With barely 2 days left of March, I should be trying to fulfill one of my writing resolutions that I made at the beginning of the year (when April seemed far away), but I just had one EPIC weekend. The bright side is that epicness is going towards my other resolution of going out more/socializing.

I don't update this LJ nearly enough, especially since most of the people I interacted on it with have moved onto other social media tools. BUT I still like this place as a good way to keep up with other things and to record bits of my mostly mundane (but sometimes fantabulous!) life.

So without further ado, my EPIC March weekend + PICTURES! Then really, I'm going to attempt to finish that creepy painting story... if I don't pass out from exhaustion first. I'm getting too old to pull this non-sleepage type stuff.

( Luce's Birthday )

( OK GO Music Video Shoot )

Anyway, it took a rather LONGER time to get home. We got Chipotle, delicious icy coffee drinks (to help fuel the adrenaline keeping me functional), met up with Luce and her sister, and watched the SyFy marathon of Season 1 of BBC's Merlin. The Merlin marathon capped off the EPIC weekend because it's been a long time since Season 2 finished airing, and we missed our Merlin parties!

See, I don't update for whole months, but when I do, at least it's a huge update, right? ;)

Until next time! I need to get ready for bed. I didn't sleep early enough yesterday to counter the sleep deprivation from Saturday, and now my brain and body are paying for it.

Dude, the last time I LJed was like at the start of the year. My resolutions are half FAIL!BOAT and half WIN! So here's an update.

Also, I just saw Alice in Wonderland this weekend. It was...enjoyable. My hesitation stems from this: the story was weak in that it had lots of good/interesting elements that never quite came together in a compelling way. Is it worth seeing? Yes, but maybe if your theater has special discount/cheaper tickets like the local AMCs do ($6 Friday-Sunday mornings before noon). Brief review with NO SPOILERS, so no worries.

The visuals are whimsical and beautiful, the costume design is gorgeous. I adored every one of Alice's dresses. The acting is great. The 2 queens are amusing, the Mad Hatter is amusing and also creepy, and I wanted to squish the Cheshire Cat; he was so cute! Alice was played with the right amount of fancifulness and practicality, and I really liked the set-up of the movie and the themes they touch on. THE PROBLEM is that the movie touches on a lot of interesting concepts and hints at all this back story (for the supporting characters like the 2 queens), but it doesn't explore deeper than that and it doesn't give you enough. The climax also went by very fast, like it felt kind of too short.

I read a review somewhere that basically said it's a very pretty movie, but it has no heart. I can't put it better than that.

Anyway, RESOLUTIONS update:

1. At least 7 hours of sleep per night during the work week. Sort of happening, but not consistently.

2. EXERCISE. Um, what?

3. Teach the pup to sit, stay, and go for walks. This was sorta happening until PUP RAN AWAY. :( He didn't come back, and we couldn't find him, despite checking the shelters and all. On the bright side, he's small and friendly. So it's likely someone took him in.

4. Actually TAKE the GRE. -__-'

5. Go out more / avoid socializing less. Yes! I went on a date and everything. XP

6. Read more. HECK YES! I cleared my library books queue and have started a new one!

7. Write more consistently, rather than sporadically. 50/50. Have been writing more often, but still not consistently enough.

8. Blog more consistently. Yes! At least once a week and still going strong.

9. Practice positivity and fearlessness! Constant work in progress.

10. FIGURE OUT MY LIFE! / avoid having a quarter-life crisis. Also a constant work in progress. Le sigh.

In other news, I've finally gotten Luce caught up through Season 4 of Supernatural! I also got her and Catherine into the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series, even though it's kinda below our reading level. Like really. The first few especially. But it's fun! And we saw the movie and thought it was HILARIOUSLY good. Or maybe mostly it was hilarious. It's pretty different from the book though, and REALLY FUNNY probably because we had a lot of random, random inside jokes. That and we're easily amused.

I'm excited for mid-March because the last book in Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series is out, and Book 6 ended on such a HUGE cliffhanger. I started this series at the same time as Percy Jackson and this one totally won out. SO GOOD!

January has begun, and it's time to put up some resolutions.

