Currently Hey Sexy Lady By Shaggy see related

Mountain Hike

 I'm finally back to my blog!  I've been really busy for the past month, so I apologize for the lack of updates.

I'll start with the BIG MOVE. Haha! For those who had no clue what I'm talking about, I moved to a new home about a month ago. The new crib is still in Sunset District though. However, I moved from Inner Sunset to the Outer Sunset, which means closer to the Pacific Ocean! Woohoo! The Pacific Ocean is just 2 blocks from my new place!! How awesome is that?

On the moving day, I got Jackie, Eugene and Oscar to help me move. I had to donate 4 bags of clothing in order to lessen the load. But it was still a lot of stuff. I have way too much junk. =.=" But I just couldn't bear to donate any more of my precious clothes away!

I share the unit with 2 new roommates: Chris and Helen. Both of them are around my age. Just a tad bit older. Helen moved in to her room a lil later than me, but we finally got to meet each other. She's really friendly and nice. She loves cooking too, which is great because we get to share each of our own cooking. Her pasta salad is so good!!! By the way, Helen is a Berkeley graduate!!! Can you believe that?!

Chris was enlisted in the Navy, so he traveled a lot and was often not at home. But he's a nice guy judging from the few moments we see each other. He just recently got off from the Navy, so he is planning to go back to school.

A few days after moving in, I went over to my sis's place to stay overnight. Next morning, Greg drove us to Mt. Tamalpais for breakfast since my sis recommended an inn's breakfast menu. Before we left the house, my sis suggested that we might as well go hiking in the mountain. I was not quite dressed for hiking, but I decided to go along with the idea. I had to call Mark to cancel our lunch at Borabudur(an Indonesian restaurant).

I think the pictures will do the talking from here onwards.

Having my brunch. The food really was good.

Told ya I wasn't dressed for hiking. Haha!

It got really warm after a few minutes of hiking down, so I took my coat off. First layer gone!

We reached the bottom of the mountain!  The white hoodie had to come off by then. Second layer gone!

We had reached back to the top of the mountain. As you can see, no pictures were taken during the hike back up. The hike going up was treacherous.

Halfway up back to the top, I had to take off my sweater. Third layer gone!

Enjoying a cup of black tea lemonade after the hike. How refreshing!

Very happy Chong sisters. The sun even peeked out of the clouds to match our happiness.

For more pictures, go to my Facebook album "Let's Take A Hike".

I'm currently taking summer classes, so that I will have 6 credits done by this coming Fall semester. I should be able to graduate faster that way. I chose Intermediate Algebra for Math to meet the graduating requirement, Beginning Voice, and Beginning Ballet.

It's going to a very hectic semester this whole summer. Since the semester will only be 6 weeks, everything will be crammed and taught fast. Not to mention you don't get to choose the days you want to go to college. All the courses I'm taking is every weekdays. Meaning I'll be opening the store at 4am, get off at 10am, take the train to college, and stay there for classes til 7:30pm. T_T

I just had my first Math test since SPM 2 days ago. The test was easy, but I couldn't remember a thing. Get my drift? Everything I learnt in Saujana flew out of the window. XD I hope that I get a C for it at the very least.

Apart from the hike and class, I had also attended the grand opening of the SalsaCrazy SF dance party, which was held at Union Square. It's awesome that they decided to use Union Square as their location because I have always wanted to dance at that place.

Since I couldn't find the people that I had invited over there, I went around asking random strangers to dance. I got rejected on my first try. He said that he's waiting for his friend. What a party pooper. I came over to dance, not to watch people dance, so I looked around for others. I hit jackpot on my 2nd try though. Since then, I did not even have to ask. The guys are the one who start coming up to me for a dance.

Overall, I had so much fun. They will be holding this party every third Wednesday of a month, so I'll be looking forward to attending the one on July.

Rum? Room? Most Wanted RUUMATES!

Just for your info, Ruumz is a social-networking site. Recently, Derek has been nominated and become one of the 10 finalists for the site's contest, Most Wanted Ruumate. 

Yea, that's him.

The grand prize are:

• Exclusive Feature and Photoshoot with FACES magazine.
• Acer Aspire One Netbook + Free 24 months WIGGY subscription(up to 10Mbps) with P1 W1MAX (worth RM 4,000+)
• Samsung 32" LCD TV
• Samsung M7500 Emporio Armani
• RM 500 worth of apparel and RM 500 voucher from Mooks
• B! 3,000 Blings! (RM 300)

Each finalists are given weekly tasks to be completed by the voting deadline, which is on June 30.

Task 1 was to show a day in your life with photos and videos.

Here's the link for Derek's vid for his first task:

http://derekyap.ruumz.com/Videos/View.aspx?id=28875

To vote for him, register yourself at Ruumz and vote at:

P.S. Derek, ya satisfied? XD

Currently The Boatlift By Pitbull Calle Ocho see related

Ambigrams and Pointy Ears?

