Soul mate?

You can tell he is a keeper when you picture him as old and wrinkly and yet, you know you will still love him the same <3

I have yet to find this person! <3 <3 <3

Ok... I get it... I need a new phone...

photo credits: unknown

Yesterday, while we were shopping, my mom stood in front of a cell phone shop and suggested we should go inside to take a look and see service plans or stuff like that...

Today my mom was looking at flyers and said to me "hey have you seen the latest cell phone models? There seems to be a sale going on... You might find something good"

You can tell I desperately need a new phone when even my mom starts hinting that I need a new one :O

Arranged marriages

So, I have conversations with myself... Is that weird? It sounds weird but I guess we all do that... It is called a "thinking process"...

So while I am frustrated about getting into a relationship I thought... 

I: Wouldn't it be great if my parents had already arranged a marriage for me, then I wouldn't need to worry about getting into one.. And even if it were with someone I hate... At least I can blame it on my parents...

Myself: well... Have you rejected anyone before?

I: yes...

Myself: then... Your thought/idea is irrelevant... How would you feel if you were stuck in an arrange marriage with the person you rejected?

I: ...oh... That would suck...

Thank you "myself"...

I guess that is quite true... thoughts?

Regret.... Not!

I find regretting one of the most tiring and nonsense of things you can do to yourself... What's the point?

Instead... Use that energy to make yourself promise and swear to not do that ever again... 

monthly updates

So... here's a little update on what's going in my life:

1. I have been having a lot of wild vivid dreams... unfortunately, the moment I wake up... I forget all of it... just pieces of it... this has been occurring virtually every night for the past 2 months... I wished I knew what is going on???
   
2. been having a lot reunions and friend gatherings (as you could probably already tell from the amount of restaurant reviews lately).
   
3. I have started to wear out from writing reviews... because of the amount of busyness going on... I do not have enough time to write reviews... but since I promised 2 reviews (one every Tuesday and Thursday)... I am trying my best to keep up....
   
4. I have re-evaluated what I want to do with my career... lots of possibilities but what is it that I want to do?
   
5. I have taken initiative to start studying Japanese again!!!! :) .... will have more updates... soon.... hopefully in 日本語. 

That's it... these are my updates.... :)

search engines and me :D

I didn't mean to... but apparently, I'm not very searchable online... I tried to search for info about myself but failed miserable... I wonder if that's a good or bad thing...

good if I have stalkers but bad if people do really need to find me :S...

Hong Kong

My great grand parents, my grand parents and my parents all lived in hk and call hk home... As do I...

Watching Hong Kong on TV today is heart breaking... I cried to know that the police has enforced Tear Gas on their citizens... innocent people...

....But my parents and I are proud... Proud to see what Hong Kongers are doing to fight for their rights and fighting for what is right...

Those Hong Kongers are your everyday civilized citizens participating in peaceful protests and demonstrations to fight for the future of their city... They are parents, children, students, and even our neighbours...

I am proud of them... And they have my support... 加油啊香港人!!!!

WTF moment -_____-

Ok, seriously, for a guy who is ALREADY in a RELATIONSHIP, I do not think it is appropriate to talk about another girl (who is getting married with someone else) saying "damn, and I never got to date her" ....

Kitty.... Dog....?

I can't seem to understand those who call animals by their types:

1. Here kitty, kitty

2. Bad dog

I means, would they understand? I find it absurd... Imagine a cat calling you:

1. Hey human, come here
2. yo... human...

Would you respond? Probably not...

We gave our pets a name for a reason... Use it!

Question and Thoughts

Question of the day: what is considered an ideal date?

photo credits: Agnes

1. Listening to jazz, with a bottle if wine and enjoying each other's company (either at home or at a lounge/bar)

2. Taking a walk around the neighborhood during evening and chatting and laughing, talking about anything that comes to mind

3. Star gazing during a warm/hot evening, watching the stars

4. Taking a walk along Victoria Harbour (in HK, on TST side) at night and letting the breeze cool us and go against us.

5. Watching fireworks together and celebrate whatever the fireworks are there for...

6. Taking a walk along the beach during sunset/sunrise holding each other's hands.

What is your ideal date?

