland too. Steph and Vanessa were trying to describe to Pat how everyone was related, and also tried to convince him that he was totally used to their craziness: he's getting there, but at least he's not totally bemused like he was last July or so when he met Steph! Becky says she's back till September only, so it was good to see her... Steph thought her brother's name was Tim, but it's SAM! (that would provide a rhyming name if it were!) The people on our side of the table figured that our life expectancy would be reduced two years by all the bottomless fries and ice cream cake!

We all hugged Fidela (whose grandma almost gave the surprise away) and Jackie while admiring their presents: Nathan is wacky with his toilet-themed stuff (Robert Munsch's I Have To Go / Curious George), and Cindy's so thoughtful! (devotional stuff) Fidela's reading the Mark Haddon book about that autistic boy: that was so good! Jon came by late, as advertised, and provided great chestchops for Wayland, heh. I was going to take the bus home with my siblings, but Nathan said he wasn't doing anything tomorrow and offered to take us home. (Pat had offered earlier, but he lives in the boonies!) Jon told us how the Grouse Grind had been yesterday: they'd recorded video of it (BLAIR WITCH effects, anyone?) and had done it in 72, 71, and 70 minutes respectively. He's still kinda sore, but is generally fine.

While we were all loitering inside the restaurant, I talked to Nathan about my rationale for getting Ben a Bathroom Reader: I want him to have something to remind him of Vancouver even if he's coming back. I certainly don't know if I'll ever see him again, even if I just got to know him recently! Fidela loves the Bathroom Reader that I got her, and Justin seems to like the one that I got him... it's all good. Jackie's sister Jenny worked a LOT in order for Jackie to make it to her own surprise, which is good... Cindy really appreciated it! Steph picked up Fidela and carried her into and out of the restaurant again, then Fids had to pee with Jackie: her words, not mine! o_O I told Jon that I'd heard he was going to Jen's potluck thing: Steph hasn't told Mom about it yet, and may not go to Ben's thing either. We'll see... I emailed Jen back just now to say that I would be there.

On the way home, we discussed Steph's half-hearted apology for burping in Nathan's car. She was kinda sorry because it wasn't polite, but then she wasn't since it was "only Nathan," haha. Dallas called Jon to say that he'd lost his wallet after karaoke the other night: no, I had not seen it! You never know about the people in karaoke parking lots, though... at least he's cancelled all his cards and such! After that, we discussed Jon's new ringtone: in Steph's words, he sabotaged her by having the voice recorder ready to record her scream when he touched her face from behind! We told Nathan about Craigslist rentals, and he agreed that it was a good tool. (I myself haven't been there yet since I don't personally see a need for it, but maybe I will in the future!) Got home to an MSN message from Eric H. wanting me to ask my brother whether Saturday or Monday was better for him and his birthday hangout. After confirming with my brother that Monday worked (Saturday's out coz of Ben's thing), I emailed him back with the details. It'll be good to hang out, but I also hope I get downtime the rest of next week! :P

Updating at Firehall for the first time in a long time...

Right before I went out, Jen buzzed me on MSN to ask if I was coming to her place on Sunday. I told her that I'd likely see my siblings tonight, so I'd see what was happening then. She responded that both of them plan to be there, so that's good: I'll just bug them about it later! ;) I also checked my email just now, and Vivian invited a bunch of us for ice skating and Greek food tomorrow: ice skating isn't for me ever since I had to get stitches when I was a kid on a school field trip to Minoru Ice Arena, so I haven't tried it since a very brief icy encounter in Gr. 9 on a Timothy Fellowship outing! With my pre-existing balance issues, I think I'm better off avoiding this social interaction! (sorry, Viv!)

My dentist appointment went all right, if you don't count the fact that I arrived late... stupid buses! So then the receptionist suggested that I go to the mall for an hour since the 2 PM patient had already arrived... fine by me, as I hadn't had a chance to have much lunch. I got some noodle soup, and spent the time reading the BOOK OF LISTS that Melissa's family got me for Christmas: I found something on page 143 that Jeremy might like just because of the name. There's an animal called the Euler's flycatcher that's been extinct since June 1955. (I know he likes the mathematician Euler... but this was named after some Swiss ornithologist) After the appointment was over with, I saw Joe Yu on my way back to the mall: we said hi to each other, of course. I decided to do some Internet browsing on the Oakridge library computers: the whole library is closed indefinitely due to flooding! o_O

