Reading Challenge...for life

So I stumbled upon the Rory Gilmore's Reading Challenge.  It's a challenge of reading all the books that are mentioned in Gilmore Girls that Rory makes reference to and looking at the list of 250 some books...it's a challenge.

I'll Bold the ones I'm currently reading but I feel this will be a life long goal rather than a 2015 challenge...because fuck that!

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – read – June 2010
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire 
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger – read
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber 
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - read – 2009
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen 
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR) 
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom – read
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling 
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (TBR)
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry (TBR)
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott –
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold – read
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare – read
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – read
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – read
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare 
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby 
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers 
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR) 
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy 
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers 
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom 
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray 
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee – read
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire 
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

So...I Wrote a Book...I'm an Artist

I Wrote a Book

It's funny to say something like that because I'm sure if people asked what I did and I replied with, 'I'm a writer', people give you a look that says, 'you can't be serious, right?'.

Yeah, I'm fucking serious!

I sometimes wonder if it's worse to proclaim your a writer compared to saying your an artist or the like - I still consider myself an artist.

There's a certain stigma that goes with being a writer or an artist.
Being poor is one of them.

I can't say that I'm any different at times because when people tell me the same thing, depending on their mood, I say, 'Oh, okay.' and move on or would be more engaged and say, "Wow, that's great!  What type of art...etc.'

I'm not happy that I do that and I catch myself but it's all part of that stigma of how we perceive artists.

I remember going to my best friends graduation at a small yet charming art school in SoCal.  The keynote speaker was brilliant in my opinion but his words rang true.  Artist are under valued and don't really get appreciated but after a millennium and society as we know it has changed, it is these artist work that sticks out define a culture, a time and place.

Artists defines a society.

It's silly we don't give them credit where credit is due.

Don Hahn as Keynote speaker

Snow in Hawaii!

So for those of you that doesn't know...

It snows in Hawaii!

Yup, that's snow and from the looks of it, it'll last about 2 weeks.  (Believe me, that's pretty long)

For more pictures and information click here.

P.S.
If you're trying to get to the submit, DON'T.

Roads are closed as far as I know and you don't even want to attempt that because the incline is so drastic.  Keep Warm!

Memory Lane 懐かしい...Nara & Shika

Exhibit A: Deer Munchin' on Map

So we were in Japan for our second honeymoon and I wanted to go to Nara because everyone says stop by there.

Let me tell you, Nara is my FAVORITE stop in Japan next to Kawagoe Koedo in Saitama.  On this trip, We went from Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Miyajima in Hiroshima (close 2nd), Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Obama, Sapporo, Furano, Tokyo, Saitama.

...Now that I'm listing it down...yeah, it's quite a few places.

So back to Nara and these shika or deer.

They were very ballsy deer, but polite.  And yes, I did say, 'polite'.  They were trained to bow at people in hopes that you would give them a cracker or senbei.  Yes, we tried the senbei too and they just tasted like a plain rice cracker with no frill or whistles.

Anyhoo, when you DON'T give them senbei, they do tend to get your attention though other means.  I'd like to redirect your attention to Exhibit A: Deer Munchin' on Map.  NO, We didn't GIVE the deer the fuckin' map; the deer took it! (just like the monkey's in Malaysia, but that's a story for another time)

So, my husband didn't have any more senbei and was sitting quietly, looking at the map and minding his own business - I wasn't here so I'm just taking his word for it.  Well, I guess an opportunistic deer thought it could harass a lone human without its other deer buddies for competition.  The deer got the last of his senbei but didn't like not being fed, so when my husband ran out and went back to reading his map, the deer suddenly took a hold of the corner of his map and tug-of-war insured.

Shika 1 (+1 map) --> husband 0

The map ripped at his fingertips and he was left with only a corner while the deer spitefully chewed at that map.

Examine Exhibit A again.

That deer has a nice little snarl that almost says, 'Fuck you, try and take this back'!

Apparently, the deer was chewing that thing for a while just staring down my husband trying, to soften up the staunch, waxy paper before swallowing; probably all the while thinking, 'fuck you, human.  I get what I want!'

I think my husband gave up at that point and shot a picture just for evidence when he retold the story.


I on the other hand, didn't give a shit or give in to their deer pressure and had absolutely NO PROBLEM pushing them away when they got too demanding.


Exhibit B: Me Not Giving a Shit...because Fuck them!

Those deer are definitely something else, but I still love them.

Grants

So, I'm on this kick on trying to find Grants to fund my poor ass since I know I'll be needing financial support as soon as my schooling is done.

Grants

I've been looking because you narrow the search down to Individuals, you'll find some available.

The only kicker is most of them is for research - which I'm okay with since I work in a research lab and it's usually a LOT of work to put on of these together.

