thanksgiving.

it's thanksgiving in the US. and yesterday night as i was studying, i thought about what a coincidence it was. that i was feeling immensely thankful to many things and it happened to be the season of thanksgiving. not in my country but does that matter in our globalized world?

i think the funniest thing about thanksgiving, which is something i learnt from the west wing, where in season 2's thanksgiving episode, 2 turkeys were set loose in CJ's the press secretary's office and it turns out she had to choose the more photogenic and people-friendly of the 2 to receive a presidential pardon. now when i watch that episode again i can't help but laugh nonstop 'cos the entire idea is just quite silly. and CJ was so funny, she went all soft-hearted on the other turkey who didn't receive the pardon 'cos it means he ends up on someone's dinner table at thanksgiving. and insisted the president pardon him too. (:

well with a little googling i learnt that the president does pardon a turkey at every thanksgiving. and the backup turkey and the pardoned one gets sent off to disneyland and live a long long life. apparently its a tradition in the white house. you can go see hilarious pictures of bush pardoning his turkey.

p.s. in the west wing, the president did save the life of the other turkey, by writing a cheque for it for the original owners. whom i'm sure framed the cheque anyway.

so anyway, i was saying that thanksgiving came at a special moment in my own life. and not just individually, but as i looked onto the world torn asunder by war, genocide, civil unrest, political unrest, strikes in france and US, climate change/global warming, nuclear power, cyclones, ongoing terrorism, children with no access to healthcare, the growing divide between the rich and the poor. where people are split down 10 different sides and perspectives on urgent issues, where no compromise and consensus can be reached, i keep wondering if the end times as written in Revelations is drawing near.

so where's the things to be thankful for? sometimes it's hard to think about problems of the world and still see things we can be thankful for. but i've seemed to learn an important lesson through these years of growing up.

patience. and waiting on the Lord. and sometimes, we can be thankful for those little steps that have been taken to solve the bigger problem. i'm glad that now when i refuse a shopping bag for my packet of sweets, the auntie smiles at me, says thank you and says to me, saving the environment right?

well, there's also the matter of looking around you and being thankful for what you have. i've had 4 terror papers in the past 1 week and so many people have made this one week more bearable. and most importantly, i wouldn't have made it, really, without the Lord. it's hard to admit your weaknesses. but this kind of pressure, well self-inflicted pressure really, really leaves you short of breath and on the verge of freaking out. having the Lord just a prayer away makes everything smoother. like sandpapered wood.

yeah, we can't exactly travel through time and space. saying "save the cheerleader, save the world" and history can be rewritten, and perhaps, the mistakes made would be rectified and the world would have a lighter burden to bear on its already broken back. as mr. kaito nakamura says, "we have been given the power of gods, but that doesn't mean we can play God." wise words from the father indeed.

p.s. i really don't know how my post ended up with heroes lines. but the latest episode was just so wonderfully written and shot and executed. i was amazed at its beauty really.

anyway i could wax lyrical about more thanksgiving ramblings, but i just have a blog to recommend on the Huffington Post. a website i discovered that is so info-laden and thought-provoking. the blog by jon robin baitz, creator and exec producer of brothers and sisters writes about issues close to his heart. and i love his take on thanksgiving. click.

oh yes. and some new pictures of my vegas trip (a continuation from a long time ago) can be found here. click.

happy thanksgiving/holidays/studying. (:

edit: i just read this hilarious but really quite true blog entry on the huffington post by bill maher, a political/social/religious satirist (is there such a word) and commentator and comedian. this sets a great contrast to the blog post by jon robin baitz. click.

the one where i fell in love with grand canyon.

can hardly believe it's approaching november soon, and my summer trip was back in june! and with november comes exams. and after exams is youth conference. and after conference is christmas! after a long string of not-so-good events, i'm looking forward to christmas and turning my focus back onto the Lord and remembering what it means to celebrate the birth of Jesus and what christmas means to me this year. (:

ok so here goes. another day rises in las vegas and we headed out to eat some yummy buffet lunch at the Bellagio. very posh hotel with a great buffet lunch to boot.

here are some samples. i had like 5 or 6 rounds. the most i've ever eaten in a buffet. normally 2 rounds of mains and 1 round of dessert and i surrender. but the food was too good here. plus we sat there and chatted and lazed for almost 4 hours. (:










ohmygosh i must say something about their desserts sections. it's really something. huge variety and every one of it is good! ok i'm not that crazy to try everything.

