Back home from vacation

Back from Chicago!
You are welcome to use any photos I uploaded here on this post as stocks. :D
Don't need to credit or worry about licensing. Just don't resell the original version.

Clover con

 I will be at Clover Con: http://clovercon.blogspot.com/  Sat 6/18 in Bridgewater, NJ selling my books and such. See you there if you are local to that con.
310 Milltown Road in Bridgewater NJ. 4H center.
Artist Alley is located in the "gym"

the inspiring 2nd day

The most awe inspiring story has to come from "Facing the Giants" and "Fire Proof" told by Dave Nixon, a man who has rolled himself into the film industry for 30 years.

Both Facing the Giants and Fire Roof are done as church funded projects, and become successful films after "Passion" was released. Just hearing the story of how a church (roughly the size of a little town) will gather up under one single will "To make a story that will touch the lives of people" ... all 450 plus volunteers, under the direction of 5 industry professionals, turn into a whole film crew and made 2 successful films that got picked up by Sony, a mainstream distributor and do so well nationally and internationally is just mind-blowing to me. Now they are making their third and forth film.

Now that little church in Albany Georgia is making a new feature film every 3 years, and started a whole industry of towns people cottage production.

They made films based on real people in their little town, on real locations, borrowing people's houses, local policemen, fire trucks, local fire departments, local high school, football teams... local film equipments, with church donation as fundings... any revenue made goes back to the community as donation and services to make the community a better place to live. No one is getting rich out of this, everyone just aimed to give and wanted to do something meaningful together. (under the condition that they can't do it as often as the pros who are getting paid.)

This is normal people making exceptional films for normal people and touching the hearts of everyday lives.

Wow... Just wow.

Can this be repeated? I sure hope it can, it might not just change Hollywood, it will change the nation, it really can change the world. No kidding.

In Arizona

 A photo taken on the drive to Phoenix college town, it shows the Camel mountain,
that's shaped like a Camel and it's back. (head on the left, back on the right)

First day was a day of travel, exhaustion, plus that timely woman cycle.... geerrr... Guys are lucky that they don't have to deal with that. T_T

I end up laying in hotel bed watching movies instead of going to the festivals, overspent on my dinner because i was too hungry to pay closer attention to the happy hour menu. T_T

But the Japanese restaurant "Kan pei" (meaning "Cheers" before drinking) is quite nice. A new place at the college town. We ate at the sushi bar and the chiefs made effort to chat with us as little, though I wasn't much in the mood to talk. (too hungry/dizzy) I made so many stupid mistakes there it's embarrassing. XD

Like I almost ate sushi with a fork, forgot to put my napkin away before I stood up and walk, didn't know what to do with a hundred dollar bill and insisted on paying at the counter, overspent on my budget for the first dinner.... T_T

AZ is expensive compare to NJ, that surprised me, aw come on you are almost mid-west! South Mid-west is supposed to be cheaper! It's like California and worse, it charges 2% tax on food itself! 9% tax on everything else!

Arrrrgh, what can one expect in a Dessert. T.T

I better watch my budget in the next two days, this leaves my budget at 10 dollar per meal.

My long trip part 4- The Old home

Waking up in the morning, I heard Muslim's call for prayer at 5 am, how dedicated. 

We finally saw our old house, I used to live there when I was a baby. I only have memories of the white pillars left with me, I hardly remember anything else about the house. 

My parents kept mentioning how much has changed, and how lost they are in this country now. 

My long trip part 3- No Durian allowed

OMG look at that crowd at Malaysia air port!

We got to stay at Royale Bintang hotel because my parents have a friend treating us with an excellent deal, and spending in Malaysia is cheaper too. 4 star hotel! And I saw a funny sign:

No Durians allowed. LOL 

It's a serious problem there... some ppl in Malaysia love Durian. They have Durian, all you can eat, Durian cake, Durian ice cream.... If they bring Durian into the hotel, the smell can stay upto 2 weeks! 

Not that I mind the smell. (yes i finally got to eat GOOD Durian, I couldn't eat a lot because it was so rich. But I prefer the cheap ones over the expensive D101, D101 stinks with alcohol smell.) 

The food at the hotel is great too, something special about Malaysia is the different dominant cultures there, Malaysian, Muslim, Chinese, India, and English. From language, TV advertising, to clothing and food.... one can constantly get all sort of choices. That's when we realized why in my house we cook so many different dishes. It's the influence of Malaysia. :D

My long trip part 2- Malaysia

A shout out to friends who live in Malaysia: SORRY I did not tell you guys I was coming to Malaysia, but its a private family trip and I rather not involve more visiting than necessary.  

After a short stay in Hong Kong, we left for Malaysia on the second day, we had to pay the penalty for rescheduling, but at least Continental paid for our hotel. XD  (1st photo is a shot at Hong Kong's lovely airport, if i have not mistaken it with other air ports... )

The funniest sign from Air Asia. In most Asian airline you have to pay for your baggages, they aren't included in the ticket price. XD

My long trip Part 1- stop at hong kong

My long trip really starts at the HIC retreat, a beautiful, serene place to relax from all the craziness of life, run by a non-profit organization. With little wooden houses, nice cafe area, nice grass fields and camp site, too.

Now, 6/23, arriving at Air port, my big trip officially starts!

Flying out of Japan into Taiwan

The 3 days went fast in Japan.

Japan seriously has the best toilets and bathrooms. XDDD What a clean country.

It's also fairly quiet for a city... with the exception of a few streets. Its probably the cleanest city i have visited other than Singapore. Tongue

I got to see the almost finished Gundam in its place. My otaku dream fullfilled. XDDD

Now i am in Taiwan but i am very tired, i will share more once i have time and strength to do it. I will be in Taiwan for a english camp, so i will be kept busy for two weeks. I hope i can meet up with Tikal and Shufan, my two close friends in Taiwan.

到台湾了,日本真的是很有秩序又干净的地方. 马桶卫生是我看过最高级的了~XD

hostel at JP we are staying at

http://www.toukaisou.com/

This is the hostel i will be staying at when i go to Japan.

back from Florida

I haven't got the photo in yet....
but...

We went to Florida outpouring... the Christian healing service my mom is very into.

Then we went to The Sea World, saw some dophin and killer whale show and walked around all day seeing all the different shows; finally my parents decided to be generous and K-in 400 bucks for us to go to Disney World-Disney Hollywood.

What I got most out of was the car stunt show, how they modified their cars and the tricks they used and shared. There was fire, water, all sorts of intensive shots. It's a show not to miss. :)
Right, I saw some nice work-in-progress sketches in the Animation block too, those are nice to see.

I caught a cold from going in and out of air conditioned room and the steaming heat... X_X

And the storm weather is very consistent, hot in the morning with sunshine, and it definitely rain and storm in the afternoon... so most of our trips are... half a day. XD

To be honest I still wished we had gone to some kind of nature related places.... but we had no interest in the beaches, and what else is there in Florida but Disney??? X_X Disney almost practically owns the state! You can feel it the moment you arrive at the air port! XD

I took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Wants interesting and exciting things to happen. A..." Click here to read the rest of the results.