counting down the days..

does anyone want to take a spontaneous trip to NYC? i need to apply for a visa to taiwan for the summer and need to make a trip to the taiwan consulate. that'll be my last trip to new york anyway, before i leave. with that, i'll leave you with some good memories from good 'ol NYC... from a trip to LIPS for a bachelorette party... what's LIPS, you say? you know, it's that transvestite bar!



haha... i forget "her" name... but the "woman" on the right was Ginger.

scandal!!

anyone following the scandal that's rocking the HK entertainment industry?? Edison Chen ... one of the foremost actors/singers/producers in HongKong was stupid enough to take a ton of sexually explicit photos and videos of him engaged in various obscene activities with several of Hong Kong's biggest female stars. his PINK macbook broke down, so he brings it to a local shop, where the workers find hundreds of these photos and videos and then proceed to post them online.

how stupid can he be? way to ruin your career and the careers of many others! even if you are stupid enough to take all these photos, why would you store them in any easily visible place on your computer? ugh. makes me sick. maybe these things are readily acceptable in America (i.e. paris hilton, lindsay lohan, britney, pam anderson), but this is definitely unacceptable in Asia. i don't think anything when i read about American stars doing this stuff, but when i heard about Edison Chen... i seriously feel shame on his behalf.

It even made it to the NY Times.

total girl crush!!!

ladies, do you ever get a girl crush on someone? like... a woman who is so beautiful, classy, elegant and smart that you just can't stop staring?? haha just kidding. that sounds really creepy. but i do mean the part about being impressed with a woman with elegance and class.

last night, i was the photographer at a huge fundraising event in chinatown. i will leave out the details, except that there were lots of politicians, community leaders, VIPs, socialites and other socially well-connected people there. denise nakano, the NBC10 news anchor was the MC for the night. i met her in the beginning and we struck up a conversation. i was wary at first because i wasn't sure if someone like her who is a local celebrity, would even speak to me, especially with all of the politicians/important people everywhere. but she did, and she was so incredibly nice. she took time to get to know me and even joked around with me, in between talking to State Rep. Dwight Evans and the Honorable Judge Ida Chan.

if you guys ever see her on TV or around town -- don't be afraid to approach her. she is great. ok i'll stop my praising now, and leave you with a picture from last night.

what does my blog title mean?

many of you have asked lately: "what the heck does 'happiness is beebs-shaped' mean?"

i have avoided this question for months, because i didn't really feel like explaining, and quite frankly, am embarrassed about where it came from. but, i'm tired of being asked, so i will put my embarrassment aside, and explain.

3 years ago, i was introduced to a website called songfight.org. on this site, there is a weekly theme "word". you have 1 week to compose and record an original song and post it, and then people vote on the best song. this particular week's theme word was "TROUBLEMAKER". i found out about the website at 10:30pm. The deadline to submit, was 12:00am. my sister and i were inspired, so we decided to join... even though we had 1.5 hours to write, compose and record a song, with NO recording equipment.

our solution? we took my laptop, which has a microphone the size of a PINHOLE, and a windows standard "voice record" utility... and we got started. my sister wrote the lyrics, about our troublemaker dog, Titus. i sat down at the piano and pounded out some chords in about 10 minutes. here is how it happened:

step 1: recorded me playing the piano... mostly improvised. placed laptop on top of the piano. sound quality is CRAP! oh well.

step 2: i looped the piano clip and busted out my violin, improvising a melody and recording over the piano.

step 3: hmm. still not enough. i then busted out my Yamaha recorder (leftover from 5th grade) and improvised some more, over the looped violin and piano clip.

step 4: looped the piano, violin, and recorder clip... while singing an improvised melody from the hastily written lyrics. i had to literally hold my laptop up to my face while singing.

step 5: painfully converted the file into an mp3 and uploaded it onto the site at 11:50pm. WHEW!! i put my "band name" as "HAPPINESS IS BEEBS-SHAPED".

