Living in China

Stuck

2010-08-16T20:48:00.000+08:00

Have you ever felt that you're stuck in a rut and you don't have no idea how to get yourself unstuck?

On Confidence

2009-08-23T13:46:00.006+08:00

Liza and I just watched a video of Tsubasa-kun wearing a skirt while dancing. So kawaii! It made me think how people confident in their own skin can wear anything or do anything for that matter. I'm still a long way from having that kind of confidence but I'm working on it...

I just read a forwarded an email from a friend about lessons we learn as we grow older and this line made me ponder...

"What other people think of you is none of your business. "

Right.

Scaring Myself

2009-08-18T20:48:00.004+08:00

thinking about the future,
regretting the chances I didn't take,
thinking about the choices I'm about to make.

Wet and (not so) Wild

2009-07-21T21:18:00.008+08:00

Guilin and Yangshuo Trip

We went to Guilin at the beginning of the month instead of Sanya (most of the guys at the office went there last month, so we opted to be the exceptions).

It was raining when we arrived on Friday. Not wanting to waste our trip staring at the four walls of our hotel room, we went to LuDi Yan (Reed Flute Cave, 60 RMB).

***

Reed Flute Cave
It was an amazing place, specially the Crystal Palace. Enhanced by strategically placed neon lights, the place has a magical feel to it (think Encantadia and Tinkerbell).

Crystal Palace
Reed Flute Cave (LuDi Yan)

The tour lasted an hour (we didn't have a tour guide so we kind of just joined a Chinese tour group, following them everywhere...). It was pouring when we went out of the cave (come to think of it, it was raining inside, too) and we didn't have the foresight to ask the cab driver to wait for us (or come back for us) so we're stuck waiting for a bus.

There was a bus at the stop but it has a flat tire so it didn't count but after what seems like forever, the driver and his cronies were able to replace the tire. (Would you believe it took more than three people to change it?) We got on but the bus only took us to the next stop (I'm not really sure why). Fortunately, a group of Guilinese (?) approached us and offered to take us the highway with them. We road a Chinese tricycle (or is it a jeep?) to the highway for 1 kuai and one of them even took us to our hotel!

***

We rested for bit, then got trapped in the elevator because of a power outage. I definitely crossed that off my bucket list.

***

The rain hasn't let up and the Li River has flooded the streets. We crossed almost thigh-high flood waters to get to dinner but the steak was worth it. If you ever have the chance to go to Guilin, dining at Hao Heng Shi Jia at Zhongshan Zhong Lu is a must.

Blogging Woes

2009-07-18T14:34:00.002+08:00

Medyo matagal na rin akong di nagba-blog. Hinihintay ko kasi na i-unblock ng gobyerno ang blogspot but they don't seem to be in a hurry to do it. It's been more that three freaking months!

Napagod na ako kakahintay, pagtitiyagan ko na ang mabagal kong proxy. Haay... pati Facebook blocked dito ngayon (pa'no na lang ang farm ko?)

Better to have loved and lost...

2009-04-30T23:30:00.000+08:00

Is it worth it? To have your own hapiness so contingent upon another human being? - Dr. Brennan

If I was willing to give up my life for Sachi, why would I not be willing to risk my happiness for her? - Ken Nakamura

(Bones, Season 4 Episode 23)

Travel Plans: Inner Mongolia

2009-04-27T11:17:00.001+08:00

After much deliberation (and comparing plane ticket prices), we've agreed to go to Inner Mongolia this coming holiday (May 1-3). Susy changed her mind (yet again) about coming with us so it'll just be the three original "Da Stupids".

We originally planned to go to Huangguoshu Falls in Anshun, Guizhou province but I found out that it would take 30 hours to reach it by train and the plane ticket costs an arm and a leg. LuShan in Jiangxi province was also considered (Raindy's hometown) but we were afraid that we won't be able to get return train tickets because of the holidays. So Inner Mongolia it is.

Our plane tickets were delivered last Friday. We were fortunate to get 260 kuai tickets to Hohhot (China Southern) and 380 kuai tickets going back to Beijing (Hainan Airlines). The tickets were booked from e-long.net and they were paid upon delivery. The tickets were at a bargain - we only paid 740 kuai each for the round trip tickets plus the tax.

The plan was to handle everything ourselves and not go with a travel agent. We planned to go to the grasslands and stay in a Mongolian yurt overnight, visit the Gobi desert (ride some camels), visit Genghis Khan's tomb and check out all the sights in Hohhot. We checked the distances of all these places and we're overwhelmed of how vast Inner Mongolia is, so we decided to check out travel agencies in Hohhot.

Mel found this one, Inner Mongolia China International Travel Service (ww.citsim.com) . The website is kinda hard to understand but you can e-mail them about their packages, they can also tailor one for you. They offered us a very good package for 350 RMB and found us a hotel for 138 RMB per night. We're hoping we won't get screwed or scammed too much during this trip.

I'm very excited to go - I haven't been out of Beijing for a month! My last trip was with Liza last March (Luoyang Trip).

The Quickest Way

2009-04-26T11:12:00.003+08:00

"The quickest way to a man's heart is through his back." (or through his chest...)

I've forgotten which character of what series I've heard this from but whenever I remember this line, I can't help but laugh out loud. :)

Time

2009-04-17T00:51:00.000+08:00

Time is priceless, yet it costs us nothing.
You can do anything you want with it...but own it.
You can spend it, but you can't keep it.
And once you've lost it, there's no getting it back.
It's just...gone.

- Medium (Season5, Episode 10)

TBBT Season 2: The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition

2009-04-01T12:24:00.002+08:00

Episode 19
(Aired 03/30/2009)

Sheldon: Penny please. We're facing a far more serious problem than stray arachnids.
Leonard: Sheldon, it's not that bad.
Sheldon: Not bad? It's horrible. I mean, you hear stories about this sort of thing, but you never think it'll happen to you.
Leonard: So they steamed your dumplings. Get over it! New topic, please.

***

Raj: I like green lantern. I'm just saying it's pretty lame that he can be defeated by the color yellow.
Sheldon: Only the modern green lantern is vulnerable to yellow.
Leonard: Golden age green lantern was vulnerable to wood.
Raj: Great, so I can take them both out with a number-two pencil?

Week 13: Foodie

2009-03-30T18:00:00.001+08:00

Left-over spaghetti.
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Cold mornings.
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Photo-editing software.
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Arroz caldo.
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Found the mask I thought I've thrown away.
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Started training the new Chinese agent - Cici.
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Week 12: Mornings

2009-03-23T10:27:00.000+08:00

Hard to wake up in the morning when you're accustomed to working at night.
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Centralized heating has been turned off at last, my room is starting to feel like a sauna because of the heat.
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Steaming mad at Hazel for making me wait for an hour.
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Bought two pairs of shoes for Liza.
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Dinner and movie at home.
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Criminal Minds

2009-03-20T10:30:00.003+08:00

I am addicted to Criminal Minds. I don't like the gory bloody stuff much but the character development throughout the series kept me hooked. I just started to watch it two weeks ago (bought DVDs of the three seasons) and I'm about to finish with Season 3.

I love the episodes where they have actors that I can point out and say, "Hey isn't he the guy from that show several years back?" I loved Thomas Gibson when he played the uptight Greg Montgomery in Dharma & Greg but he is quite effective as the stern Unit Chief here in Criminal Minds. I've also seen Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Xander (Nick Brendon).

Huh?

2009-03-16T18:38:00.003+08:00

I haven't been able to figure out what they mean.

On Garbage Disposal

2009-03-16T18:32:00.002+08:00

Don't wait to throw your garbage out. It will come alive!

Or recycle itself!

Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟)

2009-03-16T18:00:00.001+08:00

We arrived in Luoyang at 6:52 am Sunday morning, ate at the KFC in front of the train station and took a cab ride to the Longmen Grottoes (Longmen Shiku). The one-hour cab ride cost us 60 kuai (5 kuai flag-down rate).

From Wikipedia: "The Longmen Grottoes (龍門石窟/ 龙门石窟, lóngmén shíkū; lit. Dragon's Gate Grottoes) or Longmen Caves are located 12 km south of present day Luòyáng in Hénán province, China. The grottoes, which overwhelmingly depict Buddhist subjects, are densely dotted along the two mountains: Xiangshan (to the east) and Longmenshan (to the west). The Yi River flows northward between them. For this reason, the area used to be called Yique (The Gate of the Yi River). From north to south, the distance covered by grottoes is about one km. Along with the Mogao Caves and Yungang Grottoes, the Longmen Grottoes are one of the three most famous ancient sculptural sites in China. There are over 2100 niches, more than 100,000 statues, some 40 pagodas and 3600 tablets and steles in the caves of Guyang, Binyang and Lianhua."

The entrance of the site is about a kilometre from the parking area (or what feels like a kilometre walk). The bus number 53, 60, 80 and 81 stops are located in the parking area along with the shops selling souvenir goods. There are battery-operated cars for for 4 kuai that stops at the ticket booth and the east side fo the Longmen Bridge.

Tickets cost 120 RMB. This includes the entrance to the Caves on the East and West Hill, Xiangshan Temple and Bai Garden. The ticket booth is near the main gate (extension of the Longmen Bridge). I was so fascinated by the Longmen Bridge so I took a lot of pictures!

The sculptures are breathtaking, specially the massive sculptures of the Lu She Na Buddha and the Boddhisatvas.

We stayed at the grottoes for five hours - we didn't check out the Caves on the East Hill and the Xiangshan Temple on east bank of the Yi River because were tired but we did a quick tour of the Bai Garden.

By 5 pm, Liza and I ran out of things to do (or maybe because we have tired ourselves looking for a place to eat earlier). We stayed at the city square in Renmin Lu and played cards for half an hour before we decided to go to the airport.

Luoyang airport is still under construction, we were the only people at the airport aside from the two persons who are playing badminton inside the waiting area (we assumed they work there) - I thought we got lost again (there weren't even security guards!). People came trickling in at around 8 pm (check-in time). The plane took off early so we arrived in Beijing twenty minutes ahead of schedule.

On Luggage, Phones and Cars

2009-03-16T17:57:00.007+08:00

No, this is not lost and found. This is where you leave your luggage for storage but you have to come get it back before you leave.

What do you think a phone has to complain about? Too many callers?

2. If the car stops quickly, you can't get off it!

Week 11: Raining on their Parade

2009-03-16T17:00:00.000+08:00

Monday
10 AM shift. Wrecked several people's lives (shuffled the schedule again).
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Tuesday
Woke up late. Changed the schedule yet again and published it. Bought a new bag from Daphne. Stayed up late watching Criminal Minds.
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Wednesday
Blank...
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Thursday
Stayed-up late again watching Criminal Minds.
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Friday
It's Friday the 13th again! Excited to go Luoyang tomorrow.
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Saturday
Dinner at the Thai resto in Wangfujing. Tokk the worng bus to the train station - ended up taking a cab.
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Sunday
Longmen Grottoes the whole day, back in Beijing by 10:30 pm.
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Travel Plans: Luoyang (洛阳)

2009-03-11T10:52:00.008+08:00

After changing the date of the trip several times, Liza and I have decided to go to Luoyang this weekend. We'll be taking the K269 overnight train to Luoyang and we'll take a plane back to Beijing.

I've bought the train tickets going to Luoyang at the Beijing Main train station (Beijing Zhan, 北京站) last Sunday. A friend said there is a booth at the station where foreigners can buy tickets but I couldn't find it. I asked at the information booth where I can get tickets and she pointed me to the booth near platform 4 (on the second floor, in front of the booth for Tianjin-bound trains). The lady at the booth doesn't speak English but she was able to understand the information I wrote regarding the destination, train number, the kind of ticket and date that I copied online (good thing I brought that piece of paper with me!). Train schedules and fare can be found at www.huochepiao.com. There is no soft sleeper tickets available, so I got us hard sleeper tickets for 197 kuai each.

They are not selling train tickets for Luoyang-Beijing trains at the station. I'm afraid that we won't be able to get tickets going back to Beijing the same day so I asked CITS about it. They told me to contact their Louyang branch for arrangements. I want to be sure that we'll be back here in Beijing the following Monday so I checked around online and I was able to get plane tickets through elong.net. The plane tickets cost 440 kuai each with taxes included. They have delivered it the same day that I booked it.

We're all set! We are planning to visit the Longmen Grottoes (Longmen Shiku, 龙门石窟) the whole day then come back to Beijing on the 9 pm flight.

From Wikipedia: Luoyang (simplified Chinese: 洛阳; traditional Chinese: 洛陽; pinyin: Luòyáng) is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.

Situated on the central plain of China, one of the cradles of the Chinese civilization, Luoyang was one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

Week 10: Itching to Buy Shoes

2009-03-08T18:00:00.000+08:00

Monday
No class for my level at Juncheng. Chinese agent (Raindy) training. Started 20-minute exercise.
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Tuesday
Brought laptop to work. Picture from Mel's polaroid camera. Bacon and asparagus. Shoes on sale at Hualian Department store.
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Wednesday
Salad from Food Market in Fuchengmen. Looked at the shoes again and checked out the bags that are also on sale.
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Thursday
Discovered a milk tea shop in Fuchengmen (Mini Station). Kristine's flight to Manila. Still thinking of buying a pair of shoes.
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Friday
Booked return plane tickets from Luoyang. (Tuloy na talaga 'to!)
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Saturday
Kristine's long-awaited package was delivered. Bought train tickets at Beijing Zhan. Lost my freakin' bus card.
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Sunday
Kafe Peranakan with Reg and Liza. Got Criminal Minds season 1-3 DVDs for just 20 kuai, I so love Matthew Gray Gubler!
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The Bird's Nest (Beijing National Stadium)

2009-03-05T18:48:00.000+08:00

We visited Beijing National Stadium last Sunday. We didn't go inside because the tickets cost 50 kuai which is quite expensive for us. The building is really impressive up close. There are also a lot of sculptures we had fun taking photos of (and making fun of) .

The Water Cube or the Beijing National Aquatics Centre is at the front of the Stadium. I've read somewhere that though it's called the "Cube" it's not really a cube but it's rectangular.

DIRECTIONS:
There is a subway station in front of the Stadium (Subway Line 8).

