Wednesday, June 26, 2013

I took your love, think, I took too much~ Owww...

Somebody call the doctor, before I overdose~~
I am, like, insanely obsessed with Ciara's new single. It's just full of awesome vibes, man. (*___*) I also love Colton Dixon's A Messenger album even if it's christian rock. It can actually be kind of secular except for a few songs where he explicitly says Jesus or God. I still wish the people behind Idol made Angie Miller record a studio version for her cover of Never Gone. Rats~
So anyway, I think I found a new show to watch for the summer. Initially, I was questioning the talent they were scouting to be on the show but now that they're up to the final 20, I've found myself hooked. I especially enjoy the judging panel so I'm basically searching up Chinese Idol on YouTube on a weekly basis now. I was kind of surprised that China has bought into the franchise too, but yeah. They're getting with the times.

photo credit: http://www.chineseidolfans.com/?p=598
I'm not sure if they're going to follow the same voting format as American Idol since previously, shows similar to Idol was under scrutiny from the government due to the fact that voting for your favorite contestant "emulated a democracy". Even though I suck nuts at mandarin, I know the way they vote on The Voice of China is different than in the United States. I think it's audience based? X-Factor China is audience based and sort of like how they poll in Who Wants to be a Millionaire? which uses a remote in the audience chair. I thought that was kind of funny but using the audience opinion can reflect the opinion of the country, but it's highly dependent on how large of a sample they can get into the audience (statistics!~ woOoo).
photo credit: http://www.northnews.cn/2013/0427/1095373.shtml
Going back to the judging panel, it consists of some Taiwanese producer I don't care for, one of the best vocalists in the Chinese music industry Coco Lee (Li Wen), Han Hong (who's a veteran in the industry. She appeals to the older audience and best known for her song "Tian Lu"), and Huang Xiaoming (who's mainly an actor but has had an album or two in the past. He has star appeal, I guess. Honestly, I don't mind because he is super good looking. He even effing cried in one episode, so he's not all in this macho, masculine demeanor).
*fan girl squeal* he's 35, btw.
After watching X-Factor US Season 2, I don't really like its format as much as I do The Voice so if they're in direct competition with each other, I would choose the latter. Chinese X-Factor ain't that great either. Zhang Ziyi is one of the judges and she isn't a singer. Eason Chan is in it but I don't know anything of his, and he always looks unimpressed alongside his ugly perm. Eugh~ I only watched a bit because I found out that "alan" the Chinese singer who had some amazing Japanese singles auditioned which left me all dumbfounded. Apparently, Avex China closed and she found her way to some crappy Chinese label where she ultimately had no label at all and was back to square one, hence her auditioning.

Ironically, I read Zhang Li Yin (Jang Ri In) will be auditioning on The Voice of China Season 2, so I'm guessing SM Entertainment dropped her from their label too. It's kind of sad and unfair because SM just started promoting Henry for solo activities. The only thing Henry has, that Zhang Li Yin is missing, is basically the fan girl appeal which SM can't capitalize on. Meh~! On the bright side, I found out A-Mei (Zhang Hui Mei) is going to be a judge on the second season. I'm so excited because I like her and her ballads.

LOL It's kind of sad that I'm sucked into these singing competitions again because I was so over them for the past 5+ years, but there are covers that are always sooooo good!
Here's one of my favorite performances from one of the most recent episodes. They're both ethnic minorities. The guy is Mongolian and the girl is ethnic Monba. She's so effortlessly beautiful! Coco refers to her as a goddess, I agree~ ahah.
And this is my favorite performance so far. I'm still frustrated that I can't find a good rip of this! *cryz* They killeddddd that song and they both look awesome. Their hair!!

