Intermission

Hi.


I'm still glowing from the first part of my trip. I was so extremely bowled over by 'Ka', the Cirque Du Soleil performance that I've decided to dedicate this first part of this post to just that:


The Villains. Hot. Too bad the shoes got cut off: they were six inch lacquer platforms. I'd wear that yellow shift in a heartbeat.


The gorgeous set at MGM. Now I understand why the tickets are over $100 a pop.

I'm listening to the Ka soundtrack: my parents bought the cd, the production dvd as well as the photo book and I instantly snatched the soundtrack to burn on to my itunes. My favourite song with the accompanying dance/theatrics. The story in this part is that the villain's own love interest betrays him and frees the protagonist who in return gives her his flutes I think she uses as batons for a dance. Turn it up:
Love Dance

But seriously I was so captivated by the visuals of the show. A visual feast of levitating wood platforms, floating ships, veils of cloth that would create pools under the feet of those who danced on it...
And the costumes looked like a synthesis between Peking Opera and Queen Amidala from Star Wars (aka asian inspired).

Ok now that's that. I have recommended the show to all: now I really really want to see 'O' which is based underwater and apparently 'Ka' is nothing compared to 'O' T-T. Sometimes I can't help but be in awe of what humans can do. Imagine how much more God can take our breath away.




Well I'm in HK now.
lol.
I like this transient living.
Dwelling on the past and my gripes with gypsy living, I'm starting to like this. Yet at the same time the only reason that I like it is because the feeling of something new is continuously strung out due to the change of location.

The instant I stepped inside the HK airport, it just felt right. Out of all the airports I've been to, HKG is hands down my favourite. It's the airiest, the most beautiful and equipped with everything you could possibly want inside one locality. Plus the Airport Express out to central HK is so convenient and the design of the airport is so easy to navigate around whether or not you speak English.

From the Airport Express to the chauffeur, returning back to HK since my last time here a year ago felt so comforting and joyful.
It's not as if I have a lot of friends here but there's a warmth and familiarity to a place that is infused with so many memories from only last year.
As we wound up the hills to the apartment, I was experiencing a lot of flashbacks from when Robyn was here and we hung out in Jordan to eating dinner with my cousins at the Yacht Club to meeting one of my cousins, Tammy, for the first time since we were kids and realizing how great of a person she was to spend time with to my internship with a bunch of weirdos to attending church with CBCers.
I was reminded the ways God has so deeply blessed me in the past.

I've realized, you can only live in the moment if you are truly content and happy with what is.
Too many times, I've been grumpy or in a bad mood when with people this past while that only when it passes, are the memories sweet. Yet what good is it to be blessed with a trip but only enjoy it through photographs and flashbacks?
I miss hanging out with my cousin in SF.

I've realized that when I find other people are being selfish, in reality, it's because I was not satisfied first in the way I wanted to be so I point fingers at other people for being selfish.

I'll blog about Korea another day. Too tired from traveling.

Part One: San Fran, Las Vegas, Arizona

Annyeongs, kids.

I'm in Korea.

The past week has been good. Fast, and sometimes a little grumpy but it was a wonderful first leg of my trip.

First and foremost, getting out of New York City has been really good. To be surrounded by rolling hills, canyons and trees really does soothe the soul.

But it's been all a blur and I havent had time to process it all because I've been doing a lot every day. Two days into my trip, we celebrated my cousin who was getting married to a guy whom a lot of people think resembles Andy Lau. But dang, my cousin was friggin gorgeous. She seriously looked like a Christian Lacroix model: skinnier and taller than I. Some girls just have it lucky. Anyway.

The weirdest part about this part of the trip was that though five years have passed since the last wedding of the eldest sister, everything still remains the same. I slept in the same house and in the same room with the same cousin as I did five years ago. We went through very similar itineraries as we did five years ago. It was like deja vous all over again with slight alterations here and there.