Week 9: Waiting for Payday

2009-03-02T21:07:00.003+08:00

Monday
Grocery shopping. Champorado for dinner. Woke up late - took cab to work. Four days to go, and its payday!
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Tuesday
Waited 30 minutes for the bus. Late for the second time this month. Freaked out listening to Lyndale's call. Buffalo not-wings. Can't find my mask. Three days to go.
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Wednesday
Spicy Tuna Macaroni. Emailed JunCheng for class schedule.
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Thursday
Decided to attend Monday class. Isang tulog na lang!
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Friday
Payday! Sent some home. Ginisang munggo with ampalaya. Called my mom.
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Saturday
Went out of my mind (think schedule). IDs for school and visa. Got Fahrenheit's new album 越來越愛 (Yue Lai Yue Ai, Love You More and More).
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Sunday
Beijing Olympic Park. Korean lunch at WuDaoKou. Grocery shopping in Lotus. Bought gift for Hazel at the Village.

Week 8: Winter Came Back

2009-02-23T21:00:00.008+08:00

Monday
Dumplings for dinner. Regina's out sick. 4shared said they have a work-around for the Great Firewall of China (4shared-china...).
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Tuesday
It snowed. Re-installed my firewall. Episode 13 of Hanadan Kr.
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Wednesday

Still snowing. The police is looking Hazel's brother (not kidding). Episode 14 of Hanadan. Hazel's late for work - had to ask Regina to wake her up.

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Thursday

Took a cab with Liza - our driver tried to pick-up more passengers at North train station (parang jip!). Still snowing. Pestered Hazel into coming with me to BeiHai Park then changed my mind three hours later (ang lamig sa labas eh!).

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Friday
Stopped snowing. Scary 23 km/hr winds. Edited PDR review. Pork afritada.
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Saturday
Wore my orange Zara. Bullied Hazel into feeding me and Liza breakfast (hehe). Cancelled breakfast plans, Hazel and Lyndale are still sleeping. Kiss & Bake with Liza. Fixed Tin's laptop.
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Sunday
Lunch at Babela's again. Bought a mask. Exchange rate of CNY to Peso is at 7.xx again.
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I 'm a geek?

2009-02-20T07:24:00.005+08:00

Just watched last week's episode of Bones (this week's episode is not in youku yet), Fisher said that he even watches Fringe (apart from all the angst and drama in his life), thus making him a geek. I love Fringe! If that makes me a geek, then so be it!

There's no Fringe episodes til April 7th according to some posts... sad. I guess I can always watch Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, and Firefly again. (",)

Tian Lan Tian (天兰天)

2009-02-18T02:49:00.006+08:00

I have discovered another place to shop for cheap clothes here in Beijing. It's quite far from the city centre but clothes are at bargain prices. The prices are a little lower than at the shopping place in front of the zoo.

The three-story building is at the north corner of the Lizeqiao Long Distance Bus station, north-east of the Lize Bridge.

After shopping, you can buy a really heavy meal at the restaurant(?) at the other end of the station (didn't get the name) for 10 kuai (one meat dish, 2 vegetable dish and 2 cups of rice). If your speak Chinese is like I do (meaning you don't), you can just go to the counter and point what you like, there's this lady who'll take your order.

To get there:

Subway Line 2 to Xizhimen (Exit D). Walk south towards the bus stop (Xizhimen Nan). Take bus number 604 and get off at Lize Qiao Dong then walk west towards until you see the long distance bus station. Lize Qiao Bus station is also the terminal station of the double-deck #2 bus that travels around the second-ring road.

By Taxi: Tell the driver to take you to Lize Qiao Chang Tu Ke Yun Zhan (丽泽桥长途客运站).

Snow in Spring

2009-02-18T00:55:00.003+08:00

Snow came late this year. I just had my down jackets cleaned last week so I can put it in storage, then it started snowing yesterday.

Spring Festival has come and gone, flowers are starting to bloom, I even bought a pair of shorts. I guess winter changed its mind and decided to stay...

Week 7: Planning Stages

2009-02-16T20:00:00.000+08:00

Monday

Starbucks with the girls. Grocery shopping. Bought planner. Ribs for dinner. Called home. Kei's thesis defense (which she passed, she said she'll be graduating this March. Congratulations!). Went to work looking like a panda because I haven't slept.

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Tuesday
15 minutes late for work.
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Wednesday
Cooked spaghetti. Two new episodes of HanaDan Kr. Got the remote control of my aircon unit working. Trip to Datong again?
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Thursday
It rained. Did my laundry. Just realized it is "Friday the 13th" this Friday.
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Friday
Planning a trip to Luoyang to see the LongMen Grottoes. Bought strawberries. Cooked adobo.
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Saturday
WangFuJing with Liza. Finally got the watch I've been planning to buy since 2006. Ate at Thai Lotus restaurant and laughed our way through lunch (took home the remaining yellow curry). Rearranged my room (for the nth time). Set-up Outlook on my laptop.
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Sunday
TianLanTian with Liza and Hazel. 10 kuai really heavy meal near the bus station. Yellow shorts. Small Wonder marathon. Started planning Cambodia and Egypt trip with Mel. Canned sisig for dinner.

Week 6: The Beginning

2009-02-09T21:25:00.006+08:00

Haven't done this since high school but it seemed like a good idea this morning. Will be doing this weekly so I'll remember how I wasted(?) my week.

Monday
went grocery shopping with the girls.
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Tuesday
can't remember what I did.
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Wednesday
Ricky brought the girls' phones from GuangZhou. (Please call Kristine!)
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Thursday
Joy City ( Xidan) with Regina. Got a kikay pouch for my phone. Ate at Babela's kitchen again (will be posting some pics). Bought Lock&Lock for Liza.
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Friday
Chocolate muffins from WeiDuoMei. Yummy!
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Saturday
ZhongGuanCun with Liza. Bought 512 MB SDRAM for a laptop upgrade.
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Sunday
National Arts Museum of China. Walked home from the Museum. Bought a wallet, a pair of jeans and a jacket along the way. Jelly slippers for our bathroom. On the way to being broke.

National Art Museum of China

2009-02-09T18:12:00.002+08:00

National Art Museum of China. Reg and I went last Sunday because one of the exhibits - The Artistic Handicrafts Grand Exhibition will be ending tomorrow. I wanted to go to this museum ever since I realized this was a museum but the girls (Liza and Hazel) can't be bothered to come unless there's food in the picture (like in a menu (",) ).

There were two exhibitions that day. The China Artistic Grand Exhibition and the Rosy Clouds in the Sky Exhibition.

The painting below is my favorite. I still can't read Chinese so I don't know who painted it but isn't it amazing? It's my current wallpaper, ' think there's a rule against that?

I always pass by this place on my way to work. Always wondered what I'll see inside. Now I know...

DIRECTIONS:
BUS: The No. 103 tram stops directly in front of the museum. The name of the bus stop is Meishuguan (美术馆).

CAB: Tell the driver to take you to Meishuguan (美术馆).

Butterfly Lovers

2009-02-08T19:19:00.008+08:00

I found a copy of the Wu Chun's Butterfly Lovers that has English subtitles at last. I bought it from the video store near the Natinal Art Museum (MeiShuGuan) for 15 kuai. The copy includes scenes from the making of the movie. Not bad for 15 kuai.

It's a Romeo and Juliet plot with a lot of martial arts and sword play. Spoilers below.

Yanzhi (Charlene) dressed as a boy to be able to enter the martial arts (?) school where Shan (Wu Chun) is a senior student. Shan finds out Yanzhi is a girl and falls in love with her. Yanzhi's parents had arranged a marriage with her and a childhood friend who is a government official and has helped her family a lot. She takes a pill which makes her appear dead for three days. The herbalist who gave her the pill died before telling Shan that's she won't really be dead. Shan dies because of the fight to get Yanzhi's body. Yanzhi let herself be buries alive with Shan. The last scene is Yanzhi and Shan meeting in the afterlife.

I fell in love with Wu Chun all over again! Great fight scenes. The ending where Charlene's character let herself be buried alive beside Wu Chun is quite creepy though.

Liza's Dream Phone

2009-02-05T01:39:00.005+08:00

After the long wait - here's Liza's dream phone fresh from Guangzhou. Samsung F-488. Pretty cool touch screen, 5 megapixel camera... lots of great stuff. Only we can't figure out how to activate the WLAN function which the phone is supposed to have.

5 megapixel camera

cool touch screen (the Mandarin Orange is mine..)

leather cover included

@ Toast Box

2009-02-05T01:36:00.001+08:00

Milo dinosaur?

2009 Wish List

2009-02-01T02:23:00.000+08:00

Nokia N96

HP Touchsmart tx2

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

2009-01-26T20:54:00.001+08:00

TBBT Season 2: The Killer Robot Instability

2009-01-14T00:53:00.000+08:00

Episode 12
(Aired 01/12/2009)

Howard: Behold the Mobile Omnidirectional Neutralization and Termination Eradicator or..
Leonard, Sheldon, Raj: MONT-E.
Howard: Featuring one articulated razor-sharp killing saw, one polycarbonate grinding and flipping wheel, steel armor plate exoskeleton top and bottom and enough force horsepower a hundred and ten pounds of mechanized death from zero to holy crap and four point eight seconds.
Sheldon: Is it wrong to say I love our killer robot?
Raj: As with my father, I both love and fear it.

***
Raj: Okay what should be first to taste the wrath of MONT-E?
Leonard: Maybe we should start small.
Raj: Okay. Oh perhaps today is the day we finally find out what's inside the magic eight ball.
Sheldon: I did it when I was four. It's an icosahedral die floating in tinted blue water.
Raj: Man, call spoiler alert before you say things like that.
Leonard: How 'bout the toaster oven?
Sheldon: What've the toaster ever do to you?

***
Sheldon: This is an auspicious moment. Like Robert Oppenheimer or Neil Armstrong, we need the appropriate words to mark this historic scientific event.
Raj: How about "Die toaster die!"?
Leonard: That will do it!

***
Kripke: Let's settle this woboto a woboto.
Leonard: What do you mean?
Kripke: There's no guwantee we're gonna go against each other in the wound wobin so let's through it down. Unless you're afwaid.
Sheldon: We accept your challenge. Name a time and place.

***
Kripke: If you're not there you'll be exposed to widicule.
Raj: I'm curious, what part of America is that accent from?

***
Sheldon: What you fail to realize is that Kripke suffers from a fatal flaw. Overconfidence from his robot's massive size and it's overwhelming power.
Raj: It's not overconfidence, that's observation.
Sheldon: Trust me, Kripke will fall easy prey to my psychological warfare. Observe.

***
Sheldon: Kripke, I would ask if your robot is prepared to meet it's maker but as you are it's maker clearly the two of you have met.
Kripke: What is his pwoblem!?
Raj: Way to bust up the Jedi mind tricks, dude.

The Return of Jezebel James

2009-01-07T01:55:00.003+08:00

I've watched all three episodes. It's absolutely hilarious! I wish they continue the series.

TBBT Se 02: The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis

2008-12-29T02:17:00.000+08:00

Episode 11
(Aired 12/15/2008)

Sheldon: Your argument is lacking in all scientific merit. It is well established Superman cleans his uniform by flying into Earth's yellow sun, which incinerates any contaminate matter and leaves the invulnerable Kryptonian fabric unharmed and daisy fresh.
Howard: What if he gets something Kryptonian on it?
Sheldon: Like what?
Howard: I don't know, Kryptonian mustard.
Sheldon: I think we can safely assume that all Kryptonian condiments were destroyed when the planet Krypton exploded.
Raj: Or it turned into mustard Kryptonite, the only way to destroy a rogue Kryptonian hotdog threatening Earth.
Leonard: Raj, please let's stay serious here. Superman's body is Kryptonian, therefore his sweat is Kryptonian.
Howard: Yeah, what about Kryptonian pit stains?
Sheldon: Superman doesn't sweat on Earth.
Howard: Okay, he's invited for dinner in the Bottle City of Kandor. he miniaturizes himself, enters the city where he loses his superpowers. Now, before dinner his host says, "Who's up for a little Kryptonian tetherball?" Superman says, "Sure.", works up a sweat, comes back to Earth, his uniform now stained with indestructible Kryptonian perspiration
Raj: Boo ya.
Sheldon: Superman would have taken his uniform to a Kandorian dry cleaner before he left the Bottle.
Raj: Kandorian dry cl... I give up, you can't have a rational argument with this man.

***
Raj: He's a very handsome man.
Howard: Doesn't do a thing for me. If I was gonna go that way, I'm more of a Zac Ephron kinda guy.
Raj: Oh, yeah, like you have a shot with Zac Ephron.

***
Penny: Okay, well, thank you for that, but I got you and Leonard a few silly neighbor gifts, so I'll just put them under my tree.
Sheldon: Wait! You bought me a present? Why would you do such a thing?
Penny: I don't know. 'Cause it's Christmas?
Sheldon: Oh, Penny. I know you think you're being generous, but the foundation of gift-giving is reciprocity. You haven't given me a gift. You've given me an obligation.
Howard: Don't feel bad, Penny, it's a classic rookie mistake. My first Hanukkah with Sheldon, he yelled at me for eight nights.
Penny: Now, hey, it's okay.You don't have to get me anything in return.
Sheldon: Of course I do. The essence of the custom is that I now have to go out and purchase for you a gift of commensurate value and representing the same perceived level of friendship as that represented by the gift you've given me. It's no wonder suicide rates skyrocket this time of year.
Penny: Okay, you know what? Forget it. I'm not giving you a present.
Sheldon: No, it's too late. I see it. That elf sticker says, "To Sheldon." The die has been cast. The moving finger has writ, Hannibal has crossed the Alps.

***
Sheldon: I don't see anything in here a woman would want.
Howard: You're kidding. You've got lotions and bath oils and soaps. That's the estrogen hat trick.
Sheldon: What it is is a cacophonous assault of eucalyptus, bayberry, cinnamon and vanilla. It's as if my head were trapped in the pajamas of a sultan.
Raj: Sheldon, if you don't like this stuff, let's just go next door and build her a bear.
Sheldon: I told you before, bears are terrifying.
Howard: Come on, bath stuff. It's perfect! You got a scented candle, a cleansing buff, spearmint and green tea scented bath oil, promotes relaxation.
Sheldon: That presupposes Penny is tense.
Raj: She knows you. She's tense.
We all are. Buy a basket!

***
Sheldon: Let's say for a moment that I accept the bath item gift hypothesis, I now lay the following conundrum at your feet: Which size?
Howard: This one. Let's go.
Sheldon: You put no thought into that.

