Does anybody want to take tennis lessons with me or know of any good, affordable tennis lessons? This can be around W. LA, south bay, or even orange county.

So ever since I moved out here to Los Angeles, I’ve lived in west LA. It’s been almost 10 years now….I can’t believe it!! Now that I am looking to buy a house, we’ve been looking in the Orange County area since housing is a lot cheaper out there and plus I prefer that area for raising a family vs. w. la. Despite those reasons, I wasn’t really looking forward to moving away from w. la. I’m so used to this area. I feel like we’re in the middle of everything I like to go to, it’s closer to work for me, I’ll miss the eating and shopping and most importantly, it’s where a lot of our friends live! Hopefully, we’ll still all hang out after I move. That’s another thing that sucks about LA…it’s so freaking big and there is so much traffic everywhere that it’s hard to get people together. Sigh…I wish everyone would just move to OC with me!! :P

But after thinking about it for a long time, I’m really looking forward to living in Orange County. I think I’m ready for a change. I’ll be sure to keep in touch with my w. la friends and it will give me a reason to come out here…to see them and all of the places I like out here! So I bring you my list of why I’m looking forward to living in OC:

1. I can’t wait to buy a house. This wouldn’t be possible if we lived in W. LA where it could be up to twice as much for the same type of house. I can’t wait to decorate and make a place all mine (and boyrobot’s of course ha ha). I can’t wait to make it “us” and a place I can really call home. I’m tired of living in apartments where the rent goes up every year. No more of that!!!
2. I’m looking forward to making new friends. We know a lot of people in OC that we’re just not that close to since we’re so far from them now. But if we live out there, maybe we can become better friends! I’m looking forward to inviting people over for dinner parties hehe.
3. Biking! I love how the streets are so wide out in huntington beach and there are bike lanes everywhere. I’m definitely going to get a bike and go biking to the beach and stuff. I can’t wait!
4. food – i love all of the eating options out there. viet food galore and so cheap! they also have a lot of korean options. plus boyrobot’s mom lives there and she always wants to feed us haha.
5. shopping – there’s a wide variety of shopping options out in orange county…from high end malls to this really cool flea market by boyrobot’s house

So yeah…I can’t wait to see what OC has in store for me!

*edit-sorry the church link is fixed now!

the world’s 50 best restaurants – one day i shall eat at the french laundry
church sign causes controversy – a must read for its ridiculousness
zombieURL – zombify any website and then send it to your friend
metafilter: lies i’ve told my 3 yr old – there’s some gems if you can sift through all of the answers
Catcher in the rye inspired tour of NYC – hmm, i pretty much did this tour without even knowing it! :P
what you should do if you come across an unconscious person – i really need to learn cpr
8 unusual hotels – oooh i want to stay in the treehouse one! or the hobbit motel heheh

what happens when 1500 students in belgium drop mentos into a bottle of diet coke:

Check out some more friday links I guest posted at hello! yoshi’s website

The other day I was watching that South Park episode called Logging Off, which spoofs what would happen if the internet died. It’s hilarious if you are as internet dependent as I am. It actually made me feel kind of…lame. I really use the computer way too much! I don’t know what to do with myself without my laptop. In fact, at this very moment I’m in my usual position with my two roommates. We are all in the living room on the couch with our eyes glued to our laptops haha. Anyways, I was reading about Shut Down Day which is an experiment to see if people can live without their computers for 24 hours. It’s on a Saturday (May 3rd), so it’s actually doable for me. I’m not sure what one day would prove, but why not….I’ll be shutting down my computer that day. I related WAY too much to that South Park episode! hehe.

So this weekend, I saw the much hyped Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I’m a huge Apatow fan (Knocked Up, Superbad, Freaks and Geeks!!!) and I loved everyone starring in the movie…how could it not be the best movie ever!? Well….perhaps it was a bit too hyped for me. I just thought it was ok. It made me laugh…but it was definitely not as good as any of his other movies. Definitely worth a rental though. :)

Speaking of which, have you guys been redboxing it? I’ve been watching free movies ever since I blogged about it. The redbox near my house is so popular too. I always see people coming or going with redbox movies! Love the service. The only bad thing about it is you can’t rent old movies. I just found this list of 300 movies you must see before you die and the best films that never won a best picture oscar. Now I must see them all!!!

