A very late post but I had to share. So I was at my vodkaattwoam 's house for Thanksgiving and noticed there are onions in every single plant pot (potted plant? pot plant? why does that sounds so weird?) in the house. I thought it was hilarious and just figured it was a prank played by her nephews. I took a picture of it below. Looking back I wish I took pictures of ALL the onions around the house but I wasn't thinking about it at the time, only that I thought that it was hilarious and only took a picture of the ones near the front door. (Don't mind the plastic spider.) So vodkaattwoam texted me why two days later. Apparently her dad heard from somewhere or someone that putting onions around the house will guard everyone in it from the swine flu. hahahahahahhahhahahaha. <3 her dad.

Since I'm so looking forward to the holidays, I want to send Christmas cards for the FIRST TIME EVER! If you want to be added to this mailing list please leave it in the poll. No one else can see the results except me. I'll be sure to make it special since it's my first time sending out Christmas cards. I'm thinking of creating my own Christmas card, but I might get lazy and end up buying some. We'll see. :)

YAY!!! Christmas!!!



Edit: Not to mention I got Christmas cards last year and haven't been able to have the chance to send some back in return!

This year I did what I do every year on Thanksgiving, I invited myself over to vodkaattwoam 's house for dinner and fun. I brought a friend with me this year because she would have been alone otherwise. Not to mention it's really fun and who can pass up on fun? We had a blast. The food was super yummy and being around such a big and welcoming family is very comforting. My family isn't that big and we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving. So it's pretty boring when all the stores are closed and there's nothing to do. I started the tradition of spending Thanksgiving at my best friend's house for the holidays. I love her family. There's 12 nephews/nieces that from four older sisters and one that is soon to be coming from one older brother. So her family is definitely huge. I love those kids so much. I'm really looking forward to what they'll become and seeing them grow older and going through life. Oh, and my greatest accomplishment this Thanksgiving is making mash potatoes from scratch. Hey, don't laugh. I didn't know how to make it from scratch and never had the chance to try until then. Haha.

Black Friday shopping was spent at the outlet mall at midnight. Somehow I was dragged along against my will and better judgement to go shopping with my friends, knowing that I had to work at 8am the following morning. I ended up not getting home until 5am and only having an hour and half of sleep before going into work. Interestingly enough, I didn't feel all that tired and somehow made it through the day at work. Not to mention there was only five people in the office that day and I got free pizza. I can't wait to have holiday leave in the future.

So let me tell you about my Black Friday experience at the outlet mall. IT WAS FUCKING INSANE--- the lines and parking and everything! It was my first time doing this so imagine my horror when I saw a mile long line of traffic just to turn into the outlet mall to park. Being impatient, I just parked across the street and we somehow crossed the interstate 400. I'm just glad we was able to get some good deals. I mainly bought a lot of clothes for my parents for Christmas. The best deals of the night was everything in Banana Republic for 50% off. Being a huge fan of the brand, I couldn't complain. Oh and I bought a really nice and warm Kenneth Cole jacket for my dad for $42! WOOT! I'll probably do it again next year and buy myself more stuff. Maybe even getting there earlier instead of leaving at midnight. We'll see.

I'm just unbelievably excited for Christmas. My greatest feat this year is that I finished shopping for presents before December even started! I feel like I bought everyone something. Usually this time of year is full of school stress with final exams and projects and after all that, I'm usually working like mad to make money since it's the holidays. I feel like I don't normally care for Christmas much when I was in school but this year is so different. It's a relaxed Christmas and I can actually appreciate the holidays. I feel like decorating everything in red and green! I really want to buy a Christmas tree and decorate the house, but I will do that next year since it might be expensive. I'll probably buy decorations when things are 50% for next year. Yay, Christmas!

So my days have been uneventful. I designed and made bridal shower invites this weekend. It was fun and I'm sure my brain wholly enjoyed being crafty after a long time of doing nothing stimulating. My long term goals of late has been to try to save money and lose my damn muffin top. I'm sure those goals are related to one another along the lines of: save money by not eating out = losing weight. Along with saving money I have to pay off my student loans and credit card bill. Dammit. Why do I have to be a responsible adult?