***
Sheldon: Mmm, great news, Leonard. I've solved my Penny gift dilemma.
Leonard: Yippee.
Sheldon: You see, the danger was that I might under or over-reciprocate, but I have devised a foolproof plan. See, I will open her gift to me first and then excuse myself, feigning digestive distress. Then I'll look up the price of her gift online, choose the basket closest to that value, give it to her and then I'll return the others for a full refund.
Leonard: Brilliant.
Sheldon: It is, isn't it?

***
Sheldon: Ah, good, Penny, you're here to exchange gifts. You'll be pleased to know I'm prepared for whatever you have to offer.
Penny: Okay, here.
Sheldon: I should note I'm having some digestive distress, so, if I excuse myself abruptly, don't be alarmed. Oh, a napkin.
Penny: Turn it over.
Sheldon: "To Sheldon, live long and prosper. Leonard Nimoy."
Penny: Yeah, he came into the restaurant. Sorry the napkin's dirty. He wiped his mouth with it.
Sheldon: I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy?
Penny: Well... Yeah, yeah. I guess. But look, he signed it.
Sheldon: Do you realize what this means? All I need is a healthy ovum and I can grow my own Leonard Nimoy!

TBBT Se 02: The Vartabedian Conundrum

2008-12-15T00:47:00.000+08:00

Episode 10
(Aired 12/08/2008)

Sheldon: We'll you're the doctor, but I am constantly hearing this annoying an sound
Leonard: Me, too.
Sheldon: Is it a high frequency whistle?
Leonard: No, it's more of a relentless narcissistic drone.

***
Leonard: Do you understand that Stephanie's not here to treat your imaginary ailments?
Sheldon: How is it imaginary that I keep hearing an octave above Middle C?

***
Sheldon: You initialed it. See? L.H., L.H., L.H..
Leonard: Wait, I only initialed it because I never thought it would happen. I also initialed another clause naming you my sidekick in case I get superpowers.
Sheldon: Hmm, yes, you did.

***
Stephanie: Hi Sheldon.
Sheldon: Good morning, Dr. Stephanie. I trust Leonard satisfied you sexually last night?
Leonard: Oh good god! Sheldon we don't ask questions like that.
Sheldon: I heard you ask it over and over. How is it inappropriate for me to ask it once?
Stephanie: He did very nicely.
Sheldon: See? She's not offended. And now you finally have an answer.

***
Stephanie: I haven't heard a thing about you. Leonard? Why haven't I heard a thing about this woman who lives across the hall and comes into your apartment in the morning... in her underwear?
Leonard: She's heard about you because we're, you know, involved and and you haven't heard about her because... I never slept with her, I swear!
Sheldon: In Leonard's defense, it wasn't for lack of trying.
Leonard: Thank you Sheldon.

***
Leonard: Look, I'm just saying, um... Penny is one of our many neighbors, you know, and in our building, come and go, it's very casual, no dress code. In fact, some mornings I'll just mosey down to the third floor in my pajamas and have cereal with Mrs. Vartabedian.
Sheldon: Really? I have never once been invited to have cereal with Mrs. Vartabedian.
Leonard: She doesn't like you.

***
Leonard: Where's my bat signal?
Penny: You have a bat signal?
Leonard: I did. It was right here. She must've-- Oh my god, we're living together!

TBBT Se 02: The White Asparagus Triangulation

2008-11-26T02:11:00.002+08:00

Episode 9

Sheldon: You're aware that Leonard has entered into a new romantic relationship which includes a sexual component?
Penny: Okay, feeling the awkward now.
Sheldon: Her name is Dr. Stephanie Barnett and she is a highly distinguished surgical resident at Fremont Memorial.
Penny: Yeah, Leonard told me.
Sheldon: Good. What he may have left out is how important this relationship is to me.
Penny: To you?
Sheldon: Yes, see, of the handful of women Leonard's been involved with, she's the only I have ever found tolerable.
Penny: Well, what about me?
Sheldon: The statement stands for itself.

***
Penny: Really?
Sheldon: Yes. Now, should that happen, I would ask you to find some way to suppress your libido.
Penny: I could think about you.
Sheldon: Fine, whatever works.
Penny: Always nice talking to you, Sheldon.
Sheldon: Uh, peace out!

***
Sheldon: Have you ever witnessed a violent crime?
Stephanie: No.
Sheldon: Good. What's your favorite fruit?
Stephanie: Uh, strawberries.
Sheldon: Hmm, technically not a fruit, but all right.

***
Stephanie: Uh, Lawrence Memorial in Galveston Texas.
Sheldon: Really? That's where I was born.
Stephanie: You're kidding!
Sheldon: I spent so much of my childhood at that hospital. When I was 12, I got to ride there in a helicopter.
Stephanie: What? W-w-what happened?
Sheldon: Radiation burns. A little mishap while I was building my own cat scanner.
Stephanie: I'm sorry, you tried to build your own cat scanner?
Sheldon: No, I didn't try, I succeeded. In fact, I was briefly able to see the inside of my sister's guinea pig, Snowball, before he caught fire. It led to an interesting expression "not a snowball's chance in a cat scanner."

***
Sheldon: Look, if you fail this relationship, and history suggests you will, then we risk losing the medical officer that our landing party has always needed.
Leonard: What landing party?
Sheldon: You're Kirk, I'm Spock, Wolowitz is Scotty, Koothrappali is the guy who always gets killed... and now we've got McCoy.

***
Sheldon: Leonard, Leonard, Leonard.
Lenard: What Sheldon?! What Sheldon? ! What Sheldon?!
Sheldon: Tell me what you see here.
Leonard: The blunt instrument that will be the focus of my murder trial?

***
Sheldon: Why does he get a digital sheep and not you?
Leonard: It's just her Facebook page and we've only been going out a couple of weeks.
Sheldon: You don't see it, do you? We're losing her.
Leonard: Okay, I'm going to make this very simple for you. You are not in this relationship. I am. Ergo, you have no say in anything that happens between me and Stephanie.
Sheldon: I'm afraid I can't allow that. Pursuant to Starfleet General Order 104, Section A, you are deemed unfit and I hereby relieve you of your command.
Leonard: General Order 104, Section A does not apply in this situation.
Sheldon: Give me one good reason why not.
Leonard: Because this is not Star Trek!

***
Sheldon: This is banana bread.
Penny: This is a door knob.
Sheldon: It's my understanding that an unsolicited gift of food can be a precursor to an impromptu invitation to come in and chat.
Penny: Sheldon, would you like to come in?
Sheldon: I suppose I could spare a few minutes.

***
Penny: Sheldon, what do you want?
Sheldon: I'm certain this will come as no surprise to you, but Leonard is failing in yet another relationship.
Penny: He's having problems with Stephanie?
Sheldon: She's sending virtual livestock to random men on the internet. If I have any hope of keeping them together, I need data.

***
Penny: Oh, okay, all right, you know what? I'll tell you what happened. We were young, we were very much in love, but we could only communicated through a time-traveling mailbox at my lake house.
Sheldon: It's not enough that you've made me watch that movie, but now you mock me with it?

***
Sheldon: Gentlemen, I have a question about dating and relationships.
Raj: You told me you're going to have the talk with him.
Howard: I've been waiting for someone to have the talk with me.
Sheldon: More to the point, it's about finding a way to keep Leonard and Stephanie together.
Howard: Oh, I don't think you can.
Sheldon: Well, why not?
Howard: Look at Leonard's record. 27 days with Joyce Kim.
Raj: During which she defected to North Korea.
Howard: Two booty calls with Leslie Winkle.
Raj: For which she awarded him the nickname "speed of light Leonard".
Howard: And a three hour dinner with Penny.
Raj: Which would have been two and half if they ordered that souffle when they sat down.
Howard: Based on the geometric progression, his relationship with Stephanie should have after 20 minutes.
Sheldon: Yes, I'm aware of the math. Y equals 27 days over 12 to the nth. The issue remains. How do we circumvent his inevitable rejection?
Raj: Well, if you want to guarantee his appeal to Stephanie, your best bet would be to kill all the other men on the planet.
Howard: I'll tell what you shouldn't do. Don't spritz him with that body spray from the commercial where the women undress when they smell it. That doesn't work at all. No matter how much you put on.
Sheldon: So that's all you've got. Apocalyptic genocide and "go easy on the cologne"?

***
Sheldon: Great. New topic. Where are you in your menstrual cycle?
Penny: What?
Sheldon: I've been doing some research only and apparently female primates, you know, uh, apes, chimpanzees, you. They find their mate more desirable when he's being courted by another female. Now, this effect is intensified when the rival female is secreting the pheromones associated with ovulation.

The Universe: Mars The Red Planet

2008-11-22T07:49:00.003+08:00

Season 1 Episode 2

"Yet as awe-inspiring as the Martian surface appears, it is a brutal, inhospitable zone for human beings." - Narrator

"It goes down to a hundred degrees below zero at night. Every night." - Steve Squyres, Mars Expedition Rover Mission

"...and what they find at the bottom of every Antartica lake bed is a testament to the stubborn tenacity of life. Mats of microbial organisms are thriving in frigid environments the receive virtually no sunlight" - Narrator

"Missions to the red planet are only feasible once every two years during a specific short window of time.

The launch must be timed so that the spacecraft and Mars arrive at a specific point in the planet's orbit at the same time.

The journey across the 34 million mile distance can take up to 7 months. And the trajectory must be perfect." - Narrator

"The accuracy required to go from Earth to Mars and to hit the spot you want to be at on Mars is equivalent to Shooting a basketball from Los Angeles to New York and have it go through without hitting the rim..." - Steve Squyres, Mars Expedition Rover Mission

"It is of course, all about the search for life.

When all is said and done, the engine driving all of the astonishing scientific effort to explore the red planet is the burning desire of humankind to know if life exists elsewhere in the vast reaches of space." - Narrator

"We find evidence for life on Mars and, we know there's life on Earth of course. Then, there's probably life all over the place. The universe is probably teeming with life. And if it didn't then, it makes us feel, I think a little bit more special." - ...

The Universe: Secrets of the Sun

2008-11-22T06:34:00.007+08:00

Season 1 Episode 1

"Imagine that you're sitting in the movies watching very happily something going on on the screen and then somebody in a row in front of you comes across and blocks your view. In the movie theater you might not want that person to come across in front of you but at an eclipse, we're very lucky that the moon come across the sun and we're lucky to have come right across the middle." - Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams College

"We're also lucky that the moon, although it's 400 times smaller than the sun is also 400 times closer to us. This cosmic coincidence means that the two objects just happen to have the same apparent size in our sky, which allows the one to completely block out the other.

This magnificent cosmic event only happens when the path of the moon intersects the line between the earth and the sun. The moon's orbit is tilted slightly, about 5 degrees. If it wasn't we would have an eclipse every month ." - Narrator

"And then, we'll be bored. But we're not bored because most months the moon goes above or below the place where the line goes from the earth to the sun." - Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams College

"So instead of one every month, we get a total eclipse somewhere on earth about once every year and a half." - Narrator

TBBT Se 02: The Lizard-Spock Expansion

2008-11-22T04:10:00.002+08:00

Episode 8

Sheldon, Raj: Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock!

***
Howard: I got a whole list of them. Who wants to be my wing man?
Leonard: You're not gonna need a wing man. You're gonna need a paramedic.

***
Leonard: Howard's at the Mars Rover Lab. He says he's in trouble. Def Con 5.
Sheldon: Def Con 5? Well, there's no need to rush.
Leonard: What?
Sheldon: Def Con 5 means no danger. Def Con 1 is a crisis.
Leonard: How come 5 not be worse than 1?
Raj: Yeah, Star Trek 5, worse than 1!
Sheldon: Hey, first of all that's a comparison between quality not intensity. Secondly, Star Trek 1 is orders of magnitude worse that Star Trek 5.
Raj: Are you joking? Star Trek 5 is the standard against which all badness is measured.
Sheldon: No. No. Star Trek 5 has specific failures in writing and direction while Star Trek 1 fails across the board. Art direction., costuming, music, sound editing.
Leonard: Look, can we just forget I said Def Con and go?
Raj: Star Trek 5!

***
Leonard: What's the emergency?
Howard: I got the Mars rover stuck in the ditch.
Sheldon: Where?
Howard: On a dusty highway just outside Bakersfield... Where do you think? On Mars!

***
Howard: No. There were three other guys with eye-patches. It was a complete fiasco. What did work was " How do you like to visit a secret government facility".
Sheldon: What exactly do you want us to do?
Howard: I need you and Raj to help me get the rover out of the ditch and I need you to get Stephanie out before somebody notices she's here. She doesn't exactly have clearance.
Sheldon: Really? They don't let strange women from honky tonks come in to play with 200 million dollar government projects on distant planets?
Howard: Yes, I was bad. Maybe she'll spank me. Can we please move on?

***
Stephanie: So, are a scientist like Howard?
Leonard: No one's a scientist like Howard.

***
Howard: My mother is so gonna love her.
Sheldon: Oh, how nice. Maybe they can car pool when they visit you in federal prison.

***
Howard: Anything?
Raj: Actually I was just checking my email. But, uh, nope. The rover is not responding.
Sheldon: I believe the appropriate metaphor here involves a river of excrement and a native American water vessel without any means of propulsion.
Howard: Hang on. There's gotta be other options.
Raj: You can try calling triple A. But based on NASA's latest timetable, they won't get there for 35 years.
Sheldon: Of course, I understand you have to be standing next to the vehicle with your card when they arrive.
Raj: Oh, snap!
Sheldon: Snap what?

***
Leonard: If anyone asks you where I went, you don't know.
Sheldon: Where are you going?
Leonard: I can't tell you that.
Sheldon: Well, who would ask me?
Leonard: I can't tell you that either.
Sheldon: So you brought me in here to inform me that you can't tell me where you're going and you can't tell me who might ask?
Leonard: Yeah... I really didn't think this through.

***
Leonard: So how was work today?
Stephanie: Busy. I removed an appendix, a gall bladder and about a foot and a half of bowel.
Leonard: I'm hoping that was three different guys.
Stephanie: No. Just the one. He didn't make it.

***
Stephanie: So how was your day?
Leonard: You know I'm a physicist so I thought about stuff.
Stephanie: That's it?
Leonard: Uh, I wrote some of it down.

***
Penny: New shirt?
Leonard: Oh yeah. A couple.
Penny: Nice!
Leonard: Thank you.
Penny: So, who's the girl?
Leonard: I'm sorry?
Penny: Well, last time you bought a new shirt was when we were dating.

