Big decisions. Such as, which e-reader to buy?

The much dreaded deadline (contract end) for deciding has come. My boss beat me to the punch and approached me first about renewing it until 2013, which is a very long time from now career-wise (I'd be in my mid-twenties!), but in retrospect really isn't a very long time if you think about it. As you know, I have been wanting to change careers for awhile so this was prime time to talk about it. We had the conversation which lasted about 5 minutes, and settled on extending it for just 6 months during which time I would offload my work to another colleague and look for a new job. Great solution, and super happy it worked out. Now comes finding a new job... I will get my masters by then, but I don't know what to do with it.

Another decision I agonized over was which e-reader to get.

Torn between the varieties on the market, including the Kindle (3G?? Wifi only?? keyboard or touch screen?), Kobo, Sony PRS (and if so, which one?), Nook, and the gorgeous but pricey iRiver Story, I created the below chart, which was supposed to make things easier. (As you can probably tell, I did a lot of research about this, moreso than my wedding banquet. Speaking of wedding, I took a little break from planning/thinking about that.)

I even got into an argument over the e-reader with my boyfriend.

He was convinced that these things should be priced at below $1000 to which I vehemently disagreed. After all, they were black and white. Of course they are. That's why they're superior to things like ipads and tablets in my opinion...ie they don't kill your eyes or distract you from better things in life, like reading. Plus, you can't really compare the two kinds of products. I got angry at how dumb he was and slept late that night, waking up grumpier than usual. My colleague called me 'angry bird' the next morning as I consumed some mind and body soothing caffeine.

So the Sony PRS 600 won out according to the below chart. It was cheap at least on ebay, and other than the fact that it had no connectivity whatsoever, suited my needs just perfectly.

But I ended up getting the Kobo Touch, available in HK when my dad mentioned warranty. Warranty isn't included when you get stuff off ebay. My Nokia Xpressmusic, for example, which I drop on a regular basis on the floor by accident (this thing actually bounces), was fixed twice, covered by warranty. I love electronics that don't mind my abuse.

SO beautiful. What it needs next is a cover which I will probably make myself.

My decision chart.

Forgot if I ever posted the ring. Well here it is...













This is my artwork (it's plastic and transparent, to be stuck on glass). Pretty isn't it?

Some interesting snacks from colleagues from mainland china. "rare delicacies horsefaced fish".

I've graduated from Grade 3 Chinese...

Wedding Planning. Commences!

If wedding planning interests you even in the slightest, I think I'm going to post regular updates about it here. Maybe my experience will prove useful one day to you : )

I have gone to one bridal expo so far, as recommended by everyone, and was undulated with pamphlets and pushy salespeople asking us when the date is. I said "we don't have one... but it's going to be in 2013" to which they say, "it's never too early to take your wedding photos!! why don't you register with us right now?" I am also onto my fourth wedding magazine (in chinese, hoho!) and still don't have the faintest clue as to how all this wedding thing works.

"What kind of style of dress are you looking for?" They all actually look pretty similar... so I told my mom that I wanted a victorian style one, all lacey and conservative. She disagreed, saying it'll probably look bad on me. My mom complained about her friends complaining about the lack of shark fin soup in our menu. Being environmentally friendly doesn't mean taking the convenient way out. Too bad for her friends.

Communication about which banquet hall so far has been something like this: my mom's opinion -> me -> Kelvin -> Kelvin's parents who disagree -> Kelvin -> me -> my mom who disagrees with Kelvin's parents and proposes another option -> me -> etc. until we gave up and told them that we will be the ones making the decision and we welcome their input.

The thing I learned so far is that you cannot please everyone. Not everyone agrees with the time we've picked to get married (some says that we are too young) for example. It is important to consider everyone's opinions, especially your parents (ie marriage is actually a bonding of not two people, but two families), but ultimately it is my own wedding.

The thing I am ABSOLUTELY certain of at this point in time is I am DEFINITELY not walking down the aisle with swelling violins playing canon in D. I will be walking in to X JAPAN's Forever Love and I will walk in along with my husband to Rufus' Welcoming Ceremony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T60JphIj5ck&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijOL2dQBAew

Life:

Yesterday, I was very lucky. I got the last seat on the bus, taking me to chinese class (I have passed primary 3 and am now in P4). From my vantage point (the back of the bus), I noticed heads drooping and rising back up from the back of the seat, occasionally hitting the window and sliding down a bit, as sleepy people passed out on their way home.

