girls (and metro guys) out there...especially those who have been to california weddings...please HELP! i'm going to my dad's coworker's wedding on the 26th. it's at the fairmont SF, and i have NO idea what to wear.

1. can you even wear black to weddings??
2. how about patterned white?
3. the invitation says "formal," but since we're on the west coast here (home of wearing sandals to work), that doesn't mean hardcore floor-length dress right?
4. we're crashing the 6 pm cocktail party and 7:30 pm french-style banquet (yessss no expensive chinese food...so sick of abalone), so dark colors are ok right? though it's summer right now? AHHHHHHHHH.

trying to achieve a good balance of classy-effortless-formal enough-flattering here. a little lighter on the flattering, a little heavier on the classy.
here are my choices...very limited i know, but i'll be damned before buying anything more this year.

i would totally go for the white one with black lace, but white at a wedding? dunno...the black one is just your typical little black dress, so it's a good backup i guess...

the pink one i got tailored in taiwan and now finally fits. on the east coast it would be 100% semiformal but it's summer (and plus, i'm a generation younger than most of the peeps there). the puffy hem one is very nouveau but is it too much?

the brown one is really hot, but something tells me my parents aren't going to be too thrilled with me wearing something that low...the pink one is a little casual i think. the fabric is linen-y.

i guess the white one won't fly since it's completely white, but the one with the polka-dots seems very afternoon tea to me.

another backup dress that i'm not crazy about...i feel like this one is not only semiformal, you can tell i got it at filene's basement. ack...

please help >_<

what am i doing now that i'm kind of doing...well, nothing much? post partying in nyc my brain can only take about 2-3 hours of "hardcore" mcat cramming (note bolded emphasis on quotation marks) before spewing red alert messags like "WARNING" and "OVERLOAD".

my days are spent with this tiny feller...

oh, i know...so retro! i don't think they even sell this version anymore. i suppose i could go hunt down some 3-D gaming blockbuster in a shiny box that's going for about $15,034, but part of me is still loyal to the magic of 2-D and gets a headache from the intense camera swings these damn youngsters are all about these days (yea...old foogie i be).

back i go to the pixelated wonderland that once transported me away from the desolate social wasteland that is adolescence. the nostalgia!!

stole two surveys to pass the time and procrastinate...one from shellsjs, one from seanscheng.

Childhood Survey

F . A . M . I . L . Y:

[X] A mother.

[X] A father

[x] A younger brother.

[] A younger sister.

[] An older brother.

[] An older sister.

[] Step sibling

[x] Grandfather

[x] Grandmother

[x] Cousins

[] Half brother

[] Half sister

1. Are you a child of the 70s 80s or 90s?
90's! new kids on the block, baby ok, just kidding. i just threw up a little in my mouth as i typed that. though at some point in time i had a ton of TLC and mariah CDs...

2. Where were you born?
gainesville, FL

3. If you were born in another country how old were you when you moved? nope

4. What city did you grow up in?
blacksburg, VA in the womb
gainesville, FL until 3
phoenix, AZ until 12
sunnyvale, CA until 14
cupertino, CA until 18

damn, i've moved around so much...

5. Did you enjoy your childhood?
haha, i think i was borderline autistic or something, cuz i had no friends. then one day when my parents decided to move us to CA, something magical happened and i began to talk too much, as evidenced here...

6. When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?
a writer...alright, i still kind of want to be one. then i wanted to open people up and remove their kidney stones (no joke) cuz i thought it was weird that people had them. a great moment in 9th grade: i found out lewis carroll was a doctor, and both sides of my ambitions kind of meshed.

8. Name the first memorable vacation you took as a kid?
zion and bryce canyon, two breathtaking national parks in Utah. google it sometime. you'll be blown away.

9. What was your first best friend's name?
Jennifer Lin (shout out!)

10. Can you name all the schools you ever attended?
Preschool at the Arizona State University (i know, so hardcore huh? asian parents.) Sirrine Elementary, Sunnyvale Middle School, Monta Vista High

11. Who was your first crush?
i think it was tyson graham, a mixed kid who had these ridiculous translucent hazel eyes. he threw a beanbag at me in PE, and i was giggling so hard it hit me right on the nose. i know, really romantic.

12. Were you a shy quiet kid or a very wild and rowdy?
super shy, super quiet. people knew me as the "chinese girl down the street who plays piano all day." GOD it's so embarrassing now that i typed that!

13. When you were little what did you do for fun?
um, i think i was one of those scary kids that had pretend friends. actually i read a lot, and sometimes would go into these reveries where i could daydream for hours on end. see i told you, borderline autistic!

14. Were you closer to your Mom or Dad as a kid?
definitely my mom...she could read my mind, even the guy i had a crush on...

15. Do you have any embarrassing school stories to share?
uh yes. i had a crush on this guy at chinese school (hey, if you're reading this you know who you are, DO NOT leave a comment plx) and one time at one of those obnoxious chinese family potlock thingies. at the very moment he and i got out of the car simultaneously, my mom calls out "mei mei ni yao bu yao niao niao?!" ( at the top of her lungs...when i tried to shrink away in embarrassment she followed up with "didn't you tell me you had to on the car?"

