saving energy

dad has been on an energy saving rampage. he has gone around the whole house to replace every single light bulb he could find with a flourescent bulb. However the new bulbs are so much brighter than the old ones. when i walk into the bathroom with the nine large bulbs that illuminate the mirror, i feel like i need sunglasses. the nightlights in the bathroom are now so bright, it kinda defeats the purpose of being a nightlight. aren't nightlights supposed to be a little dim so as not to hurt your eyes after coming from darkness? dad has even turned off a light while i was watching TV in the room, stood there waiting for the bulb to cool, then replace the bulb after it has cooled for more than 15 minutes. oh, he also tried to replace a lamp in my room by plugging in a nightlight instead. when i flipped on the switch, the nightlight went on. needless to say i took out his nightlight and plugged my lamp back in immediately.

although the new lights are nice and bright, some of them take time to "warm up" so they start off dim. kinda annoying. but i suppose it's worth it to save 50% on the energy bill.

welcome to the working world

so for the most part my hours are great - in around 9 and out around 6. however i've been given a large project and have been busting my butt to finish before tomorrow. hopefully i won't stay up all night tonite.

hard candy

awesome movie, but very disturbing. one of the main characters was Kitty, the girl who could walk through walls in X-men: The Last Stand - Ellen Page. basically a 14 year old girl starts chatting with a 30 something photographer. she meets up with him at a coffee shop, then invites herself over to his house where she then starts drinking and taking off some clothes for pictures. then the photographer passes out and wakes up tied to a chair. the girl then proceeds to unveil his dark tendencies and comes up with a very fitting punishment for him. i won't ruin it for you by telling you what she does. just watch the movie. Ellen Page did an excellent job with her acting, chilling.

pho, hay mong and garlic crab

woke up late on sunday and went with mom and dad to the pho place off of capitol. Pho Kim Long 2082 N. Capitol Ave. i was craving pho ever since 3AM when diana mentioned we wanted to go eat. but at the time it was really late and everyone was too tired to go eat. so i woke up in the morning starving for pho at 8am. but everyone was still sleeping! i could have woken up for a snack to tide me over, but i didn't want to ruin my appetite for pho. FINALLY my parents are ready to leave at 3pm. dad draggggsssss when we have to leave the house. by the time we got there i was about to digest myself, i was so hungry. however the wait paid off, the huge tasty bowl of pho hit the spot!

after pho we went grocery shopping. mom bought 50 dollars worth of chilean sea bass because it was on sale for 9.99 a pound in ranch 99. also the fish guy cut up the fillets right from a fresh fish, exactly the size my mom wanted. my mom joked that she always gets better fish and meats when she brings me along. haha. the same fish guy had once approached me in the parking lot after we had bought a bunch of fish. he asked if i was married. i said no but i had a bf. he exclaimed "ah! aw yow hay mong!" that means - ah! i have hope! hahaha.

when we got home, dad taught me how to make the most delicious garlic crab. not too much too it. but sooo delicious. all we ate was crab, nothing else. hehehe....

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anchovies

friday nite we met up with cathy and FT at Amici's off of holly. i always like to hang out with them since i feel like we can chat about anything. topics of conversation this time...why do guys hate using lotion and face wash just because they feel girly? there are ones that don't smell girly, and you'll feel better when you use em. we even know one boy who refuses to use chapstick, even when his lips are cracked and bleeding. i had anchovies on pizza for the first time. actually it was anchovies and olives. the combination was a little strong, i think next time i should try anchovies with mushrooms. we ate on one of the outside tables and chatted long after the pizza and cokes were gone. then we moved to cathy and ft's house and chatted a few more hours. haha...they are such a great couple.

halloween

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we went to albert and dave's halloween party in the Altera mansion. so fun! diana and i wore matching costumes. dom was visiting from vancouver. jon dressed up as a swat team person, will was a race car driver, dom was a hockey player and i was a cheerleader. funny thing was, someone asked diana and I if we were cheerleaders in HS. we both strongly replied "heck no!!" and we proudly exclaim "we were nerds." hahaha....
the party rocked. they set up a foam machine, laser light shows, DJ station, fog machine and had tons of people, everyone in a costume. they purchased a balloon dropping mechanism so right at midnight, we were showered with baloons from the ceiling. we even had a VIP room in albert's room where we chilled on a nice couch, and had coolers of red bull and grey goose at our disposal. fun fun! oh in case you're wondering, we met up with hunny just before the party since it's in milpitas and we were waiting for dom at my house. poor dom got lost for 2 hours driving from valleyfair to my house.

