"If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: 'Somewhere, my flower is there....'" - The Little Prince by St. Exupery

Scott threw himself a going away party on Thursday. He will be leaving California shortly after running the L.A. Marathon on March 2nd which only gives me a week and a half to hangout with him and then I will not see him again for two and a half years. I hope he will at least have email access in East Timor. I feel very anxious about his next adventure there. Unimaginable ostrocities have happened in East Timor before they finally became indepent of Indonesia. Still, they are on the same island as West Timor which is still part of Indonesia and then there is the pending war on Iraq. I am tremendously concerned for Scott's physical safety. Part of me wishes that he would not go but he said that he didn't want fear to rule his life. I try not to think so negatively about his departure but I can't help but wonder if I will ever see him again. He said that he has been thinking about death too, whether it is just a final end in itself or if it is just a passage way into eternal life. And if the second is true, then death should not be feared but welcomed. But to me Scott is that flower whom I love, whose very life and existence gives me happiness and the courage to go on. I hope I can say to myself, "Somewhere Scott is there...." for a long time more to come. I will be praying for him everyday.

Erik and I celebrated Valentine's Day by going to Carl's Jr. for dinner with Jinnie and then to our regular Friday night Bible Study. To my surprise all the other couples were there also. What can I say? Graham's studies are inspiring and leaves you feeling stoked!

The next day, we went to The Water Grill in Downtown L.A. for dinner. Don't let the casual fun deco on the outside fool you, it is an expensive restaurant with great seafood only! *dRooL** I tasted the freshest Pacific Big Eye Tuna (seared of course) and Maine Scallops (tender and juicy). I ordered the non-alcoholic pinot noir out of curiosity and it was just grape juice. But the biggest surprise of our dining experience was THE CHEESECAKE. It reminded me of the cheesecake from Ferrara's in Little Italy in NYC which so far was the best cheesecake I've ever had. I thought I could only find cheesecake that good in New York. After our delightful and delicately portioned meal, we headed off to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on a shuttle for the L.A. Philharmonic concert. It was our first time there and I was impressed with the grounds. The fountain and the lighted trees looked beautiful. The auditorium was very modern, clean and minimal in form and decoration. The program included Don Juan, Op. 20 by Strauss, Concert movement in C major for Violin and Orchestra, WoO 5 by Beethoven, Romance in F minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 11 by Dvorak, and Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36. It was a wonderful concert and I was very happy.

On a random note, I realized that Chandler Bing on "Friends" is a refined name having two music auditorium names - Dorothy CHANDLER Pavilion and BING Auditorium at LACMA.

It finally happened. I saw someone I know on one of those reality shows. Scott stopped by for lunch yesterday and before he left he said that our friend, Ken, is going to be on television for a show called "Are You Hot?". I had seen the preview for it the night before while watching "The Bachelorette" and it looked pretty dumb so I could not believe Scott. Well, sure enough our friend Ken did show up on the show and not only that he actually made the final cut for the Northeast division! Hahaha! If you missed the show, you could look up Ken on The Hot Gallery.

-Perfect- You're the perfect girlfriend. Which
means you're rare or that you cheated :P You're
the kind of chick that can hang out with your
boyfriend's friends and be silly. You don't
care about presents or about going to fancy
placed. Hell, just hang out. You're just happy
being around your boyfriend.


What Kind of Girlfriend Are You?
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You're Claire Standish! A "princess" with
a dysfunctional family. You're known to:
shop,being center of attention, and playing
miss popularity. But really though you hate
it... with john Bender as a boyfriend, I'm sure
people will start to get the hint.


Which Breakfast Club Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I added a link to "Inu Yasha" if you are bored and want to read the transcripts from the manga version. I have not read the manga version yet and read that it's different from the anime. I have read the "Ranma 1/2" manga by Rumiko Takahashi, the author and creator of "Inu Yasha", which is hilarious.

I've been watching an anime series called "Inu Yasha" these days. The character development for the main characters are fascinating. I happened to see the same series on the Cartoon Network last night and it was horrible! They did an awful job dubbing it in English. The dialogs are bad and the voice actors don't portray the intensity of emotions that their Japanese counterparts do. This is why I prefer watching foreign films/anime/television in their original language with subtitles. The only dubbed movie that I thought was good was when I was visiting Korea in 1992 and saw "Beauty and the Beast" dubbed in Korean. It flowed amazingly well even when they were singing.

Scott and I went to the Huntington Library yesterday since it was a free Thursday. Entrance fee on normal days is $10. It was so packed that we had to find street parking. The rose garden was bare. I missed the sweet fragrance. The Japanese garden was our favorite because we saw a turtle, two ducks, and lots of huge fishes, walked over cool stone bridges across the ponds, and walked through the bamboo forest. It was nice to just sit on the wide grassy areas in the sunshine and talk. Through my conversation with Scott, I realized that I don't make much of an effort to have meaningful conversations on a regular basis with people. It's not that I don't think about serious things. I just internalize them and don't express them because I don't like to just blurt things out. I need to organize them in a logical order and then find the right words to express myself properly. I also like to be concise. If I am in a confused state of mind or working through a topic, I tend to be quiet until I can come to an acceptable conclusion. I haven't even been journaling lately at all.

Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. I really haven't had much inspiration. Joo suggested that I blog about her then so here I go. We received a package from Amazon yesterday. In it there were two new jazz cds for Joo, Ella Fizgerald and Sarah Vaughn. Both are very good. I better copy them before Joo moves to New York and I have no more jazz music to listen to. It's really nice to listen to jazz music at home and chill, but I can't listen to jazz when I'm driving because I'm too relaxed and not alert. There was also a book for me in the package, Silence by Shusaku Endo. Yay! So I have now received two of my wish list gifts, the book and Endless Summer dvd, both from Joo. Hooray for Joo!