Pearls before swine? Pearls before breakfast

Joshua Bell in his artistry with a Stradivarius before a Washington D.C. crowd.

Over here .

Source: chiaroscuro.baltiblogs.com/archives/violin.jpg

Tum tea Tum dee tuum

So it did feel like I might have died or fell off the edge of the world didn't it?
I do agree.


I've been so busy with work that most days I feel all exhausted and dried out of any zest of inspiration for any writing. Its sad, but painfully real that since working at my new job, I don't find as much time to my own where I can sit and ponder about significant things in life, where I want to scribble in my 'lil black notebook and rush back home to log into blogger.


A tad disappointed, I wonder if my life will take me down the path of those workaholic people whom I once considered poor uninspired conformist saps. And it looks to be so.


Everyday after spending 8 hours at work, I come home and study for tests and then later on at night I do more data compilation for my old job. I know, I know, I didn't have the guts to say 'no' to them when they asked me to stay, plus I couldn't pass up the chance of earning some extra cash.


The last few semesters in school, final exam periods were dreadful where almost every semester there was no doubt whatsoever that cramming was involved. I couldn't wait to graduate and find a mindless fair-paying job where I didn't have to think and stimulate my mind.


Certainly didn't imagine that working life would be more consuming than my previous life. With the way things are going, I don't think I can make a better time for this year's Vancouver Sun Run.


Geez, I remember in school, I used to be able to sleep for 3 hours and go for an exam in the morning. I sleep 7 hours every weeknight now and I still wanna roll around under my sheets after slamming down hard on my alarm clock. Am I getting old?
I try to make up for it by sleeping 10 hours a night on the weekend... don't think that's working though... in fact, I think I'm getting fatter.

Putchon yo Dancing shoos!

My recommendation: Watch the previous video first.


ULHS 2006 Charleston Finals. Here's a modern take to the Charleston and Lindy Hop. I wish I was cool like them...

Best Vid EVER!!!!

I've watched this vid about 6 times now ever since I found it on Twiboo. The Charleston looks amazingly fun to dance. Shitty that I'll never have so much coordination to even square-dance...

To be mediocre

Mozart was born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a comfortably rich family in Salzburg, Austria.
Leopold Mozart, father of Mozart was one of Europe's great musical teachers and had entitlement to a successful career as a composer of instrumental music. Mozart's exceptional musical talents surfaced when he was a mere age of 3 years old - a toddler.


230 years later, a little girl sits on a piano seat with her little brows knitted and facial features contorted. As she gingerly presses down the keys, down comes a powerful swing of the cane as it strikes the innocent fingers that bore the consequences for the guilty finger that hit the wrong key.

I suppose its easily comprehensible to see where my aversion to playing the piano stemmed from. I can reminisce those moments where my mom urged me by the shoulders to play a tune to those where I could not overcome the upheavals in my stomach as sat by the piano in the examination room. In retrospect, I whole-heartedly regret my silly decision to quit piano after the third grade, pondering over my inflexibilty to absorb the skill at my age of 23. Yet my heart yearns so as I listen to the prodigies of both Classical and Romantic composers.

Mozart revealed musical talents when he was 3. I struggled to keep up at 8. Sometimes I can't help but feel retarded.

Spanning from the 19th century till the 20th century, both Western and Eastern Europe, typically cosmopolitan Vienna, fostered the blossoming popularity of instrumental music. Composers such as Mozart and Tchaikovsky recieved musical influences from their parents. But I'm sure genetic predisposition must have played an integral part. What ever happened to that kind of fostering in this modern period?

At times I secretly wish to be born in that era and location, to meet these people. Did you know that Tchaikovsky was of the Romantic period, so was Gustav Mahler. He married Alma who was 20 years his junior also a brilliant composer. They had a bad marriage, Gustav tried to sort our their problems and visited Sigmund Freud in his Vienna office. Alma ended up having affairs with Walter Gropius and more famously with Oskar Kokoschka. She outlived Gustav by 50 years! Alma also knew Gustav Klimt and gave him him her first kiss!

On a side note, Tchaikovsky was only 53 when he died but from pictures he looked the age of a 70-year old man. I have problems looking my age. Last spring I went to my long awaited visit to the dentist. She commented that I hadn't visited in a long time and asked if I was having too much fun on my spring break. I answered: "What spring break? I don't have a spring break." She said in a surprise: "Oh, I thought you were in high school!"


Sources: www.geocities.com/tacphotography/piano.jpg

Me at Work

How do people actually find these crazily cute animals?


Boredom is a real kicker when you look at statistical numbers all day. I sent out a test fax the other day to myself and addressed it to 'Poopoohead'.

