Chicken Ball Tasting Spring Roll

Originally, the plan was that Richard and I would take a new local tourist around town, introducing her to Pike's Place and of course, the Spaces Age Washroom. But as luck would have it, I was busy this Sunday afternoon, so I only had dim sum with the bunch.

At dim sum, so I ordered some beef balls, and turns out the restaurant ran out of 'kit chup'. A chinese restaurant without 'kit chup', I found that pretty funny. So to substitute for it, hey gave us sweet and sour sauce for the beef balls. Richard and I tried it and concluded that it tastes like fried chicken balls! I wonder what it would taste like w/ red vinegar.

Company Picnic and Batman

Wow.. can't believe its been a year+ since I've been here. So set to make all traditions repeat, I went to the company picnic and took the same pictures. Got my fortune told again and had my free wine. But this year just didn't seem as exciting as last year - everything was the same and there was not much differences at all. Even the fortune tellers were the same people.

After the picnic,went for afternoon K (no booze though :( ), and heard these amazing ppl sing. Wow! They were all pretty good. Can't belive that by the end of it all, 11+ pages of songs would have been sung.

Had dinner at this Japanese restaurant, then went to watch Batman at IMAX ... at midnight! It was well worth staying out this late to watch this movie. Soo tired, but sooo good!

Fire Alarm Master

Randomly, the fire alarm at my places starts beeping periodically. At first I thought I forgot to turn off the stove or something, but then WAIT. This isn't res where fire alarms go off if you have a steamy shower!

So after some investigation, realized that the battery was running low, so I unhooked them from my place, then drained the juice from the fire alarms so they'd stop beeping... wuhahaha.

Guess all those years in res paid off!

Fire Alarm Master out.

Nice Relaxing Night

Ever since returning from Vegas, I have decided that I would not try to hold myself back anymore trying to simulate the whole work-life-school balance thing in preparation for my next life exercise. So with that, I have decided to just go with work-life balance first, and throw in school when the times come. If anything, these past common months of simulating the work-life-school balance has been successful anyway, so I think contrary to what alot of people think, I think it is pretty possible to do.

So been working crazily these days - not quite sure how I signed myself up for this amount of work that... but oh well, numbers on paper are just numbers. And I think this beats just sitting around twiddling my fingers away. But work hard... means I should also play hard ;P

Wanting to unwind and relax a little, tried out this new Japanese food place w/ fellow CS Buddy called Wann, and it was a very good recommendation indeed! The place was perfect for a long week of work, and the best part was that the food didn't come all together, but one at a time - not the slow kind but it was the type where you finish one, they clear plates and next one came right away - so it was just pretty relaxing all around. The only slight negative was that it took them half an hour to close the tab for us... (that took a lil bit out of the relaxing atmosphere because we were getting agitated having to wait for the bill for so long!)

After that, went to IMO again, and dadadada girl was there. Didn't get to talk to her much though since shes working, but her hair seems different :(. It was a bit messy instead of the pure anime style hair... heh heh heh. Maybe next time I will just sit her down and talk... hahaha!

Pretty relaxing night overall though indeeed!

Oysters!!! Reunited after months...

With Vegas adventure done and over with, it was back to work. Been working longer hours these days for various reasons, and so around happy hour time, saw fellow original CS buddy online at work and found out she didn't have dinner yet either. So the logical question? Let's go for oysters!

It's been a VERY VERY long time since I've had oysters... It must have been a couple months easily. So it was great to have them again. They are sooo good!

So I was asked again what I wanted and what success was to me recently... So I decided to ask original CS buddy what she thought of this topic. Her response was something pretty simple, but different and almost seemed to me like it was coming from left field... but it was so logical that I am not sure why I haven't integrated this into 'my' definition of success...

So her answer to What is Success: Summarized to the part that rang a chord in me... Am I happy? If I am, then yes, if not, then no matter how much recognition, or overcoming challenges or what not I get, I am not. So simple, yet so profound... So what is the stuff of my happiness? Maybe once I answer that, I can truly be on the path to success... or maybe, my effort is misplaced and what I am doing right now is actually steering me away from success. Hrmm...

Oysters and meaningful convos.. what more can I ask for :)

Vegggas III: Part IV: Downtime

Going straight to the airport after a sleepless night, I was sooo tired and sleepy. I wonder if this counts as lor lei chin... hahaha... but then again, this is something I would never get to do in S.dot since nothing will be open that late... Flopping around on the plane and airport like a fish (sort of when I took the flight to Egypt for grad trip), I realized how uncomfortable the chairs are in the terminal and plane!

At the LV airport, turns out there are lots of people like me who go straight to the airport. Saw quite a few tired faces and drunk people nudging themselves through security and into the gates. What I don't get though is why there would be little kids around (and awake) for these flights. I swear I saw quite a few.. but then, I don't remember all too well.. since I was pretty tired myself.

