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Time for New Hair Style?

As Xyon noted, before I decided to grow out my hair, I had a pattern of cutting my hair very short, then grow out like a Chia Pet. I guess one time I got too lazy and went beyond the Chia Pet phase and now I have long hair.

For the past few months, I’ve been thinking about cutting my hair short again. Cari and Steve first gave me an interesting idea back during Christmas break as they mentioned a friend of theirs recently donated their long hair. Then earlier this year, both Shanna and Angel also donated their hair. I think my hair is long enough for donation (read somewhere that it should be at least 10″). Growing my hair long merely became an experiment at some point. It’s become more of a hassle recently. The hassle I can deal with, but I was curious what other people think. Should I keep my hair long or cut it short?

I was trying to look for pictures of me progressing from short hair to long hair, but it turns out when you’re the photographer, you don’t really have too many pictures of yourself (or at least I don’t). I also haven’t been taking as many pictures as I did when I was back in high school/college. I did come up with this set: Face Shots. I’m sad to say that most of these pictures were taken by Bernabe at Jan Lyk’s Halloween party.

2007
face shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shotface shot

2008
face shotface shotface shotface shot

2009
face shotface shot

2010
face shot

Original pictures are also posted up at Random Toland Pictures.

I should probably get more side profile shots of me sporting my pony tail. Maybe I’ll do that later. So what do you guys think? Should I keep my long hair, switch back to short hair, or go for a completely new style?

What should I do with my hair?

View Results

Side note: While exercising on my elliptical the other day, I saw my shadow and thought… I could totally cosplay as Kenshin if I just died my hair red and bought myself a male hakama. Looking at this picture, it looks like I have a long way before I can have hair like that:
Kenshin

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李健 – 向往

Li Jian - Wei Ni Er Lai CD Album Cover Thanks to @superekin for sharing this song: 李健－向往 (Li Jian – Xiang Wang). The title of the song means Longing and it appears to be a song released back in 2005.

Besides the melody, I really liked the lyrics too. The only lyrics I found were in simplified Chinese. Not a big fan of simplified Chinese (plus I don’t know as many words and read it slower), so I’ve converted it to traditional. Technically, I believe the title in traditional Chinese should be 嚮往, but I’ve never used this phrase before, so I’ll leave it as is.

Please forgive my pathetic attempt in trying to translate the lyrics. I had to look up several phrases in the Chinese dictionary. I would also like to thank howard2005 for providing an English translation, though I don’t agree with all his translations.

我知道並不是
I know it’s not that
所有鳥兒都飛翔
All birds fly
當夏天過去後
When summer passes
還有鮮花未曾開放
There are still flowers that haven’t bloom
我害怕看到你
I’m afraid to see you
獨自一人絕望
Alone in despair
更害怕看不到你
More afraid I can’t see you
不能和你一起迷惘
Can’t get lost together with you

Chorus:
多想你在我身旁
Wishing you were at my side
看命運變幻無常
Watching fate change unpredictably
體會這默默忍耐的力量
Understanding the power of patience
當春風掠過山崗
When the Spring breeze grazes over the hill
依然能感覺寒冷
I can still feel the chill in the air
卻無法阻擋對溫暖的向往
But no way to stop my longing for warmth
（又怎能停止對溫暖的向往）
(And how can it stop my longing for warmth)

我知道並不是
I know it’s not that
耕耘就有收獲
Farming will yield harvest
當淚水流乾後
When tears run dry
生命還是那麼脆弱
Life is still so fragile
多殘忍 你和我
So cruel, you and I
就像流星劃落
Like shooting stars falling
多絢爛 飛馳而過
So splendidly, fleeting by
點亮黑夜最美焰火
Lighting at night the most beautiful fireworks

Repeat Chorus 3x

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Music I’m Currently Listening To

It’s been a while since I last blogged about music I’ve been listening to. I’ve tweeted a few, but I thought I’d share with you my current Zune playlist that’s on rotation/repeat:

Sorry to disappoint, but no Justin Bieber. ;p

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-28

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Friday Gathering!

It’s been long time since I invited Perry-tachi (see definition #2: tachi) over for dinner and games. I’ve seen Perry a few times since New Years, but everyone’s been really busy lately. There was that potluck over at Valerie’s sometime earlier this year, which was really fun. I still remember Ike (pronounced EK) shouting “grape tree house” over and over again during Pictionary. Oh yeah, congratulations on Sathana for getting his Ph.D. candidacy! This gathering had been long overdue and I was happy to see everyone again and that everyone was doing fine.