Then I went to the Firehall library (which is fairly close to the Red Robins where I need to be at 7), and noticed changes. They have new computers, offer you choices between Mozilla and Internet Explorer, allow you to work for an hour if needed, and have a little timer counting down the time you have. (and they also have one in the taskbar in case you can't see the numbers on the ticker thing) The only thing I don't like about these computers is the bad apostrophes and the lack of working pointy brackets! Oh well... I have like 7 minutes left, so I should submit this post pretty soon! (and I'll edit it when I get home)

Three Wikipedia song lists / Another surprise, but for Ben / Some songs starting with V, for Corey

Wikipedia's list of sets of unrelated songs with identical titles
Wikipedia's list of songs with the name of a musical performer in their title
Wikipedia's list of songs with the same name as song artists
Spoz's Winamp generated playlist


I'm checking my email / YM, and I have two emails from Danielle and Christon to a whole bunch of people about a secret farewell thing for Ben at Jericho Beach near the concession stand at 4:30 on Saturday. Too many surprises these days, but I'll go anyhow: he's leaving for the East Coast (Montreal) forever! (or that's what it seems like to Danielle and probably others!) He does want to go to the beach, but doesn't know that it's a relaxed event: people have told him that it's just a bunch of people going there. Must bring about $5 to cover BBQ food and such, too... it's good that I'll see my sibs tonight, so I can ask them about Jen's thing as well as this on Saturday! (summer IS for hanging out, but it makes me so tired from lack of sleep and the sun through the window...)

By special request from Corey, here's the "V" edition of the last entry:

There are only 44 songs on this list. I could have found more, but couldn't be bothered. :P

1. Amery, Valentine Call 2
2. America, Valentine
3. Beach Boys, Vegetables
4. Bob Dylan, Visions of Johanna
5. Deftones, Venison
6. Disturbed, Voices
7. Ebaumsworld, Vibrator Prank
8. Everclear, Video Killed The Radio Star
9. Garbage, Vow
10. Genitorturers, Velvet Dream
11. Godsmack, Voodoo
12. GWAR, Vlad the Impaler
13. Hole, Violet
14. Incubus, Version
15. Incubus, Vitamin
16. Jamiroquai, Virtual Insanity
17. the Kinks, Victoria
18. KMFDM, Virus (Pestilence Mix)
19. KMFDM, Vogue
20. Lard, Volcanus 2000 (We Wipe The World)
21. Matthew Good Band, Vermilion
22. MOJO in the Morning, Vegas Bachelor Prank
23. Neon Dumpster Remix, Vapor in a Box
24. Nerf Herder, Van Halen
25. New Order, Vanishing Point
26. Phantom Callers, Vacuum Dispute
27. Phone Losers of America, V. Belt and Duct Tape
28. Phone Losers of America, Vegan Driver
29. Prodigy, Voodoo People
30. Rage Against The Machine, Voice of the Voiceless
31. Roy D. Mercer, Varnished Frogs
32. Roy D. Mercer, Vet Bill
33. Screamers, Vertigo
34. Seattle Phone Pranks, Vega
35. Sloppy Seconds, Vacation
36. Something Awful, Vinny's Goats
37. Subwoofer, Vaporize
38. Supernova, Vitamins
39. Television, Venus
40. The Phone Heads, Violent Vinny
41. Tragically Hip, Vaccination Scar
42. Veruca Salt, Volcano Girls
43. Verve Pipe, Villains
44. Victor, Victor

Here are some bonus "F" ones:

Mariah Carey, Fantasy
Bob Dylan: Farewell, Angelina
Queens of the Stone Age, Feel Good Hit of the Summer
Ladytron, Fighting in Built Up Areas
Dizzee Rascals: Fix Up, Look Sharp
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fortune Faded
LFO, Freak
Vast, Free
Eskimo Joe, From the Sea
Eamon, Fuck It
the Vines, Fuck The World

First reaction / word association survey

I should be in bed by now since I have a dentist appointment and that surprise thing later... thank goodness I took all these surveys when I had the time last week! This is one of them... I just have to ensure that I have at least one post each day, heh.

Here's a word association survey from Kaitlin, via Myspace bulletin:

Okay, this is called FIRST REACTION. Type what comes to your mind first whenever you hear these 35 words. Don't think about it, and don't go back and change your answers. It doesn't matter how random your answer is: just type it!

