Holiday Season in the City

I've been itching to blog but kept putting it off or forgetting to do so. Even though I haven't been this tired like today, I still want to blog...and this is going to be loooong

I'm going to start with Thanksgiving. Actually, when it was getting close to turkey day, I started wondering to myself what I should be thankful for this year. At first thought, I said to myself: "I still haven't found a job, not even a part-time one, and I've been putting off my GRE studying for god knows how long, sitting at home applying to jobs hrs on end with no return calls/emails, pigging out, and watching my parents get older and aching everywhere while I just leech off them, lost connections, dealing w/ a toe infection for a month now, and basically disappointing everyone who had even an inch of expectation out of me. this made me cry on some nights T^T

but I would NEVER EVER say FML to myself. I don't know how ppl can say it so casually as I see them all over FB status updates b/c I value my life. I probably don't take care of my health as I should be, but i'm working on it. I mean, 3 weeks ago, I was waiting until almost 11PM to see my endocrinologist in Rego Park, even tho I had scheduled for 7:30 pm. I could have seen another one who is more on time w/ the appt time, but b/c he's chinese, it's more convenient for my mom to understand, and he is one of the few docs that is chinese and accepts my insurance.

but anyways, I will never say FML b/c one of the biggest reasons why I am here today with  home&food, even tho i have no job for months already, is thru the support of my family and friends. My parents have never pressed me to find a job and my mom doesn't want me to grad school either. However, they do prefer that I find a comfortable office job no matter how little the hourly wage was. I know ppl (esp guys) whose parents are always pressuring them to find a job and make big money b/c they are really counting on their kids to support the household....Although I'm the oldest, I've never felt obligated to take care of the family, but I still feel bad b/c I hate to see my parents go thru so much labor.

The fact is, i have everything to be thankful for b/c w/o what i still have now, my friend would never have recommended to a non-science part-time job at her workplace. Just yesterday, I even got a phone call for an interview from Brookhaven, and that made me so star-strucked that I stood still on the street curb and  didn't realize i could cross the street until i finally saw a white plastic bag being blown in my direction, and dodged it, of course. I am super-elated, but the likelihood of me actually clinching the job is like -100%. And, I had applied for that job like a month ago and when i called back to schedule the interview, the lady said the dept needed further pending and prolly won't start the interview process until AFTER the holidays. By that time, the dept might even decide to remove the position due to lack of funds or found more competitive candidates, and that thought just made my heart sink rock bottom =/

But I'm still SHOPPING! I hate Black Friday week, but I can't resist it either. I was going thru the Amazon lightning deals like every day and checking on black friday websites for good deals and collecting newspaper ads relating to any technology goods. I've been pining for a new camera since the battery of my old Canon PowerShot SD400 had only a few minutes of juice before it needed to recharge for another 2 hrs or so. I thought that cuz my cam was so old, i wouldn't be able to find the same battery again. I was dead WRONG cuz I found out later that canon batteries can be used in multiple models and even in current models. Well I searched amazon and it was selling it for ~$17 while the regular retail price was $60. But i wanted to wait for black friday to get it cheaper, and when the day came, amazon decided to increase it to $28.....=____= wtf...seriously, if i hadn't known the price the day before black friday, i would have been ripped off. but i was able to find another one selling for ~$17 but from an outside seller on amazon and thankfully this seller had like >95% positive ratings and when I finally got it in the mail, the seller refunded me $1.00 after i gave it a 5-star rating ^_^ now this is what i call a good buy lols and of course i bought my elfster friend gifts from amazon, which promoted the price >$25 for the free shipping =D


I was also doing research on cameras, esp digital SLRs b/c my lil sis was planning to take a photography course next semester, and altho the dSLR is not required, she wanted to learn to use one and i didn't mind paying for it. But in the end, my lil sis felt bad having to paying >$500 for a cam that she and I will not use that much.

But i was already doing research on a point-and-shoot camera cuz i knew i wanted one whether or not i got the dSLR or not. I was thinking of switching to SONY and saw that their Cybershot models were the best deals under $150. But I was eyeing the SONY DSC-TX7 b/c it had the Exmor R" CMOS sensor for stunning low-light performance, panorama pic-taking, accepted SD cards which previous sony models do not, high ISO, optical image stabilizer, hand-held twilight mode & 10MP for low-light situations, no lens zooming out, and the sliding cover. I basically wanted a cam that can take good pics w/o flash in low-light situations b/c i hate the way flash white-washes the natural colors and causes ppl to blink. And this camera had the most of the entire package, but the sony retail price was ~$400 and that was not including the memory card or any other accessories. Again, amazon had the cheapest price at $270, but not including the other accessories as well. On black friday, i was able to find the camera from ADORAMA that came w/ a 4gb SD card, carrying case, AND tripod for about 10 bucks cheaper than amazon, and of course, i jumped on it. It came w/ free shipping, but taxes came out to be ~$30.