The wedding itself was gorgeous (duh) and I used the opportunity to attempt at wedding photography which turned out quite pitiful considering everyone in our family has a camera (my cousin has the new 5D with video function T-T) so all my relatives were constantly in my shots. -_-

The next day nineteen of us embarked on a roadtrip which took us from SF to Arizona to see the canyons and then Vegas. I can say that I wasn't the happiest camper due to the fact that we were always eating chinese buffets or Burger King which resulted in abnormal bowel movements (plus I wanted to try food that's authentic to the local area). But in the end, it really was enjoyable particularly since we got to meet new people and chill together as a family, quirks and all.
The canyons were gorgeous.
Ka, a new Cirque Du Soleil product, was stunning.
There was a Diesel outlet store in Vegas. =) I got all my cousins hooked. XD
A new friend decided to try Roulette for once at the casino. He placed $10 on the number 28. It just so landed on that number. He instantly wanted out. I was like "meh looks like you earned a couple of dollars to get you a mcmuffin for breakfast" He shows me his chips, he earned $300 instantly. He asked me if he should spend it all on poker, I said he should be content with what he has. To my surprise, he actually didn't gamble it all.

Back in SF, I thought it would be quite dull in comparison given that I'd have two days to mull about. Yet my cousin graciously took us to an icecream shoppe and a bakery, then to the Ferry building, and then we took the ferry over and met her there to see the California Red Woods.. unfortunately one of our members got lost so we didn't get to see the largest and most famous of the trees because we accidentally took an unmarked trail rather than the concrete one.. no wonder it was so hard to friggin climb. But that morning my cousin came up to us and asked us if we wanted to go to a "Quest Crew party" and I was freaking out because I've been wanting to meet Quest Crew. So we had to skip a nice dinner due to our extended hike in the woods, and got pizza at my cousin's house and proceeded to walk over to the club afterwards. We skipped all the lines and got in right away and then skipped all the lines to meet the crew because she knew the club promoters who also helped me take the pictures. I didn't have a fancy photo for them to sign so my cousin gave me her David Copperfield ticket that we saw in Vegas.. lol. The guys were so cute! I guess because we were first, therefore they were more energetic, and I got a very enthusiastic hug from D Trix and a very pleased high five from Ryan upon sharing with him how much I like his piano music. And yes I wiped out on my heels while trying to get into a picture but luckily landed on the couch behind them. To my embarassment, I kinda jumped to see Ryan first and then proceeded to ignore the two guys next to him (including the guy who rips off his shirt in the finale) and made a beeline to D Trix who I find so endearing. lol. Then there was another awkward hour of mulling around until the performance of watching guys checking out girls on the dance floor (hence partially why I don't like to dance). We got lucky with the performance and decided to stand to the right hand side of the stage.. but turns out they would be dancing on the hardwood dance floor and so happened to face us rather than the front. So I got the best position in the house considering I'm a head taller than most people. They did their winning performance, someting along the lines of this in addition to a few more dance remixes... as they were about to exit, Lady Gaga's 'Just Dance' song came on and D Trix stayed behind along with Hok on the dance floor.
So hot.
If anything, Jabba, Kaba and Quest Crew have just made me realize that dancing does not have to do anything with grinding or sexual perversion, but creativity, fun and character which is why I really respect them.
Anyway, the next day, my cousin and I bumped into D Trix again at Fisherman's Wharf in a chocolate store. All I could do was stare, my cousin was looking and then I think he felt us staring and proceeded to give an awkward wave. So cute.





So I've had a bit of time to think and here's a few random things that have crossed my mind the past while. They might not make sense but in the context of the trip it's really got my wheels turning:

-Designers are always told to think in the 'what if'. But during the wedding, I was always thinking of how it could be done better from the design of the cake to the way the professional photographers were shooting. It made me realize how I am so uncapable of just enjoying the present rather than constantly critiquing it. There is a time to be critical and a time to just let be what be. I just need to find that balance.

-Surrounded by the glory of nature on that bus tour has made me realize that while the human tongue makes great boasts, God need not speak a word. For in the deafening silence of the mountains, nature roars at the greatness of God.
Surrounded by stillness, you could feel God's presence, His fingers that brushed past the mountains. As I wrote before, being surrounded by moutains makes me feel so insignificant yet at the same time, stand in awe of His Majesty. I can't explain what it felt like the past week nor could you even catch a glimpse of it, unless you too, were standing right there beside me. I have never seen so many types of mountains: mountains with yellow grass, mountains with yellow grass and trees dotting the scape, mountains made out of red sandstone, mountains that had a checkerboard pattern thanks to the rain, mountains out of grey, mountains that were red, mountains that were covered with evergreen. Omg, it was just insane as to the beauty in the diversity of just mountains. And I just love it, you can't experience the vastness of the mountains in a picture, you have to be standing there to even feel just remotely how small you are in comparison. Which is why, sadly, I can't just show you one of the many photographs that I took: they seem flat and only boast a fraction of the greatness found in God's workmanship.

