Coffeephoria

It’s coming on Thursday and I can’t wait to watch the final episode!  Some fans, however, have lost their common sense waiting for this film by lining up since the beginning of the month!  While some have found their significant other in one of these geek lines, the prize for being the sillest must go to Sarah Sprague, who lined up at Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre.  There is only one problem with it–they’re not showing Star Wars there!  “Yeah we’ve heard that before,” she said, refusing to budge.  I’d hate to spend a month sleeping in tents, playing the same board games day in and day out, take showers with a towel and a bottle of water, and in the end, find out “Oops, wrong theatre!”

I have been a big fan.  The first time I saw Star Wars was when I was seven, when Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back came out.  I was a little shorter back then, and I remember walking next to my dad on our way to the theatre room when we passed by a cotton candy stand.  When I turned to plead my case for cotton candy, I realized next to me was not my dad but a stranger!  After some frantically searching for my family, I found my parents back at the cotton candy stand, purchasing some for us already.  What can I say?  All the long legs in motion looked the same to me back then…

I was way too young to watch the movie Empire Strikes Back, though, even at the rating of PG.  My recollection of the movie wasn’t much, but the scene of Han Solo getting processed into cryogenic storage would return in the form of nightmares.  My memory must have misencoded the movie, as the disturbingly realistic nightmares would compose of a dark space with cryogenic C3PO flying in the air, with eerily dim candles around.  I remember it to this day.

It didn’t deter my obsession for Star Wars, however.  After coming to the States, I watched Star Wars: A New Hope on HBO, and because I didn’t understand a word of that movie in English, my imagination filled in the conversations.  It didn’t deter me from my Star Wars craze, however.  I lived with my granduncle and many of the natives in his National Geographic magazines began holding light sabers thanks to my trusty erasers and my ability to draw light sabers with them.  It went downhills, however, once I started erasing eyes to make them glow, and eventually started erasing mustaches and Fu Manchu’s.

I was also obsessed with Darth Vader.  I simulated Darth Vader breathalizer by taking an empty jar and breathing heavily into it.  Darth Vader had the uncanny ability to breath and talk at the same time, so I resorted to recording the deep breathing and play it back as I talked into the jar.  My obsession didn’t end with the voice.  One time I saw the Darth Vader mask for sale at a grocery store and immediately fell in love!  Put on the mask, put on the Helmet, and voila!  Darth Vader.  I regretted not getting it though.  Recently I saw one for sale at Target for $40 that included a voice-changing device.  No more jars required!  I was soooo tempted to get one, but …  needed to tell myself budget minded.  budget minded.  budget minded.

There will never be another movie like Star Wars.  I can’t wait for the movie to come out, and hopefully, no more nightmares this time.  😎

On Saturday we watched the movie “Assault on Precinct 13”.  I loved watching Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus from the Matrix), who had the sedated composure regardless of circumstances, although I admit it was a little odd for him to be staring at the floor with twenty semi’s shooting in the background.  I highly recommend this movie for action movie fans.

Today is an anomalous yet awesome sports day, as both the Sonics and the Mariners won!  For the record, I never should have doubted the Sonics.  I admit I’m a big wagoner, as when they got demolished by the Spurs during their first two games in the second round, I thought they were mismatched and completely outclassed.  Tonight they have proven that they have a few tricks up their sleeves against Tim Duncan and his crew.  They have renewed my faith in them, for now.

Tonight, I dropped by Wendy’s for my last dosages of their free Junior Frosties.  As I approached the drive-thru window, the cashier remark, “Back again!”  Whoa, at this rate we’ll be on a first-name basis shortly!  By the way, my keen observations suggested to me that their Junior sized frosties are increasing in size.  Check this out:

At this rate, if I return tomorrow, I should expect:

Unfortunately the free frosty deal is over tonight, and I don’t want to find out how much that frostie would cost tomorrow!

Tonight after fellowship, we went to Oasis in downtown.  To the right of the cashier hangs a gigantic poster with the words “Slush” and “Made with real fruit!” and on the poster were images of various slushes, one of which is the Taro.  Today I decided to ask the cashier which flavors use real fruit, and guess what?  Very few.  What about Taro?  “Powder”.  Since I had no craving for any particular drink, I put on my imaginary adventure hat and ordered the first item on the special menu–Avocado.  She asked me if I wanted a little fudge on top.  Yes, I said (what do I know?)  Cha-Ching!  That will be $4.00 thank you very much.  Ouch.  When the product was delivered, it looked like fudge and it tasted like the fudge.  Yes I had a cup of $4 fudge in my hand, not including tax.