drinks with D

she was hoping to catch sabrina before dinner and hang out a bit before her game, i was just keeping her company. we chatted about what it takes for a guy to really understand us. she thinks some guys just "get it" and some guys don't. for me, i think some guys have the patience to learn to "get it", and some guys just don't want to try. however i'm not even sure "getting it" is the most important. TT got me. he understood every little emotion, expression, everything. and whever he didn't understand, he would go above and beyond to try to understand. yet with all his efforts, ultimately i don't think it was his understanding of me that helped him at all. when it came down to it, i just felt we were fundamentally two different people. hunny however, i can't say i would have thought we had all that much in common when we first met, other than our easy going nature. as i've come to know him, i've found we have a lot more in common than i thought, yet it was never as if he tried extra hard to know me or that i tried extra hard to know him. there are plenty of things in which we differ. but somehow it works just fine. i know he doesn't like to do everything i like to do, but i know he's always willing to go with me if i would like him to. diana and i posed the question - would we really like to date a mirror image of ourselves? alike in every way but male. i used to say that was what i wanted, but it's not how things turned out. and i'm still happy. go figure.

also, i met up someone i dated for a little while many years ago. at the time, i was really hung up over him for breaking up with me (i think i took it as a complete surprise since he had asked me out first when i wasn't even interested in him, so i didn't see the break up coming) we didn't date long, maybe 2-3 months at most. and i'm able to stay friends with people i've dated since i get over things quickly. sure i cried for a couple days but once it's out of my system, i'm ok. it was strange seeing him again after all this time. he definitely was not what i remembered. skinny, fobby, and worn out looking. he was quite a bit older than me when we dated so he's pretty old now. this is sad, but boy am i glad we broke up. we have absolutely nothing in common. although the conversation was ok, it was not phenomenal.

things to ponder however...we discussed how as we get older, we get more picky. we know what to look for. but how does that really help us? the xdate is now much older and still single. he was picky then and even pickier now. but he's sad that he doens't meet good potentials anymore since "all the good ones are taken". was he too picky? what if he settled, would he have been able to be happy? or is that mediocre happiness better than his loneliness now? food for thought...

arcadia - a micheal mina restaurant

met up with diana early at arcadia since she had to head off to play volleyball at 8pm. it was really nice as we caught up with eachother over mango martinis, amusee bouche (lobster corn dogs), and gormet pizza. these were all appetizers since diana had to eat something before playing.

for appetizers we had the tuna tar tar. 4 separate people came out to mix the tartar on each of our plates simultaneously, quite a sight. the tar tar was good, but seemed not to hard to make myself. (chili oil, sesame oil, tuna, pine nuts, radish?) however the main entrees were muy deliciouso. i had the veal porterhouse with red wine infused whipped butter, caroline had the kobe skirt steak, jon had the NY dry aged strip, sab had the lobster pot pie (the micheal mina speciality). for sides we shared truffled macaroni and creamed spinach with bacon. i loved loved loved my dish. so tender and yet light, the meat was not heavy at all. blended perfectly with the red wine butter. the kobe steak had a little bit of gaminess i thought, but still very good. the strip was very tasty, and the lobster pot pie was extremely rich yet very tasty. however, overall i liked mine best. everything was paired with a spice melville syrah 2003. perfect pairing with the veal! unfortunately we were all too stuffed for dessert. what a shame! muy delciouso!

weekend update

friday we met up with hunny's cousins fot in and out. haha...don't think i've ever met up to eat dinner with people at in and out before, but it was yummy anyways. we then went to a chinese dessert place under abc dimsum in milpitas, i had mango icy with grapefruit. it was ok, the place i went to next to ranch 99 in san jose was better.

saturday we met up with hunny's grandma. she has been smoking since she was 13 and has developed emphysema. however she still can't stop smoking!! and the relatives try to tell her to quit, but eventually they always cave in and buy her ciggarettes. i understand that you want to treat your elders well, but those ciggarettes are killing her! after seeing grandma we went to grab some coffee, did some other errands, ate lunch at valleyfair because hunny wanted a particular salad. it's so funny how he craves salads. i would never occur to me to go somewhere because i love their salad, let alone go to the mall just to eat salad. after eating, i had a ton of grocery shopping to do for sandy's baby shower the following day and aaron's housewarming that nite. went to costco, trader joe's and safeway. then we jetted home so i could make my sausage, spinach, pine nut pasta for the housewarming. when we got to the housewarming party we were already pretty late, it started at 7 and we didn't get there until 9. however it was tons of fun! will, vy, elaine, dave, gene and linda all came out. my lil bro jon even made it out. ate a ton of food and drank a few glasses of wine. good times

sunday was sandy's baby shower. i had to pick up more food (chinese take out) so that it was warm before the party. i had bought all her favorite snacks as appetizers also. omg we ate so much. snacking, chinese food, chocolate cake, more snacking. this baby shower was so dif from the first one. we played a lot of games and had a ton of people for the first one. this time around she only wanted a chill event with just a few close friends. i think we are all definitely gravitating towards small chill events these days.