Five years ago, my cousin introduced me to this song called 'Always' by Hillsongs while our large family was taking a bus to a cruise after the wedding. It has been a song that I've really cherished and I occasionally post parts of the lyrics here. It goes, 'did you rise the sun for me? Paint a million stars that I might know Your Majesty? Is your voice among the wind? Is everything I know marked with my Maker's fingerprints?'
And I love this first verse for it speaks out the intimacy that God shows us through creation: intimacy yet the feeling of how insignificant we are at the same time. But yeah, this past roadtrip, my cousin and I listened to the same song again like we first did so five years ago.

-I really like San Francisco. I'd live here but I'm really scared of that overdue earthquake that is going to destroy most of the west coast.

-We were sitting in the lobby. Behind me was a large painting of a sunset in the sky with a house and balloons. We got talking about creativity and what it meant to be creative as individuals. Is the ownership of an SLR a mark of artistry? He remarked that what I photographed, he would consider artistic yet I said I knew nothing about the technicalities of a camera. Ask me what my aperture is set on and I most likely do not know.
He asked me what I saw in that painting behind me and I said "loneliness". He shot back, "lonely but beautiful" and I had to agree. And that was the sum of how we saw creativity most of the time, that as designers and artists with visions that go beyond what most people can see, creativity in its purest form of borderline insanity is rather quite lonely. People can only admire what you do from a distance because you've traveled so far to get where you are at, it's hard for them to catch up. In fact, it's quite overwhelming.
I took a look at the picture again, and just had to say "actually perhaps that's what a dream is. Perhaps in that picture, the subject is not you alone. What you've envisioned, your dream, is that house and those balloons are the people who believe in that dream enough to make the house fly. And I guess together you share the beauty of it on Cloud No.9"
He said, "I guess that's what the church ought to be like."
Even though it does seem lonely at times, there are moments like these, those moments where you share a dream with someone and they surprise you by interrupting your thoughts by filling you in with the exact words that you were about to express that makes you realize, perhaps there are people out there who understand precisely what you've been dreaming.
It was one of the most comforting and rather surprising conversations I've had in a while.

-I blog to make what I do sub consciously, conscious. That when I digest all that I've been doing, feeling and thinking, that I can further understand why I do what I do and why I act the way I do whether it is right or wrong. And I guess that first statement is saying something too: to understand why I blog.

-I have a lot of deep body issues that I am in the process of trying to fix (well asking God to fix). I stumbled upon 1 Peter again and this time when I read the part about how your beauty should not come from outer appearances but of the inner gentle and quiet spirit, somehow the part where it says 'THAT IS OF GREAT WORTH IN GOD'S SIGHT' just really stuck out to me because I've been searching and seeking to find the treasures that God so finds of value that this world does not hold dear. Just the fact that it says that God values this, somehow made me realize that I ever more so need to search for this.

-During the trip, all I could say to most of the things and people I met was, 'baller'. God has blessed my family richly in terms of finances. I met a guy who lives in an apartment on top of Elements shopping plaza in HK... which basically houses Valentino, Megu and Lacroix and sits right next to the sea overlooking the HK skyline. I got to visit my cousin's apartment: a two storey loft in SF downtown and it literally looks like it came out of Architectural Digest with concrete floors, matching minimalist steel and glass furniture, huge walk in closets and even a mini gym and a balcony with lounge chairs.
It's hard not to get sucked into the sheer extravagance of the lifestyles people lead. You don't see many girls with a Chanel J ceramic watch strapped to their wrists (I'm pretty sure it retails for about $10k at least). But, as I shared with my cousin, I've been muttering our treasure is not found here on earth but in heaven, likewise our citizenship does not rest here but in eternity.
Thank God, He upgraded me to business class on JAL which allowed me to lie back and wear slippers and fast forward through movies. lolol

And now I'm in Korea. I guess I just binged all my memories out to solidify them for the future and to remember how God has blessed me on this trip!

Anticipation

About to leave the apartment.
Gave my keys back and said goodbye to my apartment of three years.

Living in transitions.
First stop?
San Fran.

The next time I set foot in Manhattan, I'll be pretty lost but hopefully refreshed.
This time away will be good, I guess, to just rethink about some stuff and to take a step back from a life that needs some thorough digesting.

Here goes.