I applied for my first on a few months ago and I didn't get it because I wasn't really prepared BUT it was a valuable lesson.  It was a great learning process to put one together (I think total, I had 22 pages) and it gave me the confidence to try again.

If you search online Grants for Individuals, I remember distinctly a Grant Writing book for Dummies online so search around.

The great thing about that particular grant I signed up for was it was through NOAA and they got back to me saying, do this and this to improve your chances for next time.  So, at least, I've got feedback on how I can make a better proposal for next time.

Reading books again!

I love to read; let me preface my entry with that.

However, I've not completed more than a handful of books in the last 5 years.  Maybe less.  I read lots of things online and though I try and attempt books, I've not been able to get back into reading them again.  I feared that I may have converted completely to Electronic format (E-books).  I'll read story after story on my computer - probably bad for my eyes - but I really was lazy about even flipping a page or even cracking open the book.  Granted, I like the e-books or PDFs where you don't that physical reminder of how much you've read or have left and can just look at a number on the screen to find out.  I don't know why, but for me, it really makes a difference when you're holding a big book and your holding on to over 90% of the pages in your right hand.  Not only that, I read stuff online because it's fast paced and short.

Yeah, it's probably just me.

Well, I'm getting off topic but I made a New Years Resolution to read more.  While traveling in California this X-mas, I picked up, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" as well as "Eon" and I think I broke my aversion to reading physical books.  Now, I just want to keep reading but also if I read things online like another E-Book, I'll make sure it's a few hundred pages.  I've found a way to really beef up my reading and it's while you exercise.  Definitely not while you're lifting weights but because I practically workout every other day, I bust out my E-Book and read it on the elliptical to make the time go by faster.

I've also read, Fire Country and The Pearl that Broke its Shell during those training session and let me tell you, it really helps to keep your mind occupied as you're jogging.

Not too bad for someone that averaged 1 book a year in the last 5 years.  I've already completed 4 and working on my 5.

Wish me luck for this year!

Ram!

Day 2: BKK -> Phuket Island: Phuket Town & Patong Beach Thailand (2008)

Yesterday, I asked for a wake up call at 6:30 am this morning, I got ready for the continental breakfast and headed for the second floor where it is being held. There was an array of food and oh…it was scrumptious! I’m not sure if it’s what you would call traditional Thai but it was good none the less!

After I got my food, I looked for another table but decided to sit with another foreigner that looked to be alone. She was from Canada, I forget her name but she helped assure me that it’s easy to get around places and safe! I need that confirmation every now and again seeing as I still don’t know what I’m doing. It was interesting talking to her as she was ending her trip and I was beginning mine. I tried to imagine what it would be like at her end of the trip after going all the places she’s been to and to look back on her experience traveling.

So I ate fried flowerish things like Pankeke except no banana and it came with a great green sauce that definitely had coconut milk :D I had some fruits, mini pancakes as well as this prepe like thing that is thicker but oh! Talk about interesting.

Last night with my whole fiasco, I get a the room 808 but it instantly reminded me of home…coincidence…I think Not! I’m a survivor and all these experiences are just making me stronger!

After Breakfast, I had an itching to see a bit of the area around me and so, I decide to go to the Wat that is just out my window. From looking at it, I could tell that I just needed to cross the street walk a few blocks and turn right. Honestly, I could have easily gotten lost, but something in me kept me going no mater what. I encounter my first obstacle crossing the street as they have NO street lights and yeah…I do what comes natural. I wait for someone else to cross the street and go with them! Ha!

I walk a bit and I finally get to the Wat! I’m so stoked because, they are as beautiful and detailed as I would imagine. I LOVE looking at them and I don’t know why, but I want to go inside but don’t have the guts.

I walk into the gates that are at the side and see some Buddha statues but realize that it’s not quite the entrance. I speak in English pointing to the Wat but they don’t understand so I just bow and thank them and head to another gate. The main gate was unmistakable and it had a HUGE picture of the royal family on it. I realize they have the royal family on EVERYTHING, even huge skyscrapers, but I go in and see that it’s practically empty. I love it!

I go and take a few pictures and notice it has another building that is also intricate architecture wise. I then walk further where I hear announcements going on in the background. I also realize that’s where I can get a side view of the wat so I go but cautiously because I’ve read in the Lonely Planet not to go anywhere near political rallies or what nots.

Haha, I was just getting a bit paranoid until I realized that the voices were actually children and so I went and took some video footage and when I was content, I bowed a thank you in the general direction and headed for my hotel to write and pack.

