i am ready to party!

haloween party!

ho ho!! i am going to a haloween party this weekend, my first ever! Its called the THRILLER - HALLOWEEN MASQUERADE@ WESTIN ST. FRANCIS
Looking foward to it, it boast that it is "The biggest, most incredible halloween costume party at the largest venue in town- the Westin St. Francis in union square. Over 2000 people expected to come on out at the largest asian-american halloween masquerade in the USA!"
It's going to be awesome!
problem, i have to get a costume, but what costume should i get? and i have only so much money to spend, so a costume that blends in and yet not too pricy at the same time. Should i be a pirate? or a monster? or superhero? or DARTH VADER!!?? going for costume shopping after work, i'll post pics of the party, promise.
http://store.elementsf.com/thhamawestfr.html

Its my Birthday

hey hey...its my birthday today!! Thanks so much for those who sent in the birthday messenges...thank you very much.
Well aparently, people in the office know that its my birthday today, was quite surprise that they know, they even bought a cake for me. Thank you very much!
We had chocolate cake with ice cream, and it was real good. Its my first ever birthday out of malaysia and it feels awesome!
Alittle update on my life here......everything is going very well, am definately enjoying myself here, really like the cool and dry weather, except that dry air causes build up of ESD on the car after driving it and I ALWAYS get electrocuted, I get electrocuted wearing my clothes too.
Went to visit some really interesting places in California, and there's alot more places to visit. Will update you guys with the pictures soon!
ok, will end this post with a picture of bunny being 25 today!!

Moneterey Carmel

Monterey was awesome!!! I can imagine myself living there for a long long time and not get bored. Anyway, I went there over the weekend with the colleauges, its approx 1.5 hours drive from santa clara. Its a great place to visit, I had a blast there. Monterey is north of L.A and south of Santa Clara.
The ocean is so beautiful but its freaking cold, no one could possibly swim there. As I always say, pictures tells a thousand words, so here it goes.

I love mussels

I've always love to eat mussels and back at home they are not cheap...not at all....so I was doing my grocery shopping the other day and I saw mussels selling for 3.99 USD per pack...I went nuts!! so i bought 1 pack, and finally today I get to cook them, didnt really have any idea on how to cook it but what the hell as long as they are cooked, I am sure they are nice to eat. So I cook them, and yes they are cooked, and yes they are edible in case you think my cooking sucks, not the best recipe but hell they taste good. I must have been a chef for the emperor in my past life or something. Here are the ingredients, mussles, some garlic, mushrooms. grapes for decoration(cause i dont have anything else) and of course cooking oil.



















so these are the ingredients....plain and simple




















the cooked mussel(see turns out nice wat)

and me enjoying it over some red wine

In the end the mussles turn out good, but the pan i used to cook it didnt, I love cooking but hate washing the dishes and the pans, I'll have a hard time washing it. So there's no more next time :)

shopping

I can't help myself!! I can't control! BARGAINS!! DISCOUNTS!! 50% off!! 70% off!! Stock clearance!! who could resist, I've been doing alot of shopping lately,its so good to shop, there's so many things to buy here and its cheap!(if you're earning US dollars) the buying power is so strong here...things that are expensive back home are actually cheap here....in a week, i bought 2 nike shoes, nike shirts, timberland shirts, a jacket and a Fossil wallet, and I fear that there's more to come. I must exercise self restrain, or I'll go broke soon, we went to this town called Gilroy and they have this chains of stores there, all of them are factory outlet stores, and they offer really good deal. I dont usually go shopping back at home, I only do my shopping once a year(cny time) and when i some i only buy a few T-shirt thats all..

The wallet that i bought for 16.90 usd

the shoes that I bought for 34.90 USD and 39.99 USD

the jacket that i bought for winter for 28.99 USD

there's just so much to see and so much to buy, thanksgiving is coming soon, and its a huge thing here and I heard that they're going to have a crazy sell!!....I'm going crazy, I'll save up some money now and buy more stuff then...need to get some stuff for friends back at home hehe then Christmas is coming soon too, they're going to have even crazier sell then, GOD help me!