1. Cigarettes: Lung cancer.

2. Sex: Condoms.

3. Relationships: Complicated.

4. Your Last Ex: Immoral.

5. Power Rangers: Geoff. (yeah, Dawn's brother used to like 'em when he was a kid...)

6. Marijuana: In your brain. (Lords of Acid!)

7. Crack: Cocaine / track / in the egg / monkey fiend / of dawn. (drugs / Genitorturers / GWAR / Eric's one-time nickname / Bootsauce)

8. Food: Pizza.

9. The President: Weapons of mass destruction.

10. War: Craft.

11. Cars: Transportation.

12. Gas Prices: Exorbitant.

13. Halloween: Ghosts.

14. Bon Jovi: The J Man.

15. Religion: Church.

16. MySpace: Bulletins.

17. Worst Fear: Abandonment.

18. Marriage: Not happening anytime soon.

19. Fashion: Models.

20. Brunettes: Hair.

21. Redheads: Mark!

22: Work: Money.

23: Pass the time: Reading.

24. One night stands: Sugar Ray's Every Morning (which we sang at karaoke last night) or that country song my sister and I heard in December: "Let's get romantic, baby, and have a one-night-stand..." How in the heck is that ROMANTIC?!

25: Cell Phone: Voice mail.

26: Pet Peeves: Bad spelling and grammar.

27: Pixie Stix: Never had one.

28: Vanilla Ice cream: So good!

29: Port-a-Potties: EWWWWWWWW!

30: High school: Band.

31: Pajamas: Nightgowns.

32. Wood: Finish.

33. Surfers: California.

34. Pictures: Thousand words.

35. First Love: Not around anymore.

Music Meme: Giving out letters! (F edition)

Yeah, I'm crazy. :P (Alyssa gave me this to start with, and now Corey wants me to do V... all in good time, my friend!)

Music meme:

Reply, and I'll give you a letter. Find five songs that start with that letter and post them to your journal.

1. AC/DC, Fire Your Guns
2. Al Pacino, Furniture Guy
3. Arthur Brown, Fire
4. the Avengers, Fuck You
5. Bad Brains, Fearless Vampire Killers

Here are 97 more for the bonus round... 102 in all! ;)

6. Barenaked Ladies, Falling For The First Time
7. the Beatles, Free As A Bird
8. Bootsauce, Fight For Your Right (Beastie Boys cover)
9. the Buzzcocks, Friends of Mine
10. Children of Bodom, Follow the Reaper
11. Cradle of Filth, From the Cradle to Enslave
12. the Cramps, Faster Pussycat
13. the Cult, Fire Woman
14. the Cure, Friday I'm In Love
15. DBX, Faggot on Fire
16. Dead Kennedys, Forest Fire
17. Death Piggy, Fatman
18. Dr. Demento: Barnes & Barnes, Fish Heads
19. Europe, Final Countdown
20. Flaming Genitals, Fred
21. Flaming Genitals, Funeral Home
22. GWAR, Fight
23. GWAR, Filthy Flow
24. GWAR, Fire in the Loins
25. GWAR, First Rule Is
26. GWAR, Fishfuck
27. GWAR, Fistful of Teeth
28. GWAR, Friend
29. GWAR, Fuckin' An Animal
30. the Gandharvas, First Day of Spring
31. the Germs, Forming
32. Gin Blossoms, Follow You Down
33. In Flames, Food For The Gods
34. Jars of Clay, Flood
35. Jewel, Foolish Games
36. Judge Judy, Foreign Man 1
37. Judge Judy, Foreign Man 2
38. KMFDM, Flesh
39. Korn, Falling Away From Me
40. Korn, Freak on a Leash
41. Led Zeppelin, Fool in the Rain
42. Leviathan, Fucking Your Ghost in Chains of Ice
43. Lords of Acid, Fingerlickin' Good
44. Mark Knofler, Flaming Chiropractic
45. Mark Knofler, Fridge Running?
46. Matthew Good Band, Failing The Rorshach Test
47. Matthew Good Band, Fall of Man
48. Matthew Good Band, Fearless
49. Matthew Good Band, Flashdance II
50. Matthew Good Band, Flight Recorder from Viking 7
51. Metallica, Fade To Black
53. Ministry, Faith Collapsing
54. Ministry, Filth Pig
55. MOJO in the Morning, Fitness Test
56. MOJO in the Morning, Flippenripple Tree and Garden
57. Modest Mouse, Float On
58. New Order, Fine Time
59. Nickelback, Feeling Way Too Damn Good
60. Nickelback, Figured You Out
61. Operation Ivy, Freeze Up
62. Pantera, Fucking Hostile
63. Pere Ubu, Final Solution
64. Phantom Callers, Failed Break-Out Attempt
65. Phone Losers of America, Fat-Fingered Girl
66. Phone Losers of America, Fax Machine Violation
67. Phone Losers of America, Fight
68. Phone Losers of America, Fred Meyer Shoplifting Employee
69. Phone Losers of America, Front Desk Pranking Guests
70. Phone Losers of America, Fuck The Internet
71. Prank Radio, Ferret 11-11-99
72. Pranksville, Fob Prank Call
73. Pranksville, Free "Can You Hear Me?"
74. Prodigy, Firestarter
75. Radiohead, Fake Plastic Trees
76. Radiohead, Fitter Happier
77. Redneck Pranksters, Funeral
78. Roy D. Mercer, Fender Bender
79. Roy D. Mercer, Fingernails
80. Roy D. Mercer, Fishin' Report
81. Roy D. Mercer, Friday the 13th
82. Sarah MacLachlan, Fear
83. Seattle Phone Pranks, Fastback
84. Spirit of the West, Five Free Minutes
85. Subwoofer, Fuzzy Logic
86. Sum 41, Fat Lip
87. Switchblade Symphony, Fractal
88. Switchblade Symphony, Funnel
89. Tech Support Comedy, Fax Me Some Information
90. Thrill Kill Kult, Fangs of Love
91. Tin Star, Fast Machine
92. Tool, Four Degrees
93. Tool, Forty Six And Two
94. Touch Tone Terrorists, Fools in the Mailroom
95. Tracy Chapman, Fast Car
96. Train, Free
97. the Ultimatics, Fuck California
98. Verve Pipe, Freshmen
99. Wank, Forgiven
100. White Stripes, Fell In Love With A Girl
101. Yngwie Malmsteen, Far Beyond The Sun
102. Zebrahead, Feel This Way