I sent out an email on Monday asking if people were interested in coming over on Friday/Saturday night for dinner and movie/games. I was a bit sad when only 3 people had responded and only Perry and Carolynn accepted. I sent out another email on Wednesday night and got 1 more accept from Sathana. It turns out that somehow my email ended being caught by UW’s spam filter. Here’s the email in full:

Hey guys!

It’s been awhile since we last got together at my place. I was wondering if people were interested in grabbing dinner followed by either a movie or Rock Band.

I recently acquired The Good, The Bad, The Weird, a Korean movie that looks hilarious:
http://www.hd-trailers.net/movie/the-good-the-bad-the-weird/
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/thegoodthebadtheweird/
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809884000/info
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/good_the_bad_and_the_weird/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0901487/
Of course there’s English subtitles.

I’m open to other movie suggestions as well.

Or we can always do what always do and play Rock Band. Since we’ve last played, I’ve gotten plenty of new songs. Let’s say Friday tentatively, but if people prefer Saturday instead, we can do that too.

//Toland (^_^x)

Maybe I had too many links in my email or maybe krunk4ever.com is considered a spam domain? Saran and Tom found out earlier today and wanted to come. Valerie also found out last minute and came over too. Perry even spoke with Joe and coordinated some Halo 3 over Xbox Live (he currently works in New Mexico). It was a full house once again.

We decided if 4 or less people, we’d have dinner a Sushiland. 5+ and we would go to Yea’s Wok. Only 4 were available for dinner (or found out early enough to join) so we ended up eating at Sushiland in Bellevue. I was surprised that at 7pm on a Friday there was hardly any line. It did get a bit busier later on, but previously on Fridays we had to wait upwards to an hour.

Afterwards we came back to my place and setup another Xbox 360 console using my 24″ Dell LCD. I really need to get that projector for my basement. That’ll be sweet. The few of us who had arrived early played some Beatles Rock Band while we waited for the others to arrive. I noticed that they now show you your friends’ score and I was surprised we actually beat Tekman’s and Angel’s score in Yellow Submarine.

Most of the people arrived and we started some Halo 3 4 vs 4 multiplayer action. It was hilarious hearing Joe and Perry speak over the microphone as it’d be delayed a few seconds on a screen and as someone mentioned Perry sounded like a high-pitched chipmunk. And for some reason, the chat wasn’t blocked per team, so we were able to hear everything they were planning. The teams actually turned out to be quite even after a few matches, but I think Joe was just goofing around after the 3rd round. Having Perry and Joe on the same team originally was slaughter for the 4 of us. Our team was much more even, where everyone would have about the same number of kills. On the other team, Joe and Perry would have 20 kills each, while the others would have about 5 kills each.

Joe called it a night and some people switched over to playing a soccer game. In the meantime, I deep fried some shrimp tempura. Did you know that Costco sells these awesome Panko Breaded Shrimp (Kirkland Signature brand). At first I thought it was shrimp with Panko mix where I would dip the shrimp and deep fry them, but it turns out they come pre-breaded. Yet another win for lazy Toland! The instructions provided actually tell you to use the oven, but after experimenting a few times, I find that 2 minutes at 350F is perfect for 3-8 shrimps. 2.5 minutes is still good, but at 3 minutes you have black charcoal shrimps. People seemed to enjoy them. 🙂

Afterwards, we switched over to Rock Band and tried out some of the new songs I recently got. Rock Band was a blast as usual. Singing Lady Gaga was really fun. We also got to try out OneRepublic, White Stripes, 3 Doors Down and a bunch of other music I’ve acquired since our last gathering. I even tried expert on drums and guitar for several easy songs. Expert on drums can get crazy difficult.

The last of us splitted around 2:30am and ended the night with Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch. Did I mention it’s been a long time since I had so much fun. Few probably know the reason why I setup this gathering. And today was going so well too! Sigh…

Perry’s birthday is next week, so we’ll probably do something again to celebrate.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-21

