My Dream Home

I've been thinking about the dream that I would like to have for some time now. I even remember drawing house plans during my free time when I was in college. I will now continue the visualization of my dream home.

These are the latest house plans I drew up. I made them some time last year.

Now I have an even clearer vision of what I would like the atmosphere of my dream home to be.

It is calm and serene. You hear the sound of running water from the Japanese fountain as you enter the house and at times, there's nature / relaxation / yoga / spa music playing softly in the background. There's Japanese bamboo and trees all around, and the place is zen.

You will never hear the television spewing out bad news into the living room, nor will you hear Tagalog telenovelas adding negative energy into the house with their depressing fatalistic themes of victimization and powerlessness. Only those which bring forth good feelings are present in my home.

Happy cats prance around and climb trees and sprawl out under the warm rays of the sun. And maybe a dog or two to keep the cats company. The air is nice and fresh. It feels good to be in my home.

Success Converting mp4 Video for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Yes! I've finally figured out how to convert videos to an mp4 video format that my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic can play! Took me long enough since I've had this phone since last year, but anyway, I had given up on it until only a few days ago so that's fine.

I've tried quite a few of the suggestions that I found online, but a lot of them either didn't work or were too complicated to figure out. Maybe I should write an article on HubPages about how I did it. Okay, I'll do that tomorrow. :)

Update 08/06/10:
Here's the article:
Easy Way To Convert Videos For Playback On The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

In Pursuit of Japan

Today, Princeton is out on an overnight company outing, and I am very proud to have accomplished something during the time I had alone today - I made a new blog! And not just any blog, a blog that will lead me closer to my dream of going to, and maybe someday living in, Japan. Tada!

In Pursuit of Japan
It usually takes me a long time to finish something because I'm such a perfectionist. I tend to meticulously tweak every tiny detail until it's just perfect. But I have made a conscious decision to take it easy on myself, and because of this I was able to finalize the layout and write three posts in my new blog all in one day. (Well, more like half a day actually since I woke up late, but nevermind that.) I am happy with my accomplishment. I congratulate myself. :)

Choosing The Right Car vs. Choosing The Right Wife

The thought crossed my mind: For men, choosing "the right car" is a lot like choosing "the right wife", isn't it? Or is choosing a car more complicated than choosing a wife? Hehe. :P In my opinion, if men applied the same meticulousness to both, this is probably how they would choose a wife: 

Photo: Chevy Camaro 2010

Steps To Choosing A Wife

1. Get the specs, e.g. vital statistics such as height, weight, body measurements, etc.
2. Look under the hood. e.g. Is she "clean"? A blood test should answer this. Hehe...
3. Test drive before buying to see how well she performs. Find the one with the best ride. (Use your imagination on this one. Hehehe...)
4. Take a look at the accessories, i.e. big breasts, long legs, tiny waist, nice butt, etc.
5. Check the cost of maintenance. Maintenance costs can kill you, after all. Hah!
6. Evaluate after-sales service, e.g. how well she cooks and otherwise takes care of you, the house, and future children.

Hahaha! What else did I miss? ;D

My Outdoor Kitten

There was a tiny little kitten in front of our neighbor's house last week. I wanted so much to adopt her, but I knew I couldn't (because 1. we already have three cats and Princeton says three is enough and 2. I wasn't quite ready for the responsibility of having one more "child"). Even though I couldn't bring her inside our house, I settled with just occasionally giving her food and water and some pats on the head. And I named my outdoor kitten Haruhi.

Haruhi would slip under our gate and visit us whenever we called her. My three cats Jiggy, Motmot, and Layla would gather by the window and watch Haruhi play with us from inside the house. I was really curious to see how my three older cats would react to meeting a kitten, but I refrained from bringing them close as Haruhi hadn't had a health check-up yet.

But I haven't seen Haruhi for a couple of days now. I hope she's doing fine wherever she is.