Countdown begins!

Host your own Inauguration party or watch from the comfort of your bed in front of your lap top. The live stream will be available on Hulu.com and my blog..

New Year's Resolutions 2009

Resolutions - wahoo.

1. To write more in the blog.

I guess people do read my blog. Still don't know why.. But I guess it's the same as perusing one's facebook page, which I do quite often.

Anyways, I actually do have a few interesting things to post this time around. My cousin enoch and his wife kimmie - this multi-talented and creative duo, who make J and I look like lazy farts - are putting on a theater/dance performance called Aspiro at College Park in Maryland. They played scenes of the performance at their wedding, and it was absolutely breath-taking. Kimmie is similar to Edith Piaf on stage. She's tiny, but as soon as she starts moving, you can't take your eyes off her. She's truly mesmerizing.



If you do live in the NOVA area and are interested in seeing Aspiro, click here to see performance details.

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On another note, my friend J found Gwyneth Paltrow's blog that she updates regularly. The layout is nice and uncomplicated. And her entries are less political, and more about general well being. The tagline is "nourish the inner aspect" which is precisely what it does.


2. Learn Spanish. I do live in LA afterall, plus I want to try out the popular Rosetta Stone. And with our moving pattern (move south every 4 years), we're going to end up in Mexico next.

3. Watch less, read more. This one will be hard to accomplish especially since I work at hulu. Book Club has helped. Although keeping up with the one book a month schedule, trying to balance that with work, a social life and some down time is pretty difficult.

4. Less Down time, more gym time. Also difficult. It blows my mind now that I used to spend 3 hours commuting (via Caltrain and Muni), spend a good 8 hours at work, and still have enough energy for a 4 mile run or an hour at the gym. How did I do that?

5. Travel? Possibly. I always add this to my resolutions list, because it's always something I want to do more of. I've been craving a trip to Europe lately. I haven't seen my close friend Chris and my Parisian crew in years, and would definitely like to explore the wineries in Southern France. Oh Greece would be fantastic as well. After that, Australia and NZ, and another trip to Asia.

A year in review

Highlights of 2008
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Managed to do some things despite the crazy work hours.

From Jan 08-Mar 08, I was pretty much in a cave the whole time. Typing, coding, making decisions, doing literally everything to get Hulu out the door. Launched early early morning. Still catching up on the sleep that I lost at that point.

Apr 08 - Made a quick trip to Texas, for Justin's cousins wedding. Spent some good family time with E, Grandma Lucy, the Voyles...

Summer 08 - Flew up to NYC for Ni's graduation. Some museum hopping, some hot dog eating. Mostly hung out in her cute little part of Brooklyn. Parents, Vanissa, and Eleanor all flew out on separate weekends for quick getaways. Lots of food, merriment. Saw Beckham bend it with the parents. Flew up to Toronto for a nice family reunion for Enoch & Kimmie's wedding. Found out that J's drinking tolerance is much greater than all my cousins' combined. J&R move out to LA. We are very happy.

Oct 08 - Turned one year older with two delicious meals with some generous family and friends. Eda came out to help in the celebration. Lots of friends take on the greater task of parenthood.

Nov 08 - Dec 08 - OBAMA IS ELECTED! Honeymoon in Tico-land. J and I enjoyed the Pura Vida lifestyle, got pummeled by the waves on Nosara beach, howled with the Howler Monkeys in Arenal and tried to stay dry in Monteverde. We slept 3 times a day, ate fresh fruit and fish, read books and attempted not to think about work :)

Much more happened, although it escapes me now. I'm too lazy to think about all that went into making 2008 so great. But I thank you all for everything. Cheers to the upcoming new year and hope this finds you well and in good spirits.

Merry Christmas

Another year, and another 24 hour marathon of The Christmas Story. I wonder how long it's going to take before we are able to clear the rights to get that one on Hulu.
A lesser known family story written by the same author is a summertime classic called Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. I haven't seen it but I've heard it's supposed to be equally funny. Will need to check that out some time.

Really?

Seattle thinks outside the box.

McCain selects Tina Fey as his running mate for the 2008 Presidential Election. Ok, it's not realy Tina Fey, but Gov. Sarah Palin. Interesting move McCain...

Hollywood stars making a transition

I've always thought it was a step up for foreign stars to make the Hollywood circuit, (Jackie Chan in various, Jet Li in various, Gong Li in Miami Vice), but what about vice versa? Usually no name American actors who have failed in the Hollywood circuit, try out the Hong Kong circuit and usually don't get very far. In fact, I remember watching several Hong Kong movies back in the day, and seeing a random British or American actor mixed in the crowd. They were usually on the bad-guy side might I add. Now with Asian movies getting a lot more popular, American actors are starting to make the transition over..

Nicolas Cage is coming up with Bangkok Dangerous with a predominant Hong Kong film cast, including Charlie Yeung (catch her Ashes of Time redux - an old Wong Kar Wai film that I think I saw back in the day, and thought it very slow - I was younger then, so maybe I'll give it a try now that I appreciate Wong Kar Wai a little more). And Josh Hartnett (who hasn't necessarily been a huge success in Hollywood) is going to be starring in a Vietnamese movie, I come with rain.