***
Penny: So, who is she?
Leonard: Oh she's a doctor.
Penny: Oh, nice! A doctor doctor or a you kind of doctor?
Leonard: Doctor doctor. Surgical resident.

***
Leonard: Let me ask you something. If your friend thinks he's dating someone but he's not because in fact you're dating her, does that make you a bad person?
Penny: Well that depends.
Leonard: On what?
Penny: Is the friend Wolowitz?
Leonard: Yeah...
Penny: Screw him. You're fine.
Leonard: Are you sure?
Penny: Well, have you slept with her yet?
Leonard: ...
Penny: You dog! Good for you!
Leonard: Does that change things?
Penny: No.
Leonard: So why'd you ask?
Penny: I'm just nosy. See you!

***
Leonard: Howard?
Howard: Sheldon...
Sheldon: Howard is employing a schoolyard paradigm in which you are, for all intents and purposes, deceased. He intents to act on this by not speaking to you, feigning an inability to hear you when you speak, and otherwise refusing to acknowledge your existence.

***
Leonard: Howard, come on! I didn't plan on this. This things just happen. Usually not to ME, but they do happen.
Howard: Did someone just fell a cold breeze?
Sheldon: I believe this is an extension of the death metaphor, the cold breeze is a so called ectoplasmic issue of a disembodied soul passing by.
Raj: You know, screw it. I'm just gonna it the dumpling!

***
Stephanie: Is this bad time?
Leonard: Yeah, but I don't see a better one on the horizon so...
Howard: Oh, if it isn't Mrs.-Dead-to-me.
Stephanie: Hello Howard.
Howard: Sheldon...
Sheldon: I'm sorry. You violated the terms of you metaphor by acknowledging her existence. I'm out.

Nice

2008-11-22T02:18:00.000+08:00

"I'm sugar and spice and everything nice. I'm the click on an empty chamber when it's your turn at Russian Roullette" - Hugh Laurie

TBBT Se 02: The Panty Piñata Polarization

2008-11-13T05:21:00.001+08:00

Episode 7

Sheldon: Excuse me Penny, but we're...
Leonard: No, no, don't tell her.
Sheldon: playing Klingon Boggle.
Leonard: Aw...
Howard: What do you mean aw? Like she didn't know we were nerds?

***
Howard: Oh, look, there's the future Mrs. Wolowitz. No wait, that's the future Mrs. Wolowitz. With her head in the lap of... Oh, what a coincidence. It's the future Mrs. Wolowitz.
Leonard: Yeah, and they can all move in with you and your mother. The current Mrs. Wolowitz.

***
Leonard: Why?
Howard: Isn't it obvious? Every week they kick out a beautiful girl, making her feel unwanted and without self-esteem. A.k.a. the future Mrs. Howard Wolowitz.

***
Leonard: You can recognize people on Google Earth?
Howard: Of course not. I got a buddy of mine at NORAD to have a spy drone fly over.
Leonard: NORAD? You're using military aircraft?
Howard: It was already targeted to poke around a nuclear reactor in Siberia. I took it an hour out of its way, tops.

***
Penny: No, no, no. It is on. I'm gonna introduce your friend to a world of hurt.
Leonard: Oh, Penny, you don't want to get into it with Sheldon. The guy is one lab accident away from being a super villain.

***
Leonard: Okay, for the record, what you guys are doing is really creepy.
Howard: You know what? If it's "creepy" to use the internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so that I can drop in on them unexpectedly, then fine, I'm creepy.

TBBT Se 02: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem

2008-11-12T04:47:00.002+08:00

Episode 6

Leonard: Sheldon, we both agreed to do this.
Sheldon: It's a waste of time. I might as well explain the laws of thermodynamics to a bunch of labradoodles.
Leonard: If you don't do this, I won't take you to the comic book store.

***
Sheldon: Looking out at your fresh young faces, I remember when I too was deciding my academic future as a lowly graduate student. Of course, I was 14. And I already achieved what most of you could ever hope to, despite my nine o'clock bed time.

***
Sheldon: In short, anyone who told you that you would someday be able to make a significant contribution to physics played a cruel trick on you. A cruel trick indeed. Any questions? Of course not. I weep for the future of science. Now, if you'll excuse me, the latest issue of Batman is out.

***
Raj: Isn't there a university policy against dating graduate students?
Leonard: No. If you can talk to them, you can ask them out.
Raj: Damn! There's always a catch.

***
Sheldon: But why should I cater to second-rate minds?
Leslie: Because first-rate minds call you dumb-ass?
Sheldon: Oh yeah? Wh... you're a mean person.

***
Ramona: Dr. Cooper, I've read everything you've published. I especially liked you paper on grand unification using string theory condensates and was wondering how you determined that three-dimensional string that's provided a unified picture of fermions and gauge bosons.
Sheldon: Amazing! An intelligent labradoodle.

***
Leonard: Sheldon lives in fear of the three-tined fork.
Sheldon: Three tines is not a fork. Three tines is a trident. Forks are for eating, tridents are for ruling the Seven Seas.

***
Penny: Are you here to see Leonard?
Ramona: No, Dr. Cooper.
Penny: Dr. Sheldon Cooper?
Ramona: We're having dinner.
Penny: Sheldon Cooper!? Tall, thin, looks a little like a giant praying mantis?
Ramona: He is cute, isn't he?
Penny: Sheldon Cooper?

***
Leonard: Sheldon, you girl, date, person... Ramona's here!

***
Ramona: Sorry, I didn't bring enough for your friends. I assumed we were going to be alone.
Leonard: Oh, yeah. We were just going...
Howard: ... to watch right?
Leonard: Oh come on now, we're going out!
Penny: Oh come on, we'll be quiet...

***
Penny: What's Sheldon's deal?
Leonard: What do you mean 'deal'?
Penny: Oh you know, like, what's his deal? Is it girls, guys, sock puppets?
Leonard: Honestly, we've been operating under the assumption that Sheldon has no deal.
Penny: Oh, come on. Everybody has a deal.
Howard: Not Sheldon. Over the years we formulated many theories about how he might reproduce. I'm an advocate of mitosis.
Penny: I'm sorry?
Howard: I believe, one day Sheldon will eat an enormous amount of Thai food and split into two Sheldons.
Leonard: On the other hand, I think Sheldon might be the larval form of his species and someday he'll spin a cocoon and emerge two months later with moth wings and an exoskeleton.

***
Sheldon: I need your help.
Leonard: What are you talking about?
Sheldon: I'm invoking the Sky-net clause of our friendship agreement.
Leonard: That only applies if you need me to help you destroy an artificial intelligence that you created that's taking over the earth.
Sheldon: Come on! Don't nitpick!
Leonard: Good night!
Sheldon: Alright! I'm invoking our body snatchers clause.
Leonard: The body snatchers clause requires me to help you kill someone we know who's been replaced with an alien pod.
Sheldon: Yes, she's in the living room. Go! I'll wait here.

Lost in Translation

2008-10-30T23:30:00.006+08:00

Early this morning while sharing breakfast of tuna sandwiches, we started wondering what the word "clue" is in Filipino. Many have wondered, many have tried to translate... ano nga ba ang Tagalog sa "clue"?

Check out Google translate. The site now has Filipino included in the list of languages available. Here's the translation of the word "clue" - "Bakas". Oo "bakas", hindi ka namalikmata. "Bakas" talaga 'yung translation na binibigay nya.

Eto pa: "Give me a clue.", sabi ng Google, "Bigyan mo ako ng isang tanda. " Ano daw? Ang weird pa, if you try to translate the said sentence back to English, it will be "Give me a note.". 'di ba dapat, "Give me a sign."? Tapos, pag isinalin mo uli sa Filipino ang "Give me a note", ang translation ay " Bigyan mo ako ng isang nota".

Here's a funny one - Filipino translation of "without a clue" is "walang bakas"! Huh?

What do you know? Things really get lost in translation!

TBBT Se 02: The Euclid Alternative

2008-10-22T00:02:00.002+08:00

Episode 5

Sheldon: I don't like the way Darth Vader stares at me.

***
Leonard: I'm not going to work.
Sheldon: Oh, just because your career's been stagnant for a few years that's no reason to give up.

***
Sheldon: I can't take the bus anymore. They don't have seat belts and they won't let you lash yourself to the seat with bungee cords.
Leonard: You tried to lash yourself to the seat with bungee cords?
Sheldon: I didn't try, I succeeded. For some reason it alarmed the other passengers and I was asked to de-bus.

***
Sheldon: Thank you for driving me to work.
Penny: You know this is my day off, Sheldon?
Sheldon: Oh, good. I'm not keeping you from anything.

***
Raj: Why did Howard leave you in the middle of the road anyway?
Sheldon: We had a difference of opinion.
Raj: Over what?
Sheldon: Whether or not he was trying to kill me? For the record I maintain he was.

***
Leonard: So, wait, you're just gonna give up?
Sheldon: No, I'm not giving up. I never give up.
Leonard: So, what is it you're doing?
Sheldon: I'm transcending the situation. I'm clearly too evolved for driving.
Leonard: What does that mean?

***
Sheldon: Leonard, I'm meant for greater things, like unraveling the mysteries of the universe. Not determining when it's safe to pass a stopped school bus on a country road.
Leonard: It's never safe.

TianJin Trip: HaiHe River

2008-10-21T04:40:00.014+08:00

After walking around the the shopping area near the the Xikai Cathedral, we took a cab to Dagu Bridge. According to reviews, the design of the bridge is called sun and moon arches (not sure why) and it has won the prestigious Eugene Fido Award.

We stayed at the banks of the HaiHe River until it's time to board our train. Liza's too tired to walk (and we've used all our energy looking for the Food Street earlier).

fishing

Facing the Dagu Bridge is the Liberation Bridge or Jiefang Qiao. This 80 year old bridge is a famous tourist attaction in Tianjin. It is also home to the Century Bell, which was constructed in order to ring in the new millennium.

Liberation Bridge at night

The bell is 40 meters in height and weighs more than 150 tons, making it the largest and heaviest bell so far recorded throughout China.

Century Bell or Millenium Clock

We went inside the train station once it has gotten dark because it's chilly outside. Then we're back to Beijing.

Tianjin Train Station

TianJin Trip: Xikai Cathedral

2008-10-21T04:15:00.010+08:00

Our third stop in Tianjin is the Xikai Cathedral. We learned our lesson - we took a cab from the Food street to the Cathedral. No more walking. Just tell the driver to go to Xikai Jiaotang - they'll know where to go.

From chinatoday.com: Also known as the French Cathedral, this building is on Binjiang Road in Heping District. It is 45 meters tall and is both a cathedral, built in 1914 and a church, built three years later. It covers an area of 1,585 square meters. Xikai Cathedral is the largest church in Tianjin and has been recently refurbished.

in front of the cathedral

TianJin Trip: Shipin Jie (Food Street)

2008-10-21T03:44:00.015+08:00

After walking what seems like ten miles, we finally found Shipin Jie. Why didn't we take a cab, you ask? The people I asked for directions said that the place is very near after pointing to the direction in which we should walk. (in Tagalog: dyan lang...) I should have known better to take their word for it. Their definition of near is nowhere near mine's.

at last...

two floors of restaurants and food shops

We checked out several restaurants before settling to the one near the stairs (on the second floor). Our main requirement is that it should have dumplings on the picture menu. The food's pretty cheap - we just paid 26 kuai each for several dishes and a big coke.

mushrooms - 16 kuai

bucket o' rice - 16 kuai

crispy chicken - 28 kuai

pork dumplings - 12 kuai (for 10 pieces)

There are other delicacies sold here some of which I saw for the first time. They also have bagoong alamang (definitely worth coming back for), and they have lots and lots of candies!

shrimps (?) with really big claws

gummy worms and chewy candies

really big Tianjin mahua

We didn't buy any mahua (fried dough twists) but people say that Tianjin is really famous for it.

TianJin Trip: Gulou Shopping Street

2008-10-21T02:03:00.020+08:00

Our first stop is the Gulou Shopping Street. Actually we planned to go to Shipin Jie (Food Street), but we got lost and ended up here. At the train station, the guy at the customer service booth told us that the 634 bus passes by the Food street. I'm not sure if we rode past it or the bus took a wrong turn but we didn't see the stop. We should've taken a cab...

at the entrance

There are lot of shops selling clay figurines. Perfect souvenirs for those going home. For us-no-annual-leave-left-can't-go-home-yet people, it's window shopping only...

strip of shops

spot the difference

The place is like a smaller version of Panjiayuan in Beijing. The street also has furniture shops, jewelry shops and other goodies. They even have gummy worms!

wicker chairs

wood carvings

5 kuai hats

buggy ride

PAINT BRUSH!

swords

candies

TBBT Se 02: The Griffin Equivalency

2008-10-16T02:55:00.003+08:00

Episode 4

Penny: Okay. Well, I'll just, uhm, go eat. By myself.
Leonard: Penny, you don't have to do that.
Penny: No, its okay. Between him not talking, him talking, and him, I'm better off alone. So... Goodbye, you poor strange little man.

***
Howard: Do I get an honorable mention for designing the telescope camera mounting bracket you used?
Raj: Sorry. It's not part of my heart-warming and personal narrative, in which a humble boy from New Delhi overcame poverty and prejudice and journeyed to America to reach for the stars.
Howard: Poverty? You father's a gynecologist. He drives a Bentley.
Raj: It's a lease!

***
Sheldon: I'm confused. Was there some sort of peer review committee to determine which scientist will be included?
Raj: Peer review? It's People magazine. People picked me.
Sheldon: What people?
Raj: The, the, the people from People.
Sheldon: Yeah, but exactly, who are these people? What are their credentials? How are they qualified? What makes accidentally noticing a hunk of rock that's been traipsing around the solar system for billions of years more noteworthy than any other scientific accomplishment made by someone under thirty?

***
Leonard: 'you proud of yourself?
Sheldon: In general, yes.

***
Sheldon: Look, I've found my missing neutrino.
Howard: Oh good, we can take it off the milk cart.

***
Sheldon: I often forget other people have limitations. That's so sad.
Howard: He can feel sadness?
Leonard: Not really, it's what you and I would call condescension.

***
Sheldon: Fine. What do you want me to do?
Leonard: Smile.
Howard: Oh crap! that's terrifying.
Leonard: We're here to see Koothrappali not kill Batman! try less teeth.

***
Raj: They are going to digitally add a supernova. They said it's the perfect metaphor for my incandescent talent.
Sheldon: Right. A ball of hot flaming gas that collapses upon itself.

