Sudoku madness

When the Sudoku craze started, I brushed it off as another lame game. But when I finally gave it a try months after the fad began to subside, I was surprised by how addictive it was. Fall of 2009 was the start of my slight obsession with solving these tough little puzzles; I brought them to (boring/pointless) classes with me, I tried my hand at them during my free time, and I thought my puzzle-piecing skills were improving.

Enter Hannah, my roommate junior year. She pretty much owned me during a spontaneous competition we held this year during senior seminar (another boring/pointless) class. We both worked on an 'easy' level puzzle (I never got beyond the easy level) - she was done in 30 seconds, I took about 5 minutes. And I was completely floored at her insane ability; it totally put me to shame.

So anyway, since Sudoku is supposedly good for keeping your brain active, and since I'm no longer using my brain cells in school, to prevent them from withering away and dying, I've decided to work on Sudoku puzzles! Let's hope my brain will withstand the critical thinking and problem-solving pressure.

Snacking

Best snack in the world. I could eat these gummy dinosaurs every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

In fact, every gummy from The Natural Confectionery rocks my socks off. Gummy dinos, gummy snakes, sour snakes, jelly beans, party mix... Yum. Supposedly there are no artificial colors or flavors in the snack. Hopefully its as natural and nutritious as it says it is. If not.. I'm in big trouble, because I've been scarfing them down like nobody's business.

Time travel

I love movies that revolve around the concept of time, reality, possibilities, alternative futures, imagination... all that crazy stuff.

On one hand, I enjoy watching fluffy movies that don't require any thought whatsoever, but on the other hand, I like the occasional weighty movie that deals with profound and complicated issues and provokes all kinds of discussion.

Hot Tub Time Machine

I wasn't very impressed by the previews or the posters, but it was actually kind of entertaining. And it dealt with the age-old question: Can one little alteration in the past change the entire future?
It also made me wish I could go back in time, do some things differently, maybe win a bet or two and become ridiculously rich.

Mr Nobody

I chanced upon this movie recently, and I was pleasantly surprised by how compelling it was. Director Jaco van Dormael produced this science-fiction/fantasy/drama that was a little confusing at times and very riveting at others. Jared Leto plays 'Mr Nobody,' the last mortal man on earth, and he's reliving all his past experiences, except that he has different memories, and each story he tells has a different ending because of the different decisions he made in his 'alternate' lives. Like I said, baffling.

But it deals with the question of 'What If' - what if we had made a different choice at a particular crossroads... Would our lives be completely different?

At the end, Mr Nobody says of his different stories:
'Each of these lives is the right one. Every path is the right path. Everything could have been anything else and it would have just as much meaning.'

I just thought that was interesting, because I always think about the choices I make, and what kind of path I will go down when I make a particular decision. And sometimes we think we make mistakes, but maybe everything is meant to happen the way it does. Since everything happens for a reason, I guess whatever journey our lives take, it's all meant to be. Every path is worth living... or something like that. I'm getting a headache just trying to process it all.

Equilibrium

Another movie with a crazy idea. It's set in the future, and human emotion has been eradicated because it's supposedly the cause of everything detrimental on earth. Joy, sorrow, wrath, frustration, love... At one point the movie claims 'the disease is human emotion,' which I thought was fascinating. I mean, emotions are what makes us REAL, and to eliminate them completely... It'll be like we're no better than robots.

Society might be safer and cleaner and 'better' without human emotion, but it would also be colder and unfeeling and distant... and we'd lose all the things that make us essentially human.

Yeah, I think about weird things in my head and process them in my writing.

Inception = brilliant

I watched Inception this past weekend, and it totally blew my mind away. It was utterly brilliant and definitely lived up to every expectation I had.

Christopher Nolan is one heck of a genius - he directed and wrote The Prestige (one of my favorite magic films of all time), revamped Batman (The Dark Knight was a million times better than any other Batman movie), came up with the compelling and suspenseful mystery that was Memento, and most recently, gave us Inception, his project that supposedly took 8-10 years to produce. That's perseverance and determination right there.

