About These Entries
You are reading Weblog Wannabe archived entries from the month of May 2005, written by Firda Beka.
The next archived entries are from June 2005 and the previous archived entries are from April 2005. Most recent entries can be found on the main page.
Site Credits
This weblog is powered by Movable Type. The entries are mostly the results of tireless web browsing with my best buddy, Mozilla Firefox. Site design is copyrighted by Firda Beka. That's me, not you.
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Flickrific Wedding Photos (6)
I’ve uploaded some unofficial photos from our wedding to Flickr and into a photoset. Troy’s dad took the photos. Well, the ones where he’s not inside the frame anyway. But they all came from his camera. The photos are not really the best, but some of them are pretty funny. If you have a Flickr account, feel free to add captions in the comment area or notes on the photos. If you don’t have a Flickr account, well, sign up already! :) If you want to hear about the gory details from our wedding, Troy already got the scope so I’ll just point you towards his general direction (if you haven’t been there already).
Speaking of Flickr, I got to know a neighbour from across the street about six months ago through Flickr. We left comments on each other’s photos occasionally but we never actually met. The night before the wedding, Troy and I went to a department store because Troy needed to pick up some batteries and I needed to pick up some makeup type thing (I don’t usually wear makeup). So we were at the makeup section and Troy was in the middle of giving me some expert advice (ha!) on the most suitable foundation for my skin when I heard someone calling my name. I looked at the guy but had no idea who he was, and then I looked at Troy to see if it happened to be a friend of his, but Troy also didn’t show any sign of recognition. Only after he mentioned his name did I realise who he was. Why, of course, it was our neighbour from Flickr! Hi, Ryan! It was nice to finally meet you and your wife in flesh. You even pronounced my name correctly! :)
Last but not least, thanks so much for your comments and kind wishes, and all the blog posts you made to congratulate us. It makes us feel so warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you. You rock! I don’t really see the wedding as a happy ending. Instead, it’s the beginning of another journey. I’m just glad that in this journey, I’m not alone anymore. Troy might not be the best navigator in the world, but he sure is a damn good travel companion! :)
Happy Happy Joy Joy! (38)
I’d always wanted to elope, so elope I did. Troy and I tied the knot on Saturday in a short and sweet civil ceremony at the Waterloo Park. I hope my family won’t hate me for this (I called home this morning to let my family know about the news, but nobody answered, so I emailed one of my brothers instead — no reply so far). So now I am part of a self-proclaimed crazy family. Both Troy’s mother’s side of the family and his father’s side of the family claim they are crazy. I guess that’s the reason everyone warmly welcomes me into the family. Because I’m crazy, too! :)
For a wedding that was planned in only two weeks, it went pretty awesomely. More pictures and gory details are coming up.
A Stale Entry (1)
We finally made it to Temiscaming, Quebec on Sunday where we had some authentic Quebecois poutine. Woohoo! I’ve been somewhere outside of Ontario! Of course I forgot to take a picture of the said poutine (I was too hungry) but trust me, it was yummy. It was supposed to take less than 2 hours to get there from Troy’s family cottage where we spent this past weekend, but of course we had to take the long way, i.e. North Bay - Mattawa - Temiscaming instead of the shorter North Bay - Temiscaming route. But had we taken the short way, we would’ve missed seeing Timber Lake.
The sign alone worth the extra hour drive. More pictures from the long weekend can be found here.
Did I mention that we went to 27 garage sales on Saturday? I kid you not. I got myself two cameras from the garage sales: a point-and-shoot 35mm camera that I got for free from some church in Sundridge (to be hacked into a pinhole camera, of course) and an antique Kodak Vigilant Junior Six-20 which I got for $5. I probably would have to wait until I have my own darkroom before I could use the latter, which may not happen in the near future, but whatever. It was a good value.
Well, I’ve got to go now. I’ve got so much to do today. But first of all, I need to shower and go get a haircut. I don’t know if I should go to First Choice again after the last hair disaster, but we’ll see. I think I saw a sign yesterday saying that First Choice Haircutters were having a 50% off promotion. If it’s true, I might have to go there. So I’m a cheapskate. Sue me. You won’t get much.
links for 2005-05-16 (5)
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Not to be insensitive or anything, but some people are just so unbelievably stupid. I wonder if they’d be awarded the Darwin Awards. I hope so.
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If I were a resident of Indiana, I’d be disappointed enough about the adoption of DST to pack my bag and move to, say, Arizona. Well, maybe not.
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I’m going to keep my last name when I get married. I’d love to change my last name into my mother’s maiden name, but it would probably get confusing.
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It’s a tool to help you write a pangram, which is a sentence containing every letter of the alphabet. I tried to write one yesterday and it was a lot of fun.
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If Troy and I had children, we’d have brown-eyed children for sure since Troy’s parents and mine have/had brown eyes. Troy’s eyes, however, are blue.
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Score goals with your bumper car. I’d be lucky enough if I could make my car go to the direction where I want it to go. Fun game, though.
