Dim Sum Diaries

In Which Dad Purports To Torture Me With Dinners I Don't Attend


An article on the life of P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books, and how the making of the movie changed her life (it made her rich), but not necessarily for the better.
Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Its been a pretty rough year but I'm thankful I have my health and my family that loves me. I'm at my sister's house for Christmas dinner (that she's cooking which is another thing I'm grateful for) and sneaking time on the Internets.

Have a great one!

What Do Chinese People Eat For Christmas?



(via)
I had this grand delusion that I would go Target this Saturday and rationally and calmly pick fabulous gifts for my entire extended family in...oh about an hour...and my Christmas shopping would be done and then I would spend the rest of the day ensconced in front of our fireplace wrapped in a warm blanket and sipping hot cocoa and listening to heart-warming Christmas carols...

Alas it was not to be. I did find like two gifts at Tar-jay. I actually stood in the middle of the store with this completely lost and vacant look on my face. I had no idea if my sister-in-law wanted the new Celine Dion Fragrance set or not. I opted not. Then I thought I'd try the mall for some last minute inspiration, but it was a zoo madhouse. After circling the parking lot (I seem to have lost my zeal for seek and destroy parking) for about 20 minutes I gave up and headed home.

Suddenly online shopping in my reindeer flannel pants and cazh t-shirt seemed to be the best solution. After aimlessly surfing sites the rest of the weekend, I finally bit the bullet and finished up this morning. I don't know why its so hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit this year. But I'm grateful that I have my family (extended and nuclear) and health.

Oh...I suppose I need to slip to the local sex shop to buy something shocking and scandalous for the maternal side Christmas party white elephant gift exchange. Shocking the aunts and older folks is always a blast. :)
Been listening a lot to Antigone Rising lately. Its a Lilith Fair-esque sound to it, I really dig the raw mood and powerful lyrics of this group.

Christmas is almost upon me/us, but it still hasn't hit me yet. I really need to get my ass in gear and finish up my Christmas shopping. Okay by finish, I mean I've got presents for only two people, out of a list of like a billion. Luckily the kids were so gung ho about decorating the tree, otherwise it'd never have it gotten done. Too little enthusiasm on my end, I suppose. Though maybe if I made some Christmas crafts, it might get me in the mood. :p

As a final thing, I leave you with this cool video I found from tian. More Back Dorm Boys, very cute and also an opportunity for me to explore Chinese pop music. I'm diggin it baby!



Update (this one is my favorite one ("Fairytale"), I'm linking so I can watch it over and over and over and cry over the song...):

The New Yorker published the short story Brokeback Mountain, by Annie Proulx, in its entirety. Very cool (but sad) reading. I definitely want to see the movie version.

Yeah I know what many of you, my dear readers are thinking. Not your cup of tea. Well besides it being a great story, one good reason you (if you are a hetero male) should see it...Anne Hathaway gets nekked in it!!!
Daughter has been struggling with the theory portion of her piano lessons. After her Chinese (doesn't that just explain everything) piano teacher's gimlet eyed stare at me and a quick whispered suggestion of maybe reviewing her homework before the piano lesson, I told Daughter today to start her music hw and to ask if she needed any help.

About a second later, "Mommy, I need help with my homework!!!"

Bloody hell. Her year of lessons has already surpassed my meager musical abilities. But of course I'm supposed to know everything right? She's supposed to write out an example of each major scale with all accompanying sharps and flats. I can musically pick it out if I try it on the piano, but to actually write it out? OMFG.

So of course I turn to the web to search for something, anything on the difference between a sharp and a flat and does anyone have an example of how write one of these stupid things out? No such luck on the inital try, just syllabi and quizzes and assignments of college courses assigning such things. I was thinking, if bloody Calculus textbooks have the answer to the odd numbered questions, why can't a second grade music theory book have the stupid answers!! Anyways, after a frantic search, I hit upon OMFG I love you WIKIPEDIA. I was able to discern that each major has a certain number of sharps included in it...and after browsing her other songbooks, that the extra sharps that weren't played in the scale were to be put on the side by the treble/base cleff.

So yeah, after struggling for a bit, it turned out not to be that bad. I think in second grade I was only concerned about monkey bars and reading that Jane and Dick ran up this hill and then ate moon pies or something.

What the hell happened?
I look in the mirror and realize that I don't like myself very much sometimes.

Its been about a year since a whole chain of events began and altered my life markedly. Last year about this time was when they announced that they were closing my old company's offices in California and moving operations back East. There was increasing stress up until the March 31, 2005 when the doors shut down for good and I found myself jobless, a stay-at-home mom, a bit adrift really. Lo Gung kept urging me last year to try this new cool game World of Warcraft, which I did. And to his dismay and my surprise grew into quite an addiction. From April on I was depressed and withdrawn. So much so that my Dad urged my Mom to stay with me for a week or so when Lo Gung was gone on a business trip.

Perhaps I've been gone in the wilderness for much of this year. And just thinking now as 2006 approaches, that its time for me to get back into it, so to speak. You know what else I've noticed is that when people who blog get depressed or something they like to quote poetry (many times self-written) or some poignant song lyric. When I used to read that I'd be like, oh my god and roll my eyes. Now however, I am strongly tempted to do it myself, but I will refrain. :p

Anyways, I've cancelled my WoW account for now, to try and concentrate on the more important things. Like blogging. :P Trying to strategize and think about the life plan for the fam. Job options. Part time or full time? Writing...and where thats going?

Honestly, dear reader, for those who have found this blog and have been reading it faithfully (and not just stumbling upon it because of the pervy pictures), knowing that you guys are there is really really cool.

My god, could this post be any more Wheatonesque?