..:. Cracking My Vainpot .:.. - personal

Animal Therapy: feeling down, saddle up

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:13:00 -0600

"There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man."

"No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle."

- Churchill

Spoon well with others

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:43:00 -0500

It's been so long... I will soon forget what it's like to be loved.

Do 30yo still fall in love?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:01:00 -0500

Miss Piggy

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:43:00 -0500

Ever since that bruising battle against SARS back in 2003, people from Hong Kong would flinch on any mentioning of new viruses.

My sister works as a trolly dolly for Cathay. After a lot of hoo-hah, her union finally won them the right to wear face mask whilst serving on the plane. But that wasn't enough to stop her from panicking when one of her passengers from Taiwan was later confirmed to carry that infamous swine flu.

Suddenly, she's tired all the time. Suddenly, she had this headache that just won't go away. Pacing around for half a day, she eventually checked herself into the hospital and stepped right into a disaster movie set. They kept her in isolation, bled her every hour and tested her bogey every 5 minutes. Even if she cleared all the diagnostic tests, they'd still quarantine her for at least a week.

Poor Ms Piggy.

I should've answered the phone and screamed "no, you don't even have a fever. Go back to bed!"

I don't think she kissed all her passengers...

Epiphyllum 曇花

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:39:00 -0600

愛慕從來是短 ?

Unexpected Shirley Kwan Fan

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:04:00 -0600

My number 1 healthy obsession is a she.

Shirley Kwan. SK.

An unlikely Hong Kong pop diva.

She was never immensely popular nor does she have the strongest vocal.

Dissing her is almost second nature to half of Hong Kong. In fact, telling people you like SK can be as pleasant as coming out of the closet.

But a small number of us did see the magic in her and our support, albeit minimalistic at best, has never wavered through the years.

She was always there with me. When I discovered sexuality in Australia, when I wanted to kill myself in England, when I got piss drunk lying flat on a San Francisco Muni train, when I slaved away til dawn in the lab.

She was always there.

I never thought much of pop stars and celebrities, but boy, SK got me doing a lot of unexpected, out-of-character crazy "fan" stuff.

As a token of admiration, I wrote her entire wikipedia(en) entry almost all by myself. Even got into trouble at one point cos I was selling her too much :P

Cheeky me also uploaded a picture of her taken in Toronto when we met a year ago.

Guess what, I just found that if you google "Shirley Kwan", this picture comes up as the first image result!!!

:-D

The original:-

Steven Chu the New Energy Czar

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:05:00 -0600

Congratulations to Steven Chu the new Secretary of Energy in the Obama administration. Having a scientist in a position of power is like putting facts and logic before profits. Should he survive all the politics, Hope is on it's way for the planet!

"I was following this as an interested citizen. And it became more and more apparent to me that the dangers, the potential risks of climate change were looking like they were more and more likely, and that ... as a scientist, a responsible scientist, you really have to think of what you can do to help with this problem."

[NPR: Nobel Winner Chu To Land Top Energy Post]

* * *

Watching this 2004 video of Dr Chu tracing his career path is heart warming in so many levels. As a scientist, I appreciate that he truly understands our challenge to be novel and our desire to be inspired. As a Chinese, the way he described his childhood reminded me of my own and how my father tried to instill in me bits of the old Chinese culture that no longer exist. What's more, he was born in Missouri!

"One of the highest things you can aspire to is to be a scholar for scholarship sake."

"A good scientist is their worst critic. They're always trying to prove themselves wrong, which is hard."

"In science once you announce something, first everybody tells you that you're wrong, then they tell you it's trivial, and then you're not the first to discover it."

"Science is really about describing the way the universe works... You have to have a natural curiosity for that... a really driven curiosity, you want to know the answer, and with that curiosity you have comes with a certain doggedness, because there will be setbacks, you will be discouraged, things aren't gonna work, you're gonna have troubles understanding them, things are hard to understand the first time."

Life On Hold

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:57:00 -0600

Sigh. When am I going to have a normal boyfriend?! Sometimes I do think it's all my fault. Moving around too often, not giving other (+myself) a chance, unreasonable expectations... #$%&;[('@")]:/*^_-

I met the Anderson Cooper of Kansas City a while back. He's tall, handsome, famous, confident, successful, engaging, fit, VERY fit, he can fuck like a superman, he absolutely adores my coffee and it tickles my vainpot to see him on TV. Yet, I didn't feel that we connect.

What else do you want, Mr VP? What else do you want?!

Untitled

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:45:00 -0600

OH YES WE CAN!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Cracked VAINPOT) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:55:00 -0600

For the first time in my life, I feel that America is the greatest country in the world.

For the first time in my life, I really believe that equality can be achieved.

Congratulations, Mr President!

* * *

[Excerpt from: Obama Acceptance Speech in Chicago 11/04/2008]

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer...

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.