Reticle Design Team

I'd like to share with you a picture of my colleagues here in sunnyvile, USA. These are the people that I will be learning things from and so far I find all of them friendly, and hope that I will still say so at the end of the training. But honestly, they seem nice people.




















On the most left is yours sincerely, me! the lady next to me is Peggy Cambria, she's real friendly, always giving me a smile. Next to her is Helen Rabago, she's a little more quiet than the others. Next to Helen is John Stanczak, the manager of this team, he's a very scheduled oriented guy, efficient and accurate. Next is Quan Van Duong, he's a senior member of the team, I've not spoken alot to him but he's friendly too. Next is Azmi, my colleague from penang on the same training as me. Sitting nearest to me is Imelda Panem, she's from the philipines, she moved to the US when she was 17, we share the same office room and thus I talk to her the most, she's nice too. Next to her is The BOSS, Paul Finnegan, he's the director of the department,the big guns, he's a genius, alot of the programs and macros was created by him. Next to him is Dave Koon, a quiet person too.
So there you have it, my colleagues, my mentors in sunnyvile, these people have combination of working experience of over 100 years....and we have 4 months to learn everything from them.....mission impossible.

me, restaurants and tips(and tax)

I have this problem everytime when I eat in a restaurant in US, we need to give them tips, its quite a complex thing seeing that it is not written anywhere, be it in the "United States Declaration of Independence", or under any law in US, its not even mentioned anywhere in the menu or anywhere in the restaurant, but they sure expect us to give them tips of 10-15% of the total amount. Especially chinese restaurant, they'll chase you down(or so I heard), how memalukan chinese people. In california, the government charge you 8.25% for all items and the restaurant charge you an additional 10-15% tips, its an unspoken rule, and that sucks ass.
I have a hard time everytime trying to calculate how much I need to give for the tips, if only I can do math as fast as I can mandi(my record time is 4 minutes 21 seconds, take as time entering the bathroom and time stepping out of the bathroom). It gets harder when you eat together with a bunch of people, not only you need to calculate the tips but you have to calculate how do you split the bill ><
Say for example, you go out and eat with 5 people and the bills comes, total is USD53.86, excluding govt tax(8.25%) and excluding tips. Make it alittle easier, we split the bill equal among all, so each person pays...................(if it take you more than 4mins20sec, then you suck at math too, ahhh ahhh ahh no calculator, u think i bring calculator when i eat in restaurant??) around USD12.86 (u give 10% tips)....not simple lerrr....
another thing is the 8.25% govt tax, that just suck donkey balls, its ok if you the items are like less than 100 dollars, say if you spot a laptop which says GREAT PRICE!! USD799, it actually will cost you around USD880, from USD799 it becomes USD880....thats a huge difference! 1st they charge you 8.25% for the tax then they charge you another 20 dollars for some recycle cost or something....so its cheat ppl wan
But well I must say, the service here are alot lot better than back at home, waiter are alot more friendlier and helpful, they smile, they greet....and yea they cal l me SIR....that works on me everytime.

My home

Today, i'll introduce you to the place that i'll call home for the next 4 months. Its called Nantucket Apartments, its some where in santa Clara, and its really a nice place. its a gated community, there's are 9 blocks, 1 block has 3 floors, each floors has 4 unit, mine is on the 1st floor.
I think pictures tell better story, so here they are!

view to the car park from my apartment

another one

my living room

living room and dining table

the kitchen, well equiped kitchen

my bed

More updates on other things soon, need to something now.

I am here!

At last, i am here in the United States of America! 1st impression when i arrive at san francisco airport is.....there's so many asians here, i hardly see any angmo ppl here, I definately dont feel like I am in US, I feel more like I'm in some asian country. Even KLIA has more angmo than the san francisco airport.
Well it's kinda cold here, the weather channel says HIGH today is 61F, thats around 15C..thats cold to me!and i heard its going to get colder!
The apartment that i am staying in is wonderful, its fully furnished, with sofas, fully equiped kitchen, television and broadband, i'll upload pictures asap!
I've got a leased toyota corolla, brand new!! really like it, would be better if the driver's side is on right hand side. pictures for that too soon.
okay, alittle short update for now, too many things to explore. I've not even unpack!