NOV 30 :: [not-so-perfect little town] Luang Prabang was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site 10 years ago, joining such monumentally jaw-dropping world treasures like the Great Wall of China and the Temples of Angkor. In theory, Luang Prabang is the perfect little town that has an abundance of ancient temples (or 'wat') - about 30 of them - which led to the UNESCO declaration. Reality is far darker.

Where do I even begin.. Let's start with the PDR of Laos. Laos is a nation of 6.2mn ppl, scattered across a landlocked state the size of Great Britain (which has 10 times more ppl). Not only does it not have ports due to its landlocked status, the infrastructure within Laos itself is extremely poor due to the dense forested mountain terrain that is mostly impenetrable jungle, cut by rivers and ravines. Roads are barely paved, there are no railroads, and since only the rich can afford air travel, boats are the primary method of transportation. There are far more bicycles and scooters in any city in Laos than cars. And nothing is as important to Laos as the mighty Mekong River. In fact, both her largest cities - the sleepy capital of Vientiane and the ancient capital of Luang Prabang - were born out of the Mekong. The Mekong, btw, is Asia's third longest river, meandering almost 5,000km from Tibet through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and finally to the wide deltas near Saigon.

Laos' GDP is $2bn, and her per capita income is $320. Yes, you read that right. I literally had a Laotian's entire year's salary in my wallet. On average, the people here subsist on one dollar a day, poorer than even Vietnam which I had the unfortunate privilege of witnessing firsthand earlier this year. For each night lodging at the Maison Souvannaphoum where we're staying (OK, it's very chi-chi but you get my drift, right?), we could've bought us a Laotian for an entire year. In one year, Laos' entire population produces the equivalent amount to what Wal-Mart sells in two days. Folks, this nation is staggeringly poor. Luang Prabang is one of the wealthier regions and even then, the poverty is heart-breaking. Luang Prabang is home to only 1 out of every 100 Laotians. So why don't more Laotians flock to Luang Prabang? Well.. this is still a communist country and Laotians can't leave their own province, much less their own country without permission from the central gov't. Not that many of them would get very far since they can't really afford to.

I can't begin to describe to you seeing ppl that look so similar to you be so destitute that it is almost hard to grasp. Africans are one thing but Asians? Only Vietnam comes close to this kind of wretched poverty but even then, Vietnam has Saigon and Hanoi which are relatively rich and bustling cities.

We were just at the night market just now, where hundreds of Laotians lay out their wares on mats by the roadside, for tourists to peruse and purchase. I say mats.. they're like 3ft by 6ft. It's amazingly cramped but the array of goods on display were mind-boggling - $5 scarves, $3 T-shirts, $2 lanterns, and all these prices were pre-discount. At one point, I negotiated the purchase of 5 lanterns down from $7.50 to $7. I felt great, but only for a split second. At the end of the evening, I watched as some of these Laotians - mostly women - and especially the older folks pack up their wares into a large sack, folded their mats, loaded everything onto a "rickshaw", and pulled their stuff home; as if their entire lives were in that one pull-cart. And what do they go home to? Little shacks with one light bulb, filthy living conditions and not much else. And these ppl are the lucky ones - they at least have clean water, sanitation and they can earn US$ by selling to tourists. Their countrymen are not so lucky. Only the egalitarian nature of a communist system saves the unlucky ones from starvation.

Maybe I am over-dramatizing a little but dah-lings, it is so, so, So sad to see this happening to your own people, in this world, in this day and age, in 2005. @ 23:16 Luang Prabang

NOV 29 :: [PG632, BKK-LPQ] We are somewhere over Thailand right now en route to Luang Prabang, Laos. Oh, excuse me, the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. Yes, it's still a communist country and no, religious symbols are not allowed to be brought in, especially images of Buddha. I know, it actually states that on the Customs form. How bizarre. Will they try to quarantine me since I am the next big thing since Buddha? :-D

Last night, we landed in Bangkok just after 5pm, after a pampered but looong 8+ hour journey from Perth. Thailand, as gracious as her people are and as fabulous as Bangkok is, is as inefficient as Singapore is immaculate. What a far cry. Immigration took forever, bags took even longer, but the worst was the traffic headed to the city. It took us 2 hours before we finally checked in to the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. Stank. Our beautiful room on the 27th floor made up for it though. I had somewhat tempered expectations of the SGS, but I must say I left very impressed, which is saying a lot since we've stayed at both the Peninsula and the Oriental in Bangkok - two of the top 5 hotels in the worl. If only it weren't for the nasty traffic going to and from the hotel (well, this morning it only took us 20 mins to get to the airport).

The room was huge! And the bathroom was even bigger. Every amenity imaginable was provided, from a disposable razor kit to four free bottles of water. The buffet breakfast this morning was incredible as well - Western, Thai, Japanese, Chinese and other Asian delicacies. It was quite a spread; and coming from me, that says a LOT ;-) Service is also amazing at the SGS, comparable with the top hotels in Bangkok. Everyone is so friendly and gracious and eager. I bet they'd wipe my ass for me if I asked. Love it.

Last night, we dined at Celadon which is the Sukhothai Hotel's Thai restaurant. We opted for a cab ride instead of the subway which was a mistake coz even at 8:30, the traffic in Bangkok was stank!! Traffic in Bangkok is a nightmare. Even with the elevated Skytrain system and the new subway line, there are still far too many vehicles coursing down far too little lanes and since nobody obeys traffic laws, mayhem occurs 24/7 on the streets of Bangkok. Kwazy. Coming from Singapore's Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system where driving into the Central Business District (CBD) is effectively a luxury, Bangkok was sheer pandemonium. But there's something to be said about the hot mess of Bangkok compared to the sterile orderliness of Singapore. It's just edgy and fun in a way that SingaBore is not.

Anywho I digress. Dinner at Celadon was fantastic. One of our best dinners in Bangkok yet, and we've been to most of the top Thai restaurants here (Sala Rim Naam, Thiptara, Blue Elephant, Mahanaga, Lan Na Thai, Spice Market, etc.). The food was totally delicious and a far-cry from the overpriced, mediocre fare we were getting in Australia. The ambience was fantastic as well; multiple rooms with no more than 10 spacious tables surrounding a pond in a Thai-style building. Very neat and zen. Of course, we ate far too much which made for a good, full 8-hour rest last night. We didn't even go shopping or hit the bars (no interesting shows this time :-p). Oh well, next trip.

OK, we're landing soon. Why on earth are we going to a place called Luang Prabang?? I'll let you know in about 5 days, since I doubt we'll have connectivity in Laos or at our next destination, Ko Samui. The adventures continue... @ 13:05 Thailand/Laos

NOV 28 :: [a wedding to remember] One of my best friends from high school, Anusha, got married at 4:30pm yesterday afternoon in a beautifully simple and elegant wedding, against a breathtaking backdrop of the Swan River (which is swimmable and has lots of fishies in it) and the Perth skyline in the distance. The windswept setting (much appreciated on a 90+° day) was jaw-dropping, the serenity and beauty of it all topped only by the bride's impossibly lovely deep, shimmery purple gown. I was envious and in love all at the same time.

For many days, the bride was anxious to the point of tears about the weather on her wedding day. In perfect-springtime-weather-Perth, how could it possibly rain/storm/hail and be humid on the Sunday of her wedding day as forecasted?? Anywho, Saturday rolled around ominously and so did the clouds, progressively as the day went. By nightfall, the thunder and lightning accompanied by heavy rains had descended on Perth. Sunday morning, the morning of the wedding day.. and the sky could not be bluer. Not a cloud in the sky. After the wedding, the clouds rolled back in and it started drizzling up until we left the next morning. In short, her wedding day was book-ended by nasty weather but during the wedding itself, God himself could not have planned a better weather day. Told you so, Anusha!

Close to a hundred friends (mostly from Perth but some, like us, from out of the country) and family (almost all from KL) gathered at Point Heathcote for an unexpectedly simple, meaningful and memorable civil ceremony that brought me to tears on three separate occasions. I am compelled to give a little background at this point as to why I thought the civil ceremony was unexpected. Anusha's family are traditionalists from Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The groom, Jess' family is Punjabi. In India, marrying across races or castes is most frowned upon, if not entirely forbidden. Both sets of parents compromised on letting the kids choose, and shockingly but pleasantly enough - at least to me - they chose a ceremony that was completely devoid of religious overtones. I ain't a big fan of religion to begin with so the civil ceremony was right up my alley.

The theme of the evening was purple - a shade so vivid, it sears itself into your memory long after the event itself. Everything was purple, from the bride's outfit to the reception room decked out in purple centerpieces, runners, flowers, napkin holders, bows on chairs, menus, etc. Butterflies featured prominently as well, from the releasing of a dozen of them during the ceremony, to seating identified by species of butterflies. Aside from the food and the venue, everything else was impressively handled by Anusha/Jess. And it was a smashing success.

Anusha's gown comprised of a sleeveless top handmade in Perth, and a saree skirt that had gold accents, lovingly tied by her mother (tying a saree is quite a complex undertaking). The result was gasp-inspiring, pearl-clutching and stunning. Both sets of parents sat on beautiful white chairs on both sides of the "aisle", and the rest of us stood all around the lawn to witness the ceremony. It was casual, yet we were all there dressed to the nines and the result was very elegant indeed. Many of the female guests in attendance were draped in gorgeous sarees, including the emcee and the bride's sister, and both Ann and Jerabel were dressed in skin-tight cheongsams. Everyone looked ravishing. When Anusha walked out to a harpist's rendition of Pachelbel (don't go there) and her niece showering white rose petals all over the "aisle", I almost passed out seeing her, startlingly beautiful on her wedding day, and moments away from being married.

My first tears came upon hearing Jess' vows to Anusha. I guess I was just overcome by his determination to take care for and love my good friend (since we were 12) till "death to us part". Shortly after, Anusha read her vows and choked back tears as she did them which caused another round of tears across the aisles. And the final one was just me, watching Anusha's mother hug her after the ceremony and feeling the undeniable bittersweet feelings of joy (from her daughter's wedding) to sadness (from giving away her youngest child). It was just all very emotional, and happy!

After the ceremony, the party moved indoors to a room with floor-to-ceiling glass that allowed for a perfect view of the emerging twinkling lights of Perth in the distance as the sun set. Cocktails, accompanied by delicious hors d'oeuvres, and then dinner followed. There were the requisite speeches, and multiple toasts were in order. It was a grand ol' party and all of us had massive fun indeed; some - the Ozzies, in particular - had just a little, oh alright, WAY too much fun. I have no idea why they ALL insist on drinking themselves to oblivion, night after night. It's quite funny and scary all at the same time.

Ohmibeyonce, how could I forget about the wedding cake. It was a simple, square cake crowned by an overflowing number of white roses, and topped by butterflies. The cake was magnificent. And waistline-expanding decadent! One of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had (except for CakeLove, of course). Anusha and I have the same tastes - we both get wet for chocolate (down, Jason).

The newlywed couple had the first waltz, which was quite funny coz I guess Anusha was so tipsy at this point she couldn't find the dancefloor, giggle! The champagne and wine just kept flowing and by the end of the evening, Anusha was drrrr-runk! LOL. Fetch.

Everyone seeks love and companionship. And most yearn for marriage to set it all in stone. Everyone remembers weddings. And last night's was no different. Congratulations to my friend, Anusha. We love you long, long time, no matter how near or far apart we are! 20:26 Bangkok

[close call] OK, so we almost missed our flight to Bangkok, LOL!! I had set my laptop time to Bangkok time (one hour behind Singapore), so I thought it was 2:16pm (my last post) when it was actually 3:16pm. Boarding was at 2:45pm! And Tony was just going with the flow so we were both oblivious to the time. Thank God that (a) the flight was delayed i.e. boarding was at 3:30pm, and (b) the lounge staff came by to alert us of our need to wander over to the gate.

I love being treated like a Queen :) We would've totally missed our flight otherwise. And that would Not have been pretty. @ 15:35 Singapore

[91°/102°] I am typing this from the Thai Airways' Royal Orchid Lounge in Singapore's Changi Airport. It's my fourth time at this airport in 8 days! It's hard not to love Changi. This airport works, and does it very, very well. Shops, restaurants, lounges, etc. are open 24 hours. Shopping is incredible in this airport - you can practically buy anything from orchids to Prada. The variety of food is mind-boggling. Did I mention free wi-fi throughout? Changi is incredibly user-friendly and fun to walk around in, 24 hours a day. You'll never go bored in this airport.

We woke up this morning in Perth at an ungodly hour of 5:30am (I know, I've always vowed that if I'm up before 8, I haven't gone to bed yet) to catch our 8:30am flight to Singapore. We sent off Ann and Danielle at the airport (they go back to KL) and hopped on our flight with very little sleep under our belts. Last night's wedding was a smashing success (more on that later) and we got back to the hotel at 12:30am which means I only had 5 hours of sleep. Not fetch.

The flight was pleasant enough. I got snippy with one of the flight attendants coz not only did she take up all our overhead storage space, she snapped at me for listening to music during takeoff (OK, I know I'm not sposed to but whatev). Bitch. She did make up for it later by offering us lots of food and being super-nice to me. I'm guessing she was afraid I would complain on her ass. I love sitting in the front cabin :) More power to me. Anywho, I had some Singapore Carrot Cake thingie which was nice. I dozed off for more than 2 hours, watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was a huge mistake. This flight had the interactive in-flight entertainment system so I could watch some of the movie during breakfast, pause it to doze off, and then finish off the show just before landing (not to mention fast forward and rewind during potty breaks and irritating pilot announcements). Singapore Airlines rocks!