The few things i didn't like about the cam was that the color was more black than blue (kinda made me wish i had gotten the hot pink instead), it being a touch-screen (still miss the buttons) so that will take some getting used to, and the lens getting covered by my hand-held position since it's situated on the top-left corner.

I've also been hooked on a TVB drama called No Regrets and my parents love this show as well.

So I decided to buy some blank DVDs as well during black friday (3 packs of 50 for $7 each) since they like watching the shows on TV than on a PC. I feel like such a thoughtful daughter lols, but then i regretted it cuz i didn't know burning dvds could take so long >_> I've been burning dvds thru days and nites since it also slows down my PC. And my mom heard about another TVB show (Gun Metal Grey = 刑警) that she wants to watch, and I knew where that was heading t_t ..aiGOO

From the past when i went out shopping on Black Friday, i never bought anything that was on sale, so I decided to do all my black friday shopping online. Meanwhile, my lil sis went out early to staples and got a SeaGate 1TB external hard drive for ~$45 and a wireless mouse. But i pray this hard drive not fail on us like the last one which lost all of my lil sis's old pics =[

I also FINALLY got myself some CIRCLE/INFINITY/LOOP SCARVES that i've been wanting since i first saw the kdrama "You're Beautiful". I was going thru yesAsia.com b/c i thought asian countries had more of the style i wanted. But i did more research, and i fell in LOVE with the ones in EXPRESS. I love the COLORssss. On black friday weekend, i made a trek to get it in artillery, indigo, and cameo cuz my lil sis was impressed too. They're weight-less, shimmery, and can be worn as a snood as well. me likey <3

indigo

cameo

artillery

OK, i am done shopping...for now.

My lil bro returned back from Bing for the thanksgiving break and he came back looking like this:

He got his friends to dye his hair which was a nice color, but he totally needed a hair cut. But it didn't seem much of a difference after he got his trimming imo. He doesn't say it, but he wants to look fobbish.

I also spent thanksgiving w/ my Queens friends =D...but whyyy am I the sole brooklynite? It was my first time drinking sake and straight-up vodka that nite as well.

the feast

i wanted to play w/ Jason's camera

i didn't know about burton&wendy until this pic;
this made me aweee for wendy

It was another fun nite with the francis lewis gang on Lily's 22nd bday. It was such a heart-warming moment to see Lily open her gifts and showering her with our camera flashes. But i was the dumb idiot who had forgotten to open the new SD card and put it in my new cam that i was testing out. Thankfully, it had about 45 mb of internal memory, which allowed me take ~40 pics which was impressive. I sure liked the Chartier white wine and my iced coffee. Later I joined them for my first clubbing experience at The Delancey. The rooftop is def. over-hyped, but it's prolly better in the summer to appreciate the chilliness. I didn't get any drinks and wasn't going to get a guy to get me one either, but i knew they were crazy expensive and added too much ice when i was dying for a hot cup of mojo aka coffee. The dance floor was 1 flight down, but i just couldn't dance to their music selection (i wanted lady gaga <3) and we were dancing practically on a bar aisle so u could hardly move w/o having to make space again for a passing person. Meanwhile, Lily was having her moment and she had good dance moves. After awhile, i decided enuff was enuff and left. It was so kind of Diana and her bf, Trang(?) to drive me home. I felt bad, since they were driving me home before annie and they had to extend the car reservation time which meant more $$$. But i'm glad i got introduced to diana's bf beforehand, otherwise he prolly wouldn't have been so submitting to diana's request. I can tell he's diana's keeper, i hope =D

my pineapple frid rice, which was spicy

I really like the picture quality, but i don't know where the white spots came from when i was at The Delancey.

I want to end on a positive note. I read in the AMNY the funniest tidbit in awhile:

This made me LOL so hard. Either she doesn't have enuff supportive friends or her friend knows more about Mike than she does lmao

 And the city is just gorgeous during the holiday season. Kaplan was offering a free event on a Personal Statement Workshop at 7pm on 56th st betw. 6th & 7th ave. Since I didn't have an unlimited, and I got off work at 4:30, i decided to walk there despite the chilly winds. I was completely drawn to the LIGHTs and i wished i had bought my new cam with me to take pics of the city. This was one pic that i took near rockefellar center. I finally bought myself a cup of Tim Horton's coffee from 34th st, and that's overhyped as well. No matter where i go, i can't find another place that can beat the coffee taste at my neighborhood deli and at half the price too!