Episode 9: Twitter at the altar?

I read this morning on Yahoo Odd News that someone interrupted his wedding to Tweet that he just got married hahaha.

Groom creates viral storm twittering from altar:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Maryland groom has created an viral story storm after he interrupted his wedding last month to update his Facebook and Twitter accounts from the altar.
Dana Hanna, who works for a pet website, also posted a short video of the ceremony on the Internet. It showed him reaching into his pocket for his phone as the minister was about to pronounce the couple husband and wife.
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For the full article (must read, it tells you what his Tweet was!), go here: Twitter interruption.
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I'm really new to this whole Twitter thing (literally, maybe a week only), and while I acknowledge that it IS pretty addicting... wow. Even I have a limit to my geekiness. (Yes, I say that even though I took the picture of me so that you can see my Bleach anime calendar at my work cubicle.)

Romeo better not pull out his iPhone at the altar next March because if he does, I'm going to laugh so hard that I'll start crying and then it'll ruin whatever makeup I have on and he'll look like he's marrying a clown lookin' chick (nobody wants a clown for a wife. They're scary!). And then my family will disown him before we're even married! Traditional Asian parents FTW.

My friend Hollen suggested streaming a video of my wedding live over the internet for those who can't make it. Not entirely sure what I think of that. It could be pretty cool, and then it could be pretty ... embarrasing. Blackmail material :O Who knows what crazy shenanigans will happen that can't get edited out before the world sees it? :)

I know I say I want to be famous one day, but I'd prefer it to be for something a little more worthwhile... say, saving the world for example. Ah well, we'll see what happens. Can't have it all I guess :D

Infomercial: New phone follow up

Got my replacement Blackberry 8330 Curve today. I was excited... until I opened the box. I was hoping they'd give me the pink one again, but alas, I got a boring refurbished gray one. Well, ok, that's not too bad. It looks new enough so I went to go turn that baby on. And then it didn't do anything. Apparently, refurbs don't come with battery packs either.

Well... So I get my old battery pack and put it in the new BB. So far so good. I don't do anything to the new one because the plan is to take it to the Verizon store so they can transfer the data for me. At least it's got the new OS on it. I couldn't even upgrade my old BB to the new OS, it kept failing.

Romeo and I get to the Verizon store and the employee proceeds to transfer the data over. I get both phones back and I look at the new one - it's got the contacts so I think ok cool, everything went through ok.

Then I get home and notice my emails didn't transfer over... and then I can't find the app that allows me to add/change email addresses. Dude. It's just not looking good. I find the Email Setup in the Setup Wizard... and lo and behold, the only options are:

 

1) Connect to a Blackberry Enterprise Server email address (for businesses) or 

2) Skip this step.

WHAT. THE. HELL.  

(Actually, hell wasn't quite the word I had in mind, but I thought I'd keep it friendly).

I go back to Verizon and the guy who attempts to help me doesn't know squat about BB's but his coworker finally helps and explains it to him super fast in Spanish and sets it up so that I have my Email Setup app now. It still remembers my email addresses at the least. Not a bad sign. So I go play with the Motorola Droid for a few minutes (not too shabby actually) and then head home.

So the fun part begins, I get to start installing the apps that didn't transfer over. You know, the all important AOL Instant Messenger, Facebook, Twitter...  I start with AIM and after it downloads and is in the process of installing, my BB reboots itself. Magically. For no apparent reason. Oookay. It reboots and then I go to install AIM again and it works this time.  I get through UberTwitter just fine and think, ok that reboot was a fluke. Right?

Then I realize the BB Messenger that is preinstalled is the older version, so I go into the App World to download the newest version (you know, with those fancy Group Barcodes), and lo and behold, after it downloads and is in the process of THINKING for a good 2 minutes about installing, IT REBOOTS ITSELF AGAIN.

And here I am ... waiting for this stupid install as I blog/rant about it.

BlackBerry 8330 Curve:

Seriously, new OS or not, NOT impressed.

Commercial: Tweeting and a new phone!

So I finally got on Twitter because I wanted to enter a Tokidoki contest, and now I'm completely addicted! To top it off, it also finally got me to go to the Verizon store and complain about my darned Blackberry Curve 8330.

