For the sake of leap year

This year is a leap year and I feel like I should post something, anything to commemorate this special day even though the only thing special about this day is the fact that today is the 60th day since Jan 1, 2008 instead of the 59th day. I have worked 59 days since the start of the year instead of 58 days. Wow, the more I think about it, the less I think a leap year is that commemorable. On another note, take a look at this article about the first attempt to fit a prosthetic flipper to a sea turtle. Now this is something to celebrate about!

DIM Silk-Screening

I am so excited about my next project which will be "DIY silk-screening" my own designs on shirts and bags. I found a pretty good site that outlines the steps to silk screen without buying the expensive silk screen sets that are sold at major craft stores. I have bought shirts from an online store that does direct printing, which turned out ok but could be better. This is why and I going to DIM (Do-It-Myself) and see how that turns out. I hope my good crafty friend (mlesnapshot) will try this with me because honestly, I am not very confident when it comes to ink. I might get more on myself than where it needs to be. Ha!

In memory of Dr. LK

Certainly this is not something to blog about as if it's a casual matter that can be forgotten once I push the "PUBLISH POST" button. Nor can I ignore the fact that it happened so sudden and writing about it may help ease the sadness that I am feeling. I learned today that a well-respected individual who happened upon my life 7 years ago passed away in November of last year. His accomplishments in the medical society cannot be judged by the number of awards or honors he has received in his lifetime. Rather, they should be appraised by the number of young people he has helped to set foot in the studies of medicine, nursing, public health, social work, and many other professions for he taught the science of living and doing what one loves, either it be related to medicine or not. I am no doctor but I thank him for making my undergraduate experience the best years of my life. He will be missed.

Pan-Pacific Championship

After two very long weeks, the Pan-Pacific Championship soccer games finally happened. On Saturday, we arrived at Aloha Stadium in hope of finding my co-worker who invited us to a tailgate party before the game. We had every intention of bringing muffins that we bought the previous day at Costco. However, my unsuccessful attempt to reach my co-worker on our way out discouraged us from doing so. Plus, we didn't want the muffins to spoil in the heat before sundown. We ended up BBQing with a bunch of soccer referees and their wives. There were grilled shrimp, steak, ribs, veggies, potatoes, and best of all, wine. We had such a great time that we were late to the opening of the first game. It was my first time to a real soccer game so you could imagine how excited and anxious I was to see the players and experience the thrill of yelling and jumping with thousands of other people. The first game began at 6pm and it was LA Galaxy vs. Syney FC. I was determined to get a good picture of Beckham so I ran down to the "prime" seats near the sideline. I took a couple pics but was enjoying the game so much that I eneded up watching the entire game near the sideline. I couldn't believe what some of the people yelled out to Beckham. I remember one shouted, "Come on Beckham, make some goals. That's what you are paid to do right?" With all the criticisms and pressure from the sideline, Beckham managed to get two assists and won the game 2 to 1.


The second game began at 8:30pm and it was Gamba Osaka vs. Houtson Dynamo. Of course 80% of the people at the stadium were cheering for Houston because of Bryan Ching who is from Hawaii. I, on the other hand was cheering for Gamba because I knew they wouldn't get much support from the crowd. The first half was a lot of cheering for Houston and silence for Gamba. The second half was a disaster and embarrassment for Houston because Gamba scored 4 of its 6 goals and won the game 6 to 1. Houston was doing so badly that the crowd grew louder and more excited when Gamba scored. Let the truth be told, Gamba WAS very good. They were quick at passing the ball and the brazilians on the team were good scorers. All in all, they deserve the medal and respect from all the people at the stadium that night. One of Gamba's goals is captured below:


I am becoming addicted to these soccer games. Those bambams kept me awake for 5 hours during the games. Knowing me, I usually cannot stay awake that long. I only wish the european leagues would come and play someday.

Change is good

I have made quite a bit of changes lately, one of which is pretty obvious if you have been paying attention to the design elements of this blog. I thought a white background would give more pop to the green and the turtle banner. Second, I have updated the "About Me" page so I am no longer a graduate student trying to stay alive in school. Take a look because I changed the style to an interview format. Third, I created a new "Artsy" link in the navigation bar for all my artwork. I have yet to design the page layout so check back later. Fourth, I finally cut my hair! It's been 6 months since I last went to the barber...I know I know, it's pretty disgusting. Fifth, this is more of a happy news than a change but my orange epi is finally blooming! For the past one and a half years, it's been growing taller but no bloom. It is now about 4 feet tall excluding the roots and the bloom. You can see the full bloom in the "Garden" link. The photo on the right is also of my orchid. Amazing ey? Finally, I am super excited about the Pan-Pacific soccer games tonight. Beckam and Ching will be there!

