YEP! Last Tuesday was graduation day. Two years flew by real quick where now I've completed the MBA program and I proudly graduate with distinction. It is the day that I am officially done and can say that my college days are finally over. Well, not unless I decide to go back and obtain my Ph.D! Highly un-likely!! Anywaes, all graduates had to attend a reheasal that Tuesday morning and by the time I got done, I had to rush home, get ready to head out again to meet everybody at Ala Moana Shopping Center for lunch at Donburiya Dondon (family are still getting used to the larger-size food portions here as opposed to the ones served in KL). We walked around for a bit, checked out Nordstroms (it's nice, huge and EXPENSIVE!!) and then rush back home to get ready for the ceremony. It was a great night and I'm thankful for everyone that came to see my commencement. Thank you for the memories and the love!

It's been truly non-stop from one activity to another since last Sunday when my family flew in from Malaysia. I've been playing tour guide and chauffeuring them all over to check out the many tourist attractions on O'ahu. They got to meet with my collegues and boss as well as RY's parents and relatives. They're having a good time and as for me, I'm happy, tired and totally sunburned from all of our fun activities. They have three more full days of sight-seeing before they say goodbye to me and Hawai'i. What's plan for those days? More shopping, a hike up Diamond Head crater, driving through Tantulus, more adventure through Waikiki (must not let them pass through International Marketplace again!!) and more shopping. I have plenty photos to share as well so as soon as I find more time to spare, I'll upload them for your viewing. Soon. Well...maybe next week, after a trip to Maui for the 3-day Memorial Day weekend break with RY on the superferry! Have a great week and a wonderful weekend if I'm not back before then to post a new blog entry. Take care and hugs all around to everybody ;)

Labels: aloha, family, friends, local, love

It's true. I've become a nemu*nemu fan. It is about two best friends (Ani & Kana), their companion pups (Anpan & Nemu) and their adventures. I can relate because being an only child, I had the tendency to talk to my stuffed animals in the privacy of my room as a kid. Okay. I still do it from time to time with my current stuffed animals. Who doesn't? Enough about me. I first found out about the comic and its creators when their story was featured in the Honolulu Advertiser for the Kawaii Kon event. Now I'm hooked.

When I saw and read this latest nemu*nemu comic, I saw myself. Yes. Sadly, this is how I feel almost everytime I get done playing with either the PS3 or XBox. I admit I do not like playing with RY because he is so competitive. I play for fun and can play for hours no matter how frustrated I can get when I lose. Yes. I'm a sore loser too! Haha. Okay. Now. You. Can. Stop. Laughing. At. Me.

Labels: comic, fun, videogames

So I said I would blog last weekend and I did not. Not that I didn't want to but one thing led to another and well other stuff came before blogging. Where do I start? A lot has been going on during my absence from blogworld. Again, I must apologize for not coming by to your blogs to read, comment and say hello.

RY and I celebrated our fifth anniversary a few weeks ago. We haven't been on an official date for a long, long time due to his work and my somewhat busy school schedule, so it was really nice to dress up and go someplace fine. He had the night off from work, so he slept in most of the day so that he wouldn't be tired during our dinner. Our dinner reservations was for 6.30pm at Morton's steakhouse. This was our third time eating there and I really, really love this place, not only for its good food but for its romantic ambiance. Sure it is expensive but for a special occasion, you get what you pay for and this place was worth every penny. RY's filet mignon and my lamb chops was cooked to perfection and the blueberry souffle dessert was ohh, ohh, so creamy and flaky - it is my first and best souffle ever! Not bad for someone whom will not eat any other desserts other than tiramisu.

As some of you know, Nordstrom opened their 1st Hawaii store back on March 7, 2008. Can you believe that I still haven't gone into the store yet? Sure I pass by it while walking or driving through Ala Moana Shopping Center and yet I haven't had the urge to go check it out. in fact, I haven't gone shopping in a long while either. For someone who loves to shop, I can amaze myself sometimes with such restraints! I'll continue to wait and share this experience when two of my favorite ladies come into town in a few days time to visit me.

