No longer a girlfriend

Just got back from Playa del Carmen and I had an absolutely wonderful time. I got engaged! Ming proposed over dinner our second night in Playa. He bought a rose and got down on one knee. I'm totally ecstatic!! =)

As for the rest of the vacation I spent it getting lots of R&R. I spent 3-5 hours a day on the beach and/or pool. It was so relaxing and the food was totally awesome. I had an amazing time and highly recommend it to anyone.

Playa del Carmen here I come

Getting ready to leave the office soon for Playa del Carmen. *woohoo* Vacation time again. Gotta love it. ^_^ I hope hurricane Emily didn't completely mess up the beaches. I need a break from work. It's a perfect time to get away from it all and sip on margaritas all day. >_< Even though I just came back from Boston 2 weeks ago (less actually) I'm ready for vacation again. Boston was a different type of vacation. Boston was a city-metro area type of vacation. While there we also went to Cape Cod which is more relaxing but not very beachy. I am in the need for beach weather and Playa should do the trick. Cape Cod is more about a New England feel, in my mind, and that area has a charm of its own. Playa is a beach resort that parties at night. Hope to come back feeling refreshed and having done my fair share of partying since its been something I haven't really done in awhile.

Must be nice to be Young

Since I've started working I've become mature and responsible. Instead of squandering very paycheck I have to think ahead (retirement, savings, etc.) I have to budget and plan carefully otherwise I'll end up without anything when I retire. My sister, on the other hand, is still in college and has the mentality of a college student: spend whatever you want now and never think about what you've got to pay for in the future. She recently acquired $600 worth of Tiffany jewelry. O.o Dear god. I can't remember the last time I was willing to spend that much on myself for an out-of-the-blue purchase. *sigh* Sometimes I wish I was still young again =(

A Vacation Nightmare

The b/f and I are going on vacation to Mexico later this month, approximately 3 weeks from today. We bought our airline tickets months ago because we wanted to get it all out of the way and have one less thing to worry about. Out of the blue b/f asked me for our itinerary. I gave it to him and he wasnt' sure if we had an e-ticket or not. He called up the travel agent we went through only to find out that our tickets were cancelled and we currently did not have any tickets to Mexico. *argh* Both of us were absolutley livid! The travel agent, www.onetravel.com, had even called us to confirm that we had our tickets. Ah!! After much frustration and ranting we managed to get some tickets that weren't insanely expensive, although still more than we originally thought we were paying. Long story short, never buy tickets through one travel.

Sports on TV at the Gym

Whenever I go to the gym to get a bit of cardio in I try to grab a machine that is near a TV that does not have sports on it. I find watching "the game" on TV extremely boring. Watching that is the equivalent of watching nothing at all to me. I don't like running for an hour and it makes the time go by so much faster if I have some type of distraction. Unfortunately, most of the TVs, if not all of them, always have some type of baseball game or something on them. Boring! The gym is filled by an equal number of men and women on the cardio machines and I don't know many women who enjoy watching sports. In fact, I think that most cannot tolerate it. So why are the TVs normally turned to sports channels? Beats me. If I had my way, I'd ban it except for one solitary TV that can have sports just so that I can appease those guys who must watch their sports games. Hell, many guys I know don't even like watching sports. I think that a mere 1% (of not less) of the people on cardio machines at any point in time actually care about sports. The rest of the 99% of people would be happier if it was some sitcom re-run or CNN that was on the TV

Scarves

I bought bf's mom a scarf for her birthday. I never thought much about scarves until I started looking for scarves suitable for her. I never realized how cute scarves are and how cute and chic they make an outfit. ^_^ I'm going to start looking for scarves for myself next. Unfortunately, all the ones I like happen to be in the range of 100+ dollars for a little square of silk. *sigh*

Pet Peeve with Kids

One of my biggest pet peeves is adults who think their kids are oh-so-precious that you want to see them when the kid is sick. eww. No way do I want to be near a contagious child. It's bad enough being near a kid when the kid is being 'fussy' so why on earthy do I want to be near this kid when the kid is sick? Ugh. I will definitley not impose my sick child on anyone else and if my kid starts making a scene in a public place, I'll spare everyone the embarrassment and take the misbehaving kid away.

Women on Cars

CNN had an article on cars that women want to buy versus what men want to buy. I am so not the typical female compared to these women. All the cars the women chose are, imo, heinous and I'd never even consider getting behind the wheel of any of them. I think I lean decidedly male for this study.