So far there are two directors I really admire and respect - Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton - both very talented and creative in their projects. (I also love how Burton looks every bit like the eccentric and unconventional movies he produces.) Looking at Nolan's track record, he has the uncanny ability to come up original and unique ideas and make them spring to life on the big screen. That's kind of a rare thing, seeing as how almost every movie nowadays is a variation of a predictable equation.

Horror movies = the more blood and gore, the better.
Romantic comedies = boy meets girl, fall in love, separated by some obstacle, overcome it, live happily ever after.
Action movies = everything gets blown up and the hero never dies, no matter how many times he or she is shot or thrown off the top of a building.

So yeah. I was very much pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity behind Inception. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. And I loved the concept of dreams within dreams and the (un)certainty of reality. It's movies like Inception and A Beautiful Mind that sometimes make me wonder if everything I'm experiencing is true reality and not some vision from my imagination. Kind of ludicrous, I know, but interesting to mull over.

Anyway, I read somewhere about the similarities between Inception and Lost, best TV show ever. I still can't believe it's over; it's like a little part of me has died. I mean, Lost has been part of my life (and part of many bonding activities in college) for the past 4 years.

But anyway, both involve the characters flying from Sydney to LAX, both make the audience question their perspective of reality, both keep the audience second-guessing the entire time, and both have non-cliched endings that aren't predictable and yet satisfying. That, and some other stuff.

Sometimes I wish I could pick the brains of these directors and writers. The kind of stuff they come up with... it's unbelievable.

Lazy days for sick people

So I've been out of it for the past few days. A mild sore throat escalated to a full-blown flu within days, and period pains made me want to tear my uterus out of my body once and for all. No more period, no possible pregnancy torture = two birds with one stone. I wonder if anyone's really done that before.
Hmmm. 30 more years till this is all over.

Anyway, I've been drinking so much tea, I don't think I've ever drank this much tea this past year like I have this past week.

Peppermint tea. Totally soothes the throat and the stomach.

Apple cinnamon spice. Full of natural goodness and sweetness there's no need to add sugar. Got a packet of it from the Fremantle market and totally loved it.

So... since I've had a bunch of time in between blowing my nose and doubling over in pain, I've watched two Survivor seasons and the entire first season of How I Met Your Mother. 

The flame of my past obsession with Survivor has been rekindled. I used to watch every single episode of every single season, but then college came, and I didn't own a TV in my room, and other things just took priority.

So I watched Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, which was pretty much THE best season EVER. There were faces I recognized, but half of them I had never seen before. I totally rooted for the villains because they were wildly interesting and wonderfully manipulative - totally great entertainment. And it was very fitting that a villain won; the heroes were a little too bland and spineless in comparison.

Then I watched Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites, which was the second best season ever. Pitting experienced familiar faces against starstruck naive fans? Hilarious.

And then I started on the first season of How I Met Your Mother. I'd always heard great things about this TV show, how it's humorous and entertaining and all, and they were all true. I mean, I've seen a few episodes here and there, but now that I've watched it from the beginning, it all makes sense finally. One episode totally reminds me of The Hangover, too. Four more seasons to go!

Rediscovering the joy of reading

As a kid, I was a total bookworm. I think that may have been what sparked off my love for crafting sentences and discovering new words. Obsessed with reading, I spent countless hours in libraries and used my brothers' and parents' library cards to borrow as many books as I could. I carried a book with me everywhere I went and I always found a quiet corner to lose myself in the magical world that the book created.

Reading has always been a favorite pastime of mine - there's just something about living vicariously through the characters, indirectly unearthing all kinds of adventures and exploring unknown worlds through their experiences.

Sadly enough, TV and computer have taken the place of books in the last few years. Even e-books have been invented, but I shudder to think of reading a book online. It's similar to reading a newspaper online - it's cold and unfamiliar and indifferent.

I used to read Enid Blyton, Secret Seven, Famous Five, Meg Cabot, Judy Blume, Sweet Valley, Jodi Picoult, and Dan Brown books, among others, but then school life (especially college) got too busy, and the only books I ended up reading were boring old dusty textbooks.