I have just one more week of classes before I can officially say "I'm done"! Last Saturday, RY joined me to attend HPU's Spring 2008 Honors brunch at Dole Ballrooms. I'd applied for an honor society earlier this year, got accepted and was inducted officially for membership into Delta Mu Delta. Too bad our sponsor wasn't as elaborate as the other sponsors because he didn't hand us our cords and pins nor did we get to pose on stage for pictures. RY tried to capture me on film but he said I walked too fast across and should have paused for a moment or taken my time. Ohh well, I do hope I don't look too much of a nerd/dork/geek for the official group photo taken by suzums!

With that said, now I look forward for graduation and to celebrate my commencement with my family and RY's family.

Labels: et-cetera

Oh dear...April is almost over and I've only blogged once so far. Sorry! I'm still alive plus I have been somewhat more active on twitter as oppose to everything else. Reason? This one class has practically taken over most of my time as I've been busy researching/writing/designing for both the presentation and paper tea project. We did the powerpoint presentation in yesterday's class and hope we were able to impress not only our professor but also the class audience! So one task down...now just to tweak and polish the paper portion before next week's class. Few more weeks and then you'll never ever have to hear me grumble about school no more! ::promise::

On another note, my couz Melissa, tagged me with this somewhat fun meme. My list goes beyond the required number for this tag, however the following are my five ultimate hunks (in no particular order)...ohh, also it's not so much on looks only but the whole package (accent, personality, sexy, etc...):

Christian Bale


Hugh Jackman


Milo Ventimiglia


Takeshi Kaneshiro


Ryan Reynolds
Not tagging anyone but please feel free to do it. Will blog more over the weekend.

Labels: et-cetera, meme

20 years ago. They formed to become my favorite boy band ever! Five boys ~ Joey McIntyre, brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Danny Wood and Donnie Wahlberg calling themselves New Kids on the Block. For the first time, I was infatuated. Infatuated with not one, not two but five boys! I have all of their albums, practically memerized every word of the lyrics and had their posters all over my bedroom. Now I have to say that Joey McIntyre was always my favorite as a young, impressionable teen. How can you not love him especially when you hear him sing "Please Don't Go, Girl" and sounds like he serenading you? And...yep, he still is. The band is reuniting after calling it it quits in 1994. I'm excited! I'm very excited! Are you?

Labels: music

I started flying with Aloha Airlines upon my second trip to see R on Maui as he only flies with Aloha. It's because of them that R and I were able to travel inter-island to Maui for holidays and special occasions. Yesterday, we find out that they are shutting down all passenger operations effective at the end of today's work day.

It is truly a sad day for everyone especially since they only announced they were filing for Chapter 11 earlier this month. This is their second time in filing for bankruptcy protection in the past four years blaming the high cost of fuel and the continuing, what it calls illegal, airfare war brought on by their inter-island competitor, GO! Airlines.

Aloha Airlines has been flying between the islands and to the West Coast for the last 61 years. It just will not be the same without them. No one, especially the 1900 employees, even imagined they would find themselves without a job so soon! My prayers go out to all the families affected by this sad event.

Labels: airlines, aloha, inter-island

I so can't wait to have weekends to do simply nothing but relax! Okay, maybe not do nothing but at least free from not worrying and doing class reports and preparing for presentations! Looking forward to being able to go to the beach this summer (my skin tone is rather pasty right now!) and getting back into the groove for picture taking (besides my usual parades and festival shots). I miss that.

Labels: et-cetera, weekend

It took some clicking, tweaking, tinkering, and finally I can say that the video option on my camera will not portray the yucky blue effect that I've been experiencing on many of my videos taken in the daytime. It may have been my itchy fingers too after I'd gotten the camera and started to tinker with the menu options. Duh! Sure, its picture quality isn't as crisp and clear like this one or even this one, heck...I'm thankful I even have a video function on my camera. Anyhoo...it's fixed and I'm a happy camper now!