Drag On

I hate my job.
Mostly because it really bores the crap outta me and I'm starting to get carpal tunnel in my wrist from clicking on the mouse too much from all this compiling I have to do.
I guess this disdain really stems from alot of factors.
Such as, my dislike for the working environment. I sit in a poorly lit space that numbs the tips of my fingers and toes whenever it rains or snows and that silly little heat fan does no wonders for me. People, especially the boss get to eavesdrop on all my conversations and talks to me about it at times. He also pushes for all these deadlines which I have to meet and nudges me when I am not able to meet them even when I have to stop from doing my work whenever they interrupt me to do something else, when there is a power outage (this happens alot) and the computer is really slow.
Lastly, I sit in someone's house which is pretty old - therefore the bad insulation and I don't get to interact much with people at all. Since the company comprises of only 4 people myself included.

Thank god I have another job waiting for me after I quit this one. I'm soooo looking forward to it because its so much more related to what I want to do in the future compared to this stupid marketing job I have now, geeez....
Can't wait, this Friday I hand in my resignation letter.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Every so often, when I do manage to find some spare time (I lie. This happens quite frequently.), you'd find me wondering the myriad of streets that embody this city I reside in, Vancouver.




Awhile back, I was in my favourite little toy and t-shirt store, erratically flipping through t-shirts on the rack in hopes of finding some print that will greatly amuse me, when I stumbled upon one that sneakingly stole my attention.
I gazed at it for a few moments, in my best ability to discern the message it was trying to converse and its implications. It depicted a typical image of Jesus Christ, a rather bright yellow halo beaming from his head, with other aspects idiosyncratic to the 'Crucifiction'. Surrounding him were the British police, with their tall helmets strapped to their chins and clutching his arms while one obscured his genitals with another tall helmet, escorting him away.
Most of these t-shirts, plainly with its caricatures convey limited information on their own. It is therefore solely the responsibility of the title to reconcile the image with its association and meaning. This particular t-shirt's title was : JC was a Streaker

A female mind in its full process is quite a peculiar thing in stark comparison with a male mind. A torrential flood of ideas and opinions can literally generate and power a streamliner of non-linear reveries, as Wanda Sykes can attest to. As I sat in the car on the way back home, oddly I thought about this shirt. I can attribute my lingering afterthoughts of this shirt to my Christian roots as a supposition. My parents in their good nature brought my sister and I up with staunch Christian teachings and as a weak-willed child, I have attended a more than good enough number of church camps, meetings and events which literally bored me. Now as a grown-up, I do not steadfastly stand on a declaration that I detest Christianity nor am I an atheist. I however choose to believe the Bible's teachings as a rough guide to one's life, not to be taken into exact literal consideration, a displeasure to my parents whom with an extent of certainty of mine share close resemblances to Christian fundamentalists.

For one, that shirt conjured up no particular interest in me and so I casually flipped it over in search of better prints. But as I sat in the car thinking about this shirt, I asserted that if that person standing there in my place was my father, he would have brought his complaints to the proprietor and give an ill-favoured lecture on respect for religion, this I am sure. And this is my main point. Perhaps in the eyes of my parents, their offspring have wondered into the dark side, risking shame as a backslided Christian. But standing at this spot has enabled me a slight insight to non-Christians' and atheists' perspective, how they interpret the teachings of Christianity.

Non-Christians and especially atheists probably view religion as archaic and irrelevant. An opium for the masses when poverty still engulfed the majority, technology in its many dimensions awaited its evolution and a device for controlling (or some might say 'uniting') the population. So it especially baffles them that people living in the modern world, enjoying its many freedoms, conveniences with the abundance of scientific theories to disprove the existence of God, still put their trust in an inexplicable but supposedly ubiquitous and powerful entity. Rewind back to a hundred more years or so, the majority of populations in the Western world could be found consistently sitting in pews in church on Sunday mornings. As with time and evolvement with changes, the amount of faithful church attendees have wittled down to what we commonly associate as a gathering of old people. What with the trend in burgeoning Islamic states, war-torn and inflicted with poverty, tending to a small flicker of hope for development, it is not too inconceivable to see why people might view religion especially its entrenchment with culture and state as having forbearance to economical growth, freedoms and development. Religion, and more seemingly Christianity are being put in bad light. News regarding Ted Haggard, pedophiliac priests abusing unknowing altar boys, and fundamentalist Christians allegations on soy milk as the CAUSE of HOMOSEXUALITY and even the history of Christianity - going back to The Crusades sometimes trouble me as I am harpooned with questions about these contradictory cases against my religion and my own. IS THIS WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS COME TO?