Getting back to the northwest, it was officially Vegas weekend downtime... sooo tired... took a nap and so ends Vegggas Numero III.

Vegggas III: Part III: Last Day/Night in Vegas

After waking up at 4pm... then went downstairs to gamble a bit more... (I swear I must have gambled more these past 3 days than I have for my entire life!).

Black Jack again, and doubled my chip count :). Waited for the guys to get back after their shopping spree, then rendezvoused with them back in the hotel room. Ate dinner, then I almost went inside LAX again for some clubbing (supposedly Pamela Anderson was going to be there tonight)... but we had to wait half an hour to get in, and that really made me lose any omfph to go into the club (especially when I have to pay cover and pay for drinks)... haha. yes I am cheap I guess (but when I can sit at tables and get drinks for free... it was like.. meh.. might as well just gamble).

So instead of going into the club, I decided to just gamble... (and no, I am not addicted to gambling... I had set a preset threshold for me to lose before stopping, but I was very lucky this time that I just never hit it :) ). So played some Black Jack, luckily won some money again, and so got slightly bored of it - been playing it for 3 straight days now. So I decided to walk around and learn yet another game.

Seeing Baccarat, I watched for a bit and it seemed just like a high class version of Casino War. Instead of 1 card, you get 3, and there are 7 decks. So watching a little bit, I decided to might as well sit down and play. It was a pretty risky game since each bet was $25. Swung up and down greatly... I ranged from having $75 all the way to $500+!!! The people at the table were craaazzy.. all betting with the green ($25) and black chips ($100)!! With my little bets of $25 and $5 and $1s, it was a bit different, but then meh, it was fun nevertheless. Highlights was that I betted 3 times the ever fun 'all or nothing' bet, and came out winning! The first time I did it (even though it was a small amount relative to the others on the table), it was a big bet for me... so it was REALLY fun. And since I won the first time I did this, the second time I went all in, you literally saw the table stacked with black and green chips from the other players... so much trust in me :). And well, the third time I did it, ya.. they were very happy both times.

So gambled here for I think 3 or 4 hours easily... towards the end, everybody lost everything we've worked so hard for :(.. except me :D. If only I stopped half an hour earlier, I would have been up another round trip plane ticket... haha... Too bad my flight was at 6am, so it didn't really make sense for me to stop at 3am and walk around for half an hour doing nothing... if only my flight was earlier...

Vegggas III: Part II: Casino War!

Waking up bright and early at 11ish. Went for a lunch and then gambled again... This time is this game called Pao Gao. Not too exciting of a game, but did get to just sit and get free bottles of water...

Dinner was the buffet at Bellagio. With all the good things I heard about it, I was actually slighlty disappointed. There were no oysters, and it was just really crab legs and such. I think I actually prefer the one at Rio or the one at Planet Hollywood. The food was decent, the service was ok, but not really hyped up to what it was suppose to be...

After dinner we then went to Caesar's to go to the club. This club I've already been to before so it wasn't too too exciting. But it was still pretty good seeing I haven't been going to places like these for so long! It was a nice change of pace than the life in the northwest!

After Pure, we went to a few places, then ended up back at Caesar's and started to gamble more. Haha... Lost Law's bro in the midst of it as we went to the cheaper casino so I could go play Casino War!!!

Best game ever. Especially when you are tipsy. Spent quite alot of time there and the pit boss even came to know me. Not to mention the dealer. Was betting for the dealer and all, and he was cheering for me to win each time. Easily the rowdiest again... from 4am to 7am in the morning... haha. When you sit there for that long, even if you only gamble $5 a hand, you get served drinks right away :).

Anyway.. headed back to Luxor at 9am... and called it another day. I think by the time I got back, the other guys were just waking up. They went on the scenic tour of Vegas and some crazy shopping, while I got visited by the cleaning lady 3 times (since I woke up at 4pm).

So ends another day/night in Vegas...

Vegggas III: Part I: First Night

So afternoon I hopped onto a plane. And a couple hours later, I was there... again.. haha.. 3 times in the past year.

The booze and club adventure... first night went had a quick shot of Black Label and then went for a quick bite, followed by landing ourselves at LAX. Luckiliy, since we were staying there, we got free cover. Nothing much really exciting there, but it was fun drinking and all.

Came back out and then gambled till 6am playing Black Jack... haha. There were these people who came and went, but basically, there were 3 of us at the table for the entire night... The 3 of us just kept playing and the best part was, all of us came out winning! Everytime we win, we would say Aruuuuba! (I think this meant something like great or something in Portugese... inspired by the Portguese sitting next to me... so we kept saying that everytime we won... lol).. I think we were easily the rowdiest table at 4am in the morning!

So at 6am, decided to call it a night and go sleep... Zzzzzzz....