2 satisfied girls. please ignore the tummy.

the sidewalk beside the bellagio fountain. where they shot ocean's 13 and probably 11. ahhh ge*orge cloo*ney.

sights around the vegas strip. just roaming around after a huge meal. yes there's nothing much to do in vegas if you're not a gambler or horny person. just eat and walk and shop.

and go watch cirque du soleil! (: we managed to get tix to watch mystere, one of the 4 cirque shows playing in vegas. the others are ka, zumanity and O. i wanted to watch ka and O, but our schedules clashed. hope they come back to singapore soon. when that happens, please go watch it! mystere is actually the original production and it was jaw-dropping good. i really never seen anything like it. it was visually stunning and the original music was so good. the lights, visual effects and performances and sets and props and costumes just all came together. and this is the only picture i managed to sneak.

after the show we walked somemore.

and i saw the bellagio fountain again. 3rd time. this time at night. so beautiful.

how lucky is ian. haha. me ian and linda posing in a shaky slow synchro flash photo.

the gambling table at mgm grand. this is probably for blackjack.

the next day we got up at a wayyy too unhumanly hour to catch our bus to grand canyon. we joined a one-day tour thing and reporting time was 5.45am. and ian and his friend very cleverly overslept. they rushed down to the meeting place in a cab and thankfully got on the bus in the end. boys.

on the way to the grand canyon! it took us about 4 hours to get there. we passed the nevada/arizona state line. and here is a beautiful huge lake in the middle of nowhere.

crossing hoover dam. yayyy transformers!! (: and hoover dam is really as magnificent as what you see in movies like transformers and the old superman movies.

part of the dam structure blends into the surroundings.

a brunch stopover somewhere in arizona. the middle of nowhere.

good morning arizona!

on the road.

and after a stopover for lunch just outside the grand canyon nat'l park, and a Imax movie on grand canyon... ... we're here!

i still get chills when i see my photos and imagine myself perched at the edge of the cliffs. the feeling of sitting on a bus for 4 hours and then getting off to see this beautiful sight, it's so amazing. i almost want to just linger there till dusk (because that's when the canyon gets SO beautiful) and go stay in one of the little inns overlooking the canyon, and waking up early to catch the sunrise.

and you can this renewed sense of awe of God's creations and just how wonderful He is. i remember being kinda speechless and just thinking to myself how wonderful and lucky i was here seeing these. and witnessing the canvas of God's work over the years. literally.



me and ian. he, being the gentleman, stood on the outside. but i amazed myself by being not afraid of heights. whereas linda was so terrified, but we managed to get her to conquer her fears. haha. (:

so i'm now the one protecting her!

just how amazing this is. i thought this was much more beautiful than niagara falls. it's definitely more spectacular in terms of size and depth and age.

more photos will come soon. right now i'm battling immunology and watching episodes of heroes, grey's anatomy, brothers and sisters, private practice, pushing daisies, big shots and some reruns of the west wing, sex and the city.

and i so need to study. reading my sister's facebook note on tokyo didn't help. ahh i wanna travel!!!

vegas, baby!

las vegas itself isn't all that interesting to me. but we made the most of it by indulging in shopping, snapping and eating. and loving the air-conditioned hotels.

our first touristy stop is the madame tussands wax museum, located in the Venetian. it was not too bad and some of them were SO real, it's quite scary.

it's captain jack sparrow! (:

i'm really quite short. and i stopped liking br*ad pitt after he dumped jen*nifer ani*ston. what's with guys who dump lovely girls? they're idiots.

a chapel like place with george clooney as the groom. that's the best thing if i was 20 years older and the person is real.

princess diana and me. she has a red hat, so do i.

press secretary? not the first lady 'cos i'll definitely not marry a republican. much less bush.

i forgot his name. but he's one of the founding fathers of USA.

outdoor shot of the Venetian, one of the nice hotels modeled after viennese architecture.

us outside the wax museum.

the strip traffic.

sights of las vegas hotels.



shopping complex lobby of caesar's palace. roman architecture, of course.





the shopping in vegas is fabulous. all the brands are there.

and they are all the size of vivocity. and that's just the shopping center part.





outside the shopping place. the sun is setting. (:

waiting for the bellagio musical fountain. it's very very beautiful and graceful. if you watched ocean's 13 it was also featured there.

the bellagio hotel lobby ceiling. looks like it's from the same artist as the ones who did the tacoma glass museum bridge.

the star-spangled banner.

parisian-design hotel, complete with the icon of paris.

the bellagio on the right, planet hollywood on the left.

new york-themed hotel, with the statue of liberty, manhattan architecture and skyline, and a roller-coaster.

the next day we explored the old las vegas, located in downtown las vegas.

seems very dreary. and ancient. not much hustle and bustle.




there are remnants of the old days, like dodgy casinos and all. i walk around and i can imagine how this place used to be the strip that they have now.

on the way back to the strip. nothing but desert land.

egyptian-themed hotel called the luxor. complete with the sphinx and pyramids. it's a hot hot day.

hence it's time for cold stone ice cream (my favorite!!) but it was so hot, it melted so fast. =(

hiding in the statue's shade.

a bar in MGM grand the hotel. my favorite tv show!!

and because MGM grand's logo is a roaring lion, they have a lion habitat in the casino. where 2 lions come every night from another place and entertain the crowds. they are really quite cute. (:

and they feast on red meat. and play with giant red balls. so cute.

till next time, everyone take care. while i go try to study.
p.s. the tv show studio 60 on the sunset strip is SO nice i feel like buying the dvds from amazon. somebody stop me from watching entourage. and get me episodes from grey's anatomy, house, heroes and brothers and sisters. argh.