500!

What does all this 500 mean?

My blogging has reached post #500!

Like this image above that is comprised of 500 photos.

And it feels almost as good as ex-Red Sox Manny Ramirez hitting homerun #500.

vietnamese buffet

For lunch today, N and I decided to try out the buffet special at Sung Son Vietnamese Restaurant in the Westport area. I had eaten there for dinner a couple of times, and the cuisine was authentic and very tasty. The last time I had dinner there, the owner insisted that I must come back and try their lunch buffet because they serve a whole variety of Vietnamese food and there was a variety in the noodle bar too.
I didn't take a picture of the buffet line because I didnt want people to think I'm crazy. I'm beginning to think my friends are labeling the "cuckoo" word on me because I'm always stopping them from eating until I get my pictures. Anyhow, the photo above is my SECOND plate of food. Yep, second. I was so hungry, I forgot to take a picture of the first plate.

So, on my second plate of food, you can see an eggroll, crab rangoon, fried rice, General Tsao's chicken and fried sweet potato sticks. Yeah yeah, so it looks mostly like Chinese food, but you gotta read on...

From the noodle bar, I chose the Seafood Pho for my third plate...um bowl...of food. It was a nicely sized portion because I still had room left over for some more food. The beef broth was really tasty and the seafood was fresh. There was a server at the noodle bar to prepare each bowl of noodle soup that was ordered, so it wasn't like there was a giant pot of Pho that everyone was taking from.

And to my amazement, I was able to put in a fourth plate...or more precisely half of a fourth plate, into my maw. I really liked the spring rolls, so I had to fit in another two rolls before rolling myself out of the restaurant.

The buffet costs $8.99 per person, and I think the times are from 11:30 until 1:30. So if you could sit and eat for 2 straight hours, that's a pretty good deal for the yummy variety!

LL Cool J / Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson came to town last night, and brought with her LL Cool J:

He's such good eye candy...but unfortunately, I could not see him last night because he was this tiny yellow fleck on stage.

The Sprint Center was not really that big inside as I thought it was. Considering we had the cheapest tickets available, our view wasn't that bad. I was expecting to be farther away from the stage than we actually were.

Videos of LL's set, although I couldn't really tell what he was singing due to all the screaming going on around us. He did take off his shirt and gave it away to someone inside the cube. And he was throwing away his sweat towels (and even roses) left and right.






Miss Janet Jackson is a very good entertainer. I knew she was short, but I didn't realize how short. Also, she looked a bit chubbier than usual and she wasn't wearing any heels during the entire performance. However, her show was still pretty good. And there were no wardrobe malfunctions.

Opening song

Come Back to Me

Fall in Love Again


I have to warn you about this next video -- it's very provocative. I've heard that Janet Jackson usually picks some lucky guy from the audience to go onstage and she does some kind of dominatrix act on him. This is that video. The guy looked scared, but I'm sure he enjoyed every moment of Janet torturing him. I hope he wasn't with a girl at the concert... Did you catch the part where he mouthed "Oh Shit"? Priceless! (I think this song is from her Discipline album.)



This last video is kinda cool because there was Dave Navarro on the big screen as he was rocking on his guitar to Janet's Black Cat. There were other celebrity video appearances too -- Nelly, the only one I could recognize unless I got these rappers mixed up...

tengo mexicana

Being going to the Janet Jackson concernt last night (more to come in separate post), my roomie and I went to the Power & Light District for dinner last night. She never had Mexican food before, so we decided to try out Tengo sed Cantina, the only Mexican restaurant at the Power & Light (or one that I knew of).

Can you believe that my roommate does not like chips and salsa? She doesn't like chips at all! Oh it was horrible to see that whole basket of chips just sitting there. I had my fair portion of chips and salsa, but didn't really make a dent into the basket.

I decided to order something tame for the first time Mexcian food eater, so I ordered her a chicken burrito. She seemed to enjoy it (she ate the whole thing!).

