3 secrets for better sex appeal

And now, I present to all men: 3 secrets to increase your sex appeal ... erm ok.. to me at least.

Do I hear groans that I, a gal, is asking for the impossible again? I'm not talking about stuff guys can't or won't do. None of the lovey-dovey stuff like planning a romantic candlelight dinner or sweeping us off our feet with a well-planned surprise. Nor am I telling you to be considerate and sensitive to our needs, listen to us when we talk, and all that blah. Nope, I am talking about 3 things you can ACTUALLY do.

So on to the first-secret-you-wish-you-knew-earlier...

1. Know how to play pool, and play it the right way.

I don't know why, but there is just something oh-so-sexy about a guy who's good at "playing with a stick and balls". Haha. Guess where I got that phrase from? Ok, before you move on to the next "secret", it is real impressive when you can pot balls like nobody's business.

Bonus: Go a step higher, and play snooker!

2. Play an instrument.

A man who can strum a guitar and sing while looking deeply into my eyes. A man indeed. :) Better yet, playing in a band is even more attractive. And you don't have to be the lead singer of a rock band or be a suave crooner. The brooding silent lead guitarist is just, if not more, appealing.

3. Drive fast and furious with a manual shift.

I love watching a guy drive with a stick shift. Watch him rev up to 140 km. Watch him shift gears in almost split second motions from 5th gear to first. It's not just the exhilaration or the excitement from driving fast. It's that feeling of knowing he's in control.

These 3 secrets were inspired from a routine walk back to my apartment after class. Along the way, I saw 2 guys playing pool in the GK lounge. (GK is another dorm.) I don't remember the guys' faces anymore, so these tricks are not fail-proof.

And if all else fails, that romantic candlelight dinner certainly helps. =P

是谁？

趁我不注意时，在平静的湖里激起了一波又一波。

一阵浪涛澎湃后， 又用小石子掀起美丽的浪花。

是谁？

在不知不觉中， 钻进思路的每一个分叉点。

太阳底下， 处处可见一个熟悉的影子。

是谁？

待我从梦里醒过， 却又带我回到九霄云外。

让我攀到戴 “雪帽” 的山顶上， 但也把我抛下不见底的山谷里。

是你。

当我以为我已看清自己， 又让我重新自省一番。

拉开了丝帘， 展露了不曾见过的一面。

是你。

明白我说的话， 更了解我不说的话。

知道我想要什么， 更懂得我需要什么。

是你。

永远都是你。

Updates About Everything & Nothing In Particular

Ok, so it seems like I haven't been blogging for a while. But before I start hearing complaints, I want to clarify that I did put up 2 entries this month, both of which have been taken down after some objections. *sigh* The "sacrifices" I make to please everyone. =P

Hmm.. haven't had a lot of free time lately. I'm still trying to get used to my new schedule with work, classes and studying for an actuarial exam while trying to squeeze in some personal time. Continuing the same internship I had last semester, right now it has a tinge of novelty to it because they moved the office. Working with the same people in the same department, and best of all I got my supervisor back, yay! Anyway that's all about my work, there should be more random comments about my internship during this semester.

Last Saturday night we had a delicious meal in a Thai restaurant called (the?) King and I. Beggars in Des Moines cannot be choosers, so when I say delicious, please imagine in relative terms. But really, it was quite good, some of the dishes were a bit on the spicy side, but I thought suffering a runny nose for the meal was well worth it.

Anyway, the meal is not the point. After dinner, a bunch of us (Wei Ming, Eric, Khushit, Amar, Sung, Freddie, Su and I) played Pictionary! Funnest game playable in GK lounge! Some revelations from the game:

When you tell your partner "要快的“, time-to-correct-guess increases.

The uglier or more incomplete your drawing is, the more likely your partner will guess it correctly (Eric has photos to prove it).

Eavesdropping on other groups makes it faster for us to get the correct answer.

Do not discard previous ugly drawings, they may prove useful in future rounds.

Easier words take longer to guess than harder / more common / longer words.

Su and I = Dream Team! And we DO NOT cheat, Eric.

