HANIpost

I actually made changes to my LJ! I even added a new userpic! The last userpic added was before I got married. Maybe even before I started working.

Anyway, for my latest userpic, I decided to pick my current tarot significator, which happens to be strength a.k.a. lust (which I prefer, duh). This image is from the Art Nouveau Tarot deck, which doesn't really depict the lusty part of the card, but I couldn't fit the Crowley image into a square to my satisfaction, and I do not like rectangular userpics, so Art Nouveau it is.

This is who I am now, tamer of the (inner) lion. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't, but either way, I'm understanding of myself, but nonetheless persistent with myself, and I won't give up until the beast is a good girl. The Beauty and the Beast can get along and be friends now, and even help each other along. I'm not struggling against my self and hating who I am or what I do.

Strength is a cool card to have as a Significator. Pity that I just couldn't find the tarot image to represent all I wanted to symbolize in a 100px square. This post kinda just skims the surface of what this card tells me about myself, but I just don't feel the urge to express all that I am anymore. I am content to keep me to myself because inside here, the Beauty and the Beast are content to chill with each other and need no external affirmations anymore.

Found this card that includes a pass to Six Flags, a day pass to COPIA and a few other Wine Country activities, and tons of stuff in San Francisco itself.

A five-day pass is $119 and a three-day pass is $89. The question as always is of course, would I make a saving by using it?

( Rambling on should or should-not )

Update: Discussed with Akak over the phone and the Internet regarding the card, and she got caught up with it when she realized it has a whale-watching tour. So we are after all gonna try to buy it today, and re-plan the trip around the card.

But when we tried to buy the cards, it wouldn't allow Malaysia. So Akak is going to try to get her Singaporean friend to buy the cards for us. See how that goes.

I have one single Sunday to combine Portland and Salem. A tall order, but who knows? Maybe I could squeeze a bit extra between wedding stuff.

Portland
( A walk, books and beer! )

Salem
( Shopping and Shipping )

Sounds doable, to squeeze all these things in one day. Depends on timing of the walking tour la.

Am starting to realize that the trip to America is complicated. Lots of details and things to plan. So have decided to put up my thoughts and ideas up on dead LJ so I have a place to keep track of everything.

First! The Big Picture. In general, everybody starts with Adik's wedding in Salem, Oregon. Then the family breaks up for their separate holidays. Mom intends to ruin Adik's honeymoon by staying on. Kak Mi, Kak Za and Abang Rahman want to do the Hollywood thing, which I've already done. So Akak, Abang Hussein, tariq_kamal and I are gonna do a road trip! We're renting a car in Salem and driving it down all the way to San Francisco, with various detours of course.

( Map and Timeline )

So here I am in Bangkok, visiting Aunty Timah, tariq_kamal's mother. We spent most of yesterday on the initial creation of my wedding gown and the clothes that Aunty Timah and Alisya would be wearing for the reception.

I confess that I succumbed to the white wedding gown. It disturbs me and horrifies me that I will be wearing the traditional white mat salleh wedding gown. I blame tariq_kamal completely and utterly for this, for desiring to wear a suit. I will make him pay for the rest of life as my husband. Mwahahaha.

But the gown will be beautiful. It's a silk chiffon A-line with cap-sleeves and sweetheart neckline. Very simple and very fragile. tariq_kamal, you will have to be very very very careful of me at the reception.

( Little Things From Bangkok )

But I miss tariq_kamal. It would be nice if he were here to tell me all the little things he does. Or at least the little things I nag him into telling me.

Will be sorry to go back to KL tonight. So much to explore in Bangkok but had so little time that all I saw was just the sugar unsinking on top of the very thick foam.

I'm on my first business trip!

Helping out with the Royal Langkawi International Regatta.

Will be back on Friday evening, hopefully.

Me like this dress for the pretty lace peeking in the center. ( Suggesting sleeves )

But then again, I finally found the mandarin-ish collared overgaun!

And it looks so beautiful yet simple, that I think it might not be as expensive as I thought it would have to be.

Me like.

Though I love, love, love the idea of an overgown with the mandarin collar, due to the fact that my fiancé feels that the mandarin jacket would make him appear like a waiter, he has gone for the more traditional suit, a la Clooney:

Hence, if I choose an overgown with mandarin collar, I would no longer be matching my bridegroom. However, does that really matter? Possibly not.