It wasn't until someone asked me the question, 'what's your favorite book?' that I realized I honestly had no answer other than the cliched one - the Bible.

So I mumbled my way through a response and decided to get my act together. Upon a recommendation by a respected friend, I attempted to read Dave Eggers' critically acclaimed memoir - A heartbreaking work of staggering genius - and found myself wishing I was reading some sort of chick lit instead. And right on cue, as if the book knew I wasn't entertained by it, its pages started falling out (I'm not making this up), and I gave up reading it after getting halfway through it.

That says a lot, because I have never read any book halfway, even if they are awful and boring and completely pointless. Except for The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, because it was traumatizing and horrifying, the thought of a psycho person murdering a little girl and chopping her up into pieces. I just couldn't bring myself to pick the book up and continue torturing myself, neither could I bear to watch the movie when it was released.

I wish I could appreciate Dave Egger's work (it's a Pulitzer Prize finalist, for crying out loud), I really do, but I just couldn't. And it made me feel a little shallow and superficial, as if the only books I could fully enjoy were lame ones, just like the movies I favored. Oh well. To each his own, right? There must be people who are like me, otherwise rom com movies and chick lit books would be extinct by now. That's how I rationalize things, anyway.

So after that failure, I went back to reading books I was familiar with. Books by Dan Brown, Jodi Picoult, Sheila O'Flanagan, Nicholas Sparks, and other fluffy type books. And I was very satisfied.

I absolutely adore Nicholas Sparks' work, even though his books are very similar to one another. There's just something nostalgic and comfortable about his small-town romances that I love.
And Dan Brown is a total genius, in my opinion. Sure, he wrote The Da Vinci Code, which garnered controversy all over the world, but he just has the innate ability to seize readers' attention and keep them spellbound. Whenever I read his books, I have to fight the urge to ignore everything in my life and finish reading just so I can find out what happens at the end.

So recently I read Digital Fortress and Deception Point by Dan Brown, and both were fascinating, but the latter was definitely better.

All that talk about NASA and the US government and some crazy conspiracy to disguise an earthly fossil from the ocean as a meteorite from outer space so as to prove that extraterrestrial life indeed exists... It's pretty mind-blowing. It probably takes him years to write a book, seeing as how he researches everything so in-depth and writes like he's a total professional in the field.

It kind of made me a little inspired to write a book myself, but I'd have no idea what to write about. So I think for now I'll just keep reading to find more ideas and inspiration.

Would you rather...

An accidental list of bizarre choices
you may or may not have to make in life.


Would you rather...
Have eyes that always twinkle and smile,
Or have a touch that that instantly puts people at ease?


Would you rather...
Go back in time to right a mistake you made in your life,
Or go into the future to see how your life turns out?


Would you rather...
Have the ability to be invisible,
Or be able to read other people's thoughts?


Would you rather...
Possess the most money in the world,
Or have the most friends in the world?


Would you rather...
Be able to eliminate starvation and save all the orphans in the world,
Or have the power to bring about world peace?


Would you rather...
Have the talent to influence all kinds people with your writing,
Or have the ability to charm everyone with your (spoken) words?


Would you rather...
Give all the love that you can to someone special,
Or receive more love than you give?


Would you rather... 
Skip your birthday,
Or skip your favorite holiday?


Would you rather...
Publish your diary filled with all kinds of details on your life,
Or produce a movie based on the most embarrassing moments of your life?


Would you rather...
Have to speak every single one of your thoughts all the time,
Or never be able to talk again?


Would you rather...
Leave behind a legacy of shame and disgrace,
Or be completely forgotten?


Would you rather...
Be famous for doing something good,
Or make headlines for stopping something awful?


Would you rather...
Live an average, comfortable life,
Or be on a journey of constant risks and unpredictability?


Would you rather...
Be stranded somewhere alone,
Or be isolated with someone you can't stand?