New York, Je t'aime.

Bored and recovering from a much needed family reunion in Toronto. Now just surfing the web to catch up on internet stuff that developed over the past week. Came across the new trailer for New York, I Love You:



A star-studded follow up of the collaborative film, Paris, je t'aime for our own beloved city, New York and all its hidden ventures and gems. Paris, Je T'aime failed in many ways, but some of the skits really spoke to me and I loved seeing the city in the background. The highlight was the final skit about a retired mid-west post women and her first trip to Paris.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the New York rendition.. There's no release date for it yet, but it'll serve as a distraction from waiting for the next Harry Potter (which has been removed to a July 2009 release date - I'm pissed about it too).

I heart the Olympics and Lezak

This is the stuff the Olympics is made of. The US team beat the French team by 0.08 of a second, and smashed the World Record. I don't think you have to be a former swimmer to truly appreciate the last few seconds of the race.

If the 4x100 Men's Freestyle Relay was the only event that I ended up watching from the 2008 Olympics, I'd be set for another four years. The finish of the relay was over the top. All I can say is that Jason Lezak rocks.

Propects are looking good for Phelps to acquire 8 Golds.

If you missed the race, catch it on www.nbcolympics.com.

MAD MEN

The Green Dance Floor - Brilliant!

I may have to go clubbing now....

The Fourth

Marathon training report - I'm up to 4.2 miles. Heh. Ran it this morning, thinking it would help get me energized for the week. Instead, I'm hungry and tired. Grrr.. I know I can do a 12 miler at this point. Just finding the right weather conditions for marathon training has been challenging. It's always too hot. I figured out that it's actually nicer to run in the evenings, because it gets cooler, the later it gets. In the mornings, you get to a certain distance, and you just can't run anymore, because it gets so damn hot. I need a team to train with. I wonder how much of my needs are stemmed from being on a swim team for almost a decade. I would've never gone to the pool by myself. And while I was on TNT, it was really hard to motivate to run unless it was a scheduled run, and I was expected to pick people up.

I'm so not discipline. Probably need to work on that.

The weekend was nice. Ni flew in for a few days. We spent the 4th on the beach, soaked in the sun, and watched four sets of fireworks with our feet buried in the sand. It was actually a pretty good 4th - weather was perfect, and it was fun to be surrounded by new friends, Justin and my sister. Quite relaxing, indeed.

Acupuncture progress report.

Over the past few years, I've been battling skin allergies. It all started in Seattle while living in Greenlake, coincidentally the same time I started dating J - I swear at one point, i thought I was allergic to him. Skin allergies or Eczema is extremely dry and sometimes itchy skin. I've been on all kinds of allergy medication - seen several dermatologists and several allergists - all with the same monotone response of "there's no cure". I have shelves and shelves of different hydrocortisone creams, lotions, sprays and ointments. If you have a skin ailment, I most likely have a cream that can put it to rest. My eczema was never put to rest though.. it go away and come back in some random cycle that was neither food related or seasonal. Moving down south from Seattle seem to resolve some issues, but the symptoms came back.

While I believe that a lot of progress has been made in Western medicine, it's always left me disappointed and drugged up. Finally I made the switch to try out Eastern medicine, after a fellow allergy-sufferer had some good results with acupuncture. I found an office not far from my own office and started going there weekly.

After three months, a lot of progress has been made.. The itching has stopped - atleast 85% of it. And now, I just have dry skin which (thank goodness for Aveeno and Kiehls) I can easily find good non-cosmetic creams for. The doctor also suggested that I do less intense gym regimens so I've taken up Yoga and Pilates... and I've been trying to run outdoors (I still have to train for NYC). She also mentioned that I should avoid eating seafood (esp Shrimp) and spicy food and wine - anything that causes my blood temperature to rise.

Currently, I'm on my second week drug free, and itch free. Hopefully this continues on..

My Personal Star

So in my blog absence - I forgot to wish my hubby and I a Happy First Year Anniversary on May 19th. I'd post the lyrics to our wedding song but instead, I've totally fallen for "My Favourite book" by the Stars - mind the "u", they are Canadian afterall.

Anyways in celebration of us, here's the song I'd request on the radio for us. I think it fits us perfectly, since reading his favoUrite book convinced me to call him back 6 years ago, and yes he makes the bed.

"My Favourite Book"

I was always late, you never afraid, that we could be falling
All our friends would say, maybe we should wait, but they can't see what's coming
And to this day, when everything breaks, you are the anchor that holds me

And that is why we'll always make it

How I know your face, all the ways you move, you come in, I can read you
You're my favourite book
All the things you say, the way you shift your eyes
I never knew there was someone, to make me come alive

When the days are long, and the thunder with the storm, can always get me crying
You can make my bed, I'll fall into it, shattered but not lonely
Because I never knew a home, until I found your hands, when I'm weathered
You come to me, you're my best friend

And that is why we'll always make it

How I know your face, all the ways you move, you come in, I can read you
You're my favourite book
All the things you say, the way you shift your eyes
I never knew there was someone, to make me come alive

And when we're making love
I'd give up everything up for your touch

How I know your face, all the ways you move, you come in, I can read you
You're my favourite book
All the things you say, the way you shift your eyes
I never knew there was someone, to make me come alive

When you go to work all the day I wait
For you to come home, recount our time, in our little place

Really?