I'm at a point in my life where I'm going "WHAT THE HELL DO I DO NOW?" I want to travel, I want to buy my own place, etc. But I can't, all those things require that I have to work first then save money. It's a long process but I'm determined to do all this. I should do something corny like make a list of things I want to do before I die. x_x So to try to get myself to stop feeling restless, I've been wanting to expand my interest. I got the time, so I figure why not? I think I might re-learn how to crochet, my mom taught me when I was younger with chopsticks (lol) and I remember successfully making a scarf but completely forgot about it over the years. Also I kind of want to learn how to sew. We'll see how far I get with these crafty things before I get bored, give up, or realize I suck at it. >_<

In work out news, I found a really motivated friend to do p90x with me. Hopefully, she'll stick with me the full 90 days of workout. We have been pushing a few workouts to another day because we have other obligations but we've both been eating better and making sure we do the workout we can't do the next day we're available. Keeping to a strict p90x workout is hard when I work 5 days a week and come home at 5pm but we're both trying. I wish I could see some real results on the scale though! MUST LOSE MUFFIN TOP. It's also hard to lose weight when I'm sitting at a desk all day at work. ;\ BAH!

I also played the New Super Mario Brothers Wii with both my brothers yesterday night. IT'S RIDICULOUSLY FUN. It's very nostalgic! So far I think it's really well made and loving the old school game play.

On a completely random note: I love NPH and is so so so happy he joined Twitter @actuallyNPH.

Ever since I graduated, my hard ass Asian parents has been treating me a little differently. I think a huge burden has been lifted off their shoulders now that they can't nag me about graduating and having a career. Since I don't have to worry about school work or studying anymore, I've been hanging out with my parents a lot. I've been taking my mother grocery shopping, which I use to do when I was younger. Well, not taking her grocery shopping but more like tagging along with her and help her pick out and bag fruits and veggies. It use to be every other weekend we would take a trip out to the farmers market. I use to love it. I eventually stopped going with her when I started college. It's quite nostalgic going with her again and dragging my father along. We talked a lot about random stuff and I feel a lot closer to them on these trips.

When my mother started nagging me about saving money to buy a house and a car, my father actually stuck up for me. He was telling her I'm responsible enough to save on my own and that he's sure I have some kind of plan. Aww, I love my dad. :T We'll see if I can live up to his expectations though.

My relationship with my parents is odd. I'm not that close to them and I don't really tell them anything at all. We don't really "talk" and they don't really ask. They know I'm dating a Mexican, but really hasn't commented or said anything about it in the three plus years we've been together. Well, other than referring to him as "my friend" in Vietnamese they haven't really spoken to me about him other than the typical hard ass Asian parent thing of "he didn't go to college and doesn't have a real career, how can he support you in the future" thing. He has a job that pays well in the restaurant industry and has a lot of responsibilities other than "just serve customers." He has some manager duties since he's been with the industry for five years, not sure if he wants to go up in the food chain but he's happy with where he is. He's really responsible and treats me well. They really can't complain, right? I wonder what will happen if we ever decide to get married. x_x

I think I might start taking the parents out to eat when they're free. I've never taken the out like that before. It might be interesting.

> AWA convention is coming this weekend, I'm extremely excited. While it's not as big and glamorous as D*C, I'm still so happy for it since I've been staffing for the past 5 years. Staffing has always been so fun and it's great just hanging out with TeamRegistration. This year will be a little different since we actually have 34 people who volunteered to staff at registration this year. It's sort of crazy since every other year, we were lucky to even have 10 volunteers the whole day without begging the other departments. I'm kind of sad because it's the first year T-dizzle won't be with the group. *sigh* She's in Japan right now which is probably 27892498327x better than AWA but it's been our tradition! Boo.

> Watched and read the anime/manga for Pandora Heart. I had an urge for anime the other day and just randomly decided to watch this series. I really liked it and damn the manga for not being done yet. Ahhhhhhhh, I hate waiting. I should make a rule for myself to NOT start unfinished series. UGH.

> Signed up for Skype the other day to talk to T-dizzle in Japan. Either I signed up for Skype many years ago, forgot my password, and used an old email address I don't use anymore or someone out in this world stole my username narfzz! WHAT THE HECK? I felt like the username was obscure enough that it was impossible someone else could have taken it. :( I'm quite sadden by this. I contacted Skype support to see if there was anyway to verify if I was the original owner but there's no way to prove it and they said it was "still active" whatever that means. Also I realize that Skype is REALLY FREAKING AWESOME.  Also I was lucky that my netbook comes with a mic and webcam built into it. Woot woot.

> So I have no work this week since the two top dogs who usually gives me work is in KY for a meeting the whole week. Now I'm kind of restless waiting for this week to hurry up and go by. I think I'll skip lunch and go home an hour early today.