orchids

i don't really have a favorite flower. i really like large lavendar roses. i've seen them in NYC for the same price as regular roses since i always buy amy a dozen roses whenever i go visit her. but i'm not sure if the color is natural or artificial. i also like gardenias, magnolias and lilies. anything that looks simple and elegant. hunny sent me a vase full of beautiful orchids at work when i first started. he even chose a specific vase that he knew i would like. glazed ceramic - silver on the outside and red on the inside. i have no idea how he's able to figure out what kinda vase i like??!! not like i go shopping often, and i know i've never shopped for vases with him. sneaky guy just waited until i gave him my new business card so he could send them rather than asking me for my address so i would know he was up to something. i've been here almost a month already! wow time flies. and the orchid blossums are still alive. :) although i've always liked orchids, they now hold a new memory for me.

good thing i'm a geek

the patents i've been looking at are getting more and more technical. servers, DNS's, client 1 and client 2, etc etc.

good thing i like learning about techie things, otherwise i would really hate this job. is it weird that i'm actually getting a kick outta learning this stuff? not to say i ever want to be an engineer, but i really like know how things work...

and who would have thought...this girl who (back in college) didn't know how to format a floppy, who was made fun of by her bf (at the time) because she wasn't technical enough, who used to play with Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts and isolate DNA...would have a job where she looks into technical trends for a living? BTW i haven't abandoned biotech since we do medtech and biotech investments also! :D

WebGuild web 2.0

went to the WebGuild Web 2.0 conference yesterday. twas very educational. I learned just what AJAX was good for (no it's not the scrubbing cleaning product). apparently it allows you to change things on your webpage and you don't have to refresh to see the results. therefore you can click and drag things around on the screen and watch it change. however, search engines can't read things written in ajax. also, i learn that other geeky acronyms like json. which in my notes i wrote "jason" until i figured it out. haha.

other things i learned:
i didn't know sooooo many people are concerned with search results. apparently whole companies exist to teach you how to maximize your company's results on a search site. people devoted their whole careers to this field also.
-names of your website are important (unless you just want to brand, you need to incorporate key words indicating usage on your webpage. "wireless networks" will have much more exposure than "fill-in-the-blank-name networks" .
-google's homepage started out so simple because the inventor just wanted to test search and didn't want to bother with making a fancy homepage.
-google has a magic triangle (eyeballs all cluster towards the top left of search results)
-perceived relevancy can affect the triangle (if you think the site has more relevant results, it doesn't matter if it really is or not - you will still only look at the top 3-4 results)
-in the future, search results may be customized per person based on ranking
-previous searches are more important in profiling a person on the internet than typical age, gender, race profiles.


after the conference i met up with my bro jon at Santana Row to see the penthouses. not really impressed i have to say. they used nice materials for some things but the carpets were like that of an office building and the apts were not that large. after we had a couple samosas and ate a few blueberry tarts, we (me, elaine, vy, jon, and byong) all went to eat at Blowfish. it's been years since i've been there. tried blue nose oysters for the first time (not bad, loved the green little caviar eggs that went on top), the tartar pyramid (thought of sab since that's her fav), toro, and various sushi rolls. all in all the food is not bad, but still a rip off with how much they charge. my fav sushi joint is still ray's sushi way out in hayward. random place i know...

i'm so tired today....TGIF

wedding at kohl's mansion

went to hunny's friend courtney's wedding on sat. unlike two weeks ago, we were wayyyyyyy early. even though the invitation said 4, things didn't start until 5. hunny was extra careful though since we missed the ceremony for the last friend wedding.

kohl's mansion was so beautiful! nice simple decorations, small crowd. i've been there before at another wedding. however it was freezing outside! i wore a white pea coat and was really glad i brought it. at first, i thought that i would be overly dressed, turned out it was perfect.