Life is short

photo credits: Unknown

Life is short... So short, I know this sounds really cliche but I'm telling the truth... Look at all the plane incidents that has happened this past week... It is terrible... Really heartbreaking, my heart has literally shattered and my eyes pour out tears... People are dying in batches, hundreds to be exact... My prayers to them...

photo credits: beautifulshares.wordpress.com

Life is short, what would you do as you send off your friend/family member thinking it might be the last time you will ever see them again?

Treasure them, say things to them, love them, live life with no regrets...

Triple Rainbow!!

Today, on the way home, I saw 3 rainbows!! I have a feeling that the Lord is telling me that good things are coming our way! :)

I wish I had a camera/phone with me... but I didn't :(... it's one of those days where I forgot to bring them with me, and there is something amazing to capture.

anyways... it looked something similar to this:

photo credits: www.pinedaleonline.com

To be honest, I haven't been a big fan of rainbow illustrations... nature is amazing, God is amazing... no artist can capture the real "essence" of a rainbow... you must really experience and see one yourself (or in my case, 3) to fall in love with them.

Brazil :(

(please excuse the random order of thoughts...)

I was absolutely heart broken watching Brazil-Germany match yesterday... </3 :'(

photo credits: unknown

I'm sad because I know they can do better, if they were a lazy team with no skills and did not train properly, I would have no sympathy for them, but they aren't... And it was proven in the previous matches during this World Cup, what happened?

As my eyes and attention were glued on the screen for the 91 mins I can't even express just how shattered my heart felt towards them... It was as if Germany was murdering them with goals #3, 4, 5... And then with #6, 7... I couldn't have wished more that Germany could just stop and let Brazil score more goals...

My Facebook feed was filled with explanations such as:
1. Neymar isn't there
2. T.Silva wasn't there to organize them and that the defense was really weak without him

photo credits: www.dailymail.co.uk

Neymar was injured badly and T. Silva couldn't play*, but why such poor performance? Weren't they there to fight? To show FIFA despite their unfairness they can still win? Or has their eagerness and anger shadowed them from performing their best?

poor Neymar... I can sense just how painful it must have felt :'( [ Photo credits: www.goal-news.com] 

Besides, I do not agree that these explanations were legit... when Neymar was injured and taken to the hospital during Friday's game (against Columbia) they do their best played so well... I'm not saying that Neymar isn't important (he is extremely important)...  I'm curious as to what happened to the team... spirit.

God bless them and may they perform their best on Saturday... And show the world that Brazil can do it's best and regain their dignity. ... GO BRAZIL!!! :D

I wish to see fair matches where teams can perform their best, showing others their skills and to win fairly because that's what sports and especially what soccer/football should be.

(*Neymar's #3 vertebrae was injured by a Colombian player in a previous match, the referee and FIFA both refuse to even issue a yellow card to the player; and T. Silva was given 2 yellow cards)

When love moves on?

photo credits: indervilla.com

When love shifts and all those little things that used to matter so much no longer bare any significance to me, all I can do is sigh and think as if those events have created absolutely no impact on me any longer...

Fifa World Cup 2014!!!!

woohoo!! World Cup starts today!!!

so excited!!! Can't wait!!! :D can't believe it's been 4 years!! (time flies!!)

Let the Matches begin!!!

Teams I support:

• Brazil
• Netherlands
• Argentina (sort of)

Good Luck Teams!!! :D

disappointment....

this doesn't make sense... if so many are against Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals... how did they end up winning... and Majority?!?!?!

How is this reflecting our support?

what is wrong with Ontarians?