It is a scorching 91° in Bangkok right now, with 60% humidity, making it feel like 100+. Ugh. Our flight leaves in 90 minutes and it's a 2hr flight in Royal Executive/Business Class to BKK from here. We've just eaten yet again in this lounge, and we're getting more food on the flight to BKK. Yippee! *groan* The gluttony continues! @ 15:16 Singapore

NOV 27 :: [countdown to the wedding] Yesterday was a rather sedate day in comparison. We woke up at 11am (!!), and joined Danielle and Jerabel in Freo for lunch where I had some yummy Malaysian chicken rice. We walked all around Freo and shopped quite a bit before having oysters (part III!) on the water. The lovely day ended at a gelateria where we sat and chatted for hours until sundown. It was another wonderful day in Perth but on the way back, the clouds started gathering and pretty soon, it poured like an m-f-er. When that ended, we headed out to Northbridge for a Thai dinner, walked up and down James St a little before crashing just before midnight.

Oh and one other thing, if you've been trying to text me over the past few days, I haven't been getting them coz I'm using an Aussie SIM (Optus) while I'm here (local number). I did get back on T-Mobile briefly just now and I see that many of you have been trying to get in touch with me. Thanks for all the Thanksgiving wishes! Now back to work, you bitches *giggle* I am at the halfway mark of my 18-day jaunt around Australia and Asia. I'll be using my T-Mobile SIM from tomorrow onwards so keep the drunk texts coming! ;) And if I don't respond to you, that's just coz it costs me $.35 per international text and I don't love you enough. Trust.

The wedding is in two hours. We still have not packed. I need to get dressed as well. I'm signing off. You won't be hearing from me, at least not from Australia. Next stop, Bangkok - the City of Angels! I love Bangkok. Just the name of the city inspires... well, you know ;) @ 14:46 Perth

[down memory lane] Rewind to Friday the 25th. That was the best day so far in Perth (I'm sure today will top that). Anusha, Ann (+ Stoney), Danielle, Tony and I spent the whole day together. The four of us Methodist College kids (Anusha, Ann, Danielle and I were in high school together) were back to our old antics again and it seemed like we were transported back to those ridiculously care-free and happy, but angst-filled teenage years for just one day.

We started out the day buying wedding gifts for the bride at Garden City. Nice mall, stank shops but we did manage to buy lots of gifts (mostly kitchen and bar stuff) and it was quite the success. From there, we went to Fremantle (aka Freo) for some good power souvenir shopping at the Markets. Then we spent the best time at The Blue Duck in Cottesloe for lunch by the beach (oysters part II). The view of the sun-kissed Indian Ocean from our table was magnificent. That plus two bottles of WA white wines turned the lunch into a trip very far down memory lane for the four of us, much to Stoney/Tony's bemusement I'm sure. Anusha clearly needed the laughter away from the wedding stress and it was great to hang out so care-free again, even if it was just for a few hours. The twin crimes of distance and separate lives have really taken a toll on our friendships but you know what they say about old friends - they're always the best ones. We picked up from where we left off oh so many years ago and ran away with it like the bulls at Pamplona. We were on fire! I think we stunned the patrons at the restaurant with our boisterous behavior. I also remember our waitress guffawing when I screamed out "ohmibeyonce" after seeing how big the desserts were. We were quite the scene.

I remember sharing so many tears with them during high school but we share so much more laughter now that we're all adults. In retrospect, every silly little tiff amongst us, relationship issues, student/teacher shenanigans, and love triangles seem so trivial and riotously amusing. It's hard to describe the bonds built from sharing those pivotal years together but here we are, a dozen or so years after we all graduated high school and we're still the good friends that we were, and always will be.

We frolicked around the beach and waded in the frigid waters before driving back to the city to King's Park. The views from King's Park of the Swan River and the Perth City skyline were sensational. It was a magical afternoon that we all spent together and those magical moments don't happen very often. But that doesn't mean we won't keep trying.

After a power nap, we went to Northbridge (think Bourbon St or Adams Morgan or Bangsar) for some much-deserved nightlife. Danielle introduced us to Jerabel and Mick and the four of us had a riotously good time at Mustang Bar. There was a live band. And tons of drunk ppl. So drunk that they could barely stand up while dancing. So drunk that boys and girls alike were puking at the end of the night. Aussies are funny in the sense that they drink just to get drunk, instead of using alcohol as a social lubricant. It's quite funny watching them elevate binging to an Olympic sport.

The live cover band was not bad, even as they played mostly pop-rock stuff. The club music was mostly American pop mixed in with some obscure Down Under pop (which asn't very good, save for Kylie - we love you Kylie!!). They played Hung Up at which point I went nuclear, of course. The groom (Jess) showed up with his similar-aged siblings and cousins. Danielle and I pounded vodka shots with lemon and sugar (lemon drops.. who knew). We all shook it like it was our only night out in Perth (which, in fact, it was). We dropped it, moved it, shook it, spanked it, and gyrated like only crazy Asian chicks and their gaysians can when lubed up with alcohol. We were fierce!

I, of course, have way more alcohol tolerance, through boot camp with Ma-wee/Mary, so I get home at 2 feeling more sleepy than sloshed. What a great day, meeting up in a foreign city, partying and having a grand ol' time. I just wish the good times never have to end. @ 14:22 Perth

[jet lag and flies] We just came back from a dim sum (aka yum cha here in Australia) lunch with Danielle, Jerabel and Jamie at Shun Fung on the Swan River. Nice view, good atmosphere, stank food. But cheap! :) It is a scalding 88°F (31°C) outside right now and it doesn't look like it'll let up before the wedding. That's a shame coz the high since I've been here has been in the upper 70s and lower 80s. We're just sitting in the hotel room, escaping the heat, whiling away some time, and procrastinating on packing (we leave for Singapore then Bangkok early tomorrow morning). Three more hours before the wedding so lemme just muse about two things that has really, really bothered me this trip so far.

Jet lag is like a bitch who has overstayed her welcome and just when you thought you've kicked her out, she comes back meaner and nastier the next day. I get lethargic at around 4pm.. I find myself compelled to nap everyday before dinnertime, causing me to lose my appetite for food.. I wake up anywhere from 6am-11am.. It's all random and annoying. Sometimes, I am so sleepy I can barely sit upright and carry on a conversation. Other times I'm just tired and want to lay down and curl up under a blanket. A 13-hour time difference is Just too much, I think. I think I'm over it now but we're having to get up at 5:30am tomorrow so the whole sleep depravation cycle starts alllll over again. Not fetch.

The other thing that really annoys me about Perth is the flies. We're not talking about houseflies. These are bush flies. And man, they are totally In Your Face. They land on your eyes, your mouth, your nose, your ears.. everywhere. They Loooooove your face. And even after you've shoo-ed them away a few times, they buzz around you and attempt a re-landing moments later until you kill it or it finds another human (usually if you run really fast). They stick to your shirt and your hair by the dozens and it's impossible to keep them away. It's like swarms of them moving around the city looking for the next living being to pester. It's très annoying. Even the high winds don't really carry them away. They're persistent little buggers and all they do is bug you all day (not so much at night). It's literally the most annoying thing about Perth.

Flies and jet lag. Boy, I really don't have much to complain about in my life, do I? @ 13:49 Perth

[5:30] One other thing I cannot stand about Perth (and Australia, in general) is the 5:30 closing time for ALL shops. You cannot even buy chicken breast or eggs, much less a T-shirt after 5:30. It's ridiculous! What kind of back-ass-wards, Stone Age retail culture is this?? Coming from DC where shops don't close till 9, or KL where things stay open as long as there's money to be made, Perth seems like a prison sentence.

It's crimes against humanity, I tell ya. @ 10:22 Perth

[drinking and driving] Drinks are hideously expensive in Australia! OK, (piss) beer is dirt cheap but anything imported (yea, yea... it's the distance thing) is astronomically priced. Vodka shots are A$9 per or about US$6.60. And they're Smirnoff! *gag* Vodka-crans are cheap (A$5.50) only because there's barely any vodka in it (I miss JR's SO much, btw). I have to drink three to get the same effect as one back home. Well, at least they have cranberry juice... All French/American Champagnes or wines are twice the price here retail as they are in the States. WA wines, on the other hand, are both good and cheap.

Driving here is quite an experience. For one, they drive on the OTHER side of the road. It's not so bad coz Tony's doing all the driving and we got an automatic Camry (have you tried shifting gears with your left hand?). He's doing pretty well at it considering he hasn't tried doing anything coronary-inducing like turning right into the right lane (and oncoming traffic) or going counter-clockwise at a roundabout. Everyone drives everywhere but traffic is nowhere near as bad as in the States. There are some rail transit lines (Australia does not have subways) but they're all commuter-type trains to the far-flung suburbs. There's nothing intra-city.

So... driving. Left on red is NOT allowed. Silly but true. There is one limited-access highway in all of WA and it goes north-south through Perth. Most of the stuff you need to get to - the beach, the airport, etc. - are east-west. Bizarre. Speed limits are ridiculously low. That's not so annoying as the fact that EVERYone drives at speed limit here.

And now to the good part. Road signs are immaculate. You can almost never get lost here. There are signs telling you the name of the street at the next intersection (very cool) before you get to it. Road markings are very clear (that's easy coz they only have one interstate), lane dividers are marked by reflectors (it costs so little and saves so many lives), and the roads are impeccably well-maintained i.e. no potholes - the wonders of high taxation. Some of the best drivers on the planet are here; patient to the point of annoying and very, very safe. The city provides multi-storey garage parking all over downtown Perth and the cost is pretty low (a buck an hour or so). There is almost no point walking when you can park anywhere and everywhere. I would add that parking spaces are extremely tiny here, and the garages themselves are claustrophobic.

Add drinking and driving up and you get some of the strictest drunk-driving laws I've ever seen in the world - 0.05 is the limit. That's one drink in FOUR hours. And nothing is walkable in Perth so you pretty much have to drive to the bars (sorry, pubs) and clubs. Stank! Another reason (as if I need one more) why I could never live here... @ 09:32 Perth

[koalas and emus and roos, ohmy!] So, rewind to Thursday the 24th, what do you do when you first arrive in Australia? Go to the zoo, of course! After barely 6-hours of sleep, we awake to kangaroos, koalas, wombats, dingos, echidnas, emus, quolls, tasmanian devils, kookaburras, yabbies and bilbies and wallabies and whatnot.. Cool, world-famous animals that you'll never see anywhere else in the world. The bride (Anusha) had organized a field trip for all of us to spend a day at the Perth Zoo (which is quite stank, btw.. what kind of self-respecting zoo doesn't have pandas??). It was pandemonium when I first saw her and my childhood buddies - Ann/Danielle. I haven't seen Anu in almost 5 years (no surprise there since Perth and DC are about as far away from each other as you can get - 11,543mi), and I haven't seen Ann/Danielle in almost 2 years. So we were quite the screaming bitches (attracting quite a lot of attention) when we first saw each other at the zoo.

We saw quite a lot of cool animals. The kangaroos were out in the open (very cool) but the koalas could only be seen from afar (apparently they scare quite easily, who knew). We also saw some fun orangutans but all in all, it was a great day to spend with old friends. We had lunch at Anusha's quaint little townhouse - homecooked mutton curry! - before driving into the city for some shopping. We found David Jones which stocks designer labels. The selection was stank but OMB, after quite a poor initial impression of Perth, finding anything that is remotely international was reassuring! After a little power nap, we joined Ann and her beau for dinner in Subiaco - kinda like Soho or Dupont - at this great little seafood restaurant called Atlantic (um, we are on the Indian Ocean, spankyouverymuch). The portions were decidedly American - enormous quantities of pasta and fish, etc. - but the food was very good. This is also where I started my multi-day oyster binge; they're half the price here as they are in the States! Fetch.

Australian cuisine is nothing to shout about but the seafood here tastes so amazingly good coz they're so amazingly fresh. Who needs kangaroo meat when you can have shark bay king prawns and silky, succulent oysters. @ 08:59 Perth

[incommunicado] Ohmy.. I haven't wrote in three days! How unbecoming of me. It's just been crazy busy in Perth, catching up with old friends, hanging out with the bride, and scouring the city for souvenirs for friends back home (yea, you bitches better appreciate it). As for tourist sights, well, this is Perth after all. This place should be renamed "New Kansas City". Oh alright, that's shortchanging it by a little. But only a little. Perth is a LOT prettier and the weather is a whole heck of a lot nicer. But everything else reminds me of KC. Provincial. Boring. And the people are just so unsophisticated and tragic. LOL! I love to judge.

Perth, Perth, Perth. Let's see, where do I even begin. Factoid: Perth is the most isolated city on earth. In every direction, Perth is 2000mi from any other major city in the world. Perth is closer to Singapore and Jakarta than it is to Sydney and Canberra (the capital). Consequently, prices are high cause damn well everything has to be flown or shipped in.

Perth is in the state of Western Australia (WA), which is 1/3rd the size of Australia, which in turn is the world's sixth largest country (with only 7 states!). To give you a better sense of the size of WA, it is half the size of the continental 48-contiguous United States. And there are only 2 million people in the ENTIRE state; 80% of them live in Perth. Isn't that just crazy?? The rest of WA minus Perth is one of the least densely populated habitable land mass on the planet. Just thousands of miles of nothingness.