Happy Friday the 13th! (6)
I wouldn’t have noticed that today was Friday the 13th hadn’t I checked my site referrers. I saw a bunch of hits coming from people searching for triskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13, while the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia (say it 10 times fast!). Good news for the paraskevidekatriaphobic, today is the only Friday the 13th for this year. Not so good news for the triskaidekaphobic, there is always the 13th day every month.
The Singaporean Government marked this supposedly unlucky day by hanging a drug smuggler while some people choose not to step outside, fly on a plane, go to work or act on a hot stock tip. I wonder if there is a Friday the 13th discount on airline tickets. If not, there should be. Why? This is why:
“It’s been estimated that [US] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do,” said Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina. (Source: National Geographic)
I’m sure the skeptics among us would jump at the opportunity to fly for cheap and it might be able to cut down the amount of money lost in business on Friday the 13th because less income is better than no income at all. No? But then again, what do I know about business. It’s not really my area of expertise. Far from it. But I always have tonnes of silly ideas in store. :)
A certain group of Canadians (and some non-Canadians) have their own way of “celebrating” Friday the 13th. They gather together at Port Dover on their motorbikes. Troy and I and a couple of friends from Germany came to join them on the 13th of August last year, and it was the most people I’ve ever seen in one place during my stay in Canada. I like Port Dover, but I don’t really like it when it’s all that crowded. And there was no naked biker chicks like Troy swore he had seen before. ;) I did enjoy the part where we got to ride yellow school bus for free from and to the parking area. That was one of my dreams come true. Yes, I do have simple dreams.
Well, I’ve run out of things to say on Friday the 13th so I’ll just wish all the triskaidekaphobic and the paraskevidekatriaphobic a safe and non-disastrous day and the rest of you a good Friday and a great weekend.
links for 2005-05-12 (1)
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I wonder if this applies to me. I was born in the spring, in the month of April, but spring doesn’t exist in Indonesia where I was born. Hrm.
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There’s a bunch of fast food outlets around the area where we live but we don’t really go to any of those and I don’t know why. Too close to home?
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I don’t watch The OC (too soap opera-ish for my liking) but if you do or you just like Star Wars or both, you might want to catch next week’s episode.
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I knew I was a liberal even before I took this test, but I just had to take it just to see how accurate it was. It says I’m a liberal. Good accuracy.
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If you have noisy neighbours, get yourself this CD. It contains twenty sound effect tracks, including orgasm and domestic squabble.
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Click matching colour boxes as fast as you can. My best time is 291. I’m sure I can do better after several more tries. And so can you.
The Ghost of Me (5)
Last weekend my brother called me from Indonesia and he sounded really worried. He asked me repeatedly if I was all right (as if once was not enough) before he hung up, which kind of annoyed me because it was early in the morning and I was still half asleep.
This morning I called my brother and learned that the reason he sounded so worried was because there had been sightings of my ghost in my bedroom, sitting in front of the computer or standing in front of the mirror. Crazy, eh? I’m not even dead yet! But it was enough to make my family think I was already dead. Doh! If I were dead, Troy would’ve let them know.
Anyway, I hope my call was enough to drive the ghost away from my room and that my family wouldn’t think I was calling from the afterlife.
links for 2005-05-10 (0)
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Note to self: no drinking root beer before bed. I should probably try to quit drinking pop altogether. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.
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He said he developed a compulsive, obsessive gambling addiction soon after he started taking a Parkinson’s disease drug called Mirapex.
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I’m glad we weren’t home when it happened. Otherwise, I might have suffered from a withdrawal syndrome. I know it was only down for 15 minutes, but still…
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Apparently, May is the National Masturbation Month in the US where people are having Masturbate-A-Thon events for charity. Are you going to participate? ;)
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This game is like a game of pool with a twist. I’m no good at playing pool so naturally I’m no good at this game. It’s a fun game, though. You’ll enjoy it.
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The only Star Wars movie I’ve ever seen is Empire Strikes Back, and I saw it many years ago. This is just what I need before we go see Revenge of the Sith.
Busy Weekend (0)
The lack of sleep I had on Friday took its toll on me over the weekend. I was feeling sleepy and tired all the time. But we had a busy weekend nonetheless. We went to the Elora Book Sale on Saturday and Sunday mornings (because once is not enough for the book-loving Troy), went to several garage sales, a thrift store and a book store, tried a new Vietnamese restaurant in Waterloo, got our ring sizes taken (without buying any rings), drove past Fergus and Rockwood, bought a Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake from MacMillan’s in Acton (so good!), drove around Milton where I saw a restaurant with a sign saying “Oriental Cuisine and Donuts” (guh?), and saw the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie. Not necessarily in that order. The movie was quite enjoyable. Keep in mind that I’ve never read the book so I had no expectations.