100 greatest novels

My siblings inform me that Phil's coming back in mid-August... seeing him again will definitely be cool! Oh, and I think Eric T. just added me to his YM contact list: neat!

Shamelessly stolen from Steve W., this meme just is a reminder that I want to read Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Maybe one of these days...

The Observer list of the hundred greatest novels...

bold = read
plain = not read

1. Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote
2. John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress
3. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
4. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
5. Henry Fielding, Tom Jones
6. Samuel Richardson, Clarissa
7. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
8. Pierre Choderlos De Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons
9. Jane Austen, Emma
10. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
11. Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey
12. Honore De Balzac, The Black Sheep
13. Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma
14. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
15. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil
16. Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
17. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
18. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
19. William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
20. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
21. Herman Melville, Moby Dick
22. Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
23. Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White
24. Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
25. Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women
26. Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now
27. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
28. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda
29. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
30. Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
31. Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
32. Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
33. Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
34. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (but I sent it to Erin M. once...)
35. George Grossmith, The Diary of a Nobody
36. Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
37. Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands
38. Jack London, The Call of the Wild
39. Joseph Conrad, Nostromo
40. Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
41. Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
42. D.H. Lawrence, The Rainbow
43. Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
44. John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps
45. James Joyce, Ulysses (finally... Darren M. would be proud of me, hehehe)
46. Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
47. E.M. Forster, A Passage to India
48. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (gee, I wonder why this one reminds me of the AIM hatbots? haha)
49. Franz Kafka, The Trial
50. Ernest Hemingway, Men Without Women
51. Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Journey to the End of the Night
52. William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
53. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
54. Evelyn Waugh, Scoop
55. John Dos Passos, USA
56. Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
57. Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit Of Love
58. Albert Camus, The Plague
59. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
60. Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies
61. J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
62. Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
63. E.B. White, Charlotte's Web
64. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord Of The Rings
65. Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
66. William Golding, Lord of the Flies (had to read it for English once... never liked it much :P)
67. Graham Greene, The Quiet American
68. Jack Kerouac, On the Road
69. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
70. Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum
71. Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
72. Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (I played a piano piece which was from the movie that was made from the book once, though...)
73. Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
74. Joseph Heller, Catch-22
75. Saul Bellow, Herzog (but that reminds me of baseball and Whitey Herzog!)
76. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
77. Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
78. John Le Carre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
79. Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
80. Beryl Bainbridge, The Bottle Factory Outing
81. Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song
82. Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
83. V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
84. J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
85. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
86. Alasdair Gray, Lanark (but that does remind me of Tony, Dianne, and Cindy!)
87. Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy
88. Roald Dahl, The BFG
89. Primo Levi, The Periodic Table
90. Martin Amis, Money
91. Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World
92. Peter Carey, Oscar And Lucinda
93. Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
94. Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea af Stories
95. James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential
96. Angela Carter, Wise Children
97. Ian McEwan, Atonement
98. Philip Pullman, Northern Lights
99. Philip Roth, American Pastoral
100. W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz

Okay... a great reader, I am so not! Heh, oh well... 33 out of 100 isn't bad, all things considered.

