My mom has been planting wheatgrass for about a month now (shown above is the photo of the first batch that she planted). Since we’ve been hearing good things about it lately, my mom decided to have the whole family try it out. I’m currently on my 2nd day and I only drink 1 oz. daily.

Yesterday was pretty good. I saw a few ripe mangoes in the fridge and decided to juice the mangoes using a separate juicer (we have a juicer especially for wheatgrass, and an electric juicer for fruit) and then mix the wheatgrass juice with it. It was pretty good, although I couldn’t quite get the taste of wheatgrass off my tongue. I experienced no side effects (like nausea, headaches, etc). I actually felt very energetic the rest of the day.

Today, I woke up, took a shower, and decided to drink the juice before leaving to meet with a client. I downed the shot glass in one gulp (without any other juices mixed in – it tastes foul on its own) and then took out a mango and had a small portion of it before heading out.

My friend picked me up and as soon as we reached the highway, I suddenly got carsick. I never get motion sickness. It lasted for the rest of the ride, which took about 45 minutes, and stopped when I got off the vehicle.

I have no idea if it was caused by the fact that I ate that mango right after drinking the wheatgrass. It could be caused by that, since I found out that one should wait an hour before eating anything after drinking wheatgrass juice.

I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll just juice a mango or pineapple if I need something to offset the taste of wheatgrass. I’ll let you guys know if it actually does any good to my skin, which is getting worse because of the heat wave. I’ve been put on a tretinoin regimen to stop the breakouts caused by the climate.

The about page explains everything clearly, and even better than I ever could. I’m really looking forward to being part of this event, since the last time I attended something similar was during the Asian Invasion (which was also mentioned in that page), and I still belonged to the kid’s church back then. Being part of the main conference is going to be a new experience for me, and I’m sure God has a few surprises in store for the conference delegates. Plus, I’m looking forward to seeing Darlene Zschech, who has agreed to be one of the conference’s guest speakers!

Registration starts tomorrow at noon, and fortunately, my dad has agreed to let me use his credit card (I only have a debit card because I don’t trust myself with a credit card) so I can register online first thing tomorrow.

I have to say, I’m really happy with it, because this is the first time my blog has actually looked really consistent among browsers. It looks fine in IE, which I think is something to proud of (and grateful to Blueprint for, seriously haha).

Anyway, I seem to have formed a habit of writing last minute blogs during the wee hours. So goodnight. I’m beat.

I’m currently working on a new theme for the site. I’m still wondering whether to base it on the 960 grid system or the Blueprint CSS framework, which I learned how to use over the weekend.

For now, I’m going to scurry on off to bed.

A friend has finally convinced me to actually check out Glee. Friends have been encouraging me since last year, but I haven’t had the motivation to actually download the episodes. Good thing the aforementioned friend was nice enough to burn the episodes on DVD for me.

It’s pretty good. I actually like it. It’s interesting, the characters are well-written, and the music is pretty good. My dad calls it “just like high school musical, only the actors actually have musical talent.”

Though I’m still not quite addicted to it (unlike some of my friends who are obsessed with the show), I’m definitely looking forward to see what’s going to happen in future episodes. I’m hoping it doesn’t begin to suck after the first season, which I’ve noticed tends to happen to most TV shows, after a successful pilot season.

Also, I was able to see the movie Dear John a couple of days ago. It was disappointing. That’s all I’m willing to say. :D But if you haven’t read the book, or if you don’t like how the book ended, give it a chance.

I’ve even gone as far as actually getting the WeGame client, since some friends have been asking for in-game videos and screenshots. I previously used CamStudio, but I was horrified by the terrible video quality.

Anyway, I’m not that much of an addict, which is evident by the way I play (you’ll see when I upload some of my in-game videos). But if anyone is part of the Steam Community, feel free to add me as a friend. My stats leave a lot to be desired, but I’ve only had the game for a while. Add me up on the Sims 3 community as well. :)

Anyway, I’m off to test this WeGame client and see if it’s any good.

Actually, the truth is, our team from church had an hour long meeting during the early afternoon and we just decided to go out afterward and spend some time with each other. Plus it was a sort of post-birthday celebration for me since I spent my birthday with my family and didn’t get to celebrate with friends. So apparently, I’m still not done celebrating.