1. Get at least 7 hours of sleep per night during the work week. I really need to sleep earlier.

2. EXERCISE. Time to get a gym membership now that there's one near me?

3. Teach the pup to sit, stay, and go for walks.

4. Actually TAKE the GRE.

5. Go out more / avoid socializing less. (Saying yes to going out, parties, gatherings, and concerts.)

6. Read more - at least get through the books I've had borrowed from friends.

7. Write more consistently, rather than sporadically. (More on writing goals here: 2010 Writing Goals)

8. Blog more consistently. Once a week?

9. Practice positivity and fearlessness!

10. FIGURE OUT MY LIFE! / avoid having a quarter-life crisis.

That's my 10 for 2010. What's yours?

I don't update much here anymore, but the yearly retrospective seems to be something I should keep up, even if it's only for my own enjoyment and reference. I tend to be overly wordy, so I'm just going to go with the every popular list/bullet-point.

Here's my 2009 in a nutshell:

• Freaked out about how this was my first full year out of college.
• Looked for and applied to jobs and generally freaked out about being unemployed not-so-fresh out of college.
• Studied for the GRE, but DID NOT TAKE IT -__-'
• Actually used my Twitter account.
• Got into a bunch of TV shows - Bones, Criminal Minds, Fringe, Glee, MERLIN
• Catherine tried to grow strawberries - they grew and then the freak weather changes did them in.
• Got a temp/part-time job in March!
• Learned how to drive freeways by myself (big accomplishment!)
• Visited NorCal/UC Berkeley (wooh, alma mater!) on Cal Day - saw my fellow Benvenuts and Cal friends for the first time since graduation.
• Did some light-writing in the driveway.
• Started exercising / stopped exercising.
• Saw my younger uncle again for the first time in a loooong time.
• Catherine finished her first year at UCLA!
• Saw some shooting stars.
• Went to Disneyland & California Adventure TWICE in the summer w/the summer fun pass.
• Luce returned from Korea!!!
• Got 2 of my wisdom teeth out. Not fun.
• Family did Cash for Clunkers and I said goodbye to "my bro", the old Volvo, which was only 1 year younger than me.
• Karaoked in K-Town: somehow, "My Humps" has become my Song. Um.
• Lots of eating of shaved ice, yogurt, and boba.
• Lots of playing of board games and Speed Scrabble; discovered "Bananagrams" at some point and raged at the world and our own lack of entrepreneurship for not patenting Speed Scrabble and marketing that shizz because Bananagrams IS the "Speed Scrabble" we've been playing ALL THESE YEARS SINCE LIKE HIGH SCHOOL.
• Turned 23. Dear me.
• Lost my other grandpa.
• Went to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
• Got tricked into eating frog! D:
• G got a house / went to her house-warming.
• My old, little laptop sort of died. :(
• Got ridiculously into Merlin and started having Merlin parties and in-jokes.
• Became OBSESSED with BEATLES Rock Band, and consequently fell in love with the Beatles.
• Saw Jason Mraz at the Hollywood Bowl. He never disappoints.
• Actually started regularly making use of the A Nudge in the Right Direction blog!
• Alz leveled up her jewelry making.
• Went out with friends on Halloween; I was Alice in Wonderland (finally!).
• GOT A FULL-TIME JOB!!!
• Did NaNoWriMo - word count not as good as last year, but twas a valiant effort.
• First Thanksgiving at my cousin's w/their new kid.
• First Thanksgiving without my grandpa.
• Learned to make Rice Krispies treats with Fruity Pebbles!
• Free OK Go concert @ the Grammy Museum!!!
• Reading binge - FINISHED Percy Jackson & the Olympians series! Also, PATROCLES.
• New haircut - straight bangs, which for once, I actually rather like.
• Epic remodeling-type stuff going on at my house - parents re-did their room, took out all the carpet & put in wood floors, new doors on my room and study, new paint for some rooms.
• 1 year since my grandpa's passing.
• Decided I wanted to rework a very old story of mine.
• Received an invitation to my FIRST wedding - as in one of my friends' weddings, who is like my age!!!
• Adopted a doggy.
• Saw my roommate of 4 years for the holidays.
• Dec. 31st: saw Avatar and LOVED it.

I'm not going out tonight since I'm kind of just in the mood for low-key activities and relaxing and being warm. 2009 has been a hard transition year for me, but it's also been very good. May 2010 be even better than 2009 for everyone!

Can't believe it's been a decade. I'm getting OLD.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I don't update LJ much anymore (because I'm lazy), but it is still sort of my repository for random things going on in my life. This is one of those moments I wanted to recognize.

My grandpa's birthday is today, December 22nd. One year ago, on this day as well, he passed away.

I can't believe it's already been a year.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa. I miss you.

