My dad is the hardest person to shop for during the holidays. When I ask him what he wants, he says, “Anything.” I hate that.

• He likes movies, but doesn’t really watch DVDs unless they’re kung-fu movies. I don’t bother getting him those because I don’t know what he’s watched or has already.
• He likes music, but isn’t like me, the weirdo who has a hard time getting rid of the really bad Aerosmith CDs (and there’s quite a few) because they complete her collection of Aerosmith’s studio albums. … plus, except for my “indie / modern rock / whatever” stuff and his ‘george michael, tom jones, englebert humperdink’ stuff, we basically listen to the same thing. We both bought Van Morrison’s greatest hits without knowing the other bought the same thing and, now, I don’t know what to do with our second copy. (We actually have 3 copies. The first one is on cassette.)
• When I get him clothes, he finds a better deal at the clearance rack at Old Navy and tells me I’ve spent too much.
• He doesn’t really read unless they’re finance & buisness magazines. If I order him a subscription, he’ll just toss aside the magazines and say they’re taking up space.
• I bought him cologne a couple of times. He likes that, but he doesn’t use it that often or his girlfriend takes it from him when he visits the Philippines.
• If I draw something for him, he makes these STUPID suggestions of what I should have put in the painting/photo/drawing.

And I can’t afford the one thing I know he needs, would really like, and would use: a new car

Also… Hooray for NaBloPoMo being over! It’ll feel weird not to blog about uninteresting things tomorrow! If I decide to do this next year, maybe I’ll try to draw something and post that every day. Or maybe I’ll do that for a blogathon…

The past 10 days have been great on lala.com in terms of Shipped CDs. I got rid of Natalie Imbruglia, Nine Days (remember them? no. probably not.), TLC, Silverchair, the Hives, Joe Perry’s solo album, Dido, and that Concert for New York City. I almost got rid of of Version 2.0 by Garbage, but the first track skipped so I had to cancel. Boo.

I’m thinking of selling some of the books and DVDs that I never use through amazon or ebay. Nothing fits in my room anymore, and I could use some money in my account before I start work next month.
Does anyone want to buy the Sex & The City box set (the one with the ugly pink velvet binder) from me for $105 (includes shipping)?
I also have the Godfather box set. and season one of grey’s anatomy. and the red curtain trilogy (strictly ballroom, romeo + juliet, moulin rouge). and gone with the wind (but i’m not sure if i really want to get rid of this yet). and Coffee and Cigarettes. and i don’t remember what else.

On Thanksgiving, I missed Grey’s Anatomy because my relatives insisted on watching Deal Or No Deal*. Hooray for watching old episodes on ABC.com, right? I got back from class yesterday and planned to watch the show. However, one of the girls I live with came in and she and her roommate were joking around and cracking up and I couldn’t concentrate on what was being said. I plugged in my headphones and turned the volume up because, even with the noise canceling headphones, you could barely hear the show. I didn’t realize that the “commercials” are louder than the show and it surprised me. I only went through a couple of seconds of those commercials and, today, my right ear feels about 1/5 of what it was feeling after I saw Parliament Funkadelic. I don’t think I mentioned what happened after, but my ears were ringing for two days… and it was loud ringing. Not painful. Just annoying.
I wonder what would be worse: losing sight or losing sound? I’d miss light and colors or I’d miss music. I think I’d rather lose a foot than lose either of those senses.

*Why aren’t people tired of Deal or No Deal yet?! It was interesting the first time I saw the show… but it’s the same thing over and over again. Person picks a case. Person picks more cases. Person makes good decisions. Person makes bad decisions. Person gets money at the end.

“… and then Rumsfeld resigned.”

“WHAT?! REALLY?!”

It’s crazy what you miss when you’re out of the country for a month.

TV Shows that have been letting me down:
Lost (FEBRUARY?! oy vey)
Desperate Housewives (since last season)

TV Shows that I am getting into:
Brothers & Sisters
Heroes
NCIS

TV Shows where all the main characters are starting to annoy me:
Grey’s Anatomy (I didn’t watch it on thursday so … crap. it’ll be the first thing i do once class is over tomorrow.)

what TV shows do you recommend?

My dad comes home from the Philippines tonight. Hoorah for tsinelas and espasol! I hope he remembered. I haven’t talked to him since he left. He gave me the wrong cell phone number and I couldn’t text message him. Boo.

I’m not a big Christmas person these days. I don’t really decorate and neither does my dad. I think we both don’t want to put the time and effort into something that we’ll just have to take down a couple of days after the new year starts.

My mother, on the other hand, loved decorating for Christmas. She just started buying Christmas stuff one year and then NEVER STOPPED. In the darkest corner of our basement, we have three giant plastic boxes of ornaments, garland, and those porcelain houses that light up … and a huge nativity set that plays music… and one of those magnetic ice rink things where the little figures skate around … and one of those house things that’s got a working waterfall and water wheel.
I might decorate a little this year. And by decorate, I mean “I want to make a parol and then hang it up somewhere.” They sell kits at this site, and I think I still have left over mulberry paper from my printmaking class. I should check the Fil-Am store or the Hong Kong supermarket tomorrow to see if they sell any kits. I remember I made one once with my cousin and mom, but we had a shitload of trouble with it. Maybe I’ll order the 5-parol pack just in case…

I plan to eat a lot.

I also hope that there is an I Love Lucy marathon on tv today.

I actually cooked today! Or baked. whatever. The point is that I used the oven!

This is going to sound so stupid… I hate using the stove or the oven because I am seriously terrified that something will go wrong and my house will blow up. Our oven hasn’t been used in a while, so that made me even more nervous. Up until today, it’s been the dwelling place of a giant wok and a couple of aluminum pans.

I searched on google for “using oven that hasn’t been used a while” (because I’m a nerd) and the first result was a blog post about an oven that exploded. Didn’t really help me.

Anyway, I made green bean casserole and I have no idea if I made it correctly. It didn’t look as appetizing as some of the pictures in the recipe thing, but I guess it tasted alright.

Now, I’m going to make some lemon spinach couscous (in the microwave…)

Because I am convinced I won’t win the grand NaBloPoMo prize, I bought myself a flickr pro account. Maybe it’ll encourage me to use my new camera. To be honest, the real reason I bought it was so that I could upload all my photos without waiting till the end of the month to upload more. I’m an impatient person.