CBC ABC Stereotype

photo credits: http://tjk-musings.blogspot.ca/

So while reading some Hong Kong entertainment news articles (magazines, whatnot), I came across several misinterpretations of CBCs and ABCs... the conclusion is:

If you like to dress liberally, like to show off your body, opened to kissing strangers, smoking, swearing, extremely liberal, spend a large amount of your "free time" going clubbing, then... You must be CBC or ABC.

(CBC = Canadian Born Chinese, ABC = American Born Chinese, etc)

However, that is simply not true... That isn't even true for Caucasians either...just because a Chinese girl likes to hug and kiss other girls or guys, this doesn't make them ABC, CBC.. she's just... her.

Here I want to clarify a few things...

1. we are not wild... we do not all like to go crazy...
2. we don't all swear, e.g. we don't say f*ck, sh*t, etc all the time
3. we do not smoke... (we care about our health too... ok?)
4. We don't go clubbing and partying all the time, I have a bunch of CBC, ABC, Caucasian friends, who have not ever gone clubbing.... Ever!
5. We do not randomly kiss and hug strangers (we do hug/kiss some of our close friends and relatives.. notice I said "SOME" and for most... that's hardly...)
6. We do not get drunk and go out of control... nor do we enjoy doing so...

SERIOUSLY... We can be very conserve, and most importantly, dressing provocatively doesn't make you CBC, ABC... (for those in HK... LKF is not every CBC, ABC, BBC's dream hangout place...)

Wait for my post on how "Caucasians" view us Chinese (CBC, ABC, etc) over here! (link will be posted here)

(please excuse any grammatical errors... I wrote this out of frustration... didn't even proofread it)

Loving Others & Heaven

(I am Christian so this is from a point of view of a Christian)

What I realized over the past week while browsing over facebook is that people are very optimistic, they say things like "oh, you are so nice, I will see you in heaven" or "you will be heaven", or for fan pages "**** **** is resting in heaven" etc.

photo source: emergingyouth.com

but... how can you be sure they will be heaven? are you saying "you will be heaven" just to make them feel good? if you really love them, should you make sure they will be there? it is good to think, you will be in heaven but how?

I understand that for most, you would consider that you will go to heaven and will think so for those you like/love and for those you don't, you wish them to go to hell (am I being too cruel?)... but just because you say they will go to heaven/hell... doesn't mean they will... it is easy to say "he's in heaven now, bless his soul", but by saying that does it make it true?

As a Christian, I believe that there is only ONE way to go to heaven, through our Saviour Jesus Christ and God, the Father is the only one who can say "You can come into heaven" or "no, you are going to hell".

being nice to others do not get them to heaven... actions to make them go to heaven, introduce them to Jesus Christ, if you truly love them get them to heaven... if you feel they are not being good Christians, try to tell them... and ask them to change their ways... words do not mean anything, only actions and results matter.

Everyone loves sweet talk but only the truth is what keeps us from making regrettable mistakes.... and in this case, it is an eternal mistake.

What would you do to bring your loved ones to heaven?

updates!

I am still here...

sorry for being MIA, I have actually written quite a few posts, yet I am not sure how to "finish" them, thus, the inactivity

some quick updates:

1. Been extremely busy (duh)
2. developed some kind of writer's block ( T____T)
3. I start a lot of things but am not able to finish them :(
4. got invited to being a member of Gastropost (from National Post)

Noah

Happy April! I had an intense few weeks so I didn't get to blog much... I had lots of "small"thoughts, I will gather them and put it as one post.

I got to watch Noah last night

movie tickets to Noah

to be honest, I didn't like it... the video transition, edit was terrible; the sounds were cheesy, and the worst, the movie plot made no sense... 

I was really looking forward to this movie as it was one of my favourite Bible stories. I was heartbroken by how badly made this movie was... they even made Noah seem like an insane senseless cruel man. They tried to make it "epic" but it was not. 

I found this on a friend's facebook, thought I would share this with you... 

unknown

it seriously has been a long time since I have seen a movie I couldn't wait for it to be over... 2.5 hours seemed too long :(. I feel they tried too hard... making it into quite a disaster...

Fake sun...

