L.A.

was very fun. Better than what I had expected (then again, last time I went I was 8 and don't remember seeing anything since I pretty much slept through the whole trip)

I hearted:

- the giant Asian supermarket in Koreatown. Was amazing. They carry every snack I loved as a child. Went on a mini snack binge with Jenn and had a hotel room picnic. Just like the old boarding school days :d

- Spago: The food was simply amazing. $80 for a 3 hr trip to culinary heaven. I was never convinced that Americans can produce Michellin star level food... until dinner at Wolfgang Puck's fabled restaurant.
Started with a sumptuous v. strong, v. creamy and chocolatey chocolate martini (which I sipped a few times over dinner, with the aid of J & J as am ridiculously lightweight drinker);
then had foie gras done in four styles - pan fried, puree mousse, terrine and served with balsamic, jams and fruity preserves like fig and apricot. Was the creamiest I've ever had in my entire life, and the sweet and sourness of the jam spiked the flavour by miles.
Entree was a rack of veal in mushroom sauce with lemon polenta. Am not usually a fan of veal, but this was the best I've had in my life. Crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. Simply perfect. Polenta also far exceeded my expectations. It was so smooth, so creamy, lumpless and lemony.
Last was dessert that was a napoleon, topped with creme brulee and layered with berries. I would never be able to have a napoleon pastry without remembering this again. The caramel on top was nanometer thin yet oh-so-crispy. This is going down onto my lifetime best desserts list...
We also got to take a pic with Puck himself. He was making rounds in the restaurants, greeting customers and signing autographs. Was wicked to meet a celeb chef with flair and substance.

- Dok buk gi (spicy Korean rice cake dish)at the Korean Galeria mall food court: huge plate of garlicy / kimchee yumminess ... Jenn said it rocked compared to East Coast restaurants' versions.

And and and and and...

spotted Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon strolling with their son(?) at Santa Monica on Ocean Av.!! Being all teenybopper like, I got hyper excited. And apparently I have a facial expression coordination problem cos Jenn thought I was getting really scared or something. Anyhow, Tim Robbins was super tall... like 6'5" if not more. Did not know that. Susan was all covered up casual-Hollywood-star-in-public like, with baseball hat and sunglasses.

Also spotted star-wannabe Nicole Richie (daughter of Lionel Richie and Paris Hilton's sidekick on The Simple Life) when lunching at Fred Segal. Would not have known who she was if Jenn didn't tell me. Said starlette was carrying a tiny palm-sized pup that looked something like a miniature fox with beige fur like a Persian cat's. The pup was much, much, much cuter than its owner, who couldn't quite pull off boho hippy chic. I've decided that it's criminal for starlettes to be seen in public sans makeup... this girl was fugly by Hollywood standards.


I did not heart:

- lunching at Fred Segal: the place reeked of money so bad. Almost all the women were blonde, skinny, beautiful, and dressed in Barbiesque day-glow attire that should not be seen on real people. That or see through hippy-chic tops paired with day-glow bras. Mwah-mwah fake air-kisses all over the place *shivers*. $$$ without subtlety / edgy cool / elegance / good taste is bad bad bad.

- Lines of screaming / running / poking children at Disney

- The closing of the Space Mountain rollercoaster til '05: I so very wanted to revisit my first coaster ride, after which I puked, aged 6.

- In 'n' Out burger. OK it's better than all chain burgers put together, but compared to Mr. Bartley's in Harvard Sq it's still "eh". The Dutch still do better fries.

Westward Ho!

Will be heading out to The City of Angels next Sat for so much needed fun in the sun.
Now what should I pack for 5 days in the West... bikinis, boob tubes, short shorts, sunblock and shades? Where on earth can I get one of those foldable, roll-upable seagrass / straw beach mats on the Western hemisphere?