Well, I did my budget and yeah…I spent quite a bit but yeah…my limit was 60 Baht or less. I had to spend 375 on the stupid taxi to the airport. Miss communication of 2 or 3 (I don’t know HOW he could have miss understood when I held up my fingers to indicate as well) but he fucking did! Well, the orginal price was going to be 400 baht, but I bargained to 350 (not too good but I’m trying!) So at least it was 200 baht but I ended up paying highway tolls on the way. I sorta like that idea because it semi relieves the congestion on the lanes. Think of it as a car pool lane that you can get into only you have to pay for it and it’s the whole highway. You can see how this can be effective when you have people like me that don’t want to pay for anything :P

I get to the airport and it’s a quarter past 9:00am. I’ve got until 11:00ish before the actual boarding. This airport is almost like Honolulu, not as busy now that they have most of their flights at the new airport (which is REALLY NICE). It’s just like China where you have to wait by the gate that is actually a bus stop that will take you to the plane in some remote corner. I got a picture of this time! I’m so happy because I got to have 2 extra bags of peanuts! Yay!

We’re landing in Phuket…I’ll be back.

I arrive in Phuket and find the minivans to take me to Phuket town. I’m so happy that I did though because I got to meet some really nice girls from Phuket. While in the bus, one of them asked where I was staying and so forth and they went out of their way to help me book a reservation.

I asked them were I should go visit and they told me Patong (Beach). They then told me price ranges for places to stay and recommended me to stay in town because I could easily catch a bus for cheap. They canceled the reservation that they set for me and then when we arrived, one of the girls offered to take me around in her car to look for a place. I wanted to treat them for lunch but they were busy so they dropped me off in front of their favorite place to eat.

There I had REALLY good watermelon shake (watermelon juice & ice) and thai tea! I also had green curry I think and rice and the price was great! That whole meal for $4!

Once I was done, I was ready to go on my journey to find a hotel schlepping all my stuff with me~! Luckily again for me, there was a great place just 5 doors down and it was decent! Okay about 500B for one night and granted it’s a great price for a warm shower and big bed but honesty, I was hoping for something like 200B but I was tired as it was and I just wanted to put my stuff down to explore. The room was not bad. I was in 406 or the Sivatheeve Hotel and the bellhop was really helpful. Heck, he was more helpful than the girls at the counter since he knew English pretty well!

When I got my stuff situated, I went down and asked where I could go to the nearest electronic store because I needed a plug for this region and I wouldn’t gonna chance putting my plug in the outlets here only to have my equipment blow out! He told me to go right, straight and left and I found myself at a small store.

It took me 5 minutes to convey what I needed but it turned out they didn’t have it so they told me to walk straight down for 20 minutes and I’d come to another store. I…didn’t feel it was a great need for the plug even though my camera battery needed charging but not my top priority at that moment.

I asked them for the directions to get a bus to Patong and they just told me to go left and straight down. On my way, I would try to confirm that I’m going the right way but saying two words: Patong Bus?

Haha, such a foreigner action but really, what can I do? If I knew what to say, I’d still be screwed because they would explain in Thai and…yeah, best to let them know I don’t know shit or how to speak so that they can nod, motion or point.

ALWAYS the BEST!

So I finally get on the bus, and it’s got a few more foreigners in there as well. I confirm if we pay after we get off and all was good. We waited quite some time (maybe 15-20 minutes) for the bus to fill or what not but after that we were off! It only took 20-30 minutes (depending on traffic) and we had more additions added to our bus on the way. It got to the point where we were four rows full of people – 3 benches, middle bench can fit 2 rows - and between the rows, people would stand. It was filled but it wasn’t that bad.

It was there that I made the realization that my body is handling the 90 degree weather (or 29 C) really well! Some girls in front of me were dying (then again, they were in the middle row and didn’t have a window like ME~ :P) but I was fine! I was expecting the Humidity to be HIGH but it was better than Hilo. It was like a mild humidity that you didn’t really feel and the heat wasn’t all that dry too! It was a good median because I didn’t suffer despite how high the temps were.

So, I get off at close to the last stop and head to the beach. It was then that I realized how heavily dressed I was, especially for the beach. I had jeans and a baby tee where everyone was in something skimpy and at times, to my horror, topless (it’s usually the older women that were brave enough to do it and were sagging in places you didn’t want to see!)

The beach was filled with people and not only that, chairs and umbrellas as well! Some of the locals made a living by renting out the chairs and whatnot but I was lucky to get it free (one it was closing time anyway). An older Thai man probably oogling at me while I’m all jangaz from my long ass trip and baggy clothes was trying to talk to me and was telling me that I can have the chair for free. HA! I indulged his minor conversations because it got me a free chair and umbrella but yeah, it was creepy!

WHY do I always get oogled by the older pervy men?! Crap!

Anyhoo, the guy told me that I could have gotten my grapes for 20B instead of 100. Now I know. I was on the chair for an hour before they really had to clean up and I just sat and waited for the sun to set to take pictures (that was the main reason for making the trek that way – pictures of the "picturesque Phuket Beach"). The old guy tried to get me to come again and he said to see him if I wanted a chair the next day. It was also creepy too because I was laying down and I was covering my eyes at one point and I just FELT someone staring at me and lo and behold, he was! EWWW!

