Released on the 18^th of April in the UK on Kitchenware Records, this is the follow-up to the Birmingham-based Editors successful debut single, Bullets. As in the grand tradition of the british sound with its love, loss, and redemption theme, Munich epitomizes what britrock is all about: Simplistic lyrics that makes you cringe with über catchy hooks as chorus.
The single have just entered the British Singles Chart at #22, one below the Gorillaz' Feel Good Inc.

Nothing like devouring processed carbs, trans fat, and sugar could give you the push to exercise. Minneapolis was heaven for my palate.
hmm... i can see the other half of the cheesecake in the chaska fridge
In the 56-hour period I spent in Minnesota, I must've consumed enough calories that should last me at least a week.

On the first day, I went for all-you-can-eat kwetiauw and curry chicken at K-Wok, followed by dessert at the tea garden which had excellent Royal Tea with perfect tapioca. Plus, they've got great selection of fruit mousse cakes. I had the blueberry/raspberry which was perfect to cleanse my coconut milk saturated palate. The day - I meant - the food didn't end there, about 3 hours later we went for dinner at Ruam Mit, the best thai restaurant in the us to get pha rham long song a.k.a. fried tofu on a bed of spinach with spicy peanut sauce. I've looked for this dish all over DC and either they don't have it (Ruan Thai) or it's awful (Thaiphoon). It was 21:30 and we were kinda tired already (it's true, eating is exhausting!) but there's still one more stop for the day: Cafe Latté for its Classic Vanilla Cheesecake. I decided to get the party size so that I could eat another one on the next day and another one on sunday ^_^. So greedy!

Saturday the 23rd. Now this is what I called breakfast of champions: a huge chunk of cheesecake. After getting Kiana (my 3-week old niece, the reason I came to Mpls by the way) ready to go, we went to Dong Yang, arguably the best korean food in the twin cities. I had the dolsot bibimbap and it was delicious, compared to Mpls standard it was superb. Plus the portion was more than generous, it was charity. After going for another round of bubble tea we decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing at home since it would be chaotic on Sunday. Of course, I ended up with another slice of cheesecake right after dinner. What do you expect?

Baptism Day. Luki, Ii, Mamah Ni and Lily arrived just after midnight at the airport, Luki & Lily from LA via Chicago and Mamah Ni & Ii from New Orleans. At 10, the mass began and Kiana began to cry ^_^, but as soon as the father sprinkled some holy water on her head for the baptism, she quieted down. Guess it was too warm at the church with all the people. I'm getting a watersprayer bottle for them now, the temperature seemed to be the one factor that always bother her. Perhaps all we need to do was to squirt a bit of cool water on her ^_^. I'll try it next time.
After the baptism there was a party at the house in Chaska, but we - the out-of-state minnesotans - decided to get some food that we have been craving ever since our last time in Mn. So Luki, Ii, Lily, and I went to Peking Garden for their Smelt Fish to go. But, before I leave the twincities, I just had to get another fix of bubble tea, so we went there and eat the smelt fish ^_^ The guy at the teahouse was like, "Do you live here?" Come to think of it, I should've gotten a discount! Such loyal customer. Then Chaska called asking where were we, hahaa, the godparents are still enjoying themselves eating while the baptism party had already begun at home. But Seafood Palace was just a few blocks away from where we were so we swing by there to get some Honey Walnut Shrimp and Beef Short Ribs. And with that I crossed the last item on my list. Such satisfaction was unutterable in words.

So on Monday, I just had to go to the gym and found enough determination to burn around 500 cals, only to be offset by 4 tacos from chipotle, a bottle of nantucket nectars (160cals), and bubblemix (100 easy). I guess there wasn't really any point in exercising, huh?

Great! Another addiction to be added to my already long list of compulsory consumptions. First coffee, then cd's with desserts trailing not far behind, and now –apparently– blogging!

It's been less than 12 hours since my last entry and here I am typing away with a bowl of steaming café by the screen. Yap, I'm not sleeping tonight. I've decided to just wait until I got to the airplane before I let my subconscious take control of my brain. I tried sleeping for a bit the last time I took an early flight and it didn't quite go as planned. I got at Baltimore-Washington 25 minutes before the ETD, so the desk agent didn't let me through. Hence, I changed my strategy this time and just postpone sleeping.