Oasis is definitely decending rapidly in my short Bubble Tea list…

Last night I invited Happyfish to a BBQ Apprentice party at my place.  We have a charcoal grill, mostly for the flavor, but starting a BBQ fire is always a hurdle.  So I googled the internet for some tips, and found:

Electric Charcoal Starter.  The testimonials on the internet seem to love this thing, so I bought one from Fred Meyer for $10.50 after 30% garden rebate.  The directions show that you lay down a layer of charcoal, stick the tool in there, lay another layer, plug it in for 8 minutes as it heats to above 100 degrees, remove the tool, and wait for 10 minutes as it turns grey.  The result should be hot charcoal with no aid of petroleum.  Sounds easy?  Well, after I removed the tool and waited, whistled, read the entire phone book, and jogged around Lake Sammamish, it still wasn’t ready!  On the other hand, Jeffrey brought his grill and relented to using the fluid, and in 3 seconds whoosh, the fire was up!  So much for the starter.  Well, maybe I should practice a little more before passing judgment on this ineffective device.

How about the Apprentice?  We’re seeing Tana remove her sheep skin and revealing a giant scorpion.  When the governor just sat around, she offered donuts?!  And how do you miss the flag of the United States of America?  Okay, for that one, I can’t help but wonder if Trump has little devious mischiefmakers purposely removing the US flag for “Reality TV”, as I recall from the first season, one of the teams found the sponsor’s sign in the garbage!  Also in this task, they printed the personal remarks about each candidate on the program?!  Inconceivable!  It’s difficult to imagine that anyone, even the Three Stooges, could have such a offensive oversight.

On the other hand, everything seems smooth sailing for Kendra.  Almost too much so.  Then again, her task was much easier and she had a better crew.  She didn’t need to deal with the governor and famous atheletes.  She just needed to keep her sponsors, PS2 and Best Buy, happy.  The tasks are so even it’s like comparing running a Grand Slam tournament and running a hot dog stand.  Still, we need to give credit to Kendra for doing a good job.  Personally, I still don’t believe Kendra is corporate VP material, as she is too emotional and could use some work in her overall presence, but with the deviousness of Tana, I have no choice but to root for Kendra.

And despite this seemingly lopsided win on the final task and the fact Kendra killed Tana in the boardroom, Princess Di and George still managed to utter “They both did a great job”, and “It’s going to be a tough decision”.  It’s as if the last hour of The Apprentice didn’t even occur!  Even if Tana were to push the governor into the pool, swipe Michael Phelps with the flag pole, and frentically yell “Fire!!!”, the outcome of this boardroom would still be the same.

Then again, maybe this is all a misdirection. While we’re bamboozled by all these edited clips, in actuality Kendra’s team actually backstabbed her the same way Tana did her team.  Maybe there were lots more mishaps than we saw.  I guess we will have to find out next week in the third and final installment of this overly elongated episode of The Apprentice.

Now that we’ve whacked the weeds and separated the sheep from the goats, Vonzell will be next to go, unfortunately.

Huey had asked me to be the main photographer for their wedding reception.  At first I hesitated because I had no experience in this department and didn’t want to end up with a picture resembling two red-eyed monsters butchering the wedding cake.  But when Huey insisted, I relented.  So to avert a fiasco, I decided to pick up a book on wedding photography, the book “Digital Wedding Photography” by Paul Gero.

As I stepped into Borders at Bellevue Square to buy the book, Karen equipped me with a 10% off coupon that she was award for being added on Border’s spam list.  After handing the book and the coupon to the cashier, she incessantly tried to scan the coupon on a scratched up bar-code scanner, in futility of course.  Finally, exasperated, she turned to me and asked, “Do you work out?”  I was dumbstruck by this question.  Is my physique showing signs of… neglect?  Before I had a chance to respond, she continued, “Sure you do.” and scanned another coupon…

20% off for “Fitness Enthusiasts”!  This brought up a good question… why didn’t she just scan the 20% coupon in the first place, especially when these coupons are just laying out there?!?  How rude!

Anyway, on my way home, I noticed on the receipt that I got both the 20% and the 10%!  Hey, what a deal!

While I’m at describing some of my lifestyle, I’ll give you a glimpse at my morning.  First of all, except for dire situation, I believe in the mental alarm in my biological clock.  When I wake, I get up.  Occasionally the alarm misfires and rings at 6:30am in the morning, but that’s when I hit snooze.  Sure, there are days when I need to hit snooze twenty times before I wake up, but look on the bright side.  I don’t need to wake to a heart-pounding, terrifying, artificial buzz that drains the energy out of me!