Macdonalds is now serving their shake shake fries again. You basically get a packet of MSG and a bag for you to shake your fries in. Now in seaweed flavour:

Grab yourself a SlowBar for those slow moving days... or when you want to slow yourself down. Yeah actually I've never tried one but I'm tempted just to see what they're like. It'll probably taste like a chocolate wafter biscuit.

Soymilk based soup. This tasted like nothing, but this is when you know it's healthy.

This on the other hand is not so healthy. Egg with hollandaise sauce on waffle.

Dogs in a baby car.

Mid autumn festival was characterized by glowing lanterns and extremely fattening moon cakes that everyone was passing around (a quarter of a moon cake = one bowl of rice in caloric value).

Glowing kid

Ocean Park pics: that is a blurry image of a pufferfish which I saw blow up (next pic down, facing us)

I'm engaged! (with details this time)

I don't have a picture of the ring, nor can I take one right now because I don't have it on hand (pun not intended). It was too big so I took it to resize.

But I do have a pic of the box. (the box??? who cares about the box???)

Actually, the box is the power behind the shine. Impressive, but I was so busy looking at the LED light that I forgot to look into his eyes to make sure he was sincere.

To be thorough, the proposal story started a month ago. I was hyper on caffeine one night out with my boyfriend while he was looking uncharacteristically gloomy. I didn't ask him what's wrong because I was too busy being hyper. Finally, he revealed without me asking that he was anxious about getting me some sort of gift, which I quickly and easily deduced. He seemed surprised that I guessed it (oh come on, 'very expensive gift', 'don't know what style and type' gives it dead away).

Okay so I was kind of expecting it.

Then we went around looking at the rocks, because apparently, to a guy like him, jewelry was as mind boggling and exotic as shopping for lingerie.

Eventually, I refused to look at them, and told him he was on his own. (Meanwhile I was secretly in psychological turmoil at wondering when it's going to happen and getting ever so slightly disappointed after each weekend until I forgot about it a few weeks later.)

Precisely. He was waiting for me to forget about it.

My friends tried to organize a cruise outing over a weekend, but the event fell to pieces. We ended up deciding to use that time to come to my home and using the facilities in my clubhouse downstairs. That saturday, we played squash, pool and table tennis, eventually I went with some girls to steam in the sauna. Comfortable and happy, andrenaline and endorphins pumping through my blood, we returned to my house eventually to grab the rest of the crew to go eat, whom I thought was watching a movie or something. When I came upstairs, I was in shorts and t shirt (to be accurate, they were sweaty shorts and t shirt, because I forgot to bring a change of clothes). One of my friends intercepted me at the door, her head sticking out against a dark room.

I didn't have time to think because at that time my phone rang (another friend was coming up for dinner). When I got off the phone, she insisted that I had to be blindfolded because they were playing some sort of 'game'. (yeah right, I thought, it's a trick!) But once I sat down, still blindfolded, I knew somewhere in my heart that THIS MUST BE IT...!!!!!

I felt a presence in front of me and he started to tell me about our happy two years, eventually ending off with a '...so why don't you marry me. ok?' I was stunned. And the reason why is possibly be because it's not the proposal I was expecting.

All of this was in Chinese.

Never did I imagine the proposal to be in Chinese. I mean, throughout all my life, I thought it'd be "will you marry me?" (in English) so that I can simply answer "yes". Instead, I just nodded and said "ok", going cross eyed trying to make out the shininess refracting into my eyes. Not a very enthusiastic or intelligent answer, yes I know. I was like, in shock. (Apparently when I grilled him later, he had no idea what to say either and said he probably strayed from his original speech.)

He was also in a suit (also very unexpected, considering that I was in sweaty t shirt and shorts). We were in my house (I've always thought it's going to happen at night in a park somewhere or in a restaurant. Soaps are inaccurate!). There were OTHER people around, in fact, en mass hanging out somewhere. My dad was also in the house (do you think that your dad would be within a 5 meter radius of your proposal? no, I think not.)