It is crazy sparse, crazy remote.. and crazy boring! If it weren't for the wedding and my childhood friends, I think I would go crazy here. There is like nothing to see, do, buy, eat, drink, party, etc. here. I do have to say, though, that Perth, like most Australian cities, is very pretty. Its setting on the Swan River with the massive and pretty King's Park flanking it, is unrivalled. The weather in springtime is also exceedingly gorgeous. I am sitting on the 22nd floor of the Sheraton right now and looking out the window, I can see the Perth skyline, King's Park off in the distance and the river plus the pretty suburbs of South Perth to my left. And not a single cloud in the sky. The sky is as blue as the water, and the air is so fresh and clean. This place is too pretty for words.

But, like any potential mates, you can be as pretty and clean as you wannabe but if you're boring, there's just no connection, no synergy between you and the city. I know I'm being mean but I could never live here, wouldn't want to, and I doubt I would ever come back for a visit unless my good friend holds a gun to my head ;-) In short, this place is just STANK. No offense to the peeps that live here, especially to all the Asians that have settled here (and there are a whole bunch of them especially Malaysians and Singaporeans).. but WHY?? Sydney is only a few more hours away! Good God.

Perth, one yawn away from misery! @ 08:29 Perth

NOV 24 :: [springtime in oz] Is it really snowing in DC right now? On Thanksgiving Eve?? How cool. Well, it's springtime in Perth. It's only 8am and it's already 72° outside. The sun will be out for 14 hours today.

Let's rewind back two nights to Chynna. The meal was an interesting East-meets-West fusion. The restaurant itself is spectacular; very Shanghai meets New York, and service was theatrical (tea was served from a pot that had a 4-ft long spout). We rushed through dinner and it took us an hour to drive in the pouring rain from downtown KL to the airport (whoever thought it was funny to build it 40+ miles away from the city should be made to walk that distance!), barely making the cut-off to check-in for our flight to Singapore. Flight was uneventful, but delayed due to the rain. We arrived at the Oriental Hotel at 11:30pm. Was just about to sleep when elder brother, who was in Singapore for work, called.

Oh I almost forgot to mention the multiple pow-wow sessions I've been having with my parents regarding my younger brother. Well, elder brother wanted in on the action so we had another come to Jesus meeting; this time in Singapore. By 2am, I had lost my glass slippers, I was turning into a pumpkin, and I was literally dozing off in the lounge. And so I went to bed. What, you thought I was gonna discuss the outcome of said pow-wows? Hah, fat chance :) But it was nice to finally meet my new sister-in-law. Yes, the one who married my brother in City Hall practically - no church ceremony, no banquet, nothing. How... romantic.

We spent much of the yesterday in Singapore catching up on sleep, yoga-ing and swimming (we finagled a 6pm check-out, hot). The breakfast buffet, like all buffets in Asian hotels, was ridiculously decadent so we ate up a storm. I'm so seriously going on a crash diet when I get home. Then we went power-shopping on Orchard Road where Tony had ringside seats to me going on a CK-Zara spending spree. Fetch. 2 shirts, 2 pants and 1 jacket later.. we gouged in the food court in the basement of Takashimaya.

And the food orgy doesn't end there. At the airport, we checked into the Silver Kris Lounge and ate more food there (another buffet!). Then we boarded our flight and they served an entire meal onboard; complete with satay appetizers, salad, entree, cheese, and dessert! OMB. I felt fat just typing all that up.

Last night's flight to Perth was nothing like our first Raffles/Business Class experience on Singapore Airlines. Two years ago, we flew to Sydney and had the most amazing time onboard - lie-flat seats, fabulous made-to-order meals, "anything you want, sir" service, and the novelty factor was just exhilirating. The flight last night had the worst front-cabin seats I've ever experienced on Singapore Airlines (though at its worst, still better than United). The in-flight entertainment system was disastrous; I was so looking forward to the SIXTY interactive (pause at anytime) channels of movies but we didn't get that on last night's flight. I was so tired I didn't care though. I slept all the way till our decent.

I know, we're so spoilt. I'm sure the back half of the plane suffered immeasurably more, especially on a 5-hour long flight *giggle*. OK, off to get the our first day here in Perth started. Enjoy the snow! @ 08:43 Perth

[is that it?] We are in the Southern Hemisphere. After a 5-hour flight from Singapore, we are now in Perth, Australia. When we landed a couple of hours ago, Tony and I looked out the window as the plane was taxiing down the runway, and Tony looked at me and said what was going through my mind: "Is that it?"

We pulled in to Gate 55. The gate numbers start at 51. Yes, in one of Australia's largest cities (Perth has 1.3mn ppl in a nation of 20mn), the International Terminal has only FIVE gates. There were two other planes in the terminal. After DC, Frankfurt, and Singapore, Perth's airport was quite a joke.

The good news with the puny nature of the airport is that we made it through immigration ("you flew ALL the way here from the States for five days??"), and customs ("we're an island continent, you must declare everything!") in 20 minutes. We were checked-in to our hotel 45 minutes after we landed. Fierce.

Perth - Sydney, it is not. Sigh. OK, it's already "Thanksgiving" morning here - and definitely way past my bedtime - so Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And I'm off to bed... @ 02:24 Perth

NOV 23 :: [woody wonka] E-mail of the day... from my (ghetto fabulous) sis-tah, Jason:

Maaaaary! I miss you!!!! Please come home soon-yi!!!

LOL! I miss you long time too, Woody Wonka!! @ 09:02 Singapore

NOV 22 :: [size matters] One more thing before I go shower. My bro works for Microsoft so being the techno-geek that he is, there's wi-fi (no encryption, no security but MAC-filtering is enabled.. go figure) all over the house. Hot. The 1Mbps DSL link? Not so hot (bitch, please.. is that even considered broadband?). The distance between here and the US, causing most of the websites I wanna hit to load excruciatingly slowly? Decidedly not hot to the point of frigid.

Man, I tell ya. Once you have 6Mbps, you can't go 1Mbps. Size matters. My pipe, is bigger than yours. @ 16:38 Kuala Lumpur

[draggin'] And I ain't talkin' 'bout puttin' on a wig and some heels either, giggle. OK, not funny. That's the best I got, though, right now.. coz lemme tell ya, jet lag's a bitch! Hate it. The 12/13-hour time difference means I want to sleep during the day and party at night. I know, how's that any different from normal, right? LOL.

Anywho, I'm in KL now, at my parents'. They picked us up from the airport last night. Woke up this morning to yummy bak kut teh (herbal soup with pork) for breakfast.. yes, with rice. I know, rice for breakfast - you really need to be Asian to relate. Then we went shopping at Mid-Valley/Carrefour for some spices to bring home. Mid-Valley was packed! Like, in the middle of the workday. Does anyone do anything in KL besides shop?? Hah, where do you think I got my shop-a-holic habits from? Anywho, jet lag hit hard an hour or so ago, came home and we're 3 hours away from an extravagant dinner at some place called Chynna (don't laugh).

Not much else to report. KL is the same. New roads everywhere but traffic is as stank as ever. It's been raining continually since we arrived. That's good news coz otherwise it's hotter than hell here. Can't wait to get to Australia where it's sunny and pretty.

Our layover in Singapore last night was shortened by our delayed arrival so we really only had an hour at Changi Airport. We spent some of that boxing away our winter gear (and the multiple sets of expensive toiletries and PJs from Lufthansa) for the Left Luggage peeps. I know, we've barely just started our vacation and already we have extra luggage! The First Class portion of the Silver Kris Lounge was nowhere near as nice as the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt but it wasn't tragic either. The food was decent and the showers felt great after a 12-hour flight. The First Class flight on Singapore Airlines to Kuala Lumpur was a pleasant 35-min affair. They even served food! Kwazy. I was WAY over food at that point.

We fly back to Singapore tonight. All these flights are beginning to wear on me, First Class or not. It's 4:30pm here and my body thinks it's 3:30am. Jet lag is SO not fetch. Need.. sleep. Can't.. give.. in. Somebody slap me. @ 16:30 Kuala Lumpur

NOV 21 :: [bye, bye winter] Why am I wearing the female version of the Lufthansa pyjamas?? I was completely oblivious when I put it on last night but it's evident now that my V-neck top is definitively not masculine (Tony's has a collar). Bah, I'm getting out of it. It felt really good though.

In an hour, LH776 will land in hot, sweaty, humid Singapore. Actually, we were sposed to land by now but we had a mechanical delay in Frankfurt.. something to do with the engine, whatev. Anywho, no more winter for the next 17 days, woohoo!! I'm psyched. It's T-shirts and shorts from here on out, yea baby.

This flight has been relatively pleasant, though far less so than the last. For one, I have officially now eaten enough caviar to do a sequel to Finding Nemo. Service on this flight has been far more German than the FRA-IAD one i.e. "can you set your own table? I can't reach". That would likely explain why this flight, though 1 1/2 times longer than the previous one, costs roughly the same ($6100).

We have a short 2-hour layover in the Silver Kris First Class Lounge after this followed by an even shorter hour-long flight to Kuala Lumpur in Singapore Airlines First Class will complete our journey to Asia.

Some final observations and random musings about Lufthansa First Class:

1. The amount of fine dining and alcohol I have consumed onboard can only be described as staggering. I have drank enough champagne to make like a bubble and float away.

2. Having a bed makes ALL the difference. I slept like a baby on this flight.

3. I almost forgot to mention the "class"-ist boarding practices that are no longer practised in the States but are still alive and well in Europe and Asia. Lufthansa made the Economy Class passengers stand in a Disneyland-like line at Dulles, while the Business/First Class passengers boarded first. We had to walk right past the entire line, which made me feel like I was the one getting on the lifeboat and they were all gonna freeze to death in the ice cold waters of the Atlantic. I was most embarassed.

And upon disembarkation, they again held all the Economy Class passengers behind ropes and humans, while the First/Business Class passengers got off the plane first. I was so used to this by then. Uh-huh, I paid more so you wait, LOL! OK, even *I* felt bad saying that... No, I didn't get guilt surgically removed from my body when I was little :-p

4. We were chauffeur-driven from the Lufthansa First Class Terminal to our plane on the tarmac in a, get this, black Porsche Cayenne (SUV). Our very own! The experience was rather convoluted (one security checkpoint after another) and over-the-top but I loved it nonetheless. I felt like Prince Monaco (I would've said Charles but he's just hideous).

5. Wi-Fi in the sky (or Sky-Fi) has just been ridiculously geeky but very nifty. The price is crazy ($30) for the speed you're getting (<128kbps) but it made the time pass by oh so quickly. Love it, can't live without it.

OK, moment over. We have to power down. We're here! Back in Asia again... @ 17:37 Singapore or 04:37 DC

NOV 20 :: [am i dreaming?] Ohmibeyonce. I am almost at a loss of words to describe the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt; and that - me not having anything to say - is an extremely rare occurrence, like all 9 planets in aligment for instance.

This glass-clad, ultra-modern, super contemporary, uber-chic terminal is a temple to luxurious air travel. The service in here can only be described as "right away, sir". I have been in Germany over 12 hours now and I still have no idea what the German word for "no" is. Nobody says it in First Class and it's been erased from the dictionary in this magnificent terminal built exclusively for Lufthansa's highest paying customers.

When we pulled up, we were assigned a "personal assistant". "Rose", our blond/blue-eyed Miss Croatia, escorted us through private security and took care of our bags, customs, check-in, and even immigration for us. I've never left a country like this in my life before. She even went the distance and got our Electronic Visas to Australia for us even though Lufthansa isn't flying us there. Now, That's what I call service.

The staff in here has been picked for both their Asian-like service qualities and their Nordic-like beauty. It's almost like a dream. They'll bring you anything you want, anywhere you want, anytime you want. The food is startlingly good. You can eat and drink till you explode. We chose to nibble (ok, eat.. we couldn't help ourselves) at the bar instead of at the "dining room", and they must've brought two dishwashers' worth of cutlery, plates, etc. and a week's laundry worth of napkins. They're pouring the finest waters, champagnes and scotches, serving delicious continental, fusion, and Asian foods. Tony is literally drowning in single-malt scotches. If you ask for one dessert or one glass of water, they'll immediately offer two. Nothing is beyond reasonable. They literally have enough food in here to feed North Korea. And enough free top-shelf booze to take down the Fetch Trinity easily (sorry, girls.. but we're amateurs compared to this place).

Sliding glass doors lead you to 8 private stalls, each with an individual toilet and urinal. There are three HUGE showers with private locker, changing area, vanity, etc. plus one bath tub (complete with rubber duckies). They even have beds! Wi-fi broadband internet access is free, of course. And so is everything else. The only thing that costs money in here is the duty-free shop. Yes, they have a duty-free shop in this terminal, just for us First Class snobs.

This terminal really is an embarassment of luxuries. How could anyone fly Coach or even Business again after this?? We could have so easily spent our 15-hour layover in this terminal itself and gotten very, very drunk and very, very fat. Is there no end to this gluttony?

It's so quiet and serene in here. It's hard to believe there are jumbo jets taking off just on the other side of the glass walls. In short, the First Class Terminal has been a smashing success, in my eyes. The only thing missing in here is God himself, otherwise this place is just Heaven. I want to move in. This is by far the best "lounge"/terminal experience I've ever had. Period.