San Fran, Arizona/Grand Canyon/Las Vegas, San Fran, Korea, Hong Kong.
Japan, Toronto and NYC to be determined.

Live in a state of anticipation seems far more exciting than actually living in the moment of what you were first anticipating for.

The Life Extraordinary

I'm not sure how to start this post other than that at the moment I had this perfectly composed entry in my head but when it came down to sitting down and actually writing it, I blank out.



At home, my mom's best friend cross-stitched me this picture of a row of bears dressed according to their professions: a ballerina, a lawyer, a doctor, an artist. At the top of the picture she stitched this saying:
"A,B,C,D, What Will Samantha Be?"

As a child, I wanted to be an 'authoress' (female version of an author? lol) and I wanted to illustrate my own books. At a young age I had already showed a great interest in writing. Sadly I never finished any of my 'novels' which started off with a bang as I'd carefully pen out lengthy descriptions of the dorm rooms or banquet halls that my imaginary characters would encounter. I would be so exhausted after describing every detail of the person/place/thing that I'd stop and start anew. But you can bet there were many instances of describing the food that was consumed by the characters: I wanted to write it so scrumptiously the words that rolled off your tongue as you read it would taste like it sounded. Hence I see words and I read pictures.

Upon talking to someone the other day I told her that my greatest fear about graduating from college was that after having been fed, as a kid, the whole "you can be ANYTHING when you grow up" or "your future is full of possibilities and opportunities- you just have to seize them when they come" I was afraid to face the reality of 'what if' and to turn it into 'what is.'
To my surprise, she responded by saying her greatest fear about graduating was not being able to find a steady job with a steady income.

Now why didn't I think of that first?

Because ultimately, I know, I'd only be happy if I was able to be creative.
In all that I am, I am deathly afraid to realize after having dreamt of an extraordinary life, to find out in the next chapter of my book is rather quite plain and ordinary.

Having grown up with sugar spun fairy tales of princesses finding a 'higher calling' (okay although that 'higher calling' is getting rich and finding Mr Perfect), I've been supercharging through kindergarten, elementary school, high school and college to get to this stage: to actually find out what I amount to beyond the role of a student. As a 'young adult' in the 'real world' will I truly see whether or not all that I've been the past two decades has amounted to something of value or whether it's just been a fluke: theories at which I only excel in the cocoon that we call 'Education'.

I am afraid of the 9-5 office job.
I'm afraid of structure, repetitiveness to the point of pointlessness.
I'm afraid of boredom.
Having done a thesis this past year has really forced me to reflect about my ideals, morals and the way I was created. I wanted to design and create a company that would be based solely on creativity and the ideas of the 'what if' rather than affirmative action (what is present). As I began to write my thesis company's philosophy, something awoke inside of me. As I began to write about individual creativity in a community that fostered and encouraged ideas and visual narratives I could feel a swell of energy to keep persevering emerge inside of me. The philosophy of the company was simply this: to do everything in the 'what if'. That in whatever the consumer or producer did, it would be measured on its creativity level.

I lay awake last night trying to soak in the present: friends over, birthday parties celebrated, moving in and reorganizing stuff, sleepovers and farewells. It's all going too fast that before I know it, I'll be wishing it was "two months ago"

The stillness of twelfth floor air is quite different from third floor air.

Yet I realized that perhaps the life extraordinary is already at work in me through God. In my head I want what everyone else wants: a well paying job, a significant other, a physical home. But is that what I have defined as the life that dwells outside of the box? Not really. Therefore I technically refuted my first point of desiring a life outside of the 'cubicle' for the cubicle extends far beyond just work but life as we have structured it: compartmentalized into slots: get married at 26, have kids at 30 etc.
I am convinced that I've playing tug o' war with God in vain. I know that the life extraordinary does not lie in money nor boyfriends nor cars nor the red carpet life. But this is where my creativity as an artist fails. I cannot see anything more 'extraordinary' than that. And that's quite cookie cutter.

I guess what most people of our generation do is take the following year to teach English in some country. I can flat out now that that's something I'm not interested in at all. Personally I find it a procrastinator's excuse to stall from facing reality and having to look closely in the mirror. And it's not really original.

Yet I don't really know what it is like to live the life extraordinary because my imagination only extends to as far as I have been told and have seen.
Friends are often saying "I'd be happy if I got this job" yet I ask myself "and then what?"

The answer always seems so dull.