16. What was the first record, tape or CD you remember buying?
Ace of Base!!! there, i said it. whew, saved myself twenty years of therapy.

17. Were you scared of anything?
i hated aliens. especially those alien abduction stories on Unsolved Mysteries. actually, i'm still scared of them.

18. What was your favorite class in school?
definitely literature, t'was a breeze...

19. Did you buy school lunch or bring your own?
oh god, another twenty years of therapy...my mom packed me this chinese food that gave off a horrifying odor every day at lunch, so i was embarrassed to open the container. i later figured out that it's just what chives smell like...esp. wet chive dumplings...

20. Broke any bones or had any freaky accidents as a kid?
i stepped on a toothpick and it went threw the bottom of my foot about 3/4 of an inch. my mother, like the true asian woman she is, pulled it out with her bare hands.

21. Were you a meanie head?
not at all. so shy and sad...

22. Favorite board game of all time?
monopoly! great times.

23. Did you play house or pretend to be a super hero?
haha of course...am i a girl?

24. Seriously...are you still just a kid at heart?
not really, actually...i don't think i was ever a kid. my parents always found me frighteningly mature. ok, maybe i'm making myself sound like that kid from poltergeist...

***

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
'"laboriosa opera et rusticationem ab Altissimo creatam." - Petrarch, Invectives.

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first? the fridge

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV? um, this is embarrassing...probably E!

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is: 8:20

5: Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?: 8:19

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?: birdsong, the hum of the stove, my dad's voice

7: When did you last step outside? What were you doing?: dinner at Outback steakhouse, treatin' the little bro to a steak.

8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?: other people's xangas...AH i have no life.

9: What are you wearing?: pink juicy couture top, short jean skirt

10: Did you dream last night?: that's for me to know and you to find out.

11: When did you last laugh?: at something my dad said about my stocks. stocks? are you kidding dad? c'mon.

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?: umm kitchen cabinets?

13: Seen anything weird lately?:

14(a): What is the last book you finished?: for pleasure? Sound and the Fury...can someone explain it to me please? it was so much harder to understand than light in august

14(b): What book are you currently reading?: love in the time of cholera

15: What is the last film you saw?: king arthur...clive owen = yummy, storyline = nonexistent

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy
first? oh man...can i be a girl and say chanel purse? actually never mind. i'd rather have a loft in soho.

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know: i'm a lesbian. SIKE!

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? i would make sure schoolteachers made more money and finance people made less. sorry guys...

19: Do you like to dance?: of course...but only D.U.I....(dancing under the influence)

20: What is the last thing you ate or drank? a grilled shrimp salad at outback...yummmm!

21(a): Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?: adrienne

21(b): Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?: zachariel

22: Would you ever consider living abroad?: in tokyo, taipei, or london...

hehe we found something! crossing fingers for it to go thru...

AHH DROOOOOL

fri-mon...will be in manhattan on apartment hunting expedition...let me know if you're in town  and would like to give us valuable advice/hang out in the evenings

so i just saw superman returns on the big screen...(a title that my brother claims is inferior to its taipei rendition, which is "chao ren zai qi": superman rises again, though my cousin remarked that the latter sounds slightly pornographic).

it's difficult to sit through a movie continuously torn between utter repulsion of the cheesiness of everything, from fist-out flying to thunderous amurrcan music that plays in the background while Jor-el quotes pseudo-Scripture...to, on the flipside, attraction to its main character, the classically handsome brandon routh. or rather, i guess, what he symbolizes.

in evolutionary bio there is the theory of key stimuli, which release hard-wired behavioral patterns called fixed action patterns (FAPs).

supernormal releasers are key stimuli on steroids (or so to speak). an example: in egg rolling behavior in the greylag goose; a gigantic egg causes the mother to ignore her own egg (*sigh*...):

this is potent also in mating behaviour. the male stickleback, for example, looks for red-bellied females; a ball-like wooden female model is actually more effective in attracting its attention than a flesh-and-blood femme fish.

(hehe, note the conspicuously repeated references to round things in this entry...woot!)

anyway, i kind of think the human correlate to supernormal releasers are attributes of the other sex that signal to your gut and make you feel slightly digusted wanting. for example, for straight women: large muscles, the "asshole" jawline, obnoxiously deep voice, fabio smile (ok, maybe not this one)

the straight male correlate supernormal releaser:

haha, sorry.

anyway, superman is in every way a supernormal releaser. just think about it -

1. height and build - 6'4" (extratall) 250 lbs (extrabig)
2. superhuman alpha male strength and status
3. the man of "steel" is...i'm guessing pretty good in the sack? harhar.
4. "i can be sensitive but very manly" scripted dialogue

randomly in the middle of the film alvin suddenly burst out with "i feel so sorry for the cyclops dude."

yeah...richard's really just a mere mortal. owned.

i mean, come on, competing with this?