I've just had one of the best dinners in Germany and drank enough alcohol to put me to sleep. But wait, in one hour, I will be boarding a 12-hour, Lufthansa First Class flight to Singapore. The food and drink orgy has barely begun... Pray for my waistline. @ 21:38 Frankfurt

[three-way] Mary, Ma-wee and I just concluded our first three-way IM chat session ever. And it was a big one: It was inter-continental! Them in DC, me in Frankfurt. I miss them.

Oh well, time to get ready to get to the airport. I hear there's free wi-fi in Lufthansa's First Class Terminal (yes, a separate terminal!). Fierce! @ 18:01 Frankfurt

[sweet send-off] Not wanting to incur $160+ in parking charges or $120+ in cab fares, we managed to rope Rick and Jason into taking us to the airport in the Audi. They were there to chaperone my younger brother's driving, giggle, and to provide directions; though I doubt they were coherent after drunk brunch at Merkado. No matter. Random funniness from drunk brunch yesterday (I miss you guys already! *pout*):

"Ma-wee, they gave you a yellow straw. Does it disappear when you put it in your mouth?"

"Have blog, will slander."

"Ma-wee, come to Turin with us. Can't you just trade in some food stamps for your flight ticket?"

"Joselena, formerly known as Benalena."

"Bitch is not MIA. He's in Jose, Ole!"

"Jason and Jose cannot hang out together anymore. They get each other drunk like it's an Olympic sport.

"They kept trying to dance but all they did was fall. I had to pick them up from the floor... THREE times!"

"They grabbed on to me like I was an anchor.. or a dancing pole."

"They were practically using each other as trampolines."

"They weren't so much grinding, as they were power-washing each other. Jose's back is completely smooth today."

The Fetch Trinity is now on hold till December 6th... Thanks for sending me off, guys. Me love and miss you long, long time!! @ 17:02 Frankfurt

[fill in the blanks]I uncovered a treasure trove of text messages in my phone from the night at Hush. Yes, *that* night. Unfortunately, I only found the ones I sent so you'll just have to make up the rest. This is a text exchange between Rick/me and Bethany. FYI, we're so drunk we can't see. Fill in the blanks.

Where are you?
...
Kiat and Rick, your gaysian whores
...
We're here. They're playing Hung Up remix!! Come now!
...
We are here. And we wnat you here. Dripping on our laps.
...
More than you can handle
And Jose is really horny
...
How about 9"

@ 16:49 Frankfurt

[c-c-c-old germans] It's cold as balls in Frankfurt. If Tony had licked me, his tongue would've stuck. And why does everything smell of smoke in Germany?? Grr. We've just slept the past 8 hours in a free hotel room at the Kempinski given to us by Lufthansa. Heaven. Totally refreshed now. Our next flight is in 6 hours so I thought I'd entertain you with some randomness over the past few days... @ 16:40 Frankfurt

[pls, no more] Good God. We *just* had dessert 2 hours ago.. And now they're serving breakfast! Frittata of some sort. I'm definitely enrolling in fat camp when I get home. This is insane.

The freshly squeezed orange juice with tons of pulp is a nice touch though. Oh who am I kidding, of course I'm gonna eat it all. And of course I just drank the last of their orange juice *giggle*. I mean, I did "pay" $5700 for this flight (yes, can you believe that's how much this one-way flight costs??).

It's 1°C (33°F) in Frankfurt, ugh. 45 minutes to go... powering down. @ 06:49 Frankfurt

NOV 19/20 :: [i love new york] I was "hung up" on and rockin' to Madonna when track number 5 from Confessions on the Dance Floor comes on - "I Love New York". And right at that moment, I looked down and I saw the twinkling lights of Manhattan 30,000ft below us.

And just for a split second, I felt one with Madonna. @ 23:08 DC or 05:08 Frankfurt

[LH419, seat 82A] It's 10pm Sat EST, or 4am Sun in Frankfurt. And I'm drunk, LOL! I just sat through a 2.5 hour dinner on a plane. And lemme tell ya, everything about Lufthansa First Class is flawless.

Quick summary: There are 16 seats in First occupying the entire upper deck of a 747. Most of you have probably never been up here so you just have to trust me when I say that the seat in front of me is so far away it might as well be on a different plane. It's near impossible to "bump" into someone else's seat unless you weigh 300 pounds and have a double-wide. We have 1 flight attendant for every 4 of us. And let's just say they are, well, German. More Brigitte than Heidi, but you get my drift.

Highlights so far:

1. Unlimited caviar. I was already giddy at the mere thought of caviar, and when he (German flight attendant hottie) gave me two spoonfuls on my plate, I almost creme-fraiched myself. But the climax was when GFAH came back and offered a second portion.. and proceeded to pile THREE more spoonfuls onto my plate. I squealed like a Russian ballerina.

2. Unlimited alcohol. The "RARE" Piper Heidsieck champagne that went with the caviar was divine. That was quickly followed by an Italian red (Barbera), and an Ice "to-die-for" wine for dessert. I had 5 glasses of alcohol onboard and I'm feeling no pain. Add that to the glass of Veuve at the First Class Lounge at Dulles, and the Pacific Rim Mary I drank this morning at brunch, and turbulence right now would seem like a ride at Six Flags. Wheeeeeee!

3. Unlimited room. There is enough room in here to do laps. My seat is so wide it would take two sets of my ass to fill it (or one of Rick's, LOL!). There is so much legroom I could lay on the floor in front of me lengthwise and I still could not touch the seat in front of me with my toes. The seats lay flat. HOT! But I'm definitely not sleeping on this flight, not after eating three stomachs' worth of food.

4. Unlimited amenities. Holy full-sized pillow, batman! Fluffies for your cold feet! And pyjamas, too!! Laptop power and, ohmibeyonce, wi-fi broadband access. FIERCE! The bathroom? Has a window. Right at crotch level. And it's big enough for a Roman orgy.

The sky really is the limit in First Class. Happiness! @ 22:54 DC or 04:54 Frankfurt

NOV 18 :: [potter-less] Mary (Jason) and Ma-wee (Rick) are going to the movies in an hour. They're gonna watch Harry Potter. I'm so pissed I can't go. Well, I could, but after my 10:45 saunter-in-to-work this a.m., I couldn't possibly get away with getting caught "disappearing" from work until 6:30...

When I told Jason I couldn't go for fear of getting fired, he retorts with:

"Please! You're Asian & Gay. You're a discrimination lawyer's wet dream."

ROTFLMAO!!! @ 14:43

[10:45] That's the time I rolled into work this morning. Yes, I was still drunk when I woke up. It wasn't pretty. But somehow I managed to drive to work this morning (what, me? walk in this cold? what are You smoking...). If I had gotten pulled over, can you imagine the look on the judge's face? "Child, how on earth did you get a DUI at 10 in the morning??" LOL!

Last night was kwazy! Rick and I got trashed at JR's all-you-can-drink. And then we met Jose and got even more trashed at Hush's all-you-can-drink. Do NOT try this at home, kids. Back-to-back all-you-can-drink happy hours is Not for amateurs. It was the Madonna CD release party at Hush last night. It was our first (and probably last) time at Hush. The crowd wasn't fetch at all. Maybe it was the freeeeezing (literally, it was in the 30s all night) cold. Or maybe the Adams Morgan crowd is just not that fetch. But if it weren't for remixes of Hung Up all night, we would've totally not bothered.

I won't bore you with the details but let's just say I got so drunk last night:

1. I gave the ridiculously hot shot boy multiple 20s for a sickening amount of shots. That, I believe, was my downfall.
2. I ordered shlimp fly lice.. at a BAR! And ate it all like my mother had just made it.
3. I jumped on Seabiscuit. Jason's Seabiscuit. LOL!
4. I drunk-dialled Tony for 30 minutes at 1 in the morning.
5. I drunk-dialled Tony because I couldn't find my way home.
6. I can barely sit upright at work today.
7. I just found out that I bumped into Chuck and Bethany at Hush last night. I'm still unconvinced, LOL.

Each vodka-whatever (does it matter at that point?) shot came with a glow stick and we were obviously so drunk at that point that glow sticks were like, ohmibeyonce, cool. I collected so many glow sticks I could've guided ships into Hush.

Greasy pizza and wings for lunch, which tasted like vodka, has kicked in. I think my hangover just hit. Time to make like an ostrich and bury my head in the ground... @ 12:57

NOV 17 :: [get some] How can it possibly be 80+ in LA, and the windchill in DC is 31°??! Crimes against humanity, I tell ya. I'm wearing an undershirt, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater AND an overcoat (yes, count 'em.. FOUR layers) today... and I'm *still* cold! Well, it didn't help that I forgot my gloves, ear muffs and scarf, but com'on... it's only November! Gee-sus bloomin' Christ. What on earth is up with Mother Nature lately? Maybe she needs to get some, coz she's awfully grumpy these days.

Gurrrl, you need to take a lightning bolt up your hoo-hah or what-not but seriously, just don't take it out on us! Bitches... @ 10:23

NOV 16 :: [first freeze] DC will experience its first freeze of the season tomorrow night. We have not had a sub-32° day since mid-March, 8 months ago! November has been quite amazing weather-wise, really. We've only had 3 days where the high did not make it above 65°. Love it. Well, all that came to a shocking end today when temperatures plunged 15° from a high of 74° in ONE hour. 2 hours later, the temperature has plunged another 10° to 49°! The next three nights leading up to our departure on Saturday night is not gonna be pretty, with freezing 30s in the forecast. It will be in the 20s when we arrive in Frankfurt on Sunday and 12 hours later, it'll be 90 degrees in Singapore!

The tantalizing thought of springtime in Australia (we get there a week from today) where the temps are in the 80s/50s is enough to keep me warm for the next few days. I can't stand the cold.. why am I in DC?? @ 19:54

[1k is fetch!] Much to some dismay, shock, horror, envy, etc. from peeps who didn't get the comp-ed 1K status from United (you know who you are *evil grin*), I am here to, well.. RUB IT IN! Giggle.

United announced that effective yesterday, all changes to award travel (incl. changing the entire itinerary, or just cancelling it) will be fee-free. Only for 1K (and Global Services) members, of course. FETCH!! Any changes used to cost $100. And get this, it's not only fee-free for United award travel, it's also fee-free for Star Alliance award travel.

I put that to very good use today. I changed our upcoming flight to Singapore (upcoming is an understatement, we were departing in 4 days!). It used to be Dulles-JFK (on United Express, bleagh), 6-hour layover in JFK, then First Class on Lufthansa from JFK-Frankfurt-Singapore. Well, I nixed the stop in JFK and switched it to Dulles-Frankfurt-Singapore in Lufthansa First Class all the way. Free of charge!! Hot. We're leaving a day early but not having to spend 6 hours in stank-JFK is worth it, me thinks.

Flying First Class to Singapore: 120,000 miles
Changing award travel 3 days before departure: Free
Having 1K status for the next 16 months: Priceless!!

Aspire, you envious whores :) @ 19:10

[say it ain't so] Judge Samuel Alito, potentially our next Supreme Court Justice, is a Conservative!! Noooooooooo, say it Ain't So!

Um, D'UH. As Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in a Senate speech today:

"A picture of Sam Alito is emerging that may explain why the extreme right-wing is popping champagne corks."

I couldn't have said it better myself. From the WP's Harold Meyerson in "Alito's Smoking Gun":

"Samuel Alito could not have put it more plainly. 'The Constitution,' he wrote in a 1985 job application he posted to the Reagan administration's attorney general, Ed Meese, 'does not protect a right to an abortion.'"

"Alito's champions would have us believe, however, that he will defer even to precedents that he regards as unconstitutional -- despite the fact that the job of a justice is precisely to determine what is and isn't constitutional. That's asking us to believe a lot."

"...unless he's reversed his thinking or unless deference to precedent trumps his deepest beliefs on constitutionality, that Justice Samuel Alito would, given the opportunity, abolish a woman's federal right to reproductive choice. It's not personal for him; it's constitutional. But it's plenty personal for the American people."

And the NYT digs deeper into Alito's job application:

"...he is an ideologue. The White House has tried to present Judge Alito as an impartial judge without strong political views. But he said just the opposite in the 1985 statement. 'I am and always have been a conservative,' he wrote. He called himself a 'life-long registered Republican' who contributed to 'Republican candidates and conservative causes' including the National Conservative Political Action Committee, the super-PAC of the Reagan era."

"Equally alarming is the notion that he fudged the truth to tell a potential employer what it wanted to hear. Senators should certainly keep this in mind when they try to decide whether to believe how he describes his views at his confirmation hearing."

What made you think that Bush would nominate anyone but a radical, right-wing extremist to the Supreme Court? Did you think he wouldn't use a litmus test for His choice to the Supreme Court? What have you been smoking?

And here's what Howard Dean had to say about the Republicans' hypocrisy when it comes to "up-or-down votes":

"How dare they have an ad saying we want an up-or-down vote on Judge Alito, when they wouldn't give one to Harriet Miers?"

Precisely. Which is why Senate Democrats need to filibuster ScAlito. And if Frist tries to kill the filibuster, shut down the Senate. @ 15:36

[lock 'em up] Another snowflake in the avalanche of bad news plaguing the current Administration. Each one more priceless than the next. This one's not so damaging to the farcical Bush Administration, but it's telling of how this Administration is run - lies, lies and more lies. And when they can't defend the lies anymore, they'll litigate the hell out of it before they'll even utter an ounce of truth.

