i'm giving in...

...to the tumblr craze. come find me at chuney.tumblr.com

fun with photos

in loving memory of...



Chan Kar Yee
1914 - 2006
we love you and we'll miss you, grandpa.

banned book week

courtesy of kyrwyn, how many of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books have you read? if you've read it, bold it.

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

milestones and moving on...

the short, short version:
i'm now married, and post-honeymoon. everything and everybody survived intact, and there was no bloodshed.....that i know of.

the wedding was beautiful (so i hear). i was too busy being shut away in almost solitary confinement until my moment of aisle-walking. and everything after that was kind of a blur. but i didn't cry! though i confess to getting somewhat teary-eyed at the rehearsal.

the reception went very well, too. (except for the photo booth and guestbook snafu. *sigh*) the food was pretty good, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

hawaii (honeymoon) was beautiful and so relaxing. a week of doing nothing was definitely needed.

now we're back in the real world, and i want to go on vacation again. big surprise. ^_~ school starts in about a week and a half. <cringe> i'm going to be taking 3 classes per semester for the next 2 semesters in an attempt to graduate in may. we'll see.........

just a quickie

i'm a sucker for quizzes....

the commonly confused words test

English Genius You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 86% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go! Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 22% on Beginner You scored higher than 33% on Intermediate You scored higher than 46% on Advanced You scored higher than 71% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

a long way from home

it's times like this when i realize just how far away from home i am. my grandma in ohio has been going through a decline in the past few years and suffered an almost-stroke on thursday night. remember when i said my grandfather's age was catching up with him? well, it seems like my grandmother's age has just crashed into her. hard. she's been tired and sick lately (damn great-grandkids) and last thursday night she passed out at the dinner table in that not-focusing-and-not-responding kind of way. my sibs called the paramedics, and between girmander telling 911 that she was NOT going to administer CPR to a still-breathing person, and mom and muki getting grandma to lie on the floor, they were able to take care of grandma until the paramedics came and gave her oxygen, which helped. now she's in the hospital, first for observation, and now for physical therapy because 4 days of bed rest has rendered her unable to walk. she can't be left alone anymore, and her health is very worrisome, so they're considering "extended care" for her, whatever that means. i feel so isolated from it all. i want to be there and i want to be helpful, but instead i'm 3,000 miles away. i think i might fly out there. i have spring break now and i can definitely afford to take a week's vacation now, but it won't be enough...

so much to do, so little time....

countdown: 4 months and 23 days!!! O_O

wow...i thought i had more time. yikes! between work, school and the wedding, i don't have much time for anything. most of the major things are taken care of (except for the stupid DJ thing....*sigh*), so now it's down to the smaller things. gahhh.......

last weekend while i finished getting my dress altered (yay for good but cheap asian alterations places!!!), i noticed something disturbing. i have back fat! yuck! the dress fits really well, except i have this blub in my back right above my dress. ewwww. so now i'm really committed to getting in shape. not that i wasn't before, but this is definitely more motivation. so now i'm trying to eat really healthy, and reduce my portions. (i'm definitely one of those "clean my plate" types. blame mom.) i'm also trying to go to the gym more and run and use the weight machines. i'm starting to see some progress, but it's pretty minimal right now. *sigh*

it's been mentioned that i need to draft my birthday wish list again. ^^;;;; i really can't think of much, but here are a few things:

1. leather jewelry box in black
2. le petite le creuset french oven in cherry red
3. a good 5-megapixel digicam

i also have wedding registries at target and williams-sonoma if you want to choose something from there, too.

oh! i almost forgot! you can blame kyrwyn for this ^_~

the new year hasn't been so happy thus far...

not for me, per se, but there has definitely been a lot of suckage going around. kyrwyn is having lung and breathing difficulties due to the evil ninja squirrels of santa cruz, her step-mom was recently in the hospital for kidney problems and her cousin was also recently in the hospital for CF related stuff. and nate is in the hospital for crohn's disease related stuff, and it's not going so well for him, either. so please think happy "get well and feel better" thoughts at them.

my finals went mostly okay. my first final was cake (the sample exams he gave us didn't have answers, but the questions on the final were taken directly from them, so as long as you solved the sample finals and remembered how to solve them, it was easy). my second final sucked serious ass. but i still ended up with a B in that class, so i'm happy. <shrug> we managed to move without any real crises, although it was very frustrating to have our place be such a mess with no time to unpack and put stuff away. and it was extremely frustrating to try to studying for my finals without my book since it was lost among the sea of boxes. aiya.

petyr and i spent christmas in minnesota, which was nice. it wasn't as cold as it normally gets there (temp averaged around 30 degrees), but everyone kept commenting on how we made it for the warm weather. ^^;;; we had fun, but i felt a little isolated. i'm too much of a city girl and his grandparents live 3 hours from minneapolis. and as a result, we only went to mall of america for half an hour. it's a crime, i know. ah, well.

with the new year comes all sorts of new resolutions. i don't really make resolutions anymore, but i do try to make an effort to improve an aspect of my life. petyr and i are trying to exercise more, and girmander sent me this program: couch-to-5K running plan which we have been working on. okay, so we're only on week 1. bah. but i haven't had the multitude of aches and pains that usually accompany my running attempts, so this has been good so far. i would also like to eat better (and maybe eat less...?), particularly after reading articles like this: obesity and type 2 diabetes and how asians are particularly susceptible. why can't we just be couch lumps??? ^_~

as far as the wedding goes, i've ordered the invitations, we've booked the caterer, photgrapher, and florist, and so we're breathing a bit easier now. ^^

technical difficulties and distractions

sorry about the lag in posting. i've been really busy and had ftp issues, so once i finally did write an entry, it wouldn't post to my ftp site.

i have my first final tomorrow (GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!) and my second one on tuesday (double GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!), and after studying all morning, i need a distraction. (sometimes i wonder if i have a mild form of ADD...i'm really easily distracted....) so anyway, part of the distraction right now is:

i got tagged by...........muki!!!!!!

here are the rules: if you get tagged, you must post an entry listing five "weird habits" that you possess. Then, pick five more people to tag, and list their names at the end of the entry. Leave a comment on their sites, saying "you've been tagged" and tell them to read your weblog for the rules.

1. i'm a picker like muki. i pick at zits, scabs, etc. it's a really bad habit, i know, but i can't help it.

2. i always crack my back before going to bed. when i lie down without cracking my back i can feel points of pain that don't go away until i crack it.

3. i fidget when i'm nervous. not like twiddling my thumbs, but i'll adjust my clothes, play with my hair, etc. so if you see me being unnaturally fidgety, it's probably because i'm nervous.

4. i'm a creature of habit. my bedtime ritual (which almost never changes) is: brush hair and pin it off my face, brush my teeth, wash my face, take out my contacts, moisturize my face, take out my contacts, let down my hair, and then off to bed. i suppose it wouldn't make any difference if i washed my face before brushing my teeth, but i never do.

5. i cover my nose when i sneeze. not the normal way of cupping your hand over your nose, though. i put my index finger horizontally up against my nostrils. i don't know why, but whenever i sneeze, my hand just flies up towards my nose.

and since most people i know with blogs have been tagged recently....i tag kyrchen!