Damn you Cathay Pacific!

It’s not everyday that I get pissed off. In fact in general I don’t consider myself someone who gets pissed off easily. And even when I do get pissed off, I don’t show it easily. But right now I want to give a middle finger salute to Cathay Pacific.

First of all, their online booking system doesn’t work. AT. ALL. I’ve tried 3 different web browsers on both Windows and Mac OS X on 3 different machines, and they all failed at various different points of the booking process. Does Cathay Pacific have ZERO BUDGET for web developers or something? Do they not go through their own website and test the freaking pile of shit? “Oh, I guess I’ll have to call them,” I thought. Turns out, they not only do not have a 24-hour phone system, during the day time, they tell you “Since we estimate high wait time, we suggest that you call back later”. How freakin’ helpful is that? 

They’ve lost me as a customer.

Bits and pieces

It has been quite a while since my last post. A lot of interesting things have happened in between…a new haircut, a trip to Redmond, WWDC, funky desserts…etc. Here are some of the highlights.

Right after a haircut at Japan Beauty Center located in San Francisco’s Japan Town

The marvelous Sarah Bernard (I might have a typo here) dessert at a cafe in Capitol Hill, Seattle.

At the Microsoft Visitor Center in Redmond, WA

I suppose it’s easy to guess what kind of soup this is

Dinner with Dr. Witty and other E2′ers at Yuki Sushi in Santa Clara.

Attending WWDC 2008 in San Francisco

 

Picture perfect…NOT

I don’t know how the celebrities do it. They always appear flawless and graceful in photos. Even when they were baring their asses or eating something. I, on the other hand, always seem to be caught in the worst Kodak moments.

For obvious reasons I’m not going to post all the funky pictures of myself. And the ones above were only from Christi’s camera (*angry look*)!

Great Saturday

 

 

 

On top of the awesomely relaxing pedicure and the delicious meal at California Pizza Kitchen, I also managed to snag a pair of really cute shorts from Hollister at an even cuter price! I’d wanted to get the shorts at their outlet a couple of months ago but they didn’t have my size so I’m really excited!

So yeah, it was a great Saturday.

Who’s your Idol?

I’ve never been much of an American Idol fan until I heard David Archuleta sing. He’s only 17 years old but I’m really impressed by his rich, strong voice. I absolutely would love to see him win the competition!

Why is shopping so mesmerizing?

I often put down “shopping” as one of my hobbies. Some say it’s probably my only hobby. I’m not the only person who loves to shop, but here’s my take on why shopping is so entertaining, so interesting, and oh so mesmerizing.

When I step into a brightly lit shopping mall, I see colors, shapes, and a variety of things–other shoppers, clothes, shoes, hair accessories, electronics–things that I can touch, smell (ugh I absolutely HATE those soap/candle stores), and try. I don’t buy everything I see, but it’s often fun enough just to try them on, like that $400 Coach bag, or that $300 pair of jeans. I feel happy and bubbly as I take in all these sights, especially if a shopping trip includes a short stop at a dessert place. Maybe these things don’t appeal to everyone, just like football isn’t for everyone. Guys, especially, don’t understand why girls love shopping so much. Often it’s a bonding experience if several girls go shopping together. We learn fashion tips and styles from each other, gawk at skinny girls and Keanu Reeves-lookalikes together, giggle over hot chocolates together, and of course, exchange tips on anything from where to get the cheapest greatest haircut, to how best to wear a fragrance, to how to break up with the boyfriend without sounding like a bitch.

If I go shopping alone, it’s usually a “thinking time” for me. When I was in Lincoln, I loved going to the Gateway Mall on my own now and then to get some alone time. Sometimes it involved getting an item that I’d be too embarassed to buy in front of my friends, like that n-th pair of jeans that I really shouldn’t get, or a bag to congratulate myself on a completed project.

To me shopping isn’t all about going out and paying money to bring a product home. That’s just simply buying something, not shopping. Of course I love buying stuff too, I’m not saying that I don’t. But here are just my thoughts about why I’d spend 2 hours getting a pair of shoes when I could easily spend 15 minutes doing the same thing.

And the cardhouse comes tumbling down…

Things haven’t been exactly smooth since I moved to California. It’s true that I love my job and enjoy a great working environment. But health-wise, that’s another issue.