I had a bad hair day last Friday. And so, in another valiant attempt to fix it once and for all, I took a trip to the first not-too-cheap-looking-but-not-too-expensive hair salon I lay my eyes on. Which means I took the one and only bus on University Avenue to Valley West Mall. The salon happened to be Regis, the place I said I would not go again, for reasons that are too stupid to repeat. Anyway, I now supposedly have "caramel brown" highlights, in case you don't know what caramel brown looks like, I have yellow highlights.

For Foxy who might have been hoping for my 5 weird habits, sorry! That is still a work in progress. =) For those who don't know, I've been tagged. Meaning I have to blog about my relatively unknown oddities. Why 5 of them? Beats me. I do know I get to tag another 5 people with blogs, so watch out! *Evil laugh*

Nostalgia

The last day of my internship. I have been spending a few hours for the past few days trying to clear stuff off my desk. Doesn't seem like I had much progress so far. I've gone through files one by one, only to pull out papers and stack them into separate piles in another corner of my cubicle. Maybe I was subconsciously stalling my progress, or maybe my desk just had too many things on it. Either way, the last day was filled with anticipation and dread at the same time. Anticipation of finding out if I got an offer or not, and dread because this day signified that the most wonderful 13 weeks just ended.

I spent a couple of hours finishing up some work, but for the rest of the day I just met people, said my goodbyes and finally managed to really clear out my desk. Since Monday, I had numerous 5-minute blank-outs where I would just stare at the monitor screen, trying to let the fact that I was leaving in a few days sink in. Today, I walked around with a knot in my stomach, a feeling that I can't exactly describe. Nostalgic of the times Emily and I chit-chatted across our cubicles, all the intern activities, absolutely delicious lunches, and getting to know people in the office (especially my intern managers and buddies!). At 5.30 pm, I grabbed my bag, took one last look at an almost empty cubicle and sadly left a place that will be etched deep with fond memories in my mind.

Recap of one crazy week

How could I have ever thought that I'm good at handling stress??! The only reason for that.. is because I haven't had real stress until now.

Up till Thursday morning, I've just been busy preparing my end-of-summer intern presentation. Super-ultra nerve-wrecking I tell you. Can you imagine 80 people showing up to see what I've done so far, and probably half of them have the power to decide whether I get a full-time offer or not. Not to mention that because of the extremely well-done presentations of yester-years, everyone has HIGH hopes for this year's interns as well. So now not only do I have to show that I do know what I've been doing for the past 12 weeks, I also have to be funny. All these while trying hard to hide how nervous I actually am.

Thankfully, everything went WELL. :) Our individual presentations were good, and I actually managed to make the audience laugh. Okay, to be honest, I'm pretty pleased with how I did. Especially since it was better than the ones I practised. But the highlight of the whole thing was our finale. A spoof of 2 movies, making fun of the interns' experience at Mercer. We parodied choice scenes from Office Space and Napoleon Dynamite, and the full-timers LOVED it.

For me, I'm just relieved that this whole unbelievably stressful episode is over. And it ended quite good after all. Seriously, I've got to have more confidence in myself. Thanks to all who told me I would do well. You know who you are. ;)



The day before our presentations, HR organized a scavenger hunt for all interns and 3 full-timers, one each from HR, Retirement, and Healthcare. It was soooooooooo fun!!!!!! We went all over downtown Chicago, finding clues, picking up random stuff, taking funny pictures and walking around like a bunch of crazy people. That day was really hot, too, and all of us ended up sweaty and plain gross.

The best thing about the Scavenger Hunt: my team managed to get into the set for a famous talk show!!! There were 2 things on the list that were high value items (meaning if we can get them, first place is almost guaranteed). One of these 2 was "infiltrate the set of one of the 2 famous talk shows in Chicago". Can you guess which 2 shows?

Okay, we didn't go to Harpo Studios, but somehow we got into the Jerry Springer Show!! My team was hanging around the lobby of NBC Tower, begging the unyielding receptionist to let us in. Then Jerry Springer's publicist came down and asked us if we were doing a scavenger hunt and if we wanted to visit the set. We said yes, and amazingly she agreed. The set looked exactly like it is on TV, except smaller. I've got photos to prove I was there. :P

So naturally, we won the competition. For that, all I got was a t-shirt that said "US Scavenger Hunt Company". *_* It did NOT even say "Best Team". Geez. Made me wish that we were worst team, at least they got pretty little trophies with golden cups and marble pedestals. Since I complained, my intern manager gave me his trophy from 2 years ago because he got the cup twice in a row. :)



Yesterday Emily (another intern who sits next to me at work) and I had a back-to-school shopping spree. I've never spent soooooooooo much money shopping at one go. We shopped and shopped and shopped for 8 straight hours. Came back super-tired but extremely happy. Spending money is the nicest thing to do in the world. :) And New York & Company has now become my favorite store. All their clothes fit me. Which is a RARE thing for me since I came to the States.