***
Penny: I can't believe you. Raj is celebrating a tremendous accomplishment and you're not even gonna be there to support him?
Sheldon: A tremendous accomplishment would be if the planetary body he discovered were plummeting toward earth and he exploded it with his mind.
Howard: That would be cool. I'd go to that reception.

***
Sheldon: If Koothrappali is moving on to a new life of shallow, undeserved fame, then perhaps this is an opportunity to create a better cohort.
Leonard: You wanna breed a new friend?!
Sheldon: That's one option, but who has the time?

***
Howard: Sheldon, don't take this the wrong way but you're insane.
Leonard: That may well be, but the fact is, it wouldn't kill us to meet some new people.
Sheldon: For the record, it could kill us to meet new people. They could be murderers, the carriers of unusual pathogens... and I'm not insane. My mother had me tested.

***
Leonard: Let's see, money, women, technology... We're agreed, our new friend is going to be Iron Man!

Musings

2008-10-14T02:50:00.004+08:00

Far, far too late. The saddest, loneliest words in any language.
- Bitter Honey by Helen Brooks

TBBT Se 02: The Barbarian Sublimation

2008-10-08T02:32:00.002+08:00

Episode 3

Penny: Oh, I see.
Sheldon: What does that stand for?

***
Leonard: I only bring it up because your ice cream's melting and it's starting to attract wildlife.

***
Howard: What the frack?

***
Raj: It's like some kind of weird comic book cross-over.
Howard: Like if Hulk were dating Peppermint Patty.
Raj: I've always thought Peppermint Patty was a lesbian.

***
Leslie: Don't turn it off, you might miss the call from the Nobel committee letting you know you've been nominated as dumbass laureate of the year!
Sheldon: Oh yeah? Well, you wouldn't even be nominated!

***
Sheldon: Leonard, you have to do something about Penny. She is interfering with my sleep. She is interfering with my work. And if I have another significant aspect of my life, I'm sure she'll be interfering with that, too.

***
Leslie: Afternoon men, Sheldon.
Sheldon: oh, yeah? Well, you're attempted juvenilizing me by to excluding me from the set adult male... oh... I'm too tired to do this.
Leslie: Great. I've heard you've been pulling all-nighters with middle-earth barbie.
Sheldon: She comes to my room. No one's supposed to be in my room.

***
Sheldon: Hang on Leonard. Well, I have no respect for Leslie as a scientist, or a human being for that matter. We have to concede her undeniable expertise in the interrelated fields of promiscuity and general slutiness.
Leslie: Thank you.

TBBT Se 02: The Codpiece Topology

2008-10-02T02:35:00.000+08:00

Episode 2

Leonard: You went out and bought linen?
Sheldon: Don't be silly. I borrowed one of your pillow cases.

***
Sheldon: Notify the editors of the Oxford English dictionary. The word "plenty' has been redefined to mean "two".

***
Raj: What about leslie Winkle?
Sheldon: Oh, no.
Raj: Why?
Sheldon: Her research methodology is sloppy, she's unjustifiably arrogant about loop quantum gravity, and to make matters worse, she's often mean to me.

***
Howard: You mean like you and Richard the slave girl?
Raj: I bought him dinner and we kissed once. That was it! ...and he told me his name was Kimberly!

***
Sheldon: You know how I know we're not in the Matrix?
Leonard: How?
Sheldon: If we were, the food would be better.

***
Leslie: Hey dummy.
Sheldon: Hello to you, insufficiently
intelligent person.
Leslie: Oooh, rush me to the burn unit.

***
Leslie: So I heard your relationship with Penny crashed the ground like blue ice falling out of an airplane lavatory.
Leonard: Where did you hear that?
Leslie: Actually I read it. Wolowitz texted me.

***
Leonard: Sounds fun.
Leslie: I'll leave the details up to you. I think its better if you assume the male role.
Leonard: Thank you, that's very thoughtful.

***
Leonard: Sheldon, it's a date. I have a date coming over.
Sheldon: Oh. Well you cna't blame for jumping to that conclusion.
Leonard: Why? What is so unusual about me having a date?
Sheldon: Well, statistically speaking...
Leonard: Allright, alright.

***
Leonard: ...you know, make yourself scarce.
Sheldon: Leonard, I'm a published theoretical physicist with two doctorates, and an IQ which can't be accurately measured by normal tests. How much scarcer could I be?

***
Sheldon: You want me to leave the apartment?
Leonard: Yes
Sheldon: You want to just go someplace else and be someplace else?
Leonard: Yes

***
Leonard: And if science ever discovers a second member of your species and you two would like to have some privacy I'd be more than happy to get out of your way.
Sheldon: Well, alright then.

***
Penny: Sheldon, you are a smart guy. You must...
Sheldon: Smart? I'd have to lose 60 IQ points to be classified as smart.

TBBT Se 02: The Bad Fish Paradigm

2008-09-25T13:42:00.003+08:00

Episode 01

Why don't we just figure where we're going and when we want to get there, and then, rate of speed equals distance over time. - Leonard

***
Leonard: Sheldon, how can you let them spy on me?
Sheldon: They were clever Leonard. They exploited my complete lack of interest in what you were doing.

***
Howard: No, it's like, "This fish tastes bad, so I'm gonna slow down and spit it out."
Raj: You being the fish.
Leonard: I'm not the fish!

***
Raj: He was a lot more fun when he had no hope.
Howard: Give him time.

***
Penny: Sheldon? Can I ask you a question?
Sheldon; I would prefer that you not, but I won't go so far as to forbid it.
Penny: Alright, I heard "yes", so...

***
Sheldon: Oh. Well, a few years ago he did go out with a woman who had a Phd in French Literature.
Penny: How was that not a brainiac?
Sheldon: Oh, for one thing, she was French. Another is literature.

***
Sheldon: You're asking to keep a secret?
Penny: Yeah.
Sheldon: Well, I'm sorry but you would have had to express that desire before revealing the secret. So that I could choose whether or not I wanted to accept the confidence of secret-keeping.

***
Penny: I would absolutely die of embarrasment.
Sheldon: Physiologically impossible.

***
Penny: Look, I'm asking you as a friend.
Sheldon: So, you're saying that friendship contains within it, an inherent obligation to maintain confidences?
Penny: Well, yeah!
Sheldon: Interesting. One more question, and perhaps I should've lead with this. When did we become friends?

***
Howard: Shouldn't you put him on a brown paper bag and set him on fire?

House (Season 2)

2008-09-23T11:03:00.003+08:00

You know how people say you can't live without love, oxygen is more important. - Dr. House

...if Stacy can't trust you, you can't use her. - Dr. Wilson

Why is a guy on death row suddenly try to off himself? - Dr. House

Can't it be enough that I want to cause you pain? - Stacy

Oh no! Now you have left your entire body in my chair. - Dr. House

I'm the client, you moron! - Dr. Cuddy

It's the only reason why anybody does anything. - Dr. House

Everyone's got an opinion. - Dr. House

Don't worry. If it is you, no one would lift a finger. - Dr. House (to Dr. Chase)

Oh, you'll get all warm and cuddly around the dying girl and insinuate yourself and we'll end up in a custody battle. - Dr. House

If your patient's DNA is up by 1%, she'll be a dolphin. - Dr. House

Didn't sleep. Didn't breathe. I'm dying. - Dr. House

Exactly why you can't touch my markers. - Dr. House

Is it still illegal to perform an autopsy on a living person? - Dr. House

If it's Tuesday, I'm wasted. - Dr. House

So, her bravery was not a symptom. - Dr. Wilson

She stole a kiss from Chase. What have you done lately? - Dr. Wilson

I'm not gonna kiss you no matter what you say. - Dr. House (to a 9-year old girl)

The first casualty of this case is her sense of humor. - Dr. House

It's weird. Nothing funnier than almost killing a guy. - Dr. Wilson

The only good news is he won't be bitching about his arm if he can't breathe. - Dr. House

What if he was sick before his run in with gravity? - Dr. House

Sure. Only pavement hits that fast. - Dr. House

She's scarier than you are. - Dr. Chase

Why are you so curious about his curiosity? - Dr. Wilson

Four of them did. The question is why did I hire him. - Dr. Cuddy

My god, you're subtle! Something on your mind? - Dr. Cuddy

You two are just too nasty to each other not to have been... nasty. - Dr. Chase

Hey, I can be a jerk to people I haven't slept with. I am that good. - Dr. House

Oh. Check this out. It's fuzzy. It's black. It's alive. - Dr. House

You're right, I'm right. On the bright side, it has the advantage of keeping you totally responsible. - Dr. House

She's not acting like Cuddy. It's a pleasure. - Dr. House

My god, it's contagious! You're feeling guilty, too! - Dr. House

You're a good boss and you're not gonna be happy. - Dr. House

We'll if you live by the the river, I got a bag. - Dr. House

You see hypocrites everyday. Why is this one so special? - Dr. Wilson

You own disease? - Dr. House

Can't we just agree that you're just incredibly annoying? - Dr. House

Bizaare is good. - Dr. House

We are who people think we are. - Dr. House

Molecular mimicry. Nice! - Dr. House

Yeah, except in this universe effects follows cause. I've complained about it, but... - Dr. House

He was feeling better. He was never getting better. - Dr. House

You're just afraid of being wrong. - Dr. House

You just don't know how lucky you are. - Mr. House

I know. You're absolutely perfect just the way you are. - Mrs. House

Just the insane moral compass that won't let you lie to anybody about anything. It's a great quality for boy scouts and police witnesses, crappy quality for a dad. - Dr. House

He hates being a disappointment. - Dr. Wilson

So air is keeping him from breathing air. - Dr. House

I love it when you do both sides of the conversation. It's like white noise. It's very peaceful. - Dr. House

Either you screwed up or he's got cancer. - Dr. House

Congratulations Chase! He's got cancer. - Dr. House

Or repeat everything I say in question form. - Dr. House

Anger is not rational. - Dr. Wilson

You are healed. Rise and walk. - Dr. House

I want to apologize. Maybe I've been punishing you for a little too long. Or maybe you've been punishing me... I need to know, do you hate me? Or do you love me? - Dr. House

I hate you. And I love you. And I love Mark. - Stacy Warner

You'd be surprised what you can live with. - Dr. Wilson

Now let go of my cane before it becomes your new boyfriend. - Dr. House

It's not what you think. I know it looks like we're cleaning dishes but actually we're having sex. - Dr. House

His meds make him so much better so he made himself sick. - Dr. Foreman

Trying to win Stacy back by killing an animal. You're a caveman. - Dr. Wilson

He's too pretty to be straight. - a patient

Love is love. Satisfying is social validation, fun can wait. - patient

In a closet. Your girlfriend's other boyfriend showed up. - Dr. House

Why put on a raincoat when you're already wet? - patient

My giving a damn or not is not going to change anything. - Dr. House

Would you stop being nice? It's useless, and worse, it's boring. Get angry. One stupid night I end up with HIV. Do you have any idea how pissed off I was? - patient

Why, I had to? Mark isn't here. - Dr. House

Steve McQueen without hair? It's a blessing he died young. - Dr. House

She's fine. Probably getting bored by the question. - Dr. House

He though he was dying. Dying people lie, too. - Dr. House

What did you say when you thought you were dying? - Dr. Cameron

Playing by the rules makes everybody else, happy. Now, I'm happy. - patient

She thinks that he thinks that she's still have feelings for me. - Dr. House

He's alright. For a rat. - Stacy Warner

Sorry you're miserable. - Dr. House

Don't mind me? I'm just here for the show? - Dr. House

He steal her signature look? - Dr. House

I'm not an idiot. - Dr. Chase

Obviously not. Who doesn't sleep with a drugged-out colleague when they have a chance? - Dr. House

Not the kid, the rat! - Dr. Wilson

Not the rat, the dad! - Dr. House

Touch a dead fox, they jump aboard, they can hunker down for decades - growing, spawning, shopping, putting on plays... - Dr. House

Okay, it's cancer. You happy? - Dr. House

That's it? Okay? No name-calling? No squawking? No rending of garments? - Dr. Cuddy

You wanna kill yourself? Fine, but stop recruiting! - Dr. Cameron

Sure, why not! He hit me first. - Dr. House

I'm gay! Oh, that's not what you meant. - Dr. House

House (Season 1)

2008-09-22T11:38:00.000+08:00

You can live with dignity. You can't die with it. - Dr. House

Here's what you need to know. It's dangerous. It could kill him. You should do it. - Dr. Foreman

Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. - Dr. House

It's either that or get my hair highlighted. I think smugness is easier to maintain. - Dr. House

Beauty often seduces us from the road to truth. Dr. Wilson

Reality is almost always wrong. - Dr. House

People don't bug me until they grow teeth. - Dr. House

It's a very sad thing - an uncalibrated centrifuge. - Dr. House

I'll keep the kid alive. For a while at least. - Dr. Chase

What can I say? Chicks with no teeth turn me on. - Dr. House

Her only sign of mental illness is that she disagrees with you. - Dr. Cuddy

Clarification. It's a beautiful thing. - Dr. House

Neither is being obnoxious. Looks like you're clear. - Dr. Chase

'cause you irritate me. - Dr. House

Like I always say there's no "i" in team. There's "me" though, if you jumble it up. - Dr. House

The guy's already paralyzed, how badly can he screw it up? - Dr. House

DaTong Trip: YunGang Grottoes (YunGang ShiKu)

2008-09-06T22:24:00.019+08:00

We checked-out of our hotel early Sunday morning. We saved more than a few kuais because the hotel only charged us for a night though we checked-in around 4 am Saturday.

We walked to KFC for breakfast then took a cab to YunGang Grottoes. We've planned to take the bus but I got a headache looking for the bus route. I had this map I bought Saturday which turned out to be outdated (published last 2000... go figure).

on the way

From Wikipedia: The Yungang Grottoes (simplified Chinese: 云冈石窟; traditional Chinese: 雲崗石窟; pinyin: Yúngāng Shíkū) are ancient Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the Chinese province of Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The others are Longmen and Mogao.

map

near the entrance

From Wikipedia: The site is located about 16 km south-west of the city, in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. The grottoes were mainly constructed in the period between 460-525 AD during the Northern Wei dynasty. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues and statuettes. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Yungang Grottoes is considered by UNESCO a "masterpiece of early Chinese Buddhist cave art... [and] ...represent the successful fusion of Buddhist religious symbolic art from south and central Asia with Chinese cultural traditions, starting in the 5th century CE under Imperial auspices."