Fish, ODELL LAKE, Apple II computer games, baby names for 2005

At dinner last night, we were discussing how Dallas and Jon saw live fish flapping around in Chinatown... kinda like Seattle's Pike Place Market, only THOSE fish are dead! (I saw that live multiple times, AND on Primetime once!) That reminded them of big old sturgeon: when Mom saw a picture of one in the Richmond News, she didn't know what it was! That was amusing for us since we'd been raised on Odell Lake in elementary school. It also reminded us of Carmen Sandiego (a true classic!), Oregon Trail (my sister wanted to get the "you have all died of dysentery / cholera" shirt from Busted Tees), Number Munchers, Word Munchers, and Cross Country Canada. We also discussed Mediterranean / special salts... good times and memories! (especially with the Zoobombs in the car on the way home, haha)

While looking around for this stuff online just now, I found a site with all sorts of old classic games! Of course, I have to start the AppleII emulator first before downloading the disk images from the site!


Top Baby Names for 2005

Male: Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Ethan, Andrew, Daniel, Anthony, Christopher, Joseph

Female: Emily, Emma, Madison, Abigail, Olivia, Isabella, Hannah, Samantha, Ava, Ashley

It's a small world at Superstore! / Hilarious literal karaoke video

Jon and Dallas picked me up at around 6:30, and we were off to the townhouse. We introduced him very quickly to certain family in-jokes, and tried to show him some stuff about Richmond. He was looking up rentals on Craigslist as we watched TV and told him a lot of stuff about surprises... nobody's surprised Jon yet, and that's fine with him! Apparently, Fidela was very sad when she left church today because she thought it would be the last time she'd see certain people (she asked Megan and Cindy to include Vanessa in the "dinner," and got a NO WAY!)... she's going to Urbana at Christmas, so she won't see us then either. Muhahahaha. :P

Steph mentioned that she hadn't seen Benjamin at church today, so she asked his parents (Billy and Stella) if they'd left their baby at home! He was at Grandma's, and Auntie Soo offered to take him overnight too... good thing, since it was Billy and Stella's fifth wedding anniversary yesterday! Then I told them all about how they'd given out their wedding thank-you cards three years late a couple summers ago.. haha, we all thought it was hilarious! Jon said that he and Dallas had seen Sam working at Superstore this afternoon (he put the guitar-smashing video up on Youtube although the photo quality's very poor!), and the Mans (Denise / Brian / Julie / their parents) were behind them in line... what a small world! So then Steph and I had to tell them about the time we saw Joey, Emily, and Chelsea McCooey when we were at Superstore with Terrence last month... good times! Steph also told us that Sarah had yelled at Joe and Daniel to NEVER tell her husband (Vernon) about our church again: as long as we don't cross certain lines, we'll be fine with them.

We rehashed Cindy Yang's telling me about my own birthday surprise (and asked Dallas when his birthday was... he got multiple surprises!), and the "Hey, Ju!" thing when Kate / Rachel / Steph saw Julianna at Richmond Centre once... that was like the DIRTIEST look EVER from another person they'd received! Speaking of Kate, she can drink a LOT of wine... she bought a 1.5-litre bottle of wine to share with Steph over the course of an afternoon once, and my sister was like totally dizzy later! (at the end of the day, she's still Chinese and not Scanadinavian / German / Irish!) Then we got into their acquaintances (like this girl who got confused about chromosomes and sperm :P), especially when Mom saw certain pictures on my brother's laptop screensaver. ("Jon's kissing guys?! Who are all these people?! Jeremy has a friend named Lynn in Toronto?") Good times, haha. Steph gave me three photos that she printed out from both SLB nights: we should totally initiate Dallas this month!