  • Don't forget to set your clocks an hour later tonight. #
  • @ryandjohnson Yep, Japanese. 🙂 in reply to ryandjohnson #
  • If you're buying airline tickets in March, don't forget Discover has 5% cashback. 🙂 #
  • Having a car parked near the airport seems very uneconomical for 10 days. Guess I should find a ride. #
  • I would be in support of this if it ever came up here in USA: http://bit.ly/a5tC0m #
  • Weeds Season 3, 4, and 5 now available on Netflix Watch Instantly. #
  • w00t! Picked up New Super Mario Bros for the Wii for $36 shipped – $2.88 BCB: http://bit.ly/9HM5GI #
  • Sucks that even after losing an hour, I still woke up at 8am today. Remember having a weird dream about symphonies and zombies. #
  • @jani_s Oooh, fanfic of which series? in reply to jani_s #
  • @jani_s That's sweet! How'd you land something so awesome? in reply to jani_s #
  • @angelgrrl813 I'm surprised the water around the light saber isn't bubbling like crazy. ;p in reply to angelgrrl813 #
  • @0xFCAF Plus Batman never kills off his enemies. Just wounds them enough to be captured. 🙂 in reply to 0xFCAF #
  • @angelgrrl813 Haha, for a moment, I thought you were stressed about them pissing on someone ;p in reply to angelgrrl813 #
  • Apparently my body fat is at 21.1% (normal range for my age ends at 19.9%). Guess I still have some work to do. 🙂 #
  • @krunk4ever Interesting… After exercising and drinking a bottle of water, my body fat dropped to 19.1% (average of 3 measurements) in reply to krunk4ever #
  • The more I listen to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood's newest OP, the more I dig it: CHEMISTRY – Period: http://bit.ly/cSzGOk #
  • @digadeesh Hehe. Sucks when one # says your fat, when the other says you're not ;p in reply to digadeesh #
  • With Jan Lyk on vacation, there's no one left for me to talk to. #
  • Ding. Ding. Ding. Emails keep coming in, just not the one I'm waiting for. 🙁 #
  • ♫ Train – Hey, Soul Sister ♫ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI #
  • Sometimes I wish I had a female friend here who could give me fashion advice. Too bad all of the ones I know are in back in LA. #
  • @superekin Haha. I do have 1 of the latter. Maybe I'll get him to help me. 😀 in reply to superekin #
  • ♫ Rob Thomas – Little Wonders ♫ helping me get through today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsT2URr1Igc #
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Throttle Module Malfunction

So late last week on my way into work, my engine light came on, and it scared the bejesus out of me. I pulled off into a side road and tried turning my car off and back on. Nope, engine light is still on. Reading the manual, it said I should drive moderately and get my car checked out as soon as possible. The car didn’t feel any different while driving, but I decided I’d have the service center take a look when I went in to get my timing belt replaced. However on Friday, the light suddenly turned off and I thought oh well, no longer need to rush.

On Monday morning, the light suddenly came back on and this time I was definitely feeling something was wrong with my car. It would rev a lot higher before switching to a higher gear. After I got into work, I started calling up AAA approved service centers that had Microsoft Prime discounts and asked them for a quote for my timing belt + water pump replacement. Most of them told me they’d call me back with a quote. Only 2 gave me a quote immediately. I decided I wanted the car looked at the same day and ended up going with Autohaus Vick, the cheaper one at $434 – 10% off.

I took my car in and told them that I’d also like them to take a look at why the engine light is on and described the issue I noticed this morning. They said they’d take a look and let me know what’s wrong.

I got a call in the afternoon and was told my engine’s throttle module had malfunction and needed to be replaced. Apparently this part is only carried by the dealer and costs $375. Ouch! Given I didn’t want to experience the weird revving issue and wanted my car fixed as soon as possible, I told them to go ahead and fix it too, but made sure that I could get my car back the same day. They told me they would be able to fix it by 4pm.

4pm comes around and I don’t receive a call. I called them up and they told me it’s taking them a bit longer than expected, and I most likely won’t get my car back until tomorrow morning. They agreed to give me a rental car for the night. Thanks to Chad for dropping me off. I ended up getting a Ford Focus at Hertz. Car was actually rather nice. Definitely had more toys in it than my Honda Civic.

I called them this morning and my car is ready. I had also previously asked them if they could take a look my suspension and what it’ll cost to fix/replace it. Apparently my left outer CV boot was leaking as well as my right rear shock. What does it mean to be leaking? Do shocks have liquid in them? Anyway, they quoted me ~$250 to replace it (which is $250 cheaper than the Honda Service Center). Probably going to let them fix it sometime later this month.

I also inquired about the throttle module and why it would malfunction. He said the throttle module is the computer that controls how fast the car goes and when to change gears and so on. That would explain why I was seeing the gear/revving issue. As to why it went bad, it’s electronics. Maybe it got too hot/cold?