UNESCO World Heritage Site

From chinamuseums.com: Fifty-three grottoes remain at Yungang today, with some 51,000 statues. The tallest among these is 17 meters high, the smallest is only a few centimeters. Carving techniques build on and further develop the traditional arts of the Qin and Han dynasties, but also absorb and merge into these the artistic traditions of both India and western regions. The grottoes are divided into three distinct sections, east, central and west.

I didn't get to buy a lot of souvenirs because I don't have a bus ticket to Beijing yet, and it's kind of a far to walk back home...

Souvenirs galore

DaTong Trip: Sights within the City

2008-09-06T21:00:00.011+08:00

The Nine Dragon Screen was built in the 25th year of the reign of Hong Wu of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1392). It was orignally situated in front of Dai-King Zhu mansion who was the 13th son of Zhu Yuab Zhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It dates back 600 years ago. It is 45.5 meters long, 8 meters high and 2.02 meters wide. This is said to be the largest glazed wall in China.

Datong Drum tower in the middle of the city. With the weather unusually cooperative, it's a very pretty sight.

DaTong Trip: Wooden Pagoda in Yingxian County

2008-09-06T20:00:00.006+08:00

This place is not in DaTong but in Yingxian County, Shuozhou. Our cab driver recommended that we come here after visiting The Hanging Monastery in Heng Shan.

From Wikipedia: The Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple (Chinese: 佛宫寺释迦塔; pinyin: Fógōng Sì Shìjiā Tǎ) of Ying County, Shanxi province, China, is a wooden Chinese pagoda built in 1056, during the Khitan-led Liao Dynasty. The pagoda was built by Emperor Daozong of Liao (Hongji) at the site of his grandmother's family home. The pagoda, which has survived several large earthquakes throughout the centuries, reached a level of such fame within China that it was given the generic nickname of the "Muta" (Chinese: 木塔; pinyin: mùtǎ; literally "Timber Pagoda").

three wheeled car (or is it a tricycle?)

From Wikipedia: The pagoda stands on a 4 m (13 ft) tall stone platform, has a 10 m (33 ft) tall steeple, and reaches a total height of 67.31 m (220.83 ft) tall; it is the oldest existent fully-wooden pagoda still standing in China. Although it is the oldest fully-wooden pagoda in China, the oldest existent pagoda is the 6th century Songyue Pagoda made of brick and the oldest existent wooden buildings in China date back to the mid Tang Dynasty (618–907), which are Buddhist temple halls found at Mount Wutai.

Mushu? Is that you?

hutongs

buying a map

Train Ride and The Hanging Monastery (Xuankong Si)

2008-09-06T10:13:00.003+08:00

At last I was able to go to Datong. Mel and I have been planning to go there for ages. We went last weekend with Day and Mario (Susy is otherwise occupied...). I got us 27 yuan train tickets from huochepiao.com delivered to my apartment. I can't believe how cheap the fare was - imagine 27 kuai for a 7-hour trip? (140 pesos lang 'yun, kulang pa papuntang Batangas!)

I should have known better. I immediately regretted being cheap when I saw the old train. It was crowded, the seats are narrow, people smoke, and it DIDN'T announce the stations it stopped at - we ended up counting the stops. It's kinda scary because Datong is only a stop in the 1185 train line, not a terminal. (I keep imagining waking up in Batou which is like 6 to 7 hours away from Datong, 13 hours from Beijing).

We arrived at 3:30 in the morning, asked a cab driver to take us to the hotel the elong reserved for us. Along the way, we called the hotel for directions only to be advised that there are no rooms available, and they have given our room away. It's a good thing that our cab driver knows this hotel near Jiu Long Bi (Nine Dragon Screen). We slept for 3 hours, and then we're off to the Hanging Monasteries.

From Wikipedia: The Hanging Monastery stands at the foot of Mt. Hengshan and is one of the most dramatic sights at Hengshan - a wooden temple clinging to the cliff side, appearing to defy gravity with only a few wooden posts as support. The Hanging Monastery, built in 491, has survived more than 1,400 years. The extant monastery was largely rebuilt and maintained in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The buildings were restored in 1900 and there are 40 wooden halls and structures linked by an ingenious system of pillars, posts and walkways.

The Hanging Monastery is an hour and a half ride from Datong City. Tickets cost 60 yuan plus 1 yuan insurance (in case you fall off the cliff, i think). The place is amazing but fell short of my expectations. We took a lot of pictures, though.

Beijing World Park (Around the World in 4 Hours)

2008-08-26T05:02:00.021+08:00

I went with three friends to Beijing World Park (Chinese: 北京世界公园, Shijie Gongyuan) last Saturday. We took a cab from Changchunjie Subway Station (exit A2) after we got tired of waiting for the #7 bus which goes directly to the park. Cab ride took 30 minutes and 43 kuai.

at the park entrance

different angle

From Wikipedia: Beijing World park is located in southwestern Fengtai District, and is about 17 kilometers from the City center and 40 kilometers from the Capital International Airport. The park opened in 1993 and is estimated to receive 1.5 million visitors annually. The park displays about 100 tourist attractions in a scaled-down version from nearly 50 countries around the world, including the Tower Bridge in London, the Eiffel tower in Paris, pyramids in Egypt, as well as the Twin Towers in New York, which were destroyed on September 11th, 2001.

smelly elephant

Lyndale and Hazel had a lot of fun posing with the naked stone people at the Italian garden. We saw MichaelAngelo's David, Armless Venus (photo not included) and several other naked statues.

at the Italian Garden

copping a feel

si 300 daw???

Hazel's David

Then we went to Japan where checked out a wooden tower and the Katsura Palace. Liza and Hazel practiced their karate skills at a wooden bridge.

wooden pagoda

not sure what this one is...

practicing their karate skills

Next stop is the Taj Mahal in Agra, India...

Taj Mahal

At the gate of Babylon... I got tired of waiting for Hazel to take the shot.

blue gate (ngalay na...)

Somewhere in South East Asia... nameless temple, Angkor Wat and a palace in Thailand.

great poses!

Angkor Wat

Thai Palace

Day's boyfriend

Then we're of to Australia to see the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

quick stop

A photo shoot in Africa. My new models for a jeans commercial. You'll never think that Liza doesn't know what to do with herself before the shots were taken...

show your left knee

hand in your pockets

show your right arm

petting the rhino so they can ride it

After Africa, we went to Egypt to see the Great Sphinx, the pyramid in Giza, the Abu Simbl place and the temple in Karnak.

Great Sphinx

Giza Pyramid

boobs

Abu Simbl

Karnak Temple

jumpin'

Other Sights...

London Tower Bridge

Aztec (fhm poses)

hamsters in a bubble

Manhattan

Victoria Falls

Stonehenge, England

Eiffel Tower up close

ran out of ideas for poses

Vatican City

Wonder Girls in Rome

Leaning Tower of Liza

Acropolis, Greece

Hazel of Troy

France

church

moonlighting at the Red Square

I also got to satisfy my Godzilla tendencies...

George Washington Monument

some church

We went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the gate (in the International Street) afterwards. The food is passable though we had to guess what to order because they don't have an English menu. The menus are only in Chinese and Russian...

Beijing Museum of Natural History

2008-07-26T01:22:00.005+08:00

Address:
Beijing Museum of Natural History
126, Tianqiao St. Beijing,100050,PRC
http://www.bmnh.org.cn/web/en/

北京自然博物馆 (Beijing Zìrán Bówùguǎn)
北京市天桥南大街126号10050
http://www.bmnh.org.cn/web/cn/

Working Time:
9:00-17:00, 6 days a week(Except Monday)

To Get There:
Subway line 2 to Qianmen (前门) then take bus nos. 20, 69, 120, 729, 803, 826 to Tianqiao (天桥). The museum is across the street.

Qinhuangdao Trip: Shanhaiguan

2008-07-24T07:34:00.007+08:00

Liza and I went to Laolongtou (literally Old Dragon's Head) Great Wall at Shanhaiguan when we got tired of walking along the beach in Beidaihe. Entrance to the place is 55 kuai according to the cab driver but he got it for us for 50 kuai.

massive gate

From Wikipedia: Shanhaiguan or Shanhai Pass (simplified Chinese: 山海关; traditional Chinese: 山海關; pinyin: Shānhǎi Guān; Wade-Giles: Shan Hai Kuan; literally, "Mountain and Sea Pass") is a part of the city of Qinhuangdao, in Hebei province, People's Republic of China. In 1961, Shanhaiguan became a site of China First Class National Cultural Site. Along with Jiayuguan and Juyongguan, it is one of the major passes of the Great Wall of China.

It is a popular tourist destination, featuring the eastern end of the Great Wall. The "First Pass Under Heaven" is also a noticeable tourist attraction. The place where the wall itself meets the Pacific Ocean (at the Bohai Sea) has been nicknamed the "Old Dragon's Head." It is nearly 300 km east of Beijing and linked via the Jingshen Expressway.

exact replica of a Ming Dynasty Warship

military ladder

soldier's room

escorts

on the way to the "dragon's head"

where the Great Wall meets the Pacific Ocean

I don't have a lot of pictures of the place because my camera ran out of battery (forgot to charge it the night before) and it started to rain.

Kafe Peranakan

2008-07-24T06:38:00.005+08:00

Liza and I ate at the Cafe Peranakan in Chaoyangmen Wai last Sunday (before we went to Qinhuangdao). The food's great, parang nasa Pilipinas lang kami.

Indonesian Rice

Dry Curry Chicken

From Beijing Visitor Blog: This excellent Malay restaurant located behind the Kuntai Hotel is popular with many of its regular clientele and also with visitors from the nearby Kuntai Hotel and busy Ritan, Landau and Fulllink shopping areas. Those expats ‘in the know’ also cherish a regular meal at this specialist restaurant with its exquisite flavours of Malay cooking.

# 17 Kuntai International Center
Chaowai Dajie
Chao Yang District
朝外大街昆泰国中心南17号
Telephone: 5879 0370

Hair Salon?

2008-07-24T06:34:00.001+08:00

hair salong...

Qinhuangdao Trip: Beidaihe

2008-07-24T03:40:00.029+08:00

Liza and I went to Beidaihe last weekend for a day (or two) of fun at the beach. We've been really missing the very accessible beaches and shores of the Philippines.

This trip is a learning experience for me because for the first time I went to another city without a translator (bahala na si batman!). I also booked our train tickets and hotel on my own (nevermind that I used elong.net to book the hotel - I still did it on my own, hehe). My main concern was how to book the train tickets without going to the train station (I don't speak that much Chinese yet...). I inquired from several travel agencies but they only book plane tickets, so I tried the train's official website (I think) - www.huochepiao.com. With the help of my limited chinese and the trusty google translation site - I was able to book the tickets and request it to be delivered to our place with a delivery fee of 10 kuai per ticket.

I booked the ticket Friday morning, it was delivered around 11 am Saturday. I got the hotel confirmation Friday morning. We boarded the D11 train from Beijing Railway Station (Beijing Zhan, not to be confused with Beijing West railway Station which is Beijing Xi Zhan) at 1:55 pm.

Beijing Railway Station

The D11 train waiting room is at the second floor. There's a lot of chairs but you would need to order a drink before you can sit. Liza and I both asked for an 18 kuai iced lemon tea so we can wait in relative comfort. Little did we know that we could have walked a little further in and saved ourselves 18 kuai... the (real) a waiting room is just near the check-in area.

order a drink if you want to sit...

The train is quite nice... clean with relatively comfy seats - we got second-class tickets so I'm thinking first class is way better.

inside the train...

on our way to Beidaihe

From Wikipedia - Beidaihe District (Chinese: 北戴河区; pinyin: Běidàihé Qū; Wade-Giles: Pei Tai Ho) is a district in Qinhuangdao municipality, Hebei province, China. It has an area of 70.14 square kilometers and a population of 66,000 is also known as a birding haven. The Beidaihe Beach Resort stretches 10 km from east to west, from the Yinjiao Pavilion to the mouth of the Daihe river. The beach itself is covered with fine yellow sand stretching some 100 meters to the sea. The water is shallow and welcoming for children to play in.

He Xie Hao (D11 train) at Beidaihe station

in front of one of the cars

I bought our return tickets to Beijing right after we got off the train. There's a very helpful cab driver who pointed me at the right direction - the tickets are sold in the area at the right of the exit. I got us 90 kuai, 3:25 pm tickets for tomorrow.

I asked the cab driver to take us to our hotel (by pointing at the address I printed beforehand), he said he knows a much better place at a much cheaper price. He took us to this hotel that's around 500 meters from the beach (the beach can be seen from the lobby) but according to description in elong, the hotel I booked is much closer to the beach so we opted to go there instead.

our hotel room

in front of the hotel

As it turned out, we should have listened to the cab driver - our hotel (Yanshan Dasha or Yanshan Hotel) is like a kilometre from the beach!

200 metres daw!

After walking a kilometre, we finally arrived at the beach. I've forgotten that beaches can be a lot crowded during Sundays...

never

ending

crowd.

can't make sand castles with this sand...

We stayed at the beach til past 7 pm, went to our hotel to wash the sticky sand and then went out to eat. We had some trouble getting our food orders understood - they only have Russian & Chinese menus, no English.

no English menus, just Russian

The next day, we checked-out of the hotel around 9 am and took a walk along the beach.

leaf hat

flower garden by the beach

too high for me...

lots of seaweed

Playing a traditional Chinese instrument

Beidaihe spelled backwards

At 10 am, we got tired of walking in the sun we took a cab to Shanhaiguan (which is another story).

Fashion Statements Part 2

2008-07-13T23:18:00.002+08:00

Beating the summer heat...

Sleep Through the Line

2008-07-13T23:07:00.007+08:00

Who says you can only sleep at home? I saw this guy on the subway (line 2) on my way to work. He is still sleeping when I got off the train.

You have to hand it to him, he picked the train that's air-conditioned and has pretty comfy seats...

Moonlight Cancelled?

2008-06-14T06:23:00.001+08:00

I just read some posts online saying that Moonlight has been cancelled and will not be renewed... That's just so sad...

Moonlight Season 1

2008-06-12T07:06:00.018+08:00

Sonata
Episode 16

Hahaha, Vala is now a vampire! Cool!

"No, no. I founded it." - Josef Kostan

***
Beth: You drink her blood?
Josef: Only just on Tuesdays and Fridays but she wanted to come to the party.

***
Beth: Do you realize this is our fourth official date?
Mick: Define official.
Beth: Any outing that doesn't involve dead bodies?