I swear, I'm not sucked into the television that badly. It just seems that way. All I'm doing now is basically watching this and the 2pm rerun of the Wendy Williams show. I start class tomorrow so I'll have something more to do soon. During the latter half of my jog last night, I sprained my ankle so I'm finally trying to finish this entry (lol). It's pretty minor since there is no visible swelling, bruising, or inflammation, but it is a biatch to walk. I'm hoping to be able to jog again by Saturday. So much for working out everyday and seeing how much my body starves and craves for energy. In four weeks, it would have been a year since I made the effort to take cardiovascular exercise more seriously. I was hoping to make a larger gain by then. Blerg~ maybe I'll have a flat stomach by my 25th birthday...

Well anyway, since my absence, I went to my workplace to visit my after school babies and picked up a paycheck. Ah~ I haven't seen em in three weeks so it was nice to see my fake babies (hahaha). Also, the day prior to visiting my workplace, I finally got around going to the Natural History Museum. I've been wanting to go there since Dinosaur Hall was opened to the public in 2011. I was going to go by myself but I ended up asking my brother if he wanted to go with me, since he literally just sits on his ass all day and plays games on his computer for hours on end. I was not surprised to find that he did not want to go. He also said it was his jury duty week so I was like 'whatever~'. Later, I asked my dad since I thought it'd be a good way to bond with him since we don't do much. My dad has also lived here for 20+ years and I was pretty sure he has never been to a museum (which turned out to be true), let alone enjoy what the city has to offer, so I was like "why not~". He ended up saying stuff like "Oh~ your uncle really likes that stuff. I'm gonna call him" and I wasn't expecting much out of it but when the day came, they came through! It ended up being a little bit of a drag because I ended up being a tour guide, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
It's not the first time I've been there. It's more like my third. I went there a long, long time ago when I was a little boy and then went there again with my geology class in 2009 (I even had an entry about it on my xanga then). Now, I'm back for leisure! The following are some photospheres I took. It's basically "street view", but from my phone. They're all click-able so you can see them full sized. 
Upon entering, you're welcomed by the dueling dinos in the grand foyer. Basically, the only thing I remember there as a kid. I still giggle at the ghostly couple in the forefront. If only they stood still, it would've been a perfect picture.
This is from the second floor of one of the rooms in Dinosaur Hall. Did you know that there are almost no dinosaur remains in California because much of the state was underwater then? Instead, giant marine reptiles were more common. The word "dinosaur" refers to the land reptiles. /nerdtalk
This is a photosphere from the second floor of another room in Dinosaur Hall where the T-Rex and other carnivorous dinosaurs are housed.
Mamenchisaurus - the long necked dinosaur!
This picture kind of shows you how big the hall is and how giant that skeleton is D:

fossilized dinosaur poop! XD!
My dad and my uncle looking up at the mamenchisaurus. It's THAT huge!
Stegosaurus.
A display you could stand on top of because it's placed within the floor.
Some marine reptiles.
A long necked marine reptile...that I don't know the name of. Let's just call it "Lochness"...lol
Moving on and away from Dinosaur Hall, here's some other stuff I took pictures of and from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.
The original entrance to the NHM and the huge rose garden in the forefront.
A mineral!
One of the temporary displays, so I took a picture of it. A diamond collection... Ooooooh~!
This is a Mastodon.
This is from the Aztec...Inca...displays...I thought it was really cute for an artifact...LOL.
It's a huge furry and pink tarantula D:
Across the lawn is the L.A. coliseum (home of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics) and the shed to the left houses the Space Shuttle Endeavor. I'll probably go there when they have the space shuttle exhibit complete. It's suppose to stand in a upright position in the future.
There is one thing I knew was new to the NHM but I didn't take a picture of it because it was sort of hard to and some dudes were, like, fixing the door to the entrance, but another entrance to the NHM housed a new display of a whale. It looks like this....
photocredit: http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/06/see_the_natural_history_museums_new_gardens_and_building.php
The door leads to a bridge which flies over one of several nature gardens which shows like plants native to Los Angeles and stuff. That area is actually free and I never got to look around it. Oh well~ always next time. 