Remember... back in 2001, when Vice President Cheney's energy task force convened and released such an obviously Big Oil-influenced energy plan for the nation that environmental groups sued the White House to get the participants of the task force in order to show its biasness? D'uh, who could forget. I mean, Cheney and his flying monkeys fought all the way up to the Supreme Court and won (somewhat) by screaming "executive privilege" and "secrecy" when challenged on the participants of this task force. It was painfully obvious, but this Administration prefers to fight with lies rather than defend the truth.

So check this out. Ohhhhh so priceless. Yes, they were all there - ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Royal Dutch/Shell. All of 'em. Big Oil was so there they might as well have built an oil platform right in the middle of the Old Executive Building.

And it gets better... Apparently the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips *LIED* to the Senate Energy and Commerce Committees last week about their participation in that task force. Sadly, they weren't under oath so they didn't commit perjury; no thanks to Sen. Asshole "my $223mn Bridge to Nowhere is more important than you poor, black souls in N'Awlins" Stevens (R-AK). But here's the oh-so-juicy part (it's almost making me tinkle): A person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation" to Congress. Hot!

So I'm confused: Why would you lie about your participation in a meeting that shaped the nation's energy policy unless you were only there to exert undue influence and promote your own interests over the nation's? Why defend the secrecy of said meeting unless you were afraid that by revealing your participation, you risked the wrath of an entire nation who is sick of selling out our parklands and our children's future to Big Oil?

You can lie but you can't hide. Lock 'em up! @ 13:37

NOV 15 :: [early adopter] I got my Vonage Voice-over-IP phone (VoIP) about 13 months ago (Q3 2004). I love it to death. For $3.60, I can call my parents for an *hour*. I still remember the days (um, 6 years ago?) when $3.60 would've bought me only 6 minutes of time with my parents. Oh and domestic long distance is free. And the calls are pretty much crystal clear. So in my mind, VoIP is revolutionary.

But wait, there's more. Voicemail, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, 3-Way Calling, etc. are all free. Verizon? They charge $8 for voicemail! Talk about daylight robbery. What's more, you can get a different area code for your phone with Vonage. Chris has a UK number attached to his VoIP phone, in addition to his 202 number. FETCH!

And here's the best part: (are you ready for this?) it only costs $15/mth for Vonage (or $25 if you want unlimited calling). Hot!

There are many downsides to VoIP, though, which 'splains why I still have a landline (with Verizon, yuck). The biggest is that when there's no power, Verizon still works but Vonage doesn't (no power, no Internet). Another is that the Vonage needs to be where the DSL/cable is and that's usually not where you want your phone to be. The latter is easily solved by a 5.8GHz cordless system (btw, Uniden rocks!), but getting a generator to power your house is a whole different story altogether.

Back in Oct 2004 when I first got my Vonage, there were only 714,000 VoIP subscribers. Total. One year later, there are 3.6mn VoIP subscribers, out of 93.2mn residential phone lines. Revenue from VoIP services has gone from $53mn to $304mn over the same period.

1 out of 714,000... does that make me an early adopter? I feel like Such a geek. @ 14:50

[one prick] OMB, this is HIL-larious. Pollster John Zogby, responding to a Gallup Poll which found that for the first time, more than half of the public (52%-46%) thinks Bush is not honest and trustworthy, commented that from experiences with previous presidents such as LBJ and Nixon, once the public has lost faith in its leaders, it is difficult for them to regain such trust.

And I quote:

Zogby:: "It's kind of like virginity. It is hard to get back."

LOL!! As Confucius once said: "Virginity like bubble. One prick, all gone." @ 13:12

[out of excuses] The NYT Editorial today in "Decoding Mr. Bush's Denials":

"To avoid having to account for his administration's misleading statements before the war with Iraq, President Bush has tried denial, saying he did not skew the intelligence. He's tried to share the blame, claiming that Congress had the same intelligence he had, as well as President Bill Clinton. He's tried to pass the buck and blame the C.I.A. Lately, he's gone on the attack, accusing Democrats in Congress of aiding the terrorists."

"Yesterday in Alaska, Mr. Bush trotted out the same tedious deflection on Iraq that he usually attempts when his back is against the wall: he claims that questioning his actions three years ago is a betrayal of the troops in battle today."

"It all amounts to one energetic effort at avoidance. But like the W.M.D. reports that started the whole thing, the only problem is that none of it has been true."

Zinggggg! I love the NYT. It continues...

"Mr. Bush says everyone had the same intelligence he had - Mr. Clinton and his advisers, foreign governments, and members of Congress - and that all of them reached the same conclusions. The only part that is true is that Mr. Bush was working off the same intelligence Mr. Clinton had. But that is scary, not reassuring. The reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons were old, some more than 10 years old. Nothing was fresher than about five years, except reports that later proved to be fanciful."

"Foreign intelligence services did not have full access to American intelligence. But some had dissenting opinions that were ignored or not shown to top American officials. Congress had nothing close to the president's access to intelligence. The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) presented to Congress a few days before the vote on war was sanitized to remove dissent and make conjecture seem like fact."

"...France, Russia and Germany said war was not justified. Even Britain admitted later that there had been no new evidence about Iraq, just new politics... The administration had little company in saying that Iraq was actively trying to build a nuclear weapon... The Bush administration was also alone in making the absurd claim that Iraq was in league with Al Qaeda and somehow connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks..."

An assertion supported by Atrios, John Marshall and Kevin Drum:

Atrios:: "I think that the recent statements of Stephen Hadley are really all we need to put the final nail in the coffin of the Bush administration's credibility on anything. These people are just quite literally loathsome. Hadley argues that Democrats had the same intelligence because 'parts of' the NIE 'had been made public.' Right, and the parts of the NIE which weren't made public were the parts which suggested that the parts which were made public were full of shit."

TPM/JM:: "...the president's new angle that his critics are trying to 'rewrite history', those critics might want to point out that his charge would be more timely after he stopped putting so much effort into obstructing any independent inquiry that could allow an accurate first draft of the history to be written. In any case, he must sense now that he's blowing into a fierce wind. The judgment of history hangs over this guy like a sharp, heavy knife. His desperation betrays him. He knows it too."

WM/KD:: "The case for manipulation is pretty strong. It relies on several things, but I think the most important of them has been the discovery that the administration deliberately suppressed dissenting views on some of the most important pieces of evidence that they used to bolster their case for war."

It's time to come clean, Mr. President. With approval numbers like these, I don't think you can go on playing ball by yourself. *NO*body believes you anymore. Maybe if you showed some remorse for past lies and started telling the truth today, maybe.. just Maybe, the American public will start trusting you again.

I, for one, never did, will not and never will. Say what you want.. I can only hope that history will judge you harshly, as the President who lied to his own people and committed a treasonous act of dragging our peace-loving and democratic country into a war of choice.. of YOUR choice, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. @ 11:51

[waaaaa...] I waited as late as I could yesterday for Madonna's new CD (Confessions on the Dance Floor) to be released on iTunes but I was under the weather and I was just way too sleepy. I was late and in a hurry this a.m. so I missed my opportunity then too (plus, the W800i doesn't play .m4p files so I would've had to burn the tracks onto a CD and rip 'em back into MP3s blah blah blah). Time is so not on my side today.

Jason, being the uber-Apple-queen that she is, bounces into IM this morning and goes "Maryyyyyyy, have you got it yet??". Grr. Bitch apparently got her copy at 30 minutes past midnight. I got an e-mail from her at exactly 12:53am:

"It's 12:52 and I am already listening to my copy of "Confessions" from iTunes. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I feel like an envious reptile today. I want my Madonna!!!

"Time goes by.. so slowly for those who wait.." @ 11:12

NOV 14 :: [shorts weather] Sunday rolls around. The *real* day of rest. And I feel like I'm lugging around the dead. I've barely slept all weekend, I've drank enough to assume the shape of an Absolut bottle, and I still have brunch and JR's Sunday to go! What is a gurl to do?!

Without missing a beat, we meet Ben/Mike/Scott for dim sum at China Garden. I've missed dim sum, and dumplings are second (ok, third) only to noodle-soup and Alberto's as a hangover cure all. The weather was absolutely gorgeous.. so we went shopping at Target, lol. But seriously, we drove around with the top down (in mid-Nov!) and it was just divine. Enjoy it while it lasts, right?

We walk to the Circle to meet up with M2 and Rick, but needless to say they couldn't wait to get their first vodka-cran at JR's so we had to meet them there instead. At THREE pm. OMB is right.

Who the F goes to JR's at 3pm on a Sunday? Um, LOTS of ppl apparently. Here's what I think: there's like this sensor in every party girl in Dupont. And it sends a jolt of "I need vodka now!" to everyone's brain at, oh, an hour or so before sundown. JR's didn't get packed till 6ish during the summer. And yesterday? boys were streaming in by 4pm. It was kwazy. But HOT! The consequence of arriving so bloomin' early is that you don't last past 6.. but the good news is you sober up before bedtime.

And that's how it always ends... :)

The past weekend was way too much fun and I'm paying for it now by missing quite a few braincells at work, stumbling from one task/project to another. Ugh. I'm also paying for it by procrastinating on a whole bunch of to-do's that I *must* take care of before leaving town this w/end.

The days are getting shorter and shorter. It now gets dark before I leave work which is totally annoying. It's still nice and warm out which isn't too bad. I can't wait for springtime in Oz. I gotta go find me some shorts from my closet! @ 17:08

[can't stop now] Sunday being the day of rest could not be a more accurate description. After two long hard nights of boozing and shenanigans, Sundays are usually completely useless, at least for me. But Sunday came on Saturday this past weekend, what with Friday being part of the weekend. After draggin' myself out of bed, I did not leave the couch until it was time to shower for the evening's parties. I was so lazy I was peeing sitting down.

But like, hello, the weekend must go on! So I mustered up some Bryan Adams in "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", and dragged us out into the 'burbs (yet again) for one of our rotating dinner party thingmajigs. I say "never again" each time we drag out fetch urban butts out to decidedly unfetch suburbia, but I still subject myself to it every single time. Anywho, it was a nice lil' surprise coz the hosts made a Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, cranberry sauce and, get this, rice!! I was in tryptophan heaven. If it weren't for all that cat dander ALL over the friggin' house.. I'm deathly allergic to cats (aka pussy), go figure ;)

Dinner ends at midnight. And you'd think I'd be content with going home. But d'uh, the evening kicks into high gear and we head to Rob/Mikko's for a cocktail party (well, post-buffet party). The party was fetch as usual and didn't wind down till 2:30 at which point I met up with Jason in front of Alberto's.. OK, I know, WTF, right? FOUR times in one weekend?? Well, we're both pigs. We love food. We love pizza. Especially when we're drunk and we need hangover food. I have no idea how but we're both size 30 waists!

Jason and I sat on the corner of Chicken-Pesto (20th) and Pineapple-Ham (P) and terrorized all the lesbians leaving Apex on a Saturday night. Giggle. And we were clearly not alone coz the line to get into Alberto's was out to the curb.

And I won't talk about how Jason practically humped the sidewalk coz she was so horny and Seabiscuit wouldn't put out... @ 16:45

[hags and fags] Lesson #1: Never plan to do lunch with your hag at 11am the day after you've partied so hard you're passed out drunk on your bed. Stank. I had to wiggle my yellow ass out of bed and drive alllll the way to Tysons (with Rick in tow) to see Nicole. Lemme tell ya, if you knew how much my head was pounding that morning, the act of driving out there was a labor of love. Trust. Love my hag.

Plus, the thought of Kung Pao Scallops at PF Chang's sitting in my belly full of vodka was incentive enough to go the distance. We get there and *shock and horror* PF Chang's was closed. You would've thought I just lost a limb from the look on my face. Nicole and I couldn't process the post-traumatic stress, so we ended up at Maggiano's. Uh-huh. 3 pounds of angel hair pasta later (I'm not kidding), we're rolling out of there like a doughball and we did the one thing that we could all agree on that burns the most carbs - Shopping! After shopping, we visited with Mikey and His hag WeMo at SAIC. Many giggles and gut-busting laughs later, Rick and I are hagged out so we return back to civilization for some much-needed rest before the evening's festivities.

It wasn't so much a festivity as it was just an all-out alcoh-orgy. SIX bars in one night (well, four theoretically... but it's all semantics). Tony comes home, and we trudge up to Duplex (through the tundra) for dinner with Chris/Dave, Chris-Craig, Jason, Rob and his friend from Montana, Brian. Duplex was, of course, riotous and dripping with hot boys. We make our way from there to Cobalt; coz it was freezing and Cobalt was the closest bar. Should've gone to Halo but hindsight's a bitchy queen post-Lasik surgery. Last weekend was Flashlight at Cobalt, next weekend is the Dueling Divas. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why Cobalt would not have an event in between. So there we were, the only fetch people at the bar and stanks as far as the eye can see.

Jason and I, being the short-attention-span bitches that we are, hightail it to our sanctuary and all hail Vodka coz JR's was FETCH! Well, we actually left Cobalt at just past 10pm so that we could get our hands stamped without paying, giggle! We're such cheap bitches. Anywho, at JR's, we run into Ben/Mike/Scott (2nd wk in a row!), ChrisFT/Chuck, etc. We saunter up and down the bar like Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss (sans coke, of course... drugs are nasty), preying on the hot - well, in our drunken state anyway - boys at the bar. Before long, our fly/moth-like attention span causes us to go back to Cobalt to reconvene with the group. Moments later, we get sick of that and go back to JR's.