Labels: camera, gadget, tweak, video

Yup, last weekend Hawaii played host yet again to this annual festival...and events involving culture, performances, craft fairs and more took place at four different venues. Most of Saturday was spent at Ala Moana Shopping Center watching the many interesting performances that included Taiko from Japan, hula dancers, Suga Ren dancing Yosakoi and more hula dancers!

Sunday was another full day of activities and this time it was spent in Waikiki, first at the Convention Center with more performances, crafts from Hawaii and other Pacific Rim countries, Hawaiian quilts, Mikoshi exhibits and a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Then, I strolled on over to Waikiki Beach Walk to catch its last two performances of the day by Eun-Sun Jung Korean Dance Studio and Lani Hua Hoa Uozu. What fun!!!

Then I cool off with a tall cup of Iced Thai expresso from Starbucks before heading towards Hyatt Regency Hotel to secure a good spot for photos during the festival finale...which was the Grand Parade. All in all it was a good weekend, too bad it had to rain at the tail end of the parade! Click here to view more photos

Labels: de-stress, festival, fun, local, parade, weekend

This Part 2 post was suppose to be complete and posted here on my blog about three Saturdays ago but I kept putting it off due to other "stuff". Now I feel I betta write a really long post before I forget all of it. So how do I begin...

That particular Saturday (02/16/08), the celebrations for Chinese New Year was being held in Waipahu at the Waipahu Festival Marketplace. I've never been there nor experienced CNY outside of downtown's Chinatown, so I figured it was worth the experience. Scheduled to start at 11am, I get there and find it to be a typical bustling marketplace with vendors selling vegetables, fruits, meats, clothes and even feng shui displays. The lion dance were already doing their thing and I got to see the tail end of its performances as there were 3 lions performing. There were also three Taiwanese ladies who danced three different types of Chinese dance that reminded me of those Chinese fan dances that I participated or watched during school concerts. In addition to that, there was also the narcissus bulb carving, some karaoke singing by anyone in between performances and finally a visit by the Narcissus Festival queen and her court. It was a somewhat interesting day!

The following Saturday, R and I spent a good part of the morning at the Honolulu Zoo. As usual, my main attraction was Rusty and Violet, my two favorite orang utans. The day started out well as most of the animals were out and about, instead of hybenating (or should I say they were hybernating in the open!), however it's started to rain...not drizzle...but a heavy downpour that we came home drenched! The best part, we got to see Berani (which means Brave in Malay), the tiger that had a quick escapade outside of his cage a few days earlier. Good thing the zoo had not opened yet to the general public and the zoo people were able to get to him before anything bad had happened.


And last Saturday (03/01/2008), R and I were at Ward Warehouse for the 56th Cherry Blossom Festival/Heritage Fair. It celebrates the Japanese culture with the sights and sounds of taiko and odori performances, martial arts demonstrations, hula performances as well as mochi pounding and bon dance demonstrations. The 55th Queen and Miss Congeniality Richelle Nakata and her Court as well as the other Queen contestants. In addition, shoppers got to see and buy local food, clothing, accessories and collectibles. While watching the hula performances, we devoured on a rather good Loco Moco from L&L!

Labels: festival, fun, happy, local, weekend

Wow! Has it been that long ago since I last blogged? I had every intention on continuing Part 2 of my last post, but other things came up and I guess I got lazy. My bad! Additionally, I haven't been by to many of your blogs to read and leave comments, and I apologize for that. Thus, I won't promise, but I will try to finish up on Part 2 when I some more free time to spare between school and work.

But todays post is about something else. I just found out that Mariah Carey has a new album E=MC² and officially will be available for sale in stores on April 15.

At the moment, you can hear and see her first single "Touch My Body". I got to download and hear it for the first time a few days ago. It's a catchy tune and it didn't really get me going at first, but after hearing it on random play several times more, I think it is working its charms on me. It's quite a jam and pretty hot!

Mariah has always been one of my favorite female artists for her powerful vocal range. I've been a fan since I first heard "Love Takes Time" play on the radio because the lyrics brings on a personal feel of how it takes a long time for healing and there's a ray of hope even after being treated and/or treating a loved one wrong. So the question to ask is will this new album be a bigger and better follow-up from her last multi-grammy winning "The Emancipation of Mimi"? We will see. Enjoy the song and music video which premiered yesterday (February 27) on MTV's TRL.