So I waited like two hours for the sunset and I was pleased. To tell you the truth, we have better sunsets in Hawaii than in Phuket is not the island for pristine oceans: Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi are the best. Ah well, but I enjoyed myself. During the wait, I watched as this family came out to grab their fishing nets but mainly I loved the interaction between these two brothers the oldest seemed 13 and the youngest 7. The oldest was trying to get his brother to work and pull the net but he wasn’t having none of it! He was having more fun fishing and swimming :D

After the sun came down, I walked by a massage place and looked at the prices. It was 150B for half an hour…about $5-$6. Not bad but looking at the price made me feel the knot in my back and kinks on my neck even more. I couldn’t pass up the deal especially with all the air flights and bus riding (?- My Justification :P). I NEEDED this!

The girl that massaged me wasn’t too happy that it was only half an hour but I didn’t care. Haha, I thought in the middle of the session, we were done when she only wanted me to turn over but in the process I misstep and knocked over the curtain of an adjacent session and yeah…a bit embarrassing so…I kinda indulged the women (and myself of course) with an extra session. Yeah, yeah, I spent $12 on the hour but it was worth it!

I decided to walk around and granted a lot of my confidence has be reinforced since my inner breakdown but I was still not sure about things so…essentially, I followed a couple back into town or some other random people to make sure that I was in well lit areas and close enough to foreigners to yell for help if the occasion arose (luckily nothing of that sort did). I veered off to go shopping (BAD ME! So early in the trip – believe me, I was kicking myself afterwards) but I got me faux adidas shorts, 2 CUTE summer dresses (I’m trying to be a bit more feminine or at least when I get back to Hawaii because I’ll have an excuse for "change" and I won’t get stared at for showing TOO MUCH SKIN by the Japanese :P Freakin A! They can have hoochy shorts and not think it’s too risqué but how my arms, neck and a lower back line, I might as well be dubbed a hooker!)

On the way, I FOUND a booth for my plug I was looking for (not all was useless shopping!) and I was thanking my stars for it! I looked at more booths and stuff and got something for Georgina (she’s awesome! She’s bringing me some Tim TAMS!!! I JUST learned how to do the Tim Tam Straw thing too! Awesome SHIT!) and stumbled onto a string of grass roof thatched bars (little booths you’d expect touristy places to have) but I got me a Pina Colada and made friends with the three girls bar-tending. One of them played Connect 4 with me 5 games, I one the first one, she one the second, third, fifth and thanks to her co worker, she was behind my opponent and would motion for me to move in certain areas so I semi cheated and won the forth :P It was fun and I vowed to come again the next day before heading to Krabi.

I try and hail a cab for 200B but no one wants to go at that price. I came there for 20B and wanted to go back but it was dark and someone said that prices go up during that time. SHIT they said that 400B is the going rate! I was blown away because of ht huge gap between the two but I pulled the "foreigner card" on them and feigned ignorance. I tried to bargain with 200 but that wasn’t going anywhere. I then said 300 and they still weren’t budging so I said at the very most 350B and the guy that calls the cabs was able to get me one guy that was willing drive me at that price. I actually had the 400B but fuck! If I didn’t have to pay it, why should I?

The guy was nice and told me where to go in Krabi and so I gave him 360B instead (but it seems as thought he didn’t want to give me the change anyway because I just jipped him 40B :P) I was nice though and said "you can keep the change" before he probably would have argued that he was due that 10 extra Baht. No biggie. 30 cents US extra so that was my tip (granted that is an exorbitant tip in Thai.)

I get to my around my room and at the elevator, I hear loud techno music! If I’m not mistaken, it seems as thought there was a party going on the second or third floor as well. I was amused but yeah, even on my floor (4th) I can hear the woofer beat. I go to my room, shower and resolve to call my mom on Skype. Luckily there is internet down stairs and this hotel isn’t busy so I wasn’t afraid of disturbing others with my talking to the computer. I got weird looks from passerbyers but Heck, at least I was able to talk to my mom.

After that, I went up to my room and I always pass this weird staircase that doesn’t go down to the lobby first floor. I get weird vibes from it (I don’t know, It just might be me and being too skiddish while away from home and Japan) but yeah…I refused to look into the dark stairway (it had NO lighting) or look way in front of my where I can see my reflection off the window. It was like an eerie "Shinning" moment, but yeah…didn’t quite like where my room was situated at night. Heck, even during the day, I tried to take that stairway down and it only went down one floor before being blocked off…odd. When I went to check out, it was still eerie but not as bad as at night.

My pictures on Facebook & second album.