Anyway, so I've now got 14 new tops, 2 jeans, a skirt and a new watch. Did not get any shoes or bags, which I really need. Found a pair of delicious red boots yesterday, but didn't buy because I had already spent so much money. Regretting now, maybe I should go back and get them. *sigh* I need shoes. And I need work pants for winter. Hehe, finding reasons to go for another shopping spree. :P

想家的感慨

昨天 Healthcare 部门有个 outing， 邀请全部 intern 一起去。 一个下午不用工作，能出去玩，公司还照样付薪水， 当然去啰！

第一次去跑马场， 我期盼了好几天。 因为场地在 Arlington，芝加哥附近的一个 suburb， 所以必须搭火车。

一路上我顾着看风景， 也懒得和别人聊天。火车从芝加哥往西北驶， 窗外的景色从城市的繁荣化成小镇的熟悉。 我仿佛看到了以前曾见过的。 小时候随家人旅行， 偶尔经过一些小镇，就如现在窗外的小镇一样。

我看到了火车路，看到陈旧的屋子，看到骑电单车的小子。 大树一棵棵闪过我的视线， 和家里的大树一模一样。 这里没有 Starbucks， 只有简单的咖啡屋。 偶尔经过的车， 是实用的日本款式。 我把身边的外国人当透明， 布告板的英文变马来文。 在心里， 我正在回家， 就如以前有一次从新加坡搭火车回到吉隆坡。

Outing 是挺好玩的， 我赌小注， 所以输不多。 马跑的时候， 使劲的喊， 赢了输了照样再赌下一场。

倒是发现厌了和美国人说笑， 很想找我的马来西亚朋友们。两年了，越来越封闭自己， 对美国人起初的好奇， 变成后来的失望， 到现在的不屑。当然这是 General Paper 常说的 over-generalization， 我不是对所有美国人都有这种感觉。

或许我思想还不够开通， 可是到最后我还是比较喜欢和同乡的人做朋友。

星期一妈咪问我想不想家， 当时我没有立刻说想， 反而说已经麻痹了。 现在觉得， 我是想家的， 我说不出， 因为已经尽我所能不去碰那个感受。 我把所有看到的尽可能都联想成马来西亚也有的一部分；眼里看到的只有家里的好，这里的不好。

两年留在美国， 物质享受这里应有尽有，可是总觉得少了一份灵魂。 至少少了以前爱讲笑话， 作弄别人， 发花痴的那个人。

依依不舍

今天天大的消息把美丽的星期一变得乌云重重。

Intern Manager 突然说要走了，上星期五交了辞职信， 给了两个星期的通知。 可是照公司一贯的作风，很可能这几天内就必须离开。

会议室里好像突然给雷劈了一下.

我没有心理准备，所以一整天在办公室里心不在焉，满脑子想着她说的话。

相处了近乎九个星期， 说长不长， 说短不短。 可是习惯了有问题就问她，有事就找她， 没有事还是找她。 一个个子比我小的人，成了我的靠山。

对工作的了解， 差不多都是她教的。 什么做得好，什么做得不好，统统给她点出来。 Intern Manager 本来的任务就是确保我们的 internship 过得有意义，所以就自然而然地跟她接触最多。

接任的是我目前的 buddy， 他人很好， 很谈得来， 可是始终不是同样一个人。 唯一让我较感安慰的是, 她转的公司就在我们隔壁, 所以下次还有机会聚聚会, 吃午餐.

不能跟办公室里的人谈, 所以窝在心里一整天了, 一直有种想哭的感觉. 原来还算有血有肉, 不像我爸说的 "铁面无私", 呵呵.

----------------------------------------

Haven't written in over 2 months, can't believe my first blog in summer is a sad one. But so much has happened this summer, this internship is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I don't know how else to describe Summer 2005, but it's going to be an experience I'll NEVER forget.