The rest of the gang followed. Mikko shows up at JR's. And... um... I think we went to Apex? LOL! We did... Right? Pockets of dementia has now set in but I *know* I ended my evening at Apex. We were in the video bar.. then we went upstairs.. then downstairs.. Oh!! Ran into David/Forty, Bethany and MichaelG. And our hot waiter from Duplex. Shirtless (!!). We danced. Jason was on-call so we had to go outside for him to get a signal on his phone. Went to Alberto's. Ate like we've never seen Pepperoni Pizza before (Mangia! Mangia! Molto Bene!). Jason left and I went back to Apex. Ran into "I'm far too busy for anybody" Phillip and his posse.. Hung out there with Brian until the lights came on. I think. I was home and in bed by 3:30. And the pizza helped with the hangover. Wow, that was the most incoherent recollection, Ever.

Giggle. @ 16:22

[one final weekend] And it was a long one! I will be gone for the next three weekends. Deal with it. DC might go into hibernation in my absence, while I'll be bringing my party to the Southern Hemisphere and then on to the Pacific Rim. Hurricane Kiat is about to morph into Typhoon Kiat over the next three weekends.

Veteran's Day weekend, with Friday off, was kinda weird. I'm so not used to a weekend starting on a Thursday night (hah! surely I jest). But with Tony out of town and the next day being a holiday (i.e. ideal conditions for a Perfect Storm), I was in full-on, tear-it-all-up, paint-it-all-red, get-the-hell-outta-my-way mode. The air was already quivering with excitement when Rick called to say the magic "meet me at JR's" phrase for the first time in two weeks. That provided the missing jolt of electricity that super-charged a blitzed out evening which ended with me face down on my bed on Friday morning.. with my clothes on from the night before! LOL!

Rewind. Jason and I spent much of the interminably long Thursday plotting out our weekend, which resulted in the reunion of the Fetch Trinity at, where else, JR's. We answered JR's call threatening to go out of business unless we reunited and did a comeback for our fans. So we obliged :-) Jason got there late though and missed out on Madonna's MTV EMA performance of Hung Up live from Lisbon. Bitches, I have never seen so many gay men staring at a TV screen with their mouths wide open. It was like the queer Superbowl was on TV. I think I stopped breathing for the entire performance. While jumping up and down the entire time. When Madonna stripped down to that purple leotard, I squealed and fainted.

Bernie, the birthday boy, and his posse of Mean Girls arrive at 7 and the party officially starts. That much I remember. Oh I also remember Annie being there. And Evan. And Bethany. And Jose (no prizes for guessing whose flava-of-the-month he is). And how could I forget NM Greg/Andy reprising their Seabiscuit performance from the week before, with me as their jockey. Hot! But, um, yea I don't remember much else. I vaguely remember getting pizza from Alberto's with Jason. And then I passed out.

Hot! @ 15:51

NOV 10 :: [all hail the queen] Who else, but Madonna.

Journalist:: "So, you are saying you are the disco queen with this record. What do you think all the disco princesses, like Britney and Kylie, would say to that?"
Madonna:: "All hail the queen."

T-minus FIVE days to Confessions on a Dance Floor!!! @ 14:59

[not all evil] I am heartened by the recent decision by voters of Dover, PA to oust all eight school board members running for re-election who had voted to introduce intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in science class. But what heartened me the most was the fact that these eight ousted members were all Republicans and they were defeated by eight Democrats who opposed the change to the science curriculum. Why does it matter? Coz 70% of voters in Dover are registered Republicans i.e there was a tremendous amount of voters who crossed party lines, mostly Republicans who couldn't stand the school board's agenda.

I am super pleased because this proves that the majority of voters and, by extension, Americans reject extreme social conservatism. Not all Republicans support the fanatical, bible-thumping, christian fundamentalist, religious right-wing part of their party occupied by extremists such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer.

I guess They are not all evil ;-) (I still don't love them though) And that is Very good news indeed. @ 13:49

[23 hours] Yup, that's how long (well, 22h 43m to be exact) it took to fly 11,664nm (13,422 miles or 21,600 km) from Hong Kong to London, breaking the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial jet. But wait, that flight is usually only 10-11 hours (6,000mi), right? Not if you fly the OTHER way around the earth. Yes, the new Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner (LR = Long Range) flew from HKG's Chek Lap Kok over the Pacific Ocean, crossing the entire continent of North America, and then over the Atlantic Ocean before landing at LHR's Heathrow, crossing 16 timezones instead of the usual 8. Non-stop!! That's fierce.

Hard to imagine how far 13,414mi is? The longest regularly scheduled commercial flight in the world today is a 18 1/2-hour, 9,535mi run on ultra-luxe Singapore Airlines between NYC's Newark and Singapore (my parents have flown this flight.. I have not) on the Airbus 340-500 which has a flight range of "only" 10,380mi; just shy of a London-Sydney non-stop. The 777-200LR will eliminate the "kangaroo" hop i.e. LHR--SYD (imagine a kangaroo hopping over the Eurasia continent to Down Under and vice-versa).

One Whole day on a plane... Can you imagine? Of course, I would only fly in the front cabin. Turning right after you get on the plane? Only for amateurs, dah-ling ;-) @ 13:23

[juicy polls] I keep track of polls but I usually pay scant attention to them and I rarely publish them. But this one's WAY too juicy not to give it its due:

"The flailing Bush presidency continues to spin off new compelling story lines almost daily; yesterday it was torture, today it's Bush as electoral albatross. It's almost inevitable that the media will let some fall by the wayside."

Don'cha just LOVE the term "electoral albatross"? Hot!

"Pew notes that 'fully 79 percent of Americans say the recent indictment of I. Lewis Libby, formerly a top aide to Vice President Cheney, on perjury and other charges is a matter of at least some importance to the nation; that is greater than the percentage who said that in 1998 about charges that former President Clinton lied under oath about a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky (65 percent). . . .'"

About damn fucking time!! It took a silly leak to make Americans pay attention to the most corrupt, ineffective, and incompetent Administration in history? More power to the leak!

"The Pew poll also finds Bush's job approval rating at an all-time low of 36 percent, down from 40 percent in late October and 50 percent at the start of the year."

"Bush's job approval rating is nine points higher than former President Richard M. Nixon's approval mark at the same point in his second term. But, Pew notes, 'it is largely GOP loyalty that separates Bush from Nixon at comparable points in their presidencies. Bush's 29 percent approval rating among independents is only four points higher than Nixon's standing among independents in early November 1973. And Bush's 12 percent approval rating among Democrats is nearly identical to Nixon's.'"

I am giddy, no make that frothing, at the thought of Bush inflicting as much damage on the Republican party as Nixon did. Come see me froth :) *happy jig* @ 10:44

[governator, rip] Harold Meyerson's "Arnold Terminates Himself" in the WP:

"Arnold Schwarzenegger's nine mad months of governing Democratic California as a partisan Republican came to the most predictable of unhappy endings here on Tuesday. Each of the four ballot measures he inflicted on voters in his special election lost decisively -- his spending-limit proposal tanking by 24 percent, and his measure to curb the clout of public-sector unions (Proposition 75) by 7 percent. The mystery of this election is what on earth Schwarzenegger could have been thinking: No comparable elected official in recent memory has picked a fight so gratuitously and come out of it so beat up."

"California's unions... revved up the most effective Democratic voter mobilization operation in the nation. When they were done, not only did the governor's propositions fail but his approval rating in the most recent PPIC poll collapsed to a Bushian 35 percent."

"...His polling among independents and moderates is almost as low as it is among Democrats and liberals. His approval rating among Latinos has toppled to a ghastly 25 percent."

"Indeed, the repudiation of Schwarzenegger's propositions, coupled with the defeat in Virginia of the Republicans' taxophobic gubernatorial nominee, Jerry Kilgore, and last week's decision by Colorado voters to partially overturn a spending limit that was blocking road and school construction, strongly suggests that the Republicans' anti-tax revolt is running out of steam. All politics may be local, but when you lose in dissimilar localities all across the country, in large part because the central theme of contemporary conservatism isn't resonating anymore, you have yourself a national problem. And that's not even counting the issue of George W. Bush."

Don't you just love the phrase "a Bushian 35%"? Giggle! Personally, I don't think the anti-tax revolt has run out of steam. I just think that a majority of Americans don't believe the Republicans are the anti-tax party anymore. Taxes are still evil. But they are what we pay for a civilized society. When there's no shared burden, there's no "us".

As for Ah-nuld... Well, this movie star will not be following in Reagan's footsteps. He won't be bah-ck. @ 10:20

NOV 9 :: [off-year victory] Democrats swept the New Jersey and Virginia governorships yesterday, keeping those two state mansions in the Democratic column by electing Sen. Jon Corzine (NJ) and Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine (VA). On the opposite coast, Californians rejected Gov. Schwarzenegger's entire agenda to change the political (Prop 77 lost by 58%), fiscal (Prop 76 lost by 61%) and educational (Prop 74 lost by 54%) policy of the most-populous US state. California voters also defeated Proposition 73, which would have made CA the 35th state requiring parental notification for girls 17 and under seeking an abortion, by 53-47. A Democratic sweep indeed.

Virginia, who has voted Republican in Presidential elections since 1964 and most recently gave Bush an 8-point margin of victory in 2004, handed the Democrats a solid 52-46 victory in the gubernatorial elections. But the biggest loser last night was not that vile reptile Kilgore. It was Bush, who campaigned for that pond scum at the last minute and, no doubt, contributed to Kilgore's larger-than-expected 6-point loss. Let's add this loss to Bush's litany of troubles stretching from Iraq to Katrina, from the CIA leak to Harriet Miers.

The Lt. Governorship was won by a Republican and the A-G race is too close to call. Fairfax "bellwether" County voted Kaine by a thumping 60-38 majority, and Democrats for Lt. Gov. and A-G by 19% and 16% respectively. Fairfax also elected Democratic Delegates to the Virginia House by a 13-4 margin over Republicans, with 3 of the R seats uncontested. Shockingly, historically conservative Loudoun (by 6%) and Prince William (by 1.8%) Counties who did not vote for Warner 4 years ago, voted for Kaine this time around. Arlington and Alexandria Counties sent more than 7 out of 10 votes to Kaine. It was a Democratic sweep in Northern Virginia!!

Corzine was elected by a 53-44 margin. Corzine will now have to pick a successor to his Senate seat. Democrats also made gains in both the Virginia House of Delegates and the NJ Assembly.

In NYC, Republican mayor Michael Bloomberg won re-election by the largest margin ever for a Republican in NYC, winning against Ferrer by 20% and thus keeping the mayoralty in Republican hands for the fourth time. Voters, however, voted to keep The City Council's 48-3 Democratic majority, also for the fourth time, which is consistent with voter registration in NYC where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5.5-to-1.

Gay rights took an expected beating in Texas where three-quarters of voters (and, possibly, residents) are bigots who approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, becoming the 19th state to do so. In Maine, voters defeated a measure that would have repealed a state law outlawing discrimination against the GLBT community. Yay!

In a defeat for democracy, both redistricting measures (in CA and OH) failed. Finally (and most juicily), the Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 to include teachings of Darwin's evolution and Intelligent Design in the science curriculum. Why is it juicy? All eight Republican school board members in Dover, PA who backed "intelligent design" were replaced by Democrats after yesterday's vote.

I quote from the WP:

"Four billion years of evolution has apparently resulted in a creature that, at least in Pennsylvania, knows the difference between science and religion."

LOL!!! Fetch! @ 14:51

NOV 8 :: [liberal pride] Most of you probably don't bloody care but The West Wing broadcasted a live Presidential debate (made for TV) on Sunday between Republican Senator Vinick (Alan Alda) and Democratic Congressman Santos (Jimmy Smits). The quote of the evening:

"What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party? I'll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security, and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act."

"And what did conservatives do? They opposed every single one of those things; every one."

Liberals, progressives, moderates, independents, conservatives, whatever. That track record can only make you proud. So why does the nation self-identify 33% conservative and only 20% liberal? @ 15:43

[tortured logic] Regarding Bush's "We do not torture" bold-faced lie yesterday... Bob Cesca from huffingtonpost.com:

"He's either outright lying or the administration has a very different definition of torture than the rest of the world. I would argue that it's both."

Ooh, I love it! And I love Andrew Sullivan's zinger even better:

"If that's the case, why threaten to veto a law that would simply codify what Bush alleges is already the current policy? If 'we do not torture,' how to account for the hundreds and hundreds of cases of abuse and torture by U.S. troops, documented by the government itself? If 'we do not torture,' why the memos that expanded exponentially the lee-way given to the military to abuse detainees in order to get intelligence? The president's only defense against being a liar is that he is defining 'torture' in such a way that no other reasonable person on the planet, apart from Bush's own torture apologists (and they are now down to one who will say so publicly), would agree. The press must now ask the president: does he regard the repeated, forcible near-drowning of detainees to be torture? Does he believe that tying naked detainees up and leaving them outside all night to die of hypothermia is 'torture'? Does he believe that beating the legs of a detainee until they are pulp and he dies is torture? Does he believe that beating detainees till they die is torture? Does he believe that using someone's religious faith against them in interrogations is 'cruel, inhumane and degrading' treatment and thereby illegal? What is his definition of torture?"

