Hi! It's me again.

Attended the American Marketing Association's annual convention in Atlanta yesterday. It was pretty fun, attended this talk by the guy from Coke who was in charge of developing Mike Thirst, the 12inch doll spokesperson for sprite. Had a networking event at a pub after the convention, and met quite a lot of cute girls. Pity we weren't staying the weekend in Atlanta. Was supposed to go clubbing with this girl from FSU but the group had other plans. Well, I guess it sucks to be me... Should have driven... oh well, there's away the PSE National Conventions at Miami next week! I'm leaving on Wednesday, and won't be back till Saturday night. More alcohol, more girls, more beach. It's gonna be a really good weekend.

Man... I've got 3 tests tomorrow and I aint prepared for them at all. And the problem is, I dun feel like studying at all. Just wanna go out and hit the clubs. Fortunately, no one's going tonite. Unfortunately, I've still gotta study. Accounting is so damn boring man... I can't believe there're people doing it for their livelihoods. It is totally mentally unstimulating. I would rather cut grass than study accounting.

So many things to do, so little time, and so little motivation.

I am smiling, and I really mean it.

Life's great.

The German girl denies that I am Chinese.

Yeah... I know this German girl, met her for the second time on Friday at the ISO social hour. Apparently she's the girlfriend of one of my friends from Indonesia now (no that I'm interested.) Anyway she denies that I am Chinese when that friend of mine, Rifky, (or at least that's how I think it's spelled,) told her that. Well according to her, and I could not agree more, Chinese are quiet and shy, and boring. But I'm hyperactive, funny and I dress like a European. I especially like the last part. Kekeke... finally someone who knows that my dress sense IS influenced by Eurpoean fashion... NOT AH BENG FASHION!!!

Well it feels pretty good to be praised.

I told her only my heritage is Chinese, and she guessed she'll have to settle for that (she was still saying that I CANNOT be Chinese.)

I wish that there was no skin color in this world, and the way you are preceived by your peers is the way you behave. Then again, that way, I would never stand out like I do, the incessantly blabbing yellow guy.

Oh yeah I bought the lottery yesterday when I was in Atlanta. Din't win anything. Shucks.

Shrimp Recipe

So how did you spend Valentine's Day? I was playing tennis when other people were having dinner with their loved ones, but I'm not complaining. Heck, it's kinda hard to complain when you know that you've just saved a bunch.

My spanish teacher is really entertaining. The professor seem to have a somewhat elevated amount of interest in my progress. Probably it's cuz he doesn't get asians in his class often. I've been asked to do weird stuff like correct other people's work on the board and such but I'm not complaining... it's kinda cool and no one else seems to get to do that. Having said that, taking up spanish with no background is kinda tough. I have a quiz tomorrow, and it's like 100 or so words and phrases. It's really very difficult to learn those words in such short notice (I was informed of the quiz on Monday.) I think I'm doing okay for someone totally foreign to the language. My grasp of spanish grammar is better than some other students in my class who had at least a year of spanish in highschool. I guess they don't really learn anything in some highschools.

Oh yeah it's spring now I guess, cuz all the flowers have started to bloom. I'll try to remember to bring my camera out tomorrow and take some pictures and post it up on my photolog. But most likely I'll forget and take a week to get around to doing it.

