My Afternoon with the Phantom

Went to San Antonio on Saturday with Kirsten, Kenaz and Ding Ding. That city doesn't have that big scary urban feel that you get when you go to Dallas or Houston. Very touristy and very pretty. We got there at one and the show was at two, so we raced around the tourist-infested River Walk frantically looking for a place to eat. Finally settled on Saltgrass and had a rushed but very satisfying 10-minute lunch. Raced back to the Majestic Theater, found our seats, and surrendered our next two and a half hours to The Phantom of the Opera.

I wish I could say I was enthralled beyond belief. Gorgeous, gorgeous costumes (especially during "Masquerade") and sets (the dry-ice filled boat scene, in particular), which were only enhanced by the slightly ostentatious interior design of the Majestic. Andrew Lloyd Webber's songs are timeless and I will always love "Think of Me." But I think I'm more of a movie person because of my constant need to see facial features and expressions. In a musical, the actors always seem too inaccessible. I guess I prefer the total escapism that the movie medium offers. Or maybe I should have just brought binoculars like the old lady two rows in front of me.

On another slightly annoyed note, why can't I rotate pictures for Blogger on my Mac? Help.

Proud of the Homeland, Part 2

Friday afternoon. I was at Jester about to take the elevator up to work when I passed by a lecture hall. An advertising class had just ended, and this was on the big screen:

No matter where you are, there's no escaping the Singapore Girl.

Hey Billy!

Went to the Bill Clinton rally in front of the Tower yesterday to watch a man make a last-ditch attempt to persuade Obamamaniacal Austin to vote for his wife. It was a good speech - he touched on housing, energy, Iraq, healthcare, education and the disabled. Everything was clear and practical. The part about increasing financial aid and lowering interest rates on college loans definitely got the most applause. As a politically apathetic non-citizen, however, the thing that struck me most was his hair. Coiffure is probably a better word. A softly glowing halo of silvery grey. The Daily Texan has this awesome picture of the wondrous 'do.

I took several videos of him (I LOVE the zoom on my Ixus), but by the end my lens started fogging up and it got really blurry. So here's an clip I took of him early in the speech. Please note I had my hands raised ridiculously high above my head, so I got spasms in my arms about halfway through. You'll see what I mean.

(The clip was originally three minutes long, but I had to cut it extensively to comply with Blogger's 100MB limit.)

***

On another note, my classmate introduced this to us a few days ago and I thought it was great. May I present to you the question that has been plaguing me since the start of my college life (from the Broadway musical Avenue Q - Let's go watch it in July, Beth!):

Notes

New Calendar

Decided that I couldn't survive any longer without some kind of visual representation of passing time hanging from my wall. I love the feeling of being able to cross off a box with my thick black marker at the end of the day like I've accomplished something. Glad I held out until the end of February, because the neighborhood bookstore, Intellectual Property, slashed prices on all calendars to $1. Of course I was left with a somewhat limited selection - Desperate Housewives, Historical Texas, The Dalai Lama, Fireflies and Hot Campus Girls were some of the available themes. In the end I narrowed it down to two choices: Beatrix Potter or Scenes of Tuscany. Eventually, idealized Italian scenery beat out painted British rabbits and I now have one less plot of empty space on my wall.

Phantom of the Opera

Watching it this Saturday at San Antonio. CAN'T HARDLY WAIT. I've been wanting to watch it since my parents did, like, ten years ago and I'm finally getting my chance. I borrowed the DVD from school (the soundtrack wasn't available) to familiarize myself with the songs. I remember watching the movie at West Mall with Fish, Xiaoen, Yiwen and Weishan (?) and the movie stopped halfway and we went out to complain and then they replayed the entire thing from the beginning. Oh, Eng-Wah...

Homeless People

I don't know what to think of them. The homeless people on the Drag (the road running parallel to the border of school) are usually young, white and proud, mostly dreadlocked and tattooed and lugging their mangy dogs wherever they go. They sit around and laugh loudly and smoke weed and use the Starbucks bathroom and busk. Most of them look like they chose the lifestyle. I read somewhere that they can easily make $12 an hour. I don't feel particularly sorry for them. But when I take the 'Dillo (a free public bus) to Austin High to teach, I see different homeless people. The ones who drag black trash bags full of stuff and are huddled in smelly blankets in winter. But they come up the bus and I automatically think, "Please don't sit next to me." I feel terrible when I think that. The other day one sat two seats behind me and I nearly gagged. He smelled like week-old socks and cigarettes. I wish I could be more compassionate.