Every Sunday morning many many years ago, my family would pack into the small car we had and drove for 45 minutes to the church we attended. My sister in her white dresses, with a big hair-do sitting next to me while she layered pale blue eyeshadow onto her eyelids while I fidgeted with the frock I wore usually with a tulle underlayer and a bow ribbon behind my back - which always untied itself after I ran and climbed in the playground of the church. You'll be surprised, but I actually liked going to Sunday school and I reveled in wonder at all the bible stories that we were taught, my favourite being 'Ruth and Boaz'. We were taught that Jesus Christ was most loving and kind, no matter what your sin with repentance immediately entitled you forgiveness and most of all, He was a friend - someone whom you could confide in with full discretion. As the sultry south-eastern Asia days passed and we got taller, we were told the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, taught of Jesus' consuming wrath and intolerance towards man's sin, taught consequences, taught to fear God. In my mind, this has always been a particular paradox. To love God because he loved you and would forgive your sins but also not to submit to sin in the first place due to His acrimonious anger. Isn't it peculiar in a way - God hates sin but loves the sinner?

The etymology of the word science delivers definitions being: "to separate from one another, to distinguish" and "to cut, to divide", just to name a few. Some might interpret it as "to question", and that is the divider in itself. It seems that hoards of people believe that religion requires unquestioning faith, that a true-believer must banish doubt to oblivion. But the absurdity of it all is that if anyone who had intelligence of sorts would learn that the key to all knowledge begins with questioning. This makes fools out of believers. I have a theory of my own which I live by:

If there was a God and if he did create Man from his own image, he made us if not the most intelligent of all creatures. He gave us consciousness, self-awareness and most importantly, choice which differentiates us from all others. Undoubtedly, if we stand on the highest hierarchical level with respect to intelligence, we have the capability of questioning. Is it not through questioning that we find our purpose of existence - where religion draws its base from? So it should be that we are free to question religious teachings and beliefs in (at least) Christianity. If you wandered away and came back, your reinstatement would be of fuller vigor.

As I consider my father and as I sat in front of the tv watching the aggravated Muslims who torched the Norwegian and Danish embassies due to blasphemous publications of their revered prophet, I thought further: Were these acts of absolute necessity? Should we act against others' form of questioning? Any retort that resorts to physical violence surely shows some sign of uncivility. Surely, we are not living in those days of The Crusades? The one regret of the day is that acceptance of one another is still rather scarce.

To question - that is why I flipped over to another shirt without much ado as I stood in the store. I wonder, am I at a stop-over or am I at my destination?

And a One Horse Open Sleigh

Most people recently try to be politically correct by saying 'Happy Holidays' but I don't give a damn since the origins of this holiday period can be traced to Christianity. So here's wishes from an apathetic Christian,

Merry Christmas to you all! God Bless!

Hope you have achieved all your goals this year. No matter how this year has treated you, we can all say au revoir to it, not look back, and do it better in '07.

WooHOO!!

All my exams are over, in fact they were over on the 8th.
Its just a waiting game now, ugh... and the anticipation is killing me! I check my grades every damn day and somehow hoping that they're not published yet.

For the past 3 years, every semester before I drag my ass onto the "green mile" and into those dreadful exam halls, I faithfully jot down all the things I want to accomplish after my exams (an excuse not to concentrate on studying). Here is my hopeful last list:

THINGS TO DO:

• Plan the trip to Vegas and all the things you want to do daily.
• Get festive! Do lots of baking and decorating. Get cracking on that gingerbread house!
• Start training for the half-marathon.
• Find a job! Send out resumes like there's no tomorrow!
• Concentrate on doing the CSC. Read the books and do the quizzes
• Wash and clean 'Camelbak'. (You'd probably find this awfully gross since I haven't washed it the last time I used it in August.. hahahaha... but it says that the bladder is antimicrobial! C'mon!)
• Decorate my christmas tree.
  
• Do Christmas shopping! (I usually look forward to this event but not so much this year since I really should be earning my own money from now on. The only Christmas gifts I have gotten so far are for Dan - I'm still going to get something else for him too I think. *wink* - and an old lady whom I'm not really close to. One year, I gave all my immediate family members sweaters, how lame is that?!)
• Return book to Professor Harris - this guy never emails me back on when he wants me to drop off his book.
  

Decembre....

4 more days till my graduating paper is due.
Actually its 3 more days left but I like to count today as a day on its own, just to console myself...

