Nyanko's Basket

On my way home last night, I saw an accident very near the building I work in. I don't know exactly what happened, but there was an ambulance, 4 police cars, and a cyclist who was being loaded onto a stretcher. His bicycle was on the sidewalk though and there was a SUV also stopped at the scene. I hope the cyclist is alright...

But in happier news, I went out with some of the other Singaporeans (and non-S'poreans too) and we had a really awesome dinner at I Love Sushi followed by a few hours of pool at Garage in downtown Seattle.

And yes, I did eat sushi too in addition to the chicken teriyaki I had together with a delicious mudpie. :D

unfortunately

I've been really busy with work, though, to the extent of working over the weekends and not having much free time for anything, or not feeling like doing anything, when I get back home.

So the Boston/New York pictures will probably have to wait a while longer to be posted. Sorry.

I'm finally leaving on my first vacation in about.. 2 months, though it seems more like 4 at this point. ^^;;

I'm also really looking forward to the time off because it'll let me recharge, and I get to go to a new place that I've never been to before. Hopefully certain other events will occur, too. XD

In other news, I've started playing City of Heroes and I have to say that it's one of the best MMORPGs I've seen (I've seen World of Warcraft and Guild Wars, though I haven't actually played either), mostly because of its story line. Who can resist being a hero? :P

In other news, I'm really excited about the plans for Windows Vista SP1 that Microsoft announced yesterday. It's going to be a really significant update to Vista and has a lot of cool new features in it. ^_^ Of course, I'm biased since I work on part of it, but let's ignore that

And for people using Windows XP, SP3 will finally be coming out around the same time as well. It's essentially a rollup of all the current updates and shouldn't include anything new, based on what I've read.

And there's my token work-related item in this post, and that's about it~

*goes back to packing*

PS: I think one or two people will definitely get the "Cow Cow" reference XD

A rough list of things that happened over the last few weeks, not in any particular order:

I got a lot of anime DVDs and manga volumes, including Fruits Basket (both anime and manga up to volume 16), Lupin III, Ghost in the Shell (the movie, SAC, SAC 2 and SSS), Lain, Paranoia Agent, Last Exile, Haibane Renmei, Bottle Fairy, volume 1 of Princess Tutu (a special request I made to huegcaet), Nazca and a lot of other series that I can't remember

I found two friends at work to play piano duets with! ^_^ And I'm playing with one of this Thursday, which I hope will go well

I organized a Korean movie screening at my apartment tonight, since we couldn't really go to Imo's for dinner and my apartment is also very close to everyone's offices, and it was about 3 hours of non-stop fun together with eating a yummy take-out dinner from the nearby Paldo World. "I'm a Cyborg, but it's OK" is a movie that does a lot to improve your Korean vocabulary, and it's also really interesting how it can actually tackle the social issue of mental illnesses in a very matter-of-fact way. ^^;;

I've also been working out at the gym and I noticed that I was able to lift 15 pounds more for the lats pulldown, as well as increasing weights on some of the other exercises in my workout routine, though the shoulder complex is still the hardest/most painful one right now. ^^;; I also lost 6 pounds when I checked on Monday, which is probably a good thing

( The evidence )

HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT NUMBER 220.52 THERE NOW~ [Edit: I did the whole cycling business, including detours but not including stops, in 19 hours, 36 minutes and 9 seconds - too slow for the one-day STP though]

It was an awesome two days of cycling, even though my legs actually got so painful during the last 25 miles that I just couldn't stop cycling. ^^;; I also don't particularly want to see a bridge, a railroad crossing or a hill for the next few days. :P

Some of the highlights:

- I slept in a church on Saturday night! Unfortunately, due to a mixup, my sleeping bag went straight to Portland, so I slept for about 2 hours on the floor and then wandered over to a couch where I fell fast asleep even while people were moving around and talking. ^^;; But at least it proves that thanks to my NS training I can sleep anywhere XD

- There are towns with interesting names in Washington, such as Winlock, Roy, Castle Rock (which has no castles or rocks), Yelm, Spanaway, Centralia, Tenino, Chehalis and the town that wins the award for the most unique name I've ever heard of, Vader. Yes, you heard that right. No, I don't know whether it has any relation/connection to Darth Vader or Star Wars.