I really wanted to get my Tweets on time and not have applications freeze up on me, but also, it would be nice if I could play audio and watch YouTube videos on my smart phone. After all, I paid good money for it right?  So I finally go in and they say that since I've got my insurance and I've never exchanged it before, they can send me a new one (or maybe refurbished, who knows) for free. When I receive the new one, I'm supposed to take it into the store so they can transfer the information over and then I can send my old one back.

This is good news because while I was at the store for 30 minutes waiting my turn, I noticed that the 8330 they had as a demo had a different *better* looking operating system than mine. Then I remembered that my buddy Trey at work tried to update my OS twice and both times it failed due to some unknown error. So now the new phone will have the updated OS at least, which will somewhat satisfy my itch for a new phone. AND I still get to upgrade mid next year, just as my normal upgrade schedule says.

Cliff notes: Twitter good. Old blackberry curve 8330 bad. New replacement phone good. Verizon + iPhone in the new future = SUPER GOOD. Please let it happen soon!

Episode 8: Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am thankful that you are all a part of my life. I am who I am today and have made it this far because of all of you, so thank you!! 

I am thankful for all my friends and family, and above all....

Simba!

Tenyo's Hiccups...

Life is so hard...

Episode 7: New Me

Well, this is what the new haircut/color looks like sans professional styling. I still get some crazy cow licky things that just won't listen. But then again.... I was half awake trying to do my hair at 5:30am this morning.

So for those that don't know,  in keeping with my search for myself, I went ahead and asked to be a guinea pig for one of the beauty salons in downtown San Diego (SACO Salon) since they were holding an annual class for their stylists. I don't know, maybe a completely new haircut would help me find myself. Who knows. It's free anyway, so it's ok right?

Day 1 was Nov 16, I got my hair cut. It turned out shorter than I imaged, and it took a WHOLE lot longer than my butt could stand, but I do like it. I've never had a "high end" haircut where the stylist is really looking at face shape, etc to see what hairstyle fits best. My stylist Gino was actually from San Fran, but studied at UCSD a while ago too. Very meticulous and very much a perfectionist, which is definitely appreciated, but a 4 hour haircut was hard to sit through. The great news was that the instructor was admiring his work.

Day 2 was yesterday, Nov 17. Yesterday was the color session. I went in and talked to the stylist. This time it was Katie, and I told her that I saw one of the other stylists had black and purple in her hair and I thought it was pretty slick lookin'. She looked like she acknowledged my comments and then went about thinking of how to put the colors on my haircut. The instructor comes by and after Katie tells her the thoughts, the instructor said, "Well the first problem I have with what you said ..." ... Wow, am I glad the instructor was there. That's never a good first line haha.

Anyway, Katy mixed her colors, put them on the way the instructor recommended, and I asked... so what colors am I getting again?  (Just to make sure of course)... and she replied with red and violet, and something pretty much black. I thought, ok, well at least violet is in there, that's a good sign. Then she proceeded to say she was going to put me under the heater for 20 minutes so that the red really pops.   ... Uh, seriously?  She compared it to red wine. "It's like red wine"  I thought red wine was ... red?  Or am I missing something?

Today's the first full day with a new haircut and color. I'm not sure I feel too different from before. If anything, I just get colder more easily since I no longer have 5 lbs of hair covering my neck. As far as finding myself... I guess the search continues. My lesson learned this time: I'd rather pay $50 for a normal timed haircut than sit through 4 hours of a free one and it's just much easier to keep your natural color.

Episode 6: Zen Rock Garden

This morning when I got into work and went to get my hot water for my tea, I saw somebody had put up a Zen rock garden for adoption. I'd always thought about getting one, but was too cheap to spend $20 on some rocks and sand, so I thought this was perfect and adopted it.

After settling in with my tea, I sat down and read the little booklet on the history behind Zen rock gardens. Apparently I'm supposed to be able to look at it, contemplate things and somehow find myself. The stark contrast between the white sand and the dark rocks are supposed to kind of jolt you and entice you to reach within for a deeper emotion or response.

So now I'm sitting here, about 6 hours later, looking at the gardening I did on it this morning, and I'm realizing that I'm a perfectionist haha. Throughout the day I've been looking at it and fighting the itch to completely re-do the gardening/raking because the circle I made around my rock touches the wavy rakes I did in a funky location.

If I redo it, the circle and wave would not touch, instead they would complement each other's lines... It's actually really starting to bug me haha.

