Wow, October's almost over. This year has flown by fast. I'm sitting at my desk wearing a puffy orange jacket with Allan's orange tank top over it. On the tank top are black pieces of paper cut out in the shape of a jack-o-lantern, complete with a π-symbol nose and a headband with stem and leaves... and "3.14159" written on each leaf. Yup, I decided to go with my Pumpkin Pi(e) costume. Allan donned the gifts I brought him from Indonesia-- Hawaiian shirt and long sarong, even his new wallet matches! It was hilarious to see him shuffle along, unable to take the long strides he normally does due to the confines of the wrapped sarong :-D
Pictures forthcoming-- check back for updates!
EDIT: As usual, I'm way too lazy to crop and edit and upload a photo, but I've posted them (at long last!) to Myspace and Facebook. I think all of my readers have an account on one or the other (or both), so you should be able to view the pics there :-)
In the meantime, here's today's Halloween-themed Friday Five:
1. What is your favorite scary movie?
2. What is your favorite Halloween treat?
3. Do you enjoy going to haunted houses or other spooky events?
4. How did you celebrate this time of year when you were a child?
5. How about now/this year?
1. I don't, as a rule, like horror films, but I did enjoy "The Ring". And if they count, all those "Scary Movie" spoofs were pretty funny!
2. Tootsie Rolls!
3. Not really. See #1. I don't really like having my heart leap out of its chest... in a situation I knowingly placed myself in! I leave those for the brave of heart :)
4. My mom would make me a costume (or I'd whip one together based on my own weird imagination-- one time I dressed up as a "clown magician"-- I wore a starry cape, put red circles on my cheeks and nose with my mom's lipstick, and carried around a magic wand and a mini pumpkin) and I'd go trick-or-treating with my friends around the neighborhood. Pretty simple, pretty standard :-)
5. Let's see-- Todd gets a harvest party at school today, Allan and I are simply wearing our costumes to work (I hear there's candy around here!) and our apartment complex is holding a Halloween pizza party this evening, where all 3 of us will go, have fun, and return home in time to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. And then... we feast on our candy goodies :-9
How about you?
La Maison des Tortues: One third of the "heckled trio" writes...
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Costume Suggestions
Friday is Halloween. Perfect opportunity for Allan to dress up in the Hawaiian shirt and sarong I got him from Indonesia. Yup-- gettin' my man to wear a skirt ;-) Anyway-- I still need to come up with something for myself. Something simple, something I can create from my ordinary wardrobe. I don't believe in the concept of shelling out dough for a whole getup I can only wear one time during the year, and not even every year at that.
But I need ideas. A few years ago I took a cue from Denzel Washington's character in Philadelphia and wore my suit with paper printouts of a law taped all over it-- I was a "lawsuit". Something along those lines is what I'm going for again this year.
I came across a website with some tongue-in-cheek suggestions. I've culled some of my favorites:
# CD Burner
Just tie a computer CD around your neck and carry a lighter. When someone asks what you are, hold the lighter up to the CD.
# Snackbar
Attach open bags of snacks to you (chips, pretzels, cheese puffs, nuts, etc.). Your friends will love it! They will be snacking on you all night long.
# Stick in the Mud
Wear all brown and attach a stick to your chest.
# Web Pages
Glue pages from a book onto a black sweatshirt and sweatpants. Add spider webbing to your hair. Voila! Instant internet!
(very similar to the lawsuit idea, not bad)
# Nerd
Attach Nerd candy boxes all over yourself.
(two birds with one stone-- I could then take the unopened boxes off and give them away to the Trick-or-Treaters that night)
# Generic Costume
Wear all white. Draw a large UPC code on your chest and write "COSTUME" above it.
# Pumpkin Pi(e)
Cut a pumpkin shape out of orange construction paper. Write the number 3.1415926 on it. Attach it to your shirt.
(this has a geeky aspect I know many of my co-workers will appreciate)
# Ceiling Fan
Write "Go Ceilings!" on the front of your shirt. Add other gear if you want (pom poms, big foam finger, etc.) And don't forget to cheer!