I watched Spirit of the Marathon a couple of weeks ago - and while it was an amazing story covering experiences from 6 different marathon runners all training for the Chicago marathon - I didn't feel motivated to do another marathon.. BUT I always said, that if I got into New York's, I'd run it. Even when I was there, visiting Vanissa for her graduation, I was thinking "it's nice, it's flat, I can totally run this".

Lottery result (drum roll, please).



And there it is. My first words were "Shit!"

And the reality of it is, New York's Marathon isn't flat, it's just flatter than SF which doesn't help me at all. Everything's a hill to me now since I haven't been running at all.

Save the Date

Every once in awhile, I run into genius ideas that make me want to plan a wedding again.. If not mine, then someone else's. Anyways I ran into this genius Save the Date photo on Flickr and had to blog about it.





If only I had seen this a year and a half ago.

NO GOSSIP GIRL ONLINE????

WTF? Perhaps I've taken the internet for granted. I haven't been as obsessed with my keeping my Tivo queue up to date because I can watch it online and legally too. I've never bought a show of Amazon.com or ITunes, or used BitTorrent. Usually I just plop in front of the computer and watch it off of Hulu.com (of course), abc.com or even MTV.com (it's the only way I can catch on up "The Hills" without pissing off J). So yesterday, upon returning from the gym, I wasn't mad when J mentioned that he stopped recording GG because he wanted to channel surf (our Tivo and cable are set up in such a way that you can't do anything when the Tivo is running). I told him that I would just catch up online without further thought.

This morning, as I was having my morning cereal, I came across this article that explains why they won't be streaming the last 5 episodes of GG online and I thought WTF.. I'm in the business of online TV streaming. If nothing else, this is making me more passionate about getting more content online. I would actually stage a protest against CW and not watch it or Tivo it next week, but the show is just too good.

Maybe it was the heat...?

A crew of us attended the LA Galaxy vs Toronto FC game to cheer on soccer gurus Donovan and legendary Beckham in the hot hot LA heat at the Home Depot Center (which happens to be the mecca of sporting fields - they had tennis courts, a few soccer fields, a baseball field, and who knows what else - the place was huge).. Thankfully our goldstar tickets landed us seats in the shade so the 95 degree heat wave didn't hinder our enjoyment of the game.

Despite the soccer jerseys, soccer is still a very ad-free sport. There are no flashing signs anywhere, no announcers talking about the sponsorships during the game ( they managed to mention a few during half time ), and there's no music blaring over the loud speakers. All you can hear is the crowd cheering or stomping on the bleachers.. and I bet if you sit close enough, you can hear the ball being kicked around. I loved it. Usually at a basketball game, or a baseball game, I'm much to distracted to really concentrate on the game. Here, all I did was follow Donavan's distinct yellow shoes, and Beckham's long sleeve jersey. Sadly LA Galaxy lost to Toronto - apparently one of the worst teams in the FCC - but I'll definitely attend another game in the near future.

Random LA goodness

Fitness bliss..
5k/10k run - Santa Monica Classic

Musical bliss..
The LA Jazz scene - lajazz.com

No more ebay...
My GILTY new pleasure

Food bliss...
Looking forward to some fresh soba at Yabu

Did I mention that Hulu got mentioned in Daily Candy? It's funny, out of all the press that we've gotten, this mention was a real treat. Now if only we can get more female-oriented programming. Speaking of which, Gossip Girl is coming back on the CW on April 21st:)

And then..

So this is dedicated to my mom who has worked tireless over prepping my taxes for the IRS. There were a number of changes in 07 that added to the immense complexity of my taxes - and she worked all angles on them..

Anyways this is her favorite clip from "Dude, Where's My Car?". It's the infamous "and then marathon between Ashton's character and a Chinese Lady". As a result, my mom cracks up everytime she says "And then.. " Oddest thing ever.

the sound of silence

Taken at the office at 1:50am for the launch of Hulu.com on Wednesday morning. We could only keep still for literally three shots. Immediately following the brief photo session we were back at our computers to fix problems. I think I sat at the edge of my seat from 2pm to 4am - typing as fast as I could, working on moving things from server to server, making sure key art was good quality. Working on the product tour with folks. Reading through legal print.. Praying that things would not going wrong.

Today it's been calm. And it's a nice satifying calm.. servers are running okay.. and now it's business as usual. My typing speed has returned to it's normal heart beat pace. My brow is less furrowed.

I have never felt more like an owner than I have here. And I'm obsessed about the product/brand that we've made. It's genius I think.. but we still have a long way to go still. So there's much more in store.

The funny thing is that I haven't watched any television in 3 months. It's usually in the background now.. keeping me company as I type into the night. The Tivo red record button comes on every once in awhile, indicating that I have yet another video getting added to the growing inventory of videos I have yet to watch. I'm going to have a long weekend some time, where I'll just hole up in the living room and play catch up. I wish that queue was on Hulu.