Anyway, Spring is definitely not a good time to be inside our insanely warm apartment. The central heating is still on even though it’s already over 20°C out there, no thanks to our ignorant landlord. I’ve got all the windows open but it’s still so warm in here! I’m kind of glad to know that they’re expecting a thunderstorm this afternoon. That should cool the air down a little bit. I’ve also been struggling with some dry skin conditions related to being in a warm and dry place most of the time. I’ve tried Dove and Olay products before, but they didn’t really do much help. Now I’ve found that the products that work the best on me is Aveeno Skin Relief Body Wash (in shower) combined with St. Ives 24 Hour Moisture Body Lotion for Extra Dry Skin (after shower). I’ve only been using this combination for three days but my skin condition has improved a great deal. Happiness!
We have no plans for this weekend yet, but we’re going to spend the weekend after this weekend at Troy’s family cottage up north. Should be fun. I miss canoeing. Sure I suck at navigating the canoe, but I miss it nonetheless. I just have to make sure not to hurt my shoulder this time.
It’s raining now, thank goodness. Perfect time for a shower.
Sleepy Rambling (5)
I am so sleepy. See, Troy had to leave for Michigan at 4 in the morning. He tried not wake me up as he was getting ready to leave, but I woke up anyway. I couldn’t sleep since. And I didn’t fall asleep until close to midnight last night. Needless to say, I’m Yawnie McYawnalot today.
On a completely unrelated note, you may have heard of Canadians pronouncing “about” “aboot”. I can tell you that it’s not really a myth. However, not all Canadians say “aboot”. Most don’t, but some do. What brought this on? Well, I just overheard a construction worker outside talking on his CB radio saying “aboot”. He’s the second person I’ve ever heard saying “aboot” during my stay in Canada.
Oh, and I finally finished reading “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky last weekend, bringing the total number of books I finished reading during the last 12 months to a glorious number of two; the first one being “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon. It’s quite a record, really. At one point, my attention-span was short enough that I wasn’t able to finish reading one book in one year. I’m currently reading “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. I still have yet to finish reading the first page.
Well, I’ve got to get going. I need to go shopping, mostly to pick up a birthday present to send to my little niece in Indonesia. She’s turning two years old in 10 days. My mother died almost three months after she was born. Soon my mother would’ve been gone for two years. Time does fly.
links for 2005-05-05 (1)
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I’m kind of worried for my little niece and nephew in Indonesia, though I probably shouldn’t since they’ve been vaccinated. Or so I believe.
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“Texas lawmakers sent a message to the state’s high school cheerleaders on Wednesday: no more booty-shaking at the game.” Oh dear.
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The very same casino recently paid a Connecticut woman $15,100 to name her newborn baby GoldenPalace.com. I’m worried for the kid’s future.
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I didn’t know how addictive eBay could be until I saw the pictures of all the things the woman has won on eBay. It’s just insane!
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I’ve only been online for 8 years but apparently it’s long enough to make me know about things from the old days of the Internet. 5/5 for me.
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Shoot the zombies before they got you! I only made it to Stage 6. Stupid gun, not reloading fast enough. Oh, and I killed 47 zombies.
And I Say… (3)
A while ago, Wayne Yang interviewed me (and several other Asian webloggers) by email about blogging in Asia for an article in San Francisco Gate. Just received an email informing me that the article is up: ASIAN POP: Blogging Asia. All I can say is, man, my English sucks! Also, some of my answers to the interview questions sound kind of dumb and I really wish I’d answered differently, but whatever.
I’ve been interviewed for articles about blogging before, but none of them ever got published, so this is a first. Now let’s see if I can get a book deal this way. Ha! I wish. Anyway, just thought I’d let you know about the article, because Troy told me to. :P
links for 2005-05-04 (0)
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The first clips from the fourth Harry Potter film will be shown on Saturday in the US. I’m sure it will be available online soon after.
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If you think your parents love your better-looking sibling more, chances are they do. Though I doubt they’d ever admit it. Sad but true.
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I don’t know which one is worse: finding a finger in your chili bowl or discovering a two-foot long snake inside your cereal box.
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Clicking on cute kitten pictures is a good way to waste time. It’s kind of hard to decide which one is the cutest so I just click without much thinking.
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So Hallowe’en is still, like, five months away, but better early than never. Or something to that effect. It could be your Summer project!
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I’m not very good at this game. My high score is 120, which is pretty pathetic since other people could score millions. I wonder if they cheated. Hrm.
Toronto in Spring (5)
So we went to Toronto this past weekend. The last time I was in Toronto was last Summer. I like Toronto better in Summer. In Spring, it’s just so miserably cold, wet, and windy. But then again, I don’t really like Spring in general so the problem is not really in the place. It’s in the timing. I never thought of Winter as miserably cold because, duh, it’s Winter and Canadian winter is supposed to be miserably cold!
Anyway, I’ve been trying to concentrate my thoughts on Summer and the places we could visit when it’s all warm and sunny instead of spending all Spring hating Spring. I’ve ordered free brochures/travel guides from just about every single province/territory in Canada, including Nunavut (don’t ask). I can’t wait to receive them in the mail! This Summer we’re planning on driving across Canada to Nova Scotia and then to Prince Edward Island. It’s going to be fun, fun, fun!
I’m eating strawberries right now. It’s easier to think about Summer in Spring when you’re eating strawberries. I like strawberries. Don’t you?
Read all entries from April 2005 →