# Static Cling
Wear any kind of mismatched clothes, pin one pant leg up, pin dryer sheets on you as well as socks, small towels, etc., and then use hair gel to make your hair look like it has static.
All else fails, the lawsuit is a good fallback I can always use. What did you like? Do you have any suggestions?
But I need ideas. A few years ago I took a cue from Denzel Washington's character in Philadelphia and wore my suit with paper printouts of a law taped all over it-- I was a "lawsuit". Something along those lines is what I'm going for again this year.
I came across a website with some tongue-in-cheek suggestions. I've culled some of my favorites:
# CD Burner
Just tie a computer CD around your neck and carry a lighter. When someone asks what you are, hold the lighter up to the CD.
# Snackbar
Attach open bags of snacks to you (chips, pretzels, cheese puffs, nuts, etc.). Your friends will love it! They will be snacking on you all night long.
# Stick in the Mud
Wear all brown and attach a stick to your chest.
# Web Pages
Glue pages from a book onto a black sweatshirt and sweatpants. Add spider webbing to your hair. Voila! Instant internet!
(very similar to the lawsuit idea, not bad)
# Nerd
Attach Nerd candy boxes all over yourself.
(two birds with one stone-- I could then take the unopened boxes off and give them away to the Trick-or-Treaters that night)
# Generic Costume
Wear all white. Draw a large UPC code on your chest and write "COSTUME" above it.
# Pumpkin Pi(e)
Cut a pumpkin shape out of orange construction paper. Write the number 3.1415926 on it. Attach it to your shirt.
(this has a geeky aspect I know many of my co-workers will appreciate)
# Ceiling Fan
Write "Go Ceilings!" on the front of your shirt. Add other gear if you want (pom poms, big foam finger, etc.) And don't forget to cheer!
# Static Cling
Wear any kind of mismatched clothes, pin one pant leg up, pin dryer sheets on you as well as socks, small towels, etc., and then use hair gel to make your hair look like it has static.
All else fails, the lawsuit is a good fallback I can always use. What did you like? Do you have any suggestions?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Home at last-- a brief recap
Whew! Back online after 2 weeks away from the computer. Had about 170 personal and 250 work emails to sift through this morning, not to mention a flurry of blog activity to catch up on. But first, I thought I'd give a quick summary of my trip. There's so much to tell about various other aspects of the trip, I think I'll save them for separate, individual entries.
We left the house at about 9pm Sunday, Oct 12, and our flight took off on time at 1:40am on Monday, Oct 13. We used Eva Air, a Taiwan-based airline-- and it was NICE. Even in economy class, where we sat, the seats were wider than usual and there was plenty of legroom. Most big aircraft designed for flying overseas have video screens built into the seat back in front of you, with various programs to watch-- but Eva had video/TV on demand-- you could pick what you wanted to watch whenever you wanted to watch it, and even pause, rewind and fast-forward as you pleased! The 14-hour flight to Taiwan was made more bearable by the fact that it was me and my parents sharing the row of 3 seats. No worries about shoving Dad aside for more elbow room, or accidentally kicking Mom while shifting positions :-D
We had a 12-hour layover in Taiwan, where we partook of one of their free day tours specifically designed for people with long layovers there. This was the first time I'd ever seen an Asian city, and the sights and sounds were definitely different from what I was used to-- even the streets of various Chinatowns in North America (LA, San Francisco, Vancouver) were distinctly different. More on that later.
Another 5-hour flight later, we touched down in Indonesia at around 10pm Tuesday night, were picked up by various family members, and settled down in our hotel room at the Sheraton, which happened to be located right next to one of Surabaya's newest and glitziest shopping centers-- a 6-story mall with 3 wings, rivaling the Mall of America in size!