In other news, I got through the first round of auditions for Hell's Kitchen (see last entry). May the reality TV gods be on my side for the following rounds... Heck, if I fail to be a successful (aka employed) MIT grad, at least let me do silly things on telly! I can make an alien-looking, surface-of-the-moon-like green tea and red bean cheesecake - as I did for my bro's b'day. (Picture an olive green cake with neon red words written in icing)

Misc
 
Am feeling terribly homesick after calling my grandad to say Happy Chinese B' day this morning (his real / Western calendar b'day is this Thur). The whole family was getting ready to go to Koki Kiku (thx KK for correcting me), the new Japanese place that took Benkay's place in Landmark. Wish I were home :((
Got inquired on my relationship / bf / prospective marriage status. Arg. Sorry to disappoint, but unless otherwise stated, parental bodies and their parental bodies may always assume I'm single.
 
Fox's new reality TV show Hell's Kitchen starring Gordan Ramsay is doing an open casting call in town. Am tempted to go just to meet Ramsay. I still remember Vicky Tuck (prinicpal of CLC, my high school) bashing him away at prayers for being such a horrible man swearing non-stop at his apprentice chefs on telly back in erm, '98 or '99. Am drooling just at the thought of his apply pie that my family had tasted at his restaurant in London a few years back.
 
Currently reading Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi. It's a collection of Salam Pax's blog entries on his blog Dear Raed. Mind-bloggling and often poignantly human. Imagine trying to get the latest Massive Attack and Radiohead records and watching VH1 to cheer yourself up on the eve of an all-out, impending war? It's so out of this (Western / American) world...

Haruki Murakami - The Folklore Of Our Times:
 
Short story carried by the Guardian Aug 2003.
Lucca! What a strange coincidence... does that mean Murakami could have been in the same small Italian town as me when I was working there?! =o

Cute monkey, (some) cute monks and a beautiful Tibetan sand mandala at HiMonkey.net. =D

A day in the life of a 臨記/奇哩啡/extra on the set of Lewis Lapham's The American Public*

In a moment of undue boredom I answered a posting on Craig's List calling for extras in a "dramatic-documentary musical" with Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's Magazine. A few days later I found meself on a Bean Town trolley "acting" as a tourist / space filler bod listening to Prof. Howard Zinn, of A People's History fame, giving a counter-standard version of the Independence War incidents that took place in Boston. The small crew of five tried to shoot with a mammoth 35mm film camera in the tiny aisle of the trolley, whilst the trolley zigzagged through crazy Bostonian traffic amidst the Big Dig mess downtown.

Though I'm not familiar with Zinn's works, the prof gave a captivating talk. If only my high school history teachers were all sweet grandpa Gandalf's or Dumbledores who have a cheeky twinkle in their eyes.

Later on, the trolley drove us to Randolf, MA to do a green screen shoot in a makeshift "studio". With Matrixy production scenes in my head, I thought the studio would be super high tech. Turns out the set was a trolley garage with huge rolls of green paper surrounding the trolley * Pft*.

The production peez claimed the shot would be 3 - 4 hrs. As time dragged on, it became obvious that the director and cameraman couldn't agree on the lighting & the speed of progress on filming. Both extras, cameraman, lighting crew and director got more stroppy and stressed out. In the end the shot lasted 7 1/2 hours. Now I know that on set time = 2x real time xp

* I can't even remember the title of the film...I only know that the last word starts with a P. Must be something like LL's The American Public or The American Power Struggle, or The American Power? So much for my amnesiac goldfish memory >.<

The director claims that they're aiming for Sundance in Jan '05. If I'm lucky, you might see my fat face on the silverscreen at an arthouse cinema near you sometime next year.

Jelly Belleys

Went to the New England Aquarium this afternoon. My last visit was 6 yrs back when my parents were taking me on the college tour. Thanx Yao & Taka for an afternoon of aquatic fun =D

Moon Jellies


Upside-down Jellies with simbiotic algae in their tentacles so they don't have to move to eat. (hmm wonder if I can stick leaves on meself so will be fed on photosynthetic sugar)



Japanese Sea Nettle


These tiny fluffy-tentacled dudes swim funny - see vids 1&2. As Yao says, "They have to work so hard!"