*disclaimer -- the sound quality is absolutely hideous!! static all over, and i kept catching noises in the background... my dad slamming a door, my rustling clothes, and in MANY parts, me trying not to crack up while playing violin and the recorder. you can totally tell that i'm laughing.

1 week later, after all votes were in, i won!! much to the chagrin of all of the veteran songfighters, (some of whom were established artists!) i won, despite the crappy quality. they said i won because i played 3 instruments and sang and made the song in 1 hour.

if you really are brave enough -- here is the song.

now you all know, why this is my title. enjoy.

family is best!

here i am, at 1:38am, sitting in Summit, NJ.  I spent the weekend here with my sister and her awesome other half, Mr. D.  I can't help but be amazed at how quiet it is here in suburbia... it's not that i miss the blaring sirens, the chinese drums, medical helicopters, barking dogs, angry car horns and occasional drunken screams of Chinatown, Philadelphia... but i strangely have found that i can't fall asleep here because it's just ... too quiet.  ironic.  i don't have my usual lullaby of fire engines, cop sirens and septa buses to lull me into my city-sleep. 

i've done nothing this weekend but eat. korean bbq. fresh japanese bread with black sesame spread. pot roast with potatoes. biscuits and gravy. artichokes. heirloom bean and vegetable stew. couscous. ice cream.  yum.  and my thighs begin to expand.  

eat... and watched the 3rd Lord of the Rings, which i actually never saw.  AMAZING!  all 4 hours of the extended-extended-super-long version.  

family is the best.  doing nothing but eating and having fun with family is even better. 

on an unrelated note; it was finally determined that my last day of work would be March 21st.  2 years at Penn, with this last year as a senior coordinator -- finally over!  2 years of working has passed surprisingly fast.  Done with the job on march 21st.  First week of April -- moving all of my stuff out to a new and fresh city.  Second week of April, saying my goodbyes and moving out of Philadelphia for good.   

it's all been so fast. 

The Asian Fit

Do your sunglasses or ski goggles never fit correctly? Are your ski goggles seemingly too curved for your face, so that they hit on your cheeks, allowing ice cold air to rush into your eyeballs and blind you while you're hurtling yourself down a mountain? Because that's exactly how i feel. Recently, a friend told me that Oakley now makes their glasses and ski goggles in what's called the Asian Fit. Basically, the bridge is a little lower, and the face of the glasses/goggles is less rounded; made to fit the flat Asian face that we all have, and fit better too. Some people think it's racist, blah blah blah blah. shuddup. truth is, we do have flat faces. and if these ski goggles are going to fit better than the many pairs that i've fruitlessly tried over the years (none of which have fit my face correctly), then i'm totally SOLD!!

now if only i could walk again... maybe i could ski again.
On a totally unrelated note.... i was out taking more pictures for my freelance project last night. Yes, that's right... i went out and took pictures during the horrendous ice storm. Today i realized that it was stupid and i could have totally snapped my ankle back in half, especially since crutches don't provide much support, or traction. ANYWAY... i took this picture and i think it's hilarious:

he looks so angry!!! i was trying to get his face in between the ducks, but i didn't think he was going to look so angry. haha!

happy chinese new year!!

it is officially the year of the rat now. i was born in the year of the rat. but according to those thin paper place mats you find at mediocre chinese restaurants that cater mostly to unknowing innocent non-chinese people, anyone who is born in the year of the rat will seldom make lasting friendships. how sad! don't believe in that gibberish!!

and maybe on that line of thought... i've been spending a lot of time alone these days. going on photo outings, eating by myself in restaurants, watching movies, and reading by large windows. all by myself. i even went to the philly international auto show by myself, and marveled at concept cars, the acura, audi, and mercedes displays. then i drooled over the new 2008 Honda Accord, which i am 95% sure i will buy, and is the only car in that price range that i think is droolable over. it's amazing.

all in all... i feel like it's been a great time of loner-ism. maybe i'm especially reflective and nostalgic, as i'm about to leave philly for good very soon...