The following week was a whirlwind of activity: shopping and meeting various people. Since the main purpose of the trip was to see family members that a) I had never met and b) my parents hadn't seen in years, we spent most of it seeing various aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces. I met my grandparents (Dad's parents) for the first time, my parents' siblings, and a handful of cousins, some with little kids of their own. Every day, it seemed, I met someone new. It wasn't long before I lost track of who was whom if they weren't within the core circle of direct family (aunts, uncles and first cousins)-- and even then, what a large circle it was! The culmination of these reunions was a big party on Sunday, Oct 19-- with most of my dad's extended family plus several friends he hadn't seen in so long, either. There must have been at least 90+ of us that descended on one restaurant :-)
We departed Surabaya at 11pm on Tuesday, Oct 21, had another 12-hour layover in Taiwan where we did some sightseeing on our own, and arrived safe and sound in LA on Wednesday afternoon. Thankfully the tail wind drove down the previous 14-hour-trip to only 11 hours. I spent the next couple days at my parents' house, recuperating, unpacking and cleaning up, before returning to Santa Barbara on Saturday afternoon.
While in Indonesia, my mom's brother lent us his driver and car for the week, so we were pretty mobile. The driver was also really cool about driving us around the city and showing us the sights, particularly the places where my mom and where my dad used to live. So a lot of my sightseeing was done from inside a nicely-insulated, air-conditioned, moving vehicle. As a result, I don't have very many pictures-- most of the pics we did take were of friends and family members-- again, this was primarily a family reunion trip, not a sightseeing trip. We hope to go again sometime soon in the future, and this time I'll bring along Todd and Allan, and hope to get some more proper pictures taken.
In the meantime, I jotted down lots of notes about the things I DID see, even from the car-- like the huge 2-story McDonaldses, the unique bathrooms/toilets, the crazy traffic, and the juxtaposition of rich+new with poor+old along the city streets. I hope to blog about them later-- and maybe, hopefully, paint some pictures with my words to make up for the lack of actual photographs. Hope you have an active imagination to picture the coming stories! :-)
We left the house at about 9pm Sunday, Oct 12, and our flight took off on time at 1:40am on Monday, Oct 13. We used Eva Air, a Taiwan-based airline-- and it was NICE. Even in economy class, where we sat, the seats were wider than usual and there was plenty of legroom. Most big aircraft designed for flying overseas have video screens built into the seat back in front of you, with various programs to watch-- but Eva had video/TV on demand-- you could pick what you wanted to watch whenever you wanted to watch it, and even pause, rewind and fast-forward as you pleased! The 14-hour flight to Taiwan was made more bearable by the fact that it was me and my parents sharing the row of 3 seats. No worries about shoving Dad aside for more elbow room, or accidentally kicking Mom while shifting positions :-D
We had a 12-hour layover in Taiwan, where we partook of one of their free day tours specifically designed for people with long layovers there. This was the first time I'd ever seen an Asian city, and the sights and sounds were definitely different from what I was used to-- even the streets of various Chinatowns in North America (LA, San Francisco, Vancouver) were distinctly different. More on that later.
Another 5-hour flight later, we touched down in Indonesia at around 10pm Tuesday night, were picked up by various family members, and settled down in our hotel room at the Sheraton, which happened to be located right next to one of Surabaya's newest and glitziest shopping centers-- a 6-story mall with 3 wings, rivaling the Mall of America in size!
The following week was a whirlwind of activity: shopping and meeting various people. Since the main purpose of the trip was to see family members that a) I had never met and b) my parents hadn't seen in years, we spent most of it seeing various aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces. I met my grandparents (Dad's parents) for the first time, my parents' siblings, and a handful of cousins, some with little kids of their own. Every day, it seemed, I met someone new. It wasn't long before I lost track of who was whom if they weren't within the core circle of direct family (aunts, uncles and first cousins)-- and even then, what a large circle it was! The culmination of these reunions was a big party on Sunday, Oct 19-- with most of my dad's extended family plus several friends he hadn't seen in so long, either. There must have been at least 90+ of us that descended on one restaurant :-)
We departed Surabaya at 11pm on Tuesday, Oct 21, had another 12-hour layover in Taiwan where we did some sightseeing on our own, and arrived safe and sound in LA on Wednesday afternoon. Thankfully the tail wind drove down the previous 14-hour-trip to only 11 hours. I spent the next couple days at my parents' house, recuperating, unpacking and cleaning up, before returning to Santa Barbara on Saturday afternoon.