What Do You Think Of The Track?
The Video?
Let me know

Labels: et-cetera, music

Last Saturday was one real hectic day! R woke up way earlier than usual and he decided to wake me up an hour later so we could go together to Thom's Barber Shop at Ala Moana for his haircut and then to Like Like Drive Inn for breakfast. I made a fuss in the beginning just cause it was Saturday and I felt like sleeping in. But being that Ryan had to work that night, I gave in and woke up to get ready as this would be the only time we will get to do something together.

We finally get to Like Like and there was a line out the door. There's always a line when we go there no matter what time of the day, however that morning it moved along rather fast and after a five minute wait, we get sitted at a booth. R proceeded to order his regular hamburger steak topped with onions, gravy and rice while I got myself 2 over-easy eggs with hash browns, portuguese sausages and wheat toast. In addition to that, we ordered a side order of small fried rice and a short stack of banana pancakes. I don't know how we did it, but we managed to finish almost everything except for the fried rice which we boxed to take home. I guess we were just really HUNGRY!

By the time we get home, it's time for R to go to bed so that he'll get his eight-hour sleep before work and I get ready to head back out to Ala Moana Shopping Center to check out the Chinese New Year festivities. It was schedule to begin at noon but by the time I arrive at 11.30am, there was already a large crowd gathered by the center stage and most of the lion dance teams were waiting for the event to begin. I tried to find the most ideal spot for picture taking but from where I stood, there was a couple standing in front of me whom were slightly taller than me whilst their kids sat on the ground. So I just decided to make best of what I could. Finally it starts a couple minutes late...but it was well worth the wait. I got to see this year's Narcissus Queen and her court, 6 highly-regarded local lion dance teams performing martial arts demonstrations as well as dancing with their 2 best lions to represent each of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac while warding off evil spirits with firecrackers. This year's event celebrates the Year of the Rat, the first of the twelve-year cycle of animals, and which in ancient times, was traditionally welcomed as a protector and harbinger of material prosperity. How fun! Following the conclusion of the center stage events, the lions will dance throughout the center along specified routes collecting lai see (lucky red envelopes) from more than 110 participating merchants as well as shoppers, a Chinese custom that encourages luck and prosperity in the New Year.


Did you watch the SuperBowl last weekend? We recorded it on the DVR since R had to work that night too so he was asleep during the game. We watch it together the next day but only to watch for the commercials. Some funny stuff! So this weekend, Hawaii plays host to the NFL All-Star game, otherwise known as the ProBowl and the game has been held at Aloha Stadium since 1980. Around 2.30pm, I decide to head over into Waikiki to check out the Pro Bowl Football Festival at Kapiolani Park. Mainly it is all about football fun for the entire family with interactive games, non-stop entertainment, official souvenirs and fan contests. A Pro Bowl All-Star Block Party was to be held in Waikiki on Kalakaua Avenue later in the evening however I wouldn't be able to make it as I have another engagement to attend. I stay for a good half hour to check out the activities and take pictures before heading back home to get ready for next outing.

Remember me say that I wanted to go see them perform? I did! I really did! And yes, I went by myself...no regrets! Although I did not buy the USD300 VIP tickets and sit upclose to the stage, the mere experience of being there to hear Brian and Hwanhee sing and see Brian and Hwanhee dance live was simply, totally AWESOME!!!! In between their performance sets, a couple brief interviews was conducted and even had a fan interaction with giveaways of calendars, posters, CDs, etc. for some lucky people in the audience. These lucky people were chosen by a random drawing of seat numbers. These lucky 7 got to play a game in which a balloon was placed between them and either Brian or HwanHee (one on one), and the goal was to hug them until the balloon popped. ENVIOUS! The night continued on with Brian and Hwanhee performing a few of their solo as well as group songs ~ I'd recognized most of the songs that they performed and some were a personal favorites! Even from way up where I was sitting, I can see them looking HOT as always in their many different stylish outfits and Hwanhee even ripped off his shirt at the end of his solo performance. What a way to end a really great day!

