For my 28th birthday, I really didn’t plan on doing anything at all. But as it turned out, it became a two-part celebration.

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WHAT’S THAT SMELL????
It’s a fact! Drama follows Loi wherever she goes! Last time when we went to NYC together, her wallet got stolen inside of H&M.

This time, her Euphoria perfume (a gift from me) got smashed in her duffle bag (we had to check our carry ons in no thanks to the new FAA rule) Sad monkey indeed!
Our entire cab, our clothes, our oom, even our pores reeked of Euphoria.
And here is Loi’s solution…

Click link to see video:

http://www.xanga.com/rhapzody

CELINE, HERE WE COME!!!
Unfortunately, the theatre security folks confiscated my digicam. So, i don’t have any pictures of this awesome concert!! Oh man, Celine was soo great!! I adore her even more now!!

More pictures of Vegas, the Venetian and others

Time to head back to California.
Gosh, we look exhausted. We barely got any sleep.

This is me, wasting time at work..haa haaa

1) Last nite, Anderson Cooper was in my dream.  Oh, yeah…what a hottie!! We were out doing some humanitarian work in Vietnam and he spoke fluent Vietnamese. I think I dreamt that because I was reading his auto-bio and it talked about him speaking Vietnamese. Oh, he was sexy alright!

2) Its been 2 weeks and I don’t know if the people I’m vanpooling with like me. A few has given me the vibe as though I’m the red-headed step child because i’ve interrupted their tight nit family- these people have been vanpooling together for a year. And sometimes I rather be stuck in traffic for 2 hours driving alone than be with them.

3) I have a half-marathon in 2 weeks and I’m soo not ready! I think i’m just gonna downgrade to 5K instead.

4) I’ve been thinking a lot about Austin, TX and grad school lately. Perhaps a masters in advertising. So far, University of Texas in Austin has the best program. But do i really wanna leave the Getty and Pasadena??

5) I fell in love with the Goo Goo Dolls (again). I love their song, “Better days”.

6) Can you be content and restless at the same time??

7) Thursday nites = Grey’s Anatomy and Six Degrees!! Forget LOST. That show is going down hill.

Ok, I think i’m gonna walk around the musuem now and check out some exhibits….just wasting time..

http://www.google.com/trends

Have you guys checked this out yet?? It’s soo cool! Especially, if you’re like me, who loves data, factoids and trend predictions.

Google Trends builds on the idea behind the Google Zeitgeist, allowing you to sort through several years of Google search queries from around the world to get a general idea of everything from user preferences on ice-cream flavors to the relative popularity of politicians in their respective cities or countries.

I found out interesting data when I typed in christianity, church, Islam, Jesus, Apple and Hitler.

Um, isn’t it odd that the most searches for “Hitler” came from Mexico City???

Feminism is a topic I very much enjoy. Why? Well, believe it or not, many moons ago I saw the world mainly through a woman’s perspective. I came to feminism the way some people come to social movements in their early years: out of self-interest. Oh, you don’t want me get into what I used to think about women who stayed at home to raise babies, or what I thought about men in leadership. haa haa…No, I can honestly say that I have a much balanced perspective today when it comes to women’s role on this earth. Nonetheless, this topic is still a strong interest of mine.

So, where are we today?? Well, I’ve extracted some quotes of successful leading women from this week’s issue of Newsweek. You can decide for yourself where we stand today in our society.

“Today young women are defining success on their own terms. I think they actually have much more perspective than my generation. Young women are not necessarily looking at senior management as being fulfilling. In the process of balancing everything - whether it is child-care responsibilities or taking care of parents - it becomes their own decision to leave.” – Joyce Chang, Managing Director, JPMorgan

“I think the concept that women are more emotional at work is an outdated cliche. I tend to be more on the side of the quantitative, analytical, data-driven.” — Marissa Mayer, VP of search products, Google

“When I was told 40 years ago that I should learn to type so I could someday type papers for my boyfriend. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew it wasn’t that.” — Anna Quindlen, columnist of Newsweek “The Last Word”

“I guess I’ve always felt more comfortable doing more than one thing at a time. I think women in particular gain strength from operating in different spheres.” — Karenna Gore Schiff, laywer and author