Then after taking my shower, I’ll run downstairs for some hearty cereal.  This is where I need to introduce you to my favorite cereals:

First of all, no self-respecting man should have less than two cereal.  In the morning I alternate between Great Grains, which Karen bought by accident once, and the Honey Bunches of Oaks.  By the way, Target sells Great Grains for a dollar cheaper than everywhere else.  Nothing like a good dose of fiber in the morning for softening your bowel movement.  Now Cocoa Pebbles, which is much better than Cocoa Krispies, is for when I have no dessert at night and I need something sweet.  You start eating cereal but end up drinking chocolate milk!   Excellent.  This type of indulgence has got to be illegal in some states…

Then I pop up my laptop and do my devotions with the Daily Bread.  It’s different than the free booklet that resembles junk mail.  You actually get more than one verse to read with the online version, and then you get a story and a one-line application to reflect on for the rest of the day.  After all these years, I’ve found the key to having devotions regularly in the morning, and this is it.  Having Post Cereal with the Bread of Life.

Woke up at 7am this morning.  Five hours of sleep.  Every Sunday morning I defy the law of my 10am wake up time and get my butt up in preparation for our English congregation at EKC.  It was quite silly that the worship set I initially picked was about servanthood and not mother.  It wouldn’t have been good to be singing about servants on Mother’s day, would it?  So I had to change the set after we already practiced with the band.  It’s one of the weeks I feel less comfortable with the worship set I picked, so I needed God’s help this week.  Praise God everything went smoothly.  Now a new “mandate” (that I offered a dissent opinion on) was that we need to incorporate a hymn in our set.  So I picked “I Love You Lord”.  Any song written before 1980 qualifies as a hymn, doesn’t it?

After the service, Karen’s sister Carol called from Hawaii.  It was 8:35am and she needed a church to attend.  The thought of sending her to a black church where she can worship in energy and style did briefly cross my mind, but I quickly dismissed it.  We were in the car and didn’t have access to the internet, and my phone was low on battery.  Which slacker could we call that won’t be at church on Sunday morning?  Hmm…  So we called Jimmy, but he wasn’t home.  Praise God.  Then we realized someone we can count on who definitely will be at home–Allen or Justine.  Justine was able to give us some options, and after eliminating two Church of Christ entries, we were able to find two options for Carol, Chinese Baptist Church and a Chinese Alliance Church in Honolulu.

Then Stella, Carol, Eddie, Karen and I dined at the Malay Satay Hut.  Shueli, our real estate agent and sister at church, came in and was in a hurry.  She grabbed a chair, chatted with us a little, then decided she wouldn’t have time to eat if she sat with us.  She changed tables, sat by herself so she can actually finish her lunch, then came back and chatted a little more and ended up paying for our bill!  Guess we should eat at Malay Satay Hut more often.  I can’t say that Carol and Eddie deserved it, thought, considering they didn’t even know who Shueli was!  😛  Eddie was really excited to order some Bonga Cha Cha desert, which turned out to be some purple goo with yellow sweet potatoes.  After clearing up the confusion, the waitress was nice enough to replace it with what Eddie really wanted, which was some black goo that looked like tar.  Then after a gust of durian wind blew gently toward our direction, we knew it was time to go.

I was supposed to offer U-Haul services with my trusty CRV to Karen’s sister Carol in Hawaii, but apparently neither the source of the merchandise (Esther) nor the delivery destination (Karen’s little sister Keri) knew of this arrangement.  We needed to reschedule my professional moving services to another day.

So with a few hours open, we decided to work on our fence a little bit more.  After just doing a sub-par job yesterday on a section that now flaps like a flag, I decided to exercise more due diligence this time around.  We were able to finish one section before a drop of rain hit my lazy bone, when I called it quits.

That’s also when I realized my atomic clock was slow (no really!), and I was late for a quartet practice for Phoebe’s wedding.  I arrived at Gabe’s, emptied my violin case of its moths, picked up my violin, and produced some sounds that no human being should ever be subjected to.  Clearly I overestimated my 7 years of violin experience.  I guess I should have given weight on the 12 years of inexperience between those 7 years and the present.  I hope Phoebe’s not reading this blog.

Then Karen and I went to Sushi Land for some dinner, where we saw Felicia and someone who she just picked up from the airport.  I put up a smile, said hi, shook hands, then in the next .57 seconds completely forgot her friend’s name.  Oh wait, or was it her relative?  Okay, am I getting old, or just not caring as much?  Clearly I need to work on this.

After going home and calling my mom and grandma to wish them a happy Mother’s Day, we watched some TV.  Karen enjoyed her one episode of Full House, and then we saw a couple of episodes of Project Greenlight.  It’s a reality show that chooses a director and script and shows the process of the movie being made, to be released by Dimension Films.  The director may be brilliant, but he seriously has communication problems.  I seriously wonder if he has ever made contact with humans.  And when he wanted to cast only his family and friends and just rejected everyone else, it made me roll my eyes more times than my wheels rolling on the freeway.  Seeing his struggles with the entire crew made me realize the importance of getting your team on your side in order to get things done.

Anyway, that’s about it.  There’s work tomorrow, and I’m late for my sleep!