Lord of the Silent

Amon-Re is the Lord of the Silent. Who is Amon-Re? He is the Ancient Egyptian god of the Sun, and a beautiful golden artifact found by the amazing Amelia Peabody Emerson in my most recently completed book.

I believe I have mentioned before that I am in love with the Amelia Peabody series written by Elizabeth Peters. I had started this series by listening to the audio books narrated by the fantastic voice talents of Barbara Rosenplat, but I had to switch to reading the books because Audible has a gap!

This post is mostly an update on what's going on in my life, as I have not been very consistent in my blogging (If you happen to have a twitter account, I've been slightly more consistent in getting tweets in...).

As I mentioned above, I just finished reading "Lord of the Silent" by Elizabeth Peters. It was a very enjoyable book, as they all have been thus far. I had the chance to finish this book because I read most of it in airports and in flight. I've recently started this thing while reading in which I write down words I come across that I either do not know the meaning of, or words that I am just curious of the dictionary's definition. In reading this book, I wrote down over 100 words that met the criteria I just mentioned, and I didn't even have my notebook with me for at least half the book! Here are some of the more entertaining words that I have had the chance to look up:

aggrandizement: to make great or great; to make appear great or greater: praise highly

picayune: something trivial, or little value; A Spanish half real peace formally current in the South.

surreptitious: done, made, or acquired by stealth

supercilious: cooly and patronizingly haughty

ungainly: lacking in smoothness or dexterity: clumsy; having an awkward appearance.

I'm happy to report that reading this series will be building up my vocabulary! You are probably curious as to why I was traveling, well, I just got back from a quick trip to Boulder, Colorado for a triathlon that Kambria competed in. It was a fun trip with the sisters; we got to see wonderful lightning storms, do some window shopping, eat bad Thai food, eat great Chinese street food, watch new shows, and see Kambria compete at a pretty large race! Kambria did well, though not as well as she would have liked. The most important part is that she qualified for another big triathlon at the end of the season. If you want to read more about her season, you should go visit her blog. She hasn't written about her Boulder Tri yet, but you can feel free to bug her about it!

I think this will be the end of my brief update. Coming up soon, I will write about my sister Devynn's Etsy store, and her self-taught glassworks business (she's making me an adorable pair of earrings!). You should check up on her store periodically, it's called Fallen Leaves Koi. Check her out on facebook and Twitter!

I will leave you with a picture of my newly acquired stickers. If you didn't know, I collect stickers to put on my sketchbooks (Cassandra does this too). I wanted to find a cool Colorado one, but didn't have the best of luck. These stickers are pretty cool though!

Tasty Asian Culture

I don't know if you realized, but this week has quite a few holidays! Mardi Gras does always proceed Ash Wednesday (or the first day of Lent), but they don't usually land on the same week as the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day!

Today I got the opportunity to make some Thai Tea with Boba!! Following a recommendation from a friend's blog, I promptly ordered some Tapioca Pearls and large straws from Amazon! They didn't arrive in time for our Chinese New Year Feast, but close enough!

Mail Order!

Delicious Thai Tea with Bubbles!

This year, in honor of Year of the Snake, my family decided to start some new traditions. We made some tasty Asian foods, including: Mango Chicken Curry, Chicken Lo Mein, and Chicken Tempura. We adorned our table with a stone snake (the new year) and a dragon (last year) and our plateware from Japan. I put on a cd with traditional Chinese music that I purchased when I was in Hong Kong. We also decorated our cake in honor of Year of the Snake! It's fun to be festive!

Tasty Food for the New Year!

It kind of looks like a snake....

Another tradition we started this year was writing out some goals for the year to put away until next year. I have this large glass owl jar that we plan to fill with pieces of paper with great moments of the year written on it, to read at the next New Year's event. We put our yellow pieces of paper with our goals in this jar too. I think by next year I might need to learn some new Origami! (Mine is the frog.)

Decorated Goal sheets

I hope that you all enjoy the holidays of this week, and try something new this year! Start a tradition!

Ramses the Tyrant

What do you know about Ramses II, one of the longest-ruling Pharaohs of Egypt? There are a lot of very interesting facts about this Pharaoh, but the main discussion of this blog is the feline who has been given his name.

And this is Ramses! The eight-month old, starving cat that got dropped off near my parents' house! He picked a good time, because the only heart he had to melt was my mother's, and she has a big heart. It just so happened that my dad and Devynn were just leaving for Eastern Oregon for their deer hunt, and Kambria and I went to visit Cassandra in San Francisco for her birthday. This little guy was here when we got back, and what a surprise he has been!

First of all, he is ridiculously playful. Our other cats are all Manx, and are very "introverted." They are super sweet to everyone in the family (although some cats seem to have their favorites) and very skittish when new people are around. Not Ramses. He could be described as extremely extroverted! He hardly sleeps, he always wants to play, he is always hungry, and he always has something to say! 

