thirty days of sharing: I skip and cheat all the way to the end

30. whatever tickles your fancy

First off, here were the following four after 'describe your day in detail':

day 26 → your week, in great detail
day 27 → this month, in great detail
day 28 → this year, in great detail
day 29 → hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS? I could not even write substantially for a day; can you imagine the horror a week/month would be and the complete failtasm FAIL a year would be? And I am not particularly in the mood to be expressing my hopes, dreams, and plans at this moment, particularly the idea of keyboard smashing it on blogspot is not exactly appealing, so I'm just going to let it fly by the radar.

But I will leave you all with this from Dirty Tackle, which never fails to make me guffaw to myself in the office; talk about unprofessional work etiquette! *Guffaws*

"The people who make Legos decided to get in on the World Cup spirit by recreating the goals scored in certain matches - in this case, Saturday's 1-1 draw between England and the U.S. - with their product. There really isn't too much you can say about this delightful bit of nonsense.

I do like how they interpret every person involved in the match as being so happy, even though almost all of them have the same exact hairstyle (Lego Heskey may want to get that gaping hole on top of his head looked at). I'm also not sure why they have the goalkeepers wearing caps - must be some form of Lego revisionist history. But Lego Clint Dempsey's ball control is just as amazing as real Clint Dempsey's. And I would definitely pay good money to see Lego Clint rap."

- Brooke Pecks

So that's it guys, no more of this ridiculous sharing meme. Does this mean I will disappear completely, leaving behind a follow-me trail to my wordpress, which is intended for China purposes? No, not really. I might finally find the guts to post that argh-I-got-a-cute-tumor-in-me-brains curtain fic without falling off my chair and rolling into the side of my bed.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-five

25. your day, in great detail

Ooo, these are tough. Well, today was the long, delayed Mackenzie and Rebecca date. The car has been all sorts of suicidal and pulled one on me by excreting green liquid at the gas pump last week. But it has been fixed! And I drove into the city, found myself tackling parallel parking on a hill in the Castro district...and the girls hit lunch at Firewood where we got giant salads, which we took ...something ridiculous long to consume.

Mainly because there were a many things to catch up on. I can't discuss this part in detail because well, hello there, public blog. But it's nice to have a lengthy conversation between girls, catching up personally and everything.

After a few hours in the city, in order to have a head-start over transbay traffic, which is awful, I zoomed back but unfortunately met up with some car-jam up before the bridge. Chilling here with some Jamaican Ginger Beer, listening to some Ella Fitzgerald....the weather has been glorious....mmm, I think I can use a nap.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-four

24. whatever tickles your fancy

I keep blogging about cupcakes but look at these marvelous little treats! WORLD CUP CUPCAKES! I want to order a whole complete batch for the final...that's how much I want them.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-three

23. a YouTube video


The only thing I can say that will justify this is: I'm just in the mood.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-two

22. a website

Orisinal Games

Want to procrastinate and binge on uber-cuteness at the same time? Orisinal is the place to be (though for the longest time, I thought it was 'Original Games'). Adorable graphics, accompanied by equally adorable game soundtrack, these mini games are sure to distract you from a night's worth of productivity. Don't click on the link unless you really have nothing to do...or if you're really that keen to not do anything for a few hours. :)

This has nothing to do with anything but Jon's birthday package arrived this past weekend on one of the hottest days of the month. My room has been invaded and swamped by the cologne of Jon. Earl Grey did well for a while but now it has been knocked down. I also think I might be allergic to indecently copious amounts of this stuff, hence, the all sorts of wonky my eyes have been yesterday and this morning.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-one

21. a recipe

Design*Sponge's Behind the Bar: Chelsea + Tec Petaja's "magic juice"

Does this count? Or does this just make me seem like a compulsive alcoholic? I've made half magic juice so still awaiting the opportunity to make full magic juice hee.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty

20. a hobbie of yours

Hans van der Meer photography

To go along with the WC spirit (hurgh), been a football spectator for a very long time, well, not as long as my father but for a considerable length of time (at least longer than me and baseball). Despite what goes along with football, hooligan violence, business corruption, money-runs-the-game-conspiracies, knuckled-headed moronic footballers with the bod and no brains, it's still a game I enjoy a lot. And sometimes, at the end of 90+ minutes, you think to yourself, wow, what a game.

thirty days of sharing: day nineteen

19. a talent of yours

*Laughs nervously* Why do they always ask this question?

Been playing since I was five and it's been a long ride. Paused when college hit but still pick it up from time to time. It's a joy to play, despite everything.

thirty days of sharing: day eighteen

18. whatever tickles your fancy


I don't even like cupcakes that much but the fact that these are freaking MUPPET CUPCAKES is sheer incredibleness, all highly condensed into a form of diabetes-inducing sugary goodness. How can you say no?

thirty days of sharing: day seventeen

17. an art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

Pieter Brueghel the Elder - Peasant Wedding (1568), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The great thing about the KHM is that most of the paintings they collected of artists tend to be showcased in the same gallery room. Another great thing is the availability of supremely comfortable couches to sit down and then gaze at the works of art right in front of you on the walls.