thank goodness most of the weddings are over. next one is not until jun 10. yanni boy is getting married!

food network contests

food network contests are amazing. if you've never seen one, you should try to catch one of the dessert ones. huge sculptures of colored sugar or chocolate are assembled from hundreds of hand made pieces. of course these are so fragile that sometimes they break during transport from the assembly table to the judging table. i just love to watch the creations however, such an explosion of creativity and skill.

this weekend was a bunch of record breaking contests. ice cream scooping, oyster shucking, pumpkin carving, onion peeling and pancake making. it's amazing the amount of stamina and speed that's required. one marathon runner was having problems with a 1hr pancake making contest. the rules are so specific - min measurements, requirements, etc. i wonder how many of such food related records were broken since food network started? i'll bet all the old record breakers don't like it. haha. afterall, if you worked so hard to shuck 33 oysters in a minute, do you really want someone to break your record so you have to do it all over again?

interesting factoid - a lady who was doing the onion peeling contest was on some onion committee. her family was on an onion a day diet. haha. stinky family!

good eats

some notable eats this weekend.

Thursday I met up with CMU friend alex and hunny at Illusions in Palo Alto. Just to check it out as a venue for the holiday party. i was pleasantly surprised by both the venue and the food. mostly middle eastern cuisine, the meat was extremely tasty and tender. sauces were tomato based and also very tasty. i had the lamb stewed on top of couscous. hunny had the chicken kabobs. for appetizer we had this beef and wheat fried thingy (yum) and hummus with ground beef.

sunday morning hunny and i had a craving for pancakes. last weekend sandy and pete said they made chocolate chip pancakes for ethan's bday. we had gone to ihop to try some chocolate pancakes but they sucked. then we went to The Original Pancake House. OMG YUM! i had the fresh strawberry/blueberry/banana crepe (fruit was so fresh and perfectly sweetened, came with home made whipped cream and blueberry sauce made with real blueberries), hunny had eggs, ham and customized pancakes. his meal came with 3 small pancakes which you could customize for an additional dollar. he had two banana pancakes and one chocolate chip pancake. yumyumyumyum

Crowded!

Crowd
Originally uploaded by FngKestrel.

packed house for the mixer

60 sec pitch

Robert Pazornik (LicketyShip)
Originally uploaded by FngKestrel.

one of the entrepreneurs doing a pitch at mixer 1.7

pics from mixer 1.7

Originally uploaded by FngKestrel.

volunteer cammy and i

Greeters

Greeters
Originally uploaded by FngKestrel.

diana, cammie and i at the door

mixer 1.7

i just ate a piece of baklava for breakfast. i'm on a sugar hiiiiiigggghhhh!!!!!!!

anyways...
did mixer 1.7 yesterday. diana came to help me out at the door! thanks diana! mixer was super busy as always. the venue, F&A in PA, turned out to work better than Bluechalk since it was better for sound and space. roughly 200 people total, at least ten VC's showed up, we're actually limiting all VC's to partner's only now. just because they have the decision making power. we'll see if we stick to that though...

after the mixer we had a team meeting, man i was so tired. aching feet from walking in heels didn't help much either. topics of discussion, i'm planning the holiday party. i'm so behind on nailing a location! it's much harder than i thought to get a place since it has to be large enough, cheap, and convenient. akk!! goal of the week, get a place before next week! if anybody has suggestions for a location for 100-150 people in SF or peninsula, lemme know!

i heart hunny

inquiring minds would like to know...

yes hunny and i are back together. :) it's been maybe a month now, right after labor day i think. he had sent me a card that said he was "holding out his arms to me, waiting for me to take his hands again" so we can be together again. i didn't respond to the card right away, i had still wanted more time. but has he patiently waited for me to be sure...his patience and caring heart won me over. ultimately, i feel we really are prefect for eachother. thankfully, the break made him realize that i'm perfect for him as well. the break actually brought us a lot closer and took the relationship to a new level. nowadays, rarely will a day go by that he doesn't say he loves me. from the look in his eyes, i know he does. i love him too...

things to buy

now that i'm getting paid again, i can buy the things i've been holding off on!