I'm starting to think that the next couple of posts will be little snippets of my life that will document my last days till I graduate.
Guess what? There were 2 nights in a row where I only accumulated a total of 7 hours of sleep. I stayed up to finish off a paper on Economic Development: Alleviation of Poverty in Kenya, slept 3 hours and woke up to get to morning class.
You won't believe the amount of ache I had around my eyes from staring at the computer screen. Guess it was all the build-up of lactic acid. I drove to school and set in the parking lot for awhile till I had a pounding headache and felt like hurling. It was time to go. Drove back home and jumped into bed.
Wow... I work sooo well under pressure.

I didn't think the last semester would feel this bad. Maybe this is all just in my mind.

8 more days

Until school is over
and I just finished my last midterm last Thursday...
and I think I bombed my 2nd midterm on taxation...
how screwed am I?

Gone Wii Hunting!

11 more hours till the store opens...

Missed the premier of the Xbox360, missed the premier of the PS3, but I didn't care too much of those. I can't miss out on the premier of Nintendo's ultimate game console. THIS IS NO DOUBT THE EVOLUTION OF GAMING.
Some worries though: the motion sensors might not be very accurate to pick up your movements. Imagine playing 'Red Steel' and you wanted to slash your nemesis but it is just a second too late... you're dead.

I seriously hope there aren't other geniuses who thought of the same place as us. Boy I'd be pretty pissed if I couldn't get my hands on at least one of the four.
But obviously, if we could think of it, then others could too.... Should I get 2 instead? But there's not much profit for arbitrage. I'm not even sure if the Nintendo execs limited the supply like the execs at Sony did (which created anarchy).



I Am Sofa King Wii Todd Ed

Have Your Tissue Box Nearby !

I was caught off guard... this has got to be the cutest, saddest and most meaningful of all short animation clips I've seen, apart from Futurama's "Jurassic Bark" episode where I freakin balled my eyes out. Click here, scroll down to 'Futurama Season 5' and click on Jurassic Bark.

Changes

I'm bored with the way my blog looks. I'm testing out new templates and colour schemes right now. So forgive me if you do happen to go blind due to some crazy neon colors that might appear temporarily...

And You Thought I Finally Gave Up...

hell no, I haven't... good thing I wrote a disclaimer about blogging a few posts back. *WINK*


To keep you updated on the recent daily affairs of my life:

• my parents went to Hawaii for 11 days and I simply basked in unabashed glorious freedom in my house - I made a few delectable courses and ou d'oeuvres with the aid of Thomas Keller's guidance from his delightfully epicurean cook book The French Laundry.

• Dan has some temporary guests in his house - 2 wonderfully adorable WHITE GERMAN SHEPHERD PUPPIES! I have been smothered and snuggled to death with their endearments and cuteness. It's oddly surreal to see them grow substantially in length and weight and you will notice this when you lift them up, nestle them in your arms and embrace them. The creamy white fur of theirs are so soft. They are absolutely mischevious and playful, from licking and pawing at humans to bugging Rango, Dan's yellow lab retriever. See one of them here . Do not be fooled by their charming appearances, those 2 brothers have a strong tendency to be playfully ferocious (oxymoron?) with each other, biting at one anothers' necks. More pictures to come if Dan can successfully recover all his pictures which have been temporarily irretrievable due to the outtage caused by the damnable incessant rainfall/rainstorm we've been having here in British Columbia.

• I am finally GRADUATING this semester! My application is currently under review by the Senate. I can't believe its over...

• I watched BORAT last weekend and it is DOWNRIGHT HILARIOUS!(Have I gone Caps koo-koo?) The greatness of Sacha Baron Cohen is in his extremity and how he takes his Bruno, Ali G. and especially his Kazakhstani characters to higher levels almost without boundaries. His portrayals are near flawless. Sometimes I wonder how he or the Jewish community feel about him mocking his own culture and religious belief. I can't wait for his BRUNO movie!

• Come this December, Dan and I are heading to Vegas. Sin city is not exactly my number one choice in travel destinations since gambling and shopping are not my prior interests (any longer...) But in any case, its a great experience to see all these gargantuan man-made creations, and with all the neon lights makes a feast for the eyes and crazy Holga pics. You will most definitely see a cliche pic in future posts of the Fiori Di Como in the Bellagio and perhaps the notorious "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. I've heard many things of the Bellagio buffet - ultimate buffet ever. I give myself 10 lbs standard deviation. By which Dan would leave me because I'm a fat ass.

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes

Most Hilarious Thing You'll see TODAY

Turtle Rape!

Kinda scary how he makes an almost human-like sound of (victory?)

Never seen a turtle move in such a motivated pace. Boy, I wished my terapins that I had when I was a kid could be as interactive. Gosh darn it, they were always in their shells when I picked them up in between my fingers...

A Day In A Life...