While the three of us were signing birthday / farewell / baptism cards for Benny / Anthony / Mike K. / Mike T. / Rosenda / Nina / Frances / Elaine / Cindy / Jackie / Stella / Joshua / Terry / Erin / Darren / Kevin (some of which got done at karaoke), Steph asked Dad whether the baptisms next week would be during the service or in the afternoon. Citing the board not approving, Dad said that it would be during the service: that's VERY WELCOME news even if there are never any official announcements of these things! Jon assured me that the "Duuuuude!" card for a baptism would definitely suit Anthony, so that's a relief... phew! Next week, I'll be busy trying to find 20 people to give them things... oh well, I expected it. :P (Jon thought that I'd stopped making them sign birthday cards for a couple of years... that was only because they were gone, so now it's back on! :P They also told Dallas and Holly about my memory for birthdays and such, too... ack!)

Everyone also discussed things like parental matchmaking (Dave has a break from that!), dry ice, tomorrow's Stateside / Grouse Grind three times in a day plans, and bikes near UBC (ask Jeremy, not us! :P). We were ready to go to a karaoke place near my apartment with Myles / his sister Holly (the Harmony on Jon's screensaver is their sister) / her boyfriend Peter. It had been a LONG time since Jon and I had done this regularly (Sean used to do this often post-Fellowship at Mike's, a place at Metrotown), but we were willing to go for that. It wasn't food-related (we were SO FULL from dinner!) and it wasn't the arcade, so it was the perfect opportunity to butcher songs and see what they had. Dallas, Jon, and I shook hands with them when we saw them waiting for us in the parking lot, then it was upstairs to our little "Canada" room where we had a good time. ("Sing INTO the mike! Kiss it! Come on, Dallas! You must know SOMETHING! No, your throat's not scratched!")

* Boyz II Men, I'LL MAKE LOVE TO YOU / All-4-One, I SWEAR / Righteous Brothers, UNCHAINED MELODY / Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole, UNFORGETTABLE
* Destiny's Child, SAY MY NAME: The video sped up too fast for us on this one, so we skipped half of it to go on the next song.
* Bob Dylan, RAINY DAY WOMEN #12 AND 35: Jon and I had fun with this one!
* The Archies, SUGAR SUGAR: "You're my durian / bubble tea girl... pour some sugar on me!" (Def Leppard)
* Black-Eyed Peas, WHERE IS THE LOVE: Jon had a moral objection to this (and to N'Sync's GONE), but managed to have fun with it.
* The Eagles: HOTEL CALIFORNIA: Hey, it's a Chinese band with weird outfits and great solos! (they made a re-appearance on the video for Billy Joel's UPTOWN GIRL)
* The English lyrics left something to be desired, haha.
* Vanilla Ice, ICE ICE BABY: Billed by Holly as "the most hilarious video ever," it delievered by being REALLY literal with the song title! ("ice" was a bunch of ice shavings, and "baby" was an embryo! hahaha!)

Jon and I also saw Puddle of Mudd, Oasis (songs we don't know!), Black Sabbath's PARANOID, the Rolling Stones' JUMPING JACK FLASH, and many other songs in the selection available. It was certainly interesting, heh. He told us that Jeremy was making his own beer... I just hope it's not as expensive as the time he made his own Pho last summer! (I apparently owe Jon a bubble tea since I told him that Mom was making him treat me to the karaoke... sure...) Now Corey's telling me that GWAR's SEX COW and Ministry's JESUS BUILT MY HOTROD would be great karaoke songs... I dunno, but whatever!

Hey, Jen emailed me and Dylan / Eric / Nathan / Steph / Karen Lew / Vivian / Jon / Danielle! "My mother and I would like to have you guys over for a potluck dinner next Sunday, time to be confirmed. We will be providing the main course and beverages (this is a "licensed" event, but most of you should already know that by now), so it'd be great to have salad, dessert, and light appetizers to complete the menu. Please let me know as soon as you know if you are coming and what you can provide. Cheers, Jen." Nice and unexpected! I'll forward this to Steph, since I doubt she checks her REALLY OLD Hotmail account anymore!

Dreaming of co-op deaths and little girls / Calling Rosenda for the first time / Dallas over

I overslept today since I set my alarm for the wrong time, so didn't make it to church. However, I did catch up on my sleep (almost 12 hours' worth) and had another weird dream to tell the blog universe about.

I was in a co-op setting with a bunch of other people and staff. We helped out with the chores and daily things around the house in exchange for room and board. There was this one day we were washing the dishes when my mom came in and told us that someone we knew well had died. Instantly, we all went into a group hug and cried at that. Then certain people redoubled their efforts at doing chores such as junking things into green garbage bags and double-bagging (or triple-bagging) the results!