We decided to stop at a restaurant which is known for their grilled street food, such as isaw (the description on Wikipedia probably sounds bad, but it’s actually very delicious albeit not very healthy). We also had halo-halo after overloading on the grilled stuff.

After eating, we spent about four hours hogging the table (which didn’t bother the restaurant staff in the least, because the place is huge and it wasn’t a busy day), and talking. We spent the four hours thinking of personal and deep questions that everyone was required to answer. It was a lot of fun, since some of us didn’t know each other that well yet.

Today, my cell group leader surprised me with a chocolate cherry torte. It was probably the fourth time I celebrated my birthday this week. It was a lot of fun, and I appreciated the gesture.

I remember thinking, “What? Oh, right”, when they started wishing me a happy birthday. Overall, it’s been a great day. I’ve received birthday wishes from people I haven’t spoken to or seen in years, and I’m touched that they actually remembered despite the distance. Today was a great opportunity to catch up with old and new friends.

Anyway, I’m off to get frozen yogurt with my little brother, and then meet up with my cousins so we can catch a show tonight. :)

I ended up getting this mainboard. And since it only has one PS/2 port, I ended up buying a USB mouse. So, yeah. I now have a dual core machine.

I ended up spending around $266 on the whole upgrade. But it’s well worth the cost. I haven’t upgraded this thing since 2007, and having everything run smoothly feels great.

2009 was also the year that my iPod finally gave up on me. It forced me to get a new mobile phone, which has a built-in music player because I was tired of lugging around so many gadgets (I used to have two cellphones, plus an iPod). Now I’m thinking of getting a modu because it’s so damn cute. But we’ll see.

Ah, yes. The music.

Marit Larsen – The Chase

If you belong to my generation and ended up liking the pop duo M2M in your teens, the name might ring a bell. Marit was half of that duo. I always had a soft spot for Marit since she seemed so sweet and innocent compared to the other girl, Marion.

She still sings pop, but it certainly sounds different from her M2M days. My favorite song from her record is If A Song Could Get Me You. According to Last.fm, I listened to this song 106 times in 2009.

Tim Reynolds – Betrayal

When an audiophile friend of mine gave me a DVD of his show with Dave Matthews in New York a few years ago, I was impressed. This guy does some of the best guitar playing I’ve seen (and I’ve seen quite a bit, since my dad is a musician). See (and hear) it yourself.

Newton Faulkner – Hand Built By Robots

This album was released in 2007, but I only discovered it in 2009. It was around the time that I started playing guitar again and decided to look around for acoustic artists to listen to. He has a pretty interesting style, which consists of finger-picking and tapping/hitting the guitar’s body. He plays well.

Florence + The Machine – Lungs

I think I discovered her through Marit Larsen’s Twitter feed. Florence Welch makes pretty good music. She reminds me a bit of Regina Spektor. I love Dog Days Are Over.

Lenka – The Show

Who hasn’t listened to Lenka at some point? I have to admit, listening to The Show makes me sick nowadays. However, there was a period in 2009 where a friend and I would always listen and sing along to it in the car during long drives.

Imogen Heap – Ellipse

Being a total Imogen fan, I snapped this up the moment it was available. While I have to admit that Speak For Yourself will always be my favorite Imogen album, this is a pretty good release. This album is definitely worth listening to. It kept me company during a lot of sleepless nights. I especially love the song First Train Home.

Ingrid Michaelson – Everybody

Be OK is still Ingrid’s best album. I had been waiting for Everybody since the beginning of 2009, since I learned that Ingrid had started working on the album in late 2008. I bought it online immediately the day it was released (I remember this vividly because I had to bug customer service because my digital download had a couple of defective MP3s) and bought the physical CD a few weeks after.

It’s a great release, with a lot of great songs. My favorites are Everybody, Mountain and the Sea, and Sort Of. It pales in comparison to Be OK, though. Still, my mom and I love listening to her.

Gold Motel – The Gold Motel EP

I just had to mention this. Granted, the EP was released mid-December. I think it still counts, though.

The Hush Sound, as mentioned before, is one of my favorite bands. When they went on hiatus, I was rather disappointed, but I also wanted to see what they’d come up with on their own. Finally, Greta released her first solo EP. And it’s pretty good. Listening to it feels weird, though. I half expect Bob’s voice to pop out somewhere.

There you have it. My 2009 in music. I hope to be more adventurous this year and discover more music. Hopefully from genres I’m not too familiar with.