Fear my messy desk! On the left-hand side, you can see a roll of soft toilet paper (which acts as my Kleenex) teetering on a pile of holiday cards from last month. Behind it is my magnetic white board with “origamis” all over it. And yes, my keyboard is sandwiched in between the house phone and my cellphone (why I have them is beyond me since nobody calls!). Then there’s my mouse and the three (out of four) textbooks I’ve been snoozing over . . . and several other items that really shouldn’t belong on a desk.

Okay, I honestly don’t think my desk is that messy, but combine that with this chair I am using as a table for my other documents and stuff, and the bookcase off to the right-hand side that’s filled with more crap . . . welcome to my workplace!

The things I do when I take a break from my studies . . . Oh, what a lame life of an online grad school student.

Blueberry Scones
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of frozen unsalted butter
1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter.
3. Use a pastry blender (or your hands) to blend the butter and the flour mixture.
4. Mix the egg and milk in a small bowl, and stir into flour mixture until moistened.
5. Fold in blueberries.
5. When dough is mixed (it will be slightly sticky), take a clump and roll it into a ball and place it onto the baking sheet.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Well I think I used too much blueberries. I didn’t exactly measure out 1 cup. There was a huge chunk of frozen blueberries, so I used that, but I think it ended up being too much. And then came the part where I had to fold the blueberries into the mixture. Honestly, I have no idea how you fold it and keep the dough uncoloured. Therefore, mine came out pretty ugly!

Ugly or not, it still tasted good :D

After not updating since September 2010, I decided to just finally close down Capriccio.

I will miss the site, miss introducing people to instrumental and classical pieces, but I realise that it’s become much harder for me to update the site with new music since I no longer work in the band room :( Plus with grad school and other priorities in my life, I just no longer want to run the site.

It has lived a fulfilling five years, though. I only wished I had bothered to update the last year and half, though.

Farewell, Capriccio!

A very, merry birthday to me. I am another year older. Wiser? Probably, but I don’t necessarily feel that, haha!

I went on an overnight trip to Daegu, and I took pictures of three things . . . I could have taken more, but I am already behind on Tokyo trip stuff, so I really did not want to go through 100+ pictures, so I limited myself to just the pictures below.

This was my hotel room at Eldis Regent Hotel. Great location. It was near Banweoldang Station, the only station in Daegu that connects the two subway lines, and it near downtown. I like my room. The size was perfect. One problem. The website says two bottles of water and toothbrush/toothpaste/razor are part of the amenities. Nope. Only one bottle of water is free, and the other stuff was in this 3,000 won ($2.80) shower kit. But other than that, I still like this hotel. A bit pricey (90,000 won for one night), but worth the money.

This royal milk tea, cheesecake, and blackberry cheesecake were all great. And the price was fabulous! It was only 7,500 won ($7.30) for the entire thing. In Seoul, these three things would cost at least 15,000 won ($14.80), and it might not even taste good. But the place we had it was not only good, but also cheap! I am jealous of Daegu’s prices now!

Meet my new phone, San-san. This is the LG-LU3000 model, also known as LG Optimus Mach. I’ve been wanting a smartphone for a while now, and I got it in Daegu of all places. All the cellphone places I’ve been to in Seoul were not helpful with me, but the guy in Daegu was truly a magnificent soul. He spent three hours (hence why I named the phone San-san XD) calling people and getting people to deliver stuff for this phone. Thanks to him, I can now delete iTunes and QuickTime off Provo. NO MORE APPLE FOR ME!

As for the actual phone, I like it! So much better than my old phone, and again — NO MORE APPLE!!! Hurrah for Android!