While in Indonesia, my mom's brother lent us his driver and car for the week, so we were pretty mobile. The driver was also really cool about driving us around the city and showing us the sights, particularly the places where my mom and where my dad used to live. So a lot of my sightseeing was done from inside a nicely-insulated, air-conditioned, moving vehicle. As a result, I don't have very many pictures-- most of the pics we did take were of friends and family members-- again, this was primarily a family reunion trip, not a sightseeing trip. We hope to go again sometime soon in the future, and this time I'll bring along Todd and Allan, and hope to get some more proper pictures taken.
In the meantime, I jotted down lots of notes about the things I DID see, even from the car-- like the huge 2-story McDonaldses, the unique bathrooms/toilets, the crazy traffic, and the juxtaposition of rich+new with poor+old along the city streets. I hope to blog about them later-- and maybe, hopefully, paint some pictures with my words to make up for the lack of actual photographs. Hope you have an active imagination to picture the coming stories! :-)
Friday, October 10, 2008
Off for 2 weeks
As many of you know, late Sunday night my parents and I will be flying out of LAX and heading toward Indonesia to spend several days visiting my grandparents (my dad's parents) and other relatives I've never seen before. It's going to be interesting-- 14 hour flight (taking off at 1:30 in the morning), 12-hour layover in Taiwan, and then another several hours' flight to Indonesia.
I'm looking forward to it! I've never been to Asia before-- the longest haul trip I've ever made has been to Europe. And I've only recently tried Indonesian food-- my parents took me to an Indonesian restaurant in LA a few weeks ago, so I could get a taste for what it was like, and mmmmmm... delicious!
Couple weeks ago I scrambled to get all my vaccinations up to date. That was an adventure all on its own :-P All that remains (besides the obvious cleaning up and packing) is to get some insect repellent. Mosquitoes? Which fly rampant in the hot and humid climate? Not something I'm looking forward too :-P I've also got my anti-malarial medication onhand. It also serves as a general-purpose antibiotic, which might come in handy to ward off any bugs I might catch along the way. Recycled airplane cabin air = yucky!
We return on the evening of Wednesday, the 22nd. Given a day or two to get over jet lag, I should be back and ready to go by the following weekend. In other words, I'll be offline, and I mean completely offline, for the next 2 weeks. Let's see what withdrawals symptoms I undergo!
Wish us a safe and uneventful flight/trip. And wish Allan lots of luck and support as he takes on the next 2 weeks, playing "single dad" all by himself :-D See you in a couple weeks!
I'm looking forward to it! I've never been to Asia before-- the longest haul trip I've ever made has been to Europe. And I've only recently tried Indonesian food-- my parents took me to an Indonesian restaurant in LA a few weeks ago, so I could get a taste for what it was like, and mmmmmm... delicious!
Couple weeks ago I scrambled to get all my vaccinations up to date. That was an adventure all on its own :-P All that remains (besides the obvious cleaning up and packing) is to get some insect repellent. Mosquitoes? Which fly rampant in the hot and humid climate? Not something I'm looking forward too :-P I've also got my anti-malarial medication onhand. It also serves as a general-purpose antibiotic, which might come in handy to ward off any bugs I might catch along the way. Recycled airplane cabin air = yucky!
We return on the evening of Wednesday, the 22nd. Given a day or two to get over jet lag, I should be back and ready to go by the following weekend. In other words, I'll be offline, and I mean completely offline, for the next 2 weeks. Let's see what withdrawals symptoms I undergo!
Wish us a safe and uneventful flight/trip. And wish Allan lots of luck and support as he takes on the next 2 weeks, playing "single dad" all by himself :-D See you in a couple weeks!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Service woes
Grrrr... Helly = in full rant mode today. But I feel it's best if I keep this in a private entry, so I'm blogging it on Myspace as a friends-only entry. Feel free to add me if I know you :-)
Have a gander:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=28049135&blogID=438097188
(Warning: it's a doozy! I didn't realize how long it was till I posted it. Have patience! :-) )
Have a gander:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=28049135&blogID=438097188
(Warning: it's a doozy! I didn't realize how long it was till I posted it. Have patience! :-) )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)