Absolutely loved the Brueghel room(s).

thirty days of sharing: day sixteen

16. a song that makes you cry (or nearly)


"Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot, sung by Luciano Pavarotti

I've listened to Nessun Dorma countless times, ever since I was seven on a road trip with my parents up to Vancouver to the time I went to Opera in the Park the year Pavarotti died just days before and teared up none so elegantly when they broadcast this song across the field. Every time, this very performance makes me goosebump over; Zubin Mehta orchestrating the Orchestra from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (which I have the great honour of listening to twice this past year), accompany Pavarotti's truly unique tenor tones. There's never a time when I'm listening to this recording and not wish I was there to see him perform this. The video above cuts out at the end but you can still here the audience clap before he ends and then erupt after the music ends....it's really quite something.

thirty days of sharing: day fifteen

15. a fanfic

Oh man, why am I so excited for this one? Maybe it's because I have TWO that I want to just gush over, ridiculously and possibly without any reason except for its utter sweetness. But I will be good and choose one. If you're curious about my runner-up, leave a comment and I'll link you.

Theories about Nuclear Winter (Calvin and Hobbes)
Summary wraps it up as "When Calvin finally sorts out his feelings for Susie his timing is not great," which is more or less the understatement of it all. Our childhood comic figures are now teenagers in high school, Calvin's smart but academically unmotivated, Susie's a book nerd, sharp yet sensitive at the same time, and Hobbes is still there in the background, an ever-comfortable, familiar presence. It's a beautiful story, a really sweet interpretation of Calvin and Susie as they are now older, attempting to grab at the loose wiry strands of their prescient teenage emotional tumult; why is that, years ago as snot-picking kids, they couldn't stand each others' guts but now, they pretend to ignore each other based on some ridiculous silent insecurity...

As a child who bought Calvin and Hobbes comics in excess, this was almost a ten years later sort of scenario for an older me. The first time I read it, I found it incredibly cute, because truly it is. The second time I read it was just a week (or two?) after I came back from England/Rome, after Jon and I decided to be together. While I did not think I could possibly love the story any more, the inevitable happened: I did. Every little heart-felt sentiment Calvin felt reverberated in me as a reflection of Jon and let me tell you, this line that encapsulates everything:

"And that's why he loves her, she just knows."

...It's something incredible that some amazing writer out there knows what it feels like. Shmoop, shmoop, shmoop; I didn't mean to turn this into a freaking emotion-dripping exposition on me (not a teenager anymore though) but it has a personal touch. This story kind of affects me, whilst to say I do act against my inner sentimentality a lot. :)

thirty days of sharing: day fourteen

14. a non-fictional book
Two years ago, I took a course on Religious Ethics: Gender and Sexuality Studies at uni and one of the required readings was Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam. What it provides is not only an insight into an often stereotyped and misunderstood religion but also a historical account of the woman experience in both a feminist and Islamic perspective. Usually with certain academic texts, the writing may tend to be sucked dry and imitate a bulldozed construction site with wrecking balls of information making mad swings towards your head ("ABSORB ME"). But Ahmed's book is written in a lucid style, story-esque accounts of past leading up to present interwoven with intellectual analysis. It's much more of an easy read that some might presume and I thoroughly enjoyed it; very enlightening.

thirty days of sharing: day thirteen

13. a fictional book
Day thirteen only?! I feel like I've been doing this for a way longer time. Nevertheless, I have been looking at rereading the above-mentioned novel yesterday when I realized that perhaps, my Stephen Fry books might have finally arrived in the mail! And they did! But that doesn't stop me from entertaining the thought of reading The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay again.

Joe Kavalier, trained in the arts of Houdini, smuggles himself to New York City from Nazi-infested Prague and joins up with his cousin Sammy Clay in being co-heads of their own comic book of superheroes. The plot is magnificent, romance not overtly sentimental but still expands on emotional depth, and its tale is truly as exciting as a romp through one's own imagination of living in a universe of heroes, endowed with superpowers. This book concreted my feelings towards Chabon's work and it really is quite a fascinating piece of work.

" 'To me, Clark Kent in a phone booth and Houdini in a packing crate, they were one and the same thing...you weren't the same person when you came out as when you went in. Houdini's first magic act, you know, back when he was just getting started. It was called «Metamorphosis.» It was never just a question of escape. It was also a question of transformation.' " (3)

- Sammy Clay, learnedly expounding at WonderCon or Angoulême or to the editor of The Comics Journal

thirty days of sharing: day twelve

12. whatever tickles your fancy

Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart in an EPIC DANCE OFF on the Conan Legally Prohibited Tour in New York City, 1 May 2010. Here's an alternate link.

thirty days of sharing: day eleven

11. a photo of you taken recently

Taken by Teresa over at First Impressions in Oxford over the Thames River

thirty days of sharing: day ten

10. a photo of you taken over ten years ago

thirty days of sharing: day nine

09. a photo you took

Vernazza, Cinqueterre. (Liguria, Italia)
What a magical place.

thirty days of sharing: day eight

08. a photo that makes you sad


It doesn't exactly make me as sad as it makes me go nostalgic. 2005, huh? How time has flown pass. And the knowledge that you once were the underdog, able to surpass difficulties and challenges of any football club, to find yourself champion at the end--it's bittersweet.

thirty days of sharing: day seven

07. a photo that makes you happy

There's just so many things in this picture that makes it win shining aces and stars across the galaxy.