So, why the name Ramses? I think this name was actually Kambria's idea. It could be that I made her listen to the first book of the Amelia Peabody Series on the way down (and she enjoyed it!) and that the majority of the story takes place in Egypt in the late 1800s. 

It does seem fitting for him though. Instead of black eye liner like what Egyptians wore (or like a lot of other cats) he has black lipstick. He also wants to be the center of attention, which is similar to Ramses II erecting statues of himself all over Egypt. The fact that he came to us as an adolescent could also be likened to Ramses II taking the thrown of Egypt in his teen years. 

Ramses is adapting to life here very well. He still plays a little rough, but he sleeps more and isn't starving (still obsessed with food though). 

Here are another couple of pictures of this funny cat:

Here is Ramses on my shoulders sleeping ( I think)
He jumped up there of his own accord!

Here's the little Tyke playing by himself underneath
the wine cabinet

I will also share with you  just one fact that I learned while doing a little research on Ramses II. (Note: This was on Wikipedia, but it did have 3 citations, you make the call!)

Apparently in 1974, Egyptologists saw that Ramses II's Mummy was deteriorating in the Cairo Museum. Ramses II was issued an Egyptian passport that stated his occupation as "King (deceased)" and they sent him on to Paris to find out that he had a fungus that was causing the problem. Also, when he arrived in Paris, the military gave him a welcome befitting a king! 

Way to go Ramses!!

Kambria's going to Nationals!

My very talented sister has qualified for Triathlon Nationals in Vermont this August! She leaves soon, and is working on raising the money for traveling. If you can help support her, please do! I made this lovely widget for you to donate money to her:



She has also recently started her own blog, so you should check that out if you want to see how she is doing in her events! Her race for Nationals is on August 18, 2012!!!

Year of Peace

So a couple of weekends ago, I went down to San Francisco to visit my little sister and watch the Chinese New Year Parade. The parade was awesome! I didn't realize that it would be set to be more at night, but it makes sense, because they have so many chinese lanterns and fireworks and the like. The parade started at 5:30pm and my sisters and I left at 8pm and it was still going! If we had prepared a little better for the cold, we would have stuck it out a little longer.

There were a lot of cute little kids with bunny ears (actually, lots of things with bunny ears). I also really enjoyed the tiger leaving (2010 was year of the tiger) and the rabbit coming in. Sadly, I used Kambria's camera instead of mine. Hers does not take very good pictures at night, and she has it, so I can't get any of the good pictures off of it! So enjoy the googled images!

Cassandra was saying that the year of the Hare is always a year of Peace. It comes before the year of the dragon, which can be a changing kind of year. So enjoy 2011, friends!

January's Challenge

As promised, here is finally the one post I am making for my challenge for the month of January.
In case you forgot, I had a little poll going on what accessories or clothing items I should incorporate into my daily looks for the entire month of January. There was a three-way tie between scarves, hats and jewelry, so I decided that I would just do an outfit with each for each week.

Then as the first week of January began, my wireless internet was not functioning in my house, making it very difficult for me to post three times a week. I still look the pictures for the first week, and that was a hassle in itself! So I only got through one week and will show you the outfits that came of it. Kudos to all of my blogging friends who do outfit posts, they are a lot more work than I would have ever thought.

So here is day one: (hats)

The whole look: old brown houndstooth hat from I don't remember where, old white collared shirt, brown O'Neil v-neck top, Brownish vest/shrug from Ross, Athena Owl coin necklace, pearl and gold 'happiness' earrings, skinny blue jeans, black boots.

Close-up on the Owl Necklace I got from my sister 4 or 5 Christmases ago.

Close up on the inspiration piece (my hat) and the lovely earrings my mom found for me in San Francisco's Chinatown.


Day two: (scarves)

Black & White Hong Kong scarf, Old Navy Cardigan, Teal Cotton dress from Hong Kong, Victoria's Secret leggings and black boots.

The inspiration piece for the outfit!

And I had to show my brightly colored Nike jackets, because the day I wore this entire outfit I had so many compliments on my coat. I even had someone compliment me as I rode past them on my bike....


Day Three: (Jewelry)

I decided to go with my birthday "going-out" outfit! My sister Kambria picked out the black tank top for me from Wet Seal, and I decided to highlight the black with yellow. Yellow ribbon, yellow flower, my black Nike golf skirt, black tights and my yellow Hong Kong heels. Oh yes, and my yellow dangle earrings! (Not exactly the inspiration, but a perfect touch!)

Just for fun :)

Hope you enjoyed the one post for my January Challenge. Remind me to not try to add something like that to my already busy life!!

Dressing for different body types

This is a topic that I really need to research further. My career goal is to create an outdoor brand for women specifically for women who disc golf. As I have played with many different women at many different skill levels I have come to realize that disc golf does not create a specific body type like other sports. These women can be all different shapes and sizes, even at the professional level. I want to design for all of these women.

Because I have absolutely no experience in dressing people of different body types, it is going to take some researching on my part. The other day my sisters and I were watching the movie HairSpray, and noticed how good Queen Latifah looks in this dress:

Nevermind John Travolta dressed as a woman there...