Later, we were driving around town and noticed some people we knew at yellow picnic tables: Ivan's mom, Natalie, Janette and Theresa Ng, etc. We thought that was fine since some conference WAS wrapping up. But then we passed by again some time later and the little girl Janette was still there all by herself! We asked her where everyone had gone, and she said they had to pick up some stuff, but would be back later... they'd given her some toys to play with in the meantime. Sure, it was a safe area of town, but we stayed with her anyhow. Then I woke up when some people were industrious in knocking at my door to ask me whether Tony was home. Uh... shouldn't you know which suite the person lives in if you know him?! o_O

Then I washed up and decided to call Rosenda to wish her a happy birthday since I couldn't see her today at church because I wasn't there. I bet she was kinda surprised I remembered, or maybe not since I'm fairly sure her husband (my old friend) David has told her about my memory for birthdays! We talked for a bit: she was born in the same year as my brother, heh. She asked where I was this morning since she didn't see me (I assume she normally does from the back of the sanctuary where she is with Ian), and then asked whether I was okay. Yup, just fine... no real complaints here!

After that, I called my sister's cell to tell them why I'd overslept. My sister asked whether I'd heard her and Mom knocking at my window and calling me in the morning: nope! Then she thought I'd been unconscious from a heart attack or something, so apparently she and Mom were worried all day since they got no response. (uh... right...) She said that they were dropping stuff off for Justin's grandma, then picking up Dallas and Jon from some coffee place. Also, she sacrificed the car to Flime (brother's nickname), so it'll be a daytrip tomorrow for her and Viv. Good thing, too: I intend to make her sign a whole pile of greeting cards tonight! (apparently, they have stuff for me as well...)

Since Dallas is coming over for dinner, I'll join them: I don't THINK my mom will be all Asian, but you never know! I have a bunch of comments from the weekend... I'll probably get to them later since people will pick me up later for a ride over to the townhouse.

Edit: Apparently, Dallas and Jon are in Chinatown. They're watching live fish flapping around... good times! They'll be here at like 6 or so...

Flickr Meme Mosaic

LJ version on Aug. 6, 2008. Stole this from Jamie, AKA corporatebeach. :)

Flickr Meme Mosaic




To create your own, search Flickr for your answers to each of the following questions. Using only the first page, choose an image and copy / paste the URL for each image into the mosaic maker here. It works best if you select one- or two-word answers. Here are the questions (and my answers) used to create this mosaic:


What is your first name? Leslie.
What is your favorite food? Wonton mein.
What high school did you attend? Matthew McNair.
What is your favorite color? Black, blue, and purple.
Who is your celebrity crush? Brent Sopel.
Favorite drink? Beer.
Dream vacation? Australia.
Favorite dessert? Ice cream.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Rich.
What do you love most in life? Friends.
One word to describe you? Quirky.
Your Live Journal name? Glowing_Dragon.

Photo credits:
1. feastoffools 2. nimhworks 3. DavidJS 4. Crickets Creations Handknit Scarves 5. musique nonstop 6. Aubrey Sun 7. omnia 8. aknacer 9. Stuck in Customs 10. aliraza* 11. Kalamakia 12. [hailey]herrarasaurus

Note: I don't think I've ever had wonton mein with BBQ duck before. Then again, I could be wrong as I've eaten the stuff for AGES now! HA! I've discovered David Shaler's Flickr profile! :D

Return of my weird books, and POTC redux!

I just realized that PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and PASSION OF THE CHRIST have the same acronym. It's like when I first realized the same thing a few years back about the I Mother Earth album SCENERY AND FISH and the Everclear album SPARKLE AND FADE. Don't mind me, I'm easily amused. :D

Eric H. came over at around 8:20, and I gave him his birthday gift. He thought that I might have been referring to a giant word search book when he read my email the other day, and he was right! The word searches are good for boredom, and they also keep your mind sharp! When he read the birthday card, he joked that it was another low-effort year for Steph: well, I had to put in her birthday greetings when she refused to sign the pile of birthday cards on Friday night! ;) (I just shoved them at my brother while he was talking to various people, haha... that works! Next week will bring another pile (bigger than Friday's), what with baptisms / birthdays / leaving!) He also signed my guestbook, and returned two of my books which he meant to give back last time we hung out: Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond and The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World's Most Terrifying Murderers. Yup, of course I recognized them! He mentioned hanging out with Jon more often now that he was back from Toronto, and wishes that he had the opportunity to miss his sister! (both my siblings went away and came back, heh) I joked that he could always drop her off somewhere in a random location: "Here you go, Erica! Find your way home from here, and THEN I'll miss you when you finally get there!" (hahaha)