Uh, so I guess I didn't mention this, but I went to Hong Kong and Taiwan for the past week.

I am now back in the states. Will update later when I'm not falling asleep.

I have TV to catch-up on (um SUPERNATURAL!!!), and I hear Big Blue kicked major ass once again this weekend. GO BEARS!

Today, I got stitches for the first time ever. They are in my mouth. Why? Because I got my two bottom wisdom teeth out. It was pretty intense I have to say, though I suppose not as bad as I was expecting since I was mentally prepared for pain and squickiness.

Twas mostly a case of NOT thinking about what they were possibly doing and ignoring the cracking. Um, yes. Moving on. So far, I'm not too chipmunk-like thanks to my liberal usage of an ice pack. We'll see what I'm like tomorrow.

I think the worst part of all this right now is this eating business. So I'm on a liquid/soft food diet, which I have to say is incredibly UNFULFILLING. On the other hand, I haven't started gorging on ice cream yet, so maybe I'll change my mind in a bit. The other thing is that now that I can't eat a bunch of stuff, of course, I REALLY WANT TO EAT ALL OF IT. Like chips? Didn't want any this morning, but after I got home from the dentist, REALLY WANTED SOME. It's kind of agonizing. Oh brain, why do you do this?

In other news, being stressed out and tense while waiting for toothy doom is apparently conducive to kicking my Inspiration into gear, or at least getting the creative juices flowing. I actually wrote a whole scene in something I haven't touched for a long time while sitting in the chair for my X-Rays and for my oral surgeon. I guess you do anything to distract yourself.

HP Half-Blood Prince in a week! I'm so excited! And beyond that, gennia and evaleva shall be returning to meee! Hopefully, I'll be able to eat normally by then. Hahaha.

Speaking of Britishy things, Cat and I are strangely obsessed with BBC's Merlin series which is now showing on NBC. We saw the first 2 eps on TV, and upon realizing the rest of it was on youtube, we finished that off in a week. Season 2, why aren't you here yet?!

I can actually answer this one, so I'm going to! The last movie I saw in theaters was UP! And I loved it! It really was a more grown-up sort of movie from Pixar and nearly had me bawling at a few points. But since I was there with Alz and teh sister, I had to keep up appearances. So while my eyes watered, I held them in check. I also love love loved Dug, but I have a weakness for adorable, fuzzy doggies that are sweet but kinda dumb. Haha. It was really sweet and bittersweet and funny and beautiful and just everything Pixar is good at. Plus, the short, "Partly Cloudy" was also very adorable. A++

Catherine and I were going to see Transformers 2, but we heard it kind of sucks. So I think we're holding off on it.

The last movie I saw though was House Bunny on Showtime or something yesterday when Catherine and I were lazing around at home after lunch. It was pretty funny actually. Haha.


Dude, it is JULY. I didn't realize I hadn't updated at all during June. My days have become pretty predictable, so I haven't felt the need to write much. It's kind of sad. Haha.

At work, I've moved cubicles once again! I'm in the area with the people I actually work with now, so it's more interesting. Also, lunch-time plans are a lot easier to make. I'll be moving back to my old cubicle probably in September though when Christine comes back (since I'm sitting at her desk).

Speaking of which, on June 28th, we welcomed a new baby to the family. Another niece-sorta. Haha. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to call her since she's my cousin's baby? We babysat her now-older-sister, Sam on Saturday while her parents were at the hospital. Oh man, toddlers have BOUNDLESS ENERGY. Sam is super cute and rather well-behaved, but that girl does not stop moving. She literally had me doing laps around the house, and she held me captive in the bathroom for like 15 min. Technically, we were hiding from my cousin (her aunt).

Anyway, July should be more eventful because LUCE returns from Korea! I haven't seen that girl in a YEAR which feels pretty crazy to me. I can't wait to see you again darling!!! I'm also getting my wisdom teeth pulled, which I'm not looking forward to, but it's happening in exactly a week. D: At least I get to enjoy the 4th of July weekend before I'm stuck eating mushy things for a week.

This is going to be one massive update. Here goes.

( Berkeley Weekend in a nutshell )

Memorial Day Weekend was pretty chill. Catherine, Gennia, Tiff, and I saw Night at the Museum 2 and RATHER ENJOYED IT. I loved the first one, and I immensely enjoyed the second. I love museums and history; throw in a little crazy Egyptian magic, and it's fun times. Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market at the Americana. We bought these really good lemony pita chips and two kinds of hummus. So tasty. At night, Cat and I (with our cousin) made chicken parmesan, meatballs, garlic bread, salad, and pasta under the tutelage of our uncle. It turned out RATHER DELICIOUS. This would be the second time we've done chicken parmesan. I think we should make it more often.