[apologies for lo-fi videos - am blaming it on my ghetto 1st gen Sony digicam]


Moon Jellies in action


These dudes had lines of cool pulsing rainbow lights


Penguins are always funny to watch
My first encounters with jellies was when my mum picked up a shored one down on its luck at the beach. Mum held it in her palm upside down and poked it around. The second time round was less fun. Aged 8 in a turquoise swimsuit with white polka dots and fluffy wings, I swam into what I thought was a plastic bag and OHMYGOD did it hurt. I swam as fast as I could back to the boat my family was on. My mum claims she's never seen me swim so fast (since then, before every swimming competition she'd tell me: swim like that time when you got stung!)

The upside of getting a thigh-wide jellyfish sting: I didn't get a beating when I got 60/100 on a Maths test.

20 Questions to a better personality

Woah. The diagnosis on my personality is half DEAD ON, half "What?!":


Wackiness: 24/100
Rationality: 26/100
Constructiveness: 30/100
Leadership: 34/100


You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

Evil?! Moi??? *looks all innocent with wide blinking eyes*

And...a Happy July 4th to y'all

Good god. No wonder this country is in shambles. It's run by pot-bellied men who like to do renditions of YMCA...*covers face in hopelessness*

Colin Powell prancing away on stage after the closing gala at the ASEAN security meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia
[from Wonkette via Yahoo News]

Coming to a cinema near you in fall

Hayao Miyazaki's latest creation \^o^/ - Quicktime trailer for Howl's Moving Castle (via Lossless)

CY the potato farmer

My 3.5 ft potato tree [see 3/15] finally gave in and flopped on itself. As I unearthed its roots to give it a quiet burial in the trash can, I found out it had given birth to some baby taterlings at the bottom of the egg nog carton box that I've been growing the plant in.
Perhaps saying goodbye to familiar things isn't always bad.... who know what lies beyond (or under).

My first harvest =D
Perhaps I should consider running a 'tater plantation in my bedroom if I don't find proper employment soon :p

How my life can be linked to a Manchurian eunuch's... (or 北京北長街的故事)

Sometimes, my Inbox is like a box of chocolates, as Forrest Gump puts it - you never know whatcha gonna get ;)
Last week I got a mail from my mummy, telling my family about the story of my gran's childhood home in Beijing, a traditional 四合院 (four-home courtyard house) that's quickly disappearing:

My mum asked my uncle how my great-grandfather got the house near the Forbidden City since they were not Manchurian Royalty.
My uncle called my great-uncle Tony for the answer. The story is as follows:

1. My gran's grandfather married a rich family's daughter (Chen family). She is my great-great-grandmother.

2. She bought a piece land from a retired Forbidden City's eunuch to build this house.

3. My great-grandfather married my great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother's mother also stayed together in this house.

4. My great-grandmother gave birth to all of her 7 children in the house.

5. My great-grandmother died a week after her mother's death when my grandmother visited Shanghai to play basketball.
Both of them passed away in the house.

6. My great-grandfather continued to stay in the house for his rest life.

7. My great-grandfather married again after my great-grandmother passed away.

8. Half of the house was taken by our great-grandfather's wife later.

9. The Communist Government surrendered the house in 1968.

10. The Government assigned a lot of other families to move in the house. It became public housing.

11. My grand-uncle Chonggand (Ambassador of China to the US in the late 80's) spent a lot effort and money to get the house back and moved other people out the house in 1980s.


Another of my gran's awesome story took place in her home in Beijing -

"She once stopped all drainage and fill the square yard with water to make a skating
rink in the winter while her father was away."

Now I know where my princessy genes came from ;D

Why do Englishmen always mess up in the sports they invented??

*Sigh*. England's out of Euro 2004 before I even had a chance to sit down and watch a match. Will have to wait till World Cup 2006 to watch Rooney in action.

For disgruntled footie fans, FlipFlopFlyin's Euro Mini Pops might cheer you up a bit and help recap some national pride....
last but not least - why football frenzy is good for the economy, bad for national psyche.

NYC old favs, new discoveries

Time is compacted and condensed in the Big City - the things one can do in 1.5 days would translate to 1.5 weeks in the outside world. After my blink-and-you'll-miss-it interview, I spent the rest of my day either trotting around the Upper East Side or lying on grass in Central Park looking at the sky, after which I took the ferry to Staten Island to hang out with Jen and Mike one last time before they take off to Seattle.