As for myself, I had the steak tacos. I let the roomie taste the Spanish rice and refried beans. She didn't like the beans, and she said the rice tastes like rice except it's red. I believe Spanish rice has a hint of tomato in it, yes? Well, I devoured the steak tacos (with extra hot sauce). The steak was good, but the way they layered the tacos one on top of the other made the tortilla really gooey, which wasn't so good. I ended up eating the tacos with a fork instead of being able to hold it in my hands.

So for dessert, we had the Fried Ice-Cream - which was a major disappointment. The portion, on the other hand, was huge, and we couldn't finish it. Although, I think it was more that the ice-cream wasn't tasty enough for us to finish the whole thing, because you know me, I haven't had chocolate for three weeks so I should be wolfing down the vanilla ice-cream. The "fried" part wasn't really fried either, and was yet again kinda gooey doughy. I think that they just fry the ice-cream in advance and then put the dish in the freezer until serving.

And as we were walking over to the Sprint Center for the Janet Jackson concert, there was also a band playing in the courtyard. I have no idea who was playing, but they sounded pretty good. If we didn't already have a concert to go to, I'd sit and listen to the band while sipping on a martini or something.

the end is near

I have not had any chocolate whatsoever for about three weeks now (decided to give up chocolate to see if I can do it).

I'm also trying to go easy on the junk food. So normally, when I want to snack on something, it's usually a piece of chocolate, or some salty potato chips, or some cake, or whatever has sugar in it.
I have resorted to eating this for a snack lately. Yep, steamed broccolli. I HATE broccolli. And yet here I am, stuffing it down my throat, chewing and swallowing as quickly as I can so I don't have to prolong the taste of it. YUCK!

Yep, I've lost my mind.

free new toy

I just got a new toy! A brand spanking new 8gb purple iPod nano (4th generation)! It's so pretty! There are games on it that I'm beginning to get addicted to. AND I just loaded my ENTIRE collection of mp3s and I still have over 6gb of memory left on it. I just can't contain my joy right now!

...

Wanna know what's the best thing about this new toy of mine? I got it absolutely FREE! Yep, that's right, a $149 iPod for free, shipping included.

...

"How'd you do that?" you ask? Two long years of doing as many LexisNexis tutorial/training/questions as possible to accumulate enough points (11,775) for a free iPod. Plus, I still have about 6,000 points in the Lexis bank and about six more months to keep accumulating points. Maybe I'll work towards some nice cookware or bakeware.

...

Who says research doesn't pay? =)

Chinese Zither 古筝

I'm spreading a little culture to all of you by posting these videos. My friend, J, a very talented person, plays the Chinese Zither 古筝 and I just happened to be taking videos of her yesterday. It's just mesmorizing to see her fingers move across the stringed instrument, and the music isn't horrible either!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

halloween decor

I suppose that's one way to scare off trick-or-treaters.

beef ribs

On the spur of the moment today, my roommate and I decided to blow off homework and walk to the Plaza in search of baby clothes (for a baby shower!). After oogling over adorable baby clothes, we made our purchases and started our walk back home. Along the way, my stomach was growling and I saw Jack Stacks and asked my roommate if she had a chance to try out barbeque yet (my roommate is another international student from China and this is her first time in the US). She hadn't tried barbeque yet, so we decided to have dinner at Jack Stacks.

After waiting for half an hour, we still were not seated at a table, but fortunately, I walked into the bar area and found an empty table. So I gave the vibrating thing back to the hostess and told her we'd eat in the bar. I ordered the "Dinner for Two" Slab of Beef Ribs. OH. MY. GOSH. It is NOT a dinner for two, not even for someone with my appetite. It was more like a dinner for four.