Today I was told that I can no longer wear contact lenses, ever. At least not full-time. For more than 6 years, I have relied on my contact lenses. They were so liberating, compared to glasses, which I’ve worn since I could remember. I only have myself to blame, I suppose. I loved contact lenses so much that I wore them during every waking hour I had. So much so that my doctor now says that my eyes are so dry that the surface of my cornea has tiny little tears on them, or better known as Superficial Punctate Keratitis (SPK), which is defined as “spots or lesions on the epithelium (surface of the cornea) which may be caused by drying of the cornea or by trauma”.

My heart just sank and sank when I heard my doctor say that. No. More. Contact. Lenses.

To combat my dry eyes, the doctor gave me punctal plugs, which are tiny little plugs that are inserted into my tear ducts to prevent the tears in my eyes from flowing out too quickly. It sounds kind of freaky, but it really was a very quick procedure. Punctal plugs and lots of artificial tears for two months. Oh, and I need to eat two teaspoons of fresh pressed flaxseed oil everyday. Mmm…tasty.

I always believe that in order to have a good thing happen, one has to go through some bad things, you know, to balance it out. With all the problems I’ve had since California….it’d better mean that I’M WINNING THE LOTTERY! Or H-1B visa also can.

Memoirs my arse?

I’ve lost count of how many times CNN publishes a story about how a memoir turned out to be fake, pure fiction, bullshit. Such as this. Honestly, what were the authors thinking? Personally, I’m not a memoir-reading person. I don’t see the appeal or benefit of reading about someone’s life, which is usually oh-so-horrible, oh-so-pitiful, and supposedly oh-so-inspiring. I don’t know about you, but I feel just as inspired reading Jurassic Park. But I’m sure there are lots of people out there who love reading memoirs. Those people must be feeling darn betrayed right now.

Once more…what were the authors thinking?!

The hot debate

Just the other day my friend Chai Har wrote about the debate about whether students should bring cellphones to school. Cellphones. Completely harmless yet it still is the source of heated debates.

And today CNN posted an article about how students in Utah are allowed to bring guns–concealed, no less–to college. All of a sudden the cellphone debate pales in comparison. How would you feel if your child goes to college in Utah and may be sitting next to several strangers who may or may not be carrying guns in class? Would you buy a gun for your child too? Would lunchroom brawls become Western-style gun battles now? Instead of booing at a boring professor, would he be gunned down instead? If you’re pissed off at a TA for not giving you the grade you want, would you be tempted to just take off a chunk of his ear?

In my humble opinion, I think letting college students bring guns to campus is just a truckload of BULLSHIT. Some people might think that this gives students the “right to protect themselves” in the event of school shootings like the one at Virginia Tech. Have they considered how much more likely this very same tragedy would happen if every student has the right to bring guns to school? Come on, you’ve been a student. Surely there were times when you felt that extra surge of adrenaline, that extra surge of testosterone, such as when you found out that you scored 20 points lower than the idiot who sat next to you. The very same idiot who copied your answers in the final. Instead of shaking your fists at his grinning face, wouldn’t the gun in your backpack suddenly seem very very tempting?

Sure, you can control your emotions, you say. You’re in perfect mental health, you say. Can you say the same for every student? I think it is a sad, sad day when our kids have to bring guns to school to “protect themselves”. We have come this far to find out that we haven’t progressed a single step. Perfect.

Chinese New Year at my uncle’s

For the past 5 years, I had celebrated Chinese New Year with friends (and brother) in Lincoln, Nebraska. This year, since I have moved to California, I celebrated it at my uncle’s on the 4th day of Chinese New Year. My aunt prepared a fantastic steamboat dinner, complete with fresh scallops, shrimp, and various types of meat and vegetables. Swee Ling also prepared homemade dumplings (水饺). Naturally, being the complete health nuts we were, we totally ignored the vegetables.  

I’m still absolutely drooling when I recall the taste of the soup. And Swee Ling made the best dumplings ever! Boy were they good!!!

Then of course we had yee sang, proudly Buatan Malaysia. My uncle and his family had never had yee sang before since it’s been so long since they spent Chinese New Year in Malaysia, so it was really funny. We made a big mess of the dining table, but it was fun. By the end of it we were so stuffed!

I still look forward to spending Chinese New Year back home in Malaysia one day though. Maybe in 2009? 2010? The atmosphere is simply different in Malaysia, especially in Penang! And I can’t wait to finally attend the annual 6S primary school classmates gathering! Gagh! Blogging about this makes me want to just fly home now…