My interview-turned-city-break, "in brief":

- Checked out my perspective new 'hood around Lexington and 8*th. If I land a job in NYC, that's where I'd most likely be living. My only qualm is that I can't seem to locate a slightly-larger supermarket or a laundromat... ah well, I'll worry about that when I actually get hired by anyone.

- Lied on the grass near the C.P. reservoir and read for a good two hours. It's nice to have time to read non-class reading again. On and off since January, I've been reading Suzanna Chui-Yung Cheung 張翠容's 行過烽火大地 [lit. tr = walking through the land of war beacons], a collection of her journals as a freelance journalist reporting in Afghanistan, Kosovo, East Timor, Tibet and Cambodia. It's a really fascinating and awe-inspiring read, but it isn't until now that I have continuous chunks of time to digest and reflect on the profound significance of her candid words and observations. Her questions on world social injustice, on Western media's journalistic practices and on the practical difficulties that NGOs face make the book a must read for anyone who cares. I found myself streaming in tears as I read about her poignant encounters with East Timorans fighting for independence from the Indonesian government.

- Revisited the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, prolly my fav museum in town. Nothing say grand better than the sumptously carved dark wood , molded plaster and cast iron interiors in the ex-Rockefeller mansion. The Shock of the Old exhibit on William Dresser co-hosted by the V&A was particularly superb. The Victorian industrial designer's work is so ecclectic and ingenious I wonder why I haven't heard of his name before. His work cleverly draws from Art and Crafts / Liberty styles, William Morris-esque botanics, Chinoiserie, Japanese sabi and wabi plus Arabic and pre-Art-Deco geometrics. His ceramics and silverware are so ultra modern for their age, he puts Arne Jacobsen, Joe Colombo and Panton to shame. Some of his later work, like his legged sugarbowls, even look like they have been ripped off by Alessi a century later. Spectacular.

- Tea at Payard, the prettiest and the most chi chi patisserie / chocolaterie on this side of the Atlantic.

Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing this time round - they didn't do flavoured ice tea and the apricot tart felt like it had been sitting in the fridge for too long.
I bought a cake to be picked up later in the evening. They broke the white chocolate plaque. The maitre d' asked if I was ok, (I had been running around town all day at 31'C and prolly looked like I was at the end of my wits, drenched in sweat x-/ )and another waiter sat me down once again as I waited for the bakers to redo the plaque. Out of his goodwill (or perhaps sheer sympathy at my drenched-dog appearance) he brought me some apricot and raspberry sorbet with dark choc ice cream :d. He then offered to carry my cake to the Metro station two blocks away but I insisted him not to. Who says New Yorkers are cold and bitter? Boston's service levels suck by comparison.



I'm getting hungry again...

- Ferry and La Grande Americana on Staten Island:

The night ferry to Staten Island reminded me of home. Sure the harbour view of Manhattan at night is beautiful , but it still can't beat HK. Ahhh - I miss home! *^*;

Had my first Sicilian American pizza at Jen's. Twas monstrously big - size-of-office-party-cake big - for three people.

I stayed in Jen's room. The grave sentiments of saying goodbye didn't hit until I looked at the high school plaques and certificates adorning her bedroom walls. It wasn't until then that I realised that we have gone through a lot together, even though I sometimes thought I didn't totally connect with Jen and Mike. Our little girl trio had gone through much - a mutation in the form of Mike, strange outtings to suburbia, moving apart to different dorms then back together at Sid Pac. I'll miss you both!

The next day, I got my first (Greek) American diner experience. Diner had pink formaica with lots of mirrors; so gaudy and kitsch it's great. Sizes were once again scarily ginormous. Lots of SUVs and space wagons on stretches of non-descript four-lane roads where nobody walks. No wonder people get so blubbery. We went to get Italian ices after. My first, and so good! Perfectly light sorbet-y touches for stuffed sweet tooths (or is it sweet teeth?)

A subdued goodbye at the pier. Adios Jen + Mike!

I've adopted five orphans

of the piscine kind... say hello to the world, fishies:

Forecast cloudy

It's only been one week since I graduated, and already the world seems a darker place.
How am I gonna make it through the next 50 years?
(That is, if I'm lucky and don't die of Mad Cow from years of crappy boarding school beef / bio warfare / milk additive hormone overdose / SARS etc etc)

Top-rank university graduate to become coffee-making minion

Sigh. Is THIS the best I can do?