Top cars: men vs. women

When it comes to cars, it's easy to figure out what men are after. It's women who are complicated

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A look at marketing data showing which cars men prefer and which ones women like revealed something I'd long suspected.

While men may, indeed, be from Mars, women are from someplace much more complex and difficult to figure out. Maybe Boston.

The figures, supplied by NOP World, a market research firm, show specific car models and an index number representing how many men -- or women -- intend to buy that car and no other compared to the percentage of their gender-mates who intend to buy the average car.

In other words, these are cars that seem to sell most disproportionately to just one sex or the other.

The most striking thing about NOP's data is how easy it is to figure out what guys want.

The Porsche 911 -- the most overwhelmingly male passenger car -- has an "Index Male to Total" of 214.3, for example. That's more than double the average. The car's "Index Female to Total," on the other hand, is just 14.3.

It's surprising the 911 doesn't grow hair on its hood and eat Krispy Kreme for breakfast.

Other cars at the top of the masculinity dial include the exotic Ford GT supercar, Maserati Spyder, Jaguar XK8 sports car and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

You get the idea: If it's very fast, awfully fast, terribly fast or way, way too fast, guys like it. Also, they tend to be expensive.

The one common trait among cars that women like is that they are not expensive.

The most womanly car, with a "Female" index of 200, is the yet-unreleased Pontiac G6 convertible. (You go, Oprah! Plus, it's a convertible.)

Actually, the G6 has a wide lead in the "girl car" category. The closest other passenger cars are the Suzuki Forenza with an index of 150 and the Volkswagen New Beetle with an index of 147.6.

How do women decide which cars to buy?

"If you picture a fraction with cost as the numerator then, as the denominator, you have things like reliability, performance..." said Doug Scott, NOP World's automotive analyst.

He went on with a long list of factors.

To sum it up, women add up the good things, subtract the bad things, then compare the result with the cost of the car. Then they think carefully about the result.

Men, it seems, just add stuff up then wonder if they can afford it without having to switch to domestic beer.

If a typical male mind -- take mine, since I'm evidently not doing much with it -- were expanded to the size of the United States of America, that portion of the mind dedicated to responding to the word "enough" would be the size of a bumper pool table in a New Jersey bar.

That portion of the brain dedicated to responding to the word "more," on the other hand, would occupy everything west of the Rockies, including Hawaii and the territories of American Samoa and Guam.

That is why the Mustang GT has four headlights. Not because men want more headlights, but because those two extra headlights -- Ford calls them "fog lights" but, really, they're headlights -- are only available on the V8-powered Mustang GT.

The male driver of a V6-powered Mustang, with its 210-horsepower engine, clearly has "enough" power. Probably more than enough.

But when stopped at a red light next to a four-lighted 300-horsepower Mustang GT it is immediately obvious to everyone that the other driver has "more."

This is the same reason that Dodge has greatly increased the size of the "Hemi" badge on its cars for the 2006 model year. The larger badge makes it very easy to see, at some distance, who has "more."

Dodge has stated outright that it designs and markets cars for men. So it has given us the Dodge Magnum, a muscle-car station wagon. It has also given us the new Dodge Charger, a muscle-car family sedan with four doors, roomy back seats and a nice trunk.

Clever, those Dodge boys. Clearly, they understand that, even though they are marketing cars to men, most men don't just go out and buy cars on their own. They still have to get the thumbs-up from someone else. Someone who knows what a "numerator" is and how to use it.

Women. Always making stuff complicated.

Hamburger Buns Lead to America's Obesity

Bf and I wanted to have hamburgers for dinner tonight. Given that it is only two of us we didn't want to buy too many hamburger buns. We plan to only make 2 burgers, one for each of us. I have searched high and low and have not been able to find a grocery store which will sell the hamburger buns by the piece; buns are only sold in packs of 4, 6, or 8. O.o There is no way we could finish that many buns between the two of us. *sigh* My search had to end with me settling on a sourdough round where we'll have to cut our own slices off of it to serve as our hamburger buns. What does everyone else do? I can't be the only one who's had this dilemma. I know there are tons of couples out there who must grapple with this problem. What's the solution? I am sure most people end up buying the 4 (6, 8) pack of buns and reconciling it to themselves with "oh, we'll just have a few extra meals of hamburgers to finish up these buns." What does that lead to? Fat Americans. Let's face it: hamburgers aren't exactly the healthiest thing in the world for you. An occassional one is ok and your body can tolerate it without exploding on you. Many servings of hamburgers, however, will cause you to grow love handles. The extra buns we were forced to buy caused us to eat the unplanned hamburgers, thereby causing my little, now large, love handles to sprout up .. er, out. What's the solution? Find a local baker (aka Mom or some nice neighbor) to make you 2 homemade buns at a time so that you don't overindulge on hamburger buns.