The sun deceived us all today! There was not a bit of sun's warmth... It was so cold! :(

Toronto 2014 winter

snow!

Spring in one day, winter the next.... DX

we got snowed... again

Just when we were going to celebrate, winter kindly reminds us that it is not over...yet... 10 cm of snow and more to come!!! DX

weekly update... end of Feb, beginning of March :D

weekly updates... been watching a lot of dramas and movies lately :)

• got sick with a terrible stomach flu :(
• finally watched Frozen!!! I cried so many times watching it! It was beautifully made! Highly Recommend it!
  

  

  Frozen

• watched "Wolf of Wall Street"... too many sexual scenes >.< the movie would have been so much better without those scenes.
• watched Wonderful Single Life 結婚しない" highly recommend this jdrama! I cried a few times during the last 3 episodes (will be doing a review/reflection on it soon)

  

  Wonderful Single Life

• Recently during devotions, I have encountered "the year of the Lord's favor" several times, and they were from different parts of the bible... I wonder what does that mean and what does that mean for me?
• went to Paramount for dinner again, totally love Middle Eastern food
• celebrated my mom's birthday! :D
  
  

  

  Mom's birthday cake

  

  mom's birthday dinner

Hackers!!!!

photo credits: patdollard.com

Why are there so many hackers? 6 months ago it was my facebook and emails... and now... Instagram and Twitter...

After a week of almost being hacked on Instagram and literally hacked on Twitter (I now follow 500+ random people and have a few dozen Russian posts, still cleaning out the mess >.<)

Why do people enjoy hacking other's accounts? :(
What's worse is that, I'm not influential, nor famous... it's not like they are going to get much out of hacking my account anywayz... but it creates a tremendous disturbance for me.. time to create new passwords again :(

weekly updates Feb. 1-8

photo credits: www.kickball.com

ok, so perhaps my image has been slightly deceiving... no BIG NEWS... just normal... regular... boring... bleh news...

it has been a long week!

• working (... ok... promise!... unless something interesting happens at work, I won't include "working" in my weekly updates anymore)
•  learning wordpress (as in web designing/developing... this is hard... should I even be writing this on blogspot?!?!)
• obsessed with J Dramas!!! (Kiina, Hanzawa Naoki <-- these are both REALLY good jDramas!). Each of them took me less than a week to finish :P I HIGHLY recommend them both! I think I will write a review on these two dramas... maybe review or maybe "after feel or thoughts"... will see...
• I realized you can type "ERASED" with one hand! :D
• I am obsessed with Ramen... I totally blame this on our terrible cold winter... mmmmm Ramen! :D (Ok, I gotta stop!)
• picked up reading again... (I find reading eases commute ragee on the way home, and what better way to make use of this time)
• started drinking Chinese medicine again .... ek! sorry taste buds T____T

goals for this coming week... or till I make another "updates post":

• work out more (I didn't get to work out much this week)
• I realize I have a habit of not finishing things... lately, I would start certain hobbies, books, dramas, then halfway through I would leave them unfinished... I am going to change this bad habit this week... (little steps at a time)

Serving...

photo source: shruthithinkingaloud.wordpress.com

What is the core when we are serving?

1. To serve because we love God?

2. To serve because we want others to love God?

The point I want to bring out is that we must always be clear on WHO we are serving and WHY we are serving. I have encountered brothers and sisters who serve and who love because they simply love brothers and sisters and friends... or they simply want people to be attracted to Christianity.