In case you haven’t heard, Wii Fit is finally going to be released in the US on May 19th!!! I’m excited but also kind of hesitant to buy it since I’m not sure how effective it will really be. But after reading these reviews, at the least…it sounds entertaining! There is even a guy tracking his weight loss here.

Some links to in depth reviews:

Kotaku – seems to like it but brought up a point that his favorite game the hula hoop is very hard on the knees (that’s not good!!). really likes the yoga portion.
85% from Spong – pretty positive review and more details about the individual games
One month with Wii Fit on Wired – losing weight, exercising more…thumbs up

It sounds like people generally like it. I just worry if I will get bored with it after a few months.

Ahhhh, I can feel the hint of summer coming our way. Around this time, I always like to think about my Summer To Do List. I love summer. It always signified freedom from school and responsibility, great weather, and vacations. Things I have lined up for this summer:

– my annual camping trip with friends. yes, REAL camping with tents and sleeping bags! looks like we might be going to Sequoia National Park and go white water rafting!!
– my annual fishing trip to Mammoth with boyrobot’s family and coworkers – i look forward to this EVERY YEAR! even tho i’m a horrible fisher and never catch anything. I always have hope with each new year though ahha. It’s still a lot of fun!!! can’t wait
– Dallas trip for my hs friend’s wedding. We’ll be staying with my friend Ronnie who I probably haven’t seen for about 7 or 8 years!! He is going to be giving us a yummy food tour of Dallas too! hehe.

Also, some new exciting things happening this summer is that my sister is going to be getting married! and then I will be going on a cruise with my family and extended family including all of my favorite cousins. This is going to be my first cruise and I’m SO EXCITED!!! We are going to be doing a 4 day Baja Carnival cruise. I can’t wait to spend time with my family. It will be the first time we are doing such a large family get-together. My family’s so fun, so I know I will have a great time!

Things I will/want do this summer:
– Disneyland with my cousins and sister. it’s been awhile since I’ve gone, should be fun!
– We have plans to go to the Gilroy Garlic Festival this summer. I loooove garlic. The festival is in norcal so that means ROADTRIP! and we have a lot of friends that live up there including Hakushaku. maybe we’ll visit him. :P
– one thing i like to do is go to places around LA that i haven’t seen/gone to like the canals of venice and huntington library and botanical gardens
– more house shopping. man i’m addicted to going to open houses! it’s so fun. sometimes they have free cookies and drinks too hehehe.
– wedding planning. man i need to get going on this!!
– lotsa BBQs! mmmmm one of my favorite parts of summer
– more hiking!

any cool summer plans for you guys?

My Starbucks Idea – I think all large companies should have a site like this. It lets users submit and vote for ideas that they think starbucks should implement. Starbucks then reviews the top ideas and tries to implement them if they are feasible!
How to bake neapolitan cupcakes – the finished product looks SO GOOD
How to detect fake/photoshopped photos
Hate Couture – photo essay about a KKK seamstress
Man programs proposal on gf’s favorite video game Bejeweled – the nerd in me is saying AWWWWWWW
Family steals candy from candy store – I read about this story earlier this week but this made me LOL!

This picture just makes me laugh:

Edit: Ok, it’s not true. Thanks to Hakushaku for clearing it up. I figured the original source had checked it. Blah, I hate it when I fall for these things!

I can’t believe this story is actually true????

In the 2007, the ‘artist’ Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the
street, he tied him to a rope in an art gallery,starving him to death.
For several days, the ‘artist’ and the visitors of the exhibition have
watched emotionless the shameful ‘masterpiece’ based on the dog’s agony,
until eventually he died.

He’s been invited back to the Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008 (a
huge art event in South America) to recreate this ‘exhibit’ this year.
You can Google his name for confirmation of story, it’s not for the
faint of heart and truly despicable.

Via Grrl Still Kickin’ – Visit her site for a link to the petition