Slice of Life (New Topic: Off to Tokyo)

Yeah, I'm going to UCLA. Leaving Bangladesh on Sept. 7, and classes start from the 22nd. However, my parents took advantage of the calendar and decided to bring me back to BD for 2 weeks during the winter break. So, just for this last year, I'm spending my birthday back home. No worries, though. Hopefully, I'll have made enough friends in LA by mid-2012, so I can celebrate with them as well as my family and friends back home (my mom is going to keep hounding me on Skype, I just know it :P).

@ArtCellRox: I suppose this will be a brand new birthday celebration for you. To be among new friends, flying from one end of the world to another, as well as a score of new experiences.

That being said, do you think having a birthday near Christmas is a positive or negative thing?

Birthday is the another name for "You're special day" where you're the king and the one that can choose whatever you want. That's the only day that I'm looking for everyday. Where I can spend time with family especially.

My birthday is in September 15th.

>_>

We're Muslims, bro. Yeah, everything is usually given a break during Christmas, but we don't celebrate it, so no biggie for me. :P

Frankly, I'm more worried about Dec 16th, the day BEFORE. It's Victory Day in Bangladesh, the day we won our independence war, starting from March 26th. I shouldn't be though. People actually remember MORE because of that, since its technically right after a government holiday! XD

But yeah, I see the point you're trying to make, about birthdays in LA. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. ;)

;~; awww..No~! This one is just as good as the others~! >.< I'm guessing people just dont want to talk about themselves all day; so it just like the other places~! Only it gets a little more random in those~owo

A topic I can join in...

My birthdays turned pretty boring after I hit 18. Which is to be expected I guess.
I don't really celebrate them any more, just use it as a day where I can basically do nothing lol.

It is kinda close to christmas, a month before. Doesn't change anything though, considering I rarely ask for anything for my birthday.

@Tooge3: Actually, I am not sure why your post got deleted. On the bright side, it simply means that you have friends who care quite a bit. Either that or they want to "torture" you with outrageous celebration antics. :D



Yeah! Where we are the boss of the day and everyone has to give in to us... though we shouldn't be too unreasonable either. Lol!

If I don't remember your birthday on 15 September, please be thick-skinned and give me a nudge, so that I can send my well-wishes. ^_^;; Same goes for ArtCellRox. :)



You have to pardon my ignorance at times. ^_^;; Over here, we don't exactly celebrate Christmas either, but some people will still take the opportunity to give each other presents.

I suppose having public holidays fall near one's birthday is a blessing in disguise. More free time to celebrate?

Let me know how things turn out in LA. There are quite a few Fakku members living in LA too, if I did not remember wrongly. Will you still be visiting the forums once you begin your university education?



Thank you for your kind words and support. Everyone is welcome in this thread, which of course, includes yourself. I thought of doing something different and to a cetain extent, it backfired.



Doing nothing can be a form of relaxation too, which I am sure some people will agree.

Do not hesitate to ask for something from me this year! I may not be able to grant wishes and make presents appear magically, but I can engage in my favourite activity of sending PMs. Then again, like you already know, I can be rather slow in replying at times. *Grins sheepishly*

Damn straight, I'll be keeping in touch! Going to LA also gives opportunities for CONVENTIONS! Something Bangladesh rarely has, and absolutely none for games and anime. In fact, I hope to meet you guys in person soon. :)

Well, it's more the fact that there isn't a lot to do.
I have no friends around during the time as they're all away at their uni location up country.
So I can't really celebrate with any one any more.

Whoo, birthday! I remember mine cuz it's part of my IC number. Aside from that, it's just another date to me.

I'd like to be a normal kick-back day with some cuisine I've hardly eaten but some of my favorite (and most expensive) dishes. But there's friends present and they WANT to make you feel very special. Like really. Last year, they freakin took me to Six Flags Magic Mountain for my birthday. (Never been there til that day). Yes birthday's are special but there's people who makes it EXTRA special.

Edit: Today is my little brother's birthday. He's turned 9 today. Rejoice, shotacons.

Edit 2: Sorry Gambler. Posted on accident via iPhone. And yes, they are great and terrible friends but they're good to have around.

According to various sources, some of the best conventions can be found in Japan, but those held in America can be quite a sight to behold too, if I am not wrong. Unfortunately, I live in the Southeast Asian region, so I may not be able to join you for conventions in LA.

I noticed that you are quite excited about your new phase in life, but that is to be expected. Have you made the necessary arrangements, such as lodging, paperwork, admission documents, etc?



Is the university quite a distance away where driving is difficult or impossible? On the bright side, you have us to celebrate the occasion with, provided you don't mind our presence. :)



It sounds quite scientific, even mathematical, coming from you. Perhaps I could give you a surprise visit during that period of time? Of course, let me check the leave I have left to utilise. :D



As mentioned earlier, I wasn't sure why your post got deleted. I hope I did not click on any button by mistake.

What are some of your favourite (and expensive) cuisine? Perhaps you could tell me more about this Six Flags Magic Mountain? The name is kinda unusual.

And yes, I agree it is the people who make birthday celebrations enjoyable. Friends who care rather than acquaintances turning up for the sake of being present.

Yup. Pretty much all the paperwork is done. Just need to start checking what to pack and wait.

Basically where all the scary coasters are. High ones, fast ones. Just lots of rides and (of course) long lines. Six Flags is just your average amusement parks with the most extreme coasters I've ever ridden.

Some of my favorite cuisine is stir-fried clams, steak, this red fish (forgot what it is called but the texture is quite chewy), pork chops, steamed crab. All this with a bowl of rice and family to enjoy the food with, though I tend to finish most of the dishes on my own really. ^^;

Talking about packing, I am quite a "last-minute" individual, especially for compulsory training activities.