Sunday School

Started out as a teacher for preschool last week and it's been real fun. I've missed being able to carry 3-year-old kids around and push them on the swings. We had a bit of a messy lesson last Sunday with bright blue paint on the carpet and a particularly sensitive and sniffling little girl, but it was all good.

Proud of the Homeland

This was on Kanye West's blog a week ago. He puts up pictures of random cool things, and because Singapore doesn't typically have a reputation for being random or cool, I was really surprised to see it. Hopefully this puts our little island on the pop culture map. Yay for Singapore architecture!

Uno, Dos, Tres

Wow, I'm on a blogging roll.

Just came back from watching U23D, "the first ever live action 3D concert movie," at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum's IMAX theater. What an experience. It's basically a feature-length 3D film created from footage of the South American leg of U2's Vertigo tour. We were all given geeky 3D glasses (which I had kinda hoped would be tinted blue, as a Bono reference, but no...) and the minute the movie began, I was spellbound. We somehow merged into the screaming, sweaty concert audience on the screen. I loved every song. Especially breathtaking was "Love and Peace Or Else," where Larry Mullen, Jr. plays this drum... thingy with just one cymbal, then Bono takes over and then it somehow becomes "Sunday Bloody Sunday"... argh, words are failing me. Wikipedia explains it much better here.

Even Bono's slightly-cheesy messages about coexisting and being one and living the dream seemed to take on more meaning in 3D. The effect allowed me to feel as if he was inches from my face and singing to me alone. Swoon. We could see his every bead of sweat and every strand of Larry Mullen, Jr.'s greasy hair. And I think I've got a post-movie crush on The Edge. He's so ruggedly handsome and cool and perfectly complements Bono's dramatics. Ahhhh. But I have to say the main star was the crowd. The pulsating, thronging, glittery sea of thousands of South Americans, whose energy was so darn infectious even after being filtered through a screen. Oh, to go to a concert like that...

EVERYONE MUST WATCH IT. I don't think it's out in Singapore, though. Hopefully it'll come.

Yucky Outside

Woke up with a smile at 11am this morning. It's lovely to sleep in. But the weather outside is not agreeing with my cheeriness... it's cold and drippy and grey and various weather websites are promising everything from thunderstorms to hail to fog and tornadoes (unlikely). So I will blog and study. Half a month has passed since my last entry. It seems like I revive my blog only to abandon it again.

So I was metaphorically leafing through earlier pages of this blog and looking at what I did a year ago, and it turns out I'm pretty much repeating what I did in Feb '07. But in different order. Last year, it was Valentine's Day Card Sale --> CNY --> Ash Wednesday --> Obama came. This year, it's Ash Wednesday --> CNY --> V-Day Sale --> Obama's coming. And he's bringing a friend called Hillary. Yes, it's a Democratic debate and it's happening right on campus next week! It's not open to the public though, although there is a draw for 100 tickets. I put my name down, along with 9,999 others, and am crossing my fingers.

Some pictures from since I landed. Must admit I haven't been very shutter-happy:

Favorite cereal: Special K with Red Berries

The roomies (housies?) at Kim's 22nd

JFoo's roomie's awesome set of Office motivational posters

View from the first floor of my apartment

Mozart's, the coolest coffee place in Austin. If you come visit, I will definitely take you there

I got the less picturesque background

Onion bagel with cream cheese. Shout out to Mun!

View from the deck of Mozart's

I'm still ploughing through this...

CNY at Marco Polo, a Singaporean/Malaysian restaurant

Me, Becks and Dami

The gang!

V-Day sale. Yes, that's my pink feather boa!

Also, I got a second job! I am a peer mentor at the UT Learning Center, helping UT students with their time management, study-skills, motivation and test anxiety. I have three "mentees" currently and it's proving to be a bit more challenging than expected. You really have to know your stuff! And it's kinda weird because I'm plagued by those issues every single day as well., but I'm pretty sure I'll get better with practice. Thank God for the opportunity, because I'd been looking for a second job for a while. And one in which I could interact with people and serve the college community, because I'm basically a solitary robot at my morning job.

Okay I just took a shower and that kinda broke my chain of thought and now I don't know what else to write. Plus, Hemingway's In Our Time awaits me. Till later!