“I’m often asked what it’s like to work in such a male-dominated environment. I don’t think or see the world as a man’s environment, a woman’s environment, a black environment, a white environment, Hispanic environment. I just see the world.” — Gwen Sykes, Chief Financial Officer, NASA

“I’ve learned that it’s very important for women to reach out to each other. I think we can be very catty and callous and unsupportive of each other at times…We’re not secure in our ownselves and it causes us to do really heinous things to each other. And so for me, it’s always going to come back to working on your own self-esteem and working on your own self-confidence.” — Queen Latifah, Entertainer

It’s only the second episode and already I am hooked!! This show is awesome!!
All the characters are equally fascinating placed against the back drop of a high pressured, frenzied comedy sketch show (much like our Saturday Night Live) that’s on the brink of forever being canceled to due a sudden live broadcast interruption caused by the show’s very own TV writer/producer named Wes Mendell (played by Judd Hirsch). Veteran writer Mendell is fed up with the lack of creativity and the dumbing down of their viewers:

“We’re all being lobotomized by the country’s most influential industry, which has thrown in the towel on any endeavor that does not include the courting of 12-year-old boys. And not even the smart 12-year-olds, the stupid ones, the idiots, of which there are plenty, thanks in no small part to this network. So change the channel, turn off the TV. Do it right now.â€?

And with that kind of monologue, I did just the opposite. I am tuning in every Monday nite at 10pm baby!!

As stated in the New York Times, “Mr. Sorkin has created a world where some things actually are as they seem, and even untrustworthy people have hidden valor. And he has taken two of the most easily caricatured female archetypes, an evangelical Christian entertainer and a sexy network executive, and made them as richly textured and captivating as the two male leads, maybe a little more so.”

I definitely love Amanda Peet’s character, the sexy new network exec and Sarah Paulson’s evangelical Christian entertainer, who promoted her spiritual album on “The 700 Club”. haa haa   And the best part tonight was in her pre-show prayer with the group, she said, “And Jesus must have been a comedian, cuz how else would he have gotten so many people to listen to him.” haa haa Brilliant!!

Mr. Figaro is a cat. I prefer to call him Mr. Cat. He is a 4 year, grey-striped, tabby. He’s sort of my cat. Its hard to explain but basically, the cat is now in my possession. Therefore, his future is in my hands.

well, I have this love-hate relationship with mr. cat. I can’t stand him (understatement of the year!) when he cries and wakes me up at 5:30am! Lately, he’s been crying at 2:30 am also!! Yeah, 2:30 am…in the middle of the nite, just when i’m reaching my REM state. That ticks me off!! He just wants us to play with him. GGggrrrr……high maintenance!!

This is my first time being a cat “owner”. And i’ve been googling trying to figure out how to shut this cat up. I’ve even thought about slipping in some melatonin pills in his food! (don’t tell PETA). I’ve even thought about having surgery done to his vocal cords
like what some people do to dogs now, so that the volume of their barks
is muted!(i know, its too expensive. oh yeah….and cruel, too.)

But my most tempting thought has been to give this cat away!
(Highly tempting!!) But just when I think I’m gonna post him on
craigslist, he pulls complete dr. jekyll and mr. hyde act on me and stumps me! He becomes totally and irrestibly adorable. Like tonite, he’s totally mellowed out and quiet. No meows out of him!
And then I turn into Elmyra from TinyToons - “i’m gonna get you, snuggly woogly kitty!”
“I’m gonna love you and squeeze you and cuddle you all nite long!!”

See! A Love-hate relationship.
What should I do with this cat???

It’s 1:15am, and as usual, I have a hard time falling asleep. Why? I dunno. I’m not really stressed. Don’t think I have insomnia. (Not gonna rule that out though). No, i’m just trying to wind down. And what better way to wind down then to blog some of my thoughts…..=)

So, this is what I plan to do tomorrow morning. I’m gonna get up by 6am and go to the gym and work out before I go to work. I’m supposed to be training for a half-marathon coming up in October. It’s the Long Beach Marathon. And I was doing pretty good for the first 3 weeks and because of transitioning into a new job, my training came to a halt. So, now, I’m gonna have to start this week. Ok, that means i should probably head to bed now.