If we do meet up someday, you must show me around the various amusement parks, although I am quite afraid of these high and fast-moving rides. We should also end the day with a buffet meal; you seem to be able to eat quite a bit and so can bears. :D

I have to admit the dishes which you mentioned can be quite expensive at certain locations and restaurants.

That, and also the fact that I never thought of it as anything special and no one I know bothered to force the special day feel of it on me.

Lolvisit. Sure, although the semester already started by that time.

I am sure someone will force it on you soon enough. Lol!

I don't think you are the type of person who will ignore a friend who has come a long way. :D

Well then, it has been enjoyable speaking to everyone, but bear must now go to sleep. Have a pleasant week ahead!

I tend to celebrate my birthday ever year, usually in same, most simple materialistic matter: buy a present.

There aren't any grand festivities, since at most only two people tend to congratulate me in person (mainly my parents).

I generally get more leeway to do stuff during that day, but that's about it.

Yay, birthday topic :)

I kind of treat my birthday as an excuse to, ahem, "splurge". On food.

For a whole year, I kind of take mental notes on food that I want to eat, taste or buy to make myself. Like when I go to a Subway store, I take note of the priciest food they have, or what exotic type of sausage they have there that I'd like to taste someday. Or when I go to the supermarket to buy bi-monthly groceries, I always go to the deli section and have a look at exotic food I'd like to taste or buy to cook myself. Just last month I went to the supermarket, the cheese section advertised they now sell gorgonzola, parmigiano reggiano, and manchego. I saw once in Iron Chef they used parmigiano reggiano on pasta, so I'd like to try it someday on my pesto.

And it extends on the whole week, the week my birthday falls in.

But I already am an office guy, so when birthdays come at the office the celebrant is expected to throw an afternoon mini-party with food and drinks included. On my birthday, I bought two whole bilaos (in English, "winnow") of pancit bihon and palabok, ice cream, and five 1.5Ls of Pepsi Blue, all for about 50 people at my office division.

I did make one small mistake with that. When birthdays come at the office, pancit bihon is the typical food that the host serve for us. So when my birthday came, I too bought an XL portion of the same, but due to my inner gut to provide some "options" for the diners, I bought an L portion of palabok. Lo and behold, when I started to serve the food, I immediately noticed that my officemates preferred palabok instead, and they kept coming back for more. I tasted the palabok just to make sure, and I immediately knew why - it was awesomely delicious (I bought it at a Chinese-run restaurant called Federal), Jollibee's was like cheap bullshit compared to what I bought. The pancit canton, sadly, became at best a second option, and at the end of the day I had 3/8 of it left, which I put in a Tupperware and reheated in the office microwave and gave to the kind office cleaners who helped me cleaned up the plates and plastic cups. Mental note - next year, palabok.

For my family, I scheduled on the immediate Saturday an eat-out at an all-you-can-eat restaurant called YakiMix. It was a trendy restaurant with Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino dishes, and a smokeless grill at the center of each table. It also has a Japanese sushi bar with sushi chefs making each one by hand (sadly no sake). It was fun seeing my parents squirm over the grill, first time they saw a grill on the table itself. My dad easily caught on to it and soon was grilling his choice of beef cuts (mostly he does it quick so it's almost rare), but my mom was kind of hesitant and took us hours to help her land a goddamn kebab on the grill itself. And neither of them knew how to handle chopsticks. I enjoyed grilling curry beef and bacon cuts rolled in thin mushroom stalks on the grill, and it tasted good on spicy sauce. Though I pigged out on the sushi (and sashimi as well), I ended up with my dad berating me for clearing five full plates of sushi. Those plates were the size of dinner plates, about 10" wide.

And for the "rare" foods I ate that week:
- A Sara Lee ice cream (Irish Cream flavor). Never saw one before, so when I chanced upon it on the ice cream section I immediately put it on my cart.
- Kielbasa. I cooked it for breakfast with Ramsay-esque scrambled eggs.
- Melon pudding.
- A Jägerbomb shot. Ordered it in a bar when I saw it under "Crazy Sh*t".
- Cow's foot stew. Despite its putoff-sounding name, it's a savory stew and the foot is cleaned and prepared. The soup was very very thick, and sticky due to the abundance of collagen.
- Avocado banana pineapple smoothie. I asked a local fruit shake maker to make me this smoothie and I'll pay her double. Fucking crazy taste.

And also, I tend to buy manga on my birthday, this year was no different. I bought seven books.

My birthday was quite a blast, for me and my wallet.

Unexpected, but nice topic, Gambler.

On Topic: Birthdays, to me has always been the days in which I'd expect nice gifts and presents from everyone, yes, I was the kind who liked to get things from others for free. I became like that ever since when I was young, my birthday was celebrated only once, I got many gifts, I was happy, although I was really shy at the same time, since all the attention was suddenly on me, but I wanted my birthday to be celebrated every year.

But alas, it did not happen, for years, my birthday never received much importance, I realized that its not something worth having expectations (of gifts) of. Until one day, my birthday was celebrated again, I think it was a few years ago, I was shyer than ever that time, some of the acquaintances (mentioned on this thread already) were there, and lots of relatives of whom I had no idea of (lol). I guess I was happy, mainly for the cake... but... its not like I asked for it, parents and sis insisted, so it happened, its wasn't something I was begging for to make it happen at all. >.>

Last year, it was celebrated, but my dad did not bought a cake, I was kinda down for a bit but... at least I got to eat some delicious food that day... I know I'm gluttonous, can't help it, I wonder what will happen this time around, I have FAKKU friends as well this year, what I'm really looking forward to that day, is Zeph's gift. I wonder if she'll decide on something soon though, she was having trouble with that. > >;