Nyanko's Basket

I haven't posted in a while, because I have been way too busy with work and other things, but here's a quick update:

- meerkat is coming on Friday for the weekend!! This makes me *very* happy and I've been planning things for both of us to do over the weekend! (as well as frantically cleaning up my place)
- wao is coming in December for a month! This is great news because I haven't seen her since February and she's been very envious of Belle and my general cat-ownershipness.
- Speaking of Belle, she's going to be getting a big sister tomorrow! I am adopting Lillian from the King County animal shelter in Bellevue (near the post office!) and bringing her back home tomorrow. It'll be fun getting both of them used to each other's presence!
- I bought an 8GB Zune on Monday. It's a nice blue color and I really love it! The interface is definitely much improved from the first and second-generation models.

I also have a lot of photographs to post, but I am just going to be lazy and link you to the Flickr sets individually.

( Cherry Blossom Festival )

( Sheep and Tulips )

( Woodland Park Zoo )

( Fanimecon 2008 )

( Seattle Mariners baseball game )

( Hypericon 2008 )

( The Grand Canyon and Arizona )

( HeroCon 2008 and the San Jose Sharks )

A brief rundown of what I've been up to over the past few weeks, in no particular order:

- Saw Ahmed Jamal perform at Jazz Alley live, which was definitely worth the money (though maybe next time I should try and go with someone :P)
- Attended the CoX meet & greet at PAX, where I met naeko and wolfieboy, among other people
- Drove up and down between my apartment and the Seattle Convention Center several times over the PAX weekend
- Actually went to the second day of PAX and sat in on the NCSoft panel, as well as randomly wandering around the exhibit hall and getting a sneak peek at Gears of War 2 as well as Lode Runner for XBLA (!!!)
- Went for the opening night of the Seattle Symphony's 2008/2009 season at meerkat's suggestion. It was totally worth it! Also, I loved the impromptu rendition of "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" both singers performed as the last item, as well as Aaron Copland's "Simple Gifts" and "I Bought Me A Cat". It is too awesome to describe in a single post, so I'll just have to leave it at that. :D
- I helped itsacz move from one blob to another, and helped another friend pack up his belongings as he prepared to return to Singapore for good. While it was a lot of work and my arms are still a little sore, I feel good at being able to help, and got some things out of the bargain, too.

I still have about 6 months' worth of photos to post, but that'll have to wait until I'm at home.

I've never been to one before ^^;;; But a friend of mine who lives near San Francisco, and who I've known for about 4 years, mentioned it to me a few weeks ago, and I didn't think twice before going. Yes, I know it's New Year this Sunday, but frankly no one booked my time with anything, and it's not like I can't meet up with them any other time. I'll be having dinner with her and a friend of hers on Friday night, and then take the BART (also for the first time!) to testing4l's place, where I'll be staying the weekend and doing other things in the night. I'm planning on visiting the festival on Saturday during the day, and depending on how things go we may go again on Sunday.

Another side effect is that it'll give me a chance to take some time off from work. Since I'm planning for a somewhat long vacation (about 18 days or so) in December, I'm saving up all my vacation time from now on towards that. This means that I'll only be able to take time off during the weekends or public holidays, and probably not too far (though I may go to Virginia again to meet cheyannew and say hello to her kids).

Also, I'll get to wish gemlikeflame a happy birthday in advance and hang out with her! :D

I had a short stay in Singapore, and didn't manage to get some things done that I wanted to, but overall it was really enjoyable. ^_^

Touch 2008 was really good and by itself was definitely worth coming for. But equally important was meeting up with friends and relatives, and having a good time.

Though I was shocked to find out that the piano at home is pretty much a gone case now. T_T But maybe I'll buy a piano in the US...

I'm landing in the US on Monday morning (March 3rd), and will be going back to work the day after.

Off I go to the gate now~

Started posting this from Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport in Ohio (though what's international about it, I don't really know...) and continuing from Grand Rapids, MI, and then eventually at my cousin's house. What a long post. ^^;;

( Skiing at Whistler Blackcomb )

I came back from Whistler pretty thrilled about it, especially since I had a lot of delicious hot chocolate with whipped cream. ^^ Things were pretty quiet both at work and in terms of social life, although it did snow quite a lot on December 1st, to the point that it was a winter wonderland:

( Ooh, pretty snow~! )

I went to San Jose for a work weekend, and met testing4l, gemlikeflame, relsqui and zigdon there and much fun was had over Fluxx and Mongolian BBQ. Though I must say relsqui and testing4l are pretty good at changing the rules to suit themselves. ;)

One of my friends was going back to Singapore the following weekend, so we organized a trip to a gun range for her, since she wouldn't be able to do that in Singapore. And so it was that I fired a weapon for the first time (since I never did in NS), even if it was a 9mm pistol:

( At the gun range )

Snow and Shooting

I left for Michigan last night to spend a few days with my cousin, and so here I am. :)

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

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

...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~

Today's commute to and from work, based upon the readings from my bicycle's trip computer (times don't include waiting)...