He said that he'd actually talked to white Eric this morning over MSN: yes, I'd passed on the message to him last night! Then he asked what Jon was doing: he's at the fireworks, and you'd be outta luck if you weren't downtown then (8:30). He was under the impression that you could see the fireworks from our local NUDE beach, Wreck Beach. Kits Beach / Spanish Banks / English Bay, sure... Wreck Beach, I dunno about! We shared my Ovaltine biscuits and a lot of my green tea (I had the HON cup!)... when he saw my pizza, he said that he should have told his mom that I had lots of food! Maybe next time he wants to hang out, he should ask whether I have food here first before making other plans, haha.

Eric saw a conversation I was having with Corey, and asked whether that was my Colorado friend who wanted to have many girlfriends! Yes to the first part, and no to the second: Corey is NOT Palmer, thank goodness! (he didn't ask anything about Jasmine, so that's fine) People think he's making up his long-distance girlfriend Fay ("Come on! You can tell us if she's not real!"), which of course makes him mad. At least she's getting approval on paperwork to come here from China! He joked that if we don't hear from him when she's over here, we're to assume that Fay fried him in a big Chinese wok. Hahaha, that reminds me of an MSN name I had once while pissed off at Stephen: "I'm going to stir-fry you into next week! "

He says that it's a good thing he's not really dating right now since he can have more time to work and to hang out with his closer friends like me / Nathan / Jon / white Eric / others. Apparently, Fay's sister (who lives here) told her about the long weekend, so Fay asked him what they'd do for it if she were here! Heh... he had an answer ready for her after a bit of thinking! Then we discussed the differences in guy-girl communication, and some of the more common pitfalls encountered. After that, he asked whether I wanted to see a movie (his treat, as usual): sure, I was up for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 if he was! He suggested the RICKY BOBBY movie, but that wasn't my speed. We checked the movie times on the Internet / in the newspaper just to be sure of them, and then discussed the pedophile news... ick!

Eric and I then discussed wording since he asked me when my birthday was (Sept. 17), but really meant what DAY it was on this year (a Sunday)... I didn't know what he was going for! He thinks he can hang out with me this year for that, since he did that last year after skipping a year. I checked my journal to back up my memory, and it was true. He hung out with Sheena / Chalaine / Randal / Nathan / Danielle / Jeremy / Citrus / Frances / Mel / Jasmine / NetDave at Red Robin's in 2005, and skipped 2004 (I didn't do anything with friends that year since it was on a Friday... well, except Yazmine who no longer counts as a friend :P). In 2003, he hung out with Jon / Eric M. / Danielle / Nathan / Phil / Erin at the Cactus Club. Maybe he can do something for his birthday on the 15th, too... it doesn't have to be the exact date, but somewhere around the day would be good.

I made him update his LJ / LFA / RT, and then made a few minor (but important) edits to my past entries before we headed off to Richmond Centre to see the movie. We missed the first couple of minutes (at least, I hope it was only that long) since we were banking on the previews and the "old" movie thing... d'oh! Some guy behind us tapped me on the shoulder a few minutes after we got there to ask how much THEY'd missed while getting popcorn: I couldn't be accurate since we got there late ourselves, but I did the best I could. The movie was fairly interesting, and also involved a treasure hunt... that's all I'll say for fear of spoiling it.

Afterwards, I was in the washroom and heard a kid's review of the movie: "I'm never going to a movie with Joshua again! That one had way too many slimy things! I'll see the first one, but not this again... I regret it!" Yeah, the pirates and Davy Jones were kinda ugly, but it's not like pirates are known for their beauty! (except maybe Johnny Depp, hehe) Later, we were outside the mall and Eric called Jon, who was at Dragon Ball. Since the time was just after midnight, it was closing... maybe they can hang out next week or something!

On the way home, I told him about white Eric's confusion over his phone numbers that time he saw the DA VINCI CODE ("Eric Ho - CALL ME!"). The house and cell numbers that I have are still the same, but sometimes his mom takes the cell phone to use since his parents want to save minutes on the one other cell phone they have. They used to have one for each of them, but why waste $30 a month on minutes you barely use? :P The reason the home number can be busy is that the house line doubles as a fax line (again, why waste money on another phone line for the fax?), and sometimes people forget to shut the faxes off. That's a relief, then! Now, I should really get to bed... I hope I see Rosenda in a few hours so she can receive her birthday card personally on the day! ;)