Okay lemme share a really easy recipe I came up with which tastes really good (guys, girls love guys who can cook, so you might wanna take this down.) Take maybe two dozen peeled shrimp (around 1.5 inch long) and marinate with 4 pinches of pepper and 2 pinches of salt. Don't ask how much is a pinch. What do you think? A pinch is a pinch. Then crack an egg, poke the egg yoke with a chopstick and stir the shit out of it until it becomes foam. Just kidding. Just stir it abit. Make sure you DON'T go overboard and make it foam. Pour quite alot of breading (those regular kind with the shrimp on the packaging that you can get at the supermarket) onto a plate or into a bowl, whichever turns you on. Start a pot of oil boiling, and dip the shrimp into the egg, then make sure its all coated, then drop it into the oil. Let the shrimp cook till it's golden in color. Do each shrimp as you are going to fry it. Do not pre-bread the shrimps in advance, or the texture would be different. I do not recommend golden brown, because through personal experience, I know that if I wait till it gets golden brown, the last shrimps (or whatever I'm frying for that matter) to come out of the oil would be brown. Not golden brown, just plain brown, and it ruins the taste. Anyway, remember to drain the shrimp on a strainer. Let each batch sit for a minute or so (longer if you can but make sure not to stack the batches one on top of each other in the strainer) for the oil to exit the shrimp. I do not like the shrimp with alot of oil in them cuz it tastes oily and it's fattening and unhealthy. After the shrimp is drained, transfer to a plate. Do not line the plate with absorbant material like paper. It will turn the bottom shrimps soggy and oily.
Now for the sauce. Mix 6-7 teaspoons mayonaise, 1-2 teaspoons tomato ketchup, 1-1.5 teaspoons honey dijon (if you cannot get honey dijon, substitute with honey mustard, but the taste would be inferior, and the sauce would look less pretty,) and 1 teaspoon chilli sauce (thai kind.) Mix it up until all the there are no more chunks of mayonaise in the sauce. The sauce should be of a consistency that is like thousand island dressing, just slightly more viscous. Scoop the sauce onto the shrimps just before serving (after the shrimps have been put on a plate.) Do not put too much sauce on the shrimps, as the sauce has a strong taste and too much sauce will ruin both the taste and the texture (the crispy coating of the shrimp would be soggy.) Ideally, about 40% of the shrimp's surface area should be covered in sauce. Alternatively, serve shrimps on a plate, with the sauce in a small dipping dish on the side. Serve with garlic aspharagus (I know you know how to cook this and I know I cannot spell it) and mashed potatoes. Serves 2 hungry people. Serves 4 Xiu0s maybe.
Remeber to serve the shrimps warm, if not hot. Should you need to fry the shrimps in advance, keep the fried shrimp in a covectional oven set to warm. If your oven does not have a 'warm' option, set it to the lowest setting. Be warned that extended periods in the oven would result in the shrimps losing moisture and turning hard. 'Extended periods' become increasingly shorter as the temperature in the oven rises. So if your oven has a minimum temperature of 200, I would recommend you turn the off before the temperature reaches 80 degrees, then turn it back on if it falls to 30.
This dish does not have a name. Just come up with a fancy name when you serve it. Call it Nostradamus Jumps Over the Wall, Newton Kills the Cat or something. People who've tasted it just call it pretty damn good.

On hindsight, I probably should have posted this before Valentine's Day. Oh well, nobody's perfect.

Valentine's Day's coming soon!

What is Valentine's Day? Is there some sort of Saint Valentine? Is it the day where lovers meet and reaffirm their love for each other? Is it the day where people give and receive chocolates? NO.
Valentine's Day's the day where the price of roses get inflated 1000%. It is the day where guys' fates are decided by the gift that they get for their lovers, and pay through their nose to get them and their valentines to some fancy italian restaurant. It is the day where florists earn 98% of their annual income and the really lucky girls get diamonds.
It's also the day that people like me bitch about because apparently we don't have anyone to spend it with.
Don't get me wrong... Valentine's Day's a day where nobody loses. Florists and restaurants earn tons of money, girls get flowers and presents, and guys get lucky. And those who do not have any reason to celebrate this day wins too as their avoid getting ripped off. I guess there might be some losers on this day... those guys who sadly got the wrong gifts... however... they can always make things right... jewellers open late on Valentine's Day.

On another note, I cooked again today. Some filled haberneros that tasted too spicy, and some fried shrimp. What I am really proud of is the sauce I concorted for the shrimp though. It seems that I'm really manifesting the superior genetic traits for cooking... my friends loved the shrimp... though those haberneros got everyone sweating. I'm seriously gonna cook for you guys when I get back... I just hope I've got a place for to host the dinner, cuz my house's gonna be filled with tenants.

Oh yeah... I broke a golf club today. They're not supposed to break, but I broke one anyway. Go figure. I broke a 7 iron.

I've seen a girl with the sweetest smile ever

Oh yeah, yesterday, when I was driving home from school, although I was going pretty fast, I breaked from afar to let a girl cross the road. It was a pedestrian crossing and I didn't really notice that she was a girl, just a pedestrian. I was just waiting for her to cross, staring blankly, until she turned, waved and flashed the sweetest smile I've ever seen. I smiled and waved back without me knowing. After I got home, I was still thinking about that smile. Maybe our paths will cross again. Then again, maybe not. Regardless, if there was ever someone worth stopping for, she was it. XD

Smile Like You Mean It

If you've not noticed yet, that's the song that's playing on this blog right now. Very meaningful methinks, especially for all those broken hearts out there. Let go, and smile. It's over and we all know it. It seems that almost everyone's living in the past these days, myself included, but holding on to the past never brought happiness to anyone. At the end of the day, we would all realize that by holding on to the past, we have denied ourselves the chance to let new happiness come into our lives. So all you people who hold on to old loves; all those who are haunted by the ghosts of the past; all those still hoping that that person would someday come around, and you know who you are, it's time we all let go and moved on. Stop listening to those sad love songs and wondering what could have been.