To: 1.33 miles (2.14 km) in 8 min 42 sec at an average speed of 9.2 mph (14.8 kph), max speed of 15.6 mph (25.1 kph)
From: 1.6 miles (2.57 km) in 6 min 28 sec at an average speed of 15.1 mph (24.3 kph), max speed of 77.2 mph (124.2 kph)

...

Something is seriously wrong there. XD

In other news, I went shopping crazy today (buying an XBox 360, some games, a mousepad with 4 USB 2.0 ports and various software for myself from the company store), picked up my keyboard bag, had pho for dinner with itsacz at a nice Vietnamese restaurant that wasn't too expensive and was in the neighbourhood, Got some Things Done (not in the email sense, but in terms of work), and generally had a good day.

Oh, and I signed up for a free basic Korean class at work, which aims to introduce Korean culture, traditions and basic spoken language. They also have intermediate and advanced classes which cover areas like reading and writing (for the advanced class, I think the goal is to be able to read a Korean newspaper?), but.. yeah ^^;;; I hope I can get in, though, because places are limited...

And I'm very happy that a certain package got where it was supposed to, and glad that the person who got it felt better. ^_^

Weather when I set out yesterday: 43 F (feels like 36 F)

I had a great cycling experience (at one point, I was doing about 15 mph) until I met the first hill on NE Inglewood Hill Rd. That hill was a 12% grade -- which I didn't know before trying -- and it was way too steep for me to manage to cycle up more than a few feet without my legs aching severely, so I had to wheel my bicycle up the hill. ^^;;;; There were several more hills that were also pretty steep, but after the roundabout I was gradually able to get back onto the bicycle and cycle to my destination. My ride there took almost 2 hours, both because of the hill and also because I forgot something twice and had to cycle back to get it, which added about another 5-10 minutes of delay each time.

I still can't believe I cycled almost 9 miles each way, and didn't die anywhere on the way (which would've resulted in me having to find a bus or taxi, or hitchhike). ^^;;;;

I had a lot of fun at itsacz's house (even if I kept dying or getting both of us killed :P) and I was sorry to leave. ^^;;;

The ride back was fun because I went down Inglewood Hill Rd in almost total blackness, except for my bicycle lights and the occasional car behind me. The situation was pretty much the same on the road I turned into from there, although it was slightly better because there were more vehicles and headlights. They should build more overhead lights more often...

I stopped on the way at a Subway to buy some dinner, then cycled back through Marymoor Park. There were almost no lights, and very few other cars, so it was a very quiet, somewhat winding and flat stretch. I was glad for the peace and quiet because I could just cycle and feel my legs push me forward without having to concentrate too much on the road ahead (I did have to concentrate just enough to make sure I didn't cycle into the sidewalk or into Lake Sammamish, obviously :P It would have been quite the story for a basket (of cats or otherwise) to fall into the lake, especially if it wasn't drunk)

After that, it was smooth cycling for about 0.3 miles until I hit the next uphill stretch (the start of the Bellevue-Redmond Road and then the turn into NE 40th Street). This one wasn't so steep, but it seemed to take forever, and my legs were beginning to cramp so much that I gave up cycling and walked up about 95% of the hill, with minor pauses for me to try and cycle and pant heavily (and fail). :P I definitely need to go to the gym stat

I got home around 7:40 pm, about an hour and a half 45 minutes after I left, and was quite tired. ^^;; I felt really great, though. :)

Today was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that I cycled back home in a mild drizzle and consequently went much faster than I wanted to (around 20 mph in some places, I think). There was a scary part when I was turning out of campus where I nearly skidded while making a left turn, but other than that I was okay and fortunately nothing happened. :) There was also some frustration at work, but I won't talk about that here...

And finally, some random links. :P

Open Source (May not be funny if you don't understand)
Total CRACK (in Spanish). I think nakaemi might find this doubly hilarious. :P
High Pi I hope they really don't have a phobia about llamas...
Magnificent Steinway B Grand Piano, 6'10.5" mint - $49000 I so want to buy this. Pity I won't have anywhere to put it or the money...
Nerdy in Seattle (or, what happens when geeks meet broken coffee machine)