Then again, my mother, in her usual ebay surfing, found herself extremely fond of this:

Looks very much like another variation of Princess Mary's gown, which I wasn't really particularly fond of....

But it's what my mother likes. And it does look pretty, while we have no definite picture of what the mandarin-collared overgown would look like....

I'm so easily influenced by my mother. She's upset with me for not wanting to carry a bouquet at my Marriott Bridal March. She says I have to, and that's it.

Sigh.

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Ironically, the picture for this "colourful" answer is in black and white. What's up with that?

After a long break, having been too busy celebrating my engagement and my birthday, I am now back to hunting for the ideal gown!

I am pleased to say that I found a website with some seriously pretty but decently covered gowns to wear! Yay! So there are lots and lots and lots of gowns in this post!

( Lots of gowns under this link! )

And there's all the gowns we have for today! Do comment and let me know!

Thanks ever so much for the comments! I think definitely I will need to see if I can re-design yesterday's number 3 a bit.

In the meantime, more gowns!

This time, I'm branching away from the Empress deal.

( Why did no one point out my Ebilness in not cutting post? )

Comment! Comment!

Note to self: remind Tariq to check with his mother when I should go to Bangkok to get dress made.

Yes, because the male wants to wear a suit for his reception, I must now hunt for a mat salleh gaun to wear to match his suit.

What do I know of Western wedding gowns? I never expected to have to wear one! Bah.

Furthermore, here's the problem: My old man. He don't like me baring my cleavage, or my back, or my shoulders, or my arms for that matter. Every single inch is hard-won, and hard-fought for. The battle of the fabric! It drives me nuts. The difficulty is in trying to find a mat salleh gaun that wouldn't embarrass both my father and myself for me to wear.

So after much perusal, I'm leaning towards the Empire-style dress. No, not Star Wars Empire. Bonapart's Empire. As in, the dresses below.

( Sin is messing up people's friends' pages )

That should be more than enough right now. What do you guys think?

Just to inform you:

I have begun to wear glasses and contact lenses again. The LASIK didn't quite stick.

Alas. Too bad. But it was a good time without glasses. Now that I'm wearing glasses again, I feel so irritated. The stupid framing around my eyes. The annoying smudge I always get on the lense. The irritation from dry eyes when wearing contacts.

I was wearing glasses since I was nine so I never really noticed all these irritations. Until I went for what? two years? without glasses.

And now I'm typing this with my glasses on, and I sigh. It was good while it lasted. At least I know now what it's like to see things clearly with my own eyes.

Excuse me now. Gotta go rub that smudge of my spectacle lenses.

Confirmed! The dates are confirmed!

So take out your calendars and book the weekend of July 14 and July 15, 2006 for my wedding! Do NOT do anything else on those dates!

Correction: [October 6, 2005] July 15 & 16, 2006.

I think.

....

Erm, will tell you when nearer lah!

This meme was done by leila_nile, serabut and dachinchilla.

The Magic 8-ball Winamp meme - put your Winamp on shuffle and use the song titles as answers to the following questions: (no cheating)

( The Magic 8-ball Winamp meme )

*This random was taken from a list of 1650 songs on my playlist. If you want any of the songs listed, let me know.

List 3 things that bug you—things that others may find trivial. Then tag 5 of your friends. Only list 3 things because you may/can be tagged again.

1. When sweat gets into my eyes.
2. Sharing my computer with people who don't understand computers, though I'm kinda resigned to it.
3. Handbags with bad user-design.

1. Go into your LJ archive
2. Find your 23rd post
3. Find your 5th sentence (or closest to it)
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions
5. Tag 5 people on your friend list

The text of the fifth sentence of my 23rd post is, Mr. Pinkwhistle is so nice and helpful, and pushes you towards becoming a better person, sometimes against your will, too! You should go check out the post and the fascinating comments generated by the post for a trip through memory lane.

I tag tariq_kamal and syricaan (don't think I didn't notice that comment you deleted!) and anybody else who feels like being tagged.

I appreciate all kinds of sex. Especially painless versions!

Hence I was delighted to be tagged by serabut for this meme. The names listed are in no particular order.

( Ten Fictitious Characters that I Enjoy Shagging in My Head )

I tag tariq_kamal and that's it.

Digging far back to dachinchilla's past...

( my version! )

And there you have it -- suffer!