Oh yeah... before I go, in the spirit (or whatever's left of it) of Valentine's Day, I will dedicate a pretty song to all the people I love. The video is irrelevant, so just listen to the tune. Enjoy!

New Soul

(I've got that cute MacBook Air ad song stuck in my head. It seems like the airwaves are overrun by pretty little Feist-y, Regina Spektor-ish ditties. Oh how I yearn for an over-the-top power ballad. Where is Celine Dion when I need her?)

So I'm back! School and work are in full swing and it's time for me to revive this blog. I had a wonderful time over winter break, first spending Christmas in Vancouver with my lovely Chin family, and then returning home to celebrate my entry into adulthood. THANK YOU to all who came to the party, and to all those who brought me out to sample local delights while I was back. It was a wonderful two weeks in Singapore, and well worth the plane ticket. Allow me a moment to reminisce:

Vancouver

Singapore

And finally, my favorite: Portrait of a family

Guess I got a little carried away with the reminiscing. That's all for now, folks! Check back later for a more Austin-y update. Miss you all.

DRUMROLL PLEASE

After nine days of intense deliberation, the official judging panel comprising me, myself and I has finally reached a unanimous decision. And the winner of the first-ever 100th Post Contest is...

MARK LIM JIN YANG.

Most of you are probably thinking the contest was rigged from the start. It wasn't. Yes, I know he's my little brother. No, he did not try to bribe me with extra Christmas presents (though he did get me really nice limited edition Body Shop cranberry lipgloss and a dress from This Fashion). It's just that you have to give the guy credit for shooting straight for my heart and making me go, "Awww..." You gotta admit his entry was pretty well-put. Plus, he recently pulled a ligament in his right ankle and he needs a lil' something to cheer him up. 

Anyway, congratulations, Marko! Here is your prize:

(It's in the fridge. Go get it yourself.)

And because I know the rest of you are angrily muttering, "I was robbed!" I've decided to hand out a slew of consolation prizes as well. Here we go:

Most Nostalgic Award: Yiwen

Most Biblical Award: Tie between Ee2 and Gattuso

Most Succinct Award: MysteryMeat, with a record number of three words

Bordering-on-trashy-novel-territory Award: Kyster

Most Blatant Bending of Rules Award: TJ Han

Most Expressive Award: Pammy

Most Soul-baring Award: Fish

Most Spiritual/Out-of-filial-piety Award: Pa and Mom (just kidding...)

Most Glaring Absence Award: ELIZABETH LIM (my contest not good enough for you, izzit??)

Thank you all for participating. Hope you had a beautiful Christmas and New Year. I will be back with more updates when I get back to Austin on January 14.

The 100th Post

Hello from Canada! I'm in my godparent's house in Coquitlam, British Columbia, which is about an hour from Vancouver. This place is simply gorgeous, hilly and snowy, and when it's all lit up at night it's really a sight. We came back from Whistler ski resort last evening.. that was an experience right out of a Christmas postcard. It started snowing on Tuesday while we were walking around the village. I never knew snowflakes were so tiny! At times, the snow came up to our knees. I had to keep hiking up my skinny grey jeans from Far East Plaza to keep the snow from slipping down my butt :)

I'm also writing this from my week-old MacBook. I'm still getting acquainted with it but I think it's true love. It's so convenient to have a camera and a microphone built in, instead of having a morass of wires taking up half my desk. This baby was required by the College of Education, since I'm starting the Professional Development Sequence next semester. Just in case some of you are thinking I'm on some crazy electronics shopping spree...

Since this is the HUNDREDTH post on this little blog, I'm gonna do somethin' special. Let's have a contest! It'll be simple. Since the year is coming to a close, why don't you tell me what 2007 means to you in 10 words or less. Like this: "For me, 2007 means [your 10 words or less here]." 

Post your entry on the COMMENTS part of this post with your name or a pseudonym, if you must. Make it funny, sweet, sappy, philosophical, cryptic, broad, narrow, whatever. Write a haiku if you want! Just don't be mean. Mean or offensive entries will be deleted because I am a happy person. The contest will end midnight on Dec 31, 2007. After that, I'll choose the best entry and the winner will receive a MYSTERY PRIZE (which just means I haven't bought it yet, but it will be cute, I promise). One entry per person. And if I only get entries from my immediate family, I'm gonna be sad and cancel the contest. Even if you don't usually tag, it'd be great if you could participate. So start submitting your entries now!

A Caption-less Christmas Post