Yes, *GASP*. But, Zingggggg! @ 14:04

[pure evil] Dick Cheney is the architect of evil. If you look up "evil" in Webster (or Oxford), you'll see his face right next to it. Continuing from the NYT Editorial:

"...Dick Cheney, the dark force behind many of the administration's most disastrous policies, like the Iraq invasion and the stubborn resistance to energy conservation. Right now, the vice president is devoting himself to beating back Congressional legislation that would prohibit the torture of prisoners. This is truly a remarkable set of priorities: his former chief aide was indicted, Mr. Cheney's back is against the wall, and he's declared war on the Geneva Conventions."

Dick Cheney - the unashamed lobbyist for torture. Why is this man the second-in-command of the country? @ 10:39

[simply embarassing] Leaders of 34 nations gathered in Mar del Plata, Argentina over the weekend for the 4th Summit of the Americas. But it was the presence of one (mis-)leader, George W. Bush, that ignited angry and violent mass protests on the streets of Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires, with thousands chanting "Get out, Bush!" and "Fascist Bush! You are the terrorist!".

The centerpiece of the summit - the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) or Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas (ALCA) - went down in flames. It's a shame because free trade will ultimately lift the Latin American countries out of poverty by providing them unfettered access to the huge US market, by itself 5 times larger than all the Latin American nations combined. And ultimately, the FTAA failed because of Bush's unpopularity in Latin America, and almost every corner of the globe.

Unloved abroad, unloved at home. The NYT Editorial sums it up today in "President Bush's Walkabout":

"After President Bush's disastrous visit to Latin America, it's unnerving to realize that his presidency still has more than three years to run. An administration with no agenda and no competence would be hard enough to live with on the domestic front. But the rest of the world simply can't afford an American government this bad for that long."

If I were Laura, I'd be embarassed that my husband is hated by so many people around the world. He is not only an embarassment to the stature of the United States, he is an embarassment to the world's citizens, and an embarassment to mankind.

The world is united against Bush. It's time for Americans to challenge his legitimacy and his authority to represent the world's strongest democracy. For Bush has done nothing but try to weaken it over the past 5 years.

We need a new President. We need a new leader. And we cannot wait till 2008. @ 10:26

NOV 7 :: [warm, cold, warm, cold?] Sept was hot. Oct was cold. Nov has so far been warm. Will Dec be *shudder* freezing?? This past weekend was amazing. Saturday topped out at an amazing 75°, and Sunday we came within 1° of breaking the all time high for the day of 78°! Amazing. Love it, totally.

Thursday night, we were at our ex-neighbors Jack/Sally's house (they now live a block from JR's, I'm so envious!) fixing their wi-fi (ooh), before I ran into JR's to bump into the Mean Girls sans Chuck, and then dinner at Komi.. till 11! The speck white tuna was, as usual, phenomenal. And my Kumamoto oysters appetizer was precum-inducing. Plump, succulent, silky, To Die For. Oh my Beyonce. If you've never had a Kumamoto oyster before on the half shell, try it once before you die. Trust me. Top all that off with a few bottles of Viognier and my belly was very, very happy.

After a horrendously long day at work on Thursday (I stayed till 6! Quelle horreur), Friday at work was equally miserable. Some bitch decided to ask for network backup at 4:30pm and I had to stay late... again! Not fetch. No matter. The evening was pretty quiet until Ben/Mike/Scott dragged me out to JR's at 10:30. Let's just say everyone was there that night. Leo, Tyson, Paul, Jason/Nick/Bernie.. then M2 showed up with, surprise surprise, New Mexico Greg and his bf, Andy. It was a riotous evening, aided by blasian Richard's neverending supply of free vodka-crans. I swear she's trying to get me drunk each time, testing her fellow Asian's alcohol tolerance level. I ran into so many ppl there Ben called me "JR's door greeter". Giggle. I ended up walking to Cobalt with Tyson who thought he could get us in for free but we were unceremoniously kicked out after taking 3 steps through the door, LOL. So we walked to Apex and I met up with Leo, Greg/Andy.

And then my Seabiscuit moment happened. No, I wasn't trying to match or one-up Jason (no one could). It just happened. FOUR times. Greg (sans shirt, of course) picks me up, straps my legs around his waist (yes, we were crotch-to-crotch) and proceeds to bend forward, lowering my head to the floor while holding on to my back. . . FOUR times. No, my head never touched the floor (eww) but let's just say he underestimated how high my hair is (bitch, I'm closer to God, mmm-kay?). Oh well, it was already sticky to begin with... lol. So, yea. I blushed crimson red each time and I just kept on dancing like nobody's watching and that was a good thing coz bitches, EVERYone was watching. Sacre bleu!

Yes, I've found my horse, giggle. Well, Greg and I go waaaaay back. We met on the streets. Mmm-hmm. 2 blocks from JR's. Mmm-hmm. I was talking on my cell, yapping about meeting so-and-so at JR's and bitch walks by and goes, "oh can I come with you?". I, of course, being the total cunt that I am took one look at him and went "um, I'm on the phone". Yadda, yadda, yadda.. I intro-ed him to all my friends and he has now moved to DC with his equally hot bf. Fun.

Left Apex. Stood outside chatting with Leo. Bumped into Mikey and his posse of fierce chicks (Danielle aka WeMo aka WEstern MOngolian being my favorite). Home. Bed. Drunk. Hungover. Apparently, Greg/Andy closed down Apex. Hot.

Gary comes by way-too-early on Saturday morning... And we have mimosas! Fetch. We brunched at Merkado and I was very happy with my meal there, which is a complete turnaround from the dinner disaster a month or so ago. I had this new concoction called Pacific Rim Mary (an Asian bloody mary as it were). Rick and Jason are starting to call me that now... great, just what I needed... as if I don't drink enough, I have been tagged with the name of a cocktail. Aaaanywho, I digress. The Pacific Rim Mary was awesome. Instead of horseradish, we have wasabi. Instead of worcestershire sauce, we have soy sauce. And the result will tempt even Buddha to try some! Totally yum.

My hangover has now become a buzz. We walk (stumble?) home and sit out in the glorious balmy weather and before long, Chris joins us followed by Lil' John. Gary goes off to the airport (we'll see him soon, I'm sure) and I met up with Jason at Lambda Rising. Where he buys "Beautiful Black Men", LOL!! Yes, he's my friend. No, this is not a daytime soap or a sitcom. Next, we went shopping at Leather Rack :-o

Then we met up with M2, Leo and AndyP at Peppers (mon dieu, it's a French bistro now!) and have more bloody marys. We, of course, just had to sit out until the sun came down coz it was so beautiful out. Well, that and our waiter was extremely cute ;) Lots of interesting ppl walking up and down 17th St. There was also this yellow Boxster that kept cruising down the street like he was looping around a racetrack. Yes, bright canary stank yellow. It might as well have been a Porsche Rickshaw. Neither the car, nor the occupant was remotely fetch. Stank.

We meet M2, Greg/Andy for dinner at Logan Tavern. I got thoroughly smashed after 4 Cosmos. Had a few more at Halo, which was insanely packed, and I was home by midnight. Not even Jason's drunken intexticating messages could ruffle me out of my alcohol-induced slumber. I was blitzed and I... had been drinking since 11am!!!

Yoga Sunday. Peg was fierce. I am hurtin' today. But I'm working towards my Madonna body.

And that... was my weekend. It was quite a quiet one (no, really). Less than 2 weeks before we leave for Australia/Asia. The anticipation builds! Tomorrow is election day. New Yorkers, Virginians and Jerseyians, head to the polls! @ 17:27

[disco diva] Oh. My. Madonna Esther Louise Veronica Ciccone Richie. Did you *see* Madonna at the MTV Europe Music Awards?? Holy crap... last Thursday in Lisbon, Madonna emerged from a giant glitter ball and shimmied her way through the first global live television performance ever of "Hung Up" in purple leather boots and matching leotard, sending the crowd into a frenzy. FIERCE!!!

Bitches, Confessions on a Dancefloor comes out a week from today. I'm quivering with anticipation.

And wow, I wanna look like her when I'm 47. Why do you think I'm going to yoga? ;-) @ 11:12

[bold-faced lie] Oh, This is Priceless! It definitely got my blood going and just makes my intestines wanna explode. I want to see him say that in front of a grand jury investigating the prison abuses of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. How immoral, vile, inhumane, and despicable do you have to be to be against torture??

First, he's the Warmonger-in-Chief. And now he's the Torturer-in-Chief. Shame on you, Mr President. Shame On You! @ 10:41

NOV 4 :: [eid-al-fitr] Random postings before the somewhat-quiet weekend ahead... Oh my, luckily it happened at night on a public holiday. 1.3 billion muslims around the world celebrate Eid-al-Fitr today, which is the end of Ramadan. For some reason, Malaysia/Singapore celebrated Eid (aka Hari Raya Puasa) yesterday. Same difference. Some trivia: The beginning of Ramadan and Eid occurs 11 days earlier each year. The Islamic calendar is purely lunar and it only has 354 days, hence the 11 day difference each year. During the month of Ramadan, muslims fast from sunrise to sundown which means in about 10 years, muslims in DC will be fasting on the longest day of the year i.e. 5:43am - 8:37pm (15 hours of starvation!!) :-o

And thank you all for your kind e-mails/IMs of support. Much appreciated :-) No, the sky hasn't fallen. Yes, I'm still alive. @ 14:11

NOV 3 :: [culture wars] I cannot believe it's come down to this. I came out to my parents three years ago. The coming out itself went well, the aftermath was a little rocky ("must you bring Tony back to KL every year?" *giggle*), but all's well now. I wouldn't say the acceptance (or the embrace) is 100% but it's pretty close to it. For that (and especially coming from my super conservative parents living in an equally conservative environment/culture), I am extremely thankful. I couldn't ask for more. The status quo is as close to perfect as I could've ever dreamed of.

But nothing is ever perfect. The culture wars have been simmering and has the potential of raging into an all-out, explosive confrontation ever since my younger brother moved in with me, and my elder brother moved in with my parents. Y'see, I don't think it's "un-Asian" of me to impose a deadline on my younger bro to either get a job or he has to move out. And I don't think it's "un-Asian" of me to think that my elder bro should Not be living with my parents, and that my parents should definitely not encourage it.

Alas, my parents have escalated the debate from merely disagreeing on the issues, to an all-out personality conflict. We now have incompatible "moral values". Sounds familiar, eh? Yes, very blue v red. My mom deconstructed all over the phone last night over the fact that I am too "Westernized" and that she has had a very hard time accepting that part of me (go figure!). "How could I possibly be so hateful towards my brothers? That is so 'un-Chinese'", she exclaims.

[from the big one...] Here are the facts. And let's start with the easier one. My elder brother divorced his 1st wife, oh, about a year ago. He moved back in with my parents with absolutely no intention of moving out ever again. I was like "WTF?" but my parents and I agreed that this was only temporary. Fair 'nuff. Well, he has since re-married, and he is Still living with my parents. With his new wife. And this time, it's permanent. And my parents think it's absolutely fine. Yes, I'm ready for your jaw to drop.

Independent of the fact that their new living arrangement sheds a lot of shame and lack of independence on my brother's part. And independent of the fact that my brother has no house of his own to speak of (and seemingly never will). All that aside, I implored them to consider living Near each other (even be next-door neighbors), but not With each other under the same roof. He could spend as much time as he wants at my parents' but at the end of the day, he must have a house to go home to. To no avail, of course. I dunno, is it too "Westernized" of me to think that this living arrangement is extremely unhealthy?

[...to the little one] And on to my younger brother. He has been living with me going on 3 months now. He still does not have a job. He is hesitant to apply for jobs at small "dodgy" companies he calls them (hello, America is built on small companies), or at companies that seem like "fakes" he calls them, apparently touting H-1B visas like fake LV bags. He insists that he has been trying really hard in the job search but the WP Jobs section (in print) we left on the counter for him to peruse has not been touched. Hmm...

Add to that the fact that he has been, by far, the least grateful guest we've ever had. He has never once thanked us for housing him.. in Dupont Circle! Providing free satellite, hi-speed internet, electricity, gas, water, all his meal needs, etc. Not once. Tony has cooked for him every single day and he has never once offered to cook. The least he could do is buy some of the groceries (brain-dead staples like rice, which he consumes like he's just been let out of Sing Sing) but he never leaves the house. And, oh this is priceless, when I challenged him on why he feels the need to crank up the heater to 75° and walk around the basement in T-shirt and shorts when it's 40° outside, he e-mails me and says "oh I thought gas and electric were free". Can you fucking believe it?

But let's take all that personal stuff out of the equation. Coz as my mom puts it: "Problems that can be solved with money are not problems at all." Fair 'nuff. And she's right. Let's consider logistics. The H-1B visa allocation for FY2006 (Oct 1, 2005 - Sep 30, 2006) has been exhausted. Even if he found a non-"fake" company to hire him right now, that company could not apply for a visa for him until Apr 1, 2006 at the earliest. And that's if he finds a company that is willing to do so by then. Chances are he'll find a company that will hire him temporarily until he gains enough experience for the company to spend $3,685 for an H-1B visa for him, or not at all. As the saying goes, "don't buy till you try" and companies will not take the financial risk and time commitment until they've seen the goods.