We also did light-writing. It was really fun and uh, we need to get better at it. But I think we did a pretty dang good job. I'm also bomb at making Catherine look like an angel. Her expression is perfect - in that she does not look happy. Haha.

Sunday afternoon, we went to Griffith Observatory so Catherine could get her extra credit. It was rather windy up there but pretty, despite the haze hanging over the view of downtown LA and the Hollywood sign. We watched the planetarium show (also part of Cat getting extra credit), and it was actually pretty good. My parents enjoyed it perhaps more than Cat and I did. Haha. The planetarium itself was smaller than I remembered, but then again, the last time I was there, I was like in elementary school. We also stayed late enough to watch the sunset and to see FRELLING SATURN in the telescope. We could see the RINGS. So that was unexpectedly more fun than we thought it'd be.

Monday, we went up to Forest Lawn to visit my grandpa and aunt. It was really nice since it was Memorial Day. You know, I've never really thought about it, but cemeteries are also places of love. There were flags everywhere, along with the usual flower arrangements, and people were picnicking with their families in the sunshine. It was very nice and very peaceful.

Then we took Catherine back to UCLA and took some of her stuff back. She'll be moving back home in a few weeks once the school year's over. THAT'S CRAZY. Her freshman year is almost complete!

Pictures & Light writing here:



And that's that!

Update about my Cal trip is late and will continue to be postponed because the universe has seen fit to conspire against me pretty much since after I got back. THANKS UNIVERSE. (It's really fitting w/my LJ layout actually...)

In any case, things seem to have been calming down now, even though Mercury just went into retrograde a few days ago. I think the lead-up was part of this Universe-hates-me deal. (I've been reading a lot of yahoo horoscopes lately, hence all the cosmic talk.)

Other than a lot of randomly annoying and cumulatively craptastic things that have gone down, today I feel okay and things are generally looking at least somewhat up.

Quick recap of recent days:

-My laptop power cord died, so I've been cut off from photos for one (hence no Berkeley trip update), writing for another, and other fun things I have stored on my laptop. You know this whole laptop = life mentality? Not very healthy but upsetting when you can't get to your stuff! There was some drama with buying power cords and returning it, etc. but it's all sorted now. I need to order one from laptop co. and all will be well again.

-Finally got the external hard drive full of the old desktop's stuff to work, and omg I found some old writing and things. It was kind of hilarious and painful all at once. LUCE, I found AMAZING fanfic you wrote for Alz, and I do mean AMAZING. I LOLed.

-Saw Star Trek w/Catherine. If you haven't seen it and don't know which actiony/geeky/sci-fi/fantasy-ish thing to see, GO SEE THIS. I'm not even remotely a Trekkie (er, Trekker?), but I really enjoyed it. Really fun, entertaining, and funny. Karl Urban <3, so funny. It's also funnier if you can't help but see Zachary Quinto as Sylar (this was Catherine's problem) because then there are moments where Spock looks like he's going to cut heads open w/his crazy Sylar powers, and that's kind of awesome? Plus, Chris Pine & John Cho are Cal alum, so Go Bears!

I'll be watching Angels & Demons this week because it's supposed to be better than the Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks' hair is no longer GOD-AWFUL, and MOSTLY because Ewan McGregor.

-Also, the Promenade at the mall is open. It's rather nice, prettily designed, but overall, kind of "meh." Not much going on over there, so was unimpressed. There IS parking on that side though for those of you who were wondering. It's a parking structure like underneath the shops.

-Jury Duty! D: Got that over with today because I actually got CALLED IN (to downtown LA no less) and on my DAY OFF (had work yesterday and will have work tomorrow), but luckily, I didn't get put on a panel AND we were dismissed at the early time of 3:30pm. Amazing! The Universe decided to give me a respite, though, of course, my name was the last one called for dismissal. Oh and I got a rather nice mechanical pencil because it happens to be Juror Appreciation Week. What do you know?

Oh and for the record, it really is as boring as everyone says it is, though at least nowadays there's WiFi. Besides that, I read and tried not to fall asleep or stare at the clock too much. gennia helped because she spirited me away to J-Town for lunch. Thanks!

And that's all for now! What movies are you looking forward to seeing this summer?