Wubby Day

For Valentine's Day, HappyOblivion bought me the silliest card ever. To 70% of the population in Hawaii, it may seem like a ordinary card in the normal to weird rating. To us, the drawings gave a pretty accurate account of my character. I am not proud of what I do around the apartment but I can't seem to quit. Luckily, HappyOblivion is not too fond of changes...so, I can stay as I am and brrraaaap my life away! He also treated me to a nice 5 course dinner at Hiroshi's, of which the crispy moi and the trio dessert were my favorites. A few days after, he brought home an empty heart shaped chocolate box. I first saw this box at Costco in a 10-pack Valentine gift set with different designs on every box. I fell in love with this one in particular for obvious reasons. Since it would be evil of me to give only the chocolates away and keep the box (yes, my good angel won), I had to walk away. I guess fate brought us together again:)

Great Aloha Run

This President's Day was quite the special one. Instead of chillaxin on the beach or couch-potatoing with the TV, I ran 8.13 miles. Sounds pretty ridiculous :) This is my first year doing the Great Aloha Run. The route is from Aloha Tower to Aloha Stadium. I ran at a pace of 9 min 3 sec per mile and finished in 1 hour 13 min and 41 sec. Out of some 20,000 people, I finished 1513rd place. I could've been in 1510th place if only I hadn't stopped right before the finish line thinking why people were yelling at me to "KEEP GOING! YOU ARE NOT DONE YET!" Despite my stupidity, I gotta say I was pretty impressed with myself. I only stopped briefly (5 seconds) for water at the 4th, 6th, and 7th mile markers...well, and one foot before the finish line. Hopefully next year, I can beat this time.

Turtle Transport

I have been stressing over the issue of transporting my pet turtles to Hawaii. For one, they are an alien specie since Hawaii is not their native land. Second, what are the procedures for legal transportation of reptiles? I did not particularly like the idea of quanrantine because who knows what kind of environment my turtles will be placed in and for how long! And if they happen to go into quarantine, I can't help but worry every single second of the day that some dog might eat them or another person accidently takes them home as their pets. Gosh, I would go insane!

Thanks to HappyOblivion and his doctor friend, I found out my turtles can be legally transported to Hawaii without the long and dreadful quarantine (fingers crossed). According to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Chrysemys picta (painted turtle) is among the animals conditionally-approved to be imported to Hawaii.

Other requirements are as follows:
1. An Import Permit (Form PQ-7) from the Plant Quarantine Branch.
2. Remit the application with the $5.00 fee (cashiers check or money order). Processing time is about two to three weeks.
3. Permits are valid for one shipment within one year of date of issue.
4. Multiple pets of the same species may be listed on one application as long as the pets are traveling together. Pets of different species require separate applications.
5. At the time of travel, pets are required to be accompanied by a health certificate issued by an accredited veterinarian within 7 days of arrival in Honolulu. The health certificate should indicate that the animal is free of external parasites.
* Honolulu is the only port of entry for animals on the Conditionally Approved List. Once inspected and cleared in Honolulu, pets may be taken to neighboring islands.

This is very exciting news for me! When I go back to work on Tuesday, I will make sure that my lovely turtles are on the conditionally-approved list and if there are more "hidden" requirements not on the website that I should know about.

Chinese New Year

I have always loved celebrating Chinese New Year with my family. Now that I am away, I become nostalgic of the good times we had. I remember back in Hong Kong, my cousin Jenny and I used to "house hop", wishing our relatives a prosperous year before asking for red pocket money. Then mame would tell stories of my sister who enjoyed setting the crispy dollar bills free as the gentle wind blows them off her tiny fingers, sending the green out the window and down the building. And the sound of majong that fills the room with excitment. This is the only time when I could get away with eating a whole tube of Princles then getting a fever the next day. In California, we would do essentially the same things except with a little less families to visit. There was always candy, the jello ones with a clear plastic wrap that melts in your mouth.