What am I trying to say? His window of opportunity to legally stay in this country has narrowed dramatically. Bear in mind that his 1-yr training visa expires in June '06. He must get a job by Apr '06 or he will miss the cutoff to apply for the FY2007 allocation of H-1B visas which will be handed out on Oct 1, 2006. And even then, he would have to leave the country between June '06 and Oct '06 or whenever his visa application gets approved. Which employer is gonna put up with that absence, especially for a skill-less, college grad like him? And even if he gets a job by Apr '06, that employer Must apply for an H-1B for him immediately. Otherwise, the allocation will run out and he would have to wait till Oct '07! No employer is gonna wait that long.

He had a very urgent purpose upon graduation this past June and that was to get a job as quickly as possible, especially if he wanted to morph his training visa into a somewhat-more-permanent H-1B visa. But he blew that window of opportunity. It's now November and he has done nothing but sit in our basement, leeching off us day after day with absolutely no gratitude and no future in the United States. And I don't know how much more of his overextended stay I can put up with. This responsibility is not mine to shoulder. And I wish to God that my parents saw it the same way. He has already graduated (with no debt), now he's on his own. Simple as that.

So with no future here, why should he stay? Is it wrong of me to impose a deadline of, say, January 2006 by which time he has to leave if he hasn't found a job?

[in the chinese family...] Obviously, my suggestions pertaining to both my brothers has not gone off like firecrackers on Chinese New Year. In fact, it has sunk like a junk in the middle of the South China Sea. The way my mother talks about it, Buddha and Confucius are holding hands in their graves and rolling around like it was a mosh pit.

I mean, how do you go from: me not wanting to support my younger brother in perpetuity (ok, I exaggerate but it feels like it) and noting the abnormality of my elder brother living under their roof... to:

"Why do you hate your brothers??"
I don't, but we have nothing in common and we're not friends, and it ain't my fault.. It takes two to tango.

"You've completely changed to the other side"
What is this, Star Wars? Don't make me a villain and don't attack my character. You can't explain away your cultural peculiarities by demonizing mine.

"You may be living in the States but in Malaysia, we are still Chinese and we must adhere to our culture"
Putting up with a deadbeat younger brother is Not a cultural necessity.

"There is nothing wrong with your brother and his wife living with us"
I'm sorry but having your own home and building a family is Not just a Western ideal.

I am torn. Because what I believe in contradicts so vehemently with what my parents believe in. And of course I am trapped. If I do make my younger brother leave, my parents insist that they will pay his way until his visa expires, and that will reflect oh so badly on me coz I'm too bloody "Westernized" to shoulder the burden. They don't seem to care that regardless of the outcome, he will most likely HAVE to leave the United States on June 2006. They just don't want to force him to go back to KL because his girlfriend is in Iowa.

And... There is one room left in my parents' house and it doesn't have an attached bathroom. And yet, hell will freeze over and it will snow in Malaysia before my parents will let us stay in a hotel. I admit, I want to stay in a hotel because I object to their living arrangement, but com'on... you All know me. I could Not possibly stay anywhere where there was no attached bathroom :-D

And nothing screams guilt-trip like letting the tears flow. And my mother is the guilt-trip queen. She lays it on and takes you on an unwanted walking trip across the entire length of the Great Wall when she is at her finest. I mean, how do you argue with your mother when you've just made her cry?

[i am not mulan] I have a life too. At the same time, I know my obligations towards family. Family always comes first, that's a given. But family is also about give and take. And right now, I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. And the more I protest, the more the guilt is laid on, consequently making me feel like I've failed in being a dutiful son, a good Asian, and abandoning all my cultural and moral values.

Is this all my fault? Have I really become so "Westernized" that I can't see that I'm the one acting like a spoilt brat? Or is it because I have so little to worry about in my life that I'm purposefully Finding things to worry about, nit-pick and drive myself crazy in the process?

All this needed to be said and you know it. You may think it's "un-Asian" for me to air my (our?) dirty laundry and hammer out a solution in a forum, whether private or public, but we are all adults now and therefore, all solutions are democratic. Secrets are for dictatorships and communists. The amount left unsaid between me and my parents, me and my brothers, and my brothers and my parents would fill Noah's Ark. There has never been a come-to-Jesus meeting in my family. Not once. Laughter (and those are rare) is shared but the tears are always held back. Frustration is bottled up and there are so many bottles we could have a garage sale. And the whole time, my mom is praying with her rosary beads for none of us to snap. Well, if you light a big enough fire under a cup of water, it will surely bubble over at some point.

Yes, we disagree on much. Neither one of us is right or wrong. But at the end of the day, I still love my parents. That will never change, not even if someone put a gun to my head. My brothers will always be my brothers and that will never change either. I may not care for them as much (it's just how we are), but I only wish good things on them.

This too shall pass. These are minor issues compared to the grand scheme of life. But the issues are like a tinderbox, ready to ignite and engulf. There will be many more conflicts to come. Of that, I'm sure. I neither want to be singed, nor be left with nothing after all is said and done.

Let the culture wars begin... @ 17:24

NOV 2 :: [itunesmyportable] I've been using my gorgeous-in-orange W800i for about a month now and I must say I'm quite loving it. The camera works great, the music player is awesome (though not quite an iPod killer) and the phone is oh-so-cute.

And last night, this little gizmo got even better! My #1 complaint about this thing was that it didn't sync with my iTunes. Well, I found iTunesMyPortable ("i" in front of any word has become the new techcool). This is the best thing since Buddha. It synchronizes the MP3s on the W800i with any iTunes playlist! USB the phone to your PC, click on "Synchronize with playlist" and voilà! Totally fierce piece of software. I'll never have to drag-and-drop the songs from iTunes into a folder and then exporting it to the W800i again, woohoo! It's totally hot.

As much as I love this widget, signal strength still leaves a lot to be desired. And I do miss the click-wheel. I guess you just can't have everything in life. Sigh. I want to eat cake!

Oh and get this... guess what SonyEricsson did two weeks after I purchased the W800i? They introduce the W900, of course. Grr. The W900 is a 3G/UMTS phone (WCDMA 2.1GHz - works in Japan!) and is similar in feature-set to the W800i with one glaring exception: the W900 comes with a whopping 470MB of internal memory vs the paltry 38MB in the W800i. Combine that with the 2GB Memory Stick and you get 2.5GBs of music/videos/pictures/etc.! Holy shit. But wait, there's more. The screen size is a crazy 2.2" 240x320 pixels display which totally blows away the 1.8" 176x220 pixels display on my handset. This phone is so hot I'm melting just thinking about it.

Ready for the drawback? It's 50% heavier than my phone, not to mention taller, fatter and wider. Size matters and when it comes to phones (and all things Asian), small is beautiful ;-)

Hi, my name is Kiat and I'm a cellphone-whore. @ 11:23

NOV 1 :: [springtime] In Perth, that is. If all goes according to plan (and climate average), the wedding day should have a high of 78-84°F and a low of 55-60°F. Absolutely perfect! I know, it sounds crazy that I'm actually looking forward to going to Perth, but I am. This is how the conversation usually progresses:

Anon:: So when's your next big trip? [everyone knows I'm a travel whore]
Me:: Australia for Thanksgiving
Anon:: Oooooh, how exciting
Me:: I know, right?
[pause]
Anon:: Is this your first time there?
Me:: Nope, my third actually
Anon:: Wow, you've been to Sydney three times??
Me:: [OK, bitches.. there's more to Australia than Sydney] Actually, we're going to Perth this time
Anon:: Perth?? Eww.. um, why?
Me:: For my friend's wedding
Anon:: Why would anyone want to get married there?

LOL! Dolls, Perth is the closest industralized (i.e. First World), English-speaking city to Malaysia/Singapore (5-hour flight). Hence, a lot of my friends went to college/Univ. there. That's why :-p And I *will* report back on how bumfuck this place is while I'm there... Don't worry.

I am also So looking forward to trying out First Class on Lufthansa (LH), Singapore Airlines (SQ) and United (yea, can you believe I've never flown First on UA before??). Well, mostly the first two. Flat beds, baby! And lots and lots of caviar and champagne. I'm gonna be the top candidate for winter fat camp by the time I get home in December.

Yes, it's November. We leave in 19 days. And I'm allowed to be on vacation mode, dammit! You'll be hearing lots about my upcoming trip over the next few weeks. Deal with it :-p @ 13:51

[four thumbs up] The world-renowned Michelin guide with its three-star system, perhaps the most prestigious and influential gastronomic ratings in the world and commonly referred to as the "Food Bible", awarded four New York restaurants its coveted three-star rating in its inaugural restaurant and hotel guide to New York City, the first outside of Europe.

Incidentally, all of the UK and Ireland only has 3 restaurants with three stars. And the birthplace of Michelin, Paris, of course has TEN 3-star restaurants. All told, there are 53 Michelin 3-star restaurants in the world (half of them in France).

The four restaurants are *drumroll*: Alain Ducasse, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin (Eric Ripert) and Per Se (Thomas Keller). And since Michelin is at its most accurate when rating French cuisine, it is somewhat surprising to see Per Se (New American) on the list. But no matter.. I have eaten at all four and Per Se is right up there. Trust. AD|NY was underwhelming and also the most expensive of the four. The food is very good but the meal itself wasn't very memorable. Oh well, kudos to Mr. Ducasse for being the first chef in Michelin's history to have three three-star restaurants; the others being Plaza Athenee in Paris and Louis XV in Monte Carlo.

JG, Le B and Per Se are all transcending and we went to all of them within the past year. Very well worth the cost (they're all about the same $150-$250/pp). If you want a pearl-clutching, fork-dropping, crotch-wetting, slide-off-your-chair experience, definitely go try one of the four out. You won't regret it. Make sure you have enough equity in your house in case you need a line of credit! :-D

Another four well-known Manhattan restaurants received two stars - Bouley, Daniel, Danube and Masa (which happens to be the single most expensive restaurant in America).

Check out the list. @ 13:23

[surprise upgrade] A week ago, I got a surprise packet from United Airlines in the mail. It was a pretty official piece of mail, nice and thick, and the envelope was almost as thick as cardboard. As you all know, I am and have had Premier Executive (Gold) status for the past 6 years. You get it when you rack up 50,000 miles of flying per year. Yes, my name is Kiat and I'm a mileage whore.

I opened it up, wondering what could possibly be in this piece of mail that a bankrupt airline would spend so much money on me. And I almost wet myself when I found a 1K (Platinum) status card in it! Christmas came early for me this year!! Being the cynic that I am, I immediately start wondering if this was a mistake coz I've only flown 51,521 miles this year and 1K requires 100,000 miles. So I log on to the United website and sure enough, my status is listed in their computers as 1K. Yippee!!!

I have no idea how I got it but I ain't complaining. Nothing changes, really, except that my status now matches Tony's so I won't be snubbed by the flight attendants when they come take our meal orders. If they treated me like a queen before, they'll need to elevate that treatment to that of an empress. And bitches, nobody does empress like this yellow empress can. I love status!

And besides the ridiculous amount of upgrades we already get, I now get - in addition to all that - SIX system-wide upgrades for 2006! Those are good for international upgrades so Asia/Europe, here I come! Tony gets six more too in 2006. It's raining upgrades!!

Now if only I can get more vacation time... @ 11:07

[softcore] A moment of clarification is needed on my Nation boo-tacular outing last Saturday. I'm usually not that drunk after sweating/dancing the night away at Nation (all that vodka evaporates very quickly) so I definitely remember what time I got home. Looking at the clock on my cellphone (I don't carry a watch, much less a diamond-encrusted one *leers at Phillip*), I remember getting home at 4:45am.

Much to my horror (and all of your bewilderment), I woke up Sunday thinking, "OMB! The clocks fell back last night.. Did I stay out till almost SIX a.m.??" And much to my (and all of your) relief, my cellphone does not automatically fall back like all other $500 electronic devices do. Well, not quite true. The time sync on the phone is a network carrier function. So it wasn't like my phone was defective or anything, mmm-kay? T-Mobile just doesn't believe in broadcasting the right timezone to sync our phones to. German bitches.

I must be getting old to have TWO time-zone boo-boos (see yesterday) in successive days after DST ended :-o

So I actually got home at 3:45am EST/4:45am EDT which meant I was only at Nation for 4 hours.. Unlike some ppl I know who were there till 6:30 EST (!!) and then went to after-parties that lasted till 8pm the next day. And then they went to Lizard and closed it down at 2am!

I'm so not that hardcore :) @ 10:37

More >>

30 :: not-so-perfect little town
29 :: PG632, BKK-LPQ
28 :: a wedding to remember
28 :: close call
28 :: 91°/102°
27 :: countdown to the wedding
27 :: down memory lane
27 :: jet lag and flies
27 :: 5:30
27 :: drinking and driving
27 :: koalas and emus and roos, ohmy!
27 :: incommunicado
24 :: is that it?
23 :: woody wonka
22 :: size matters
22 :: draggin'
21 :: bye, bye winter
20 :: am i dreaming?
20 :: three-way
20 :: sweet send-off
20 :: fill in the blanks
20 :: c-c-c-old germans
20 :: pls, no more
19/20 :: i love new york
19/20 :: LH419, seat 82A
18 :: 10:45
17 :: get some
16 :: first freeze
16 :: 1k is fetch!
16 :: say it ain't so
16 :: lock 'em up
15 :: early adopter
15 :: one prick
15 :: out of excuses
15 :: waaaaa...
14 :: shorts weather
14 :: can't stop now
14 :: hags and fags
14 :: one final weekend
10 :: all hail the queen
10 :: not all evil
10 :: 23 hou