Labels: festival, fun, local, music, weekend

Ryan and I send our heartfelt Happy Valentine's Day wishes to you and yours! We hope you have a nice & memorable V'day, just as special as you are yourself. xoxo

Labels: him and her, love

That Won't Break The Bank. Yup you read that right! Two days left until Valentine's Day so there isn't a whole lot of time to come up with that special "something" for him or her. So as I was browsing through the web last week for gift ideas, I came across this posting here and its owner, Kyle was kind enough to give me permission to re-post and share it with y'all. I wonder if R will get a kick from reading this list if he hasn't already gotten me something...(although I'm not expecting anything).

1. Make her a music mix with songs that remind you of her.
2. Wash her car and leave a nice note inside.
3. Leave stick-it notes around the house; write the things you love about her on them.
4. Organize and clean her bathroom.
5. Pick up the kids from school and give her some quiet time in the afternoon.
6. Set up a bubble bath for her with candles and her favorite book.
7. Do the laundry and put the clothes away.
8. Clean out and organize the pantry.
9. Make her breakfast; serve her in bed.
10. Give her a back massage certificate. You do the massage.
11. Vacuum the house.
12. Dust the house.
13. Do the grocery shopping and make dinner for her.
14. Surprise her at work with lunch, go for a picnic.
15. Leave a few love letters around the house.
16. Play hooky for part of the day and spend time with her.
17. Wear your silk red boxers and dance for her. (I never did this)
18. Stop at Starbucks and get her favorite drink.
19. Open the door for her all day long.
20. Dinner date? Come to the front door and pretend it is your first date.
21. Make her favorite dessert.
22. Get her favorite jewelry cleaned; do it yourself. (not hard)
23. Flirt with her all day long.
24. Heat her towel in the dryer and have it ready when she gets out of the shower in the morning.
25. Paint her toe nails. (Bull Durham anyone?)
26. Organize the 2 messiest drawers or cupboards in the house that drive her crazy.
27. Re-enact your first date as close as possible.
28. Go see a matinee movie together.
29. Clean out the refrigerator and put her favorite Jamba Juice smoothie inside.
30. Finish that "honey-do" list that is 6 months old!
31. Opt for her favorite plant instead of flowers that will have to be thrown out in a few days.
32. Write her a love poem.
33. Give her extra time to herself; take the kids to allow this to happen.
34. Leave her love messages on her cell phone and home phone.
35. Make her a homemade Valentines Card out of red construction paper.
36. Rent a movie that you would typically not like, but she would. (Anything with Matthew McConaughey!)
37. Use red lipstick and write something romantic on the bathroom mirror.
38. Take her on date and not tell her anything about it. Take her to where you first met. (if possible)
39. Set up a foot soak for her; play her favorite music while she soaks.
40. Give the kids a bath and get them in bed by yourself; give her the night off.
41. Wash the dishes, load the dishwasher, don't let her lift a finger.
42. Buy 3 of her favorite magazines and put them by the bathtub with some candles.
43. Clean the toilets. The one job she hates more than anything else!
44. Get some paint swatches and offer to paint a room in the house how ever she wants.
45. Vacuum out her car.
46. Give her a foot massage.
47. Fill her car with red and white balloons. Blow them up yourself.
48. Hide her favorite candy bars around the house. (Don't hide them really well!)
49. If she pays the bills, do it for her, and then balance the checkbook.
50. And last but not least, combine any variation of the above 49. For example, clean the toilet while you are giving her a foot massage. Oh wait, bad example, but you know what I mean! Have fun with it and be creative!

Feel free to add your favorite Valentine's Day gift ideas!

Hint: I especially like numbers 6, 17, 43, 47 and 48!

P.S: Thank you to all for your well-wishes for Chinese New Year. I had a full day of going here and there on Saturday so I'll share that in my next post. *hugs*

Labels: him and her, ideas, suprise