BAM!

face-wise, brandon routh is cute, but ueber plasticky...it looks like he has at least 5 layers of Shiseido Ultra Matte Intensive Coverage on. most female movie critics i've read so far bring up, at least once, how well he fills out the suit (dirty dirty!) but then again, let us not forget that he IS wearing his underwear outside. RED BRIEFS. in the words of Stanford from Sex and the City, "Helllllooo!"

lois: will you...be around?
superman: i'm...always around.
superman: *wink and gun*.

gah...feel so disgusting being attracted to him. for less of a carnal attraction and more of a heightened sense of civilization, i guess there's always batman.

i have a new, completely random hobby: collecting asian pepsi ads. for some reason they make people look really cool (i'm guessing via ridiculous makeup and hours of photoshopping). must be the blue hair. i knew asian people were meant to have blue hair.

random guy i can't name, he looks pretty good in this picture though...

yayyy edison! hot even with blue browliner.

jay and jerry...

uh yeah, i'm as embarrassed to post pictures of F4 as you are to be staring at this page right now, but oh well.

lol lol...oh man, vanness wu...yes i realize he's an embarrassment to asian men everywhere but i am strangely into him right now. don't judge. he's buff ok.

my least favourite pic...gah! what the heck is going on?? circus S&M? looks like nicholas tse got the shaft...or maybe he's into this kind of thing >.<

last but not least, jolin tsai. i used to be realllly not into her but hey, her 3 years of accumulated plastic surgery has worked wonders. so kids, don't worry...a couple hundred thou from mom and dad and you can look like a korean pop star of choice!

***

wyndaengel's mom: meipoo, what are you doing ah?
w's mom: !!
w's mom: why you not doing something productive??
wyndaengel: i've studied for the mcats all day mom
w's mom: but what is THIS?...aiyoh.

ah sorry mom...need my daily dose of silly pretty things.

diary | day 1

metropolitan
asia is truly a "gou wu tian tang" (consumer heaven). it's so difficult
not to get sucked up in the whirlwind of "gawd i must buy it now
otherwise i'll regret cuz i can't get this shizznit in the
states"...but luckily, as a seasoned veteran of the shopping sandtraps
i've come up with a couple of tips for those of you venturing out into
the battlefield for the first time.

1. clothes that fit you in
asia will mysteriously shrink upon importation into the states, so it's
better to swallow the pride and go for a couple of sizes bigger than
you usually squish into.
2. frilly edges and ribbons will look
"delicate" and "ornate" in asian mirrors, but mysteriously look awful
in American mirrors. back on the boat you go!
3. aim for those clothes that the store owners tell you are really out of style. in 6 months they'll be in style here.
4.
don't get too upset if you lose a haggling war...rethinking monetary
amounts in terms of american currency, calculated in equivalent number
of Starbucks Frappucinos makes things all better.

***

that being said, i did escape this time with some good booty and only a couple of "what the hell was i thinking" merchandise.
a black and white bubble-hem dress, for example, that i saw for $72 at
Zara SF went for about $13...the red dress i got practically for free
because out of nowhere popped a great-uncle who owns a clothing shop in
san lien.

and these are 100NT skirts...what a ridiculous deal!

last but not least, the food is just...better. case en point, a wonderful fusion restaurant we visited in yi lan (who knew?? fusion restaurants have invaded asia too!)

voila, lobster salad cups in orange shell...

this is an apple vinegar drink with sugar streaks. yes, i know it sounds narsty, but it was so yummy...

and this, ladies and gentlemen, is what shabu shabu should be all about.
 :

so what are you waiting for?? go!

***

on
the flipside, can someone who can read japanese tell me what this sign
says?? i was walking around downtown osaka when our tour guide warned
me not to talk to handsome guys in suits...apparently the overly
friendly ones tend to be gigolos making rounds. i can't read japanese
so when i saw this sign, naturally assumed...but come on, $30USD is...a
little cheap??

finally back to the states...i heart japan/taiwan

photo diarrhea to follow...once i get over this dem jet lag. a teaser...

(nihon o daisuki desu yo...!)

***
i can't really understand kangta's chinese, but i'm really into this song right now...

127 days

without realizing it, it's been so long
i'm waiting here in the icy stream of your absence
letting memories repeat continuously
love that's been long frozen
i can't seem to thaw

ambivalent whether...
i should admit that i can't let go?

127 days of breaking up means 127 broken hearts
each day, a little lesson of regret
how can i waste your sensitivity
how many tears did you use to find
the reason for leaving me?
maybe the one who's always quietly suffering is you
this wrong that you commited for me, out of gentleness

*fobby english rap follows*

(original chinese for those of you who don't trust my translating skillz)

in taiwan...getting stuffed of food! i always refuse to post pictures when i'm here because it just hurts too much when i can't have this food back home. how do people stuff so many calories into incredibly anorexic bodies?! actually, after japan, girls here actually seem kind of normal-sized. interestingly enough, i've been downgraded from asian sizes XL-L to S...though my cousin tells me stores now carry XXS. god, can you imagine? L - size 4, M - size 2, S - size 0, so XXS - size -2??