> Saw Tim Burton's movie 9 last Friday. I really enjoyed it. I kind of wished it was longer, had more character development, and expanded on the plot line more. The visuals was so amazing, I can see it being turned into some kind of series if it was given a chance. I completely jumped at some parts, I'm such a wuss. The dolls reminds me of The Little Big Planet sack dolls with a twist, still very cute nonetheless.
 
> So I gained 5 pounds since the last time I weighed myself a year or so ago. (Strangely enough, my house does not have a scale which helps me keep my sanity.) Alas, the the nurse weighed me at the obgyn last month and confirmed that I've definitely gained weight. I kind of guessed it since I feel like my face has gotten chubbier comparing it to older pictures of myself. (Not to mention my pants has not been fitting like it use to. D:) I've been working out on and off since I started college but has been slacking big time the past year or so. It also didn't help that I went from a server job waiting tables and running around to a desk job sitting in front of a computer. After the horrifying realization that I might not be able to fit in my pants anymore if this keeps up, I started running two to three times a week. After not seeing any change I've decided to start the p90x workout instead. I have to say, the p90x workout is a really good workout. It definitely works out all parts of your body and I've heard a lot of good things about the program. The program is around an hour to an hour and a half a day for six days with one day of rest a week. Each day, there's a different video you do and you follow the schedule for 90 days. I was completely sore the first week. I could hardly walk up/down stairs or sit down without hurting a muscle I didn't know I had. Now it's not so bad except the kenpo video made my arm slightly sore. I've been trying to do it everyday but it's going to be hard since AWA will be this weekend. I usually just add an extra week when things come up. So far I noticed that my arms are definitely firmer and my appetite has calmed down a bit. We'll see how it goes for now. I don't have a scale so I can't say if I lost any weight but at least I feel great and not so sluggish like I use to.

Money just flows out of my hands toward emergencies that's been coming up lately. My goal of saving for a new house and car is getting further and further away. The last three Saturdays has been spent at the mechanic fixing every car in the family except my dad's (knock on wood) and the youngest brother's brand new car. I can relate to how feel how cleolinda is feeling when everything just seems to happen one after another.

( Is it over yet? )

I pray nothing else comes up. Just give me a break for the month of September? Please?

Alright, end of my rant. Sorry for this very uncivilized post.

So my friends are having serious talks with people and I am just sitting here in the car waiting for them. I hope things work out for the better for the both of them. I figure I should try updating my LiveJournal since I can do that now that I have the power of the G1 and the internet at my fingertips.

So the fourth weekend was really fun. Bbq and fireworks with awesome friends, nothing can get better than that. We also took crazy stupid and fun pictures. One day I will not be lazy and post them.

I went on a crazy shopping spree with my first check at the new company. I almost felt guilty that I didn't do anything responsible with it like pay off my credit card bills or student loan. I am sure the guilt will go away once I wear my new clothes to work and realize how great it feels to have new clothes. Alright I have ran out of boring things to talk about. Maybe my next post will be more interesting.

So now that I'm done with college, I'm suppose to have more free time to catch up on what I've been wanting to do (books, manga, video games, anime, tv series, asian dramas). Of course, that hasn't been the case. I've been so busy with graduation, work, vacation, and now--- transition to new job. Not to mention I've been having more of a social life hanging out and doing fun stuff with other living breathing human beings who actually wants to hang out with me! I have friends again! It's hard to remember when weeks go by only studying and having the only other person that I see outside of my family is the boyfriend (and occasionally the best friend). It's good to know that even with no contact and rejecting many invitations to hang out, that in the end they understand (and has not abandoned me for bigger and better things). Hah! So on to the rest of my post in bulleted form.

( Life has been busier than I expected:  )

So I've decided to make my last day at the current company two days early so I can have a four day weekend to do at least some of the stuff in my list of things I'm behind on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My supervisor/manager/boss-guy just cames over:

Sup: Betty, I have a dilemma I need your help with. *serious face*
Betty: Uh oh, what is it? *terrified look*
Sup: Should I get a buzz or let it grow out and keep my Krusty [the clown from the Simpsons] look?
Betty: Buzz. You'll look younger and you're already balding so you might as well finish the job.
Sup: Ok, I'm going to do it during lunch.
Betty: *smiles and nods head slowly*
Sup: *walks away with same serious look*

I'm going to miss this place.

I want to believe that the people will prevail in getting their voices heard whether it's successfully in getting a re-vote or a proper recount or even the right to have a peaceful protest without violence for as long as they want.