Yeah. And stop thinking that life's not going to get any better because it's not getting any better. That's how I've been thinking for the past two years. Then it dawned upon me that maybe the reason why my life's not been improving is precisely because I expect it not to. It's kinda a self fufilling prohecy perhaps, cuz when you're caught in that mental trap, you will not see opportunities around you, and life would seem bleak and hopeless. This is the first week since I've changed my mindset, and I've never felt more alive. Happiness is not a state of being, it is an approach to life.

Yeah enough moody ramblings. Announcement: I should be returning to Singapore this December. Email/Msg me your wishlists/appointments etc. pls.

I've been wanting to post for a long time (Finally it looked like winter)

I've been wanting to make a post on my blog for a looooooong time, but then things just kept getting in the way. PSE and AUMA activities, coupled with schoolwork and car probs made me struggle to keep up for the past few weeks. Now that I've finally got a chance to take a breather, (one of the two car probs more or less settled,) I could finally find the time to post.

Okay sometime last weekend, I think it was Saturday, an ice storm passed through Auburn, and turned the landscape into a dreamy white, if only for just one morning. Luckily, I was up early to work out in the gym, and took several pictures. Go check them out. They are in my photolog.

Anyway I bought "Who moved my cheese" and read it. I feel like a new person. You should read that book too, and keep that cynical mind in your pocket while you read that. I'm really full of gusto and whatnot; the old whiny Vic is finally gone! I'm going to admit it. I was afraid of change, and blind to changes that were happening all around me. The best advice I could give anyone now, is to smell your cheese often, so that you know when it is growing old. Speaking of old cheese, it's pretty ridiculous how people in industrialized nations have such different health problems as third world countries eh? I mean, only in places like the United States would you find people telling others "Don't eat red meat!" Man... people in Africa are eating bark and you go around telling people "Don't eat red meat..." Man... if you can get your hands on a piece of steak, it is your responsibility to chew the hell out of it. And who's ever heard of anybody dying from eating red meat? Man... "Don't eat GREEN meat!" That's what people should be saying. Now THAT's something that you can die from eating. So the next time you are deciding between eating steak or fish, think about those sacred cows in India. Someone's gotta keep the cow population in check you know... might as well be you.

Anyway... just a couple more things here...

I made a Quiz for you! Take my Quiz! and then Check out the Scoreboard!
Yeah I think I'll put a perm link to this quiz here so that strangers who come across the site can spend 5 mins trying to use their psychic powers to defeat the law of averages to generate a score that indicate that they've been stalking me all my life. For those without psychic powers, there's always something called a retry, that is, if you're into these kinda things... urgh... stay back.

Okay I feel like a newcaster with too many things on his hand.

What kinda smile are you?



You're the smirk,a frown-smile hybrid that's a
little bit cocky and usually associated with
evil or arrogant,but attractive people.You
probably just don't give a damn,but it's
everyone else's fault if you don't because
you're too awesome to have any real faults.

That anime guy looks damn gay. I have a frown-smile hybrid. Man... I didn't know they were cross-pollinating smiles... That last part... "you're too awesome to have any real faults." if someone says that to me in real life, unless she's a really cute girl, I would break the land speed record running in the opposite direction.

Okay now someone explain to me what the big, whitish uh... thing on the left is supposed to be. If it's his arm, which is what I am guessing, either the artist has a linear perception problem, or that guy just has a really big arm.

Oh yeah before I forget, please be patient with me regarding the music. I've stupidly put an mp3 on my server, so it takes forever to get dled onto your computer. Anyway, I'm gonna convert it to wma soon, but not very soon I think... busy la please understand abit... and I'm planning on writing a swf player so that you can choose (YES CHOOSE!) any of the songs from the list I would have. That would end your hours of bordem (<- all of a sudden I cannot spell bordem or watever I hope I spelled it right,) of listening to the same song, or more likely, hunting for the stop button in order to stop that sickening song from playing again.

Es la una y veinticinco a la mañana. Estoy cansado y deseo dormirse. Buenos tardes.

Watch my spanish improve!