Maybe I just need humility and do some boring job... ergh I'm confused.
I constantly have to remind myself that the path's already been set, and I just need to run it.

5am. I have to start sleeping at the right time.
Oddest dream last night. Though there was distance, why did I feel so near as if it were real?

Love Game

Collaboration with roomie to do a Roccoco shoot a few months ago of an hs friend who came to visit.

Why hello, blog.

I blog again!

I need time to process this. Chomp chomp.

So I've officially moved out although I'm still camping out at my old apartment just because I still am on the lease plus I have internet and it's close to everything. I shall miss aspects of living here. Three years is nothing to sneeze at.

Loving Lady Gaga's Love Game.
Such an addictive dance song.
Although I don't dance, I love catchy beats. It sounds so good in a car with club-esque speakers. I'm not really the mellow rock dude because I can't work with Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz purring in my ear. They make me extremely sleepy. I hate to say it, but I love pop and easy-to-swallow melodies.
Judge as you please. When it comes to music I know exactly what I like, I just don't like sharing it with people because I'm afraid of people judging my taste.
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Stuff
Packing has made me realize.. I HAVE WAY TOO MUCH STUFF.
Why am I so friggin materialistic?


Sam's stuff

So there was a procession of belongings of mine that spanned from the entrance/door all the way to my side of the room... It took 2.25 trips to move it all. This is ridiculous. I have to stop buying stuff. T-T
Moving makes you realize your material intensity and for the most of us, we always think we have less than what we actually own because we're so good at hiding, organizing and forgetting.

I'm just grateful for friends who helped us move. I don't think I could have done it by myself considering there was a U Haul mishap which lead us to use one sedan car to move four people's stuff. In total there were about 8-10 people helping us all. Thank God for good friends. Truly blessed eh?
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Moving Sketches
I saw Up in 3D!!!
So good, animation was incredible. The whole time I was admiring the rendering of clouds *Cough*, the finess of the old man's whiskers and the translucency of the balloons. Dang. SQUIRREL! And the short animation was so good. Sometimes I enjoy the short and sweet over the entree.
Afterwards we ate at St Marks and played Call of Duty 4 and Super Smash Brothers. Man 3 vs 1 on Call of Duty and we still got pwned. T-T
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Just came back from NJ. It was a friend's birthday so a few of us went over and celebrated his birthday with korean food. The next day we went to church, ate at this japanese grocery store called Mitsuwa where we bumped into one Remnant dude who came with us back to our host's place for bbq and retarded games and karaoke.
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Wandering
These days my walk with God has become a little dry. Not because I'm not doing devos/praying but I'm in one of those 'confused' stages. I'm in one of those God-is-showing-me-as-a-human-how-much-I-suck-without-Him phases.

And honestly I feel really low right now. As much summer fun there has been, I feel really insecure. I compare myself with too many girls, particularly friends and feel incredibly miserable. And I know 'compare and despair' but my eyes are constantly wandering to see what other people have and feeling uncontent with what I have. I can't seem to really grasp ahold of what it means to have a sole desire for God, because the human part of me really doesn't want to care about some 'thing' in the heavens and focus on the short term things in life.
I'm sick in the head.
And I know it.

I always think, "if I had friend 1's eyes, friend 2's hair, friend 3's skin, friend 4's fashion style and friend 5's sense of humour and outgoing personality, I'd be perfect"
And it's driving me insane.
And I know people hate others who have security issues so I make it up by putting up a front with what 'strengths' I have.
I hate talking about self esteem issues because I feel extremely pitiful talking about it and addition to that, I know those who listen have no answers.

In addition to this I've been really bothered by a past sermon concerning favouritism.
Initially when I heard it I realized that I did play favourites to those people whom I am fond of, thus I tend to gravitate to those friends first to hang out and whatnot.
Yet as one person from this group of friends shared with me that she felt uncomfortable that we were so 'cliqued' up because we'd chill at least once a week together. It was as if we were in the center and we would draw people towards us.
Were we excluding people? Were we turning into this thing, I used to so despise as 'the new girl' at churches?

To be honest, I don't know. Nor does she.
Yet from my perspective I never regarded this as a closed-door clique that only kept to themselves. People are constantly coming in and out and I meet different people from church through this core group of friends. For sure there are some of us who hang out a lot and I am conscious that most people perceive us as a cluster yet who doesn't have a core group of friends?
My conscience never appealed to me about this. Yet I'm bothered about it because I don't want others to think that I'm blind to everyone else.