An acquittance (a friend of my best friend) in Iran actually voted for Ahmadinejad. I'm not sure if he voted for him because he's a supporter of Ahmadinejad and what he stands for or because his family voted for him or because he's been exposed to biased propaganda, but he did vote for Ahmadinejad. He says he doesn't trust American news media and thinks that Ahmadinejad is not a bad leader. I'm not sure how reliable his opinion is because he hasn't been living in Iran continuously and as far as I know, he's been living here in America for awhile going to school. Hey, maybe he knows something I don't know. Whatever.

What bothers me the most is that he said the opposition should just accept the loss, however, if it was me-- the only way I would accept a lost of a candidate I strongly believe in is if I thought the election was fair and that the winner of the election reflects the voice of the country (majority). Obviously, from all the protest and news that has been coming from Iran, this is may not be the case.

Not to mention I can't support Ahmadinejad because he has been quoted saying that he wanted Israel to be wiped of the map and believe that the Holocaust is a myth. (Who says this now a day without sounding fucking CRAZY?) Also the attacks on students in Tehran University by Islamic police and militia just leads me to further believe that maybe the election may not have been wholly fair. So until there is further proof that the election results was indeed quite fair and that Ahmadinejad isn't pulling strings out of his ass, I will continue to support Mousavi the best I can from where I am. By spreading the word and letting others know.

Iran Update: Live-blogging

Had a great time a few weeks ago at the East Atlanta Beer Festival. It was nice, hot, and sunny. Just how I like Georgia weather considering the ridiculous amount of rain we've been getting. (Seriously, I think we're over our drought and could possibly get California out of their drought for a few days if it continues raining!)  When we walked into the festival, we get this really nice 6oz glass to take to the various vendors for beer samples. I HAD A BLAST!

( More about EABF... )
I know I already announced this to some on twitter but I GOT A JOB OFFER! OMG OMG OMG SO HAPPY. I'm going to accept the offer either Tuesday or Wednesday after I get back from Florida trip. It's the kind job I can actually apply what I learned in school. Struggling through the university now seems worth all the sleepless nights and gajillion hours of studying and having no social life.

The job will be at a consulting firm, so it might be a rough couple of months as I refresh my brain on things I use to know. The best part is that I'm actually going to be doing REAL DESIGN WORK which means OMG REAL ENGINEERING! YAY! YAY! I couldn't ask for anything more. I was ready to jump on salary they were willing to offer because the experience there will be so valuable in the future. It's a small firm with only 150 people so I didn't expect much but they ended up offering me a so much more than I expected. WOO HOO!

The interview consist of me meeting everyone I will be potentially working with and gossiping about teachers with one of them who also graduated with the same degree at the same school 5-6 years ago. Man, I'm so excited! I'm sad to leave this company I'm at because I made some really good friends and my boss is so funny. He might be slightly crippled without me here. Trying to teach someone everything I learned in the past year is rough. He's going to really miss me when I leave. Poor boss.

I'm leaving to go to Cocoa Beach, Florida sometime tonight so we can get there early to see the shuttle launch tomorrow morning, then Disney, bars, and tons of leisurely fun. It might suck because there is a chance of rain. Booooo.

Oh man, I can spent hours and hours on ONTD_startrek. It's so awesome and OMG I'm totally LOVING I'M ON A SHIP by sparkly_stuff . It really is made of awesome. THANKS STAR TREK FOR MAKING MY LIFE EVEN BETTER THAN IT IS. :DDDDDD

Also for those that need it, mekosuchinae has some really awesome Star Trek fanfic. It's like crack. I need more good fanfics!

So I've been watching TOS and wanted to compile a list of my favorite episodes and scenes, along with episodes I thought was just interesting:

( Episode list... )

 More episodes to be added after watching Season 3.
 

- I just completely spoiled myself with images for the Doctor Who X-mas Special. SPOILER if anyone is interested, also more spoilers in the comment section of that link. I can't wait! I want more of Martha, she's my favorite companion so far. I love smart, beautiful, and aggressive women leads. I always wanted the Doctor to end up with her. Rose took awhile to grow on me for some reason but I love her now. It broke my heart when they had to separate. *sigh* Speaking of Doctor Who, I'm not so happy about Matt Smith being the new doctor and the fact that Russel T Davies won't be the head writer anymore. I won't judge just yet, they might both surprise me.