-new camera (any suggestions you camera buffs out there? something compact and fast to turn on)
-new laptop battery - my current one has died since summer and doesn't hold a charge more than 15 min.
-more work clothes - ugh...i hate shopping.

mba at work~!

today my mba actually came in handy! i fixed up a powerpoint presentation to have nice diagrams and added animation. i also did some financial analysis. who says mba's don't learn anything?

blockbuster membership

last week was a flurry of movie watching.

sisterhood of the traveling pants - per wilco's glowing review
sweet november - an oldie but goodie
things you can tell by just looking at her - sucked
x-men 2 United - how can you not like superheroes?
x-men 3 the last stand - again, how can you not like superheroes?
the lake house - LOVED IT

i'm not sure who referred The Lake House to me, but thank you! i thought the movie had a all the things i look for a romantic movie. good plot, attractive actors, and no cheeziness.

kinda funny how i'm such a movie buff and yet i don't have a blockbuster membership. other people always seem to have membership, yay!

more car woes

so my car didn't start last week. mechanic said the cylinder was cracked and he misdiagnosed it. now i have to wait for it to be fixed! arg.... this better be the last time for such major repairs...

good with babies

ok you know you're old when people are popping out babies everywhere! three of hunny's friends either just had a baby, or are about to have babies. I found out thursday that karin is 4 months preggers with a baby girl! crazy! sandy is also preggars with number two - Erin. it's so funny, most boys don't know what to do with babies. hunny can't wait to have so many babies to play with, he loves babies!

me however, it's strange. i do think babies are cute, but i think i don't love em as much as i used to. when i was in HS i taught oil painting to little kids and LOVED it. in college i volunteered in the pediatrics ward. somewhere along the way, after college, i became uncomfortable with little kids. i'm not sure when this happened...but i know it's because i haven't been around little kids for so long. this weekend i went to the bday for sandy's baby ethan (ok so he's a toddler now since he's 2, but he'll always be a baby to me) and he started crying when he saw me! i know it's because i don't go see him as often as i should. :( i promise to do a better auntie job for Erin.

hopefully being good with kids is like riding a bike and i'll pick it up again. hunny is always so good with kids no matter what age! he had a great time rubbing it in that kids like him better. =P!

Happy Moon Festival

did you eat some mooncake? i hope you did! i know i did. :D my parents got a package of mooncakes with all different flavors. date, pineapple, redbean, and lotus. my fav is the lotus without the egg yolk. it's strange that most chinese people love the yolk inside the mooncake. in fact, they sell mooncakes with two yolks inside, but those are more expensive. ever since we were little, my brothers and i would pick out the yellow yolks. someone told me friday nite was supposed to be the largest harvest moon in many years. i was thinking of diana when i found out since she has a strange fear of large moons. however the moon didn't look that large nor yellowish...so lucky diana was spared from her fear. haha.

hilarious email

this is an email i sent to my mom and dad:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/10/05/pot.alzheimers.reut/index.html

looks like you guys should start smoking pot to keep your mind sharp! hahaha..




this was my dad's response:

For your information, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC is available in capsule (pearl drop) form. It is a control substance and needs special doctor order form to buy it in pharmacy. No smoking!

SK




hahaha...so typical of dad to give the exact chemical name.

caution, girly post ahead

i'm a shampoo adict. I'm always searching for the perfect shampoo and conditioner set. and even when i find one, i'll switch to something else just to see if i can find something better. lately my fav is matrix - amplify. smell is important, it has to be clean and light smelling, no heavy perfumes. also it has to leave my hair not too weighed down, frizz free, and shiney. lately with all these sleeky, shiney products - they tend to actually leave a film on my hair that feels really gross. i bought a fructis conditioner "sleek and shiny" and it literally made my hair look oily, made me look like i didn't wash my hair! gross! (however being the frugal chinese person, i can't bring myself to throw it away. so i'll use some every once in a while, get grossed out again, then try it again 1 month later. i need to throw it away) i guess things could be worse though. even though a bottle of matrix shampoo is over 10 bux, there are other ones that are 20 bux for a tiny bottle. i've always been tempted to try those, but it seems like such a waste of cash! of course there are some good shampoos that have been cheaper. so i'll alternate so i don't feel so high maintenance. but i still prefer the nicer shampoos. hehe.

also, i've found the perfect hand lotion. i wash my hands constantly at work since i tend to prop my head against my hands when i'm reading something. however if my hands aren't clean enough, i'll break out on my chin area. however since i do wash my hands so much, they get really dry. it's really hard to find a good hand lotion that smells good and isn't greasy. but after reading some reviews on drugstore.com (yes i'm nerdy like that, i research hand lotion so i hopefully won't need to return it if i don't like it), i went to buy some of Johnson's new soft cream extra care healing hand cream. it does what the reviews say! not greasy, stays after washing hands, and smells nice!

:)