Would you rather...
Be reading this blog,
Or be doing something more interesting? :)

If you want to be happy, be.

Absurdly cool cakes

I love this design. The stripes, the color, the pearl-like beads... Pretty funky wedding cake.

This kind of reminds me of Cinderella and her pumpkin carriage.

Love Disney. Love Disney princesses. Love this cake. Why didn't I get it for my 5th birthday??

This Guitar Hero cake looks ridiculously lifelike. I almost want to pick it up and play.

Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. Some kid must've been over the moon on his/her birthday. Although... I didn't think Oscar was a popular character. He was always too grouchy for my liking.

This Nikon camera cake is my favorite. I wonder how they got the outside to look so grey. And the inside looks like a red velvet cake. Yum.

Appropriate for computer geeks everywhere.

Grandma's birthday, anyone?

This cake looks amazingly delicate. It must have taken hours to construct every fine detail of the bridge.

I wonder who this cake was for. An optician, perhaps? And is that... Greek? Hebrew? Have no idea.

A map of India. Hmmm. Somehow it doesn't look very appetizing.

Giant Nintendo Wii remote for Wii fanatics everywhere. My brothers would rejoice.

Giant chunk of chocolate? Heck, yes. This really doesn't look like a cake at all. I wonder if they just made a chocolate cake and wrapped it in Cadbury paper.

Mac lovers unite!

Louis Vuitton has not only conquered the fashion world, the brand has also seemingly expanded to the world of cakes. This 'bag' looks amazingly like a real one. It'd be funny if someone attempted to pick it up.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob squarepants! I imagine this cake would be a hit with kids everywhere.

The Eiffel Tower. Wow. Wonder what flavor it is.

If this cake had liquor in it, it'd be perfect.

Cake with a sense of humor. I like.

For some reason, I was just surfing through websites of unique-looking cakes, and I chanced upon these few. They made me want to be a baker so I could make awesome creations like these. It's like art, but edible!

For the love of cooking

My cooking skills have seen a slight improvement over the last few weeks, when I occasionally force myself to get off the couch, turn off the TV, and pitch in to help Mom make dinner. Prior to this, most of my cooking experience came from 'Cooking Mama,' the Nintendo DS game I was obsessed with a while ago. So this has actually been pretty rewarding, especially when savoring each bite of the food that I helped prepare. I don't know why I don't do this more often... Oh yeah, I'm too lazy.

Couch potato me.

Cooking takes up time and energy - washing and preparing the food, baking/frying/boiling/steaming it, and then cleaning the dishes afterward. It's about a hundred times more work than simply tossing a frozen dinner into the microwave and eating it 1 minute later, which I did a lot when I spent a semester living with 4 other girls in an apartment. It was mostly out of laziness and convenience. We also never cleaned the apartment until the day before we moved out, but that's another story.

We live in an age where everything's become so efficient that we expect instant results all the time. Frozen microwaveable dinners, instant macaroni and cheese, powered eggs, powered mashed potatoes, dishwashers, cake mix, cookie dough... It's hard to watch a pot of soup simmer over the fire on the stove for the longest time, but I'd say it's worth it.

Like Jamie Oliver advocates - fresh, healthy food made from scratch is the way to go!
I pretty much love Jamie Oliver. I think it's awesome how he's trying to educate the world on eating healthy and staying away from processed food.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) = EVIL.

So anyway, here's some documentation of our dinners over the past week.

I washed, peeled, and sliced up potatoes and carrots...

To make vegetable curry...

Which Mom made us eat with orange juice, because she claimed it would wash down the curry, or something like that.

Half Hawaiian-half Italiano sliced pizza, taken from Sarpino's. I just love the gorgeous vivid colors of the Italiano - a result of bright red and green capsicums. So pretty, I could stare it all day (which I do).

Fish, beef, chicken, satay, mushrooms, and vegetables.. all ready for teppanyaki!

Jedi - master teppanyaki chef and rice fryer. Mom - master eater. haha.

Frying the beef and fish in soy sauce.

Garlic fried rice with fish and chilli. So. good.