***
"How very egalitarian of you." - Mick St. John

***
"You can't come back to my world. And I'm not ready to join yours." - Beth Turner

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's Left Behind
Episode 15

"You want the truth? I'm jealous." - Josef Kostan

***
"Our relationship being neither normal nor human." - Mick St. John

***
"How can he get over his fear, when he's cold and alone?" Mick St. John

***
"Family's not only about DNA." Beth Turner

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click
Episode 14

"Afraid so. Welcome to my world." - Tierney Taylor

***
"Mick, welcome back to the land of the undead." - Guillermo

***
"No, I don't mean, with me, with me..." - Mick St. John

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fated to Pretend
Episode 13

"Today, I just don't feel like 85 years old." - Mick St. John

***
"You're not afraid of asking her. You're afraid you're gonna get hurt." - Josef Kostan

***
"Yeah, the jumping stuff is kind of tied to the whole bloodsucking stuff." - Mick St. John

"Just don't take too long. You may have forever, but I don't." - Beth Turner

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mortal Cure
Episode 12

"Here we go again. I'm not alone." - Mick St. John

***
"They need to be put down anyway. So I'm just killing two bats with one stone. really." - Coraline

***
"I need to feel life again. And maybe, love can't exist without mortality." - Coraline

***
"It's a long story that ended in a big fight." - Mick St. John

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Love Lasts Forever
Episode 11

"How does an immortal handle mortal failings? "- Mick St. John

***
Beth: If you hate what you so much then why do you go on living?
Mick: You make me want to.

***
"Not a lot separates life and death. Only one thing - eternity." - Mick St. John

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sleeping Beauty
Episode 10

"I came back for you. I became human for you. Doesn't that mean anything?" - Coraline

***
"He survived 400 years. 400 years. He saw so much, so much history. He was history. And now he's gone." - Mick St. John

***
"Ah, are you just gonna stand there all day? You gonna help me find out who killed me?" - Josef Kostan

***
"I hope the universe is on your side." - Josef Kostan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
12:04 AM
Episode 8

"All I know is ever since I met you, I've stopped using the word never." - Beth Turner

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ringer
Episode 7

"At the oddest time, you might find yourself feeling lucky. Like maybe you've found somebody. Then bam! that's exactly when the ex-wife shows up. Coraline - the woman who turned me into a vampire." - Mick St. John

***
Josef: Step back get some perspective.
Mick: Maybe you could help.
Josef: I don't do perspective.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
B.C.
Episode 6

B.C. is for Black Crystal (I think...)

Josef: I'm looking for somebody.
Mick: What? You think they're in here!?

Mick (to Josef): So let me get this straight? She stood you up, so instead of moving on, you became so worried that you immediately came over here and woke me up. How much does she owe you?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arrested Development
Episode 5

"You know what you need? You need an off switch." - Carl Davis

"Maybe it's a sum of a million coincidences that we don't quite control that brings us to a particular place, at a particular time. Or maybe it's the choices we make, the actions we take. If there's one thing I've learned in 85 years, is that what we want doesn't always matter... What we want doesn't always matter. Then again, sometimes, it's all that does." Mick St. John

Alex O

2008-06-12T03:47:00.002+08:00

My current wallpaper... Is he hot or what!!!

Numb3rs Season 4

2008-06-11T01:14:00.006+08:00

Atomic No. 33
Episode 16

Allan: I think that people like that, like this woman, they're just looking for something. They're looking for answers, you know, maybe even some of the answers that you are. But just by different with means.

Larry: You can not begin to justify this woman's spewing up her venom.

Allan: No, no, no. I'm not, I'm not. Its just that, uhm, not everyone has the emotional and intellectual resources to search for god in a super collider. People look for answers in what's available to them. And when they're particularly desperate, they latch on the closest answer that's available. I mean, it may make them wrong but not necessarily evil.

***
"The monks say, there are no enemies. Just the unresolved within us."- Larry Fleinhardt

--------------------------------

End Game
Episode 15

We all have to, sometime. - Colby Granger

--------------------------------

Checkmate
Episode 14

It's not our mistakes that defines us Bishop. It's what we do afterwards that counts the most. - David Sinclair

Suddenness

2008-06-08T14:11:00.004+08:00

I think it means you get eaten by something bigger than you if you cross the railings...

Young Old

2008-06-08T14:03:00.004+08:00

This little person is either a very self-sufficient kid or a very short old-man.

Animals and Speed Boats

2008-05-31T22:40:00.032+08:00

It's a rare clear Saturday - my friends and I went to Beijing Zoo. We bought the 40 RMB ticket which includes entrance to the zoo and a one-way ride to Summer Palace (YiHe Yuan) by boat.

at the entrance

Our first stop is the place where they keep the pandas. Unlike my previous visit (early February 2007), I was able to see the pandas because the zoo people are cleaning their cages and they are out munching bamboo. I was able to take pictures - my last visit was in winter - no wonder they kept themselves inside.

a panda - back view

bamboo munchies

busy eating

We checked out these mongooses sunning themselves, some tapirs and this FHM material kangaroo. I was not included in most of the pictures because I was the designated tour guide and photographer (as usual, not that I'm complaining).

sunbathing mongooses (or is it mongeese?)

half and half

sexy

We had a lot of fun. These kids found animals they can play with. A stone kangaroo, a monstrous lion, and several stone elephants. Things are going quite well, everything going as planned, until they saw the speed boats...

I think Hazel is the one on the right...

lion or tiger?

yey! elephant!

elephant ride

eh ano ngayon kung mahirap bumaba?

Once they saw these speed boats, they lost interest on seeing the rest of the zoo. Never mind that we have only seen less than half of it and we're due on our boat ride to the Summer Palace at 11:30. They have to have a speed boat ride! So, what can I do? Off we went...

10 kuai speed boat ride

After the speed boat ride - we have to wait in line for the ferry going to the Summer Palace. We only have a one-way ticket because we'll be having lunch in WuDaoKou (which is another story). Jane decided not to come with us to the Summer Palace opting to go shopping at the place in front of the zoo instead (she's going home to the Philippines next week).

The boat ride was also a lot of fun (for us at least). We waved to everyone we saw along the banks of the river (feeling celebrity) who gamingly waved back to us. There was a tour guide on the ferry pointing out the sites along the way. The guide spoke in Chinese so I understood very little of it.

We have to change to another ferry to continue our journey to the Summer Palace (wow journey daw! hehehe). We stopped at this park (I think it's the Purple Bamboo Park or ZiZhuYuan, but I'm not sure), walked a little to the next dock and then we're off again.

We got off here then we took a cab to WuDaoKou... the kids were all hungry...

Black Books Season 1

2008-05-28T05:51:00.005+08:00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manny's First Day
Episode 2

Manny: You said something about a job.
Bernard: What do I have to do?
Manny: No, I... in a bookshop...
Bernard: But I already work in a bookshop. Do you have anything in an aquarium?
Manny: No, for me.
Bernard: Oh, yes of course. Sorry.

***
Manny: You do know you've got mollusks in your pipes.
Bernard: What of it?
Manny: Well, it's just that tradionally they live in the sea.

***
Manny: Put in a few more standard lamps...
Bernard: Why didn't you just say you are gay?
Manny: What? But, but I am not.
Bernard: But you're interested in
Fran: lamps.
Manny (talking to Bernard): Yeah but I'm interested in women and lamps. I thought you are, actually. Gay, I mean.
Bernard: So did I, for a bit. Then I found out about the prohibitive standards of hygiene. And all that dancing!

***
Bernard: What do they want from me? Why can't they just leave me alone? I mean, what do they want from me?
Manny: Well they want to buy books.
Bernard: Yeah, but why me? Why do they come to me?
Manny: Because you sell books?
Bernard: Yeah, I know but @#$%$(*^$

***
Fran: Come on Bernard, you'll be crazy to let him go. You need someone normal around here.
Bernard: Normal? He's normal, is he? What am I then?
Fran: Well, you are a freak, Bernard You know that.
Bernard: Yes! I know. But I have rights!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cooking the Books
Episode 1

Bernard is a drunken Irish man who owns the bookstore - Black Books. Fran is his wacky next door neighbor. Manny is an accountant who swallowed the little book of calm which was assimilated into his system overnight.

***
Bernard: Yes, Dickens. The collected works of Charles Dickens.
Customer: Are they real leather?
Bernard: They're real Dickens.

Customer: I have to know if they're real leather because they have to go with the sofa. Everything in my house is real. Give you two hundred for them.

Bernard: Two hundred what?
Customer: Two-hundred pounds!
Bernard: Are they leather-bound pounds?
Customer: No.
Bernard: Sorry, I need leather-bound pounds to go with my wallet. Next!

***
Customer: I expect better service!.
Bernard: Well, expect away.

***
Fran: Bernard, do you want this? Buy this.
Bernarnd: What is it?
Fran: It's a thing.
Bernard: Is it?
Fran: Yes.
Bernard: What does it do?
Fran: It's very in.
Bernard: You don't know what it is, do you?
Fran: It, it's very now.

***
Boss; Manny, what's that you're eating? Soup?
Manny: Yes... It's extra chunky.
Boss: What's in it?
Manny: Chunks.

Trembling Knees (A Weekend in Shidu, Part 2)

2008-05-28T03:29:00.008+08:00

Breakfast is scheduled at 8:00 and we are supposed to be off to GuShanZhai at 8:30. I woke up at 7:00 and suffered through the freezing shower like I did last night. The weather looks promising.

early Sunday morning

We didn't eat that much last night, so we are all expecting a very heavy breakfast (we are going to hike today after all and we will need the fuel). Well, life is indeed full of disappointments... only hard-boiled eggs and mantou are the ones I recognized, other than those, it's a fair game.

breakfast guessing game

It took us 30 minutes to GuShanZhai (Susy said it means Lonely Hill). The place is amazing! Entrance tickets cost 30 RMB and another 20 RMB to cross the hanging bridge. If you want to save 20 kuai, I think swimming is another option to cross to the other side, we opted to stay dry, though.

GuShanZhai (tickets cost 30 RMB)

GuShanZhai

Hanging Bridge to the park (costs 20 RMB to cross)

From the other end of the hanging bridge, we walked a kilometre to another ticket check area. I'm not sure if this cost us extra because all the tickets are included in our package (280 RMB, all meals, hotel, and tickets). If you want to conserve energy, you can ride a horse - we didn't ask for how much because the horses really do smell...

parang Mindoro lang...

horseback riding

Souvenir shops and ice cream vendors has set up stalls along the way (yes, even along the river, and cliff edges). You can buy small dolls, slingshots (tirador), walking sticks, cowboy hats and different flavored ice-creams (actually, ice-drop yung tinitinda nila).

there's no mountain high enough

We walked and walked and walked... I lost track of how many streams we passed (or is it one continuous stream???) and how many steps we climbed. My knees started trembling whenever I stop walking, I lost my breath several steps ago and I still don't know where we are supposed to go (lagi pa akong nagpapahinga sa lilim sa lagay na 'to).

cold, refreshing water (but no, it's not for drinking)

We passed by several mini waterfalls on the way, the sound of water is very relaxing but I kept thinking how far I'll have to walk to get back to our bus...

Then there it was, a real big waterfalls (well, not that big, I just said it's big because it was supposed to be the highlight of the hike). I felt all the exhaustion draining away for a chance to play under the falls (to take pictures, really...). The water's cold pero sulit 'yung nilakad kong pagkahaba-haba!

I thought that was it. We'll be going back now... but no, signs for the "Thin Crack in the Sky" started appearing on the way. I'm not sure what that is but they said that we should go see it since we are already there. Okay... up we went. We walked at the edges of the cliff, followed the signs, climbed several flights of stone steps, followed the signs again, rested a bit, climbed a lot of flights of stone steps again until we saw the very steep climb to the actual place. (I felt my lungs burning, I swear I am going to sleep for several days the minute I got back to the city).

very steep climb

Thin Crack in the Sky or Yi Xian Tian (literally, a strip of heaven) is crack in the mountain top about a meter wide which is so cool! My friends said it's like a place from the new Indiana Jones movie - Kingdom of the Crystal skull.

thin crack in the sky (worth the steep climb)

Watch out for these areas where jokers put twigs on the sides of the cliff. It really looked like the twigs are holding up the mountain!

twigs holding the mountain up (kaya nyo yan?)

After the Susy and Mario climbed the Mountain of Solitude (Mel and I rested and tried to catch our breaths five minutes from the top) we walked our way back. We stopped at this stall that sells de-stinged (or is it de-fanged?) scorpions, which would make really weird but rather unique souvenirs. I thought of buying them for presents but I can't figure out how to wrap them...

live souvenirs

We also took several pictures while on the hanging bridge. We're not able to take photos earlier because people are running when we crossed and they made the bridge sway.

pitong bundok

waterfalls near the hanging bridge

they have bigger rafts here and larger space to play

After the hike, we went back to our hotel for lunch. Unlike the previous three meals, they went all out. The food was very delicious. We had around ten different dishes to choose from. They even served freshly caught fish!

sumptuous lunch (reward for the very long walk)

After the meal, people from the group exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and business cards. I stayed true to my antisocial self and took pictures of drying laundry outside. (I don't have business cards, anyway.)

commercial ng Tide

And then we are off to the city. Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to it. I missed my hot water shower...

one last look and we're off

Losing My Breath (A Weekend in ShiDu, Part 1)

2008-05-27T06:09:00.024+08:00

Shidu is located in the middle-upper stream of the Juma and Dashi rivers, 100 kilometers from central Beijing.

on our way to ShiDu

ShiDu (ten crossings) was named after the ten ferry crossings that were set up on the ten river bends along the river. There are no ferries that carry passengers now, but there are bamboo rafts that we had fun "driving". It is said to be "the only natural scenic in north China that is characterized by karst rock formations".

SiDu (fourth crossing): those blue thingies that are really
out of place have the Olympic slogan on them

Karst mountains

I joined a tour group with three other friends for a weekend in ShiDu. We left the meeting place near GongZhuFen subway stop at 10 o'clock Saturday morning. The trip took about two hours.

hotel entrance

arriving at our quaint hotel at high noon

Our room has two beds, a black and white television (I thought we had a bad reception but all channels are in black and white, so...), an air conditioner without a remote control, and a shower without a heater (think brain-freeze)...

didn't know black and white TVs still exist...

but the view is worth it all. You can see the Karst mountains just by looking out the window.

