Twilight Actors at Comic-Con

July 29, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Movies, Videos

Carmen’s New Car

I got to ride in Carmen’s new car today. It seats seven people comfortably and has all the bells and whistles. I think my favorite feature is the backup camera display on the rear view mirror. Fancy!

July 29, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Moblog

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Sun and Moon

“Sun and Moon” is one of my favorite songs from Miss Saigon. Lea Salonga and Simon Bowman from the original London cast perform it in this video.

P.S. I would have posted a video of Shannon Tyo and Chris Peluso here from Sunday’s performance except cameras and video recording devices are expressly prohibited. =P

July 28, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Videos

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Miss Saigon on Sunday

We went to bed really late on Saturday, on account of Kurt-a-palooza. Though I only had a glass and a half of Sangria (and didn’t partake of any shots), I woke up miserable on Sunday. I had severe chest pain, had difficulty breathing, and was wheezing at times. My body, particularly my sides and ribs, felt like I’d been pounded by a mallet. I had a pounding headache. I really wished we didn’t have to go anywhere, but I didn’t want our $80 in theater tickets to go to waste.

Even though I already know the story, I still wanted very much to see Miss Saigon performed. We had a little bit of time before the show so we stopped by Brian’s grandparents’ to fix some problems that grandma was having with the computer.

We were 30 minutes early, but the parking lot was already full. We had to park almost by Gander Mountain. I don’t think the long walk helped matters any. Even with my sunglasses, the brightness seemed to make my headache worse. I had a hard enough time breathing when standing still, by the time we got to Century II, I was almost hyperventilating.

Our seats were pretty good, all things considered. I’m glad I had my eyeglasses, though. I don’t think I would have been able to see facial expressions without them (since I’m nearsighted). Some of the dance numbers needed to be more polished, but the singing made up for it. My favorite songs were rendered beautifully. Overall, the show was great. If I wasn’t already familiar with the story, I would have been bawling. As it was, it made me cry.

We were initially going to find Jimbo after the show but, since I was feeling so miserable, Brian and I decided to go straight home after the show. We had some errands to do also that we had planned for that evening, but all of it got canceled. As soon as we got home, I took off all my clothes and went to bed. I woke up just in time for True Blood, our favorite TV show.

We noticed that this happens to me after parties at Sunny’s house. We were thinking I might be allergic to dogs, with the exception of Molly since she is half poodle and poodles are supposed to be hypoallergenic. However, this doesn’t happen to me after playing with Miyagi and Mac and Viva at the Phelps’. We also thought that maybe it’s the Sangria, but I’ve had the Sangria before and it’s never had this effect on me.

Brian thinks I might have asthma. He says that people sometimes develop it when they get older. I have no idea what I have. Whatever it is, though, I have a hard time functioning and I am really miserable when I’m in this condition so we were decided I should go to the doctor and ask.

The problem that I have is that, most of the time, I’m already well by the time I go to the doctor so it’s hard for them to figure out what’s going on with me. Today for instance, I tried to get in to see Dr. Thomas, but he doesn’t have an opening until Thursday. I’ll be completely recovered by then.

I also do a good job of self-medicating. I still have some Codeine leftover from when I was sick back in March. Whenever I get this way, the Codeine usually helps. I think part of why I was having trouble breathing and my head hurt so bad is that I had phlegm stuck in my chest and in my sinus cavities. This morning, I woke up with my nose running like a faucet. Snot that was really thin and watery was just coming out with no way for me to stop it. I had to grab a shirt that was nearby to wipe my face and blow the rest of it out. That seemed to make me feel better. Also, the wheezing is mostly gone today. I think that’s mostly it. I just needed to loosen the phlegm that’s trapped in my chest.

The chest pain is pretty much gone, but I still can’t take deep breaths. When I do, I hear a little wheezing. At least there is no wheezing when I breathe normally, unlike yesterday. Brian and I were so scared yesterday that we really thought about stopping by the ER on the way home. We are too cheap, though, so pragmatism won and we decided that he just needed to get me home and in bed. Besides, I survived the last episode I had just like this one. Although, Brian is seriously contemplating taken life insurance out on me. LOL.

I really hope I make it to 40. I’d like to at least have a Ching-a-palooza party.

July 27, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Kurt-a-palooza Pajama Party

Sunny and Scott throw the best parties. Their parties always have a theme and they always go all out. Kurt-a-palooza is a party they hosted in honor of our friend Kurt, who turned 40 on Friday. Since Kurt’s favorite meal is breakfast, they decided that it would be a pajama party. Although, Sunny made it perfectly clear that it’s a PAJAMA party and not a what-you-wear-to-bed party. That way, people like Brian (who don’t wear anything to bed) don’t show up naked.

