Happy Yee Lin’s day

She is sexy

She is cute

She is lovable

~She is a GEM!~

Happy Birthday Yee Lin!

Note: The style of this post is adapted from Cheng Loon’s blog ;p
 

Brain Age .. workout for your … brain

I got ask for a Nintendo DS Lite for my birthday. Yup, my birthday is coming up.. *HINT* Why? Coz I wanted to play Brain Age. Reason for that? Coz I wanted to maintain train my brain so that it is fresh and young. I have been very forgetful … really forgetful … and something must be done to rectify the problem! Thus, me asking for Nintendo DS.

According to the manual, Brain Age is best played in the mornings, when your mind is fresh. I will wake up 20 minutes earlier than normal, so that I can TRAIN my brain…Yup, I am really serious about this.

So which color did I choose? Knowing me, its either red or white. But white get dirty very fast la, so red it is!

Okay, training time!

Note: Actually many other games also stimulate the mind … Btw, I am joking about waking up earlier.

Reflect .. movies

Watched a few historical drama films these past few weeks.

Anne Frank: The Whole Story (also known as Anne Frank)

Excerpt from Wikipedia: “…was a mini-series based on the book Anne Frank: The Biography … “Anne” Frank (June 12, 1929–early March 1945) was a German-born Jewish girl from the city of who wrote a diary while in hiding during the German Occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.”

Hotel Rwanda

Excerpt from Wikipedia: ” …is a historical drama film about the hotelier Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) during the Rwandan Genocide.The film Hotel Rwanda, set in 1994, is based on the Rwandan genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutus, were killed by Hutu militias”

Schindler’s List

Excerpt from Wikipedia:”Schindler’s List is a 1993 biographical film directed by Steven Spielberg, telling the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust… Approximately six million European Jews were perished during World War II “

It is very sad to be reminded that these inhuman acts actually happened, where people were killed just simply because they were of a certain race or because of political reasons. How ridiculous is that?

Worse of all, these horrific acts are still happening, right now, this very second in Darfur!

Hotel Rwanda and Schindler’s List are more hollstic compared to Anne Frank because other than showing the plights of the victims, those movies also shows how certain individuals were trying to help them. Hotel Rwanda and Schindler’s List are really well-made movies and were really engaging.

I highly recommend these movies. You’ll appreciate everything around you more after watching them. More importantly, these movies also remind you that there are a lot unwarranted (hmm, when is killing warranted anyway?) killings happening, everywhere! Just read the papers. Sad but true.

PEACE

Happy Birthday My Hero

Happy Birthday dad!

Thank you for EVERYTHING

<3

Winchester House and TheTech Museum

First of all, the weather was so hot yesterday! Even walking from our car to TheTech Museum gave us headache! So, we quickly went to buy fans

Went to Winchester Mystery House in the morning. A little background of this house. Winchester House was built by Sarah Winchester, widow of William Winchester, a riffle manufacturer. The construction began in 1884 until Sarah Winchester’s death in 1922. What is interesting about this house? Other than having outstanding elements of Victorian architecture, restored with Victorian furniture, fine craftsmanship and 160 rooms, this house has interesting features such a staircase from floor to ceiling, doors and windows opening to walls and door opening to an 8 foot drop off. According to our tour guide, Mrs. Winchester like number 13. Weird. I find this tour interesting as I like buildings with old architecture.

Gingerbread replica of Winchester Mystery House
Made in 1990
Created by Oam Sheridan – San Jose, CA
Assisted by Buzz, Adrianne & Jon

Then, we headed for to The Tech Museum of Innovation. Kids will really like this place. The most interesting place in the musuem is the store. ;p Great way to educate kids regarding dangerous microbes!

What you can do is buy all these cute soft toys and ask your child to sleep with them, so that they will be immuned .. *rambling…. lalala*

Have flies problems in your house? Get a venus fly trap.

 

Uncertainties and to-dos and random

So H1B caps for advanced degree has been reach… bad news.

The good news is OPT duration is extended.

More bad news, which means I am not working from home for 2.5 months. Ah, comfort of home and my pink room.

Also bad news, there goes our grand plan of going for an all-zi-mui trip.

—————————

Another bad news, I ate A LOT of pineapple tarts. Cannot control la.

I am going to get ONE tooth fixed which cost $900. Luckily, the insurance covers 80%,  but the price is still pretty steep for just ONE tooth!

Also, need to change the timing belt of my car soon.

Going to try out a tai chi lesson tomorrow. Wanna try to achieve inner tranquility and calmness. Learned meditation before but was too lazy to practice it.

Pineapple rolls/tarts and zinnia

I love pineapple cookies! It does not matter it it is pineapple roll or tart, as they taste as good to me! The best pineapple rolls I have eaten before are made my Jolene. I love the crumbly crust and she always make it during CNY. It was long ago since I last tasted her pineapple rolls. I wanted to learn to make this dessert eons ago, but well, I was lazy, until yesterday! For cake and cookies, I usually always just get ones which are pre-mixed and just require you to add oil, water and egg. Fool-proof. I bought my first kitchen scale, just for these pineapple cookies! I got the recipe here.

It was tedious but worth it! Each piece of cookie is hard work and I actually felt a teeny weeny bit of reluctance to eat too many cookies as I want to be able to enjoy them as long as possible. I have never experienced this feeling before! Before this, if I have a box of pineapple rolls/tarts, I can finish them in one day. Self-control? You must be kidding!

It was a very long process, as I made the dough 3 times! For the 1st batch, only 1/6 of pineapple jam is used along with the dough. The 2nd batch used up the butter and flour in my pantry, and I have to buy butter and flour for the 3rd batch.. This took all day!

No quality control. Inconsistent sizes. The 1st were
too big ( the two rolls in the middle ). I learned from my mistake
and the 2nd batch is bite size.

The dough for the 3rd batch was too crumbly
and I ended up making tarts instead

——————————————————-

Meet the new addition to the family, Zanny zinnia! Hopefully Zanny will bloom into a beautiful flower.

Zinnia in her packaging

The background is the curtain I just bought to divide my hall and dining area. I looked high and low for the rod because I do not want to make a hole on the wall. We use double sided tape and a lot of cellophane tape to make the rod stay in place. We had to get a not-too-heavy curtain, thus this sheer curtain.

Zanny beside Mr. Bamboo. Mr. Bamboo has blossom into
a handsome one. Nurturing Mr. Bamboo is definitely fool-porof.

For fun …

What City Should You Live In?
	You should live in Los Angeles. You are snarky, headstrong, and will step on toes to get where you want. It takes a certain type of confidence to make it in sunny L.A., and you may have what it takes!
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

hmm ? I would prefer Paris.

———————————————————————–

Need to stop scratching my head. Bad bad habit…