I guess the Zen rock garden really does work. I've re-learned somethign about myself. I knew I was a perfectionist already, but this is pretty bad after all :)

Episode 5: Introducing Nehemiah Tenyo Li

I am now a proud auntie! My brother's son was born November 3rd, 2009 at 8:43am. Nehemiah Tenyo Li is 6 lb 7 oz and 18 1/2 inches long.

Franklin and Tara picked the name Nehemiah from the Old Testament. It means God comforts. My dad picked his middle name, Tenyo. "Ten" (天) means God, and "Yo" (佑) means blesses, so his middle name means God blesses.

He's also got wavy hair (for now) and some super potent farts. Enough to vibrate my arm haha. (That's exactly when I gave him back to my brother). Either way though, he's adorable. Here are some more pictures :)  Congratulations Franklin and Tara!!

Commercial: Untitled Poem 2 - October 2009

it all started with a phone call
never met you in person
but somehow we got along
and talked for hours into the night
when we met face to face
the chemistry left me impressed
though at first you hesitated
to all your friends i was still a friend
but when age became just a number
i felt something slowly change
you finally accepted me
but your past hurts kept your walls high
and though i noticed
i hadn't tried too hard to understand why
years later, we've worked past disagreements
we've managed to lower our walls
and though it's in no way perfect
life's struggles are now worth it
you make me try to be a better me
so don't forget, without you there's no me

Commercial: Untitled Poem 1 - October 2009

you are the one thing that stays

through all my fickle ways

even if sometimes we don't see eye to eye

there's no other person i'd rather have

walking with me, through this thing called life

because with you,

i feel like i'm soaring through the sky

i know it's not always easy

and in my childish ways

sometimes all i see is me

but still you stick around

with your arms reaching towards me

until i grab on and you lift me up high

you've taught me to walk

you've taught me to run, jump and fly

i may not know where i'm headed

but as long as you're there for the ride

that's all that really matters to me

Episode 4: Wedding Thoughts

4 3/4" heels. Catch me please! Why do women wear killer heels just to look good? I ordered these online on Tuesday, so when they come in, I'll need to get some practice walking in them so that I don't completely make a fool of myself during my ceremony walking in these :)  They're gorgeous shoes, but as soon as the pictures are over and the ceremony starts, I'll be slipping into these other shoes:

These are just under 3", so I shouldn't have any problems with falling at the reception. Well, the shoes won't be the problem at least. And now I can get on with altering my wedding gown to the right length.

Weeeee... as much as I love Romeo and all this wedding stuff, I can't wait for it to be over and done with!! Just let me go to our honeymoon. Kauai... Oahu... Disneyland!  Please let it be April 2010 already!

Commercial: All the Small Things...

So much for being good about saving money for the wedding. I spent about $10 yesterday at 7-11 just to get Domo-kun stuff. And by stuff I mean 3 slurpee cups and 1 slurpee straw (which the little Domo in the picture above attaches to).

Here's one of the Domo cups with the slurpee straw:

Sadly enough, I actually made Romeo drive me to two different 7-11's just so I could get all 3 of the cup designs (thank you honey!!). There were more designs for the straws, but I really couldn't justify buying more than one of those. (Not that I can really justify buying ANY of this stuff).

Domo rocks :)

Episode 3: My Obsessions

I'm realizing that all my current obsessions all stem from my anime obession:

1) Twilight:  I watched Twilight and read the books because they reminded me of Vampire Knight

2) Tohoshinki/DBSK:  I started listening to their music because they had a couple of opening/ending songs for One Piece

3) Korean dramas:  I started watching the drama Heading To The Ground because U-Know Yunho from DBSK is in it, then branched out to other dramas

4) Working out:  I started really working on losing weight and toning down/defining muscles because I thought about the rumor I remember hearing that one of the members of DBSK has a size 24 waist. I seriously cannot accept the fact that a GUY has a tinier waist than I do... it's just not fair



So for better or worse.... it all comes down to anime :O

Episode 2: Detours

A friend of mine responded to Episode 1 saying that the "meaning" of life is overrated because "[s]earching for such validation risks missing out on what's before your very eyes."

I agree to some extent actually. It's definitely possible that some people are so intent on finding the meaning of their life that they lose sight of some of the smaller things which can be equaly important. They put on blinders and don't look any other way but forward, so life passes by without them fully enjoying the ride.