The enormous breakfast spread Scott prepared was quite impressive. They had everything from bagels, English muffins, and waffles to fruits to build-your-own-breakfast-burrito to sausage biscuits and even various varieties of cereal. There were at least two different kinds of hashbrowns. I only got to try one because I didn’t see the cheesy hashbrowns in the crockpot. They look like the ones you get at the Granite City brunch buffet. I mostly just had a bit of the hashbrowns, a couple of sausage links and some bacon strips. I was too busy playing Rock Band (more on that later) to think of food. Looking back, I think I should have had seconds.

Brian said that the sausage biscuits made by Jen (Vic’s Jen) were fantastic. She bakes the sausage into the biscuits so, not only do you get sausage in the gravy, but you also get bits of sausage with every bite of biscuit. The individual cereal boxes also doubled as decoration, as Sunny and Scott scattered extra cereal boxes all over the house. Like I said, they like to go all out.

You can’t have a birthday party without a pinata!

Going back to the pajama theme, some people were party poopers and showed up in street clothes. Supposedly, they go to bed naked and didn’t want to have to go out and buy pajamas. Luckily for me, I used to be a pajama person so I own several pairs of PJs and lots of gowns. The only thing I had to do was find something that still fits because I’m twice the woman that I once was. Brian, who owns a few nightgowns himself, had planned to show up in one. He has outgrown his nightgowns, though. They were all in medium and he probably fits a large now. He said I can have his nightgowns. LOL.

Since he couldn’t wear any of his gowns, he wore lounge pants and a t-shirt (the Heineken shirt that Sunny gave him). So his attire was more like street attire, but he actually lounges around the house in that stuff. Though, he takes everything off before bed (Brian sleeps completely naked).

Here’s an example of what people wore:
Birthday boy Kurt, proudly showing off his newly bought PJs.

Dan had on some cool gorilla house shoes.

You can’t have a Kurt-a-palooza party without a rock band, so Dan brought his Rock Band game set up so we could all play. Sunny got a real kick out of having four boys in pajamas playing Rock Band in her basement.

Brian and I had never played Rock Band until that night. It is so much fun. It is more fun when you have a full band, but Brian and I figured that we could play even with just the two of us. The nice thing is we won’t have to fight over who plays what because he prefers to play bass guitar and I prefer to play the drums.

Here’s video of the guys playing Rock Band. The song is Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Brian is on drums, Brent is on bass guitar, Dan is on lead guitar and Shane is on vocals. Dan is the only person who can play on “Expert” level. Everyone else plays on “Easy” or “Medium” at best.

This one is Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated) by the Offspring. Shane is on drums, Brent is on lead guitar, Brian is on bass guitar, and Jenny is on vocals.

Go to our Blip.TV channel for more videos of us playing Rock Band.

We had to replace the ottoman with a folding chair after this because Shane had sweat so much playing drums that he got the ottoman wet. LOL.

Kurt-a-palooza was such a blast. It was past one o’clock in the morning before we knew it. Please be sure to check out Sunny’s blog for her take on the evening’s festivities. She took tons of pictures also.

July 26, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Pictures from Kurt-a-palooza

Check out our Blip.TV channel for some videos of us playing Rock Band.

July 26, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Flickr

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Our Busy Saturday

We went to visit Tita Sol and Molly on Saturday. It was a crazy busy day.

Since we were already at the West side of town, Brian and I decided to have lunch at Bamboo Stix. After that, we picked up Sangria ingredients at Wal-Mart (for Kurt-a-palooza) and dropped them off at our house on our way to Brian’s grandparents to setup their new “old” computer.

Brian’s mom recently got a new laptop, an Inspiron 15 just like Brian’s except she got a red one. (I think Dell owes us because all three of us got new laptops within the span of a few weeks.) Anyway, since she got her new computer and the grandparents’ computer was ancient (it was our old desktop that we gave them after buying a new desktop several years ago), Brian’s parents decided to give Donna’s old desktop to the grandparents.

Mainly, we just had to replace the CPU because our old monitor was 19″ and it still works great. So we were over there on Saturday afternoon making sure that grandma had access to all of the things she needs: internet, email, and games basically. She was super happy that we set her default email font for sending and receiving emails to 18 pt size, that way she doesn’t have to strain her sight when reading emails.

When we were restoring all of her favorites/bookmarks, we went to the Wymore Arbor State web site, which is the web site of the Nebraska paper that they like to read. We all got a kick out of the Braille on the screen. That’s really helpful. LOL.

If they really want to cater to the vision impaired, they just need to change their font size to 18 pt or higher. Speaking of, grandma has really gotten good use of the special keyboard that we got her several Christmases ago. The keys have extra large letters printed on them.

July 26, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Family

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Wingnuts Game

Brian and I had tickets to the Wichita Wingnuts game on Friday so we weren’t at Highlands. Had it not been a text from Misty, I wouldn’t have known that Highlands had closed. I was like, “What?” She told me it was all over the news and twitter. I felt so out of the loop. [Here's an article that Ron Sylvester wrote about Highlands closing.]

Anyway, I immediately sent text messages to Kurt and Shane to find out what’s going on. It turns out that Highlands has closed temporarily following the judgment on Thursday. They are only closed until they can resume playing KANDU, so it’s not like they’ve closed their doors for good. Everyone is hoping for a favorable judgment in September and that Highlands will re-open thereafter.