Rach is too lazy to blog so I'm going to entertain you....with photos! Photos of things and events Rach and I experience when we are together, followed by a short caption...because writing the amount Rach usually writes is way too time consuming and bring brain much pain. much much pain.

-Dan

Pets:





Wonderin' Around:
China Town, Vancouver



Food:This is a Japadog. The person who invented this is a genius.
P-Toro Ramen. There's nothing more addictive than this...

I forgot what this is called, but I'm sure Rach will do a blog about this place later.

Learnin':

CRAMPED

I've known this for quite some time now. Being in the state of denial for quite awhile, I've finally come to accept the fact:

Maintaining, upkeeping and cooking up good entries for a blog is HARD.


I know, I know... you probably think that this is another one of those excuse of a blog entry that apologizes for my recently sporadic visitations to my blog dashboard. It seems that I only have some arm's length involvement.


Well, what can I say? The ever so apologetic Allegro can only do what she must at this point of time, apologize. Sometimes when I do ever get so bored, I go to this blog. This stands as evidentiary support that a small-town girl from one of the smallest city-states in existence can become world-renowned in the blogsphere. I do understand that if you do not hail from south east asia, you will probably have a hard time understanding the lingo and colloquialism inherent in the area. You may need this , to demystify the jargon. After understanding what this lady(if I can call her that) talks about, you'll probably form some opinion that she is rather catty on all circumstances.


My point is: Her success can be contributed by a few reasons, some being that she provided a service in a timely manner, catching on to a fast and growing trend of blogging/surfing, her outspoken-ness (beit uncouth at times) her notoriety creating an upward surge and last but not least, her constant updating of her blog with key information of relevance. I have a good feeling she gets paid to be a blogger. But one pivotal question resonates:


Can a love be made into job and still be loved as much?


At times I imagine (did I tell you I love to dream?) if I had to be a resident writer to The Economist or Vogue, I'd probably slowly brew a resentment to my work. All that pressure to make deadlines and yet present works of art... inconceivable. Assuming 12 articles annually, there are bound to be some works of "rubbish" churned to meet a deadline. Although I'm not really supposed to say this, Commercialism takes the romanticism out of things.


I blog. I love to take opportunites to express myself. It's my sheepish way of having an alter-ego, preppy push-over Dr. Jekyll in the day, uninhibited admirable Mr. Hyde at dusk...
The greatest reason for it is because I can write whatever pleases myself and whenever I please. Isn't it wonderful to have freedom?


To anyone who's interested
Currently.

• Researching economic data for 20-page paper on finance
  
• Keeping up with readings
• Panicking about graduation
• Perfecting skills in the kitchen (hopeful graduation of cooking skills to culinary skills)
• Dragging big booty to the gym
• Consistently on the job-hunt
• Enrolling for the CSC

Be on the lookout for my rant: MY PARENTS ARE FUNDAMENTALISTS!

And so it begins...

Well, the 2 weeks have just whirled speedily past me and in my opinion it was a well-spent vacation. You might be expecting that I experienced something tremendously exciting or spectacular, but I did nothing of such. After combatting tumultuous times during exam period, my fantasy was simply to take refuge in the comforts of my home or his and attain 8 hours or more of REM sleep. It necessarily took 4 days to completely eradicate my sleep debt!
The path to relaxation requires that I hike up the Grouse Grind; spend time with my other half; hang out with girlfriends, have a day with dogs at the beach, hit the gym, have an insane amount of barbeque parties, and another day-trip to Seattle.


But of course, it is supposedly true that if anything is wonderful, it must cease to exist at some point, and in any case, I happily go back to my work feeling refreshed. I'm in a slight state of distress currently, seeing as it is my last semester at school even though it is to my knowledge that it will not be the absolute last. Graduation really frightens me. In the end, because I've spent all my life doing it, I've come to love reading, studying.



Random memory:


Isn't it peculiar how as one goes through life, life governed by nature, fate or a ubiquitous being rakes up something from your past?
This is one of those horrid eras of mine.
Quite probable that I'm 10 in that picture, standing on the left. I dreaded my elementary school life, almost every aspect of it. From the contemptible bitchy girls and snide remarks that sprung from their mouths, the squalid circumstance of the school giving it creepiness and perversity (hence countless of ghost stories), the distance it was from my home to the poor disappointing grades I acheived.
My dad came to pick me up that day and as I vaguely recall, I was asking this particular girl something and she gave me a usual rude response. Seeing that we were speaking he assumed she was a close friend of mine and told us to pose for a picture. Avoiding the possibility of ruining her squeaky-clean image she complied and I was told to put my arm around her for an effect.
I do not even remember what her name is.