*little side note -- I didn't have my camera on me, so I had to use my camera phone to take these pictures, which is why the quality is not so good and the food doesn't look as appetizing as it really was.*

Our ginormous dinner came with a side of cole slaw for each of us...
Above is the giant plate of beef ribs. I never had beef ribs before; I always order pork baby back ribs. It's a different taste, obviously because it's beef, but the meat was so tender it was falling off the bone. Plus, the size of these beef ribs were quadruple the size of baby back ribs. There was a group of older men staring at us while we were eating our dinner. Two men finally had the courage to come up to our table and asked us, "Are you two really going to be able to finish all that?" I told him not to encourage me or else I would finish it just to prove a point. Fortunately for me, the group of men went away shortly thereafter and I didn't have to force myself to eat it all.
The dinner also came with a side of baked beans. And I ordered an extra side dish -- baked cheesy corn, because I just wanted to try it out. Cheesy corn is yummy! Oh, the dinner also came with a side of french fries, which I promptly devoured half of as soon as the plate hit the table.
Here's a snapshot of our entire table.

And here's the carcus of our dinner. There was a total of 9 beef ribs. I ate two and considered myself defeated. My roommie had three because she was enjoying herself.

It was a good thing we both had to walk home afterwards! (approx. 15 mins walk) And as I write this post, I feel like I just ate a quarter of a cow.

food galore and no rice in sight

A friend invited me and several classmates over to her house for lunch this past Saturday, and this is the spread (apologies for not knowing the true names of these dishes!):

plenty fo chicken wings
some kind of soup
bitter melon!! (yucky!)

mini pork ribs
some kind of crepe dish with eggs and green peppers
more pork ribs, marinated in a different sauce
Quote of the day from lunch: "With all the Asians sitting at this table, I'm very surprised there's no steamed rice."

And some of us knew that the Hostess's birthday is today (Monday) so I bought over a cheesecake sampler with candles that spelled out Happy Birthday. Yes, I know. I incorrectly spelled "birthday" in the picture. It was brought to my attention. Thank you very much.

Hallmark Visitor Center

If you're ever in KC, you must know that this is the birthplace of Hallmark (you know, all those cards you buy for every occasion?). So being that the headquarters is right smack in KC, Hallmark has a Visitor Center where you can go for a free "tour" and learn all about the history of Hallmark and how it makes its cards. The best part is at the end of the tour (keep reading to find out why).
This is one of Hallmark's earlier creations - Pin the Tail on Mickey.
There was a whole row of Christmas trees that were very creatively designed. This particular one just had all those stained glass circles.
I thought this was weird -- many of the trees had signs at the bottom that said "Merry Christmas Mr. J.C." and I'm thinking to myself "Who's J.C.?" Then I think some more and I come up with "Jesus Christ" and now I'm wondering "Why would you say Merry Christmas directly to Jesus Christ?"
Turns out J.C. isn't Jesus Christ but is the name of the founder of Hallmark, Mr. J.C. Hall. I'm uncertain, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see what J.C. stood for on his name plaque.
More xmas trees.
Okay, here's the best part -- You get to make a bow as your very own souvineer! It's so awesome.
Watch the video below.



So we ended up making four bows because the first time, I was totally awed by it and forgot to take a video. Then the second and third time, I had a dum dum moment and forgot to press the record button. And finally all went right with take #4. If I wasn't so afraid of someone coming by to stop me, I'd stand there and press the button all day just to keep seeing the loop-de-loops forming and the happiness surge I get when the finished bow pops out. =) And this lady is right - Attitude IS Everything!

missing pizza part

Below is what a perfect slice of pizza is supposed to look like. And more pictures of perfect slices of pizza are available here.
Below is a not so perfect slice of pizza, which was served to me today. Yep, that's right, the bottom point is missing. What happened to it, you ask? Apparantly, there was an accident, or something...the waitress didn't clarify.
The waitress just brought me my slice of pizza (with missing part) and told me "this part's missing because there was an incident, but if you really have a problem with the missing part, you can take it up with the guys back there."

Umm, okay. Thanks lady. (I'm so non-confrontational)

Putting the missing pizza part aside, today's pizza wasn't all that great. My slice of pepperoni lacked pepperonis and the cheese was not evenly distributed throughout the slice. Compared to the previous week's slice (above picture), today's non-whole slice didn't look as appetizing. The place has its good days and it also has its bad days. Today was not a good one.