So I’ve been driving my car around for a bit today and maybe the engine hasn’t gotten used to the new timing belt, or maybe it’s the new throttle module, but it feels my car is a bit less responsive. Hopefully I’ll get used to it soon enough.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-14

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Goal #1: Get Fit

This morning my physical therapist asked if I lost weight and indeed I have. It’s always nice when someone notices.

As some of you may already know, I had 3 goals to accomplish this year. You can call them new year resolutions if you’d like. I mentioned I would talk more about my 1st goal, which is to get fit. In order to work towards that abstract goal, I needed to set some measurable targets. I had come up with 2:

  • Get into the normal range for my BMI. At my height of 5’5″, that meant a weight of 150lbs to reach a BMI of 25.
  • Grow a 6-pack of abs (or 4, or 2, just not 1 giant round tummy)

I started out this year with a maximum weight of 168lbs, which puts my BMI at 28 (inside the overweight range). I remained around 163-165lbs for quite awhile until the middle of February when everything in my world got turned upside down. If you followed me on twitter, you would’ve seen my tweet about hitting 149.4lbs this morning, putting my BMI at 24.9 and into the normal range. Milestone 1 reached!

Not quite sure how long it’ll take to reach milestone 2. My stomach is already starting to get flat, and depending on how I flex my body, I can start seeing muscles in my abdominal area. Hopefully not too long. Did I mention that medium sized t-shirts fit me again? It also appears I need to wear a belt now, or else my pants start falling.

Exercise

As for my exercise regiment, I would say most of the weight-loss was due to running on the elliptical. I run 2 miles on it everyday which comes out to about ~45 minutes, which is perfect for a TV episode or 2 anime episodes. If a Netflix movie comes in, I watch that instead. Update: One thing I forgot to mention is that my elliptical claims I burn ~850 calories at the end of each session. Not entirely sure how accurate that is.

I’ve also been doing weight training every other day. I would do it everyday, but Xyon tells me my muscles need to rest for like 40 hours between rigorous exercises. My workout includes sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, pull-ups, curls, and a series of other weight lifting exercises I do not know the names of. I’m not exactly sure what doing sit-ups on an exercise ball is called, but I’ve gone up to 2 sets of 50. Recently I added a 10lb weight to that since losing weight has made doing those a lot easier.

Of course once in awhile I do miss a day of exercising, but I try my best not to. If I had to guess, I would say I miss about 1 day every 2 weeks.

Diet

I haven’t really changed what I eat (food is just too awesome to give up), but I have changed my eating habit, which I think came out from laziness. For lunch on most days, I usually have cereal, Special K to be exact. I discovered Special K sometime near the end of last year and loved it, though recently it’s gotten a bit boring. I’ve gone through 6 or 7 Costco twin packs since the beginning of this year. I guess I can attribute it to the fact that I’m too lazy to walk down to the cafeteria for food. It’s a good thing work provides milk, bowls, and spoons. 🙂

Another thing I’ve noticed is that I’ve been eating smaller portions, but not on purpose. Sticking any more food into my stomach would hurt. Maybe my stomach shrank?

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HELOC to Finance New Car?

Interesting… so while contemplating on how I should finance my new car, I started to do research on the best method. Originally my 2 options were:

  • Sell stock and buy the car outright
  • Make a small down payment and finance the car at $400-600/mo for 60 months (at ~6.6% interest rate)

However, I’ve been looking at HELOC (home equity line of credit) and it’s looking more and more like the correct action to take. One thing that does have me a bit worried is that HELOCs are variable rate, but according to MarketWatch, the current HELOC interest rate is around 3.25% (is it me or is that exceptionally low?). I’ll need to discuss this further with my dad and Derek as they know a lot more about HELOCs than I do.

Even if the interest goes up to 7%, there’s a huge benefit in using HELOC to finance my car and that’s because the interest is tax deductible. According to BankRate.com:

When you refinance acquisition debt or take out additional debt such as a HELOC, you can deduct the interest on such debt if you use it to improve your residence and on up to an additional $100,000 that you can use for any purpose, except for the purchase of tax-exempt securities such as municipal bonds. If you use the $100,000 to buy a second home, then it gets thrown back into the $1 million pot.

Maybe when I bring this up with my dad and Derek, they’ll knock me on my head and call me stupid for thinking up such a stupid scheme. But so far, it feels like a sound plan. I wonder if I have enough money in my house yet to cover the whole purchase.