I'm still trying to analyze all the reasons why this dress looks so good on her, because I know it would definitely not look that good on me. First of all, she has a chest and this dress does an excellent job of emphasizing this. I think the flowing fabric helps give hint to a waist and shape without showing every curve.

What do you think?

A Loyal Dog

I recently watched the movie Hachi: A Dog's Tale with my family. It's Christmas break, so I'm watching movies :)

Hachi was filmed in 2009 starring Richard Gere and Joan Allen. I was a little reluctant to want to watch this movie. My family came back from their day with a stack of movies, none looked very promising to me. Across the cover of this one said the immortal words "Based on a True Story," so it was obviously my mother's first choice.

I was pleasantly surprised, because I actually enjoyed the movie. Here was a movie with a fairly simple plot about a dog, that was done well (much better than that ridiculous Marley and Me). I was ready to give this movie a thumbs up until the end of the film, when the words on the screen said that the true story was actually about a Japanese professor at a Japanese train station. Pfft.

If you know much about be, then you know that I am currently obsessed with all things Asian, most of all Japan. So to find out that this movie could have actually been in a Japanese setting really put me out! To think I was excited about the one Japanese character in the film, and the discussion of the Japanese history of the dog!

If you don't want me to ruin the movie for you by totally revealing the plot, please, read no further. The real story of the dog Hachi started when he was born in Odate, Japan, in the Akita prefecture in November of 1923. He was sold to Professor Hidesaburo Ueno, an agricultural engineer professor at the University of Tokyo.

From what information I can gather between the film, the ever reliable Wikipedia, and other random websites, is that Hachi would walk with his master to Shibuya station everyday, go home, then at the end of the day come back to the station to pick him up. After two years of owning the dog, one day the professor boarded the train and then never came back. Hachiko waited for him to return, in fact, this dog came back to the station every day for nine years after his master died, every day until he died.

The loyalty of this dog is what makes this story so famous, famous in Japan. According to what I've read, there was more than one newspaper article printed up about the dog while he was alive, praising him for his loyalty. After the dog's death their was a film made in Japan in 1987 (Hachiko Monogatari). A bronze statue has been placed at the Shibuya station and is one of the most popular meeting places in Japan.

Every year in April there is a ceremony at this statue for this dog, where lots of dog lovers from all over Japan come to participate. There are also two other statues of this dog in Japan, one in Odate where he was born and one in front of the Akita Dog Museum. (Akita is the breed of dog that Hachi was, also Japanese).

This movie did lead me to a neat bit of history about Japan, so I am happy about that. I have one more thing to add to my list of places to visit when I go to Japan!(Maybe I could meet someone at Hachi's statue!)

Here is the statue of Hachi:


This post makes me think of two things: (1)this seems to me like the second Japanese movie remake that Richard Gere is a part of, and (2) we have an American dog hero statue... Balto. Perhaps I'll post about it in the future.

Jingle Bell Run

Today two of my sisters participated in the Jingle Bell Run down in Eugene. I didn't get to go watch them run, but they did very well in their races!

Devynn took first in her age group for the 5k, and Kambria was the first female in for the 8k. Here's a picture of their cool fun run shirts and their prizes!




I ran this race, probably two years ago, and it was a fun race. If I remember right, there's a nature reserve/park you run through which makes it better than just a typical road run. It's also cool to see how far the event has come along. The year I did it, they gave each runner tiny little bells to fasten on them wherever. This year, they had bigger bells and two different types of shirts for the runners. As you can see in the picture, first place got "crowned" with a wire fir tree branch, and some cool prizes like sparking cider and a bucket of candy.

All of fall term I had been meaning to keep up with my running, but I never even got started. Part of the problem is when you are so busy with everything else (like school & your career) you push running aside to get in more time to do homework. I also value my sleep, so running gets further down the priority list.

My plan is to run this winter break so it will be easier to keep up during winter term. If I keep it up all year I'll plan on doing this race next year, I'm sure it will be even better!

Until then, I'll be keeping an eye on goodrace.com for some upcoming races :)

My Christmas List

Isn't it interesting that it get to be the holiday season, the time when we are supposed to be thankful for the family and friends we have, that it is still all about us? I mean, there is really no getting away from it in American Culture. I notice it even more after studying retail strategies for my final tomorrow....

Another reason I can't help but to think about me, is my parents requested a Christmas list that I can email them. They want to stay in and do all of their Christmas shopping online. I have to say, it's been pretty fun taking a break and seeing what sort of things I want online.

But really, if my family all went together and bought me a MacBook Pro, with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, I would be one happy camper. Probably more than just a happy camper.

But here are some fun things I found while online window shopping :)
From Onitsuka Tiger (Asics):


From Tokidoki & Asics:


From Nike:



And then of course, an endless list of music available on YesAsia! I guess an iTunes gift card would work too :)

Now to back to figuring out what to get everyone else!