- Cycling across the Lewis & Clark bridge into Oregon was a really cool experience. The Gold Wing escorts, as well as police, stopped traffic completely on one lane just to let us go over the bridge, and it was a long climb up followed by a fast downhill over expansion joints and then a ramp onto Highway 30 in Oregon. I think I did about 26-27 mph on my bicycle. ^^;

- Surprisingly enough, my bicycle didn't give any major mechanical problems at all during the whole race (apart from an issue involving my saddlebag, my helmet and my brakes). I feel bad for the people who had mechanical problems though. One guy apparently had 3 flat tires on the first day and a fourth one just 15 miles from the finish line. :( And, of course, there was a pretty serious accident, although I think I missed it completely...

- I have a nice tan starting from just above my knees down my legs, which I blame on wearing cycling shorts. >_> No, I won't post pictures of the tan. :P

- There were a lot of very helpful volunteers, including quite a few 8-year old girls selling lemonade on the way. I also think I bought at least 6 or 7 bottles of Gatorade and related things to get me through some of the hills, including THE HILL (tm) - which is a 1 mile climb, and I'm proud to say that I made it up that hill without walking. :)

- The youngest cyclist was 6 years old and he was riding his own bicycle. I have no idea how old the oldest participant was, but I did see several people in their 50s and 60s.

- I saw quite a few cows, horses and other livestock, and some very lovely countryside and farms. I didn't see any Cows though. :P

If When I do STP next year, though, I'm definitely getting a road bike at least 6 months in advance~

I have just two words to describe: simply awesome

Definitely worth the $9.75 for the ticket admission price, and the opening-night audience was very much into the spirit of the movie too, applauding and laughing at the appropriate moments.

Dinner with some new friends from work was also really good, although I think it's going to take me a bit of getting used to having dinner in a bar where they card you upon entry, even if you're not ordering anything alcoholic. :P

( Read more... )

And since I have a paid account, what better way than to be silly with a poll?

[Poll #1012796]

I was coming into work this morning from NE 40th St (and then a right onto 156th and then into the main campus through 36th) doing about 12-13 mph because it was raining and the pavement road was wet. There was one driver in particular who was apparently so annoyed at my cycling that she got out of her car at the traffic light (while both of us were in the left-turning lane) and told me to either get a car or get off the road.

I suppose this is to be expected, but I thought someone working at Microsoft, of all places, would be more tolerant of cyclists, especially on a rainy day. It was also darkly humorous that if I took that person's suggestion of getting off the road, I'd have to either cross 3 lanes to get to the sidewalk on the right-hand side of the road or go across 2 lanes of oncoming traffic (!!!) to get to the sidewalk on that side.

Some people... *rolls eyes*

I got a new phone (a Treo 750) from Cingular the new AT&T, and it came with a new number too as well as a voice and data plan. No more prepaid cards for a while! ^^;;

If you'd like to get my new number, feel free to leave a comment (comments are screened) with some way of contacting you if I don't already have/know that.

...except this time it's actually almost my birthday. o_o

I 've been up for 17 hours today and I don't feel sleepy. ^^;;; This can probably be explained by drinking tea, lots of sweet drinks, a bottle of stout in the morning, energy and determination in finding bugs at work and getting lots of work done today (which I came back from at 9:30 pm >_>), playing MvC 2 against someone at work and actually managing to win only once, and just possibly, the fact that I'm one year older and alive and having things to look forward to. ^^;

I'm really grateful to all my friends and family who got me a lot of birthday presents, including some things I never expected. ^^;;;;

In no particular order, I'd really like to thank these people for their presents that really mean a lot to me~ (this list will be updated, too, so please don't feel left out if you're not on it yet):

• red Blue blob and Yuu


• grue Cow and Espada


• a The mpitten


• A dessert pudding


• A warm, fuzzy, furry creature that can spit and is very beautiful :)

I'd also like to thank everyone who wished me online, either via messages or /kill (you know who you are ^^;;; ).

I really hope the year ahead will be better, and I'm really looking forward to it! I hope everyone else will have a good year ahead too, especially several of my close friends for whom things are somewhat rough right now.

In other news, I AM GOING TO START DRIVING LESSONS ON FRIDAY RAWR <_< This means I will be able to get CAT soon, hopefully~

The piece I'm listening to is from a 6-CD box set titled "Piano Fantasy: Music for Two Pianos" and is completely awesome~ Thank you so much to the friends who bought it for me~