Nothing like going away could make me tidy up my room. I just hate leaving my room in a state of chaos, so I am most efficient at cleaning my room when I'm leaving on a jetplane. I finally managed to get rid of the little boxes of junk and redistribute the still-needed junk somewhere else where I can't see them. I also manage to call aike in Beijing. Well, she's in Szechuan actually, on a school trip. So nice to talk to her after all this time. The last time we talk directly was more than a year ago when she came to the states with howke (her brother, who has a blog as well, i might add). Talking to her made me remihisce about our franco-trip across France. Those were the days~

Got a bad case of wanderlust now.

So I told her about the blog and guess what: blogger.com is blocked by the Chinese government. Isn't that just ridiculous! Well, I guess I did read something about it a while back, but still, I guess they're trying real hard to make sure the people think the way the party wants them to think.

It's 3:44 now, I'd better get ready.

Leaving for Minneapolis in 12 hours! Can't wait to get there and go to K-Wok for the Kwetiauw Goreng. I still think they got the best one in the US and with a lunch buffet just under $6, who could resist? *salivating* And then, continued on with the cheesecake and moo drinks at Cafe Latté, the best american cheesecake! Yum... I'm so hungry now.

I was so stressed out yesterday. Can't believe the traffic in the Maryland suburbs of DC. They really need to figure things out or we'll never get anywhere! And this morning I read on express that MD actually got a D- for traffic light support while the national average was a D. What sucks even more was that VA got an A and even the District proper got a B!
Before going to Minneapolis, I needed to get two things done: a haircut and aji-ichiban for Ii. So I planned to get the haircut yesterday and get the munchies today. I got back from work at 6 and I called the haircut place to see if they would be able to take me if I arrived there in 30 minutes. They say, they could. After the ordeal of honking, instant braking, idiotic traffic lights, and suicidal pedestrians on 193, I managed to get there in 35 minutes. Apparently the guy was still working on this girl, so I sat down. 15 minutes later he was done and then he asked me, "Could you wait a while?" So I sat back down after briefly getting up. Then this other guy who was sitting by me got up and walked to the hairdresser. Then another one was getting up and the hairdresser told him, "Sorry, but he has been waiting for a long time." It was 6:45 already. I was like, "What? I'm supposed to wait for these two guys before I can actually get a haircut?" So I asked him, "When do you usually leave?" He said "Seven." I was beyond angry, more like baffled actually. I mean, why tell me that he could take me if obviously he couldn't! I could've gone to aji-ichiban instead and make my time worth.
So I left and head straight to Rockville, hoping to be able to make it in 15 minutes via Veirs Mill. And so began MD Traffic Inferno: Part II. If agressive driving was punishable by death, I wouldn't be writing this entry today ^_^. It's 6:55 and I haven't even reached Shilla Bakery. So finally I called the place and pleaded her to close 10 minutes later. To the contrary of what I thought she would say, judging from the tone of her voice, she said, "Sure, do you know what you want already?" So I gave her the list: 1lbs of Rose Petals, 1/2lbs of Dried Pork, and 3rolls of Dried Squid. And that came to the total of fifty friggin bucks! ^_^ Ii better get me something nice from Dallas or I'll take the Dried Squid hostage!

*Phew!* It felt so good to rant, huh? Hahaha, I guess that's what a blog is all about. Merci... et à la prochaine fois.

I re-welcome you to my blog. Well, my better-designed blog anyway. It turned out that friendster's blog BLOWS! I can't even do anything other than what they pre-designed for me. And it's not like their templates are that great either. I was trying to do a TypeList for the list of songs I'm currently listening and the margins just went awry. On top of that, I can't put media on... I can't have an internet presence without my music, that just wouldn't be me. So... here I am at blogger where they still provide the tools that would help me maintain the blog but not hinder me from tweaking it.

Yeah, I spent a good two hours at work trying to figure out how the code works, and finally managed to get the Play/Stop buttons work. So go and listen to the song I am currently listening to... incessantly I might add. Ask Myra and she'll testify.

The song's called « Nothing Better » by Postal Service a band whose other song « Such Great Heights » is currently on the airwaves here in the US and Western Europe. Nevertheless, «Nothing Better» is the one that I really can't get out of my head after I listened to the album (Give Up on Sub Pop Records).

I've actually written a paragraph on the song on the blog's former-ego at friendster but I think it's better to experience the song first-hand, untarnished with biased reviews.

So I finally caved in and start my own blog, although I'm still skeptical on who will actually read other people's blog? We'll just see then how long can I keep this up before i got sick of talking about myself ^_^. Hmm... three sentence in and I've remembered why I haven't done this earlier: I'm not much of a sharer, more of a listener-slash-commentator. Well, let's just see how long can I keep up with this pouring out your heart thing before the blog becomes a list of my recently viewed films or heard songs.