Oh well. It was still yummy in my tummy.

lover's quarrel (or roommate issues)

For the last week, I have been woken up by arguments outside my window - and I live on the third floor! Okay, let me back up...

The "noise" started last Friday, when I heard loud music and drunken people yelling outside my window. It was after midnight, and I was trying for the last hour to go to sleep. Yes, my window was closed, but obviously they're not sound-proof. So in an agitated state, I went over to my window to see where all this ruckus was coming from. The neighbors across the street from my window were apparantly having a little party. They looked like undergrads, and it was a Friday night, so I gave them a pass and went looking through my medicine cabinet for a sleeping pill.

So then the next night, or really it was very early Sunday morning, I woke up to the sound of loud arguing between a girl and a guy. I thought maybe it was 2am or so, but no, it was 5am. That's right, 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning. And they were arguing at the top of their lungs in the middle of the street outside my window. This went on for 20 minutes. It pissed me off, so I got up and went to my window to see what the heck was going on. I was also wondering why these two lovebirds ("Don't go away from me, I love you!") were not arguing inside their home but outside on the street. Didn't their mothers ever tell them "never air your dirty laundry"? Anyway, when I got to the window, I saw the girl hang onto the side of a car, crying and yelling some non-distinct words and the guy in the car drove away. Then she was running after him. Good, take the argument elsewhere so I can go back to sleep.

Two nights later, that's yesterday, they start arguing AGAIN! They're both standing outside their house, across the street from my window, and start yelling at one another. This was around 10pm. Seriously, if you have issues with one another, why the hell are you discussing them outside for the rest of the world to hear? Mainly me, whose precious sleep you are interfering with?!

And guess what? There was another public argument today, just ten minutes ago. Yep, in broad daylight. I was trying to take a nap, so they were - yet again - interfering with my sleep. Today, however, the female voice was different and it turned out to be the girl's mother coming over to yell at the guy. Then the guy called the girl on his phone and continued to yell at the phone.

I've now determined what the spat is all about -- the girl and guy decided to live together but they also have two other roommates, who the girl is not comfortable with the other two guys because they started this loud party on Friday night when she was trying to study. The guy is upset because she doesn't respect him or his friends. And this was a lovely quote from the guy: "If they were two handsome guys playing guitar, you wouldn't have minded if they threw the party. Yes, I know that about you. You just don't like them because they're ugly." Ouch.

I have a soap drama going on outside my window. Still, I wonder WHY THE HECK ARE THEY ARGUING OUTSIDE?? Seriously, privacy not an issue?

Yes, my window is closed the whole time. So imagine just how loud these two lovebirds have to be for their voice to carry up to the third floor window and through a pane of glass!

cho-ga cho-ga

We decided to go Korean tonight for after-class-dinner, and ended up at Choga Korean Restuarant in Overland Park, KS. It took a while to drive there from KC, but the neverending cups of barley tea and endless amount of yummy food totally makes up for the distance.

Above, there are the small side dishes that usually comes with every meal at a Korean resturant. The noodle dish is Jap-chae, and the meat in the fishy-looking-skillet is Calbi, aka barbeque beef short rib (my favorite dish!)
Above from left to right: Bulgolgi (barbeque pork); spicy squid and spicy pork.
The entire spread of food on our table.

As I mentioned above, my favorite dish is the Calbi. I haven't found a Korean restaurant that can mess up the marinade for this dish. I also love thinly cut slices of beef that are overly burnt on the barbeque, so that's probably why I like Calbi so much. Yes, that's right, I like my cows really really dead (I HATE the thought of "rare" anything, especially bleeding pieces of steaks -- yuck!). I also love the tea Choga serves -- I could drink it all day and not get sick of it.

how to fail a test with dignity

pictures courtesy of D who forwarded the email to me.

You may have to click on the image to enlarge it if you can't read it from this page.

Sooo funny!