- This leads me to The Adventures of Tintin! I use to read the comics that I borrowed from the pubic library back in the day. I can't believe that the series is coming back in movie form. I completely forgot about the series, it was buried deep within my memories until my friend brought it up the other day. I think I might purchase the whole series and reread it to refresh my memories. I remember that I use to love the series and I think at some point even owned a few of the books. Man, if only I kept track of my stuff back from then. I would probably still have it somewhere.

- I've been watching Star Trek TOS. I love the humor. It really took me awhile to get over the cheesy special effects, costumes, hair, sets, etc. Now I'm use to it. My favorite episode so far is the one where Spock cries and Sulu is shirtless going around fencing, granted I'm only on episode 18 in the first season. I thought it was a hilarious episode. After TOS, I want to watch all of TNG. It's a challenge considering TOS is THREE seasons and TNG is SEVEN seasons, but I think that will be my goal this summer. Why am I so behind on all the awesome series? First, Doctor Who and now Star Trek. Man, I was deprived as a kid. I remember watching a few episode here and there but don't remember much of the storyline.

Happy birthday to my mother, who also has the same birthday as me! Happy cinco de mayo everyone!  I'm having a super duper lovely day. I don't even mind the fact that I'm working today on my birthday.

I just got back from this not!Meeting where my manager told me we were going to discuss my hours and that I was in trouble. So I was really scared and worried when I started following him to the conference room. So many things was going through my head and I was really freaked out.  When I finally went into the conference room, I saw it was full of all my coworkers from the department. They had a cake and ice cream for me to congratulate my graduation y'all! I feel so special!  My manager who is a huge joker got me good. I didn't know what had hit me. The other interns said I looked so shocked and funny.

I work for an awesome company. They are so nice to me, even though I'm just a lowly intern. Hopefully, they can somehow give me a job despite the hiring freeze going on throughout the company. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope my manager fights to keep me. Also my engineering coworker with connections is asking around to see if anyone wants to hire me. I never realized it but I have people who is really trying to help me. It's an amazing feeling to know that I'm not all stranded and alone in my job search in this crappy economy.

Graduation was actually really fun because I got to sit with a few a people I know. I was pleasantly surprised that our names are called when we get to the stage, I was really expecting it to be general graduation where they don't call your names. So now I'm really glad I made the right decision to walk in my graduation. I did a little jiggy dance before getting on stage to get the attention of my family and friends. They thought it was really dorky and cute. I even got an extremely loud cheer from them.

I asked Bud, our university president, to give me a high five instead of the traditional shaking hands. He agreed so now my official picture with him is going to be on my wall when I get it. I'm really sad that Wayne Clough wasn't there for my graduation instead, it sucks that he chose to be the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution right before I graduated. Booo.

What I regret the most is not decorating my cap. There was quite some impressive decorated caps. An electrical engineer put blinking color lights on hers which I thought was totally awesome. Some had the biohazard symbol painted in bright colors (BioMed/ChemE students), I saw Transformers logo (CS major), and one person wrote "never settle" which is especially inspiring at the time (forgot her major).

Someone brought a beach ball so we got to have a little fun while we waited for our names to be called. I'm really starting to have a lot more pride for my school now that I'm out. I'm going to start buying all the GT gear I refused to buy while I was still in school. Also does anyone know if there is a tradition about giving the university president little beach/swimming floaties? A few people had them and gave them to the president, I'm wondering if there is a tradition about that I didn't hear about.

I also realized how much I love our school's fight song.
( I'm a Ramblin' Wreck... )

( The rest of the weekend. )
Now on to real life and job hunting as I start to pull my life together.

So my friend has a photographer in mind that she wants for the wedding. Y'all this husband and wife duo is  absolutely amazing! If I ever get married, I'm definitely going to try my best to hire them. They're called Our Labor of Love and this is their blog. I fell in love at first sight. Their picture captures the cutest and happiest moments of everything from the beginning to end. These moments aren't forced or posed, it's as if you were there in their intimate private moment of happiness. You can just feel the how excited and in love the couples are. I also feel like the photographers is just a very goofy and fun couple which ends up showing in the pictures they take. They like having fun and trying new things.

I also love love looove their smilebooth concept which is a rendition of of the old school picturebooth. Viewing a lot of the smilebooth pictures makes me really hope that my soooji  will have that at her reception. It would be soooooooo much fun. They're based in Atlanta but will travel anywhere in the world. Check them out and if you use them for your wedding, let me know! I'm such a fan now. It's so cool that their photos also appear in Southern Wedding a lot.