Going for a spin in Oklahoma with my rental car and handy GPS...

When travelling, I have usually relied on tour buses, friend's transport or public transportation to get around. But this time around I decided to rent a car and drive around myself. I'm glad I did. For one, it's very convenient when I feel like going out on the spur of the moment and I can just drive myself to that destination. Second, with my GPS I could go anywhere without needing to refer to anybody for suggestions. I won't even be lost! ;D The GPS allowed me to time my visits and I was able to visit a lot of places in just a day and a half. Some of the places I went to were the Sam Noble Natural History Museum, the Sooners Mall, Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, the Beacon of Hope, 45th Infantry Museum, National Cowboy and Heritage Museum, and finally the Overholser mansion. This car you see in the picture was a Hyundai Elantra, which I got from Enterprise Rent-a-car. For just $19.99 per day, it's not a bad ride. ;D The only thing you have to ponder over is the coverage. I didn't take any coverage at all. :P Probably not a good idea since Oklahoma is well known for its hale storm, tornado storm, snow storm, earthquake and who knows what else. I saw a car drove by that had hundreds of dents on top of its roof. The hale rocks my friend told me were like the size of my palm!!! :O So, just be sure to take the right coverage that way you can rest easy.

Food trucks...

In Malaysia, we have vendor stalls like Ramli burger or some tiny stall set up in pasar malams that sell all kinds of different delicious food. Here, they have food trucks. I find it interesting that it's such a big hit here that people would drive all the way to where the food truck is going to be and line up for the food. I guess I should mention the special thing about this food trucks is that they sell gourmet food.

Recently, I've had the chance to sample a few food trucks at Abbot Kenney, Venice Beach. Some of the ones I tried that were simply 'got-to-have-it-again' were the red velvet with chocolate chip and the yam pancakes. It was amazing! I posted more photos in my Facebook album if you're interested to see how it is.

The problem I feel with these food trucks is that they are not always at the same location. You have to Twitter them or check their page for their current location. :P Click here for a link of all the food trucks out there in the market.

The price is reasonable I suppose, although one time I spent like $6 for a Dogzilla!! :O It was good, but still...

When you just want to meet up...

Sometimes it's just hard to find friends with common interests that you want to meet up with like say for boardgames, chat about manga and anime and stuff like that. So, one day, out of sheer boredom, I decided to google for maybe groups in Glendale or around the area with similar interests that I could meet up with. I found meetup.com and a sense of hope and excitement overcame me.

Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. All one has to do is type in the kind of interest group they are looking for, join it and then meet up whenever they have anything scheduled.

So far, I've been to one meetup with a hiking group at Griffith Park and it was tones of fun! I just need to buy my hiking boots and plan my schedules and then I'll be going semi-regularly for hikes now. I met a lot of new and interesting people during the hike and can't wait to meet more.

Yesterday, I went to my second meetup with a Pasadena Boardgame group. The organizer of the group has the session in her gorgeous house every first Saturday of the month. There are plenty of space and food is available with money contribution from everybody. They also plan to go on convention trips, which I'm eager to join once I know all the details in advance.

So, thank goodness for Meetup.com!!!

New car, more places to go...

So, it's been more than 2 weeks now since I've had my car :D More than 2 weeks since I've used my bike. Although I'm not excited about the added expenses (I estimate for now approximately $200 extra per month), having a car to drive does bring a sense of independence I've not had for a long time.

What prompted me to get a car after 2 years of braving the cold night air at midnight and being burnt under the hot summer sun in the afternoon? Hmm, I guess it came about when I started driving again when I went back to Malaysia for a visit. The feel of the wheel in my hands, being in control and going distances beyond 2 miles was unbelievable. Nevermind the fact that I had to go through the ridiculous traffic jams on Federal Highway and Subang Jaya. I miss driving.

So, when the opportunity came that a colleague of mine was selling her car for $2000, I knew I had to get it. It was easier than I expected. Since I already have a driver's license, it was a matter of signing and getting the 'pink slip' or Certificate of Title from the owner and have it transfered to my name at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) or even at the AAA office, which I did together with my auto insurance.

Getting an auto insurance however turned out to be a little trickier. Apparently, while I was asking for a quote, I needed to present 3 years worth of traffic report from my country. And for Malaysia, according to the agent, the only way to get it was through an attorney??? Not sure if it was true but it sounded almost impossible to get right away. If you have the time, perhaps somebody back home could get the necessary documents. Since I didn't have that option, he proceeded to forward my case to their carrier, Infinity, which was affiliated with AAA. Another plus to get a discount for the insurance is if you have more than a year's worth of driving experience in California plus driving experience back from your country. They also calculate based on the car you're driving. Mine is a 1995 Honda Civic DX 3 doors hatchback. With all of that taken into account, my insurance per month came up to $108. I also needed to pay for the AAA club membership which was another $49 per month.

At the moment my $20 fuel hasn't finished. So, with that, $200 per month expenditure. Sigh...But, since then, I've visited a friend's house, gone for late night movies and hiking! ;D Now, I need to think of the car maintenance. The car needs a decent wash, oil and filter change and somebody to show me how to work the air pressure machine.

Watching Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010...

I wonder why nobody I know seem to be interested in this Olympics. Yesterday, I tuned in to the Biathlon event where it involved cross-country skiing and shooting. And today, there was the Curling event involving driving a huge round stone down the ice floor to a target. It's something different and who knows what other winter sports I've never heard of before. Another event I'm interested to watch but unfortunately I'm working at that time, is Luge. Seems like a wild ride kinda sport but interesting to watch nonetheless...

Two rainbows!!! :D

Yesterday, as was predicted, it rained. But for some reason, I didn't feel as gloomy as I normally do on days like this. Maybe it's because I was reading my favorite manga online. Or maybe it's because I kept myself preoccupied enough not to look out of the window. But what certainly lifted up my spirits was the sight of two rainbows as I was working! A kid pointed it out to me and I could just kiss him! The inner one was much clearer and vivid while the other was a fainter reflection of the first one. Too bad I didn't have my camera phone with me. Here's a sample picture of how it looked like. Now, I may have just found a reason to like rainy days...

Super Bowl 2010!!!!

I didn't really think much about this event until Daniel mentioned that he was going to a friend's party to watch it. After that, I seemed to be hearing a lot of my colleagues talking about it and it got me curious. I am not a football fan, but since I had the day off, I thought to myself, why not watch it as well?

The Super Bowl feels like a second Christmas Day to Americans it seems. Laura's family came over to cook food and watch the Super Bowl. I helped peel the chicken for the enchiladas her mum was making. Beers were handed out. I had one and also the alcoholic lemon beverage that I didn't finish from December...;D There was also some cake and ice cream for dessert.

Despite not knowing the rules of the game, the football match was surprisingly fun to watch. I guess I'm a little bit of a sports person that I could appreciate the efforts the atheletes make to reach their goal. I saw the player from New Orleans Saints run for a touchdown and my heart cheered for them. I guess I already picked my team cause they seemed to be the underdog of the two teams. ;D And when they won against Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, I was happy for them.

The commercials were fun to watch too. One of my favorite ones was the Dorito's ad. Here's a link of it:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D9bRSM4EbLFw%26feature%3Drelated&h=9f73cf9e5b81c577c682a98c00e5b926

I'm glad I took the time to enjoy the Super Bowl. Now I'm looking forward to watching future football matches and maybe even baseball or basketball matches. Lol!