This is how I see it. My friend has an ability to draw people towards her to open up to her and often times they share about how they feel lonely in such a big city. What happens is that she invites them to hang out with us and in response, I start
opening up to them and try to follow up after we hang out so it doesn't just become a one-time thing. Because for me, if the one thing I value the most are friends, it is also my natural response of giving by giving/sharing what I love the most. If it were love gone awry, I would be keeping the friends to myself and making a conscious effort to not hang out with those who are new.

Am I wrong? My conscience seems at peace with it yet it feels a little conscious that others may perceive otherwise. If you're reading this and think differently, you can let me know.
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June 2
I just got back from Target. My friend and I decided to take the train to Brooklyn where we went pseudo whack in this shrine dedicated to mass consumption and bulk buying. I haven't been to a Walmart/Cosco/Sams Club in ages!! We spent a good two hours there weaving in and out of every single aisle to make sure we didn't miss any opportunity to 'save' money.

I bought a desk. Correction: I bought a vanity that will act as my desk. lol. Hauling it back to my apartment was hell because they didn't provide handles or moving equipment so my friend and I took turns lugging it back, sweating profusely in this dingy humidity. The new room is slowly coming together. With four girls descending onto one space, it's been utter chaos.

Next item on my shopping list: a bedframe.

Ikea has a lack of options for twin sized beds. For the past three years I've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor (I thought, at the time, it looked rather 'zen') but since my room is smaller than my studio (yes we new yorkers don't expand, we shrink) therefore I need a bed frame to elevate my mattress off the floor so I can put stuff under the bed to maximize space.

Anyhow I hope our place looks super cute after it's done. Sounds shallow but I can only function if the form of the space is nice. lol. Form always trumps function.
Tomorrow's duties include figuring out internet packages, installing a pressurized wall so we can make the living room into a bedroom for the other two roomies (common space will be turned into a library.. yay... pretty books, shelves and organization!)

Yup so there is a lot to do prior to my trip. Rah rah.
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Confection.
I really want to bake. Unfortunately I can't due to no space, no equipment. I bought 'Chocolat' starring Julie Binoche and Johnny Depp at Target today. I did a book report on it back in high school and every time I watched it, I'd bake a batch of brownies for my art school friends the following day. Strawberries are in season (so delicious! they certainly taste better than those shipped from warm climates during the winter!) and I am itching to make a strawberry shortcake: dollops of cream sandwiched between some form of light vanilla cake, layers with sliced strawberries peeking among the bed of cream. Frig. I can already see it. Garnished with a mint leaf? DROOL

A friend wanted me to help her bake something for a potential suitor. So I went through pages and pages of recipes on Epicurious to find something that would potentially sum up the boy; something dark, rich and ultimately sexy (didn't want to make something frou frou). Unfortunately the relationship went on a sour note so I was left with a wonderful recipe that I concocted in my head but had no recipient.
Nowadays I crave to experiment thus repeat recipes are a bore (which is why I'm not a fan of my poached pear wine tart... I've killed it and the taste of wine pears remind me of the stress that goes into assembling the confection).

The recipe was this: an extremely light chocolate roulade (like those Chinese cakes you get at the bakery) with a Grand Marnier cream filling. A dark chocolate ganache drizzled on top with blackberries and more whipped cream to top it off.

FRIG. I can see it. I just really want to try making a roulade because I'm curious to see how bakers ensure that the cake doesn't crack when you roll the filling into it. I can just imagine the colours: muted rich tones of mahogany brown with hints of deep purple.. aewrklwnrjeakw.

My inspiration and love? She inspired me to give my goodies the attention it deserves with beautifully shot photographs:
NordlJus
(thanks stacy)

I am a believer of form over function. Therefore I believe that everything I make, in the realm of dessert, has to look good. I believe in 'eat with the eyes first.' If it looks ugly, it's not the most stellar dessert. For if what I make with my hands looks beautiful, I'd want to consume part of its beauty. But having been delighted with the eyes first, I am already half satiated.

I'd also love to tackle this one day. Something exotic:
Les Vosges Black Pearl Cake

Unfortunately because I have to be more conscious of my spending, I think I will have to cease making cakes for every person's birthday. I shell out about $20-$30 per cake not including the labour and time involved.

I just had a Cosi tomato basil mozarella chicken sandwich with carrots and a cold lemonade for dinner. Frig that was satisfying.