On the other hand, I personally feel as if I'm able to appreciate the ride even though I'm trying to go in a certain direction. Let's take my weight loss goal for example. Earlier this year, my weight peaked at 119 pounds. I'm only 4'11", so I felt pretty...round. My coworker approached me about doing a Biggest Loser style competition and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. Having others hold me accountable for working hard towards losing weight and reaching my target weight of 105 was a really motivating factor (ok, so was the money involved - biggest loser gets a money pot at the end of each month but that's besides the point). About 4 months later, I finally hit my target weight and am now working towards toning down and building muscle.

It wasn't easy losing all that weight. My lifestyle has changed but it's not like I've given up everything either. Although I did do some crash diets (Slimfast shakes, Master Cleanse detox) to kick start some of the weight loss, I still ate "bad" food every so often. I'm still a sucker for bread. Pizza still sounds good now and then too. The only difference is that I am actually conscious of the types of food I eat, and work out more when I do eat the bad foods (like the lobster pasta this weekend, pizza two days in a row after that and this yummy looking pastry sitting here waiting to be eaten). Or other times, I feel like it's okay to have soda and cake once in a while, as long as it's in moderation. A healthy balance is key - for everything.

In short, I think the determination to find the meaning of life and the ability to enjoy the ride that quest takes you on aren't mutually exclusive in every case so it's okay to take small detours along the way while you're searching for that "meaning". Life is definitely about enjoying the ride, but that doesn't mean that the destination can't also be something that you want to be meaningful.

Episode 1: More to life than paying bills and eating?

Lately I've been filled with a lot of ambitious feelings, but nowhere to really express them. I seem to go through this phase every so often. It starts off with me being a little anti-social so that I can have time to mope around and think about fluff, then decide that I'm tired of life as it is. Don't worry though, I'm not suicidal :)

Sometimes I think that I've finally figured out what I want to do in life, only to get sidetracked. Kind of reminds me of Dory from Disney's Finding Nemo.  It's almost like a long-term spazziness (apparently that's not a word - the word editor gave me the red dotted line :P).

At one point I thought I had decided that my calling in life was Computer Forensics (think CSI, but the computer version) so I went back to school for a second bachelor's degree, this time in Computer Science. After 2 years, I finished school and found a job doing software support for a financial investment company. I'm definitely thankful that they believed in me enough to hire me on straight out of school with no experience in the IT field, but somehow it's not quite what I had imagined. But of course, I got sidetracked (computer forensics? Maybe someday... I've been sidetracked for about a year and a half now :)). The money is tons better than the last full time job I had pushing papers for auto loans, but I'm getting to the point where money isn't fulfilling enough for me.

Yes, money is very important in life and that is why I'm still working this job. Bills need to be paid, and more importantly, I need some source of income to fund my Japanese/Asian snack obsession :)  Maybe it's because I do have a job that I'm able to say that money isn't everything, so I'm definitely thankful (especially now that I'm getting ready to be married and need to save up for the wedding).  I wonder though... there's gotta be more to life than just paying the bills and eating. (Yes, even eating! Blasphemy, right?)


I'm not thinking in terms of religion just yet though. Religion isn't something I'm ready to deal with if I'm not even sure who I think I am or what I truly believe in. That's a later philosophical discussion I think. For now, I just really wonder, what's the meaning of my life?

Trailer: What's in a Name?

You're probably all thinking what the hell, there goes Judi with her weird randomness again. Well, it's probably true. There is reason behind the madness sometimes though, and I feel as if this is one of those times.

Today, I was thinking hard about what I would most likely write about in my blogs... You know, so that you'd get an idea of what you're getting into when you come to this website. There were a few thoughts that came to mind that would be obvious if you know me: anime (but I'd bore most of you to death), Twilight (here I'd get a lot of rolling eyes), my Korean boy band crush DBSK (I'd have to wipe the drool from my keyboard), Macs (only 1% of you would understand where I’m coming from)... So what do I write?

In general, writing seems to help me sort out things that otherwise don't make sense in this crazy little mind of mine. Once it's on paper, it's easier to see where the dots connect (or don't in a lot of cases haha). So in my quest to understand this world - my world - I decided to name the blog The Meaning of Life With a Side of French Fries. Why french fries? Because it's random, and you know me, I love food. I'm probably one of the quirkiest people you'll meet so I'm sure some seriously non-meaning of life blogs will get posted at some point. (For example, anime, Twilight, DBSK, Macs...).

So there you have it. Thus begins my adventures in the search for the meaning of (my) life (and then some).