Getting Old and Settling Down

I know that bf and I are definitely in a comfortable relationship because all I feel like doing when we go on vacation is sitting and relaxing. Any idea of going to check out the clubs and bars is not that appealing to me. I'd much rather see the sights of the town and spend the evening relaxing and soaking in the city's culture. Prior to meeting the bf I'd always be ready to check out the night scene and stay up late looking for various local "watering holes." Now I'm content to spend time with bf and not do anything except stay put.

Whirlwind of Activity

This past weekend was extremely busy. I saw the first showing of Star Wars on Saturday morning. The showing appeared to be sold out. O.o I didn't realize so many people would wake up early on a Saturday to see this movie. *wow* Luckily, bf and I were able to get some decent seats even though we arrived 10 minutes prior to showtime.

Spent Saturday afternoon shopping for food for the house warming for my family. I never realized how tiring and how much work is involved for preparing for a house warming when you only have 2 people doing the prep work. The house warming on Sunday went smoothly and was ended with some yummy home-made almond jello, by bf, and double strawberry ice cream. ^_^

Monday was spent trying to relax and regroup after a weekend of running around. Went to the gym for an hour since I've been putting on some weight, and it shows too! O.o Attempted to do some of the work that I needed to do but I failed miserably. On the plus side bf and I bought a microwave. The one he has doesn't work and needs to be replaced so we made lots of phone calls to all the nearby retailers to check if they had the model we'd settled on. Found out his parents are going to be in town in a couple of weeks and I'm sure they'd be happier if they had a working microwave.

Jade Empire

The long weekend is finally here. *hooray* My boss gave me strict orders to play Jade Empire, the XBox RPG, this weekend and to give him a full report of it on Tuesday. I've got a good boss. ^_^

So Sexy

Ming just got this dvd recorder and it's one sexy machine. Looks quite sleek, don't you think. Hm... I wonder if this is considered sexier than me j/k >_<

Hotels in Cape Cod

Why is it so difficult to find a hotel in Cape Cod? There are sooo many cities in the area that it's hard to nail down exactly which city to stay in. Upon doing oodles and oodles of research I also found out that nearly all fo the hotels in Cape Cod don't let you cancel your reservation without a penalty fee, or a "processing fee" as they like to put it. Grr... I swear Cape Cod is just too touristy. Just because a hotel is on Cape Cod they feel they can charge you $200/night for a hotel that, in any other place, would only charge $120/night. *sigh*

XBox 360

Microsoft unveiled the new XBox. The person in the above photo is actually an MS employee. (!) She's actually pretty cute.

Article can be found here linky

Microsoft fired the opening salvo in the war of the next-generation videogames Thursday night by unveiling the successor to the Xbox on an MTV special.

Sleek and off-white, the new Xbox 360 system looks like an iPod on steroids. Scheduled to arrive before the holiday season (no price set), the Xbox 360 will usher players into what Microsoft calls the "third stage" in the evolution of games - one of high-definition images and larger environments to be explored through greatly expanded multiplayer and online games.

"Remember going from 2-D games to 3-D? We're going from today's 3-D worlds to high-definition worlds that really will look like a movie or television show," chief Xbox officer Robbie Bach says. All games will be in HD, but only HDTVs will show them at highest quality. Microsoft estimates that 100 million homes worldwide will have advanced TV sets by 2008. "That is going to lead to fundamental changes in expectations, and Xbox 360 is going to deliver."

By releasing Xbox 360 this year, Microsoft hopes to leapfrog Sony, which is expected to announce plans for next year's successor to the PS2 next week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in L.A. "Sony was dominant in terms of market share this round. It's going to be hard for them to match that (again)," says David Cole of DFC Intelligence. "With Microsoft getting out first, it's going to be more of a level playing field."

Nintendo also will reveal plans for its new system, Revolution, due in 2006. The system will support wireless Internet and play DVD movies plus current GameCube games.