Despite the fact that I almost apologized in every posts for not updating as often as I had promised, I'm still going to say I'm sorry. =.=" For the past 2 weeks, I have been really busy physically, as well as emotionally.

My finals have begun since last Wednesday. Hip Hop was the first course to be tested. For the finals, we were all divided into 5 groups and were to perform one of the routines that were taught throughout the whole semester.

My team of 7 decided to do some freestyle at the end of the routine for extra credit. One guy in our group wanted to breakdance as his freestyle, which means he wants a solo. In our(the rest of us) eyes, that means he wanted the spotlight on him. Which also means that it was unfair. Why should he get the spotlight when it was supposed to be a group performance? It's not like he was our leader.

The rest of us girls then decided to choreograph a routine while he did his freestyle. We met up last Tuesday afternoon outside the dance studio where we usually had our Hip Hop class. Amanda and Daisy, who were good dancers, choreographed a short routine for the rest of us. It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to learn and improvise the 2-minute-routine. =.="

But all was good on the day of the finals except for a fleeting blank moment. In fact, the teacher liked the freestyle addition(including the guy's breakdance) so much that she made us performed twice!   She made a couple of other groups perform their routine twice too. I hope I get an A for this because I doubt I can get an A for my other courses. >.<

My English and History finals will be on this week. Wish me luck because I'll definitely need as much luck as I can possibly get.

Anyways, I went to watch Angels and Demons last week.

For a movie that was based on a book, it was awesome! Watching Angels and Demons reminded me of why I love the book so much.  It's amazing that the story timeframe was only 4 hours and yet, so many dangerous things could happen within that time. I'm not telling you anymore than that. Go read the book or watch the movie. If you wanna do both, that's an even better idea.

In addition to Angels and Demons, I also watched Star Trek IX in Imax.

Unlike many people, I have never watched any Star Trek series or movies before. It just wasn't the type of thing I would watch. However, Mark invited Jessie, Anna, and I to watch it with him and Ben yesterday after our lunch at Penang Garden restaurant. By the way,  Ben is a major Star Trek fan. So anyways, I agreed to watch the movie with them.

The movie was more awesome than I had expected. We watched it in Imax, which means a bigger screen, louder sound system, and almost 3-D like. I felt like I was in space myself. It was fine that I never watched the series before because the story was comprehensible enough for me to understand. This movie is definitely a must-see, especially for those Star Trek fans.

How on earth did I manage to watch two movies within a week when I'm so not financially stable?

Again, I did not take this picture. It was taken from Yahoo! Images.

It was all thanks to the $25 AMC gift card given to me by a customer as a token of appreciation for the friendly service I gave him and his wife in the morning for the past couple of years.  He was laid off from his job a fortnight ago.  Him and his wife are really nice people. And he is just one of the many who got fired as a result of the economy recession.

Because our store is located in the Financial District, most of our regulars are business people. I have seen our regulars in the streets and they have this rigid and strict "business" look on their face. However, their "business" look faltered and replaced with a sincere look in them whenever they come to the store. Their own personality shine after the look crumbled. It makes me happy, knowing that my smile and friendly gestures bring a genuine smile to their faces.

By the way, I managed to find a place to rent today. It's very convenient for me in terms of public transportation and the laundromat. And you know what is the best part about the place? It's right next to the Pacific Ocean!!! Woohoo!  I'll probably be moving in on the first day of June, or maybe even a little earlier than that.

I shall end here as I need to get up for work in 3 hours.

P.S. I so need to get a new camera.

Currently Kitty and the Silver Bullet (Kitty Norville, Book 4) By Carrie Vaughn see related

Nature Walk

I have to admit that I had forgotten about nature as I fret about lil things like assignments, exams, rude customers, and rent for the past few months. The realization hit me when I got a C minus in my recent essay about nature and read my other fellow classmates' essay. Therefore, I decided to take a walk around the Golden Gate park today to feel closer to nature again.

It was pouring rain since yesterday and I had my doubts about going to the park in the rain at first. But a miracle happened. The heavy downpour was reduced to a drizzle when I came out of my house! I'm glad I went ahead with my decision to go to the park.

I did not feel anything during my first 5 minutes walk. I was wondering to myself why am I not feeling the connection with nature. Later, I found out why it wasn't there. The connection was missing because there were too many tourists near the entrance to the park. =.=

I began to feel nature's presence when I went deeper into the park. I felt like I was walking in a forest except that there was a road for trams and bicycles.

I did not take this picture. My camera is not being friendly to me at the moment.

I don't know how to describe my feelings at that time. I did not feel alone at all as I was walking. The breeze, the trees, the flowers, the grass, and even the rain were my companions during that peaceful walk. I even abandoned my umbrella halfway through the walk. It was refreshing, to say the least. I felt absolutely beautiful spiritually. 