This year, I celebrated New Year's with my good friend and his family whom graciously invited us to their house for a feast of a thousand beasts. We had lots of good food including "lean gau" (my favorite) and tea egg. When I ate the turnip cake, I remembered how much I enjoyed eating my sister's home-made ones. When we left, my friend's mom gave us a daffodil. I had forgotten that my mame planted those during the New Year's as well and the smell of the flowers would permeate every corner of the living room. Yes, those were the good times. Happy Chinese New Year mame and babee!

Last of the January Creations

These are the last of our January home-cooked dinners before Chinese New Year. HappyOblivion was the proud chef of both dishes and all I did was to capture the deliciousness of the food with these photos. The first was enjoyed on the 25th. The salmon was pan fried in miso paste topped with mushrooms and onions. Even though we forgot to use our lovely Japanese ceramic plates, the food still looked undoubtly presentable. The second dish was enjoyed on the 31st. You may wonder why we have so much salmon. Simple answer, Costco made us do it. This salmon had a citrus taste which may or may not appeal to everyone's appetite but it sure pleased my taste buds.

Raiatea

I just returned from the Honolulu County Medical Society Member Appreciation Dinner where they had a feature performance from Raiatea Helm. Last time I heard her sing live was at the 2005 Taste of Honolulu. Since there were tons of people, I couldn't hear her very well...as a matter of fact, I couldn't hear anything at all. Tonight, I had the pleasure of enjoying her beautiful voice without the loud chitter chatter or the rustling sound of trees when the wind blows. Ah, she was amazing. Even though I didn't understand her songs (because she sang in Hawaiian), her soothing voice was enough to keep me entertained the whole night. She is only 23 and her wonderful talent got her 2 Grammy nominations already. At the end of her performance, I bought a CD and got her autograph. It was a rather expensive CD...$20. Well, what the heck. I rarely buy CD's anyway. I forgot to bring a camera so I used my phone which takes pretty good pictures for a 1.2 mpx phone camera.
You can see that my friend suu-paawanpaku came with me too. He was playing in the orchid grove while we were watching the performance. He was also scaring the kids before dinner.

Photo Blog

I am a little slow...OK, maybe very slow. Apparently, everyone is hyped up about photo blogging nowadays. Flickr seems to be the winner among all the photo blogs in the cyber world. I had learned of Flickr maybe 6-9 months ago when I was searching for a good web service to organize the photos that I post on this blog. I ended up with Picasa because it was linked to my Gmail account and the layout was kinda neat. Last week, my co-worker introduced me to the new Flickr which is now linked to Yahoo. It's great! So much better than the old Flickr. First of all, I don't have to conjure up another login name that I won't remember along with 1000 other ones. Second, the screen name is unique and separate from the login in, which is a great feature for the unsettled mind. So...this past weekend, I signed up with Flickr and have been uploading photos to my account. I am dedicating this photo blog to my love of nature, plants, flowers, animals, and all the beautiful scenaries surrounding us that we sometimes take for granted.

It's still in the works but if you would like a sneak peak of my photo blog, click here. I have also added the link to my navigation bar at the top.

Venetian Shrimp and Scallops

I don't know what is happening to us but we continue to cook good every night. Even though I am not too fond of Rachael Ray and her "Little R&R Every Morning" or whatever the show is, this recipe is truly easy to make. In addition, the recipe is so flexible that you can substitute whatever ingredient you like and it will still taste good. For instance, I don't have white wine so I added red wine which gave the sauce a rich strong taste. And yeah, the recipe calls for LARGE scallops...I was like, "I ain't from Nob Hill". I used frozen small size scallops instead and the food still tasted good. As I always say, all you have to do to correct a cooking mistake is to add butter. BUTTER!

Salmon with Broccoli

HappyOblivion cooked this. Itsn't he amazing? After playing 2 hours of basketball, he dropped by Foodland to buy fish and poke. Then he came back, took a shower, and whipped up this great looking and tasty dinner in less than 30 minutes. Well of course we ate the whole thing in 15 minutes as always. It tasted really yummy, especially the white sauce (can't reveal his recipe, sorry).

BBQ Chicken with Broccoli

Once in awhile, I make pretty amazing dinners. The oriental Japanese ceramic plate makes the food look tastier than ever. This was last night's dinner - special tomato sauce fried rice and BBQ chicken with broccoli. I learned to make the fried rice from a Japanese recipe for Omahayashi. Instead of topping the rice with a semi-cooked tamago, I fried the egg with the rice so the chicken remained the center of attention.