I hope we realize that:
1. We love because He loved us
2. We serve Him and ONLY Him, We serve others to serve Him

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23, 24 NIV)

feel free to comment your thoughts... agreements and disagreements

January 2014

photo credits: thepulseofism.net

it's been a long time since I've written a true "Xanga" post... come to think of it, I think the last time I had written a post about "me" was when I was still on "xanga" (oops)

so this will be the first post I write about myself on Blogspot! :D

what I've been up to:
- work (literally spending 11.5 hours work + commuting every day)
- celebrated dad's birthday
- have a slight addiction to ramen (:D)
- celebrated Chinese New Year with relatives
- training my left hand how to use the mouse (because when I'm eating and I want to work, it is so much convenient to hold chopsticks with my right hand and mouse with my left :P)
- decide to go back to fellowship
- finally took up writing blogs again (I guess I must be crazy... can I pull off writing 3 blogs?)
- ... I started to update my wordpress again!!! :) (it has been a long time)
- had an interesting conversation about Christianity, Faith, God's Love (convo for... 4 hours... I think)

water LED faucet

I don't know if this has been invented yet... I haven't come across it, but I think it would be REALLY cool if there was a faucet that can change colours (according to the temperature of the water)

e.g. red led light on water when water is hot
blue led light ... cold
purple (?) led light when water is warm
... when water is cool

*I know that LED faucets exist, but they only seem to produce random colours...(?)

it's cold!!!!!!!!!

It is freezing today! According to the news, it is/will feel like -30 Celcius (-22 Fahrenheit)... why is Toronto so cold this year??? :( I want to go somewhere much warmer...!!! X.X

to all those who are suffering from cold weather... stay warm!!!!! >.<

ps.. I was told -40 Celcius temperatures are coming... embrace yourselves!!! T___T

Happy New Year!!!

hey lovely friends and readers,

I want to wish you all a wonderful New Year! (I know I am quite late, but always better late than never right? =D)

2013 was filled with lots of mixed emotions, some made me stronger and tougher while others made me feel blessed. I am still on the quest to learning and discovering myself. I look forward to a wonderful year filled with lots of joy and happiness (please join me) ! <3

-Steph

terrible Toronto blackout thoughts

hey guys,

I had experienced the worst blackout ever! I was without power for 4.5 days! It was a horrific experience. It really makes me think about the things we take for granted as well making me realize how weak humans really are. Here is a bit of thoughts I had during the blackout... they might be scattered. <-- You have been warned.

close up of tree branches, notice how thick the ice covering the tree branches are

It was devastating to see and feel just how powerless we are (pun not intended). Without electricity, we cannot connect with others, it is extremely hard to record our thoughts in the dark. All I was left was cold food, I just lost my appetite as a result. I ended up sleeping. With the last 95% of laptop power I had, I decided to use it watching pre downloaded TV shows and series. Radios used to be helpful delivering news... now they seem to be just full of commercials and useless information...

temperature recorded in my house on day 3.5 (2.4 Celsius is equivalent to 36 Fahrenheit)

As the temperature at home got colder and colder, I started to worry. Cell phones, phone lines were all out. I felt absolutely disconnected from the world... I had no idea what friends and family were going through and to not being able to connect with them, I felt alone and abandoned.

cool google+ photo enhance tool allowed me to add snow to my image :P

The scenery is nice, but what is brings is horrific, kind of like horrifying beauty (does that make sense?). Either way, I am so glad it is over...

Let's not take things for granted... learn to be thankful for all the big and little things in life!

complicated failure...

photo credits: www.nytimes.com

things I realize I suck at:

1. receiving compliments
2. ending phone conversations... (or any conversations in general)


1. I never know how to respond when people compliment me... do I just say "oh thank you" (Would that mean I am arrogant enough to accept that compliment?) or do I just "ignore"? Which would make me really impolite...

My reactions are definitely priceless when I get complimented... I just end up looking weird, smiling, puzzled, and not knowing how to respond (oh no)

2. How do you end phone conversations? If you had a really nice conversation, do you just stop there? end everything abruptly and ruin the mood?

if you had a really bad conversation, do you just stop there? as if, "I don't want to talk to you because our conversation is bad..."?

I had a few phone conversations these past few weeks... for some, I had to leave (for work) or others, I simply did not know how to end... one of the most awkward ones I had:

Steph: erm, sorry, I gotta go
Friend: ... oh...
Steph: I'll talk to you another time
Friend: ....


why are things so complicated?
sigh!