The baseball game was a bust. I’m not sure if it was the two bottles of peach lambic I drank at Old Chicago or the news of Highlands closing that made me sick. Brian and I decided to go home early and didn’t finish the game.

It was nice having dinner with Brian’s coworker Kate and her husband, though. They are a lovely couple. We met their eldest daughter, Chelsea, and her husband Jeremy at the baseball game. Chelsea, who is 5’11″ tall, was looking very much like Cameron Diaz that day. I wish I had a picture.

July 26, 2009 | Posted by Ching under News

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Lovin’ Ryan Reynolds

I’m really lovin’ Ryan Reynolds right now. Brian took me to see to The Proposal last weekend and I really enjoyed it. Surprisingly, more so so than I enjoyed The Hangover. I guess I’m more of a romantic comedy type of girl, rather than that crazy, slapstick humor type stuff.

Anyway, it got me to thinking how much I have enjoyed the films that Ryan Reynolds has been in. Here are some of my favorites:

Definitely Maybe
Blade Trinity
Van Wilder

I love how funny he is, no matter what movie he is in. Ryan Reynolds has been cast as the lead in a couple of new movies slated for 2010: The Green Lantern and Deadpool. I can’t wait to watch these movies and see what he has in store for us all.

July 25, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Movies

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I’m a Typing Maniac

Typing Maniac is definitely one of those games that belong in the “games you wish you never played” category. At least this one has the benefit of improving your typing skills so it’s a time sink, but not a complete waste of time. LOL.

I’m pretty selective when it comes to online games so I managed to not get sucked in Mafia Wars like everyone else in Facebook. I played OGame several years ago and climbed the Cable Mafia ranks pretty quickly. I got tired of fleet-saving before bed and before leaving for work and I was never able to play it 24/7 like some people so my progress reached a plateau. Started to feel it was pointless, but the last straw was when my planets got attacked and my fleet was decimated. It’s tedious to rebuild so I gave up after that.

Yup. I’m a quitter. Specially when it comes to games. I’ll start games and then I’ll get bored and quit playing them. I was wise not to ever start Mafia Wars. LOL.

The only other games on Facebook I got really hooked on were Scrabulous (I think it’s Wordscraper now), pre-Hasbro craziness and, more recently Know-It-All. Brian and I used to take Know-It-All quizzes every night before bed. Except, the quizzes are only as good as their creators and some were not good at all. We eventually got bored with that one and returned to playing “Ks and 3s” (our favorite card game to play, specially while waiting for connecting flights at the airport) with each other before bed.

Yes, I know. This tells you a lot about our sex life. Normal couples have sex before bed. Old fogies like us play cards. I bet my parents are not nearly as boring as we are. LOL.

Last Sunday I discovered Typing Maniac. That’s my current online game addiction. Addiction fits because I have to play it almost every night before bed. I’ll usually play for about 15 minutes. I like it because I continue to make progress. I started out from human to courtesan to modern age man to space man. It wasn’t until then that I realized that some of my Facebook friends were playing Typing Maniac too.

I was ranked #5 after playing a few times and noticed that Elgin was #1. I thought, there is no way that Elgin types faster than me! LOL. I think about that time Pia surpassed everyone. I played a bit more and ended up second to Pia, but I was just typing away as fast as I could with no technique whatsoever.

I have now evolved from space man to cyborg to robot and here’s what I learned in the course of playing Typing Maniac for a week.

It’s not about speed, it’s about accuracy. Make perfect levels to earn bonus points and score higher. I have completed the same level both slower and faster and the score is still the same.
Don’t miss the special books (FIRE, ICE, SLOW, WIND). Words come falling down and I tried to get every single one. In the higher levels, I was often unsuccessful at keeping up. Forget the other words, always try to get the special books because they come in handy.
Always store power up books (WIND) because you’ll never know when you’ll need them. I often need to power up several times to complete the higher levels.
Try to store one of each special book, but keep in mind that your storage is limited so you cannot have an unlimited number of special books. I was picking up more special books than I could store and then kept messing up because I was trying to use books I didn’t have. I thought I had them because I got them, but they didn’t get stored because there was no more room. If you really want a specific book, then use one of your other ones to make room for it. I like to store at least one of each.
Begin the higher levels with the SLOW book. I usually start every level after 10 with SLOW. If you don’t have a SLOW book, don’t worry. One will eventually come down. Make sure that you get it.
Don’t use FIRE if there are special books. If you do, you’ll miss out on an opportunity to pick them up. I will try to get all the special books first and then use FIRE.
Try not to mess up on black books because they come down really fast if you make a mistake. I usually try to avoid these at the higher levels and just concentrate on the special books and easy words.

That’s pretty much all the tips I have. If I think of any other tips, I will share them. I hope that you guys will share any tips and tricks you have with me also.

Happy typing!

July 25, 2009 | Posted by Ching under Games

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