I do not know why, but at that moment, I was really confused. Maybe it was information expectation-reality inconsistency overload as described above, or maybe it was the speed at which it happened and my brain, slowed down and relaxed from the sauna, could not handle the experience of a life-changing event, and crashed like a crappy hard drive. Before I could think, everyone spilled out from their hiding place and threw confetti, yelling a combination of 'yeaaaah!' and 'surprise!' The cameraman (his brother) approached and said "how does it feel?" and some other people said some other snarky things (that I forgot already. see, my brain really wasn't functioning!)

I hid behind my fiance. >___<

So that is the whole story!

The next day at church, people examined my ring, going wooo!!... then I opened the box with the LED light and they went WAAAHHHH!!!

Details on the wedding to come soon. : )

I'm engaged!

After high school, I've never envisioned my own engagement, not even after my bf leaked the fact that he was getting me a ring a month ago. However, envisioning probably could not have prepared me for it. Not only was it in my own house (how many engagements happen in your own house???), there were loads of people too (complete with cameramen; my dad was hanging around the house somewhere too). My bf was also wearing a suit (I don't know what he would be wearing but definitely not a suit). The ring sparkled under an LED light (the box had a fancy light). I will upload pictures later, possibly when I start a wedding blog/site.

It all felt like a dream, especially on the Monday morning after the weekend, that for some reason, felt awful.

Step 1. Get in the elevator

Step 2. Get on the first shuttle bus and fall asleep

Step 3. Get on the second bus and fall asleep

Step 4. Walk up the stairs, eyes half open
Step 5. Walk blearily down the quiet hallway to work, caffeine of some sort in hand.

Step 6. Begin daydreaming/working at desk until 5:30.

Bad translation. I don't think they know that 'enzyme' isn't very delicious sounding.

Fishy biscuits!!!! They were in a different packaging than what I was used to. Curious, I investigated and eventually realized that this one came from Morinaga, a Japanese company whereas the one I eat regularly come from Korea. Parrots outside their cage. Wonder why they don't just fly away.
Piranhas
Ocean park's new attraction.
Fishy biscuits from Japan come in more shapes than Korepab (the fishy biscuits from Korea) but doesn't taste as good.
Ugly spider. I hate spiders. I think I'd jump five feet into the air if I saw this thing outside its cage.
Diving show off from a super high platform. It was somewhat scary.
Crocheted plane

I finished the stamp card, but the day I went to claim my free drink, the original shop had already been taken over by another bubble tea shop.

an invigorating experience on cheung chau island

The summer months are fully upon us, and of course, summer is not complete without a trip to the beach. A real beach in the ocean of course, not like the ugly ones near Toronto. The water was salty and cold, while the sands burned the soles of my feet. I felt alive and vibrant on this island, away from the artificial realities of society. Kayaking was fun yet particularly painful; I thought I'd never make it back to shore, so blistered were my wrinkled wet fingers and so bad was my kayaking technique. I was making circles every now. Flying fish flopped out of the water in front of me once in awhile. My friend took pictures of us with her waterproof camera. Life was good.

I came home with shoulders red as a lobster and mosquito bites all over my ankles (oops, missed sunscreening/bug spraying some places). Monday morning eventually fell upon me as it did for everyone else, and I blinked dazedly at my coffee while my colleagues rolled into the room with cheerful dispositions, two questions reverberating in my mind: 'where am I' and 'why am I here?' symptoms of what many know it as 'the long weekend syndrome'. It was back to waking up each morning wishing you were sick (so you could take a sick leave), working in a windowless box, back to the chaos that was my desk, and back to facing off with the fire breathing creature. You know, some days aren't so bad, but they don't make up for the days that are. I just can't help but wonder: is this normal? Do young graduates eventually find what they like to do after some thrashing around from one job to the next, or do they merely accept miserableness as another fact of life and bear with it/get used to it? I certainly hope it's the former because I'm not used to it yet.

I have been reading my blog. These train of thoughts are nothing new, haha... but as time passes, my position improves. The more experience I have, the higher my bargaining power in the working world and the wiser I become.

Yesterday, during chinese school class I spoke with my classmates. All looked dead tired and many wanted out from their current job, or at least had complaints about it. I'm in the process of finding something new though. The process of looking is strangely therapeutic. Maybe because it gives me hope.

I looked at the clock, and at least it was July, which means that time has passed. Half a year from the start of 2011. And I wish eagerly for time to pass even quicker... does anyone else want this or is it just me?

Street grub of HK. Infamously good and unhealthy.

View from the ferry