恭 喜 發 財.... Now Give Me 利 是

As most english people have mistaken 恭 喜 發 財 <Gung Hay Fat Choy> as Happy Chinese new year. It actually means to wish someone to get rich and it's usually the first thing someone says to their elders to get red pockets. It's become a typical saying instead of 新 年 快 樂 <Sun Leen Fai Lok> which actually means Happy New Year. Therefore, if you say it, say it right.

As for the title of this entry I'm wishing you to get rich in the following year, and asking them for 利 是 <Lai see> which is the red pocket that everybody talks about. However, you have to pronounce 利 是 correctly or else it will sound like the term, "accidentically pooing". Most Chinese people will know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, here are some other terms that people might say during the Chinese New Year season:

心 想 事 成 <Sum Seung See Sing>
Wishes that you'll get whatever your heart desires.

身 體 健 康 <Sun Tai Geen Hong>
Wishes that you'll stay healthy.

學 業 進 步 <Hok Yeep Jun Bo>
Wishes that you'll improve in your school endeavor.

龍 馬 精 神 <Long Mah Jing Sun>
Wishes that you'll be as alert as dragons and horses.

Note: The pronunciation I've put with the Chinese terms is in Cantonese English pronunciation because I don't know how to speak Mandarin...

Logic Puzzle #1

I got this question on one of my Computer Science assignments. Hanson's actually asked me this question before. I thought it was kind of neat. You try and solve it now. Have fun!

Three logicians are each wearing a black hat or a white hat, but not all white. Nobody can see their own hat. However A can see the hats of B and C, and B can see the hats of A and C. C is blind. You go and ask them one by one in order A, B, C, whether they know the color of their own hat. A answers "No". B answers "No". Then C answers "Yes". Explain how this is possible.

Answer: Since A answered "no", not both of B and C have white hats (if they had, then A would had known his own hat was black, since not all hats are white). Now, if C's hat were white, then B (knowing that she and C can not both have white hats) would have known she had a black hat. Since B does not know, this must mean that C's hat is black.

Jello Tong Yuen... YUMMY!

Welcome back to school...... NOT!! Well, not for me anyway! New classes new people, I don't know anybody in some of my classes, it's really sad. Now I know what it felt like for Tim to go to a new school when we were all in grade 9.

Any how, I decided that I wanted to experiment something with cooking before we get into the busy season of midterms and such. For those of you who don't know what tong yuen is, it's actually these glutinous rice balls made from glutinous rice flour, not the actual grains of rice. It's served as a dessert before special Chinese occasions as a way to represent that family and friends will be together for the following year etc. Well, that's the gist of it anyway. Tong can be cooked plain or with filling inside like black sesame or red bean paste.

Earlier during Christmas Holidays, I learned to make tong yuen from my granny. I learned how to make the plain ones at first and then cook them in syrup, but then I thought that was too plain so I decided to plant something new and different inside. I thought that Jello wasn't such a bad idea, except that I was scared that when I implant it in, it would become mush because I've squeezed it too hard. So what I did was freeze it.

On Friday, after watching "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" at the theaters Hanson and I went home and made tong yuen. It wasn't so bad at first, the frozen jello was sitting nicely inside the rice dough and everything. We made exactly 10, so 5 each. However, we were kind of slow with the implanting and the jello inside the dough was starting to melt, so it was sort of leaking out.... The bottom was starting to become soggy, so we had to boil water and cook them quickly.

I was trying to fix them so i kept on pinching them... not only did it not help, I actually made a hole in one of them. It was only a tiny hole so i threw it in the boiling water anyway. In the end, I gave all the "imperfect" ones to Hanson and I ate all the "perfect" ones. It didn't taste bad, but because the dough part didn't have much taste to it and there was no syrup, it was kind of bland. Maybe I will put the tong yuen in juice next time.

Happy One Year Anniversary to Me and Hanson ^_^

Because Hanson had to work today, we decided to celebrate our anniversary yesterday. It wasn't as much of an anniversary; it was more like just another date. He wanted to go watch the 4th Harry Potter movie, but I was kind of reluctant because I haven't watched the 3rd one yet. I'm always saying that I'll watch the movie after I finish the book, but the book has taken me close to eternity to finish. I think I should give up by now and just watch the movie.

We started off by going to Kerrisdale and walking around. Nothing much to see there, it's on the bus route that I usually take to school. I never knew that the area was called Kerrisdale until I was actually there. I didn't even clue in when he said that it was near UBC. I have learned so much from him...

Afterwards we went for dinner at I-Cafe. It was the place we went on our first date. To be honest the food isn't bad, and I would that it is good pricing. I had a bowl of noodles that filled me up so much.

After I-Cafe, we went to Robson (a place that my cousin, Emily suggested that we should go). We then ate ice cream at Mondo Gelato. I like how creative they are with the ice cream flavours. I tried out White Chocolate and Horlick flavour (for those who don't know what Horlick is, it's a type of drink mixed from powder - like hot chocolate). We then walked around for a bit and did some window-shopping.

Since there were a couple more hours left, we decided to just head to Stanley Park and just sit there and chat. I love his company. If we were to just sit and not to anything, I'd still be happy because he's there with me. Sometimes I still can't believe that it's been a year. It's just gone by so fast that sometimes I don't even think about it.

Happy 2006!

Hey there everyone,

I wish everyone of you a Happy New year. I was just reading my last year's resolution. I guess you can say that I have kept my resolution from last year. And I have passed an extreme great year. I can't exactly think of a resolution for this year since I have everything that I can ask for.

May everyone of you have a good life. For those who are going to school, I wish you have good grades. For those who are going to work, I wish you make lots of money. So yeah... this is a pretty random post, but whatever.