No word yet on whether the Xbox 360 will play current Xbox games. If not, that would disappoint many of the devoted 20 million Xbox owners who will want to play their old games on the new system. And retailers may not be thrilled about devoting space to a fourth console game system (including the current Xbox, PS2 and GameCube), along with the growing lineup of portables (Nintendo's DS and Game Boy SP, plus Sony's PSP), says Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group.

Beyond that, the added detail needed for HD games may tax developers and divert resources from making games for other systems this Christmas. "Artists do want to see this higher quality, but it is adding to the cost and time of developing a game," Doherty says.

And Sony's next system is expected to have twice the power of the Xbox 360, so Microsoft may not be able to siphon off many Sony fans. "It may not be the full giant step the PS2 was from the PlayStation," Doherty says, "but it certainly marks the beginning of a new era of games designed to be richer ... and to depend on multiplayer gaming as their main mode: not you vs. the machine, but you vs. a friend."

One Xbox 360 game in development from Rare, Perfect Dark Zero, supports up to 64 players at a time. Most current games top out at 16.

"In every transition, processing power and memory take a certain level of jump," says Glenn Entis, chief visual officer of Electronic Arts, which is examining the possibilities of the new technology. Environments will be more lifelike - you'll see leaves on trees moving in golf games, and the ball will behave differently when hit out of varying degrees of rough. Athletes' faces may be so well defined that "you will start to read the eyes of NBA players, so that head fakes and no-look elements become a part of the game," he says.

Microsoft appears to be on the right track, says John Davison, editorial director of Ziff Davis' videogame magazines. "It's debatable about whether we really need another Xbox right now, but there's no denying the excitement about 360."

SF Opera

The SF Opera is offering discount tickets, 50% off retail prices, to selected shows to celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month. If you are interested, here's the link with more details (you go through the BART website first):

SF Opera discount tickets

I've never been to the opera before but I've been wanting to go. Got tickets for the Queen of Spades showing. I'll keep you posted on how the show turns out

Attempt to Stop the Aging Process

In a futile attempt to deny my age ...

I'll be turning 24 again at the end of the month .. and that will continue to reoccur every month ^_^

15 lb Burger

This is a huge burger! I was thinking of eating Brix burgers in the near future and then came across this article:


NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Starting last weekend, a Pennsylvania restaurant put a 15-pound burger on its menu, claiming the largest burger available anywhere.

Dennis Liegey, the owner of Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, 120 northeast of Pittsburgh, said the "Beer Barrel Belly Buster" weighs in with 10 pounds of meat molded into a 20-inch patty on a specially baked, 17-inch bun.

The balance of the weight comes from 25 slices of cheese, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, two onions, plus copious quantities of mayo, ketchup, relish, mustard, and peppers.

Any two people who can eat it within a three-hour sitting get it for free. For everyone else, it costs $30.
Long-running challenge

"We've been running a burger challenge since 1991," said Liegey. "It started out with two- and three-pound patties, and went to a six-pounder in 1998 with five pounds of toppings."

Over the years Liegey said he has sold more than 10,500 of the two- and three-pounders, and 853 of the six-pounders.

He has kept careful count of how many diners have finished each offering: 256 ate the whole two-pounder and 39 finished three-pounders. And last February, one person, a 100-pound female college student, Kate Stelnick, from Princeton, New Jersey, ate the entire six-pounder. (The burger with toppings represented 11 percent of her body weight.)

The 15-pound burger can feed a family of 10, according to Liegey. He has sold two so far to teams of two people, and neither team did much more than put a dent in it.
link to article

Ideal City

Took a test recently and the results for my ideal city are as follows:

American Cities That Best Fit You:

70% Honolulu

65% Austin

65% Denver

60% Atlanta

55% San Diego

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Bunny Lights

Aren't these bunny lights just too cute?

Bring a room to life instantly with some exciting lighting. These glowing bunnies are just too cute for words!

Glowing rabbits might sound like something out of Chernobyl, but don't worry; these cute little bunnies aren't radioactive. What they are is a highly unusual set of party lights with an ‘awhhh!!!' factor that's off the scale. Animal lovers will melt at the very sight of them.

This 6m chain carries 20 bright bouncing bunny bulbs (is that enough things beginning with ‘b' for you?) Because of the length of the chain, you can arrange your lights virtually any way you want; around a window, across or down a wall, or even in a pattern.

If you never thought a light could make you go gooey inside, prepare to be surprised. Compared to these, that bog standard 40W bulb looks a bit dull, doesn't it? Perfect as a party accessory, or if you just fancy something different.

Includes four free bulbs! For indoor use only.