So anyway, I got to the NHM via the Expo Line and was actually my first time on it. We boarded one of the older Japanese made light rail trains and got off Expo Park/ USC station. That meant that it was also the first time I ever saw the USC campus up close. Pretty area....
Since the last time I rode metrorail, the machines stopped selling paper tickets and some gates are latched in certain stations, so I had to buy a TAP card. I also had to buy one for my dad and uncle so it was like 18 bucks out of my wallet. I hope they didn't throw their cards away because they could be reused. If anyone reading is confused about how day passes work on the cards, it does not automatically charge you a day pass amount when you board 4+ buses or trains. The added value and day pass are different. When you buy a fare from the machine, you'll have the option of adding value to the card or buying a "fare" which is where day passes are located. Upon placing your card above the reader, the display will tell you to "go" and the day your day pass is valid (which is upon first use). I think if you had stored value and you add a day pass though, it'd use the day pass first? I'm not too sure about it but you could always ask the metro blog via comment. The staff always answers comments on that. The gates being latched is pretty cool because once you place your card above the reader, you'll hear the gate unlock and then you're able to walk through. I don't know. It just feels more modern that way (haha). Oh! and you only need to tap every time you board since we don't use distance based fares. Also, don't forget to re-tap almost immediately after arriving at 7th/Metro center station because the readers aren't downstairs for the red/purple line. I didn't realize that until later but there were no patrols around, so it was alright (heh).
Starting 6/19 -- Union Station gates are latched~
photo credit: http://thesource.metro.net/2013/06/18/gates-to-be-latched-at-union-station-subway-entrances-on-wednesday-here-is-the-sources-qa-about-the-turnstiles-and-tap/
Before heading to DTLA, I asked if my dad and uncle wanted to have dimsum since that's what old Chinese people do in the mornings...(lol)
We had a late lunch in Koreatown after leaving the NHM. I had mool naengmyun, my dad had on-myun, and my uncle had dolsot bibimbap. I don't know if they liked it because I didn't ask. I also don't know why the waiters don't try to speak in English because we were obviously not Korean. It's like they don't break out of "character" >__>.
Here are some selfies I took at the NHM...because...I don't know. The full sized pictures were ugly and it's like the only time where cropping the image is a good thing.
*dun dun dun*
It looked so sad...(lol)
The night prior to the museum trip, I had dinner with Lisa. We were suppose to eat at this one place that was suppose to be good and was inside a bakery but it apparently changed names, so we ended up going to a Japanese place because I was looking to see if there were any sushi burrito places around (there aren't) and it was one of the places that came up on Yelp! + was relatively close in proximity.
We ended up sharing this boat and Lisa choose this boat out of the three. We should've just paid 10 more bucks for the primarily fish boat because our boat was mostly meat (fish steak, chicken, and beef), some sashimi and sushi, and a bunch of tempura (shrimp + various vegetables). An actual sushi boat would've been easier to down, man. Look at how big the boat was! It was, like, half my body! haha.
To end, here's me on one of my night jogs, all insanely sweaty and shit. I perspire sooo much. It's not so bad that I would consider it a condition, but people probably think I'm fucking nuts because I'm drenched in sweat during my runs. When I join a gym, I'm definitely bringing a pair of dry underwear with me because my butt gets all soggy too (TMI...lol). Oi~ it's also embarrassing when I'm not even walking that far and my head starts perspiring. For example, I'm buying boba and the person is taking my order, I'm just like... "stop sweating. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU STUPID BITCH!!", in my mind. --wipes forehead with arm--

That is all. WOO! that was a lot.

1 comment:

  1. Sprained ankles are the worst. I sprained it once two years ago, and it hasn't fully recovered since! I play soccer every week so I can see why it hasn't recovered to its' fullest extent :'(

    You took me through a virtual tour of the LA History Museum! I love museums, you can really learn so much from them, and it's a shame that it's not something that we often visit.

    And that sashimi boat... yum. Looks absolutely delicious, and it's half the size of you! :O

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