The best part about walking around a huge park is not knowing where you are going and getting lost with nature.  I was very tempted to abandon the main road for the small paths that branches out to somewhere even deeper. However, I was afraid that I would get robbed if I was too alone. See what people had done to this world? They created unnecessary fears that prevents others from fully enjoying the beauty of nature!

The park has benches along the stretch of the road. What's fascinating about them is that each benches have names carved on it along with the dates these people were born and died. That is something like a tombstone except that it's in the form of park benches. Interesting, isn't it? It's much less scarier than tombstones. In fact, it seems more peaceful.

After my awesome walk in the park, I went to Hotei, a small Japanese restaurant, for lunch. Nothing like a good Japanese meal with fresh seaweed and a cup of hot green tea(not the teabags, but with matcha powder instead. It's fresher.) to end my lil adventure. Add a scoop of green tea ice cream and you get the icing on top of an already delicious cake.

We're always so busy with our hectic lives that sometimes, we forgot about the simple pleasures of life. I really recommend you guys to take a walk in a park or even just get away from the hustle and bustle of the city as nature is everywhere. Time just stops when you're around something bigger and more wonderful than you.

In a serene state,

This was taken a month ago

P.S. I have the sudden urge to go backpacking away from the city now.

Currently Kitty Takes a Holiday (Kitty Norville, Book 3) By Carrie Vaughn see related

20 Percent Angel and 80 Percent Devil

I apologize for my very late update, guys. I have been really busy meeting deadlines for the past 2 weeks. There will be many pictures in the post. You have been warned.

Let's start with the dinner with my partners at California Pizza Kitchen a fortnight ago in conjunction with Petros's belated birthday and also as Lenny's farewell party. Lenny had been the store's assistant manager for less than a year. Recently, he was promoted to become a manager of another store, so this means he was leaving our store. He had already left for his new store last Friday. I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

Ben and Mark. Ben is currently Mark's boyfriend. He used to be a manager of a Starbucks store near ours, but he decided to quit. Now both of them will get to spend more time with each other.

To the left are Oscar, Petros, and Berta's children

Adrian and his girlfriend, Kate

Tommy and Brenda

My Raspberry Iced Tea next to my Starbucks Vanilla Creme. Nice shot, eh?

A blurry picture of Anna. It was a candid shot since she refused to let me take a picture of her.

A weird picture of Vivian, Jessie, and Berta

Mark, Lenny, and Oscar

Brenda and I

I'm still waiting for the group pictures from the other partners' camera.

As I was walking along Powell Street one day, I spotted this:

It was a protest march and guess what it was about? Education!  These people were continuing the march that I did to Sacramento a month ago! Yeah! Go education!

I managed to spend some time with my sister and Greg last weekend for dinner and dessert. I had not seen my sister for 2 months even though we worked in the same city! I guess maybe it is because her office has been moved to Portrero Hill, which is way too far from where I work.

After dinner at Bangkok BBQ Thai Noodles, we decided to grab some dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. We doubt that there would be a table available at all for us since it was a Saturday night, but it was worth a try.

The place was too crowded as we had predicted, but the view from the balcony outside was superb.

In the end, we went to the lower level of Macy's for Ben and Jerry's ice cream instead. Their ice cream was delicious.  I enjoyed hanging out with my sis and Greg that evening. It was really nice to see them again.

As I had said before, I had many deadlines to meet for the past couple of weeks. And one of those was filing for tax returns. I did not get my W-2 form til the very last minute, so it was a race against time.

Enjoying a cup of Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte at Greg's store, while going through the tax forms. And yes, that's my cellphone, by the way.

I was so relieved by Wednesday afternoon because I was done with all the deadlines, including my English essay. Since my deadlines were met and the weather for this weekend was predicted to be very warm, I treated myself by going to the Cherry Blosson Festival at Japantown.

Food stalls, accessories stalls, and what not...

I got myself a plate of Yakisoba

There were a few girls like her who wore yukatas

Live performances

Auto display

I'm not sure if those are cherry blossoms, but they're pink and pretty though.

The pagoda

Buchanan street had suddenly turned to Osaka Way at Japantown

Hello, Shiseido! It's been awhile since we last met.

I was bored while waiting for the bus to take me back to downtown, so I took some piccies.

Once I was back at Downtown, I went to the Metreon to watch Fast and Furious since the dance party was cancelled.

I watched all 4 sequels of The Fast and the Furious, and I must say, the fourth one is awesome!! I'm just upset that one of the lead characters died. T_T I'm not gonna reveal who it is though ,as to not spoil the movie. I so love Vin Diesel as Dominic and Paul Walker as Brian.  The movie was mainly about revenge for the deceased character. I love the racing part and the cars going on top speed to get away from the enemies. I like movies that involves street racing. I enjoy playing racing games too. But I don't even know how to freaking drive in real life. =.="

That's all for now.

Drifting off to dreamland,

P.S. The title is a quote from the movie.