Karst mountain backdrop

a moon door with a square door

We had lunch - I'm not sure what we ate, rested a bit, then went to the nearby river to try the bamboo rafts. It was fun. The air was cool so I forgot about the sun and that I am wearing a shirt, so I ended up with an uneven tan. It looked like a I am wearing a permanent shirt. (Oh well, I'll lose it in winter...)

training early...

a family-sized raft

raft fights

We barbecued chicken wings and mantou (chinese steamed bun made of milled wheat) for dinner. Some of the people from the group also had garlic barbecue (which was kind of weird). While we are eating, people from some other place were setting off fireworks.

kanya-kanyang ihaw!

spectacular fireworks

After dinner, we have to choose between karaoke and bonfire by the river. Since songs generally don't like me and all the characters are in Chinese, we opted to go with the others to the river, but then they had to play a game wherein losers have to sing... We ended up going back to our room and sleeping the night away.

bonfire by the river

to be continued...

The Big Bang Theory Season 1

2008-05-24T04:09:00.007+08:00

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tangerine Factor
Episode 17 (Season Finale)

These guys really brighten up my day! And Howard didn't really look that nerdy and disgusting in real life!

***
Penny (talking to Leonard): I mean not "you" smart, normal non-freaky smart.

***
Penny: Do yo have a second?
Sheldon: A second what, pair of underwear?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Peanut Reaction
Episode 16

It's hard to blackmail someone if you have to explain to them you are blackmailing them. Howard's a pervert but he missed out on the party! hahahahaha

***
Sheldon (on celebrating Leonard's birthday): It's actually based on very sound theories. His mother published a paper on it. ... It was obviously effective. Leonard grew up to be an experimental physicist. Perhaps if she'd also denied him Christmas, he'd be a little better at it.
Leonard: Thank you.

***
Penny: I want to talk to you.
Sheldon: What would we talk about? We have no overlapping areas of interest I'm aware of.

***
Penny (on having a party for Leonard): He just doesn't know he wants one cause he's never had one.
Howard: I suppose that's possible, but for the record, I've never had a threesome and yet I still know I want one.
Penny: Howard, here's the difference --- the possibility exists that Leonard could have a birthday party before hell freezes over.
Howard: Fine. If I do have a threesome, you can't be part of it. ... I'm just kidding. Yes, you can. Can you bring a friend?

***
Customer: Which hard drive do I want - firewire or USB?
Sheldon: It depends on what bus you have available.
Customer: I drive a Chevy Cavalier.
Sheldon: Oh, dear lord... What you computer do you have? and please don't say a white one.

***
Howard: No, you don't understand
Nurse: Oh I understand. Unfortunately this hospital is not equipped to treat stupid.

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The Pork Chop Indeterminacy
Episode 15

Raj is sooo adorable! Just his luck that the medication wore out when he was about to get the girl! I can't stop laughing!

***
Leonard: Some physicists are concerned that if the super-collider actually works, it'll create a black hole and swallow up the earth. Ending life as we know it.
Raj: Pfft, What a bunch of crybabies. No guts no glory, man.

***
Sheldon: How can you be late? I wasn't expecting you at all.
Howard: Nobody ever expects me. Sometimes you just look and bam! Howard Wolowitz.

***
Missy: That's because you have no measurable sense of humor, Shelly.
Sheldon: How exactly would one measure a sense of humor? A humormometer?

***
Sheldon: They call me a genius, because I'm a genius.

If only we can all be confident like Sheldon!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nerdvana Annihilation
Episode 14

Miniature time machine indeed!

***
Leonard: Come on guys, push!
Howard: If I push any harder, I going to give birth to my colon.

***
Raj: A time-share time machine!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bat Jar Conjecture
Episode 13

Will there really be a seen depicting Spock's birth on the new Star Trek film? I'll definitely watch out for it! I really liked the scene where Leslie terrorized Sheldon.. so funny.

***
Sheldon: Well, at this point I should inform you that I intend to form my own team and destroy that molecular bonds that binds your very matter together and reduce the resulting particulate chaos to tears!
Leonard: Thanks for the heads up.
Sheldon: You're welcome.

Now, that's what I call a THREAT! :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Jerusalem Duality
Episode 12

Wow, a 15-year doctoral candidate! What was I doing when I was 15?

***
Sheldon: I sense a disturbance in the force.

***
It's like looking into an obnoxious, little mirror isn't it?

***
Leonard: I need to tell you something, and I need you to listen carefully.
Sheldon: Alright.
Leonard: GO AWAY!

***
Sheldon: Engineering, where the noble, semi-skilled laborers execute the vision work of those who think and dream. Hello, Oompa Loompas of science.

***
Raj: Do you what he did? He watched me work for 10 minutes and started to design a simple piece of software that could replace me.
Leonard: Is that even possible?
Raj: As it turns out, yes.

***
Raj (on getting rid of Dennis Kim): We can't send him back to North Korea. He knows how to get out.

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The Pancake Batter Anomaly
Episode 11

Leonard: Drink plenty of fluids.

Sheldon: What else would I drink? Gases? Solids? Ionized plasma?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Loobenfeld Decay
Episode 10

Sheldon (on Penny's singing voice): I would suggest something to the effect of "Singing is neither an appropriate vocation nor a vocation for you, and if you disagree I recommend you have a CAT scan to look for a tumor pressing on the cognitive processing centers of your brain.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization
Episode 09

Leonard: Sheldon, we have to do this!

Sheldon: No we don't. We have to take in nourishment, expel waste and inhale enough oxygen to keep ourselves from dying. Everything else is optional.

Dos and Don'ts

2008-04-20T02:01:00.005+08:00

Yes, pay attention!

sunny side up, then?

Tripping on the Great Wall

2008-04-19T09:22:00.013+08:00

I went to Mutianyu Great Wall with two friends last Sunday. We took the the 916 bus from Dongzhimen Long Distance Bus station. In my haste to get us there, we took the wrong bus. It's still a 916 bus but it's not the express one - it felt like the bus stopped every 500 meters. The trip took forever! My two companions didn't seem to mind. Liza slept through the whole trip, well, almost, after the this guy who keeps bumping the back of her seat got off the bus. Hazel entertained herself listening to music.

After almost two hours, we got off the stop mentioned in the directions I got from Baidu. The problem is, we are supposed to get on a No. 12 bus which goes directly to the Great Wall which, from what I deduced from the signs on the stop, no longer exists. (Yeah, I know, I was supposed to check the date the directions was posted. Oh, well...)

Fortunately for us, there is this mabait na manong who approached us and offered a ride to the Wall for RMB 60. After haggling for five minutes, we are on our way to the Wall on our RMB 30 cab ride. He also offered to come back for us after three hours (I thought we are physically fit and will walking that long) for RMB 35. We all agreed it was a good deal.

The entrance ticket cost RMB 45, includes a video CD about the Great Wall's history. We took a chairlift going up (RMB 35). The ride was a bit longer than the Gondola ride at the Badaling Great Wall.

We stayed up the Wall for an hour and a half (at most), the stairs tired me down. But these two with me seem to be running on energizer batteries, they have all the energy to goof around (when in fact, they are running on more than 15 hours without sleep).

playing Bato Bato pik

karate kick!

Fashion Statements

2008-04-19T09:18:00.003+08:00

Early Spring fashion (Chaoyangmen, Beijing)

Blue skirt, Paisley shirt (Old Temple, Xian)

Ebony and Ivory (Kangfulu Road, Xian)

Lovely goldy pointy shoes,

and the dress the goes with it. (Beiyuanmen, Xian)

Pretty in pink in the sweltering heat.
(Mutianyu Great Wall, Beijing)

Black goes with everything.
(Mutianyu Great Wall, Beijing)

Black Sheep

2008-03-17T00:48:00.006+08:00

Tell me the truth, does it really look like a monkey? The lady at the store assured me that it's a sheep, as in "baa baa black sheep..." Liza's got me confused, though... One day, I am going to bring her to the zoo.

Piece of Cake

2008-03-17T00:42:00.005+08:00

My lop-sided piece. I love tiramisu!

Wheels

2008-03-17T00:31:00.009+08:00

a few...

several...

a lot.

Light and Shadows

2008-03-16T23:11:00.009+08:00

ChaoYangMen Nei

BeiHai

XiAnMen

Early Morning, Late Spring

2008-03-09T22:23:00.005+08:00

7:00 AM

Building No. 5

CNOOC Building

The Good Life

2008-03-04T01:00:00.002+08:00

Everybody say it is hard to live and work in another country but no one would say that there aren't any perks. We dine out, go places, and drink wine.

Santa Cristina 2004 wine

A friend enjoying his glass of wine.

Life is a glass of wine...

Actually, I just watched my friends drink the wine. He he he. But I had tea... and Coke...

Broken Hand

2008-03-03T02:36:00.002+08:00

The sec0nd's hand has been broken since November. Time stops sometimes but I'm not buying a new one until I have saved enough to buy one that would last for a while.

Something Old, Something New (and everything in between)

2008-03-03T02:19:00.015+08:00

Day's going home this Monday, Kristine and I went with her to Panjiayuan for her last minute shopping. Panjiayuan is a famous flea and antique market here in Beijing. Many foreigners and locals come here, some to buy stuff, some (like me) for the experience. Haggling is the norm. Kristine got 14 thin bangles for only 35 kuai (the same kind of bangles that Day got 30 kuai for just 7 pieces).

Day is looking for presents for her friends and relatives back home.

They have everything here. You name it, they have it. Wood carved Buddhas, the "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys, silver, gold and bronze pigs, Mao statues are mixed with pocket watches, incense burners, figurines and some other knick knacks.

There are also several stores selling paintings, and posters, and other stuff.

I was supposed to just accompany Day, but I figured since I was already there, might as well take advantage of it. So, I got this silver ring for 10 kuai.

...and this silver bangle for 15 kuai,

...and this ethnic bag for 40 kuai (yes, I know, another bag!). I also bought a silver hairclip for 15 kuai. Well, what do you know? I'm poor again...

How we got there: Well, there's always the cab option but for us who are trying to save money to spend on other things :-), we took the bus. We took the bus no. 800 at Chaoyangmen Nan bus stop (near Chaoyangmen subway exit B) and got off one bus stop away from the terminal. Then we walked eastwards following the signs...

Dinner at Hatsune

2008-03-02T22:00:00.009+08:00

We had dinner at Hatsune last Saturday night. It's a Japanese restaurant south east(?) of The Place (from The Place, turn left at Guanghua Lu, then look for building number 8, way past the Kerry Centre). We took a cab from Chaoyangmen Nei (fare's around 15 kuai), so it's pretty near, can't believe we haven't gone there before.

Tobal made reservations for us so we had a room (with glass doors) reserved. He originally booked for a smoker's section (Tin, Day, and Hazel, live on cigarettes) but they called him back advising him that the manager has friends who needs to use it. Funny...

Anyway, the food is great. We had three delicious servings of calamari. Grabe, sobrang sarap!

Day and Tin were running late so the food choices are up to us. It's a hard task, there's so many to choose from!

We also ordered Hatsune salad, which like your ordinary salad (you know, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, shrimp, etc.) except for the plum dressing. Ang sarap talaga!

They also have this out-of-this-world steak (that I forgot to take a photo of).

Here's the dessert. I don't know what its name but when we asked the fuwuyuan, she said something or other mousse. I'm not sure...

We had Coke, and tea, and wine. We just paid 140 yuan each. Not bad!

How am I going to lose weight???

Moments of Genius

2008-02-28T15:32:00.003+08:00

Maybe it's not a phone. It is just pretending to be one.

Black Books Season 3

2008-02-28T15:12:00.005+08:00

I am almost done watching Season 3 of Black Books. It is so funny! Here are my favorite lines:

"This is life - we suffer and slave and expire. That's it!"

"I am a quitter. I come from a long line of quitters. It's amazing that I am here at all!"

"Look at that face! I bet his corn flakes try to crawl out of the bowl."

"...and I will co-write this with myself!"

"They'll hound us like hounds!"

This one is the best!
"It's not my problem. It's my house, though and I'm not in infecting it with the kind of specimens capable of producing you."

"I can't help it. He looks like a horse in a man costume.'

"He doesn't need friends. They're bad for him. They make him all giddy."

"Stop it! Stop dying!"

Season 3 Episode 6

I can't help being angry when I'm furious!

Don't make sick with my own scorn!

It was everything I expected and less.

Eric and his Hat Collection

2008-02-26T15:58:00.003+08:00

When did Dustin Hoffman grew so old? I watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium last night and I fell in love (I still love Kame, though) with Eric and his hat collection.

Whimsy

2008-02-11T02:38:00.001+08:00

We went to Shijingshan Amusement Park yesterday as part of our "non-temple" Temple Fair hopping. A lot of their rides were closed (its so cold, no one on their right mind will ride them, anyway) but we had a great time.

We went to the 4-D cinema and watched "Escape from the Bane Mansion". I understood (kind of) the very little of what's being said because it's in Chinese and I can only understand one word in five (I know, sad...) but the effects are great. I did duck so the branches won't scratch my cheek during one of the scary car rides.

Mel got a big pink stuffed pig and I got this really cute bunny I called Whimsy (don't ask, I just feel like "Whimsy" fits) as a souvenir. Isn't she adorable? For those who are confused, she's a rabbit (yes, Liza, she's a rabbit, not a pig!). I'll be sending her to my sister in the Philippines.

How we got there: We took subway line 2 and transferred at Fuxingmen to subway line 1. The amusement park is northwest of Bajiao Amusement Park subway stop. (It is really far...)

Spring Festival 2008

2008-02-09T18:00:00.007+08:00

It's hard to believe I'm still here. My second Spring Festival! We went to Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven), supposedly to watch a re-enactment of an ancient Chinese ceremony. But we saw this really cool cafe and decided to enjoy milk tea instead.

Hazel's late (again!) but she managed to find us at the entrance of the Echo wall.

Long Qing Ice Lantern Festival

2008-02-02T23:00:00.004+08:00

We joined Chinese Culture Club's Long Qing tour. It's so cold but it's fun. Tobal's late, heheh.

Annual Vacation

2007-12-20T18:00:00.000+08:00

I am going home! Its been, what? almost a year since I've been home. Liza and I got our tickets some weeks ago and we have been shopping like crazy for presents.

I bought my mom hand painted dolls wearing chinese costumes, fuwas (Beijing Olympics mascots) for my sisters, jacket for my dad and lots and lots of ties for my brothers.