My nephew Brandon, getting a headstart on his alcohol intake...
Posted by Hello

Our cousin Lilly, such a ham! She had like 6 costume changes!
Posted by Hello

Alyssa seriously thought she was giving my sister a piggy-back ride so she was yelling, "Get off!"
Posted by Hello

TONIGHT, A READER

I spent another evening at Barnes & Noble today. My former UCI Bookstore boss would be very disappointed in me (Sorry Matt), supporting the corporate book world. I promise to look for independent bookstores soon. Anyhow, Iya invited me to go watch Mr & Mrs Smith with them this evening and, though the curiosity is there and I've fallen for Brad Pitt (I'm a later bloomer), I opted to spend another evening reading and writing. That and because every cent that comes out of my pocket now is under the strictest scrutiny.

I sat on the floor of the writing section of magazines and read...and read...and read...all the while trying to injest advice I don't often see or hear in my everyday encounters. There was one article about how one can be inspired my an inanimate object, such a building or a tree, etc. But that one source of inspiration can't always be enough to run 15 pages of text on. Adding a HUMAN element brings the inspiration the life it needs to go forward in a story. Quite interesting. It made me think...and we all know what happens when I start doing that!

Have any of you ever read random blogs, of people you don't know? I love doing that, especially if the blogger is from a completely different environment than I could ever know. It's so amazing to read about other people's experiences; living in Kentucky, growing up in Australia, travelling to Italy. It makes me smile to read about their day and to know that they could be doing the same thing as they read my blog, wondering what life is like in Glendale, CA or America. It makes me realize how unfathomably huge our world is. Sometimes I think we need to remind ourselves that we're not the center of the universe; that there are people and phenomena we can't even begin to imagine. It's truly humbling.

WHAT'D YOU CALL ME?!

Check out this forward Marnelli emailed me. It's cool! Next time someone calls me one, I think I'll smile with pride:

BITCHOLOGY

When I stand up for myself and my beliefs, they call me a bitch.

When I stand up for those I love, they call me a bitch.

When I speak my mind, think my own thoughts or do things my own way,they call me a bitch.

Being a bitch means I won't compromise what's in my heart. It means I live my life MY way. It means I won't allow anyone to step on me.

When I refuse to tolerate injustice and speak against it, I am defined as a bitch.

The same thing happens when I take time for myself instead of being everyone's maid, or when I act a little selfish.

It means I have the courage and strength to allow myself to be who I truly am and won't become anyone else's idea of what they think I "should" be.

I am outspoken, opinionated and determined. I want what I want and there is nothing wrong with that!

So try to stomp on me, try to douse my inner flame, try to squash every ounce of beauty I hold within me. You won't succeed.

And if that makes me a bitch, so be it. I embrace the title and am proud to bear it.

B - Babe
I - In
T - Total
C - Control of
H - Herself

B = Beautiful
I = Intelligent
T = Talented
C = Charming
H = Hell of a Woman

B = Beautiful
I = Individual
T = That
C = Can
H = Handle anything

CATCHIN' UP WITH TECHNOLOGY

Look at all my new toys! First my new so very pretty digicam with a freakin' huge lcd! 5.1 megapixels, movie WITH sound, like 50 settings to adapt to the proper environment, 512 + 256 MB worth of memory sticks and did I mention how much I love the huge screen? THANKS THANKS THANKS AGAIN TO MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS! I WON'T EVER EVER FORGET THIS!

And tonite, my mom and dad got us a new computer (God bless 0% apr financing for 12 months!). If you don't already know, we got our old computer Christmas 1998!! Knowing how quickly anything computer-related changes, you can imagine our growing dismay with our old system. The internet constantly logged us off or refused to log on at all. It took like 5 minutes to start the darn thing. Getting something to print was an awful task because the communication between the printer and the system was just...well, slow as hell.

Last night, my last day of class, I had a final project due. Class didn't start unil 7:30 so when I got done revising my piece of fiction (14 pages, 4000 words!) at 7:00, I ATTEMPTED to print. Ask me what time I left for class...8:05 PM cuz I had to keep shutting down and restarting the computer and then for it to have to print 14 pages? I hate to be cliche, but it was like watching paint dry. GRRRRRRRRR!

But it's all good because now we've got these great new toys! I'm sure most of you have like souped up laptops and Macs with 8 billion gigs of space and memory, but seeing as to how we don't do much in this family except check email, look at pictures, write papers and set up excel files for billing cycles, our new HP will satisfy just fine. I CAN'T STOP SITTING HERE IN FRONT OF IT!

And it's got all these drives for different memory cards so I don't even need to connect my camera to the cpu to transfer pictures! And it's a CD AND DVD burner AND a DVD player! I'M SO HAPPY! Wow, I'm such a loser, huh? Pardon the excitement. I haven't received so many new appliances at one time in so long and I'm ecstatic!

Here's to never getting behind again!