RICHARD MEIER & PARTNERS
-> RECEPTION/OFFICE ASSISTANT <-

Full Time Entry Level
New York, NY.

Company Description
Prestigious International Architecture Firm.

Job Qualifications
College graduate with 1 to 2+ years work experience, preferably with a background in architecture or design. Previous office experience necessary. Required knowledge of MS Word and Excel. Photoshop and other graphic programs a plus.

Job Description
Handle front office reception and diverse general administrative duties including phones, faxes and filing. Assist with marketing, public relations and archives. Reports to the Director of Communications. This is a great opportunity for aspiring architects as you will be exposed to the international culture of this world renown architectural firm including involvement in small and large scale high-profile projects, clients, consultants, publications and art institutions. Studio environment is intellectual and deceptively quiet, yet busy and demanding. While routine responsibilities will take most of your time, you have some flexibility to engage yourself if you demonstrate interest and aptitude. This position has been previously held by two Brown University alumni.

Second round next week, with THE Richard Meier himself. Scary.

To be honest, I'm not all that thrilled about the position, seeing how I'd be mostly doing "film queen" type work - film queen being the HK term for female interns whose reigns are limited to the Xerox machine. And I've heard from another rock-star-caste architect [see May 7th entry] that Mr. M is not exactly the friendliest of people. In fact, I have already been warned about his pet peeves. How charming.

Update [6/16/2004]-
Went to second round and have been rejected for said position. The interview only lasted for 5 mins, where I showed the Eminent Mr. Meier my juvenile artwork. Then he asked me about MIT, CLC and the weather on graduation day. He acted nicer than I expected, but to be honest I can never picture myself in an office where everything is stark white. [see Firm Profile] It's just....so not me.

Graduation Bits and Pieces

"Bruised and battered" as the Commencement speaker puts it, I finally got that piece of paper! (otherwise known as my diploma)

The ordeal started at 7.30 in the morning. Naturally the batteries in my ananlog camera died the night before, hence the limited selection of fuzzy digicam pics.

Love Erich Caulfield, the Grad Student Prez's speech. V. MIT geek-thespian chic, complete with onomatopoeia:

Culminating at this time, at this place, at this junction in the space-time continuum with you, and this august and awe-inspiring assembly of the academically accomplished...

When I take time to consider the significance of this moment, I am compelled to ponder the proclamations of the poet who confessed, "I'm tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbor bar, I want to go out where the big ships float, on the deep where the great ones are. And should my frail craft prove too slight, for the waves that sweep those billows o'er, I'd rather go down in a stirring fight than drowse to death by the sheltered shore."

In the purest sense, the poet captures the essence of this experience exactly. For whether you've been here for one year, or two years, or three years, or n years or n+1 years,(everyone claps ;D) in a career that will last nearly a half-century, your greatest deeds have yet to be done.

Now, as you prepare to set sail for the great world outside of MIT, it is my hope that triumph will be your ever-present companion. May passion fuel your every endeavor. May innovation infect your every invention. And may a preternatural propensity for progress pepper your every project. And may a blaze and torch of morality light your path...

...Go ye forth, gentle geniuses. History is waiting to hear from you.

Fellow classmate Cameron Bass (obscured) sports a plastic lawn goose atop his head, wearing his mortarboard; other people had penguins, beavers and the like. I had Anpanman's pouffy face on my cap. [via MIT News Office]


Playing twins with my bro, even though I'm really 1.5 yrs older ^_^;;


Chin Y** and Chin Y**'s diplomas. The ironic thing is, you can't even see our names.


With me dad, the financier behind two Ferrari's worth of higher education. Let's see if his investments pay off.


Mens et Manus, yo.


Jen + Jenn =D


The au naturel portrait: me sleepy, Mike dorky, Jen - "Arrrgh?!"


"The Numbers Collectors" - '03 rings, '04 caps.






*sigh* I hear ya, Jen ;p


Wizard dualling a la Harry Potter