Bamboo Fun

I have been putting off my comic drawing for two weeks now since work has been very hectic. Let's see, two days ago I came back home at 7:30PM from all day field work. I didn't hike much but I guess standing in cold water and the 4-wheel driving took all my energy. Yes, it was my first time driving 4WD and it was FUN FUN FUN! I was crossing rivers, and going over large boulders and tree stumps. My coworker said it was a good idea that I learn 4WD, as well as driving the big Chevy Trail Blazer (our State car). I look like midget in that car! Yesterday I took the car to car wash. Hee hee, 2nd time going through a car wash. It was so exciting and a bit scary too because I couldn't unscrew the antenna so I went in with the antenna up.

So, I have been researching some kind of drawing pad to help with digitizing my comics. My boss referred me the Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet and I am very interested in getting one. I remember seeing one at Circuit City and was curious at what it does. Now I know it does exactly what I want, which is to digitize handwriting or sketches. There are 3 sizes: small, medium and large. I believe the small will suffice but I do like the medium size just because it gives me more space to work with. The price difference is around $75-100 tho... Then there is the color. I am planning to get an iMac desktop so the white tablet would fit. But the black is better at hiding all the scratches. I guess I have to give it some thought before investing :) If you know of good deals, please let me know!

Bender's Big Score

Good news everyone, I just got the new Futurama movie "Bender's Big Score". All hail Bender, the best actbot in the whole UNIVERSE! (Those of you who are Futurama fans just got a dose of me talking like Professor Farnsworth.)

In this movie, almost all the characters appeared, even HappyOblivion's favorite - Calculon! He is most memorable in the amnesia episode..."Does anyone here not have amnesia?" Or the one where he yells "Nooooooooooooooooo!". Ha, what a classic. I won't give away the plot or the ending but there is a smart twist in the story that almost made me cry. Yes, it was emotional and you won't be disappointed. You will laugh, get confused, frustrated, angry, and surprised from beginning to the end. Now, what are you waiting for? Get up and go get the movie!

Honolulu City Lights

Once again, this post is long overdue. It's already New Year's for goodness sake and I am posting pictures of Christmas in Honolulu. My life is so behind I could really use a vacation. ~Sigh~ OK, Honolulu City Lights...it's the same-o same-o lights. We have a gargantuan tree in front of the City Hall, the tree contest in the main hall and then the wreath contest in the back. This year is quite interesting because there is a feral pig in one of the displays. Celebrating invasive species for the holidays, that's the way to go!


The BIG tree in front of the City Hall. It actually feels quite scary when you are standing at the bottom and looking up at the blinking lights...like you are high without the drugs.


The invasive species theme with the feral pig as the reindeer. Ha ha, how original.


The same display as above but close-up of these little green creatures I found amusing. If I am not mistaken, I think these are coqui frogs!


My favorite coral wreath (ha ha, rhymes with coral reef) from the wreath contest.

Hot Hot Hot!

I actually have a post already in place for today and that is to show you pictures of this year's Honolulu City Lights. However after last night, I desparately need to get this out of my head. The movie "Never Been Kissed" was on last night on BRAVO. I have never seen it and I wish I had. It wasn't a great film and some parts were a bit cheesey...ok, VERY cheesey. The other parts didn't make sense at all not to mention the inappropriateness (damn, is that even a word) of teacher-student relationship. But the ending threw me off and I felt warm inside. It was a very romantic ending and I don't think I would have liked it as much if the guy wasn't so HOT! Michael Vartan, a french guy who was in a bunch of other movies, including "Monster-in-law" which I had seen but never really noticed him. Awwwww, he looked so good in the movie. I wish I had a cute teacher to fall in love with...in high school...crap, did I just say that? He is now officially on my list of HOT guys :)

Will Smith
Johnny Depp
Michael Vartan
Orlando Bloom

(Note: The order the names are listed has nothing to do with ranking. I love them all the same.)

Christmas at Work

This is my cubicle at work, where I spend 9 hours of my life everyday, just sitting in that chair and staring at the computer. My cubie looks festive right now because I decorated it for Christmas and New Year's. Even though this is not my first job, this year is the first year I decorated my cubicle to celebrate the holidays. Now I just dread the week after New Year's when I have to take out the decorations, along with the holiday spirit :(

This is the back side of my cubie where I display pictures of my friends and family. It is also where I show my love for greenery. My bamboo and crazy plant (upper right corner) are adapting nicely to the cold air conditioning of the office.