Look my new flat screen monitor and shimmery keyboard and mouse to match!
Posted by Hello

Here's my brand spankin' new cpu. My comp doesn't choke anymore!
Posted by Hello

Here's my new camera! Too bad you can't see the screen on the back cuz it's huge!
Posted by Hello

SHORT & SWEET
(No, I'm not talking about me, you silly!! Hahaha! SO just kidding!)

- Watched “Sylvia” (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) on Thursday night about poet Sylvia Plath and her troubled relationship with fellow writer Ted Hughes. She took her own life after having two children and her work went unnoticed until her death. Asked myself if all writers have to have tragic lives in order to successfully convey the internal coherence of their work to the world AND if death is the fastest vehicle for which this lifelong work is carried out to the masses. If all this is so, then you’ll all be able to read my stuff when I’m dead. =)

- Watched “Ray” late Friday after a long session of brainstorming and making leis (actually A lei) because I just couldn’t sleep. Realized that when it comes to doing something you truly love, there are no excuses for failure.

- Went to my cousin's graduation lunch on Saturday at Harvest Inn (Every graduation's got a Chinese food theme this year! It's a good thing I love Chinese food). He just graduated from Loyola High School and will be attending UC Riverside with this brother in the fall. Matt and I were sitting at the table with the celebrant and the rest of our cousins and siblings and we were just like, oh man when did we get so old?!

- That evening, we attended Love's wedding. She looked beautiful! I don't think I've ever seen an ugly bride and she was certainly no exception. Watched Cile, Pat, Kay and James down drink after drink. Though the evening belonged to Love and her new husband, it was definitely the Pat & Kay show! That was wedding 4 of 6 for me this year.

- Fighting a lack of inspiration on Sunday afternoon (plus the fact I got sick of looking at my paper, I watched “Finding Neverland” and, well, let’s just say I wrote for 3 hours after it. Was reminded that not all writers draw on negative instances for inspiration.

- Been working on my final paper for the last week. Yesterday I called in sick cuz I've been feeling so crappy. Too bad I had to finish my paper! I worked on it for 13 hours yesterday. Not pleasant when you're sneezing and coughing like crazy, but I did what I could and made it work somehow, finishing before MIDNIGHT! I'm shocked! Thanks for all your help Pat!

- Modem isn’t working so we haven’t been able to go online all weekend. We’re probably gonna get a new computer Wednesday night because I’M SO SICK OF FREEZING, GETTING LOGGED OFF AND A BUNCH OF OTHER TECHNICAL WOES I’M NOT EVEN GONNA GET INTO! I swear! If it’s not a lost digicam, it’s a jacked up computer! What’s next?!

So, that’s me in a nutshell, kids! Albeit it a rather big nutshell but a nutshell nonetheless. I have a bunch of pictures to show you all taken by my freakin’ frackin’ awesome new camera and as soon as this computer fiasco gets underway, that’ll be no problem! Hope you all had an excellent weekend and will have a great week! Today’s my last day of class woo hoo! 15 weeks go by fast!

BEAUTY & THE GEEK

Oh man, did ANYONE watch this show last night? Tin and I saw it and WE WERE DYING! It’s genius, Ashton Kutcher, GENIUS!! (He’s producing the show) I just KNOW I’m gonna end up seeing this show to the very end because I’ve seen the first episode! If you didn’t catch this first episode, here’s the premise provided by the WB: “14 ‘subjects’ have been gathered to conduct a research project on human behavior. Part social experiment, part competition, all heart — Beauty and the Geek is a look at what happens when good looks meet good grades.” Every week the 2-person teams are assigned to complete challenges, each one testing their knowledge and ability on tasks they’re less than experts at. Like all reality-based programs, people get eliminated every week. The last couple standing at the end of the show, who, the producers I’m sure are hoping, have learned the most from each other, will win $250,000.00 each. It’s hosted by MTV’s very own Bryan McFadden.

The male “contestants” on this show are med students, Mensa members, computer programmers and genius overachievers; all who have either never been kissed, been on a date, or just inherently tactless when it comes to all matters social and romantic. They’re actually not that bad looking, but maybe that's just me. The alpha-females are these attractive women; dancers, models and sorority chicks alike who haven’t used much except their good looks and charm to get by in life. At first, some of the things that came out of their mouths made me say, “Oh man you're so full of yourself!” (Things like, "When I walk into a club, men AND women totally check me out!" Uy ve...) Then I realized that it was envy talking and as the show progressed, it was obvious that they’re not ALL self-centered and clueless.

It’s just so fascinating to see these completely different sets of people who are so confident in one area, but are so completely inept in another. It’s gonna be interesting to see how this turns out because one chick, who’s partnered with this one guy, has already thrown herself towards another girl’s partner. Let the reality TV bed-hopping begin! So if you’re at home at 9:00 pm on a Thursday night, turn on the WB and have a watch! I promise you’ll be entertained!